Circular Cities
The first and sixth episodes of the Skywalker Saga both feature a city comprised of a network of circles, where a hidden and underestimated society of primitive aliens lives in harmony with nature.
In The Phantom Menace, the Gungans live in an underwater city comprised of bubble-like spheres, which are lit from within by a warm orange glow and connected to each other via thin walkways. The primitive Gungans dislike their surface-dwelling counterparts, the sophisticated Naboo, but in the end, the two peoples form an alliance to defeat the Trade Federation’s Battle Droids.
In Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks live in a treetop village comprised of circular platforms and spherical huts, which are lit from within by warm orange fires and connected to each other by narrow rope bridges. The Ewoks try to eat the heroes when they first arrive on the forest moon of Endor, but in the end, they help the Rebels defeat the Empire’s technologically superior troops.
The similarity between the circle-based designs of these two cities reflects the similar roles the Gungans and Ewoks serve in the story. Both are primitive people groups who initially have a hostile relationship with the heroes, but ultimately ally with them and play an instrumental role in turning the tide of the final battle against a mechanized enemy army. Obi-Wan Kenobi tells the Gungan leader Boss Nass, “You and the Naboo form a symbiont circle. What happens to one of you will affect the other” – and in both The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi, the heroes achieve victory by recognizing and embracing their connection to the primitive denizens of these circular cities and the natural worlds they represent.
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Concepts: cities / forests / nature and technology / primitives / water
Interpretive Tools: Ring Theory
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