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posted by takyon on Monday December 14 2015, @03:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-shot-first dept.

With the imminent release of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, many theatergoers are re-watching the original movies to reacquaint themselves with those stories from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This time, however, they may find themselves surprised by how much the film's characters and themes echo the current War On Terror. According to Jonathon Last, in the Star Wars films (not the Expanded Universe) the Empire is good and is engaged in a fight for the survival of its regime against a violent group of rebels who are committed to its destruction. Now an interesting article on the Star Wars films at Decider takes the re-interpretation a step further, arguing that the films are actually the story of the radicalization of Luke Skywalker. From introducing Luke to us in A New Hope (as a simple farm boy gazing into the Tatooine sunset), to his eventual transformation into the radicalized insurgent of Return of the Jedi (as one who sets his own father's corpse on fire and celebrates the successful bombing of the Death Star), each film in the original trilogy is another step in Luke's descent into terrorism.

According to the article Luke Skywalker is just the kind of isolated disaffected young man that terror recruiters seek out. Obi Wan — a religious fanatic with a history of looking for young boys to recruit and teach an extreme interpretation of the Force — tells Luke he must abandon his family and join him, going so far as telling a shocking lie that the Empire killed Luke's father, hoping to inspire Luke to a life of jihad. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is ordered to travel overseas to receive training and religious instruction from Yoda, an extremist cleric who runs a Jedi madrasa on Dagobah. Yoda's push to radicalize Luke, rob him of an identity, and instill obedience are apparent when at various points he instructs Luke to "Clear your mind of questions," "Unlearn what you have learned" and, most grimly, "Do, or do not, there is no try." Armed with new combat training and cloaked in a hardline religious fervor, Luke leaves Dagobah, impatient to put his terror training to use.Finally in Return of the Jedi, we see a darker, hardened Luke, fittingly dressed in black and eager to use violence as a tool to enforce the twisted "judge, jury, executioner" value system of the Jedi. "With Darth Vader the final casualty of Luke's jihad, Obi-Wan and Yoda have succeeded in catching yet another young man in their web of Jedi extremism," concludes the article. "Star Wars is clearly a cautionary tale of the dangers of radicalization, and how even a seemingly harmless young man who kept to himself on Tattooine can become the terrorist next door."


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by moondrake on Monday December 14 2015, @04:55PM

    by moondrake (2658) on Monday December 14 2015, @04:55PM (#276180)

    I think you miss the point. The empire is a bit more evil compared to states like the US, and Luke a bit nicer than your average suicide bomber. He would still classify as a terrorist however.

    I think the story is good for pointing out that simple people, fighting for their cause, and for what they believe in, are labeled terrorist by the powers that be. This is a fantasy story, and right&wrong are being exaggerated to make it simple for the audience to chose who are the bad guys. Real live however, is often not so simple.

    I think we must however acknowledge that 1) Nations also do evil things and 2) It is possible that persons exists that are fighting against a state in an "as good as possible" way, which of course still would get him/her labeled as terrorist.

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @06:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @06:00PM (#276221)

    > I think the story is good for pointing out that simple people, fighting for their cause,
    > and for what they believe in, are labeled terrorist by the powers that be.

    The classic quote is that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." But that was first used in reference to the troubles in northern ireland so it was a lot more palatable to americans back then.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @09:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @09:31PM (#276339)

      We have a winner.

    • (Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday December 14 2015, @09:47PM

      by q.kontinuum (532) on Monday December 14 2015, @09:47PM (#276357) Journal

      Wasn't the US army playing an involuntary pun on it with "Americas Army", where when two teams play against each other, each team will see itself in righteous American uniform, while each party sees the enemy depicted as evil terrorists? Can't find a link to back this up at the moment.

      --
      Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2015, @03:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2015, @03:11PM (#277119)

        In that case, it was probably not a political statement or a joke so much as a way to avoid people identifying with the wrong side in what is supposed to be a recruitment tool.