Themes of Each Episode

[hawkeyefan]

So I’ve always been of the opinion that when a story is about something....when it has a theme of some kind...it’s generally better than when it does not.

Some friends and I had a conversation after watching Episode 9, and this topic came up. And oddly enough, it seems very hard to find a theme for most of the films.

So if you had to pick a theme...a lesson or metaphor or allegory...for each episode of Star Wars, what would it be and why?

Pick an episode and give the theme and explain your reasoning.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I don't think Star Wars movies as a whole have just one theme. So any attempt to reduce it to just one is going to be hard.

When people use the word "themes" they say it without really understanding what that means or how it's supposed to work. Not all attempts at dealing with themes are meaningful. Simply stating a theme isn't having a theme. Movies can be said to have say a philosophical or spiritual theme, and a social or political theme. The former addresses universal stuff the latter deals with more real-world stuff.

The Original Trilogy
-- Had an overall Philosophical Theme of overcoming darkness within and rising to a higher cause. In the first movie it was Han Solo who did that when he "Changed my mind, kid", the second movie had that with Lando, with Vader, and also Luke Skywalker who is tempted by darkness and the dark side but rises to become a Jedi.
-- In terms of social or political theme, the Original Trilogy is largely about the generation gap between Greatest Generation types and Baby Boomers. Elders like Obi-Wan and Yoda lie to Luke Skywalker about the real nature of the war, Luke finds out that Daddy wasn't a war hero but a war criminal. So that theme of generation rebellion but also forgiveness and redemption was a part of the OT.

The Prequel Trilogy
-- The major philosophical theme is the "fear of death", since Anakin's attracted to the Dark Side by the promise of overcoming death, driven not by the fear of dying by himself but the fear of losing others.
-- The social and political theme, is complacency about institutions. The Jedi are all smug and comfortable as is the Republic in their fancy city and so on. So the movies are about institutions not being able to adapt and reform.

The Sequel Trilogy
-- I think the theme is "legacy" and trying to live up to it, or dealing with that. At least that's what people have said behind the scenes.
-- Social and Political theme, is I guess generation discontent again, only now it milennials/Gen-Z versus Baby Boomers.


On the whole I think the OT and PT are fully worked out emotional realizations of their themes. The Sequel Trilogy isn't.

[hawkeyefan]

Thanks for the input. I didn’t mean that each movie could only have one theme, but was just asking for one.

I think you hit on some overarching ones for the trilogies. I think “fear of death” is likely a theme in Revenge of the Sith. I don’t know if it applies to all three movies in the trilogy, though.

The idea of redemption seems to fit Return of the Jedi, I think. Again, I don’t think it’s present all that much in the earlier films in the original trilogy.

I think the sequel trilogy has some overarching ones too. The second film in particular seems to me the most thematic of the whole series. The others are...more general, leaning on the ideas of legacy and destiny and choosing one’s own fate. Which is also likely at least a little relevant to most of the films.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think you hit on some overarching ones for the trilogies. I think “fear of death” is likely a theme in Revenge of the Sith. I don’t know if it applies to all three movies in the trilogy, though.

IN terms of Anakin's character its a running theme. In The Phantom Menace, he loses Qui-Gon who is a father figure to him. In AOTC he loses his mother Shmi, and then in ROTS it's the fear of losing Padme that drives him.

The idea of redemption seems to fit Return of the Jedi, I think. Again, I don’t think it’s present all that much in the earlier films in the original trilogy.

Well the basic idea of the OT is that anyone is capable of becoming a hero and changing. In ANH, someone as cynical as Han Solo, "not in this for your revolution" and so on, comes to the rescue and saves Luke when all hope is lost, attaining a measure of redemption and crucially proving Obi-Wan wrong. Obi-Wan earlier in the movie bristled at Han and didn't seem to think there was more to him, but Luke's friendship with Han got him to change. So that's a minor key of what turns out to be Vader's arc. Where again Obi-Wan believed Anakin was a lost cause but Luke believed he could change and he did.

[bob.schoonover]

Someone more eloquent than me can kind of refine this, but I think another theme (related to the legacy one, but more encompassing) of the ST is overcoming who you could have been. The two legacy characters - Rey and Ben/Kylo - both have direct heritage pulling them in one or more directions. Rey could have been a true Palpatine, evil and horrible. She could have been a loner who goes back to Jakku after Finn and BB-8 got to Maz. Ben could have been a great Jedi like Luke*. Kylo could have been the heir to the Sith. Finn was supposed to be a stormtrooper but made a choice (and obviously could have been a padawan Kylo killed if he'd been found by Luke instead of the First Order). Zannah the same. Zorii and Poe were smugglers who (at different times) showed up when it mattered. Luke, Lando, and Han had all fallen off their heroic paths but chose to jump back into it.


*We're going to need a MUCH better detailing of Luke and Leia's failure with Ben at some point - he had darkness in him is such a cop out for a series with more nuance to the whys of the characters who have been tempted by the Dark Side. Was Ben teased about being Vader's grandson? Did he get confused about how Luke lionized Anakin's redemption while underplaying his awfulness? Or was it the expectations of being Luke's nephew? How did Snoke get involved with Ben in the first place? I assume the Kylo comic will cover some of this, but this is a big open question.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

*We're going to need a MUCH better detailing of Luke and Leia's failure with Ben at some point - he had darkness in him is such a cop out for a series with more nuance to the whys of the characters who have been tempted by the Dark Side.

More or less the main reason why the ST is not a full emotional realization of its chosen themes.

There's no logic here, just convoluted mess. Luke, Leia, and Han grew, changed, and overcame legacy at the end of the OT, then they become s--ty parents and a s--ty uncle respectively. But somehow in the end they are still glorified as heroes because...reasons. Han and Leia being crappy parents needs an explanation. Did they not co-parent well? Were they divided by career? Was "Ben Solo" an accident? It invites a range of questions and ideas that Star Wars just isn't built to handle. It's not supposed to deal with real-world issues of parenting and child-rearing.

Was Ben teased about being Vader's grandson? Did he get confused about how Luke lionized Anakin's redemption while underplaying his awfulness? Or was it the expectations of being Luke's nephew? How did Snoke get involved with Ben in the first place? I assume the Kylo comic will cover some of this, but this is a big open question.

Exactly. We needed to know clearly who Ben Solo was at some point. I mean that's why The Phantom Menace is important. We get to see Anakin as a kid and we know for a fact that this was a good child, so we know clearly that he wasn't inherently evil or born that way. Whereas the movies seem to imply that Ben Solo was born evil, but then in TROS it's all "it was Palpatine who made him evil" so that means Ben Solo has no agency or responsibility. That makes no sense.