The midichlorians (or midi-chlorians depending on who you talk to) are some of the most controversial little additions to the Star Wars canon and lore. However, they continue to be a key concept in understanding how beings in Star Wars use the Force.
With Star Wars: The Acolyte, midichlorians are being discussed yet again by fans. For myself, I recently had an epiphany of a sort about these fictional cellular symbiotes. The small, yet admittedly wild, theory I’ve developed may explain the awesome power of the Force Dyad that is Rey and Ben Solo.
Let’s break it down first by explaining midichlorians, then cover Grogu and Omega’s contribution to the theory, and finally talk about what Lesley Headland said about Mae and Osha. All of this will bring us to a small, but possibly important theory about the nature of Ben and Rey’s specific abilities to cross space and time.
What are Midichlorians?
Midichlorians or midi-chlorians are a microscopic symbiote first introduced by George Lucas in The Phantom Menace.
While fictional, they represent a parallel to real life organelles, mitochondria and chloroplasts. Mitochondria dwell in the cells of eukaryotes (animals, fungi, plants and more), and chloroplasts are found in plants and algal cells. They perform separate functions in their host cells, and both organelles became incorporated into larger bacteria as smaller bacteria well over a billion years.
Recent research has indicated that it was likely several different bacteria that became symbiotes of the larger host bacterium ancestors of eukaryotes, but the main takeaway is that our cells contain an organelle that provides a necessary function (energy production in the case of mitochondria) to its host function. It also contains its own DNA.
Lucas’s midichlorians are a sort of pormanteau between the words mitochondria and chloroplast. They represent living organisms that live in all lifeforms, and are strongly correlated with ability in the Force.
George Lucas said a long time ago that he wanted to tell a story of the microscopic world of the Force, something many fans have derided as being either absurd, or somehow taking away from the supernatural “magic” of the Force.
Regardless of what fans think of the concept of microscopic organelles that form a Force symbiont relationship with the organisms that are their host, it was one that intrigued Lucas and has never really gone away.
One key idea introduced by the Phanton Menace is that people with a high number of midi-chlorians have a greater ability to wield the force. This is important to my theory. Again, Lucasfilm has not let go of this idea, and has added and expanded upon it without invoking the name of midichlorians too much.
What Grogu and Omega’s stories tell us about midichlorians
In the Mandalorian, we get a subplot about Grogu and his high “M-count”. We already know from the first episode that Grogu is Force sensitive, and it has been implied in previous stories across Legends that Grogu’s species are especially strong with the Force. Grogu is no exception.
But what is important to this story is that Moff Gideon seeks to have Dr. Pershing extract the midichlorians from baby Grogu to test on other subjects.
We hear from conversations with Pershing and Gideon, that adding Grogu’s midichlorians to other subjects results in the unfortunate patients dying or being destroyed. We see a room of vats with individuals that look suspiciously like the mutilated Snoke.
It would only be worthwhile to add another person’s midichlorians to another person, if it truly made the recipient Force Sensitive.
I talked about this in my last blog post regarding Nala Se and Omega. I explained in that article that Omega is absolutely Force sensitive. Why? Because there would be no reason for Nala Se to be concerned about Dr. Hemlock and others realizing Omega’s blood can hold another’s midichlorians if it didn’t make a Force sensitive person.
Both the Mandalorian and the Bad Batch reinforce that midichlorians are important in determining if someone is Force sensitive, and whether one likes it or not, having a ton of the Force sensitive organelles DOES make you Force sensitive.
We don’t know how Force sensitive Omega is, but all that Nala Se needed to know is that adding midichlorians to her and remaining in her experimental child did not kill her. Omega is exactly what Palpatine and Dr.Hemlock is looking for.
And while the story so far doesn’t explain why Omega is a mysterious child that the Force seemingly permitted to exist with another’s midichlorians, we can infer that transfering midichlorians CAN make a person Force sensitive, if it doesn’t kill you.
It just leaves you mangled and rotting like Snoke and Palpatine in the Rise of Skywalker.
It’s anyone’s guess why the Force allowed Nala Se to create a child with such power, but perhaps it felt no harm in doing so, as after all, Nala Se loved Omega and never let her existence come to light.
So let’s get into Mae and Osha and Anakin and their midichlorians
Headland reveals important info about midichlorians
In discussing the Acolyte with Nerdist, Headland revealed the details about Mae and Osha’s creation, as well as Anakin. And I’m glad she did so, and has been so forthcoming about midichlorians and the Force, because we are learning a lot.
