It’s December of 2015, and people are about to have a whole lot of questions. The Force Awakens is being released to the public, ending a ten-year hiatus from Lucasfilm and making true on a decades-long promise from George Lucas that we would see the end of the story he began in 1977.
At the time, I was a really responsible university student, which means I spent the cash to see Episode VII at…
Simply put, a narrative foil is a character that is used to highlight traits in another character through comparison and contrast. Foils add depth to both characters, as they explore the things define both as characters and how they function in the story. This, of course, doesn’t mean that the characters are limited to how they compare or contrast to the other character in any way, it just means that there are similarities and differences the audience to pay attention to. As long as the characters are well crafted they can stand on their own, regardless of whether or not the foil anyone else.
One of my favorite scenes of The Force Awakens is the opening. Here, we’re introduced to three characters that will play big roles in our story, and two of them are masked. It’s a moment where we’re introduced to a whole hell of a lot; the characters, the main conflict of the movie, an important setting, and of course, our first big foil for the remaining films: Finn and Kylo. The two of them are such interesting reflections of each other and contrasting in nearly every way and it’s fascinating in terms of who they will grow to be and what it means for both of them when their paths cross. Though they contrast, I feel they may have more in common than it appears at first.
The Contrast
The first scene of The Force Awakens does a lot narratively. In addition to all the establishment of conflict and providing an interesting hook for the audience, it directly singles out Finn and Kylo as characters we should watch and it even makes them acknowledge each other. That little moment of recognizance between the two, when their eyes lock for just a moment, forces us to consider both of them at that moment and to consider what might happen between the two of them in the future.
At first glance, we might be tempted to see them as strictly opposite. After all, they are framed very differently. Kylo speaks while Finn is silent. Kylo strikes down Lor San Tekka and orders a village executed while Finn watches a friend die and can’t bring himself to shoot. Kylo is clothed in all black and Finn is in white. But then they lock eyes and Kylo ignores Finn’s insubordination. It’s Phasma who wants to correct Finn’s behavior, not Kylo, even though he’s got just as much authority to do so. And it’s, of course, this act of mercy that allows Finn to escape, using the authority Kylo’s name grants him no less.
The conflict these two characters carry is also in sharp contrast. Kylo is fighting the pull of the light while Finn is running from the dark (represented by the First Order). Finn runs, Kylo stays. Finn doesn’t have a name at the beginning of the story, just a number and a family he’ll never know (and doesn’t actually seem to worry him too much about as long as he can get away from the thing he fears). Kylo has two names and a family and ancestry that weighs on him. Finn was a faceless cog in a war machine who wants to remain faceless and get away from the war machine. Kylo the descendant of many important people trying to live up to that importance.
At first glance, they are about as different as two characters can be, but they actually share some very interesting similarities.
Lost Children
The theme of lost children specifically lost children who are left to face the world without the help of their parents is prominent in Star Wars. It’s no surprise that all our new characters have been alienated from their families through either death or the wicked actions of others. Finn and Kylo are two that fall into the latter category.
Finn’s backstory is spelled out for us when he finally reveals his “true” identity to Rey on Takodana. He is a child soldier, one of the countless children stolen from their families to fight and die for others. Finn has no real familial relationships, nor does he have a home or name or ideology. He’s about as blank of a blank slate can get at the beginning of The Force Awakens, and because of this, his arc is about finding an identity. Through the course of the saga, Finn is going to learn who he can be. The end of The Last Jedi and Finn’s attempted suicide run on the FO cannon is a good step for Finn because it is him finally actually taking a stand, but learning that this stand does not have to cost him his life. It was a great thing for his character that Rose saved him because rather than dying a martyr Finn can now grow into someone who isn’t just a means to an end like the FO would prefer. The entire Canto Bight sequence is about Finn opening his eyes to the world around him and gaining a deeper understanding of what it means not just for the galaxy but also what it means for the kind of man he wants to be. He could very easily become like DJ, whose advice is to look out for yourself and not join either side, but he chooses not to be. He chooses to make a stand, not out of fear, but conviction. His story is about finding himself and he’s well on the way there.
