Forever Will it Dominate your Destiny

Guest Blog 

by Steve Titcomb

“Yes, a Jedi’s strength flows from the force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, Fear, aggression; the dark side of the force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.” -Yoda

When we hear Yoda saying this to Luke we take it as a warning, but what if there is more to it than that? Did Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side forever doom those of his lineage to suffer the effects of the dark side? Not just from a spiritual standpoint of what to do with the power they possess, but to also, battle the enemies created from the dark, due to the aftershocks of what Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader did to the force and a galaxy at large. The dark side comes at a price. We have seen this with the Emperor himself, to Vader to now, Kylo Ren. There is a personal cost to the power you gain through “the quick and easy path.” Who is to say that the payment isn’t larger than what we can see? Even Yoda, with his near 900 years of life and long study of the force, isn’t all knowing and that was made very clear in the prequel trilogy.

Darkness was growing during the period of Anakin’s birth. The galaxy was consumed in darkness when Anakin made that fateful decision and his death, along with the Emperor’s, caused chaos to the galaxy. Luke himself, battled the dark side and for a few short moments in Return of the Jedi, he even gave in to his fear and anger, at the threat posed to his friends and sister Leia. He ultimately chose the light and love to help turn his father back, but his brush with the dark side did come with a cost and that cost, was his father. Thirty-some odd years later and Luke is in isolation, appearing to be searching for answers from the original Jedi temple, while possibly hiding from his past — we are yet to truly know. His nephew turned and the “New Jedi Order” he hoped to start up was destroyed before it ever truly began. The dark side strikes again.

Kylo Ren, once Ben Solo, is a man of mystery. The grandson of Anakin Skywalker. There was either something off with him from birth or something happened in his childhood, that caused him to fall or perhaps, he was just born in the dark. He sees the light as a weakness and he willingly, turned his back on his family in order to follow in the foot steps of what his grandfather became, before he was saved or as Kylo Ren puts it, seduced to the light. A third generation of Skywalkers and once again, darkness will play a role in their lives and that of the galaxies.

The dark side comes at a cost, that those taking that step, don’t easily see. The one thing Anakin Skywalker couldn’t live without and the one thing he sacrificed everything he was for, was ultimately taken from him, due to his own choices. We have yet to see or understand what led Ben Solo into becoming Kylo Ren, but it is clear, that he admires the man that Darth Vader was and what he meant to the Galaxy. Darkness surrounds the Skywalker family, there can be no doubt about that and it is becoming clearer, that even half a century after Anakin Skywalker’s fateful decision in the Chancellor’s office, that the galaxy is still feeling the chaos of his choice; to give into the fear.

The Cantina Cast

The wretched hive your Jedi Master warned you about!

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