The Star Wars Cycle of Storytelling

I've been surprised to learn that there are people who are quite unhappy with
The Last Jedi. One of the complaints is that none of the original heroes remain.

This article makes the point clearly that it is painful for fans to have heroes age and become secondary characters. There are also complaints that the film did not meet the expectations of fans, that we didn't really find out about Rey's family, didn't find out where Snoke came from, and many other complaints about details.

On the other hand, there were complaints that The Force Awakens was too much of a retread of A New Hope.

I see Star Wars as recurring cycle of tried and true storytelling, and The Last Jedi fits right in.

I have written before about "A Heroes Journey", the standard formula that pervades ancient Western myth, identified decades ago by Joseph Campbell, and which we see so often in stories today. A young reluctant hero is called to a journey that takes him out of his ordinary experience and discovers a villain or threat to which he has a hidden connection.  He has companions who help him as he is tested, and an older mentor.  The older mentor is "taken away", and the young hero most stand up to the villain alone, eventually triumphing and returning to his ordinary life.  (Note: In the ancient myths studied by Campbell, the hero was always male.)

Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings are all basically this same "Hero's Journey" story.

In The Force Awakens, most of the focus was on the young hero, Rey, and her companions.  Han Solo became her older mentor, and he was "taken away."  In The Last Jedi, more of the focus is on Luke, now Rey's older mentor. In due course, he also leaves the stage, in a way that is similar to how Obi Wan left in A New Hope.

We know that Leia will not return for the next film, and other possible older mentors, like Vice Admiral Holdo, are also gone. In perfect keeping with Campbell, it is time for the young reluctant hero to stand up and directly confront evil.

We also know that the older mentors have histories in which they were likely the younger heroes.  We got the history of Obi Wan in episodes 1, 2 & 3.  The Fantastic Beasts movies will tell us more about Dumbledore's youthful adventures.  Gandalf implied past adventures with the family of Bilbo.

So in a story spanning decades, it is not surprising to see changing roles.

When we look at Star Wars as a recurring cycle of storytelling, which I am convinced is how the writers and producers see it, it allows us to project things we might see in the final movie of the trilogy:

1.  Luke will return in astral form.  Han might also.

2.  Rey WILL be revealed to have some sort of hidden family connection to Ben, in spite of what will turn out to be Ben's misdirection about her heritage. This also means a hidden connection to all of the Skywalker and maybe Solo ancestry. Whatever the answer is will explain the symbolism of Rey seeing multiple versions of herself, receding into the distance, in the mirror.

3.  Ben will have some sort of redemption and atonement, as Anakin did before him.  I still think that he wants to complete his grandfather's work by "balancing the force."  Nobody is clear what defines this "balance" but he presumably has his own ideas about it. 

Of course, these points leave out a wealth of detail, but they are the recurring plot elements to be expected from Star Wars as a Joseph Campbell Hero's Journey.  Remember, however, that as Campbell also said, it is not what is similar that defines a story.  Creativity is in innovation, i.e. how the formula is used in a way that feels new and fresh.

Formula Scripts in TV and Movies

The growth of original series on streaming video services and cable has resulted in an explosion in the demand for scripts and "pitches" for series, not to mention movies, many of which never end up getting produced.

Nevertheless, many of these scripts, as diverse as they are, follow the same basic formulas.  One could argue that a "formula script" lacks creativity...but creativity actually resides in how new it feels, i.e. what is different, as opposed to what is similar to other uses of the formula.

Here are three storytelling formulas that we see over and over, including one that I consider to be particularly troubling:

1.  The Hero's Journey.  

In the 1940s, Joseph Campbell studied myths from many cultures (mostly Western) and found common elements.  A young reluctant hero is called to a journey that takes him out of his ordinary experience and discovers a villain or threat to which he has a hidden connection.  He has fellow travelers who help him as he is tested, and an older mentor.  The older mentor is taken away, and the young hero most stand up to the villain alone, eventually triumphing and returning to his ordinary life.

Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings are all basically this same "Hero's Journey" story.  Even the original Die Hard movie used a lot of elements from this formula.

Because this formula is so familiar, writers use it all the time, or at least elements from it. The familiarity allows readers/listeners/viewers to easily engage in the story.

2.  Save the Cat

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
was published in 2005 and rapidly became the "bible" for many movie writers.  Save the Cat software is even available to help writers structure their story to Snyder's sequence of "beats."  If you know what to look for, you can find these "beats" in many movies and even TV shows.

At one level, Save the Cat is an interpretation of how to translate Joseph Campbell into visual storytelling terms.  At another level, it allows writers to make use of the psychology of the audience in terms of primary and secondary (A & B) stories, major milestones in the plot, and pacing.

