The Jedi Jesus

IO9 featured some Star Wars fan theories from 1980. It is interesting to see the role that religion played in some of them. A popular theory was that Obi-Wan was a clone name – O.B.1. One person suggested that Obi-Wan Kenobi was a thousand years removed from “O.B.” who was “the Jesus” of the Jedi movement. There were speculations about who that figure was, and whether he was a religious fanatic or a scientist. Fascinating stuff – and if some speculations were quite bizarre, others were surprisingly accurate!

I also recently read The Star Wars, a graphic novel based on George Lucas’ rough draft for his movie idea, which eventually became six films. It is fascinating how much changed, how many names got reused in radically different ways, and how key elements that were woven together in one story came to be spread over two generations and six movies. Definitely worth reading if you are a Star Wars fan!