By: Dominic Jones
It's hard to imagine Star Wars without The Force. And it's even harder not to talk about The Force Awakens without talking about The Force. /Film's Peter Sciretta asked JJ Abrams about his take on The Force and midi-chlorians. Read his response below,
"I will just say this: I would never presume to question anything George Lucas says is canon in Star Wars. And our job was not to negate or undo. A lot of people who are critics of our Star Trek, and I respect all of them, said we destroyed what they loved and negated everything. And we worked hard to clarify that we are not saying that our Star Trek over-rides a thing of the original Star Trek — it was a parallel timeline. I never wanted to negate canon that fans held so dear. And because I love Star Wars and have for too many years… … And having said all that and meaning it — I don’t want to presume over-write or change what George says the rules are.
I’m not someone who quite understands the science of the Force. To me Star Wars was never about science fiction — it was a spiritual story. And it was more of a fairytale in that regard. For me when I heard Obi-Wan say that the Force surrounds us and binds us all together, there was no judgement about who you were. This was something that we could all access. Being strong with the force didn’t mean something scientific, it meant something spiritual. It meant someone who could believe, someone who could reach down to the depths of your feelings and follow this primal energy that was flowing through all of us. I mean, thats what was said in that first film!
And there I am sitting in the theater at almost 11 years old and that was a powerful notion. And I think this is what your point was, we would like to believe that when shit gets serious, that you could harness that Force I was told surrounds not just some of us but every living thing. And so, I really feel like the assumption that any character needs to have inherited a certain number of midi-chlorians or needs to be part of a bloodline, it’s not that I don’t believe that as part of the canon, I’m just saying that at 11 years old, that wasn’t where my heart was. And so I respect and adhere to the canon but I also say that the Force has always seemed to me to be more inclusive and stronger than that."
I’m not someone who quite understands the science of the Force. To me Star Wars was never about science fiction — it was a spiritual story. And it was more of a fairytale in that regard. For me when I heard Obi-Wan say that the Force surrounds us and binds us all together, there was no judgement about who you were. This was something that we could all access. Being strong with the force didn’t mean something scientific, it meant something spiritual. It meant someone who could believe, someone who could reach down to the depths of your feelings and follow this primal energy that was flowing through all of us. I mean, thats what was said in that first film!
And there I am sitting in the theater at almost 11 years old and that was a powerful notion. And I think this is what your point was, we would like to believe that when shit gets serious, that you could harness that Force I was told surrounds not just some of us but every living thing. And so, I really feel like the assumption that any character needs to have inherited a certain number of midi-chlorians or needs to be part of a bloodline, it’s not that I don’t believe that as part of the canon, I’m just saying that at 11 years old, that wasn’t where my heart was. And so I respect and adhere to the canon but I also say that the Force has always seemed to me to be more inclusive and stronger than that."
I like what JJ said about never wanting to override anything George did in the previous films. To me it's very important for the creatives behind the new films to respect what Lucas did with Star Wars, even if it's not their favorite thing. That's the great thing about Star Wars, there's so much in this galaxy Lucas created that everyone has a different interpretation of certain aspect and the film's can reflect that. I like how JJ says he is approaching the Force in the new film, that he's focusing on more of the spiritual aspects of it, rather than the scientific aspects. That doesn't mean the scientific aspects aren't there, it just means that's not the focus of the new trilogy.
(And just so we're clear, no, midi-chlorians are not The Force).
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RIP Midi-Chlorians 1999-2015
ReplyDeleteHad he made a statement like this 6 months or a year ago, I think a lot of (entire) saga fans might have felt a little less weary about JJ
ReplyDeleteNobody is weary of JJ
ReplyDeleteYou will be... You will be
DeleteOk, so if u read darth plaugius, it totally turned me into a medichlorian fan. They do not cause the force. They are not the carriers of force power. Plageous describes them as a parasite like creature. A small microorganism that is attracted to force sensitive people. So the stronger in the force you are, the more medichlorians will choose to live in you. The book revived the spitual sense of the original trilogy, and fixed the prequels. Now it's my favorite book in legacy/eu
ReplyDeleteBest star wars book ever
DeleteI always thought of the midichlorians in the same way, even before I read Plagueis. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a fan;I just accepted them as evidence of the strength of the Force within an individual.
DeleteI always thought of the midichlorians in the same way, even before I read Plagueis. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a fan;I just accepted them as evidence of the strength of the Force within an individual.
DeleteAs far as EU goes, the midi-chlorian had some kind of connection with the Force, they may have not been the Force itself, but without them, there would never be Force sensitive creatures. Try seeing them as link to the Force energy, the more link a persone has, the stronger he will be in the Force.
DeleteWell said, VenkuuJSM! I was personally never bothered by Midichlorians, since I just assumed different Jedi approached the Force in different ways, and, as the article points out, Midis are NOT the Force! We've always known that The Force, a spiritual entity, can commune with the PHYSICAL (a.k.a. biological) universe of Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteI also associated the Jedi of the prequel era and their concentration on the science of it all is part of what aided in their downfall. They took their focus off of the spiritual. Not sure if that's what Lucas intended, but it fits and makes sense!
Here is the thing. Acording to the last three episodes of clone wars. Canon and made by Lucas, the midichlorians are whats in the middle between the cosmic force and the living force. They are a comduit between the phisical and metaphisical realms. And they are biological yet spiritual at once. They are not the force, they are just what allows you to feel it's there.
ReplyDeleteLoved Darth Plagius... and I really think that is who Snoke will end up being. It makes to much sense for him not to be Plaguis. I mean, what or who could be badder than the baddest guy in Star Wars other than the guy who trained him to be so... I think it could be very easily explained that DP mastered some sort of conscience transfer through the dark side and that he lived through Palpatines "murder". Using Plaguis would tie the prequels into the sequels.
