The Force

I've been in long discussions on arboriculture forums lately and things have kind of stalled for me due to a lack of understanding the physics behind this stuff better so, well, thank the gods for Reddit :D I figure a tl;dr, then the few specific things I'm hoping to learn, is the best way to format this. I feel I've got an OK practical-understanding of dynamic forces but am needing ELI5 from the perspective of people who'd be answering posts in this sub!!

tl;dr - In assembling a heavy-duty rigging kit ('rigging' is the art of using ropes, anchored or run around&through the tree itself, to control a cut-log's descent), I've hit a wall on choosing the rope ('rigging rope') itself, have my anchors and friction-devices but am stuck on rope selection because my intuitions run contrary to the industry-norm which bothers me & I feel I must resolve...the industry norm for these rigging lines is to use ropes with very little stretch, less stretch than the ropes that we actually climb the trees on which are already WAY stiffer than a mountain-climber's rope.  The industry-norm, when trying to calculate safe usage of hardware/textiles, revolves around taking **static** tensile strengths and then working off a percentile of the *static* strength, they *do* realize, rightfully, that cordage like dyneema (0.5% elasticity) is unsafe despite its incredibly-high *static*/tensile numbers, yet some of the most-popular rigging-ropes on the market are barely 2%....a new, expensive rigging rope that's becoming very popular (not a surprise to me!) is a 4.5% elasticity, that's 50% more than the next-stretchiest (3%) available.  It seems obvious to me that anything under ~3% shouln't be contemplated as a rigging-rope yet it's the norm (although there is trending away from it, but these manufacturers have decades' experience making ropes I can't imagine they're just-now realizing this...), I've gotta reconcile this!  

Furthermore, I'm hoping to understand how to calculate, or at least better-understand, how the friction-devices are coming into play *especially* in terms of whether/how varied loads on a given line & friction-device can change the friction coefficient (am suspecting that as the line speed increases, that friction also increases - and that as line-force increases, the friction increases even more substantially than it does from speed-increases, but want to know for sure!)

I figure

After some testing, Force Rage on visiting caravan's pack animals doesn't reduce faction relationship, and your colony is not seen as being at fault when the pack animal goes berzerk, the caravaneers kill it and leave the map, leaving you with the dead or downed pack animal and all the gear.

So.... I have a visiting caravan, and a nice, fresh, young sith needing to be trained. There's a muffalo carrying over $20k worth of supplies and I'm tempted. However, this would be a huge jump in instant wealth for my wee neolithic tech level colony, and thus is contraindicated. But, the temptation is still killing me. I've got gold fever looking at that muff's inventory.

I know this is OP. Play how you wanna. I'm not at all afraid of playing OP. But I AM afraid of nasty little hobbitses raiders who will come after I increase my wealth!

Force Crystals to harness your chakras and get rid of toxins?

I've seen a ton of people using this to criticize the sequels: "Force lightning can't hit that many ships, you can't stop a blaster bolt with the force, Force Ghosts can't do that". The Force has exactly two purposes in Star Wars (and always has): Make Jedi/Sith look cool, and conveniently solve problems. Luke needs to make an impossible shot? The Force. Anakin needs to fly with superhuman speed and skill in a far inferior ship? The Force. Kylo needs to survive an injury? The Force.

Obviously, that doesn't mean it can't be lazy or misused, but saying it shouldn't be used for plot convenience is dumb.

(Sorry, just kinda needed somewhere to rant).

This morning I was just hit by a shower thought. Please bear with me as I re-collect my thoughts.

SPOILER ALERT: I will use the word 'balance' A LOT in this post.

Thanks to TLJ we have learned that the Force "forces" balance unto itself. The OT and PT used Anakin as a vehicle to bring balance to the Force in what we used to interpret as a state of peace. But now we know better. It is supposed to balance things in terms of numbers. Kylo Ren and Snoke are the Force's answer to the New Jedi Order. Unfortunately, things were kept off-balanced after the Knights stormed Luke's academy, now on the Dark Side's favor.

The rise of the First Order propelled Rey to become unreallistically good at everything she does. We noticed that Rey was able to hold her own against Kylo in terms of mind-bending, and lightsaber battle. Even so, Rey was more raw talent and needed to match Kylo and truly become her equal and keep things balanced.

To allow this, the Force sparked the Force-Skyping ability in Snoke and that is now our in-canon justification for them to be as equally skilled and powerful. That also brings things balanced in terms of Force-users. Or does it?

