The Relatability of Star Wars: How Fallen Order Understands Finding Power in Powerlessness
Star Wars is in an identity crisis. Should it let go of the past or dogmatically embrace it? The Last Jedi bravely chose the former while The Rise of Skywalker retreated to the latter. Both films are disappointing. The Last Jedi won over critics and general audiences but angered devout fans. The Rise of Skywalker pleased no one with abysmal reviews, audience reactions, and embarrassing box office records. The turmoil has caused multiple Star Wars projects to either be canceled or altered mid-production. Fortunately, there is a pragmatic path forward. The franchise can honor the soul of the past while intrepidly braving new ground. The best Star Wars stories all have a relatable humanity at their core, and embracing this core while exploring new complex themes offers a chance to appeal to all Star Wars fans. Better still, the franchise already has a modern standard bearer for this approach: Jedi: Fallen Order.
Fallen Order understands that Star Wars is not a power fantasy, but a story of human struggle. The game’s protagonist, Cal Kestis, is a former Padawan who suffers from severe trauma. During the Jedi Purge, his master died and Cal blames himself. Cal has such difficulty calming his mind and connecting to the force that, at the game’s outset, he can barely meditate. The trajectory of Cal’s journey is not about banal empowerment. He defeats no great evil. Rather, Cal finds meaning by learning to love a small boy who couldn’t save someone he loved.
Cal’s guilt prevents him from being his own person, a tragic truth symbolized by his lightsaber. For most of the game, Cal uses his master’s broken saber. It still works but it’s not fully functional as the hilt is broken. Early in the game it’s possible to repair the sword, using hilts Jedi have left behind. That is to say nothing of Cal is in the weapon. His master provided the base while the remnants of others restored it. An amalgamation of others’ efforts, Cal’s weapon has no input from him and reflects his lack of identity. 
Cal is forced to face his emptiness when his borrowed saber breaks. While investigating a holy temple, Cal’s guilt manifests as a vision of his master. The vision assails him, saying, “My blood is on your hands … you are no Jedi.” Cal has no words to refute this claim. In anguish, he crushes the lightsaber and shatters his master’s kyber crystal.
Cal sees himself as a fraud and seeks renewed purpose. He ventures to Ilum, the planet where Jedi find the crystals that power lightsabers. Traversing Ilum is no mere excursion; it’s a test. The planet reflects Jedi’s inner lives. If Cal is to craft his own lightsaber – and be his own person – he must forgive himself. So, Ilum challenges him. The icy floors give way and Cal plunges into frigid water. As Cal begins to freeze, his mind frozen in doubt, a hand pierces the water. It’s his younger self. Cal faces a choice to either do nothing and die or assert his value as a person by escaping. He chooses the latter, takes the hand, and survives.
The significance of Cal’s choice becomes immediately clear when he finds his own kyber crystal. The crystal splinters in two – appearing, like Cal, broken and useless. However, its actually two functioning crystals, meaning Cal can forge two lightsabers. With two independent weapons at his disposal Cal can freely shift between three stances – single-bladed, double-bladed, dual-wielding – to create fierce combos. Combat becomes a fluid dance – making the player aware, on an experiential level, the profundity of Cal’s experience.
When Cal decided to survive, he took control by letting go. Just like when his master died, Cal had no say in what would happen. The force determined the integrity of the ice, just as it determined his master’s fate. All Cal could do was decide if he is worth saving. Cal had, and has, no control over what happens or what he feels, and he can only control himself. When Cal returns to the temple, he again faces the vision of his master, but instead of engaging, he abides. Cal sheathes his lightsaber and lets the vision launch its assault. Cal cannot rid himself of the sorrow, or guilt, but he can choose how he responds. In letting it pass over him, it no longer controls him. He becomes himself.
Embracing power in powerlessness is at the very heart of Star Wars. It is the lesson that haunts the franchise’s central character: Anakin Skywalker. Anakin, well intentioned and immensely powerful, is tormented. He loves, dearly, but cannot accept the transience, and independence, of living things. He sees himself as directly responsible for the welfare of all that he loves. In the Clone Wars episode “Overlords,” Anakin confesses, “the only love I feel is haunted by what should happen if I let go.” If Anakin recedes control of outcomes, letting the force determine what will be (as it already does), he will blame himself over what transpires. This lose-lose worldview – either holding onto illusory power or being guilty for the inevitable pain of others – breaks him. Anakin destroys the Jedi at the end of the prequel trilogy because he believes that by joining the Sith, he can obtain enough power to save his wife. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin foresees a possible future where his wife dies. They are only visions with no reason to take them as absolute, but Anakin, fixated on outcomes, cannot shake them. He holds himself responsible for this hypothetical future. Anakin eventually gives into the delusions of Sith power and eradicates most of the Jedi. His attempts to determine the future ensure the very outcome he wished to avoid.
