Blog Wars

Rey: Where do you come from?

BB-8: Beeb o be bep

Rey: Classified? Me too, big secret.

- Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 
I wonder if future generations will be able to really appreciate that line?



After much waiting and anticipation our old friend, Andrew Rilstone, has at last published his Star Wars articles, and as usual they are worth the wait. However, there is one of his articles that I do feel compelled to critique. I do realize that much of the time Rilstone was, as we say, joking, but none the less I still think it is fun to critique it at face value...so that is what I shall do. But first you should read his entire article here...

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2016/02/what-is-luke-skywalkers-relationship-to.html



"Luke Skywalker can't be married. No: I don't know how the Force manages to run in families if the Jedi aren't in the habit of producing little Jedi; but the canon makes it very clear that Jedi neither marry nor are given in marriage. The whole tragedy was set in motion by Anakin breaking the laws of the Jedi order and marrying Padme Amidala". - Andrew Rilstone

Well, that still leaves the "too much Corellian ale one night" theory, But I doubt either Disney or Sir Alec would appreciate that so lets not go there.

Yoda indicates that the tragedy was set in motion by Vader choosing the "quick and easy path" not necessarily that his destination was forbidden. And this "neither marry nor are given in marriage" line sounds familiar, but I do not recall it being in any episode. I imagine Rilstone got it from a book, and as we all know the books are not canon. So lets keep our analysis Sola Cinimatra.

Lets start with Ep. I, there certainly does not seem to be anything here to indicate that the Jedi are a celibate order. When Qui Gon tells Anakin that being a Jedi is a "hard life" he certainly deos not mention celibacy. And when Qui Gon asks who Anakin's father was it seems he is at least half expecting it to be Jedi. And what is the point of Yaddle if not to be a potential love interest fro Yoda? (sory, ya I know - Sola Cinamatra) I mean that feminine looking yoda-like creature on the Jedi counsel, interesting how she disappears after Ep.I.

So what happened?

To undertand that my frinds, you must travel with me back in time...dudiludalu, dudiludalu, dudiludalu - the year is 1997 - dudiludalu, dudiludalu...

See those ques of school girls round the block? they are all waiting to see a movie every body knew the end of before it came out - so much for Rilstone's theory of suspense. Oh, I know you are going to say "just because we knew the ship sank does not mean we know which characters survive", and you are right! We have to actually wait until the first scene of the movie to find out that the girl makes it...and the guy doesn't. Congratulations! You have just won three hours of zero suspense filled with bla bla bla and a dollop of Kat Winslet's backside on top...what a deal!

So what does all this have to do with Star Wars? Well, in a ideal universe, absolutely nothing. Unfortunately we do not live in an ideal universe. The boat movie (though it defies all reason) actually became the highest grossing movie in American history - not when you figure inflation of course (Star Wars still skunks it there) but people rarely do that. No doubt Gorge thought that Ep.I would restore Star Wars to its proper place and bring order to the galaxy. But when that failed, it broke poor Gorge's mind. (I know some of you will say his mind was already broken but really, Jar Jar, medeclorians and all, Phantom Menace was not that bad).

But as Gorge sat pondering, how could he make Ep.II succeed wear Ep.I had failed? Ah, perhaps by letting Star Wars be Star Wars and having another go at it? "No" said Gorge, "in order for Star Wars to beat Titanic, Star Wars must become Titanic! Complete with grindingly boring, hideously awkward love scenes piled one on top of the freaking other. But that is not enough, there must be a taboo. Some kind of forbidden love. They must be doing something that is at least a little bit naughty. Bowahaha!"

Hay, if he had put in a scene wear Anakin draws a nude of Padme it just might have worked...ya probably not. Ok, back to episodal analysis.

