You know, with all the language throughout Star Wars about “giving in” to the Dark Side, how the Dark Side makes you more powerful, how the Dark Side makes you age strangely and destroys you, it sure doesn’t sound like an “opposite side of the coin” so much as the “deeper end of the pool,” like it’s actually the true form of the force and being a Jedi is about keeping it tamed so it doesn’t eat you the way it actually wants.
the force is entropy
Eldritch Jedi pls
This is one of the reasons i love the second Knights of the Old Republic game, wherein one of the major characters (who defines herself neither as Jedi nor Sith) actually views the Force this way, saying “I hate the Force. I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance, when countless lives are lost.”
It’s also the game that gave us the two most entropic, eldritch characters in the franchise: Darth Nihilus, whose dark-side-borne ability to feed on the Force and consume life itself has twisted him into a half-living “wound in the Force”, more presence than flesh
and Darth Sion, whose entire body is a ruin, his flesh nothing but ragged scar tissue, every bone and muscle broken and torn, kept animated by will alone as he forces himself, second by agonizing second, to exist
I wish there were more horrifying perspectives on the force like that
This is one of the reasons the term “Light Side” never felt right to me, even before it was used in any official media; The Force always struck me more like an ocean than a binary concept: the deeper you go, the darker and more crushing it gets — at a certain point becoming an effectually consistent darkness — and while light filters down and fades for some distance, if there is a truly light “side” it’d be the surface.
Which isn’t to say “the Force is evil unless you flounder about near the top” — just that it’s a natural force, and as such is something you need to respect and be adequately prepared for. (Take electricity, for example: super awesome and pretty dang useful, but OH HOLY SMOKES don’t try and harness it unless you REALLY know what you’re doing!)
In this sense, being tempted by the Dark Side is less a case of “Hey, I wonder what’s on the other side of this coin it looks pretty cool haha oh whoops I’m Space Walter White now,” and more one of “The deeper into this thing you go, the harder you’ll need to fight to resist the ever-increasing pressure, to remain whole, even to just see whatever the heck you’re actually doing.”
(which is why Jedi training is so important: those padawans gotta build themselves a mental Deepsea Challenger!)
THIS META BLESSED ME
Okay but let’s suppose, for a moment, that the Force is actually malevolent.
That would make a lot of sense.
Consider, for a moment, an eldritch parasite. This ancient being feeds off of the life-force of other creatures. Not that unusual, as most living things also consume other living things, to various degrees. But this one is technically somewhat removed from the usual structures of biology. It is a passive and opportunistic predator, for the most part. Whenever a living being that is connected to it – however weakly – dies, it consumes part of its energy, and gets bigger.
As life in the galaxy flourishes, and time passes, this singular entity gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Like a catfish; the only limit to its growth is how much it can consume to fuel it. The larger it gets, the more it is able to sink its invisible claws into other living beings, until eventually there is hardly any life out there which hasn’t been ‘infected’ by it, and slated to become its spiritual dinner as soon as its biological form gives out.
And here we actually come to – of all things – the midichlorians. Which, the Jedi use to measure someone’s sensitivity to the Force, which works because midichlorians are the vehicle for the predatory parasite to infest living beings. The immune systems in some people begin to develop a certain degree of resistance to them, which is why some folks have more, and some have less, and this directly correlates to their Force sensitivity. The more midichlorians you have, the worse your immune system is at fending off the parasite.
The Force counters the risk of being bred out of subsequent generations by developing camouflage, and adapting itself into a more seemingly-symbiotic relationship with its prey.
What the Jedi see as the ‘light side’ of the Force, is a reflective layer that this predator has created via its connection to all living things. This network is the honey trap that encourages the beings still strongly connected to it, to spread that connection, because it affords them advantages while they are still alive. But its elements are comprised mostly of echoes and reflections of their fellow prey organisms. Force Ghosts that resemble the departed. Emotions that are transmitted along this layer and between individuals. Small amounts of power that can be siphoned off to impact the environment, and can also spread the Force to whatever living thing it comes into contact with.
This being is huge now, it needs a lot of juice in order to maintain its existence, let along continue to grow. And like most predators it’s willing to expend a certain amount of energy in order to guarantee a bigger pay-off.
The deeper you go into the Force, the more the Force starts exerting its own will through you. And the less you see of the reflected camouflage of it, and the more apparent it becomes that the Force wants large swaths of death to feed it. Which is why Dark Siders often become so preoccupied with things like Death Stars.
