Luke’s only recorded apprentice turns to the dark side, and Yoda, that paragon of barely comprehensible wisdom, was involved in the training of almost every major villain. Obi-Wan’s master, Qui-Gonn Jinn, is also the master of the Sith Count Dooku. Luke’s Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, was also the master of Darth Vader of planet-destroying laser fame. Painful as it is to admit, there may be a limit to how much we can learn from Star Wars, except that the Jedi make terrible role models. Neither Kylo nor Luke has met their role models when they receive this inspiration. Decades later, Kylo Ren keeps Darth Vader’s ruined helmet, following in the path of his own late grandfather.
Some of these influential relationships are more remote, more role-model relationships – after being told by Obi-Wan about his father’s glittering career as a pilot/Jedi Knight, Luke decides to embark on an adventure to follow in his father’s footsteps. How does a senior figure inspire us to do good or evil in the world, for the betterment of ourselves or society? For every good example of a good mentoring relationship in the Star Wars universe, there is a bad (evil) one: for every Luke-and-Yoda combination, there is an Anakin-and-Sidious one. From our point of view, the Star Wars saga is about role models, mentoring and what behavioural scientists call “messenger effects”.
Of course, as Obi-Wan Kenobi teaches, a lot of the things we believe are only true from a certain point of view.
For others, this is a tale that shows while dictatorships are able to make large infrastructure investments, democracy will tend to triumph in the end. Some people think that the story is an epic space opera about magic wizards on space ships flying around to prevent other, evil magic space wizards from controlling the galaxy, using a variety of increasingly implausible planet-destroying weapons. Today sees the release of the Rise of Skywalker, the last instalment in the third trilogy of Star Wars films.
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