âIt Rhymesâ: Cascading Character Roles Across the Star Wars Trilogies [PART II]
[Disclaimer: PART III of this post chain contains speculation and theories about the upcoming Star Wars â The Last Jedi that, if correct, would count as SPOILERS. While itâs unlikely that my musings are 100% accurate, keep that in mind if your intention is to go into the film completely blind.]
[ PREVIOUS â Narrative roles in the Star Wars monomyth ]
4. Thematic classes and pairings
Just because the plot of a Star Wars trilogy â or any piece of fiction, really â hinges on story roles which need to be filled by characters in order for the narrative to advance, it doesnât mean that the characters themselves are merely functions of the plot with no life of their own.
Star Wars isnât the deepest or most nuanced of stories, but its core themes are demonstrably resonant. And just as the plot is carried through by the cast, so are the thematic arcs upon which the plot is built: in parallel to their narrative roles, the characters also inhabit certain âthematic classesâ, for lack of a better label.
the Youngster â Like the âHeroâ role, a fairly self-explanatory category. Young and inexperienced, they act as the primary audience vehicle: the viewer learns about the world and story just as this character does.
the Older Man â Or, if you prefer, the Mature Man, the Experienced Man, or the Role Model. The Youngsterâs counterpart and deuteragonist, on his own character arc but on an arguably secondary plane.
The existence of the Youngster class is the reason why the Hero role isnât necessarily the protagonist of the trilogy he inhabits. Original-Trilogy (OT) Luke and Prequel-Trilogy (PT) Anakin are respectively a Hero and a Rogue, but theyâre both tier-one protagonists because theyâre both the Youngster. Star Wars is a franchise primarily aimed at a young audience, and the Youngster is invariably the âface characterâ of their trilogy, the one most likely to get the central spot on a promotional poster.
Itâs important to notice that the Youngster relates to other characters in different way. They act as the Rebellious Youngster towards the Older Man, with whom they have a relationship built on a mix of jovial camaraderie and confrontational rivalry â see Anakinâs strained apprenticeship under Obi-Wan, and Luke and Hanâs initial competition for Leiaâs attentions. Conversely, they act the NaĂŻve Youngster towards the characters inhabiting the Mentor and Princess narrative roles (more on this later).
This sort of interdependence and interrelationship between thematic classes allows us to introduce yet another concept: thematic pairs. These pairings are formed between complementary thematic classes, with the Youngster/Older Man pair being the first to arise.
the Good Father / Dark Father â Both come to the main character with a call to destiny: see Obi-Wanâs support of the âChosen Oneâ narrative for Anakin, and Vaderâs offer of father-son Imperial rule to Luke. The protagonist turns to these characters to find aid in his search for identity, to understand his place in the universe, and for emotional validation. Taking the Youngster under their wing, they often appear to be genuinely invested in his well-being.
the Good Master / Dark Master â Both come to the main character with an offer of power. These are the characters to whom the protagonist turns to find the means to achieve his goals, to acquire the strength required to accomplish his destiny. They are often duplicitous and manipulative â see Yodaâs trickster act, and his omission to Luke of both Vaderâs and Leiaâs true nature â treating the protagonist as an unfeeling instrument to be bent towards a higher purpose.
If you go back to the difficulties we had pegging PT Palpatine as either the Dark Knight or the Dark Lord, youâll find that the same duality is mirrored in his split role as both the Dark Father and the Dark Master: his Senator Palpatine persona treacherously poses as a supportive paternal figure to Anakin â in direct and intentional contrast to Obi-Wanâs more stern and demanding tutelage â while his Sidious persona is blatantly interested in nothing more than using the kid as a blunt instrument to attain his goal of galactic domination.
An additional and rather peculiar point of interest: the Good Father â that is to say Obi-Wan, in both the Original and Prequel Trilogy â is consistently shown as a surrogate paternal figure, whereas the Dark Father is either the protagonistâs actual biological parent or â if you follow the Prequel Trilogyâs implications in this regard â acts as such, by having had a direct role in influencing his conception.
5. Character arcs and moral alignment
Now hereâs where things get interesting. As weâve seen, narrative roles define a characterâs function in the plot, while thematic classes define their relationships with other cast members. Considered in conjunction, these two aspects come together to determine their overall character arc.
Iâve stated before how the Rogue is a role defined by change; the same is true of the Youngster class. The Heroâs morals are a constant, while the Rogueâs shift; the Youngster is in search of an identity while the Older Manâs is mostly already defined by the time heâs introduced to the viewer.
