morganstuart:

I think it’s important to recognize that the Guardians of the Whills didn’t focus on the Light Side/Dark Side dichotomy like the majority of the Jedi did.

This seems to fit with the increasingly expansive understanding of the Force we’re seeing in Star Wars storytelling: for example, “resolving the gray” (from the opening Journal of the Whills poem in the novelization of The Force Awakens) and “balance” (from the trailer for The Last Jedi) and “the one in the middle” between Light and Dark (the Bendu from Rebels), etc., not to mention the many varied Force-related faiths and practices represented in Jedha and across the galaxy.

Is it possible that the Guardians understood the Force more completely – or at least in a less partisan and myopic way – than either the Jedi or the Sith?

I’m fascinated by what this tells us about Chirrut’s and Baze’s individual understandings not only of the Force, but also of right and wrong, good and evil, and even their own sadness (Chirrut) and anger (Baze).

The quote above is from Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide.

It gives me the impression that the Force is more like the chinese philosophy concept of Taiji.

Taiji is what forms the universe, in which it consists of Yin and Yang.

Yin is darkness/shadow/passive/feminine/moon/cold, while Yang is lightness/light/active/masculine/sun/hot. Even though Yin is often related to evil and Yang good (just like the Force is often being described as having light and dark sides), they are in fact not inheritable bad nor good, just forces of the universe.

If you look at the Taiji symbol, Yin is at it’s maximum when Yang is at it’s minimum, and vice versa. But the two can’t exist without each other and Taiji can’t exist with only Yin or Yang.

As a result, Chinese philosophy
(Taoism to be more specific)

is all about balance: the balance between Yin and Yang, and about finding the midground: you must not be too passionate nor apathetic. And only when one finds the midground, they can reach to the next level.

It is really interesting because if you judge both the Jedi and the Sith according to this philosophy, none of them really understand the balance of the Force, they are each on the opposite side of two extreme ends, thus none of them can really use/control the Force, because the Force have both the light and the dark sides, you can’t fully understand the Force if you deny either side of it.