PT Emperor Palpatine and Biblical Imagery (Deep)

I had seen this extract on Wikipedia:

Academics have debated the relationship of Palpatine to modern culture. Religion scholars Ross Shepard Kraemer, William Cassidy, and Susan Schwartz compare Palpatine and Star Wars heroes to the theological concept of dualism. They insist, "One can certainly picture the evil emperor in Star Wars as Satan, complete with his infernal powers, leading his faceless minions such as his red-robed Imperial Guards."[74] Lawrence and Jewett argue that the killing of Palpatine in Return of the Jedi represented "the permanent subduing of evil".



What does everyone think of this? Do you actually think this was George Lucas' intention?

 

Well, there was this quote from 2000:



"The first film starts with the last age of the Republic; which is it's getting tired, old, it's getting corrupt. There's the rise of the Sith, who are now becoming a force, and in the backdrop of this you have Anakin Skywalker: a young boy who's destined to be a very significant player in bringing balance back to the Force and the Republic.

In the second film, we get into more of that turmoil. It's the beginning of the Clone Wars, it's the beginning of the end of democracy in the Republic, sorta the beginning of the end of the Republic, and it's Anakin Skywalker beginning to deal with some of his more intense emotions of anger, hatred, sense of loss, possessiveness, jealousy, and the other things he's coping with.

Then we will get to the 3rd film, where he is seduced to the dark side, which brings up to films four, five, and six, where Anakin's offspring redeem him & allow him to fulfill the prophecy where he brings balance to the Force by doing away with the Sith and getting rid of evil in the universe."

--George Lucas, The Star Wars Trilogy VHS Boxset 2000.

 

In the same way, Yoda, while portrayed as good in the context of the movies, can also signify the character "Lucifer" in the bible - Lucifer being Satan (HaShatan = The opposition) playing the role of one who imparts knowledge, teaching, wisdom, guidance and light (Lucifer = bringer of light/ Enlightener) and both the Emperor and Yoda could be viewed as two opposing evil sides from many varying Judeo-Christian points of views, if they weren't purely fictional movie characters.

He had also gotten rid of the Jedi order who had arguably become warriors and perhaps "grey Jedi" - hypocrites acting outside of the Jedi code while justifying it using parts of the Jedi code (cherry-picking), believing that the ends justify the means.

Luke was the last living force user - not deluded by any religious or philosophical ideology surrounding the use of the force (and indeed also being one who had mastered the use of the dark side while being driven by positive emotions, ie love, without being consumed by it) - left in a position to rebuild a new Jedi order, so there was a new balance to the force, something that would ever have been achieved just by Anakin simply defeating the Sith back in the PT, as there was an entire paradigm shift. If the prophecy ever was real in-universe (I like to think of it as ambiguous and self-fulfilling rather than set in stone) then it was fulfilled, but as Yoda queried, it was also misread. It was never a "destroy the sith and live happily ever after" type affair.

 

BILL MOYERS: The mesmerizing figure in The Phantom Menace to me is Darth Maul. When I saw him, I thought of Lucifer in Paradise Lost or the devil in Dante's Inferno. He's the Evil Other--but with powerful human traits.

GEORGE LUCAS: Yes, I was trying to find somebody who could compete with Darth Vader, who is now one of the most famous evil characters. So we went back into representations of evil. Not only the Christian, but also Hindu and other religious icons, as well as the monsters in Greek mythology.

MOYERS: What did you find in all these representations?

LUCAS: A lot of evil characters have horns.

MOYERS: And does your use of red suggest the flames of hell?

LUCAS: Yes. It's a motif that I've been using with the Emperor and the Emperor's minions. I mean, red is an aggressive color. Evil is aggressive.


MOYERS: When Darth Vader tempts Luke to come over to the Empire side, offering him all that the Empire has to offer, I am taken back to the story of Satan taking Christ to the mountain and offering him the kingdoms of the world, if only he will turn away from his mission. Was that conscious in your mind?

LUCAS: Yes. That story also has been retold. Buddha was tempted in the same way. It's all through mythology. The gods are constantly tempting. Everybody and everything. So the idea of temptation is one of the things we struggle against, and the temptation obviously is the temptation to go to the dark side.

--Time Magazine Interview, 1999.

 

Lucas used a lot of mythology when he created Star Wars. It is easy to draw the comparisons as George used those from stories and these are everyday occurrences in life. It is intentional as all religions have philosophy and teachings.