STAR WARS, THE RISE OF SKYWALKER : SHAKESPEARE REDUX
Two heroes:
One reclaiming his family, and going home after all.
One rejecting her ancestors, and finding a new home after all.
Ghosts and apparitions.
The intrusion of the supernatural instead of just the magic of science fiction.
The space opera takes a Shakespearean turn:
The visit of a Hamlet-like father claiming the son back, away from the dark side;
The mother conjuring up Ben out of Kylo Ren.
The ingredients of tragedy:
Conflicts and dilemmas, hesitations and choices, murders and sacrifices.
Human passions at war with themselves
Courage and fear, forgiveness and resentment, anger and peace.
A departure from the technological and robotic galore.
An episode clearly refocusing on what makes the human story an epic one: Journeys undertaken to articulate an identity for yourself even if it means rejecting your original bloodline,
Or to uphold your name (some viewers might remember John Proctor in The Crucible)
Or to claim one.
Against all odds, and expectations,
Reverse the course of destiny,
And turn flaws into strengths.
The blood family and the family you create through loyalty and fighting for the common good.
Betrayals and intrigues conjuring up Macbeths and other Richards or Iagos of the Dark Side.
With the occasional lightness of Twelfth nights and porter scenes comic relief.
Shouts and murmurs, whispers and screams.
Hands that kill, or give life.
Rey and Kylo Ren: twins of some sort after all—a dyad in the Force.
Romeo and Juliet-like, fighting on the same side, after all,
Delivering a better world for others.
Together.
Death held at bay by Love,
An ultimate sacrifice and gift.
A life redeemed, after all.
The urgency of ethical imperatives clearly situated against the backdrop of our overall moral bankruptcy.
Enter natural elements and climatic protagonists:
Glaciers, lush forests or raging seas.
Tempests to come, and be feared.
Tiny humans strut and fret about the stage in the face of an adversity greater than what they can imagine—with or without the stars, other players that have their exits and entrances.
The proper scale of our humanity in the galaxy,
Brief candles that can be put out indeed.
And the proper measure of our greatness too: mercy, compassion and Love,
And their sound and fury
Signifying something.
Marie Lienard-Yeterian