Lessons from Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker
**SPOILER ALERT**
(Although if you are that bothered you’ve probably watched it by now already…)
** spoiler alert **
(Although, if you’re that bothered you’ve probably watched it by now already.)
There were lots of reasons I enjoyed Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was a little kid and sometimes just hearing the music evokes a feeling that, although I can’t quite name or describe, just feels, well, special. Granted there’s clearly some nostalgia at work there and, I’m not totally biased (I’m in no hurry to watch Episode 1 again!) but I do appreciate that I tend to err on the side of favour when it comes to one of my favourite trilogies (which, since Disney got involved, I’ve re-branded in my head as a “nine-ology”.)
But back to the film. One of the reasons I liked Rise of Skywalker so much was because it spoke to me about healing, intuition and the importance of standing up for what you believe in.
Don’t be afraid of who you are.
We are all a mix of the light and shadow side. None of us are all “light”, conversely, none of us are all “shadow” / “the Dark Side.” When we hide from our shadow side it can get a bit “There’s a Monster In The Cupboard” – we’re afraid to look in the cupboard because it’s scary so we lie in bed and look at the cupboard, getting more and more scared and more afraid to look inside.
In Rise of Skywalker Rey accidentally taps into the Dark Side of the Force and it explodes out of her, leaving her stricken with guilt and confused about what happened and why. Rey then reveals that she’s seen images of herself and Ren on the Sith throne. By keeping these images to herself we start to learn that Rey has hidden from her shadow side, afraid of what it might mean. Eventually Rey realises she can embrace her Dark Side powers and yet not be consumed by them, she is free to choose her own path and that is what makes her so powerful.
“I am the Jedi.”
Rey moves forward as her own person, choosing to follow the Jedi path (the Light Side of the Force) and also knowing her shadow side (the Dark Side of the Force), understanding it and not being afraid of it. This acceptance allows her to step free from the fear of her shadow side.
Trusting in the force
The Force, to me, is like your intuition.
There’s two things about the Force:
1) You have to trust it, trust it lives within you.
Sometimes you can try really hard to connect to the Force (or your intuition) but seem to get stuck… or maybe that’s just me… and Rey doing her Jedi training on the Resistance base floating in the air asking the Jedi to be with her and getting frustrated when no-one appears. I’m in good company then!
2) There was always the assumption that the Force was only for special, “chosen”, people, the Jedi. Yet in Rise of Skywalker, we see Finn and Jannah talking about their decision to escape from being Stormtroopers in the First Order and how they “just felt it was what they had to do”. Finn explains that this feeling was the Force and that it was guiding them.
Just like the Force, intuition is something everyone has access to. Sometimes it’s easier to tune in than others but you can get better at hearing / sensing it.
“That’s no Navy, that’s… people!”
This bit made me cry (& still does). Its the final battle (Battle at Exegol) and the Resistance are basically getting hammered and fully believing that this is it. The End. The calls they’ve put out for help across the galaxy have gone unanswered, there’s no-one else left who is prepared to fight the Final Order, they are basically all done for. And then, out of nowhere, ships appear, jumping into the sky from hyperdrive. (This wasn’t the bit that made me cry.)
Officers of the Final Order stand in their battle ship watching – Allegiant General Pryde asks where all these ships came from, saying he thought the Navy was all gone, the Office with him replies “That’s no Navy sir, that’s… people.” (This is when I cried.)
The sheer power of people coming together to help, to stand up for what they believe in, to fight for what they believe in – this was a huge reminder to me that there ARE other people out there who care, who believe, who want to do something positive, to help.
To see the sheer power we have when we come together and unify for a cause bigger than our individual selves. So powerful. We, the people, are indeed a Force to be reckoned with.