Kylo’s backstory is… scant. We don’t know everything but what we do know (only from the films) is important. He’s the child of Han and Leia, the only Skywalker of his generation, a child born to heroes and raised by legends and he’s got incredible power. So the question we should be asking ourselves is: what the hell happened? Why did Ben Solo become Kylo Ren? Short version, if you take Leia at her word in TFA is “it was Snoke”. Though not physically taken, Kylo was also stolen from his parents by an evil force. The age that this actually started to happen and how it happened (whether it was just a dark presence influencing him or Snoke actually telling him things like an evil little mind gremlin) don’t matter because symbolically he is a lost child. He has been alienated from his family, through both Snoke and Luke’s actions, and thus he’s left to fend for himself mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. He’s lost to his parents who just want him to come home and he’s lost internally, feeling pulled to the light but not believing he can or should be good (and I wonder who put that thought in his head hmmm). He will also undergo a process of finding himself and figuring out what kind of man he’ll be, and like Finn, his sight of who and what that could be is influenced by a woman; Rey. Rey’s effect on Kylo is less overt than Rose’s effect on Finn or even Kylo’s effect on Rey, it’s still there. Her actions shove him right out of his comfort zone and leave him in a position where he has to make up his mind. She sets off a chain of events that forces him to face his physical demons in both Snoke and Luke. Having beaten the physical manifestations of what scares him and keeps him trapped he’s now facing the same question Finn was: what kind of man are you going to be?
It’s very interesting that both of these characters are faced with the challenge of finding themselves. Finn’s arc is relatively straightforward. We can all pretty much guess that he’s going to be a leader and possibly a liberator depending on what happens in EP IX. Kylo, on the other hand, is a giant question mark. It could be that these two little lost boys will find themselves on absolute opposites for the rest of the saga, or it could be that they find themselves closer together after they both face their fears and make their stands.
What You Fear the Most
The fight on Starkiller is such a fascinating exchange. It’s an instance that echoes the first scene on Jakku between Finn and Kylo, expect this time their both unmasked and something has to be done about the other. Here though, there is no going easy on the other. In a way, they echo the worst fears of each other at that moment; Kylo representing the First Order, bellowing at Finn that he’s a traitor and coming after him and Finn – someone no one expected to actually *be* anything – challenging Kylo over the Legacy saber and all it symbolically represents. And they both lose in the end. Sure, Kylo gets the upper hand and strikes Finn down first, but they both wind up worse for ware. In a way, it’s a reaffirmation of both of their fears. Yes, Finn, the First Order will come after you, you are going to have to fight. No, Kylo, you aren’t going to be able to fulfill your “birthright” because your grandfather’s saber and by extension your grandfather, reject you. And it’s also a reinforcement of their respective calls to something different. This is the first step for both of them to realize that their fears are real and they must face these things in order to grow beyond them.
While they face each other as a manifestation of their deepest fears, it should be noted that they don’t actually conquer those fears on Starkiller. Finn is still ready to run from the First Order and Kylo is still holding on to the idea that he has to live in the dark. That’s because you can fight and/or kill the thing you fear, but it doesn’t address the root of the issue. Courage, they say, is doing something regardless of how much it scares you. Finn must face the First Order not because he’s backed into a corner, but because he wants to. This is why Finn’s fight with Phasma in The Last Jedi actually furthers his arc and the Starkiller fight doesn’t resolve the issue. Yes, Finn must fight Phasma because she’s trying to kill him, but he does so while asserting who he wants to be. Finn wins his fight with Phasma, asserting himself as “rebel scum” and standing up for himself, not Rey or anyone else. It’s a personal victory for Finn.
Kylo, on the other hand, hasn’t truly faced his fears yet, because his fears can’t be faced with anyone but himself. Kylo might win against Finn on Starkiller, but he’s immediately faced with another challenger, another *no one* steps up and almost literally takes the Legacy saber from his hand and leaves him bleeding in the snow. While he succeeds in killing Snoke and would have killed Luke had he actually been there, Kylo doesn’t actually win much of anything. Where Finn stands triumphant after his fight with Phasma, Kylo is left shocked and then kneeling in the dirt after his fight with Luke. Kylo’s true fight is internal and hasn’t happened yet. It will be a symbolic fight between who Kylo Ren is and who Ben Solo could be and the winner will determine how he ends the trilogy. It could either be a personal victory or a tremendous loss.
Why Are They Foils?
