jrb@wdl1.UUCP (05/31/83)
If the Ewoks were Hokas, all the Rebels need to do is show them a couple of battle scenes (or preferably Star Wars itself) and the Empire's days are numbered. John R Blaker (...!fortune!wdl1!jrb) (jrb @ FORD-WDL1)
cjh@CCA-UNIX@csin.UUCP (06/08/83)
This message is empty.
Woods.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (06/09/83)
- From: Heiny.henr@PARC-MAXC.ARPA What bugs me is: if Darth and Luke can fly, why didn't the Emperor? Neither Luke nor Darth has ever been shown flying; they have always had something to push off from. When Luke dropped into the carbonite pit in TESB, for example, he clearly dropped all the way in and then came leaping out. If you watch closely as the Emperor falls into the shaft, you can see that he never touches the sides, so he had nothing against which he could push off. (Even so, it still seems wrong to get rid of a super-moby bad guy by tossing him into a pit!) From: Morrill.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA In ANH, Darth Vader was the altimate bad guy, evil to the core. I don't even recall any reference to a superior evil (the emperor). When DV walked into the meeting of the Generals, he announced that the Emperor had dissolved the Senate, thereby removing the last vestiges of the old Republic. I agree that DV's subservience to the Emperor became more and more pronounced as the trilogy progressed. From: "KEN MOREAU AT CLOSUS c/o" <DEC-SFL at DEC-Marlboro> The only "continuing" character among all episodes is Yoda, since he has certainly been around for the first trilogy, and there is nothing to suggest he won't be around for the next one. Lucas once claimed that the only characters present in all nine episodes would be the droids; in fact, the movies can largely be viewed as a story told by C3PO, which makes his synopsis in RotJ particularly amusing. From: "PAUL KARGER at ULTRA c/o" <DEC-SFL at DEC-Marlboro> When shuttle craft land on the Death Star (twice), the landing bay is clearly open to space, yet the troops lined up for review have no trouble breathing. If there is an invisible force field keeping in the atmosphere, there is no mention of it in either the book or the film. I figure there has to be a force screen. It would be more believable if there weren't people in the docking bay when ships come and go, implying that the force field is brought down at such times. Indeed, in RotJ it looks as though the bay is empty when DV's shuttle enters; the watching personnel are in a separate viewing deck, and the honor guard isn't shown until after the ship has landed. But in A New Hope, there were people in the bay when the Falcon escaped from the Death Star. Sigh. Another theory says that all ships use artificial gravity to carry around a pocket of air with them, which also explains how they are able to make whooshing noises as they go past. How is it that Vader did not notice that Leia was "strong with the force" or adopted for that matter, when she was being interrogated in SW IV? He had plenty of time to work, she was drugged, and was tortured. He did comment on it: "Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable." I agree that it is surprising he didn't make more of it at the time. From: Robert Amsler <AMSLER@SRI-AI.ARPA> I throughly enjoyed the walkers. They are, in fact, something which the military is looking into. They were new and innovative. The forest sleds were bizarre. I couldn't decide whether they had automatic obstacle avoidance or not. The walkers are neat special effects -- a friend pointed out to me that, since they are always matted in, how did they film the scene where one of them drags a bunch of Ewoks on a rope? -- but they are absurdly fragile, especially given that they are supposed to be "all-terrain vehicles". Besides, antigravity seems to be cheap in this culture, so who needs these silly things with clumsy legs? As for the sleds, our conclusion was that they must be semi-automatic, guided by the rider's vision; there's just no way anybody could control a manual sled at those speeds. And of course, it means that when you look over your shoulder you're likely to run into a tree . . . In general, the Empire's combat technology and personnel were sillier than ever in RotJ. We've already seen that storm trooper armor doesn't protect against blasters. We now see that doesn't even protect against arrows! We also see why nobody worries much about blasters -- one of them hits Luke's hand and just burns away the artificial skin, doing no damage to the circuitry within. (My computer should be so sturdy.) And finally, we see that a storm trooper can't hit a rebel sitting on a log. . . . But I enjoyed it anyway! -- Don.
