This Is How Star Wars Can Redeem Midichlorians

[Something Amyss]

However, I still do not understand the hate that Star Wars fans seem to have for the idea of Midichlorians.

I'm not a huge fan of science trying to explain my space magic, or the inconsistencies between the old trilogy and the new trilogy, but I really don't get the hate either.

 

[HBaskerville]

Explaining magic with science is always dumb.

 

[happyninja42]

Because the explanation of the midichlorians doesn't actually explain anything. How do these little biological thingies allow energy and awareness to cross distances of a galactic scale?

They don't. They sense and channel that energy, not project it.

How?

Again, it is still the "mystical" Force doing the literal heavy lifting here. The midichlorians just allow the Jedi/Sith/whatever to channel the Force. How does the Force lift heavy crap and toss it around? We don't know.

Then why bother trying to explain it if you're not going to actually explain it?

It doesn't, it doesn't explain anything.

Asides from why certain animals can be Force sensitive, or why Force sensitivity is passed down through bloodlines, or why some Force users are outright more powerful than others, or how the Jedi even identified Force-sensitives, et cetera, et cetera. In other words, the things that it was meant to explain. The real handwave nonsense would be to answer all of these questions with "Oh, because the Force is mystical, and do pretty much anything."

But that's just it, it doesn't explain how this is possible. All it does it change the reason from something unknown, to something equally unknown, but with a biological source. They don't explain why these midichlorians have anything to do with the force, or why having more of them make you more force powerful. It just stuck a specific definition on something that didn't need any explanation. Especially an explanation that doesn't provide any new information on how it works. I agree that they are both handwaves, but the fact that there wasn't any need to explain why the force works, especially in a lame scientific way, that actually doesn't explain anything. He simply changed the answer from "Because Reasons" to "Because Midichlorians". That provides no new true information, or actually expand anything whatsoever. It didn't need to be there at all.

It just makes a really stupid "scientific" reason for something that before was mysterious and mystic, without actually doing anything to explain how it works. It basically replaces "It's a mystery" with "It's SCIENCE! LULZ", but doesn't actually provide any new information on the matter at all. It would've been better to just leave it a mystery, instead of trying to provide some lame scientific, hand wave excuse for it.

It was never meant to explain "how it works." It applies science to mysticism in an ostensibly science-oriented universe, without actually demystifying anything. The things that midichlorians don't explain are precisely what still make the Force the mystical, omnipresent energy field that it is. Having a scientific basis for why certain people can sense/manipulate it and why others cannot does nothing to ruin what makes the Force mysterious.

I didn't say anything about making it less mysterious, I said it doesn't actually explain anything, or provide any real new information on the subject. It answered a question that didn't need answering. If the actual function of the Force itself is still mystic and mysterious, then what is the point of adding midichlorians to the story? It doesn't, as you said, explain how the force works, it just sticks a science label on something that is, at it's core, still explained via mystic methods. So why bother? Why even go to the effort to explain it? Just leave the whole thing mystic if you aren't going to actually explain how it works. And saying it's because of these microbes doesn't actually explain anything. And honestly, I don't really want him to, it's not something that needs to be explained, just like all the other stuff that doesn't make any scientific sense in the star wars-verse. If Because It's Cool is a good enough reason for why the space ships make sound in space, and fly like planes do in an atmosphere, then why single out the force for a "real" reason for it? Just leave it all vague, instead of having a reason that actually doesn't provide anything new to the story.

 

[J-thacker]

Interesting, however,I've always assumed Midichlorians were similar to Mitochondria. Even the names are similar. (Accent single cellular organism, that have formed a symbiosis with multi cellular organisms and are responsible for life as we know it).

So, we have similar name, similar origin stories.

It would make force sensitive less like a microbial infection and more like skin colour. depending on lineage an increased or decreased amount or affinity to bind with midichlorians on a cellular level.

