Messiahs in Pop Culture
Dec. 6th, 2005 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieCompiling my Star Wars post made me think about the recent rusurgence of “Messiahs” in pop culture and how they are an interesting and dark and twisted take on the story: they all have motifs of being chosen or profesied, they have power or skills that is outside their control (and that they themselves did not ask for), there is temptation and eventual saving of the world and death (literal or figurative) but generally they are a much darker breed than the traditional Jesus figure.
Who am I talking about? Anakin, Neo, Frodo and Harry Potter. Welcome to the Jesus quartet.
To me, Anakin is the most fascinating and the darkest of all the Messiah figures. Not to mention the most tragic. He is someone who is profesied and fated to save the world from the evil of the Sith and he is a product of a Virgin birth and someone from humble surroundings. Only? There is a catch. He seems to be profesied as a Messiah of the evil side as well (if Palpatine’s story about Plagueis does mean what it seems to imply, i.e. that Anakin was created by the Sith directly).
Just like a typical Messiah figure, he has skills/talents that make him stand apart from the norm, even when the norm is as extraordinary as the Jedi, and it’s something that is outside his control entirely (his midichlorian count).
But what really makes Anakin a very, very dark variation of the Messiah figure is his fall. He has his own private tempter, Palpatine. And unlike Jesus tempted by Satan in the New Testament, Anakin listens to his out private devil and gives in. Anakin is Lucifer fallen, only much worse, because Lucifer was one of many angels, while Anakin is the symbolic savior of the world.
Of course, his fall is sped by the fact that of the four characters I mention, he has the least of support network. He has Obi-Wan who loves him but does not understand him and is utterly committed to the Jedi ideals which are inimical to so much of what Anakin feels. He has the Jedi who are rigidly distant. And he has Padme whom he loves madly but who I don’t think understands the true fear and desperation at the core of him and who is the source of most of his anxieties anyway. Neo has Trinity who is not a source of anxiety but also the support of his Zion friends and co-workers, Frodo has the Fellowship and especially Sam, and Harry is surrounded by love and caring. Anakin has none of this.
And the brilliant thing is that what makes him fall are his good qualities: his strength of love for Padme who he will do anything to save (unlike the Jedi, I don’t hold with emotion=bad philosophy), his loyalty and lack of guile, as he won’t believe bad of Palpatine until it’s too late. Even his belief in immutability of goodness, because the corollary is that once he goes back he is damned forever. The Messiah in this story ends up the helpless, self-loathing slave of the devil. Yes, Anakin eventually saves the world as prophesied and dies, but Star Wars is a world where the Devil holds all the cards and has a ball with it, for a long, long, long time.
Then we have Neo. Once again, we have someone who is prophesied, who is supposed to lead the humans out of slavery/ignorance, who gives up everything for the world and dies.
There is, once again, the fact that Neo has the skills not through training (though of course he gets trained up) but through being who he is. This is Messiah in a leather coat, toting a gun which I find fascinating. But in many ways, even though everyone dies, this is a kinder, gentler story than Anakin’s. Neo’s opposite is not a Sith master who is skilled in manipulation and can enslave him forever (or almost forever). Agent Smith is out to annihilate and what not, but he never manages to “convert” (nor does he want to) Neo to his way of thinking. I think the crucial difference is that Neo does not want to be special, unlike Anakin who yearns to stand out (probably because he thinks it will bring him love. Of course, Neo is also older).
And the interesting thing is, Neo’s biggest downfall, the same as Anakin’s or Harry (but not Frodo’s) is his personal love. It’s not as starkly portrayed or punished as Anakin’s (he does not literally give away his soul and grovel to the Evil Incarnate, killing innocents, to save the woman he loves). When, in the second movie, the choice is saving Trinity or the world, he choses to save Trinity (though the Matrix world is a lot more ambiguous about this being a bad thing. You get the sense the personal love makes all the difference in this iteration of the Matrix, as the previous Neos all chose impersonal good so all it did is maintain the status quo). And it’s not until Trinity is dead and Neo himself is blind (thus he doesn’t have to see the worldly world but just the spirit one) that he can go on and fulfill his mission and die and save the world. (I might be one of 5 people who loved the second and the third Matrix movies, btw. They were definitely flawed but they provided me and Mister hours of conversation).
Then there is Frodo. He has no special skills or prophesies, but the purity of heart. And though he does not physically die, the suffering makes it impossible for him to stay in this world. In some ways, he, like Anakin, is twisted by his burden (of the Ring). Even if Sauron has no interest in him, the Ring does a good job of twisting him and he can never fully recover (or deal with the fact that when the push came to shove, he failed. Even if no one else could have succeeded or come as far). And here, it’s compassion that saves the world. Frodo’s compassion to Gollum. The same way that Luke’s compassion (and love) towards Anakin saves the world in Star Wars, or that hopefully Harry’s compassion to Peter will save the world in HP.
Then we have Harry Potter. Who has the lovely Messianic handle of “The Boy Who Lived.” He is also someone who is a subject of a prophesy, and someone famous for something that is innate (repelling AK). I think this is the kindest take on the Messiah story of the four. I have no idea if Harry will die at the end (though I doubt it), but his tempter (Voldemort) is never a serious threat. He can kill him, but he cannot (nor does he try) to taint his soul. Harry succums to personal love over the greater good more than once (most significantly and catastrophically in trying to save Sirius in OOTP) and he is capable of losing sight of goodness in anger (trying an unforgivable on Bella after Sirius’ death), but he is ultimately unable to use an unforgivable, Voldemort can offer him nothing he wants (even if V did think to do so), and while his impetuousity is a fault, his loyalty and love have never been so.
