The Will of the Force

[JT Swift]

Howdy!

I'm new to the boards (though I've been lurking for over 2 years).
After a 9 year break (where I ran GURPS Star Trek) I'm dusting off my WEG collection and preping to run a game. Hopefully I'll be able to be sorta active arround here.

Here's my first attempt. I'm not sure which catagory this would go under as figuring out what the Will of the Force is could be a Character issue (is the Force a character?), a GM Issue (since they alway play the Force), or a House Rule (as its sorta a fan developed idea). Moderators can feel free to toss this into a more appropriate section.

If you can see holes in this theory, either because it violates what's been stated in the movies or EU or because it just doesn't make intrinsic sense feel free to point them out. I'm trying to get some feed back on this and stir up some conversation around here. If you have alternative takes on it I'd love to hear about those too.

Also if anyone has their own counter theory for how it all fits together I'd love to hear that too.

Yoda said that the life creates (present tense IIRC) the Force and makes it grow. Yoda also said that everyone (Jedi or not) who dies becomes one with the Force. Obiwan says the Force can and does control a Jedi’s actions (though it also will obey a Jedi’s commands).

Stover’s excellent “Shatterpoint” novel shows that the more Mace is able to give up his own wishes and goals and submit himself to the Force the more amazing and bad @$$ he gets (both on a small tactical scale and on a grand strategic one). This seems to fit a lot of what we see in the movies IMHO.

The EU had Jedi debating whether the Force truly has an awareness or if it simply an unthinking aspect of life in the universe. Corellian Jedi seem to lean towards the latter interpretation. Qui-Gon seemed to lean towards the former.

So what is the will of the Force? Or if it lacks awareness and is merely and energy field, then in what ‘direction’ does this Force/Energy Field push?

I’m thinking Yoda’s line about life making it grow is the key. The EU had a beautiful essay about the force gaining power and eventually a form of awareness as the life throughout the galaxy evolved and gained intelligence. If the spirits of all of the deceased really do become part of the Force then it stands to reason that they should have some affect on its nature.

I’m thinking that the Force WANTS to grown in power and complexity. To this end it will guide those who can hear it on a path that increases life and life’s complexity. To miss-use some pop lingo, the Force is ‘pro-life.’ But there’s an important caveat – Life only joins with the Force at the moment of death.

The LAST line of the EU’s Jedi Code is “There is no Death, there is the Force.” So life does make the Force grow – but only by its death. However the Force doesn’t want every living thing killed for at least 3 reasons.
A. Everything dies, so what’s the hurry? In the end the Force will triumph.
B. More complex (i.e. educated and self-aware) beings might lead to more powerful/aware Force. So longer lived beings might be preferred.
C. If EVERYTHING was killed there would be no next generation and the Force would stagnate.
For all these reasons it’s in the Force’s best interest for life to propagate as much as possible.

Now this ‘Will of the Force’ could be a conscious choice of the Force. It could be a simple instinct (like a dog’s instinct to eat when hungry), it could be completely without conscious thought (like a plant turning towards the sun), it might even be a simple ‘force’ of nature (like water running down hill or evolution) - Lots of room for Jedi scientists and philosophers to debate (as seen in the EU and the Episode IV novelization).

So where do the Jedi come in? Well if the Force likes sapient people (over say trees) then its going to want to maximize the number of sapient lives out there (so that when they die they will help the Force to grow). Civilization is the best way of supporting vast numbers of sapient so – in an indirect sense – vast civilizations is what the Force wants.

After spending a bunch of time getting away from the needs and wants and attachments of normal life the early Jedi discovered that the Force ‘wanted’ them to take an active part in society. Though their ability to communicate with the Force was dependent on remaining outside of the world they nevertheless found that defending and nurturing civilization was their mandate. The Jedi interpreted this as a requirement to be the servants of life and civilization - the guardians of peace and justice.

The Sith, on the other hand, acquire their knowledge of the Force through and acts of raw unmitigated ego. One can only be enraged or filled with hate if they somehow believe that their path/idea/intellect/opinion/etc is superior in someway to what is happening. Thus the more their ego grows the more the can access the Force. The more they access the Force the more powerful they become. With such power and such ego they make the obvious leap that they are superior to all non-force users (and probably most force users as well). But the will of the force is to maximize the potential life and civilization that it might grow. The Sith therefore conclude that they have divine power and divine knowledge – it’s only logical that they should take command of civilization and govern it in a way that will maximize life. Anyone who stands in their way stands in the way of the Will of the Force and must be killed. The fact that killing makes the Force stronger only reinforces their POV.