Thus Luke (Youngster/Hero) is a consistent force for good throughout the Original Trilogy, but his identity goes from rebellious â culminating in his disobeying Yodaâs instructions in The Empire Strikes Back â to disciplined. Borrowing terms from Dungeons & Dragons parlance, heâs consistently good but his alignment undergoes a gradual shift from chaotic to neutral.
Conversely, Hanâs (Older Man/Rogue) personality remains consistently authority-defying and individualistic (chaotic), but his morals evolve from bad â heâs a pirate, a thief, and a cold-blooded murderer (who most definitely shot first) â to decidedly good by the time he sacrifices himself for the Rebellion, again near the end of Empire; clearly a good spot for culminating arcs.
For a couple more examples of different combinations of narrative roles and character classes:
PT Obi-Wan (Older Man/Hero) is consistently and dependably rule-abiding and noble (lawful good)
PT Anakin (Youngster/Rogue) goes from obedient disciple to rebellious traitor (lawful â chaotic) and from fated saviour to ultimate villain (good â evil)
Again, Iâm not claiming Iâve cracked some sort of magic formula here... but it does seem to work fairly well in explaining the character dynamics in Star Wars past and present. With all these ingredients, itâs actually fairly easy to apply our recipe and reverse-engineer a hypothetical âprequelâs prequelâ trilogy, with Qui-Gon as the Youngster/Hero, Count Dooku â his once-tutor, destined to gravitate towards Dark Knight territory as he cascades into the following trilogy â as the Older Man/Rogue, a young Palpatine as the Dark Knight and Darth Plagueis as the Dark Lord.
Now that (almost) all the elements are in place, we can finally get closer to engaging in some fairly well-informed speculation as to the sagaâs future.
6. The Star Wars sequels: an ongoing puzzle
Drawing a coherent map of the new trilogyâs character roles is a bit hard for a number of reasons. First and foremost, well, we only have one movie to go on so far, and unlike A New Hope it wasnât one designed to convincingly pass for a self-contained story in case its success wanât enough to warrant a sequel.
The Force Awakens very much feels like a âchapter oneâ deal, so much so that it concludes with an actual âto be continuedâ cliffhanger, something the franchise had never done before â the end of Empire doesnât count, Return of the Jedi didnât pick up directly where the previous chapter had left off; as a matter of fact, it actually started with a time skip, which is pretty much the opposite of a cliffhanger.
Another issue arises from the fact that this is the first Star Wars trilogy not to have one cohesive story architect, instead being kicked off by one set of director and screenwriter and then brought forward by another. Iâm sure there was a vague, general plan for where the story was going to head since day one, but I also think itâs safe to assume that a number of choices are being made on the fly.
The third and perhaps most tricky speed bump resides in the fact that the Sequel Trilogy is a more modern affair, built by more modern authors, for a more modern audience. Its character archetypes are deviated towards more contemporary sensibilities, and drawing a direct connection between them and the cast from the sagaâs previous two chapters is definitely a less-immediate exercise than it was between the Original and Prequel trilogies.
Still, we can certainly try. Our first anchor point is the Mentor role, which is as cut and dry as they come: in accordance with our âcascading rolesâ model, Han falls into this spot like a pear from a tree. Within the context of The Force Awakens, this also clearly paints Ben Solo/Kylo Ren as the Dark Knight, though his enduring tenure in the role is debatable, as weâll see in greater detail.
Rey is a little harder to categorise for the simple reason that sheâs a bit of a mystery: since we donât know all there is to know about her true parentage, and therefore about where her actual story arc might be headed in future instalments, weâre pretty much in the dark about her characterâs actual nature. Still, if we just put aside all the theories and speculation, on its face her role is pretty blatant: sheâs a true-blooded Hero, and a Youngster to boot.
Finn is a bit trickier still, but I think the clues are there. He comes to the Resistance from the bad guysâ side; he initially sides with the heroes out of personal interest, only to complete a definitive face-turn by the end of the film; and â this may be a minor thing, but it helps â heâs definitely the funniest character in the entire movie. Granted, heâs no Han Solo... but could Finn really be the Sequel Trilogyâs Rogue? Thatâs where what little we know for certain about The Last Jedi starts coming in handy.
