ChainsawAsh said:

I don't see how ysalamiri and midi-chlorians are similar in any way.

Really?

Not to put words into your mouth, what I've heard people not liking about the midichlorians is that they turn the force Sciency instead of mystical. That's all the ysalimari do, and they do it worse.

What makes the Force more sciency and banal than that lizards can evolve to fight it? Does the same planet have Sith-lightning bugs? Frogs that can Force-jump?

Clones cant be grown fast because the Force senses duplicate souls, and the ysalimari block the Force so that they can. OK, so circumventing the energy field created by all life, the power that binds the universe together, can be accomplished with a convienient reptile that 'evolved' to do it. It's like a plumbing problem.

And while the midi-chlorians are in maybe five lines of dialogue that could be cut from the PT and not effect it in any measurable way, the Jedi-lizards are the main plot point of the entire Thrawn trilogy. Since the Force is so easy to manipulate, I'm surprised Thrawn wasn't bottling it, drinking it, and using it to power his ships.