The Prophecy of the One

[Arrogant Arse]

I have a question, and or random thought, that may be really out there (No drugs were involved in creating this topic) .

In TPM and AOTC, the Jedi refer to the Prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the force. They assume it is Anakin. The question/Random thought is this: Does Anakin's mere existance bring balance to the force, or does it happen in another way?
(okay this is where it goes wacko) As I see it, by being the father of Luke and Leia, those two balance the force out: Man/Woman, compassionate warrior/Strong leader, etc.
Anakin brings balance by fathering the (admittedly EU) Re-Founder of the Jedi, and Re-Founder of the republic.

Also in the EU, it is said that Luke uses both Light and Dark Side powers at points during his career as a Jedi. That would lead me to think that Luke can keep each side in check, and "balances the force"

That's my thought. Any Ideas?



(And yes, I am using valuable company time to post this, why do you ask?)

[Mandalorian Candidat]

My impression of this so-called "balance of the force" is due to Anakin's eventual destruction of the Sith via killing the emperor and thus breaking the cycle of apprentice-to-master that the Sith depend on.

Because you can't have a light side without a dark side, it's been alluded to that every Jedi or every person contains part of the dark side, although its kept under control by Jedi. I see it as the light side of the Jedi balancing out the evil control the Force has over bad people. With the Sith being in existence perhaps the Force is unduly balanced toward the dark side, thus need for a chosen one to equilibrate the system.

As Yoda said, the dark side clouds everything thus the Jedi have diminished capability to use the force (Mace Windu). This is occuring due to the great power wielded by Sidious and Dooku. We have two evil beings tipping the scales against thousands of Jedi.

[Jayspawn]

I don't think that in the time of 'Menace' and 'Clones' that any of the Jedi know how exactly the Force will be brought back into balance.

But it's interesting, powers of the force are still being discovered. In the audio commentary of 'Clones' Lucas reveals that Yoda hearing Qui-Gon Jinn's voice is the first time any Jedi has communicated after death.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

I agree with you on the ignorance of the Jedi, jayspawn. In the deleted OB1/Mace scene Mace just acknowledges Ani's potential as the chosen one. Not how or when he'll accomplish his calling. Mace doesn't speculate at anything they don't know, he just says that they have to show faith in Ani that he'll do the right thing.

[stillakid]

Originally posted by Arrogant Arse
I have a question, and or random thought, that may be really out there (No drugs were involved in creating this topic) .

However, drugs were used in creating that nonsense about "the one." It just flat out doesn't make sense, at least with the info we learn onscreen. And like most of what we see in TPM, I doubt that it will ever be explained or resurrected. GL got b*tchslapped by fans over that movie and I think he'll think twice before bringing up any reminders of it anytime soon.

That's my opinion anyway. Or it could be the NyQuil talking.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

I have to disagree with you on this one stillakid. I think putting emphasis on Ani's potential due to his possibly of being a chosen one was necessary. He's an 8-year-old with no prior Jedi training from a world outside the Republic. Why would Qui-Gon be motivated to free Ani and possibly further jeopardize his position before the council in wanting to train him if it weren't for some huge potential? Why would the council ultimately give permission for Ani to be trained if he were a run-of-the-mill force-sensitive person? He's already to old to start his training, so G.Lu. had to put in some kind of motivating factor for Ani's acceptance by QG and the council to occur. Otherwise why would they want to deal with him at all?

From what I remember of the discussion on SSG around the time of EP1's release the complaints weren't about the chosen one prophecy, it was more of the whole 'virgin birth' thing. That part bothered me somewhat, but I just chalked it up to G.Lu. trying force some kind of mysticism into the plot. I don't think we'll see much of the chosen one thing in EP3 unless Palpatine uses it to inflate Ani's ego and arrogance even more. It's usefulness is over because Ani's already been accepted by the Order, not because G.Lu.'s afraid it will drive away fans.

Jar Jar on the other hand...

[stillakid]

Originally posted by Mandalorian Candidat
I have to disagree with you on this one stillakid. I think putting emphasis on Ani's potential due to his possibly of being a chosen one was necessary. He's an 8-year-old with no prior Jedi training from a world outside the Republic. Why would Qui-Gon be motivated to free Ani and possibly further jeopardize his position before the council in wanting to train him if it weren't for some huge potential? Why would the council ultimately give permission for Ani to be trained if he were a run-of-the-mill force-sensitive person? He's already to old to start his training, so G.Lu. had to put in some kind of motivating factor for Ani's acceptance by QG and the council to occur. Otherwise why would they want to deal with him at all?

From what I remember of the discussion on SSG around the time of EP1's release the complaints weren't about the chosen one prophecy, it was more of the whole 'virgin birth' thing. That part bothered me somewhat, but I just chalked it up to G.Lu. trying force some kind of mysticism into the plot. I don't think we'll see much of the chosen one thing in EP3 unless Palpatine uses it to inflate Ani's ego and arrogance even more. It's usefulness is over because Ani's already been accepted by the Order, not because G.Lu.'s afraid it will drive away fans.

Jar Jar on the other hand...

To be fair, I was being just a little facetious. I'm sure GL had some story reason to have Qui Gon spit those words out, but based on what we've gotten onscreen thus far, I can't for the life of me decipher what it could be. Any explanations we come up with are complete conjecture.