The first thing in Ep. II is Obi Won saying "you have made a commitment to the Jedi order, a commitment not easily broken." He then makes reference to Padme being a politician - perhaps a conflict of interests angle. So what is this "commitment"? No sexual relationships? or just no sexual relationships with politicians? or just no sexual relationships as a padawan? its rather vague. The next thing is Padme's comment on-board the refugee ship "I thought Jedi were not allowed to love?" This statement would be a lot less silly if she did not say it in such a coquettish fashion, but the issue is, Padme is not an authority on the bylaws of the Jedi order. Let us remember that there is a nine year old Han Solo running around the galaxy at this time who thinks "its all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense". The average layman seems to know very little about the Jedi, and the Jedi probably like it that way. Once they are on Naboo Padme rebuffs Anakin with the statement "you are studying to be a Jedi, I am a Senator, it wouldn't work" or something like that. Again its the conflict of interests angle and again its from Padme. after that every thing seemed to be ok until they thought they were going to die any way and decided to have a smooch fest. because of that Anakin apperintly decided he had to make an honest woman of the Senator and merry her.

Ok, moving on to Ep.III. Anakin blows off Senator Orgona so he can go play kissie face with pregnant Padme, Orgona walks away with a cheesy smile like the whole galaxy know but thinks its cute they are still trying to keep it a secret. Anakin tells Padme that he does not care if people know they are married (note that Anakin is no longer a padawan), Padme apparently still does. Padme then says that the baby will change both their lives. Yes, well, babies have a way of doing that, but Padme seems to be particularly worried that she might lose her job - its the old carer vs family dilemma. She apparently thinks that the Nabooans would not want to be represented by a girl in trouble. But they are married, right? There was an old man there and every thing. She then laments that if the council finds out that Anakin is the father he will be expelled and I guess they would have to get by his winnings from pod racing as opposed to the no doubt vast sums of money he makes as a Jedi. Which brings up the question, where does the Jedi order get its funds anyway? Grants perhaps...from the Senate? Hum. The deleted scenes that chronicle the birth or rather conception of the Alliance (and would have made Orgona's "and so it is" line mean something) indicate that there was a conflict of interests in Anakin and Padme's relationship. Unfortunately these scenes had to be cut to make room for footage of Grievous and Obi Won battling it out on a unicycle and a giant Iguana, so I guess we could call them Deuterocanonical.

Well, there it is, one rather vague statement by a Jedi and a lot of fussing from Padme. So what was the prequel Jedi's teaching on marriage? Based on the very small amount of information that we have it seems there are three main possibilities: 1 - padawans are not allowed to merry, knights perhaps could (though their opportunities would be rather limited) but not to politicians, 2 - active Jedi could not marry but retired Jedi could (it is not clear how long one would have to serve as an active Jedi in order to retire honorably), 3 - all Jedi took vows of celibacy. And of course, we do not know if it was a discipline issue (which could be unilaterally changed by the Pope) or doctrinal issue (requiring an ecumenical counsel, which after the clone war would have consisted of Yoda and Obi Won). But the question is not by what procedure would it have been changed, but was it changed? This might be gleaned though proper exegesis of the OT.

In both Ep.IV and Ep.V Luke makes it clear that his motivation for becoming a Jedi is his father, "I want to learn the was of the Force and become a Jedi like my father" and "mostly because of my father I guess". Both Obi Won and Yoda agree his father was a Jedi, "I was once a Jedi knight, the same as your father" and "Father, powerful Jedi was he, powerful Jedi." (Note, Luke did need to be told this information, he originally thought his father was a navigator on a spice freighter). It is clear there was a consensus not to tell Luke that Vader was his father until he was "ready for the burden". So is it plausible that Luke could have been given a hard core level 3 kind of celibacy teaching in the interim? Short answer, No. That kind of teaching would have to wait until Luke was ready for the whole story about his father. And Luke had clearly not been told that story as of his premature departure from Dagobah.

Is it plausible that Luke made contact with Yoda or Blue Ghost Obi Won some time between Ep.V and Ep.VI? Well, when Luke returns to Dagobah he still has a burning question on his mind (no doubt for the benefit of audience members like me who were not prepared to take Darth Vader's word for it. After all he had turned to the dark side so; lies, deceit, spreading mistrust were his ways now...although come to think of it Dukoo was telling the truth as well so maybe its a bum rap), he asks Yoda "is Darth Vader my father?" So it would seem he has not been in contact with anyone who could clear that matter up. Yoda then replies, "Your father he is." so now that that is thoroughly settled Luke is ready for the teaching on celibacy, right? Except Yoda has already stated "already know you that which you need." There is simply no daylight there to fit a celibacy teaching in.

