Star Wars and the Hero's Journey as an example

The Star Wars saga is based on an ancient form of mythology — the ‘hero’s journey’. Underneath the flash and dazzle of special effects lies ‘the magic of myth’, a shape-shifting realm where young heroes, faithful companions, wise guides and evil villains dwell in labyrinths of discovery. Let us examine the mythology behind the Star Wars story, a hero’s journey that takes place ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away …’


Joseph Campbell, one of the world’s foremost students and scholars of mythology, studied thousands of myths from around the world and discovered that the majority of them shared many common characteristics. In fact, he saw all the stories as variations of one overall tale, which he named the ‘monomyth’. The subject of the hero is no exception. While the heroes of various cultures may be defined as heroic for different reasons, nearly each one fits the stages of the hero journey as developed by Campbell.

According to Campbell’s book The hero with a thousand faces (1949:245–246) we can summarise the hero’s journey into three main stages.


Departure
‘The mythological hero, setting forth from his common day hut or castle, is lured, carried
away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters
a shadow presence that guards the passage.

The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion).’




Initiation

‘Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet
strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which
give magical aid (helpers).

When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with the goddess- Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinisation (apotheosis), or again — if the powers have remained unfriendly to him — his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft); intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom).’



Return

‘The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets
forth under their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight,
obstacle flight). At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind;
the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection). The boon that he
brings restores the world (elixir).’

In this essay the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker is followed. Each film in the original trilogy can be considered as corresponding to each of the stages above: A New Hope with Departure, The Empire Strikes Back with Initiation and Return of the Jedi with Return.

The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones begin to follow the journey of other characters such as Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala.





The call to adventure
In mythology, the hero's journey begins with the ‘call to adventure’. Destiny's herald is usually someone or something fairly ordinary — a frog, a deer in the forest, or, in this case, a humble droid — that carries an important message for the one who is prepared to receive it.


As the Star Wars story begins, a battle in space rages between the evil powers of darkness (the Galactic Empire) and the forces of good (the Rebel Alliance). Princess Leia sends a plea for help to Jedi Knight Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi on the planet of Tatooine. The hand of Fate,
in the form of Jawa traders, brings her message to Luke Skywalker, a young farmboy. When Luke sees the message hologram, he is drawn into a quest to rescue the Princess and ultimately to save the galaxy.




The wise and helpful guide

A hero first must encounter ‘threshold guardians’, beings who block the way to the adventure. Luke faces threshold guardians when he is attacked by the Tusken Raiders. He is rescued by Ben. Often, the inexperienced hero finds that he cannot proceed without supernatural aid, in the form of a ‘wise and helpful guide’ who provides advice and amulets to further the quest. Ben serves as such a guide and gives Luke a special token: a lightsaber that once belonged to Luke's father.

Ben also interprets the Princess' message and tells Luke about the spiritual power known as the Force. Luke resists the call to adventure, but when he finds his home burned and his family killed, he joins Ben on the journey to Mos Eisley spaceport to obtain transportation to the planet Alderaan, the home of Princess Leia.



The threshold

The hero must leave his familiar life behind to begin a journey from childhood to adulthood and to a lifetransformation. The Mos Eisley spaceport is Luke's threshold to the adventure. Here he encounters danger, but he also finds a hero-partner in the form of Han Solo, a pirate and smuggler. Han's faithful first mate is the enormous Wookiee, Chewbacca.


Helpful animals often appear in myths and fairytales, symbolising the power of the hero's instinctive nature. As they travel from Tatooine to Alderaan in the Millennium Falcon, Ben begins to train Luke in the ways of the Force.



Into the labyrinth

A labyrinth has always symbolised a difficult journey into the unknown, and in one way or another it is often incorporated into tales of the hero's journey.

When the heroes arrive in the vicinity of Alderaan, they find that the planet has been destroyed by the Death Star, a gigantic Imperial space station. The Death Star is a technological labyrinth: a maze of hallways, passages, dead ends, and bottomless trenches. Like traditional knights, Han and Luke don armour to accomplish their first hero deed: the ‘princess rescue’.



Hero deeds

The next step in the hero quest is a challenge to mortal combat. The heroes experienced an initial rite of passage in the Death Star and accomplished the ‘princess rescue’. Now Leia leads Han and Luke to the Rebel base to plan an attack on the Death Star. Luke joins the fighter pilots of the Rebellion. As he puts on his uniform, he casts aside his youthful identity and assumes a new role: that of a heroic pilot, ready to sacrifice his life for his cause.