 

[J-thacker]

Interesting, however,I've always assumed Midichlorians were similar to Mitochondria. Even the names are similar. (Accent single cellular organism, that have formed a symbiosis with multi cellular organisms and are responsible for life as we know it).

So, we have similar name, similar origin stories.

It would make force sensitive less like a microbial infection and more like skin colour. depending on lineage an increased or decreased amount or affinity to bind with midichlorians on a cellular level.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

I got the impression that while Jedi can sense other force users, the Midichlorian test was simply to measure their potential through the abundance of a parasite. If they are a Jedi, but have virtually no force potential, then there's no point in training them. As for the spiritual argument that logic seems to run counter to the general hostility towards Anakin's fatherless conception and the general acceptance of genetic theory by the same people. As for the scientific explanation, I'm not sure genetic mutations could give you so many abilities in one go. However,for the force awakens to have Jedi and Sith, it looks like they'll either have had to be hiding all this time or else that the Force does occasionally create more Jedi or 'awaken' abilities within people...

EDIT:...wait...did I just get suckered into commenting on an article that says not to address midichlorian, while doing the complete opposite...

 

[aquarius87]

this is why I always prefered star wars over star trek.
Star Trek always made a point of explaining all the technology behind it's lore.
Most things fell flat with a basic knowledge of physics.

One time, I remeber a guy explaining how some high tech weaponry worked...and I thought "hey, I have that right here at home...it's called a flash light".
With Star Wars it was always like BAM space-magic, that's just how it is!

 

[Ishigami]

Okay but as far as the movies are concerned at the end of Return of the Jedi only one trained Jedi is alive: Luke.
And he could know jack shit about Midichlorians since nobody ever told him in the movies.
It?s a good setup for ?lost knowledge?. In this case one that just stay lost.
I?m very much for never ever mentioning it again.

 

[Pops16]

The original movies portrayed the Force as a religious or moral concept - good vs. evil, light vs. dark, calm v. aggression. Shoehorning in a scientific explanation takes you out of those dichotomies a little. The air of mystery the Force had adds to the lore. The biological explanation doesn't add much to the equation. That is why I didn't care for it.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Eh, I think the Force as a disease makes much more sense. For instance, there are diseases you can pass on to your offspring (HIV comes to mind). Also, the strict training the Jedi undergo probably weakens their immune systems or something, allowing the midichlorians to thrive. Also, like with genes, people can be carriers of a disease and not ever have any symptoms. Also, one of the things that makes some diseases so scary is how they can change, suddenly becoming far more potent than before. In this case, perhaps a random mutation in midichlorians leads to an outbreak of Force sensitivity- an awakening, if you will.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Since I played Parasites Eve I was okay with midichlorians the problem was a lack of mysticism and depth in everything but the CGI and saber fights..

 

[immortalfrieza]

Because the explanation of the midichlorians doesn't actually explain anything. How do these little biological thingies allow energy and awareness to cross distances of a galactic scale? How does it allow a force user the ability to lift tons of weight with his mind? It doesn't, it doesn't explain anything.

It explains plenty. Specifically:

1. Why some people are able to use the Force and why some people are stronger with it than others.

2. How the Force Orders are able to find out who is Force Sensitive and who isn't and thus able to find them to train them.

3. Most importantly for that scene, it explains why Anakin is notable. He has an excessive amount of Midichlorians, more than has ever been recorded, therefore he's probably pretty damned strong in The Force and probably has a pretty significant role to play.

The Midichlorians don't explain anything about The Force itself and I don't think it was ever intended to, it's still as mystical and mysterious as ever. The Midichlorians just explain why people are able to use it. It's like how in how in countless fantasy settings there's various explanations for how people can use magic but if the author wants magic to be a mysterious and unknowable force it still is despite that.

Snip

Fanboy whining is a pretty good way to put it. In fact, most of the criticisms I hear people giving prequel trilogy boils down to "it's not the original trilogy therefore it's bad." If the prequels had come first I think a great deal of the problems people seem to have with it now would go unnoticed or people wouldn't care about them. After all, most of those problems are ones the original trilogy especially Return of the Jedi also had but nobody cared about them because it was a new fresh IP nobody had a chance to get invested in yet.

