I think we can all agree that Rogue One is by no means a conventional entry into the
Star Wars saga.
The black and grey undertones of the opening sequence and its boots on the ground no nonsense
approach to its story reveal early on that the film is the odd one out amidst a long
series of familiar expectations.
Taking place in between the overall darker and pessimistic Revenge of the Sith, and the
more hopeful and optimistic A New Hope, it functions as a mediator of what we can call
the yin and the yang of the Star Wars saga.
Bridging not only the chronological gap in the timeline, but also and more importantly,
symbolically crossing the underlying tonal divide that exists between these two films.
This voyage begins close to the darkness of Revenge of the Sith.
The young Jyn Erso and her family, who have been hiding in the shadows of the galaxy,
are found by the tyrannical empire, who proceed to shoot her defiant mother and force her
genius father, Galen Erso, to finish constructing the Death Star.
With the archetypal parental figures effectively eliminated, the film’s opening sequence
not only sets up Jyn’s backstory as the protagonist, but it also symbolically establishes
the main dominating theme or undertone of roughly the first half of the film, which
is: ‘the world at the bottom and in the shadow.’
Fifteen years down the line, Jyn is shown to have become a criminal and a prisoner in
a remote Imperial labor camp.
Having grown disillusioned and cynical throughout the years, she doesn’t rejoice at the prospect
of being rescued by the Rebels but attempts to fight them of instead.
Her nihilistic worldview has made her numb to any sort of belief or dream in a more benevolent
future, her only interests are selfish in nature and grounded at the bottom in the material
world…
The Rebel Alliance on its part is shown fractured, its members anxious and divided, separated
by conflicting opinions on the conduct of war, its agents operating on the fringes of
morality.
Cassian is one of these agents and represents this inner conflict in his struggle to live
with the questionable things he sees himself forced to do in service of the Rebellion.
The Alliance’s motives are seemingly egoic and dishonest in nature, only having rescued
Jyn as a means of getting to her father, and lying to her about the ultimate goal of the
mission…
This questions the moral goodness of the Alliance as their actions are in some cases even mirrored
by those of the Empire.
This morally slippery slope is accentuated by the character of Saw Gerrera.
The former mentor of Jyn and the leader of an extremist Rebel cell functions somewhat
as a cautionary tale for the Alliance as a whole.
He and his men have been engaged in a brutal guerilla war against the Empire in the city
of Jedha, putting civilian lives in danger and combating the Imperials over who holds
the moral high ground...
Hiding in a crumbling desert cave, with his window into the world shattered, Saw has slowly
become more machine than man, having grown exceedingly paranoid of others as his sanity
and humanity dwindled along the way…
Moving beyond the human representation of the world at the bottom is the entire planet
of Jedha.
A small desert planet, Jedha was once a spiritual world of worship for force believers and the
Jedi order.
However what we get to see is a world in decline.
The giant statues of ancient Jedi have fallen and are crumbling, it’s ‘city upon a hill’,
like John Winthrop’s Massachusetts Bay colony was a place for people to look up to, a place
of honor, hope, justice and the highest possible good.
In Rogue One however, the city has fallen into decay, its streets ravaged by war, its
skies shrouded by a pyramid shaped star destroyer, an ultimate symbol of bloated order, and its
monks roaming the streets without purpose as their temple is actively being plundered
of its most valuable resource, Kyber crystals…
These star crystals were formerly used to make Jedi lightsabers, and are sources of
the force, of the light in the darkness, representing such things as order, justice, and moral good.
Jyn’s necklace holds one of these stones which is noticed by the blind monk Chirrut,
who then tells her that…
The first thing this quote seems to address is Jyn’s inner journey.
Perhaps implying that she should listen to the deepest urgings of her heart, to let go
of her apathetic nature and to move herself upwards, towards a higher purpose, to become
a beacon of light in the darkness.
The second reference comes in the form of the newly constructed Death Star, which, powered
by the amassed crystals from Jedha, possesses a literal heart of Kyber.
