Mortis

With the duo of strikes now at an end, the creators and performers behind the Ahsoka series can begin to talk about their experiences with the show. Vanity Fair sat down with Rosario Dawson, Hayden Christiansen, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and Dave Filoni to discuss the first season of Ahsoka, the potential for more, and Filoni’s new role at Lucasfilm. Read the entire interview for yourself here, which, FYI, contains massive spoilers for Ahsoka (obviously).

Star Wars Undertakes Universe-Shaking Changes After ‘Ahsoka’Vanity Fair

The big takeaway here is Filoni’s new role, which, I think, secures a bit of longevity for Lucasfilm. Following a series of cancelled projects, and with Kennedy’s retirement likely happening sooner than later, getting in a new wave of leadership feels like a smart move.

I think it’s likely that, when Kennedy bows out, Beck will take her place, and Filoni will stay in his creative leadership role, which is where he should be. Hopefully, under Filoni’s guidance, projects that don’t fit in Star Wars can be altered or cancelled far earlier in development, so we don’t have to go through another decade of films and shows getting announced or reported on, only to find out months later that they’ve been scrapped due to creative differences.

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of “Filoni saves Star Wars” posts due to this announcement, and I’ll continue to deem those comments to be as stupid as they were before. Star Wars is in no need of saving, and, if it were, one guy isn’t going to do it single handily. I’m not expecting noticeable shifts in quality following this. If anything, just more consistency since Filoni now has the résumé and experience to compliment his knowledge of the mythology.

As for the rest of the interview, there’s not a lot that’s notable for fans who follow Star Wars closely. There were some interesting nuggets about the intention behind Anakin’s appearance in Ahsoka, the new galaxy that was introduced, the Mortis gods, and the potential second season, but nothing that I feel I need to elaborate on here.

If you read the interview, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it below!

Thanks for reading, and have a good day, everyone.

This is a continuation of my previous thesis, "Theory on the Light and Dark sides of The Force," originally written around 2019-2020. For those who haven't seen it, here's the [TL;DR]:

Theory on the Light and Dark Sides of the Force: SPOILERS FOR RISE OF SKYWALKER, CLONE WARS, REBELS | FandomThe concepts we all know as the Light Side of the…starwars.fandom.com

The Light & Dark Sides of the Force don't actually exist: "Light Side" is the concept of altruism, the "Dark Side" is the concepts of personal narrative, & balance to the Force only comes from understanding how to properly balance your own happiness within the context of the big picture.

The general idea remains consistent, but my personal understanding of the very concepts of Good & Evil, politics & religion somewhat changed between now & then.

Possible spoilers for most "Star Wars" canon, including (but not limited to):

- "Star Wars: Episodes I - IX" (Film series)

- "Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi" (TV series)

- "Star Wars: The Clones Wars" (TV series)

- "Star Wars: Jedi" (Videogame series)

- "Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi" (TV series)

- "Star Wars: Rebels" (TV series)

- "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (Film)

- "Marvel Star Wars" (Graphic novel series)

- "The Mandalorian" (TV series)

The History of the Jedi & Sith

To begin, the Order of Dai Bendü, (precursor of the religion later known as Je'Daii), was founded over 36'000 years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY). In the Legends graphic novel series, "Dawn of the Jedi," the Great Tho-Yor Arrival (TYA) brought the Bendü monks to the future Jedi home world of Tython, where they further learned about the Force & evolved their beliefs, eventually becoming what we now know as the Holy Order of Jedi Knights. This marked the beginning of galactic history.

Now, certain aspects of "Dawn of the Jedi," like the Tho-Yor, the Force Hounds, & the Je'Daii, are not (yet) directly mentioned in any Canon material. There certainly is plenty of room for them to fit, (literally tens of thousands of years are yet undocumented), I won't need to talk about those at all. What matters is that the core sequence of galactic events remains identical.

35'000~BBY:

The Monks of Dai Bendü formed the first iteration of the Jedi religion.

25'000~BBY:

The First Great Schism occured, & the first iteration of the Galactic Republic was formed.

5'000~BBY:

The Second Great Schism/Jedi Civil War occured, leading to the creation of both the first iteration of the Order of Sith Lords & modern iteration of the Order of Jedi Knights.

1'000~BBY:

The Brotherhood of Darkness is destroyed, the remaining Sith reform into the modern Rule of Two, & the Galactic Republic completely reorganizes.

