{"id":40515,"date":"2017-10-02T06:02:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T10:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=40515"},"modified":"2017-09-30T11:01:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T15:01:43","slug":"star-wars-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/star-wars-ends.html","title":{"rendered":"How Star Wars Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies that simply peters out several centuries from now without resolution).<\/p>\n

It will end in gray<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The evidence, he suggests, is to be found\u00a0in the prophecy and the idea of the Force being\u00a0balanced<\/em>, and the indication we\u2019ve already been given that Luke Skywalker is determined to be The Last Jedi. The implication is that the Jedi took the light side too far, always creating their Sith antithesis. The time has come to genuinely achieve balance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long seen that as the underlying message of Star Wars, in true Taoist fashion, and so I\u2019d be delighted if he is correct. It hasn\u2019t always been clear that George Lucas understood his own mythology that way. But he isn\u2019t running things now, and so we\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

In the Expanded Universe and a variety of Star Wars fiction, one finds that the Gray Jedi make regular appearances.<\/p>\n

Star Wars Fanon<\/a> offers this quote from Leor Danal:<\/p>\n

There must be both dark and light. I will do what I must to keep the balance, as the balance is what holds all life. There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish. There is passion, yet peace; serenity, yet emotion; chaos, yet order. I am a wielder of the flame; a champion of balance. I am a guardian of life. I am a Gray Jedi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It also includes the Gray Jedi Code:<\/p>\n

Flowing through all, there is balance<\/i>
\nThere is no peace without a passion to create<\/i>
\nThere is no passion without peace to guide<\/i>
\nKnowledge stagnates without the strength to act<\/i>
\nPower blinds without the serenity to see<\/i>
\nThere is freedom in life<\/i>
\nThere is purpose in death<\/i>
\nThe Force is all things and I am the Force<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

IO9\u2019s \u201cHistory of the Gray Force in Star Wars\u201d<\/a> includes the following:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my opinion that, at least to some in the galaxy, the Jedi might seem to want balance, but are really just as bad as the Sith in terms of orthodoxy. Their emphasis on order and monasticism over logic could be one reason why Anakin fell. To quote Jolee Bindo from the\u00a0Knights of the Old Republic<\/em>\u00a0video game, \u201cLove doesn\u2019t lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled\u2026 but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love\u2026 that\u2019s what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you\u2026 not condemn you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere in Star Wars news, IO9 asked what the \u201cbig reveal\u201d in The Last Jedi might be<\/a>. Another Patheos blogger talked about the formative influence of being a pre-teen Jedi wannabe<\/a>. The BBC<\/a> and P. Z. Myers<\/a> both looked at the Jedi religion. John Morehead<\/a> connected the next movie with religious disillusionment.<\/p>\n

Robyn Walsh has shared her thoughts on Star Wars as an educator and academic<\/a>. Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cStar Wars<\/em>\u00a0does tick many of the boxes we tend to cite if we are determining if something is a religion; for example: shared stories, practices, figureheads, hierarchy,\u201d said Dr. Walsh. \u201cAdd to this the fact that there are people out there seriously claiming to be Jedi, and you could conceivably argue that\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0is a \u2018new religious movement\u2019 that is only a few decades old and still finding its feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, personally, I think that it falls short of being a religion. At this stage, the groups forming around the movement are not cohesive. It is also not clearly derivative of an already-established tradition, so the parameters for things like which stories and practices are \u2018orthodox\u2019 are not terribly clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd,\u201d she added, \u201cit\u2019s uniquely difficult to \u2018start\u2019 a religion when your founding father is a guy from Modesto, California.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Neil Carter pointed out that quoting the Bible does not work like a Jedi mind trick<\/a>. And IO9 had an article<\/a> about the difficulties Wookipedia faces in trying to keep the new canon and other materials straight.
\n\"Gray
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies that simply peters out several centuries from now without resolution). It will end in gray. The evidence, he suggests, is to be found\u00a0in the prophecy and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":41474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,95],"tags":[975,3216,4054,14362,5612,9642,11364,11822,14599],"class_list":["post-40515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-star-wars-science-fiction","category-taoism","tag-balance","tag-evil","tag-good","tag-grey","tag-jedi","tag-prophecy","tag-sith","tag-star-wars","tag-whills"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Star Wars Ends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/star-wars-ends.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Star Wars Ends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mitchell Dostine believes that we already know how Star Wars will end (assuming that there is an end, and not an endless string of Disney Star Wars movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/star-wars-ends.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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