I’m not saying it is a God, you can still interpret the Force as just a non-sentient system of nature that seeks to maintain balance. Force-users are conduits of the Force, and Force-users who allow the Force to act through them will naturally have the Force on their side.
“seeks to maintain balance” and “allow the Force to act through them” is still ascribing some form of decision making thought process to what is supposed to just be an energy field that links everything together.
RogueLeader said:
I feel like you can only see the Force in two ways: either it is a conscious, dynamic entity that guides people or a unconscious, static power source that Force-users draw their abilities from. But it isn’t that black and white. The Force isn’t that simple. It can be an energy field, but also have a will of its own, but it doesn’t necessarily make it conscious or unconscious. Am I making any sense?
Are you talking generally or that I personally can only see it two ways? Because in that case, I actually only see it one way which is as described and demonstrated in the OT and anything that clashes with that or has no logical reason as to why it suddenly works differently is going to make me strongly balk at accepting it.
Are you making sense? No as I don’t understand how an energy field can have a will of it’s own. It simply exists and any “output” it may have is always generated from an “input” at the same place or elsewhere. It is literal cause and effect and without force sensitive people around to tap into it, you would never know it is there nor ever see anything affected by it. Anything perceived as a “will of the Force” would be solely from external influences not known to those witnessing such an event (such as Snoke connecting Rey and Kylo without their knowledge, with Kylo initially asking “why is the Force connecting us like this?”).
RogueLeader said:
I think it is a bit of a mistake to think we understand the rules of the Force or what it exactly is. I think being set in one’s interpretation of the Force is exactly how the Jedi of the prequels lost their way.
I don’t think that we fully understand the Force ourselves except obviously what we are shown and told within the movies. I also am open to it changing, but only in the sense that it builds upon and logically respects what we already know and has come before it in previous movies.
RogueLeader said:
EDIT:
Just to add on to what I’m trying to say, check out this interview George Lucas did back in 1999. They really get into why George wanted to create the Force in Star Wars and what he wanted the audience, especially young people, to get from it.http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,23298-2,00.html
Yeah good interview (although one always wonders with George how much what he is saying in the moment has changed from the original conception and implementation) though it doesn’t change my understanding of the Force, in fact it pretty much lines up with what I said above. It might be meant to make young people of the day think about spirituality and maybe believe in some higher power (specifically God as GL puts it) but that’s all the Force is and the OT never ascribes any sort of actual god like attributes to the Force. I was brought up a christian myself (but now sit somewhere between Agnosticism and Ietsism) and the Force does line up that way in requiring faith to believe it exists but it never places any kind of central focus as to the source or will of such a force.
The fact Obiwan describes it as an energy field that is essentially everywhere means it is formless and thoughtless, it’s a natural phenomenon of the Star Wars galaxy that is without agency or purpose, it simply exists and can be used by people sensitive to it’s nature that does require faith and belief in something that can’t be seen or scientifically detected yet and is where George represents the mystery and higher power that religions also share but without actually defining the Force in such a fashion.
I feel that the story board and writer directors of the ST have misunderstood GL’s intention and thought process behind the Force, instead taking a more literal meaning from some of his comments and made the mistake in trying to bring in more religious elements and give the Force some agency as lazy ways to explain why Rey suddenly has these powers and isn’t held to the same rules as everyone else in the saga previously have been.