Begun, the Star Wars Brand Wars Have
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
Errr, well it shows my nerd cred, but it bothers me a bit when a nerd-culture site gets even an off the cuff summary of Star Wars wrong.
Anakin is not "little Jedi Jesus" rather he's a guy that is going to bring "balance". The Star Wars universe being a universe of pre-destination where the universe works in cycles wher good and evil both get turns to rule in equal order, in between each transition is a brief period where good and evil are in balance, however it's pre-determined who is going to win. This is why there is a prophecy about Anakin, and it's badly misinterpeted by the Jedi who fail to realize that they are pretty much dominant, so the only place for them to go is down. The Force is more or less impartial to good and evil, and has no real vested interest to the dominance of either good or evil and thus lets both have a turn.
Anakin is a mess because he wants to be a good person, but he's constantly pressured by forces beyond his control (ie THE Force, the universe itself) to go a specific way. Every time he has his ducks in a row, something happens like finding his mother dying as a prisoner of the Sand People, and he winds up going dark side.
Remember though that Anakin is not the guy who is going to "bring darkness to the universe" that's probably Luke actually. He's the messed up kid who is going to bring down the good guys but be such a head case that he's going to turn around and kill the Emperor too out of love for his son. Notice the results at the end of Jedi? Both the good guys AND the bad guys are dead, and the guy who did it all is one Anakin Skywalker. The only real remaining force user is one partially trained Jedi named Luke who himself has issues. Prophecy fulfilled.
It's just that George Lucas got fixated on the merchandise, and the cute appeal for children, and kind of broke away from the story he was setting out to tell, which was on a lot of levels kind of depressing. This is why we hear stuff like Harrison Ford talking about how Han was supposed to die, but George decided to cut that part out.
The way the story is told, is so that it can end on a high note, however that's by no means where the universe is going by it's own definitions.
This isn't opinion, or conjecture, or anything else, it's simply how things are. I think the differance between a real Star Wars fan and a poseur with casual interest is in understanding things like this.
Incidently this is also why it's pretty much a given that if we ever see a sequel series George is liable to just simply toss all of the "Expanded Universe" garbage which is basically bad fan fiction by people who never got it right into the bin. He's pretty much done this twice now actually, once to the young adult sequels (books like "The Glove Of Darth Vader", "Prophets Of The Dark Side", etc...) which instead of Thrawn had the Grand Moffs running a false heir called Triclops or something like that (he had 3 eyes) who faked being a force user via cybernetic implants, using things like built in tractor beams for telekinesis, and lightning blasters in his fingers for predictable results. Then of course we have the "Dark Horse Comics" universe which lead to a HUGE legal battle for the time when Lucas pretty much QQed about being the creator to get the rights back even though he sold them free and clear by all accounts. The "Expanded Universe" with all of it's "OMG Thrawn is so cooool" is likewise rubbish of equal calibur even if it has a lot of writers nowadays. Honestly on a certain level I actually thought the whole "Cyber Heir" thing was a cooler and more creative idea than Thrawn and "force invisible aliens" even if the level of writing was a substantial level down given the intended audience. Of course then again I'm not sure if George is still a man capable of doing his own story as he originally envisioned it the right way. He's very much a guy who would probably do better to do a spin off series dealing with the end of the cycle this is leading into and the overthrown of the age of darkness, covering what happened after the movies as history being retold.... but this is a major digression.
Cute idea with the logos, but REALLY bad Star Wars summary.
If I had to characterize Anakin mythologically speaking I don't think Christianity has a paticularly good analogy. He'd probably be more akin to say a moral vessel of Kali or Shiva The Destroyer. Bringing about destruction for the sake of new creation... that's literally what he's all about.
