Episode III

Name Degree 1. ANAKIN 14 2. OBI-WAN 13 3. BAIL ORGANA 12 4. EMPEROR 11 5. PADME 10 Name Betweenness 1. OBI-WAN 22.7 2. EMPEROR 19.0 3. PADME 8.0 4. R2-D2 6.7 5. BAIL ORGANA 4.5

It seems that Anakin is overall the most connected character in the first three films, based on his degree. He is however not very integral to the relations in the films! His betweenness score is so small he never makes it to the top-5 characters. This means that all the other characters interact directly between themselves rather than through Anakin. How do the same measures look for the original trilogy?

Episode IV

Name Degree 1. LUKE 15 2. LEIA 12 3. C-3PO 10 4. CHEWBACCA 9 5. HAN 8

Name Betweenness 1. LUKE 32.7 2. LEIA 19.7 3. HAN 15.0 4. C-3PO 13.2 5. CHEWBACCA 8.0

Episode V

Name Degree 1. LUKE 12 2. DARTH VADER 12 3. HAN 11 4. R2-D2 11 5. C-3PO 10

Name Betweenness 1. LUKE 25.2 2. DARTH VADER 11.3 3. LEIA 9.7 4. HAN 6.7 5. R2-D2 4.5

Episode VI

Name Degree 1. LUKE 15 2. R2-D2 12 3. C-3PO 11 4. LEIA 9 5. HAN 9

Name Betweenness 1. LUKE 24.3 2. C-3PO 23.0 3. DARTH VADER 18.5 4. CHEWBACCA 16.0 5. LANDO 5.5

Here both the centrality measures show very similar results – Luke is the most central character across all the films, and using both measures. The order of characters based on the two measures is almost the same.

The centrality analysis quantifies some of the things we could see from the social networks. The prequel trilogy has more complex social structures, with more interconnected characters. This also leads to the fact that Anakin is not that central to the story – some of the storylines happen alongside Anakin’s story, or involve Anakin only on the side. On the other hand, the original trilogy has a more tight-knit structure. There is a smaller number of central characters and they bind the story together – this results into the agreement between the degree and betweenness centrality measures.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why the original trilogy is more popular – the plots are more consistent and driven by the main characters. The prequels have a more decentralized structure and no clear hero. Although the stories are linked by Anakin, he is not binding the other characters together.

How do the measures look when we look at the full social network from all the episodes together? I looked at two variants of the network. In the first one Anakin and Darth Vader appear as two separate individuals, in the second I merged them together into a single person.

Joint network 1

Anakin and Darth Vader separated

Name Degree 1. ANAKIN 42 2. R2-D2 41 3. OBI-WAN 37 4. PADME 34 5. C-3PO 31

Name Betweenness 1. OBI-WAN 370.4 2. PADME 237.3 3. R2-D2 236.7 4. C-3PO 222.9 5. LUKE 194.4

Joint network 2

Anakin and Darth Vader fused

Name Degree 1. DARTH VADER 59 2. R2-D2 41 3. OBI-WAN 37 4. PADME 34 5. C-3PO 31

Name Betweenness 1. OBI-WAN 348.7 2. C-3PO 303.1 3. DARTH VADER 241.5 4. R2-D2 227.6 5. PADME 226.2

If we look at Anakin and Darth Vader separately, Anakin is still the most connected character but he’s not central to the network. If we merge them together, things improve a bit. Now Darth Vader/Anakin is the third most important character in terms of betweenness. Overall, the social networks seem to show that the Star Wars movies are actually linked together by Obi-Wan Kenobi rather than Darth Vader.