The other day a friend and I were reminiscing about the good ol' days when we were younger and saw Star Wars for the first time. I'll never forget sitting on the first row of the theater as a third grader when "A long, long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . ." flashed across the screen. I remember that my friends and I all looked at each other and said, "Is this a true story?" I relived the same excitement and adrenaline rush when Lucas began to make the prequels of epsiodes 1, 2, and 3. When my wife and I went to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at a midweek matinee, I got chill bumps of excitement. I experienced the same excitement when I introduced my boys to this greatest set of movies ever made. But enough about my geekness.
As my friend and I relived our magical childhood, the subject of Darth Vader came up. Growing up, before we knew how Darth Vader became so evil, everyone hated him. No one wanted to be Darth Vader. You may have bought the Darth Vader figure and his tie fighter, but only so someone else could pretend to be him while you saved the day. That's not the case today. Kids like to be Darth Vader today all because they know he used to be Anakin Skywalker, who until he finally crossed the line to join the dark side, was a pretty good guy. I must admit, even I look differently at Darth Vader now, although I don't find myself necessarily liking him.
Is this a dangerous trend, excusing evil, even looking up to it, on the basis of the good that may have been done in the past or the knowledge that the evil doer will turn from his wicked ways? Or is it a lesson in grace, seeing the good in people? After all, Luke Skywalker says of his father repeatedly, "There's still good in him, I know." What do you think?
When is the right time?
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This past week I had coffee with the pastor of the church we're now
attending. I talked for about an hour straight, telling my story. All the
while he prov...
15 years ago
2 comments:
The Dark Side is the scary part. "Nothing is impossible with God." I suspect the Dark Side is that dividing line where few, if any come back. This is where we can't speak from expereince.
The looking up to evil, a very current attraction, is the default of not looking at the Good. We all look at something...there is no real middle way.
Fiction is just another way of looking at reality. I know that you are a big fan of sci-fi. I have rooted for some 'bad guys' you couldn't help but like. But I might feel different if they were really stealing my stuff! Then they would really be bad guys...which goes back to a dose of reality...where life counts.
Good post big guy!
Anonymously Al
I think that movies like the Star Wars franchise, or any space opera, really, tend to be simplifications of that battle between good and evil.
The fact that Darth Vader had a less than evil past is actually sort of refreshing, in a way.
Besides, if you look at the OT and the stories of the men that were chosen by God, you find that they were always men who were deeply flawed in some way. They were not perfectly good people. They did things, sometimes terrible things, and yet they were still chosen and loved. It is one of the reasons we can relate to them.
Making Darth Vader less 2 dimensional was in many ways a more realistic portrayal of the classic good vs. evil story. Humans start out as neither wholly good or wholly evil.
Oh, and you don't know me from Adam. I surfed in here via Google trying to identify a big green bug I'd seen somewhere. Then I read this...and since I can't sleep, decided why not comment.
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