Star Wars Lost Stars Themes

Claudia Gray’s scientific fiction novel, Star Wars: Lost Stars takes place in a galaxy far far away, where two best friends are on opposite sides of a war. Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell grew up together on the Outer-Rim planet of Jelucan, and dreamed of joining the growing Empire. Fast forward ten years, and they are commanders in the Imperial starfleet. Following the destruction of the first Death Star, and subsequently the deaths of many of their friends, Ciena and Thane begin to doubt their loyalties. Thane disappears, turning up a while later with the Rebellion. Now at war with each other, Ciena and Thane’s friendship is strained throughout the book. The theme of friendship is extremely important throughout the story, seeing as it focuses

The author still showed that good friends could trust and forgive one another, but a more important theme emerged: sometimes friends are more important than anything else. In this case, it once again pertains to Ciena and Thane, who are not just friends, but best friends. There are two major scenes that I noticed this theme in. The first of which is when Thane makes the decision that he is going to abandon the Empire, and the second is when he returns home to Jelucan to support the Ree’s during the trial of Ciena’s mother. In the first of these two scenes, Thane’s loyalty to Ciena comes into play, more than is loyalty to the Empire. I think that Thane knows he could just leave the Empire, and with his skills, easily live his life without ever being caught. However, up until the very moment he leaves, and even as he switches from ship to ship trying to get to Jelucan, he cannot stop thinking of Ciena, and how his decision has affected her. Ciena is so important to him that he cares more about her life and what could be done to her when they find out he deserted, than he cares about his own life and survival now that he is on the run. The only thing that keeps him from tearing himself apart over the guilt and worry, is that he knows Ciena still cares about him. This is seen with the text: “Thane had already known what his path must be, but now that he knew Ciena was with him, nothing could hold him back.” (page 216). I think that this shows the theme of friends are more important than anything else because Thane’s world is coming crumpling down, and he has to start over completely, but he only cares that Ciena is safe and that Ciena is thinking of him. In between this scene and the next important moment that connects with the theme, Ciena and Thane are driven apart. I noticed that they might not have known each other as well as they thought, or they had drifted apart during their time in the Empire,