By the ending of TFA, we had this many Force-users:

1. Kylo Ren - Sith Apprentice
2. Supreme Leader Snoke - Sith Master
3. Rey - Force noob and expected Jedi apprentice
4. Luke Skywalker - Jedi hermit

All's good so far, but in TLJ the Force inexplicably off-balanced itself. Over the course of the movie, we found out Leia has high Force power. Since we have to assume Leia (as a character) is still alive, she should still count and we actually had two elder Force users as good guys at one time.

Then we had a couple casualties. Snoke, our Sith Master is now gone. We also saw Luke being Force-stroked to oblivion (but at least he went with peace and purpose). So we had some twists and turns in terms of the balance.

• Start of movie: Technically balanced. Kylo, Snoke, Rey and Leia are active fighters. Luke is retired.
• Unbalance: Snoke dies. 1 Sith vs 3 Jedi (Luke is now active)
• Slightly less unbalanced: Luke dies. 1 Sith vs 2 Jedi.

So by now I hope my point is coming across. The Force was already balanced, yet somehow it decided it got bored and tilted the scale in favor of the good guys so the conflict could be more entertaining. But now I think the Force is in a way of self-destruction. It's kept creating conflict after conflict trying to find the balance. So close, but yet so far. The lesser the numbers,

Does that mean Androids can pass into the force? Force ghost R2-D2 when?

When someone with good connection to the force dies, they become one with the force. They can appear like a ghost and speak with people. Speaking with people through the force isn't a power exclusive to dead people. This may be the case for their appearance too.

In TLJ we can see Luke projecting himself through the force. Force ghosts are just jedi who has become one with the force using force projection. Luke choose to appear as a younger version of himself, the version Kylo and Leia remembered. He could probably choose any version of himself, maybe even other forms.

Anakin being young in the special edition isn't because "that's how he looked last time he was good", he simply choose the form, maybe because that's how obi and yoda remembered him.

>((Personal note: So this was just a thought I had. Something small and nice which fixes one of my problems with the special editions, opposed to all the big TLJ theories going on now. It may be obvious, it may already have been explored outside of the movies. I don't think Luke not being blue matter, Yoda wasn't blue in the movie))

>edit: I re-uploaded the post because my original title didn't include "in return of the jedi" which led to misunderstandings.

What if the new trilogy revealed something that made the rest of the movies make more sense? Ever wonder why Anakin's fall happened so quickly? Ever wonder what the whole point of midi-chlorians are? Ever wonder why Palpatine's appearance changed so quickly in Episode III? Here's what I think would work, if revealed in the new trilogy:

Luke, having defeated the Emperor, still has plenty of work laid out for him. He still has a lot to learn about the Force. What if Luke learns this about the Force?:

The Force is a mystical energy that surrounds all life. It seems to be channeled better by those with a high midi-chlorian count. What if midi-chlorians are basically like stemcells that the Force can use to manipulate the very being (cells) of the host? Stay with me, now.

Think of the Force as a life-force, the essence of living beings beyond the "crude matter" that houses this force. We know that this force can live on without the body for those that learn to bind their consciousness with the Force (force ghosts.) What if these force ghosts can also possess other bodies? Maybe this is only a Sith technique, associated with the Dark Side, similar to Christian mythology where only demons possess humans. Maybe the Light Side only influences in positive ways without taking complete control (possession), much like angels and Yahweh. This would explain quite a few things:

-Why Anakin's turn to the Dark Side was so quick. Once he opened himself to "demonic possession" he lost control. Perhaps former sith lord(s)' spirits inhabited his body, explaining his eyes in Episode III (eyes are the window to the soul.)

-Since Anakin's midi-chlorian count was so high, the Sith influence was greater, literally altering his cells to become something he wasn't (again, eyes.)

-Senator Palpatine began to dabble in Sith lore as a young man, but was "possessed" by the pupil of Darth Plagueis or either Plagueis himself. He used the Force to conceal the change in his appearance until Windu fights him, when he could reveal his true form. His appearance is due to the possession manipulating his midi-chlorians, altering him on a biological level.

-This also explains why Vader looks so very different (even considering the injuries he sustained) when Luke takes the helmet off. It also may explain why he looks like prequel Anakin as a force ghost (before he was "possessed".)

So, Luke learns of all this, and this sets up the possibility that although the Emperor's

Star Wars is one of my top fandoms, and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the Force/Force users and some misconceptions.

1. Force precog: In order to use it properly, it requires some level of focus. You have to prepare yourself for something that could happen, and it's not constantly active. This is the reason why Dooku was vulnerable to being attacked in his sleep, Order 66, Luke getting caught off guard, and Vader throwing Sidious down the reaction chamber all happened. In every one of these situations their guard was down and not ready for an attack. This does not inherently make it weak. Sure, Spidey sense is better overall since it's constantly active (Peter reacted to MJ hitting him with a pillow in his sleep), but Force precog has a broader scope and is more dynamic. Force users have the added dimension of being able to sense their opponent's intentions, and danger does not need to be present in order to react to something before it happens. Also, in a straight up fight vs Spidey the fact that precog isn't always active shouldn't matter as much, since the very act of acknowledging it's a fight should "activate" it.

