In the classic Star Wars trilogy, the Force was viewed as an “ancient religion” by Admiral Motti and as a “hokey religion” by Han Solo. Meaning that, after the fall of the Republic, everyone from fascist bureaucrats to good-hearted smugglers had less than serious opinions about the Force. But over a century before that, the Force functioned much differently in day-to-day life. Instead of existing as a “mystical energy field” that random farmboys had never even heard of, in the days of the High Republic, the Force was not only widely known and understood, it was also legislated.
