Chewbacca is the Hero of Star Wars
Who is the Star of Star Wars?
The Real Star? Who is the story really about?
Let’s look at the contenders…
Luke:
Orphaned on Tatootine, raised by his step Uncle and Aunt.
They are murdered by the central government while he is
out chasing Droids…
Droids on the run from the central government.
He witnesses their bodies and decides to join ranks with
an elderly hermit who is a sort of monk. To be fair he has sort of known about
the monk for quite a while but recently his attention has been focussed due to
a hologram of a rather attractive young lady in distress…(this lady turns out
to be his sister who he lip kisses…but that is all alright because he didn’t
know).
This young rebel, arguably radicalised by an elderly
fighting monk who sees the world in black and white goes on to destroy a space
station, killing the hundreds and thousands of people/ lifeforms on board…
N.B. a lot of widows and orphans were made that day.
Han
Solo:
Smuggler who loves successfully deceiving others.
Was unwilling to rescue his future wife unless there was financial
reward.
Drops his cargo at the first sign of trouble (Jabba The Hut via Creedo).
Relies of good fortune and a few simple tricks….
Appears on the surface to be motivated by money.
Darth
Vader:
No Dad.
Born into slavery.
Taken from slavery into the clergy…(denied love), Mother
dies in his arms, manipulated constantly by powerful Sith Lord.
Sacrifices himself to save son.
(Yes…I know…kills younglings & eradicates the Jedi….apart
from that)
Leia:
Born into wealth and privilege.
Rises in central government.
Has inner agenda, desires more freedom.
Leads fight against central government.
Falls in love with scoundrel smuggler.
Has complex future relationships.
Has difficult deciding on her accent.
Chewbacca:
Is only understood by a handful of people.
Has long life span in relation to humans.
Is unwaveringly loyal.
Is brave and fierce in combat.
Generally wins at chess.
Can protect others even when heartbroken E.G. Han Solo
embedded in carbonite.
Conclusion
We could go on…Boba Fett…let’s not start on Boba Fett…poor
bugger.
Obi Wan…we don’t know much about his Dad…but I’m guessing
he was harsh….Mother…missing/ absent or uninterested.
So who is the real hero of the piece?
Well obviously Chewbacca.
Although on the face of it Darth Vader has the best ‘mitigating
circumstances’ of all the characters…frankly he needs them.
We cannot brush aside the heinous acts of mass murder
committed despite the clear problematic upbringing of the culprit. Yes yes yes,
there was a deathbed repentance… these are though all too common when a dying criminal
with nowhere left to run is faced with the ultimate solution.
Leia is out of it because she got the silver spoon for 20
years…nobody else did.
Not knocking her efforts and perhaps if the question was ‘which
was the best leader from Star Wars?’ She might get a look in.
Solo is brilliant, some love him, some want to be him.
He walks the precipice of acceptable and criminal on a
level of mass shared approval in terms of group consciousness…though on the
level of actual law and order ‘in story’ legality…he is a criminal.
In a way he is the hero, but then again….he follows his
luck, playing his cards how he gets them. His lifestyle is attractive but not necessarily
inspiring. We may all love to be Solo’s good mate…but only 1 is strong enough
to be his 1st Mate….
Chewbacca is selfless…yeah he can get spooked in a Death
Star…true he doesn’t always remember to lock in the artillery fire on first
asking.
But Chewbacca will fight in all conditions, carry
fragmented fallen comrades on his back and fix them in-between been tortured.
He will briefly wail but then keep a stiff upper hairy
lip up in the face of loss and be confident acting like Tarzan in the midst of
small furry creatures without creating the slightest feeling of
inappropriateness…
Chewy is an old wise creature…who grew up among old wise
creatures.
He could choose to spend his years anywhere but he opts
to mix with those who carry a heart of adventure.
Chewy is the true monk…following the ebb and flow of the
source of life.
He is a knight who lends his service to the righteous.
He bears suffering and is a bridge between the past and
future.
May the Force Bless Chewbacca of the Wookies….Star of
Star Wars…
P.S.
Yoda is also quite good…
