The Droid Factor: Did the Empire Underestimate Rebel Droids' Help In The Rebel Cause

Or it just makes no sense!

 

You mean that in 1976 Lucas didn't already know that Darth Vader had built C-3Po as a kid?

 

I think we need another choice in the poll:

x Did George Lucas greatly underestimate the complexity of the universe he was creating, and had tons of built-in plot holes, story problems, and downright mistakes?

I love George Lucas and much of his work in many ways, but there's no question that there's a hundred F-ups in these movies. No amount of ret-conning can fix them.

 

No he wanted to go to the academy like his friend Biggs. I guess that was an Imperial academy but it isn't mentioned. It might have been put in there to show that A. Luke wanted to leave the planet and B. He was apolitical until he got found the 'droids and Ben.

Or, Lucas was just making stuff up as he went along and put the bit in about joining the Academy in because it sounded cool and then had his friend Biggs at the end forgetting that he was supposed to have gone to the Imperial Academy a year or so earlier.

Chad

 

I disagree. To some degree, we have to rely upon Lucas' original vision for the universe, Rebel Alliance, Empire, or what have you. What we do have nailed down, however, is the actual filmed plot as we have on the original theatrical releases of IV-VI (I'm still getting up to speed on the prequels, though I did see Phantom Menace in the theater and part of II on video). Basically, we rely upon the movies first then fill in the holes and additional supporting information with Lucas' vision.

On a related note, my brother had an early DVD trilogy of Back to the Future. We found it amusing to see how much effort the studio put into the bonus features to explain the details of how time travel works in that universe. Not all time travel systems are created equally!

 

Have you read The Secret History of Star Wars? I think the author makes his point extremely well and researched it for years and years and years, drawing upon dozens and dozens of drafts of the screenplays (and god knows how he got hold of them). This explains and covers far more mistakes in the six movies than my poor ape-like brain could ever process.

I agree that the Back to the Future movies are brilliant, and Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis ("The Two Bobs") really did an impeccable job making sure that 99% of the time travel scenarios avoided dozens of potential paradoxes.

 

After I posted I Googled "Luke Academy" and found that the comic adaptation of Star Wars had a scene that had Biggs talking to Luke about how he joined the Rebels after attending the Academy (which I don't remember). It is also said that Luke was planning on going to a sort of Merchant Marine academy.

How long until there is a Council of Nicea where scholars get together to decide what is canonical Star Wars and what is apocrypha and what is heresy?

Chad

 

Happening right now as we speak at Disney in Burbank.

 

I googled a bit and found this script. Here's the bit from Luke's conversation with Biggs I must have remembered:

LUKE
Well, I'll be at the Academy next
season... after that who knows. I
won't be drafted into the Imperial
Starfleet that's for sure... Take
care of yourself, you'll always be
the best friend I've got.

BIGGS
So long, Luke.

Now I know this scene wasn't in the original theatrical release, but maybe it was in the book or the comic adaptation. Or in a later movie version.

 

I might see what my local libraries have on the subject of the Empire and the Rebellion. Around thirty years ago, I read two or three of the novelizations from the original trilogy. Those were good reading.

 

I can't believe I'm reading this silly discussion. Oh well.

*grabs the popcorn*

 

It's no sillier than Dante and Randall's discussion in Clerks about all the innocent contract workers who died in Return of the Jedi when the still-under-construction Death Star was destroyed....

 

Or the constant question: if Pluto is a dog, then what is Goofy?

 

I guess if Hello Kitty isn't a cat and she has a pet, then Goofy can be a dog/not dog and pluto can be a dog.

Chad

 

The "no clones / human recruits" thing is mentioned (very briefly) in the new book Star Wars in 100 Scenes.