In the end, good triumphs over evil and the heroes are recognised for their deeds of valour. This moment is the end of one adventure, but it also represents the start of the next stage: further initiation on the ‘road of trials’.



The dark road of trials

Midway through the hero's journey comes a long and perilous path of trials, tests, and ordeals that bring important moments of illumination and understanding. Again and again along the way, monsters must be slain and barriers must be passed. Ultimately the hero must undertake the fearful journey of the descent into darkness.

Although the Death Star has been destroyed, the powers of darkness have not been conquered. The Empire has pursued the Rebels to the ice planet of Hoth, where the heroes face new dangers from predatory creatures and the harsh climate and are forced to flee during an Imperial attack.




Into the belly of the beast

One particular mythic motif is the ‘swallowing up’ of the hero by a large monster. This represents the entry into a mystical world where transformations occur, and the eventual escape represents a spiritual rebirth.

Han and Leia are pursued by Imperial Star Destroyers and TIE fighters as they leave Hoth. To escape, Han flies the Millennium Falcon into an asteroid ‘cave’, which turns out to be the mouth of a huge space slug. Here Han and Leia at last open their hearts to love.

Vader also undergoes a change at this point, when he emerges from an egglike meditation chamber. The Emperor appears to him through a holographic message, and Vader is revealed as a slave to the evil forces of the Empire, rather than as their master.




The sacred grove

The ‘sacred grove’ is another mythic motif; it represents an enclosure where the hero is changed. Ancient peoples widely believed the tree to be infused with creative energy. Forests came to symbolise mystery and transformation and they were home to sorcerers and enchanters.

When Luke leaves Hoth, he travels to the planet Dagobah to undergo training with the Jedi Master, Yoda. The hallmark of Dagobah is its large, oddly shaped trees. Forests can also symbolise the unconscious mind, where there are secrets to be discovered and perhaps dark emotions or memories to be faced. In this forest, Luke battles an image of Vader, prefiguring his combat with the Dark Lord later in the story.





Sacrifices

The opening of the mind and heart to spiritual knowledge requires a sacrifice from the hero. At this difficult and dangerous place on the hero path, Han and Luke both reaffirm the meaning and importance of their lives by their willingness to sacrifice themselves.

The danger of illusion is symbolised by Cloud City above the planet Bespin. At first, the city appears transcendent as it floats among the clouds, but it has a dark underside that becomes a crucible of pain and betrayal for the heroes.

Vader follows the Millennium Falcon to Bespin and then lures Luke there to entrap him. Han is captured, put into hibernation in the carbon freeze chamber, and taken away by bounty hunter Boba Fett to be delivered to Han's former employer, Jabba the Hutt.

Han's friend, Lando Calrissian, who betrayed Han to Vader, will undergo a life change and begin his own hero journey.




The path to atonement

The hero's journey sometimes includes a ‘father quest’. After many trials and ordeals, the hero finds his father and becomes ‘at-one’ with him. This process is called ‘atonement’.

Luke has tried to follow in his father's footsteps as a heroic pilot and Jedi Knight. The dark, unknown side of his father, and of himself, is now unveiled as Luke confronts Vader in the dark byways of Cloud City. Vader reveals to Luke that he is Luke's father. Luke realises that he must sacrifice himself, rather than become a tool of evil like Vader.

Leia rescues Luke as he falls from the underside of Cloud City, and when Vader calls to Luke through the Force, Luke acknowledges him as ‘Father’— they have begun to move toward reconciliation. Luke has recognised the dark side of himself as part of his destiny, and Darth Vader has begun his own journey toward transformation.




The hero's return

The ‘hero's return’ marks the end of the ‘road of trials’. The hero must return from his adventures with the means to benefit his society. Luke comes home to Tatooine to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. This is not an easy transition for Luke; his new-found abilities as a Jedi Knight are doubted by friend and foe alike.

As the story continues, all the characters undergo changes: Han is resurrected from his carbonite tomb, Lando makes up for his betrayal of Han by helping to rescue him, and Leia assures the end of Jabba's reign of tyranny by destroying him herself.




The shadow rises

The heroes are not the only ones who can undergo change and rebirth. The forces of evil can also recoup their power and grow with new strength.