Solution? Option one works reasonably well in all episodes. Anakin and Padme's marriage is still certainly taboo in Ep.II and at least very frowned upon in Ep.III, Luke could certainly be told that he is not allowed to have sexual relationships while training (weaken legs women do) without it conflicting with the fact that his father was a Jedi. As for the Senate, it was already dissolved by that time. This is a good clean option that works reasonably well with all episodes and requires no inter episodal meddling with the Jedi code. Now, for those of you who insist upon smuggling in comic books like Empire: Betrayal and such, you will have to go with a more hard core option three, and then assume something happened between Ep.III and IV to change it (I guess one off screen thing deserves another). And for those of you still clinging to the idea that there is an active Jedi celibacy doctrine as of Ep.VII you have another problem, if Bin is irrevocably lost to the dark side and Rey becomes a Jedi, who is going to carry on the Anakin blood line? If Rey does not become a Jedi, who is going to carry on the Jedi? I doubt Disney payed four billion dollars for this franchise for just three episodes...and no I do not think the anthologies are going to do much.



Luke Skywalker can't be married. And even if he were, don't you think his wife would be hinted at somewhere in the story? Why is it Rey, rather than Mrs Luke, who is sent to take the lightsaber to Craggy Island? - Andrew Rilstone

You don't suppose Luke would do one of those secret marriage things do you? Nah, were would he get that from. In any case Rey's mother has no doubt been dead for about a decade and a half. Any body who knew about Rey's existence (which may or may not have included Luke) would have thought she perished with her mother, probably at the hands of one of Snoke's henchmen, maybe Ren (he would have been about 15).




When Rey returns to the Resistance base after the Bad Thing has happened, Leia embraces her. Not Chewie; not Poe; Rey. Rey the scavenger who Leia only met a few hours ago. On one side of the airfield are Leia and Rey, comforting each other. On the other side is everyone else. The Bad Thing primarily affects Leia and Rey. - Andrew Rilstone

Actually Rey was already in Ren's cluches by the time Leia showed up, so that was their first meeting. Presumably they recognized each other through their Force signatures, Leia's would have been similar to Ren's and Rey's would have been similar to Luke's. Whether daughter or niece they are still by far the closest blood relatives in the vicinity.




"there are several amusing scenes where Rey and Han say the exact same thing at the exact same moment." - Andrew Rilstone

I only counted two. They are both sentences that Rey begins and Han finishes. As such they primarily serve to show an alpha male slapping down an omega female -"You don't know anything about this ship I don't know twenty times over little girl, now go make me a sandwich". Could there be a perinatal angle to this relationship? Sure, but there is not necessarily.




"She understands Chewbacca. Neither Han or Chewie are remotely surprise by this."- Andrew Rilstone

She also seems to understand astro droid a la Luke and R2. But the real question is, where did she get that British accent? Not from Han, Liea or Luke, perhaps from her mum.




Of course we are building towards a mighty battle between Rey and Kylo Ren. Of course this is going to be a battle between a brother and sister. A famous mythological battle between cousins is barely worth thinking about. - Andrew Rilstone

Hum..do you have a crawly feeling in your gut that when Rey and Ren finally rejoin their adjourned confrontation they will have switched sides? Probably just indigestion...I hope it is. Now if they were twins Rilstone might have had something there...but they are not. She would be his baby sis, from the same parents she would have nothing on him. But her tenderness in years and lack of gender primacy would be more than made up for by being from the more primal bloodline. Yes, in this situation cousins works better than siblings.




"Since Rey is skilled with the Force and lightsaber fighting, she must logically have had some training." - Andrew Rilstone

But Rey has about as much skill with a lightsaber as Finn does, in fact I think it takes her even longer to find the "on" button. Her main advantage is that Ren just wants to kill Finn but he wants to take Rey alive. She has obviously heard stories about what the Force can do (such as the mind trick) but Ren specifically stated that she was "untrained".

Rilstone then gives us a paragraph or so of exposition illustrating how a Soloist position could still be viable. It is similar to other such proposals floating around the internet, better than most but still has the same problems common to the genre. Its busy, leaves many unanswered questions and shoves even more of the story off screen into Ep.6.5 than a reasonable Rey Skywalker line would at this point. And how would you bring that retro exposition into a movie? A counsel of Skywalker scene where a bunch of chaps set around a table filling Rey in on her backstory? What about the first rule of cinema - show it, don't say it? Perhaps a Skywalkerists type scene for illustration...

