Original/Prequals = Light - Hard to learn, Dark - Easy to learn Sequels = Light - Easy to learn, Dark - Hard to learn What happened to the Force in the Sequels?

If Lucas was still a producer like in clone wars sequel trilogy would have been better than it ended

I pledge myself to your teachings.

And this is the problem with Disney Star Wars. The new “canon”, especially in Rebels is almost skirting with the idea that it’s almost WRONG to skew too much towards the light or dark. Only the gray... the Bendu, the one in the middle is truly in balance, or “good”, because taking a stance to one side or the other creates imbalance. And truthfully, I don’t think that’s what Lucas was going for. Obviously, if you watch the OT, the good side was the Light side , whilst the evil side WAS the Dark side, the classic trope of good versus evil. While I find the philosophies of new SW interesting, it seems to go against what Lucas created in Episodes 1-6. Just my opinion though.

And now let's look how Rian Jhonson thinks the force works... Yeap, I guess he really never cared about what George Lucas had in mind about the SW universe

I love how you start every video with "Now..."

I like to think of the force like an ecosystem. Nothing inherently good or evil about any part of it, with the light side representing things like sunlight, rivers, flowers, etc., & the dark side representing storms, wildfires, volcanoes & the like. The only reason the dark side tends to be associated with hatred, evil, & pain is because that's simply the effect it happens to have on sentient lifeforms who use it, but in its purest form, it's simply an explosion of energy meant to keep the cycle in check. Without forest fires, the forest would grow unchecked & eventually consume all the resources in the land, but the fire allows new growth to begin. Those who fully succumb to the dark side are essentially trying to tame the storm by sailing out into its midst, & it eventually tears them down. No matter how strong a sail you think your boat has, it will never be able to handle the full force of a hurricane.

It is so sad that we do not have George Lucas anymore.

I don't think windu ever actually used or tapped into the darkside even in the books. For his lightsaber form to work he skims the penumbra of the darkside. Hes essentially doing what a water strider does. Walking along the top of the dark side by standing on its surface pressure. Never actually touching it or falling into it but using the surface pressure to fuel his style. Actually tapping into the darkside to use the style is covered in the shatterpoint novel and basically says that doing that WILL make you fall to the darkside and not even windu is immune to that which is why he didn't do it.

"When you go to the dark side, it gets out of balance." My takeaway: Balance is the symbiotic relationship between you and the universe. (The Force in this case) When you embrace the darkside you break that relationship.

TBH I think the concept of balance in the Force has been warped over the years and Lucas has evolved his own ideas about what how it is conceptualized. In the OT it seems quite clear to me that it is not about balance "between light and dark". Rather the Light Side was the term to identify discipline and balance itself, while the Dark side described passion, excess, and corruption. For example, death would not be considered even within the realm of either side. The Sides were purely a categorization of emotions/behaviors. Note how in the 1980 quote it seems that when he says "it" refers to the FORCE overall, not to the sides. The sides, he says, ARE good or bad. But then later, Lucas (and the fan base) started to view it as "the light side means ABC aspects of life in general, the dark side is XYZ aspects of life, the the two must be balanced with each other". Ep1 seems to head more in this direction with Qui Gonn's little talk with Anakin. This brings us to the conception you've described quite well in the video. It of course has similarities to the OT concept, but it is different. We all know George is a fan of revision :) But now having seen TLJ, I can't tell really what Disney thinks balance or the light/dark sides are because of how they had Luke talk about it and how supposedly both just rise up equally automatically or something?

This is the reason why Star Wars is my favorite fictional universe. Harry Potter or the Lord of the rings have incredible mythology and magic systems, but they don't go far as to explain the metaphysics of their systems. Star War's core is the Force, a concept that can be related to a lot of western and eastern philosophies and religions, like God, The Good, The Tao, Brahman, Substance, etc. And the reason why Thor Skywalker is the best Star War's channel, is because he addresses the meaning behind the Force and it's purpose in the galaxy, rather than just explaining temporal aspects of the Star War's story. Even if we say that Lucas was telling a story, the story must have an absolute principle that gives it meaning. Just like the Bible can be considered a "great" story, but a believer knows that without God, there is just no story at all.

"The Force may have no light or dark side, but we do. We must choose." ―Luke Skywalker

I hovered over the thumbnail and it showed a preview of some berries and I was a little confused.

I do believe that it's explained that Mace Windu used a technique that used the darkside energy of his opponent against them, thus bolstering himself in the fight (and more so the longer the fight lasted).

Hey ThorSkywalker, great video! Just wanted to correct you on your point of view of the devil. Much like all of us, he wasn't created to be inherently evil. Just like as you said all of us have the free will within us to do right or wrong (to choose the light side or dark side), and this is definitely the case for the devil too. God originally created Lucifer to be one of the most beautiful head angles, a cherub. But Lucifer became so obsessed in his pride and longing to be God (to have unlimited power) that he rebelled against him. God had Michael (the head of God's army and ideal for what every Jedi should be) cast out Lucifer from Heaven. Now Lucifer is known as the devil and though he knows that he has lost, still deceives all of God's creations to tempt them to the dark side and rebel against God. So I feel like this strongly resembles the mythology of Star Wars. Maybe not, I'd love to hear you thoughts.

This is Undoubtedly my favorite Star Wars channel. Thank you! Been watching since your first video, always good times!

