Yes, I'm still talking about Star Wars
May. 24th, 2005 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI got out my gripe-y type questions last night on Carrie and Eugene because they'd just come back from Revenge of the Sith and thus had a fresher memory of it, but I'm still conflicted. I really, really need to watch the originals and figure out a few things.
Mostly, I think the prequels assumed a lot about the motives of the characters presented in the originals. For one, Obi-Wan is suddenly the master of the understatement, of subtlety, and is one tricksy Jedi whereas before the most I would say was he was reticent and reclusive for the sake of protecting Luke. If all happened as it did in Sith, not only is Obi-Wan concealing a few gruesome details, he's basically either playing dumb about knowing a lot of people/droids or is senile as all hell. I doubt Lucas is subtle enough for even that.
And Palpatine...he goes from being this amazingly underhanded political player to just a token figurehead, letting Vader run around in the originals. Where is his strategy? Where does his allure and appeal go when he tries to convince Luke to turn to the dark side? His arguments to Anakin are couched in such attractive language--is that because he's still effectively masked as a Sith? And in Jedi he's revealed? Is he exposed as a Sith at all? Grand Moff Tarkin doesn't seem to know that the emperor is a Sith or any kind of practitioner/user of the Force when he says that Vader is the last adherent to an ancient religion. And the senators seemed to like him a whole lot, which, even if they were told that the noble Jedi had succumbed to power lust, they've got centuries of being afraid/hating the Sith to get over mighty quick if they embrace him openly...
Vader's motives are at once more and less sensible. That he wants Luke by his side so badly is no surprise, given the lengths he went through to try and keep Padme. That he would hurt Luke to convince him to stay with him I guess is supported by his Force-choking Padme, though I'm not so sure. He lashed out at Padme in passion and anger, but he lopped off Luke's hand purposefully to hurt him and weaken his defences (and would probably have kept Luke against his will) which seems more calculating than emotional.
And, of course, Yoda. Poor Yoda. Clearly the oldest Jedi in the series, he goes off into hiding and does apparently become as senile as Obi-Wan would have to be to reconcile the prequels' end with the original series. He embraces Luke despite knowing Luke is as much afraid as Anakin was back in the day...why? Because different tactics yield different results? Does Yoda know about the other Force-using members of the universe? Are he and Obi-Wan in any sort of contact ever after they split up? Why Dagobah?
In other SW news, I started playing Jedi Knight again, which, like all the books written after the originals but before the prequels, has been out-dated in terms of relevance. The main character, Kyle Katarn, not only begins his Jedi training at an age more than twice that of Anakin (who was deemed too old), but is trained solely by the voice of a ghostly dead Jedi and fights dark Jedi that seemed to have arisen from nowhere (given that The Phantom Menace posited that the Sith tolerate only duos and that the Jedi hadn't seen more than two at a time since they beat them down ages ago).
Ah, what does it matter? I'm in it for the force powers, baby. I plan to play through simultaneous games where Kyle is good and bad, but karma it seems is keeping me from playing through as bad Kyle. I keep getting shut down on my computer from a bug when I try to save, so I only save at the end of levels. As a result, I've died twice at this one kind of tricky jump and had to start over and gave up because I was frustrated. Forget it, I'm playing straight through with a FAQ. I want friggin Force Destruction. And persuasion! BALL OF DEATH BALL OF DEATH BALL OF DEATH!
Then, if I can forgive the lame-ass ending, maybe I'll playing Mysteries of the Sith after...
Mostly, I think the prequels assumed a lot about the motives of the characters presented in the originals. For one, Obi-Wan is suddenly the master of the understatement, of subtlety, and is one tricksy Jedi whereas before the most I would say was he was reticent and reclusive for the sake of protecting Luke. If all happened as it did in Sith, not only is Obi-Wan concealing a few gruesome details, he's basically either playing dumb about knowing a lot of people/droids or is senile as all hell. I doubt Lucas is subtle enough for even that.
