If your problem (and you’re bound to have one if you’re a Star Wars fan reading a piece by another Star Wars fan) is with me calling the movie a folk tale then strap in and don’t get cocky: I know a few manoeuvres. You don’t need to see my identification, by the way.
Vladimir Propp was a Russian clever person of note during the early Soviet era although his work was unknown in the Western World until 1958, by which point he was a much older clever person of note. Why am I troubling your space brains with him? His specialisms included folklorism and while his ‘Seven Characters’ theory was based upon Russian folk tales it has been applied to plays, novels, movies and other more general types of narrative since ‘The Morphology of the Folktale’ was translated into English in 58.
For Propp there are seven archetypes which generally exist within any tale. On occasion one or other of the archetypes may be lacking from a specific story but overall the theory still stands to this day, even if we include modern modes of storytelling such as video gaming or graphic novels. The seven characters he identifies are:
1. The villain (struggle against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the her or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. The false hero (perceived as a good character in the beginning but emerges as evil)
6. The dispatcher (character who makes a lack or need known and sends the hero off on their quest)
7. The hero (AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess)
Getting the picture or do you still imagine that hokey critical theories and ancient texts are no match for a good blaster at your side? I’ll walk you through them. These are the droids you’re looking for.
- So the villain is obviously Darth Vader even if in the 1977 movie his struggle with themain hero is restricted to sniffing his Force credentials on the wind like a stinky bloodhound and then chasing his backside in a pimped-up Tie Fighter. He’s dressed all in black, for heaven’s sake (see also ‘Star Wars is a Western’ which I haven’t actually written yet but I will. Oh I will.)
- The donor has to be Obi Wan. In folk tales it’s often a crusty old person who passes on a magical artefact to the young protagonist and they don’t come older or crustier than that crazy old man in the desert. He not only gives Luke Skywalker (skip ahead a second to number 7 if you must) ‘his father’s’ old lightsaber, which is a pretty magical artefact, he also teaches him that a million voices can cry out in terror and then be silenced. Quite why he was educating Luke about the protests Tony Blair ignored before going to war with Iraq, who can say, but he also taught him about the Force itself.
- While he might feel somewhat aggrieved to be considered a ‘helper’ Han Solo is not the hero of the piece. He’s a classic anti-hero, the likes of which crop up more readily in modern narratives, perhaps, but there is no denying the fact that without his help, his ship, his guts and lust for Leia…er…a reward…er…insert something more honourable here yourself…without Han, things would be far worse and Luke would die at the end.
- This princess is actually a princess. She very much does not marry the hero, however. That would be sick. I mean, just thinking about the fact that they kiss is disgusting. I have to watch that little exchange over and over to judge how disgusted by it I am on any particular day. She is the object of the hero’s initial pursuit, though. Just don’t leave them alone together in a bedroom before someone can tell them a little more family history.
- Oh hi, Guido, I was just going to see your boss. Tell Jabba I’ll explain number 5 after I’ve done six and seven.
- The dispatcher. A clinical, almost mechanical word. Which is extremely appropriate. The character who sends the hero off on his quest in the first place, who makes the hero aware of a lack of connection between a secret message from a princess and a mad magician, is none other than your favourite droid R2D2. “Help me Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope.” If Luke had not seen this glimpse of Leia’s message he’d have carried on being a farm boy forever. Or until the sand people came back in greater numbers and ate his face off. (If you say C3PO is your favourite droid you’re just weird).
- And the hero is Luke. We’ve established this already. Duh!
Which leaves us with the small matter of who character number 5, the false hero of the tale might be. If I were including the other two films of the trilogy then I might argue that we see this archetype turned on its head and reversed as false villains who later turn out to be less villainous than we expect. We see this embodied by both Lando and, eventually, Vader himself. But I’m not including ‘Empire’ and ‘Jedi’ so shut up you near-sighted scrap pile.
No, the false hero of Star Wars, the first (and second best) individual movie is George Lucas. In 77 he gives us one of the most iconic and near-perfect science-fiction films of all time. We love him. He’s our hero. Incidentally he actually repeats this feat three years later, presenting us with an even better movie. So, for two thirds of the initial trilogy he makes us feel like he is the most incredible writer/director in the universe. Then he finally shows his Sith roots. He starts to spoil it with those goddamned Ewoks. And then he mugs us all off with a massive delay so that we are totally willing to go to the cinema to watch the prequel trilogy even though we’ve grown up and kissed other humans on the mouth (not our own sisters) by the time these films get made. And then, and then.
Well, do I need to say why he becomes the ultimate villain of the whole Star Wars verse? Let’s start with Jar Jar Binks, shall we? Then there’s the fact that Attack of the Clones spends about fifteen hours demonstrating what we already know – the fact that Anakin Skywalker and Princess Amidala are going to, you know, do it and make twins – when the love affair between Han and Leia in the originals is conveyed far more effectively and less didactically with a handful of surly exchanges between the pair. Darth Maul and his redunculous sex-toy lightaber, anyone? Ewan McGregor’s appalling attempt to impersonate the castrated public schoolboy vowels of Alec Guinness? Okay, that one is McGregor’s own fault unless Lucas refused him a voice coach. Let’s say Lucas DID refuse McGregor a voice coach; I loathe Lucas. He killed a once precious thing. He’s a villain. He's evil after all. I like Vader more than I like him. And then, and then…he sold the rights to bloody Disney!
Which might not be awful as they were at least smart enough to bring in J.J. Abrams as director for the 7th movie. Time will only tell if Abrams blots his own copybook in the same spectacular manner Lucas did. There is an echo of the pre-pubescent boy I used to be screaming “I’ve got a bad feeling about this!” right now.
*Pauses*
*Adopts Peter Griffin voice*
Shut up, Meg, I know I ended up including all the other films too.
*Pauses again*
*Same voice*
And that’s why Star Wars is a folk tale.
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