The seminal Clone Wars arc ,“The Mortis Trilogy,” of which “Overlords” is a part, demonstrates how Anakin is doomed by his inability to understand choice. While investigating a mystical planet, named Mortis, Anakin becomes aware of his dark destiny and goes berserk trying to prevent it. Anakin is so fixated on the future he is blind to the only control he has: who he is in the present. Whether or not Anakin becomes Vader turns on his decision – not some externality. In order to stop the destruction, the Father, a powerful force wielder, wipes Anakin’s memory.
Anakin’s failure to see his choice causes his fall, but his eventual embrace of it sets him free. In Return of the Jedi when Anakin must choose between his master, Emperor Palpatine, and his son, Luke, he faces a test similar to Cal: He faces forgiving himself. If Anakin stays loyal to the emperor, he does so under the belief that he is evil. However, if Anakin saves his son, he is good despite the atrocities. When Anakin sacrifices himself to save Luke, he reclaims himself. No longer defined by the horrors of his past, Anakin seizes the present and chooses. He dies a Jedi.
Jedi: Fallen Order understands the power choice provided so well that it compliments Cal’s journey with that of Cal’s tragic mentor, Cere. Cere saves Cal from the inquisitors at the start of the game and gives him a new purpose in finding the Jedi holocron. Cere’s mentorship and empathy play a significant part in Cal’s transformation, even his second lightsaber is forged using her hilt. She helps Cal turn his trauma into a strength. She’s a beautiful soul, but she, too, despises herself.
Cere betrayed her apprentice, Trilla. Captured and tortured by Darth Vader, Cere gave up Trilla’s location. The Empire brutalized Trilla into becoming an inquisitor, and inducted her in front of Cere. In a moment of sheer instinct, Cere screamed, tapped into the dark side and killed everyone in the room – except Trilla. Cere has hated herself ever since and resists the force, she even sold her precious kyber crystal, and she fears the darkness in herself. Cere fears that who she is.
Cere’s Jedi moment comes when she faces Darth Vader for a second time. Vader murders Trilla and Cere rages – unleashing her dark side on him. It isn’t enough. Despite her power it only slows him. She cannot defeat Darth Vader. She is powerless, but as Cal reminds her, she still has choice. Ceredoes not need to act in hatred. In pulling back on her attack, Cere, like Cal, finds power in powerlessness. Even if she cannot win, she can still determine who she is, so she resolves to defend rather than destroy. She fails to defeat Vader, but in retreating she protects herself and Cal. She is herself, once again.
Cere and the other Jedi, despite their powers, live very human lives. We relate to them because their challenge is an internal one. Like us they wrestle with choice. When we consciously choose, we face ourselves and decide who we are. Even if its something mundane like training for a marathon, we face a conflict between what we desire (training) and what we wish to desire (getting up to train). The resulting decision may be trivial but it determines who we are, at least in that moment. When we experience Cal forgiving himself or Cere recognizing her good, we experience a reflection of ourselves: beings fighting to assert their true selves.
The newest Star Wars trilogy forgets this relatability. The hero of the trilogy, Rey, fails to resonate as a person because she never has to struggle with herself. The magnitude of her power means she gets to easily plow through any problem. Even when she flirts with regret, she finds a solution to undo her mistake. For instance, when she mortally wounds Kylo Ren, she can easily heal him. Unlike Cere and Cal, she doesn’t have to face guilt. Furthermore, the pain of her past doesn’t linger. Her occasional tantrums about being abandoned by her parents are the only hint that she’s ever been hurt. At the start of Fallen Order, Cal trembles after fights. He is terrified and has trouble trusting people. Rey, on the other hand, is plucky and friendly with everyone she meets. She has no internal turmoil which is what gives heroism meaning.
Throughout Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal and Cere seek the holocron; it is redemption to them. “All I wanted to do was die,” Cere confides in Cal. “But then I learned about the holocron. A spark of hope that there could be a future. That we could move on.” With the holocron, Cere and Cal can find, and train a new generation of Jedi. thereby giving meaning to their lives. Yet, after retrieving it, they decide to destroy it. Cere and Cal understand their limits. They have no control over what will happen. They find the youth, the Empire could capture them and create an army of inquisitors. Finding the children is a gamble and the children are the bet. So, Cere and Cal step aside. They sacrifice tangible hope and take responsibility for themselves. The desire to use the holocron, to try and find purpose in their lives, gives their action meaning. They are conflicted. They are heroes because they resist a part of themselves for the sake of others.
The Rise of Skywalker loses its soul to bombast, but Jedi: Fallen Order provides a new hope. Star Wars, at its best, provides us with a heroism to strive for. None of us can deflect lightning but we can all look in the mirror and choose who we are. We can all toss aside the lightsaber. We can all make a choice.
