There's A Great Disturbance In The Fandom About Whether Sabine Is Force-sensitive Or Not. So Let's Take

There's a great disturbance in the fandom about whether Sabine is Force-sensitive or not. So let's take a look from the beginning.

In A New Hope, Obi-Wan explains the Force as:

It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

And according to George Lucas himself:

In Rebels, Kanan uses Obi-Wan's explanation for the Force more than once. There's an important conversation in Trials of the Darksaber, which is related to this and to Sabine.

Hera: Or maybe because she doesn't have the Force, you don't believe she can do this?

Kanan: No. The Force resides in all living things. But you have to be open to it. Sabine is blocked. Her mind is conflicted. She's so expressive and yet so tightly wound. She's so...

Hera: Mandalorian.

Kanan: Very.

Kanan never says Sabine doesn't have the Force. On the contrary, Hera says she doesn't have it and Kanan says no. What Kanan says implies that Sabine does have it, she's just not open enough to wield it.

Keep those quotes in mind for later.

Now, we have to address the Bantha in the room: the midichrolians. We're introduced to this concept in the prequels trilogy, I believe. It serves as a more technical explanation of the Force. The SW fandom wiki offers this definition:

Again, the midichrolians are in all living organisms because the Force resides in all living things.

As far as the movies go, we don't know how high the M-count has to be for someone to be able to wield the Force. We just know Anakin has a count of over 20.000 and that it's a very high number, so he's very strong in the Force.

We can assume that the higher the midichrolians, the more aptitude the user has in the Force.

I'm guessing Sabine has a low M-count, thus limited abilities in the Force because of this line in episode 2 of Ahsoka:

Huyang: I have know many padawns over the centuries, and I can safely say your aptitude in the Force would fall short of them all.

Some people interpreted this line as "Sabine isn't Force-sensitive at all." What I understand from that line is that Sabine sucks at using the Force.

Either way, midichrolians haven't even been mentioned in the show, but I've seen people talk about it regardless. I find most discussion of this kinda pointless because there's not much to go on, so we can only speculate.

Moving on. In episode 3, Ahsoka trains Sabine blindly so she has to rely on the Force to see. I think a lot of people missed that Sabine did, in fact, use the Force in that scene. Watch carefully.

2:16. After Sabine has grown impatient for not succeeding, she finally manages to sense Ahsoka's presence (she still couldn't see and Ahsoka didn't touch Sabine) and fight a little, until Ahsoka stomps on her foot and Sabine falls to the floor.

Ahsoka: Anger and frustration are quick to give power. But they also unbalance you.

Why would Ahsoka say that in the first place if Sabine hadn't used the dark side of the Force? She probably struggles with the light side because it's so different from what she's used to as a mandalorian. It's more aligned to her nature.

Later in the same episode, this conversation takes place:

Sabine: I can't use the Force. I don't feel it. Not like you do.

Ahsoka: The Force resides in all living things. Even you.

Sabine: If that's true, then why doesn't everyone use it?

Ahsoka: Talent is a factor. But training and focus are what truly define someone's success. Not everyone can handle the type of discipline it takes to master the ways of the Force.

This fits perfectly with Obi-Wan's quote and what George Lucas said in the interview. This is consistent within the Star Wars universe and Dave Filoni's previous work.

It does not break the canon, it does not retcon anything. We simply hadn't seen before someone training to use the Force and struggle so much with it.

And to me, that is far more interesting than having every single main character being just overly and naturally competent with the Force. You don't have to be the Chosen One to use the Force, you just have to have enough determination to put in the work.

Back to Ahsoka. In episode 4 (the latest episode that's come out since I'm writing this) Sabine manages to do a very slight Force push during her duel with Shin. I know many people will disagree with me, but just watch the scene again.

1:22. Shin disarms Sabine and knocks her to the ground. Sabine extends her hand and Shin is slightly pushed back. Her arm falls down, her head turns to the side.

I've seen multiple people say Shin did this in anticipation (when has anyone everyone done that?) and that Sabine didn't Force push her. But the thing is, there's a Force push sound effect. Listen closely. It's faint and short, but it's definetely there.

I think Shin's line also confused a lot of people.

Shin: You have no power.

This is not "Sabine tried to use the Force and failed and Shin reiterates it." Again, there's a Force sound effect. That should be proof enough that she's somewhat connecting to the Force. They wouldn't put it there if she wasn't using the Force.

I think Shin and Baylan, as sith/dark jedi or whatever they are, see the Force only as a means to power. That's what Baylan is seeking with all this anyway: power.

Someone with low Force-sensitivity like Sabine would seem totally powerless to them. Everyone has been telling Sabine she's not good enough for it (Huyang, Shin, even Sabine herself.)

So, you can totally disagree with me on this, but I personally interpreted that line as Shin telling Sabine to quit while she's ahead. If she'll never be as powerful as the rest of them, why even bother to try? But Sabine, as the stubborn mandalorian she is, still continues to try.

I think Dave Filoni is painting a very clear picture: Sabine can indeed use the Force, but she's not naturally skilled at it. I think she might still have some sort of block from it, like Kanan said. The show seems to be slowly building up to her wielding the Force more succesfully, though. Starting small, one step at a time.

