How Midichlorians work?

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Havok
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How Midichlorians work?

Post by Havok »

As a nine year old boy, Anakin's MC count was higher than Yoda's.
Qui-Gon says that the MCs tell someone the will of the Force with time and training.
MC count (parts per million or whatever in the blood) determains strength in the Force or/and the abillity to know the will of the Force.

Now, if nine year old Anakin has more MC than Yoda, then certainly, 19 year old Anakin does since he went from being four foot whatever to six foot whatever. Bigger body=more blood.

When Anakin gets his arms and legs chopped off doesn't he just basically go back to around a nine year old lever of blood and hence MC count?

This still would make him more powerfull than Yoda wouldn't it?
So even as Vader he should be more powerfull than Yoda.

Am I completely off base here? Has there been any official explanation on how exactly MC count affects ones abillities in the Force? Or any good unofficial ones for that matter?
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Post by Sarevok »

My memory of TPM is vague here. Are the midichlorians merely measurement of an individual's ability to use the Force or the key that channels the Force itself ?
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Post by Civil War Man »

From what I've gathered, midichlorians measure a person's potential. Anakin could have had a MC count of 200,000, and it still would have meant diddly if he did not receive the training necessary to use it.

If you gave Anakin/Vader the same amount of experience as Yoda, then he probably would be more powerful.
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Post by LaCroix »

Isn't midiclorians a "per cell" count?

Chopping of his arms wont do anything. He still has 200.000 per cell.

But he cant do artistics anymore with this heavy suit.
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Post by Havok »

From what it shows on screen (can't remeber the novelization) "over 20,000" (not 200, 000 LaCroix) is all that Obi-Wan says. I'm not sure if that means per each blood cell or in his whole body, but I'm guessing per cell, since to find his over all body count they would have to examine his whole body. Either way it's higher than Yoda's, and from Obi-Wans reaction, much higher.
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Post by SCRawl »

First off, they measure Anakin's count to be "off the scale", the top of which would appear to be 20,000 (which was the previously highest known count, that of Yoda). His midichlorian count could be one million (whatever that would mean) and still not violate Obi-wan's report.

As to what such a count means, I do believe that a high count implies a higher potential ability to perceive the Force. I also believe that while all high-potential Force users have high midichlorian counts, not all those with high midichlorian counts can become Force users. This is to say that midichlorians tend to concentrate around Force users; if the midichlorians are the cause rather than the effect, then anyone can become a Jedi by getting regular injections.

The actual mechanism for how they work is unclear. My preferred response to "How do midichlorians work?" is "Very well, thank you."
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Post by The Jazz Intern »

SCRawl wrote:*snip*
The actual mechanism for how they work is unclear. My preferred response to "How do midichlorians work?" is "Very well, thank you."
Lol

I always thought midiclorians were like skin and the force is like fat. The more skin you have, the more fat you could have.
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Post by SCRawl »

The Jazz Intern wrote:
SCRawl wrote:*snip*
The actual mechanism for how they work is unclear. My preferred response to "How do midichlorians work?" is "Very well, thank you."
Lol

I always thought midiclorians were like skin and the force is like fat. The more skin you have, the more fat you could have.
Hehe, glad you liked it.

I don't know that overall midichlorian total makes any difference to the ability to use the Force. My intuition tells me that, if that were the case, then the truly great Force users would be enormous. This isn't to say that a Hutt would make a good Jedi (though it would be amusing to watch one in action) but the coincidence of large body size and high midichlorian concentration should result in the more powerful Force users. Qui-gon Jinn, for example, was a rather large human (about 2m tall, I think, if QGJ was supposed to be the same height as Liam Neeson) and a very capable Jedi, but no one ever remarked that "ooh, he's tall, I bet he's strong with the Force".

Anyways, my position remains that midichlorians tend to congregate around strong Force users (or more accurately, beings with high Force-use potential), which implies that the total count is practically irrelevant.

Or maybe I'm wrong, feel free to tell me to fuck off.
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Post by 18-Till-I-Die »

I think, and by that i mean, in my opinion, Midichlorians are most likely merely a way to easily measure Force power. Like a person with a high degree of power in the Force, will generate massive numbers of Midichlorians in their blood. It's not the cause, more a side effect. Like a person with Jaundice has a yellow-ish tone because of the disease, but the disease isnt caused by suddenly developing a yellow-ish skintone (i should know...) and in that same way a person who is very powerful Force-wise will have large numbers of Midichlorians but simply having a lot of Midichlorians wont give you the Force. I could inject myself with a trillion Midichlorians, i could never acess the Force, while Anakin might only have like three Midichlorians but would still be sensitive to the Force, because his brain is naturally atuned to it already.

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Post by Civil War Man »

18-Till-I-Die wrote:I think, and by that i mean, in my opinion, Midichlorians are most likely merely a way to easily measure Force power. Like a person with a high degree of power in the Force, will generate massive numbers of Midichlorians in their blood. It's not the cause, more a side effect.
Perhaps, to indulge in an analogy, it is like people with high IQs doing well on the SATs? It's quite possible for someone with a lower IQ to do well, or someone with a high IQ to do poorly, but having a high number in one may indicate that you will have a high number in the other.
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Post by LadyTevar »

I always wondered if Han might have had a 'touch' of the Force. How many times did he have 'a bad feeling' and he was right in the movies? So, maybe he had a above-average Midiclorian count, just enough for the Force to poke him at times, but not enough for him to use the Force.
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Post by Noble Ire »

LadyTevar wrote:I always wondered if Han might have had a 'touch' of the Force. How many times did he have 'a bad feeling' and he was right in the movies? So, maybe he had a above-average Midiclorian count, just enough for the Force to poke him at times, but not enough for him to use the Force.
According to the EU, especially the NJO, he's not force sensitive at all.
Of course, that doesn't mean he can't be lucky. :wink:
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Post by Cykeisme »

Note that despite Anakin's high midi-chlorian count, the council still insisted on performing tests on him (such Mace's test where he held a screen that displayed images facing away from Anakin).
That means that a high midi-chlorian count doesn't guarantee that an individual is Force sensitive.


As for whether the count refers to density or total, I should think it refers to density. Qui-Gon merely took a blood sample from Anakin to deduce that his MC count was over 20,000.. there's no way that blood sample could have been used to find out how many total MCs there were in Anakin's whole body.

So the whole "getting chopped in half" (making someone weaker) and "getting fatter" (making someone stronger) silliness really doesn't hold any water even when taking the midi-chlorian fiasco into account; regardless of whether MCs are the cause or an effect of Force sensitivty, it's their density that's important, not the total amount.
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Post by Mark S »

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