19 BBY:

Darth Sidious imposes himself is Emperor, reforms the Republic into the Empire, orders execution of the Jedi Knights, & outlaws all Force religions that compete with Sith doctrine.

This sequence of events is unaltered between timelines. First the Bendü, then the Jedi, then the Sith, & it's all downhill after that.

Initially, the Jedi believed in a balance between the many "sides" of the Force: Ashla (Light), Bogan (Dark), & Bendü (Equilibrium). An easy comparison would be the Celestials of Mortis: The Daughter, The Son, & The Father, who some believe to be the Avatars of these forces. However, during that First Great Schism, many Jedi believed that the Bogan was a source of greater power, but the orthodox Jedi stomped them out.

During the Second Great Schism, the Dark Jedi either rediscovered or reinvented the idea of following the Bogan, which they now called "The Dark Side." Before this point, the Light & Dark sides were not considered Good or Evil, but complimentary aspects of nature, like Summer & Winter. Only at this point, during the Hundred Year Darkness, does the Jedi Order seem to officially consider Ashla to be definitive Good, & Bogan as definitive Evil. Balance of the Force is no longer about moderation, it's about dominance.

Even in the Jedi's Prophecy of the Chosen One, the High Councillors misread, "Destroy the Sith & bring balance to the Force..." as, "Eliminate the Dark Side." But, what truly was the issue with the Sith? Why did the Sith need to be destroyed? As I wrote in my previous works, the "Dark Side" itself isn't what determined the Sith Lords to be evil.

The ancient Sith Kingdom of Moraband/Korriban functioned on the rule of extreme Social-Darwinism, or "Might makes Right." They valued power, strength, & war, so much to the point that the old Sith didn't even have concepts for Ashla, Bogan, & Bendü: they just referred to the Force, in it's entirety, as "The Darkness."

At some point, there was an individual on the world of Atollon that referred to themself as "The Bendu." Completely independant from the Jedi, the Sith, & the galaxy at large, this entity studied the Force & how it interacted with nature. As of now, nothing is known about the Bendu's race, age, homeworld, or affiliations. It is unknown if the Bendu survived the attack on Atollon, or if the Bendu ever actually existed in physical form. That guy doesn't matter.

Back to the interesting stuff. The Jedi forbidding the "Dark Side" seems to be a direct response to the threat of the Dark Jedi of the Second Great Schism. It seems that the Jedi were so terrified of creating new Sith that they outright banished the use of "Dark Side" teachings in the hopes of preventing Jedi from ever touching the Bogan. This was the "Star Wars" universe's Red Scare.

Real-world Parallels

Post World War II, the fear of Soviet influence was so great, that most of the Western world ostracized the concepts of Marxism, Socialism, & Communism. Fear of Left-Wing economics was literally enforced to the point that, now, most people have no clue that there's a difference between those three theories of thought; & that they're all basically evil, despite the fact that they're just economic theories, which can be applied by anyone to any system.

Now, American politics is so toxic, that any attempt to change the status quo whatsoever is met with resistance from both sides of the aisle. Even with the vast majority of Westerners supporting Socialized policy reform, it just isn't happening, & probably never will. Nobody is happy with the state of affairs. Back to "Star Wars."

The Jedi, in their ousting of the Bogan & Dark Side teachings, became the analogue to Moderate, Pro-Establishment political parties. They did nothing of note for so long, striving to continue the status quo, that it led to massive suffering galaxywide. By the time of the Clone Wars, it seemed that the Jedi believed that what is "Good" was the natural state of the Universe, while what is "Evil" was anything trying to change that.

But what are Good & Evil?

The Jedi became fence-sitters, while the Sith were cynical, existential nihilists that refuted the very concept of morality, which only fueled their belief that they deserved to be the dominant rulers of the observable universe. As the unnamable fascist villain from... another controversial, magical-fantasy franchise once said:

"There is no Good & Evil; There is only power, & those too weak to seek it."

This is the doctrine of the Sith: Good & Evil are an illusion, nature has no bias, there are no consequences for your actions, & we should just do whatever we can get away with because we're powerful enough to do it.

This is what Evil actually is. Evil people don't think they're Evil. They think that what they do is fine, because there's no such thing as "Good" or "Bad." In nature, there is no bias. Predators slay their prey, avalanches bury villages, & Black-Holes devour galaxies; but none of this is done with intent. This is the excuse Evil people give for committing Evil acts. In the mind of an Evil person, there is no Correctness, there is no Wrongness, there are no Rights, there are no Obligations, & there is no Forgiveness.

