Star Wars is a multimedia franchise set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”. The Star Wars Saga, also known as the Skywalker Saga, focuses on the Skywalker family of Jedi, a fictional religious order focused on the idea of peace and justice.

Imperialism

The story of the original Star Wars trilogy is probably one of the most famous pieces of media in pop culture. The story of the rebellion that goes against all odds to fight against the authoritarian Galactic Empire has many believing that it heavily mirrors the authoritarian Nazi Party of Germany in real-life history. However, while there are many similarities between the Nazi Party and the Empire, George Lucas revealed in an interview that it was meant to resemble the story of the Vietnam War and American Imperialism. When Lucas was writing the Star Wars story in the 1970s, the Vietnam War was coming to an end after two decades, and it was still on his mind while writing it. The U.S. had installed a leader in South Vietnam in order to help the Western cause centered around a fear of a communist takeover. The Communist Party of South Vietnam formed the National Liberation Front, also known as the Viet Cong to combat the United States’ intervention. The Rebel Alliance in Star Wars was influenced by the Viet Cong as stated by George Lucas, it was a coalition of rebel forces who opposed the authoritarian rule of the Empire, using guerilla tactics and mobilizing support across the galaxy. The way the rebels were able to garner support in their resistance against the Empire, even from defectors of the Imperial Army, is a direct parallel to how American citizens ‘defected’ and began protesting against the U.S. Government and their imperialist intervention in Vietnam. In Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine, the ruthless ruler of the Galactic Empire, was actually based on Richard Nixon according to George Lucas. Similar to how many joined the Rebel Alliance to go against the Empire, U.S. citizens went against the United States government and protested the Vietnam War. Richard Nixon responded to the huge wave of protestors with the use of police force, having thousands of protestors arrested. Once again we see the parallels between America and the Empire with how the Emperor’s stormtrooper army would carry out his agenda by silencing all acts of defiance by any means necessary, similar to how Nixon’s Administration used police to silence the protestors. George Lucas did a fantastic job at portraying U.S. imperialism, however many are quick to think of the Empire as Nazi Germany. In reality, America is the Empire in this story, both authoritatian systems of government who were ultimately defeated due to their failure to realize the strengths of guerrilla forces.

Works Cited

Hardwick, B. (2022, December 30). How the Vietnam War inspired George Lucas’ Star Wars Vision. CBR. Retrieved April 7, 2023, from https://www.cbr.com/george-lucas-vietnam-war-star-wars-inspiration/?newsletter_popup=1

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Star wars: Episode IV – A new hope. IMDb. Retrieved April 7, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/releaseinfo/

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series both written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, it was first published in September 2009 and it ended with its 139th chapter in April 2021. In 2013 it was adapted into an anime series which is still ongoing but is nearing its conclusion. This blog post will contain major spoilers!

Background

The story is complicated so I will try to keep it as simple as possible! When you are first introduced to the world Isayama created, you are made to believe that humanity has mostly died. The story goes that man-eating titans mysteriously appeared hundreds of years ago and wiped out a majority of the human race, with the remaining survivors constructing enormous walls to survive within. However, it is revealed that the titans, as well as the people within the walls, are actually humans who descend from the King of a small tribe, Karl Fritz. Fritz married a girl that gained the power to transform into a titan, forcing her to help in his conquest and create the Eldian Empire. The titan power was split into nine different titans with unique abilities, each noble family within the kingdom having its own family member with the power of one of the nine. The 145th King of Eldia chose to make the houses fight with each other, thus starting a huge war. In the end, one of the nations conquered by Eldia, Marley, took advantage of the situation and usurped a majority of the unique titans and became the new world superpower. This led the Eldian King and many Eldians to flee inside the walls they constructed, those that did not flee were forced to live through the oppression of the Marleyan Empire. Marley forced all Eldians to wear armbands, signifying that their race was ‘inferior’. Any Eldian who was ‘out of line’ would be transformed into a mindless titan and sent to kill the humans inside the walls.

Real World Themes

While the story is complicated and fictional, it holds a lot of real-world connections. The world outside the walls resembles that of the real world 1900s with similar old-fashioned cars, architecture, fashion, and technology. However, the biggest real-world connection you hopefully already picked up on by now is the 1930s-1940s Nazi Germany’s oppression and persecution of Jewish people. The armbands Eldians have to wear are directly influenced by the same armbands Jewish people were forced to wear. The Eldians are also forced to live inside internment zones, which you could argue is influenced by America’s oppression of Japanese people during the 1940s when Japanese people were forced to live inside internment camps in America.

