This New 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' Theory Explains the Real Intentions of the Jedi Order
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we finally see Luke Skywalker 40 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and that bright-eyed young hero has become a cynical old man, one who no longer agrees with the teachings of his ancient order of Force users. The Jedi were wrong, they must be destroyed, he tells Rey as she arrives to seek his help.
And he's not wrong. The Jedi failed. They couldn't stop Palpatine from converting Anakin and the slaughter of their entire order. Even Luke, the hope for the salvation of the Jedi, didn't defeat evil for good and eradicate the Sith or bring balance to the Force.
Above all, the Jedi followed their code, which forced them to live strict lives of sacrifice and non-attachment. As the Star Wars Wiki describes this code:
Amongst other dictates, the Jedi Code forbade Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters from taking on more than one Padawan at a given time; and forbade Jedi from forming attachments, such as marriage, and other specific, individual bonds, such as family and romantic love. Few understood that this practice of non-attachment did not mean the Jedi were strangers to compassion when, in fact, they believed that all lives were precious. The code also forbade the Jedi from killing unarmed opponents as well as seeking revenge.
This, of course, famously didn't work when it came to Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side to save his wife and child from their death. But, one new Star Wars theory suggests that there was a more specific, and bigger picture reason, for the Jedi to force its order to live by this code. As one Reddit user writes:
We see with the Skywalker family that the ability to use the force can be passed on to children, even when only one parent (Anakin, Leia) is a force-sensitive. Therefore, without the Jedi interfering with the reproduction of force-sensitives, the population would be expected to grow exponentially as they marry and have force-sensitive children, plus the addition of those born to non-sensitive parents. Over time, the entire population of the galaxy would become force-sensitive. Eventually, a species would reach a point where its population would choose to ascend, making room for the next wave of sophonts. The primary purpose Jedi Order is to prevent this outcome.
This user is, of course, referring to how Anakin and Padme had Force-sensitive children and Leia and Han did as well—each born from parents with only one clear Force user. Now, if the Jedi were to continuously reproduce, it's possible that the galaxy would eventually become overwhelmed with Force-sensitive people, and the Jedi Order was preventing this from getting out of hand. Or, more specifically, the Jedi Order was attempting to ensure that its powers and control of the Force was a rare and unique power over non-Force users.
It's an interesting reading of the Jedi Order, one that once again shows how their practices failed. As we've seen in the new trilogy, Force-sensitive people still are being born, somewhat miraculously, throughout the galaxy. And, if you think about it, this is possibly what concerned them the most about the appearance of Anakin Skywalker—a powerful Force user who arrived completely unexplained and outside their control.
But this also hits at the weird obsession with genetics in this Skywalker saga. It's been a clear through-line from the beginning that one specific family and bloodline has been the major factor in all galactic happenings. And the prequel series introduced the actual scientific measuring of whatever the fuck Midi-chlorians were inside a Force user's cells.
The same could be said for the Sith, too, and their own obsession with lineage and bloodlines. One user introduced in the comments section how this could apply, somewhat ridiculously, to The Rise of Skywalker:
So if Rey and an evil Rey were both cloned from Luke’s cut off hand they could be an attempt to control and manipulate force sensitive bloodlines. Possibly to make a perfect vessel for the Emperor to inhabit or at least make super soldiers. Kind of a clone army 2.0.
Clones from Luke's severed hand aside, most prominent Star Wars theories suggest that Palpatine was somehow experimenting with powerful Force bloodlines, which might have even explained the immaculate conception and birth of Anakin. Of course, as we've seen in history, this type of population control is pretty damn dark. If Luke understood the implications of the Jedi attempting control the galaxy's population of Force users, that would explain why he wanted their order to end. Perhaps, in the end, bringing balance to the Force means sentient beings need to stop fucking with the natural order of things and let the Force just peacefully exist on its own.
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