Death by Flying Boxes

“Hmm… a wise dragon once told me, ‘Aim high in life, but watch out for flying boxes.'”

—Revilo, Spyro the Dragon

The very first Spyro game will always have a special place in my heart. Though it was rather difficult for a three-year-old, the gameplay, music, and animation always give me chills just to think about (oh would you look at that: goosebumps).

It was maybe… last year… when I tried to replay the game again. And I ran into this beautiful little tidbit of advice again: “Aim high in life but watch out for flying boxes.”

Let me make it clear that this quote is not that difficult to understand. The “aim high in life” bit is exactly like “shoot for the stars” and other similar sayings. “Watch out for flying boxes” contains a metaphor (flying boxes) for the unexpected things that may happen when we try to reach our goals.

Like in the Spyro franchise, particularly in the second and third games, the player expects to take Spyro into an unfamiliar land, collects things, beats the bad guy, and leaves. But of course along the way, we run into the unexpectedness of locals needing help with their problems before Spyro can advance in the story. It makes sense, really.

In our lives, we will always encounter the unexpected when we try to reach our destination. It could be raining the day of the big game, the printer could break down the night before an assignment is due, or there could even be no milk left when we want to make cereal. It is always important to be ready for those “flying boxes” that could pop up at any point of time.

Then again, in the context of the first game (where this quote was pulled out from), the boss of this level quite literally just throws boxes at the player to cause damage. I’m kind of wondering if I looked way too far into it.

The Elusive Angel

“Are you an angel? Aw I’m just kidding. That’s the worst line I’ve ever used. Hope some poor kid doesn’t start using it.”

—Atton Rand, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

I love when video games make references to other things in their franchise. Here we see Atton Rand asking Meetra Surik this very question thousands of years prior to when the young boy, Anakin Skywalker, asks Padmé Amidala if she was an angel. Seems Atton would be quite disappointed in the younger generation if he ever found out.

But as silly as this is, it is interesting to think about the term “angels” and what it means to us, as opposed to what it means to those in the Star Wars universe. Many may be human, but their world and beliefs are very different from our own.

For us, angels are beautiful, winged creatures from the heaven above. However, none of the Abrahamic religions exist in the Star Wars galaxy. All they have is the Force with Force-sensitive users. There is no “heaven,” only the Force. So where would the term “angel” come from?

Well, it turns out that Angels are humanoid creatures with six wings, and believed to inhabit the moons of the planet Iego. And get this: they were known widely across the galaxy for their great beauty.

George Lucas was prepared for just about anything, wasn’t he?