Is Star Wars More than Just the Battle Between Good and Evil?

I wonder because so many other Elements play into it besides Bad vs Good. There is the fact that a Small Farmboy can save the Galaxy and many more.


So, is it more than the Life Long Battle for you?

 

The basic plot for the Star Wars movies is Anakin Skywalker's journey to balance the force. At least it is now. The original trilogy had us to believe that the plot was for Luke Skywalker to destroy the Empire and redeem his father. However you must also realize that the plot for A NEW Hope was just for Luke to go on random adventures and save the galaxy from whomever. I don't think there is a defined plot to Star Wars. Even George Lucas himself keeps changing the direction that the stoy goes. Who know's, Episode three could be completely about Jar-Jar for all we know. However I think that the overall point of Star Wars is to pay attention to the choices we make, because even the smallest events can change the world. And it is how we react to those events that change our lives, and matbe the lives of everyone else.

 

It is hard to find a complete story for Star Wars. You think at first when your watching A New Hope "What the hell this!?" then you get more into the story but what is the story. I don't think anyone can answer that!

 

Who know's, Episode three could be completely about Jar-Jar for all we know.

I hope not! I've always seen the movies as basically that: the battle between good and evil. On one hand, we have the Rebel Alliance, the Jedi, the things not controlled by the Sith. On the other hand, apparently the evil one ( ), we have the Sith, the bad things, the un-Jedi things. These sides battle it out in the OT and PT, justifying Lucas' vision of a battle between good and evil. There are some books that mention the movies specifically as an epic battle, stating that it's a prime example of the concept.

There's more than that to the movies, I suppose. There's romance and action. We have the original couple, Han/Leia, and the other couple Anakin/Padme ( ), and of course we have the war scenes and the fights of that, but it just adds to the concept of the good vs. evil thing.

It all comes down to that eventually, I guess. Everything adds to the good vs. evil thing, the right vs. wrong, the black and white sceneario, although I've never really seen the movies like that at all.

-Krystal

 

I too have always seen the Star Wars saga as mainly a battle of Good against Evil. Everything about the Original Trilogy points the viewers in that direction. The Rebellion is good and they are fighting the Empire which is evil. The Jedi are good, and are fighting the Sith which are bad. All of these little battles all add up to what the entire saga is about. The battle between good and evil, and ones perceptions of good and evil.

 

On the surface it is all about good and evil but really, it's all about choices and what they lead to. Right from the beginning all the characters have to make choices; go, stay, trust, distrust. Choices and consequences. That's what it's really about.

 

I would say that SW is a story about good and evil, and how one person's choice can change an entire galaxy.

We see Anakin in TPM, described as a boy who "gives without any thought of reward"...is given the chance to live his dream of becoming a jedi, and along the way is tempted towards the dark side in order tp prevent people from dying. Once he gives up his ability to make that choice...in favor of "My Master" He falls into a life of brutality and suffering for the entire galaxy. Until his own son (a son he himself recently injured in battle) attempts to find that good still in you, the conflict that remains of the boy he once was. And in the end, Anakin's last act was to throw away (literally) his master in favor of his own son...who resisted the evil he could not.

All good myths are a story about the struggel between good and evil. Star Wars is a reminder that good can win over evil...in a world where we have a hard time finding anything good anyomre.

 

i've found that it is a battle between good and evil, but it's not as clearly defined and black and white as its reputed to be

evil is within us all, we all have the potential for good and evil and it relies on the choices we make. anakin makes bad choices as GL says, his son luke learns from his dad's mistakes and redeems him.

 

It is a battle of Good Vs Evil, but the films are merely showing this battle at a certain point in the history of the Star Wars galaxy. In this sense it is more than just Good Vs Evil, is a story of history in a galaxy far, far away.

 

Along with everybody else, the Star Wars saga is essentially the ongoing conflict of good vs. evil. But's it's much more complex than that. There are thousands of side elements (the Trade Federation, political corruption, technology, etc.) that somehow connect back to the basic good vs. evil conflict for the most part. That's what makes Star Wars so great. It so complex and realistic, but everything, for the most part again, relates back to that basic struggle. That's wht sets it apart from other sci-fi sagas like Star Trek. Star Trek just doesn't posses the mythological element that Star Wars does. It doesn't have those large picture morals that Star Wars has. Man, I love this universe.

 

This is one of the things that irk me about SW. I don't like stuff to be just black or just white. I like the grey areas where good and evil are not clear cut. This is where the world of the bounty hunters come in. They aren't good or evil, they exist somewhere in between.

Thats what I like about Star Trek, btw, the grey areas.

 

Yeah, but who is good and who is evil. From the Empires side the rebels are anti-imperialists bent on bringing down their political stability which they have fought for for many years, whereas on the other hand the Rebellion sees the Empire as the evil tyrinical political establishment that works only for its own self interest.

