> This time around, I wasn't so bothered by the attempt to explain the mechanics of the Force through microscopic organisms called "mitichlorians" (sp?). In fact, I started to actually like the idea somewhat.

It's either spelt midi-chlorians or midichlorians. I had the Episode I book before, but sent it back.


> In the first place, mitichlorians allowed for a very measurable gauge of Anakin's power, or potential power -- more so than a Jedi Master simply saying, "I sense that the Force is strong with this one." [snip]

That's it exactly. It's a plot device, basically; I can't see how it can't be. The Problem: How could Lucas convey that Anakin was so strong in the Force even though he was untrained in using it?! Answer: The midi-chlorian index provides a quantifiable measurement of Force sensitivity. So the strength of a prospective Jedi's abilities early in life is identifiable only by his high midi-chlorian count.


> Finally, the existence of mitichlorians brings a more naturalistic, rational cast to the Force, as opposed to to sort of spiritual/mystical flavor it's always had up until now. On a purely subjective and personal basis, I'm more comfortable with the "scientific" explanation than the mystical one; it actually makes the Force somewhat more palatable for me. But that's mere opinion -- for others, the rational explanation might kill the intrigue that might have kindled their interest in the Force.

Yes... I was taken aback to hear fans complain that explaining this stuff simply "ruined" Star Wars for them by taking the mystery out of it and making it false, like a denial of spirit. Yet I beg to disagree. I don't quite have this negative reaction to the loss of wonder. That, in part, is probably due to guessing where Lucas was going with the midi-chlorian concept, in a biological analogy that is remarkable enough to make it interesting.

I believe Qui-Gon's description of the *midi-chlorians* was, "A microscopic life form that resides in ALL living cells and communicates the will of the Force... We are symbiont with them, living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist..." Concerning *The Force* itself, Yoda specified, "Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us."

What is clear here is: (1) the midi-chlorians themselves don't create the Force; they just sensitize a person to it. The presence of living cells in plants and animals and sentients continues to do the actual, mysterious black-box operation, somehow generating a sort of energy field that Jedis can use. (2) The way that Lucas presents it, he appears to be drawing a real-world analogy between midi-chlorians and the mitochondria in our bodies.

So why do I find this interesting? Because he's saying that the midi-chlorians are microscopic cellular symbionts, separate from us, which nevertheless dip into the "energy flow" for us while following their own agenda. And that's EXACTLY what mitochondria do. The Force, or at least the power to tap into it, is already inside all of us (or at least, sort of); the mitochondria are its mediators.

You've probably heard that mitochondria are called the "powerhouses of the cell" because they convert "food to energy" for us. This isn't *quite* true (I'll get to that in a moment). Anyway, all human cells really do contain tiny mitochondria as symbiotic organisms. What the high-school textbooks don't usually mention is that these things inside us are ALIEN. We don't actually "grow" mitochondria. Instead they are captured in our bodies while we're fetuses. They're the size of bacteria, and they contain their own strange DNA -- so they even reproduce in our cells independently, dividing just like bacteria do. Another indication of their external origin is that a mitochondrion is coated with 2 cellular membranes instead of one.

And we can't live without them. The mitochondria take our food in the form of a blood sugar (glucose), and they use that glucose to recharge a highly energetic molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate) out of its already-existing ADP precursor. It's this ATP that is "The Force" -- the fundamental carrier of energy that pervades the living world. Power is packaged in the energy molecule ATP; it supplies the force that drives fundamental processes inside the cells of animals, plants, fungi and protozoans... in short, in everything that isn't a bacteria to begin with. Truly we can say this is an "energy that surrounds us and binds us." But that, quite frankly, is as far as Lucas' analogy goes. Whether we can ever tap into the Force to move rocks and spaceships around, or whether the Force can be used to see the future and the past, and moreover what does this have to do with God, mysticism, and the fight between Good vs. Evil, is another issue entirely.

Rather than removing all the mystery and grandeur of it all, I believe that real-world analogies such as this... parables, as it were... can lend substance to an archetype. It gives the picture some teeth, i.e. little hooks to engage my imagination. I hate wishy-washy concepts because those have no staying power in the long run. Think about it -- for even fictional characters like Jedi to use the Force as they do, they must have an awareness and understanding of it *at least* as complex as the mitochondrial explanation. "Keep it vague" just doesn't cut it. So I find it a little unfortunate that Lucas' clear biochemical allusion, while fascinating, is shaky as a popular image -- the knee-jerk reaction upon seeing TPM is to conclude "midi-chlorians create the Force!" We know that that isn't what Qui-Gon says, but the popular analogy is indeed unfortunate. For people who were drawn to the original Star Wars' non-technical aspects -- its story, scale, and wonder -- the midi-chlorians seem a "lame" attempt to literalize a spiritual concept (i.e., the Force) by explaining it "scientifically". It is dependant upon the way we think about it. We tend to believe that giving an explicit name to something like this eliminates the very thing that made the movie's "message" appear accessible to all. Here again we fall prey to the human urge to keep spiritual concepts comfortably fuzzy, and keep them safely at arm's length. As Issachar noted, apparently it can kill the intrigue to discuss such issues rationally! At the same time, I can appreciate the attempt to give the mythos a more mindful weight.

Wolfspirit