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Hi there, my name is Steve and I’m a Star Wars nerd. I don’t dress up in costumes (although I don’t hide in fear from those who choose to), and I’ve never been to a convention solely for Star Wars, (not to say that Comic-Con isn’t nerdtacular, ‘cause it is). But I do unabashedly and unequivocally love Star Wars. I love the movies, I love the characters, I love the visuals, I love the music, and I even love some of the toys and games. And I have to tell you, it’s not easy to be a Star Wars fan these days, especially if you like the prequels as I do.

I know what you may be thinking, “how can you stand those movies?” I get that a lot. What’s sad is that you might be thinking that and you consider yourself a fan of the original trilogy. Lots of people have become disenfranchised with the, er, franchise, and have lots of criticisms to heap onto the new films. I also get a lot of the same points brought up to me from a lot of different people when I talk about Star Wars, and mostly I just kind of smile and nod. But since there’s such an overwhelming sense of cynicism out there surrounding these prequels, I figured it was high time I said my piece about some common complaints, and why I don’t feel the same way. So let’s get started, shall we?

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is easily the more reviled of the first two prequels and probably because of one name—Jar Jar Binks. I would love to defend the poor Gungan, partly because I like a challenge and partly because I think people overreact to him. That said, he’s a topic too big to cover here, but I will get to it sometime down the line. What I do have time and space to cover are the concept of midi-chlorians, why it’s important to show Anakin as a little boy, and the significance of galactic politics.


Midi-chlorians
Midi-chlorians, if you haven’t been playing along at home, are microscopic organisms that live in the cells of every living thing in the Star Wars universe. These tiny creatures help create and facilitate one’s connection to the Force. Their presence is necessary to explain a lot of things from reasons and concepts as simple as why droids can’t become Jedi, to helping explain the motivations of the Emperor and Darth Vader later on in the saga. Let’s take a look at a question that needs the concept of midi-chlorians to be answered satisfactorily:

Why did the Emperor choose to corrupt Anakin Skywalker as his Sith Apprentice rather than any other Padawan?

Without midi-chlorians, this question’s tough to answer. Anakin has a strong bond with the force, but why? If connection to the Force is purely based on who trains hardest and who concentrates the best, couldn’t someone potentially do that better than Anakin?

With midi-chlorians, it’s simple—Anakin’s got a lot of the little buggers, therefore he has the best potential connection to the force. It’s also important because when Anakin is injured, becoming Darth Vader and “more machine…than man”, he loses living tissue. Since midi-chlorians only exist in living tissue, Anakin’s connection to the Force is severely hampered. This leads to the Emperor seeking to replace Darth Vader with his son who, minus a right hand, is fully intact and chock-full of precious midi-chlorians.

Does the concept of midi-chlorians detract from the power of the Force? Yes, I think so. The Force was just kind of cooler when it was a mysterious power, a symbol of spirituality and dedication with no understandable anchor. That said, from purely plot and character motivation standpoints, I feel like it’s a necessary evil. It instantly explains away a lot of complex questions and inconsistencies pretty efficiently. Furthermore, the midi-chlorians themselves serve the theme of interconnectedness and symbiotic relationships as opposed to parasitic ones. This parallels the Jedi’s Master/Padawan relationship as compared to the Sith’s tradition of the Apprentice suddenly and violently seizing power from his or her Master.


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