So from a certain perspective, its not all black and white

 

So yes, you are right. Although I was referring to the audience's pov.

 

Well yeah that's the thing about Star Wars, it has a lot of gray areas. Like bounty hunters yes, politics, technology, a alot of EU stuff focuses on the gray areas if your interested in that.

 

True, the EU has a lot of grey areas. Which attracts me and maybe a lot of the people who are into the EU. However, the movies are in black and white because they are intended to be a morality play by GL. A fairy tale keeps its morality in simple terms: good or bad.

 

i disagree with you spike, the EU is grey in terms of its concept of good an evil, but so is the OT and even more so the PT

to make good and evil black and white IMO they have to be clarly opposite and not go from one to the other. this is clearly not so in the OT and PT, Anakin/Vader.

but i agree with the morality play idea, GL is trying to tell us that good and evil is inside us all.

 

Interesting post, Spike, and I have to agree: Lucas created a universe where everything is within the confines of black and white. There is black and white, black and white. No gray areas. I think this was Lucas' main intention, actually: to present a universe where everything was right or everything was wrong. I've always enjoyed that about the saga, in that it's not complicated and a way to slip away from reality into a nicely tied up black and white world.

I like going to movies to look at things and see both sides and the gray areas, but with Star Wars I don't care. It's a joy ride that breaks everything and just gives us those hours of nothingness.

-Krystal

 

Is Star Wars More than Just the Battle Between Good and Evil?

Yes it is. There is also the human will, human spirit over the over reliance of technology. Family and friends over overconfidence and self awareness. Hope and hope fulfilled. STAR WARS is about a number of things.

 

I still think it boils down to the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

 

There is defintaly the battle between good an evil, but SW is so much more than that. It forces us to ask the questions, about what is evil, where does it come from, what makes a good person choose the wrong choice, what kinds of evil are there, can evil be redeemed, and on an on..

On the surface, it is a fantasy/action movie, at its core it is much much more, it is about heros (the accidental hero,(the droids), the fallen hero (Anakin), the reluctant hero (Luke to some extent Han), and villians (truely evil Villian (Palps), villians who made the wrong choices for the right reasons (Vader), villians who are doing the wrong thing, but think they are right,(Neimodians, Separtists, Dooku) ..) it is about the journey of someone who thought he was an ordinary kid, to becoming the last hope of a glorious order that was thought to be lost.(LUKE) It is a bout a kid who left home to follow his dreams and found only a nightmare instead.(Anakin) It is about knights and dragons, and princesses and love (Han/Leia, Anakin/Padme) adn family and so much more all wrapped up in an outer space setting.

It is about Good and evil on a grand scale and also on a microscale.. about hte good and evil that lurks in everyone of us. It is about how Good and evil may sometimes be black and white, but more often than not there are shades of grey, adn people aren't always what they first appear to be (Han, Lando).

It is about Fathers and sons (Qui/Obi Obi/Ani Ani/Luke Owen/Luke), sacrifice for a cause, choosing between your desires and your duty (Padme, to a lesser extent Leia), it is fun and adventure and a morality tale.

It is a psychological study of how one person starts out good and ends up being a villian, only to be redeemed at the end, and sacrifice himself to save his son, and pay for his crimes.

SW can't be simply defined, it has to be experienced.



It is a psychological study of how one person starts out good and ends up being a villian,

 

Star Wars is about good and evil, but it is also about the hero's journey. I am reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces right now, and Lucas was inspired by Campbell when making the OT. Both Luke and Anakin's journeys mirror the hero's journey--the leaving home, the wise old mentor, the walk through the darkness and the fighting of danger, and finally, the emergence on the other side as a hero. Of course Luke's journey and Anakin's were quite different, and at least one point, Luke succeeds where his father failed, but many sagas, including SW and LOTR, have been based on Campbell's mythology.

 

Life being above technology.

This technological marvel, is nothing compared to the Power of the Force. ANH
Luke Skywalker Force enhanced shot, being superior to a Targeting Computer.ANH
Ewoks vs Stormtroopers.ROTJ
Clonetroopers vs battledroids.AOTC
Jedi vs battledroids. TPM


Fatherhood and the trials of childhood.
Anakin skywalker and his lack of a father.
Luke skywalker and his obession with his father in ANH.
Qui Gon Jin and Obi-wan Kenobi.
Kenobi and Anakin relationship.(ref to Padme statement)
Anakin relationship with Palpatine.
Luke skywalker relationship with Obiwan Kenobi and Yoda, and subsequent dealing with the death of them both.

Classic tragedy.

 

We all have the capability of either good or evil......and its our CHOICE what we do with our lives.

 

I say it's all about choices.
No matter what choice you make there will always be the good and the bad outcome of them.

 

The one word description of the entire story of Star Wars is "Redemption." It is the story of the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin really IS the main character of the entire saga. Not luke, not ben, not yoda, not anyone else.