A Literary Magazine Sponsored by The University of Maine at Farmington
An exploration of the stories and storytelling techniques in the Star Wars franchise.
By Anna Heneise From its origins as a single film released in 1977, titled simply Star Wars, George Lucas’ world and story has grown into a dozen films, half a … Continue Reading “Like Poetry:” The Story vs. the Franchise
By Anna Heneise Star Wars is a story built with parallels and inversions and especially symbolism. Characters are not simply characters, they represent change in the larger political and social … Continue Reading Parallels in Hope: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo
By Anna Heneise The 2002 comic series Jango Fett: Open Seasons contains everything a tragic backstory should— the murder of Jango’s family, his promising career as a child soldier, the … Continue Reading Framing Jango Fett: When A Backstory Is Not A Backstory
By Anna Heneise Dedicated, with all honor, to Julius Caesar. One aspect of Order 66 I find fascinating is the timing. If the only thing Darth Sidious wanted was to … Continue Reading Order 66: Carefully Timed Destruction
By Anna Heneise As established in Part I, in The Clone Wars, the clones are characterized through the tension between their understanding of their purpose as soldiers and their growing … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part IV
By Anna Heneise Violence is one of those deeply human things we like to pretend is not human. Our capacity for violence is something to be restrained, to be feared, … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part III
By Anna Heneise Violence is foundational to Star Wars. In fact “Star Wars” is probably the most basic and accurate name that could have been given to this sprawling story … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part II
By Anna Heneise An enduringly popular character in science fiction and fantasy is the living weapon— a person who isn’t a person so much as they are a destructive force … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part I
By Anna Heneise The infamous Order 66 sequence in Revenge of the Sith (2005) begins with Commander Cody opening a message from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. The order is issued. Without … Continue Reading Light and Dark: An Introduction to Racism in Star Wars
By Anna Heneise When asked about how the original trilogy connected with the prequel trilogy, George Lucas infamously said, “It’s like poetry […] they rhyme.” Whether you find this phrase … Continue Reading “Like poetry:” Lucas, Legacies, and Working Backwards