Star Wars’ New 91% RT Series Quietly Settles the Franchise’s Biggest Debate About the Force

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi.

When it comes to a franchise as rich in lore as Star Wars, it’s sometimes difficult to reconcile what fans think or understand about certain aspects. One of those is what it really means for the Force to be in balance and how to achieve it, which is usually followed by the concept of Grey Jedi as individuals who can supposedly draw from both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force to walk the path between the Jedi and the Sith. The franchise’s most recent release, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, fully debunks this idea and, for the first time in a Lucasfilm-produced Star Wars project, proves that there is no such thing as Grey Jedi.

‘The Ninth Jedi’ Deconstructs the Idea of the Grey Jedi

The idea of Grey Jedi has been around for a while, and The Ninth Jedi tackles it head-on in its first season as a proper Star Wars: Visions spin-off. In the story, former Jedi and antagonist Nawaam (Young Mazino) believes in the “State of Nothingness” to truly achieve balance and bring peace and order to the galaxy, discarding the path of both the Jedi and the Sith. Protagonist Lah Kara (Kimiko Glenn) and her father, Lah Zhima (Simu Liu), also reach Nothingness.

At first glance, Nothingness might seem attractive. It’s an emotionless state of heightened senses that makes a lightsaber blade glow silver; in The Ninth Jedi, a lightsaber’s color reflects its wielder’s heart. This allows warriors to make decisions they otherwise couldn’t as Jedi or Sith, including killing, claiming to truly be guided by the Force without emotions clouding their judgments. Zhima himself is a master of Nothingness, and that’s what influences both Nawaam and Kara to pursue it in their own ways.

Although The Ninth Jedi doesn’t explicitly call it that, Nothingness is very similar to how Grey Jedi approach the Force, but it outright rejects this concept. During their climactic final battle, both Nawaam’s and Kara’s lightsabers revert to colored blades; Kara’s goes back to Jedi green, while Nawaam’s becomes red for the first time. Right then, it becomes clear that each character’s actions have weight and tilt them towards opposite directions in the Force.

Lucasfilm Canon Is Clear About What True Balance in the Force Really Means

Image via Lucasfilm

Like the State of Nothingness, the idea of Grey Jedi might seem reasonable at first, especially given that most tragedies in Star Wars stem from characters who don’t really fit within the Jedi or Sith framework, like Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). This gives the false impression that both approaches are equally wrong, or that “calibrating” these characters towards the center would prevent new tragedies.

That’s not how it works at all. Even before Disney established the new canon, Star Wars, as created by George Lucas, makes clear that using the Force in unnatural ways throws it off balance. It isn’t about finding common ground between the Dark Side and the Light, but following the will of the Force instead of bending it to your will. The concept of Grey Jedi as a representation of balance is therefore fundamentally wrong, because every dark deed, small as it may be and as necessary as it might seem, causes imbalance.

The Ninth Jedi isn’t official canon (nothing connected to Star Wars: Visions is), but it offers the clearest understanding of how the Force really works. Kara achieves Nothingness, but turns back to the Light once she understands that balance is about selflessness, not neutrality or a “flow state.” Meanwhile, Nawaam is so fixated on this false notion of balance that he becomes obsessive about it, finally revealing the darkness inherent to neutrality. Grey is many shades darker than the Light, after all.

Are There Actually Any Grey Jedi in Star Wars?

Nawaam is particularly enticing because, in the eagerness of trying to make sense of his interpretation of the Force, people might feel the urge to label him as a Grey Jedi, but that’s wrong. He isn’t a Jedi at all, and wielding a lightsaber of any color doesn’t necessarily make anyone a Jedi of any “shade” (although Jedi don’t have “shades,” too). This misguided notion of balance that some subscribe to often leads to wrong conclusions about characters as nuanced as Nawaam, including fan-favorites.

Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), for example, isn’t “grey” at all. He is definitely a maverick among the Jedi for confronting the Council when no one else dares to. If anything, Qui-Gon shines even brighter in the Light than the Council of his time. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), who straight up leaves the Order due to irreconcilable differences during the Clone Wars, also isn’t “grey,” having repeatedly proven her commitment to the Light.

This concept of “Grey Jedi” gained traction especially after Knights of the Old Republic introduced Jolee Bindo, a Jedi who claims to see the Force “only in grey” — so much so that he actually leaves the Jedi because he knows he doesn’t fit within the Order anymore. Revan himself is like a “poster child” for Grey Jedi enthusiasts, when, in fact, he has swung so much between the Jedi and the Sith that he ends up being neither. The Ninth Jedi, despite not being official Star Wars canon, has not only challenged the very concept of the Grey Jedi in the franchise but also redefined what true balance in the Force really means.