Star Wars is ubiquitous.

“May the force be with you.” Is a phrase known across the globe. Culturally relevant to a slightly lesser extent, but on a similar scale, is the concept of the dichotomy between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. As the central magical conflict in the Star Wars franchise, it is the quintessential good vs. evil struggle that casts the setting solidly in a fantasy mold.

However, there is depth there that is generally unexplored in regard to the Jedi vs. Sith: I like to think that the Star Wars force conflict has been subject to overt and egregious Jedi propaganda manipulation. 

Light vs. Dark

Star Wars is very straightforward. The Jedi are fighting the Sith for political control over the galaxy. The Jedi are Good, and the Sith are Evil. Simple.

Also completely flawed.

The story smacks of overt political propaganda, bringing a new flavor to the words “A Long Time Ago”. Granted, the Empire probably was deeply flawed, and absolutely on the incorrect side of the equation ethically due to their insistence on building guns that destroy planets, but I would argue that their ‘evilness’ likely had little to do with their connection to the ‘Dark’ side of the Force. It is more plausible to suggest that it was evil human nature that created those monstrosities of technology, indeed it has more real-world connotation to what happened during WWII and the Cold War.

So why do I want to detach the Force from this discussion of ethics?

As a worldbuilder, the idea that the magic that powers a universe has innate good and evil ‘sides’ is lazy and uninteresting. It doesn’t allow for characters to effectively make their own decisions, and it doesn’t allow for the human element to shine. I propose a different approach to Jedi vs. Sith.

Logical vs. Emotional Power.

The Jedi embody a deeply cold and logical approach to Force use. They decry emotional attachment and emphasize clarity and control as the paramount driver of power within their practice.

The Sith, on the other hand, pursue an intimately emotional approach to their use of their powers. They encourage feeling as strongly as one can in order to power one’s abilities.

There is nothing inherently good or evil about either approach.

The Jedi get to paint their side of the struggle as right and just because they were the victors. That is it.

It is eminently ridiculous to assume that ‘Dark’ Force power comes only from hatred and fear. Those are strong emotions, but nowhere near the strongest. Imagine if the Sith were an extremely volatile faction of magic-users, comprised of constantly warring factions driven by incredibly disparate passions, their love, passion, honor, and pride, as well as their hate, anger, and fear.

The Jedi might react to this chaos predictably, trying to control it, and drawing little separation between the different types of emotional Force use, seeing it all as messy and dangerous. We see this clearly in the movies, though only from the guise of the ‘Dark’ side of the Force leading inevitably to hate and anger. Conflict happens, and since this is magic we are talking about, there is no effective way for either side to really ‘win’, because especially with the Sith, new powerful and emotional people are born every second.

Bringing Balance

Unless, of course, you pursue a total annihilation strategy. At the beginning of the prequels, we see the Jedi sitting on their thrones, in total control over the galaxy, and with agents ferreting out Force-sensitive children on every planet they can reach. The movies cast this as a benevolent approach, but looking at it though the lens of a massive magical conflict, it becomes the final ongoing element of a magicidal (magical genocide?) approach to control that the Jedi would have taken in order to ‘protect’ the galaxy from the dangers of the emotional side of the force.

A couple of the Jedi talk about bringing balance to the force. I think that they understand to some degree the atrocity that they have committed, and feel the growing wave of anti-Jedi power that is building in the force in order to reanimate the emotional side of its power.

This is what happens. All the Jedi are destroyed, save for two. Anakin does indeed bring balance to the Force. Obi Wan and Yoda live, as do he and Palpatine. Perfect balance.

The Force resets itself. I see this as the most interesting point in the setting, as there are zero over-arching institutions for both types of Force user. It would be a vastly more interesting world if it were approached realistically, with Jedi and Sith both having good and evil masters.

Perhaps the central conflict of this new setting could be an alliance that is forged between the Jedi who see heavy authoritarian control as the only way to ‘protect’ the galaxy, and the Sith who are driven by fear and hate. The benevolent (Buddhist?) Jedi would then have to approach their bitter rivals, the Sith who love, in order to combat a growing Fascism in the halls of power.

That would be neat.

It would also, sadly, be waaaaaaay too much to hope for. Star Wars has been cast as a ‘popcorn franchise’, meaning simply that it is just there to be fun to watch and eat popcorn to. This is the curse of someone who really sees the potential of SciFi, we have to sit there while the deep philosophical connotations of human culture and technology are wallpapered over with lasers and neato light swords (which are cool, don’t get me wrong, just meaningless). We get compelling stories like Interstellar that ask questions about humanity and our vulnerability far too infrequently to affect the perception of SciFi generally.

So we will probably just have to continue dredging depth manually from these beloved franchises, until content creation for them is sufficiently decentralized, or people start demanding a more thoughtful approach to them. Not sure which is more realistic to hope for… Perhaps neither.