Entertainment Earth
[TF.N Main] [Contact Us]
[Jedi Council - Main]
[More...]
[Interviews]

[Editorials]

[EU Roundtable]
[Popular Stories]
CEII: Jabba's Palace Reunion - Massive Guest Announcements

Star Wars Night With The Tampa Bay Storm Reminder

Stephen Hayford Star Wars Weekends Exclusive Art

ForceCast #251: To Spoil or Not to Spoil

New Timothy Zahn Audio Books Coming

Star Wars Celebration VII In Orlando?

May The FETT Be With You

Mimoco: New Mimobot Coming May 4th

[Jedi Council Forums]
Who Doesn't Hate Jar Jar anymore?

Fans who grew up with the OT-Do any of you actually prefer the PT?

Should darth maul have died?

What plotline, character or scene in the entire Saga irritates you the most?

The misconceptions you had about Star Wars, when you were a kid
[Poll]
There are no polls
currently operating
in this sector.
Please check
back soon.

View Poll Archives


Entertainment Earth
Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 7!

Posted By Paul on August 26, 2007

Welcome, at last, to the concluding part of TheForce.Net?s week-long series on Abel G. Peña—and to the concluding section of the two-part essay on heroes and villains in Abel's writing which began yesterday.

(In the real world, ?yesterday? was actually a few months back: this installment has been excessively delayed by a combination of computer troubles, illness, and good old-fashioned workload; but I hope that, when the reader takes the entire series together, it will follow on fluently from what?s come before.

Abel, you have my sincere apologies for the delay).

If you?ve found yourself here and want to remind yourself what it?s all about, you can go back to the beginning, and start reading the interview from the start again—or, alternatively, jump in randomly in part two, part three or part four if that takes your fancy.

You can also take a look at the review of Abel?s Droids, Technology and the Force; but what follows below is most directly designed to be read in conjunction with yesterday?s piece on heroes in Mr Peña?s work.

Of course, it's not obligatory to read any of that alongside this. It might be interesting if you don't.

The main thing is, I hope you have fun following me on the last stage of this journey. I had a blast just thinking about this stuff, and I hope that some of that carries over into what you?re about to read:




Hero and Villain: Part II—Villain

In the opening half of this dual discussion, I suggested that Abel G. Peña?s idea of heroism involved a protagonist with whom the reader and the author could identitfy—and who, more importantly, wasn?t compromised in the clarity of his ideals, even if he had to go mad to hold onto them. So, where does that leave the villains?

Well, within the Peña canon, you have to be wary of the bearings provided by the narrative perspectives, however authoritative they seem; but there are certainly some suggestive statements. In ?The Emperor?s Pawns?, he describes Mara Jade?s first meeting with her alter ego Lumiya. Both women are red-haired, green eyed Force-users; both have also been Palpatine?s pet assassin, Luke Skywalker?s lover, and the mentor to the Grand Master?s heir and nephew, but their paths through the Star Wars story have normally placed them in hostile opposition to each other:
Mara caught her own distorted reflection in the cyborg?s metal crown.

There?s a suggestion of duality and reflection here, a disconcerting sense of looking in the mirror—or perhaps in one of those scary ?clown mirrors? in an old-style funfair of the sort that only seems to survive in horror movies.

This was something that Abel returned to in the interview he did with TF.N this week: he defined Mara and Lumiya as ?really two sides of the same coin?, and perhaps more tellingly, he said he ?really wanted to get the point across that Lumiya is what Mara could have become?.

But if it seems that the villain is the twisted opposite of the hero, that in itself is a tricky identity to define, beyond a verbal abstraction. Just what is it that defines the villain in their own terms—or at least, in Abel Peña?s terms?

Perhaps the clearest indicator is offered in the interview, where he observes that Jacen Solo ?has forgotten the lesson of empathy, and thus become a villain?. General Grievous is also identified here as a ?true villain?: Abel portrayed him as a figure stripped of humanity, waging total war with mathematical ruthlessness—but paradoxically driven by the anguish and self-loathing caused by his cyborging, externalising the suffering of the living fragment trapped inside his droid body. It seems that a lack of compassion is the clearest trope defining a villain here, and also a loss of idealism and honour—and those are certainly concepts that are close to the core of Star Wars.

