I really like reading this, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm reading a form of "creation science", where you need some particularly creative interpretations of things in order to make sense.
Making Han Solo into an unwitting front for a Wookie mastermind is a lot like explaining how Carbon 14 would decay at a different rate before the great flood. It's better to just accept that there are holes in the story than to try to make everything fit together perfectly.
Being a writer, I can personally believe Lucas when he said he'd planned Episodes I-III before the original trilogy, however at the time he likely only ever considered them as a back story for the original trilogy. This would be much-like Tolkien's appendices that cover much of the back story of Middle Earth, but are in no way a novel, just as Lucas's back story was in no way a script.
There are obvious plot holes, but that happens with any prequel. It just so happens that for me there are enough mentions of the past in the original trilogy that I believe he did have plans for a prequel even from the beginning. However, I believe that was simply good story telling, because if it wasn't there wouldn't be the whole star wars universe there is today.
From Lucas' films, Bail Organa did absolutely everything. Yoda was completely out of communication, likely simply to stay out of the Emperor's way. The Jedi are good, Yoda is amazing, but even he wouldn't stand up to the Emperor's wrath (remember, the Sith are as adept at foresight as, if not better than, the Jedi) had they found his location (IE he'd have glassed the planet). Anyone travelling to Degobah would have been suspicious, and as Obi Wan was the first to go blue (Qui-Gon having died like 50 years too early, plus the established cannon that Obi Wan was sent to Tattoine to learn the secrets of immortality) Yoda was really and truly out of communication. Obi Wan likely had the ability to communicate more, but probably didn't manage much beyond "Hey Organa, Skywalker got heat stroke again, looks like he's pulling through though!".
Obi Wan's mission was a lot more important than living forever. He learnt how to physically join the force, which has to be achieved at death (Qui-Gon didn't vanish, he died), hence "If you strike me down now, I will only become more powerful than you could ever imagine!" Not exactly a cry for mercy. Why is this important? Well there was only 2 Jedi and 2 Sith left in the entire universe, if the Jedi managed to skip the whole 'disappearing into non-existence' they would be able to restore the Galactic Senate to its height pre-prequel-trilogy. Obi Wan died, and so did Yoda. However, if Vader hadn't turned back to the Light-Side he and the Emperor would have vanished, with all the knowledge of the Sith with them. 100 years down the road when someone talented in the force appeared, they'd be visited by two Force Ghosts that could train them and re-establish the Jedi Order. This was their plan, they knew full well that Luke and even Leia could die just from life, or at the hands of the Emperor and it would spell the end of the Jedi for eternity, while potentially not being the end of the Sith.
Bail Organa, sadly was Obi Wan and Yoda's patsy. His job was to incite rebellion and bring down the Empire by killing the Emperor and Vader. However, when the first time failed, the Empire was really onto them. The Rebels jumped into the Battle of Endor right into the Imperial's trap. Had Luke basically not sacrificed himself, voluntarily being captured and luring Vader onto the Death Star 2 with the Emperor and distracting them both then the entire battle would have ended with "Oh shit, the thing has a shield!" as the DS2 had an active cannon and the Empire had deployed its gravity well technology to stop them jumping out (this was passingly mentioned in the film as the reason why they couldn't escape, but never directly explained). Luke, by all rights, got lucky that Vader had a heart, which gave him time enough to escape. Had Vader not had a heart, Luke would have been human-pork-roast and the Emperor and Vader would have died in the explosion.
The New Trilogy aptly set up the story line that Lucas told in the Original Trilogy. He had to smooth a few rough edges, but the Original Trilogy itself had many plot holes to begin with, for instance: How did Vader manage to be within an inch of his daughter and not recognise her, but barely got into the same room as Luke before knowing it was his son. Lucas is doing decent to say there was 22 years between the two movies, and apart from the whole "Han Shot First" fiasco, he's made the stories significantly better for new fans watching through from the beginning. However the whole "Luke I am your Father" is ruined, so my Kids will one day see the original trilogy first and I'll ruin all of George Lucas' work!
Why didn't R2 and Chewie know who each other were? Well firstly R2 can basically communicate with C3P0 and Luke. Chewie can basically communicate with C3P0 and Han. Simply put, the only one with a talent for communicating there is C3P0 and from the looks of it, he's had so many memory wipes that he's basically incapable of doing much but following and acting as a more annoying google translate. Secondly R2 and Chewie are part of a fucking terrorist group, they're plotting to destroy the government! I doubt there's an open list of active members published at every meeting house. Chewie was working with smugglers, R2 was working with royalty. Simply put, there should be no reason whatsoever that they should have known they had both acted for the Rebels.
When Han left with his cash, it was likely Chewie who prodded Han to return, likely by bating him. Chewie had worked with the rebels, and disappeared for 20+ years. It's safe to say, that after seeing his entire civilization and species be concurred by the Empire, he expected the same for everything else. when he saw how organized Bail Organa had got the rebels, he likely wanted to rejoin the fight.
That's what it is, yeah. Some parts are just wrong, such as:
> On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet."
No, he's smiling because he's engaged in a classic Jesuitism - something that is true from a certain point of view - and denying it because technically the droids were never his; as a Jedi, and hence modeled on Catholic monks, his possessions belonged to the Jedi Order or were on loan from Amidala.
It's fun, and it's a trenchant criticism of the movies' scripts, but it's not actually correct, any more than the correct interpretation of _The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya_ is that Kyon is the actual God and not Haruhi.
