FireShot Capture 16319 - Star Wars_ The Chosen One Prophecy E_ - https___screenrant.com_star-war.jpg
Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One - and here's everything to know about how he fulfilled his destiny. When George Lucas launched the prequel trilogy with 1999's Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, he began the process of reinterpreting the saga. No longer was it the story of Luke Skywalker, but rather it was the tale of his father Anakin. In order to cement this idea, he revealed Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, a mysterious being with a unique destiny.
This added a new Messianic element to the Star Wars franchise, because Anakin was essentially a human vergence in the Force, conceived by the will of the Force itself. And yet, as important as the concept of the Chosen One was in the prequels, Lucas carefully avoided exploring it in detail. He never revealed the explicit words of the prophecy, and in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith even suggested (via Yoda) that it could have been misinterpreted. The one thing that could be said for certain was that Anakin Skywalker ultimately fulfilled his destiny on the Second Death Star, when he tossed Palpatine down a reactor shaft in Return of the Jedi. But even that now seems ambiguous, because the Emperor survived, transferring his spirit to a clone body and returning in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Like most mystical elements in Star Wars, there's still a great deal of mystery surrounding the Chosen One prophecy. For all that's the case, though, some details are indeed becoming clear. Here's everything known about the Chosen One, along with some of the implications raised by recent tie-ins.
The Origin Of The Chosen One Prophecy
FireShot Capture 16322 - Star Wars_ The Chosen One Prophecy E_ - https___screenrant.com_star-war.jpg
It's important to understand the early Jedi were very different to the order viewers saw in the prequel trilogy. Star Wars: The Last Jedi featured a mural dedicated to the Prime Jedi, the founder of the Jedi Order, and it suggested he was a servant of balance rather than dedicated to the light side of the Force. The dark and light aspects of the Force were given equal prominence in the mural, with the Prime Jedi representing the darkness in the light, and the light in the darkness. Cavan Scott's audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost supports the idea the original Jedi were agents of balance, introducing an ancient Jedi mantra that considers balance another aspect of the Force, and venerates it.
The prophecy of the Chosen One appears to date from this time, and it is part of a collection of prophecies foretelling a terrible trial that would threaten to overwhelm the galaxy. As revealed in Claudia Gray's novel Master & Apprentice, the Chosen One should be seen as a shining light of hope in a dark time:
The interpretation of such prophecies is tricky, and over the millennia the Jedi seem to have seen several of their number fall to the dark side through studying them. As Master Yoda taught, it is one thing to receive a vision of the future from the Force; it is another to pursue such visions, attempting to control the flow of events. Those who sought to understand the prophecies risked becoming so focused on their visions that they tried to do the latter, hence falling under the sway of the dark side. For this reason, for fear of the dark, only a handful of prequel era Jedi had ever studied the prophecies in detail. Qui-Gon Jinn was one of the few."A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored."
What Is The Balance Of The Force?
FireShot Capture 16325 - Star Wars_ The Chosen One Prophecy E_ - https___screenrant.com_star-war.jpg
The term "balance" has never really been defined in Star Wars, but an important clue can be found in comparing the Jedi with the Sith. Think of the Force like a great river, flowing towards the ocean; when a Jedi is perfectly balanced in and of themselves, they are like a cork caught up in the current, swept along on it. In contrast, the Sith reject the will of the Force, and attempt to impose their own wills upon it. Assuming the Jedi interpretation of balance is correct, the Sith are by nature an imbalance, as they egocentrically attempt to control the course of history. Thus the Jedi believed the Chosen One would be destined to destroy the Sith, an interpretation supported by out-of-universe reference books such as the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary. This conflated the Chosen One's act of restoring balance with "the end of the Sith."
An alternative view, however - one that seems to be more akin to George Lucas' own personal interpretation - is offered in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in the memorable Mortis arc. This story saw Anakin summoned to a mystical plane of existence to test whether or not he actually was the Chosen One. This realm was inhabited by three beings: Father, Son, and Daughter. Daughter represented the light side of the Force, Son the dark side, and Father the balance between them. His responsibility was to ensure the two lived in harmony together, neither overwhelming the other. If this view is correct, then both light and dark should be seen as essential parts of life. The Chosen One's role, like Father's, is to ensure neither is dominant in the galaxy as a whole.
Other Force traditions have their own definitions of balance. As an example, Greg Rucka's novel Guardians of the Whills contains a quote ascribed to a group called the "Ascendant of Mau," which seems to have significant bearing upon the issue.
FireShot Capture 16328 - Star Wars_ The Chosen One Prophecy E_ - https___screenrant.com_star-war.jpg
Note this contradicts both the Jedi and Sith Codes, because it suggests balance is to be found neither in serenity nor in passion, but rather in the moment between them. Furthermore, it envisions balance as a transitory state of affairs, something temporary, akin to "the moment between breaths." If the Ascendants of Mau are correct in their interpretation, then the Chosen One can only ever bring about a temporary balance.
Why The Force Had Lost Its Balance
FireShot Capture 16331 - Star Wars_ The Chosen One Prophecy E_ - https___screenrant.com_star-war.jpg
Whatever balance may be, this much is certain; the Sith are the greatest cause of imbalance in the Force. It's unclear whether this is true of all Sith cults, or simply the one founded by Darth Bane, which was able to operate in the shadows and build its power over the course of a millennium. The Jedi believed the Sith extinct, and thus were unaware of the manipulative minds orchestrating events across the galaxy. Little by little, the flow of the Force was redirected according to the Sith design. Palpatine was the culmination of this, the beneficiary of a thousand years' worth of planning. He was able to become Chancellor of the New Republic and then Emperor, dominating the galaxy. Worse still, because Darth Sidious had mastered the technique of Essence Transfer, he could potentially escape death and transfer into a dark side vessel. He became the imbalance made manifest, and without the Chosen One it is possible his Empire would have endured forever.
Interestingly, Lucasfilm has recently hinted there was also another source of imbalance; the Jedi themselves. The High Republic books and comics are set to redefine audiences' understanding of the Force, revealing previous generations of Jedi who had embraced individuality in a way those of the prequel era did not. Unfortunately, as Master Yoda grew dominant in the Jedi Order, his personal interpretation of the Force naturally overwhelmed all others. Thus the Jedi of the prequel era have a diminished understanding of the Force, and are just a shadow of their former glory. The light had dimmed, just as the darkness grew ascendant.