2. All of the movie novelizations are canon in addition to the movies, the CGI TV cartoons, and the new line of books. Obi-Wan's 20 blocks per second is canon, even if the movies don't show it that way. EU is definitely way more powerful, but I'll say given that canon Star Wars is underestimated. Even canonically, Force users are much more powerful than the movies let on. Also, considering that Darth Bane and all seven forms of lightsaber combat have been canonized, we can expect more concepts from the EU to become canon as well.

3. Force feats are pretty inconsistent, and I honestly do believe there's some plot armor going around. Looking at Episode I, we know Padawan Obi-Wan's easily fast enough to cover a lot of ground with Force speed, but doesn't do it to outrun the ray shield gates and join the fight with Qui-Gon vs Darth Maul. That might have saved his life. Also, there aren't a whole lot of exact feats. While we do have feats for high level Force users, the average Jedi is hard to judge, given all the different variables that go into their training. A Form IV duelist would be well versed at speed and agility, while a Form V duelist would be well versed at using the Force for brute strength, and so on.

A large company is trying to buy up all the houses in my area to luxury resort with a golf field, pool, and other things. A few days ago I got a knock on my door and someone came over and she told me she was offering to buy my home, willing to give me 5% over "market value" (their bullshit market value is less than I bought it for). I politely said "No I'm sorry but I am not at all interested in selling my house, have a good day". She kept trying to sell the house and I told her have a good day. 3 days later she came back with a new offer, now 7.5% over market value. I said the same thing, please go away I am not interested.

Next day someone else called me, I just hung up on them. All of my neighbors have been getting the same thing, some are deciding to sell, but most are refusing. That same lady comes over, I was outside doing yard maiteance and says "hello, good news we have a better offer for you, 12% over market value, that's great isn't it? surely we can work something out."

I then asked "do you have kids? a pet?" she then responded back and said "I have a son and 2 cats, why?" I then said "how much for your son? I'll give you 15k for him, and 2k for both your cats"

She confused said "um those aren't for sale" so I responded back "ok asshole, neither is my house, I hope you understand now, get the fuck off my property and never come back, you're not welcome here or anywhere in this neighborhood."

She said "listen I tried being nice to you, your house will be sold, and we will try other legal means to get your house" me "did you not understand what I said, get the fuck off my property you ugly disgusting bitch" she left.

I'm scared that this company is going try to use "dominio eminente" to force me to sell my house.

I used to work at this one coffee shop, my first chain coffee shop after working only at local or family run ones. Simply put, it was hell. Owners would micromanage everything without knowing anything about how the business ran, never listened to their staff, and only cared about the money. Typical out of touch owners of a business.

I was hired to replace a manager that had walked out of one of their locations, leaving it with only part time staff. I was told I was being hired on as the "acting manager" until they either hired someone else or they felt I would be a good fit for the position after my 6 month probation.

I won't go into everything that went wrong because there's a lot but to summarize, it was literal hell. I was expected to cover all no shows (which had me working 90-100 hours a week), I wasn't allowed to fire anyone no matter how many things they did wrong (someone actually showed up to work drunk and I still wasn't allowed to fire them), and any changes I wanted to implement were shot down (like replacing old parts in the espresso machine, shortening our hours to save money on labor, bringing in items that customers would always ask for).

I was stressed, over worked, and irritated as hell when the owner comes in to talk to me about sales for the store. We weren't making enough to warrant the hours I had scheduled and he wasn't going to pay me any more over time. I would only work the hours I'm scheduled and if someone no showed, I had to have someone else cover those shifts. I tried to explain to him that I only came in when no one else would cover, it just so happened that the people he allowed to continue to work here had terrible availability. Making the schedule was already hard enough, getting someone other than myself to come in on their day off was next to impossible. On top of all that, I had to learn the ropes myself. There was no one to train me so all the managerial knowledge, ordering, scheduling, I learned myself. No one other than me knew how to order coffee, had the numbers for the repair guys, anything other than making coffee and using the til, I was the only one that knew.

He wasn't hearing any of it.

Owner: "All I'm hearing is excuses. This is your store. If you can't handle running it. I'll start looking for someone who will."

Me: "Wasn't that the plan though? It's been 3 months since my probation period ended and you never gave me the manager position so I assumed you were looking for someone to take ove