LogFAQs > #931928953

Blighboy posted...

The phrase balance isn't really supposed to be taken literally. The force isn't a set of scales. It just means that things are in their natural healthy state.

That only works if you consider the Dark Side to be unnatural.

But the thing is, you can't have life without death. Decay exists to recycle things into new forms. The brightest lights cast the darkest shadow, and conversely, light is meaningless without shadow to define it.

It's way more interesting to see the Dark Side as a natural (if terrible) aspect of the Force in itself, which has to exist in order for the Light Side to exist. Two sides of the same coin, each having a purpose, each being necessary. With the only problem being when one or the other of the two falls out of balance, growing too strong and potentially overpowering the other.

It also makes what happened in the prequels almost clever - the Jedi wind up getting blindsided because they mistakenly assumed the prophecy meant one thing, when it actually meant another. Too many Jedi (without an equal number of Sith to counterbalance them) had unbalanced the Force, so something had to come along to reset the scales. Cue the new balance - two Jedi in hiding, two Sith ruling.

Of course, something clever and interesting has no place in the prequels, so of course Lucas poo-pooed the idea. And then talked about how he wanted to double down on midichlorians if he'd done the sequels himself.
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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family