16 hours ago, Daeglan said:

I didnt get that from the last jedi at all.

On this we agree.

On 7/2/2018 at 8:53 AM, ErikModi said:

*sigh* This again.

Okay, there are four misconceptions that people labor under which unfairly prejudice them against midichlorians. They are:

1) Midichlorians ARE the Force: False. Qui-Gon never says so, and nothing he says about midichlorians contradicts the statements by Obi-Wan and Yoda that the Force is an energy field created by all living things. All Qui-Gon says is that midichlorians live within beings in the Star Wars universe in a symbiotic relationship, that without them life would not exist and they would have no knowledge of the Force, and that they constantly speak to them, telling them the will of the Force.

2) Midichlorians create the Force: True with caveat. Midichlorians are living things, and the Force is an energy field created by all living things, so midichlorians do create the Force. So do humans, so do Rodians, so do Twi'leks, so do Hutts, so do mynocks, so do space slugs.

3) Midichlorians demystify the Force. Your Mileage May Vary, but in the same breath Qui-Gon explains midichlorians, he talks about the Force having a "Will," something it was not presented as having in the Original Trilogy. This makes it even more akin to a religious figure, a deity of some kind, than previously.

4) Midichlorians reduce Force-Sensitivity to simple biology: False. The prequels also reveal that Jedi are forbidden from marrying and having families, aside from a few spectacular exceptions (such as Ki-Adi Mundi, because of his species very low birthrate for males, every one was required to maintain genetic diversity, so he had three wives, as is Cerean custom). Now, some have said that while the Prequel Jedi forbid attachments and marriage, they didn't forbid casual sex, but that is unlikely to produce sufficient offspring to keep Force-Sensitive biology in the galactic population. In short, the Prequel Jedi would have bred themselves into extinction in a generation or two if Force-Sensitivity was purely a function of biology. Looking into the New Canon, the Skywalker family's genetic predisposition to Force-Sensitivity is seen as the exception rather than the rule, and new Force-Sensitives, like Rey and Broom Boy are being chosen by the Force itself to be wielders of its power. This also means that "midichlorian cocktails," blood transfusions, or other medical procedures won't bestow Force-Sensitivity, because while there is a biological component, there's more to the Force than mere biology.

My hypothesis is that, as real-life mitochondria translate energy from digested food into a form usable by our cells, midichlorians translate the energy of the Force into a form usable by the beings of the Star Wars universe. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thanks for writing this so I didn't have to do it myself. From the reaction I've seen to the idea it seems like people just heard the word "Midichlorians" and that very second stuck their fingers in their ears, screamed "LALALALALA!!! MIDICHLORIANS BAD!!! LALALALALA!!!" until Qui-Gon stopped talking, as everything and every theory that people say about it is completely wrong and against everything Qui-Gon said about it. It's like they just heard the term and decided to hate it right off for no reason to the point they have to make things up about Midichlorians to try to justify that hatred. That reaction then spread like wildfire, the false crap people made up about Midichlorians kept increasing and still is, and the subsequent and extremely unfair backlash resulted in pretty much the rest of Star Wars ignoring the whole concept. We unfortunately know very little true information about Midichlorians as a direct result of this, merely what little Qui-Gon says about it.

It's really unfortunate that Midichlorians didn't get expanded upon considering how much of Star Wars Midichlorians actually explains and thus how necessary they really are. Just for a start they explain why Obi-Wan doesn't just hand Han Solo or Chewie or any random Star Wars citizen a lightsaber, train them, and then send them off to go kill Darth Vader/ The Emperor. It explains why it's strictly necessary that Luke HAD to be the one to do it, even if random Joe Jedi had Force Sensitivity Luke is the only one with the Midichlorian count high enough to have the potential to be strong enough in the Force to have a chance in **** of pulling it off.

1 hour ago, immortalfrieza said:

Thanks for writing this so I didn't have to do it myself. From the reaction I've seen to the idea it seems like people just heard the word "Midichlorians" and that very second stuck their fingers in their ears, screamed "LALALALALA!!! MIDICHLORIANS BAD!!! LALALALALA!!!" until Qui-Gon stopped talking, as everything and every theory that people say about it is completely wrong and against everything Qui-Gon said about it. It's like they just heard the term and decided to hate it right off for no reason to the point they have to make things up about Midichlorians to try to justify that hatred. That reaction then spread like wildfire, the false crap people made up about Midichlorians kept increasing and still is, and the subsequent and extremely unfair backlash resulted in pretty much the rest of Star Wars ignoring the whole concept. We unfortunately know very little true information about Midichlorians as a direct result of this, merely what little Qui-Gon says about it.

