The Chosen One, Balance to the Force, and my son Connor

[Klaus]

Joshua, thanks so much for sharing that!

 

[Desdichado]

Joshua, thanks so much for sharing that!

No prob! Theres plenty of other good discussion over on rpg.net about this, or at least there was late last week.

 

[billd91]

If this has been posited before, I've not heard it. Connor (who is 11) and I were watching Phantom Menace this afternoon, and he says that Anakin, The Chosen One, DID bring balance to the force as Darth Vader. I ask how did he do that, and he said, "Think about it. Once Vader took his place at the Emperor's side, there were two Sith, and only two Jedi left. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda."

And by golly, he was right. It's all so simple.

This is, in fact, a certain kind of balance that Qui-Gon was certainly not expecting when he picked up Anakin. But compared to what the prophecy was actually supposed to be getting at (taking Lucas at his word), it's a delicious use of irony.

Depending on what the prophecy actually says, just by bringing the legit jedi down two 2 may fulfill it... after a fashion. Being the guy who finally cacks the Emperor in Episode 6 might also satisfy it... after another fashion. Lovely thing about prophecies, they can be fun that way.

 

[Taelorn76]

Another turn on the prophacy:
Anikan was to bring balance to the force, by elminating the sith. But what if he was always meant to go to the dark side and eleminate the jedi, thus balancing the force the other way. Think about that.


Yeah I know it's a streach

 

[WayneLigon]

There's also the point where Yoda says, to paraphrase, 'You know, we may have just read the thing wrong all this time and Anakin is nothing special'.

 

[Flyspeck23]

There's also the point where Yoda says, to paraphrase, 'You know, we may have just read the thing wrong all this time and Anakin is nothing special'.

IIRC Yoda says that they might've misunderstood the prophecy. He doesn't imply that Anakin is "nothing special".
Nevertheless, an interesting theory

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...Only Lucas knows for sure, and I think he changes his mind constantly based on marketing preferences of the masses.

That's an extreme (and difficult to support) statement. Did Georgie, by some chance, run over your dog?

He has actually been relatively consistent on the nature of the Force. By that I mean, he has been consistent twice. Back when he was doing the originals, he was consistent. And since he started the prequels, he has been consistent. I think there was some drift during the gap, but we can probably chalk that up to the personal growth of the man and his recognition that (thanks to his quirky fans) he could no longer get away with treating the Force as a mere plot device.

Besides which, if anything, his explanations of the Force have been grossly UNcommercial and even opposed to what his market seems to want (of course, they're all very coy about what they want, with naught but certainty that "that ain't it.") Example: There has not been universal love of midichlorians, has there? And yet, there they were again in Palpy's explanations this time. Example 2: People seem to insist in surprising numbers that their misinterpretation of Taoism mixed with a strange Gigaxian preference for "Neutral" is the proper explanation of "Balance" in the Force. He keeps telling them "No. It doesn't work that way."

It is not good marketing to tell your audience that they are wrong. Nor is it good marketing to keep telling a story that they claim they don't like.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Lucas clearly states in the directors commentry for the OT that Vader did bring the prophecy to be by KILLING the Emperor and renouncing the Sith. Thus destroying the Sith and putting the Force back in balance by getting rid of the darksiders. The dark side is a perversion, not a natural part of the Force.

 

[Desdichado]

People seem to insist in surprising numbers that their misinterpretation of Taoism mixed with a strange Gigaxian preference for "Neutral" is the proper explanation of "Balance" in the Force. He keeps telling them "No. It doesn't work that way."

I blame that on the high crossover effect between Star Wars fans and D&D fans.

C'mon, people! Star Wars is not Dragonlance!

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

The whole thing is just another symptom of the "Star Wars is MINE!" phenomenon.

No matter how many times the WRITER of the whole thing tells us what "balance" means, people insist it means what they want it to mean. This, apparently, is perfectably acceptable, but when someone insinuates that there might have been some allegory in LotR (even unintentionally on the part of the writer) people start jumping up and down and screaming "Tolkien said there isn't any, so shut up!"

"Our God has spoken" eh?