It’s easy to point out what makes characters foils but it’s more important to point out why. I’ve already alluded to it previously, but the explicit answer is that they’re both searching for an identity. Finn comes from a legacy of darkness, one he wants to outrun but not confront. Kylo comes from a legacy of light and dark, but he’d rather kill the light than embrace it. Finn removes his mask almost instantly and has to find his own identity while Kylo hides behind the mask and thus hides his true identity. In one regard, their contrast serves to show how different things hold different characters back from doing what’s expected, and how different kinds of fear are difficult to face.
They are different but their journeys are very similar. They are finding themselves, forging identities and struggling with their own inner conflicts and fears. They must learn who they are and then do something about it. There is the potential for both characters to understand and empathize with each other because they’re both conflicted and afraid. They’re both messy and need help to understand who they want to be and how to do that. I do anticipate seeing them interact again in EP IX, though I’m not sure under what circumstances, I feel the way the characters were set up in The Force Awakens hints at some unfinished business for both of them.
So how are these characters going to end up in relation to each other? They could remain on opposite ends of the spectrum with one choosing to be a hero and one choosing to be a villain. Or, they could end where they started and wind up on the same side.
(note: I posted this to reddit about three weeks ago, so if this looks incredibly familiar that’s why)
What is a Narrative Foil?
Simply put, a narrative foil is a character that is used to highlight traits in another character through comparison and contrast. Foils add depth to both characters, as they explore the things define both as characters and how they function in the story. This, of course, doesn’t mean that the characters are limited to how they compare or contrast to the other character in any way, it just means that there are similarities and differences the audience to pay attention to. As long as the characters are well crafted they can stand on their own, regardless of whether or not the foil anyone else.
Hux and Poe are such an interesting set of foils that I’m really surprised I don’t see more discussion of how they reflect one another and what that could mean for the upcoming film. They are very similar even if they are on opposite ends of the spectrum ideologically that it really makes you stop and wonder if there’s so kind of comment of war, in general, being saved up for the finale. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that Hux and Poe are alike.
Children of War
While I would like to stick to the films, for the most part, there are a few details about Hux and Poe that aren’t mentioned in the films that need to be addressed. For one, they are the only two new characters who were born before the Empire fell. Poe was born to rebels two years before the Battle of Endor, while Armitage was born the year of the Battle of Yavin to an imperial father and a kitchen worker. This is highly interesting as both characters can be seen as not only following in the footsteps of their parents but also seem to want to live up to the legacies they were left. Poe’s mother, Shara Bey, was a pilot for the Rebellion. Brendol Hux, Armitage’s father, was an Imperial and later an officer of the First Order. It’s fascinating then, that Poe and Armitage then go on to become focal points for the Resistance and First Order, both organizations that borrow heavily aesthetically and ideologically from the Rebellion and Empire respectively. In a sense, these two characters were raised in a way the predisposed them to the role they now play. In a saga that deals heavily with legacy and what that means, it appears that it’s not just the Skywalkers who have passed on a legacy of conflict.
In some sense, this puts the conflict between the Resistance and the First Order in a new light. This is a multi-generational conflict.
True Believers
As leaders on their respective sides, it should be no surprise that both Poe and Hux really do believe in their causes. Hux’s near orgasmic awe at seeing Starkiller Base fire in TFA and Poe’s grim “we are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down” set both of them up as assured in their desire for the destruction of those who oppose them. Though these two after sometimes played for laughs (especially when pitted against each other) they’re not messing around when it comes to their dedication to their causes. While it’s much easier to sympathize with Poe in this instance, it should be noted that his twist on Holdo’s line “we are the spark that will light the fire that will restore the Republic” is a destructive statement. The shadows cast on his face and the way his eyes are turned down as he says this line are ominous as well, which should lead the audience to have some apprehension about what Poe wants. This is deliberate as it frames Poe not in looking to rebuild something that was but to break something that is. It’s directly in contrast with Rose’s “saving what we love” line as well. This could potentially be a foreshadowing for what’s to come, especially when it comes to the ways in which Poe and Hux might interact in the future.
Ego and Issues with Authority
The opening scene of The Last Jedi really sets up a lot, if you ask me. Not only do we get the introduction of Poe’s arc, we also get our first on-screen juxtaposition of Hux and Poe and we see how truly alike they are. Both of them are too busy smarting off to each other, being drawn into a pissing contest, and ignoring wiser officers to realize they’re both losing. Hux’s ego is bruised and as such he focuses more on Poe than he does the threat to the other Star Destroyer, wasting valuable time. Poe too is so focused on taking out a Star Destroyer that he ignores direct orders and does whatever he wants, being cocky enough to think he knows better than his boss. They’re too focused on messing with each other and winning, not in the long term, but in the short term, to be effective. Both are ego driven at this moment and because of it, they both suffer heavy losses.