It's really unfortunate that Midichlorians didn't get expanded upon considering how much of Star Wars Midichlorians actually explains and thus how necessary they really are. Just for a start they explain why Obi-Wan doesn't just hand Han Solo or Chewie or any random Star Wars citizen a lightsaber, train them, and then send them off to go kill Darth Vader/ The Emperor. It explains why it's strictly necessary that Luke HAD to be the one to do it, even if random Joe Jedi had Force Sensitivity Luke is the only one with the Midichlorian count high enough to have the potential to be strong enough in the Force to have a chance in **** of pulling it off.

I don’t disagree with any of this, however the whole chosen one, high Midichlorian count thing total breaks rpg game balance. There is zero in RAW on how to deal with someone strong in the force, ie almost anyone the Jedi order would have recruited.

1 hour ago, Eoen said:

I don’t disagree with any of this, however the whole chosen one, high Midichlorian count thing total breaks rpg game balance. There is zero in RAW on how to deal with someone strong in the force, ie almost anyone the Jedi order would have recruited.

Well, Jedi/Sith really should be OPed against anyone who isn't, they are in-universe, while ones who are strong in the Force even more so. Also no, being recruited by the Jedi Order doesn't mean anyone is strong in The Force, just that they've got enough power in it to pass basic training, being competent in it is enough. When we talk "Strong in The Force" we're talking someone who has innate Force Power beyond what the average Jedi possesses by default, but the average Jedi could still defeat the former if they are more skilled at using The Force than the one strong in The Force, is smarter, and/or is fortunate enough for events to go their way. i.e. there's a big gap between random Joe Jedi and Emperor Palpatine, but RJJ could still have a chance of beating Palpatine if the latter has let his skills atrophy or they get lucky enough, yet it's going to be an uphill battle all the way for RJJ regardless. Besides, aren't there like Force Ratings and opposing rolls for Force Power usage and such in RAW as it is? You also basically have to forgo everything else to get a high Force rating on a particular character and then you have to spend quite a bit of EXP on one or more Force Powers before any of them become more than marginally useful. If you're going to build a character who is strong in The Force you're going to be nearly useless at nearly everything else for a very long time if you're ever good at anything else at all, and if you're going up against an NPC enemy that is you've got weaknesses to exploit. Well, unless your GM is throwing around EXP like candy of course.

16 hours ago, immortalfrieza said:

Thanks for writing this so I didn't have to do it myself. From the reaction I've seen to the idea it seems like people just heard the word "Midichlorians" and that very second stuck their fingers in their ears, screamed "LALALALALA!!! MIDICHLORIANS BAD!!! LALALALALA!!!" until Qui-Gon stopped talking, as everything and every theory that people say about it is completely wrong and against everything Qui-Gon said about it. It's like they just heard the term and decided to hate it right off for no reason to the point they have to make things up about Midichlorians to try to justify that hatred. That reaction then spread like wildfire, the false crap people made up about Midichlorians kept increasing and still is, and the subsequent and extremely unfair backlash resulted in pretty much the rest of Star Wars ignoring the whole concept. We unfortunately know very little true information about Midichlorians as a direct result of this, merely what little Qui-Gon says about it.

It's really unfortunate that Midichlorians didn't get expanded upon considering how much of Star Wars Midichlorians actually explains and thus how necessary they really are. Just for a start they explain why Obi-Wan doesn't just hand Han Solo or Chewie or any random Star Wars citizen a lightsaber, train them, and then send them off to go kill Darth Vader/ The Emperor. It explains why it's strictly necessary that Luke HAD to be the one to do it, even if random Joe Jedi had Force Sensitivity Luke is the only one with the Midichlorian count high enough to have the potential to be strong enough in the Force to have a chance in **** of pulling it off.

Well based on the treatments Lucas talked about for the sequels midichlorians would have been even worse.