Star Wars: questions you've always wanted answers for

[Hovito loincloth]

That's cause obi and yoda lived their lives fully as themselves. only anakin 'died' when he became darth vader ;o)

Would have been better to have the crispy, limbless force ghost.

 

[Solo4114]

HE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER AS SEBASTIAN SHAW, OK?! GEORGE WAS WRONG!!!!

There. That's the answer.


Anyway, here's another one for ya:

How did the Jedi and the Force become all but forgotten, like some kind of myth, in only about 19 years or so? Like, didn't the Jedi exist for long enough that people would generally believe the Force is a real thing? Were they so rare before they were hunted down and killed? It just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the Jedi were well known and yet easily forgotten.


I'm trying to think of a real world equivalent, and all I can come up with is something like Elvis sightings.

 

[harrisonp]

Anyway, here's another one for ya:

How did the Jedi and the Force become all but forgotten, like some kind of myth, in only about 19 years or so? Like, didn't the Jedi exist for long enough that people would generally believe the Force is a real thing? Were they so rare before they were hunted down and killed? It just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the Jedi were well known and yet easily forgotten.


I'm trying to think of a real world equivalent, and all I can come up with is something like Elvis sightings.

maybe the Empire ran a strong propaganda campaign against them and hung all kinds of atrocities on their war time activities. Of course there should be sympathizers and people with memories that differ from the "official" record of the Empire, but it still is somewhat believable.

 

[Hovito loincloth]

HE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER AS SEBASTIAN SHAW, OK?! GEORGE WAS WRONG!!!!

There. That's the answer.


Anyway, here's another one for ya:

How did the Jedi and the Force become all but forgotten, like some kind of myth, in only about 19 years or so? Like, didn't the Jedi exist for long enough that people would generally believe the Force is a real thing? Were they so rare before they were hunted down and killed? It just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the Jedi were well known and yet easily forgotten.


I'm trying to think of a real world equivalent, and all I can come up with is something like Elvis sightings.

I suppose that the Jedi were actually not that numerous in a galactic scale of things and maybe just viewed as a remote cult by most of the very widespread population of hundreds of scattered worlds. On Coruscant and the core systems they may have been more of a known presence but very few people would had met or had dealings with them.

 

[Hovito loincloth]

Where did Leia get her Ewok village dress from?
Did the sandtroopers get a bunch of Banthas to knock off the Sandcrawler when they forgot to ride " in single file"?
And how does c3po manage to pick up the dead jawas?

 

[Riceball]

I suppose that the Jedi were actually not that numerous in a galactic scale of things and maybe just viewed as a remote cult by most of the very widespread population of hundreds of scattered worlds. On Coruscant and the core systems they may have been more of a known presence but very few people would had met or had dealings with them.

That makes a certain amount of sense but then again, the Jedi have, apparently, been around for a long time so they would have long been in the conciousness of and part of the Old Repbublic and thus the Empire. Even if the average citizen of the Old Republic never saw an actual Jedi they certainly would have been in the news and if they had the equivalent of novels, movies, and TV shows they certainly would have been a popular subject for them. So, for them to be forgotten in less than 2 decades is hard to believe, hell, knights and cowboys are long gone but we still remember them, even if only in myth.

 

[glunark]

How did the Jedi and the Force become all but forgotten, like some kind of myth, in only about 19 years or so? Like, didn't the Jedi exist for long enough that people would generally believe the Force is a real thing? Were they so rare before they were hunted down and killed? It just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the Jedi were well known and yet easily forgotten.


I'm trying to think of a real world equivalent, and all I can come up with is something like Elvis sightings.

How about Arsinio Hall?

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Why did Lucas think it was a good idea to make Leia Luke's twin sister? Especially when he'd already introduced the whole romantic subplot in the first two films? WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!

Best way I can put it is mouth moving faster than brain and the people actually making ROTJ not calling him on it. He originally came up with the idea after Mark's accident. He and Mark were talking about it and Mark asked him straight up whether if he'd died George would have recast Luke going forward, and George said no, he'd have brought some other Jedi trainee forward, maybe Luke's "long-lost brother or sister. Something genetic, so that the Force would be with them."