To Director Orson Krennic, this literal manifestation of a star powered by the gleaming crystal
will translate into a better world…
However this notion of the absolute order of light becomes instead something pathological
and highly destructive, symbolically suggesting that a world with too much light or too much
order is just as bad as a world consumed by darkness and chaos.
These two notions of lightness as moral good and the danger of the excess of light then
come together at the climax of the Jedha sequence.
Jyn’s existing inner cynical beliefs are shattered when she’s confronted with a hologram
message of her long lost father.
Speaking to her as the symbolical spirit of the father, the culture and the order that
has been consumed by the tyranny of the Empire, he tells her of his true intentions to aid
the Rebellion in the destruction of the Death Star, thereby leaving Jyn with a message of
hope and sacrifice to a higher purpose.
But at the same time of the resurrection of the wise father, his tyrannical counterpart
looms high above, shrouding the light of the sun before finally destroying the remnants
of the old order, like a God casting thunder on the people of his creation.
With the land now shrouded in darkness and chaos, its horizon rendered nonexistent, Saw,
Jyn’s other father figure, decides that he will run no longer.
With his sacrifice symbolizing the embracing of his own darkness and Galen’s message
of trust in a higher good the group escapes not only death but also manages to climb out
of the symbolical ‘world at the bottom’.
The story then starts to take the shape of the archetypal ascension journey that has
its hero climb out of the shadow, ascending a mountain towards the highest possible good,
redeeming or changing himself and the people around him for the better at the top.
This upwards journey in Rogue One is then mirrored by a descent into chaos and into
the belly of the beast.
On the one hand to embrace and overcome every character’s personal dark side or shadow
and on the other hand to save the spirit of the father, which holds the key to the reemergence
of hope and a more benevolent order.
For Cassian, this means that he has to confront the darker, non-thinking side of his character
in order to free himself from the mental prison that clouds his heart...
With the ultimate physical death of her father Jyn, on her part, has to finally move beyond
her apathetic nature in favor of belief in hope and self-sacrifice for a higher good...
I would argue that it’s this change in these two characters that slowly begins to trickle
down into other individuals and the Rebel collective as whole.
Jyn and her Rogue One task force are really the tip of the spear of the Rebellion.
They are the bow and arrow that will ultimately point the entire Alliance into a new direction,
embracing both the light and the dark and individually choosing to sacrifice themselves
for a greater good…
And it’s exactly this personal sacrifice in service of a better future that allows
Rogue One to make its final ascend to the top, and to broadcast the blueprint of the
father that holds the key for a better world to reemerge down the line.
Because even though this sacrifice will ultimately come at cost of all of these characters lives,
it is not so much shown to be a negative as it is transcended.
In his last moments, the Imperial defector Bodhi overcomes his fear and shows courage
in his heart as he establishes the radio connection needed for the success of the mission.
Witnessing the heroic demise of his friend Chirrut, the skeptical realist Baze has a
last minute change of heart and finally puts his trust in the force.
Even the analytical K2 shows a sign of humanity through his mechanical exterior in the end…
It’s a line of courageous sacrifice based on hope and trust in the force that really
started with the defiant death of Jyn’s mother, followed by countless other allied
characters, from Saw and Galen, to numerous named and unnamed Rebel Marines and air force
wings to Cassian and Jyn themselves.
Their deaths are marked by an exuberant and transcended lightness, giving us a sense of
redemption in a positively charged sacrifice.
And it’s here at the Battle of Scarif that the Rebel Alliance is really defined, setting
itself apart from the tyrannical pathology and destructive selfishness of the Empire.
And not just because of its physical action of moving out of the shadow and facing the
Empire head on, but more importantly because of the all inspiring actions of a select few
individuals.
Rogue One demonstrates that to save oneself is to save the galaxy.
It’s about having the courage to climb out of the bottom of the pit, to defy overwhelming
darkness both without and within, to move upwards in self-sacrifice of the egoic self
in order to retrieve the spirit of the father.
It’s to emulate a star with a heart of kyber, to be an inspiration for others to do the
same in hopes of manifesting a better future
for all…