Re: Star Wars Episode VII
All these questions and others, I'm sure, can be answered through common sense according to the SW universe.
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1. I assume you are referring to Jedi and not regular folk, since regular folk don't feel them at all. Force-sensitives don't need to train to feel them, they can feel them whether they are aware of it or not. They just need to be trained to "hear" them and to use the Force through them.
2 & 3. Probably possible if you can isolate them from an entire cell and duplicate them (or clone them) but it doesn't even occur to the jedi because they don't generally quest for more, otherwise they would be dark Jedi or sith. And in one of the EU books set a few months to a year after ROTS, there is one substance out there that can increase a Force-users power. Doesn't really say whether or not midi-chlorians are involved though.
4. They are a natural organism similar to mitochondria in this galaxy's life-forms. Qui-Gon comes right out and says that.
Was the introduction of midi-chlorians in Star Wars necessary? Absolutely not. But they certainly were not intended to, nor did they, diminish the mystical aspect of the Force as many claim they do.
Well, first, you can TRY to answer these questions, but you're really just making crap up based on....nothing. Guesswork, really. That's not a criticism of you, mind you. It's a criticism of the midichlorian concept. As soon as you introduce it, you have to keep explaining stuff. And they DO demystify things because they provide a more concrete answer than "It's magic," basically.
Consider your answers to my questions, and then realize that they only prompt further questions. Example: If you can inject someone with midichlorians, and they're living organisms, what exactly lets you lift a rock or a spaceship, considering they DON'T have living organisms in them? Is the force still this mystical energy field and the midichlorians just let you manipulate it if you have a high enough concentration of them? Or do they create the Force? How do they function in a person's body? If it's all some biological process, then what exactly are the midichlorians acting upon when a Jedi moves stuff around in the air? In the end, you don't know because it was never explained....but we wouldn't even be going down this path at all if the answer was still just "It's a mystical energy field, and those strong in the Force can manipulate it. It's magic."
Look at the Harry Potter series. There's no attempt to explain through pseudo-science why wizards can use magic but muggles can't. It's not like wizards can do all of this stuff because they have plotzoflodriae in their spinal fluid. It's just magic. Some folks can do it, some folks can't. Some folks are stronger at it than others. Why? Who knows. It's magic. Bam. Done. Next question.
And in the end, all the midichlorian thing does is delay the point at which you say "Who knows. It's magic." It adds nothing, but takes away from the mystical side of things by trying to ground it in scientific-y explanations.
And for what? Why was it even included? Nobody was wondering about it. It doesn't add anything to the story. So why's it there? The answer is that George had a stupid idea and decided to stick it in the film, and nobody told him "George, that's a really stupid idea. You don't need to explain this. You did that in the last few movies." If it was supposed to be an example of the hubris of the Jedi, and something they later revealed to be a wrong understanding, the they should've addressed it later. "We were so wrong about the midichlorian thing...look at what's become of us..." But they don't do that. They just toss this idea out there -- once, in six separate films -- and then NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.
I agree, I never once had any question on what the source of a Force user's power was or why Yoda was more powerful in the ways of the Force than Luke was. It would have been one thing if it had been introduced to use with a bit of scientific background but since it was introduced to us as sort of a mystical power adding a scientific explanation behind it was really unnecessary and sort of ruined things. If Lucas really wanted a quantifiable way of defining someone's sensitivity towards or power with the Force I'm sure that if he thought about it long and hard enough he could have come up with some sort of simple field test involving the candidate/student doing something simple with the Force or comparing him (in terms how much power is sensed) to a known Jedi or something along those lines.
Exactly. Like I said, you didn't even need to take it to a "field test." You can simply say that, because Jedi can sense each other, they can sense how strong someone is. It's all taken care of in the OT. Vader says "The force is strong with this one..." when he's chasing Luke in the trench run. He senses Obi-Wan's presence. There. Bam. Done. I sensed him. I sensed his power. The end. No blood tests required, no pseudo-science crap to answer unasked questions and raise new unanswered ones. The world and its rules are already well established and accepted because it's all couched in the unsaid statement of "It's magic."