But as anyone in the real world could tell you, Evil is choosing to cause harm, & Good is choosing to counteract harm.

This is why, in my previous thesis, I came to the conclusion that both the Jedi & Sith contributed to (or enabled) evil in the galaxy. The Jedi preached Good, but did nothing in the face of mass injustice across the Out Rim.

In Biblical terms: the Jedi were to Sadducees, as Sith were to Pharisees.

In Political terms: the Jedi were to the Russian Tsardom, as Sith were to the Bolsheviks.

Both failed to bring about the greater good; but one by directly causing the evil, & the other by refusing to act against it.

The Jedi Order, despite it's doctrine of peace, was a "force" for nothing good. In the face of progression, they chose complacency. In the face of regression, they again chose complacency. In the face of war, they finally chose to act; but it was too-little, too-late. The Jedi were the Neo-Liberals of the Galactic Republic, practically begging for an Authoritarian-Fascist takeover. They called themselves the "Guardians of Peace & Justice," but belittled themselves to religious diplomats who just happened to carry Laser-Swords & wield Space Magic. The old Jedi Order got what they deserved....but was it what should have happened?

Why does any of that matter?

Good & Evil are concepts created by Humanity to describe deliberate actions that are not a part of nature. Nature is not good. Nature is not evil. I'd argue, people aren't either good or evil, but each individual commits actions of varying quality. But as stated above, choosing "neutrality" isn't being neutral: humans don't exist in a vacuum, so true neutrality is impossible. Inaction only enables injustices, & only through positive action can evil be thwarted. However, my thoughts in Good & Evil weren't always like this.

As a child, I believed a narrative that "Star Wars" & most other fantasy media taught me: Light is Good, Dark is Bad, & good guys only ever do the right thing. I believed that the Dark Side was an emergent property of the Force, & that goodness was achieved through expelling the Dark Side. I "knew" that I should stay on the straight-&-narrow path of "Righteousness," because that's what my parents, society, & supposedly God required of me. Morality was black & white.

As a teen, I felt darker emotions. I felt angst, anguish, pain, loss, anxiety, depression, jealousy, envy, hopelessness; & I didn't always know how to cope with those feelings. I felt drawn to the darkness. I didn't believe in a higher power, or a grand purpose, & I thought that the only way to survive was to fight. I thought that maybe, the Sith had a point, & I practically worshiped the "Dark Sider" aesthetic. Morality was only Gray.

As a young adult, I grew jaded. I believed that the only way to survive was to not get involved... "Don't join," as a certain codebreaker might say. I thought that there was Good, there was Evil, & that nature wanted them balanced; that every action had any equal & opposite reaction. I thought it was silly of me to believe anything else before that moment. Morality was Black, White, & Gray, all equal.

As a man, I still see the evils & injustices of the world. I see automated drones dropping bombs on children's hospitals. I see mass-murderers hunting down ethnic minorities. I see politicians talking, & talking, & talking, but passing no legislation that changes the source of the problems. But I also I see the goodness of strangers giving to the needy. I also see children of different colors playing hand-in-hand. I also see people of many faiths breaking bread together. Among all the evil & complacency that still exists, I see hope now. I no longer think that my previous beliefs made me stupid, I forgive myself for being a kid & not knowing better. Morality is White. Nature is multi-hued. Very few things are Black.

I know now what being a Jedi truly is. I know what Qui-Gon taught to Yoda; Yoda to Obi-Wan; Obi-Wan to Luke; Luke to Rey; & Rey to Ben. The truth of why they all became great Jedi in the end was their love & their hope. Christian Orthodoxy teaches that Goodness is the will of God, all that which is not God's will is Sinful, & those who partake in Sin are Anti-Christ. Jedi believe that the Dark Side is Sin. But what is Sin?

Here's the hard truth, whether or not you believe in any gods:

Hatred, sexual assault, & selfishness are all evil; But anger, sexuality, & self-care are just natural. Family, friendship, & love are beautiful things; But negligence, abuse, & possessiveness ruin them. "Sin" is not an absolute, emergent property of existence; neither is the "Dark Side."

I still don't believe in a god, or anything supernatural. I still see evil, & inaction in the face of it. But I now think I know the Force & the Jedi for what they truly are. The Force wasn't out of balance because of the "Dark Side" existing. The Force wasn't out of balance because there were over 10'000 Jedi Knights representing the "Light Side," & only 2 Sith Lords representing the "Dark Side." The Force was out of balance because the Galaxy was full of turmoil, hatred, & war; mostly because of the Jedi & the Sith. The Jedi & Sith never should have separated.

