Everyone Loves Saga

One of the amazing things about storytelling is that no matter how hard the author tries to make a statement or express an opinion, the audience will still look at it through their own perspective, and no two people see things exactly the same. This is a challenge for writers that can be frustrating, but it’s also the very thing that makes some stories stand the test of time and reach mass appeal. Everyone reads into it what they want to see.

I’ve been thinking of this topic ever since my friends Matt and Dave and I had the following facebook comment debate after Matt posted this status update:

Matt would get more done if he had a writing partner.
June 24 at 10:44am

Comment Matt at 10:45am June 24
Or better, a writing assistant. And a million dollars.

Comment David at 10:56am June 24
I’d get writing done if I wasn’t so damn busy all the time…or wasn’t so damn lazy when I wasn’t so damn busy.

Comment Matt at 11:00am June 24
You should be my writing assistant. Or give me a million dollars and I will be yours.

Comment Peter V. Brett at 11:03am June 24

Do or do not. There is no “try”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcjnbIF1yAA

Comment David at 11:26am June 24
Yoda’s also the guy who said to Anakin and Luke, don’t worry about your friends and family if they are in trouble, don’t try to help them, and if they die, don’t mourn them…now get back to work, padawan. And thats the kind of thinking that led to Yoda getting his ass beat. In the end, those beliefs killed him (thematically speaking..he died after Luke proved that friends and family were necessary, negating the stupid teachings of the Old Jedi. Yoda died telling Luke about his sister.) Its why Luke is the better Jedi.

Comment Peter V. Brett at 11:36am June 24
Always with you what can not be done.

Yoda was telling Luke that flying off half-cocked on your emotions leads to the dark side, and guess what? He was right. Luke got his ass handed to him in Cloud City and Leia and Chewie had already escaped. Then, in the DSv2, it is only when Luke stops fighting and accepts the potential sacrifice of his friends for the greater good that he is able to turn his father back and defeat the emperor.

Stop making excuses and get to work.

Comment David at 12:01pm June 24
Not saying it can’t be done, saying it involves a little more time and stress than you might be considering, s’all.
Yoda explained (to Annakin) the Jedi, belief that friends and family are not to be considered, because the Jedi calling is bigger than personal relationships. Palpatine nurtured Anakin’s caring for personal things. When Anakin was burned, Palpatine showed great caring for him personally. Of course, Palpatine was evil and ruthless and manipulative, but he did care. Anakin was unable to reconcile the two sides, and it drove him over the edge. Meanwhile, the Old Jedi got what they deserved, or at least what was coming to them.

Luke, went through the same crises. He was defeated, but where yoda said it would destroy him, it did not…Luke survived, taught himself, saved his friends. He completed his training on his own. He reconciled what his father could not…

Comment David at 12:11pm June 24
When Luke flew off all “half cocked” to Cloud City, it was to save his friends from ambush, from trap, from execution by his nemesis. When he was in DSv2, it was in a war, and hey, people die in a war, you accept that it might happen before the war. 2 different situations with very different responses. So, it’s not that he accepted the sacrifice of his friends and thats why he won…he fought like a banshee when he thought that his friends were in trouble, and he defeated Vader because of it…he put his all into winning that fight, for them. He stopped instead when he saw what his anger was making him become, when he saw what he was doing to his father. It is when he accepted that this was his father, and that he could use the love inherent in that personal relationship to get through to him, that he laid down his weapon. It’s why he’s the better Jedi.

Also, a case could be made that Leia only escaped cloud city *because* Luke was there to distract Vader.

Comment Matt at 12:17pm June 24
I used to value Jedi wisdom more BEFORE Lucas told us in Episode I that “the Force” is actually just an intergalactic STD. Stoopit midichlorians.

Comment Matt at 12:18pm June 24
Also, Yoda followed the Jedi Code and lived his life alone in a swamp. Vader went dark and got a fleet of sweet battleships and a clone army. I bet he could even have a writing assistant and one million space credits, if he wanted…just to bring things back to my original point.

Comment Peter V. Brett at 12:20pm June 24
The rebellion started long before Luke and Han ever got involved, so the ambush in Cloud City should be considered a wartime action. Vader would have been distracted waiting for Luke whether he actually came or not. And defeating Vader (physically) in DSv2 was irrelevant. The Emperor was the real enemy, and he was only defeated when Luke was spiritually at peace.

Comment David C. Funke at 1:22pm June 24
interesting how 2 people how interpret the same saga in 2 such different ways. I say, Luke ended up on his own path, nothing like the Jedi before him, and was better for it (the best, in fact). You say he ended up on the same path as the Jedi before him, and in that found his true power. Wild, man, just wild.

Comment Matt Bergin at 1:30pm June 24
All this reminds me of how I no longer have light saber sounds on my PSP game. 🙁

Comment David at 1:37pm June 24
Do you at least get ring-of-the-schwartz sounds?

Comment Peter V. Brett at 2:51pm June 24
I think the sign of a great story is one that resonates with everyone in their own way. Stories that beat you over the head with a subjective moral don’t stand the test of time.

The fact that we can disagree so deeply on our life’s philosophy and still be friends, though, gives me hope for the Star Trek future of human unity than the Star Wars future of bleak politics and war.

Comment Peter V. Brett at 3:19pm June 24
I kind of want to just paste this comment thread on my blog.

Posted on July 5, 2009 at 11:32 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Musings, Writing
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