Star Wars: Revisiting The Skywalker Bloodline One Last Time Before It All Comes To An End

From ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ to ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, here’s a recap of the lessons the dysfunctional Skywalkers have taught the world.

Star Wars is coming to an end. Well, not technically, because we have The Mandalorian, the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off, Rian Johnson’s trilogy, and a ton of other potential movies in the pipeline. But the story of the Skywalkers, the bloodline that has been the spine of the three Star Wars trilogies, is coming to its conclusion in Rise of the Skywalker. Now, given how I haven’t watched Episode 9, it’s entirely possible that Rey and Kylo Ren will marry at the end, leading to an offspring who will start their own trilogies and pentalogies and whatnot. However, as of now, we have to move on and the only way to do so is by taking a (Sky)walk down the memory lane, remembering the lessons that this particular dysfunctional family has taught us, and the expectations I have from the final chapter.

So, as a ‘90s kid, I didn’t get into Star Wars like everyone else i.e. the original trilogy, the prequels, and then the sequel trilogy. I started things off with the sequel trilogy, re-watched them until I started understanding the flaws that plagued it, and forgot about for almost a decade. But when a new trilogy was announced, which would be set around 30 years after the Return of the Jedi, I thought that it’s time I took my first dip into the original trilogy and find out for myself what the hype is all about. And upon doing so, I realised the amount of classical storytelling is embedded into those movies (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) that later went on to form the crux of the science-fiction genre. Once that was done and I arrived on The Last Jedi, studied the love-hate relationship between Ben Solo (Han Solo and Leia Organa/Skywalker’s son) and Luke Skywalker that I started to wonder that maybe, just maybe, all these movies are more than just lightsabers, symbolism and space battles. Maybe they dissect the burden of a legendary lineage and how one can be corrupted or improved by it. Hence, I began re-watching the whole series under this new light.

Let’s start with Anakin Skywalker (or Ani, if you really love him. I don’t so there’s that). We all know that he turns into Darth Vader, one of the greatest villains in film history, and all that. But what is his transformation from Anakin to Darth tell us? According to me, it’s about the corruption of a person’s soul due to an intergalactic class warfare. See, the prequel trilogy is criticised for its racist depiction of almost all of its alien creatures. But if you look at this era through the lens of class divide (and then squint a little as well because their portrayals are very racist), you will be able to look at the trilogy as a period with heightened classism, which led to the stereotyping of various characters. And in the middle of it all is the representative of the underprivileged and oppressed, Anakin, whose mother is a slave and is fatherless, who is trying to break this wheel by becoming a Jedi. During this endeavour he finds love in Padme and friendship in Obi-Wan. However, the combination of his troubled past, political meddling, incomplete upbringing, and access to unlimited power corrupts him and he goes down a path of murder and genocide. He receives redemption at the hands of his son but by then it’s too late.

Luke Skywalker’s arc is the exact opposite, thanks to the one and only Obi-Wan Kenobi. That man understood the kind of privilege and arrogance that comes with a famous, or in this case infamous, bloodline and hence separated him from that world altogether so that he could grow up as a farm-boy. And so that he could learn about the lowest of lows and later appreciate the highest of highs. Because of that when Luke’s destiny takes him through a comparatively rustic Jedi training, he manages to reject the seduction of the Dark side, despite coming very close to it. Additionally, his awareness about his family history and the source of his Jedi powers, allows him to be humble about his position. In fact, in my opinion, it is that very humility that helps him question the very position (i.e. a legend) that he holds and later question the base on which the Jedi religion stands. That doesn’t mean that he is able to shed all his arrogance. A little bit of it rears its ugly head thereby facilitating the creation of Kylo Ren. Also, Leia deserves a special mention as well because as a Skywalker herself, she uses her powers to bring peace in the galaxy instead of joining hands with the most powerful regime in the universe just so that she could have some level of authority.