So last night I decided, after waxing lyrical about Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (a/k/a the original 1977 Star Wars flick) the other day, to actually watch it.
I’ll drop all of this into the MORE… section, since there are, possibly, some Episode II spoilers. Or because there are, possibly, some of you who couldn’t care less …
[Preface: Some of this has probably been discussed to death in other fora — my apologies. Some of it may be answered in various books, which, to my mind, doesn’t really “count.” And, of course, I may be being objectively unfair in trying to hold a 2002 storyline to a small movie released in 1977 … but, of course, Lucas is the one trying to claim a continuity here, so there you go.]
- Ben to Luke: “I haven’t gone by the name Obi-Wan since — well, before you were born.” Hmmm. That indicates something interesting about the chronology in Episode III.
- Obi-Wan indicates that Darth Vader “helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all but extinct.”
This prevarication has already gotten plenty of commentary in the past, given that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker. But it bears repeating, to the extent that it points to things that will happen in the next movie.
It’s also interesting to the extent that, yes, Margie, there should be other Jedi around, if limited in number.
- Are we to presume that Obi-Wan is hanging out there in the wasteland in order to keep an eye on Luke?
- Leia, upon being freed, shouts at Luke, “Ben Kenobi? Where?” Does she know Ben? Her formal message, delivered through Artoo, makes it sound like his relationship was only with her (adopted) father, but she sure seems to act in this scene like she knew him. Which would also be interesting.
- Everybody narcs on the Stormtroopers for being crappy shots. Well, let’s face it. Luke, Han and Chewie aren’t great shots, either. They manage to hit more of the bad guys than the reverse, but only because they’re badly outnumbered (and because they tend to hide behind things). I’d say nobody is hitting people with more than 10% of their shots. I think those blasters are just inaccurate as all hell.
(And I still don’t think that Greedo fired first, let alone missed by such a wide margin across the table.)
- Yeesh, that movie has bad looping. Lots of places where the actors (or other actors) were clearly re-recording the voice track, often not well.
- I don’t quite know how it would fit … but, damn, some of the initial Obi-Wan dialog made me think … he might be a clone.
- “If you strike me down,” says Obi-Wan, he will come back stronger than “Darth” can imagine. We’ve never really seen a connection between what happens to Dead Jedi in the first trilogy vs. what happens to Dead Jedi in the second trilogy (they become glowing ghosts, meddling in folks’ affairs). Granted, we hear Qui-Gon yelping when Anakin gets Medieval on the Tuskans, but that’s about it.
So how does Obi-Wan know he’ll be around for the next few films? Is it a bluff? Has he been learning stuff while hiding out in the desert? Or has Qui-Gon been chatting with him from Jedi Valhalla (even though he’ s clearly not involved enough to be lurking around during the second trilogy).
- “Trust your feelings, Luke.” Y’know, having seen what trusting his feelings did for Anakin, in the face of Jedi discipline, that’s kind of an odd request. Of course, Obi-Wan comes from an odd “discipline,” and but this call seems to fly in the face of all the “control your anger” and other lessons that everyone before and after preaches.
- On that same note, jeez, Obi-Wan is shamelessly manipulative of Luke. He lies about his dad and his dad’s fate. He recruits him into the Jedi, blatently tugging every emotional string he can before and after Owen and Beru’s death. Hell, you could argue that he intentionally let himself get struck down in front of Luke. (Any time you see him giving that little smug smirk, that’s the time to look out.)
Clearly the lesson Obi-Wan learned from his oversight of Anakin is to ignore persuasion or authority — use emotional manipulation. No wonder he keeps preaching “Trust your feelings.”
- Obi-Wan indicates that Uncle Owen didn’t think Anakin (“your father”) should fight in the Clone Wars, that he was being too idealistic, and should just sit on the farm. That sure doesn’t sound like the Anakin (or the Anakin-Owen interactions) we’ve seen so far. Will this be further cleared up in Episode III, or is it just more example of Obi-Wan’s customized version of the truth for Luke?
- Did Anakin actually bequeath his light-saber to Luke? “Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough.” That sounds more and more unlikely — another manipulation of Luke? Bastard.
Anakin bequeathed his light-saber? (Why would Obi-Wan lie about it at that
point?) - Jeez-louise, those ships all fly close together in the original film during the big dog-fight at the Death Star.
- I find it curious that “May the Force be with you” is such a common phrase amongst the Rebel Alliance, but we nearly never hear it except among the Jedi in the first few films. When did, with the fall of the Republic, the Force become so pervasive in its influence? And at whose behest?
I want to watch the first trilogy again. I want to pick out all the nuances (Lou’d call them nits) that you just did.
I just won’t have time until the weekend (sigh).
Always a pleasure to tantalize.
OTOH, I probably won’t be able go get back to the other two films until some time next week.
Of course, a lot of times we see Obi-Wan “lying” to Luke, it could just as easily be stuff Lucas overlooked or decided to change. I doubt Lucas had things as worked out back then as he claims now.
Oh, that’s certainly possible, even probable. But like I said, the story has been under Lucas’ control since then. He’s the one who allowed Eps V-VI to belie what Obi-Wan said in Ep IV … and whose introduced even more question marks by the actions in Eps I-II. If he’s going to claim that this is one, big, consistent fan-boy’s dream, then it’s certainly up for discussion as such.
If he wants to say, “Hey, y’know, just ignore that,” that would be cool, too — he’d have SW Geeks at his front door with torches and pitchforks, but that would be his prerogative.
As a long-time GM, I’ve had to struggle with these sorts of inconsistencies myself. Either you incorporate them into the mythos, and accept the consequences, or you dismiss them and accept the consequences. With great authorial power comes great responsibility …
Re: Inaccurate blaster fire. People miss a lot in combat, even when they’re aiming and standing still, let alone while running around. I vaguely recal reading that in WW2 it took several thousands of rounds fired to produce one casualty. Most soldiers didn’t aim at all, most of the time. Some didn’t even look. Maybe modern training has improved on that.
Actually I’ve read someplace something similar — that even a cop with range training still only hits 50% of the time at 15 feet, or something equally amazing. And for untrained folks, obviously, the stat goes down even further. I’ve also heard that quickness on the draw is secondary to taking your time and aiming.
I’m not sure I’d have the steadiness to do that if I were under fire myself. Given how I act in simulations of same, I suspect not.