When most people are asked to name their favorite work of science fiction a common answer is Star Wars. When asked to name the most popular work of science fiction, the answer is usually once again, Star Wars. The irony is that although the title itself suggests science fiction, the story itself is a fantasy. Star Wars even starts out with a typical fair tale opening: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." Drop "galaxy" and replace it with "land" and it's the opening to countless fairy tales and fantasy stories. Star Wars is a tale of a mysterious Force and special people who can control it like magic. It is also a tale of adventure and a quest. Despite the common belief, Star Wars is not science fiction, it is fantasy.
In traditional fantasy, magic or some other mystical aspect is present which makes the fantasy world distinctly different from the real world. In her rules of fantasy Holly Lisle states:
In a world with magic, magic is your "gimme" -- the one thing about which your reader will unquestioningly suspend disbelief...so if you really want to tell a story that uses faster-than-light spaceships, you need to drop the magic.
In a work of fantasy the reader is allowed to take things for granted, but the writer must be careful to not overstep the limitation of the gullibility of the reader. In Star Wars, the "gimme" is the Force. The audience has very little information on how the Force works, only that it is found within every living being, but only a few people can control and shape their will into the Force. The Force is magic only by a different name, but it has the same mysterious elements of magic, and it asks the audience to "suspend belief" for the short period of time it takes to view the movie.
If magic, or the Force, is the only "gimme" then a writer must not leave everything as a mystery and some things will be explained. This is where Star Wars seems like science fiction. In the movies the characters all have technology that is superior to our own. Scientists are not even sure that all of it is possible, but this is also built into Lisle's rules on fantasy:
If your magicians have been working successfully for more than a few years, they will have surely developed corollaries to the steam engine, the telephone, the television, the radio, the electric iron and the toaster, the automobile, computers, the electric guitar, and the flush commode. They should not still be farking around with turning straw into gold. They probably won't wear goofy pointed hats, either, though of course they can if you insist.
Most traditional fantasy is set in times long before any of the readers were born, in worlds far away. Star Wars is no exception, the only major difference is that their evolutionary clock has been set many times ahead of ours. The Star Wars galaxy has been united for many years. The Empire ruled the entire galaxy for a couple decades, but before the Empire the galaxy was united under the Old Republic which was in place for hundreds of years. Clearly this galaxy has been possessed of a high intellectual ability for thousands of years, in all that time they would have created things we could only dream about and it is foolhardy to expect them to not have developed a very advanced system of travel, communication, and day-to-day life in all that time. Asking the audience to believe that would be harder than getting them to believe a system of magic exists.
Even though some of the technology is easily integrated into the story of Star Wars with current science and possible futuristic science fact, there are still the Jedi tools and devices which have the aura of mysticism about them. In the entire series, this is chiefly the lightsaber. The lightsaber is a blade made out of focused light similar to a laser, except this blade cuts through any and everything. The process for creating a lightsaber is not mentioned in the movies, but in Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire, which is an interlude between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the reader sees a Lucas-sanctioned book with Luke creating his own lightsaber. He learns that although the parts used for the lightsaber could be scrounged up by anybody, only a Jedi could properly assemble them. Also, a major part of piecing together a blade is meditation on the blade to fuse everything properly and make it work. So even though there is science behind it, ultimately the way it works is by the use of the Force; magic.
The prequel movies also have some Jedi devices not seen in the original trilogy. Some examples include the midichlorian device which measures a Jedi's midichlorian count, which The Phantom Menace seems to claim is the source of Jedi power. We also see Obi Wan's ship that seems to tie into his Force power by special headgear that he wears. Finally, we see a three-dimensional representation of the galaxy that is stored in a small orb. Whether these are truly Jedi devices that only work by the manipulation of the Force or just more Star Wars technology not used before remains to be seen. But the idea is that although much of the science and technology is explained, the mystery of the Force creeps into the technical side of Star Wars.
Another important aspect of the fantasy genre is the hero. The hero has some type of connection to the mysterious power in the fantasy world. Either they actively partake in it, or they try to flee from those who use it for ill. Luke Skywalker is the hero of Star Wars. Luke is not skilled with the Force, but he learns. Philip Martin says this about character creation in his rules of fantasy writing:
Make your hero an orphan. Harry Potter, Dorothy in Oz and Taran in Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series are all orphans...The purpose of all the orphans in the fantasy world is to allow young protagonists to venture out entirely on their own, to discover the limits of their powers, and to overcome trials without parents to hold them back.
