The real theology of the Jedi turns out to be sour grapes!
Leia probably had the happiest childhood of any major SW character only to lose her entire planet smh. Luke at least had dependable guardians, except they also were murdered. Because I was recently reading an interview with David Brin about SW my mind takes this consistent disruption of parent-child relationships to the destruction/denigration of civilization, which is one of Brin's major complaints with SW. The parent-child relationship is the most primal human relationship and one of the main vectors by which civilization is transmitted and perpetuated. When Brin talks about civilization as someone skilled and caring being there to help you when you need it, the first template for that kind of helping relationship is the aid and care parents and guardians give children.
By being severed from their parents and parental figures, SW heroes are constantly cut off from the first and unconditional source of care and help in their lives. It's true they are not entirely cut off from civilization itself: some characters like Jyn, Ezra, and Rey come close, while others like Anakin, Ahsoka, and Finn are inducted into another facet of civilization. But in all cases they are cut off from the kind of civilization that nurtures and protects unconditionally. The Jedi come close to simulating that kind of warmth but at a high price, as you have dissected over multiple posts.
This forcible individuation sets the stage for characters to strike out on their own because there is no longer a comfortable cocoon of parenthood/civilization protecting them. It's a common beginning for hero myths, as Brin touches on in his interview. SW is a very ruggedly individualistic kind of mythology at heart where enmeshing ties that one is born or brought into, such as birth families and even the Jedi, are destroyed or left behind so the hero is forced to rely on themselves and their freely chosen friends and allegiances. Luke, Jyn, and Rey do reunite with or at least learn about their parents, only to watch them die or have the idea of them destroyed, so the pattern still holds.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-02-18 01:17 am (UTC)Leia probably had the happiest childhood of any major SW character only to lose her entire planet smh. Luke at least had dependable guardians, except they also were murdered. Because I was recently reading an interview with David Brin about SW my mind takes this consistent disruption of parent-child relationships to the destruction/denigration of civilization, which is one of Brin's major complaints with SW. The parent-child relationship is the most primal human relationship and one of the main vectors by which civilization is transmitted and perpetuated. When Brin talks about civilization as someone skilled and caring being there to help you when you need it, the first template for that kind of helping relationship is the aid and care parents and guardians give children.
By being severed from their parents and parental figures, SW heroes are constantly cut off from the first and unconditional source of care and help in their lives. It's true they are not entirely cut off from civilization itself: some characters like Jyn, Ezra, and Rey come close, while others like Anakin, Ahsoka, and Finn are inducted into another facet of civilization. But in all cases they are cut off from the kind of civilization that nurtures and protects unconditionally. The Jedi come close to simulating that kind of warmth but at a high price, as you have dissected over multiple posts.
This forcible individuation sets the stage for characters to strike out on their own because there is no longer a comfortable cocoon of parenthood/civilization protecting them. It's a common beginning for hero myths, as Brin touches on in his interview. SW is a very ruggedly individualistic kind of mythology at heart where enmeshing ties that one is born or brought into, such as birth families and even the Jedi, are destroyed or left behind so the hero is forced to rely on themselves and their freely chosen friends and allegiances. Luke, Jyn, and Rey do reunite with or at least learn about their parents, only to watch them die or have the idea of them destroyed, so the pattern still holds.