Abstract
Discussing the endless war between the good and the evil, the Star Wars series has expressed various discourses about evil from 1977 to 2019. These films, which have ingrained themselves in the history of cinema as ‘narratives of evil', have been watched intently by an audience of different nationalities and age groups for a timespan of over 40 years. This currently ongoing interest has allowed the series to continue its narrative with new films. The dialectic relationship that cinema, which has a potential to produce ideas through images, establishes with its watchers as an opportunity that allows for the exploration of the human attitude and behavior towards evil, it necessitates the reconsideration of evil through Star Wars films.
TopBackground: Evil As An Abstract And Concrete Concept
In classical and modern thought, there are many notions about the existence, source, psychological, anthropological, and ideological reasons of evil. Hence, classifications regarding the subject of evil generates a wide notional richness. While these generalizations that attempt to make evilness comprehensible are expressed as a scientific necessity, recently, comments regarding evil possessing an autonomous meaning, hence each action needing to be evaluated in its own right through observable tangible equivalents, have been gaining importance.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Star Wars: The science fiction series that discusses the eternal war between good and evil and consists of nine films (1977-2019) as of now, belonging to American producer George Lucas.
Darth Vader: The name that Anakin Skywalker assumed after switching over to ‘the dark side’ when he was a Jedi who was thought to bring balance to ‘the force’.
Force: The universal energy between humans, nature, and objects found in the Star Wars universe as the source of both good and evil.