History Repeating Itself

One of the core messages of Attack on Titan is the idea that history repeats itself. Not only does Attack on Titan’s fictional history repeat itself when Marley takes over and oppresses Eldians for oppressing them, but it happens again with our main protagonist Eren Jaeger. For the sake of keeping this blog from being too long, I won’t get into Eren’s whole story but know that he does possess the power of one of the nine titans, meaning he can transform at will. Eren grew up inside the walls, believing just like everyone else that humanity perished and the humans in the walls are the only survivors. When he learned the truth of his situation, he flipped the script again and sent an army of enormous titans, hoping to completely eradicate the entire global population outside of the walls. While you might not agree with the message, allow me to offer a different perspective on the phrase, ‘History repeats itself’. It is not to say that the same historical events will repeat over and over in the same form, but that this cycle of war, violence, death, and oppression continues in one form or another. Whether it be the oppression of minorities throughout history, the war-torn countries around the globe, or the fact the world has only been at peace for a total of 268 years in the past 3,400 years (that is 8%!), the cycle of violence seems to be everlasting in many different forms.

Works Cited

Attack on Titan (anime). Attack on Titan Wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2023, from https://attackontitan.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_on_Titan_(Anime)

The Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem titled, ‘Divine Comedy’. The story follows the author’s self-inserted character, Dante, as he travels through the 9 Circles of Hell. Alighieri began writing the poem in 1308 and completed it shortly before he died in 1321.

Background

At the time Dante Alighieri was writing Divine Comedy, he was frustrated with the corruption within the Church. His writing was his way of addressing his concerns, he would depict political leaders, religious figures, and the wealthy, to name a few, where the character Dante would meet the sinners on his journey in each Circle of Hell. In this blog, I will focus on the layer of Hell that depicts corrupt religious figures during Alighieri’s time.

Eighth Circle 

The Eight Circle of Hell contains many different types of sinners, but some in particular that Dante meets are those who committed simony. Simony was a major sin in 1300’s Florence, Italy, where those with high positions in the Church would use their power to get money from others. These lines describe the punishment for those who committed the sin of Simony:

“Up from the mouth of each hole there stuck out a sinner’s feet and legs up to the calf, the rest of him remained stuffed down inside. The soles of both feet blazed all on fire; The leg-joints wriggled uncontrollably: They would have snapped any rope or tether.” (Alighieri 19. 22-27).

One of the punished souls hears Dante approach him and mistakes Dante for Pope Boniface VIII. When Dante corrects him the soul explains that he is Pope Nicholas III and that he used his position to help his family become wealthy. Nicholas says that while he expects Boniface to come, he also expects Pope Clement V to come after. The reason that Alighieri mentions Boniface is due to the fact that during his reign as pope, Boniface tried to claim that the power of the pope exceeds all kings and queens. This claim caused a lot of conflict between King Philip IV and the Pope, and even after Boniface’s death he would be accused and charged with multiple crimes including heresy and sodomy.  Pope Clement V was mentioned possibly due to him moving the papacy from Rome, Italy to Avignon, France. This decision was very controversial for the time and caused a lot of conflicts. In his writing, Dante compared Clement to a man named Jason who bribed the Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes for a position as high priest in 175 BCE.

Works Cited

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. (1935). The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri : Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise. New York :The Union Library Association,

Holzwarth, L. (2021, April 23). The most corrupt and scandalous papacies in history. History Collection. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://historycollection.com/the-most-corrupt-and-scandalous-papacies-in-history/4/

Pope Clement V. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2023, from http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf1903.html

The Truman Show (1998) is a psychological drama and comedy film directed by Peter Weir and produced by Scott Rudin. Starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, who has no idea he is the main character of a popular television show that the world is watching.

