Nathan Logan

Dr. Schultz

MEDS 184

12.12.2018

The Force is the Unsung Hero and Accidental Rebellion in Star Wars

Star Wars at its core is a very simple storyline that exists in a detailed and unique universe that it’s practically effortless to dive deep and discuss the inner workings of the plot. The Force is one of these details that intrigues the audience and adds depth to the Star Wars universe. In the original trilogy, the Force is a mysterious power that only a select few has access to. Especially in Star Wars: A New Hope, the Force is only utilized by Luke, Darth Vader, and Obi Wan Kenobi. The prequels provide helpful background on the Jedi and Sith and how the Force operates between the opposing sides. It isn’t until the sequel trilogy that the Force is explored and uncovered thoroughly. However, there is still more to be discovered about the eerie, obscure, yet awesome Force.

Because Star Wars consists of such a vast universe, many individuals and communities that appear to be just aesthetic filling for the main characters to exist in are actually key to the storyline and are polished characters. They may not seem crucial to the core of the storyline but upon closer analysis are integral to how the films play out. These “neutral” characters in Star Wars who are exiled from conflict between the Empire and Rebellion relate strongly to themes of subaltern knowledge.

Subaltern literally means of lower statues, however literary theorist Gayatri Spivak defines the subaltern as individuals and communities that are so isolated and oppressed that they have no voice. In Star Wars however, the Force complicates this narrative.

Though subaltern communities are not physically present in the imperial conflict, they are able to influence the institutions in power in subtle ways. Specifically, subaltern characters accidental rebel against the Empire in Star Wars. Accidental rebellion may appear as actions and decisions that coincidentally undermine the Empire’s agenda, however if so then the Rebellion’s success was just lucky. Upon deeper investigation, the Force’s purpose in the films can be interpreted as an underlying energy that influences decision making in all characters. The current Star Wars scholarship lacks analysis and exploration on the relationship between the force and subaltern characters. On surface level, the Force appears to be a key power that Luke, Darth Vader, and a select few other characters utilize to achieve the respective goals in the war between the Empire and Rebellion. Star Wars From a Certain Point of View and Star Wars: The Force Awakens however, help uncover that the Force actually intertwines with all living beings and is a postcolonial tool that provides power to the powerless and a voice to the subaltern in Star Wars.

Unrivaled in military and political power, any act against The Empire in Star Wars: A New Hope could be considered rebellious. However, rebellion occurs accidentally in Star Wars and those whose decisions inherently assign them to a side of the war are unaware of the influence of their actions.

There are several examples of accidental rebellion that Star Wars From a Certain Point of View exposes to the audience. Arguably the most prominent example comes from the Jawas in the chapter “Stories in the Sand.” In the film, the Jawas are conveyed as mysterious beings that are strictly neutral to the war between the Empire and Rebels. Star Wars From a Certain Point of View provides the audience with the Jawa’s perspective and how their actions are more impactful than anticipated. Jot, a particularly small Jawa, discovers an astromech droid due to his misfortune of being bullied into scouting the excavation site for the sandcrawler. Jot projects the memory core from the droid and for the first time he sees the “soft curvature of Tatooine” and the enticing scene of a starship crashing (McElroy 42). These images flood Jot’s eyes with “stinging tears. Seeing this story—seeing stars, and flight, and the only planet he’d ever lived on from kilometers above—his eyes would not dry for some time” (42). Jot’s intense reaction to such unprecedented visuals convey the humbling sense of his size relative to the galaxy he just received.

Jot’s exhilarating experience with the astromech droid leads him to keep R2D2’s memory intact, completely oblivious to how influential his decision is in deciding the war between the Empire and the Rebellion. Jot gains a stronger perspective on how grand and frightening the universe is by examining each memory unit of the droids the Jawas discover. However, none of the memory units are as alarming as R2-D2’s. When Jot puts R2’s memory core into Storyteller, he is “mystified” and “enraptured” because he sees “swords made of fire” and “people who could actually use magic” (47). When Jot views Leia’s message, he can’t understand her but he can “read the concern on her face as plain as day. This was a warning” (48). The combination of Leia’s concern and the astonishing images of the Death Star and Jedi instill a notion of responsibility in Jot; Jot understands that he isn’t just “a passive observer of the story of his life. He [is] a participant” (49). It is vividly clear that Jot should not get involved in the conflict he witnesses in R2’s memory. He feels responsible to keep R2’s memory because it obviously contained crucial information. Jot however, is completely unaware of how important his choice is in keeping the Rebellion alive in the war; in a sense this is accidental rebellion.

Jot’s decision is not accidental in that he is attempting to aid the Empire and fails resulting in helping the Rebellion; it is accidental because he has no idea that he is supporting the cause of the Rebellion or participating in the imperial conflict at all because he is so far removed from the conflict. The neutral “space” characters like the Jawas exist in is an important aspect in the concept of accidental rebellion. In the Star Wars universe there are many communities and individuals who identify neither with the Empire or the Rebellion, but the neutrality of the Jawas comes from their lack of voice and poor status. These neutral groups and people though are still very much intertwined and influenced by the imperial project through the presence of the Force.

In Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi Wan Kenobi first introduces the audience to the Force when he explains to Luke the truth of his father. Obi Wan recollects that Darth Vader was “seduced by the dark side of the Force.” Luke doesn’t recognize the term and Obi Wan elaborates that the Force is “what gives a Jedi his power, it’s an energy field created by all living things, it surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.” Though Obi Wan implies that only the Jedi harness the power of the Force, he reveals that the Force is a binding power. Obi Wan Kenobi is illustrating that Force instills balance in the galaxy between the dark side and is more than a Jedi power.