Follow those links and you may be surprised.

3. Dystopia

Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia.  In dystopian stories, times are dark, there is little hope, and people are generally bad.  Such stories are often set in the future, with totalitarian governments, dehumanized citizenry, rampant crime, and environmental disaster.  Brave New World, 1984, and Lord of the Flies were dystopian, but in the last decade, we have been deluged by dystioian settings for movies, books, and TV shows.  Sometimes the heroes are admirable, but sometimes not.

Science Fiction writer and futurist David Brin has call dystopian stories lazy, cliched, and cookie cutter.  They are easy stories to tell, resonate with conspiracy theory and suspicion of authority, and they often do not require nuanced characters, which makes it a lot easier for the writers to create.

What does it mean?

The main goal of the movie, television, and publishing industries is to make money.  To make money, they need to produce content that audiences will buy.

That is why so many stories today follow the Hero's Journey, Save the Cat and Dystopian structures.  They resonate with people and gain acceptance more easily than some unusual storytelling approach, but to their foundation of familiarity.

The question media critics and even psychologists must ask is how these stories affect our psyches. The media has incredible power to influence people's perceptions and actions.  Heroes, like Luke, Harry, and Frodo, may well subtly influence people to do what is right in the real world, not just what is easy.

But how about the modern dystopian orientation of story after story? Does it subtly influence people to see conspiracies everywhere, distrust authority, accept thoughtless ideology, and expect people to conform to the dictates of the perceived majority?

Waves of dystopian fiction usually come during times of social unrest and war.  Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 459, and Animal Farm all stemmed from the Cold War and deep concerns about communism. Today's stories are written against a background of seemingly endless war, unstoppable terrorism, and fake news.

This recent New Yorker article suggests that for every present-day dilemma, there is a dystopian novel to match it, and that the resulting "radical pessimism" has resulted in the unravelling of trust in science and the weakening of a commitment to political pluralism.

I think that dystopian story after dystopian DOES affect our national mood and makes "the ends justify the means" more and more acceptable, when it shouldn't be. So if the "heroes" are unlikable and do unethical things to each other, don't expect me to watch.

The Orville

The Orville premiered on FOX this evening.  What did I think of this new series that combines comedy and drama in a space travel SF series?

I must confess that I have been looking forward to this series since I first heard about it, because I like science fiction about likable characters who are professional, yet fun.

The reviews from people who have seen advance screenings were not helpful helpful. Predictably, reviews from science fictiony sources tended to be more positive, whereas reviews from other kinds of media observers were not.  So I have been waiting to see for myself.

Well -- I liked it.

I'm not talking about the plot in this post, other than to say that there was some nice drama, with lots of comedic asides thrown in.

One of the things I liked most was something that some of the reviewers have panned -- that so much of the pilot episode was so familiar.  Stylistically, The Orville draws on Star Trek, plus a few tributes to GalaxyQuest and at least one scene that reminded me of a Firefly scene.

I think the producers made many of their scenes familiar as a way of drawing in viewers.

Fans KNOW that the captain does a grand fly-around of the new starship. It just seemed right.  We know that when the ship first leaves the spacedock/space station, there is grand music as it pulls away.  We are not surprised by a holodeck, but a certain plot twist involving a holodeck character feels creative.

When I teach media criticism, we learn that so many stories are similar in broad brush strokes because familiarity makes them accessible to the audience.  The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the original Star Wars all follow basically the same plot outline, based on Joseph Campbell's "Heroes Journey."

Because many stories are so similar, the creativity is in the innovation, or what is different and surprising. Joss Whedon is particularly good at appearing to take a story in a familiar direction, but then having it turn into something unexpected.

Malcolm Reyonds saying "If I'm not back in one hour you take the ship and you...come rescue me" is a perfect example of this, because we EXPECT him to say "get the crew to safety."

The Orville makes use of this expected/unexpected formula.  There are many elements that we find familiar from Star Trek and other past space travel series, which give a comfortable feel to the story. But there are surprises and new situations, as well.

Truth be told, there are also a few juvenile echos from creator and star Seth McFarland's "Family Guy" which I could have lived without, but they did not overwhelm the story.

First episodes of any series are usually a little uneven.  Episode one of The Orville is enough to get me to watch again next week, which is the main goal of a pilot episode. I think that there is some good potential here.

Newt - A typical Hufflepuff

I've seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a couple of times. It was not quite what I expected, but I see exactly what J. K. Rowling was doing with the characters, and I enjoyed it.