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The moral of the Star Wars story
What is right in this story?
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baru wrote: Is that a noble goal - self sacrifice? Is that a world that we want to live in where we are expected to sacrifice ourselves?
Who said anything about expected? The main characters had everyone they loved taken from them. Being able to "stick it to the man" and dying, was better than a long life of submission.
baru wrote: What about all the Imperial troops that died protecting the deathstar - doing their duty?
What about them?
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
The realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
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- Si vis pacem, para bellum.
JamesSand wrote:
To sacrifice yourself for the pursuit of a greater cause such as freedom is the ultimate gift to humanity.
Which reminds me, I may have to watch it again - but I'm not sure that anyone actually emphasises that the Empire is a bad thing?
I understand they create jobs, homes, and have better healthcare distribution to outer systems than anyone else in the game?
Oh sure, Palpatine was a bit of a dick and may or may not have gained power by questionable means, but now that he *is* in power, and a sort of status quo has been established, is there anything to be gained by destabilising the new regime, other than the pent up rage of a few aging warhorses, such as Saw, who, in the end, after apparently losing most of his organs and limbs, accepted his oblivion.
While the movie is a stand-alone film, it doesn't "stand alone" as well as that label would proclaim, because it directly impacts the events of "future" films and was, itself, directly impacted by the "past". In both of those other trilogies we see the Empire being relatively restrictive, and as these movies are American, that might be all it takes to make them "bad".
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JamesSand wrote: Which reminds me, I may have to watch it again - but I'm not sure that anyone actually emphasises that the Empire is a bad thing?
The empires brutality and totalitarian regime is clearly established in previous works. They dont have a dental program, they collect the gold fillings of the dead. The troopers dont retire when they get wounded and collect disability. They are cloned slaves and are simply recycled.
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baru wrote: Is that a noble goal - self sacrifice? Is that a world that we want to live in where we are expected to sacrifice ourselves?
What about all the Imperial troops that died protecting the deathstar - doing their duty?
There are sacrifices on both sides - all sides?
Darth Vader had a few sacrifices himself.
Yes in fact it is the ultimate nobility and it does not matter what kind of world we "want" to live in, we are still stuck living in this one. A world where suffering is enevitable and we will always have to fight for our right to live the way we want.
Troopers were just cloned slaves in that fight so they dont count. In fact we know very little about whether if they could even function as humans outside of their prescribed combat roles. As for vader he brought his suffering upon himself, no one elses fault but his own and he must live with the consequences of that as we all do with the choices we make.
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baru wrote: What is the moral of the story?
I feel that for over the last 10 - 5 years, movies don't seem to have a "moral" - a reason for being made, a purpose, a message. I feel like these movies are made simply to entertain us and distract us. We have lost art for a purpose and fully accept art for art's sake.
As much as I love art, I want it to be purposeful otherwise its just "bread and circuses" to keep the masses dosed with soma.
When I listen to and read all the reviews of Rogue one - not one person references the moral of the story. What was the purpose of this movie besides to make a billion dollars?
What is be-careful for what you wish for ?
you become what you destroy?
We are reflections of each other?
Everything comes at a coast?
What do you think is the moral or message of Rogue one?
What did you think the moral of Rogue One was? Who did you think was right? And what compelled you to come to your conclusion?
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Kyrin,
Would you rather live for something or die for it?
The troopers are just as alive as the rebels.
Why do we get to hate the troopers and love rebels - rebels are killing people too.
In the stories, there are many troopers that work for the empire because rebels killed their family.
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As for hating troopers and loving rebels, we hate the troopers because the represent evil and we love the rebels because they represent good. Star Wars is not real life and so we get to put them in these roles of absolute black and white, thats all there is to it.
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I think if you're going after some deep meaning in it, you're missing the point somewhat. It's a studio movie filling in some blanks in an existing canon, it doesn't pretend to contain any more deep truths than any other action or war film. War is hell, loyalty is both terrifying and beautiful, in the unlikely event you encounter a truly Saturday-morning-comic evil in the real world, do whatever you can to stop it even at the cost of your own life. There's nothing new there.
If we go a little deeper what I can only perceive as holes begin to emerge. The murkiness of the Rebel Alliance and how it operates is evidently just there to add a little grit to the characters, not to introduce any real moral ambiguity. In the end it makes zero difference, the goodies remain good, the baddies remain bad. The motivations of the main villains remains opaque, they want to crush the rebellion because they do and that's that, they have no vision that they are creating something good, no argument that the Rebels have a differing philosophy or worldview. The Empire wants a weapon which can crush insurrection "just because". Good and bad sit on poles and any motion towards greyness is instantly forgiven and forgotten.
It's silly, honestly - which is not to say it's unrealistic, most wars are silly. But yeah, it's silly that the only way these people can deal with their problems is by killing one another.
And in this case, that silliness is fine. It's a movie about a big space gun. But that's all it is.
Reality and the best of the Star Wars Saga films are considerably more nuanced. Enjoy this film for what it is, just because it exists within a universe where moral stories have been told, doesn't mean it necessarily revolves around one itself.
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What is the moral? Usually it's that even the most unlikely of people can do something important. In fact, that seems to be the moral of every Star Wars story.
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