What's up Star Wars Fans?
My name is Prince, and I am an Urban Acolyte.
I want to talk about this idea of the Chosen One in Star Wars, and I will probably be covering
this in two videos, so make sure you have notifications enabled so you'll know when
I post the other video in this series-- and just a little bit of a heads up-- I'm working
on a series on Darth Vader for December, that will kind of be tied into these Chosen One
videos, so subscribe and ring that bell for notifications because you won't want to miss
the Vader series coming next month.
So back to this idea of the Chose One-- in The Phantom Menace, we first got introduced
to this prophecy of the Chosen One by Qui-Gon Jinn.
Qui-Gonn introduced this prophecy of a Chosen One who would be conceived purely by the midichlorians,
and then we learn from Mace Windu that this person is to bring balance to the Force.
Now at this point in time, we, as the audience, have to ask the question, "Well what does
it mean, to bring balance to the Force?"
Are the Jedi incapable of bringing balance to the Force?
Is it the Will of the Force to be in balance?
Like what does this mean?
Is the Force this thing like a scale that has to be balanced?
Is it something like the Dharma wheel or the idea of the Tao where it's this cyclical thing,
and the idea of balance is not some 50/50 split between the Light and the Dark, but
this kind of play that goes on where one leads to the other--Darkness rises, and Light to
meet it, as Supreme Leader Snoke would later say in "The Last Jedi."
So this is what we're literally seeing in "The Phantom Menace."
Darkness rises, and Light to meet it.
The Phantom Menace is Sheev Palpatine--it's his political ascent from a Senator from Naboo
to the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, but it's also the reemergence of the Sith
Order after waiting in the shadows plotting their revenge ever since the Great Scourge
of Malachor.
So you see--Palpatine's rise in political power, and as a Sith Lord, coincided with
the appearance of Anakin Skywalker, who the Jedi believed to be The Chosen One of this
prophecy.
The thing is--the way the Jedi interpretted the prophecy changed due to the Galactic events
of the time-- and this is how prophecies work in the real world.
People interpret these prophetic statements from the past based on what's happening in
their present reality.
The idea that the Chosen One was to bring balance to the Force was interpreted as destroying
the Sith.
So to go back to that original question--Well how does the Chosen One bring Balance to the
Force?
The Chosen One brings balance to the Force by destroying the Sith.
For the Jedi of the Prequel Era, it was the presence of the Sith that unbalanced the Force.
There was not some other interpretation of the Force like that the Force had a will,
or that maybe the Jedi's philosophy was flawed.
This is something that Qui-Gonn's philosophical view of the Force and galactic events introduced,
and Luke Skywalker's views on the Force reflect in "The Last Jedi"-- so I'm just saying, if
you didn't like Luke in the The Last Jedi--he's basically, picking up on the same path that
Qui-Gonn was on when he became "One with the Force."
Now in "The Book of the Sith," Plagueis the Wise actually gives us more information about
the Prophecy of the Chosen One.
Plagueis wrote that the Jedi were awaiting the coming of a savior, a prophesied Chosen
One who would destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force.
The Jedi told tales of a place called Mortis where three all-powerful beings could assume
strange shapes and exemplify the dark side, the light side, and the principle of balance.
The Jedi believed that this Chosen One would be a vessel of pure Force energy who would
prevent the gods and demons of Mortis from tearing the universe apart.
Now we actually saw ALL of this come to pass during the Mortis arc on The Clone Wars.
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka travelled to the world of Mortis.
Anakin proved that he had the ability to tame both the Son and the Daughter, proving that
he actually is the Chosen One of the Prophecy of Mortis.
The Chosen One was to bring balance to the Force by preventing the Son and the Daughter
from tearing the universe apart by taking the Father's place and representing the principle
of BALANCE.
Now see--in this arc, we actually got to see the shift in George Lucas's understanding
of the Force and the direction that Star Wars was moving.
So see, you guys need to hear this clearly--this wasn't a change introduced in "The Disney
version of Star Wars"--George Lucas introduced this new way of looking at the Force and the
galaxy in terms of selfish and selfless decisions and not purely "light and darkness."
Star Wars hasn't become grey--it's the idea that whether you represent the "good guys
or the bad guys," your choices still come from a place of making choices to serve your
own ends or to put the wants and needs of others ahead of your own desires--and the
whole idea of light and dark is that those choices that you make, can lead you down one
of those particular paths.
With Anakin--he made a very selfish decision on Mortis.
He chose not to fulfill his destiny as the Father saw it--by staying there on Mortis
to watch over the Son and the Daughter.
Anakin fulfilled the prophecy by killing the Father and the Son--this all after the Son's
inability to control the darkness within himself led to his Sister's death at his own hands.
This is something I want you all to remember--see, the Son had a natural affinity to the darkside.
When he gave himself completely over to the Darkness, he wasn't really in control anymore.
He made that choice, and by making that choice, he surrendered his own free will.