Interestingly, though, is that they seem to mirror each other for the rest of the movie as well. Once the fight is over, Poe is reprimanded and slapped by Leia, then demoted. Hux is reprimanded by Snoke and thrown around and dragged across the floor. (Hux isn’t demoted, of course, but his harsher physical punishment probably had the same effect on him as Poe’s demotion did on him.) Poe’s superior is then taken out of commission and Poe then undermines her by going behind her back and arranging plans without her consent. Poe then stages a mutiny but cannot complete his plan because he’s thwarted. Hux also sees his superior taken out of commission (though on a much more permanent basis) and immediately undermines his new boss.
The fact that we do see Poe attempt a mutiny but we don’t see Hux attempt a coup could be possible foreshadowing for EP IX. It’s very possible that the way these two characters have mirrored each other so far is supposed to clue us in on what Hux may have planned for Supreme Leader Ren very shortly. Either way, it’s clear that both of these characters have issues with authority, especially when those authorities disagree with them. While Poe has experienced a character arc that could potentially change his view on how to fight, Hux has not and there is a lot of potential for more conflict between these two.
Why Are They Foils?
By making Hux and Poe so similar in background and temperament, the similarities between different sides of the war are highlighted. Now, obviously, there is a moral distinction to be made here. The First Order is an evil organization. They build weapons that destroy systems in the seconds. The Resistance, on the other hand, is a cobbled together group of people trying to stop the evil organization and they don’t have super weapons. This moral distinction is key because I don’t believe the intention is to make the two sides equal in terms of capacity for evil. Rather, the similarities between Hux and Poe might serve to show things we associate with “goodness” on the side of a conflict we agree with are the same things we associate with “badness” on the side of a conflict we don’t agree with. Poe and Hux both have a strong sense of conviction, they’re both ambitious and they both have a legacy of important they’re trying to live up to and surpass. Poe’s defiance of Holdo is divisive, to say the least, and it’s hard for us to accept that a character we’re used to seeing as a hero could have a plan that would go wrong and make them look bad. We expect that kind of defiance and outcome from an antagonist – in someone like Hux.
In my mind, the point of these two characters is to show that it’s not how you fight that’s really important, it’s why you fight. Both Hux and Poe were born into war and found themselves growing into another one. Both men want to destroy what the other is a part of. What will differentiate the two, however, is whether or not Poe will truly embrace the message of saving what you love rather than destroying what you hate. The key will be whether or not Poe can move past his ego and the legacy of war while Hux remains deeply entrenched in it. Based on the fact that Poe is a PoV character and he is on the more moral side, it’s likely he will be able to do this, and the foils will serve as contrasts to one another.
I know I am not the only person who picked up on the musical similarities between John Williams’ beautiful theme for the character of Rose Tico, and Beethoven’s magnum opus, the Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony.
The rhythm is different, with Rose’s Theme using sixteenth notes instead of 8th notes, but the melodic material is very reminiscent. Check it out: 2nd of the scale moving to 3rd, then 4th, back to 3rd and down a major 3rd leap. It struck me as a delightful little reference/ear worm, and it got me thinking about what this particular symphony represents in our culture, and what Rose represents for the larger narrative of the saga films.
“Sachs notes that while Beethoven was hammering out drafts of the symphony on his legless piano, other artists were toying with similar themes of individual striving—a strain of what eventually came to be identified as Romanticism. The works of Byron, Pushkin, and Beethoven, Sachs writes, were subtly linked by this “hidden thread” of expressing in art a “quest for freedom: political freedom, from the repressive conditions that then dominated Europe, and freedom of expression, certainly, but above all freedom of the mind and spirit.”
One thing that Rose and Paige Tico absolutely represent is this: the people Holdo mentions when she gives her inspirational speech after assuming command of the Raddus. “In every corner of the galaxy the downtrodden and oppressed know our symbol and they put their hope in it. We are the spark that will light the fire that will restore the Republic.” These two sisters believed in that symbol and that hope so strongly that they were willing to join the Resistance and put their lives on the line, and in Paige’s case, ultimately give that most final of sacrifices. They learned from the fate of their home system that the repressive conditions of the First Order had to be resisted, just as the repressive conditions of the Empire had to be rebelled against. They were both fully committed to restoring peace, justice, and freedom to the galaxy – and of course I can’t peer directly into the minds of John Williams and Rian Johnson, but I cannot see this connection being mere coincidence.
