How Star Wars Ends

Last updated on: October 2, 2017 at 6:02 am by James F. McGrath

How Star Wars Ends 2017-09-30T11:01:43-04:00 James F. McGrath

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Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies that simply peters out several centuries from now without resolution).

It will end in gray.

The evidence, he suggests, is to be found in the prophecy and the idea of the Force being balanced, and the indication we’ve already been given that Luke Skywalker is determined to be The Last Jedi. The implication is that the Jedi took the light side too far, always creating their Sith antithesis. The time has come to genuinely achieve balance.

I’ve long seen that as the underlying message of Star Wars, in true Taoist fashion, and so I’d be delighted if he is correct. It hasn’t always been clear that George Lucas understood his own mythology that way. But he isn’t running things now, and so we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the Expanded Universe and a variety of Star Wars fiction, one finds that the Gray Jedi make regular appearances.

Star Wars Fanon offers this quote from Leor Danal:

There must be both dark and light. I will do what I must to keep the balance, as the balance is what holds all life. There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish. There is passion, yet peace; serenity, yet emotion; chaos, yet order. I am a wielder of the flame; a champion of balance. I am a guardian of life. I am a Gray Jedi.

It also includes the Gray Jedi Code:

Flowing through all, there is balance
There is no peace without a passion to create
There is no passion without peace to guide
Knowledge stagnates without the strength to act
Power blinds without the serenity to see
There is freedom in life
There is purpose in death
The Force is all things and I am the Force

IO9’s “History of the Gray Force in Star Wars” includes the following:

It’s my opinion that, at least to some in the galaxy, the Jedi might seem to want balance, but are really just as bad as the Sith in terms of orthodoxy. Their emphasis on order and monasticism over logic could be one reason why Anakin fell. To quote Jolee Bindo from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, “Love doesn’t lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled… but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love… that’s what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you… not condemn you.”

Elsewhere in Star Wars news, IO9 asked what the “big reveal” in The Last Jedi might be. Another Patheos blogger talked about the formative influence of being a pre-teen Jedi wannabe. The BBC and P. Z. Myers both looked at the Jedi religion. John Morehead connected the next movie with religious disillusionment.

Robyn Walsh has shared her thoughts on Star Wars as an educator and academic. Here is an excerpt:

“Star Wars does tick many of the boxes we tend to cite if we are determining if something is a religion; for example: shared stories, practices, figureheads, hierarchy,” said Dr. Walsh. “Add to this the fact that there are people out there seriously claiming to be Jedi, and you could conceivably argue that Star Wars is a ‘new religious movement’ that is only a few decades old and still finding its feet.

“However, personally, I think that it falls short of being a religion. At this stage, the groups forming around the movement are not cohesive. It is also not clearly derivative of an already-established tradition, so the parameters for things like which stories and practices are ‘orthodox’ are not terribly clear.

“And,” she added, “it’s uniquely difficult to ‘start’ a religion when your founding father is a guy from Modesto, California.”

Neil Carter pointed out that quoting the Bible does not work like a Jedi mind trick. And IO9 had an article about the difficulties Wookipedia faces in trying to keep the new canon and other materials straight.

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