“The lightsaber is the Jedi’s only true ally” – Huyang, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
“For my ally is The Force, and a powerful ally it is” -Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
To the vast majority, Star Wars is about space battles and blaster shoot-outs and laserswords. “The big space battle at the end,” my Dad once told me, when I asked him about people’s reaction in 1977. “That’s what everyone talked about”. So much for Joseph Campbell, Jungian archetypes and Buddhist philosophy.
It’s a hard truth to accept that outside of fandom and film studies, no one gives two hoots about the mystical parts of Star Wars. Even Lucasfilm treat the Jedi in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars show like comic book heroes, with The Force seemingly just existing to grant them superpowers. And the lightsaber is their batarang, webshooter and, er, bow all rolled into one (A sonic screwdriver, then).
Personally, I am disappointed every time I see this. Like in the latest Clone Wars episode, where David Tennant’s droid directly contradicts one of Yoda’s earlier (later?) sayings. To my great sadness, it happens frequently across the Prequels and The Clone Wars.
Fortunately I can currently get my philosophizing fix from the EU. Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, and more recently the Quinlan Vos comics put The Force front and centre, only using the lightsaber when absolutely necessary.
But with the future of the EU uncertain (in the wake of Episode VII, a revamp or reboot could easily be on the cards) I’d like to see the Sequel Trilogy set a precedent and embrace The Force over the lightsaber once again. Or, at least, have the rumoured older, wiser Luke Skywalker follow in his mentor’s small footsteps and lose it.
If you really need to satisfy public desire for yet another lightsaber duel, let the young Padawans go at it. But let’s see how Luke has matured as a Jedi, leaving his lightsaber attached to his belt until it’s the last resort. Have him be cranky, snarky, dependent on a walking stick. And then – when the time is right – suddenly that bright green blade emerges once more from the darkness. And the audience will cry.
At the very least, please don’t have a CGI Mark Hamill waving it about for twenty minutes whilst somersaulting down the side of a Star Destroyer at 40,000 feet.
Delusions Of Grandeur 