AND NOW, MURDERS

I've been working my way through the Wheel of Time, and I can't help but notice some....overlap. This has prompted the creation of my Greater Unified Wheel of Stars Theory, wherein the world of Wheel of Time is in fact Tython and the White Tower is the precursor to the Temple.

Evidence is as follows:

• Aes Sedai are the precursors of the Jedi.
  
  • In legends, the very oldest version of the Jedi are called Je'daii. Aes Sedai -> Sedai -> Je'daii -> Jedi.
• The Je'daii originated on the planet Tython. Thus, if Je'daii were previously Sedai, then it follows that the world they were from is the same world that the events of the books took place on, separated by many thousands of years.
• The structure and functions of the White Tower and the Coruscant Temple are startlingly similar.
  
  • Both take in applicants when young, and there is a cut-off date for being considered "too old."
    
    • Note: in Legends, this cut-off for the Temple is at 13; as of the Clone Wars and other new material, it is unclear if that is still canon. Within the confines of this particular theory, I am operating under the assumption that there is a cut-off point, but it is much later that 13, and that with the advent of the Clone Wars specifically, the cut-off was pushed back even further.
  • Both focus on emotional control-- Sedai are expected to maintain a blank expression at all times, no matter what is going on; by the time of the Temple, this has evolved into maintaining internal equilibrium at all times as well.
    • The flame and the void is the precursor mantra to releasing one's emotions into the Force.
  • It is generally accepted that the loyalty of members of both groups is to be solely to the Tower or the Temple, respectively, regardless of where or to whom they were born. You are a Sedai or Jedi first and a member of your birth government a distant second, if you maintain that tie at all.
  • Both orders create and maintain mental bonds with people-- Sedai with their Warders, and Jedi with their Padawans, for many of the same reasons. The former evolving into the latter is not an unreasonable stretch.
  • Sedai and Jedi serve similar functions within their respective societies. Both orders are heavily trained as diplomats and political advisors, and the primary purpose of many of their members is to act as peace keepers and councilors. However, this is not the sole focus of either order, and both orders are equally notable for their historians and wandering do-gooders.
    
    • Both orders are also viewed with similar levels of suspicion by wider society, much of that stemming from their general inscrutability and from the fact that the most visible of them participate in politics.
• The One Power=The Force
  
  • Both are universal magic that exists in all things and causes things to happen. "It is as the Force wills it" and "The wheel winds as the wheel wills" are both commonly used phrases in their respective times.
    
    • Functionally, there is little difference between being ta'veren and being strong with or beloved of the Force.
      • Both of these are in-universe acknowledgements of Main Character Syndrome.
  • The Force is split into the Dark Side and the Light Side. Use of the Dark Side drives the user mad and turns them into power-hungry, destructive forces of evil. However, in the distant past, in Legends, there are Force users who use the Dark Side without loosing their shit, as evidenced by the Je'daii Order, who valued balance, before there was a civil war and it all went to hell. The One Power is split into Saidar and Saidin. Use of Saidin drives the user mad and turns them into power-hungry, destructive forces of evil. However, in the distant past, there were Saidin users who didn't go nuts, before the Dark One cursed Saidin with the taint and it all went to hell.
    
    • Basically every single male Jedi has made terrible, terrible life choices, a fair number of which could be explained by being driven mad by the Force. Obi-wan's and Luke's respective mental shutdowns and time as depressed hermits? A manifestation of the taint. Mace deciding to attack the Chancellor in the Senate, before figuring out how to deal with the inevitable political fallout of killing the head of the government? Taint clouding his mind. Anakin's...everything? Taint.
    • Since the Force is tainted, using it is corrosive-- the more you use it, the more fucked up you get, and faster. That's why the Jedi have that rule about no excessive use of the Force. It's not because they're boring monks with weird ideas about laziness, it's because if you use the power to float pears across the room it eats away at your mind and it's just not worth it.
  • At least one Sedai uses a mind trick on screen, to make a woman more susceptible to obeying her wishes.
• Sedai have been shown to have "swords of light", including Moiraine Sedai manifesting two blades from her staff. These swords are like fire, but not affected by wind or movement, instead remaining perfectly straight, and are created through the use of the One Power.
  
  • This dovetails neatly into the idea that only a Jedi can wield a lightsaber; it's not that only Force users have the requisite reflexes, it's that there's no power source in lightsabers-- the beam is pure Force, and if you don't have the Force, you can't turn it on.
    
    • Kyber focuses and amplifies 'saber beams, but does not create them, much like a sangreal focuses and amplifies channeling, but does not produce power on its own.
• The Wheel of Time is literally about history rhyming with itself, endlessly, particularly with regards to great big showdowns of good vs. evil with deeply powerful chosen ones in the center of it all.
  
  • Anakin is the Dragon (very powerful magic user, hero of a great war at the end of an age, driven mad by the exact same power, deeply involved in facilitating the fall of said age, strongly affected by Main Character Syndrome).
  • Luke is the Dragon Reborn (very powerful magic user, deeply affected by the shadow of the last guy, much of his story is fixing the things the last guy broke, just as much if not more of a Main Character, farm boy origins.)

In conclusion, both of these universes are actually the same universe, many turns of the wheel later. All the similarities between the two story cycles is actually because of big mythic universal truth reasons, and not because both authors probably drank too much Joseph Campbell juice. Thank you for coming to this lecture, and don't forget we have a quiz on Monday.