Is it Finally happening? Are we Finally getting the one thing any Star Wars fan could have wished for this Christmas?
Is Star Wars Finally Back?
Well, for that we need to define what Star Wars was, what made it go away, and then what does it mean for it to be... back?
Certainly those are complicated questions, that I definitely won't Butcher the Hell out of over the course of this Article.
So Let's begin with the first.
What is Star Wars? Well for that one needs to understand Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey.
If you have been on the internet for any length of time, me even bringing this up was either met with an exasperated sigh or a nod of oh yeah... I know that exists... Unless you somehow missed it in which case, please teach me your methods of blocking knowledge, I have seen too much and would like to un see some things.
But I do believe it is a good exercise to go through the thing anyways.
Here it is.
According to Joseph Campbell The Hero's Journey these are the stories that are told in every generation, they keep repeating and follow a basic cyclic structure.
In the very first movie of the Star Wars Franchise, Aptly named: Star Wars, which was later renamed to Star Wars episode 4 A new hope, we followed little known moisture farmer on a remote back water Desert planet called Luke Skywalker, who finds out a very pretty lady(who later turns out to be his sister.) needs his help via a Droid he bought from thieves, goes off on a desert adventure meeting the famous Old Ben Kenobi in order to discover that the Galaxy is big actually and his secret Father is a Fascism supporting Asthma patient.
If your brain isn't working that was me attempting a Joke.
But that is not all that is, George Lucas has made no secret of the fact that he was heavily inspired by the old Western Movies.
Which is very apparent when you consider the fact that the place where it began is a Desert.
But here is the thing about Westerns, most of them aren't Hero's Journeys, most of them follow a mysterious Figure who has already gone through their Journey as he saves/protects the weak from the Dangers that lie beyond.
They followed a time when the world was split into small communities with space in between populated by something I would call "the great unknown" i.e. a place where anything is possible bandits, new resources, all possible sources for new adventure.
And there is the link, the first step of as Hero's Journey is the call to adventure. In other words, as opposed to a Traditional Western where the main character typically protects the community from the great unknown, Star Wars is one of those westerns where one single adventurer forges a path for others to follow outside of the small community into the great unknown.
In other words it follows someone who pioneers change for the broader community by not adhering to what is expected of him.
When seen in this context, the elements of the Story such as the Empire, and the Rebellion take on a wholly different meaning, the empire is now representative of the old ways, and the rebellion while opposing the Empire is ever shrinking and on the verge of loosing.
Now, let us compare this to what Skeleton Crew does, A young kid who dreams of Adventure finds a hidden space ship, and thinking its his gateway to freedom and... Jedi hood, finds his way in and is unintentionally led onto a Pirate port outside of their small planet of At Attin, a planet that is protected by a Barrier, a very literal representation of it's isolation from the Great unknown.
In fact this planet is so Isolated that it literally missed the rise and fall of the Empire and still runs on the ways of the Old republic, something that is brought up extensively in these first two episodes.
Old republic credits, things that are now regarded as Lost treasure are something they Just use for Lunch money.
It cannot be over-stated how incredibly isolationist this planet is, this fact is hinted at in the very first episode when Droids speak of violating protocols, or reprimanding a child for going off the beaten path and wanting to do something different, things that are specifically meant "for Droids".
We notice a lot of other allusions to this Autocratic level of control that the govt. of this place has over its people which we don't notice a lot since they are seen through the eyes of a Child, you know we dismiss it as, oh these are in place to protect the children from their own stupidity.
And that above point is very essential, I believe you have heard George Lucas say repeatedly that Star Wars is for children, ages 12 around as he put it.
But that argument actually falls apart when you consider that in his own films he chose to spend time on ten minute scenes of people discussing politics, even before the Prequels, seriously, go watch the original films again.
No, in my opinion Star Wars films were never meant "for Children" I believe ol' Georgy boi here misspoke, What star Wars is, is through the eyes of a child, a child who dreams of adventure, a child who dreams of peace and a simpler way to life, someone who reminds the Adults the importance of taking a step back from the monotony of life and examining the situation for what it is from time to time.
Someone who is a free thinker.