And Palpatine...he goes from being this amazingly underhanded political player to just a token figurehead, letting Vader run around in the originals. Where is his strategy? Where does his allure and appeal go when he tries to convince Luke to turn to the dark side? His arguments to Anakin are couched in such attractive language--is that because he's still effectively masked as a Sith? And in Jedi he's revealed? Is he exposed as a Sith at all? Grand Moff Tarkin doesn't seem to know that the emperor is a Sith or any kind of practitioner/user of the Force when he says that Vader is the last adherent to an ancient religion. And the senators seemed to like him a whole lot, which, even if they were told that the noble Jedi had succumbed to power lust, they've got centuries of being afraid/hating the Sith to get over mighty quick if they embrace him openly...
Vader's motives are at once more and less sensible. That he wants Luke by his side so badly is no surprise, given the lengths he went through to try and keep Padme. That he would hurt Luke to convince him to stay with him I guess is supported by his Force-choking Padme, though I'm not so sure. He lashed out at Padme in passion and anger, but he lopped off Luke's hand purposefully to hurt him and weaken his defences (and would probably have kept Luke against his will) which seems more calculating than emotional.
And, of course, Yoda. Poor Yoda. Clearly the oldest Jedi in the series, he goes off into hiding and does apparently become as senile as Obi-Wan would have to be to reconcile the prequels' end with the original series. He embraces Luke despite knowing Luke is as much afraid as Anakin was back in the day...why? Because different tactics yield different results? Does Yoda know about the other Force-using members of the universe? Are he and Obi-Wan in any sort of contact ever after they split up? Why Dagobah?
In other SW news, I started playing Jedi Knight again, which, like all the books written after the originals but before the prequels, has been out-dated in terms of relevance. The main character, Kyle Katarn, not only begins his Jedi training at an age more than twice that of Anakin (who was deemed too old), but is trained solely by the voice of a ghostly dead Jedi and fights dark Jedi that seemed to have arisen from nowhere (given that The Phantom Menace posited that the Sith tolerate only duos and that the Jedi hadn't seen more than two at a time since they beat them down ages ago).
Ah, what does it matter? I'm in it for the force powers, baby. I plan to play through simultaneous games where Kyle is good and bad, but karma it seems is keeping me from playing through as bad Kyle. I keep getting shut down on my computer from a bug when I try to save, so I only save at the end of levels. As a result, I've died twice at this one kind of tricky jump and had to start over and gave up because I was frustrated. Forget it, I'm playing straight through with a FAQ. I want friggin Force Destruction. And persuasion! BALL OF DEATH BALL OF DEATH BALL OF DEATH!
Then, if I can forgive the lame-ass ending, maybe I'll playing Mysteries of the Sith after...
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 09:03 pm (UTC)BALL OF DEATH!
The best part of the game is the multiplayer jedi duels, by the way.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 10:59 pm (UTC)I assumed Yoda chose Luke because he didn't have much choice (or much to lose); the alternative apprentice -- Leia -- was just as old, just as scared, and didn't even have Luke's rudimentary training. But I'm just making excuses for Lucas, so don't mind me.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 11:04 pm (UTC)A big part of connection was at the end of Empire, when Vader offers Luke the chance to rule the galaxy with him. It seemed, after watching 3, that this could have been a truthful offer, as the one he made to Padme right before everything went to hell.
Revenge of the Sith fits in really well with the others, but there needs to be an episode 3 1/2.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 12:25 am (UTC)I also think that Palpatine is pretty much ancient in the originals. I mean, what, 20 years pass? Say he's in his 50s in the prequels, and that's going to put him in his mid-seventies in the originals. Of course he's given over most of his power to his supposedly super-powerful/talented apprentice.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 01:51 am (UTC)Force Persuade
"You want to give me all your money and go jump in the reactor shaft"
"I want to.. give ... you... all my money and go jump in the... aaaaargh! I can't not do it!!"
no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 01:55 am (UTC)The cave where Yoda tests luke (luke fights himself as vader), was the death place of a sith, so the ingering dark side aura there effectively masked Yoda's light side aura, easier to stay hidden.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 01:40 pm (UTC)