Plato’s ‘The Allegory of the Cave’

The biggest philosophical message of the movie is actually just the plot itself, escaping to reality. Truman, being the curious person he is, desperately wants to explore what lies outside of his town, and upon learning the truth that he is on a man-made television production set he does everything he can to escape to what is real. Plato’s ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ tells a similar plot of people who have been trapped in a cave their whole lives while being given a fake reality through shadows on the walls. Eventually, they try to escape to the outside world as Truman does. The message is while there are those that are brave enough to persevere, aware of their prior ignorance, in order to see the world for what it is, there are those who will be deceived by the manipulative and controlling people of society. In the Truman show, this manipulative person in power is Christof, the show’s producer. He does everything in his power to keep Truman from seeing reality.

“We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” – Christof

This means exactly what it says, we can be ignorant and not question what we see or believe. We can be vulnerable to those with the power to change our perception of the world, and so we must be able to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to question what is presented to us. If we do not question those who supposedly have power over us in society, we can find ourselves trapped in a cave while allowing ourselves to believe that what we are shown is reality. The more we question, the further we move toward the truth, which is actually the philosophy of Socrates. Socrates was open about his lack of knowledge, he was humble enough to admit when he knew nothing. He would have rather been proven wrong for his pursuit of more knowledge, so he developed the Socratic Method. His method involved excessive questioning in order to reveal the truth. He once said, “Let the questions be the curriculum” as he believed an answer could only be found with a question. We can never live in our true reality if we cannot avoid manipulation and deception, the only way we can avoid these things are through questioning.

Works Cited

Bedard, M., Mike Bedard Mike Bedard is a graduate of UCLA. He’s a screenwriter based out of Los , & Mike Bedard is a graduate of UCLA. He’s a screenwriter based out of Los Angeles who’s written several short films as well as sketch comedy for various theaters around LA. He’s also written articles for sites like Cracked and Ranker. (2022, May 16). Watch: Plato’s allegory of the cave & the films it inspired. StudioBinder. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/platos-allegory-of-the-cave/

IMDb.com. (1998, June 5). The truman show. IMDb. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

IMDb.com. (n.d.). The truman show. IMDb. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/characters/nm0000438

Better Call Saul is an American crime and legal drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. There were also 11 other producers including Bob Odenkirk, who played the criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill A.K.A. “Saul Goodman”. The show first aired in 2015 and ended in 2022; It is also a prequel spinoff to the famous Vince Gilligan series, ‘Breaking Bad’.

*Note: For this series, I will approach it differently as it is full of rich characters and important messages to talk about. In order to keep this from being too long of a read I will not throw everything into a single blog. However, I may return to the series and talk about messages and ideas that I might not get into in this blog!

The Morality of the McGills

The show’s entire premise is about the origins of the snarky lawyer who assisted the drug kingpin Walter White in money laundering and a lot of other criminal activities; Now how could this ever be a show about good morals? Well, the thing about this show is how it depicts morals and ethics. It shows us how it isn’t always ‘morally good’ and ‘morally bad’, but it shows us the grey area in the middle and even the parallels between those meant to be moral and immoral. Jimmy McGill constantly skips along the lines of right and wrong. When he was younger he would steal from his father’s register, pull scams on people, and commit other crimes to satisfy his lust for money which he developed after seeing his father getting pushed around and taken advantage of. This behavior would obviously be seen as the unethical behavior of someone with bad morals. His older brother, Chuck McGill, is the one who tried to get Jimmy out of this kind of life, and it worked for a period of time Chuck often tries to present himself as ‘morally superior’ to Jimmy due to his career as a lawyer, but he too has issues with morality. After Jimmy put aside his life of crime, he tried to make the people in his life proud by becoming a lawyer. However, Chuck kept him from joining his law firm as he didn’t believe Jimmy could be a ‘morally good’ lawyer because of his past.

You could argue that Chuck judging Jimmy for his past and refusing him the opportunity to change is unethical. Chuck’s disdain for his younger brother eventually caused the two to have a falling out, and Chuck’s firm ended up stealing two of Jimmy’s high-profile clients. This led to Jimmy forging legal documents in order to make the clients fire Chuck as their lawyer. However, this wasn’t just a petty attack against Chuck, because Jimmy actually wanted the clients to fire Chuck’s firm and hire his love interest Kim Wexler as their lawyer. Chuck McGill does not believe that Jimmy can be a morally good person, ironically being unethical when he tries to stop Jimmy from being a lawyer like him. Jimmy McGill on the other hand, is an immoral person due to his greed, but he has done ethical things to support the ones he loved. When Chuck was suffering from a mental illness, Jimmy was the one who took care of him for years. When Chuck’s firm stole his clients, Jimmy took them back, but not for himself; Jimmy directed the clients toward his love interest, Kim Wexler. This show greatly depicts how morals and ethics are not black and white, you can have good morals and still behave unethically just like you can have bad morals but ethically behave.

