One of the most iconic moments in TFA is when Finn tells Han “Solo, don’t worry. We’ll use the Force”. To which Han immediately replies “that’s not how the Force works”.
But I’m wondering. Not only does Finn seem to have a better grasp of how the Force does work, the exchange I think is also used to not so subtly underscore that it seems that the rules of the Force have changed. (And perhaps are going back to how they originally - prior to the Jedi and the Sith - were.)
The title of the movie is literally The Force Awakens. Awakens from what? Some sort of dormancy, otherwise why use the word ‘awakens’.
But for how long and why was it asleep?
Before I go there, let’s talk about the Force as a divine force and how it is portrayed in the OT and PT.
George meant the Force to be the “god” of the Star Wars universe, that ineffable and indescribable something that almost all of us feels now and again, that which is much larger than ourselves and that many take to call god in lack of a better word for it.
While we in our world can and do discuss the reality of the existence of the divine, the Force is very much a reality in the GFFA universe. But in the OT and PT only to the few.
Because in the first two trilogies the Force is viewed and portrayed as being transcendent, that is separate from the physical world and also by the Jedi considered superior (and more important) than the crude material form.
There are some hints that there may once have been an immanent compound in the Force the way Obi-Wan presents it in ANH, but the further along we get in canon the clearer it is that the Force is transcendent, or at least viewed as such.
Here we see something different, namely the hints that the Force is immanent. i.e. part of the physical world.
Not only that it now have a religious side it very much lacked before in the creation of the Church of the Force and the Guardians of the Whills. That is, the divine in Star Wars is now not only confined to a clergy (the Jedi, the Sith) but have ordinary adherents.
But there’s more than that.
Here I think it’s important to jump out of universe for a second.
Star Wars was created by George Lucas, a man who identifies as Methodist/Buddhist and in Christianity God is usually seen as transcendent. That is, the divine is out there, separate from our mortal existence.
Not so in Judaism. In Jewish belief G-d is very much part of our world (yes G-d is also transcendent at the same time but I’m trying to keep this as simple as I can). This is relevant because the story of the ST and much of the foundation for the new canon were made by JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, two Jewish men.
Now as I said the Force being immanent makes everything different. Where a transcendent Force was only really relevant to those who could interact with it through their special training (the “clergy”) when the Force is immanent everyone interacts with it every time they interact with the world.
There is support in the new canon that this is what is happening.
If we take the Aftermath novels there are several examples of where both Norra Wexley and her son Temmin seems to interact with the Force. Same hold true for Ciena Ree in Lost Stars. And then of course there’s Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One who is no Jedi, yet seems to utilize the Force but in a very different fashion than the Jedi did. There’s Maz Kanata who herself says that though she is no Jedi she knows the Force and then goes on to describe it as a light that touches and permeates everything (but without Yoda’s caveats to it).
So what does this mean for Star Wars and the Force further and what was that awakening?
If I address the latter first.
In Judaism the divine is in some ways trapped inside physical matter and the whole point of Judaism is to awaken the divine sparks to transform the physical world. Note here that the point is not to make the immanent transcendent, but to reconnect the two. To mend what was once broken. This is really the core concept - Tikkun Olam, that literally means “heal the world”. Fix what was broken.
So it’s possible that in Star Wars the immanent part of the Force has been dormant and difficult to access. Exactly how long and what happened we don’t know, but I think that the fact that Luke probably went looking for the first Jedi Temple indicates that it predates the PT.
In The Force Awakens, this immanent part of the Force reawakens. And it is reawakened by Finn. His refusal to obey orders, his rejection of The First Order and what it stands for, changed something in the world. This is also noteworthy because in Judaism emphasis is on acting right, while beliefs are secondary.
And if that is true, if what awoke is the immanent part of the Force? It changes things immensely.
The difference between Force users and non-Force users would not just come down to training, but the difference between Force sensitives and non-Force sensitives would be eliminated. In having the Force as an active part of the world that everyone can interact with, influence and even - with the right training - use, this divide is no longer pertinent.
Here’s an interesting sidenote. One of the questions asked for the story of the ST (and the foundation of the new EU) was “what relevance does the Force have in the modern world?”. And for a transcendent Force, a transcendent divinity, the answer is as much or little as people want it to have for them. Those who don’t believe can safely go about their lives not really caring, but an immanent divinity, one that as the Force is very much real, now that suddenly becomes everyone’s concern.
And this leads me to my final point in this long meta, the balance in the Force.
Lor San Tekka says at the beginning of The Force Awakens “without the Jedi there can be no balance to the Force”. Many have taken this to mean the balance between the Light and the Dark, but I think it might mean a balance between the immanent Force and the transcendent Force. And that the Jedi are important because they stand in both worlds, the transcendent and the immanent, they span the bridge.
They are the focal points that can fix what was broken.
So when Han Solo says “that’s not how the Force works” he is partially right, it’s not how it used to work. But the rules changed when Finn’s actions awoke the immanent part and Finn, the new generation, have a much better grasp at how things work now.
So I’m sorry Han, but that is how the Force works. Now.
I would like to thank @hauntedfalcon for our brief talk. It sparked some thoughts without which this had been a much poorer meta, albeit also a much shorter one.