Rey and the others are exploring that ancient Jedi temple when she happens upon an artifact that sends her into another vision (you know there might one or two of those kinda things laying around there), she is in a sinister room where a woman is being tortured.

Henchman 1: Where is Luke Skywalker?

Woman: (with crisp British accent) I will never tell you!

Henchman 2: perhaps an alternative form of persuasion. (snaps fingers)

A small girl is lead in with stormtroopers on each side

Girl: Mummy!

Woman: Rey!

Henchman 2: I grow tired of asking this so this will be the last time, where is Luke Skywalker?


...Intentionally cliche of course, but you get the idea, dramatic, to the point and leaves relatively few dots to be connected by dialog scenes with Luke and/or blue ghost Rey's mum. But just for fairness lets have a Soloist scene as well...

Luke: Yes Rey, I am your uncle.

Rey: But that would mean...Leia is my mum?

Luke: Yes Rey, so now...

Rey: But then why did she not tell me when I was right there with her? And we could have had general portions interstellar coffee and talked about our feelings and everything!

Luke: Well you see Rey, I Force wiped all memory of you from her mind. That is why she did not recognize your Force signature, she has no memory of ever bearing you. This was necessary so that...

Rey: but wait, what about the stretch marks?

Luke: I Force removed the stretch marks as well. Now hark unto me Rey...

Rey: You mean you can Force remove stretch marks? does it work on crow's feet?

Luke: I suppose...look Rey you are missing the point.



...good for a late night comedy routine maybe, but I would rather not see it done by Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley.



The film is full of hints that Rey has a connection with Han and Leia; but nothing points to her having a special relationship with Luke. - Andrew Rilstone

Perhaps you were at the concession stand during the scene where the old wise woman tells Rey "the belonging (family) you seek is not behind you but before you", and what does Rey whisper? "Han, Leia"? No. She whispers "Luke". Granted, that does not sound very respectful but then both Luke and Leia referred to their father as "Vader" in Ep.V. However, just using "Skywalker" here might be to ambiguous given Leia's situation, someone wants to make it clear its LUKE! And then there is the bit where Rey and Ren are Dream-fasting and Ren pulls out that dream about an island in the middle of an ocean...sounds an awful lot like that place she found old uncle Luke, wonder why she was not dreaming about mom or dad?



Some Skywalkerists think that this is deliberate misdirection: the hints that Rey is Han's daughter proves that she is not. - Andrew Rilstone


None of these "hints" at this point "proves" anything. The question is what works best for the story. It is not like we have been told that Luke or Han "betrayed and murderer her father" but then Luke did not pal around with Anakin and Padme for half a film only to be told later, "oh, by the way those guys were your parents." At the end of the day what Obi Won said made since...what would you have said in that situation? Han and Leia not telling Rey she is their daughter, if she is, does not. That Han might not have known is perhaps somewhat plausible, that Leia would not have is just not.

Before seeing the movie I was definitely of a Soloist persuasion, primarily because of the Ep.6.5 problem. Han and Leia are both well known characters and we have even scene the budding stages of their courtship. For them to have kids running around the galaxy thirty years later requires no explanation. For Luke to have children requires a lot of story to have taken place off screen, it is typically best to do that as little as possible.

Yes, as soon as Rey started flying the Falcon I started eagerly anticipating her being Han's daughter, but that time came and went, and that was not the story we were being told, which is ok. What would not be ok is to rip up this story now to try to make it into that other story...we would lose both stories then. The other story needs to die so this story can live.

Was it really worth it?

Well the Broncos won the Super Bowl...but at the end of the day was the terrible price to high? For no matter what, we will never be able to unsee puppy-monkey-baby.

Reactionary Weekly endorses Ted Cruz for US Presedint!

Well, what did you expect?

So what do we know so far about Ep 8?

Things we know for certain

Well, all we know for sure is that at some point in the move someone is going to have a bad feeling about something.

things that are more than likely 

 

At some point there will be an asteroid field chase sequence.

