{"id":43,"date":"2017-11-16T10:56:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T15:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/?page_id=43"},"modified":"2017-12-15T08:57:38","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T13:57:38","slug":"lance-tebay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2017\/lance-tebay\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Tebay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Can Jedi Be Rebels?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the <i>Star Wars <\/i>original trilogy, Luke Skywalker is a jedi knight in the Rebel Alliance, but is he truly a rebel? Albert Camus\u2019 <i>The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt<\/i> provides a lens to answer this question and examine a much larger question: can a jedi ever be a rebel? This requires taking a look at two jedi that are typically considered rebellious: Anakin Skywalker and his son, Luke. Anakin is often seen by fans as the rebel jedi who fights against the Jedi Order in the prequel trilogy and Luke as the rebel jedi fighting with the Rebel Alliance against the evil Galactic Empire. As we will come to see, Anakin cannot be a rebel because of his obedience to the ways of the Jedi and eventually to those of the Sith. Luke does not start out a rebel, but there is evidence to suggest that he will be revealed as the only true rebel jedi in the <i>Star Wars <\/i>universe in the upcoming film, <i>Star Wars: Episode VIII &#8211; The Last Jedi.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In his philosophical essay, \u201cThe Rebel,\u201d Albert Camus defines what it means to be a rebel, which can be applied directly to the <i>Star<\/i> <i>Wars<\/i> universe. \u201cA rebel is a slave who has followed orders all his life and then suddenly decides that he will not follow a new order,\u201d (Camus 6). Camus\u2019 rebel can extend beyond this definition as well. A rebel does not have to be a lifelong slave or even a slave in the traditional sense, but rather anyone who has no choice but to follow unjust commands. This slave has put up with the injustice of his oppressor until a point where he decides that he can endure no longer. Camus points out the influence that religion has when examining rebellion. Camus asserts that rebellion cannot\u00a0occur within the context of religion because religion has such strict, absolute values that cannot be abandoned. In Camus\u2019 world of the rebel, the values that support rebellion are relative to the one who is rebelling. Each rebel will not have the same values entering a rebellion, whereas members of a religion adhere to the same absolute values and ideas about something according to Camus. There are only two experiences possible, \u201cfor the human mind: the sacred (or, to speak in Christian terms, the world of grace) and the world of rebellion,\u201d (Camus 12).<\/p>\n<p>Camus\u2019 claim that members of a religion adhere to the same absolute values does not hold up in the real world where unorthodoxy exists. Members of a particular religion are expected to all follow the entirety of the dogma but that doesn\u2019t necessarily always happen, seen in Catholics that support abortion or the death penalty. However, Camus\u2019 claim does fit in the context of <i>Star Wars <\/i>where jedi, lightsaber-wielding Force-users, only exist within the Jedi Order or the Order of the Sith. There is no realm of unorthodoxy in the <i>Star Wars <\/i>universe and so members of religion must adhere to absolute values.<\/p>\n<p>In <i>Star Wars<\/i>, there are two \u201cworlds of grace\u201d or religions that jedi can belong to: the Jedi Order or the Order of the Sith. The Jedi Order is one such religion that sees a \u201cworld of grace,\u201d \u00a0and one that has absolute values (Camus 12). The Jedi use the light side of the Force and teach peace, hope, and tranquility. The Jedi follow a strict moral guideline, the Jedi Code, and completely disavow the dark side of the Force in all their teachings due to fear that any interaction with the dark side will cause a jedi to fall from the light. This is where the Jedi see the world in absolutes: a jedi can only belong to the light or the dark with no middle ground in the world of the Force. The Sith are the counterpart to the Jedi absolutes. They use the dark side of the Force and adhere to values of anger, fear, and hate to fuel their power and have their own teachings such as the teaching of there can be only one master and one apprentice (\u201cRule of Two\u201d). The best explicit evidence of the absolutes of the Jedi and Sith is seen at the end of <i>Episode III<\/i>, before Anakin and Obi-Wan square off on Mustafar.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Only A Sith Deals In Absolutes\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wgpytjlW5wU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Anakin\u2019s statement here is an absolute, but Obi-Wan responds with an absolute of his own. This demonstrates that the Jedi and Sith are two sides of the same coin: religion. Being confined to religion prevents Jedi and Sith from being rebels because they live in a world that only deals with absolutes and absolute values. A rebel does not deal in absolutes as the Jedi and Sith do because the values of rebellion are relative, they change with each rebel.<\/p>\n<p>There are many who would argue that Anakin Skywalker rebels against the Jedi Council, and there is plenty of evidence to support this. He cannot understand the Jedi Order\u2019s fear of emotional attachment, and feels betrayed when he learns of the Council\u2019s plan to spy on the Chancellor and that the Jedi have kept information from him that could save the life of his wife, Padme (Lucas, <i>Star Wars: Episode III &#8211; Revenge of the Sith<\/i>). He fights against this oppression by destroying the Jedi Order and joining the dark side as Darth Vader, completing his revolt as a rebel. The problem with this is that Anakin is still oppressed by a religion of the Force. He simply flips his point of view, seeing the Jedi as evil instead of the Sith. As soon as he decides to join the dark side, he drops to his knee and pledges his allegiance to the Emperor and the dark side (Lucas, <i>Star Wars: Episode III &#8211; Revenge of the Sith<\/i>). To be a rebel, Anakin would have to escape the established religions that are the Jedi and Sith while still maintaining his faith in the Force.