this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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So the Messiah in Star Wars is supposed "to bring balance to The Force," but I never understood what it meant.

Star Wars is extremely dualistic--there is a good side and an evil side, a light side and a dark side, the Jedi and the Sith. Every plotline is based around a manichean struggle where only one side can win by annihilating the other.

The "good side", the Jedi, are explicitly looking a savior to provide "balance" while at the same time imposing all sorts of restrictions on which force powers are allowed and which aren't. For an order whose messiah is based on Taoist equilibrium, they are positively Christian in their obsession with purity.

I think there is an implicit subtextual critique of the Jedi Order in the prequels that they incompetent, as you might expect from the leaders of a theocracy, but that's about as far as it goes.

I think the closest we get to ANY real discussion of balance is Luke's vision on Degobah, where he must see himself as potentially Darth Vader, which can be interpreted as an attempt towards wholeness OR as a warning to not stray into evil.

Can anyone square this circle?

Edit: It's funny to me that there are more comments than upvotes. People want to share. I love it.

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[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Agree with everything except one thing.

It's just mediocre sci-fi at best

Star wars is not sci-fi, it's fantasy. People usually make that mistake because most fantasy is medieval and most sci-fi is futuristic, but Star Wars is an example of a futuristic fantasy story. Medieval sci-fi is harder to find, but some Stargate episodes from the point of view of the native of the planet would qualify and I'm sure there's some 40k or Star Trek examples as well.

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

I just thought about this now, but any alternate history that explores tech in the Middle-Ages would count as medieval sci-fi. For example, the Eastern Romans building on the ancient Greek technologies and experiments and using Greek fire, concentrated mirror beams, calculators and steam engines.

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I found this universe that might be medieval scif-fi:

Dragonriders of Pern

[–] Nighed@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You beat me here. Great series and one I always use as an example in sci-fi Vs fantasy comparisons.

Dragons AND space ships!

[–] saimen@feddit.org -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] saimen@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's playing in the past and not in the future

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Futuristic relates to technology level, not time period. Otherwise 2001 or Battlestar Galactica would not be futuristic either.

Edit: just to clarify, obviously futuristic relates to future, but in the context of a story being futuristic it's about the level of technology being to the future of the current one.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] BenevolentOne@infosec.pub 3 points 2 days ago

There are detailed in-world explanations for precisely where the magic comes from, who gets it, why, and how it relates to other physical systems.

It's as much sci-fi as warp drives, planet cities, telecommunications aliens, ancient AIs, and space pirates...

Anyways, enjoy this quote:

There really is nothing to fear in fantasy unless you are afraid of the freedom of uncertainty. This is why it’s hard for me to imagine that anyone who likes science can dislike fantasy. Both are based so profoundly on the admission of uncertainty, the welcoming acceptance of unanswered questions. Of course the scientist seeks to ask how things are the way they are, not to imagine how they might be otherwise. But are the two operations opposed, or related?

Ursula K. Le Guin, "It Doesn't Have To Be the Way It Is," June 2011; collected in No Time to Spare (2017)

https://www.ursulakleguin.com/blog/28-it-doesnt-have-to-be-the-way-it-is

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The books follow a series of Allomancers, who are individuals who can consume metal to wield magical powers.

Doesn't seem scientific.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 2 days ago

It's more sci-fi than Star Wars

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes, of course you're right but even ignoring all the fantasy bits and just focusing on the science and vision of the future it's mediocre. Let's take AI as an example. Star Trek has state of AI solidly defined: there's one truly intelligent android, it's state of the art and no one really knows how it works so it's not copied yet but it's recognized as a person and granted all rights. Computers are intelligent but not real AI. Dune doesn't have AI and there's an explanation for it. But Star Wars? C3P0 was build from junk, is completely useless but is kept around for decades as some sort of a pet or companion. At the same time robot soldiers are just weapons. AI is granted personhood or treated as appliance without any sense or logic behind it. Nothing besides robots has any intelligence for some reason. Star Wars used basic concepts from sci-fi but it's clear the writers didn't understand any of them.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it's a little hilarious to me that Star Wars occasionally tries to get serious about politics or economics and the droids are just kind of sitting there, completely unexamined in any way.

You can just spin up a consciousness that has to obey your orders and can be housed inside any kind of machinery and it has no impact on society?