“More specifically, the prelude to the “Ode to Joy” from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the Council of Europe in 1972 (and subsequently the European Community and the European Union) in order to celebrate the shared values of the member states and express the ideals of a united Europe: freedom, peace, and solidarity.
Furthermore, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” has served as a musical backdrop to major socio-political developments both within and outside Europe over the years. It has been used as a protest anthem from demonstrators in Chile who sang a version of the famous tune called El Himno de la Alegria (“A Song of Joy”) during protests against the Pinochet dictatorship and Chinese student broadcasts at Tiananmen Square to the more recent Occupy Wall Street–driven gatherings in Madrid and elsewhere. During Christmas 1989, Leonard Bernstein conducted a version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. In November 2014, the Berlin State Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim would again perform Beethoven’s Ninth in front of the Brandenburg Gate to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Rarely has a musical composition captured the imagination, hopes and aspirations of so many people, from such diverse and different backgrounds. It is exactly this that makes the “Ode to Joy” so special and indeed emblematic of the universal longing for happiness and brotherhood. From the Americas to Europe, Asia (the Ninth Symphony is traditionally performed throughout Japan at the end of each year), and the rest of the world, Beethoven’s music and Schiller’s words have been the carriers of a universal message that manages to transcend the boundaries of time and culture.”
How powerful it is that the musical leitmotif given to this character can really be extrapolated to represent the hopes and dreams of everyone in the galaxy! There’s also another layer of meaning when it comes to Rose’s personality – it’s obvious there is a deep wellspring of joy within her, a natural optimism and ability to see wonder in the world.
How powerful it is indeed, also, that Rose is one of the main catalysts to Finn’s growth. That her strong moral sense of what’s right and wrong, and her full commitment to restoring freedom and justice to the galaxy, help him find his way and his true place in the world.
One last note on this: another quote from The Atlantic article gave me the tingles in terms of The Last Jedi as a film and what it really means.
“All would perhaps agree with one thing: Taruskin’s assertion that the symphony means something, but that nobody can “claim to have arrived at a definitive interpretation.”
Which is at once a frightening and wonderful state of affairs. Unlike, say, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Beethoven’s masterpiece authentically can and perhaps should mean something personal and different to everyone who approaches it, standing for whatever we view as the best, strongest, and most exalted about humanity. As Wilhelm Furtwängler—one of the best conductors of the symphony—once said, trying to nail down Beethoven’s ideas any more precisely than that is like stabbing a butterfly to an entomologist’s wall.
Sachs himself admits this prior to his admirable, “highly personal” analysis of the Ninth: “there is one inescapable fact”: the symphony “belongs to each person who… attempts to listen to it attentively.” We may never agree what it means, but, as with an eclipse, all we can do is approach it indirectly with caution, humility, and wonder.”
This is why it’s hard for me to debate with people who didn’t like The Last Jedi, for whatever reasons they want to give. This is what TLJ means to me; it is a piece of art that held a profound mirror up to my innermost workings and made me gasp with recognition. The lessons we learn from it, to me, truly fit into those things that are the best, strongest and most exalted about humanity – the lessons of hope, forgiveness, connection, the commitments to justice and freedom, the acceptance and necessity of failure, the fact that you cannot banish the past completely, nor can you live in it forever. Beethoven’s 9th, to me, has always been a glorious declaration of the fortitude and resilience of the human spirit. I absolutely LOVE that this musical composition and everything it stands for is echoed in the theme given to Rose Tico, a strong female character with no special Force powers or lineage – just an unshaken belief in what’s right and a commitment to see it through. Just the wisdom to know that they’re gonna win, not by destroying what they hate – but saving what they love.
Here is Part 1. I promise I am getting to the original question 🙂 @corseque & @superkeenstarwarsbean thank you for your patience!
We’ve talked a lot already about how across the saga films, the Force theme has two main iterations in terms of orchestration, tempo, emotional feel, etc. The first is the more meditative, mystical form, and the second is the more militaristic, adventure/heroic form.
