17 years ago, when working on the scripts forThe Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas explained his views on the dark side - but these comments raise a lot more questions than answers after the prequel trilogy. We always like to pretend that George Lucas hadStar Warsall figured out from the start, but the reality is very different. He worked with scriptwriter Leigh Brackett, for example, onThe Empire Strikes Back- and the first draft had no mention of the famous “I am your father” scene.
Taking to Twitter,Star WarshistorianPaul Duncanhas shared some of the earliest notes Lucas shared with Brackett - dating all the way back to November 1977. In these notes, Lucas explains some of the core ideas he wants to develop, and he even presents his own thoughts on the dark side. As fascinating as they are, they raise a lot of unanswered questions, especially in light of the prequels.
George Lucas' ESB Notes Explain The Origin Of The Force & The Dark Side
“The act of living generates a force field, generates energy”
Lucas has always openly acknowledged he was influenced by the mystic Carlos Castaneda when he developed the Force. But here, in the story notes, he goes a step further:
“Though it’s never completely explained in the other film,the idea is that the act of living generates a force field, generates energy. That energy surrounds you. When you die that energy goes with all the other energy and there is a giant ball of energy in the universe that has a good side and a bad side to it. You are part of that force because you actually generate the power that makes that force live. When you live you actually have a piece of that power. When you die you become part of that major force,you never really die, you just continue as part of this force field which has its own mind- it is God, whatever.”
It’s hard not to chuckle at the matter-of-fact way Lucas refers to the will of the Force at the end - “it is God, whatever,” he says, in such a wonderfully dismissive manner. But notice that, even at this early stage, one idea is missing from Lucas' explanation of the Force: the origin of the dark side. Is the dark side a natural part of the Force, or is it a poison within it, a foreign aspect created by the choices of those who give in to their own selfishness and hatred? Perhaps, in a sense, it doesn’t matter; what matters is that the dark side is there in the first place. It exists.
George Lucas' Explanation Means The Dark Side Is Never Really Gone
Is it even possible for darkness to die?
Reading those words, you can see the foundation for the idea ofForce Ghosts. Upon death, most people are transformed into energy - absorbed into the Force, one with it if you like. Sith seek to preserve their consciousness after death, and have discovered how to use the dark side to allow them to do so - to a degree. But Qui-Gon Jinn discovered another trick, learning how to preserve his consciousness within the Force, and continue to interact with the physical world. He passed this teaching on, and the power has since been learned by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, Luke, and Leia.
But the evil that has been done - hatred, lust, selfishness, anger, pride, and the like - leaves a permanent stain upon the Force.
But there’s just one problem with this explanation: it means the dark side can never truly be gone. The evil that has been done - hatred, lust, selfishness, anger, pride, and the like - leaves a permanent stain upon the Force. That’s quite a chilling idea, because it means the evils done by Palpatine and the Empire have had a lasting impact. Palpatine deliberately created a system that encourages selfishness and corruption, and anyone who so much as survived during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign became subject to darkness.
How Can The Chosen One Possibly Bring Balance If This Is True?
Is it possible to restore balance at all?
This brings us to theChosen One prophecy, one apparently fulfilled in Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was born by the will of the Force to bring about ultimate balance in the Force, which Lucas seems to have taken to mean he was destined to destroy the Sith. But if Lucas' earlier notes are right, then it doesn’t matter whether the Sith are alive or dead; they have permanently tipped thebalance of the Force, introducing darkness into this energy field at a cosmic level.
This doesn’t mean it is impossible to restore balance, of course. It just means that it will take years of good deeds on a galactic scale to restore the balance. However wonderful Anakin Skywalker’s final act of redemptive love may have been, it can’t possibly be enough to counteract countless acts of genocide and the destruction of entire worlds. It simply doesn’t make any sense.
Is there a way to make this work? I’m not entirely sure; bluntly, it seems to me that Lucas' philosophy is a little contradictory here, and I think we’ll simply have to accept that the idea of balance sits uncomfortably with the rest ofStar Warslore. That isn’t necessarily a problem in itself; even the Jedi didn’t understand the Chosen One prophecy, after all, with Yoda suggesting it could have been misread all along. But it does mean things are even more enigmatic than I’d thought.
