Star Wars: The Force Versus Anti-Force

The Cackle Heard Round the World

Then came the end of the teaser trailer at Star Wars Celebration.  The trailer runs.  The screen goes dark, and the most sinister cackle in all of Star Wars returns.  Darth Sidious, the most manipulative and successful Sith Lord ever returns.  What does this do to the balance of the force?  Quite a bit actually.

In the canon universe, life after death is a newer concept that did not exist before Qui-Gonn figured it out.  Since then five Jedi that we know of have maintained their individuality after death (Qui-Gonn, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin and now Luke).  Why would the Sith be any different?  Because what Sidious seems to have perfected goes against the nature of the force.  In essence Darth Sidious is now the Anti-Force.

Force Vs Anti-Force

Although the Jedi learn how to become spirits and pass on what they learn, when the chips are down, they do not interfere.  First Ben then Luke both say to their pupils, this is your fight.  Everything rides on you now because we cannot interfere.  Now with Sidious we have a life form that will never die and can participate in the events of the universe as long as he chooses.  That is unnatural.  Sidious even tells Anakin this: “The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities; some consider to be unnatural.” What if the Force finds Sidious’ new powers “unnatural”?

So how does the force deal with something it cannot control?  The universe will forever be out of balance if Sidious cannot be controlled?  Well, Dave Filoni gave us the answer in Clone Wars.  The Mortis dagger contains the power to end any force being, no matter how powerful.  Perhaps what we witness in Episode 9 is the force summoning both of its halves, light and dark, to work together with the Mortis dagger to end Darth Sidious and restore true balance back to the universe.

Now some may ask why the Force would need both the light and dark sides to do this.  Perhaps in a past age it would not, but with Rey leading the light side and Kylo/Ben leading the dark, neither one of these champions could beat Sidious one on one.  Also note that so far we have yet to see Darth Sidious face in any of the trailers, even though Ian McDairmid confirmed his return.  Sidious could be a couple hundred years old by now, or he could be in his late 50s and healed from all the damage we saw in Ep 1-6.  We do not know enough right now to know Sidious’ physical state, but there can be no doubt that Rey and Kylo will both have to work together to stop him and restore true balance once more.