This is flippant, perhaps, but it made me smile. As one who has never understood the whole Star Wars thing, I enjoy Aragorn’s victory over Luke Skywalker. I thank Brendan King for sending this “top ten” to me.
Top Ten Reasons Why Aragorn is cooler than Luke Skywalker
10) Aragorn’s two side kicks are way cooler than the droids.
9) Aragorn gets a girl.
8) Aragorn does not whine.
7) Aragorn’s mystical mentor comes back to life for real.
6) Aragorn’s father is really dead.
5) Aragorn disappears and comes back leading an army, Luke disappears and comes back wearing a cloak.
4) Aragorn never had a thing for his sister.
3) The little people that Aragorn hangs out with are only furry on their feet.
2) At the end of his trilogy, Aragorn gets to be a king.
…And the number one reason that Aragorn is cooler than Luke Skywalker
1) Aragorn’s sword does not need batteries.
Joseph Pearce,
I hope and trust you have been swamped with outraged responses over this post! But out of piety to many happy childhood memories, I will add my voice.
In “The Attack of the Clones”, Anakin defines the code of the Jedi Knights thus: “Attachment is forbidden, possession is forbidden, but compassion–which I would define as unconditional love–is central to a Jedi’s life”. This could be a definition of Christian love from an old-style Catholic manual, and indeed the term “attacment”, in just this sense, is a central concept in St John of the Cross, as I’m sure you recognize.
There is in the Star Wars world a fair amount of Eastern/Manichean mumbo jumbo. (Though even here it is often possible to see a Christian meaning: the central idea that anger leads to “the Dark Side”, or evil, is after all a Christian as well as a Buddhist notion, even if it is not one Bellocians tend to emphasize. The notion of “trusting the Force” can also be seen as trusting the Holy Spirit.) But these New Age things don’t go very deep. At bottom the Jedi Knights are a religious/military order based on the Knights Templars, the Hospitallers, etc.. Luke doesn’t “get the girl”, or any girl, because he chooses a higher way, devotes himself to a higher love–which in the past would have been seen as a very Christian notion. As Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe was intended to be a modern knight in a corrupt modern world, so Luke Skywalker is essentially one of the knights of the Round Table in space. And the concept of knighthood, the code of chivalry, is fundamentally a Catholic Christian product.
The Force is strong in you, Joseph Pearce, do not give in to the Dark Side with this negative vision of Star Wars!
God bless you, Andrew!
I was under the impression that this was a lighthearted duel between Aragorn and Luke Skywalker, which the better man one. I wasn’t aware that I’d succumbed to the Dark Side. Perhaps this is the danger of being unenlightened.
Please pray for me, or ask that the Force may be with me – whichever you prefer!