Works Cited 

(2015). YouTube. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://youtu.be/ImJ9i0TC_Jg.

IMDb.com. (2015, February 8). Better call saul. IMDb. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3032476/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1

Fight Club (1999) is an American drama and thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on the novel written by Chuck Palahniuk. The film stars Edward Norton as the unnamed Narrator and Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden.

Outlets

Prior to watching Fight Club, I had a similar impression of the film that many people share. Many fans of the film have attributed the film’s message to be about going against the status quo. While that is true, the ‘status quo’ that the film portrays has been misinterpreted. Some fans have said that the modern-day status quo portrayed in the film is the feminization of men and shaming of masculinity; Others say the status quo that is portrayed is the modern-day capitalist system pushing people into living unsatisfied lives, being overworked until death, and there will be people who wish to revolt. In reality, the latter perspective is closer to the actual meaning which I will get into more later.

We are introduced to the film’s Narrator who is meant to be your ‘Average Joe’ that works a typical ‘9 to 5’ job. The Narrator develops insomnia, which hinders his ability to emotionally connect. He starts attending support groups, pretending to suffer from the same life-altering diseases and disorders as the rest of the group. These groups are meant to be an outlet for the Narrator, it helps him sleep, emotionally connect, and escape from his work life.

Knowing this, the film actually seems to be portraying men who are looking for outlets to escape from their everyday lives. In recent decades there has been an increase in young men who, similarly to the Narrator, have been looking for an outlet from their lives. Some end up finding themselves in rabbit holes on the internet that promote primarily misogynistic beliefs. These unhealthy outlets have led to actual acts of violence around the country. The film actually shows something similar to this with the concept of ‘Fight Club’ where men literally fight each other as a means of using violence to escape from their frustrations in life.

Disaffecting

While the film’s message has been misinterpreted with time, there is one thing that most people get right about the message: Dissaffecting from the status quo. The Narrator is stuck in his day-to-day life working at a corporate job, fully immersed in consumerism, and suffering from both insomnia and an inability to connect. While Tyler Durden has some hyper-masculine politics he does say some very important things about the myths of capitalist America:

“We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact.” – Tyler Durden

This is a great representation of the myth of the American Dream, where we are taught that we all can be as rich as the wealthiest people today. In reality, there are those propped up by the privilege and generational wealth that others lack; There will always be a ruling class and a lower class in a capitalist society. While Tyler Durden does spread the idea of modern society emasculating men, which is probably why many do not get the real message, he also has some good thoughts on consumerism and materialism:

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” – Tyler Durden

With this last quote, I leave one final thought as well. Consumerism has caused people to care more about material possessions and view them as a means of improving their self-image. We do not need to buy and own the fanciest and most expensive outfits, cars, or other accessories to be happy. To be happy is to be free, but when we are obsessed with our self-image we cannot be free.

Works Cited

Baker, P. C. (2019, November 4). The men who still love “fight club”. The New Yorker. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-men-who-still-love-fight-club

David Fincher. Fight Club by David Fincher (989CI) – Atlas of Places. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.atlasofplaces.com/cinema/fight-club/

IMDb.com. (1999, October 15). Fight club. IMDb. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/?ref_=ttpl_ov

Who knew a talking, sword-wielding cat could provide such deep insight into the anxieties we have about our own mortality? Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) is a sequel to Puss in Boots (2011) a spin-off of the Shrek franchise. The film was directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado; It was written by Paul Fisher, Tommy Swerdlow, and Tom Wheeler.

The Fear of the Inevitable

A cat with nine lives usually has no reason to fear death, until they reach its last life. That is the plot of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a swordsman cat seeking a way to literally avoid Death himself by finding the magic wishing star in order to regain his nine lives. However, when given the opportunity to regain his nine lives at the end of the film, he declines; Why is that?

At the beginning of the film, Puss in Boots encounters a scythe-wielding wolf and loses in a duel with him. This strikes fear into the feline as he just came close to his final death, thus causing him to go into retirement. That is until he learns about a wishing star that could grant him his nine lives back. He sets out on the journey with a new friend and an old lover, but still fears the idea of encountering the wolf again.