Mace Windu was responsible for crushing General Grievous lungs. Crush and choke are talents of the Darkside. Luke himself used choke on the Jabba's palace guards in Return of the Jedi and also gave in to his hatred facing off with his father and almost lost himself in that conflict.

Haha, it does often feel like talking in a circle when discussing dialectics/yin yang stuff, but I think you got the hang of it. There's a lot of Jungian psychology in the concepts you discussed too, since the balance, the push and pull is an inner battle over our nature. In this sense, you can see Star Wars as a purely inner psychological hero's journey.

I think the conept of "balance in the Force" and a chosen one thing was an over complication of SW. In the OT, it was simple. There was the Force, as just a spiritual energy field, and the Darkside, that was fueled by evil, agression, hatred and fear, and of course was seductive. Whilst a Jedi had emotions and even relationships (shown in many sources pre-prequels and OT era), they did not turn to the Darkside through that, only if channeling the power of the Darkside its self. (We even see this in the persona of the Jedi characters in the OT, they expressed emotions, attachments and so on, even Yoda). The original set up is that the Jedi were galactic guardians of peace, as explained in ANH, and they just happend to use the Force to do it, and were responsible for taking care of those who would use it for evil, as they were the only ones really capable. The beauty was in that simplicity, but with the preuqel stuff, it added a lot of long-windedness and many contradictions in the franchise, and even as you say, contradicting statements from Lucas himself. This really is what has caused these issues as the prequels was the first time Jedi were made out to be more of a religious order who "worshipped" the Force as it were, as opposed to just training to use it as spiritual warriors and galactic guardians. A lot of these things of course have been tried to explained away in that it was the "religions" (Jedi/Sith etc) who had it wrong and were always contradicting themselves and changing their ways of thinking over the years. You could say Star Wars has become quite “meta” on this topic, as the gaping difference between the Prequel Jedi and Orignal Trillogy Jedi (due to bad writing continutiy) has actually been expressed “in-universe” in Star Wars lore. If one looks into the “Expanded Universe” of Star Wars, the original way of the Jedi did allow for the experience of all emotions and attachments before the code of “no emotions” was introduced to the Jedi Order. In a sense the writers of the Expanded Universe took what happend to the films and artistically expressed it by converting the real life situation into a cannonised story which tells the tale of how “in the beginning” (refering to the in-universe Star Wars timeline, which cleverly mirrors the “in the beginning of Star Wars” in real life) the Jedi freely expressed all emotions and accepted attachment and later in time, from a few thousand years after the formation of the Jedi Order, became emotionless monks who lived in hypocrisy. (The first Jedi mantra vs the The Jedi Code of Odan-Urr). So, in the end, if we were to speak on Star Wars in either the “in-universe” or “out of universe” context, you could say my ideal Jedi were the “original Jedi” and concept on the Force… But on the subject of the understanding of balance, I've always understood it as you've explained it, mostly. I've always seen the natural Force as "the light" and the Darkside as its cancer, and that balance was "the Light keeping the Dark at bay". There are also very early quotes from Lucas saying that balance meant "all Light", but he often changes his stance and statements on things in several areas (such as saying in the 2000s he planned the prequels when he wrote the OT, but he said in the 1970s SW was going to be a standalone movie with no sequel planned, and a lot later he said in the 2010s that his key was to success was making it all up as he went along and just "pretending" and telling people it was planned all along. So I can never fully trust his statements or visions on these things, because they are always all over the place).

Thanos: "You underestimate my power!"

The Je'daii Order was an ancient organization unified by its belief and observance of the Force on the planet Tython, in the galaxy's Deep Core. Focusing on maintaining a balance in the Force, a state at which Tython was itself hospitable, the Je'daii saw the Force as three aspects of a whole; the Ashla (light), the Bogan (Dark), and the Bendu (balance). They saw this duality in the Force represented in the night sky of Tython in the form of two natural satellites; one bathed in light, the Ashla, another shrouded in darkness, the Bogan. In keeping with their view of balance, Je'daii who fell too far to either the light or dark were exiled to the opposite moon to meditate until they returned to balance.

Great video as usual, Thor. There are some things I'd like to add, though. 1.) I believe that the balance between selfishness and selflessness is incomplete and asymmetrical. The true negative to selflessness is narcissism, because a selfless person cares so much about others they will even act to the detriment of themselves. A narcissist, on the other hand, does the opposite. 2.) With either balance in mind, I don't think simply choosing when to drift to one side or the other is good for anyone. It often makes people untrustworthy and hypocritical. 3.) What I think is best is to be driven by mutual self-interest. This means that one should do what's best for them and aid others if they really need help. By sacrificing only as much as necessary, one isn't as weakened or distracted by others' conflicts and has the energy and the means to better themselves; and when those others learn not to need them as much, they'll have the chance to become stronger as well. 4.) That balance is one of many that subconsciously calculate our actions and even our fate. These balances in aggregate affect what I call the Balance of Life, which weighs growth against decay and evens out with stagnation. 5.) I believe the Force adheres to and mimics the Balance of Life, and the Dark Side is its opposite. This would be the Balance of the Force. 6.) Since, as Yoda put it, life creates it and makes it grow, if you were to balance it with the Dark Side, it would live and grow but ultimately decay and die. 7.) I believe that when the Balance of the Force acts on the Balance of Life in addition to imitating it, equilibrium can take many forms. To a Jedi, the best form is when the Dark Side is completely outweighed. 8.) The reason being that the Jedi Code states that "There is no death, there is the Force." The ultimate goal for a Jedi should then be the extinction of death and for life to eternally grow and prosper unabated. From that point of view, paradoxical as it may seem, for death to have no weight on the scale is for life as a whole to be in perfect balance. 9.) Finally, to piggyback off of your analogy, such a balance would be like curing cancer, and to cure all illness and disease would be the key to eternal life. Look forward to the next video. May the Force be with you!

