Star Wars: Rogue One - 9 Ways It Actually Improves The Original Trilogy

5. The Force Finally Feels All Encompassing

Throughout every single Star Wars film we have one concept repeatedly drummed into us, The Force. We're constantly told how it binds everything in the universe together, how it's at the core of both the spiritual world and the physical one. An unseen energy that can be tapped into for good and evil, but is almost moving for its own designs. A strange cross between karma and ESP.

But is it? If you look at the path The Force charts through all 7 of the core franchise films, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Imbuing assorted "chosen ones" with its abilities only for them all to inevitably fight and kill each other, it repeatedly throws the universe into conflict despite aiming to restore balance to it. It's a big deal to the protagonists of the franchise, but beyond that it doesn't really seem to register.

However in Rogue One we're finally given a story that's driven without a single Jedi. Our merry band is comprised of assassins, thieves, criminals, and soldiers, none of whom can so much as move a cup with their minds, and yet the notion of the force is present throughout. They trust in it, they seek solace in it, and in Chirrut Imwe we have a character who devotes his life to it without having any command over it.

Is he sensitive to The Force? Is he protected by it? Or is it just because his best pal has a huge laser gun and looks after him? We're never sure, and that's an element of faith and ambiguity this plot device has badly needed.