ReplyDeleteYou think this Snoke, whoever that is, will end up being Darth Plagueis?
DeletePalpatine told Anakin Skywalker of how Plagueis was killed by his apprentice in Episode III.
Remember?
But this story was related by a Sith Lord, in the service of a lie, and was about another scheming, lying Sith lord studying the art of cheating death.
DeleteRemember that?
But this story was related by a Sith Lord, in the service of a lie, and was about another scheming, lying Sith lord studying the art of cheating death.
DeleteRemember that?
But we're following the Skywalkers and the basis of why THAT family line is such a phenomenon is why they're the center of this saga AND why The Saga is so central to the Star Wars universe.
ReplyDeleteThere's enough midichlorians to go around that a lot can be a jedi. But having been conceived by the Force, Anakin and his line after have the most and makes the Star Wars Saga the center of that universe.
exactly what Venkuu said
ReplyDeletei'm not a big fan of medichlorians... but not because i misunderstand them. I just thought they were an unnecessary (and thus trivial) detail to be tossed into TPM when we hadn't seen new star wars in a decade and a half and then WHAM MEDICHLORIANS. it felt awkward and bulky. it made the movie a little more dense than it needed to be (though to be fair, there were a lot of other factors behind that)
we were never truly misled into thinking medichlorians caused the force or carried it. that misconception was entirely on the fans that didn't grasp what they were.
But we're following the Skywalkers and the basis of why THAT family line is such a phenomenon is why they're the center of this saga AND why The Saga is so central to the Star Wars universe.
ReplyDeleteThere's enough midichlorians to go around that a lot can be a jedi. But having been conceived by the Force, Anakin and his line after have the most and makes the Star Wars Saga the center of that universe.
So midi-chlorians are sort of like space crabs.
ReplyDeletecan you imagine how awful it would be to have anakin's space crabs, then? YOWSERS in my TROUSERS.
ReplyDeleteThe midichlorians bit was necessary for anakin's completion as a human being. He was fathered by the force itself. But i think we could just leave the midis with the prequels. Back then the jedi council was a lot different and they were more organized. In the OT, no jedi council exists and Obi-Wan, even in the prequels, wasn't much of a midichlorian fan. Midichlorians aren't the force, they are microscopic beings used to measure force sensitivity. This was also used in the clone wars, where they have this cube-ish device to detect force sensitives all over the galaxy. It's just a unit of measurement. Completely irrelevant to the OT.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I love JJ.
ReplyDeleteThe Force is mystical and self-generating. M-chlorians are bugs.
ReplyDeletePlagius was killed by sidious, sidious is palpatine there for palpatine was plagius's apprentice who killed him in his sleep. Stop this plaguis is snoke thing...
ReplyDeleteI'm not vested in this in either way, but if Plagius figured out the secret he may not have told Palpatine he did--if the secret were reincarnation this could easily fit into the Snoke character and explain why he's so super secret. If Palpatine murdered Plaguis in his sleep that may have been his plan all along. He could remain the sith Lord rather then have is apprentice murder him and reveal himself at such a time as he saw fit--after the death of Palpatine. This is how writing works lol. You can make any plotline work if you want too. No one will know until the leaks start or the film debuts. Hell, we may not know until episode 8 or 9.
DeleteI just became a JJ fan!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
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There are a lot of hints out there that suggest that Snoke is definitely not Plagueis: for starters, they said he wasn't (after making a joke about Darth Vegas) at Celebration; in interviews, Andy Serkis has stated that Snoke is a new character; he's also said that the reason he's done via mo-cap instead of via "practical effects" is that he's too massive and has a facial bone structure that would be too hard to achieve otherwise, so, unless they decided to change Plagueis's species since it's not stated anywhere in canon that he's a Muun (I don't think), I'd say those characteristics certainly don't describe a Muun. I was starting to get on the Snoke is Plagueis bandwagon myself a while ago, but I'm off now and looking forward to learning more about this new evil in the galaxy.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for midi-chlorians, at this point I basically just think of them as a poorly thought out plot device...a way to quantify how powerful Anakin was before he was able to display his power...a pointless piece of canon that has no real bearing on anything...
J.J. Abrams does respect the history of Star Wars read the comments in the article fans. I swear some of the fans keep on saying Oh TFA is a Fan Service Film it's a Fan Service Film. No it is not. The Force Awakens will honor The Past of Star Wars and Embrace the future of Star Wars. TFA is far from a Fan Service Film so please enough of those comments saying that TFA is just a Fan Service Film because it is not. Far from it. MTFBWY
ReplyDeleteThis is a very diplomatic way of saying the whole midi-whatever thing was stupid and he's disregarding it in its entirety. His allusion to Star Trek alterations as a "parallel timeline" is a decent explanation for the same thing - he's altering things to comport with HIS vision. Can't do that with Star Wars, because it's not reformulation with the same characters, it's a direct continuity (albeit a disjointed one).
ReplyDeleteI believe that the midi-chlorians were introduced to prove how far the Jedi had strayed from the spirit of the light side of the force - hence why when it is just obi-wan and yoda instructing luke they chose to go back to the roots of the force and there's no more mention of midi-chlorians. I think George Lucas maybe didn't execute this clearly but it makes sense from a certain point of view. Another reason he Jedi fell perhaps.
ReplyDeleteMedichlorians, jar jar, jake loyd, bad looking yoda puppet, gungan war, space blockades, horribly bad acted love dialog, rushing annie's turn to the dark side, and shoe horning in Jabba, boba fett, and the entire time line if the prequels really were just a fucking train wreck. Other than Darth Maul, and the myth of Darth Plagus I would just like to move on.
ReplyDelete