Star Wars 8 Says Anakin DID Bring Balance To The Force

Did Anakin really bring balance to the Force? Fans have been asking that ever since the prophecy of the Chosen One was introduced in The Phantom Menace back in 1999 and with Star Wars: The Last Jedi almost two decades later, they finally have an answer.The Force Awakens was J.J. Abrams's love letter to the Original Trilogy, with conspicuously little nods to the controversial prequels. With The Last Jedi, however, Rian Johnson has chosen to take a very different approach.Read More: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Completes The Prequels' StoryThis movie dives deep into themes and ideas that were first developed in Episodes I-III. It returns to the concept of "the balance of the Force," and to the mysterious idea that Anakin Skywalker somehow restored it. Of course, as any Star Wars fan knows, this is all rather complicated.The New Canon Finally Explains Balance

What Is The Balance Of The Force?

The idea of the Force somehow being in "balance" has always seemed to be a strange one. The Jedi venerate the light side of the Force, and yet the Chosen One seems to be a Jedi prophecy. It acknowledges that both light and dark sides of the Force are necessary, that they exist as a yin and a yang. For this reason, most fans assume the prophecy of the Chosen One predates the Jedi Order.

Even more confusingly, the Prequel Trilogy sets up a reality in which there are thousands of Jedi, yet only two Sith. The Jedi believed that the Chosen One would somehow bring balance to the Force, and they linked it to the destruction of the Sith. "You were the Chosen One," Obi-Wan cried out at the defeated Anakin Skywalker. "It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!"

Even Darth Maul seemed to reach a similar conclusion. The quest for "balance" was a crucial part of Maul's arc in Star Wars: Rebels, and he died believing Obi-Wan was protecting the Chosen One. "He will avenge us," he whispered, trusting that the Chosen One would bring an end to the Sith.

After all those contradictions, the build-up to The Last Jedi gave us our first canon definition of "the balance of the Force." This year's Guardians of the Whills, a novel by Greg Rucka, included a quote ascribed to an "Ascendant of Mau."

"The moment between breaths

Is the balance of the Force.

Between life and death,

Rest and action,

Serenity and passion,

Hope and despair."

According to this quote, balance is a fleeting thing, as ephemeral as "the moment between breaths." It lies not in the ways of the Jedi, nor of the Sith, but instead is somewhere in-between. Note that this definition contradicts both the Jedi and Sith Codes. The Jedi venerate serenity, and reject passion; the Sith believe peace to be a lie, and that there is only passion.

How The Last Jedi Changes Balance In The Force

Snoke and the First Jedi in Star Wars The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary confirms that this wasn't just a matter of interpretation. Pablo Hidalgo, an important member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, carefully ties the threads together in a piece discussing Supreme Leader Snoke:

"Snoke is powerful in the dark side of the Force, but he is no Sith. That thousand-year lineage stretching from Darth Bane to the last Sith Lord, Darth Vader, was undone when Vader died destroying his mentor, Darth Sidious. The fulfillment of an ancient prophecy foretold the end of the Sith, but it never predicted the end of darkness."

This is an important quote, as it suggests the Sith were the source of the imbalance in the Force. Specifically, when Anakin destroyed the "thousand-year lineage" that stretched back to Darth Bane, he brought a balance, with light and dark equal.

Darth Bane redefined the Sith. He proposed the Rule of Two: there should only ever be two Sith at any one time, one Master and one Apprentice; the one to wield power and the other to crave it. Something about the Rule of Two seems to have caused the imbalance in the Force. And that's where Anakin - and indeed the prequels - comes back in.

How Did Anakin Skywalker Bring Balance To The Force?

Anakin's role in all this was to destroy the Banite Sith, to end the era of the Rule of Two, and in so doing to bring balance to the Force once again. In killing Darth Sidious, he ended a thousand-year imbalance. something Luke acknowledges that in The Last Jedi. "I became a legend," Luke tells Rey. "For many years, there was balance, and then I saw Ben..."

The "moment between breaths" tragically passed. In interviews, Mark Hamill has stressed that Luke did not realize the prophecy of the Chosen One had been fulfilled. In fact, he believed Ben Solo to be the Chosen One. When he sensed Ben's darkness, Luke feared repeating his mentor's mistakes. He feared training the next Darth Vader, and his fear led to his apprentice's fall. The Force was knocked out of balance once again.

The Future of Balance In The Sequel Trilogy

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

"Darkness rises and the light to meet it." Snoke understood that the Force will naturally seek to restore balance, so after Ben threw things into disarray, he expected for Kylo Ren's darkness would be opposed with equal force by the light. Initially, he thought the champion of the light would be Luke Skywalker. He came to realize, instead, that it is Rey.

This is why Rey is able to match Kylo Ren so precisely. She is the one who balances his darkness out; he spends much of The Last Jedi still resisting the light's siren song, while Rey is actually subject to the call of the dark side. The film closes with both characters choosing their respective sides in the conflict, representations of the greater light/dark conflict.

Snoke's words also suggest why the Sith brought about an imbalance in the Force. If the darkness and the light naturally equal one another, then the Rule of Two concentrated the dark side within just two beings. The Sith essentially became avatars of the dark side, equal in power and potency to the thousands of Jedi. Thus, Sidious's plans just worsened the imbalance, with Jedi dying in the Clone Wars and finally slaughtered by Order 66.

The Supreme Leader understood Anakin's sacrifice allowed the Force to seek a balance once again; not the end of darkness, but a galaxy in which both light and dark were diffused. When Kylo Ren fell to the dark side, he slaughtered Luke's Jedi, with only a handful surviving and becoming his Knights of Ren. The Force was once again out of balance, with the dark side ascendant. Rey is the Force's correction of that imbalance.

It seems that Anakin Skywalker did indeed bring balance to the Force. However, balance is a fleeting thing. Luke's fear of the dark side threw the galaxy into imbalance once again, with the darkness ascendant. Now, in Rey, the Force is seeking to restore the balance that Anakin Skywalker brought.

Next: The REAL Meaning of Yoda's Final Words