preview

Archetypal Conflicts In Star Wars

Decent Essays

George Lucas, an American filmmaker, is one of the most valued writers of all time for his American epic, “Star Wars”. He lived a good life, born in 1944 and getting into writing movies at a young age. After many award winning films, he wanted something that would be extraordinary, so he created Star Wars. Lucas spent long hours on the movie, working out every detail. He employs many archetypes throughout the movies to teach themes and lessons to its viewers. One of the most important that he implemented were archetypal conflicts. These show character development and hardships that we have to deal with in real life. In the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas employs the use of archetypal conflict of seeming vs being, head vs heart, and …show more content…

First, in “A New Hope”, Artoo and Threepio are two droids that balance each other through head vs heart conflicts. This conflict is shown on their first mission together on Tatooine when Threepio says, “What mission? What are you talking about? I’ve had just about enough of you! Go that way! You’ll be malfunctioning within a day, you nearsighted scarp pile!” (8). Artoo, as the heart in the conflict, is determined to reach his goal no matter what risks he has to take. Threepio, as the head, looks at the mission as suicide and would rather save himself then go on a pointless mission to die. The two droids balance each other out and once they learn to work together they can both provide input to achieve their goal together. When the duo seperates, as shown in the quote, both droids don’t end up well and their journey comes to a halt. After being reunited, the two can finish their journey once they accept each other. Artoo provides the missing qualities of Threepio, and Threepio does the reverse for Artoo. George Lucas’ lesson here is to show that balance of your thoughts and your feelings is needed to achieve your goals in life. Secondly, in “The Empire Strikes Back”, Luke faces his worst fear with Vader in a head vs heart conflict. While being different then Artoo and Threepio’s conflict, Luke still has to balance …show more content…

First, in “A New Hope”, Obi-Wan’s fight with Vader expresses the good vs evil conflict. When Obi-Wan states, “You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine” (67), he shows that good will win the fight no matter what happens. In their fight, the two are balanced with each other. Towards the end, Vader uses the overwhelming force of his talents and youth to take down Obi-Wan. Even though Obi-Wan is no longer alive, he became more powerful, showing that good will always prevail against evil. Lucas expresses how good is always more knowledgeable then evil and uses it to exploit evil’s weaknesses to defeat them. Even if it seems like evil has won a small victory, good always wins more from it. Next, in “The Empire Strikes Back”, Luke fights a good vs evil conflict within himself in the Dagobah cave. Luke realizes the evil inside of him when his head pops out of Darth Vader’s mask, stated when the narrator says, “The black helmet and mask fall away to reveal Luke’s head. Across the space, Luke gasps…” (51). Luke realizes the anger and aggression inside of him and what it could make him. Luke has to chose if he will prevail with good or become an evil servant to the Dark Side. He knows after his head popped out of Vader’s mask that he could just as easily head down the path just

Get Access