Amidst a lot of potential misdirection, one thing we know for sure from trailers and other promotional material is that Finn will go back to the First Order as part of an undercover infiltration mission of sorts; here he will again come face-to-face with Captain Phasma, who I think we can all agree is the badass-on-paper, underwhelming-on-screen Sequel Trilogy reincarnation of Boba Fett.
Amusingly, this also seems to be a recurring traits for Rogues in the Star Wars monomyth. Each Rogue ends up revisiting his shady original environment in order to confront his past, embodied by one or more figures representing the characterâs dark reflection: Han confronts Boba and literally buries his residual darkness; Anakin confronts the Sand People and instead succumbs to it. Now Finn has to stop running and face his past, too.
So that leaves us with Poe. Now what the hell am I supposed to do with him?
7. The Princessâs new clothes
In the context of our little matching game, Oscar Isaacâs dashing X-Wing pilot remains a bit of a square peg. Thatâs not at all surprising, considering how he came to be:Â Poe was originally supposed to be a total non-character, killed after his very first scene. He was only saved because Isaac is just too good to die, which is great for my ever-deepening man-crush on him but frankly throws a wrench into our whole experiment... or so I initially thought.
Indeed, Poeâs existence throughout The Force Awakens remains largely extraneous to a lot of the story, more an occasionally-there plot device than an actual character. In that respect, you would be excused for thinking heâs best explained as the Lando of the Sequel Trilogy. His role will no doubt be expanded in The Last Jedi, but I believe it can already be figured out by talking about the one thematic class I purposely left out of my analysis back in section 4.
I call this class âthe Veteranâ.
When I explained my idea of narrative roles in the Star Wars canon, I made intentional use of fantasy-like terminology to connect each role to a classic mythological archetype. Lucas makes no mystery of this: the Jedi are a monastic order of knights, and both the Original and Prequel trilogies open with our heroes rescuing the heir to royal house. Still, when you come down to it, the âWarrior Princessâ doesnât have to be a princess at all. Their role does, however, seem to require that they be rescued, and so they definitely are a Warrior Damsel.
The other side of that coin is that, in order to start their story arc as a captive, the Damsel has to be neck-deep in the plot right from the start. When their trilogy begins theyâre already occupying a position of power and authority within the good guysâ camp, and they have something â be it information or physical assets â which the bad guys require, leading to their imprisonment. Furthermore, the position they occupy is tied to past history: PadmĂŠ embodies Nabooâs tradition and has dealt with the Federation in the past, while Leia is both a long-standing asset to the Rebellion and the adoptive heir to a family sharing a similar history of anti-Imperial activity. The Veteran, so to speak, is the protagonist with a pedigree.
The direct consequence of this is that the Damsel/Veteran sits at the opposite end of the exposition spectrum when compared to the young protagonist. Remember what I said about the âNaĂŻve Youngsterâ? Where our main character is lost and confused about whatâs going on, the Veteran is worldly and in-the-know, often explaining plot beats, political connections, and hidden agendas to other characters and, by extension, the audience.
Does Poe fit this category? He certainly does in the first case: his role in The Force Awakens starts with him getting captured â after hiding vital data inside a droid, in a blatant replay of Leiaâs first appearance â and then rescued by Finn. So he definitely fits the Damselâs description; but is he the Veteran? Thatâs where the additional material found in novels and comic books once again comes to our aid: both of Poeâs parents were members of the Rebellion and heroes of the Battle of Endor, and so his standing as Resistance aristocracy is all but confirmed.
As an odd bonus coincidence, in both previous trilogy itâs always the Rogue who âgets the girlâ by forging a romantic involvement with the Damsel... which is honestly a pretty humorous set of circumstances when you consider the fandomâs fondness for the Finn/Poe pairing. Not that their undeniable on-screen chemistry couldnât be explained by the already-mentioned Youngster/Older Man camaraderie, which is most definitely at play there.
So hereâs how our general picture of the Sequel Trilogy shapes up so far:
But wait, I hear you say: why is that spot there blank? Isnât it obvious that Luke is going to be the Sage? And what of Leia? Also, isnât it weird that the new protagonist trio is so unusually disconnected, with Poe and Rey sharing no interaction whatsoever throughout The Force Awakens aside from BB-8 acting as an obvious trait dâunion between them? And how can Rey and Finn both be the Youngster, or Poe be both the Veteran and the Older Man at the same time?
For that we need to start speculating, Iâm afraid: itâs not as if we have the complete picture yet, after all. So speculate is exactly what weâre going to do.
[ NEXT â Cracking the sequelsâ future: an exercise in duality? ]