I Burst SW Fandom's Favorite Tropes

[lazypadawan]

There are the things that among the hardcores in SW fandom and among the media that are accepted as true. But are they really true? Let me argue otherwise:


Trope: Luke is a whiner

Fact: Luke is often unfairly characterized as a whiner, often by fanboys who think an earnest, gentle, relatively nice guy isn't cool enough for them. If you really pay attention to the movies, Luke is whiny in a couple of scenes in ANH. Most notable is the first scene where we "meet" him and he whines about going to pick up some power converters instead of having to clean up Artoo and Threepio. But that's the point. Luke is barely out of his teens and pretty much acts like it. How many 19/20 year old guys would rather do chores than hang out with their buddies? Especially if they lived on a dusty desert farm on a crummy planet? Over the course of his adventures though, Luke matures. I didn't think he was whiny in TESB or in ROTJ. Especially not in ROTJ. He protests here and there, but if you're going to count the occasional complaint or question about why patricide is an awesome idea, wouldn't that make just about every SW character a whiner?

Trope: Anakin is a creepy stalker

Fact: Anakin might have plenty of issues but stalking isn't one of them. Having intense feelings for someone doesn't unto itself make you a "stalker." Anakin didn't spend those interim 10 years following Padme around, taking pictures of her, sending her lots of unwanted letters and comlink calls, or trying to peek into her house. Unlike a guy from another fandom I could mention, he's not secretly in her bedroom watching her sleep ;). People base their assertion Anakin's a stalker on a comment in AOTC that Padme shut her security cameras off because she didn't like Anakin watching her and on the "oh noez u r making me uncomfortable" stare during the packing scene. Padme wasn't really creeped out by Anakin. If she was, why the hell would she agree to go off alone with him? No, it's the reaction most women would have if there was a mutual attraction. The woman wants to preserve her "mystery" so to speak until the time of her choosing. Anakin's amused because he knows he's gotten to her. When Padme makes it clear later on in the film that they cannot proceed any further with a romantic relationship, Anakin backs off. A real stalker wouldn't care if the woman wants his attention or not. This is why we have things called "restraining orders." It's not until Padme declares her love for him that Anakin behaves romantically toward her again.

Trope: Midichlorians sucked all of the mystery out of the Force

Fact: Midichlorians seemed really offensive to the peanut gallery until ROTS hinted that maybe, just maybe, manipulation of the little buggers by Darth Plageuis created Anakin the Demon Spawn. In that case, it's cool. But a few still say that the Force was some cool mystical thing until the midichlorian explanation ruined it. These are the kind of people who would let a physics class turn them into atheists. All the midichlorian thing does is explain why some people have greater ability in the Force than others. After all, Obi-Wan wasn't training Han and Chewie how to be Jedi. If it were that simple, the Order wouldn't have been wiped out and even if their numbers were seriously culled, all you had to do was find an instruction book and train a whole new army of them just like that. The midichlorians serve as a baseline as well; we know Yoda is way powerful, so he has a high concentration of them. Displaying that Anakin's count is even higher illustrates two things: Anakin is different from other sentient beings including other Jedi and his potential outstrips EVERYONE before him. This adds to the story of his fall. It doesn't change what the Force is.

My favorite explanation of why the midis were a good plot device: without them, Palpatine may as well have spent his time worrying about Han Solo's birth and Wedge's growing skills as a pilot.

Trope: Uncle Owen is a mean ol' bastard

Fact: As I've noted on someone else's meta on this subject, I'd seen countless stories in fanzines where Uncle Owen is portrayed as a bitter, jealous, resentful meanie. You'd think Owen and Beru were like the Dursleys, forcing Luke to live in a closet until Obi-Dumbledore shows up to take him away. Owen is very much the sort of guy who believes in what's right in front of him. He's not a dreamer. He is cranky and gruff. But he's not cruel. You don't see him beat Luke or anything. Owen is what you'd call a threshold guardian but that doesn't make him a bad guy. Some fans make hay out of his comment that Luke better have the moisture vaporators fixed or there will be "hell to pay," but it could mean anything from "I'm going to ground him" to "we're screwed financially." I also think Owen was genuinely frightened for what could happen to Luke should he venture out into the wider galaxy. He saw what his stepbrother was like after all and he had to have known the Sith would want Luke in their clutches if they knew about him.