It isn’t until the three travelers come so close to the star that Puss in Boots realizes that the wolf is Death himself, coming to take his last life. At their final encounter, Puss in Boots has come to the epiphany that he cannot run from his inevitable mortality. Death realizes that Puss has changed from the egotistical cat who believes they will never die and allows him the opportunity to make his wish. However, Puss has come to terms with the inevitable and chooses to destroy the wishing star to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. He realizes that he only needs one life to spend with the people that he loves.

Final Thoughts: Legacy

While it is grim to think about our inevitable death, it opens our eyes to the life that we can live. Like Puss in Boots, many people worry about the legacy they leave after death. We tend to think that legacies have to be of heroism or great inventions. In reality, legacies can be memories and experiences that live on with our loved ones even after we die. Our lives are a part of a larger web of family, friendships, and relationships that are connected by our shared lives. This web lives so long as there are those that remember us fondly. That is the lesson of Puss in Boots, our impact does not need to be absolutely legendary, but if we have a positive impact on at least one person…that is a great legacy left behind.

Works Cited

IMDb.com. (2022, December 21). Puss in Boots: The last wish. IMDb. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3915174/

 

Glass Onion (2022) is a sequel to the 2019 crime film Knives Out that follows detective Benoit Blanc as he solves the mysteries of difficult cases. The film was written, directed, and produced by Rian Johnson. The film stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, Edward Norton as Miles Bron, and Janelle Monáe as Helen Brand.

Disruption of the Status Quo

The term ‘status quo’ refers to the current state of affairs in society and how things operate. The film directly uses the word disruption in Miles Bron’s speech to Benoit Blanc:

“Okay. If you want to shake things up, you start with something small. You break a norm or an idea or a convention, some little business model, but you go with things that people are kind of tired of anyway. Everybody gets excited because you’re busting up something that everyone wanted broken in the first place. That’s the infraction point. That’s the place where you have to look within yourself, and ask: Am I the kind of person who will keep going? Will you break more things? Break bigger things? Be willing to break the thing that nobody wants you to break? Because at that point, people are not going to be on your side. They’re going to call you crazy. They’re gonna say you’re a bully. They’re gonna tell you to stop. Even your partner will say you need to stop. Because as it turns out, nobody wants you to break the system itself. But that is what true disruption is, and that is what unites all of us. We all got to that line, and crossed it.” – Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton)

Currently, we see how idolized rich celebrities can be in our world and we see how they attempt to stray above the rule of law and above social criticism. There have been many people throughout history who could be considered a disrupters, civil rights activists and protesters are types of people that come to mind when I think of disruption. The speech is also forshadowing for the film’s ending, where Helen Brand ‘disrupts’ Miles Bron’s life. She starts small by breaking small glass sculptures, then she starts setting fire to the place, and then she goes for Mile’s prized possesion the Mona Lisa.

The Glass Onion

The term ‘Glass Onion’ refers to how complex situations might not be all that complex. Onions have layers and the more you peel them back the more that is revealed. A glass onion doesn’t need to be peeled back, all you have to do is look at it at face value. If you were like me and thought that it would be too obvious for Miles Bron to be the villain, well then you also got caught in a glass onion situation. There wasn’t any need to analyze and peel back the layers of the film to discover the villain, he was right infront of us the whole time!

While the film gives a mostly satirical portrayal of extremely wealthy and powerful people, it does a great job of exploring the idolization of the rich and powerful and how wealth doesn’t necessarily equate to intelligence. The character Miles Bron is a prime example of this, he steals ideas to further his own personal gain while not having any genius ideas himself. He also frequently misuses words or just makes up words that don’t exist to sound eloquent. It is almost like an actual onion, if you peel back the layers of Miles Bron you realize that he is not the genius he tries to present himself as.

Works Cited

IMDb.com. (2022, December 23). Glass onion. IMDb. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11564570/?ref_=tt_ch

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Glass onion. IMDb. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11564570/characters/nm0001570

Morgan, A. (2022, December 23). Should you watch ‘glass onion: A knives out mystery’ on netflix?? What’s on Netflix. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/what-to-watch/should-you-watch-glass-onion-a-knives-out-mystery-on-netflix/