A peer-reviewed study of Star Wars

he Star Wars franchise, I’ve heard, is one of the most pervasive cultural reference systems in modern America. I don’t believe you can fully understand that unless you grew up never having seen it, watching the films for the first time in your 20s. That’s what I did.

When Luke, alongside Yoda, is trying to use The Force1 to raise a submerged spaceship2 from the swamp3 in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda famously says “Do or do not. There is no try.” I had no idea that was from Star Wars. Instead, I thought that was an old adage that had always existed from some anonymous source, brought to popularity from posters in gym teachers’ offices.

The Force itself is really interesting to me since my main religion, sunk into my head at an early age, was new age, tarot-heavy “energy and spirituality” stuff. I always thought of The Force as a goofy, random thing that was just in Star Wars4, but when Yoda explained it, it made a lot more sense and seemed kind of profound.

However, I refuse to believe that Luke is actually “The New Hope” as they say via the title of the first film. Luke is actually pretty lame, as far as I’m concerned. I was told throughout watching everything that Luke really is cool, and he does admittedly get better closer to the end. Still, not that much better. Luke becomes more self-sufficient, but we’re just supposed to have faith that he’s such an important Jedi.

Maybe it’s the cheesy vintage storytelling, the acting and the special effects, but I have trouble believing that he can save a galaxy far, far away from peril. And, as I know, he doesn’t effectively do that because the first Star Wars film I saw was the newest one, The Force Awakens. Rey is a much more dynamic protagonist so far, but we’ll see how the newer films treat Luke.

Luke is legitimately a complete idiot for quite a while6. In A New Hope, when they are on the Millennium Falcon and Obi-Wan is teaching Luke just the very fundamentals of The Force, Obi-Wan puts a crash helmet on Luke. Luke goes, “But with this crash helmet on, I can’t see!”

Obviously, Luke.

It breaks a fundamental rule I learned in intro to fiction while in college. That move is called a “Yes, Bob, and…” and its function is to doubt your audience’s intelligence by unnaturally saying something to really, really make sure that the audience understands it. In this case, Luke’s face was covered with an opaque object, which has historically restricted vision.

I also learned that in the first film, Darth Vader only has 12 minutes of speaking time for being such a terrible villain7. I think the Imperial March does more for his evil than he does for his evil. The Empire is definitely a threat, but I almost wish that after all these films where the Jedi is victorious, the Empire would win. I think it would establish them as a real threat.

The special effects made me laugh, but I can’t hold that against the makers of the original films. I can hold Luke’s ridiculous idiocy against them though, because I saw no believable presence of potential through to the end of the second film.

Then, all of a sudden, The Jedi Returns! Some unknowable amount of time passed and Luke is heroically saving everyone. He is better by the Return of the Jedi, and I guess I always knew that was coming, but I thought it would have more development and I would get to know the character a little bit better. Unfortunately, I felt like I knew C-3PO the best.

As I have sat there each night I’ve watched the films, trying not to fall asleep8, I realized that I liked Rey better because we got more one on one time with her to develop a personality that I was interested in and I was excited to learn more about her character. The older Star Wars are operatic and legendary, and perhaps having seen them with incredibly high expectations made everything fall a bit flat to me.

It wasn’t until Anakin saved Luke that I learned exactly how well the characters had done their jobs. When Luke pulled Vader’s helmet off and meek Anakin Skywalker was there, transformed, I got teary9. That part hadn’t been spoiled for me. We all know that Vader is Luke’s father, but no one had ever told me that Vader/Anakin sacrificed himself for Luke, and that was a really pleasant surprise.

The emphasis on Luke is a little weird when I think the supporting characters do more for the story, especially the droids and critters. In my heart of hearts, I know I’m a wookie on the inside, huge and screaming with fervor all the time. R2-D2 is easily the best character in the franchise, rivaled only by BB-8 in the newest film10.

If nothing else, watching these films as an adult showed me how much pop culture is influenced by Star Wars, but also how much our character and story development has improved for the screen. Film has been around since the late 1800s only as opposed to literature, which is nearly timeless. In classes, I learned about the history of film, shots, the types of stories told and what people expect out of stories told on the screen.

Today, we expect complex characters that we don’t necessarily like, but that has been a more recent development overall, with series like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and House of Cards, with some making the argument that Tony Soprano was the first true anti-hero.

Luke’s character arc was from ignorance to enlightenment, which is why he’s so bland to me11. He was always good, and there was no doubt about what he might do in the face of conflict and there was no doubt what that conflict might be.

I don’t think anyone will agree with me because most folks grew up watching these films and they’re nostalgic heroes. I think that the format of grand blockbusters has been improved over the years, while the kinds of stories that have been told for centuries, like Casablanca, stand up pretty well today no matter the format.

I did enjoy watching the Star Wars saga. The music was really great and characterized both sides really well12. I think the franchise is overall pretty cool and the world is well developed and clearly highly revered.

With no nostalgic attachment to Star Wars, I have to say that in the grand scheme of things now, they’re just okay. That’s not what they are, though. Despite how unbelievable Luke is, that Leia is the only female character with speaking roles except for Luke’s mother at the beginning of the film and that R2-D2 and the Ewoks are the most important characters13, the films are more significant to the cultural canon than just any franchise except Harry Potter. And Harry Potter is just better, I think. It’s been a part of my life since I was seven years old.

Editor’s Note: One of the self-professed Star Wars nerds at the Saratoga Sun will provide technical clarification and needed comments on this opinion piece.

1. The energy field that connects all living things in the galaxy.

2. Luke’s T-65 X-wing Fighter, AA-589

3. The planet Dagobah, in the Dagobah system, is covered entirely in forested swamps.

4. The Force is nothing to be joked about as Darth Vader undeniably proves.

5. Clearly, the author has missed the important point that Lukes Jedi training was interrupted and debate remains as to its completeness.

14. Fallacy. How can some pimple-faced kids wielding sticks they call wands beat a galaxy of Jedi with light sabers? I mean, really!