by Samuel Dixon

I am in my final year of Politics and International Relations (BA) at Loughborough University, having chosen it due to my fascination with how formal mechanisms of power work. During this time, my horizons have been expanded by my immersion in a fascinating range of areas, such as global wars, philosophical debates, and cultural analysis, forming me into a more thoughtful and well-rounded person.

Last year, I undertook Dr Matthew McCullock’s module, The Politics of Star Wars. Although I wasn’t necessarily expecting to be writing essays on the emperor’s machinations or the mishaps of the Jedi Council, I was surprised when the module led us to consider how this fictional universe is shaped by the culture that birthed it. For our coursework, we were given a refreshing task: create a multimedia exhibition to demonstrate a theme present throughout the franchise and its relationship to both academia and culture at large.

Around this time, I was captivated by historian Tom Holland’s highly influential 2019 work, Dominion, in which he argued that the Western mind has been profoundly shaped by the peculiar story of Christianity. As a Christian myself, I had been particularly keeping an eye out for when ancient biblical themes show up in popular culture, and I knew that Star Wars’ plot – despite occurring a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away – shares many features with Christianity. Whether it is a chosen saviour being born without a father, a providential hand guiding events, or familial reconciliation brought about through sacrifice, the parallels abound. But the theme that I was able to find portrayed in many diverse sources was the triumph of the underdog.

One of many striking sources is taken from the script of A New Hope:

Vader: Your powers are weak, old man.

Kenobi: You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Throughout the Christian scriptures, God is presented as one who chooses “the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (The Holy Bible: 1 Corinthians 1:27). This is consistently shown in the Bible by examples such as Israel’s struggle against Egypt, David’s slaying of Goliath, and the climax of a poor, naked, and disgraced man dying on a cross to conquer death forever.

Christianity has been the dominant religion in the Western world for many centuries, outlasting many ideologies that have tried to overthrow it. Therefore, it has seeped into our culture’s conceptual basement, where bedrock beliefs, values and myths influence the rest of society (Nachbar and Lause, 1992, p.21). It is undeniable that other religions such as Buddhism have had a perceivable impact on the Star Wars franchise, but, having shaped the Western culture that produced Star Wars, it is little surprise that Christianity also shaped ideas of heroism and sacrifice present in the films.

Kenobi’s riposte echoes Christ’s passion, responding to mockery by embracing his death as the means by which he would have his victory (knowing full well he would ‘rise again’ in the form of a force ghost). When considered alongside other scenes such as the tiny master Yoda lifting a huge X-wing, or even the evil Darth Sidious taking advantage of Anakin by feigning weakness, it is clear to see that Star Wars appeals to a deeply embedded affinity for the disadvantaged, present in both the audience and in many characters.

Since considering these things in my research, I have become more aware of the prevalence of Christian concepts of heroism in society, and how they have been applied to political culture. Rooting for the underdog has become a clear political motif, as those purporting to represent the ordinary person – the underdog – do so by identifying the political establishment as an out of touch elite exercising disproportionate and illegitimate power. For instance, Trump’s pervasive language of a ‘comeback’ in the face of a ‘rigged’ system, compounded by the survival of assassination attempts, could be interpretated as him playing on the exact same popular disposition that George Lucas appealed to many decades ago: the underdog must win.

Photo by Jimmy Nguyen on Unsplash

Recommended further reading:

• Hilder, Monika B. (2002), “The Foolish Weakness in C.S. Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy: A Feminine Heroic,” VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center, 19: 79
• Holland, Tom (2019). Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. United Kingdom: Little, Brown Book Group.
• Jeffries, Carla H. et al. (2012), “The David and Goliath Principle: Cultural, Ideological, and Attitudinal Underpinnings of the Normative Protection of Low-Status Groups from Criticism,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(8): 1053-1065
• Meyer, David S. (1992), “Star wars, Star Wars, and American political culture,” Journal of Popular Culture, 26(2): 99-115