The Best Star Wars Book Of All Time Completely Rewrote The Force… Why Did Lucasfilm Abandon It?

The best Star Wars book of all time completely redefined the Force, and yet the ideas were quickly dismissed as a Sith trick. Partly inspired by the concepts of yin and yang, George Lucas envisioned the Force as something with a powerful sense of duality to it. Even the first Star Wars movie revealed Darth Vader had been “seduced by the dark side of the Force“ (although it’s rather amusing to note this exciting idea was subverted in the prequels, essentially meaning “Anakin listened to the lies of a corrupt politician“).

There is, of course, more to the Force than either the Jedi or the Sith understand. That truth is central to the prequels, where the Jedi struggle to figure out what “the balance of the Force” really means, and even Yoda admitted the Chosen One prophecy could have been misread. But in 2002, one book in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe – Matt Stover’s Traitor – actually dared to dive deep into the philosophy of the Force. It proposed a completely different take…

Traitor Transformed Our Understanding Of The Force

To understand Traitor, you really have to understand the story of the “New Jedi Order.” In 1999, Del Rey relaunched the range of Star Wars novels, with an ongoing narrative in which extragalactic invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong launched a devastating attack on the galaxy. In Troy Denning’s Star By Star, Coruscant itself was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong. One of Han and Leia’s children, Anakin, tragically died; another, Jacen, was captured by the Vong. In Traitor, he was transported to the reshaped Coruscant, where an enigmatic Jedi named Vergere attempted to transform him into something new.

Vergere subscribed to what would become known as the “Potentium,” the idea there is in truth no real light or dark side to the Force at all – there is only the Force. She believed darkness came from within, and that the very idea of the dark side was basically just an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for your own actions. “Choose, and act,“ she taught Jacen. Choose based on what you believe to be right, disregarding the idea of external corruption, while critically analyzing your own motives. It’s a remarkable reinterpretation of the Force.

The Potentium’s Teachings Turned The Jedi Into Something Else

By the end of the “New Jedi Order” range – James Luceno’s excellent novel The Unifying Force – the entire Jedi Order had accepted the Potentium. They continued to follow these teachings in Troy Denning’s Dark Nest trilogy, and its impact became particularly notable there; Luke Skywalker even used dark side Force powers at some points, exerting so much dark side power that he began to age in a manner reminiscent of Palpatine himself. But there was a problem with this philosophy.

It’s important to remember that the “New Jedi Order” story began in 1999, the same year George Lucas unveiled his vision of the prequels Jedi Order. The Expanded Universe had created Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Order with only basic guidance from Lucas, and it’s telling that this vision of the Jedi didn’t even include rules on attachment (Luke was married to former Emperor’s Hand Mara Jade, underlining the point). Lucas’ prequels essentially redefined the Jedi… and his version looked a little too different to the one seen in the books.

Why Lucasfilm Ditched The Potentium “Heresy”

Ultimately, I think Lucasfilm concluded the post-NJO Jedi Order was simply too different to the one seen in the movies. Lucas had defined what it meant to be a Jedi, and it looked nothing like the Potentium; ergo, the Potentium must be wrong. The books walked back on this, calling it the Potentium Heresy, even going so far as to retcon Vergere as not a Jedi but a Sith who had manipulated Jacen to turn him to the dark side. Jacen, the champion of the Potentium Heresy, became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus in the “Legacy of the Force” series.

This whole story may seem like something of a historical footnote, given the “New Jedi Order” books aren’t canon anymore. But it’s still important, not only because Matt Stover’s Traitor remains such a compelling read and an intense exploration of the Force, but also because it offers a cautionary note to canon. Many viewers hope for Rey Skywalker to reform the Jedi Order, abandoning problematic tenets such as the Jedi view on attachment, but they must recognize the same thing Lucasfilm did back then; George Lucas has defined what it means to be a Jedi, and the core ideas must remain.

The mistake Lucasfilm made with the Potentium was allowing the entire Jedi Order to embrace this teaching. Had it remained the province of Jacen Solo, then he could have been simply an unusual character with a unique perspective on the Force; but under the Potentium, the Jedi became something a little too different to Lucas’ vision, and so there had to be a radical course-correction. Lucasfilm will surely avoid repeating the same mistake with Rey’s New Jedi Order in canon, having learned from the experience. The next Jedi Order will be carefully designed to be famililiar to Star Wars viewers.

Buy Traitor from Amazon