LEWIN%CMU-CS-C@sri-unix.UUCP (06/10/83)
From: DAVID.LEWIN <LEWIN@CMU-CS-C> As to Patrick Fargo's question, Biggs (spelling?) was one of Luke's Tatoone friends who ran off to join the Rebellion, and who he served with in the attack on the original Death Star. --David Lewin -------
Meehan@YALE.ARPA (06/15/83)
From: Jim Meehan <Meehan@YALE.ARPA>
1. "Mark Terribile, Duke of deNet" was unhappy with the emperor's
getting physical in the final scene. "It would have been far better
if he sat with his eye [sic] closed as the sparks engulfed Luke..."
I think he misses the chief effect of the emperor. As illogical
as it may seem, it's scarier to see this shriveled, old wight coming
at you, hands all gnarled in spell-casting mode, etc. As a friend
of mine pointed out, it's the Wicked Witch of the West all over
again, and that's why it's so powerful: there's no terror like
a old terror, and no one forgets the Wicked Witch of the West.
For me, the emperor is by far the most memorable character in RotJ;
DV is next; the utterly and wonderfully repulsive Jabba comes third.
It is for creating (and resurrecting) images like this that Lucas
deserves a great deal of credit.
2. The next time you see it, listen carefully when Chewie and the
Ewoks swing onto the top of the walker. Yep, a Tarzan yell.
3. If you get a chance to see it when there are lots of little kids
in the sudience, pass it up. Go to the midnight show if you have
to, but the second time I saw it, some nearby tots made me wish
I had the powers of the Dark Side. The first time I saw it (at
the first local performance), the crowd went wild, and the tension
in the scene where Vader is deciding whether to grab the emperor
ran high -- chants of "Do it! Do it!" Great.
-------VAF%CMU-CS-C@sri-unix.UUCP (06/15/83)
ably get away will less subservience.
VAF%CMU-CS-C@sri-unix.UUCP (06/15/83)
ories, at least not at making them interesting..."
uc.rgh%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (06/15/83)
From: Randy Haskins <uc.rgh at MIT-EECS at MIT-MC> Look for a bad *special* effect next time you see the movie: the close-up of Luke's Light Saber about 2/3 of the way through the movie (I won't describe the scene since that would constitute a semi-spoiler.) It looks like a flashlight with silver Christmas paper wrapped around it. It even has a box on the side that looks sort of like the magnet-pack for flashlights that stick to things. You'd think with a budget of $32 M that they'd be able to do a little better. -Randy -------
jmccombi%BBN-UNIX@sri-unix.UUCP (06/23/83)
From: Jon McCombie <jmccombi@BBN-UNIX> A few days before RotJ opened, I saw an interview on TV with the actor who played Luke, talking about the movie. When asked if he was contracted to appear in any of the remaining movies, he responded that he "couldn't": he *might* appear in the last of the series, "but only in some sort of alternate form -- you'll understand what I mean when you see the movie". I took this to mean that he would die and come back as a hologram like all good (?) Jedi knights, but obviously that didn't happen. Did anyone else see this interview (I believe it was on "Evening Magazine", or something of that ilk)? Does anyone have any ideas what's going on here? Is the book any clearer? Yet another last minute pre-release edit, perhaps? Jon
FAUST%MIT-OZ%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (06/23/83)
From: Gregory Faust <FAUST%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC>
I may be way out on a limb with this one, but . . .
Has anyone noticed a similarity in philosophy between Jedis which
follow the "light" side and the oriental Shau-Lin (sp?) priests as
popularized in the TV show "Kung Fu"? I don't know much about this
eastern sect, but taking the TV show as a source (risky business at
best!), it seems that there is much in common. Teachings like "never
succumb to anger", "no unneccessary use of one's power", and other
pacifistic type things. In the TV series, "grasshopper" is capable of
kicking anyone's ass, but only does so when really forced into it
either in order to defend himself or else some other good guy from the
bad guys. (of course, this happens every episode. Certainly one way
to get us to like the protagonists and still get lots of action into
the script is to make the protagonist someone who abhors the use of
violence, but is forced to use it to combat others. This technique was
used in both Kung Fu and SWs (and countless others) A refreshing
counter-example (taken from real life) was in Ghandi which I happened to
see recently).
Without getting to ridiculous with this, perhaps Vader, the
Emperor and other dark siders could be likened to the usual martial
arts types defeated by Chuck Norris in "Kung Foo Mama and the Emporer
of Doom".
