The big bombshell, sent as casually as a teen posts a selfie or a celebrity posts about the charity they support, was dropped on us more than a week ago now by the official Star Wars Twitter account. The post was so subtle that the first reply was someone asking when the title was announced because surely there would be more fanfare! Just in case you missed it, here is the original post:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has completed principal photography.
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Maybe they took Han’s advice and decided to tweet “casual.” As it turns out, they didn’t need to announce it with any kind of fanfare. The Force Awakens and Star Wars were the top trending topics within half an hour (I’m ignoring the fact that the ACTUAL #1 was a promoted ad). The title ruled the internet and airwaves for days and they didn’t even have to use all 140 characters. After the initial shock that we’d just been given the title wore off, the debates and jokes began. “The Force Makes Coffee, The Force Goes to Work, etc.”
The main question we are all left with is “what does it mean?” Has the Force been dormant? How long? Was it dormant in Episodes I-VI or has it just been dormant since Return of the Jedi? Has the Force decided to not be passive and will it now control instead of being controlled? Is the Force we’re talking about even THE Force or is it a sleeper Imperial regiment ready to retake the galaxy? DOES IT MEAN ALL THESE THINGS?
The filmmakers behind Episode VII (which is NOT officially part of the title) could get mileage out of any or all of these ideas. Based on what we know now, these could all be true OR we could be totally missing the point. Since I’m a fan, it’s time to add a couple of logs to the speculation fireplace (too cheesy?).
Has The Force been dormant and, if so, for how long?
This is the first thing that came to mind as I began thinking about the new title. The Jedi’s ability to use The Force was already diminishing in the Prequels and the Original Trilogy didn’t have any of the casual use of AMAZING Force powers that we saw in the Prequels. For a long time, I wrote this off as George Lucas having the budget to do everything he wanted with Episodes I-III, but I’ve now come to believe that he had a lot of purpose for this. By Episode IV, Vader and Obi-Wan are old men who have not had to use their abilities against any kind of competent foe for two decades. They are rusty and it shows. By the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke has learned about The Force, but he is obviously not in control. Vader toys with him and beats him handily even with diminished skill. The closest we come to seeing a Force user at full power in the Original Trilogy is when Emperor Palpatine tries to fry Luke. So, an argument could be made that The Force went into hibernation before or during the Prequels. That said, it could be that The Force just goes away after the events of Return of the Jedi we won’t know it until next December.
Has the Force decided to not be passive and will it now control instead of being controlled?
One interesting aspect of The Force has always been its passive nature. It prompts Jedi to warn them of danger or to gain a advantage, but also responds to the will of The Force attuned. In every case in the films, it has always worked this way. What if the Force decided to start being more assertive and actually take complete control of a person or persons against their will? What kind of consequences would that have? (Minor SPOILERS here if you haven’t read John Jackson Miller’s A New Dawn [and if you haven’t, do it now!]). In A New Dawn it is established that Kanan would rather not have any connection with The Force but it always asserts itself, giving him advantages or abilities that make it obvious that he is far from ordinary. Whenever this happens to him, he packs up and leaves immediately. So, if The Force is assertive enough to push Kanan, is it really that much of a leap to think that The Force could “possess” someone? I think this has a lot of interesting possibilities, especially in light of the fact that the Light and Dark sides of The Force were shown to be physical beings during the run of The Clone Wars.
Is the Force we’re talking about even THE Force or is it, or does it, mean something else entirely?
Then, there’s the possibility that the “Force” we’re talking about is just “a force.” I could imagine a large Imperial regiment that has been frozen in Carbonite being awakened and wreaking havoc in the galaxy. Or perhaps it’s an elite group of Clone Troopers put under after Order 66 waking up and beginning to take out any and all known Force users. It could be a militant group who liked things better under The Empire and decides to rebel against whatever new government has been set up in the last 30 years. If a large enough force was assembled, it could definitely threaten the entire Galaxy.
So, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below. Also, any ideas I didn’t think of are very welcome!
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