So the Messiah in Star Wars is supposed “to bring balance to The Force,” but I never understood what it meant.

Star Wars is extremely dualistic–there is a good side and an evil side, a light side and a dark side, the Jedi and the Sith. Every plotline is based around a manichean struggle where only one side can win by annihilating the other.

The “good side”, the Jedi, are explicitly looking a savior to provide “balance” while at the same time imposing all sorts of restrictions on which force powers are allowed and which aren’t. For an order whose messiah is based on Taoist equilibrium, they are positively Christian in their obsession with purity.

I think there is an implicit subtextual critique of the Jedi Order in the prequels that they incompetent, as you might expect from the leaders of a theocracy, but that’s about as far as it goes.

I think the closest we get to ANY real discussion of balance is Luke’s vision on Degobah, where he must see himself as potentially Darth Vader, which can be interpreted as an attempt towards wholeness OR as a warning to not stray into evil.

Can anyone square this circle?

Edit: It’s funny to me that there are more comments than upvotes. People want to share. I love it.

  • Furbag@pawb.social
    4·
    22 hours ago

    I used to argue about the interpretation of the prophecy with other fans for years before I finally came upon an epiphany one day.

    It doesn’t matter what it means, because even the Jedi don’t know for sure.

    Yoda even admits that the prophecy may have been misread.

    So every interpretation of the prophecy from “Destruction of the Sith” to “Equal number of Jedi and Sith” (the “official” canon answer and the oft-cited fanon answer respectively) to the much less common “The prophecy isn’t real/is a lie” and “The prophecy is real but Anakin/Luke/Rey were not the Chosen One” are all equally valid, IMO.

    The movie gave you room to believe whatever you want to believe. Certainly, George made it clear what the Jedi themselves think - that the prophecy is real, that it means complete destruction of the Sith forever, and that Anakin probably isn’t the chosen one but they were willing to leave the door open for that one…