General Star Wars Thread

Neh, if the people wanted it badly enough, and they could find writers to do it justice, I'm sure one of the heirs would still cross that line, find backers, and make the movie anyway. And then they could meet Lucas in the afterlife and say, "Like father like (enter appropriate title here)." Start with nothing, build something.

Maybe, but George gets cool points in my book for trying.

There's always a way to find the funding.

Besides, isn't George Lucas supposedly going to donate at least half of his fortune to charity? I mean, sure, that's still a lot of money left to divvy up, but it's a fair price to pay for anyone willing to get in on the Star Wars cash cow.

That's assuming they'd want to. I haven't heard word one about whether his kids intend on continuing his legacy later on or not. They might just help him bury it, if he intends to.

edited 23rd Apr '12 8:10:17 AM by Journeyman

His daughter Kaite has written some well-received episodes of The Clone Wars. I'd still prefer someone like Dan Wallace take over as franchise-runner, though.

edited 23rd Apr '12 10:13:22 AM by HamburgerTime

If the heirs were to be any sort of backing for it, and Lucas didn't allow that, they'd have to strike it rich doing their own work first.

Hey, here's an interesting little factoid, and independent of OT vs. PT debates as well: Han and Obi-Wan both made the American Film Institute's list of the fifty greatest heroes in American cinematic history, and yet Luke didn't. I wonder why? Too whiny? Vader was also voted the third-greatest villain, behind only Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates.

That's interesting, given that Luke is pretty much the series' only straightforward hero, while Obi-Wan and Han somewhat blatantly are more specific roles (The Mentor and The Lancer respectively, by way of The Old Master and The Lovable Rogue).

edited 24th Apr '12 9:33:13 PM by KnownUnknown

There were some other things on the list I found quite strange, too (Indiana Jones above Rick Blaine?).

Indiana Jones is one of the ultimate escapist characters, though. That might have something to do with it.

As for Luke...I'm not really sure on that, actually.

Vader and Palpatine both placed high in a Wizard magazine greatest fictional villains ranking, too. Palpatine was #3 and Vader was #11; I actually agree with their positions relative to each other, believe it or not. Palpy was only beaten out by Pazuzu and The Joker. Other things on that list, though, I find... suspect. I mean, seriously, Francis Buxton?

edited 24th Apr '12 11:02:07 PM by HamburgerTime

If you ask me, those "top # of characters with specific attribute" lists pretty much live on Your Mileage May Vary. Timing is a factor, because you can have a movie just pop up with a character that could change the list. People's input could be a factor, and votes might be called for. Of course, if they rely on votes, then that would assume that everyone is familiar with the fictional work in question and is a big fan of it. No matter how you slice it, you are going to have biased and unfair results, and those lists are just unreliable at best and just wrong at worst.

I mean, Palpatine can be compared to Iago from Othello. But does anyone even remember Iago?

I remeber Iago!

He was extremely creepy and manipulative, he was vile and scheming, and he looked out at the audience as if to show his awareness of them!

That play was probably not something I should have watched at seven years old.

Well, there, you see? People are going to have Your Mileage May Vary when it comes to villains. Everyone's going to have different memories, interpretations, and what have you about villains. Then there's the trope Eviler than Thou. That trope basically explores a question and it goes like this: who is eviler, the person who was born evil right from the start, or the person who was good and then became evil later on? This might explain why lists of most evil villains can have strange results.

With that said, I think Darth Sidious/Emperor Cosinga Palpatine is way more evil than Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. I hope the reasons for that assertion are Captain Obvious!

edited 26th Apr '12 12:00:51 PM by TiggersAreGreat

I think great villains should be measured on their impact within the fictional universe, not on how iconic they or the film they figured in are in pop culture. I think Palpatine probably would've made that AFI list if a.) ROTJ had experienced the degree of Popcultural Osmosis that ANH and TESB have and b.) had it been the critical darling they were (I, of course, would argue it's superior to both). Not that Vader isn't an excellent character and villain, of course.

Palpatine was really only a competent villain in the prequel trilogy. Sure, he's wonderfully menacing and evil in Rot J, but pretty much anyone who watches it realizes that every time he had a chance of converting Luke to the Dark Side he shot himself in the foot by gloating.

Not really,the gloating is part of what got Luke almost there,if anything it was necessary. If Vader didn't lose the same hand twice thus giving Luke a My God What I Have I Done moment,he totally would've made the Face–Heel Turn.

No. Every time the Emperor starts gloating, Luke realizes what's going on and stops fighting.

Luke stops fighting, but I always interpreted that scene to mean that he stopped fighting to listen to the Emperor's gloating.

Well, the Big Bad Emperor did seem to suffer from Badass Decay and Villain Decay by the time of Return Of The Jedi. Being Obviously Evil worked against him by that point. That, and he was holding the Villain Ball too tightly, and his Hannibal Lecture skills had diminished.

At least Dark Empire, for its flaws, reversed the decay Palpatine had in ROTJ. Of course, he was incredibly Ax-Crazy in that storyline, and acting like the silly - but not harmless - variant of Dastardly Whiplash!

edited 27th Apr '12 7:53:31 AM by TiggersAreGreat

So, according to the official Star Wars Facebook, this Friday is "Star Wars Day." Why this Friday? "May the 4th be with you."

edited 2nd May '12 3:37:09 PM by HamburgerTime

Ah, yes! I always forget May 4th until someone points it out the day after.

Good thing it's May 3rd here. I can remember now. :D

I only remembered the fourth because my friends invited me to a all Star Wars media (minus Clone Wars cartoon series) marathon party... on the afternoon I was planning to go to the theater for something completely unrelated.

We tend to watch at least one Star Wars film on 4th May. It's been a family tradition for a while.