Great explanation. The way I think of balance is like this: a lot of people visualize it as a scale, where the light side is on one side and the dark side is on the other. I think it is more appropriate to view it as a ball sitting on top of a hill, where the top of the hill is the light side, and the bottom of the hill is the dark side. Both exist naturally and are an inherent part of the force, but the ball is in balance when it is sitting on top of the hill. The dark side is constantly tempting us and trying to pull us down (there's a reason they call it "falling" to the dark side). It is easy to fall to the dark side - the ball just needs to roll a little bit - but it is difficult to stay at the top and serve the light side, as you need to be aware of the darkness below and keep making adjustments to avoid falling into it (aka discipline). When the force is in balance, the dark side cannot take over, although it exists, and life and the force are able to exist symbiotically, with life and the force feeding into each other.

The notion that Windu dabbled in the dark side isn’t because of his lightsaber, but due to the EU establishing that he was a master of a lightsaber form (Vapaad, I think?), the seventh form, and that form was a combination of light and dark disciplines. In regards to jedi and balance, I still believe that the prequel jedi overall contributed to imbalance. Qui Gon certainly exemplified what a jedi should be, and as a jedi he seemed to be the exception to the rule compared to what the rest of the jedi were. Qui Gon wasn’t on the council, he didn’t necessarily hold to the way the council wanted to do things. Yoda himself described him as defiant. I think there was some truth in what Palpatine said about the jedi fearing losing their power. I think they went down the path of absolutism they focused on maintaining their influence at the cost of neglecting their purpose of achieving harmony and following the will of the force. They also had imbalance within themselves by refusing very natural things such as love and attachments, but again that could fall into absolutism since they saw no path to having this without falling. Like the sith, their absolutism was the easier path since it required less discipline than achieving harmony and created more internal conflict when it couldn’t be followed, rather than just being treated as a natural part of existence. Vader wiping them out was necessary to the goal of restoring balance. Luke at the end if ROTJ also stands apart from the other jedi. He did not forbid attachments but acted on them. He did so without falling, and in doing so he benefited all and achieved harmony within himself. He was in effect a true jedi as they were meant to be.

Your analyse is an illumination to my appreciation of the franchise. Thank you for getting so deeply into the psychology of this universe, I’ve been a fan of it for 15 years now, but you’re still helping me understand new concepts. Wonderful video

Great video my dude! Interesting perspective

The Jedi in the Prequels didn't try to destroy the dark side. If anything, they didn't care enough about the dark side. They knew that a powerful dark side entity was present, yet they didn't do much investigating. They occasionally sent home a death stick dealer to rethink his life, but they didn't do much beyond that. They even participated in war: can you get more dark side than that?

I don't know about any specific quotes from Lucas, but Mace Windu's character is explained in legends as having an inherent darkness within himself that is stronger than usual for most other Jedi. Hence the purple lightsaber (in-universe). His personal fighting style and philosophy is built around channelling that inner darkness and evil away from his soul, for lack of a better word. Vaapad, his lightsaber form, is built around the idea of using an opponents aggression and darkness against them by redirecting it through himself back at them. This is why he is one of the only Jedi that could defeat Sidious, as Palpatine's own power in the dark side was essentially being used against him. Again, not sure what George Lucas has said about all that, but that is what I understand about his character from the lore stuff that is out there.

this is fact. this IS canon. THIS is how the force was always meant to be seen, and it’s why Return of the Jedi is so perfect in closing the story with Anakin as the Chosen One. the last jedi is an insulting piece of garbage and it is proof that Rian Johnson and the goons at Disney/Lucasfilm don’t know the first thing about what Star Wars is really about.

I have always seen The Force as such: You influence it with your Heart. Give Love, Compasion, Honor, Kindness and it shall become Light. Give it Hate, Fear, Negativity, so shall it become Dark. Being a Jedi, to me, was about having a Kind Heart and a Strong Spirit. I have learned that feom Qui-Gon Jinn... Dark Side is something that will always return in the world in one for or another. That is why Light Side must always fight it. That is what's so beautiful about Star Wars - The Force has strong Universal fundamentals that many interpretations are all correct. So long as the core of it is there. It is also the reason I absolutly LOVE the idea of a Lightsaber color atunned to your Resonans to The Force. A representation of your Heart and Soul. The desctruction of that is Bleeding the crystal. An unnatural, horrifing creation of the Dark Side. That is what Star Wars and The Force were and always will be to me.

I believe Mace Windu do not use the dark side, but rather using his emotions to fuel his power at times. This leads to a slightly more aggressive style of fighting and use of the force, that is not the same as using the dark side of the force. He uses passion and emotion to empower himself, but as far as we know, that is the extent of it. “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda in The Phantom Menace I consider this to be the "How to fall 101": You start fearing something. Fear leads to frustration and anger. Anger leads you to hate something. The hate causes suffering. I would consider the pivoting point as the anger turning to hate. "Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!" - Sheev Palpatine in The return of the Jedi. Based on these quotes I believe that anger is the preceding step before the dark side, inherently similar, but not quite the same. If so, it is not too strange that some people might believe Windu to be a practitioner of certain elements of the dark side. He uses anger, but never hatred to empower himself almost like the Sith. *Almost* This is also why his form in combat and his abilities look more like those of a sith and why very few jedi are ever seen to use it. In exchange for power, you have to balance on a knife's edge and if one loses control, that would lead to a fall to the dark side.

