Midi-Chlorians are a touchy subject – Any Star Wars fan will know that the Force works in enthralling ways. Many of the characters we’ve met over the last 40+ years have been able to wield the mystic Force. But has anyone questioned how one ends up with Force sensitivity?
That’s where we come in. We’ve wondered about this for some time and thought we’d cover it in the lead up to the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi. So, in this post, we will cover genetics and some loose statistics behind the likelihood of a person being Force-sensitive.
There is going to be a fair bit to cover, so grab your bags of popcorn as this is going to a be fun one to explore.
Force Sensitive In Lineage?
The Force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it.
Luke Skywalker to Leia Organa in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
A common misconception about many Force Sensitive characters is that they come from a Force-sensitive. Ultimately, this means that a long line of people can use the Force in a family. But unfortunately, this is not always the case.
The only known lineage that we know of in canon that is largely Force-sensitive is the Skywalker family. Anakin Skywalker is a Force-sensitive, and so are his two children and his grandson via his daughter. The only blood Skywalker who could not use the Force was Shmi, Anakin’s mother.
Most other cases have been random. For example, Ezra Bridger was Force-sensitive while his parents, Mira and Ephraim, were not.
With the Skywalker twins, Luke and Leia, there was a fifty-fifty chance that they or one of them would follow in Anakin’s footsteps. But, as it turned out, Luke was more powerful in the Force than Leia. This could’ve been why hiding Luke on Tatooine was the best solution.
While Leia could use the Force, she wasn’t as powerful as her brother, which made it safer for her to be out in the open and around the Emperor when she entered politics. He never suspected (as far as we know) who she truly was. Though, Moff Quarsh Panaka picked up on her likeness to her biological mother, Padmé Amidala, but was assassinated before he could report his findings.
Can A Non-Force Sensitive Woman Become So During Pregnancy?
We’ve covered this before, but we thought we’d go over it again for the sake of this post. So, could a woman who wasn’t strong in the Force become so during her pregnancy with a potentially Force-sensitive child? It’s a massive ‘maybe.’
We go over Padmé’s pregnancy with Luke and Leia in the link above. Additionally, we found an article from Aaron Grech of CBR during our research on the topic. He said an artbook released in preparation for Revenge of the Sith stated that Senator Amidala had more midi-chlorians running through her body while pregnant with Luke and Leia than their father, Anakin.
The book is no longer part of the canon, but it does present an interesting viewpoint. There were no signs within Revenge of the Sith that she was Force-Sensitive to any degree. However, Aaron’s article mentions something we hadn’t considered. We go over it in our post in more detail, but he notes that there were times through The Clone Wars series where the senator gets herself out of danger and knows it’s coming before anyone else does.
The artbook also showed the concept art of Padmé having visions of her husband being saved on Mustafar by medical droids. Precognition is an ability Anakin possesses, as do many other Jedi. Ahsoka had dreams of the senator being assassinated by Aurra Sing in The Clone Wars episode Assassin.
Also, not all the concept art was used for the final version of Revenge of the Sith. For example, a piece showed Padmé with a knife that she would try and use to kill Anakin while on Mustafar.
How Does Cloning A Work?
We wanted to cover how cloning a Force-Sensitive person works to end this post. The concept for this harkens back to The Rise of Skywalker, where it is discovered that Rey is a Palpatine and is the granddaughter of the Emperor. Now, at the time, people questioned how this works.
It is explained that Palpatine wanted to live forever and needed a Force-Sensitive body. So he attempted to create copies of his body, but none of the replicas could wield the Force. Finally, however, one of the clones went rogue, fell in love with a woman and had a daughter with her they named Rey.
Rey ended up being Force-sensitive which is why her grandfather wanted to use her as a vessel. The Emperor also used Ben Solo, the grandson of Darth Vader, as a pawn. But unfortunately, he didn’t count on his granddaughter and Solo becoming a Dyad, which became his downfall.