With Sabine's decision (she didn't have much choice, if you ask me) near the end of episode 4, I do wonder if Sabine will be a dark side user. Shin and Baylan use the dark side but they don't seem to be consumed by it. We'll just have to wait and see.

I understand that people think that Sabine being Force-sensitive diminishes her character, but so far I don't think that's the case. She still uses her blasters and some mandalorian tricks up her sleeve. This just adds another layer to her character. Natasha Liu Bordizzo said in an interview somewhere that Sabine changes fighting styles frequently, and I think we'll see more of that soon.

As long as Sabine stays true to her mandalorian ways, I'm fine with it. How cool would it be to have a mandalorian-jedi in the mandoverse? Sabine has been kind of disconnected to her mandalorian heritage for a long time now, and I'm sure she won't be a regular Jedi, if a Jedi at all. She's a special breed, one of a kind. Who knows, maybe she'll help to bring balance to the Force after all.

If Bo-Katan can walk both worlds, then so can Sabine.

i say the joker is boring a lot to piss off fanboys but he’s not actually that boring. the real issue is that i’m bored of him being the villain every time when batman has a million other more interesting villains. why would i want to watch some “we live in a society” movie about the joker when i could watch a movie about poison ivy wanting to save the planet by any means possible. or mr. freeze trying desperately to save his wife. or scarecrow growing up with an abusive grandmother. the joker has his moments but please please please i would like to see literally anyone else.

honestly the sequels could have been fixed very easily if tlj wasn’t such a cluster fuck of “ill do whatever the fuck i want” with just a couple of simple plotlines:

-rey had to be luke’s long lost daughter. why? it explains why he was missing at the beginning of tfa: he’s looking for her. he doesn’t want to believe she’s dead, even after years of searching and finding nothing. even leia has given up the search, but not luke (he is and always will be the character that doesn’t give up on family.) but the search has driven him a little insane, at this point he’s kinda desperate. then this random girl shows up, sent by leia to train with luke. luke doesn’t want to train her, he’s told leia that he’s not going to train another generation of jedi to die again. not until he finds his daughter at least (which is an excuse). there you have the whole resented hermit sequence, but change it up. instead of all in a single island, luke jumps from planet to planet in the unknown regions, following clues that lead to nowhere, and rey struggles to keep up. she follows him anyway, she wants to train, she wants to defeat kylo to avenge han and protect finn.

- rey still has a force bond with kylo but it’s because of their familial relationship. she’s the only one in the family who kylo doesn’t consider himself betrayed by -she was just a kid when the temple burned. revelation: it was kylo who put her in jakku. he killed his classmates, but he wasn’t able to kill his little cousin. so he hid her, erased her memories, and gave her a new name. he promised he would come back for her, when the galaxy was in order. there you have explanation of why kylo asks “what girl” like he knows her, and why rey is waiting for her family to come back for her. you have there the explanation of kylo’s remaining light, that light that calls to him: it’s rey who has been calling out into the stars for years with no answer. 

- luke finally relents and trains her. he sees himself on rey, how he had to insist to yoda to train him. you can insert here all his thoughts about the old jedi order, about how he tried to do things differently and still failed. how he thinks this is the end of the jedi. you can also insert here hopeful rey saying she won’t fail him, but luke isn’t a trustful kid anymore. he trains her but keeps her at an arm’s length. 

- because of that, he holds back on her training. rey eventually confronts kylo and loses, and he reveals the truth to her. rey has her identity crisis and world shattering moment. have the next movie be about her mending her relationship with luke, how he was so focused on finding a ghost he couldn’t even see when she was standing in front of him. have him then give in and face leia, and join the good fight. rey now has this family legacy she doesn’t know how to handle. have that be an important motive in her relationship with finn, whose identity is entirely self made. have rey be an adopted daughter, probably an orphan from the galactic civil war who luke found as a baby and adopted as his own. her family is a chosen family, like finn’s. 

- you can also insert here luke training finn and this being a conflict with rey because he can’t be objective with her like he’s with him. finn has a bigger goal in mind: freeing the stormtroopers from the first order, and that’s the kind of bigger cause luke can easily get behind. rey’s conflict facing kylo hits too close to home. maybe the resolution is leia training rey. 

- have poe be relevant throughout his relationship with leia and by extension with kylo. explore how poe grew up in the rebellion and when his parents died leia more or less adopted him. show me kylo being incredibly resentful and jealous of poe, how he felt sidelined as a kid and how in his eyes poe isn’t special, he shouldn’t get more attention from his mother! have poe’s conflict be about how he knew kylo as a little kid and to see him transformed into this monster hurts deeply. how a simple non-force sensitive man like poe “replaced” leia’s son.

idk how i would resolve this in the end but SEE you don’t need that many changes to make the goddam trilogy work. palpatine can be back or whatever the big baddie is not what’s important here. 

of course hera is happy to see her kids again! but you don't really think she will forget about their unconscionable behaviour do you?

and now ezra and sabine will be grounded for the next 10 years. at least.

Reblog to let all the trans people on their dash know they are amazing today!!!

One of the things that will always warm my heart is the genuine emotion that occurs between a sailor and a ship. I love it when it is depicted in any form of media.

Things like:

- The song Eight Bells by the Jolly Rogers

- the Millennium Falcon and all her pilots and captains

- the Black Pearl and both Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa. They always return to her in the series

- the crew of the Rocinante from the Expanse among others.