My personal philosophy in life is that you should seek balance within yourself... If you are mostly selfless, you'll end up being used by selfish people, so you need to learn how to be selfish to a certain degree, so you can defend yourself from selfish people and not let them stomp you, but if you become mostly selfish, you end up keeping good people away from your life. I know this because I've been in both sides of the coin and lived these very same experiences, and when you live by extremes, your life is always unbalanced. This is why you see good people trying to learn Martial Arts, "If they are good people, why do they need to learn the art of hurting people?" so they can learn how to defend themselves or the ones they love from the people who really wants to hurt them. This is balance!

You deserve as many subscribers as Star Wars Theory.

I wonder if the balance was disrupted after the father, daughter, and son died.

Brilliant. Finally someone clarifies the misunderstanding of balance over the oft' misrepresented equality. Thank you.

This is similar to how I would ideally use the force. Stay more in the light side but understand that the dark side will sometimes give better results. The key is know when to stop using the dark side in a particular situation (which since different scenarios have different factors means the extent the dark side should be used will vary).

Well done. Best explanation for this. Your really starting to win me over to the idea that the grey jedi aren't a thing.

My Dude - this is a dam good video 👍🏿

Without light there is only darkness, without darkness there is only light. Without one to contrast the other, how can we determine balance? A scale with equal weight on both sides is in balance; a scale with no weight on either side is in balance. Weighted either way, the scale shifts so the side with less on it rises.

I like your balance diet analogy.

Awesome topic! The philosophy is one of my main reasons for loving star wars

At the end it all became clear! This was a good one and balance is so important to Star Wars!

What about Thor's attack on expanding my mind?

This makes me wish that the force awakens was about Luke taking it upon himself to shoulder the full balance of the force. To continue in his fathers footsteps and become the ultimate gray Jedi, balancing the light and the dark. He takes this on after the founding of his academy and in his hubris doesn’t account for the increase in the light from his school and falls to the dark side as the scales tip. Upon his fall he would destroy his academy and his students taking Kylo as his apprentice. Rey would be the new hope to end the tyranny of another skywalker needing to become insanely powerful to combat Luke, the new trilogy would focus around her trying to defeat or redeem Luke and Kylo and regain a balance.

I would say it's being selfless with intelligence. It's not selfishness to take care of yourself if you're motivation is simply to make sure you're capable to give to others. Selfishness is putting your wants over others needs. Putting your immediate needs before others not as immediate needs is not selfish. It's about seeing yourself neither better nor worse than others. Selfishness is a focus on ones wants and desires. And your focus determines your reality.

Balance of The Force to me, means 100% pure Light. Because, (before Snoke was introduced), Anakin brought balance to the Force by sacrificing himself to get rid of the last Sith; leaving only the Light Side alive. If you know what I mean.

From all I've seen and read I feel the biggest misunderstandings is the belief that balance in the force has to do with an amount, as it seems to me that the trick to finding balance lies not in how much, but why, how, where, and when, just as anger, and even hate has its place, so to does the dark side, and so long as they stay in their proper place, the amount dose not matter, after all you can hate drunk drivers with every fiber of your being, but its only when said hate leads you to harm others, as opposed to making a legally required device that prevents drunk driving, does it become a problem

I like it. Keep it up

Balance to me is being part of the Light Side but not completely shunning or ignoring Dark Side traits (anger, pride, etc.) like the Prequel Jedis did.

I have always seen it as the force is not good or bad. It’s how people use it that decides if it is good or evil. It like electricity. Electricity is totally neutral. It’s the user of electricity that can use it for good or ill. The Jedi practiced staying pure because they had access to a much higher level of the force. When someone fell to the dark side, they too had access to much more or the force then the average person, but they used the force for ill because it was easier which had repercussions like a cancer.

Ahhhhhh, nice to see some good Star Wars content...about Star Wars.

It is always a King Arthur-like scenario. Like Arthur's rightful kingdom, after centuries of unworthy kings, represents balance in the Land, so does Luke's in the Galaxy and in the Force, after centuries of unworthy Jedi. And it is in fact brought by Anakin, as the prophecy says, because he both gives Luke life, by being his father, and saves said life, by killing the Emperor. Even the Sequel trilogy actually fits in with this, because the period of balance brought by King Arthur is not eternal. It is, and I quote, "a brief beginning, a fair time that cannot be forgotten. And because it won't be forgotten, it may come again". So we could say that balance in the Force is a temporary elimination of the Dark Side, an example of what mankind (or alienkind, anyway) could be at its full potential. But it can't last forever. Not yet.

