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In the Star Wars universe, Force sensitivity is clearly (in strong part) hereditary.

Even without any training, one could assume Force sensitivity gives individuals an immense survival and reproductive advantage over the general population. Even if only a fraction of untrained Force-sensitive folks felt this advantage -- whether through quicker reflexes, stronger intuition, etc. -- the rules of natural selection seem to clearly favor these abilities. So why hasn't this massive fitness advantage just about wiped out non-Force-users through Darwinian selection? Or at least, why are Force wielders so few in number when all the rules of evolution point toward the opposite?

I know the Jedi are disallowed from procreation, but evolution seems to occur in Star Wars and this process would have happened long before the Jedi Order's existence.

CavernousReverb
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    It's hard to breed when someone's chopped you up with a lightsaber – Valorum Apr 01 '20 at 00:40
  • Lindybeige has done a YouTube video on an answer to this. – KerrAvon2055 Apr 01 '20 at 01:16
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    In short, Force sensitive beings are very rare, eg there are a few thousand Jedi in a galaxy of trillions, so it's hard to outcompete the general population in terms of making babies! – Hans Olo Apr 01 '20 at 07:46
  • In Legends, something happened that caused the Rakata empire to catastrophically collapse because they stopped having Force-sensitive children. Maybe that's actually widespread when a Force "dynasty" grows too big and dense... – Cadence Apr 01 '20 at 08:39
  • Jedi are not disallowed from procreation. In Legends, Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi had 5 wives and 7 children. They are, however, disallowed from emotional attachments and passion. – Karaelfte Apr 01 '20 at 11:29
  • @Karaelfte But for most, the one would hamper the other. – Harabeck Apr 01 '20 at 13:34
  • @Valorum -- As soon as I saw the question, I was thinking essentially the same thing. "Considering that Jedi and Sith tend to kill each other in duels, that must keep their strongest families from growing exponentially as the generations roll past . . . Mother Nature's (or the Force's) way of 'maintaining an ecological balance,' maybe?" – Lorendiac Apr 01 '20 at 23:16
  • @Karaelfte But in his case it was a special exception, that had to be granted by the Council, and the only reason it was granted was because of his species having a very low birth-rate due to the rarity of males compared to females. That certainly wasn't common. – suchiuomizu Apr 04 '20 at 21:25
  • "So why hasn't this massive fitness advantage just about wiped out non-Force-users through Darwinian selection?" What's killing all the non-Force users before they've had a chance to reproduce, and why aren't the Force users stopping it? – Paul D. Waite May 02 '23 at 10:00

2 Answers2

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While midi-chlorians help living beings communicate with the Force, the Force itself seems to act as a being in some ways. Specifically, it has a will, and is capable of prophecy, and potentially creating life. I find it unlikely that the Force, which is powerful and has a will, would want everyone to be in touch with it, because if everyone were Force-sensitive, they would all be too powerful. Imagine people pre-government, pre-civilization, able to throw lightning at one another and choke people they don’t like from afar. Sounds like a bad idea.

Conner
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There are several reasons.

  1. (You already said this one) Both Sith and Jedi are not allowed to have children. For the Sith, it is not explicitly stated, but you can infer that, since the Sith religion is based off anger, hate, and suffering. I don't see a Sith ever loving someone once they're Sith. And a Force-sensitive who already has a family has little reason to Fall.

  2. There were about 10,000 Jedi in the galaxy during the Clone Wars. There were several quadrillions of beings in the galaxy. Simply put, the Force-sensitive to non-Force-sensitive ratio is extremely low. Why? Because the Force wills it. It (No, I don't believe Kathleen Kennedy when she says the Force is female) doesn't want a bunch of Force-sensitives going around and creating chaos.

  3. The Force isn't necessarily dominant in genes. We see that all members of the Skywalker family by blood (Well, maybe not Shmi) have the Force and both Palpatine and Rey do, so automatically, people assume the Force is a dominant gene. However, both Anakin Skywalker and Sheev Palpatine were unnaturally strong in the force. Anakin Skywalker was conceived of midi-cholorians and he was the Chosen One. His children, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, and his grandson, Ben Solo, all had the Force because of Anakin's incredible connection to the Force. Also, we can assume the Force favours the Skywalker family. Palpatine was described as so powerful, the Force naturally hid his Force-sensitivity (The Plagueis Novel). But, I doubt he is as strong as Anakin. There are many non-Force-sensitive children of Jedi running around too, like Darman and Etain's son.

However, it is just as likely that the Force is dominant. This is a potential reason.

  1. This is a major one. Most Force-sensitives don't go on to live very long lives. Most either become Jedi or Sith and don't have children and in the Jedi's case, are massacred, or, they get killed by individuals hunting down Force-sensitives. It's not a fun life unless you're really good at hiding yourself.
The Grey Jedi
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  • (1) Rey is the daughter of a Sith, although it's never explained what her father's relationship to her mother is. – user May 02 '23 at 10:14
  • Not a Star Wars book, but C.S. Friedman's novel In Conquest Born has one character (a trained psychic) conclude that being psychic is pretty much the opposite of a natural survival characteristic that would be likely to spread rapidly throughout the gene pool of a primitive tribe. I won't rehash his reasoning here, but the book is a very interesting read. – Lorendiac May 02 '23 at 17:54