It may also be important to note that Abel Peña doesn?t like the way that the anti-hero has become popular: he sternly warns against hero-worshiping such people.

On the other hand, he suggests that authors identify with their villains as well as their heroes, and says that he has a desire to make the reader do the same: and he then cites Osvald Teshik as an example—one of the the hero characters discussed yesterday.

Digging a little deeper, we find complexity, uncertainty. Who?s to say that the Mara/Lumiya opposition is a universal part of hero/villain dynamics—and who?s to say the villain and the hero are necessarily separate characters at all?

Well, let?s go back to where we started this diversion: it seems that the villain is the twisted opposite of the hero. It?s not, perhaps, that the villain has any inherently villainous quality, but simply that they oppose the hero. That?s quite a challenging perspective to bring, one that raises questions about the morality of the hero in turn.

Or perhaps we can look at villain as someone who?s trapped by being defined the in terms of the hero, not quite comfortable standing on his own two feet as a character.

Take Trioculus. He undoubtedly looks the part; but he is obsessed with making Leia his Empress, and locked in an inevitable conflict with Palpatine?s ?true? son Triclops. Even in his ambitions, he sets himself up as the perpetual understudy, the man who can?t be his own man: he wants to be the Emperor. His narrative arc is a quest for legitimacy as a character in his own right, and by its very nature, one that?s doomed to fail.

I find myself thinking of Scaramanga, or the Bond villains as an abstract concept, with his need to prove himself against the heroic protagonist who at once fascinates and repels him. Even Dr. Evil fits the bill: the same actor as Austin Powers, indicated as a villain simply by being dressed up in a Blofeld costume. The fact he?s psychologically immature is appropriate if villainy is essentially derivative, but not strictly necessary.

Of course, the two definitions, opposition and inadequacy, aren?t necessarily incompatible. Let?s take the Solo brothers, Han and Leia?s boys. Fans of Anakin Solo tend to look at Jacen Solo, and see a villain who?s still defining himself in twisted opposition to the genuinely heroic younger brother. Fans of Jacen, on the other hand (among whom Abel may count himself) see him as a Star Wars hero in his own right, fighting his own battles against his own enemies, and his own internal dark side. Maybe they even get annoyed by the ghoulish cult of his dead kid brother, with its totemic use of the younger Solo boy?s shade.

There?s an unsettling relativism here, where a character?s fundamental identity redefines according to the perspective you?re looking at them from. Even the question of whether they have real integrity as an individual produces a completely different answer depending on whose terms you?re defining them in.

If the hero is connected to clarity of perspective, the villain is simply the Other. One man?s compassion may appear to another as a hostile, unwanted dogma. And so, we return to epistemology, and perhaps to linguistics, and the unreliability of both text and criticism—and to the intersection between Star Wars and wider worlds of thought and literature.

Who is the villain? It all depends, as Obi-Wan (or is it Ben?) once said, very much on your point of view. And, of course, that circles us back round—quite unexpectedly—to the idea I put forward yesterday, that the hero in Abel Peña?s work is defined by his consistency, purity, and fidelity to a positive and sincere self-definition. How in the Galaxy can that heroic clarity of meaning coexist with the protean relativism implied when we consider the dynamic saber-dance of the hero against the villain?

It seems like an impossibility, but both sides of the paradox feel just as viscerally real. Maybe the question of how to resolve the paradox, in itself, is the key trick here, the catalyst that defines not just the ?what?, but the why of heroes and villains?

And yet, there?s also more I?ve not yet touched on. In discussing Star Wars canon, and the desire to ?warp this or that element of Star Wars lore?, Abel links this to the nature of evil itself. It?s a striking—but typical—segue.

This idea draws a connection between evil and creativity itself, suggesting that in every action, and especially translation and interpretation, there lurks the capacity to do great damage.

That?s an idea that?s quite hard to grapple with, I think, but it?s also quite humbling and cautionary. As such, perhaps it?s an appropriate thought with which to end this analysis of Abel?s villains... and indeed, Abel G. Peña week.