I really enjoy your videos...especially when they are not about TLJ ;)

I've been watching a lot of your videos, lately. Great stuff, and being a fan of the franchise, I'm happy to have learned a lot and, honestly, you kinda' saved Star Wars for me. Re: light and dark and balance, I really can't stress enough how much being sold on Qui Gon being the best example of a Jedi changed my view of Jedi and the force (thanks for that!). I'm in full agreement -- death is necessary, so too much light and you have unnatural unbalance because in order to protect everything, you eventually have to kill what threatened it, and too much dark and you get Sith which are either murder machines or tyrants. I've actually been pooring over TLJ, trying to figure out how his Luke can fit into the saga. I did not like TLJ, but we have it, and in spite of not liking Rian's episode, I found a way to make myself accept it. I made Luke Snoke, and it actually fits, if Luke was more powerful in projecting himself that we gave him credit for. First, it explains why Snoke knew things only Luke should have, how Snoke had access to Kylo when he was Luke's ward, how Snoke existed at all, and why Luke was so wrecked. I've spent a little time on this, and it actually passes muster, or at least there's nothing that makes it impossible because of VII and VIII. I don't think I'm right -- I actually don't think they'd do it -- but it explaines Rian's Luke entirely, or makes him the Luke we wanted. Luke understood the balance, and that the Dark would rise, regardless, but he couldn't go be a Jedi, he needed to train new Jedi, so how to keep the Dark in check until then? Luke took on the Dark Side to give him time to train Jedi that could resist it and fight the Sith, and when he learned Kylo was falling, he created Snoke and began manipulating Kylo -- litterally holding him back -- while still trying to rush some Jedi to keep balance. Snoke can even be seen as holding the First Order back, and chasing Skywalker is a fool's errand and an empty threat -- a red herrimg -- if Luke is both. Snoke never does anything, until he tortures Rey, but who is to say Luke can't do that? He makes the stupid dice real for a time, as both Leia and Kylo actually handle them. Anyway, it seems like a plausable theory, and it makes Luke into a much greater willing sacrifice, seeing him harbor the dark to litterally hold it back. Luke's confrontation with Kylo is actually that Snokewalker has discovered the Knoghts of Ren, and they are losing control -- it isn't working, the light is failing, and in spite of Luke's efforts to contain the dark, the lack of Jedi and his failure to teach them has allowed the dark to run amok. Once Luke discovers Rey -- unbalanced light -- he is finally humbled, and that's when we see his true disdain and despair for the Jedi; the force will balance itself -- Snoke and Luke seem to learn this and reveal this at the same time. Luke (well, Yoda) destroys the tree, Snoke says Light rises to meet Darkness, and Luke dumps all he has into a showdown where provokes Kylo to rebel. Luke has been playing the story like chess and running on ragged and nature, and the dark uncheckedNow the players are free from manipulation, and the force is free to sort itself out, almost. Finally, we see something we expected from Luke, and he shows up at the end of the movie resembling Luke Skywalker. I still think Rian's movie is mostly a hamfisted waste of time -- it's just eye-rolling tosh with 20 minutes of actual Star Wars -- but I feel like the Star Wars it did contain might be enough. It also makes Luke's last statement to Kylo a big deal: Luke is ready to die, to give himself to the force -- he'll see Kylo around. Rey says she saw -- beyond doubt -- Kylo turn. She told Luke that if she went to Kylo he would turn. Kylo says three different things; he saw Rey turn, he saw Rey stand with him, and he saw her parents. Three different things. Officially, Kylo and the Knights of Ren are the only figures left with any Jedi training. Rey is unbalanced light, and Kylo is conflicted, but the primary manifestation of the dark. Either Kylo or the remnants of the accademy have to restore the Jedi -- they're the only ones with training. I suppose Luke could ghost (his dad did it without training, and Luke has access to at least 3 ghosts and 30 years) and train Rey, but the Light is unbalanced in her. So, Finn. Finn was a great idea for a character that has been really squandered. Thankfully, they've managed to at least show he and Rey have a powerful connection. Snokewalker is gone, so Rey and Kylo's connect should be gone. In IX, if Finn dies early on after a the crawl (the resistance is in full swing, rumors of Luke and Jedi and all that, the Order is on the run) and a few scenes showing Rey and Finn kicking ass, Rey can accept it as finally understanding balance, or deny it and become a tyrant (what's phenominal cosmic power if you can't save your friends). In the midst of that, Rey and Kylo have a stand off and Rey says that Luke said the Jedi tried to horde the force, and Kylo tells her Luke never taught that -- but Snoke did... Rey wins (because duh), Kylo runs. Kylo now puts it all together; Finkle is Einhorn, Einhorn is Finkle! What Luke did to try to protect him, how he tried to contain the dark and teach enough to restore the Jedi and balance. Kylo is undone. Snoke was pushing Kylo to be Vader, because Vader was redeemed. Meanwhile, Finn has died because war is war. Rey should snap, go full tyrant, and take everything over. Basically destroying the Order without judgement or reserve -- absolute power, and we know the path of absolutes. Kylo, undone, is visited by Luke, and the training resumes. How to restore balance; actually prepare for the dark, obey the force, and how justice is different than saving everyone. Kylo returns to the knights, and their redemption begins. Now we see Jedi that have to bring the light into balance, and no reason we can't see Rey redeemed as well. Mic drop? Can this work? I know it's too late, whatever IX is, it already is, but this is the movie I want to see.

14:04 - NOBODY EXPECTS THE JEDI INQUISITION! :) WRT Windu dabbling in the Dark Side, I think a pretty good case could be made that the darkness in him was a factor in Anakin turning to the Dark Side. His cold, hostile demeanor helped drive a wedge between Anakin and the Jedi, and his order to kill Palpatine--quoting Palpatine's words when ordering Anakin to kill Dooku, no less--arguably created an equivalence between Jedi and Sith in Anakin's mind ("I think the Jedi are evil."). So yeah, if we grant that Windu walked the "Grey" line, maybe he shouldn't have? ;)

The fact it's quicker and easier is a huge dark side advantage. Perhaps one could even become twice as powerful and destructive in half the time with half the effort invested as a Sith. If this stuff existed , dark side would be the best path to power if others shunned it, unless one had a yoda lifespan. Obviously, that is a pretty huge reason why even a jedi would be tempted by this .