Where did the Jedi go wrong?

In my opinion, if it weren't for the Great Schism, the Jedi wouldn't have outlawed emotional attachments, & Anakin wouldn't have fallen. Anakin's emotions & personal attachments weren't the problem, it was his stunted emotional-growth caused by the Jedi Council demanding him to suppress those attachments. Anakin was a good Jedi & a good person, whose flaws were his immaturity & negligected upbringing. They never should have been so reactionary as to ban entire topics from discussion & entire emotions from being felt. The Second Great Schism is probably when the Jedi completely became a Cult, as described by Stephen Hassan's B.I.T.E. Model of Cult characteristics. Behavior control, Information control, Thought control, Emotion control.

But these effects certainly didn't start & stop at Anakin.

Yoda & Obi-Wan where good Jedi & good people, whose flaws were their blind adherence to cult dogma.

Dooku was a good Jedi & a good person, whose flaw was that he was gullible enough to believe that he could trick Darth Sidious into helping rebuild a better Jedi Order.

Luke was a good Jedi & a good person, whose flaw was that he chose hopeless "neutrality" in the face of overwhelming oppression.

Dooku may have gotten what he deserved in the end, but for Luke, Yoda, & Obi-Wan, these issues got fixed.

Yoda & Obi-Wan survived the Great Jedi Purge, failed to stop the New Order, & lived in exile with the weight of their mistakes. They learned from the ghost of Qui-Gon what "Balance in the Force" actually meant, & how to prevent Luke from falling to the same mistakes as Anakin.

Luke became jaded, convinced he could do no right, & tried to be the moderate fence-sitter while galactic genocide took place. By the end, he (re)realized that the only way to stop evil was to counteract it.

That's why I love "The Last Jedi." The message was never supposed to be, "Don't join," or, "Let the past die." The unambiguous villains said those things. Luke finished his life with a simple message to Kylo Ren.

"I will not be the last Jedi...See you around, kid."

Not only was Luke confident that his legacy would be honored by Rey, he also gave Ben the most important thing he could: Forgiveness. He parted in the way and old friend would, when as far as Ben knew, there was nothing but hate between them. Ben needed to come back from the brink of Evil. Luke opened the door to that when he refused to fight on Crait. Rey opened it even further when she healed him on Kef Bir. The specter of Han giving his love sealed the deal.

Ben had to learn that he could come back & fix what he'd done wrong. I sometimes wish that he hadn't made his sacrifice in "The Rise of Skywalker," that maybe things could have been different because I much prefer his character to Rey; but even still, the ending was actually quite beautiful. Rey carries the legacy of the Skywalkers with her. I think her character could have been written better, but I do believe she earned it in the end.

But what about that Bendu guy?

The individual known as the Bendu is a bit of a contentious topic for me. In it's own words, the Bendu is, "The one in the middle." Neither Jedi, nor Sith, but in observer outside the moral conflicts of the Galaxy. The Bendu was only concerned with the order of Nature, understanding the behavior of the local wildlife, & existing in a state uninterrupted by outside forces. It seems like a peaceful life, but all nice pretense went out the window as soon as the Imperials landed on Atollon.

When directly faced with the threat of the Empire, the Bendu refused to join the Rebels. No matter how Kanan pleaded, the Bendu sat, stonewalled. The Bendu sat in the valley, disinterested, until the fighting started to threaten it personally. At that point, it lashed out at both sides, & just... Faded away.

The Bendu bothers me partly because His/It's/Their philosophy is one that I took when I was an edgy teenager, thinking I had figured out the whole world. As I've already indicated: when I thought that way, I was wrong.

The Bendu is probably the most self-centered, egotistical character in the "Star Wars" franchise, second only to Palpatine himself. His actions are the epitome of how the Jedi behaved for hundreds of years, lifting not a finger to help anybody, when there was a very obvious Evil threatening everyone.

This leads me to a conclusion that I can't substantially back up, but seems like the only thing that makes sense to me:

The Bendu isn't a Force Wielder. The Bendu isn't a living being. The Bendu doesn't physically exist. The Bendu is... Some sort of careless, benevolent, mischievous, eldritch monster... Like a Fairy, or a Leprechaun.

