💌 Monster Makers
What Star Wars Monsters Teach Us About Beast-Building
🧠 Monsters are never just monsters. They’re metaphors in cool outfits.
Hey Monster Maker,
So here’s a theory:
Monsters don’t just go bump in the night.
They go bump in culture.
And nothing proves that better than my favorite galaxy far, far away.
Enter: Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)”
A big, juicy framework for thinking about monsters as mirrors of our fears, boundaries, and barely repressed desires.
Naturally, I read it and immediately thought:
“This is Darth Vader’s villain origin story in academic drag.”
So let’s do it.
Seven theses.
Seven Star Wars-infused ways your monster can be way more than teeth and goo.
👹 1. The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body
Monsters reflect the time, place, and anxieties that birthed them.
Star Wars Take:
Darth Vader isn’t just scary—he’s a cyborg nightmare from a post-Vietnam, Cold War, tech-fearing, authoritarian-dreading era. (I’m a child of the 1970s, after all.)
Mechanical breathing. All-black armor. Emotionless obedience.
He is the fear of the machine replacing the man.
Writing tip:
What fear does your monster embody? (Bonus points if it's current and messy.)
👣 2. The Monster Always Escapes
Even if you defeat the literal monster, the idea of it comes back stronger. (I see you, endless horror sequels!)
Star Wars Take:
Sure, Vader’s gone . . . but hello, Kylo Ren.
Same black helmet. Same vibes. Same emotional issues and daddy problems.
Writing tip:
Your monster’s symbolism will outlive its physical form.
Let your world keep whispering its name.
🔍 3. The Monster Is the Harbinger of Category Crisis
Monsters blur lines: human/beast, alive/dead, natural/unnatural.
They break boundaries—and freak us out because they don’t fit the labels.
Star Wars Take:
General Grievous is part warlord, part machine, part something vaguely reptilian that coughs up blood.
He’s not a droid. He’s not a man. He’s what happens when the line between technology and flesh collapses in a coughing heap of rage.
See also: Emperor Palpatine. Is he alive? Dead? Undead? Reanimated Sith goo in a Snoke vat? Unclear—and that’s the point.
Writing tip:
Confuse the categories. Let your monster break binaries—gender, species, morality, mortality.
Ambiguity is deliciously dreadful.
☠️ 4. The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference
The monster marks the line between “us” and “them.” (And spoiler: that line is usually racist, sexist, xenophobic, classist, or homophobic.)
Star Wars Take:
The Empire’s monsters are visibly different from the human-centered norm.
Aliens = threat. Exhibit A: Greedo, Krayt Dragon, or rathtar.
Droids = expendable. Exhibit B: basically all droids except our named rebel friends, like C3P0 and K2
But difference is also where rebellion lives.
Writing tip:
Who gets cast as monstrous in your world? Why?
And who’s doing the labeling? How do those labels benefit them?
🚔 5. The Monster Polices the Border of the Possible
Monsters tell us what not to do, lest we become a monster ourselves: don’t cross that boundary, don’t go there, don’t ask that question.
Star Wars Take:
The Dark Side is literally the line you’re not supposed to cross.
But what if your survival depends on it?
Writing tip:
Let your monster reinforce the rules by tempting your characters to break them. When they (inevitably) do, make the lesson hurt!
❤️🔥 6. Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire
We’re scared of what we secretly want. Power. Freedom. Rage. Control.
Star Wars Take:
Anakin wants the Dark Side because it promises love, agency, strength.
That cape? That voice? That dramatic walk across a lava field?
It’s giving forbidden fantasy. We’re obsessed—and that’s the point.
Writing tip:
Make your monster seductive. Maybe not hot, but magnetic.
Let readers feel uncomfortable with how much they’re into it.
🔮 7. The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming
Monsters are warnings—but also potential.
They show us what we could become.
Star Wars Take:
Anakin becomes Vader. Luke could have.
Kylo tries to. Rey is tempted.
The monster is always a path, not just an end.
Writing tip:
The monster isn’t just your villain. It’s also your hero’s worst self.
Let them look in that mirror and flinch.
✒️ Writing Prompt
Write a scene where your hero faces a monster—but realizes it’s not so different from them.
What fear, flaw, or desire do they share?
How close are they to becoming the very thing they’re fighting?
🐲 Over to you!
What part of your monster do you secretly want? 👀
Tag me @iliketododrawrings or hit reply and tell me how you’re playing with fear, power, and category-breaking chaos.
Until the next rancor escapes,
Heidi
Monster Mentor | Jedi of Genre Mischief | Force-Wielder of Fear & Fangs 💋🖤
