Greetings, Star Wars fans. It’s a pretty slow news time for Star Wars. We have a few pieces coming for next week’s recap, but today I’d like to discuss something more fundamental to Star Wars–The Force. There was a line from Luke in The Last Jedi that we should bring up. Perhaps the best way to learn about the Force is through characters that learn about it in the film, and the symbolism surrounding that.
One of thing things about The Last Jedi that could have significance for future Star Wars story telling is the “Prime Jedi“. This point has been discussed before, but the symbol of the Prime Jedi presented in the film bears a lot of resemblance to the yin and yang “taichi symbol” (taijitu).
The taichi symbol represents complementary forces of yin and yang in balance, and is the symbol in eastern religions like Taoism. The symbol also appears in the I Ching, which is an ancient text going back as far as 1000 BC. The I Ching is understood as a text that “describes dynamic balance of opposites and the processes of unfolding events and change“. Given that this symbol of the Prime Jedi harkens so clearly to the yin and yang, it suggests a deliberate piece of symbolism of The Last Jedi. This makes me wonder if they do revisit the Prime Jedi in, say, a future Rian Johnson trilogy, will they be balanced in light and dark. Hmmm. Maybe Snoke knows about the power of such balance from jedi legend, and this is the reason for him valuing Ben Solo for his combined light and dark side energy.
If we take this idea further of the balance of opposing energies, it takes us to the afformentioned quote from Luke, which is the following:
It’s the energy between all things, a tension, a balance that binds the universe together.
This quote has been heralded as “explaining the Force” by some. One thing is definite, this quote uses words to describe the Force that hadn’t been used before. In particular “tension”. But what is “tension” exactly? For that answer, we have to go to physics. Take this image, for example:
The basic idea is why these two people provide equal and opposite force, and pull the rope in opposite directions, it is the tension in the rope that opposes them. In a weird way, they apply opposite force, but it is the tension in the rope that directly opposes them. Tension exists in opposition to an applied force.
The Force is an energy field created by all living things, but if we consider Luke’s quote, this energy field is also kind of like a taut string, or a stretched out trampoline sheet. Attempts to stretch or deform this energy field result in an equal and opposite energy that sends it back into equilibrium. Clearly, in Star Wars the opposing applied forces are the light side and the dark side. Under this view, when a dark siders emerge in the galaxy, they create a tension that opposes them. This sounds strange at first, but consider the quote from Snoke.
Darkness rises, and light to meet it.
The existence of the dark side takes the Force out of balance, and creates a tension. This tension then counter-acts the dark side in order to bring the Force back into balance. More precisely, the tension manifests itself as a light side vergence, like Anakin Skywalker, who was essentially created to bring balance to the Force. The obvious question is, could Rey have been created to balance out the rising dark side of the First Order, Snoke, and Kylo Ren?
This metaphor of the tension in the Force, and the balance of opposing energies, is nicely illustrated by the image above of the tug-of-war between Kylo Ren and Rey to get the Skywalker saber. Interestingly, the two Force-users are perfectly balanced, just like the physics illustration of the tug of war. We’ve pondered the idea that Rey may have been created to balance Kylo. I still think it’s an interesting idea. We don’t know the details of Rey’s birth, and for all we know she was created by the Force, just like Anakin. It would explain all her powers and why she, like Anakin, has such raw precocious talent and skill with pretty much everything.
It also is striking that this moment with Kylo Ren and Rey in a tug of war results in the splitting of the Skywalker saber, and the simultaneous splitting of Snoke’s ship The Supremacy via the Holdo Maneuver, as well as shortly after the splitting of Snoke himself. All this splitting in two and the repeated metaphor of balance and tension might be repeated symbolism. What’s even more striking is that these events take place in the middle of the middle chapter movie of a Star Wars trilogy. Rey, in a way, represents a critical point in the lineage of the Jedi order. She is essentially now the last jedi, and the first of the future lineage of jedi.
Will they carry this idea through? Hard to say if it’s just my interpretation, or part of an actual plan. If it were me at the helm, I would make this movie, and perhaps this event of the splitting in two of the Skywalker saber is a dividing point in the episodic saga, dividing the prequels, OT, and the retro-styled The Force Awakens and the first half of The Last Jedi from the second half of TLJ and rest of sequel trilogy and two future trilogies to come. This point in time would be a turning point in a huge multi-trilogy ring composition. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do with it, but the speculation is half the fun.
Brought to you by @davestrrr. Stay tuned to SpoiledBlueMilk for the best of Star Wars!