[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Spoiler:

It just struck me as curiosity (after IX comes out, it could be retroactively read that it was her innate Dark Side drawing her there) and to look for answers that Luke wasn't giving her. Plus see about mom and dad. When Luke went into the Dark Side part of the woods in TESB it wasn't really that much different. Luke fought himself, Rey finds a bunch of clones of herself (which is actually pretty interesting). But it wasn't like Luke defying Yoda and going there meant that Luke is going Dark Side.

Spoiler:

no no, when I say embracing the dark side I mean acknowledging that it exists and being okay with it. Noticing that it's there but not fearing at the way that Luke did. That's what's going to bring balance to the force.

See you in my mind the Jedi went out of their way to distance themselves from the world. They weren't allowed to love, they were taken away from their families. There's a line in the third season of avatar The Last Airbender where one of the avatars of the past tells Aang that in order to exert great change on the world he has to live in the world. He can't put his spiritual needs above the needs of the world. That's what the Jedi did.

And ultimately I believe that's why they failed.

The prophecy was supposed to be that Luke would bring balance to the force, but I don't think it was through his actions directly, but rather by his ability to influence Ray. He had to go through everything that he went through to make sure that he was the right kind of leader for the one who would actually balance the universe.

Of course this could all be hogwash, but it's the theory I'm working with at the moment.