The Star Wars franchise has always been chock full of symbolism. The saga’s creator, George Lucas, has said that one of the goals behind the initial writing of the story was a desire to provide a religious experience to the audience, something he saw people craving and searching for. Obviously, some very Christian elements have been employed. Elsewhere, Lucas has suggested that the primary films contained in the trilogies begin to take on a certain poetical aspect of repeating a statement (in this case, a story) through almost Biblical-like typology.
Typology, as employed in Sacred Scripture, is the correlation between characters, actions, and instances in the Old Testament to their related counterparts seen later in the New Testament. (A few examples of typology would include the Virgin Mary as the New Eve, a woman without sin; Isaac’s near-death incident as prefiguring Christ’s passion; and John the Baptist as a new Elijah proclaiming the coming of the Lord.) Similarly, with Star Wars we can see a typology of sorts in much of the main franchise’s plot repetition. In the current trilogy, Rey is a type to the previous role Luke played in the original trilogy. Hers is a character which must learn self-mastery, grow in the ways of the Force, and help take down a Death Star-like weapon and its creator: all decisions which a youthful Luke Skywalker once had to choose as well.
It would not be too difficult to extrapolate a Christ figure from among the surplus of Jedi the Star Wars universe provides. But in salvation history, the pinnacle moment of redemption would not have been possible without the willing cooperation of the Virgin Mary. A Marian character is not as easily noticeable in the Star Wars universe as, say, certain characters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s realm of Middle-earth. Perhaps the most virtuous female character of Star Wars can be discovered in a standalone movie which many fans were hailing to be one of the best to have been produced in the past four years: Rogue One.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is about saving lives and standing up for the cause of freedom. The brave young rebel Jyn Erso appears as the protagonist of the story. Jyn (fondly referred to as “Stardust” by her loving father) has some of the virtues as well as a similar mission in common with the Virgin Mary, the Morning Star. A certain aspect among most of the heroes of Star Wars is that they come from quite humble beginnings. Like Anakin, Luke, and Rey, the hero Jyn Erso is but a seemingly inconsequential figure trying to survive in a desert wasteland. The Virgin Mary also had humble beginnings, and from her simple state of life she was bestowed with the highest honor among mortals: becoming the Mother of God.
However, this amazing feat required much hardship and sacrifice from Mary, and this new life began with surrendering her will to God. She obeys the Father, and the Holy Spirit descends upon her. But, being human and having free will, she first had to agree to help carry out God’s plan. Jyn displays similar loyalty to her father and a strong desire to carry out his will for the welfare and protection of all.
The mission of the Virgin Mother of God was to carry, safeguard, and care for the Word of God incarnate: Jesus Christ. In a sense, she is the last and most intimate messenger sent to bring the Word to humanity before the arrival of the Word himself. In Rogue One, Jyn Erso takes on the role of another message-bearer, courageously accepting the task of acquiring the blueprints for the Death Star (the all-important message) and making sure they get to her comrades with the Rebel Fleet.
Nearing the climax of the movie, we learn that the final key to getting at the Death Star plans is “Stardust,” the nickname Jyn’s father had given her as a child. In other words, the key to unlocking this last evasive step is actually Jyn, also referred to as Stardust. She ends up being a crucial part to discovering and using this message which she shall carry – if only for a brief time. But this symbolism is also definable in Catholicism, seeing as how Mary, who carries the message of salvation (that is Christ Who is the truth), is held as the key to her Son’s heart.
Mary does nothing but try to aid us in our journey toward God. She acts as Mediatrix between God and man. If we seek her intercession, she can be our key to the saving message of her divine Son. St. John Paul II said this of her powerful intercession within creation and her influence on the heart of her Son:
“Mary, glorified in her body, appears today as the star of hope for the Church and for humanity on its way towards the third Christian millennium. Her sublime exaltation does not distance her from her people or from the world’s problems, on the contrary, it enables her to watch effectively over human affairs with that attentive concern with which she obtained the first miracle from Jesus at the wedding in Cana.”
Furthermore, one of the Blessed Mother’s attributes almost certainly consisted of providing hope to the hopeless. The dismay of Christ’s horrible death and the fear of persecution in the years which followed were things Mary would have experienced along with the rest of the disciples. As the New Eve, the new Mother to humanity as appointed by Christ from the cross, Mary would have helped to instill hope in the Christian brethren. Similarly, Jyn Erso is a firm advocate that, no matter how bad things seem to be, hope is still something which is alive and should be pursued.
At a tide-turning sequence of the Star Wars film, Jyn and a small band formed of a few members of the Rebel force decide to act in violation of the decisions made by many of the other rebels. Jyn and her minions split from the primary Rebel Alliance. It’s somewhat similar to what many of the early mainstream Christians were doing in splitting from Judaism. Many Jews, including the Apostles, converted to the Christian faith, which only makes sense as Christ was building off of and expounding on the Jewish faith – that He came to fulfill.
In conclusion, Mary’s life coupled with the early history of Christendom and the story of Jyn Erso as laid out in Rogue One are stories which uphold fighting for one’s beliefs and one’s freedom. As Mary crushes the head of the serpent, so Jyn’s actions cripple the figurative fangs of the Galactic Empire: the Death Star.
The most tender and significant point which can be made in either the historical events of the early Christians or the fictional dramatization of the Rebellion is the need for self-sacrifice. The willingness, the obedience, that both the Virgin Mary and Jyn Erso display is admirable. Jyn and her friends become martyrs for a just cause. It is spectacular and wholly necessary to the success of good’s victory in the world, in the entire universe even.
The saints were true rebels amid their own culture. The Christian martyrs through the ages have shown us what authentic heroes are made of. The self-sacrifice seen in Jyn and the tiny band of rebels who follow her lead is akin to that courage and passion with which the early Christians were inflamed. Certainly, as calmly as Chirrut and Baze Malbus walked into the blaster crossfire, so must the early Christian martyrs have embraced their crosses and surrendered to the beasts in serenity.
John Tuttle
John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist, blogger, and photographer. He has written for Prehistoric Times, Culture Wars Magazine, Those Catholic Men, Catholic Insight, Inside Over, Ancient Origins, Love They Nerd, We Got This Covered, Cultured Vultures, and elsewhere. He can be reached at jptuttleb9@gmail.com.