Life lessons from Star Wars
What hasn’t been said about Star Wars? For almost fifty years, so many of us have been immersed in the movies, shows, games and books. We’ve probably enjoyed the toys and collectables as well, probably past a point where we’d admit it. Influenced by our history and spirituality, George Lucas gave us a universe inspired by the hero’s journey.
Despite being set in a galaxy far, far away, the Star Wars saga has always reflected the world around us.
After all this time, there are plenty of lessons. There have also been plenty of attempts to explore these stories, so I’d like to do something different here. My aim is to uncover things you probably haven’t thought of before.
We’ll look at how the people in the Star Wars universe are being lied to, why most of the characters might be on the wrong track and then ask ourselves why the recent movies weren’t successful. I also get to complain about them.
All of this should get you thinking and prompt you to work out what’s important. Here are three easy things we can learn from Star Wars:
Things may not be as they seem
As the viewer, we see the truth behind the Emperor’s rise to power. How he manipulates the galaxy into all-out war and then establishes his new order, after eliminating the Jedi and seemingly, all opposition.
It’s easy to lose sight of what someone living in this galaxy would see though. From his narrative, he’s likely to be seen as both a hero and a victim.
While I’ve heard the obvious comparisons to 1930s Germany, I think there’s a lesson here about the world we’re living in now. We’re subjected to so many narratives, that represent how an individual or a group sees the world. They often expect us to accept it, and see it as the truth.
It isn’t always the case though. Like in the Star Wars universe.
Conspiracies and extreme political views are an obvious place to start. These often begin when someone who is charismatic and unwavering prompts us to question what we’ve been told. They give us an alternative narrative that apparently makes sense of what’s happening in the world.
It’s important here to think about why the people believed Palpatine. They were dissatisfied with what they saw as decline and injustice. They supported a narrative that justified this and appeared to understand and support them. We all know what happened next.
Like we’ve seen in the Star Wars universe, it can quickly reach a point where this narrative can’t be examined or questioned.
As we’ve unfortunately seen in politics today, the blame for a society’s decline can often be shifted to a particular group of people or a way of thinking. It becomes part of the narrative, and we never seem to learn from history.
We can do something though. We just need to question and carefully examine the narratives we’re presented with. We need to have the courage to make our own mind up, regardless of what anyone else tells us we should think.
The next lesson I’d like to explore involves the varied characters and groups throughout the Star Wars universe. We’ll look at how a lot of them seem to be getting it wrong.
Find balance
Star Wars stories often show us what happens when we narrow our minds. When we firmly believe we’re right.
At the start of the saga, the Jedi are not the force they once were. They have become narrow-minded, they fail to challenge the right things and appear far too rigid and complacent.
On the other side, the Sith have to restrict their numbers after millennia of conflict and in-fighting. Driven by fear and hatred, the dark side literally corrupts those who embrace it. It’s also easy to be tempted to take shortcuts.
Beyond those with lightsabers, we constantly see the dangers of going to extremes. From Imperial leaders pushing the people too far to Din Djarin’s adoption of ‘the Way’, we see people going to extremes. These characters, or people around them often suffer for it though.
In our world, modern life also makes it easy for us to become imbalanced. We can be firmly entrenched behind one side of the political spectrum. We can also become fully devoted to a cause, belief or ideology to the point where we stop questioning it. We can also neglect things, like our health and fitness, or become obsessive about them.
I think we can use these stories to help us find the middle ground. When we combine this with the first section about narratives, we have a simple way forward. We can keep questioning and keep considering.
We’ll now look at something more practical, and I’ll get to complain about the sequels.
Have a plan
From Palpatine’s rise to power to the attack on the Death Star, we see the benefits of carefully executed plans throughout the stories. I want to go beyond them though, and look at the films themselves.
I’d like to take a look at the recent sequel trilogy, as the writers didn’t appear to have a plan for this series. Everything we’ve seen suggests they approached them as separate films, and this wasn’t good for us viewers.
While The Force Awakens made a promising start, the following films were very hard to watch from a fan’s perspective. While I was disappointed when the prequels faired to deliver what I expected, this was different.
If you’ve seen them, I’m sure you’ll agree that they seem to be making it up as they go along. There is a huge disconnect between The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson and The Rise of Skywalker, directed by JJ Abrams (retuning from the first instalment).
I think the script of The Rise of Skywalker could teach any budding writer so much, as it’s just so bad. Rather than explaining a key element of the plot, the writers just included the line “somehow, Palpatine returned’. For a fanbase that obsesses over the material, literally naming and creating backstories for every character seen on screen, I think the entire screenplay was a slap in the face.
But that’s enough of me complaining. The lesson I’d like to focus on here is planning.
It’s hard to believe anyone would approach any mega-budget trilogy without a plan, or at least a basic script outline. By contrast, the recent Star Wars shows have all lead us somewhere. More importantly, they’ve made us care.
Whatever you’re doing, I honestly believe a firm foundation and a plan is essential. It leads us in the right direction. It doesn’t need to be rigid. We can go ‘off-script’, be spontaneous and improvise, but it helps keep us on track. In many ways, it helps make magic happen.
Communicating your plans and intentions is also essential when it comes to working with other people. In the case of these films, other directors had to essentially guess where it was going, and the results weren’t good.
For me the sequel trilogy is a stark reminder of what happens when we don’t plan ahead. A saying comes to mind, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’.
So, these are the life lessons from Star Wars I think we should consider. As I said, I wanted this to be unique and really hope something here surprised you and prompted you to think. That’s really the core message here. Think and then question things the right way. Make sure you’re on the right path and you’ve done everything you can to secure a bright future.
Maybe it’s time to watch the original movies again if it’s been a while.