Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday December 14 2015, @04:57PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 14 2015, @04:57PM (#276181)

    (spoiler alert)

    Speaking of "another man", for a supposed religious analogy, there's only 5 mystics in the entire original trilogy, Luke, Vader, Yoda, Emperor, and Kenobi. But the greater overall battle is between at least tens of thousands of fighters on both sides, maybe billions total, and there's a huge number of extras and on screen minor characters who have no mystical side.

    Interestingly the vast majority of both sides of the battle are entirely atheist, as near as I can tell. That makes it hard to spin as a religious jihad, when there's only a couple on each side and almost everyone pulling the trigger on a blaster or piloting a ship is an atheist. Usually Jihads involve someone more religious people than "2" or "3". If, thru just bad luck, some random blaster fire or a themal detonator lands over there or whatever and all five religious people could have been wiped out dropping the entire battle into pure atheist mode on both sides. That's interesting, and does little for the jihad narrative.

    Now the prequels, of which the less said, the better, did have a lot more players on both sides, well, until Vader killed roughly everyone toward the end.

    I'm not sure the prequels indicate the characters are even human. So people are surprised that you lock up a single teenage war hero with a hot single teenage princess and they wouldn't ... I mean what were they thinking? Looking at jar-jar how could any human be expected to tolerate that kind of character? The tension between Luke and his sister? Not sure what species they are, but it isn't human.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @06:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @06:53PM (#276250)

    The tension between Luke and his sister? Not sure what species they are, but it isn't human.

    If you can't keep it in your pants, at least keep it in the family.