I respect that analysis, Faraday, though I’d challenge your final line there where I believe you’re saying you’d prefer fear not to be a motivating factor.

However, I think it’s important to preserve and permit fear (both of loss and of other natural fears), because I think the message that the movies are trying to convey is that it’s how we react to our fear that’s important.

Fear of loss, fear of harm, fear of death, etc - all of these things will exist within all beings forever, BUT we can still choose to act on our fears (and the emotions they generate) in a healthy, positive way.

The Jedi of the Republic feared loss so avoided attachments - but this came with its own cost. They raised Jedi only from a very young age so they could cut attachment out of the equation. Qui-Gon, we know, followed a slightly different Jedi path than the rest of the Council, and ultimately was the one who managed to get Anakin trained, even though he was officially too old. He knew there’d be attachments. That put the Jedi Order (and the Jedi that followed after the fall of the order) on the path which, though it included Anakin’s fall, ultimately led to a new type of Jedi - the Jedi of Rey’s generation. I think Lucasfilm are pushing this particular throughline.

And this is more speculative now, but perhaps that’s what the Chosen One prophecy is about. “Bringing balance to the force” was never about the quantity of Jedi and Sith institutions, nor the dogma of the lightside and the darkside, but about fixing the Jedi Order’s mistaken unhealthy approach to fear, turning force philosophy into a balanced viewpoint which permits fear but teaches healthy management of it. I think this is supported by the fact that the Sequels tried to lean into balance within both Rey and Kylo (as much as they didn’t do well putting that on screen), and ultimately Rey’s saber being a new colour rather than one of the usual binary options.

I think ‘fear is natural, learn to manage it’ is a really, really strong message.