Boba Fett’s death in Return of the Jedi is an example of the Force operating as a correcting mechanism when the balance between the dark and light sides is broken. Boba Fett’s death is remarkably ludicrous, however the details to his death reveal implications of an interference from the Force. Relying too heavily on his nifty gadgets are what cause his death, which doesn’t seem to be a very important aspect, however they fail at a critical moment when Luke Skywalker’s life is in jeopardy. Boba Fett’s death aids Luke’s heroic escape and return to the Rebellion. The severity of the situation in a sense implies that the Force played a part in causing Boba Fett’s death. Especially because Luke has obtained his full powers as a Jedi.

Once Luke has reached his full potential as a Jedi Knight in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the audience is aware of Luke’s development and more potent capabilities when utilizing the Force, however it is still unclear on what exactly the Force is. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, much more details are uncovered about the mysterious Force.

When Rey discovers Luke’s lightsaber, she immediately sees visions of the past and future. She sees a hooded man crouching and touching R2-D2 with his robot hand, presumably Luke Skywalker. She sees Kylo Ren confront her and threaten her. And she has a flashback to her childhood in which she is crying and pleading for the person holding her hand to stay. Luke’s lightsaber became a symbol of the force. The Jedi have become a myth of sorts and only artifacts from the past keep their stories alive. Rey felt the lightsaber calling to her which proves that the Force reaches people beyond the Jedi. When she awakes from her visions and Maz comes to comfort her, Maz reveals that the Force interacts with every living being. This implies that the Force can influence outcomes of situations and ensure that evil like the Empire can’t maintain power over the galaxy. Maz explains the Force as a “light that has always been there and that will guide” Rey to the “belonging” she craves. According to Maz, this belonging Rey seeks is not in her past on Jakku, but in the future. And in Rey’s visions, the encounter she has with Kylo Ren in the snow is foreshadowed, further emphasizing the Force as a guiding energy. 

Since the story of Star Wars is one the centralizes on the imperial project, it is filled with themes of postcolonialism. In Robert J. C. Young’s Postcolonialism, Young explains how the term “third world” holds power because it suggests “an alternative culture, an alternative ‘epistemology’, or system of knowledge,” explains Young (18). However, the vast majority of knowledge that has spread globally originated from western countries. Westerners, though, are unaware of the influence the Arabic world had on the development of mathematics and science. Neutral characters and communities in Star Wars very much possess “third world” traits. Tatooine vividly resembles the third world desert countries of the Middle East and north Africa. The communities are very poor and lack connection to the powers that possess the most influence.

The Jawas are an example of a third world community in Star Wars. They operate as self sufficient people that rarely interact with the Empire or Rebellion directly. Yet their “alternative culture” holds power in unique ways. Though it would probably seem unlikely that the way the Jawas scavenge for droids would play a crucial role in deciding an imperial conflict, it did. It is with the assistance of the Force, however, that influenced Jot and provided similar visions that the lightsaber did for Rey.

Though marginalized and neutral communities in Star Wars are proven to have power with assistance from the Force, they clearly still have significantly less influence than the Empire and Rebellion. Their limited interactions with the imperial project hold tremendous importance however. If Jot erased R2-D2’s memory core than the Rebellion would not have succeeded in destroying the Death Star the first time. If Boba Fett had not involved himself with the Empire and hadn’t relied so much on his gadgets, Luke may have been killed. Overlooked moments in Star Wars hold significance in the grander plot which would suggest that the Rebellion’s success comes from a sequence of very lucky and random events in which the Rebellion did not have a strong grip on their outcomes. Luck is not the key to the Rebellion’s success however. The Force is the unsung hero of the Rebellion. However, it is not exclusively an aid for the Rebellion and Resistance. The Force sways like a pendulum throughout the Star Wars saga. In the prequels, the Jedi possess control over the galaxy, but the Force lets the Republic fall for the Emperor to take over. We see the Force then sway to the light side in the original trilogy and through to the sequels, though now it is unknown where the Force will finish at the end of the saga.

 

Work Cited

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Directed by Irvin Kershner, Lucasfilm, 1980. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the second installment of the original trilogy of Star Wars movies. The original trilogy is a core source for the class due to its focus on Star Wars. I used this source to analyze how characters accidentally rebel, behave, and make decisions. I also explore how the Force plays a part in these themes.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Directed by J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm, 2015. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first installment of the last trilogy in the Star Wars saga. This film was very important in providing evidence of the Force affecting more than just the Jedi, as Rey discovers that she is Force sensitive when she is drawn to Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. The scene of Maz comforting Rey after she finds the lightsaber is especially important in my evidence as Maz explains how the Force is within all living creatures and behaves as a guiding mechanism.

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. Directed by Richard Marquand, Lucasfilm, 1983. Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi is the final film of the original trilogy of Star Wars movies. The original trilogy is a core source for the class due to its focus on Star Wars. I used this source to analyze how characters accidentally rebel, behave, and make decisions. I also explore how the Force plays a part in these themes.

Young, Robert C. J. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University, 2003. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction provided a brief background to the class on the different facets of postconialism and how imperial powers created postcolonial societies. I used this source to gain a stronger understanding of the postcolonial facet of subaltern knowledge. In my essay I focus on how in Star Wars the Force gives power and voice to the subaltern communities and individuals who lack such abilities. Young’s book helped me gain a stronger understanding of the subaltern in order for me utilize postcolonial themes to better understand Star Wars.