Who am I talking about? Anakin, Neo, Frodo and Harry Potter. Welcome to the Jesus quartet.
To me, Anakin is the most fascinating and the darkest of all the Messiah figures. Not to mention the most tragic. He is someone who is profesied and fated to save the world from the evil of the Sith and he is a product of a Virgin birth and someone from humble surroundings. Only? There is a catch. He seems to be profesied as a Messiah of the evil side as well (if Palpatine’s story about Plagueis does mean what it seems to imply, i.e. that Anakin was created by the Sith directly).
Just like a typical Messiah figure, he has skills/talents that make him stand apart from the norm, even when the norm is as extraordinary as the Jedi, and it’s something that is outside his control entirely (his midichlorian count).
But what really makes Anakin a very, very dark variation of the Messiah figure is his fall. He has his own private tempter, Palpatine. And unlike Jesus tempted by Satan in the New Testament, Anakin listens to his out private devil and gives in. Anakin is Lucifer fallen, only much worse, because Lucifer was one of many angels, while Anakin is the symbolic savior of the world.
Of course, his fall is sped by the fact that of the four characters I mention, he has the least of support network. He has Obi-Wan who loves him but does not understand him and is utterly committed to the Jedi ideals which are inimical to so much of what Anakin feels. He has the Jedi who are rigidly distant. And he has Padme whom he loves madly but who I don’t think understands the true fear and desperation at the core of him and who is the source of most of his anxieties anyway. Neo has Trinity who is not a source of anxiety but also the support of his Zion friends and co-workers, Frodo has the Fellowship and especially Sam, and Harry is surrounded by love and caring. Anakin has none of this.
And the brilliant thing is that what makes him fall are his good qualities: his strength of love for Padme who he will do anything to save (unlike the Jedi, I don’t hold with emotion=bad philosophy), his loyalty and lack of guile, as he won’t believe bad of Palpatine until it’s too late. Even his belief in immutability of goodness, because the corollary is that once he goes back he is damned forever. The Messiah in this story ends up the helpless, self-loathing slave of the devil. Yes, Anakin eventually saves the world as prophesied and dies, but Star Wars is a world where the Devil holds all the cards and has a ball with it, for a long, long, long time.
Then we have Neo. Once again, we have someone who is prophesied, who is supposed to lead the humans out of slavery/ignorance, who gives up everything for the world and dies.
There is, once again, the fact that Neo has the skills not through training (though of course he gets trained up) but through being who he is. This is Messiah in a leather coat, toting a gun which I find fascinating. But in many ways, even though everyone dies, this is a kinder, gentler story than Anakin’s. Neo’s opposite is not a Sith master who is skilled in manipulation and can enslave him forever (or almost forever). Agent Smith is out to annihilate and what not, but he never manages to “convert” (nor does he want to) Neo to his way of thinking. I think the crucial difference is that Neo does not want to be special, unlike Anakin who yearns to stand out (probably because he thinks it will bring him love. Of course, Neo is also older).
And the interesting thing is, Neo’s biggest downfall, the same as Anakin’s or Harry (but not Frodo’s) is his personal love. It’s not as starkly portrayed or punished as Anakin’s (he does not literally give away his soul and grovel to the Evil Incarnate, killing innocents, to save the woman he loves). When, in the second movie, the choice is saving Trinity or the world, he choses to save Trinity (though the Matrix world is a lot more ambiguous about this being a bad thing. You get the sense the personal love makes all the difference in this iteration of the Matrix, as the previous Neos all chose impersonal good so all it did is maintain the status quo). And it’s not until Trinity is dead and Neo himself is blind (thus he doesn’t have to see the worldly world but just the spirit one) that he can go on and fulfill his mission and die and save the world. (I might be one of 5 people who loved the second and the third Matrix movies, btw. They were definitely flawed but they provided me and Mister hours of conversation).
Then there is Frodo. He has no special skills or prophesies, but the purity of heart. And though he does not physically die, the suffering makes it impossible for him to stay in this world. In some ways, he, like Anakin, is twisted by his burden (of the Ring). Even if Sauron has no interest in him, the Ring does a good job of twisting him and he can never fully recover (or deal with the fact that when the push came to shove, he failed. Even if no one else could have succeeded or come as far). And here, it’s compassion that saves the world. Frodo’s compassion to Gollum. The same way that Luke’s compassion (and love) towards Anakin saves the world in Star Wars, or that hopefully Harry’s compassion to Peter will save the world in HP.
Then we have Harry Potter. Who has the lovely Messianic handle of “The Boy Who Lived.” He is also someone who is a subject of a prophesy, and someone famous for something that is innate (repelling AK). I think this is the kindest take on the Messiah story of the four. I have no idea if Harry will die at the end (though I doubt it), but his tempter (Voldemort) is never a serious threat. He can kill him, but he cannot (nor does he try) to taint his soul. Harry succums to personal love over the greater good more than once (most significantly and catastrophically in trying to save Sirius in OOTP) and he is capable of losing sight of goodness in anger (trying an unforgivable on Bella after Sirius’ death), but he is ultimately unable to use an unforgivable, Voldemort can offer him nothing he wants (even if V did think to do so), and while his impetuousity is a fault, his loyalty and love have never been so.
