Hello Booman Trib, I put a lot of thought and effort into this diary and it scrolled off into oblivion at Daily Kos, with half a dozen recommends and no substantive comments (I know, that’s the way the cookie crumbles, but it can be so heartbreaking), so please don’t fail me!
I spent several hours writing this diary, the first of this type or length I have done. But, as a dedicated and thoughtful Star Wars Prequels fan, I wanted to outline some of my thoughts about Star Wars and where and how it interesects with the real world, especially with politics.
I begin with summaries of the political plots of the three Prequel films–the machinations of Darth Sidious drive these stories, but they often fly right past viewers (and reviewers!), so I thought it might be useful to separate them out from the larger plot, in a somewhat simplified form. I then explain a little about the characters, a little about George Lucas’ approach to storytelling, and then a little about the intersection of the prequels with contemporary current events.
Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace
The good Chancellor Valorum, leader of the Galactic Republic, requests for Jedi Knights to negotiate a settlement to end a blockade of the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation, a group which is protesting the taxation of trade routes. But what the Jedi don’t know is that the Trade Federation is secretly working with the Sith Lord Darth Sidious… the alter ego of the kindly Senator Palpatine of Naboo. Palpatine plays both sides: the reason he wants the Trade Federation to menace Naboo is so that he can play hero in the Senate. He convinces his fellow senators that Valorum is too weak to cut through the endless Senate debates, internecine squabbles, and rampant corruption and take decisive action. After a vote of “no confidence” that leaves him impotent Valorum resigns his position for the sake of the Republic, and Palpatine, “the phantom menace,” is easily voted in as the new Chancellor.
The Jedi, with the help of the Gungans, the Naboo Guards, and crack pilot Annie Skywalker, vanquish the Trade Federation–but Palpatine accomplished exactly what he set out to do: take the helm of the Republic. And Obi-Wan Kenobi destroys the Sith Apprentice Darth Maul, but not before Maul kills the one Jedi who might have kept Anakin on the Light Side, Qui-Gon Jinn.
Star Wars: Episode 2–The Clone Wars
About ten years later, “several hundred solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic”–a separatist movement which is, again, guided by Palpatine, who has used their greed and malice to manipulate the assorted commerce groups, weapons manufacturers, etc, into an alliance with each other, and against the Republic.
After the Separatists attempt to assassinate Senator Padmé Amidala, Chancellor Palpatine calls for the creation of a Republic Army–over Padmé’s objections–she wants to avoid war. Obi-Wan soon discovers that an army already exists–an army of clones, ordered ostensibly by “Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, a leading member of the Jedi Council”–but this man had been dead too long to have had a role, and the Jedi Council themselves are wholly unaware of the matter. All signs point to Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), a noble ex-Jedi Master and “political idealist” who has become the leader of the Separatists–and turns out to be the current Sith Apprentice, Darth Tyranus. Nonetheless, when Count Dooku and the Separatist droid army attack, the Jedi have little choice but to make use of the mysterious clone army to defend the Republic.
Star Wars: Episode 3–Revenge of the Sith
Just a few years later, the situation has gotten truly desperate. Chancellor Palpatine, who has used wartime “emergency powers” to remain in office beyond his proper term, has been “taken prisoner” by Count Dooku, and in the midst of a terrible battle above Coruscant, Obi-Wan and Anakin heroically “rescue” him. Anakin slays Dooku in cold blood at Palpatine’s urging, even though “it’s not the Jedi way.”
Palpatine has been grooming Anakin for a long time, and now he asks the Jedi Council to accept Anakin as his personal representative. They are deeply uncomfortable with this arrangement, and moreover they want Anakin to spy on Palpatine for them, because they fear he is subverting the democracy. Palpatine guesses this, and counters with a Faustian offer Anakin cannot resist. When push comes to shove and the Jedi try to arrest Palpatine, Anakin chooses sides: he becomes a Sith Lord. And Palpatine declares himself emperor–“to thunderous applause.”
After this everything falls like dominoes: Palpatine sends out an order to the Clone Army (which, of course, he ultimately controls) to kill the Jedi “traitors,” and he sends Anakin first to the Jedi temple to kill all remaining Jedi, and then to the lair of the Separatist leadership, to kill them too. And thus the Sith bring “peace” to the galaxy.
