Chosen One/Legends

"Fully defeated by just anyone, the dark side cannot be, but only by the Chosen One. And who might be this Jedi? Know I do not, but not yet born is he or she. This much, sense I can. A vessel of pure Force the Chosen One will be, more powerful than any Jedi in history."

- Yoda, from the Great Holocron

The prophecy of the Chosen One was an ancient Jedi legend that foretold the coming of a being who would restore balance to the Force.

The idea of balance of the Force, a central tenet of the Jedi Order, refers to the ideal state in which the Force exists in nature, i.e. as the light side. The presence of the dark side corrupts and destroys this natural balance, and the Jedi viewed it as their duty to restore it.

The prophecy was one of hundreds of obscure legends maintained by the Jedi Order, though its origins and actual content remain unknown. It was thought to have been created by the earliest Jedi philosophers, after the creation of the Galactic Republic but before the Jedi assumed an active role in it.

The prophecy detailed the birth of one strong in the Force, who would ultimately bring balance to that mystical energy field through their actions. It also indicated that this being would, in restoring balance, destroy the Sith, who were the cause of unbalance, with their use of the dark side of the Force. However, as the Sith were believed destroyed at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, the prophecy was disregarded by the Jedi High Council. The prophecy was not explicit, but the Jedi assumed that the Chosen One would be a Jedi, due to the prophecy's being a Jedi prophecy. It would later come to pass that Anakin Skywalker would fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen One by temporarily killing one of the last of the Sith in 4 ABY.

History of the Chosen One
"You refer to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force. You believe it's this....boy?"

- Mace Windu to Qui-Gon Jinn and referring to Anakin Skywalker

In the waning days of the Galactic Republic, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn discovered a young slave boy named Anakin Skywalker on the desert planet of Tatooine. Jinn believed the boy could be the Chosen One himself, due to his extraordinary ability with the Force&mdash;brought on by his unusually high midi-chlorian count of over twenty thousand in each cell of his body&mdash;and his apparent virgin birth by Shmi Skywalker.

Despite Qui-Gon's belief of the boy's true purpose in the galaxy, the Jedi High Council was not entirely convinced, and forbade Qui-Gon from training Anakin. However, after Jinn's death on Naboo, his former Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, took Anakin as his apprentice. The fact that a Sith Lord slew Qui-Gon may have indicated to the Council that, with the Sith returned, the prophecy could still be completed.

Although Anakin Skywalker's powers grew as the years passed, he began a slow but irrevocable slide towards the dark side of the Force, in part due to the increasing influence of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, someone Anakin thought of as a friend and mentor. The High Council was still dubious that Anakin was truly the Chosen One, and Yoda himself even mused that the prophecy could have been misread, and that Anakin could not have been the one destined to bring balance. This assumption became a conviction when Skywalker fell to the dark side and, as Darth Vader, was partly responsible for the fall of the Jedi Order. The destruction of the Jedi plunged the galaxy into darkness, with the Dark Lords of the Sith in control. Obi-Wan Kenobi, during his confrontation with Vader on Mustafar, stated that he believed Anakin was indeed the Chosen One, but that his destiny had been altered, and the prophecy unfulfilled. Yoda and Obi-Wan then looked towards the offspring of Skywalker to one day overthrow the Sith, possibly hoping they would fulfill the prophecy instead.



It transpired, however, that the prophecy was still to be momentarily fulfilled; decades later, above the moon of Endor. There, Vader stood witness to a confrontation between the Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine, and Vader's own son, Luke Skywalker. When Palpatine unleashed violent Force lightning upon the boy, Anakin Skywalker returned and turned against his Sith Master in a violent attempt to save Luke's life. It was this conscious choice that fulfilled the Prophecy and brought a temporary balance to the Force. Anakin killed Sidious at the cost of his own life, and in doing so, fulfilled the prophecy by destroying the Sith leadership, his Master's original body and himself. Having embraced the Light side of the Force once again, Anakin Skywalker passed away, and left his son to continue the teachings of the Jedi, to maintain the balance that he had restored.

Behind the scenes
George Lucas himself has stated that Anakin is the Chosen One and that the prophecy is true, although Luke indirectly served as the catalyst that allowed Anakin to fulfill the prophecy.

It is believed by some that the prophecy of the Chosen One is connected to the prophecy of the "Son of the Suns", as mentioned in the second draft script of what became Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope:

"&hellip;And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as THE SON OF THE SUNS."

- Journal of the Whills, 3:127

This, however, was written in 1975, when the prophecy of the Chosen One had not been developed, and is actually referencing the actions of Luke Skywalker, not his father. This specific prophecy was eliminated in future drafts, but the name and general concept found its way back into canon, but with no reference to the Skywalker family&mdash;instead it is a more generic prophecy from Thyrsus, and a Talz title belonging to Thi-Sen.

Many fans incorrectly assume that balance refers to an equal mix of both light and dark side users. However, as George Lucas explains in the introductory documentary for the VHS version A New Hope, Special Edition, this is not the case:


 * "The first film starts with the last age of the Republic, which is it's getting tired, it's old, it's getting corrupt.


 * There's the rise of the Sith, who are becoming a force, and in the backdrop of this we have Anakin Skywalker, a young boy who is destined to be a significant player in bringing balance back to the Force and to the Republic...


 * Then in the second film we get into more of that turmoil. It's the beginning of the Clone Wars, it's the beginning of the end of democracy in the Republic, sort of the beginning of the end of the Republic. And it's Anakin Skywalker beginning to deal with some of his more intense emotions of anger, hatred, sense of loss, possessiveness, jealousy, and the other things he has to cope with.


 * And then we will get to the 3rd film where he is seduced to the dark side..


 * Which brings us up to the films 4, 5, and 6, in which Anakin's offspring redeem him and allow him to fulfill the prophecy where he brings balance to the Force by doing away with the Sith and getting rid of evil in the universe..."

In an interview, Lucas compared the difference between the light and dark sides as being like the difference between a symbiotic relationship and a cancer. A symbiotic relationship is one which benefits both parties and in which neither is harmed, whereas a cancer takes without giving back, eventually causing the death of both parties.

Some fans question whether or not the Prophecy was fulfilled, or if it was very effective. In the EU, several dozen Sith and Dark Side practitioners were alive and well when Palpatine was temporarily killed on Endor. Palpatine himself returned to a cloned body a short time later. The Empire managed to retain some of it's power, while the Galaxy remained in conflict after conflict. Over a century later, galactic peace would be seriously threatened by a dark side collective known as the One Sith.

However, it should be made clear that as far as George Lucas is concerned, the story ends with Return of the Jedi with the Sith destroyed and the Force in balance. "But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story."

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Jedi Quest: The School of Fear
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars PhotoComic
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Exile
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Exile