Maybe my ode to Star Wars figures got me thinking about this, but I’ve had a couple of interesting thoughts after watching Episode III and then the original Star Wars back-to-back.
Where are you taking this…thing?: Whatever media handles the years between Sith and Star Wars, I hope they realize that a big part of the story is going to have to be the homogenization of the Empire. In Sith, we see Palpatine with a handful of hangers-on who are decidedly alien; by the time we get to Star Wars (or, if you’re one of those people who must call it this, A New Hope), the Empire has not only become completely human, but it has become unabashedly racist. Chewie is a thing. Imperial officers are all not just male humans, but, if you want to read further into it, white male humans. Neimoidians, Geonosians, Gungans, the Kamino cloners, the various races represented on the Jedi Council in its final years…we never see these folks again. Imperial genocide? Did Palpatine order this, perhaps remembering all that fun he had with his little green friend? (Wait, that sounded incredibly bad.) Did Vader? Why? This could be a huge arc story to cover between trilogies, and it’s so conspicuous that it really needs to be addressed.
Who was his father?: On further reflection, I’m infinitely relieved that the connecting tissue was removed from Sith that would’ve explicitly joined the dots from Darth Plagueis’ experiments in creating life to the “immaculate conception” of Anakin Skywalker. There’s enough there for the folks who have been paying attention to make the connection, but it isn’t spelled out as Star Wars gospel…thank goodness. Here is why that’s a good thing. By coming right out and saying that Anakin was created by the Sith, there is an excuse for his actions that declaws the point of the entire saga. If the clone troopers are all preprogrammed to enact Order 66, there’s the implication that Anakin, if he too was a created being and not a natural born one, could simply have been hard-wired to turn to the dark side. Even that implication tries to absolve him from his actions, and while the saga is, when viewed as a whole from a distance, a story about redemption, it completely loses its teeth when there’s even a hint that “the devil made him do it.” Anakin Skywalker does not deserve to get off that easy after all the lives he’s taken in cold blood. He earned those neato bloodshot yellow contact lenses for a reason (though I’d argue that the moment for that to appear would have been following the killing of the younglings, not the killing of the Separatists, who could hardly be described as innocents…sheesh, George!). Anakin is lied to and manipulated, yes, but he also makes some extraordinarily bad choices, and giving him an out that’s as simple as “maybe he was programmed to do it” doesn’t cut it. I’m glad that was left on the cutting room floor.
Teach you to commune with him, I will: Okay, so Yoda and Obi-Wan have to have some special, arcane knowledge to commune with Qui-Gon, who has become one with the Force and yet retains his identity. That’s good. Now, it practically demands that we ask “How did Qui-Gon contact Yoda in the first place if Yoda wasn’t expecting it?” And that’s a good question, because how can Obi-Wan contact Luke if Luke isn’t expecting it (which he clearly isn’t)? Maybe it’s just that Yoda and Luke are that good because of their concentration of MIDI, chlorine and stuff. But any media that deal with Obi-Wan between Episode III and Star Wars might want to elaborate on this. It seems like the initial contact would have to come about because the deceased makes an extraordinary effort to be heard; the listener can then learn to attune their senses to that contact to make it easier. But…who taught Luke this? (Though it seems like the apparition of Obi-Wan we see after Luke has trained with Yoda is capable of doing more – he moves around, he’s clearly visible, and the conversations are longer and more detailed, so maybe Yoda is now making that communion a standard part of Jedi training. Maybe I just answered my own question there.)
Please understand, my obsessing over little details like this doesn’t mean I’m picking the Star Wars movies to bits because I think Lucas hasn’t done his homework. It’s because the whole saga, whether by design or accident, holds together so well that I even put this kind of thought into it. New chapters of the story are going to be crafted soon, and I think these would be interesting things to address in those chapters. There are stories behind these things, and I’m all about the story. (Well, and any action figures that come out of the story, per yesterday’s blog entry. Which reminds me: it’d be a damn shame for Hasbro to ditch the 3 3/4″ scale before we get to the live-action Star Wars TV series…
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Going backwards:
I think you’re misreading the Qui-Gon bit. It’s not that Yoda and Obi-Wan need training to listen to Qui-Gon. They need training to be able to do the same thing that Qui-Gon does. The chopped scene with Qui-Gon says that he learned something from the Whills or some other ancient Jedi text that let him maintain his identity after death, and that this knowledge was not commonly held by the Jedi. Of course, this raises two more questions: Why didn’t Qui-Gon’s body disappear in TPM, and how did Anakin figure out how to do it? I’m guessing that we can chalk the former up to Yoda and Ben perfecting the process over 20 years, and the latter either to Anakin’s strength in the Force or Ben/Yoda helping to grab his spirit right away.
Obligatory theological quibble: Anakin was not an immaculate conception. The immaculate conception doesn’t refer to Jesus of Nazareth’s birth to a virgin. It refers to Mary’s being conceived without original sin, which is what made her an appropriate mother for the son of God. I also think it’s a bit of a leap to what you’re suggesting. The predisposition to follow orders was the result of substantial genetic manipulation, and I see no signs that Plagueis or Sidious could control the creation of life to that level of detail. Plus Anakin shows no signs of being willing to obey orders without a thought, and the fact that Anakin turns back to the light side at the end shows he has the capacity to make that choice. Of course, there’s an interesting conversation about genetics, causality, and the notion of free will lurking in here as well.
I’m not sure I buy the idea that the lack of aliens needs to be explained. I know the EU has set up a whole idea that the Empire is racist. But until Jedi, the Alliance was just as much a bunch of white males with Leia thrown in. I chalk that up the state of makeup and real-world casting at the time. But if the series wants to go that route, more power to it.
You do raise a good point – how would Anakin have known how to do any of that? I’m not sure I dig the whole “Yoda and Ben grabbed his spirit” deal. But then again, he’s the Chosen One and all. And maybe Vader spent his off-duty time researching obscure Force powers, though it would seem like he’d no longer have a use for any of that, having failed to save Padme’s life.
Yeah, the “Anakin’s strong enough to do it” explanation works for me.
It does make me wonder if Vader ever investigated Tatooine to find Ben’s old hovel and whatever notes/effects he may have had. I do believe the EU (and Lucas’s early notes for Jedi?) established that that’s where Luke went to learn how to build his green saber, so maybe Ben had multiple copies. He always did seem the organized sort.
I know that the ROTJ radio dramatization had that scene in it, and supposedly did so because it was a scene originally dropped from the movie. Then again, that’s almost the only thing that I’d give points for to ROTJ radio – augh. It just simply didn’t live up to the promise of the SW and ESB radio projects.
I really, really, really need to sit down and watch all six movies back to back — or, if nothing else, Ep’s 3 and 4 like you did. As for the “thing” comment, I kind of felt like he was just insulting him. It doesn’t make sense to me that he wouldn’t know what a Wookie is. Ep 3 made it sound like Kashyyyk was a pretty important strategic ally, so you would think most Imperial employees would recognize a Wookie.
I’m guessing this guy hasn’t had Imperial sensitivity training yet. I mean, those guys who were torturing Leia for information? Those were the pros.
There have been many implications – nothing ever shown on screen (and they at least had a chance to hint at it in the last third of Episode III) though – that the Wookiees were turned into slave labor during the Empire’s reign (you know, the whole story about Han Solo blowing his Imperial cadet career by freeing Chewie). Yet another case of the Man keeping the furry people down.