One brilliant detail has perfectly revealed the true nature of the Force in Star Wars, and it ties together George Lucas’ vision perfectly. The Force is one of the most compelling, and complicated, concepts in Star Wars. Ever since Darth Vader asserted that even the Death Star paled in comparison to the power of the Force, the franchise has been proving him right, like with the Force powers Star Wars has introduced and the most powerful Jedi in Star Wars. One area that hasn’t been clearly defined, however, is the nature of the Force and the notion of balance.

The true nature of the Force has been, throughout most of the Star Wars movies, as much a mystery to audiences as it is to characters. Many see the Force in black and white terms, with the light side being good and the dark side being bad, while others argue that both the light and the dark must coexist for true balance. One detail perfectly outlines exactly what balance in the Force really means, and it comes from a very unexpected – yet perfectly in keeping with Star Wars‘ idea of things being more important than their appearance – place: plants.

Plants & Life Have Always Been Tied To The Force

Plants and vegetation don’t often play a large role in Star Wars. More recent Star Wars stories, however, have begun investigating plant life in the galaxy far, far away, and those stories have revealed that plants are inherently connected to the Force. In Claudia Gray’s “Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark,” Orla Jareni noted that some plants can be connected to the dark side of the Force, and the drengir proved that some plants can be sentient. Likewise, in Gray’s novel “Star Wars: Master & Apprentice,” Qui-Gon Jinn used the Force to comfort a tree he had cut down as it died.

While those newer Star Wars stories have given plants a much deeper connection to the Force, they’re hardly the first. The Uneti tree, the large tree located on the roof of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, was actually a species of Force-sensitive plant. The Force has always bound everything in the galaxy together, but it seems that plants have a deeper connection than regular objects do. That connection, as simple as it seems, could have major implications for the Force as a whole, and one major concept solidifies it.

Force Vergences Also Have A Unique Connection To Nature

Force vergences, physical places or people where the Force is unusually strong, help illustrate why plants are such a key part of the Force. At vergences that are aligned with the light side of the Force, life and plants exist in abundance. Some of these vergences include the Daughter’s half of Mortis and the Wellspring of Life, both of which were nearly completely forested. Conversely, dark side vergences were nearly devoid of any plant life, like Castle Vader on Mustafar or Palpatine’s Sith Citadel on Exegol. Generally, light side vergences encouraged life and growth, while dark side vergences prohibited it.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but even the exceptions help explain why plants are so important to the Force. The Cave of Evil on Dagobah, for example, was a “domain of evil” despite being located in the middle of a thriving swamp. The Cave of Evil, however, was also located under a tree that shrouded it in complete darkness. Nothing grew down there, and even the roots and vines that surrounded the vergence could easily have been aligned with the dark side of the Force. Vergences, combined with the new revelations about plant life, reveal a simple truth about the Force.

The Force Is Inherently Tied To Nature: The Light Side Is Life, The Dark Side Is Lifelessness

The light side’s tendency to promote life and the dark side’s tendency to destroy it aren’t just symptoms of the Force, they are the essence of the Force. George Lucas’ original concept of balance in the Force viewed the dark side as the source of all imbalance, and nature’s role in vergences and plant life’s connection to the Force validates his view. The light side is inherently tied to life and growth, while the dark side isn’t death or the end of life as much as it is the absence of life, or lifelessness.

Viewing the Force through the lens of nature reveals exactly what balance really means, and why the dark side is the antithesis of it. In nature, even places that are dominated by life have aspects of lifelessness to them. For every lush forest, there is also darkness and decaying plants and animals. Conversely, areas of nature that are dominated by lifelessness block out all life by definition. It’s the same for Star Wars: the dark side of the Force will always exist no matter how strong the light side is, but if the dark side became too strong, it would snuff out the light entirely.

This Incredible Detail Explains What The Balance Of The Force Really Is

Nature works as an allegory for the Force on so many levels, and it explains so much about Star Wars. Since the very beginning of the franchise, the light side has been tied to the natural world, while the dark side has been tied to things that are considered unnatural. Take the original trilogy, for example: Darth Vader, the main antagonist, is a hulking cyborg made of more metal than flesh, while the heroic Luke Skywalker is an unmodified human from a farm. In Return of the Jedi, Luke’s cybernetic hand represented his darkness, while Vader’s return to the light was punctuated by the removal of his helmet.

The nature motif has persisted throughout Star Wars. That’s why the Empire was portrayed as a technologically advanced force whose bases were made of cold metal, while the Rebel Alliance carved their bases in jungles and tundras, living with the land instead of fighting against it. That’s why the planets that are rich in the Force are either devoid of life, like Dathomir, or absolutely brimming with it, like Dagobah. That’s likely why George Lucas decided to divide the Force into two sides, light and dark, in the first place. Star Wars is brimming with parallels to nature.

The Force is not a yin and yang type of concept, and the dark side is antithetical to the notion of balance: by definition, the dark side throws the Force out of balance.

Thus, through the lens of the natural world, Star Wars has told fans what the meaning of balance in the Force is from the very beginning. The Force is not a yin and yang type of concept, and the dark side is antithetical to the notion of balance: by definition, the dark side throws the Force out of balance. That doesn’t, however, mean that the dark side needs to be eradicated to achieve true balance. Nature, again, proves that the dark side will always be present. What matters is that people fight for the light, not that they dominate the darkness.

Like so many other things in Star Wars, plants and the natural world seem to be much more important than they appear to be. They’re the key to understanding the Force, and to understanding Star Wars in general. Everything about the franchise, from its focus on the battle between good and evil and its messages about hope, makes sense through the context of the natural world. Plants have been a core part of Star Wars from the beginning, and they’ll likely be a facet of the franchise’s visual language for the foreseeable future.