But it’s a balancing act. A large population of relatively peaceful Force sensitives, like the Jedi, cost more than they’re worth, because beyond a point they take too much energy from the Force and don’t kill enough people to pay for it. A single individual abusing their powers for self-gain and murdering left and right, though, accomplishes the goal of feeding it. The Force obviously doesn’t want its food supply to die out completely, but this explains the persistent cycles of the Star Wars universe – as a soon as a group of peaceful Force users becomes prominent, they get wiped out by a few Dark Siders who have tread too deeply past the reflective surface of the Force, and become actual vessels for its will.
And then when the Dark Siders have finished killing a whole bunch of people, it’s time for them to go, too, so that they don’t wipe out the entire populace and kill off the Force’s food supply beyond its ability to reasonably recover. The peaceful types then see an upswing, as they are more adept at spreading the Force. So the cycle goes – Jedi spread the Force, Sith kill the Jedi and feed the Force, Jedi kill the Sith and resume spreading the Force. It’s a planting and harvest cycle, and the galaxy is populated with the Force’s living spirit crops. Anakin Skywalker, who was arguably one of the beings most closely connected to the Force, and had an extremely high midichlorian count, basically lived this cycle in its entirety as an individual – he spread the Force as a Jedi, he killed people as a Sith, and then he ended it all in order to preserve his progeny for the next round.
tl;dr – the Force wants to eat your soul. The reason the ‘light side’ types always get so up in their own asses is because what they perceive as the Force is basically their own reflections dangling in front of them like an angler fish’s lure. The reason the ‘dark side’ types get so messed up is because they’re basically the equivalent of those grasshoppers who get infected with a parasite that makes them drown themselves.
This makes so much sense, but is also way too terrifying so I’m just gonna be over here pretending I did not read that so I can go to bed tonight and NOT have weird Star Wars zombie/eldritch horror dreams
Yep, gonna NOT go with the Eldritch Horror Star Wars story even though it’s a neat post/idea thing.
But it is why I ascribe to Empire Strikes Back Yoda’s philosophy about the Force. PT Yoda didn’t get it yet, even though he thought he did, and others thought he was wisest of wise beings.
No, it took him twenty-three years of living alone in a swamp, with nothing but himself, survival, teeming life, and the Force, for him to understand one simple truth:
The Force simply is.
Yoda talks about the Dark Side and the Light Side, and even he admits that the Dark Side isn’t stronger–but he also doesn’t try to claim the Light Side is stronger.
(Also I think his speech about Dangers of the Dark Side was more or less a desperate PLEASE DO NOT BE DARTH VADER, ONE IS BAD ENOUGH.)
Yoda describes the Force as energy, but if you cut through some of what he says, he’s not saying that only life creates the Force, or vice versa. The Force is the energy of existence.
okay but things i’ve been thinking about that the internet has not been able to supply me an answer for: is it ever clarified where jedi get their robes? because i’ve read every relevant wikia and wikipedia and wookeepedia page and so on and NOTHING.
it’s only ever said that jedi “get” robes. that their robes are fitted sometimes to their climates or styles. but i don’t think they can just walk up into the star-wal-mart on naboo to pick up some jedi robes. (and yes, while other people wore styles LIKE jedi robes in the original trilogy, it was the prequels and so on that established that the robes ben kenobi was wearing and so on were fashioned in traditional jedi style and that was what was usual for them, as jedi would walk somewhere and people would KNOW they were jedi)
so where? was it a specific jedi’s job to make the robes? like that was his or her or their trade? or more likely, did each jedi have to make their own robes? as a friend suggested, with the monastic style of the jedi, you can imagine them saying you need to make their own clothes. therefore, sewing was a required jedi skill.
and now all i can think about is obi wan kenobi leaning over a sewing machine peacefully hemming his robes on a friday night with a cup of tea.
(and as justin put in my head, anakin frustrated to the ends of the earth because “WHY DO I NEED TO HEM IT IF IT’S JUST GOING TO GET DESTROYED AGAIN”)
Given the diplomatic duties and general “running around the galaxy, getting shot at” nature of the Jedi, I imagine there is a supply office, run by a quartermaster, where Jedi get fitted for robes. You grow out of them? Returned and reused by someone else. I like to imagine that styles and colours change over the years, but because the robes are always being recycled, this is why you get so many different “looks” to different Jedi (along with different styles and cuts depending on species, genders, and occupation).
They also have the standard two sizes: too big and too small, which explains Obi-Wan’s cloak in TPM.
I also like the idea that obi-wan actually fits the “too small” robe, but is either a) wearing a spare of qui-gons because his keep getting shredded or lost (the habit started early, okay) and the quartermaster won’t give him a new one until he proves he can care for it, or he pick it as a teenager in a desperate HOPE that he would grow into it. (Spoilers–he never does but he hangs onto it for Anakin)
But I’m over here still thinking about supply depots and stuff and it’s probably the job of someone (some group more like) in the Service Corp to help keep track of this and they’re doing paperwork and there’s a betting pool now in that section of the Corps about how long it will be before Kenobi puts in for ANOTHER fucking robe. And if that trait is going to rub off on his Padawan.