Why do the Sith see themselves as superior to the Jedi? Well the Dark Side offers much quicker and easier access to the Force. It requires no restrictions or self-denial. No deeper knowledge is required to access the power. So, in comparison, the Jedi just look foolish; people who toil and sacrifice for something that’s being given away. The fact that the Jedi go to such extreme lengths not to kill (and thus deny the Force the chance to grow) is also seen as weak willed and even hypocritical. The Sith also seen their top-down approach to propagating life as being infinitely more efficient then acting as the servants of all and trying persuade inferiors to do the ‘right thing.’

Why don’t the Jedi and Sith work together if their after the same thing?
To be honest if there wasn’t all the bad blood between then the Sith might be perfectly willing to let wishy-washy Jedi serve their Empire. After all most of the things that Jedi do stabilize a civilization. However the millennium of conflict between the two cultures has lead to a need for vengeance that requires the extermination the Jedi.

Of course the Jedi consider the Sith’s abuse of the Force and the abuse of non-force users as a crime and view the Sith as criminals who are effectively immune to any prosecution save that of the Jedi. The Sith philosophy of conquest, rule by fear, and domination is so abhorrent that the Jedi Order feels it must stand against the Sith at every opportunity. The fact that few other organizations have the power to stand up to the Sith reinforces the Jedi’s hard-line approach/attitude.

- JT Swift

For Everything about the TARDIS check out
http://www.whoniverse.net/tardis/

For all things Gallifreyan check out
http://meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html

[cheshire]

That's quite a lot to tackle all in one post. I'll focus on one thing and then move on from there. The debate as to whether the Force grows from the life of a being or its death is one that I've heard discussed before. Fortunately, the movies keep things ambiguous enough to let people be fairly safe on either side.

That said, however, I'm kind of in the idea that living beings contribute to the Force before the time of their death. Obi-Wan says that it extends from all living things, rather than the death of all living things, and Yoda says that life creates it. However, I think it's clear that a being can become one with the Force in death. The question is, does becoming one with the Force function as an alternative to an otherwise normal death, or is that the norm? Further, does that becoming one with the Force contribute to the Force, or does the Force contribute to you?
_________________
__________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[JT Swift]

Oh there’s certainly lots of room for interpretation. I’m just trying to see if I can find a theory that makes is all fit together.

[Grimace]

I, too, feel that the Force grows from life while it like is ...well... alive. Not when it dies.

I also don't feel that everyone dying simply adds to the Force. Would those not sensative to the ways of the Force contribute to the "Will" of the Force if they don't even know anything about the Force? I highly doubt it. Their life helps it grow. Their death will cause it to shrink.

Those that are more attuned to the Force may be absorbed by the Force when they die, but it is more their memories than any sort of power gain by the Force. If anything, the death of someone more attuned to the Force would be just like the death of someone that cannot ever feel the Force...less life means a slightly weaker Force.

So by my interpretation of it, death does not cause the Force to grow in power at all. It causes it to reduce in power. Only life can cause the Force to exist and grow.

As some aspect of support for this, I would use Exar Kun as an example. In his attempt to seperate his spirit from his body in a bid to become super powerful, he was blocked from doing. In the conflagration that consumed all life on Yavin 4 yet left Exar Kun alone and trapped in the temple, he was too weak in the Force to free himself or summon help. If death makes the Force stronger, all of the death from all of the things dying in the massive firestorm that ravaged Yavin 4, Exar Kun would have had ample power to do things with using the Force. As it was, he was powerless, depleted, trapped and eventually dead.

[JT Swift]

[Whill]

Great topic! The Pit can get philosophical. Here's my $0.02...

It is no secret that "The Force" is short for "life-force", or as Qui-Gon sometimes called it, "The Living Force".

[JT Swift]

Howdy!

Sorry to take so long to reply! Life’s been busy!

[Grimace]

[JT Swift]

Sorry to take so long to reply to this. Life got busy and I wanted to make sure my answer was well thought out.

[Esoomian]

It's not exactly a cannon argument but I did notice this while I was looking something else up on Wookieepedia

[JT Swift]

Sorry to take so long to reply to this….

Regarding Wounds to the Force: It seems like anytime someone dies a violent death then a Force in that area is tainted with those negative emotions. It would appear that as they transfer into Force energy the aggressive or fearful feelings the victim was feeling shaped and distorts that Force energy.

Having strong enough negative emotional energy at the moment of death [through quantity of deaths or quality of death] is probably what created these Force Wounds. The Force in these areas could be toxic enough that it actually causes some cellular death in any being that passes through them. Sickening them as, cell by cell, their life energy is converted to into the Dark Side of the Force.