Anakin is not "little Jedi Jesus" rather he's a guy that is going to bring "balance". The Star Wars universe being a universe of pre-destination where the universe works in cycles wher good and evil both get turns to rule in equal order, in between each transition is a brief period where good and evil are in balance, however it's pre-determined who is going to win. This is why there is a prophecy about Anakin, and it's badly misinterpeted by the Jedi who fail to realize that they are pretty much dominant, so the only place for them to go is down. The Force is more or less impartial to good and evil, and has no real vested interest to the dominance of either good or evil and thus lets both have a turn.
Anakin is a mess because he wants to be a good person, but he's constantly pressured by forces beyond his control (ie THE Force, the universe itself) to go a specific way. Every time he has his ducks in a row, something happens like finding his mother dying as a prisoner of the Sand People, and he winds up going dark side.
Remember though that Anakin is not the guy who is going to "bring darkness to the universe" that's probably Luke actually. He's the messed up kid who is going to bring down the good guys but be such a head case that he's going to turn around and kill the Emperor too out of love for his son. Notice the results at the end of Jedi? Both the good guys AND the bad guys are dead, and the guy who did it all is one Anakin Skywalker. The only real remaining force user is one partially trained Jedi named Luke who himself has issues. Prophecy fulfilled.
It's just that George Lucas got fixated on the merchandise, and the cute appeal for children, and kind of broke away from the story he was setting out to tell, which was on a lot of levels kind of depressing. This is why we hear stuff like Harrison Ford talking about how Han was supposed to die, but George decided to cut that part out.
The way the story is told, is so that it can end on a high note, however that's by no means where the universe is going by it's own definitions.
This isn't opinion, or conjecture, or anything else, it's simply how things are. I think the differance between a real Star Wars fan and a poseur with casual interest is in understanding things like this.
Incidently this is also why it's pretty much a given that if we ever see a sequel series George is liable to just simply toss all of the "Expanded Universe" garbage which is basically bad fan fiction by people who never got it right into the bin. He's pretty much done this twice now actually, once to the young adult sequels (books like "The Glove Of Darth Vader", "Prophets Of The Dark Side", etc...) which instead of Thrawn had the Grand Moffs running a false heir called Triclops or something like that (he had 3 eyes) who faked being a force user via cybernetic implants, using things like built in tractor beams for telekinesis, and lightning blasters in his fingers for predictable results. Then of course we have the "Dark Horse Comics" universe which lead to a HUGE legal battle for the time when Lucas pretty much QQed about being the creator to get the rights back even though he sold them free and clear by all accounts. The "Expanded Universe" with all of it's "OMG Thrawn is so cooool" is likewise rubbish of equal calibur even if it has a lot of writers nowadays. Honestly on a certain level I actually thought the whole "Cyber Heir" thing was a cooler and more creative idea than Thrawn and "force invisible aliens" even if the level of writing was a substantial level down given the intended audience. Of course then again I'm not sure if George is still a man capable of doing his own story as he originally envisioned it the right way. He's very much a guy who would probably do better to do a spin off series dealing with the end of the cycle this is leading into and the overthrown of the age of darkness, covering what happened after the movies as history being retold.... but this is a major digression.
Cute idea with the logos, but REALLY bad Star Wars summary.
If I had to characterize Anakin mythologically speaking I don't think Christianity has a paticularly good analogy. He'd probably be more akin to say a moral vessel of Kali or Shiva The Destroyer. Bringing about destruction for the sake of new creation... that's literally what he's all about.
while this is all nice, and probably completely accurate you have to remember the escapist deal with hundreds of mythoses and games and films it's not surprising they might make a hiccup about a very specific part of any given one even if it is fairly well known,Therumancer said:
they aren't the jesuses of the force either ya know
it would be nice if they had a resident nerd for each and every game, film, book, comic title ever.. but it's just impossible
overall i'd say they do an above average job, perhaps they just didn't think this one through, or thought people would be confused by references to Hinduism
sorry for hacking your post quote btw, but it would have made it a page long..
also, i fancy visiting jabba's hut... where'd i put my speeder key? .. oh! wait..
