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The prophecy at the center of it all
Star Wars
Writer: The Force
Luke Skywalker is the Chosen One, the fulfillment of the Prophecy that foretold the arrival of one Jedi who would bring balance to the Force. By confronting Darth Sidious, the man the galaxy knew as their Emperor, and saving his father who had become Darth Vader, leading to Vader’s redemption moment of killing his master Sidious, Luke Skywalker brought balance to the Force. He is the Chosen One.
Except, well, Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One. He was created by the Force, perhaps with Palpatine’s help, perhaps not. His mother Shmi confirmed he had no father. Qui-Gon Jinn was led to him and sensed a vergence in the Force around him. And I know it’s not a popular thing to say, but lil’ Ani’s Midi-chlorian count was off the charts. He was the one who actually brought balance to the Force. Yes, Luke saved him by throwing down his lightsaber and refusing to strike his father down, but it was, in actuality, the redeemed Anakin Skywalker that stood up, picked up his boss, and threw him off a traditionally perilous Imperial catwalk. The Sith were destroyed and balance restored.
Though, one does have to wonder if the Force was into choosing sides. We know the Sith were bad, but did the Force know that they were bad? Isn’t the Force just an energy field that surrounds us and binds and helps guide our actions? It’s not laying down credits in Canto Bight for a Jedi/Sith Pick Em bet. Balance would mean no Sith…and no Jedi?
That doesn’t seem right, though. Lor San Tekka told Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens that, without the Jedi, there can be no balance. Yeah, they weren’t perfect, but the Jedi were pretty nice overall. Obi-Wan tipped very well at cantinas and there was the whole “fighting evil” thing they believed in.
So, yeah, Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One.
Except…Yoda started openly wondering if that prophecy was misread (Mace Windu agreed, just check out that furrowed-brow nod he gives Yoda when that’s suggested). Prophecies are sometimes built to be wrong, misread, or adaptable. If we jump over to the Song of Ice and Fire series, those Game of Thrones fans will tell you to be careful about buying into prophecies. George RR Martin would agree. Even if he has an answer to the question of who is Azor Ahai reborn, the author of the series wants there to be a lot of plausible answers along the way to the truth. So, as it is with Star Wars.
Even Obi-Wan Kenobi has changed his opinion. After being initially quite dubious of his friend and mentor Qui-Gon’s assertion that Anakin was the Chosen One, he fully bought into the idea later, but then after seeing what had become of Anakin, he changed his opinion again. He believed wholeheartedly that it was Luke. Told a dying Maul as such. Though, as Obi-Wan knows, the very truths we cling to…certain point of view…blah blah blah.
And then there was Yoda. In addition to thinking that the prophecy could have been misread, he was all ready to train the young Skywalker he thought was the right one to save the galaxy. Leia. He wanted to train Leia before Luke. Beyond what he says in The Empire Strikes Back, we now know, thanks to Gary D Schmidt’s short story “There is another” in the book From A Certain Point of View, that Yoda felt very strongly that Leia was the one to be trained. Not necessarily The One, but from his esteemed view, Leia had the better disposition to carry the load of saving the galaxy. It’s hard to say he’s wrong, though a fresh Force ghost Kenobi thought he was and even showed up to his hut, pulled up a log, and argued with him about it before Yoda relented to training Luke first. So, maybe Leia could have been the Chosen One?
Yoda and Obi-Wan both bring good points to the table, but clearly, neither of them had listened to George Lucas. He has strong opinions on who the Chosen One is…and a bit of say on the topic. He says it was Anakin, episodes 1 through VI are that story, and the proof of that was on display in those wonderfully, trippy dippy Clones Wars episodes that took place on the planet Mortis. There, the father, who kept the balance of the Force between his light-side daughter and dark-side son, put Anakin through a test to see if he was the Chosen One. Anakin passed with flying colors. 2
So, George says it’s so. He says The Whills, the beings at the center of the Force, say it’s so. The guy working in your favorite comic shop says it’s so. I guess it’s settled then…
…Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, who, in the end, did destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. A balance Luke himself says was there in the years following the events of Return of the Jedi.
A balance that Luke also said…is now gone. The Sith are still gone, for now at least, but the Force awoke and, even if it’s not imbalanced, something is going on.
So that could mean…Rey is the Chosen One.
Or…it could mean Ben Solo is the Chosen One.
Or they’re both the Chosen One.
As C-3PO would say, “Here we go again…”
The best part of the Chosen One prophecy is that it exists, and, like most prophecy in fantasy stories, can be misread. This means we Star Wars fans can have fun (and frustration) going round and round on who we think it is, who we think it was, and who it might be again. Who is the Chosen One? I think it’s the one you believe it is.