In a galaxy not so far away?

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In a galaxy not so far away?

8 April 2020

The Star Wars universe offers a glimpse of the beauty God has created in its myriad faces of individuality.

By Mark Hadley

The latest force to join the galaxy of streaming options for Australian audiences is Disney+. The new home for all of the production giant’s family entertainment also acts as a one-stop portal for everything Star Wars. But the 11 films of the Jedi universe are not the centre of Mickey’s strategy for success. Disney+ now fields a Star Wars television series for every age group that could hope to swing a lightsaber ...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

The award-winning animation returns and the real heroes are its clone troopers. Genetically identical, they still find ways to express themselves individually. Aimed at kidults, its creators have selected that determination to be distinct as the trademark by-line that launches the final season: “Embrace others for their differences, for that makes you whole.”

Star Wars: Rebels

The teen-focused back-story to the rag-tag assemblage of fighters who will one day take down the Empire’s first Death Star. In particular, this animation chooses as its hero two non-conformist Jedi – Kanan, a half-trained padawan, and Ezra his apprentice, who discovers whole realms of the force on his own.

The Mandalorian

An adult western in space set some time after Return of the Jedi. Our sympathies are drawn towards a lone Mandalorian gunman, feared by all, and a ‘baby Yoda’ who everyone wants dead. Outsiders who are increasingly finding their meaning in each other as they travel across the galaxy.

Star Wars: Resistance

A prequel series to The Force Awakens, aimed at primary and early high school viewers with a style that mimics pace-setter Iron Man: Armoured Adventures. In it we meet teen characters Caz (who starts the series stepping back from his father’s plans to pursue his dreams of being a pilot), and Niku, the alien optimist whose greatest faith is reserved for his friend.

Lego Star Wars: All Stars

A timeless Star Wars universe which presents all of the series’ greatest characters in Lego form, hanging out and going on adventures together. This universe is so at peace with itself that a former Separatist battle droid is now part of Han Solo’s crew.

Disney+ has done an incredible job of fracturing the Star Wars universe into bite-size chunks for every age group. Its choice of the ‘long-arc TV series’ as a delivery system means those age groups can be effectively locked in for years to come, transitioning from platform to platform as their tastes mature. The real beauty of this system, though, lies in the consistent Star Wars worldview.

Our worldview is the viewfinder through which we interpret our day-to-day reality. We read news reports about bank corruption, and our worldview suggests the cause. We see people sleeping on the streets and our worldview tells us why they’re there. Our worldview even shapes the way we digest social media, telling us which of the pictures we see are most personally attractive. It is our underlying explanation, and most certainly for what’s wrong with our world.

In his book, Every Good Endeavor, American pastor/theologian Tim Keller says that everyone knows things are ‘seriously out of whack’. According to Keller, each time we notice this, our worldviews attempt to answer three basic questions:
1. How are things supposed to be?
2. What is the main problem with things as they are?
3. What is the solution and how can it be realised?

The Star Wars ‘galaxyview’ is no exception. The series’ listed above and the films that spawned them all believe in a world where people are free to follow the path of their dreams and so discover their true selves. The problem is always a repressive counter-culture – Sith, Empire or First Order – that stands in the way of this wish fulfilment. And the solution? A Republic, a Rebellion, a Resistance dedicated to overturning centralised control in the name of individual freedom. But this isn’t actually a ‘New Hope’, just an old one flying an X-wing.

The Star Wars philosophy leans heavily on 20th-century psychology. We possess deep desires for pleasure but, according to Al Wolters, they are suppressed by “... the authority figures in society and family”. So all this time, it wasn’t just Luke’s father behind Darth Vader’s mask. Consequently, Sigmund Freud suggested our only solution was realising “... the unrepressed freedom of the individual”. And, not surprisingly, every Star Wars storyline ends with the utter destruction of a trade blockade, a Death Star, a weaponised planet, an immense fleet – to the cheers of children and dancing Ewoks. Yet, the Star Wars universe continues to fight the same battle over and over again, against new and greater villains, because it’s not really the ‘authority figures’ that are standing between us and happiness.

By contrast, Christianity’s worldview says our greatest happiness lies in a deep, personal relationship with our Creator. But we live unhappy lives because our hearts have rebelled against God – the enemy is inside, not outside. The only solution, Keller says, is for God to graciously remove the sin that comes between us and him: “Sin infects us all, and so we cannot simply divide the world into the heroes and the villains. (And if we did, we would certainly have to count ourselves among the latter as well as the former.) Without an understanding of the Gospel, we will be demonising something that isn’t bad enough to explain the mess we are in; and we will be idolising something that isn’t powerful enough to get us out of it.”

The Star Wars universe offers a glimpse of the beauty God has created in its myriad faces of individuality. Yet if the Bible’s account is correct, then we’re not going to find ultimate happiness by removing our restrictions, any more than the Millennium Falcon flies better without its pilot. Christianity alone offers a worldview that identifies our problem as one within us. And for that, we’ll need a rescue that comes from without.

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