*nods*
I always figured it was the job of a subdivision of the Service Corp too. @jhaernyl actually had the brilliant idea of there being a Jedi Administrative Corps (the AdminCorps for short) that deals with all of the internal day-to-day bureaucratic issues: paperwork, budgeting, investing the Order’s funds, legal matters, ordering and organizing the production and distribution of food and cloth goods, hiring and training Temple workers, and so forth, and I’ve since more or less incorporated that into my headcanon.
And since the Jedi are very much into the communal thing, it makes perfect sense to me that outgrown robes would be passed around and reused. For some reason, I’ve always had it in my head that Jedi get their robes from the quartermaster/robe master/whomever, but that once they have them, they’re responsible for doing the bulk of their own mending and any special tailoring that they so desire (and possibly cleaning them too, but I tend to think that’s just an in-the-field type of thing).
Also: you can pry the headcanon of betting pools about when Obi-Wan is going to lose his next robe (and how many total robes he’s going to lose in a calendar year) from my cold dead hands. Personally, I think several Council members are secretly in on it… especially once Obi-Wan becomes part of the Council himself. I could have sworn I wrote a short little not-fic on this exact topic, in fact, but now I can’t seem to find it; bet it’s hiding somewhere deeeeep in my drafts folder lol.
I also headcanoned that the Corps and the Knights would have different buildings they lived on, while the Jedi Temple we see in the movie was more of an administrative / representative seat (and as to why they live and train padawans there, think of it as only the best of the best being housed and trained there, because that’s who you want any potential Senate visitor to see), commonly (and erroneously) known as the Jedi Districts and the Corps District (actually, they are the Knights Compound and the Jedi Compound, as all members of the Corps are Jedi they just are not Knights, but those names are long lost from vernacular language and are relegated to historical tomes that even in portable shape feel like you are lugging around something the size of a crate).
I’m bringing this up because in my idea of the Order (which has expanded to include Excel documents with formulas to calculate the size of an actual Galaxy-worth Order, with exceedingly low numbers that are still more reasonable than the canon ones) the Jedi were given air rights to the space above the original compounds as part of the Ruusaan Reformation deal (I play in Legends as a playground, let this be your warning) and so as Coruscant kept shooting up and up in the sky, so did their buildings.
And in the Jedi Compound / Corps District, that means you have hundreds of levels were all the kids who are not chosen to be padawans and are sent to the Agricorps are not only housed but also trained. How would you train them?
Why, by having artificial recreations of alien environments from planets where the Agricorps are a presence / were a presence with imported local fauna and flora, so that they can work up from the really easy worlds and chores to being able to deal with terraforming hostile places and bringing agriculture back even in desperate conditions.
(I have rules and stuff about how apprentiships in the Corps work and how 90% you start out Agricorps and then a lot of people join other branches and how they have their own name for apprentices that are not padawans and how they learn in group and — okay I will shut up and get back to the point).
That’s relevant to the discourse at hand because one of the side effects of this, is that the Jedi Compound / Corps District produces huge amounts of vegetables, meat and goods that are later prepared and distributed to the Knights Compound / Jedi District, the Temple and the various assistance centers that are disposed one every hundred levels or so on the lenght of the Jedi Compound / Corps District.
(Think of these centers as sort of a cross between a free medical center, a neutral ground, a shelter and a detox facility, as these are all services they offer; they basically are places where if you are in trouble or hurt or just you don’t have where to go for the night, you can check into [no questions asked] and get treated for whatever ails you and then drop your clothes, shower, get some warm food in you and sleep and then the next morning or, honestly, whenever you are able to leave under your own will, you can get your clothes back or choose between all the stores of clothes they have there, some of them donated and some of them left behind and a lot of them, not in any Jedi style but in contemporary or semi-contemporary very basic styles, provided by the AgriCorps).
So that’s where I headcanon the cloth and make of the Jedi clothes happens (I also headcanon each Corp as having their own style of robes that is relatively distinct and should help identify them or letting them identify each other) insofar as the Jedi on Coruscant are concerned. I also agree to the fact that each Jedi personalizes his or hers or hirs appearance as better suits them, but again they can request those materials from the AgriCorps and then either do the modification themselves (and thus learn to sew or carve or whatever) or ask someone in the Corps who has dedicated hirs, hers or his life to making clothes, because that is where the path that makes them happy lies, and thus they enjoy a challenge.
Steel Phoenix Studios 