Back to more serious matters, the real point here is that there
seems to be a commonality between the teachings of Yoda and some eastern
philosophy.
GregFAUST%MIT-OZ%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (06/24/83)
From: Gregory Faust <FAUST%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC>
In the scene: "There goes our last hope." ; "No there is
another".
I would like to put in my vote that the "other" in this scene is
Anakin, not Leia or some unborn. After all it IS anakin that turns
out to be the rebellions salvation (admitedly with some help from
Luke).
Gregtoni@mhuxd.UUCP (06/27/83)
I just saw RotJ and was thinking back on the first Star Wars episode --- what was it's subtitle? or did it have one at all?
Dehn.DEHN%MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP (07/06/83)
1) Geneology "Uncle" is not equivalent to "brother of father". Is there anything in the story that says that he could not be the brother of Luke's mother, or the husband of Anakin's sister? The former would explain his dislike of Luke's desire for adventure, the latter the aunt's understanding of it. (Of course, "uncle" is often used for non-relatives as well.) 2) Endor I only saw the movie once, so I may not be remembering it quite right, but wasn't the place called "the moon of Endor"? Does this imply there is a planet Endor, and that the place we saw was NOT Endor? Or is this "of" like the "of" in "City of New York"?
starner@psuvax.UUCP (07/10/83)
In reference to the article concerning who the "Uncle" is.
If you read the book, you are told that "Uncle Owen" is
actually Ben Kenobi's brother. In the words of Ben
Kenobi: "When your father left, he didn't know your
mother was pregnant. Your mother and I knew he would
find out eventually, but we wanted to keep you both safe,
for as long as posssible. So I took you to live with my
brother Owen, on Tatooine...and your mother took Leia to
live as the daughter of Senator Organa, on Alderaan. The
Organa family was high-born and politically quite
powerful in that system. Leia became a princess by
virtue of lineage - no one knew she had been adopted, of
course. But it was a title without real power, since
Alderaan had long been a democracy. Even so, the family
continued to bo politically powerful, and Leia, following in
her foster father's path, became a senator as well. That's
not all she became, of course - she became the leader of her
cell of the Alliance against the corrupt Empire. And because
she had diplomatic immunity, she was a vital link for getting
information to the Rebel cause. That's what she was doing when
her path crossed yours - for her foster parents had always told
her to contact me on Tatooine, if her troubles became
desperate.".
Mark Starner
Penn State University
{allegra,burdvax}!psuvax!starnerLRC.HJJH@UTEXAS-20@sri-unix.UUCP (07/14/83)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PROWSE and VADER and LUCAS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The thing in the National Enquirer is drek. The scenes using the other actor as the unmasked Vader were NOT shot later, for Prowse encountered "Anakin" during the regular filming when he stopped by the studio although he wasn't scheduled for anything that day. (He later said to my friend The Ultimate STAR WARS Fan, whom old SF-L'ers will remember from TESB discussions, that it was rather disturbing to run into one's own corpse.) It is also unlikely that Prowse gave away RotJ's plot. He had gained a reputation for a loose tongue when TESB was in the works and Lucasfilms kept a very close watch on him. For instance, after replying to a query at a con as to whether some minor character from an earlier episode was also in RotJ, that the fellow was, he got a sharp letter from Lucasfilms threatening legal action. -------
DonProvan@CMU-CS-A@sri-unix.UUCP (08/12/83)
well, i finally saw RotJ and was quite disappointed. yeah, yeah, lots of things just didn't jive and most of the movie was just cashing in. but the real disappointment was leia. even since the firs time i saw tESB, i knew that luke and leia were brother and sister. when i realized it, my eyes lit up. they have the youth of america in the palm of there hands: imagine how many little minds they could have straightened out with a good light saber fight between leia and vadar. wow! a real powerful woman. instead, they almost stripped her of the strong qualities she had. sure, she strangled Babba. but she did it in an exploitive costume she'd been on display in for the last 15 minutes of the movie. sure, she shoots one or two storm troopers, but only because hans is busy trying to open the door. and by the end of the movie, i swear i expected her to say "now that the galaxy is safe, i want to live my life's dream: become a houswife and have lots of babies." well, maybe i was a bit upset by that time. but i still can't believe they blew it so badly. leia's a good character, but it's a shame to come so far and not quite make it. flame off. don