This kind of Story Telling is attractive to a 12 year old sure, but it isn't exclusively for them, Adults can also relate to this kind of Story telling, I mean Star Wars does have a lot of Black and White story telling, but it also has a lot of Nuance in that Story telling, that is only clear when you think about it, almost like a child looking at the world of Adults and trying to make sense of it.
Is it any wonder then that a lot of Old school Star Wars fans immediately Latched onto the Skeleton Crew and what it offered.
It is literally what I just described.
But it doesn't end there, the Star Wars community has had quite a riot over how the Jedi are portrayed in media under Disney's leadership.
Disney it seems are inclined to stick to the portrayal of the Jedi as an institution and picking apart their flaws as was done in the Prequels, and it also seems that they have been fumbling around trying to understand what is it that hooks people to star wars as they jumped in unprepared to handle everything that they would face.
But this show, categorically does not make that mistake.
You know a lot of old westerns focused on the Idea of the Ronin, the lone, rogue samurai, who would bring down his own version of justice swiftly on those who would do wrong.
I have done a lot of pondering on this Idea and why it is so Alluring.
Why not for example have a not lone samurai do proper justice? And then it hit me, The Samurai were an institution that had a lot of problems, they focused heavily on discipline to the point that they believed dishonor can only be redeemed by a ritual of disembowelment where a person spills his intestines onto the floor by using a small knife.
I'm no doctor, but there are easier ways to go.
They also often supported Tyrannical leaders and imposed their will on to other knowingly or unknowingly, but that does not mean that every individual in the Samurai was a bad person, many were in fact, very good people, and believed that for all the terrible things, the Samurai way had enough good to keep going.
The Ronin then becomes the one rebel who would then break apart from the norm and take what he thinks is best and tries to forge a better path which hopefully others can follow, but it doesn't always work, Ronin's are as often villains as they are Heroes.
Anakin Skywalker was a Ronin, as was his son Luke Skywalker, and we both know where those to ended up, ultimately yes, both were Heroes, which highlights that in spite of their actions they both wanted to do good, only went about them in very different ways.
Yes, the Jedi were a flawed institution, but just like no one would watch a western that went in depth into talking about the problems of the Samurai as a whole, no one would really watch a piece of Star Wars media about how the Jedi has issues actually, yes we know, its not interesting, what is interesting is the stories of those who survived, and how they reconcile their old Ideas of Jedi hood with the new world they find themselves in.
All good star wars media have this, take Jedi fallen Order, the original star wars, The Mandalorian, I can go in depth on this, but I trust you can make the connections yourselves.
So how does this show portray the Jedi?
Well I already told you, through the eyes of a Child, great heroes who fought evil, no matter how far from the truth that may be.
And as wise individuals with magical powers.
And so when the main cast meet the Ronin of the show, portrayed by Jude law, this view of theirs is both strengthened and challenged as this one is a Jedi but he is also a pirate, a life he presumably took on to survive after the old republic fell.
And that is again very interesting, as Pirates, weren't just random people who decided to go stealing ships one day, no far from it.
A lot of the well known pirates, Like Black beard were what you would call privateers, they were sponsored by the crown to attack and steal specifically from the opposing side of the war, and then discarded when there was no longer of need.
The Crown went on to then make a surprised Pikachu face when people that they had specifically trained to attack and loot, started attacking and looting from the Crown when it decided it didn't care about them anymore.
Here the Crown represents the British Monarchy (I hope black-beard was a British Privateer and not for some other country, I am too tired to check, besides my source on this is the Black Flag Novel by Oliver Bowden that was written to tie in to the game, but based on what little research I have done I do believe I am right on this.)
You know I am so proud that modern governments would never Deliberately fund su... yeah no cut off the politics we don't do that here.
But regardless, in a sense, Piracy is a heaven for those who feel discarded or left out by society, in fact it is made exclusively of such people.
And while yes, Pirates are often deplorable people who violate and pillage from the rich and poor alike, Pirates were also one of the few who showed a strong sense of equality both in terms of race and Gender.
There are many popular Black and Woman pirates, I would name some of them, but I am way too tired.
Do I need to explain the parallels of a Jedi turning to piracy after they are discarded after a war... or...
So here we are, a show that finally shows some semblance of understanding and respect for what made star wars so great, I sure hope nobody ruins it...
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