Category: Feature Articles

The Star Wars Expanded Universe: The Pithy Reader’s Companion Vol. I

Posted on September 20, 2013by Feature Articles

It’s pretty well understood at this point that this site is populated wholly by long-time members of TheForce.net’s Jedi Council Literature forums. Having been there myself for fourteen years now, I like to think of my role here as something of a curator—seeking out the best and brightest voices on the forums and giving them a more direct spotlight than a message board might offer.

Sometimes, of course, the best and brightest are also pretty damned snarky. So just over a year ago, inspired by the then-imminent release of Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion, I started a discussion thread called One Sentence or Less, wherein I would pick a story from the Expanded Universe—not quite at random, but not in any specific order either—and forumers would have two days to summarize it in one sentence (four words minimum). Readers then voted for their favorite entries via the forum’s “like” system, meaning that the winners were pretty much out of my hands (though you’ll notice many were penned by “Havac”—ETE staffer Lucas Jackson, and “GrandAdmiralJello”—staffer Jay Shah, proving I have impeccable taste in cohorts). The result is an extensive (but not yet comprehensive) synopsis of the length and breadth of the EU—with a couple imaginary stories thrown in for good measure.

So for you casual fans out there who might want to try out some of the EU, consider this sort of the polar opposite of The EU Explains—some of the winners are serious, many are sardonic, and one may even be an elaborate Gilbert & Sullivan parody—but any truly helpful information is purely coincidental.

Lastly, please note that while I have handed the reigns over to stalwart Lit forumer @instantdeath, the One Sentence or Less thread is still ongoing, and there’s much more left to cover. For my part, I’ll continue updating the articles here from time to time with new winning entries.

And now, with no further ado, I present Volume I of what will be the three-volume Pithy Reader’s Companion: Dawn of the Jedi through Return of the Jedi…

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Forbidden Knowledge: Question Everything Except the Force

Posted on August 23, 2013by Feature Articles

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“There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.” — Jedi Code

But knowledge of what?  The cosmetic difference between Sith and Jedi, and between the Light and Dark sides of the Force, is emotional – are we raging or are we at peace?  Those emotional states are held to be so important because they are said to be conducive to broader goals – namely enforcing one’s will on the Force, or accepting the will of the Force.

The Sith seek power while the Jedi seek serenity, and considering the popularized Buddhist philosophies that influenced Lucas during their creation, it would seem reasonable to wonder if the Jedi focus on knowledge refers to self-knowledge.  Accepting this, however, requires a less than fundamentalist approach to our opening aphorism, and leaves us wondering about the scope of their attitudes to knowledge of other types. Is forbidden knowledge a feature of the Jedi worldview?  Is it troubling if it is?

“Knowledge is power.  Power corrupts.  Study hard.  Be evil.” — Anon.

The Sith seek power at any cost, and have always been portrayed as pursuing it academically as well as physically and spiritually.  Their mysticism is full of ancient texts, rituals, alchemies, biological experimentation and even history and record-keeping.  Contrast this with Jedi training that focuses far more on instinct, on reacting as an extension of the Force and its will, without the need for conscious thought, and the Jedi view of knowledge seems far more focused on transcendental intuition than on any externally verifiable framework.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” — Yoda

If there is no ignorance because the Force provides all knowledge that is needed, that would indeed account for the large number of Jedi derailed by the dark, corrupting Sith temptations throughout the millennia. But this also makes the element of religious faith in a higher power – albeit one that is not actively sentient in the traditional manner of Gods – much less avoidable.  I don’t think that’s at odds with the notion of the Jedi as a monastic order, or with the way they’re portrayed in most Star Wars media, but I do think it’s something we’re not necessarily honest about.

Therefore, if I may present an emblematic case study: the Solo twins.
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Go Figure: Gender Demographics: Common Species

Posted on August 16, 2013by Feature Articles

Introduction

The issue of gender representation in science-fiction generally, and in Star Wars specifically, can be a greatly contentious one, with continued debate ongoing. Such debates tend to focus on specific works, characters, or situations, which is all valuable, but it may prove useful to also look at the picture in a very broad sense. Equally useful is to look at the gender breakdowns of certain species within the Star Wars universe, to see if there are different patterns, or how gender representation may vary across that demographic boundary.

