Week 51 – Part 3: Star Wars

Many people from Eric Foreman (That 70’s Show) to my sister’s ex-husband who tattooed Darth Maul on his forearm have gone crazy over Star Wars.  I had never seen any of the six movies, or episodes as they are called, until this week when I watched them all for one of my new experiences of the week.

As you can watch the Star Wars movies on your own or read about them on Wikipedia or the many Star Wars sites and forums, I’m not going to summarize the movies here, but give my opinions and thoughts on them.

Over the years people have tried to persuade me to watch Star Wars with arguments such as: “It is more than Sci-fi, it is a story about 1) a boy’s journey to manhood 2) a love story 3) the relationship between a father and son.”  Others lashed out on me when they found out I have never seen a Star Wars episode. The truth is it was just never on my radar when I went to watch a movie; I wasn’t against seeing it, I just didn’t.  I was finally tired of hearing about my lack of Star Wars viewing and figured that with my NEW new year’s resolution that this would be a perfect time to watch all six movies.

Before I began my Star Wars marathon, I asked some experienced Star Wars screeners if I should watch the episodes in the order they were released – 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3 or if I should watch them in numerical order 1-6.  Everyone agreed I should watch them in the order they were released.  I received my first three (actually 4, 5 and 6) through Netflix and watched them over a two day period.

Star Wars fans are going to fight me on this review, but here goes: I didn’t feel emotionally connected to any of the characters in Star Wars or the Empire Strikes Back (ESB) except to Han Solo (Harrison Ford).  Han has a cocky attitude and looks great with his utility belt swinging on his hips . The two characters that I should of have been rooting for – Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia – I wanted to punch in the throat.  I realize these movies were made over 20 years ago, so it’s not about the crappy special effects, but I just wasn’t getting into the story line at all and I didn’t like Luke and Leia. I felt Luke was an ungrateful little shit and Leia was a tease using sex to put a wedge through the growing man-relationship between Han and Luke because she had to be the center of their attention.  Not only could I not get into the story line of ESB, I couldn’t even tell you want happened in that episode; it was so forgettable to me. 

I finally stated coming around to the saga that is Star Wars in Episode 6: Return of the Jedi.  Maybe because the story was finally coming to a head or because the characters were more interesting to me: Jabba the Hutt and his crew were in the beginning of this episode for a significant amount of time and the Ewoks were introduced.  Even though I enjoyed Return of the Jedi, it left me with one question:  the Emperor was egging on Luke to attack him as he was “unarmed” to bring him over to the Dark Side. However, I found a flaw in this as the Emperor’s weapon in this scene wasn’t a light saber, but his commands to his troops to kill. I believe Luke would have been just in his attack on the Emperor – is this wrong in the world of Star Wars, Jedi code and Dark Side intricacies?

I actually posted this question on a Star Wars forum to get some expert opinions; here is the thread thus far:

StarWarsNovice (me) wrote:

Question: In Return of the Jedi, the Emperor was egging on Luke to attack him as he was “unarmed” to bring him over to the Dark Side. However, I found a flaw in this as the Emperor’s weapon in this scene wasn’t a light saber, but his commands to his troops to kill. I believe Luke would have been just in his attack on the Emperor – is this wrong in the world of Star Wars, Jedi code and Dark Side intricacies?

Bri-Jay Waycay wrote:

Well, I believe Palpatine was unarmed, he did not have any physical weapons on him at that moment. Second, he didn’t have any troops in the room with him, it was just Palpatine, Vader and Luke.

While it is not the Jedi way to kill an unarmed man, exceptions have been made and this situation certainly had cause to make an exception. To kill the Emperor in order to save the galaxy probably would be accepted, while striking him down out of anger and hate would not be true to the Jedi way.

Palpatine would not have just stood by and let Luke kill him, he would have defended himself, probably with Force lightning.

(or Vader would have intervened like he did)

But Luke simply attempting to strike down an unarmed man out of anger would have pushed him down the dark path, something Palpatine wanted and would have taken advantage of.

Seer Travis Truman wrote:  

Thats what Luke tried to do.

The reason Emperor was unarmed is the same as why Yoda is. He is the master. 

That was the point. Lucas was so dumb that he did not know that the point of Yoda was that physicality was not what was supposed to matter.

This brilliant website explains how society works, how culture works. Filmmakers just copy a basic cultural element.

sw_fan66 wrote: 

I think the Emperors saber was on him. But there was no need for him to show it, because Vader was there to protect him, if Luke ever tried anything. Remember the Emperor loves to lie in order to get what he wants.

Seer Travis Truman wrote:  

The reason is because the master jedi did not have light-sabers until those awful prequels. Thats was the whole POINT of Yoda. He did not to resort to physical weapons.

Bri-Jay Waycay wrote: 

lol okay dude. I liked Yoda with a lightsaber, he was highly entertaining.

Seer Travis Truman wrote:

Are you 5 years old? Or would a freeze-frame of George for the entirety of the film be “exciting” for you?

It seems to Me that you are just going to swallow what ever George tells you to.

This is instructive in Forbidden Truth . A sad devotion to something that makes no logical sense can be seen, where there appears to be a need (rather than a desire) to believe that these are good films when they are tripe.

I guess you just dont understand the film-making process.

I never thought I would start a fight on a Star Wars forum . . .

Moving on to episodes 1, 2 and 3.  I have heard mixed reviews from Star Wars fans about the greatness of the prequels (obviously Seer Travis Truman didn’t like them).  I don’t know about how well they fit in with episodes 4, 5 and 6 or if they stayed true to the Star Wars and Jedi-ways, but I thought they were entertaining.  I think I also enjoyed 1, 2 and 3 more because I could follow the stories better due to the fact I had a hard time hearing what Darth Vader was saying in 4, 5 and 6 with his mask and heavy breathing (it also probably helped I generally knew the outcome of the prequels).

Overall, I enjoyed my Star Wars movie marathon and am happy to be able to say I have seen all six episodes when people ask (you wonder who asks me about Star Wars – more people than you realize).  Although I enjoyed my Star Wars education over the past week, my mom wasn’t so thrilled when I got a little tipsy and continuously discussed the plots of Star Wars and sang the theme song at the Christmas dinner table.