There are more, but maybe I'll get to those in another post...

Comments

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

Yes. Especially 1 and 4.

[ashmh.livejournal.com]

Pretty good. But I doubt the rabid fanboys would be willing to accept your arguments.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Nothing can convince a rabid fanboy. They have an answer for everything.

[sakuratsukikage.livejournal.com]

I agree with you so much I cannot express it.

And I will elaborate on this when I have brain cells to do it with :P. But yes.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I agree, especially with #1. Most of us whine as teenagers, it's in our DNA. :-p

[angelskiss.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything. Especially 1 & 2.

[matril.livejournal.com]

Very much agree. Luke complains no more than the average teen, and he grows out of it pretty darn quickly. If they think he's still being whiny at the end of ESB, well, for goodness sake, how would you react to getting your hand chopped off and having the hand-chopper tell you he's your father? :P That's not whining; that's expressing legitimate pain! I personally have a soft spot in my heart for Owen and Beru - they're largely responsible for Luke's upbringing, after all, and I'm sure it's their principled way of life that instills a strong moral core in Luke. I'd be pretty darn nervous about Luke leaving too, if I knew what his father had become.

These are the kind of people who would let a physics class turn them into atheists. Ooo, that's a great way of putting it. :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I now believe Luke's greatest advantage is that he was raised by normal people, not slavers or mystics.

[auhow.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you said.

[vanimy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this! This was well-expressed. My sentiments exactly. I don't understand all those arguments myself. I never thought Luke was whiny. Even when I wasn't too fond of him before, I thought he was rather bland, but not particularly whiny, except in ANH (and only at the beginning).

Anakin being a stalker is an old one too. You quoted the right scenes that warrant this accusation for some people. And you were right to point out he wasn't watching her sleep in a dark corner of her bedroom or following her around for 10 years. Besides, he said many times he would do anything she asked and he did back off when she told him it was not possible. Why in the hell are people still convinced he is a stalker after that?? Some literature characters don't back off and continue to try with the woman and no one finds them creepy. WTH?

You nailed it concerning the midichlorians. I never understood the point. It's not like they said the Force was actually something anyone could manipulate, a little like magic being actually some tricks... It's still mysterious just like life after death in the GFFA.

I never really cared for Uncle Owen. But he didn't seem to be a brute to me. You'll never stop the fanfiction clichés anyway. A lot of those clichés come from one or two lines in a movie and are turned into a trend...

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Or things are created whole cloth out of nowhere!

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Some literature characters don't back off and continue to try with the woman and no one finds them creepy.

...or other SW characters, like Han. When was the last time anyone called him a stalker?

I never understood the point. It's not like they said the Force was actually something anyone could manipulate, a little like magic being actually some tricks.

Exactly. There's still nothing that explains why certain beings/bloodlines have higher midi counts. Just that having a high midi count happens to be a common factor among Jedi. It's not like one could inject themselves with a syringe of Jedi blood and suddenly start levitating things.

[hvaharu.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of this, of course.

I would extend #1 to Anakin as well. He really only whines in one scene before his mother's death - which to me was understandable; Anakin's always been a person of deep feelings, and after a decade he's finally found someone he can express those feelings to (Padme) who won't lecture him for doing so. Plus, as my astute younger sister has observed, he's also just a teenage boy who wants the pretty girl to feel sorry for him. ;) But somehow he gets slapped with the "whiny" label. In this case, though, I suspect it's foreknowledge of Anakin's DOOM - and the comparison to his "whiny" son - that amplifies the negative sentiment, prompting the generalization of "yeah, all those Skywalkers are such whiners." ;) (Oddly, I found Anakin just as "whiny" in the CW movie - especially when Ahsoka first shows up - as he was in AotC, yet for some reason he seems to be considered more likable there. Go figure.)