 

[Rhykker]

[...]If the prequels had come first I think a great deal of the problems people seem to have with it now would go unnoticed or people wouldn't care about them. After all, most of those problems are ones the original trilogy especially Return of the Jedi also had but nobody cared about them because it was a new fresh IP nobody had a chance to get invested in yet.

To be fair, if the prequels came first - The Phantom Menace, specifically - I don't think there would have been any other movies. Fanboy nitpicks aside, they were objectively worse movies than the original trilogy in almost every way. Pacing, acting, plot, drama, etc. The reason we nitpick is because it's easy to find scapegoats like Jar Jar and midichlorians that can sum up everything that is terrible about these movies in a few short words or brief images.

 

[veloper]

Interesting, however,I've always assumed Midichlorians were similar to Mitochondria. Even the names are similar. (Accent single cellular organism, that have formed a symbiosis with multi cellular organisms and are responsible for life as we know it).

So, we have similar name, similar origin stories.

It would make force sensitive less like a microbial infection and more like skin colour. depending on lineage an increased or decreased amount or affinity to bind with midichlorians on a cellular level.

That would also make the force trait something that can be passed on only through the mother, so the queen would have to have been the strong force user, instead of Anakin.

I like the viral explanation on this page better.

 

[J-thacker]

That would also make the force trait something that can be passed on only through the mother, so the queen would have to have been the strong force user, instead of Anakin.

I like the viral explanation on this page better.

In Mitochondria that would be true. With Midichlorians they could easily be passed on my both OR just using the films as cannon could only be passed via the Paternal line.

However, since Luke and Leia have different sensitivity to the force it would be more likely they are passed by both parents.

 

[VoidWanderer]

IF you have to have Midichlorians, treat them like steroids...

 

[J-thacker]

Okay but as far as the movies are concerned at the end of Return of the Jedi only one trained Jedi is alive: Luke.
And he could know jack shit about Midichlorians since nobody ever told him in the movies.
It?s a good setup for ?lost knowledge?. In this case one that just stay lost.
I?m very much for never ever mentioning it again.

No one ever taught him how to make a lightsaber but he managed. According to the star wars original trilogy visual dictionary, he learned using Obi Wan's dairies. They could have taught him about Midichlorians.

 

[Codey]

Surely any knowledge of "the science" of The Force was lost, when the Jedi were pretty much eradicated. Neither Yoda nor Obiwan passed it on to Luke.

Scientific explanations to magic serves no purpose in my opinion other than to demystify it, which in-universe usually undermines it. I can better suspend my disbelief when I am not asked to analyse an explanation. If something works consistently in-universe, I'll "just go with it".

Out-of-universe I see only purpose when trying to replicate something, but I don't see that here. You cannot replicate The Force in the real world, and even if you could, you wouldn't do it at this level. Science is usually about working backwards to explain something that is. The Force is not something that is, and there is no way to work backwards from there. Engineering (that is, working forward) is only possible when the building blocks actually exists and those only do in-universe.

 

[Remus]

People, you're missing an incredibly easy explanation (and my personal headcanon):

The Jedi had it bass-ackwards. The Force creates midichlorians, not the other way around.

That would make midochlorians like a radioactive isotope or a biological waste product - the result of Force users using the Force repeatedly, something Anakin had been shown to already be doing, by using precognition to race in pod races. By pulling this difficult feat, and doing it repeatedly, he was effectively adding to the midoclorian count in his bloodstream with each race.

 

[TheMadJack]

Why not just accept the fact that it is what it is? This isn't up for debate, this isn't up to you or me to decide what it is, how it acts and if it should be named the way it is or not. It is what it is. Deal with it.

That's how the story is and that's it. Please stop that. As a sci-fi author that kind of talk is heckling me as hell.