Light Side vs. Dark Side

     Talking about balancing things in my last post got me thinking about Star Wars.  To be fair though, almost anything can make me think about Star Wars.

     Mainly I got to thinking about the Force.  So the force, as explained by Yoda, is an energy field that is created by all things and bind the galaxy together.  Gravity?  Sounds like gravity to me.  If it's not gravity then it's a separate force that is unique to their galaxy.  Fair.

     So they have this force and people that can tap into this great energy field to do amazing things.  Somehow there are light and dark sides of this energy.  Unless this is a living energy force then it can't really have a good and bad side.  It could exist with both positive and negative charges however.  The two charges attracting to each other like some cosmic glue that 'binds everything together' or whatever Yoda said. 

     So we have this one field that has both positive and negative charges that can accessed by mortal beings that are sensitive enough to feel and manipulate it.  The problem is that this energy is converted to real energy on the physical plane of existence by these 'force users'.  Each side, light and dark, is tapping into their favorite polarity of the Force to make things happen.  This drains their portion of the field though...weakening them in the process.  Not very smart if you ask me.  

     If all these boy-scout do-gooder light side Jedi go around only tapping the light side of the force, they will be consuming the positively charged portion of the Force and create a terrible imbalance.  The Force as a whole will be in turmoil.  If the force gives them such wisdom and clairvoyance you'd think they'd figure this out.  The smart road would be to learn to balance the use of both light and dark so as not to disrupt the integrity of the Force they repeatedly use over and over to save their lives.  

    Not that the dark side is any better.  The Emperor runs around creating high energy lightning out of his fingers all the time which cannot be good for the negatively charged part of the Force.  Again, turmoil in the field and his preferred side is now weakened.  It the only real attack he's got left after getting soft sitting in comfy chairs being the emperor.  Bad move, Palpatine.

    In the end, it's Luke Skywalker who turns out to the smartest Jedi in history.  Crazy.  He doesn't get much in the way of training which is actually a good thing.  He's so undertrained that he just uses whatever side of the Force will work for him when he's in a pickle.  It's just the Force to him.  One big giant energy field of power.  (I'm excluding post movie stuff where he went all dark side in the comics.  Sorry.)  

   This is perfect because he uses all the power afforded to him and keeps things in balance more.  He uses the light side when defending himself and hiding from Vader during the epic finale of Return of the Jedi.  Then he turns and taps that dark side awesomeness to beat Vader down viciously.  He uses his emotions!  He get's angry, he doesn't want his sister getting hurt, which is fair.  Why can't he get angry at someone messing with his family?  I'll allow it.  The dark side doesn't win him in the end though because he has something of a grip on reality.  He uses the force as he sees fit so there's no build up of one charge or another in him to sway him.  He has balance.  

   To summarize, Jedi are silly.  There, I said it.