If anybody could be trained in the force then why wouldn’t everybody be trained in the force? Telepathy, mind control, seeing into the future, extreme athleticism, and more. Why would anyone pass this up? Makes far more sense that only some people are born force sensitive. You’d have to be a moron NOT to know you have the chance to essentially become a superhero and ignore it!
shareIt was an unnecessary explanation. That some people are more attuned to the force and can learn to manipulate is sufficient. Artists, engineers, scientists, sociologists, athletes all have natural aptitudes to their goals. Training is necessary.
I, for example, am a poor athlete. I'm physically fairly strong and my endurance is good (or at least it was between 15 and 50. At 60 I can see some of that failing.) But I do not have the coordination and reactions that an athlete needs.
I do have aptitude in some of the sciences; but not enough to make a good career out of.
I have aptitude in some arts, which I use; not for income but in certain competitive endeavors.
I am pretty good at one on one personal skills and that is where my career led me.
Everyone is different and has different abilities. But we don't have to have microscopic organisms in us to achieve them. The midichlorians were explanation for a non-existent question.
It's mundane, it's sloppy writing, and if you think about it, it's deeply illogical.
So Lucas wants a way to establish that this annoying child has extremely strong Force powers and the Jedi master is consequently very interested in the sprat, that's got to go into the script somehow. Fine. So, instead of Qui-Gon being able to sense the kid's powers or the kid doing something with the Force, which would be the obvious way to cover that plot point, there's a blood test.
Which establishes the Force powers in two seconds of screen time with no CGI needed, but which raises all sorts of awkward questions. Like, why aren't all kids tested? Shouldn't the Jedi be covering th ed galaxy looking for Anakins and Luke's? Or Leia, for that matter, i can believe poor kids in lawless areas arent tested, but surely royal Jedi allies have their kids tested?
exactly this^
Yoda's awesome speech in ESB about what the Force is was thrown into the garbage and our cool, spiritual knights turned into disease carriers.
Yes, it essentially traps the force into a box where where it can be measured to varying degrees as if it is some kind of scientific experiment. The force is supposed to be about fantasy, not science. The two concepts are polar opposites. While the two can mingle, going for one genre not established in the cannon creates inconsistent storytelling instead of world-building, which is probably what George Lucas was trying to do.
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I was never a big fan of midichlorians but never shared the over the top hatred some fans have & have come to accept them for what they were. Largely being used as a plot device to help the narrative of explaining Anakin's uniquely strong connection to the force. After TPM they were only ever briefly mentioned again once so in the grand scheme of things it's pretty easy to ignore them.
shareI say this as a person who was always a much bigger Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan. By the 90s Star Trek became saddled with technobabble. I remember thinking in the late 90s that maybe Lucas had the right idea of not trying to explain everything and leaving some mystery. Then he had to ruin that and introduce the midichlorian technobabble.
shareI enjoy Star Trek technobabble, and to be honest, the franchise had it from the start.
Let me be clear. I love physics and when Trek talks real physics or even plausible extrapolations of real physics concepts and theories I love that. I just can’t stand technobabble where the writers just make something up to move the plot along.
shareWe ARE talking about a science fiction franchise set in the far future. Who knows what would really happen by then?
With the possible exception of a successful solution to grand unification in the interim the known fundamental laws of physics in three hundred years will likely be the same known fundamental laws of physics we have now. Still GU will only matter in problems where both quantum mechanics and relativity are needed to solve the problem at the same time.
shareFair enough, but don't let it bother you so much. In any case, I saw the whole midichlorian thing as being commonly known in a time when Jedi were part of peacekeeping and law enforcement as a kind of technical minutiae, and long before the Empire rose, such information was lost except to the Sith and the Jedi became mythical "sorcerers", as that Imperial officer says to Vader.
The Charles Dickens use of plot device convenience. That's what happens when the writers are rushed for time, creating a middle story, without a beginning or end structure to smooth out the rough edges.
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They hated it because it completely effed up the franchise's mythology by stripping it of its Eastern mysticism, as well as demistified The Force. The Force is supposed to be a mysterious entity that anyone can tap into if they're attuned to it, not a physiological thing that can be tested in the bloodstream like chromosome markers or oxygen levels.
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