While the Rebels continue to struggle against Imperial tyranny, the Empire is constructing a new Death Star. A final confrontation must now take place. The forces of good, represented by Mon Mothma, leader of the Rebel Alliance, and those of evil, led by the Emperor, regroup to plan their strategies. Luke discovers that Leia, who has guided and supported him throughout his journey, is his twin sister. In many ways she represents his positive ‘anima’, the personification of the feminine aspects of his psyche. He also finds that he must confront Vader again.

Yet when they make mind-to-mind contact through the Force, Vader appears uncertain rather than aggressive — a sign that he is beginning a transformation.




The enchanted forest

The inhabitants of an ‘enchanted forest’ can be both dangerous and helpful. The hero must know the right magic to evoke their protective powers. Luke wins the help of the Ewoks, the small furry inhabitants of the forest moon of Endor.

The Ewoks prove that heroes can come in any size or shape. They battle the high technology of the Empire with logs, stones, and vines. Their lush green environment and harmony with nature make a warm contrast to the cold, austere technology of the Empire. The Ewoks help the Rebels deactivate the Death Star's energy shield generator, so Lando can fly into the Death Star and bomb the reactor core.

Meanwhile, Luke realises that he must set out on a different path from his friends to attempt to reach that part of Vader that is still his father and to turn him back from the dark side.




The heart of darkness

The heroes must at last enter the ‘heart of darkness’, the fortress of evil itself, to destroy its stronghold.

When Han and Leia finally destroy the energy shield generator, Lando and Wedge fly into the Death Star to fire on the reactor core at the centre of the space station. While conflict rages around the Death Star, Luke struggles with the dark forces within the Death Star, where he is undergoing a spiritual conflict in his battle of wills with the Emperor.




The final victory

The destruction of evil is not always accomplished by sheer physical force or cunning. There is always hope that those who have given themselves to the forces of darkness can be redeemed. In his confrontation with Vader and the Emperor, Luke wins not through his warrior skills, but through an appeal to his father's heart. It is Vader who slays the Emperor to save his son.

Masks are frequently part of mythic ritual and Darth Vader's mask is part of his demonic persona. When he asks Luke to unmask him it represents Vader's release from the imprisonment of his role, a release that comes for him only at the moment of death. Yet this gesture is also an affirmation of life, the final opening up of father to son.

As the Rebels and Ewoks celebrate their victory over the Empire, Luke burns his father's armour on a funeral pyre. The spirit of Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker, joins the spirits of Ben and Yoda. Luke has achieved the final triumph of the mythic hero's journey — he has brought back from his adventures the means for the regeneration of his society.

Humanity has triumphed over a repressive, monolithic system, and Luke, through his hero's journey, has opened his heart to compassion and succeeded in following a spiritual path between light and dark, good and evil.



Journey's end




An epic saga

Star Wars follows the heroic journeys of several characters: Luke, Han, Leia and even Darth Vader. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Vader shows that he too is a hero, when he saves Luke and destroys the Emperor. The beginning of Vader's own ‘hero's journey’ is revealed in The Phantom Menace, when Queen Amidala arrives on the planet Tatooine, and a young Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, receives his own ‘call to adventure’. During the Podrace and his first efforts to save Amidala and her people, Anakin proves himself through his deeds. The early part of his journey begins full of hope and promise, but he has the potential to follow the dark side of the Force.


Star Wars is ultimately a story of a father, mother, son and daughter and thus follows the pattern of an epic saga, a mythic tale that spans the generations. The choices, actions and misfortunes of the parents create a destiny that their children must later fulfil. Events in the lives of the parents are often echoed in those of the children, and so Anakin's and Luke's stories begin in the same way, with a damsel in distress and a call to action.




Servant of darkness

The treacherous Sith lord sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, to find Queen Amidala when she escapes the Trade Federation blockade surrounding Naboo. Darth Maul unsuccessfully attacks Jedi knight Qui-Gon as the Queen’s ship leaves Tatooine, and later the two meet in combat during the battle for Naboo. Qui-Gon is killed by Darth Maul, who in turn is destroyed by Obi-Wan.