But in terms of screenwriting, you are right about placing emphasis on Ani's Force potential. Because of his age, GL had to come up with some motivating factor to get the kid noticed [by Qui Gon (should have been Obi Wan, but that's another discussion)] and accepted by the Council.

However, this is GL's story, and as such, he painted himself into a corner by putting this so-called age-limit on Jedi Training in the first place. Who's to say that 12 years old is too old? Well, George did, and he didn't have to. But he did and that required him to create some elaborate plot devices to

A) get him noticed, and
B) get him off the planet.

In regards to "A", GL used the Midichlorians and this "prophecy of the One."

In regards to "B", he concocted a Rube Goldberg-ian setup with the Podrace to both "prove" that he had Force potential and also get Ani free and off the planet.

All that just because he was "too old" to begin the training.

So anyway, back to the prophecy. In the interest of full disclosure, my prejudices run against "ancient prophecies" and the like. To me they're just really weak plot devices for any genre to help explain why something is happening without having an actual reason for it. It's kind of like saying that somebody is evil just for the sake of being evil. Okay, but there isn't a whole lot of depth there. In most cases, the audience wants to know why somebody is doing what they're doing. Why did the butler do it, etc etc etc? So just laying out this "Anakin's the One described by the prophecy" is just BS writing as far as I'm concerned. It's a weak shortcut that got Anakin into the Jedi Order that will never be explained.


PS, the "Virgin Birth." Yeah, the way I see it, he was trying to get cute with the Jesus parallels. That's the gist of it. It was goofy and ridiculous and quite unnecessary.

[Lyet]

Maybe in balancing the force, he will eliminate most of the Jedi's. The unbalanced equation could be from the 500 Jedi who are running around and 2 Sith.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

Originally posted by stillakid

However, this is GL's story, and as such, he painted himself into a corner by putting this so-called age-limit on Jedi Training in the first place. Who's to say that 12 years old is too old? Well, George did, and he didn't have to. But he did and that required him to create some elaborate plot devices to

A) get him noticed, and
B) get him off the planet.

In regards to "A", GL used the Midichlorians and this "prophecy of the One."

In regards to "B", he concocted a Rube Goldberg-ian setup with the Podrace to both "prove" that he had Force potential and also get Ani free and off the planet.

All that just because he was "too old" to begin the training.

So anyway, back to the prophecy. In the interest of full disclosure, my prejudices run against "ancient prophecies" and the like. To me they're just really weak plot devices for any genre to help explain why something is happening without having an actual reason for it. It's kind of like saying that somebody is evil just for the sake of being evil. Okay, but there isn't a whole lot of depth there. In most cases, the audience wants to know why somebody is doing what they're doing. Why did the butler do it, etc etc etc? So just laying out this "Anakin's the One described by the prophecy" is just BS writing as far as I'm concerned. It's a weak shortcut that got Anakin into the Jedi Order that will never be explained.


PS, the "Virgin Birth." Yeah, the way I see it, he was trying to get cute with the Jesus parallels. That's the gist of it. It was goofy and ridiculous and quite unnecessary.

Yeah, he did sort of not give himself enough slack. It seems like some of the writing he's done in trying to connect the OT with the PT is a little goofy. My feeble attempt to further justify the whole 'age vs. chosen one' issue would be the following parallel:

1)Yoda tells OB1 in ESB that Luke is too old to be trained as a Jedi.
2)Yoda and Mace tell Qui-Gon that Ani is too old to be trained.
3)Luke shows great fear and doubt during his training.
4)Yoda senses much fear in Ani.
5)Ani turns to the dark side.
6)Luke, being Ani's son is also powerful and possibly has the same potential to turn evil.

OK, because 1 happened, GLu tried to tie in the age limit thing to the PT to have some kind of continuity and thus we have 2. 3 is mirrored with 4 and the same with 5 and 6.

GLu probably felt that he needed to write in both plot devices; the chosen one prophecy to get the council behind accepting Anakin and the age thing to get the seed planted that Ani has a bigger potential of going rotten because he's missed a hypothetical critical age where Jedi younglings are conditioned to minimize, ignore, or better control their fear and anger. (OK, this last little bit is my theory to justify what GLu did with the age issue). However, the age limit requirement imposed by the council is ignored with Ani because of his potential.

I too hated the midichlorian idea because it quantifies the Force instead of making it to be the less tangible and more spiritual ideal it is made out to be in the OT. I don't have a better idea that could have been used by Qui-Gon to ID Ani's force potential. Possibly a corollary to the prophecy that says the chosen one would be identified by a Jedi in performing a certain feat of skill, but that may come off even lamer than microscopic beings living in your cells.

I guess it goes to show that even good storytellers have problems sometimes, but that's why you always have someone legitimately criticize your work to keep you honest.

[2-1B]

Remember, Qui-gon "knew" Ani was force rich BEFORE the midichlorian census.
He sensed something from the Queen's ship, and he was rambling to Shmi about Ani's "special powers."

Concerning the issue of age, George wrote it that so that kids would be free from (ideally) all attachment. The whole thing in TPM is about Ani leaving his mom, and that attachment leads him to leave an assignment in the interest of going to his mother.
And of course from there, he loses her and the pain leads to his quest for power to prevent it again blah blah blah . . .

Of course, Luke is then SOOOOOOOOOO old, it seems hopeless to even bother with him . . .