This is my favorite theological connection in science fiction. Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) was born a virgin! I’m pretty sure I saw Star Wars in utero. I’m pretty sure the first time I heard the trumpet blast from the A New Hope score, it was enveloped in amniotic fluid. I’ve loved Star Wars almost since I’ve known God. It is a sweet satisfaction to know that Star Wars also knew God from the beginning.
The Jedi speak of the ancient prophecy that the birth and life of Anakin Skywalker are fulfilled. Clearly, this type represents a figure of the Messiah. This becomes blatantly obvious when we discover that he is the woman’s seed (Genesis 3:15) alone, that he was Force-conceived, that Shmi gave birth as a virgin. Hi McFly! This is one of the most obvious connections in all science fiction galaxies. Why aren’t all Star Wars fans bleeding martyrs Christians? Why do we love the movie so much? Because we love God.
However, there is more. I’m not sure when George Lucas developed the idea of a virgin birth, much less when he developed his Pelagian backstory. Did you hear that conversation between Palpatine and Anakin in Revenge of the Sith? Palpatine was telling Anakin about his own Sith master, Darth Plagueis. Palpatine was telling Anakin about the origin of the prophecy, about HIS OWN BIRTH !!
This twist on Darth Plagueis is a fantastic storytelling. I love this. Hear. Darth Plagueis, Emperor Palpatine’s Sith master, whom he killed, never died … it is said. Instead, he bodily plunged into the Force. He subsumed himself in it, by his own hand, by his own power over life and death. Darth Plagueis had learned not only how to prevent people from dying, but also how to prevent himself from dying. Doesn’t this all sound like a dark and twisted version of the Bread of Life and Resurrection?
There is more! Darth Plagueis raised himself to the Force, in order to be born again, conceived by the Force itself, and was born of the Virgin Shmi. Anakin was born purely from the midichlorians, the living source of the Force. Just in case you missed it: Anakin was conceived by the Power of the Force in the Virgin Shmi; Jesus was conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. whoa.
Isn’t it ironic, and proof of Palpatine’s terrible and cunning rhetoric, that Anakin was eventually brought to the Dark Side by his belief that Palpatine could teach Anakin how to save Padmé’s life? Stupid Anakin, you are the one who taught Palpatine in your previous Incarnation as Plagueis!
I doubt that the Star Wars prophecy goes so far as to support the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is a shame, but you must ask yourself the question: why and how did Darth Plagueis choose and groom Shmi, in the sand, desolate? , nowhere? Tatooine (read “Nazareth”), is it his mother? One last thing … there is an ancient Christian heresy that was started by Pelagius (doesn’t that name sound familiar?). Isn’t the resemblance funny? Looks like she’s wearing Sith dresses.
The Pelagian heresy, which Saint Augustine opposed, held that man, by his own power, could perfect himself. The man, without the grace of God, sustained the heresy, could be made without sin. Taking the power of life and death, sin and death, in one’s own hands sounds remarkably like what Darth Plagueis taught … so I commented on it.