Also the heroes will be split into two main groups for a substantial part of the movie.  At this point group one looks like it will be made up of Luke, Rey, R2 and Chewy with the Falcon as they explore that ancient Jedi temple where they will probably be joined by the old wise woman. Leaving Leia, Finn, Poe and co. to handle the first order and what not.

Probably at some point someone will get their hand cut off – hopefully not the lovely Rey – and of course C-3PO will lose his head.

Intriguing Possibilities 

Blue ghosts made their first appearance in Ep. V in the person of Obi Won Kenobi so it would be somewhat in keeping with the Lukosian theory of poetry for there to be a blue ghost in Ep. VIII, with the primest candidate being, of course, Yoda. After all Obi Won did say “Yoda will always be with you” and certainly some of his sage words would be meat for dark times such as these. Also, last I checked Frank Oz is still alive and since blue ghosts don’t have to engage in ridiculously over the top light saber duels they could actually use the original puppet…that’d be nice.

Another good possibility would be Rey’s mother, that way she could fill us in on some of Rey’s back story. Of course this is assuming she is dead, but I think that that is a pretty safe assumption since if she were still alive she would have retrieved Rey from Jakku long ago.

I suppose there is also Anakin but what would he have to say and to whom? I just do not see him adding anything at this point.

What about Obi Won? Played by Ewing McGregor? Well, I think he made the best of it in the prequels, but still his Obi Won does not belong on the same screen as Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.

Han Solo? I don’t think so.

Or, there is “thinking outside the box”, how about a red ghost? Maybe Darth Vader? Hay, it would give John Williams one more hack at the imperial march – but spooky this time. It would show once and for all that Anakin and Vader are different persons occupying different regions of the nether world of the Force…yah, maybe not.

It would be nice.

Moving right along, what about Lando? It would make sense but I am afraid that if Billy D. Williams was on the cast list we would know it by now.

Oh, I hope not.

Boba Fett was in Ep.s II and V so I guess…but really the last time we saw him he was heading down a sarlak so we should not have to worry about him. I know he was wearing a jet pack and probably a few literal tricks up his sleeves but still the last thing we need at this point is an octogenarian bucket head mucking things up. RIP Boba

Well that’s pretty much what we know so far…and a good deal less, perhaps I will do an update in a year or so.

The Heroine with a Thousand Faces

Oh, I guess I am supposed to say “spoilers” Star Wars Episode, bla bla whatever…

Ok, so who is this girl who has waltzed into that galaxy far far away, and stole our hearts and our childhood?  

Well the logical thing to do is list all reasonable possibilities and then examine the pros and cons. So let’s do that.

1.        1. She is Luke’s daughter

2.       2. She is Han and Leia’s daughter

3.       3. She is the daughter of some other person who happens to be strong in the force, perhaps a Jedi perhaps not.

4.       4. She is the product of one of those sith black magic – life from raw force power- experiments.

Let’s start with number four. Some have floated the Idea that she may be a clone of Anakin, I would consider this to be basically the same as the “Force-life” experiment but less plausible. Although it is possible to get a female clone from a male specimen it is still trickier, and why bother – what would be the advantage of having a female? On the other hand, a female result from the Force-life experiment is much more likely, indeed it is still a mystery where Anakin’s y cromazone came from.  I guess the pros would be that she has an uncanny knack for fixing things rather like Anakin which Luke and Lea did not seem to develop, but then that could certainly skip a generation. The cons would be, it was really lame the first time and would be lame to the Nth to the googol to the Nth to do it again.

What about her being the descendent of some random person who just happened to be strong in the Force? Well the pros would be, that has many possibilities – hay, there is a whole galaxy out there.  The cons would be, having a main protagonist that has no connection to the existing story would turn the previous six movies into prequels about where Rey’s antagonist came from. Think about it, the only character of the new generation that is unambiguously connected to the existing story is the villain…that’s not the way to revive a franchise. She could be from one of the previous Jedi, perhaps; Quigon, Obi Wan, Mace or Dukoo. This would connect her to the existing story but requires a lot of backtracking. First, none of the candidates had a known mate, but more important, would not Obi Wan and Yoda have nurtured such a line, if it existed, as much as they did the Skywalkers? The idea that such a line could be what Yoda was referring to when he said “no, there is another” is beyond intriguing, but I just do not see how you get there.