In the article, Headland makes it plain that Mae and Osha are not a vergence like Anakin Skywalker. While she doesn’t say why, I suspect this is because Mae and Osha are willed into being by Mother Aniseya, not the Force itself.
Headland goes on to say why Mae and Osha are two people:
So the twins are weaker than Anakin, for sure. They are going to fall short of what will eventually become the Chosen One. They will never achieve what that is, because in my mind, Aniseya could only do so much. She’s not powerful enough to create one person. The twins split, Aniseya’s power split, and therefore a lot of her philosophy is about the power of two. About the fact that they must stay together. They must stay together. The twins are stronger together if she keeps them together.
Lesley Headland
Mother Aniseya is a witch, and she creates her children with the power of the planet’s vergence. She is not capable of making a child like Anakin Skywalker, who is for all intents and purposes, a Force demigod.
Mae and Osha are fatherless children as Anakin is, but that’s where the similarities end. Because her power is limited, the Force splits the children, both physically as identical twins (identical twins are caused by a split zygote or blastula), and spiritually as a kind of dyad.
The Acolyte references the power of two over and over again. While it never states point blank that Mae and Osha are a dyad, it wants us to think about it. The midichlorians for both girls are identical, which is something extraordinary to the Jedi. This is not something that normally happens with clones or identical twins.
We know so far from TROS and Secrets of the Sith, that a Dyad is one presence divided among two beings. Over and over in Star Wars, it keeps getting reinforced that the Midichlorians ARE the presence of the Force in people.
And so people in Star Wars get their Force abilities from the midi-chlorians that they have. Anakin’s line has an immense number of midichlorians, being created by the Force itself.
But Mae and Osha, whose creation in caused by witches are not as powerful. They became a sort of dyad in response to Aniseya’s own shortcomings in the Force. I reiterate once again, that the Force could prevent people from creating Force sensitive people if it chose, and it’s implied that Force sensitive clones don’t exist for this reason. But I don’t think it disallows all attempts to create Force sensitive children, but it sets parameters.
So what does the dyad of Mae and Osha mean for Rey and Ben Solo?
Why Rey and Ben Solo are so powerful in the Force
Mae and Osha appear to be a kind of dyad, and while they have some abilities to connect with each other through their special bond, they don’t have the awesome abilities of Ben and Rey.
I think their different creation explains why. Mae and Osha were created when Mother Aniseya used a vergence to amplify her power to create an embryo. But Headland explained, they were split into two, not just the embryo, but the midichlorians themselves.
It’s a simple split, and the split between the midichlorians is only a short distance. It is cutting an apple in half before you.
However Ben Solo and Rey’s Force Dyad were created differently. A 10 year old boy’s midichlorians were split, and sent across space and time to the young Rey. Only the Force would have such an ability to send it’s own midichlorians across the dimensions of space itself. It’s a greater feat, and one that the midichlorians of both Ben and Rey retain.
Because their midichlorians have crossed space and time, their hosts, Ben and Rey can do the same. I suspect with both Mae and Osha, and and Ben and Rey, the midichlorians will always seek to reunite.
However, only Ben and Rey’s midichlorians have the ability to traverse space itself. It is possible Mae and Osha could do so with training, but it’s possible they simply don’t have that ability. Their midichlorians didn’t really travel anywhere. Ben and Rey don’t even need to practice to cross space and time, their midichlorians enable them to do it freely.
Why the Force created Ben and Rey is up for debate, I have many theories myself. But it’s clear they are the legendary Force Dyad that is rare, and only possible through the Will of the Force.
It’s why Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious cannot create one. The Will of the Force rejects such actions. It may permit the various witches of the Galaxy to create unique life, but probably because the women involved do love their creations, and do not seek to take over the Galaxy.
It may also be why Force sensitive clones are difficult to create, and only Nala Se has the key–because the Force knows Nala Se will love Omega, and reject any attempts to have her used by malevolent forces.
There may also be the factor that those who have created unique “unnatural” children accept their fate and possible death. Leslye Headland says this is the case with Mother Aniseya–she accepts that what she has created may result in her death.
It reminds me of a quote from Peter S Beagle’s wonderful The Last Unicorn
Real magic can never be made by offering up someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. The true witches know that.
Aniseya accepts death may be the outcome of her using the Force and magic to create children. Nala Se dies to protect Omega, whether envisioned such an outcome or not. Of course, this could just be Star Wars killing off mothers, after all Shmi Skywalker dies and there is no indication she tried to meddle in things left alone.
Though it would be very interesting if she did.
What do you think? Let me know on Twitter!
