Quote Originally Posted by philby View Post
in TFA hux and kylo meet with snoke and talk, what, 3 times? he is more involved in the story straight away and seems to have some kind of personal connection or interest in kylo. he is also the 'new' emperor leading the 'new' empire. I think in this context he needs more explanation.
Darth Maul is more than just a background character yet we knew practically nothing about him. Same with Count Dooku. All we know is:
* He used to be a Jedi who left the Order and turned to the Dark Side
* He was Yoda's student and Qui Gon Jinn's master
* He's allied with the Separatists
...that's it. Why did he leave the Jedi Order? That's a pretty big deal. Why/how did he turn to the Dark Side? Why does he hold the title of Count when the Jedi are all about breaking off emotional attachments? None of these things are explained in-film.

Heck, we know practically nothing about Yoda either. All we know is that he's a super-powerful sage-like Jedi who was head of the Order. How did he become a Jedi? Who taught him? How did he become so wise and powerful? We don't even know what planet he's from or even what species he is. Even expanded canon has never named his species, they just call it Yoda's species. And in the Original Trilogy we don't even know that much about Obi-Wan Kenobi either. All we know is that he's a former Jedi who was Vader's teacher, veteran of the Clone Wars and Yoda's pupil and... that's pretty much it. We have no idea what the Clone Wars even was (as a kid I thought that the Jedi were clones, and that "O.B.-1" was his clone name ).

But at the end of the day, these characters are not protagonists, hence why the story doesn't become served by expanding on them (rather it would be a diversion). Yoda replaced Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Hero's Mentor. And characters like the Emperor and Snoke are the Villain's Mentor. Star Wars at its core is a story about the Hero's Journey. This is why Star Wars was an English HSC prescribed text.
Area of Study: Change
Focus: Changing Worlds

Whenever I teach film texts (or any text really), the focus is always on the protagonist. We don't examine the mentor unless it somehow relates to the protagonist. Although Spirited Away is interesting in that the role of the mentor constantly shifts, and at times the line between protagonist and mentor becomes blurred. But in your typical Hero's Journey story there's usually defined protagonist and mentor roles.
e.g.
Gandalf-->Frodo
Glinda the Good Witch-->Dorothy
Morpheus-->Neo
Dumbledore-->Harry Potter
Merlin-->King Arthur
Kesuke Miyagi-->Daniel Larusso
Aslan-->the Pevensie children
Uncle Ben-->Peter Parker
Emmett Brown-->Marty McFly
Whistler-->Blade
...etc.

In the current film text that I'm teaching, I've yet to see any HSC questions appear that focus on the mentor character. In fact, here is this year's Japanese Extension HSC paper. Almost all of the questions pertain to the protagonist, Daigo. Question (D) is the only one that even mentions the mentor character (Sasaki) and even then it's only in relation to the protagonist:
Quote Originally Posted by NSW HSC
(d)「いい加減なこといわないでください!」(line 26)
Explain what this statement reveals about how Daigo views Mr Sasaki.
The question only wants to know what this statement reveals the protagonist's view about the mentor. And indeed when we look at the sample answers, the answer for this particular question is:
This statement shows that (the protagonist) feels irritated by (the mentor)’s false flattery when he tells (the protagonist) that ‘he was born to do the...job. It’s his calling’. (The protagonist) thinks that it’s very ‘convenient’ or even selfish of (the mentor) to say this, because the only thing that (the mentor) cares about is to employ (the protagonist)/keep him employed.
Notice how everything in this sample answer is entirely from the protagonist's point of view. And the marking criteria is based on the candidate's ability to "Demonstrate a good understanding of how (the protagonist) views (the mentor)." Neither the question nor the marking criteria gives two hoots about the mentor. It's ultimately the protagonist who matters because it is his (or her) journey that drives the story.