So how about Han and Leia? They are thoroughly entrenched in the existing story and are a known couple. Certainly I must confess that when Rey started flying the Falcon and then crawling all over the luvial dampers to fix the reverse power flux coupler I said to myself “she has got to be Han’s daughter” or, we are meant to think she is. However, Ben’s “father you never had” taunt was a bit much. The real  con though is Leia; although being her daughter would explain her string in the Force it is actually that strength that would seem to betray her. I think we can all agree that Lea would know it if she had a daughter. So if said daughter went missing say fifteen- twenty years ago, why have they not been scouring the galaxy looking for her? Maybe they thought she was dead. But Leia knew Luke was alive after the deathstar exploded, surely her bond with a child she bore would be at least as great, and would she not have recognized her Force signature when she saw her face to face? or at the very least be suspicious enough to search her feelings and grab a stray hair. But perhaps she knew and just did not tell her? But if not now, when? How could she send her long lost daughter on some damn fool idealistic quest to take an old fossil his light saber…Chewbacca could do it! Granted this is treating her more as a real person in a real world not an iconic character in a mythic saga, but still, how could she not know and knowing how could she not tell her?

So that brings us to Luke. Let’s start with the “like father like daughter” motifs; Luke has a model T-16/Rey has a pilot doll then there is the helmet – powerful, then of course there is Han Solo challenging her ability as pilot, being schooled in the Force by Han Solo, being schooled in the dangers of hyperspace travel by Han Solo, being offered a job by Han Solo and of course Rey can take care of herself wile Luke is “ready for anything”, etc. These motifs may merely be meant to connect protagonist to protagonist and not necessarily parent to progeny, but this is just the beginning.

Through the Force things you will see…

It seems pretty clear that it was the Force that led Rey to Luke’s light saber, but then it had belonged to Anakin as well so that in and of itself is not that significant. But the vision she has when she touches it is decidedly Luke-centric. Lea is not featured and Anakin is present only by an implied Darth Vader as a distant Luke screams NO! next we see a shot of Luke grieving, possibly over Rey’s mother possibly over Ben, possibly the two are connected. The shot of Ren and his goons is just to vague to be of much use one way or the other – sibling, cousin, either one works. then there is the shot of Rey being abandoned on Jakku.  Insignificant in itself, but her crying bookending the vision with Luke’s “NO!” is very evocative. The shot of Ren coming after her is future and does not belong with the rest of the vision, though it feels eerily similar to Luke’s encounter with Vader in the cave, but with a different result.

Your father wanted you to have this…

When Finn falls to Ren after their rather uninspiring duel, he drops the light saber, which lands pommel up in a snow bank (not one but two King Arthur references in one shot, good one JJ). Ren having evoked a blood clam to it – “that light saber belongs to me” – reaches out to Force pull it into his hand. But low, it flies into Rey’s instead. You could take the view that it was just a Force tug of war and she won. Um, her first attempt at the Jedi mind trick did not work and that was on a storm trooper, yet with her first attempt at telekinesis she beats a guy who habitually stops laser blasts? He may have been somewhat fatigued but it is not like she was as fresh as a daisy (no pun intended of course).  But if instead the Force is acting as arbiter of a blood claim there are two ways she could win. she could be his older sibling. however, she looks younger than him. Ok, perhaps she took really good care of herself on Jakku, where water is scarce and both sun and wind pound day after day…well maybe. But birth order would not matter if she was from the more primal blood line – that is Luke’s.  Yes, I know this all sound more like something from Dune than Star Wars, but if you are going to open your movie with Dr. Kynes and call it The Sleeper Aw…I mean The Force Awakens…just say’n.

Why wish you become Jedi?

What little identity Rey had was contained in that long series of marks on that wall on Jakku, but after her encounter with the old wise woman even that is gone. She is now on a no holes barred identity quest. Of course she took a brief hiatus from it to do the whole save the galaxy thing, but after handing that off to the legendary Luke Skywalker, she can fallow her own path on her quest for her identity…that is unless the two paths are intertwined.

Your focus determines your reality. 