When making fantasy the creator only gets one "gimme" so he cannot give a child parents who would unabatedly let their child go traipsing off around the galaxy without their oversight. Their are ways around this, but most make a virtual orphan. Harry Potter is a true orphan, but he has family that raises him, though they could not care less about his well being, which is one way to make a virtual orphan; have the parents hate the child so much that the child leaves and they do not care and their hate in fact only serves to fuel the hero.
Luke, however, is a true orphan. At least the audience thinks he is until The Empire Strikes Back. Even then though, he is an orphan because his father is dead, the man known as Darth Vader only shares the body of Anakin Skywalker. As far as Luke knows, his parents are dead and have been all his life. He is raised by his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on Tatooine. He finds out that he could be a Jedi and fight against the evil of the galaxy, but his ties to home (even though they are not his true parents) and his dedication to his aunt and uncle force him to turn the offer down. He cannot leave them high and dry and just go running around the galaxy. Lucas takes care of that by killing his aunt and uncle and freeing Luke up. Luke had always hated the desert world of Tatooine and now he was finally freed to leave and never look back so he takes Obi Wan up on his offer, thus starting his adventure.
The adventure is the excitement of Star Wars, it is the focal point of most fantasy and ultimately expresses the moral of the entire story. In his rules for fantasy Philip Martin states:
The Hero's Quest is a classic form of journey that pervades many fantasy stories. The hero leaves home, passes through a portal, has a series of trials and acquires wisdom, friends and magical powers, and then returns home, changed forever.
Luke's journey is a "Hero's Quest" that changes him forever. He started out as a timid boy and when the story is over he is a strong, steadfast hero and savior of the galaxy. Through his trials against Darth Vader and the Emperor and his training with Yoda, Luke becomes a man, barely recognizable from when he started. His quest is to learn the ways of the Force and ultimately free the galaxy from the stranglehold of the cruel self-proclaimed Emperor Palpatine. The lesson learnt is that against adversity and hardship faith, love and good morals will triumph.
Luke's faith is not unwavering, though. When he confronts Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, Luke succumbs to the temptation and briefly treads on the Dark Side of the Force. But as Philip Martin so eloquently states, "In the end, a heart of gold trumps all." Luke realizes he is using the Dark Side of the Force and he pulls himself back to the Light and is prepared to die. His love for his father prevents him from killing him and pulls Anakin Skywalker back to the Light as well. When Anakin wakes up and sees his son being tortured he kills the Emperor himself and the galaxy is saved. As with most fantasy the "heart of gold" wins against all evil, and Luke has that "heart of gold." Even though the end of Harry Potter is not known, most of the individual novels end with the pure heart of a child, Harry Potter, stopping incredibly evil forces. Harry is willing to sacrifice himself for his friends and that love of an innocent child is the key. The pure heart is a very common and widely used theme in fantasy.
The key to fantasy is the teaching of morals to adults and children alike. In her reflection on modern fantasy, Connie Rockman (a librarian) states:
One of the best ways for children to tackle the question of evil is through allegory and metaphor. Concepts that are too scary to contemplate in real life can be understood -- or at least considered -- through fantasy.
Harry Potter seems to be teaching that heritage and lineage is not important. Destiny is not important. It is the choices made that define who someone is, not where he comes from or what he knows. Choices are key. In Star Wars, the main lesson taught is that people are evil, but people are also good. The two forces of good and evil are always struggling but goodness and purity always wins out. Faith and love are the most important and powerful forces, and can be wielded by anyone (that applies to Harry Potter as well).
In conclusion, Star Wars is one of the most recognizable works of popular culture and is often associated with science fiction. However, if the casual viewer digs a little deeper and examines the story of Star Wars he will see that though there is some hard and realistic science, the movie is a fantasy tale involving mysterious powers (i.e. the Force) and heroes that must learn to control and harness these powers while they journey physically and metaphorically in search of their destiny. Even some of the technology is only explainable by the mysteries of the Force and thus Star Wars cannot truly be science fiction. The mysticism of Star Wars does not allow it to be science fiction.
Works Cited
Lisle, Holly. "Fantasy is Not for Sissies: Real Rules for Real Worlds." 2002. http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/rules-for-better-fantasy.html
Martin, Philip. "10 Secrets to Writing Fantasy." The Writer, Nov 2001 v114 i11 p34.
http://web6.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/180/170/35864025w6/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_
A79341064&dyn=9!xrn_25_0_A79341064?sw_aep=usocal_main
Perry, Steve. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Bantam Books. November 1998.
Rockman, Connie. "'Give Them Wings': A Librarian Looks at the Power of Modern Fantasy." School Library Journal, Dec 2001 v47 i12 p42(3).
http://web6.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/180/170/35864025w6/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_
A81162411&dyn=9!xrn_23_0_A81162411?sw_aep=usocal_main