Leia specifically says "I have placed information vital
to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit." So, the interpretation of R2-D2's role at the beginning seems spurious.
R2 was a message boy, Leia dumped him onto Obi Wan hoping some loyalist sentiment would be kicked up in the old fool. Likely she'd over heard some communication between her step-father and Obi Wan, but never grasped why the old guy had marooned himself in a desert. Incidentally, to find out how to go Force-Ghost, which was instrumental to the survival of the Jedi order.
Apparently the Jedi's plan was that Obi Wan discover the ability to go force-ghost and as he's human and has a shitty lifespan, he could die and secretly transmit the information to Yoda without Sith interception. Obi Wan, instead of risking capture decided to let himself die . . . apparently after training Anakin, he really hates padawans.
Why did Obi Wan travel to Mos Eisley and not simply dig up his old ship he owned 20 years ago and fly that? I mean he was a frigging fighter pilot! This major plot hole introduced by his own backstory is somewhat helped by Chewbaca's back story, Obi Wan set up the meet, and possibly knew of Chewy beforehand and that Chewy and Han operated from Mos Eisley. This, I believe, was pure luck on Lucas' part.
Apparently he carries codes to change the alliances of the storm troopers (in addition to the plans of the death star, I suppose), who in III turned on the Jedi.
This theme is/was meant to come in part VII-IX.
I read this on Slashdot.
At the end of VI the death star is destroyed, but whoever can take control of the storm troopers on the remaining imperial starships is a force to be reckoned with.
Here's my question: how did Luke end up stuck slogging in the desert with his grouchy uncle while his twin sister got to grow up a princess on a beautiful world?
I know. It's no fair that Luke got a quiet, peaceful childhood, spending all his time tinkering with his Land Speeder, shooting swamp rats, and daydreaming about adventuring through the Galaxy, while his sister had to grow up in a stifling, controlling, political environment where her every word, action, and appearance were constantly monitored giving her very little freedom or privacy.
Because Vader managed to tell Luke was his son at like 300 meters distance through steel walls and shit, but didn't catch on when he was stood next to his daughter . . . some father!
If Luke had taken on the place of Bail Organa's kid, the rebellion would have been found out very, very fast. I'm sure Bail Organa ran into Vader many times while he was under Empire suspicion, however I believe it's very had to explain if Vader walks into your house and says "What the hell, that's my fucking son! Why do you have my child?!"
Apparently fathers have no connection whatsoever to their daughters. They've got to strangle their son multiple times before they notice they even have a daughter . . . sounds like an episode of the Simpsons.
It isn't necessarily a difference between father-son and father-daughter; more likely it's because Luke was using the Force unconsciously in his flying and shooting even before Obi-wan starting training him, while Leia never showed any signs of Force use during any of the movies.
I know. To be fair, Luke didn't realize she was his sister with her tongue down his throat, so they're all a bit of a messed up family. Hopefully Luke would have figured it out before he tried to get into Leia's pants.
This actually makes me rethink George Lucas as being brilliant rather than stupid. It's also re-written the entire Star Wars saga in my mind for the remainder of my life.
I seriously doubt Lucas actually intended any of this. Rather, having R2-D2, C3-PO and Chewie all over the prequels was mostly fan-service, and this is an elaborate retcon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity).
I thought that was going to be a link to the Star Wars Holiday Special (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNGjKnTzaQ) as a testament against George Lucas. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
the holiday special is painful even with RiffTrax... and those salvage even some of the worst movies. And yes, I've watched the whole thing, and my friends who watched it with me are still friends (somehow). Though I did warn them of the badness.
(for the uninformed: they're the MST3K guys' current project)
Yeah, what an idiot! I mean the stupid billionaire only wrote and produced one of the best and most influential movie series of all time. Lol, what a pathetic loser!
I never was a fan of Star-Wars, but after watching the prequels my thought was that the Jedis deserved their fate for not taking prophecies literally or not knowing basic math.
Obi Wan to Anakin: "You were supposed to bring balance to the force!"
Dude, two Jedis and two Siths sounds pretty balanced to me.
A related discussion at Metafilter pointed out TV Tropes' page on "Wild Mass Guesses" - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/StarWars - specifically, "Luke was a baited trap that got lucky." Obi-Wan & Yoda would have rather trained Leia in the Force. :)
One of the more interesting theories I've read about the leadership of the Rebellion is that control was passed from the aristocracy of Alderaan to that of Mon Calamari (Admiral Ackbar's planet) between IV and VI, as the Calamari contributed most of the Rebel capital ships to what was originally a network of spies and rogue X-Wing jocks.
1) Not all people on HN are American, not all on HN describe themselves as "nerds". In some parts of the world where intellectualism is more welcome, intellectuals are looked upon with admiration, rather than contempt (even by pretty girls).
2) Since I love all things Math, Physics and CS, I guess I, too, am a "nerd". However, I must say that I always found Star Wars nauseatingly distasteful and unimaginative. Nothing more than a girlfriend-replacement to some of you socially awkward unfortunates who had a bad time in American high schools and, consequently, grew up emotionally retarded.
Making Han Solo into an unwitting front for a Wookie mastermind is a lot like explaining how Carbon 14 would decay at a different rate before the great flood. It's better to just accept that there are holes in the story than to try to make everything fit together perfectly.