A Star Wars Christmas Miracle

All I want for Christmas is to find out Luke Skywalker hasn't gone to the dark side.

Since the franchise's prequel Star Wars I: the Phantom Menace (1999), it seems villains are no longer as evil as they once were. From fairy-tales like Wicked: the Musical (2003) to horror movies like Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot (2007), these days too much emphasis is put on having a "well rounded" villain, resulting in tales attempting to show the "playful side of Hitler" (as The Producers would put it). Gone are the black-and-white days of good vs evil; all villains now come equipped with a backstory to explain away their evil-doings.

In Wicked, Elphaba is born with green skin and is therefore shunned by her family and peers, which over time leads to her becoming the Wicked Witch of the West.

Meanwhile, in Halloween, despite Dr Loomis having always referred to Michael Myers as pure evil in no uncertain terms ("This isn't a man," "I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply evil," "I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room...inhumanly patient...Death has come to your little town," "He's gone! The evil is gone!"), in the reboot Zombie inexplicably decided to explain away the evil by making Michael the bullied son of a prostitute with an abusive boyfriend.


Death has come to your little town...


But Star Wars is the most egregious of all. In this case, we are asked to forgive Anakin Skywalker's killing not only the women and children at the Tuskan Raider's camp where his mother had died in Episode II, but in Episode III he also kills the innocent Jedi children at the temple who look to him for help when under attack, all because he had bad dreams.


"Master Skywalker, there's too many of them. What are we going to do?"


Personally, I therefore find nothing more disturbing than the number of TV shows, costumes, and toys portraying Anakin the hero that are geared towards children the same age as those he murdered.



Hasbro's Playskool Anakin & Jar Jar Binks toys, ages 3 to 6 years.


Arguably, Darth Vader is redeemed during his death by saving his son's life. But it is hard, I think, to redeem someone who has mercilessly slaughtered children, especially when it is for no discernible reason.

In my opinion, we don't need another movie where the villain used to be a good guy. For one thing, it sends the wrong message to children if the villain is then redeemed as Vader is; it seems to say you shouldn't be mindful of your actions, because anything can be forgiven later.

But worse still, if Luke goes to the dark side it will be because his father was Darth Vader. The message here, of course, is that evil men have evil children, that our actions are not our fault and are out of our control, and that the sins of the father are destined to become the sins of the son. Not only does this mean that children will think they cannot help being "bad," but that they will feel helpless to overcome their parents' flaws and that society thinks they shouldn't even bother trying.


"I am your father." 
"Noooo! That's not true! That's impossible!"


So despite current trends, I'm still holding out hope that when I see Star Wars this weekend, I'll find out that Luke does not follow in his father's footsteps. If the Jedi does, I guess there's no hope for those of us who are only human.