Essay on Star Wars

Essay on Star Wars “Aren’t you a little short for a storm trooper?” (Lucas New Hope 40). Rings a bell, doesn't it? This is one of the many quotes and a memorable one from Princess Leia in George Lucas’s saga Star Wars. Lucas had created an all American myth and was the first to do it. His movie saga used every archetype known to man and was inspired by the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Campbell’s book also had every archetype known to man in it. It affected an innumerable amount of people around the world. Lucas’s Star Wars saga even went further than the big screen by inspiring comics, video games, toys, and other merchandise making Lucas a billionaire. His first three movies he made in the saga are New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of The Jedi. In this Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas illustrates that the hero must be wounded either physically or emotionally to be open to spiritual knowledge and transformation. Leia’s wounds open her to love, Luke’s wounds open him to becoming a Jedi Knight, and Anakin Skywalker’s wounds open him to redemption. These transformations are marked by physical and emotional wounds. In George Lucas’s Star Wars, Leia’s physical and emotional wounds open her up to love. First, Leia is wounded emotionally by the Death Star destroying her home planet of Alderaan. “A button is pressed which switches on a panel of lights. A hooded imperial soldier reaches overhead and pulls a lever. Another lever is pulled. Vader reaches for still another lever and a back of lights on a panel and wall light up. A huge beam of light emanates from within a cone-shaped area and converges into a single laser beam out toward Alderaan. The small green planet of Alderaan is blown into space dust” (Lucas New Hope 44). Princess Leia has been captured from the consoler’s ship and is being interrogated by General Tarkin. He is asking her about the whereabouts of the rebel base and if she doesn't comply he will destroy her home