These are the kind of people who would let a physics class turn them into atheists.

I'm not sure we can apply those same standards to the GFFA (GL himself has always been iffy about comparing the Force to God). It's not like we can quantify a God the way the GFFA can quantify midis/Force-potential, or that we have people visibly performing mysterious feats like mind-reading or telekinesis on a daily basis like the Jedi Order. For plenty of people in our universe, physics may provide a perfectly sufficient explanation.

That said, I agree with your basic point: just because we have a way of quantifying Force-potential now doesn't mean we have an explanation for why certain people end up with high midi counts and others don't. (Heredity seems to be part of it, as implied by Luke and Leia, and Qui-Gon questioning Anakin's paternity, but it's certainly not the only explanation.) For that matter, we also don't know why strength in the Force endows "superhuman" abilities. Also, if it were somehow possible to scientifically manipulate midichlorian count, I doubt the Jedi Order's ranks would be spread so thin. And I especially like the point that Palpatine may as well have been worrying about Han or Wedge. ;)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

What I meant is the argument that the Force is something mystical and quasi-religious but the midichlorians are hard science, so the Force isn't mystical anymore. It's not my argument or yours but there are fans who think that way...if there's a practical explanation, it negates a spiritual one. Of course the 64,000 dollar question is whether the Force was meant to be something spiritual in the first place.

[tpf1138.livejournal.com]

Here. Here!

Particularly as regards the midichlorians. How people operate under the belief that that Midis ARE the Force and not simply a biological conduit, as the movie states, that aids living, sentient beings in 'knowing' the energy field that Obi-Wan described to Luke.

The two ideas are not contradictory. The Midis do not rewrite the concept of the Force, or change its meaning. They simply add another facet. And quite a clever one at that.

When it's recognized that one of the primary thematic purposes of the Force is to espouse the merits of community and symbiosis, then the worthiness of the concept of an infinitesimal life-form which is the basis for ALL life, residing within the cells of EVERY living thing, and acting as link between the physical and the metaphysical should become clear.

And it should be noted that Han Solo has a Midichlorian count. So does Chewy. And Lando. And even Governor Tarkin. Every. Living. Thing.

Some just have more of the little blighters than others.

It was always part of Star Wars: "The Force is strong in my family..."

Right there; Force acumen moving along familial, genetic, BIOLOGICAL lines.

The Force ties to nature. It is about that ineffable something that binds us all together as we spin chaotically through the void. The sense that we are tethered to each other and nature. By creating a microscopic organism that allows us to KNOW the shape of those ineffable bounds Lucas actually strengthens and deepens the whole concept.

As an aside: It is this idea of mutual symbiosis that forms the basis for the notion of 'Balance' in the Force. Balance is harmony, all creation bound bound together in an interdependant cooperative. The Sith upset that. They create disharmony. Imbalance.

Anyway I should stop typing...

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

That was well said!

It also brings up another trope I need to address sometime, that the imbalance in the Force was created by the number of Jedi exceeding the number of Sith.

[sabreman64.livejournal.com]

As an aside: It is this idea of mutual symbiosis that forms the basis for the notion of 'Balance' in the Force. Balance is harmony, all creation bound bound together in an interdependant cooperative. The Sith upset that. They create disharmony. Imbalance.

Of course symbiosis is one of the themes of The Phantom Menace. The symbiosis between the midichlorians and all living things and the symbiosis between the Naboo and the Gungans. I think it's worth pointing out that midichlorians are based on real-life mitochondria. (There's a feature on midichlorians over on TheForce.net that people may find interesting.) I feel that the prequels are much deeper films than they appear (although that's something that Lucas's critics will never agree with).