Spoiler Alert: Why The Skywalker Men Are Supposed To Be Whiners.
Editor’s Note: For real, there are spoilers coming. If you haven’t seen The Force Awakens, stop reading. Or don’t. Whatever.
The Force is a tricky thing. As crafted by Star Wars mastermind, George Lucas, the religion of the Force is about tapping into one’s emotional core to access an eternal well of psychic energy flowing throughout the galaxy. The resulting power can be turned on and off as easily as a water faucet. It can also run hot and cold, if you catch my meaning. So, getting in touch with one’s inner self is the first step of mastering the Force. There is a reason that religious sects were practicing the Force and not the military establishment. Just because you are good in a scrap doesn’t mean you possess the self-awareness to become a Jedi.
The Skywalkers, on the other hand, are the first family of the Force. Their bloodline is noted for having strong, diplomacy-minded matriarchs(Leia Organa and Padmé Amidala) and emotionally unstable, yet powerful and driven men(Anakin, Luke, and Ben). Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu demonstrate that not all male Jedi are emo-brats with severe parental abandonment issues, but that may be why the Skywalkers achieved so much more.
Assuming that only the movies are Star Wars dogma(including the prequels), we have yet to see a Skywalker woman properly trained in the Force so predicting how they would react with the classic training of the Jedi or the insidious mentorship of the Sith is pure speculation. They have demonstrated that they tend to be more level-headed than their male counterparts. Leia is also a crack shot with a blaster and possesses strong, innate, intuition. It’d be great to see her wield a lightsaber at some point in the new trilogy, but it’s clear she never really trained as a Jedi because that was never a major motivation for the character. Remember, she’s been too busy holding the Rebellion together.
She did send her son to learn under Luke which didn’t turn out too well for reasons as obvious as a nut shot in an Adam Sandler movie. There are also plenty of rumors about Rey’s origins, but they are only rumors so we’ll wait to see how her story plays out in the new trilogy. Even if she doesn’t fit directly into the Skywalker bloodline, she is clearly taken from the mold. It will be an interesting opportunity to see how the grounded determination and pragmatism of the female Skywalker archetype fairs in Jedi training. Will she be stronger for it? Perhaps no.
Because the men are messes for a reason:
There are two triggers for the Force that are personified by its two most prominent instructors. Yoda(Light Side) is serenity. Emperor Palpatine(Dark Side) is hate. Yoda(and by extension, Obi-Wan) excelled at inspiring peace and patience within his students, whereas Palpatine sowed fear and anger. The Jedi were balanced and reasoned. The Sith were furious and conniving.
The Skywalker men exist within the middle, prone to moments of great humanity and fits of blinding rage. They are a bit too in touch with their feelings, which, in men, comes off as infantile. Audiences are used to stoic heroes charging onward without fear, doubt, or regret. Maybe they utter a clever one-liner, but otherwise their righteousness is unshakable. That ain’t the Skywalkers. Not by a long shot, but that does make perfect sense given the storyline and the structure of The Force. It is this turmoil that makes the Skywalker men the most potent of the Force practitioners. They are the only ones moving from light to dark freely, giving them the unique opportunity to learn from both sides.
They are the students always asking “why not?” which can be a very powerful thing.
But, with every buckle of their resolve, they are endangering everyone around them, whether mentors, loved ones, or entire planets. The Skywalker Men know this, but are able to create a reason for every bad decision they make. They live by their hearts and that is their secret weapon. In the original trilogy, Luke is rash, impatient, and ever on the cusp of squandering the Jedi’s last hope of rebuilding their order to counter the Empire. His job was only to survive and learn, yet he found his way into just about every battle from Tatooine to the Forest Moon of Endor. In the prequels, Anakin is destined to be the prophetic Jedi that would bring balance to the Force, which he would do by massacring the Jedi Order. The Light Side had all but squashed the Dark Side and the Sith and, without Anakin’s help, the Palpatine would have never been able to ascend to the throne. In Return of the Jedi, as the Sith threatened to extinguish the last of the Jedi, Anakin would balance the force again by throwing Palpatine into the core of a Death Star. Though it can definitely be argued that none of the Skywalker men wielded the same power as Yoda, who had 900 years to hone his skill, that doesn’t diminish the fact that the Skywalkers are the Force’s favored tools for centering the cosmic scales because their turbulent and curious hearts are so easily led astray.
And that’s a great thought for the rest of us. Perhaps we can also find power in our emotions, even as they are tearing us apart.
