Was "balance" ever actually achieved in the Star Wars universe?

[mjr]

In the "pre-trilogy", the Jedi council assumed Anakin was the "Chosen One" for the Jedi Prophecy of who would bring balance to the Force.

But the question on my mind is: Was "balance" ever actually achieved in the Star Wars universe? If so, When? And How? I was talking to the Mrs. about this, and across the 10 movies (I'm not counting "Solo" because I haven't seen it), and whatever actual Canon there might be, was balance ever actually achieved?

I suggested to my wife that Rey was the "balance" because she essentially was not only a "Grey Jedi" (at least in my opinion), but her light Saber color indicated that she was a Sentinel.

My wife rejected the notion that "balance" in the Force was an even number of Jedi and Sith.

Also, did the Jedi have the "Rule of 2", or was that just for Sith? And why did they have it?

What say you?

Any thoughts here?

[Deserted]

I rather doubt that balance in the force was ever achieved. Before episode 7 was dumped on us, it was assumed that Anakin brought the balance by tossing Palpatine into the pit, but with the release of episode 9... sigh.

Also, the rule of 2 was strictly Sith, meant to hide themselves from the Jedi and the galaxy at large. In ancient times, there was an entire Sith empire, with perhaps thousands of Sith, but the Jedi eventually defeated them.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I think "balance" was never something that was going to last.

There was a theory going around during the prequels that the "balance" Anakin brought was allowing the Dark Side to rise to power, because the Light Side had flourished too much, but IIRC, George Lucas put the kibosh on that theory and said that the "balance" didn't come until Vader turned on Palpatine and yeeted him over that railing.

I also reject the idea that "balance" means an equal amount of Jedi and Sith. In the Destiny video games, where there is also an eternal conflict between the opposing forces of Light and Darkness, one of the characters, Mara Sov, puts forth the idea that while the two forces are in opposition, they are not necessarily equal, and the balance between them is not 50/50. As she puts it, "I believe in balance. But to seek balance is not to seek equity. A sea half of water and half of poison is not in balance. A body half alive and half dead is not in balance. Given the choice to live in any world, any world at all… we would need a little Darkness in it, I think, to keep the balance true. But not so much as we would need the Light…"

In Star Wars, though, I feel like the Light/Dark Side cycle is going to continue in perpetuity. There will always be Force-sensitives that aren't discovered by the Jedi, and of those, there will be those who succumb to the allure of the Dark Side and the feeling of power that comes with it. And there will always be Jedi that fall to the Dark Side as well.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The Star Wars universe did achieve balance. At least as far as their bank accounts are concerned.

[depechemodefan]

My problem with "balance" that the prequels talked about was it wasn't defined. Maybe centuries ago the Jedi or Force users had an idea what balance meant, but by the time of the prequels the Jedi thought of balance in a totally different way then what it meant centuries ago. Jedi in the prequels thought of balance in a way that benefitted them.
Though I will go with George with the idea of balance being attained by Anakin killing Palpatine and going back to the Light side again. Granted, I think George is retconning, like he constantly does. I love ep. 7, I like 8, kind of hate 9, but I don't think anyone (like JJ or Kathleen) thought about "balance", just gave it lip service.