Compromise is not an easy place to live. One day, what one really feels will come to the fore.

That’s the impetus of the latest Star Wars film, Rogue One.

What’s Star Wars?

(As if we didn’t know, but to recap)

Star Wars is basically a film about the “good guys” and the “bad guys” and their various battles and everything in between.

The bad guys need to control and do so with oppressive means. The good guys want freedom from tyranny.

The bad guys may have been good, but for a time, transformed into agents of evil who needed redemption. The good guys aligned with the good side rather than the darkness though they may have had their flaws without transforming into agents of evil.

Where Rogue One fits in

As you would know, the Star Wars film series started in 1977 with Star Wars which was later re-titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Rogue One is what happens immediately before the first sequence in A New Hope. A New Hope began with the bad guys—the Imperial Empire—chasing down a shuttle piloted by the good guys, the Rebel Alliance, who have the stolen secret plans to the Empire’s super weapon, the Death Star. Rogue One is about the rebels who stole the plans.

Taking sides

Taking sides isn’t always clear cut in Rogue One. Though someone is essentially a rebel, one may have also made some compromises along the way.

Relationships are negotiated with the Empire making a clear cut choice less clear than one would like. Compromises happen with a demanding Empire to get what the Rebels want.

The implications of this are staggering. Imagine what sacrificing one’s true beliefs really means.

We have all done this sort of thing from time to time for whatever reason. But it leaves one jaded and self-defeated.

So it matters to know and live the full character of what one really believes—the true nature of things.

In Rogue One, true character runs in opposition to the character of the Empire. Some rebels had made compromises with the Empire, but came out of the shadows to do the right thing. That day what they really believe comes to the fore.

One who truly believes in something just cannot stay hiding forever.