We’ve also established that the Force theme is often used to foreshadow events, specifically events that the cosmic will of the Force is intending to bring into being, shaping the fate of the galaxy.
And finally, we’ve seen that the Force theme can apply to many different characters & situations because of the innate flexibility and expansiveness in how the melody is constructed, as well as the rhythm and underlying harmony, and the different ways that JW chooses to orchestrate. It’s built to represent a struggle and striving toward an ultimate climax and resolution. And I believe the Theme is playing out this struggle across all 9 films, as the Force itself is trying to achieve balance.
Let’s get in to the Prequels now. Note: I have mad prequel love. I saw them at a very impressionable age – 16, 19 & 21. It’s very real for me that the OT represents childhood, the PT represents adolescence, and now the ST represents adulthood in all its messy, complicated glory. So I fully acknowledge the flaws inherent in the prequels, I just choose to focus on the good.
@corseque is someone in the fandom that I have mad respect for, as I’m sure all of you do as well! She made a video with every instance of The Force Theme/Binary Sunset musical leitmotif composed by John Williams, as it used across all 8 saga films. It’s 30 dang minutes long and a thing of glory – and she sent it to me with a request for some meta. I’m using this video as my main reference point. Here is her original request:
“I put together 99% of the times the Force Theme (Binary Sunset)* plays in all the Star Wars movies, including The Last Jedi. Since this music is used in interesting ways during Rey and Ben’s scenes together (the fight on Starkiller, the hand touch, the decision in Snoke’s Throne Room, etc), I wanted to edit all of them in one place for easier comparison reference, mostly so I could tempt tumblr users @enjoyallneednothing-blog and @reylo-musings (and anyone else who has more musical knowledge than me) to look through this and answer this questionasked me by @superkeenstarwarsbean:
“I heard something interesting in the scene where Ben and Rey touch hands. The three notes played with the left hand in Across the Stars plays softly and lowly under the force theme. Or at least something very similar. It’s hidden and hard to hear but there is definitely three notes played in much the same way its played in the prequel love theme.”
In this video, the hand touch is @25:31. As far as I can hear, this playing of the Force Theme sounds different than any other time the Force Theme is used in all the movies (I put them all together here just so people could easily check my work and correct me if I’m wrong).
interesting – the Force Theme seems to be used sometimes as romantic music during a few of Anakin and Padme’s scenes in the prequels, even when the Force is not being referenced or used. also interesting – how many, many times this theme appears in TLJ, especially compared to TFA.”
I want to answer the question of @superkeenstarwarsbean AND properly celebrate the awesome power of this theme, and I’m so sorry, but I really don’t think I can do it justice in one meta. So I’m breaking it up into three parts! The Force Theme in the Original Trilogy. The Force Theme in the Prequel Trilogy. And the The Force Theme in the Sequel Trilogy. I will get to the original question in the Sequel Trilogy segment – and I plan on having them all done by the end of this week, so not a huge wait I hope! 🙂
It’s entirely possible that this is John Williams’ most well known and beloved piece of music – and that’s saying a lot. Can you remember the first time you saw the scene in Ep IV: A New Hope, where young Luke gazes out at the binary sunset, and the questioning french horn swells with strings and harp into a mystical theme of longing and struggle? I know you do. Cuz I do. I remember that shit like it was yesterday.
In his comprehensive catalog of John Williams Star Wars Leitmotifs, Frank Lehman labels this theme “Force/Obi-Wan/All Purpose.” We’ll get in to why the Force Theme is sometimes used in an “All Purpose” manner, but I really hate when I see it described as being used “like wallpaper.” That’s a common theme in criticism of The Last Jedi score and essentially, I think it’s hogwash. Balderdash. Poppycock. You get my drift.
This scene above is actually the second time we hear the Force Theme – the first time is a brief statement as Leia gives the Death Star plans to R2-D2. The music segues into Princess Leia’s theme as we get the wide shot of the Princess and Artoo in the hallway. As New Yorker Music Critic Alex Ross notes:
“Something more substantial happens in the celebrated scene in which young Luke Skywalker looks longingly toward a horizon lit by twin setting suns, dreaming of a life beyond the desert planet Tatooine. Williams writes a melancholy, expansive G-minor theme for solo horn, which is soon taken up by full strings. Akin to the noble C-minor melody that Wagner writes for Siegfried, this leitmotif represents not only Luke but also the mystical medium known as the Force. Buhler points out that the music is heard before the Force has been explained; thus, in classic Wagnerian fashion, it foreshadows the not-yet-known. This may be the point at which “Star Wars” steps out of the adolescent-adventure arena and into the realm of modern myth.”
