{Spoiler Alert}
May the Force be with you! And with your spirit!
The long awaited return of the franchise has finally arrived and our journey through the Star Wars movies is complete, for now. Now the whole world can debate whether or not our beloved Star Wars will do well in the hands of Mickey Mouse and companions. I have some thoughts on that subject, but that’s not the point of this blog so I’ll leave that to reviewers and fans and stick to my own task.
First of all, thank goodness that Luke still serves the light. This avoids casting shadows cast back over the old movies and contradicting the overall scheme of good and evil. It also upholds the general idea that it is in fact possible to be good and stay good. Now, I may be speaking too soon, because we still don’t know much about what happened between the two movies. We shall see…
Secondly, I’d like to reflect on the idea of vocation that we see in both Finn and Rey. Each in their own way, these two characters find themselves pulled… called into something much bigger than themselves. Both of them try to run away from it pretty quickly.
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| Vocations… explosions… close enough. |
Finn has a sudden attack of conscience and refuses to comply with the order to kill the villagers. This leads to his rescue of Poe Dameron and his meeting Rey. As soon as Finn sees a chance to jump ship and get away to the Outer Rim, he tries to take it. Likewise, Rey is simply trying to survive and waiting for her family to return. Rey touches Anakin’s and Luke’s blue lightsaber, but she does not immediately keep it, though I’m sure most of the audience would like to think that they would in such a situation. But Rey, even after the rather moving little speech by Maz, immediately runs away from this calling, literally. Throughout their struggles, the audience can almost have some sympathy for their desire to run away, but it’s fairly obvious that this is the wrong decision in both cases.
This is very much what discovering one’s vocation can be like, especially when it comes out of the blue like it did for both of these characters. All of sudden, you’re face to face with an immense responsibility that you didn’t ask for (inheriting the entire legacy of the Jedi, battling a multiple-planet-destroying-super-gun, taking a vow of celibacy and obedience, raising children… all about equal right?). It’s easy to imagine how we’d respond to another person’s sudden call, but being in their place and tangibly sensing the danger to your sanity and to your life, is quite another thing. But, the answer to this is not to look more deeply at oneself, in real life or in the movie. It is in seeing the kind of harm that comes to others when you refuse to accept the call that is most powerful. Rey is first moved by seeing the First Order attacking and then by being captured and realizing that evil wasn’t going to leave her out of it. Finn was compelled by his concern for Rey who “looked at [him] look no one ever had.” Friendship or attraction or both were working in Finn and love, even in a generic sense, compelled him to move outside himself and work for something bigger than himself, even at great risk to his life.
On that note, I’ll just lay this out there and move on. I hope this does not turn into a real romance between those two. If Rey and/or Finn do end up becoming Jedi, I hope the new Lords of Star Wars (Disney) don’t do away with the Jedi practice of Celibacy. It would muddle the whole fact that a major part of Anakin’s downfall was his disregarding of that very promise – but again, we shall have to wait and see..
And finally – you all knew this was coming – lets talk about Kylo Ren and Han Solo.
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| “My name is Kylo Ren, you killed my father, prepare to di… oh, wait…that was me…” |
In the first trilogy, Luke’s father, Darth Vader/Anakin, had fallen to the Dark Side but was eventually converted back by the sacrifice and love of his old master Obi-Wan and his son, Luke. In this movie, Kylo Ren is Luke’s former student and Han Solo’s son. In a kind of two-layered reversal, it is Han who first gives his life trying to win over his son. That scene was moving and the director really tried to sell the audience on the hope that Kylo Ren would actually convert in that first encounter. The fact that Kylo Ren spoke cryptically of needing to do something and not having strength implies that he may have been baiting his father and mocking his hope, but I’m not sure. He even begins to hand over his lightsaber, but, in a moment reminiscent of Episode 3, the light fades for Kylo Ren, inside and out.
I love the way that this completes Han’s character. Now he has gone from scoundrel, to hero, to lapsed and absentee husband, to dutiful father, to a martyr after the example of the man who began his transformation in the first place. With his dying breath, he shows not a single indication of bitterness or anger towards the son who has just betrayed him. Instead, he caresses his face lovingly and dies. Perhaps the vigor with which Kylo Ren attacks Rey and Finn after this leads many watchers to think that hope for Kylo is lost, but I’m not so convinced. The kind of sacrifice Han made and the fact that Luke is still around leads me to believe there may yet be a conversion of sorts, but hopefully it won’t be identical to Vader’s (I think one movie full of repeats and fan service is enough).
That’s it for now. We have to wait two more years to answer all the new questions that have come up, so I’ll move on to other movies in the meantime. Until then,
-The Ephesian