Does the World Between Worlds Make Sense?

The World Between Worlds is undeniably one of the most visually interesting places in Star Wars, and that's because it does not conform to any physical place. It even seems to connect to other points in time, as can be seen most definitively in Star Wars: Rebels when Ahsoka herself is seemingly sent back in time from the fourth season of the series to the finale of the second. Time travel just isn't a part of Star Wars, but this odd world seems to be the exception, perhaps explaining why it is such a rare sight, and such an unknown place. There are many things we can understand about this world though, and as always, that comes from the wonderful fun of analysis! So join me to find out everything you need to know about one of the Star Wars universe's strangest mysteries.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The first mystery to solve is the most obvious, but it provides us with the framing of this whole world, the framing that of course places it between other worlds. One of those worlds is the physical world, the one we know, but it's harder to guess what the other is. It could be the Force, but the Force interacts and is always a big part of the physical world in Star Wars. However, the Force exists in two parts, the living force and the cosmic force, as discussed thoroughly in the What Does the Force Want? blog post. The living Force can be seen as the part of the cosmic Force that interacts with the physical world. It's a bit more complex than that, but for this investigation that's okay, because we're focused on the cosmic Force anyways.

The cosmic Force is basically the force of fate, deciding how the world will play out. The important thing to know about it, though, is that those who appear as Force ghosts after death do so through the cosmic Force. They become one with the Force, and that may well mean passing through the World Between Worlds and into the cosmic. They shed physicality and become concepts, the living Force interacting with the cosmic Force and vice versa.

If we translate this type of thing into the real world it works well. Most religious and spiritual beliefs include a living world and a dead world, and many include something in between. This is the most likely thing that is meant by "The World Between Worlds" and beyond the similarity in the idea of a limbo world and the World Between Worlds, there is also one more huge piece of information sitting right there: "the Living Force." Using the term cosmic implies something else and something not to be afraid of, but the Force is always balanced. Where there is light, there is dark, and where there is life, death, and so the Living Force's counter must be the Dead Force. It is by no means separate the impact of life, just like life is connected to death and its impacts, but the World Between Worlds is the world between life and death.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE WORLD BETWEEN WORLDS?

Now it may be clear that this place has no physical location, but that doesn't mean it has no location at all. It is a place one can walk through, so while it may not have a physical location, it definitely is a physical location. We know this because when a character enters it, they are removed from the physical world, and potentially from the dead world as well, as seen most explicitly by Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels, but it also seems to have happened in Ahsoka, because Ahsoka couldn't be found while she was in the World Between Worlds, and as soon as she was out, she was indeed found.

This must be a physical place but it appears to follow a different logic than the physical world. Concepts like gravity are only loosely followed in a world where the paths you can follow go up, down, sideways, and around. And beyond that, time isn't followed strictly either. As mentioned before, Ahsoka seemingly has travelled in time via the World Between Worlds by walking through a gate at the end of one of the paths in the World. In Star Wars: Rebels, Ezra is also shown another tragic moment in his past. For the sake of avoiding spoilers for an excellent show, I won't describe the moment but I will gladly recommend you watch Rebels if you haven't already. But regardless of the specifics, he and Ahsoka were both shown pivotal moments in their lives, and Ahsoka was given the chance to return to hers, and not exactly where she left. She was also meeting Ezra from two years after that moment happened to her, so it would seem that there is some time strangeness in that world.

So, we know that the World Between Worlds exists by a different standard than the physical world. Times are connected by physical pathways, and people can meet up within from different times. It's possible that Anakin had actually only just arrived when he was seen in Ahsoka, rather than having waited for all those years, but I'll have more on that in an upcoming post. I would love to say I know exactly how these things are connected, but I don't, and I don't think we ever will know definitively because this is an aspect of the Force and those are never completely clear. But I do think this tells us that this truly is a world unto itself. It's not a place in the worlds of the living or dead, but a whole new set of places that it's possible nobody can explore for too long. It is a place where times are connected to each other and you can choose to either live or die, at least in Ahsoka's case.

DOES IT MAKE SENSE?

The World Between Worlds actually pretty much must make sense, and I don't just mean for the sake of the plot of the shows it's appeared in or anything like that. It may be confusing, and it may bend time, connecting people to important moments of their past. It may exist and yet not exist. But regardless of all of this information that is hard to put an understandable logic to, the World Between Worlds is not our world, the world of the living. That World is one on its own. We have evidence it is potentially overlaid on top of the physical world, because there are physical entrances to it, but beyond that it seems to just exist with its own rules. Gravity seems odd in that place, planets haven't necessarily formed, there are things like portals to points in time, and none of that seems possible in the physical world, but we've seen it in the World Between Worlds, and because we haven't been able to study it or have characters establish rules, it would be a shock if it didn't follow its own logic.

The World Between Worlds does indeed make sense, even if it doesn't make sense by the standards of our world.