But what’s actually happening with this iconic theme? Why can it be used in so many different scenarios and work SO WELL for what’s happening onscreen, and in our character’s inner worlds of emotion? Or as Richards says, “Emotionally, the theme ranges from the gentle poignancy of cues like this that can bring a tear to one’s eye to a brash militarism that can rouse the spirits and make us root for the good guys. So what is it that gives this theme its emotional qualities and makes it such a perfect fit for what we see onscreen?”
I’m putting the rest behind a cut because it got way, way long 🙂
This is just something I got to thinking about as I was writing my PadMay Day 2 Post. Why is it you rarely, it seems to me anyway, hear people complain about Luke going to redeem his father–and throwing away his lightsaber rather than kill him and compromise his principles–but you hear people complain that Padme didn’t draw a weapon on Anakin and betray her principles? Surely, people do realise that what Luke did and what Padme did are the same thing, right? Actually, what Luke did was arguable “stupider”.
What Luke Knew About Darth Vader
He’s a mass murderer
Has committed genocide
Is a Sith
Cut of His Hand
Is Loyal to the Empire
Has Killed Many of His Friends and Comrades
Was, allegedly, a Good Man Once
Threatened to Turn his Sister to the Dark Side
Dueled him to protect the Emperor
What Padme Knew About Darth Vader
He was a good man
He was a sweet and kind-hearted boy
He loved her
He loved their child
He loved Ahsoka
He loved Obi-Wan
He loved his mother
He loved people
He wanted to help people
He had a lot of compassion in his heart
He’d been lost and confused lately.
He’d been friends with the Chancellor since he was a boy
Obi-Wan said he’d turned to the Dark Side
He’d even killed younglings
He has the potential to be quite Dark
Maybe he did go Dark…But Why?
From the above we can observe that Padme had far more reason to believe in her husband than her son did to believe in his father. He has been her beloved husband of three years. She’s seen him do lots of good things. When Padme goes to Mustafar, Anakin hugs and kisses her. He clearly still has some kind of caring for her. She’s horrified by what she discovers, but is trying to get through to him when Obi-Wan interferes and Vader turns on her. She is strangled by a Sith while she is weaponless.
Luke, on the other hand, has nothing much to go on, but the vague impression that Vader doesn’t really want to kill him, and might have been a good man once. He knows for certain, Vader has already cut of his hand, and indirectly killed his family, and has committed numerous other atrocities when he goes to face Vader. Nevertheless, after all that has happened, and Vader defends the Emperor, and Luke uses his rage to win a duel, Luke throws away his lightsaber, when the Emperor is right there, rather than betray his ideals. He does not want to become someone who will kill, his own father no less, in anger. He gets electrocuted by a Sith for it while he is weaponless.
Why is it then that Padme is the naive, “weak,” delusional one? Whose reactions were more reasonable and understandable in which situation? Why the double standard? Both Luke and Padme were coming from the same place. Whether you admire or disdain their choices, they were both making the same fundamental choice.
It’s because Padme is a woman. There’s always that double-standard where a female character is criticised for doing something while a male character who does the same thing isn’t criticised and might even be praised. People are obsessed with the idea of a strong female character and whenever any female character does something that could be seen as cliched/stereotyped they criticise them mercilessly. They see Padme’s actions but they seemingly don’t understand or choose to ignore her motivations and reasons. Yes Padme confronting Anakin/Vader on Mustafar was reckless and unwise and ended in her death. If she’d lived maybe people wouldn’t be so harsh on her, but she didn’t.
And not only did she die, she died because she ‘lost the will to live’. Most people assume that it’s a cliche feminine stereotype. However, they fail or refuse to understand that Padme had understandable reasons for ‘losing the will to live’. She lost everything that she cared about. She literally saw everything she’d worked so hard for go down in flames. It sent her into acute depression. She lost her drive and before she could get it back again she went into labour and she died having ‘lost the will to live’.
Now Luke, on the other hand, is a male character and by throwing away his lightsaber he’s going against male cliches/stereotypes. People like that.
(Feel free to tell me if I’ve gotten something wrong. Meta discussions are not my forte. I really don’t want to be jumped on for anything.)
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