In the end, Anakin loses big-time. He has enormous power but he’s utterly trapped in pain and beholden to evil. But Palpatine achieves everything he set out to do… except eliminate the last two Jedi Knights. That might come back to haunt him. 🙂
Palpatine is a preternaturally successful manipulator who creates war from both sides in order to advance himself as the solution to the problem. Palpatine is the devil, the powerful embodiment of total selfishness, and he seduces the venal, the fearful, the greedy, and the malicious, by encouraging them to give in to their worst impulses. He has zero loyalty to anyone; he uses people and destroys them.
Anakin is actually a loving and good person, whose weaknesses of pride and fear of loss permit Palpatine to play him like a fiddle. His story is George Lucas’ explanation about how how people become evil.
The Republic is civilization as we know it, fragile because the dark side of human nature always threatens its integrity. Its story is George Lucas’ explanation about how how liberal democracies turn into fascist dictatorships.
The Jedi are the folks who believe in compassionate love and who give themselves body and soul to “the guardianship of peace and justice;” they represent the only hope for the galaxy. Jedi are fightin’ libruls; George Lucas says, “(t)hey aren’t an aggressive force. Conflict resolution, I guess, something like intergalactic therapists”–but we all know that when the negotiations are hopeless they use “force” exquisitely. Do remember they are fighting an enemy against which Gandhian tactics would be singularly pointless–supernatural evil and machines.
Star Wars is high fantasy. It’s mythology. People like to complain that it’s not “good mythology,” and to complain that George Lucas’ talk about mythology is pretentious. Star Wars is going to suck for you if you don’t accept the story as legitimate. It’s pathetically lame if we evaluate it as psychological fiction a la Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky–it doesn’t work on that level at all. (if you are convinced Star Wars is empty drivel I accept that… but I don’t agree so please indulge me for the duration of my diary!) Here is George Lucas explaining to Bill Moyers in 1999 about what level he is trying to tell the story on:
Lucas had a well-known friendship with mythology guru Joseph Campbell, whose Jungian interpretations of world mythology contributed to Lucas viewing Star Wars as an iteration of timeless human archetypes. In some sense, I think the saga is less a story about a particular individual who is seduced by evil and redeemed by the goodness of his child, then a representation of the concept that parents are redeemed by their children–and a host of other discrete concepts. Lucas names some in the Moyers interview:
What these films deal with is the fact that we all have good and evil inside of us and we can choose which way we want the balance to go.
Star Wars is made up of many themes… one is our relationship to machines, which are fearful but also benign… the issue of friendship and your obligation to your fellow man and to other people that are around you, that you have control over your destiny, that you have a destiny, that you have many paths to walk down and you may have a great destiny; if you decide not to walk down that path your life might not be as satisfying as if you wake up and listen to your inner feelings and realize what it is you have a particular talent for and what contributions you can make to society.
Back to the politics: Revenge of the Sith was not designed as an anti-Bush polemic. The general story concept preexisted Bush’s presidency–The Phantom Menace obviously was made before Bush was elected. But when events in real life paralleled the story in such obvious ways, it made sense to draw the audience’s attention to some of the parallels. I think it was well done and appropriately done, and that it made a point that relates to Joseph Campbell’s concept of mythology: that myths are true. They represent things that were true long, long ago, are still true, and will remain true in the future, because they reflect intrinsic human nature.
If you try to line the plot and characters up point by point with current events, they actually do not fit very precisely at all. The analogies are loose. For instance, in some regards Palpatine parallels Bush, and in others, Anakin does. Bush is not metaphysical evil, like Palpatine, and he is not literally a dictatorial emperor. But he has manipulated America into war with lies and hidden alliances with trade entities and “military-industrial” types, and eroded American democracy in alarming ways. Bush was probably never a good-hearted cherub who went bad, like Anakin, nor is he naturally superior at anything. But he has been led down a dark path by a tunnel-vision notion of protecting what is most precious at all costs, and destroying it in the process. He is won over to the wrong kind of patriotism, inverted religious values, and black and white, with-me-or-against-me thinking. Anakin breaks Padme’s heart and Obi-Wan’s by embracing the inverse of their moral worldview. They both affirm “I don’t know you anymore.” “I hate you!” he cries to Obi-Wan, a groan from the depths of his soul, as he slides toward hell.
I don’t know some of these Republicans anymore– though “I know there is still good in them. I know it!” Maybe they will be redeemed by their children.
In the meantime, I am a Jedi. They can destroy everything I love and they can kill me, but they won’t make me other than a Jedi (so help me Force!).
