Star Wars: The Mask of Evil

Last updated on: May 4, 2016 at 3:37 pm by Adam Ericksen

Star Wars: The Mask of Evil 2016-05-04T15:37:24-05:00 Adam Ericksen

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My favorite movies growing up were the Star Wars Trilogy. My older brothers loved them, so, of course, I followed their lead. We took the movies seriously, one could even say religiously. “May the Force be with you,” someone would say. “And also with you,” was the faithful reply. Since our devotion to Star Wars was borderline excessive, I feel a bit heretical giving these movies any kind of critique of violence, so I’ll try to allow Star Wars to critique its own violence.

First, let’s take a small step backwards. One of the reason we loved Star Wars was because good and evil were clearly defined. There was the “dark side” of the force and its opposite, the “light side” of the force. You could tell who the good guys were easily; they looked a certain way. They wore light clothing and didn’t wear masks; their facial expressions were easy to see and identify with. Their motivations were pure and good. Evil was just as easy to identify. The bad guys either wore black clothing or a white-armored suit. They were difficult to identify with because most of them wore a mask. They were driven by an evil pursuit of power that destroyed innocent lives, communities, and even whole worlds. It’s always comfortable to know good from evil, isn’t it?

But then . . . Star Wars had to go and shatter everything I thought I knew about good and evil. The scene below haunted me as a child.

The scene occurs in Dagobah, where Luke is being trained in the ways of the Force by Master Yoda. Just before the scene, Yoda gives Luke an important lesson about good and evil:

Luke: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?

Yoda: You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.

Okay. First, why does Luke even ask the question? Isn’t it obvious who is “good” and who is “evil”? Ahhh man. Right when we thought we knew good and evil, we begin to question our assumptions.

After this conversation, Luke is led into a cave. Before he enters the cave, he asks Yoda what’s in it. “Only what you take with you,” Yoda replies. Luke takes with him a mythical understanding of violence. It’s the myth about violence that infects every culture, even the culture of Star Wars. The myth tells us that good people use good violence and bad people use bad violence. Armed with the myth, Luke senses evil in the cave, so he takes his weapons with him.

“Your weapons,” Yoda says, “you will not need them.” Luke doesn’t need his weapons, but he takes them anyway because he’s afraid of what he will find. In the cave Luke discovers his greatest fear; a battle with the one he perceives to be the personification of evil: Darth Vader. As the battle with Vader ensues, their light sabers clash and Luke quickly strikes the death blow, severing Vader’s head. His helmet falls to the ground, then Vader’s mask explodes.

And there it is. Luke’s face, staring back at him in the mask of evil. Is this what happens when we use violence? Do we become the “evil” we think we are opposing? Luke’s motivation for using violence is not clear. Was it for defense, or aggressive attack? This is the problem with violence. We all think we are following Yoda’s rule to use violence only in defense. We defend our “good” or our “right” to something with violence. This creates a cycle of violence, as each side to a conflict justifies violence against the other in defense of whatever they deem “good.” Is there a way out of that cycle? Does Star Wars reveal the way out? Certainly, this scene’s critique of violence is a good step forward.

Image: Screenshot from YouTube.

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