<\/p>\n<p>With much anticipation surrounding Episode 8 of the <i>Star Wars<\/i> saga, rumors of Luke Skywalker\u2019s role in the film could paint him as the only true rebel jedi in the <i>Star Wars<\/i> Universe. The assumption of Luke\u2019s role in the upcoming film is that he has found an old Jedi temple that may be the first temple ever. Inside are books that describe the Force in a much different way than as absolutes of light and dark that exist in constant conflict. In the teaser trailer, Rey says she sees \u201cthe balance\u201d with a shot of these sacred books (\u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi Official Teaser\u201d). This would mean that these texts have shifted Luke\u2019s perspective of the Force as a combination of light and dark, not a separation between the two. This change of thinking would mean that Luke is rebelling against the traditional ways of the Jedi Order. He sees the way the Jedi have been doing things as an injustice to the Force and so he says no more, just like Camus\u2019 rebel, and wants the old way of the Jedi\u00a0to come to an end (\u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi Official Teaser\u201d). Luke finally becomes a rebel by having a unique, relative perspective of the Force where he uses however much of the light and the dark that he deems necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Luke abandoning the ancient religion of the Jedi signifies a rebellion against a flawed system. While Luke has not been a slave to this religion his whole life, he has been during his entire life as a Jedi. This rigid structure of the archaic Jedi Code caused Anakin, the Chosen One who was supposed to bring balance to the Force, to fall to the dark side and throw the galaxy into darkness. Unlike Anakin, who continued under the traditional religions of Jedi and Sith that depend on the absolute values of light and dark, Luke goes against this mentality for a more flexible view of the Force that involves a spectrum of gray.<\/p>\n<p>This is the idea behind the Gray Jedi Theory in the <i>Star Wars <\/i>universe. These are not traditional jedi in the sense that they are members of the Jedi Order or the Order of the Sith, but rather they are the jedi that walk the line between the light and the dark without giving into either side (\u201cGray Jedi\u201d). The theory suggests that they act more favorably towards the light, but are able to use the dark side when necessary. While this type of jedi is only seen in the <i>Star Wars <\/i>expanded universe and not the films, Luke\u2019s role in <i>Episode VIII <\/i>will likely bring the Gray Jedi Theory to the big screen. Luke exhibits his first movement towards becoming a Gray Jedi when battling Darth Vader in <i>Star Wars:<\/i> <i>Episode VI<\/i> &#8211; <i>Return of the Jedi<\/i>, where he begins the fight the way the Jedi always have: calm and focused.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-258\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-11-07-at-2.29.20-PM-300x126.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"554\" height=\"245\" \/>(<\/p>\n<p>Screenshot, <i>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi, <\/i>01:49:40).<\/p>\n<p>However, when Darth Vader mentions that he wants to turn Luke\u2019s sister, Leia, to the dark side, Luke loses control and gives way to absolute rage which gives him the power to defeat Vader (Lucas, <i>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi<\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-260\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-11-07-at-1.08.44-AM-300x129.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"558\" height=\"252\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Screenshot, <i>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi<\/i>, 01:53:20).<\/p>\n<p>Feelings of anger and rage have always traditionally been thought by the Jedi to lead to the dark side. However, Luke sees that he is able to control his feelings and is only able to defeat Vader because of these powerful emotions. This evidence portrays Luke as a Gray Jedi who is able to walk the line between the light and the dark without completely abiding by one or the other. If his father, Anakin, had not been taught under the strict rules of the Jedi and been forced to fight his feelings at every turn, it may have been possible for him to express his feelings in a more constructive way rather than hiding his passion from the Jedi and allowing it to eat away at the light inside him until he gave in to the dark.<\/p>\n<p>Albert Camus\u2019, \u201cThe Rebel,\u201d gives an idea of a rebel that can be examined through the Jedi in the <i>Star Wars<\/i> universe. \u201cThe Rebel,\u201d emphasizes that a rebel cannot exist within a religion\u2019s absolute values because the values of a rebellion are relative. The ways of the Jedi and the Sith are full of absolutes, with emphasis on strict adherence to the light and dark sides of the Force respectively. Anakin Skywalker represents both sides of this adherence as both a Jedi and a Sith Lord. As a Jedi, Skywalker was confined by total adherence to the light, which meant disconnecting attachments from those he loved and it ultimately led him to the dark side. As Darth Vader, he relied on hate for power and abandoned all the principles of the Jedi and the light, which showed a stark contrast between the light and the dark. His son, Luke Skywalker, is able to see past this strict contrast and is the only Jedi in the <i>Star Wars<\/i> films that is actually a rebel. Luke sees the Force as a spectrum that can be used together rather than as total absolutes that are in conflict. His discovery of ancient texts leads him to rebel against the traditional ways of the Force and to no longer see the world in black and white, but in shades of gray.<\/p>\n<p>Works Cited<\/p>\n<p>Camus, Albert. <i>The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. <\/i>Vintage International, 1991.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGray Jedi.\u201d <i>Wookieepedia, <\/i>starwars.wikia.com\/wiki\/Gray_Jedi<\/p>\n<p>Lucas, George, director. <i>Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Lucas, George, director. <i>Star Wars: Episode IV &#8211; A New Hope<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Lucas, George, director. <i>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi<\/i>. 1983.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly A Sith Deals In Absolutes.\u201d <i>Youtube.com, <\/i>3 Mar. 2010.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRule of Two.\u201d <i>Wookieepedia, <\/i>starwars.wikia.com\/wiki\/Rule_of_Two<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi Official Teaser.\u201d <i>Youtube.com<\/i>, 17 Apr. 2017.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"grammarly-disable-indicator\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"grammarly-disable-indicator\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can Jedi Be Rebels? In the Star Wars original trilogy, Luke Skywalker is a jedi knight in the Rebel Alliance, but is he truly a rebel? Albert Camus\u2019 The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt provides a lens to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2017\/lance-tebay\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/409"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}