Thanks @Doctor Starwars! Happy to be here!

Well....that’s one hell of a first post! Great job!

I love the Mortis arc. I re-watched the first episode a week or two ago. It’s really well done. It gives us, the audience, a really great look into what Lucas’ vision for the Force really is.

I think it’s something that a lot of fans (including myself to some extent) really need to watch and pay attention to. A lot of questions are answered if you know where and how to look, and a lot of the perceptions that our fandom has, regarding the nature Force, are effectively debunked.

Personally, though, I don’t ever want to go back to Mortis. If it’s referenced here or there throughout canon, I’m all in. Outside of that, I kinda prefer it to just be a “one and done” deal.

It served its purpose. To have appear continuously, or even just one more time, I think, would diminish its value.

Haha, thanks @UndyingSoldier! I appreciate the kind words!

I have to agree with you. With the Father, Son, and Daughter all dead, I don’t know how much left we have left to learn from Mortis, especially when there’s so much to unpack within those few episodes as it is!

For me, Mortis is especially rewarding because of how it’s incorporated in other projects and how much Filioni affirms its importance.

It’s no coincidence that both the Son and a deranged Maul stated: “The chains are the easy part. It’s what goes on in here that’s hard.”

Direct commentary on the dark side, especially when read in conjunction with the Sith mantra “Through Victory my chains are broken.”

More significantly, the door leading to the World Between Worlds is “guarded” by portraits of the Father, Son, and Daughter along with the Loth-Wolves (I’ll make a post about the WBW down the road... I have a lot of thoughts about it).

Man, I love Mortis!

Cool analysis! I really like these kinds of posts.

The one part of the Mortis arc that I don't really understand (from a symbolic point of view where he is the Dark side and she is the Light) is why the brother feels sad when he kills his sister.

It really doesn't make sense to me. He is representative of the Dark side while she represents the Light. They are very opposite forces, and people on one side always seem to hate those on the other. If he were a pure tool of the Dark side, I'd think he'd be glad to have his Father's guard out of the way so he could kill him and take control of Mortis or escape into the galaxy in search of power.

The whole point of the Dark side seems to be a pursuit of power, and seeing as the Daughter was in the Son's way to power, I would think he would be congratulating himself on killing her. Instead, he feels intense remorse and guilt. It just doesn't seem to make sense.

The only reason I think really fits, is that the Son and the Daughter are not supposed to be perfect representations of each side of the Force, but more like representations of the followers of each side.

This does make sense to me; devotees of the Dark side often seem to have some flaw in their resolve in their pursuit of power that almost seems to destroy them, like Vader and Padme. Followers of the Light also frequently come across as harsh due to their ideas of detaching themselves of emotion, just like the Daughter.

The other thing I find interesting about the Mortis arc is that the Father (who I see as sort of a gray Jedi) is the most powerful of the three. His Son and Daughter seem fairly well-matched, but the Father keeps both of them in line. I interpret this as meaning that neither "side" of the Force can be perfectly followed, and are therefore both flawed.

However, a person can follow the path of neutrality, be a "gray" jedi, which I think can be interpreted as both in-between the Light and Dark, as well as a sort of fuzzy area, a broad category. People who devote themselves to simply being sensible and true while retaining their natural emotions end up far more balanced and therefore more powerful, than anyone that tries to strictly devote themselves to one path or the other.

Anyway... thanks for listening to my ramble. Nice post!

Nice analysis @Nightswan! I appreciate your perspective.

I do do agree that the Son and Daughter are not perfect representations of the Force in the sense that they are somehow essential to the Force’s continued existence.

Rather, they’re like windows (or more accurately keyholes) for us to better understand how George Lucas views the Force. He literally humanizes the Force for our understanding (which in reality is a melting pot of almost every major philosophical belief, with a special emphasis on Eastern Taoism and Bushido ethics).

To your point, while the Son is destined to forever clash with the Daughter, it’s a sort of harmonious clash. They are at odds because that’s the natural balance of the universe.

And as you aptly pointed out Nightswan, the Son is a living being, plagued by the insecurities and emotional volatility that comes with being the dark side’s avatar. He loves his sister, in a weird way. She understands him and he understands her.

Where the Jedi see him as a being of pure evil, the Daughter recognizes his essentialism in maintaining balance on Mortis (and perhaps on a more galactic scale? It’s still unclear to me if the events on Mortis had wider ramifications).

So when he killed her, he sort of killed a part of himself. He cut off his better half. And like the Daughter said, I think he’s just frustrated that his nature led to the death of the only being he loved.

That’s how I interpreted it. Does that help?

Good question, Nightswan.

Perhaps it has to do with guilt.

The darkside often consists of having a (metaphorical) hole that you need filled, and taking the quick, easy path to doing so. When you find, however, that your shortcut wasn’t enough, that’s when you need more. Then that’s not enough, so you want even more. So on and so forth.

What im getting at here, is that the dark side, while it is absolutely a quest for power, is also not necessarily a lack of human emotion.

Look at Anakin. He gives into hate, kills Windu, and immediately after falls to his knees and cries “what have I done”. He’s then seduced by Palpatine and becomes a literal killing machine.

So, I guess, the Dark Side is a constant cycle of emotion and reaction.

I haven’t actually seen that episode in a while, so I don’t remember the context of your question, but I feel like the Son’s sorrow makes sense in conjunction with what I’ve expressed above.

Hopefully that makes sense. It does to me, but I’m also the one who wrote it lol

I completely agree that the Dark side is based on emotion, and using that emotion to inspire yourself and gain power. I just don't see guilt as fitting into emotions that followers of the Dark side would use. For example, I've always interpreted that scene with Anakin to be some of his final moments in the Light before he falls into Darkness. The Son's remorse just seems like a break in his Dark side devotion.

He does seem to become more motivated and full of hatred after his sister's death. I've always thought it was because he blamed his Father, but I suppose it could be argued that he was angry with himself and wanted to release some of his rage and alleviate his guilt. Almost like he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't to blame. I think it's a fair bit more convoluted, but it could be an explanation.