Later, from a story conference running November 28 to December 2, 1977:

I also want to develop Luke's sister. The idea is that Luke's father had two children who were twins. He took one of them to an uncle on one side of the universe, and one to the other side of the universe, so that they would be safe. If one got killed, the other wouldn't even know that the other one was there. She also becomes a Jedi -- she's doing he same thing simultaneously that Luke is doing. Eventually in some episode, not this one, we could cope with Luke and his sister, and how she is the female Jedi and he is the male Jedi.

Luke gets his awareness of his lost sister through the Jedi training. We can come up with some interesting pieces of background.

Note that at this point, Anakin and Vader are still separate people.

Also, "The Academy." What "Academy" is this? Luke talks about going to it, but says he hates the Empire, so, is it an IMPERIAL Academy? What's the deal?

I'm annoyed at the EU writers/artists who put in the whole notion that it was an Imperial Academy. Biggs flying TIE Fighters and Tank being an Imperial officer in the comics... We've had the script since the late '70s. The novelization, comic adaptation, and storybook all have Luke's reunion with Biggs -- it was only cut back out of the film pretty late before release. I would honestly love to see it canonized as taking place a few weeks or months earlier (and Luke not seeing a space battle over their planet), so Biggs actually has time to get back to his freighter and jump ship and find the Rebels and get into Red Squadron and fly a mission or three... That's also not any kind of Imperial uniform Biggs is sporting in Anchorhead. My take for a couple decades has been that it's an Outer Rim merchantmarine academy. Biggs' main point when talking to Luke is that he's been posted to a freighter, the Empire is nationalizing trade in the core systems, and it's only a matter of time before it turns its attention to the Rim. Sounds merchantmarine-y to me...

As far as the Jedi, the Force, and people regarding them as myths... It's a big galaxy. The Prequels showed us that the Jedi had their temple near the capitol on Coruscant and stayed pretty aloof. I'd say most people in the galaxy would go their whole lives without ever encountering one, maybe not even hearing about them. Especially if you come from a planet/culture/family who's been detached from such things for a long time. I'd draw parallels within Imperial ranks to wealthy families in the US and UK over the 19th and 20th centuries, who sort of hd their own societal bubble outside of which they didn't care. The salt-of-the-earth types would still know about and maybe even be in touch with the Force, but they didn't have any socio-political clout. The Wookiees, the Alderaanians, the Chandrilans... Hippy-dippy peaceniks like that would be sneered at by families like the Tarkins and Mottis and Veerses. We know the galaxy in general doesn't necessarily regard the Jedi/Force as a myth -- we only see/hear that from high-ranking Imperial officers. Odds are they achieved those ranks in part by being exactly the kind of blind, self-serving, oblivious tools the Emperor wanted working in his war machine.

--Jonah

 

[Axlotl]

I'd always (previous to the prequels) equated the Jedi to the Knights Templar:
At one time, long ago and long forgotten, they were a powerful force.
(Some believe there is still an order of Templars, but very few, and very underground - "undercover", as it were.)
I figured Ben and Old Annakin were part of this secret order of thought-to-be-extinct Jedi, and there were very few of them, and they didn't advertise themselves as Jedi, nor congregate in armies and fight as Jedi.
If there was a Jedi "temple", it was isolated on some lonely backwater planet, not in the center of the capital city of the capital planet.
It was an "ancient religion", remember?

I prefer to stick with this assumption, because I like it better than what GL came up with for the prequels.
I gave up trying to rationalize what the prequels did, and have decided to just pretend they don't exist.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

^ I wish I could do the same, but the Prequels are part of what will drive all new content going forward. Even though George got his own timeline wrong, even though he contradicted statements in the original films, even though a bunch of things. *sigh*

--Jonah

 

[mugatu]

Remember back before the PT came out, so many people used to talk **** about Mark Hamill having weak acting skills (I never agreed with that BTW)? I haven't heard one person say that about him since the PT came out. I bet Hamill loves the PT.

 

[binkleywalker]

Leia wasn't the other. He was talking about Vader. And he was right.

 

[mkstewartesq]

Leia wasn't the other. He was talking about Vader. And he was right.

Can't tell if joking.

On the off chance you are not:

Very last time we see Yoda in ESB: Ben: " that boy (Luke) is our last hope.". Yoda: "no. There is another."

