Page 122 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2019)

A HEROINE’S JOURNEY

as a pivotal figure. The inclusion “As Jyn inspires the Rogue One team to

of two important father fi gures

in Galen and Saw Gerrera ties the action, each one finds a new selfl essness
story more closely to established within themselves”
Star Wars themes, and also sets
up a duality within Jyn that sets
her heroic journey in motion. Her
connection to Galen sets up her Murdock’s book cites 10 steps

personal journey, while her links to specific to female heroes, and in
Saw prepare her to become a leader. many instances these, too, align WHO’S JOURNEY?
Both men die in quick succession, with Jyn’s heroic arc. Stepping beyond
and for Jyn—who has seen neither In the opening scene of the Joseph Campbell’s Hero
of them in years—their deaths movie, Jyn suffers “Separation from
Since it’s first publication in 1949, Campbell’s

encapsulate their lives, giving her the Feminine” when she loses her
hugely infl uential book, The Hero with a Thousand
a fresh impetus to draw from them mother. This is swiftly followed by Faces, has engaged many writers and thinkers to
and follow in their footsteps. In “Identification with the Masculine” build upon his work, or question it.

Of these, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s
some ways, Jyn’s emotional journey when she is rescued and raised Journey is the go-to screenwriters textbook of choice,
is complete here, giving full rein to by Saw Gerrera. After escaping while Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey reveals a

her heroic quest. From this point, Imperials and forging ties with model based specifically upon the female experience.
The diagrams below illustrate the journey paths
she becomes a Catalyst Hero: a new allies, she has an “Awakening outlined in both models.
focal point for those around her, to Feelings of Spiritual Aridity”
who drives a heroic change in by realizing that her life is on the
The
them. As Jyn inspires the Rogue wrong path and that she has the ordinary
RETURN world
One team to action, each one wrong priorities. This is the point WITH THE Call to
ELIXIR Adventure

finds a new selfl essness within in the Heroine’s Journey where
themselves—even distrustful the protagonist must abandon
The
Refusal
droid, K-2SO. what Murdock calls “masculine Resurrection CHRISTOPHER of the Call
strategies.” For Jyn, this means
A Heroine’s Journey being a guarded and untrusting VOGLER’S
The notion of the Catalyst Hero warrior. Rejecting this identity HERO’S
The Meeting
comes from Christopher Vogler’s to unite a team of rebels sees her Road JOURNEY with the
Back Mentor
1992 book, The Writer’s Journey, “Reconnect with the Feminine,”
From Vogler’s 1992

which updates Campbell’s Hero’s while finally acknowledging her screenwriting textbook,
Journey for screenwriters. Jyn’s mother’s words to trust in the The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Crossing
Reward Structure for Writers. the Threshold
story embodies most of the steps Force represents her “Healing the to the Special
World
outlined in Vogler’s model, starting Mother/Daughter Split” as she
with a “Call to Adventure” in the fulfills her father’s dying wish. Tests, Allies,

The Ordeal and Enemies
form of her imposed prison break, The journey concludes with Approach to
the Innermost
and a “Refusal of the Call” most the “Integration of the Masculine Cave
succinctly expressed in her shovel and Feminine,” as the protagonist
attack on her rescuers. Stages of makes peace with the two
mentoring, crossing the threshold, previously confl icting viewpoints Integration of Separation
Masculine and from the
tests, and ordeals follow, before the to create a new understanding Feminine Feminine
final “Return with the Elixir” plays of life and its challenges. This is

Healing IDENTIFICATION
WITH THE
out in the tragic way described most obviously embodied by Jyn the Wounded MASCULINE AND
Masculine GATHERING OF
above, with the elixir (the Death defiantly giving both her parents’ MAUREEN ALLIES

Star plans) returned from afar. names atop the Citadel Tower, MURDOCK’S
One of the reasons Vogler’s when Krennic asks her, “Who are
model remains infl uential among You?” Jyn is the embodiment of Healing HEROINE’S Road of
the Mother/ Trials: Meeting
screenwriters is that he continues both her mother and her father, Daughter JOURNEY Ogres and
Split Dragons
to re-evaluate it, and remains open and feels empowered to confront
From Murdoch’s 1990 book,
to alternative viewpoints, having the man who tore them apart. The Heroine’s Journey,
a response to Joseph Campbell’s
published updates in 1998 and This brings us back to the
Urgent Hero’s Journey.
Finding
2007. The latest edition cites The question of whether it matters Yearning to the Boon of
Reconnect with
Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest that Jyn is female? Following her the Feminine Success
for Wholeness in its bibliography— path along the Heroine’s Journey Awakening
Initiation and
to Feelings

one of the first explicit alternatives might lead you to say “yes.” But Descent to of Spiritual
the Goddess Aridity;
to the Hero’s Journey, written by consider this: there is one Star Death
psychotherapist Maureen Murdock. Wars protagonist more than any
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