Category: Uncategorized

The “Yin Yang” Force balance has Jedi and Sith on the opposite sides of the scale. What would Lucas’s scales look like, where the dark side is an imbalance?

I have been strenuous in saying that the Asian concept of yin and yang does not fit the Light and Dark sides of the Force at all, especially if we posit the Dark side of the Force as an imbalance/evil, as you point out. Yin and yang are morally neutral; Asians do not believe good and evil have to be in balance, like we’re not some Alien Inscrutable Race who believe there has to be some evil in the world or whatever. (Not saying this is what you’re saying, anon, this is a long-built-up frustration of mine.)

However, in my conversations with @jewishcomeradebot I’ve come to recognize the possibility, though the movies show very little explicit recognition of it, that the Dark Side might not necessarily be evil and the Light Side not always be good. This isn’t to say murder and torture are now no longer evil so any shitheads who want to put those words in my mouth can kindly fuck off. Rather, the Light Side could represent compassion, peace, passivity, patience, and reason, all of which can be morally neutral in themselves. You can forgive too quickly and have compassion for the wrong person, for instance, which is arguably Rey’s story in TLJ. The Dark Side may represent passion, anger, and violence but these things in of themselves are not necessarily good or bad. Finn being angry at the First Order is justified, for instance, and the Resistance fighting back with violence against a genocidal First Order is a good thing.

I’d like to point out that even in this morally neutral conception the Light and Dark sides of the Force are still not yin and yang. In fact the Light side overlaps more with yin (shadow), while the Dark side has more in common with yang (light). It’s not a complete inversion either, because the Light side when it involves action verges on yang while the Dark side can also include, for instance, quietly waiting for a chance to strike, which is more in the yin polarity.

So yeah, there can be no “balance” of the Light and Dark if we see the Dark side itself as an imbalance, as in the case of the DS as used by Kylo Ren for evil ends. However, if we define the Light and Dark in morally neutral terms, we can see how characters like Finn and Rey are actually in a continual dynamic balance within themselves. For a related, though not exactly the same, analysis, see my meta on Finn and Rey’s interactions as a yin-yang dynamic (link).

Have you seen the reyl0 theory that their precious “””Ben””” built BB8 when he was a kid? They think BB8 is going to roll back into Ben’s arms in 9 and that is going to anger Poe and be one of the things that shows his ‘true’ Gaston/Wickham colours. Gag me with a spoon.

They’re really doing to Poe what they’ve been doing all along to Finn, huh? Everything good about Poe/Finn is really Benny Boy. Everything bad about Benny is actually true of Poe/Finn. Barf.

lj-writes:

lj-writes:

Okay enough fun and games. Baby’s sleeping, WRITE!

1,647 words in a day are more than enough, I’m tired and need to stretch. Thanks kiddo for sleeping so well, you’re a huge help.

@heartandstride Thank you for asking! I’ve decided to write at least a little every day to get past a recent block and keep up a rhythm. I’ve written every day for the past four days or so–I really have to start keeping track–even if it was less than a hundred words, and I’m getting to a place where I’m excited to write again. I’m only about 14,000 words into the current draft (this is like my third first draft God help me), but I’m happy with the direction it’s going so far and the characters keep tossing me big and small surprises as always happens in writing. My goal is to finish the current draft by next June and there will be days when I can’t write or can only write a little, so I’m trying to go steady if not fast.

It’s weird having to ease readers into such a different language and ways of thought. The novel is in English for now but I’m trying to replicate as much as possible the feel of how Koreans thought and spoke in the 1st century B.C. Korean does not natively have words for “North” and “South” and so on, for instance (ironic, seeing how these directions have come to geopolitically define us…), but rather used “behind” and “front” with the assumption that the speaker faced south. It’s a different way of conceptualizing directions where you first orient yourself, mentally speaking, instead of having the same direction regardless of where you’re facing.

The whole thing got confusing real fast today when the heroine looked over her shoulder while facing north, so in her head she was looking “forward” while facing “back.” Look, my whole story might be about fighting the Chinese occupation but credit where it’s due, I’m so glad my ancestors stole words for the cardinal directions and a whole lot besides from the Chinese.

Droids are like house-elves. They don’t mind being “slaves” unless they’re mistreated. Which makes L3 the Dobby of droids. That would be a hilarious AU, either where L3 wears a giant pillowcase and has giant metal ears, or where Dobby is a hulking magic tin lady that makes smart remarks.

Free will for a programmed entity is a really interesting and possibly troubling question, isn’t it? I remember being a bit “whoa” when it was mentioned that K2SO was a former Imperial droid who had been memory-wiped, but in the extended material he evidently volunteered for it.

I love both those AU images. They should meet each other in a crazy role-reversal crossover 😂