The Skywalker Paradigm: A conversation about Star Wars
The Skywalker Paradigm is a way of viewing the Star Wars movies that adds enormous clarity to every facet of the story.
I'm not trying to tell you about the plot holes in Star Wars - I'm telling you there are NO plot holes in Star Wars.
This is not a fan edit.
This is not fan fiction.
Nothing else is needed but the movies themselves to prove every point of the Paradigm.
No novelizations.
No Expanded Universe.
In fact, the movies themselves can be used to refute obviously misleading or misinterpreted ascertions of such ancillary media (we will indeed be disussing a great deal of the Expanded Universe, but I usually treat it like comic book renditions of historical events).
The movies stand by themselves, like a History Channel documentary about World War II, pieced together from found footage and records.
The story is there already - you've just always misunderstood it.
It's okay - everybody else did too.
-- The case I'm making is that wether we treat these movies as historical events or a thematically arcing story the coincidences are too numerous to discount. Lucas himself made the monumental effort of putting together the prequels to actually COMPOUND the coincidences! It's difficult for me to see the 'Paradigm' as a distorted view pieced together from disjointed shards of an otherwise cohesive narrative. If feels more like I've stumbled backwards into the real story --
February 3rd, 2011
uh oh
So, a couple things. The site's name has been changed from 'an exercise in propaganda analysis' to 'a conversation about Star Wars'. There's been a struggle with currentness, continuity, and completeness when in comes the The Paradigm. I've given it as a lecture and that's not really the preferred format. The best way to figure out what this is all about is really a guided conversation. A discussion that incorporates the movies, the Expanded Universe, the making-of features, the cut scenes, the cartoons, the parodies, the fan service, the cosplay... It can only be fully understood in this all-inclusive, post-modern, meta kind of way.
Indulge for a moment - there's more fun to be had than merely watching a movie :)
On that note, I've been watching the new trilogy a lot lately with the help of RiffTrax and Red Letter Media (the only way to stomach them, except maybe the dusty Silent Editions). I treat the original trilogy as documentarian archived footage The prequel trilogy I treat a productions - staged affairs put together AFTER Luke rises to power They star Jimmy Smitts and Samuel L Jackson (PURPLE lightsaber??) and are obviously shot against digital backdrops
However, a couple things have crept up on me...
These are wild assertions even for me. I don't think I can actually prove these two ideas - a video mashup could easily be done to showcase the new trilogy's Obi Wan as an older Luke. Similarly, a great many scenes of Palpatine and little orphan Anakin could be smashed together to make it look a LOT like these two are very much the King and the Prince
January 8th, 2011 saw the return of the Skywalker Paradigm to the public sphere.
The many changes and revelations of the previous four years finally took shape in the form of a new lecture format.
In the process I found out about fans of the Paradigm that I didn't know were out there.
So I figured it was time once again to spread the word and put the truth about Star Wars and Darth Vader online to herald a new age of understanding and healing - to make Star Wars fun again :)
Vader is not only the true hero of the original trilogy, he is the head of a family of galactic royalty - he is keeping his son at his only family home and he is working with his daughter to save entire worlds from destruction.
This was a shattering realization.
In piecing together this story I had allowed myself to be misled by thinking that Vader and Leia were unconnected, even though the movies spell it all out.
I had thought of Vader as a valiant hero fighting against royalty - hardly a greater cause.
The truth is that Vader isn't fighting royalty. Vader IS royalty.
If Vader is king AND he's the hero, well, I found myself in the embarrassing and thoughroughly distressing position of explaining in detail the virtues of a king.
Ick.
I floundered for several years, trying at times to somehow fuze in my mind that a king could even BE a hero - I do so despise all things regal; this suggestion that somehow genetic heritage is right and good.
My own philosophies and studies have led me to regard with suspicion any aristocracy or house of royalty.
For a time I nearly dropped the Skywalker Paradigm altogether in disgrace and disgust.
And yet... And yet Vader IS the hero and the Star Wars mythos permeates the culture I find myself in.
And, as it turns out, Vader wasn't born into royalty - Vader was born a slave.
The Paradigm is dead! Long live the new Paradigm!
The realization that Darth Vader is working with his daughter to thwart the looming threat of Tarkin and the Death Star was so staggering that this phone conversation resulted:
Due to the demand by Portland and Eugene area fans of the original Skywalker Paradigm site, I offer it archived below.
Originally I had a great suspicion that Luke was in fact the villain.
It seemed a little strange, being the male heir to power no matter who wins...
Much of the old material is still incorporated in the new understanding of Leia's role in all this.
based on an original concept by Richard Eggers, expanded upon by Jack Eggers.
Rigorously tested and upgraded enormously through many hours of discussion with Critter Jones.
Additional support and material evidence provided by Andy Bergstrom, Sarah Linn, Ben Gitchel, Sam Roberts, Ralph Maronay IV, Josh Wendt,and John Payne.
Special thanks go to Phil Rose for much discussion and support.
