Comparative Literature Master Thesis On the Contrast Between the Star Wars Franchise’s Transmedia Reflections and Science Fiction Mode of Storytelling: Analysing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Against the Grain By Berhan Ocak 11676450 July, 2018 Supervisor: Dr. Tim F. Yaczo Ocak 2 Table of ontents Introduction……………………………………….. 3 Transmedia Connections…………………………. 7 Culture for Masses?................................................. 8 Star Wars: A “Killer Story” …………………….. 10 The Topology of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story… 13 Feminist or Misogynist?............................................. 24 Race, Hierarchy and Monopolisation……………... 35 Star Wars: A Space Western………………………. 40 Conclusion…………………………………………... 58 Bibliography………………………………………… 65 Ocak 3 On the Contrast Between the Star Wars Franchise’s Transmedia Reflections and Science Fiction Mode of Storytelling: Analysing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Against the Grain Introduction When female characters started to inhabit the Star Wars universe, I came to think that it may be the time to take a second look at the universe and see what has changed in this long- known space/time. With the emergence of new media platforms and mediums such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon providing cheap access to various types of screen productions (documentaries, reality shows, series, miniseries, films, and more), there have been various successful contemporary screen adaptations of science fiction literature and many new productions in SF cinema. These platforms brought together ongoing popular productions with indie (independent, transnational) productions and companies that would otherwise have a restricted budget as well as viewer access. These companies and their productions (though not necessarily), posit a more socio-politically and artistically oriented/concerned narratives that relies less on special effects, commercialization, financial achievement and media response for success. Consequently, these companies offer a more diverse, non-stereotypical, more ethically concerned representations of possible or less visible lives and human/non-human experiences and posit a more diverse structure in terms of ethnicity, nationality, ableism, race, and gender. And so, the increase and newly gained visibility of these admirable productions lead me to think that perhaps Star Wars franchise improved its plot-driven battlegrounds into more inhabitable, peace-seeking grounds and watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that was released in 2016. I was wrong. It seems that, indeed the ‘story’ and how its told remained the same and only the faces changed. An exhausted theme of ‘father and child’ drama that neglects the dead mother, filled Ocak 4 with stereotypical character formations that affirm national monopolisation of power; and fantasies of war, weapons and armies welcomes the audience into images of violence, death, and destruction in the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The similarity between the heroine Jyn and her squad’s ‘mission impossible’ and the suicide mission of the 9/11 attackers is problematic. Stealing an Imperial spaceship and committing an assault to an Imperial database tower that holds the plans for the Death Star, the mass destruction weapon (as well as the foundations of the ultimate power) of the Empire, is quite a similar narrative to that of BBC’s 9/11 story which posits: “On 11 September 2001, terrorists hijacked four aeroplanes and deliberately flew them into targets in the United States of America” (“The 9/11 terrorist attacks”). What seems to be an anonymous news report then goes on to accentuate the symbolism of the attack due to the strategical importance of its targets in symbolising power; the Twin Towers. In his well-known article on the events of 9/11 “The Spirit of Terrorism”, Baudrillard also comments on the mimetic stance of western cinema in reflecting the negative affect of the desires/fears of control and power the West possesses –namely the death drive– which, he claims, does so in an “attempt to exorcize [this affect] with images, drowning out the whole thing with special effects” (Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism”). If we take Baudrillard’s claims in consideration, then the symbolic stance of the saboteurs’ attack in Rogue One posits as an attempt (of the film’s creators) to purge the death drive resulted by the American absolutism. Projected to the Empire, the symbolic act of self-sacrifice actualised by the majorly young group of protagonists, this thesis claims, results from the recognition of American absolutism. In other words, though the characters may change and Star Wars universe may become inhabited with heroines and racially diverse characters; the story remains the same. And it indeed remains to be a story of ‘stars’ and ‘wars’; recruiting any shining star (actor) for its unending wars and telling the story exclusively within the barriers of our war-ridden, biased and racially discriminative world. Ocak 5 In the light of such ideas, this thesis asserts that Star Wars films are not Science Fiction