While the conflict appears to centre around Queen Amidala, it is really part of the ongoing battle between two rival forces in the cosmos, the spirit of light and the spirit of darkness. The ritualised combat between these powers is a tradition that dates back to the earliest mythic stories. In the best-known variant, reflected in the Star Wars saga, the powers of darkness rebel against the established order, and humanity must take sides in the struggle. Qui-Gon is the representative of goodness and compassion, while Darth Maul is symbolic of violent destruction and the dark forces of evil. Death and evil are closely associated in mythology, and Maul is the death-demon, in the service of a dark tyrant who will conquer the galaxy and drain its life energy. With the mutual destruction of Qui-Gon and Darth Maul, the battle is non-conclusive and will be engaged again. The Sith lord will find another apprentice; the heroes will find their greatest triumph in turning death from a defeat into a victory and reasserting the forces of light.




Ruler of wisdom

Queen Amidala is the young, elected ruler of Naboo. When her people are threatened by the Trade Federation, she leaves her home world to seek the assistance of the Galactic Senate. Her request is rejected, and Queen Amidala returns home to convince the native Gungan, who share the planet, to help her save her kingdom.

‘Nabu’ was the ancient Babylonian god of wisdom, so as Queen of Naboo, Amidala is the ‘ruler’ of wisdom. Enthroned amidst her Councillors and handmaidens, she is a politician and statesperson, using her clear perception to govern wisely.

However, Amidala’s elaborate gowns, mask-like makeup and serene dignity also give her a remote quality and conceal the other aspects of her character. When she pleads with the Gungan leaders, Amidala reveals that she sometimes disguises herself as Padmé, while one of her handmaidens pretends to be the Queen. As Padmé, Amidala is touchingly young and sometimes naïve, while at the same time she can be a young woman of decisive action, as shown when she creates and executes the plan to retake Naboo.

In these abilities — to hide in plain sight, project an illusion of herself, and yet reveal her true nature as well — Amidala embodies the mystical force of maya. This is the power both to conceal and reveal truth at the same time and is particularly associated with mythic goddesses.




The gathering darkness

The once-bright Republic has become stained with a growing darkness. Crime and corruption thrive and assassinations are an easy solution to controversy. Even within the ranks of the Jedi, the Dark side is at work. Obi-Wan discovers tampering in the Archives Library, in the very heart
of the Jedi Temple. Little does he realise, looking at the bust of Count Dooku, that the power of the Force has been corrupted.

In this environment, Anakin Skywalker struggles with the rigorous selfdiscipline required by the Jedi. He often uses his phenomenal powers in an emotional way, whether he is piloting an Airspeeder, revenging the death of his mother, or falling in love with Padmé Amidala.

The most important task of the hero is to make the right choice. Heroes must put aside their pride, feelings and personal life, using their powers to seek justice rather than dominance, fighting because they must, not because they are consumed by revenge. As Anakin discovers, this is no easy task and he is repeatedly tempted to use the Force for his personal ends.

Like Yoda’s young, innocent Jedi trainees, Anakin possesses the creative and redemptive force that is hidden within us all. His struggle will be to bring these life-potentialities successfully into adult realisation.




A forbidden bond

When Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker travel to Naboo, the journey becomes a spiritual transition as they begin to open their hearts to one another.

This spiritual, romantic love between two individuals was celebrated in medieval European myth as ‘Amour’. In the 12th century, Amour was considered a revolutionary concept, as marriages were arranged for social or political reasons and spirituality was associated exclusively with religion.


Individuality was subject to strict limitations within the concepts of moral obligation and adherence to an ethical code.

Anakin and Padmé have likewise dedicated themselves to duty and honour at the expense of their personal lives. Part of Anakin’s Jedi training requires him to distance himself from relationships; Padmé is a leader of her people and resolutely focused on serving them. Yet his passion and her compassion break down these barriers, and allow love to attain their hearts.


However, Amour also opens the heart to suffering, as illustrated in medieval myths such as those of Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, and Romeo and Juliet. Like those lovers, Anakin and Padmé must pay a heavy price for choosing to value love instead of duty and social obligation.




Knowledge Portal

When Obi-Wan Kenobi wanted to find out about the mysterious planet Kamino, he turned to the Jedi Archives for information. This contained possibly the single largest source of information in the galaxy, with vast amounts of data stored electronically and holographically.

To search the vast library database, Obi- Wan used a research desk, which allows access to the archives’ holdings.

Despite the assurance of the Archivist, Madame Jocasta Nu, that the archives were complete and secure, Obi-Wan could find no information about the planet.