Very next time we see Yoda (ROTJ)) (to Luke): "You must face Vader."

So Ben and Yoda's master plan was to spend one movie the training their hope so it could go off and kill their other hope in the next movie?

 

[Wolfsburg]

But wasn't Vader redeemed back to being Anakin Skywalker before he died?

He was which is why the whole "Anakin died when he became Darth Vader" explanation is bunk as far as I'm concerned. George was just looking for some way to tie the PT to the OT and this is one of the hamfisted attempts he went with.

Leia wasn't the other. He was talking about Vader. And he was right.

Ehhhh, I don't think so. George didn't even know who it was when it was when the idea was first conceived.

 

[mkstewartesq]

On the "Leia as the other" topic: so, if she was, what good could it possibly do them as a practical matter?

Let's say Luke dies/fails. How are Ben and Yoda even going to get in touch with Leia? Near as I can tell, Yoda had no ship or means of inter-planetray communication (the ship he arrived on Dagobah looked to be more of a single use pod type vehicle.) And poor Ben is a ghost that, from everything we saw, could only be seen and heard by Luke (only Luke heard him in the DS trench, and nobody seemed to notice Ben at the party at the end of ROTJ).

Yoda: "He is lost. Call in 'the other', we must".
Ben; "Agreed. Got her number"
Yoda: "No."
Ben; "Do you even have a phone?"
Yoda: (looking down and mumbling) "Think through this plan we did not."

And let's assume they could reach out to her? How receptive would she be? Recall that Luke was somewhat pre-disposed to Ben's teachings based on Ben's stories about this father as well as his admiration for Ben himself. I somehow don't see Leia jumping on that bandwagon all that quickly or with that much devotion - she comes from a totally different background and way of getting things done.

Ben: "Leia, only through the ways of the Force can you defeat Vader. You must come to Dagobah to train as long as it takes until you are ready."
Leia: "Or I could launch this whole fleet, armed with this knowledge we have about the weak spot of that battle station. I could do that this week. Thanks for calling though."

M

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

^ Right. As I posted, George's initial plan was that Luke's long-lost sister wasn't Leia, and was being trained as a Jedi simultaneously. ROTJ was just all-over sloppy.

--Jonah

 

[Wolfsburg]

Well I figure it wouldn't be such a stretch for Obi-wan to appear to Leia. I think he can only be seen by those he wants to see him. However, I do agree that it seems like Leia would've probably been a tough sell. I'm curious to see her state of affairs in TFA...

ROTJ was a bit of a mess and was in some ways a truncated version of the abandoned third trilogy. In fact, originally only Vader was supposed to die in ROTJ. The Emperor wasn't to die until Ep. 9.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

How did the Jedi and the Force become all but forgotten, like some kind of myth, in only about 19 years or so? Like, didn't the Jedi exist for long enough that people would generally believe the Force is a real thing? Were they so rare before they were hunted down and killed? It just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the Jedi were well known and yet easily forgotten.


I'm trying to think of a real world equivalent, and all I can come up with is something like Elvis sightings.

I think that Lucas said that at the time of TPM there were a total of 10,000 Jedi in the galaxy. So with that small amount most of the galaxy would never see a Jedi Knight in their lifetime. I'm guessing that to most people they either are a myth, their abilities are greatly overstated, or as Han said they think it's a bunch of simple tricks. Combine that with the Emperor destroying any public info on the Jedi and sending Stormtroopers or Imperial intel after anyone expressing interest, then you it would probably disappear fairly quickly. The people who did know or had first hand knowledge from the Clone Wars would be smart and shut up.

 

[KrangPrime]

Why DOES doc Brown have a HUGE ass speaker in his lab?

Whoops, sorry,multi tasking ;o)


Anyway, anyone ticked off that they killed off Satine in Clone Wars? She made such a PERFECT match for obi wan, especially when they fought, she was almost jedi like in how they interacted with each other during battle.

I also wonder how close they got the description of Mandalore as it was in the books. From what I remember, mandalore was a desert like, almost desolate world. but people where upset because they apparently changed it in the clone wars series to have domed cities. seemed pretty close to me.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Nooo... Mandalore was mountainous, forested, rugged... a lot like how Concordia was depicted in the cartoon. The domed cities was just an appendix to the drastic change to the geostructure.

--Jonah