https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=TCgDOg2anbA
Hello everyone. I knew that in making videos about the meaning in movies eventually someone would ask me if I was gonna do something on Star Wars. And I mean I grew up with Star Wars just like most of you listening to this and I’m though I’ve never been a crazy fan I like Star Wars and I even like the the two last movies that came out. But I’ve got a serious beef. Let’s call it a symbolic beef with Star Wars if such a thing exists. And it’s a problem I have with the basic premise of Star Wars. And maybe it’s something that that some of you can help me figure out. Maybe you can help me get through this. I mean what’s funny is that the Star Wars movies are is probably the Star Wars movies probably the first movie that started the more mythological trend in their interpretation and in their production through a discussion with Joseph Campbell. But I think Star Wars gets something wrong or at least is confused and maybe that shows you what I really think of Joseph Campbell. So what they get wrong I think is the whole idea of the light side and the dark side of the force. I mean I get it. You know it’s a post-second World War movie. There’s bad Nazi totalitarians. You know dark side of the force. And then there’s good rebellious Alliance trying to restore democracy. Light side of the force. And like I said I get it. But still something just isn’t right. I mean if you think about it in terms of symbolism. Why is an empire with power over all the galaxy using the dark side of the force? I mean why does the emperor of an immense empire wear a black hooded cloak? Why would an emperor have to hide like that? He looks like a necromancer who raises zombies in some underground crypt somewhere. Symbols of emperors have always been solar. Roman emperors were often shown with or as Sol Invictus, the invincible Sun. Christian emperors were shown as being chosen by Christ covered in gold and jewels. I mean all these images of light and order. I mean that’s the point. An empire is order, institutions, hierarchy, a public structure with public figures. It’s rebels that have to hide, have to be furtive and tricky, you know, smuggle. Rebels have to conceal themselves in darkness. Think of ninjas. Think of the Shiite assassins. You know a movie like Batman Begins gets it right. In Batman Begins they have this League of Shadows. There’s the dark side. It’s a secret organization with the goal of undermining and destroying great civilizations and empires when they get corrupt. I mean that’s the dark side. I mean large battalions of super logistics with immense triangles shaped ships. That screams too much order, too much light, too much clarity. I mean even in the contemporary parody which was the Trump election, these alt-right types, they portrayed him as a solar figure. God, Emperor Trump, right? I mean it’s Antifa that has to hide their faces, dress in black. Black is the color of protest, not the color of empire. Empires project gleaming light as their leitmotif. So it just doesn’t make sense to me in Star Wars. You think of it even at a personal level. Vader tries to get Luke to join him by telling him that he’s his father. Now that makes sense. Then the Emperor tells Luke to give in to his emotions, to give in to his rage and his resentment and kill his father. I mean give in to your raw chaotic emotions, give in to your passions and then join the biggest military techno bureaucratic state one can imagine and rule the entire galaxy. I mean it’s not like Luke would be joining a street gang where he has to kill someone as an initiation so he can then rob people, beat people up and sell dope. I mean it’s a galactic empire. Terrorist groups get people to indulge in their darker passions so that they can then feel guilty enough that they’re willing to blow themselves up and take as many people with them. I mean school shooters are the one who give in to their rage and resentment. Not the number two men in a galactic empire. I mean even if that galactic empire is tyrannical and evil. And by the way there is such a thing as an excess of light. Light is not always good for us mortals. There is such a thing as an excess of order, an excess of rigor and it’s usually portrayed as fire or destructive light. There is such a thing as the wrath of heaven. You know we we have this kind of campy cliche form in our imagination of the angry God who is throwing lightning bolts to judge and destroy something. I mean there’s Elijah who brings fire from heaven. We have Saint Michael who comes down from heaven with a lance to pierce the dark one. This idea of a lance or a bolt of lightning. I mean doesn’t that remind you of something? Something in Star Wars? And sometimes this image of the king with a lance. I mean it can become tyrannical and evil. I mean there’s this example in the Bible. The future King David hid in a cave and associated with an army of riffraff and criminals while King Saul kept wanting to pierce to David with a lance. During that time King David associated with the enemies of Israel. Acted like a madman. Even engaged in what should have been considered sacrilege by eating the showbread that was in the tabernacle. And it’s not like there are there is never a time for subversive or dark tactics. I mean look at Batman. The dark knight. I mean what he does is fueled by his anger and despair at losing his parents. But then he goes around and beats up thugs. He doesn’t rule the world. That’s the dark side of the force. Anger and in anger at injustice can be the fuel used to resist a tyrannical Emperor who tries to push on us excessive light. Tries to pry open all our private conversation and thoughts so that he can control them. So I’m sorry in the end it just seems like Star Wars gets it wrong at a very basic level. And I keep wondering if that’s not part of the confusion of the that the world is slipping in today. So that’s my idea. Tell me what you think. I mean convince me I’m wrong in the comments and I’ll engage with you. Thanks a lot.