It’s actually the second movie that fucks it all up. The whole point of Luke is that he wasn’t born special, he could have been anyone. ESB throws that out the window and makes him a boring chosen one. Star Wars goes from being a story about the power of the workers to a story about force royalty
Hmm, maybe that was it.
Star Wars goes from being a story about the power of the workers to a story about force royalty
The power of the workers? One of the leads from the first movie is a literal princess…
And while she’s very cool, she couldn’t have done it without the help of a farm boy and two career criminals. The heroes of the rebellion could have been anyone, as long as they made an effort and used the force. And back in those days, you didn’t need midichlorians to use the force, anyone could do it if they received the right advice from a mysterious old hermit.
I disagree on this point. Say what you will about midichlorians, but even before they were introduced, not everyone could use the force.
Granted that wasn’t explicitly stated in A New Hope… that random farm boy was already special because he was the son of a great Jedi Knight.
The force only works if you believe in it, and you’re alive. And there’s heavily implied to be some mental barriers you have to overcome to get it to work properly.
Of our heroes in the first movie, we have:
- old hermit who definitely uses the force
- naive farm boy who learns to use the force
- jaded smuggler who doesn’t believe in the force
- GRAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH
- robot
- robot
- princess who never discusses the force on camera but they don’t rule her using the force out
And in terms of antagonists:
- evil wizard who is looked down upon by society for using the force
- a bunch of beaurocrats who don’t believe in the force
- weak minded fascist soldiers who don’t believe in the force
- a bartender who never mentions the force
- an asshole criminal who never mentions the force
- jawas
In this movie, of the characters who display awareness of the fact that the force exists, we see a clear divide between characters who believe in the force and can use it, and characters who don’t believe in the force and don’t try to use it. I suspect there’s a causal relationship somewhere in there.
wasn’t he already the chosen one by the force in the first movie?
Nope, it’s never mentioned in Star Wars (1977)
