"The Phantom Menace": Repetition, Variation, Integration

Star Wars 4-6 attracted a massive popular following for its combination of this mythology-in which the hero is all of us, expressing what Campbell (see especially Hero 17-19) has described as the dreamwork of the culture, our conscious and unconscious aspirations and fears-with familiar characters both archetypal and everyday (e.g., the young boy yearning to leave home for a life of adventure), imaginatively creative and thematically rich visuals (e.g., the skull-like Death Star, representing death and fear of death, in Return of the Jedi), dazzling special effects wholly innovative for their time, and narrative focus on what is of elemental, emotional, and psychological importance to people from all cultures through all time: growing up human, above all in relation to one's family and friends, from youth (A New Hope) through adolescence (The Empire Strikes Back) to maturity (Return of the Jedi).