Its a tie between the Rebels and the Empire. empire looks sick.. but come on thats a awesome slogan for the Rebels.
Jabab the hut was freaking EPIC you can honestly mistake if for a sec for the real deal
I love Adidas so my favorite is definitely Empire.
you can honestly mistake if for a sec for the real deal I love Adidas so my favorite is definitely Empire.
I'll tell you one thing. Those Death Stars would be more abundant with all the funds sloshing around. They can get handrails for those 2 guys. FINALY..... wait they died. Well handrails for others anyways.
Well, popped on over to catch-up on my Zero Punctuation and Extra Credits fix (as I've been really busy working on Brand Wars images and client work) and *BAM* my Brand Wars is here! Man, that just truly made my night so cheers to The Escapist! I love this site so I'm honestly stoked :-D
As I've already answered elsewhere, I've seen Spaceballs (many moons ago), and I had actually completely forgotten about Mr Pizza the Hutt. Subconscious influence (mind trick?) and pure coincidence to a more obvious brand link for the two. Mainly, it was Jabba/Pizza (5 letters, with bb's & zz's + ending in "a") then the Hutt/Hut along with a shape that was perfect to become Jabba and Salacious Crumb. I'm not even going to mention Jabba's "big bones" and a link to pizza... hmmmm, pizza...
@ crazypsyko666 - ouch, sorry dude :-/ You'll be please to know, whilst I have scribbles down for Leia, Han & Chewie, Greedo (and a few others), I'm on other projects for now - so rest easy after your comedown from missing the Rapture ;-) I jest - I'd only hope that Mr Lucas and all the companies would smile a little and really like the (clever?) parody of, and between, the pieces. I just love old school Star Wars!
Right, cheers again all. May the jam be with you, always... oh, Force. Yeah, the Force.
Barn Bocock aka HtCRU
howtocarveroastunicorn.com
howtocarveroastunicorn.blogspot.com
As I've already answered elsewhere, I've seen Spaceballs (many moons ago), and I had actually completely forgotten about Mr Pizza the Hutt. Subconscious influence (mind trick?) and pure coincidence to a more obvious brand link for the two. Mainly, it was Jabba/Pizza (5 letters, with bb's & zz's + ending in "a") then the Hutt/Hut along with a shape that was perfect to become Jabba and Salacious Crumb. I'm not even going to mention Jabba's "big bones" and a link to pizza... hmmmm, pizza...
@ crazypsyko666 - ouch, sorry dude :-/ You'll be please to know, whilst I have scribbles down for Leia, Han & Chewie, Greedo (and a few others), I'm on other projects for now - so rest easy after your comedown from missing the Rapture ;-) I jest - I'd only hope that Mr Lucas and all the companies would smile a little and really like the (clever?) parody of, and between, the pieces. I just love old school Star Wars!
Right, cheers again all. May the jam be with you, always... oh, Force. Yeah, the Force.
Barn Bocock aka HtCRU
howtocarveroastunicorn.com
howtocarveroastunicorn.blogspot.com
The important differance, is that the third one is incorrect. He did not defeat evil, his entire purpose was to bring balance. He wiped out all the good guys, and then killed the bad guy simply because it wasn't time for the bad guys to be in charge quite yet (give it a few years). He was never phrophecied as a savior either but as a bringer of balance.John Funk said:
Hence why I say he's more like a mortal host/incarnation of one of those creation/destruction deities.
I suppose he's Christ-like only in the features that he shares with him, but also arguably with other mythologies. As a lot of people point out in Davinci code type rants, Christianity shares a LOT of elements with other religions. Overall though the big reason why he's not a Christ analogy is that Anakin is *not* in any way shape or form a savior, he's a destroyer, just an equal oppertunity one. Obi-Wan even has a moment about this at the end of the third prequel "But, you were supposed to save us!" in other words, the big realization that those who interpeted that prophecy got it all wrong... or at least it being the moment when it really hit Obi.