Hey gang,
Thank you so much for taking on the task of navigating all of us listeners through the wonderful world of Star Wars. I'm an OG Star Wars fan who loves all of the movies, especially the prequels, warts and all.
For those of you out there in listener land who are having a difficulty looking past the scathing bile that was generated when you saw Ep. I and realized that George Lucas had gone back in time and "Catholic Priest"-ed your childhood, I hope that these discussions and podcasts will make you reconsider the prequels and look at the saga in total with a little more depth. I agree that it's not fair to the typical off-the-street fan to walk into a flick and be expected to know a litany of backstory and unscripted exposition that isn't made apparent in the film (I've had plenty of prequel arguments where I had to defend gaping plot-holes in the movies based on information and backstory in either the EU or the novelization of the film). But looking at the movies as a whole, and considering some of the intentions of George Lucas as creator (and we can all agree that sometimes our artistic intentions are one thing and the reaction to our creations are a completely different story), you begin to see a much more layered and fundamentally deeper story emerge in those earlier episodes.
My take on Star Wars as a mythological opus is the journey, triumph and tragedy of Father and Son relationships. If you look at George Lucas's relationship with his own father, you see the same depth of love, loyalty, resentment, challenges, abandonment and anger as you do with Lee and Bill Adama (or heck, even me and my dad, or most of all the males in the audience). It's always complicated having daddy issues (ask any of the characters in "Lost"). In Star Wars, all of the major Jedi relationships are about the failures in "fatherhood". Qui-Gon wants to become Anakin's father, which creates a rift between him and his adoptive son Obi-Wan. He is rash and arrogant, and Anakin's persona reflects those attributes, and it drives their relationship while making Obi-Wan resentful of this new relationship. Qui-Gon fails to fulfill his role as father and teacher to Anakin (pesky death has a way of screwing up our best laid plans), and Daddy Qui-Gon makes another bad father decision by saddling Obi-Wan with the upbringing of Little Orphan Anakin.
The training and upbringing of Anakin is again strained by the fact that Obi-Wan, who is not ready to be a father, becomes emotionally scarred by the death of Qui-Gon, which he reacts to by changing his style of being a Jedi (a little EU and external Star Wars reading informs you that when he was Qui-Gon's student, both he and Qui-Gon employed Style IV lightsaber technique, which is the flamboyant and acrobatic style used by Yoda. After the battle with Maul, Obi-Wan became obsessed with defensive techniques, which is why he began to employ Style III lightsaber style, which is all about defense. A true master of this style is almost indestructible, hence, Obi-Wan being a bad mofo). So Obi-Wan is protective and restrictive with his "son", Anakin, which we see Anakin becoming resentful of in Ep. II. He's being "held back" by Obi-wan, and you throw into the mixture their almost "sibling" relationship, their bother-brother rivalry, and the relationship of father/son, master/apprentice, becomes even more complicated.
And of course there is the pseudo-father/son relationship between Palpatine and Anakin, which is nearly as complicated and sincere as it is twisted and sinister. I do truly believe that beyond Palpatine's selfish interest in Anakin as his instrument to domination and possibly the unlocking of more powerful Sith secrets, that there is a deep emotional connection between the two. Palpatine wanted to be a master (Father) for all of the selfish reasons that accompany that response. He wanted to fill a vessel with his teachings, to play God, and to have a willing disciple that would become every bit his equal. He wanted someone subservient to him, but someone who could rival and even surpass him (the Sith by-laws meld into Brando's Jor-El, where the son becomes the father and the father becomes the son). Someday he knew that his son would come and try to kill him, and with the immense powers that Anakin was developing, Palpatine thought that he had found that person (Maul was a blunt instrument and Tyranus was just a place-holder). And you can see when Palpatine believes that Anakin might be in danger on Mustafar, that he truly exhibits concern and compassion for his apprentice.
The sick twist (and ironic, too) to all this is that Palpatine then becomes the father to a veritable cripple, who, although he performs his duties as the Imperial Henchman to a T, is not the apprentice or the Sith that the Emperor wanted. So there's a love/hate thing going on that is just accentuated by the Sith maxim of the Apprentice trying to kill and surpass the Master, and vice-versa. And so Palpatine tosses Vader aside for a new boy-toy, Luke, just as Qui-Gon tossed Obi-Wan aside for Anakin. Fathers and Sons, going through the motions (and not in the sick, underaged slash fiction way). Vader, on the other hand, is also doing the bad father routine with Luke, who fortunately breaks the cycle and believes in his own love for Anakin Skywalker and helps him bring Balance to the Force.
And fitting the cycle of fathers and sons to Chuck and Sean's very astute placement of blame for the Empire on Yoda, you also have to look at the tree of succession that started with the little Green Guy. Yoda was the Master of Count Dooku (Sith) who was the Master of Qui-Gon Jinn who was the Master of Obi-Wan who was the Master of Anakin (Sith). Bad dads making bad sons who become bad dads, and on...
In a nutshell, that's my thematic take on the Saga and Fathers and Sons. Thanks for taking the time, and again, thank you for tackling the Saga.
It’s what actually got me into Star Wars in the first place.