After leaving the only two members of the quest who actually knew what Luke Skywalker looked like behind with the Falcon (perhaps to finish their long adjourned chess game) Rey climbs the mountain alone – because that is the way she must do it – to find a clocked figure gazing out over the ocean.  As she extends to him his long lost light saber he turns and looks toward her with an enigmatic gaze. Is he looking at the light saber and thinking “its time, I need to get back in the fight”, or is he looking at Rey and thinking “she sure looks like her mother”? we then get a camera angle from Luke’s perspective, the light saber is unrecognizably out of focus, Rey’s face is perfectly in focus…I believe our question has been answered.

Protocol? Why its my primary function…

If so obvious it is, why just tell us do they not? Well, for one thing coming out with a Rey Skywalker action figure before the character herself knows her identity would be somewhat, well, rude. Also, once it is unambiguously stated that Luke is her father then there is the whole can of mynocks about what happened to her mother and how she ended up on Jakku to deal with. These things certainly seem to me to be legitimate suspense for the next movies.

Always in motion is the future. 

 But what if they are planning some cheesy nonsense just to “surprise” us? Although one can never rule out such a possibility – Attack of the Clones – I think this time it is unlikely. Star Wars’ blue milk and full portions is repeat viewings, and a surprise works exactly once. We do not watch A New Hope 173 times because we think on the hundred and seventy third Luke might miss and everybody on Yavin dies…give us what we know is coming and do it well and we will return again and again, give us stupid tricks and nonsense and well…

But there is a force in Hollywood, and last I checked Disney is still a few billion dollars in the hole for this franchise, so this time I think the Force is with us. 

Through the Gates

Time, they say, changes everything. As Heraclitus of Ephesus put it, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” But time, it seems, often has a good deal of help from humans.
It was a nice spring afternoon in the Rockies, the sun had just set and many of the evening preparations had already begun when we arrived at the Denver Municipal Park. The ducks and other fowl (no doubt gorged on bits of potato chips and hot dog buns) were mostly settling down to their secluded roosts, just a few strays here and there looking for one last morsel. The fountain lights, some of them colored, had been turned on and gave an eerie glow in the foaming water. It was the time of day we usually would have been wrapping up and heading for home, but this was a night excursion.
We walked leisurely through the park, looking at the sculptures that were scattered here and there around the central lake. The natural sounds of night were only occasionally disrupted by a city noise strong enough to penetrate the trees and sound of falling water uniting with its source. There was one sculpture that I found particularly striking. It was of a girl, a boy and a young maiden gazing into a pool. They seemed unusually life like. It almost seemed as though their smooth flesh would be warm and supple to the touch, even though I knew it was made of marble. You could also feel the merriment in their eyes as the green and purple light, reflected from the rippling water, dappled their ivory figures. It reminded me of something out of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia, or one of George McDonald’s stories, or perhaps some more wonderful story yet to be discovered. If it ever is I would like to read it.
As we came to the end of the lake the lingering twilight revealed a magnificent edifice, the Denver Museum of Natural History. I do not recall exactly how old I was but I could not have been more then ten. As we made our way to the great granite steps, my mother pointed out to me where the amphitheater had been where she had watch performances as a young girl. This gave me a strange feeling of heritage. I belonged here. Beyond the heavy glass doors at the top of the steps was what you might call the museum lobby, complete with a dinosaur skeleton looming over you. But it was noble architecture surrounding it that gave the experience its sublimity. Johannes Kepler* is supposed to have said that science is “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” The temple like ambiance of the museum seemed to be saying something similar to me. After all, is not the second commandment to “rule creation”? (Gen 1:28) How can you rule something you do not understand? Science to me became something holy – an act of worship.
We were guided by thick velvety ropes of deep crimson, punctuated by heavy brass stands, to a special part of the museum…the Gates Planetarium. It was not yet time to go into the planetarium itself. But outside was an enormous pendulum clock. I don’t mean a sort of wooden box that might be in a hallway or corner. This was a giant pendulum suspended from a ball joint in the ceiling. As it swung its ponderous weight back and fourth across the floor it slowly worked its way up or down. Ever now and then (judging from the succession of standing and fallen chits) it knocked over a domino like chit. I gripped the cool steel rail, which quarantined the area of the floor where the pendulum swung, and peered in. It was almost to the next chit, how long before it got there? It swung, and it swung and then down went the chit with a click, and it was time to go into the planetarium.
Inside it looked somewhat like a movie theater, but with all the seats in a circle around the middle and tilted back about sixty degrees. It was also pristine; there was no lingering smell of greasy popcorn. I sat down in one of the deep blue chairs and leaned back. I was immediately surrounded by the screen; it seemed to be every direction but strait down. It was dark, even with the house lights on, so there was nothing to do but wait for the presentation to begin. At first it got even darker, then galaxies, nebulae and quasars began to drift pass. Floating in space, as it seemed, it was a marvelous journey. I think I was most impressed by the Tunguska event. They were playing with a sort of pseudo theory that the event was actually a mini black hole that hit the earth. It sounds rather silly now, but in a dark room surrounded by devastation it seemed plausible enough to be somewhat disturbing.
Once the presentation was over we solemnly filed out to where the giant pendulum was tracking the seconds as earth moved slowly beneath it. I was only slightly dizzy to once again be upright. Presently my father took us to the gift shop to get a souvenir. It took us a while to decide. These things were not the usual assortments of useless junk but had actual scientific meaning. In the end my brother chose a stainless steel gyroscope and I chose a small globe of the moon. It was just scale to a standard globe of the earth.
We went outside and saw the real stars shining above us. I had not yet seen Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, or read Roy A. Gallant’s Our Universe and it would be years before my first official astronomy class, but the heavens were open to me. And they are open to me still, even though the Denver Museum of Natural History is no more.



