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In Star Wars, the Jedi prophecy reveals “A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored”. It was originally thought that this referred to Anakin Skywalker, then Luke after he and Anakin killed the emperor.

In The Rise of Skywalker, we learn

that the emperor is still alive and the force is still without balance. Then at the end of TROS after Rey defeats Palpatine the force is now balanced and exists in the last remaining Jedi who is not of the bloodline of Anakin Skywalker but is in fact a descendant of the emperor.

Since Rey was born of a father,

does this make the Jedi prophecy incorrect?

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No. It does not.

Near the end of the film, Anakin Skywalker's voice tells Rey:

"Rey... Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did... The Force surrounds you, Rey... Let it lift you."

So this implies that Anakin did bring balance, destroy The Sith, but it just didn't last. For all intended purposes, he is still The Chosen One (just not necessarily the only one who will ever have to try and bring balance to the Force).

The Jedi prophecy foretold the destruction of the Sith, but it never predicted the end of darkness. Although Anakin Skywalker brought the Force back into balance, the Jedi Order was decimated by his actions as Darth Vader, leaving Luke Skywalker as the last of the Jedi. Despite the fall of the Sith and the restoration of balance in the Force, the dark side endured as remnants of the former Galactic Empire reorganized into the First Order under Supreme Leader Snoke....

One year after the Battle of Crait, through unknown reasons associated with his mastery over the dark side, Darth Sidious resurfaced alive on the ancient Sith world of Exegol, approaching Kylo Ren to serve him by bringing to him the Jakku scavenger known as Rey, a Force prodigy who was Sidious' granddaughter and who had been recently apprenticed by Luke Skywalker before his death on Crait, in order to bring back the Sith and restore his tyrannical rule over the galaxy, essentially planning to undo the effects the Chosen One prophecy brought about with Anakin's sacrifice. However, Ben Solo ultimately redeemed himself after a duel with Rey and the latter went to face Sidious and the Sith Eternal, his loyalists. A final battle of the Resistance against Sidious' forces followed shortly afterwards, during which Rey received the help from all the great Jedi of the past to destroy Sidious once and for all and exterminate the Sith for good. Among them, was Anakin Skywalker's spirit, who asked her to use part of his power to bring balance to the Force like he once did as the Chosen One.

If The Force is similar to something like Dharma, then it has breakdowns (unbalance) and then has to work to "course-correct" to revive said balance (times of peace). But then balance is not a constant.

Continuing on in the Skywalker Saga timeline with future 'Skywalkers' was always going to be a bit of a risk, as like the title of the franchise suggests, Star Wars relies on there being large-scale conflict that needs to be resolved (or at least resolved in storytelling terms), but expanding on it in any way would mean new conflicts would have to arise for there to even be a story.

That's not to say that there haven't been lots of viewpoints in both the current canon or the former EU about what the Force is "exactly", how it works, what it wills, and/or how the use of it (methodology) should or shouldn't be applied to a philosophy.

Argumentatively, the sequel trilogy goes out of its way to remind the audience of the prequel-era Jedi failures and how the Jedi philosophy needed to evolve, which Rey (and Finn) might begin to do...


There is even a multi-book & comic series coming out titled Project Luminous.The following is its logline:

The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. Until... Project Luminous.

This suggests that (at some time, at some point) something or someone was able to take control over the Force! (The Whills?) So whatever we think we know about it, is still in the process of discovery!

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    I would subscribe to this idea of a temporary balance if it weren’t that the prophecy promised “ultimate balance”. Therefor Anakin or Luke could not have fulfilled it if their efforts were temporary. Per TROS Rey did achieve this “ultimate balance” but doesn’t meet the qualifications of the prophecy (she was born of a father). That said ultimate prophecies are problematic in this universe but nonetheless they’ve been introduced by Lucas and need to be dealt with effectively.
    – Kram62
    Dec 27, 2019 at 21:47
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    In the prequels Yoda questions the prophecy and in the book Master & Apprentice added some new context to the prophecy (gives us the actual prophecy) and other prophecies. So I think even within the canon there are arguments about what it means, as it is even thought that Luke also played a role in achieving that balance, but that doesn't mean that balance wasn't achieved, because nowhere is it stated that balance is permanent, or that it ends all darkness from emerging again. The Sith were destroyed, but someone attempted to bring them back again. starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Chosen_One Dec 27, 2019 at 22:12
  • Wait, when did Anakin bring balance to the Force? He helped the Sith destroy the Jedi and then finally botched killing the Emperor and left only Luke, who himself then botched trying to rebuild the Jedi order and left the Sith and Snoke unopposed. At no time was the force ever balanced.
    – user
    Mar 20, 2020 at 9:49
  • @user, while there is a fair argument to that, the mythology relates to the notion that Anakin/Luke met the criteria of the prophecy, the Sith were destroyed, until someone (Sith Eternal/Loyalists) brought them back again. It may have been a brief time, but balance in this case was about destroying the Sith and Rey is then tasked with bringing Balance again... Mar 20, 2020 at 18:38

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