Saga The loneliness of being a Force user - Mutant allegory in the ST?

Life as a Force user has been presented as lonely before but the ST really seems to have tried to tap into that same outcast mutant allegory that has been a large part of the X-Men IP where there’s a real sense that being a Force user is a lonely experience where young people often have to hide their abilities (Broom boy) and where the lack of info on what to do with this power is a confusing path for younger Force users and being recruited by the Magneto can happen first. We’ve known this was the case in Star Wars but the ST seems to have focused on this element a little more.

There’s not quite the same sense of resentment and fear from non-force users toward Force users as is presented in X-Men as a source of conflict that divides the mutants there into factions who either support or fight against the “less evolved “ but there does seem to be an undercurrent in Star Wars that’s now continued via the problems of Han & Leia’s relationship that it’s difficult for Force users and non-Force users to have amazing relationships. There just haven’t been that many examples of it that have lasted all that long. Han & Leia may be the gold standard of what a Force user and a non Force user can be like as a couple. Take from that what you will. And it doesn’t even sound like Leia has made the force as big a part of her life as the average Force user anyway. K’nan & Hera are up there as a couple as well and in part because she encouraged him to rediscover and priorize this as part of him in a supportive way.

Even in Legends it was another Force user that Luke ended up marrying. Here, in the ST it seems he may never have found that person.

Rey’s journey toward Kylo Ren seems to have shades of this currently as well. They both feel alone but not because there’s not people around them but because there seems to be an element of how each feels unique as Force users capable of feeling, sensing, connecting to life and ghosts and doing these incredible things that only other force users like them can truly comprehend.

I certainly feel that the ST has pushed this concept a little more but in doing so has also sort of highlighted just how unique Force users must feel. Luke, for example, guarded that secret of his father for quite a while after learning it and engaged with Obi-Wan and Yoda on most of his issues with this while sticking to different discussion topics around Han & Leia until he realized Leia was his sister & seemed excited to have someone new to share in this world with. There might be shades of this in Anakin as he speaks with Padme in ROTS. He seemed frustrated that she didn’t fully grasp the power Force users like him can have. They didn’t see it the same way.

Do you agree that the ST has moved this concept a little higher up the priority scale? Disagree? Do you enjoy it? Dislike it? Feel it’s in keeping with some ideas that were always there? Feel it’s creeping too much on other IPs now? Curious how others feel about this because conceptually it seems to be an idea that’s been prioritized a little higher now in the storytelling via the ST.

 

I don't know... I haven't heard anyone involved in the ST story allude to that, but maybe.

Force users who aren't identified, adopted, and trained by the Jedi usually grow up not knowing they have the potential for magical powers. Even Anakin, who had more potential than anyone, was merely more perceptive than he might have been otherwise.

As for a trained Jedi, they have other Jedi if they need Jedi companionship, but there are many who don't. Corran Horn married a non force user, as did Jaina Solo. And I'm sure there are others. Lol, I forgot... Leia married a non-force user, and Han seems to be the greatest companion, friend, lover for her.

 

I don’t think FSs in SW are at all analagous to mutants in X-Men. For example, I’ve heard nothing about Luke or Leia feeling somehow isolated pre-ANH, despite both being very FS. Nor was young Anakin shunned when he was a child.

I always imagined that Luke faced a lonely road after RotJ, but more because he was the last of his kind with the heavy burden of responsibility on his shoulders, and because he was - for a time, at least, “off the radar” and isolated from friends and family.

Rey, in contrast, is continuing her journey surrounded by an “adopted family” of sorts. Nothing in the movies have suggested that her being FS has negtively affected her relationship with, say, Finn or other non-FSs.

 

I would agree that having that kind of power could be isolating. Think of Superman. Yes he had Lois but for years he carries this burden alone. Anakin says he feels "lost" in ROTS and Padme does not seem to understand.

 

We don’t really know how Anakin’s abilities would have developed had he never been found. I suspect he still would have had some epiphanies during puberty and could have found the wrong path on his own. Consider how quickly Luke is blocking bolts blind (within hours) with only the tiniest of instruction.

There seems to be aspects of the force that work best for belief as a child but other aspects of focus and control and awareness that seem to come about more naturally in adolescence.

I do think it would be difficult to sense all of these things and have these abilities and not feel a strange sense of kinship whenever around other Force users who would “get” what it’s like more. Similarly, there would have to be moments that are hard to explain to others who just don’t exist the same way.

 

Only the Jedi faced this and that was due to being an organization.

 

Yet, but the isolating effect derives from the responsibility of power, not from others resenting them for their supernatural abilities or their "otherness." Even in the prequel era, the public's increasing lack of faith in the Jedi arises as a result of the Jedi's perceived culpability for both the Clone War's genesis and its destructive course, a culpability which from the Jedi's perspective was precipitated by their own sense of moral obligation to the galaxy.

Whereas X-Men media uses mutantism as a metaphor for the real-world plight of various oppressed minorities, the Star Wars franchise uses Jediism as a more generalized metaphor for those who find value in a life of spirituality and responsibility to their fellow man. Inasmuch as the Jedi are crushed and marginalized by the Empire, it is because the Empire is seeking to quash these qualities themselves in the hearts of its citizens.

There's little support in either the films or their primary supporting media for the OP's thesis.

 

I think you make a good point here.

And if you think of the flip side of this issue , veneration of Force users or others with unusual ability , this can be equally lonely.

There are many real world examples of athletes , actors and others who are loved by the masses but lead lonely isolated lives as a result of their fame.

 

The thing is, Lucas tends to shy away from using Star Wars as a straight exploration of an alternate universe in favor of using it an allegorical exploration of our own. There are no people in our universe who are simultaneously shunned and oppressed but also possess great power and influence over society--that's not really how things work in the real world (except in weird historical edge cases like professional executioners). The Jedi are more heroes in the mold of Spider-Man--they possess great power, and so have also taken upon themselves great responsibility. And when you take responsibility for things, you get blamed for things. It's the nature of the beast. That's what the Jedi represent.

If one is looking in Star Wars for a metaphorical analogue to the X-men mutants in their capacity as shunned, oppressed "others," then that would obviously be the droids.