* There is some dispute as to whether Kepler is actually the source of this statement, but my research has found no credible alternative candidate.

Critique of the Social Contract

What justifies the state? For some philosophers it is the “social contract”, or contract theory. But what is a contract? Is it not an agreement? But what is to say that the contract is binding? It would seem that the contract requires something external to it self to give it meaning. Indeed the very notion of “justifying the state” indicates that there is a principal of justice external to the state to which it must answer. It would then seem to be the nature of this external principal that should be the focus of our study if we are to truly justify the state.
Unfortunately, Thomas Hobbes did not seem to grasp this. He supposed that we all start out as a bunch of troglodytes hitting each other (free for all) over the head with clubs, until some of the troglodytes get together and form a state by agreeing to accept its authority. But what validates this agreement? It cannot be the state, for the agreement must be valid in order for the state (or any principle there of) to be formed. So for the state to validate the agreement it would have to be and not be in the same time and in the same relationship, which is a rational absurdity.
John Locke proposed a means around this problem with the concept of natural moral laws. These laws being external to the state can thus be used to determine if the state is legitimate. The state is then just if it upholds and adheres to the natural law, and unjust if it does otherwise. So far so good. But then Locke had to go and drag democracy into the matter. You see according to Locke it is the majority that ratifies the interpretation of natural law. But this is leading us right back to the problem with Hobbes. If the majority is a product of the state, how can it validate that which is prior to the state? Or another way of looking at it could be through physical law. The speed of light is 300,000km/s if 99.999% of the population said it was 25km/h it would not change the speed of light 1m/s (although I suppose you could say it would etymologically change the meaning of kilometer and hours).
Jean Jacques Rousseau had a somewhat different approach. To him “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. How can this be? In a rather interesting philosophical maneuver Rousseau proposed that man actually freely submitted to the chains to increase his freedom. This is done through a sort of collective enterprise. Take a man living alone on a desert island. He may be totally free in a certain sense, that is he does not have to trouble about other humans. But he is not free to travel to the moon, or go to a ballet. For these he must surrender some of his freedom to a collective that then will have the freedom each individual lacks. Rousseau viewed society as operating under a similar principle. The individual gives up some freedom so that the whole can enjoy a greater overall freedom. Still it is relying on something external to itself to make it valid. It presumes that the freedom of the individual is theirs to give to the collective for its greater overall freedom. This may be but it is not demonstrated by the theory itself.
In the end all contract theories have the same problems, they assume contracts should be kept and that man has the initial moral capital to enter such contracts. Neither proposition is proved by the contract itself and thus requires something else to do so. It would then be that something else that would then be ultimate grounds of legitimacy for the state.