What if Star Wars always had two Chosen Ones? Ever since The Phantom Menace, it’s been a mostly accepted part of lore that Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, a prophecized savior who was supposed to bring balance to the Force, something the Jedi believed meant destroying the Sith. While Anakin fell to the Dark Side, his eventual redemption did lead to the end of the Sith, seemingly confirming him as the Chosen One and fulfilling the prophecy.
However, that wasn’t the end of the Chosen One in Star Wars. Prior to The Last Jedi’s release, it was revealed that Luke believed Ben Solo to be the new Chosen One. Now, with Emperor Palpatine set to return in Episode IX, it means the Sith aren’t really done after all, so the Chosen One prophecy could still be open. Does that mean Anakin wasn’t the Chosen One? Not quite.
From Yoda’s “there is another” to the Sith’s Rule of Two and, of course, the Dark Side and the Light, Star Wars contains plenty of key iconography, lore, and quotes that come in or references pairs. What’s to say it wasn’t the same for the Chosen One?
The Force Seeks Balance - And Balance Requires Both Powerful Light And Dark
The idea of bringing balance to the Force has been a major running thread through Star Wars since the Prequel Trilogy. Indeed, it’s one of the biggest elements they introduced that still feels relevant and important to the franchise today, not least because it tied so directly into Luke’s arc in The Last Jedi.
As we hear him tell Rey, the Jedi were wrong to think that the Force belonged solely to them. They were able to use it, but it’s not theirs. The Force isn’t just seeking out the Light, but a sense of balance: “Powerful light, powerful darkness.” That means the Force, which binds the Star Wars galaxy together, is perpetually striving to find that equilibrium, something that's important considering it’s through the Force the Chosen One is created.
We know that Palpatine was able to manipulate the Force in order to create Anakin, but we don’t know the Force’s exact role in that. Anakin eventually turned to the Dark Side, but is it possible that even in his moment of creation the Force was attempting to find balance?
The Son And Daughter Kept the Force In Balance On Mortis
The three-episode Mortis arc from Star Wars: The Clone Wars is one of the most important bits of media when it comes to our knowledge and understanding of the Force. It’s here that Anakin met a family of Force wielders: the Father, the Son, and the Daughter. These God-like beings had no fixed form, but could manipulate the Force like no one else in the galaxy.
The Son was the embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars, and the Daughter was the Light. It was the Father who had to keep his children in check, thus serving as the balance between them, because either out on their own would have the ability to disrupt the natural order of things and cause chaos in the galaxy. When the Father was dying, Anakin was brought to Mortis because the Chosen One was the only person he believed could retain balance in the Force.
The arc proved hugely influential, not just in terms of expanding the Force’s mythology, but even serving as a big inspiration to Rian Johnson’s exploration of it in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. What’s also important to note is that these Force wielders are, in Legends, known as The Ones. So we have two Ones - a Dark and a Light - who need to be kept together in order for the Force to be balanced.
Anakin Had Twin Children
It’s unclear what the exact odds of having twins in the Star Wars universe are, but assuming they’re at least a little close to the real world then they’re going to be pretty slim. Twins are a rare occurrence, and there are very few examples of them in Star Wars canon (the Daughter and Son are one such instance). So then what are the odds of it happening to the Chosen One?
It may not quite be 3,720-1, but it’s not exactly likely either. And yet, there they are: Luke and Leia, the twin children of Anakin and Padme. A rare occurrence happening to an almost impossible being, in an event where the children themselves were lucky to have been born at all because of Padme’s health. Luke and Leia were well established by the time these events were depicted on screen, so audiences had long-since accepted the fact, but it’s very curious that Anakin Skywalker, a person born from the Force to bring balance to it, had twin children. Again, it’s the recurring imagery of two in Star Wars as well.
Kylo And Rey Have A Mysterious Strong Connection
Bringing this into the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, we have Kylo Ren and Rey as the two new Force-users on the galaxy, at least one of whom is a descendent of Anakin Skywalker, and was believed to be the new Chosen One at a certain point in time. They share a mysterious connection through the Force, which was ostensibly created by Supreme Leader Snoke.
The problem with that is the bridge between their minds was still there even after Snoke’s death. It’s very likely that Snoke didn’t actually create the connection between Rey and Kylo, but merely exploited it. So if not Snoke, then who? The answer is the Force. The first film in Disney’s new trilogy was called Star Wars: The Force Awakens for a reason, after all. It’s not just in Rey, but that the Force itself is re-emerging within the galaxy.
It finds, in Rey, someone who is powerful in the Light Side of the Force, but tempted by the Dark. In Kylo, it has her opposite. Even in the Throne Room, they’re visually depicted as yin and yang as they fight together back-to-back. The Force is always seeking balance, and it connected these two together to achieve it. So if it did it here, and through the Son and Daughter and just about everything else we know of, then why is it a Chosen One?
Did Anakin Have A Missing Sister Or Counterbalance?
Based on all we know of the Force in Star Wars, it doesn’t make sense for there just to be one person charged with bringing balance to it. The Father on Mortis may have been responsible for keeping things in order, but it fully depended on the Son (Dark) and Daughter (Light) in order to be balanced. We appear to be seeing something similar with Kylo Ren and Rey. Even when Anakin killed the Emperor, the Force didn’t have true, lasting balance brought to it, because there was nothing to counter him once he returned to the Light.
The Chosen One prophecy was recently revealed in Star Wars novel Master and Apprentice. It reads: "A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored." It says Chosen One, and ‘him’ is singular, but it’s so vague and short that it’s almost a little hilarious this is what all Jedi hopes were pinned on. It’s certainly not enough to be conclusive that the Chosen One is just one person.
It’d actually make a lot of sense if there was another Chosen One, or at least if there was supposed to be. That Anakin had a missing twin sister or counterbalance. This is how the Force operates. Light and Dark. Son and Daughter. Kylo and Rey. Anakin and...? Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Anakin on Tatooine by chance, so what’s to say there wasn’t another Chosen One out there somewhere who wasn’t found or hadn't even been born. And that’s the reason Anakin fell to the Dark Side (and came back) across the Star Wars saga, because the Force inside of him was striving for the missing balance he was supposed to have. That could play out further in The Rise of Skywalker with Palpatine returning. It may even be that Rey herself is a Chosen One created by Palpatine, as the true counterweight to Anakin, but there's likely to be some reveal as to his larger goals at the very least. Anakin was the Chosen One, he just wasn’t the only one.
