Ideas Behind The Force

The ideas that the  Star Wars franchise is based on are the Mythological motifs that creator George Lucas learned about from the scholar of Comparative Religions scholar  Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell was an interesting figure who is usually affiliated with the psychological thinker Carl Jung. These mythological motifs Campbell believed in are the underpinnings of all the belief systems of humanity, which has a lot to do with the power of the unconscious (dreams and their complete mystery) . I personally always believed these facts are hard and even impossible to deny from what we know about human history ,biology and psychology. As they relate to Star Wars however it involves the idea of The Hero which is found in every Human Mythology and every Religion.

As for the setting of Star Wars these fascinating ideas are boiled down in a quasi-religious way into The Force. The Force is the starting point for all philosophical discussions about Star Wars, bot in and out of character. It, is often seen as a dualist thing from the point of view of the movies and the Protagonists have  one set philosophy of The Force and the villains another, but if one takes into the Extended Canonical works (ie anything but film) which, to completely understand Star War as an entire fictional setting one I  believe one must take the into account, then the truth is quite different. This difference in JUST the movies and the whole Setting  in viewing the Force is often call the “Grey” side of The Force rather than the dualism of Darkness and Light. The Force, before I continue, is all about your point of view, or more specifically your interpretation. As Obi Wan Kenobi says In Episode VI “many of the truths we cling to our based mainly on our own point of view” As he was telling Luke Skywalker his perspective on Darth Vader.  It must also  be noted that Lucas himself never made a doctrinal definition of the Force because you simply can’t in this kind of Fictional setting. So, I apologize that this is not a definitive answer to the meaning of The Force, for i believe the Star Wars galaxy is more complex than most fictional settings, because of how huge it truly  is.

Now since the force is an interpretive thing i will give my interpretation of it and will discuss in this piece of literature and use evidence to support this perspective. To begin, I have observed there are  two metaphysical aspects to the Force that we know of ,the Living Force and  the Cosmic Force,. The Living Force is the mystical God-Like aspect of the force it is in other words The Source of all of The Force’s activity. For example on Planet Earth, Eastern Orthodox Christians believe God is the Creator of all things, but is also unknowable and beyond human forms of physical comprehension. That is in a slightly less Monotheistic way, my view of the Living Force.The Cosmic Force is what the Force user gets his power from. The perspectives i have on The Cosmic Force is based on the belief that  The Force is not identical with the Light Side which is what seemed to be an established definition of The Force in the prequel movies, but that is simply not true. The Star Wars extended works make it clear that The Jedi Order was not completely benevolent, and were actually very un-helpful to galactic civilization, This is showed very well in The Knights of The Old Republic story based video game series. Also in some episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars. This is true both in the New Canon and “Legends” timelines.The main wielders of the Force (in character) have their own philosophy of using this divine and magical power, I will discuss several characters in this first segment of my literature.

 

The first character will shall discuss is in keeping with the timeline of the films. The Jedi Qui Gonn Jinn, is fascinating to me because he represents someone who goes with the rather stubbornly doctrinal institution that was the Old Jedi Order. He is often called by Star Wars fans like me a “Grey Jedi”, for the sole reason he despised the Jedi Council’s doctrinal stubborn nature. Now it is rather problematic calling him a “Grey Jedi” because he was not a Grey Force user  in any sense because he drew no power from the Dark Side of The Force. (As a brief aside I do not believe that the Dark Side is a single entity of evil that it is in most interpretations rather a certain practical use of the Force that i will discuss in regards to the Sith and Emperor Palpatine). No, Master Qui Gonn had a coherent use of the Light Side  that was in close contact with The Living Force that we talked about previously. He used this vision of The Living Force to guide every action with immense patience and sublime

mindfulness.  To compare this to philosophy, I shall use the aspects of the Ancient Stoics,

These men strongly believed that anger fear and aggression were obstacles to being a truly wise Human Being, they were people who went to great lengths to emphasize this, through argument and practice.  Stoicism was about living in accordance with Nature and The Natural Law, which in some ways is our equivalent to certain aspects The Living Force, they believed this reality was material rather than Highly Metaphysical like Plato did.  Qui Gon Jinn reminds one of nothing but this mindset that was a such a staple of The Pre-Christian Classical World, that believed nature was material yet Divine at the same time.

No discussion of the Force can be complete without mentioning the Knights of The Old Republic II (award winning Video Game series) character  Kreia. Kreia (formerly Darth Traya, as well as a Jedi master) is a fascinating an awesome character in so many ways her voice, her look and her persona, but most importantly for us: her philosophy. Kreia was a living repersentative in Star Wars of  Nietzsche's idea of The Death of God, Kreia had saw the stupidity and pettiness of both major Force factions, the Sith and Jedi, both sides in her opinion had made utterly wrecked the Galaxy and made it a terribly war torn place. She had also seen a middle ground between these two factions, namely the Knights of The Old Republic main character; Revan and how  his beliefs  impacted the Galaxy. Due to all this, and all her personal study in the Force itself, she decided The Force as a whole was evil, and her character arch  of the role playing game involves a very complicated plan to “kill” The Force which i will not discuss because it is not relevant to this piece. The point being is that Kreia adds an incredible  and fascinating

Depth to the Star Wars mythos, showing us how some wielders of The Force can change perspectives to the point that they view the influence of The Force as a harmful and evil thing regardless even if it is a metaphysical reality.