Subverting Expectations & Nostalgia: How Star Wars is Changing Our View of God

(Image by DarkSideofDesign: https://www.deviantart.com/darksideofdesign/art/Star-Wars-The-Skywalker-Saga-825186534)

 

“No [Luke], I am your father.” It is the line that transformed not only Star Wars but the entire film industry forever. The reveal of Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker’s father is arguably the greatest plot twist in cinematic history. It is what makes Star Wars beloved by so many fans. The anticipation of a great story with a surprise plot twist seems to have become a necessity in cinematic story telling, especially for the Star Wars franchise. The element of surprise has made Star Wars great but it is slowly becoming its Achilles Heel. Moviemakers are preying on audiences desire for nostalgia and subverted expectations so much that plot elements and character development are taking a back seat. It has become impossible to please die hard Star Wars fans who have become overly critical in response to these impossible standards.

I’ve been a Star Wars fanatic ever since I was six years old watching Obi Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn going toe to toe with the devilish Sith Lord, Darth Maul, in The Phantom Menace. What better way, I thought, than to spend my quarantine watching anything and everything Star Wars? Watching all 9 Skywalker Saga films in chronological order over the past two weeks has helped me to put the entire story into perspective. While the Prequel Trilogy has a very fond place in my heart for making me a Star Wars fan, I cannot deny that the Original Trilogy is the best. The latest three installments, however, are a completely different story. 

To put it kindly, the Disney Sequel trilogy to George Lucas’ original Star Wars Trilogy is disappointing.  It’s painfully obvious that over these three films Disney did not have a clear direction of where they wanted to take the story. What expired was a messy 7-hour tug of war between subverting the audience’s expectations and tailoring to the fan’s nostalgia for the original trilogy, whip lashing the audience at every turn for the sake of a plot twist. The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker are carbon copies of A New Hope and The Return of the Jedi respectively, adding very little to the Star Wars lore. Meanwhile, The Last Jedi bravely attempts to venture away from nostalgia and fan service by developing the story around everything the audience wasn’t expecting to see, but fails miserably. It seemed that the writers read every fan theory out there and did the exact opposite. Instead of an exciting second installment to rival The Empire Strikes Back, fans are left with a film that completely ignores the foundational characters of the franchise and insults the audience by telling the fan base “there’s nothing special about the Force or these beloved characters.”

The problems of nostalgic fan service and subverting the audience’s expectations are not confined just to the Star Wars franchise. They have plagued other popular cinematic franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Harry Potter, and the Lord of the Rings. But as depicted in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, the audience's desire for feelings of nostalgia keep these franchises from branching out and expanding their universes; likewise, the audience's expectation to be surprised at every turn results in bad story telling and boring characters that do not enhance the larger universe. Every moviegoer holds to at least one of these expectations, if not both.  These expectations creep into our ideas of everyday living and they have even crept into our Catholic theology and understanding of the nature of God.

Fear of Change Drives Us to Two Extremes 

There is nothing wrong with expecting great things or recalling the goodness of God in our lives; after all we are called to a faith of hopeful expectation and are taught to remember all the good the Lord has given to us. However, the problem lies in the expectation for God to act extraordinarily in our lives at every moment or wanting to live in the past where we are safe and comfortable. Far too often we misunderstand God's power as a means to keep us guessing what will happen next or misunderstand his love as means to satisfy our own desires. Both of these views of God's nature are driven by fear and they greatly impede our progress towards sainthood.

We all desire to see God work in extraordinary ways in our life and we want to feel that we are special to God. We fear that if we do not see God working in this way then it is evidence that he does not love us. While we should seek to increase our faith in God by moving beyond our rationality for a time, the problem becomes when we obsess over seeing God's extraordinary power constantly displayed in our life. We trick ourselves into thinking we have great faith by submitting to God's desires but in reality we force God to submit to our desires; we can no longer tell the difference between his voice and our own. Just like how moviegoers sacrifice a coherent plot for the sake of surprise and subverted expectations, those who constantly look for extraordinary miracles sacrifice their openness and humility to God for the sake of satisfying their own desires. Eventually, their faith will fail and their hearts will become hardened. They will become unwilling to accept God moving in their lives just like the Pharisees, who demanded a sign from Jesus to prove that he was truly the Son of God (Matthew 12:38-45).   

On the other hand, we sometimes get caught up in the feelings of the past so much so that we become fearful to move forward in our faith. The person whose faith relies too heavily on the nostalgia of the past limits the power of God in their lives. We fear the potential pain of the future and convince ourselves that God loves us so much that nothing bad will ever happen as long as we keep doing the things we've always done. But just as a baby has to learn to crawl, walk and eventually run, we too must grow our spiritual leg muscles to go where God calls. Always desiring to stay in a place that is safe and comfortable will keep us imprisoned in fear of the unknown and of change. Like the servant who took his master's talent and buried it in the ground, those who whose faith is dictated by fear will be looked upon as a "wicked and lazy servant" (Matthew 25:26). 

 Why Anakin Became Darth Vader

 (Image by BarackAlma: https://www.deviantart.com/barackalma/art/Untitled-681797707) 

 

The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker perfectly embodies the danger of unrealistic expectations and nostalgia. Throughout the prequel trilogy we witness Anakin struggle with the fear of pain and loss and his determination to become the most powerful Jedi in order to prevent his loved ones from dying. It is this combination of fear and power that ultimately create Darth Vader. Anakin’s fear of change is evident when his wife, Padme, becomes pregnant. Anakin’s fear of her dying in childbirth leads him to seek the powers of the Dark Side of the Force. Controlled by fear, Anakin eventually betrays the Jedi, his wife, and ultimately his own good nature, imprisoning him in agonizing regret of who he’s become. Anakin was unwilling to leave the comfort of the past and refused to see any other outcome than the one he desired.  

Nostalgia and subverting expectations are making us critical of the movies we love and they are also making us critical of God. We need to get back to expecting God to do what's best for us because he loves us. He does not want to trick us nor does he want to see us suffer. God is Love (1 John 4:16). When we learn to fully place our faith and trust in God only then will we be truly surprised by his power and only then will we truly be enchanted by his love.

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