The only references I can remember regarding Windu and the dark side are from the novelization of "Revenge of the Sith," having mostly to do with his lightsaber fighting style and how a deeper awareness of the dark side allowed him to fight as he did. I think his ability to see shatter points in the Force was also loosely influenced by that same awareness (I haven't read the novelization in a long time, so I might be misremembering that ...if so I apologize). Regardless, good video. Keep up the good work, sir.

I think the thought that mace uses the dark side also stems from the fact that he uses some dark side techniques. For example, his “force crush” which he uses on general greivous in the clone wars series, which is official Lucas I think it’s also said somewhere that vaapad, mace’s style, is designed based on the absorption and reflection of the dark side’s hate, but I don’t remember where.

Another great video Thor!

Great video Thor....you explained the balance perfectly.

Great video Thor ,now what would be interesting is if you could make a video about Kathleen Kennedy expounding on the overriding philosophy of balance in Star Wars. Keep up the awesome content good sir.

On Mortis, the son was not completely dark yet. The father wanted to keep the balance, by keeping his children in check, but he didn't want the son to turn to the dark side. So, balance is more like what you describe here: acknowledging the dark but embracing it.

This confirms what I thought as an armchair Star wars fan. That force-users like Qui-Gon jinn are neither Yin nor Yang but the circle that encompasses the two....

It’s not selfishness to take care of yourself- rather it’s essential to being truely selfless.

Your theory that some Jedi can and do use the dark side to some extent finally made my mind okay with why Kyle Katarn and his Student in the Jedi Knight games use light and dark side powers (such as healing, choke etc) without being considered Sith. Thank you! That bugged me for 15 years.

The interesting thing about Mortis is that balance is brought about by completely destroying the dark and the light, and leaving no more force. Perhaps this means that the force itself is inherently chaotic, something that does not really belong in the physical world, and the only way to truly get balance is via its utter removal.

Something that might be interesting to look at is Stoic philosophy. I find that whenever a discussion comes to 'what would Jedi philosophy say about this?' looking at what the Stoics say gives an answer that is completely in line with what we know about the Jedi. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas copy/pasted their thoughts on emotions for the Jedi, they match that closely. Especially interesting is that they tend to get the exact same accusations about being emotionless and how that's a bad thing and their rebuttal to it also seems exactly what a Jedi would say if accused of being emotionless.

This video reminded me of the movie Inside out. During the beginning of the movie, the main protagonist, Joy, thinks that joy is the only good emotion and the only emotion that humans are allowed to feel, therefore she keeps the other character, Sadness, in the distance so that Riley (the character they are controlling) can't feel sadness, which causes her universe to fall apart and a lot of problems in her mind. Once joy realizes that we need sadness to feel empathy for others, and that sometimes it takes a sad moment to take people together, Joy lets Sadness fix everything so that she destroyed so that Riley can express her true feelings, which fixes everything. It's good to feel sad for someone else so that we can show empathy and help them, but it's not good to be sad all the time because then you just bring everyone down and it affects you in your everyday life.

I thought Windu was in danger of falling; he thought he stood on solid ground but he was actually sinking, so to speak. In Phantom Menace, he is easily shown to be one of the most arrogant Jedi on the council; arguing that, "[he did] not believe the Sith could return without [the Jedi Council] knowing about it", and, in Revenge of the Sith, when he finds out that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, he decides that, given Palpatine's position in the Republic, trying to bring him to justice the right way would be too difficult, and he instead opts for arrest + assassination: the darker, quick and easy path. He was not far enough down the road that he would have become a Sith, but he was far enough down the road that he dangerously echoed some of their stuff. After all, what was it that finally pushed Anakin over the edge? Windu saying about Palpatine: "He's too powerful to be kept alive", the same thing that Palpatine said about Dooku.

13:50 We have the son representing dark and the daughter light and God in the middle making it work even through the darkness. This shows the force is not just a radiating power but has a mind behind it all. It connects us all as we are bound to each other through our souls which are connected to the source our Guide and benefactor. Without our guide it is chaos and the light and dark blur.

Perhaps a better example than cancer is a parasitic relationship vs a beneficial symbiotic relationship. All parasites are symbiotic, its whether they are mutually beneficial to both organisms. Where a parasitic organism is usually referring to one organism using the relationship @the expense of the host. Whether that better exemplifies the light/dark dichotomy... you Thor are better versed in that than I am. So is your audience, of which I am only one member! So I happily take criticism to further this idea! cheers!

Balance in the force is the light side playing whack-a-mole with the dark side. It's a never-ending task, and on occasion a mole will get loose and eat the hammer, the player, and then trash the arcade.