Remember, I?m just suggesting here. Think for yourselves?




Well, that?s it for Abel G. Peña week. We hoped you enjoyed this exploration of one of the most impressive authors writing in the Star Wars canon.

If you want to explore further, you can start by visiting Abel's website and his StarWars.com VIP blog.







[Jedi Council - News Archives]
Star Wars Episode VII Forum Now Open!
Posted By Dustin on October 31, 2012:
Join the conversation in our Jedi Council forums!

The Jedi Council Forums Are Back
Posted By Dustin on September 4, 2012:
All wings report in!

CV: TFN FanForce Jedi Council Party
Posted By Dustin on August 8, 2010:
Updated! Party you must, with TFN!

CV: Official TFN Fan Force Party
Posted By Dustin on June 21, 2010:
Party with fellow fans Saturday night!

Re-Hosting Jedi Council Forums
Posted By Philip on June 2, 2010:
Notice for member accounts

We Talk To Tanya Roberts!
Posted By Paul on January 29, 2010:
Artist on the UK's new Clone Wars comic...

Invasion Artist Interview!
Posted By Paul on February 19, 2009:
We talk with Colin Wilson...

Interview With Invasion Writer!
Posted By Paul on February 19, 2009:
Tom Taylor talks to...

Henry Gilroy / Dave Filoni Interview!
Posted By Paul on December 29, 2008:
A Christmas Present to the fans...

We Interview Henry Gilroy...
Posted By Paul on November 12, 2008:
YOU ask the questions!

We Interview Timothy Zahn!
Posted By Paul on November 1, 2008:
Right here on TheForce.Net...

RPG Designer Rodney Thompson Interview!
Posted By Adrick on September 20, 2008:
Talks KOTOR & TFU campaign guides!

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 7!
Posted By Paul on August 26, 2007:
Once you start down the dark path....

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 6!
Posted By Paul on August 25, 2007:
Jacen Solo and the meaning of heroism....

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 5!
Posted By Paul on August 24, 2007:
Mystical energy and artificial intelligence...

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 4
Posted By Paul on August 23, 2007:
The living fanboy dream....

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 3
Posted By Paul on August 22, 2007:
Everything he tells you is true—from a certain point of view!

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 2
Posted By Paul on August 21, 2007:
Continuing our focus on the author....

Abel G. Peña Week -- Part 1!
Posted By Paul on August 20, 2007:
Seven-day series focusing on the author...

Did You Meet That Special Someone Through TheForce.Net?
Posted By Mike on July 31, 2007:
We want to know!!!

Happy 30th Anniversary Star Wars!
Posted By Dustin on May 25, 2007:
Stephen Hayford's latest tribute to that galaxy far, far away...

Old Hats Team Up For New Fan Mag
Posted By Mike on February 20, 2007:
Several names from TFN, What's the Story?, and more...

It's A Betrayal Bonanza!
Posted By Mike on May 30, 2006:
Update #2! Reviews, roundtables, and chats, oh my!

This September: Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD
Posted By Dustin on May 3, 2006:
It's Official! Lucasfilm answers fans request for the original uncut Star Wars trilogy on DVD...

Make The Jump To HYPERSPACE!
Posted By Chris on April 10, 2006:
Join today and help Roberts & R2 in '06!

[TF.N Newsletter]
Enter Email Address:
Find Out More...
[All Posters]
Star Wars - Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - Vader
AllPosters.com
Search For Posters, Cardboard Stand-Ups & T-Shirts!
[Rebelscum.com - Star Wars Collecting]
[TheForce.Net - FanFilms]
[TheForce.Net - FanForce] [TheForce.Net - Fan Art]
[More News...]
TheForce.Net - Your Daily Dose of Star Wars Entertainment Earth
THEFORCE.NET IS NOT ENDORSED BY LUCASFILM, LTD. PLEASE READ OUR DISCLAIMER. © 2024 COPYRIGHT TF.N, LLC
The Galaxy is Listening
Entertainment Earth
[TF.N Main] [TF.N FAQ] [Contact Us]