I agree. Limiting the force to what was established in the OT would limit the stories you can tell. Expanding the force expands the narrative possibilities.
Exactly. At the very least, it would lead to a kind of stagnation in how the stories get told, if not necessarily the subject matter of the stories. Part of what works about, say, the Harry Potter books is that the experience of the reader (or viewer in the sense of the films) is constantly expanding. There's a real "newness" to everything that happens, even as there's core familiarity with the ground rules. As Harry gets exposed to more and more of the magical world, so does the audience, and that expands the audience's understanding of the world. The new pieces all still basically fit with the established rules, but things expand.
The PT -- at least with midichlorians --
contrasts the prior experiences, which go from being mystical and almost being about the potential of the person's
mind to being much more concrete, measurable, and almost mathematical. "Oh, sorry. Your midichlorian count is below 800. You'll never be able to lift that X-wing." Something like that. Now, in
fact all it's doing is applying the barest concept of a "number" being assigned to Force strength -- and people have differing "strengths" in the Force in the OT (although really people are only ever "strong" in the Force, except for Obi-Wan whose "powers are weak" when he confronts Vader). We don't know anyone's midicholorian count to the individual midichlorian (as far as I recall), but it still introduces the notion of quantification of powers instead of general "You're strong/not strong enough in the Force" or whathaveyou.
The ST gets farther away from that, and calls into question much of what the Jedi believed to be the case, which in turn calls into question the absoluteness of the "rules" established in the OT...which I think were never really all that absolute.
The "will" of the Force -- where it controls your actions -- is mentioned in the OT. It's not considered sentient or like a consciousness that's deciding "Hmm...I think I'll create a new vergence today. But first...a Force-danish..." But it's considered almost "alive." And that's the thing about the OT and especially ANH -- the Force is described in
really ambiguous terms that suggest an ultimate
lack of understanding of it, or at least that suggest that the understanding expressed is not itself the final word on the matter.
It's kind of like applying human concepts to the idea of divinity. If something is omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent, then presumably its experience is beyond that of humanity. Therefore, applying human concepts like emotions or human goals is ultimately pointless. You might end up getting to a similar end point, but you won't be right about "why" things got there. So, the Force could "will" Anakin into being as an element of balance, but it may be doing that to balance the
numbers of Jedi, or it may be doing that to balance
how people experience the Force. We don't know. The Jedi
thought Anakin was going to destroy the Sith, and they were right...but they missed that he'd also destroy the Jedi.
Right-- and if we all personally pick and choose what aspects we like and which we don't, you can't really debate somebody who is using on screen evidence and tell them they are wrong just cause you don't like it.
Well, you can if you are honest enough to say "Sure, I mean, I exclude that from my head canon, but I won't deny what's on the screen or what it suggests." Or, for that matter, if someone wants to discuss solely what's seen in the films, I'm happy to do that, or to include other sources, as long as we are clear about what's in and what's out up front. Head canon aside, I've found most people on here are capable of doing that.
Anyway, I think the ST doesn't do nearly as much to actively contradict the OT as compared to the PT, but it does suggest that the OT might only be a partial description of the Force, rather than the final word. Likewise, the PT -- even TPM -- can be made to work if you look at it from the perspective that (1) the statement about midichlorians was the Jedi's interpretation of things, and (2) they may have been wrong and thought correlation = causation. In other words, the midichlorians don't, like, filter the Force or whathaveyou, but they are
present in greater numbers in Force users and particularly in stronger Force users. But they don't
cause you to have Force abilities, so, no, a blood or organ transfusion won't grant you magical powers, and anyway it's not really that important and was part of the Jedi's more bureaucratic tendencies prior to their fall.
opcorn
