In the third film of each Skywalker Saga trilogy, a hero travels to a desert planet to pursue an enemy with animal associations: a villain made inhuman by evil. After facing this enemy inside or alongside a sinkhole, the hero escapes with the help of a ship that belonged to him. By descending to the villain’s level and then ascending with the help of his tools, the hero’s own Dark Side is implied.
In Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi goes to Utapau to find and confront General Grievous, the notorious Jedi-killer. In their final fight, Obi-Wan almost falls into a sinkhole, but he kills Grievous by shooting him with his own blaster. “So uncivilized,” Obi-Wan quips, throwing it away in disgust. To defeat the vicious, lizard-like Grievous, he had to act “uncivilized” himself. Then, when Order 66 puts Obi-Wan on the run, he escapes Utapau by returning to the general’s starfighter, parked feet away from his remains. He survives by thinking like Grievous, who always had an escape plan.
In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker and his friends go to Tatooine to confront the slug-like Jabba the Hutt, who tries to throw them into the sinkhole of the Sarlacc. While Lando Calrissian almost falls into the sinkhole, Leia Organa strangles Jabba with the chain he used to enslave her. To defeat Jabba, Lando and Leia went undercover, pretending to be scoundrels like him. Similarly, Luke imitates Jabba by boasting, “Don’t underestimate my powers.” But as he says this, Luke doesn’t mind his surroundings; he falls into another of Jabba’s pits and almost gets eaten by the Rancor, which suggests Luke’s own rancor. But once Luke, Lando, and Leia each survive a monster, they escape the explosion of Jabba’s sail barge using one of his skiffs.
In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey and her friends go to Pasaana to find the Jedi-hunter Ochi. Their skiffs – which resemble the ones in Return of the Jedi – crash into a bed of sinking sand, and this time the heroes can’t help falling into the depths. But whereas Obi-Wan and Luke had to destroy their enemies, in this latest sinkhole the heroes discover that Ochi is already dead. They find his skeleton, which resembles Grievous’s skeleton after he caught fire. Ochi is also associated with an animal in that the sinkhole belongs to the Vexis Snake. But, again, the heroes discover that violence is unnecessary: Rey heals the snake instead of killing it. After it helps them ascend from the darkness into the light, the heroes escape Pasaana by taking Ochi’s ship, parked yards away from his remains.
However, before they can leave, Kylo Ren eggs Rey into using the Dark Side. His provocation shows that Rey still has passions to control, or else she will become a servant of Palpatine like Ochi, and something less than human. In her vision among the ruins of the Death Star later in the film, Rey’s evil double hisses at her, like the Vexis Snake.
EXPLORE FURTHER...
Characters: General Grievous / Jabba the Hutt / Kylo Ren / Lando Calrissian / Leia Organa / Luke Skywalker / Obi-Wan Kenobi / Ochi / Rey
Films: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Episode VI: Return of the Jedi / Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES...
Concepts: animals / ascent and descent / deserts / monsters / underworld
READ MORE ABOUT...
Follow The Jedi Archives on…