I'm saying all of this because I'm going to return to that point in a future video about
Kylo Ren, and why I DON'T SEE HIM having a redemption in Episode IX---so store that somewhere
because I plan to return to that idea.
Now getting back to the whole Chosen One idea and how Anakin fulfills the prophecy-- he
eventually had to kill the Son and the Father.
Recall the Father's last words to Anakin--he says that perhaps you will have the opportunity
to do this again, and a grander scale...and Anakin does.
He literally has to sacrifice the Father, meaning himself as Darth Vader, Luke's father,
in order to destroy the Darkness that has cast its shadow over the Galaxy--meaning his
Master, Darth Sidious.
So the Prophecy is fulfilled in Anakin Skywalker's actions.
He fulfills the Prophecy of Mortis, and he also fulfills the Jedi's prophecy of the Chosen
One by destroying the Sith and bringing balance to the Force.
Now many fans feel like the Prophecy was unfulfilled, that Anakin was not the Chosen One, because
what happened?
There was the emergence of the First Order; Snoke emerged from the shadows and wherever
he'd been all this time; and the eventual rise of Anakin's grandson, Ben Solo, as the
eventual Supreme Leader of the First Order.
There was the destruction of Luke's new Jedi Order and Ben's turn to the dark side.
It was everything that Anakin did when he fell to the dark side being repeated by his
grandson.
Here's the thing about prophecies and these ideas of some kind of prophesied Savior--
they are always vague.
I mean you can look at our real world religions that involve the emergence of a Messianic
figure.
They come and establish a new age.
Things change--but overtime, things begin to decline all over again.
Those traditions also involve some prophecy about the return of the messianic figure,
or that someone even greater will come to establish a new age of peace and tranquility
after a period of chaos.
Now I'm not saying that there are other prophecies about the emergence of a Chosen One or the
reincarnation of a Chosen One like you see in so many Star Wars Theory videos on YouTube.
I'm just saying that in the actual Star Wars Canon, you have these people who say "Well
maybe we got it wrong.
Maybe the prophecy was misunderstood."
Obi-Wan went from believing that Anakin was the Chosen One who would destroy the Sith
to wondering how Anakin could become one who would leave the galaxy in Darkness when he
left Anakin to burn in the volcanic ashes of Mustafar.
During his time in communion with Qui-Gon Jinn while he was exiled on Tatooine, Obi-Wan
came to believe that Luke was the Chosen One.
Even though Qui-Gon existed in a state where past and future all ran together, as we saw
in the World Between Worlds, he never told Obi-Wan any different.
Luke would later come to believe that his nephew, Ben Solo, would be the chosen one
to restore balance.
We as the audience, know that Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one.
Anakin fulfilled the prophecy.
I think that moving forward, this prophecy might be something that is a bit of a joke
for the audience--people will be awaiting the arrival of this Chosen One, and special
people may emerge, like Rey, who will make people in the story stop and think "Could
this person be the Messiah that we've been expecting?"
It will always be that question that the people in the story,and maybe even the audience will
have, that "well maybe we got it wrong, maybe THIS is the real chosen one."
I think that's an idea that could make Star Wars always stay fresh--the idea that anyone
can step up to become the Hero that performs these selfless acts of bravery to restore
hope, to restore balance and tranquility--but as for the Chosen One prophecy--that was clearly
Anakin Skywalker.
The idea that I would like to leave with all of you is that "The Chosen One" can be like
"the Buddha."
Think of it as a kind of title.
Buddha just means awakened one, but we can also be referring to one particular Buddha--the
person who set the whole wheel in motion.
There were many awakened, enlightened individuals before Siddartha, and there have been many
to come after him.
In the same vein, I would like to see many remarkable people step forward in the future
of Star Wars who will play their own part in restoring Balance to the Force.
I have more to say on this--and I'll pick it up in the next video on this topic that
will actually answer a question about the idea of "The Chosen One" being a person who
emerges in each generation in Star Wars--so check back for that video.
As for this one, I would like to hear your thoughts on what I had to say--so with regard
to Anakin being the Chosen One--even though George Lucas clearly said that Anakin IS the
Chosen One, do you feel that Anakin fulfilled the prophesy?
Do you believe that Anakin IS the Chosen One, and if you don't, I would like to know you
think that Anakin is not the Chosen One.
What, in your opinion, did he not accomplish?
If you disagree, I'm not going to bark at you.
I mean--my cousin DJ has been a Star Wars fan from the very beginning, and he asked
me to do a video on what Anakin did to deserve becoming a force ghost at the end of Return
of the JEdi--I actually plan to do that video as part of my Vader series in December...so
yeah... it's okay to disagree with George Lucas on this whole Anakin being the Chosen
One thing--but I'm tired of talking about this for now--so Please--let me know your
thoughts on this topic down in the comments below, and I'll be checking back to see what
you all have to say.
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Anyway, that's all I've got for this one.
Thanks for watching.
Y'all keep breathing, and May the Force of Others Be With You.
Always.