A lot of people seem to have a problem reading through the lines with the Windu v. Sidious fight. Sidious threw the fight with Mace Windu intentionally at just the right moment to force both Windu's hand (lol get it) and Anikan's hand. I honestly don't think the fight taxed him much at all to be quite honest. He spanked Yoda the next day, meaning he fought the former and current leader of the Jedi council and had time to make the republic and empire in the span of two days. Sidious sent Anikan to Windu on purpose while Yoda was off planet to face Windu alone (lol at the other Jedi present) he knew he could beat Windu, but he needed Windu to be corrupted by the Dark Side during the fight and try to kill him and he waited until Anikan was about to walk in before he did it. I'm honestly shocked at how many people miss this. Also, book: Palpatine still made no move to defend himself from Skywalker; instead he ramped up the lightning bursting from his hands, bending the fountain of Mace's blade back toward the Korun Master's face. [...] This was beyond Vaapad; he had no strength left to fight against his own blade. [...] Mace's blade bent so close to his face that he was choking on ozone. "Anakin, he's too strong for me-" "Ahhh-" Palpatine's roar above the endless blast of lightning became a fading moan of despair. The lightning swallowed itself, leaving only the night and the rain, and an old man crumpled to his knees on a slippery ledge. "I... can't. I give up. I... I am too weak, in the end. Too old, and too weak. Don't kill me, Master Jedi. Please. I surrender."

Too late for me to have seen this video but the belief that light -good and dark - evil is one of the reasons Easterners have limited love for SW. Yin and Yang are complimentary not opposites and you have to have both. To think it is okay to have one is like trying to have water with just the Oxygen. Lucus often changes his POV on the Force. The idea of balance with only the light side - this causes an issue of “imbalance” in episode 6 for some people for this reason. The fun thing is the best views on the Force were done with the characters of Karia and Bindo in the SWOR. Agree or not with them it is very thoughtful stuff. My POV

Great video. The Dark Side has a very human interpretation indeed. Anger, hate, jealousy and such powerful emotions are very human and most major world religions counsel on how to manage them. Addiction, as you mention, is a serious part of the dynamic between light and dark; indeed, the OT could be seen as an allegory of a son accepting a father's alcoholism with the father eventually admitting his problem. And Vader's personality disorder stemmed from insecurity about his mother in the prequels. All of this has a very real human undercurrent. Not sure if the new trilogy can be seen this way sadly.

Along with the multiple explanations in the video; what if Jedis use primarily the Light because (as mentioned in this video) using the Dark can make you succumb to it. If the 2 sides are like a tog-o-war, it is easier to keep balance standing from the Light than from the Dark.

And apparently the last jedi seems to say that what we understand about the force lore is wrong.

the movies reveal the secret to balance. Qui-Gon tells us, the very ROLE of the Jedi Knight is to interpret the "will of the force" and act this out on the macroscopic world. Quigon's mantra was "follow the will of the force" -- Qui-gon uses-the-force-to-enact-the-will-of-the-force -- and Qui-Gon is rewarded with immortality for his actions. This reveals qui-gon's mantra to be the "correct path". Plain and simple. A Jedi who uses-the-force-to-enact-the-will-of-the-force, brings balance to the force (and is rewarded with immortality); a Jedi who uses the force "against-its-will" brings imbalance to the force (and is destroyed by the Chosen One); and a "Jedi Order" who is SWORN to follow the will of corrupt and evil politicians at all costs... (even when the senate is ruled by a Sith Lord)... brings imbalance, by its very existence. The secret to "balance" is: separation of church and state. The Jedi Order caused imbalance in the force, when it swore an oath to enact the will of the senate, at all costs. This happened a thousand generations ago. By the time of TPM, it is far too late. The Jedi Order have no interest in the "will of the force" anymore (as evidenced by Qui-Gon's arc in TPM). Qui-gon pleaded with them, to follow the will of the force, but the Jedi order rolled their eyes at him. They chose instead, to follow the "Will of the Senate", to the bitter end -- (Obi-wan:"My Allegiance Is To Democracy") -- Even when the senate was SHOWN to be corrupt and dysfunctional in the expository senate scenes of TPM (scenes which nobody wants to watch nor acknowledge nor even consider), the Jedi Order did not care -- they were sworn to uphold the Will of the Senate, even at the cost of Galactic War. They were "government agents", first and foremost. They ignored the will of the force -- they rolled their eyes, at Qui-Gon's "path-to-immortality" -- they followed ONLY the Will of the Senate. After a thousand generations of enduring this abuse, "the force" responded in self defense. The force spawned its Chosen One, to wipe out ANYONE who was using the force "against-its-will". This included the entire Jedi Order, the younglings in the temple, and yes! even the the Sith Lord himself. NONE of these force users were following the Will of the Force anymore, like Qui-Gon's example -- and Anakin killed them ALL. (Even the senate, itself, was disbanded). In the end: the only one left is Luke. Luke was taught a different version: "let go your conscious self" and "let the force guide your actions" (aka:"follow the will of the force"). Once ALL force users in the galaxy are free to "follow the will of the force" again, THIS brings balance to the force. The secret to "balance" is separation of church and state. A Jedi who uses-the-force-to-enact-the-will-of-the-force, brings balance to the force; a Jedi who uses the force "against-its-will" brings imbalance. Plain and Simple.

This will always be a difficult topic because we constantly apply our human mortality to a universal force that has no such morals. Everything has a purpose in the universe. If the force itself has a dark side then it is meant to be used or it wouldn't exist.

nice video that sums up important things. and now thor, could you please apply it to the fandom. i think everyone (or side) could learn from it.

The concept of The Force itself doesn't fit neatly into metaphorical truths - at least those bequeathed to us through mythology and religion. The reason it ended up that way was simply just the fact that Lucas was telling a story. Fine. In Mythology and religions, both sides of most things have good and evil within them. Yin is dark, chaos, nature, and water - being both the source of all life as well as its destruction. Yang is light, order, and structure - being both the source of all culture, tools and security as well as the tyranny or stagnation that kills it. The force is not fleshed out as fully as that. But Lucas wrote scripts and made movies so we can give him some margin here.

