Is sequel trilogy an attack on the institution of classic family?

No.

Wow, that came much shorter than I had expected, but I guess I can't find much more to say. Especially because the other posters already have.

 

It is indeed a fact but you have to interject the part where people are intentionally going, "let's attack the family dynamic that the legends materials had" instead of them doing it because it makes for a more interesting story.

 

I'll chose to measure the difference between the new canon and EU by how many clones of major characters there are. New canon currently has zero and EU is somewhere in the thousands. I'll keep a running tab on this information if you promise to keep up the data on families that were one way in the EU and are a different way in the new canon.

Although I'm afraid we might be disappointed because both of our data sets will probably stagnate from this point onward.

 

Well, raising the next generation of Star Wars fans may be one of the most important things we can do for the series, so I totally respect that.

But in a way, I think that might be the familial message you're looking for. Maybe these characters are coming out of broken places, but they're coming together as their own family, and carrying on the legacy of those who have come before.

 

I say yes it is spitting on family values!

 

Well I am probably a strong pro-traditional family advocate. I can say I have no idea what you are getting at.

None of the examples you put out were bad fruit so to speak of the traditional family. Meaning it wasn't about how the classic nuclear family is bad.

Second the alternatives that the story focused on were all presented as horrific. As in "look how tragic" these poor kids had it with out families. Even if you just focus on the ST its not like they are suggesting the 1st Order brainwashing of stolen children is a good thing. Rose points the exploitation of the poor kids and speaks the voice of conscience of the film, "I want to punch a hole through this whole beautiful lousy town."

Looking at your view of the EU families it seems more like sour grapes that Luke, Han and Leia did not get happy families. I think at the end of the day they wanted to subvert the happy endings of the OT by putting the ideal happy ending destroyed by Kylo it creates a tension that we hope to see resolved. The characters we loved once victorious over the Empire have been brought low by the new villain. In any fairy tale the idyllic kingdom is put in danger and the restored. The idyllic kingdom for those weened on the stories of the OT was not the Galaxy it was the group photo that hit at the end of Jedi. Where we all imagined Luke with the new jedi, the pirate and princess living happily every after.

 

Another thread about the importance of blood relations rather than actually thinking what "family" really means...ugh.
Spare a thought for all the adopted and/or orphaned children out there who find a family outside of their bloodline. And then also consider that it wasn't Kylo Ren's blood that turned him bad, but his own choices.

Kylo himself had parents who continued to love him despite everything he had done. His father died for him. Does that not exemplify familial love?

Rey has a family. Finn, Han, Leia, Chewie and so on and so forth.
In the Original Trilogy, before Luke's dad turned out to be a genocidal maniac, his family were Han & Leia etc. Before that it was Owen and Beru - not blood relations, I might add.

The entire PT, which you might want to be more concerned about, was about children being taken away from their families and brought up by warrior monks and test tude children being grown into soldiers for the Republic. Even the OT was about the old wise mentors telling the boy to murder his father!

But no, let's focus on the ST and specifically Rey because her being a no one contradicts your theory about her being the love child of Luke Skywalker and some chick from a fishing world that was much too young for him!

Aaaaaaaand breathe. Just breathe.

 

the ST is so specifically about orphans and their struggle to find family. in the EU and in the films.
all of these characters are parentless and struggling to make attachments.
even characters like Iden, Sinjir, Cienna, etc. struggle against cynicism and fascist ideology to make more important connections: love, belonging.

echoed too in Rebels: it's about Ezra doing right by his lost parents, Hera too, Sabine living up to the expectations of her mother/her people, etc. (and they all find family in each other).

family for people who have lost family is probably the single most important theme in Star Wars right now.
if ever there was a treatise on the critical need for family, it's this. traditional or otherwise.

 

Huh?

 

The morale of the Saga is the whole Skywalker clan needs a trip to see Dr. Phil and hammer their issues out!

 

The films don't attack the traditional family, more they show a particular family being not up to scratch. These parents weren't up to the task of really helping their problematic child, thinking the best thing was to send him away, which he understood as rejection.

But to what extent is the story about the family alone not managing Kylo's issues, or the fact they were interfered with by Snoke? Is there any timeline for when exactly Snoke got to Ben? Was Snoke the original cause of Ben's darkness, starting real early, or was Ben already problematic on his own, frightening his parents, and Snoke only built on that later? The timing's a key factor, I think, in how I'd understand this character and story and whether the family's reactions alone is to be seen as the major cause of the making of Ren.

 

Epic, myths and fairy tales are rarely about happy or even classical families. Think about Odysseus, Oedipus, Snow White, to name a few. These stories deal with outmost crises and are vehicles to teach moral values pertinent to the social context they are used in (thence that they so often evolve and change with the times). Sometimes the most effective way to bring issues, such as family values, to the foreground is by devising some sort of conflict. Star War films do this all the time. Heroes in SW are fatherless, motherless, or both, have been traumatized by their parents, or taken away from them, or abandoned by them, but these conflicts only reinforce the message in SW: that belonging is important, to a family, to a cause, to a side of the force. The Skywalker bloodline highlights the importance of lineage for the good and for the bad, but surnames are only a part of the story. Luke lineage made Luke understand his potential and identity. However, for Rey it seems that her belonging will not come from blood but from her attitude and ultimate sense of good and evil, which actually mirrors perfectly our modern taste for the success stories of those who rise against all odds (people disadvantaged economically, women, immigrants, people with a handicap and so on.)

 

Agreed.

There's a difference between "You don't need familial legacy for success" and "Familial legacy is bad".

I guess if anything, traditional familial values come from a place of privilege, and like any place of privilege it may feel that it's status is under attack in a more egalitarian atmosphere- but if non-tradition is raised up instead of tradition being brought down, I really don't think that can be considered an "attack".

 

from the womb, we've been led to believe.
we are still awaiting more precise confirmation, though.

 

classic family values?

i've tried to post here all day, but i'm struggling. to say family values are extremely subjective would be an understatement.

am i being asked "is the ST an attack on an idyllic happy family dynamic", or am i being asked "is the ST an attack on what you hold dear as family values"

i'm not being rude.. i just don't understand the question.

 

I see, thanks. I see these films then not as attacking the traditional family, but depicting a traditional family under attack (by Snoke). I'm not surprised that Kylo wants to completely destroy the past, even if he can't always bring himself to do it.