Liedl Janice - Star Wars and History

CONTENTS

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Copyright 2013 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used Under Authorization

2013 Year of first publication of the Works.

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Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data :

Star wars and history / edited by Nancy R. Reagin and Janice Leidl.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-60200-3 (cloth : alk. paper); ISBN 978-1-118-28188-8 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-28373-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-28525-1 (ebk)

1. Star Wars filmsHistory and criticism. 2. Motion pictures and history. I. Reagin, Nancy Ruth, 1960 II. Liedl, Janice.

PN1995.9.S695S74 2012

791.4375dc23

2012028584

Introduction

Janice Liedl

The Force surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, A New Hope

History is like the Force. It surrounds us, sometimes literally, when we walk through old cities and tour ruins or re-creations from decades or centuries past. Historical memories saturate our cultures, sometimes producing shocking and unsettling reinterpretations of the past and its heroes and villains. History also binds us together, if not at the galactic level, still on a broad scale, crisscrossing the globe with stories that bring us closer together in shared wonder and fascination. If you are cut off from knowledge of your own history (and that of your family) you can be misled or even taken badly by surprise, as Luke Skywalker discovers. History even makes for a powerful ally, as Yoda might have observed: because knowing something of the past can help you avoid at least those mistakes.

Its good to keep Han Solos skepticism in mind, however, when comparing history and the Force. No historian would suggest that theres a mystical energy field controlling our destiny or that of the societies we study. Instead, historians emphasize how people are the true key to unlocking the mysteries of the past. Empires dont rise and fall by themselves, slavery isnt inherent in human nature, and even corporations are made up of many different individuals. Some people held more power in history than others by virtue of their birth, profession, or fortune, rather like Padm Amidala experienced as queen and later senator. But such prominence isnt enough to shield a person from the all-too-human realities of heartbreak and despair, as Padm found when her husband turned to the dark side. Its the repetition of these familiar themes in historyvictory and defeat, joy and sorrow, the urge to possess and control, exploration and lossthat has inspired claims that history repeats itself. In reality, history is made up of millions, even billions, of unique stories waiting to be explored and shared.

Some people will say that laying out these stories is easy, that history is nothing more than establishing the facts and handing them to readers. Following the great nineteenth-century scholar Leopold von Ranke, historians have sometimes claimed that their job is simply to show how it really was, as if history was a single, marvelous painting you could understand in one viewing. The truth is that history is messy, complicated, and always changing with the discovery of new information and new interpretations. Thats what Luke realizes after Darth Vaders shocking claim that he is Lukes father. His entire personal history had been up-ended by this revelation that he knows to be true, even as he struggles to accept it.

This wasnt the first time that Luke saw his personal history rewritten around him. In his childhood, his guardians, Owen and Beru Lars, assure Luke that his father had been an ordinary navigator on a spice freighter. Obi-Wan destroys that history in a short order when he hands Luke his fathers lightsaber and explains that Anakin Skywalker was a skilled pilot and brave Jedi warrior, who was murdered by Darth Vader. That revelation powers much of Lukes determination to fight the Empire and Vaders evil until he learns to his great distress that Vader isnt Anakins murderer but Lukes father. In Return of the Jedi , when Luke confronts Obi-Wans ghost in the swamps of Dagobah, Luke isnt only expressing his hurt and confusion; hes also challenging his former mentors use and abuse of history:

Luke: Ben! Why didnt you tell me? You told me that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered my father.

Obi-Wan: Your father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.

Luke: A certain point of view?

Obi-Wan: Luke, youre going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

Changing your point of view about the past isnt easy. Luke eventually comes to terms with the good and bad in his fathers past. He writes a new conclusion to Anakins tragic history with a surprising offer of redemption. In the end, Luke grows enough as a person and as a Jedi to see his father and his own history from a more understanding and forgiving point of view. That ability literally rewrites the history of his galaxy.