I think people like the term grey jedi as a distinction between the prequel order and the order Luke could have created after the fall of the empire. The prequel jedi talked a lot about balance, but had kind of a skewed idea of what it meant (balance as a uniform goal for all beings rather than dynamic and individual to each person).

I always think what would happen if the force did exist. Disclaimer: this is assuming the Foce would never seek a balance irl. If the force ever did exist almost nobody would be a Jedi. A few would try but fail miserably and a few would fail but not fall to the dark side to the extreme evil level (they'd never reach their full force potential though). From what I understand of the Jedi code to be one you have to really shut off a lot of emotions or at least ignore them. Also Personally when I got into the Old Republic MMO I always liked the idea of dark side users that never went to the comically evil level but didn't have a nerf. Though that's just me wishing the "light side is stronger" rule didn't exist : v

Thank you master for teaching the ways of the FORCE

13:00 You're right. The Jedi should act like The Father. The Daughter will stay her hand for the greater good, and the Son doesn't care and will try to defeat the Father (the jedi) so he can fulfill his destructive pursuits freely

Vapad his style is mostly legends material unless clone wars mentions it but I don’t think so. It’s less him using the dark side and more channeling it and redirecting it without letting it influence him. So rather than use the dark side he redirects it back on the user. He accomplished this through his struggles with his own internal darkness. However this is also dangerous with multiple apprentices of windu falling to the dark side.

Good stuff

I love this. I also feel the sequel trilogy is trying to establish but something feels missing and it’s off-I can’t put my finger on it

Have you considered that this may be why Qui-Gon often gets called a Grey Jedi, not because of the powers he uses but because he listens to the force as a whole, rather than focusing on the dark or light? As another thought, can dark side techniques be used without actually giving in to the dark side? For example would Yoda be able to use force lightning without tapping into the dark side but chooses not to because the pain it inflicts is distasteful?

I think revan is the best example of balance.. I hope they tell his story in cannon, hell il take a cameo

The truth is balance has always been a circle, anything in the circle is on the light side of the force and in balance. Anything on the outside is the dark side and out of balance.

When i get a compelling reason for why too much light is inherently bad, then, and only then will i accept "balance" to be a perfect mix of both. Until then, light side is the natural and pure state of the Force.

To me, the Jedi and the Sith were opposite extremes, mutually exclusive, and constantly at war with each other. I really wished that 'The Last Jedi' was about Luke finally finding a way to balance BOTH within himself at that temple of light/dark, thus creating a new path for initiates and ending the galaxy-spanning wars between these extreme perspectives. He would no longer fear emotions, he could embrace his humanity, and he would not be corrupted by the dark side when he uses it. This was my idea of "balance", and would explain why no real concept of balance has ever really taken hold.

Windu used light saber technique Vaapad, which turns an enemies dark side energy against them in essence. I don't think he necessarily used dark side abilities. But not 100% on that one.

So after watching your video I have a series of questions, “what is the dark side used for?” GL talks about how it is necessary and yet at the same time a bad thing. It must serve a purpose in my mind and I guess I just want to know what that is. Is it sort of like a wild fire, which while horrific does allow for new life to grow and force change? Can any good come from a momentary lapse into the dark side? Do different situations warrant the appropriate use of the Dark Side and if so what does an “appropriate or justified” use of the Dark Side look like?

Does the particle govern the field, or does the field govern the particle?? Btw great video also Quigon is THE best.

@10:10 Jedi acting to maintain balance. That would ultimately involve killing "cancer" to individuals to save balance, but Jedi are taught not to murder. Also in some cases they would need to allow cruelty to run rampant. It's a big phylosophical rabbit hole that I can't type out on a phone sry.

It seems like Georges idea of balance goes hand in hand with what Jordan Peterson talks about with getting to know your inner shadow. To fight for in order to obtain things that does not belong to you is wrong and thus falling to the dark side. But if you instead fought the exact same fight, throing the exact same punches in order to defend something right, then that is following the path of the light. Mace Windu may be able to use emotions usually attributed to the dark side as anger and wrath, but he knows how to not be controlled by them. That means he hasn't fallen to the dark side, he's just putting himself exposed to darker shades of what's just. And in the face of tyranny, there's usually no other answer than violence.

Well the thing is that later Lucas added a lore background to why Windu was using a purple lightsaber to make it that it makes sense in the world of Star Wars and indeed Windu was tapping into dark side believing that understanding, not embracing, of it in conjunction with paths of Jedi was only way to keep balance, and he also considered himself to be the chosen one from prophecy that would bring the balance to the galaxy, and his saber had to be a symbol of it. Also speaking of the what happened of Jedi order before clone wars, how they changed form the servants of Force to simply law enforcers of Republic, but at some point, even Sith lost their path of embracing the dark side and instead of increasing their power through force, they started increasing their political influence, and even if Sidious managed to destroy Jedi Order, he could only dream of power of the Sith Lords form times before "Rule of two" Well, I'm still quite interested how the idea of a school of Force that would focus not on the balance, dark or light side, but on pure force manipulation, with all emotions taken out of the equation in that process could work out, sadly before this idea ever reaches ppl who would implement it, Star Wars might be dead franchise, or if not then the mess done to it might discourage me from even trying to let it be picked especially if I wouldn't be given a decent degree of overwatch on the implementation proccess of idea