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Balance is Stupid

Balance is stupid

Balance is stupid. After having watched the “final” installment of the “final” trilogy of the Star Wars canon, the refrain that persisted in my mind was “balance is stupid.” Balance is a theme that has persisted through each of the nine Star Wars movies. In Episode I the prophecy of the “chosen one” was introduced; the prophecy of the one who would restore balance to the force. Concurrently, it is determined that the intrepid, adventurous, and downright irksome Anakin Skywalker is to be the fulfillment of the prophecy.

And yet, at the end of Episode III, Anakin has (perhaps) fulfilled the prophecy, bringing about the balance to the force through the decimation of almost the entirety of the Jedi, the magisterial warriors entrusted with administering justice and enacting righteousness. I find this to be a rather unsatisfactory state of affairs.

However, it might be argued that Anakin’s fulfillment of the prophecy of bringing “balance” to the force lies not in his actions at the end of Episode III,  but at the end of Episode VI, the last of the original trilogy. In the final moments, the dreaded Darth Vader, formerly the angsty irk known as Anakin, finds goodness in himself and turns on his master, Emperor Palpatine, to cast him down to his death. In killing Polpatine, Anakin/Vadar has seemingly destroyed the last of the Sith, those purveyors of heinous evil locked in eternal strife with the Jedi.

And yet, I find this an unsatisfactory state of affairs again; balance has not been restored! Evil has been defeated and goodness has triumphed! Once again, the refrain rises: “balance is stupid.”

Unsurprisingly, for there is money to be made, and all good stories require an antagonist, in Episode VII, evil is not defeated but has a new face: Kylo Ren. And with Ren, so too does there arise a new protagonist and face of good: Rey. Along with the two new proteges of good and evil, so too does the theme of balance once again arise. Perhaps best crystalized in the words of General Snoke: “Darkness rises, and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise.”

As I have considered this inevitability of balance in the Star Wars universe, I have been reflecting upon how much better the Christian story is. Where the Star Wars universe is left with either adhering to the rules of the universe and leaving off a story in a “balanced” state of good and evil or breaking the rules and allowing good to triumph, we live in a story where goodness does triumph! Justice does prevail! Balance is stupid!

This is precisely where we ended in the sermon on Sunday as well. This is what the great Christian authors have all attempted to illustrate: there is subtlety unmatched by any other story, there is nuance imperceived by the greatest minds, and there is the inevitability that goodness will prevail! Praise God! “Come further up! Come further in!” For the goodness of our God is barely glimpsed, and there is a whole horizon to which we can journey!

~Josh Spare