narratives. This is a well-known fact amongst scholars, SF enthusiast and even amongst a small number of Star Wars fans. However, a brief web search shows that uncountable numbers of media organs refer Star Wars films as SF. IMDB listing of the nominations and awards of the first film shows that while it collected numerous awards for its visual and sound effects, costume and make-up designs from the Academy Awards (USA) event in 1978, once millennium arrived, Star Wars’ success consisted mostly of its commercial undertakings. IMDB listing further shows that in 2012, Golden Trailer Awards, “an annual awards show that honors achievements in motion picture marketing, including film trailers, posters and television” according to its website, nominated Star Wars the “Most Innovative Advertising for a Brand/Product” for the episodes I, II, III, V and VI. When arrives the year 2015, Star Wars franchise enters into the world of Guiness World Record Awards and achieves to obtain the titles “Highest box-office gross for a screenwriter” and “Highest box office film gross average for a director (male)”. All these information shows that, except for its cinematographic aspects which won it many awards as listed above, the success of Star Wars franchise comes mostly from its commercial business skills in being able to speak to masses. The expression ‘speaking to the masses’ is not intended as a compliment; on the contrary speaking to and nor for and with masses is the problem at the core of the subversive and chaotic disposition of Star Wars franchise. Being a violent and action-based narrative, Star Wars films’ success in visual and sound effects help the film provide the masses with the most exclusive high quality images of war and violence adding up to the “image of war” Baudrillard claims to be existing between “the government” and “the terrorist”, as he writes on the 9/11 attack, to control the masses by inflicting fear and negativity (Baudrillard, “he Spirit of Terrorism”). This thesis claims that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, passing as a SF in the chaotic information flows of transmedia streams, exploits both the popularity and “historically determined, scholarly re-creatable and Ocak 6 critically evaluatable purpose” of SF mode/genre; creating subversive narratives (Suvin, 50). That is, by using SF’s probes as disguise or distraction and appropriating coloured people, LGBTI+ and women’s visibility on screen, it employs problematic themes, ideals and motifs of conservative, reactionist genres such as westerns, epics, adventures and actions and propagates backwards norms and sells the spectacles of contemporary world’s fears, anxieties and weaknesses which then intensifies such anxieties. Or as Baudrillard summarizes in his essay “The Spirit of Terrorism” “written in October 2001 and published in the French newspaper Le Monde on November 3, 2001” The West, in the position of God (divine omnipotence and absolute moral legitimacy), has become suicidal, and declared war on itself. The countless disaster movies bear witness to this fantasy, which they clearly attempt to exorcize with images, drowning out the whole thing with special effects. But the universal attraction they exert, which is on a par with pornography, shows that acting-out is never very far away, the impulse to reject any system growing all the stronger as it approaches perfection or omnipotence (Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism”). Being an undeniable American production, employing themes of suicide missions, destroyed high towers, extremist groups, mass destruction weapons Rogue One omits SF’s generic responsibilities and creates an “orgy of war”, violence, romance and comedy that forever exploits mass cultural scene and societies (qtd. in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, 154). All the while, transmedia organs such as IMDb (Internet Movie Database), Times New York, Huffington Post, SFX Magazine, The Guardian and many more refer to Star Wars films as SF, these films employ conservative, backwards and reactionary ideals of genres they relate their narratives, themes and motifs to. In this sense, this thesis aims at analysing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) against the claims of being a SF narrative that employs futuristic ideals of racial, gender and class equality and asserts that being a space romance that employs war, action and western themes, motifs Rogue One creates subversive –if not vogue– cognitive structures. Ocak 7 Transmedia Connections Owned by Amazon (“an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company “ according to https://en.wikipedia.org ), IMDb refers Rogue One as an “Action, Adventure, Sci-fi” film while official Lucasfilm web page calls it an “epic adventure” (www.starwars.com) and displays the links of IMDb and Wookiepedia pages under its brief commentary. And while IMDb page refers it as a SF as quoted above, Wookiepedia only refers to the genre of the film with a vogue reference to film’s director Gareth Edwards positing that “Edwards has described the film as a grounded, war-based movie” and leaves the subject untouched otherwise (http://starwars.wikia.com).