The Big Picture

Wookieepedia identifies individuals by gender, which makes this sort of comparison possible. The Category: Individuals_by_Gender page is therefore the start point for this analysis. A current sample [1]Aug 3, 2013 yields 22486 individuals with gender status. They can be broken down by gender as follows:

Table 1: Individuals by Gender (All-species)

Gender

# of Individuals

Male

16311

Female

4585

Hermaphrodite

202

Unidentified

1388

Total

22486

These results are extremely clear: the Star Wars universe is unequivocally male-dominated, with a male-to-female ratio of roughly 3.5:1 rather than the 1:1 we would expect in nature. The number of hermaphroditic individuals is extremely small compared to the whole and composed almost entirely of Hutts. The number of individuals of unidentified gender is actually rather small. It is considerably less than the proportion of individuals of unidentified species. I hypothesize that the revelatory power of gendered pronouns in non-visual media is likely responsible for that discrepancy.
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References
↑1 Aug 3, 2013

Go Figure: Basic Species Demographics

Posted on August 2, 2013by Feature Articles

There are things everybody knows about Star Wars, about what the universe contains, about the make up of that Galaxy Far, Far Away. Or at least, there are things that everyone believes they know.  The actual truth may be buried elsewhere in the fiction, in the mismatch between narrative perception and what actually appears on the page.

Numbers are one way to peer into that chasm. Unambiguous and absolute by nature, numeric values can be manipulated in ways purely qualitative data cannot. What follows is the first of a series of explorations into what the number can, and cannot, tell us about the Star Wars galaxy. The initial subject is alien populations, and the distribution thereof. Particularly, how often do aliens appear in Star Wars media, and which ones show up when they do?

Note: the following discussion relies heavily on information derived from Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki. This is not ideal, as by its very nature wiki data is incomplete and filled with errors. However, it is the best source available on our beloved fictional galaxy. And the only one with the requisite data volume.

In order to look at the demographics of Star Wars, it makes a certain sense to start by taking absolutely everything together – all characters recorded in all works. This fits with the principle of a single continuity that has so far governed the EU. Additionally, this information has already been recorded, in terms of ‘Individuals’ on Wookieepedia.
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Programmable Souls: On Droids and Narrative

Posted on July 26, 2013by Feature Articles

“He’s more machine, now, than man; twisted and evil.” — Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

“Oh my.” — See-Threepio.

Are droids in Star Wars sentient? Well, we don’t know. And I’m not here to tell you. Sure, I could pull out my New Essential Guide to Droids or Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and discuss whether it was a narrative crime not to include Vuffi Raa in the New Jedi Order, but that would mainly illustrate a broader point: why is this question almost exclusively dealt with in secondary sources? Is Star Wars even interested in answering this question?

A popular theory might be that Star Wars is space fantasy rather than science fiction, and as such the staunchly science fictional tradition of artificial intelligence would break the mythic iconography of a fairy tale in the stars. I’d argue that Pinocchio could just as easily be See-Threepio and that it’s not that Star Wars hasn’t integrated the traditional tale of the Golem into its canon, it’s that it chooses to give it to clones rather than battle droids.

The Phantom Menace needed to establish villains a PG-rated movie would be comfortable slicing up with laser swords in their hundreds – it needed zombies, or monsters. Non-people. The stylistic trappings of a futuristic universe made robots an obvious choice. Threepio and Artoo, on the other hand, fill a very different narrative role and remind me of nothing so much as those magical animals in Disney movies. Those part-comic relief, part-best-friend, part-pet, part-plot-MacGuffin, often sent-by-a-fairy-godparent-with-important-messages, not-quite-people. Droids are magical helpers. Droids are familiars. If this were pure fantasy, Artoo-Detoo might well be Puck. Mechanizing the role is, once again, an easy way to adhere to the decor of the Star Wars universe, but slapping “droid” on both the comedy sidekicks and the faceless minions implies a commonality I don’t actually think is there. The similarities are cosmetic. Thinking of Threepio and Artoo as soulless is, well, soulless, but the movies clearly invite us not to think about battle droids as anything other than automata.
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