Regarding the idea that Life ONLY creates the Force upon death I think I was wrong/right. Midi-Chlorians are the intermediary between the Force and living things. I’m now thinking that when a cell dies the Midi-Chorians convert that cells life energy into the Force.

So when a living being dies all its cells die and all of its energy is transformed into the Force [as Yoda said].

But all multi-cellular life-forms have cells dying throughout their body all the time. Lots of cells die in a human body every minute. So just by ‘living’ a person generates new Force. Life does create the Force and makes it grow [again as Yoda said].

Which means everyone who complained about my “only death creates new Force” statement were right. A living being has parts of him that are dying all the time. And thus living beings are always creating new Force energy.

Thanks for all the reviews everyone. You complaints kept me looking for a better answer. In this case the answer was pretty obvious – but it took me a few months to see what was staring me in the face.

Any further comments and/or observations are as always welcome!
_________________
- J.T. Swift

For Everything about the TARDIS check out
http://www.whoniverse.net/tardis/

For all things Gallifreyan check out
http://meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html

[Bobmalooga]

'The will of the Force' is just an expression used in the movies and books, much in the same way the expression 'the will of God' is used when talking about happens that go on in day to day life.

Now if you really want to get into whether or not the Force is aware, I'd say no, but then again that can be interpreted many different ways. Check out Wookiepedia on the matter, they talk about this very topic in the write up on the Force.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Force

Keith
_________________
No matter where you go, there you are...

[Bren]

If death increases the force, then when all life was suddenly snuffed out on Alderan by the Death Star the Force had a sudden upsurge in power. So Obi-Wan is not shaken and upset at the loss of life, he is actually strengthened and renewed by the rapid increase in the power of the Force? And this is beneficial to the Force in the short term?

He didn't look happy, strengthened, or renewed to me. How does that fit with your theory?

You appear wedded to your death strengthens the force idea, so I suspect you will discount contrary points of view, but I guess one bonus to your death strenghtens the Force is that the Sith would have a reason to be in favor of intensive industrial agriculture, rather than a low intensity agriculture since it ups the death quotient per unit of land.

[JT Swift]

The idea that some Jedi see the Will of the Force can be ambiguous isn’t contradicted by my theory.

If the Force is just a river that flows down a hill then which direction does it tend to flow and can we predict it? I postulate that it’s drawn in a direction that will maximize life. Given the Force can move forward and backward through time what seems like planning to us might very well being unthinking cause and effect.

Or maybe the Force has no more will then a plant does. It turns towards the light, it grows and reproduces. But it doesn’t think or react with any form of sentience or sapience. In this case the Force instinctually tries to help life grow because that helps it grow.

Or maybe [Bobmalooga hints] the Force could be like a god with some sort of sapient consciousness that can conceive children to defeat Force stealing Sith Lords. And it chooses to propagate and maximize life as a deliberate goal.

So, no, my theory doesn’t really try to pin down how smart the Force is. And, if anything it aims for the low end of the IQ chart.

The wookiepedia article is great for listing what we know about the Force. But it doesn’t really try to explain any of the data, it just collates it.

With regard to Alderaan’s destruction…

As I said in my previous post, people who die violently with negative emotions leave a dark side taint on the Force they transform into. This would not be the sort of thing Kenobi would like or enjoy.

It’s possible that Vader was invigorated and strengthened by Alderaan’s destruction [IIRC West End’s rules would have awarded him a Dark Side point AND a Force point for his part in Alderaan’s destruction].

Alternately numerous sources state that these dark side stains are fixed to gravitational fields [i.e. they stay in the same spot on a planet or in an orbit where they happened]. So Vader or Kenobi would have had to fly through the area of space where all those people died in order to tap into the power. [And again this would be tainted with fear and anger – not something Kenobi would ever use].

I’m not married to this theory. But I am dating it. And before things get too much more serious I’d like to get an opinion from everyone else who knows her family.

And yes, Yoda’s statement about life transforming into the Force at death can explain why the Sith are so obsessed with massive consumer/production based civilizations and government. Making the trains run on time leads [in the end] to more babies.

Did anyone have any more info on the idea [suggested by Whill] that the creating of new life TAKES Force energy? Is the Force diminished when new life is created? Is this Fannon? Or was it mentioned in some comic or novel and I just missed it?
_________________
- J.T. Swift

For Everything about the TARDIS check out
http://www.whoniverse.net/tardis/

For all things Gallifreyan check out
http://meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html

[Barrataria]