It just... Doesn't care. Mortals mean nothing to it. It'll talk & interact with them if they initiate, but it just want's to sit alone forever, doing nothing. That's not how an old wise man behaves, that's how a Greek demigod behaves. End of point.

The Bendu doesn't matter; so I don't care about it, & neither should you.

What are Midichlorians?

I disagree with the opinion that the introduction of Midichlorians "Demystifies" the Force. If that were truly the case, why would the Scientific Method exist in the first place? Midichlorians don't "explain away" the magic. Nobody even knows what they are. All we know is, Jedi researchers looked into a microscope at one point, saw microscopic organisms existing on & in organic blood cells & nowhere else, & decided to call them Midichlorians.

That's it. Where do they come from? How do they function? Why they like the Force so much? Unknown. All we know is that Midichlorians are present in all living beings, overly abundant in Jedi, & not observed anywhere else in the Universe.

In the real world, we don't understand Gravity or Magnetism. We can observe their effects, but not why they do that. All we can do is watch & speculate, just like with Midichlorians. As a scientifically minded person, I find it fascinating.

How have my beliefs changed?

I stand by what I said three years ago: The Dark Side doesn't really exist, the Sith just use the Force for Evil. Where do I differ, though?

Back than, I came to the conclusion that the Light Side is wisdom & logic, while the Dark Side is strength & emotion. Part of this came from the fable of Abeloth, as told in the new Legends "Fate of the Jedi" books.

The Father of Mortis watched over his Daughter & Son. The Daughter, Ashla, wanted to bathe in the Pool of Wisdom. The Son, Bogan, wanted to drink from the Fount of Power. Against their Father's demands, the two children gave in to their temptations, becoming the Light & Dark Sides of the Force in the process.

To combat the now uncontrollable children, the Mother, a mortal that nannied the children, followed in suit: She drank from the Fount of Power, & bathed in the Pool of Wisdom, & became Abeloth.

In Legends continuity, Abeloth was the embodiment of Chaos. An unstoppable force of nature that was so dangerous, the Maw had to be artificially created to contain her millennia before the Jedi or Republic ever existed. Luke & the New Jedi Order joined forces with Lumiya's Sith & the Imperials Remnant to stop Abeloth from consuming all of reality.

As can be inferred, I once thought about the Force from a perspective of Light, Dark, & Equilibrium. The Fable of Abeloth, while interesting to read about in the novels, presents a strange take on the Force. The Father of Mortis was tasked with keeping the balance between his two children. In "The Clone Wars," we're very clearly not meant to think of either The Father, Son, or Daughter as being evil or malevolent, but as being representations of certain qualities, much like the Emotion characters in Disney-Pixar's "Inside Out," (a film I highly recommend).

The Daughter is shown to be Logical, the Son is shown to be Passionate, & the Father is shown to be Wise, keeping the other two in balance with each other. These three demonstrate the dynamic quite well, because none of the three are in opposition, they work together. The Son accidentally slays the Daughter & immediately expresses remorse, having lost his other half. Dark cannot exist without Light.

The issue with Abeloth as... What does she represent? We have the Son, being dark; the Daughter, being Light; & the Father, keeping the two equal. How can a fourth entity be wedged into this trinity? I already said she's the embodiment of Chaos, but Chaos is not a choice or a moral quandary, it is a state of matter. Chaos must be made.

But, other than the natural progression of the Universe towards entropy, creates chaos?

Evil. Evil is the choice to cause harm & disarray, or chaos. Evil thrives in Chaos.

This is the argument I've come to. The Jedi & Sith are not at odds because of Light & Dark. They are at odds because of Order & Chaos.

Here's what I think:

The Jedi believe the Light Side is Order & the Dark Side is Chaos, & that the Sith value Chaos.

The Sith believe that the Force is Strength itself, & that the Jedi are mistaken for believing in "Sides."

The Bendu thinks that everyone is crazy for choosing a side.

The Force is actually just an emergent property of nature, no bias, no sides. Midichlorians are attracted to it & magnify it, & all living beings are in touch with it slightly. It binds everything together, much like Gravity or Time. Some beings are born with a higher Midichlorian count, (Skywalkers, Palpatines, etc), but with practice, any one can tap in to the Force. This doesn't invalidate the natural talents of known Jedi, it just goes to show how powerful & determined some of them were.

The Force is everywhere, in everyone, & can be used for anything. Some people use the Force to do righteous things, we call them Jedi. Some people use the Force do selfish things, we call them Sith.