General Star Wars Thread

"Korriban" and "Coruscant" might sound similar enough to confuse the two... on a pirated VHS copy of a movie that's been played so many times the audio track is worn out.

Why does it matter what the name of the Sith planet is now? It still sounds sinister, perhaps even more so with Mora- in front, considering it sounds somewhat similar to Moria or Mordor. And besides, one could invoke the fact it has many names given to it.

Still need a source on that.

It doesn't matter, but the question is why it needed to be changed at all. Realistically, yes, names change over time, but Star Wars has never been realistic. Things keep their names for hundreds of thousands of years. The new name isn't bad, but neither was the old one. It's a lateral move that just feels like changing it for the sake of changing it.

I did see a source for that (though I don't have it on hand), but even there it's unclear if Lucas meant it as a joke and it didn't come off well or if he genuinely thought it was a good name.

It doesn't really bother me TBH. But I can see why it bothers others. It feels like a really unnecessary change. Especially since, for as much contradiction and confusion as was present at times, one of the things that the old EU was consistent on was the name of the Sith homeworld. So, changing it was just pointless (like a lot of the more, head-scratching, changes that Lucas has made over the years). And yeah, doing it because you think that the fans are two stupid to not mix up two very different sounding names, is just kind of insulting to said fans.

That was what I found annoying about George. The reasons he vetoed things was always tiny in the long-run.

Anakin Solo couldn't be the hero of the NJO because he was afraid that the readers would confuse him with Anakin Skywalker. So instead we got the obscenely boring, navel-gazer Jacen Solo who was a last minute replacement.

Korriban doesn't sound like Coruscant. I don't get it. It's just a petty little change.

Han couldn't shoot first because that made him look like a "cold blooded murderer," according to George. Except that A. that's kind of the point of his character arc, going from not very nice guy to selfless hero, and B. him shooting Greedo was a clear-cut case of self-defense.

Heck didn't George also mandate that there shouldn't be any Wookie Jedi? WTF was the point of THAT exactly?

Having some checks and balances is really important in any sort of artistic property that fields a dozen writers at any given time. What we're getting is some of the more obtuse statements, but they all have some logical sense to it.

The whole "Han Shot First" debate has had multiple explanations, from maintaining the PG rating for the special editions to merely restoring the original intention of the scene. He also said that Han was meant to be a criminal in the first film and that scene enforces that notion, but becoming a beloved main character he felt uncomfortable having someone that vicious be portrayed as a hero.

No Wookiee Jedi is probably to keep every single writer from making their own Wookiee Jedi (same with keeping Yoda's species a secret and No Hutt Jedi). Korriban vs. Moruband may just be personal preference, Korriban vs. Coruscant confusion is probably minimal but it is a smart idea in general to not have places and people with similar sounding names (not every character has perfect diction or the exact same accent, try slurring Korriban and Coruscant and they are not as different as you may think).

We had a Wookie Padawan in The Clone Wars, so I don't think that one's true.

Indeed.

And yeah, Korriban's reason for getting its name changed was stupid, but I'm still gonna call it Korriban. I bet if someone writes a book for the EU nowadays they can even go to Korriban and then go "There were some souls who called it Moriband, the true name lost to generations for all but a few."

edited 29th Mar '16 5:29:07 PM by theLibrarian

I still don't get why Han shooting first is a big deal. Though I'll grant you the edited special effect is pretty bad.

I once saw a looped clip of Han dodging Greedo's shot, set to Haddaway's What is Love so that he was head-bopping like one of the Roxbury Guys.

EDIT: found it...

edited 29th Mar '16 6:16:41 PM by pwiegle

George Lucas is the guy who advocated in front of Congress that films are art and should never be tampered with, and should be preserved for future generations.

Guess George Lucas didn't listen to his own advice, given by the fact that the Special Editions exist and are full of unnecessary changes.

Or more accurately, he advised they shouldn't be tampered by anyone unless their own creators.

I'm guessing he doesn't consider it tampering if he's doing it to his own films.

Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with editing your own intellectual property, though the fact that he refused to release the theatrical cuts in high quality is more morally ambiguous.

I mean, some edits would work if we're talking about fixing continuity errors and stuff. But adding in really bad CGI is unnecessary.

But that makes the film more dense

Some of the changes made in the special editions make sense, particularly those which were made due to the limits of optical effects in the original releases. Like using petroleum jelly on the camera lens to blur out the wheels under the landspeeder, for example.

But other changes are simply unnecessary. The added scene between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt in the docking bay merely repeats (verbatim!) the dialog between Han and Greedo in the cantina, and also removes the sense of mystery that originally surrounded Jabba, since we never actually got to see him until ROTJ in the original releases.

Then there were the special-edition changes that Lucas changed back in later releases — like adding a scream when Luke falls off the catwalk in Cloud City in ESB. The very same scream uttered by Palpatine when he gets thrown down the reactor shaft in ROTJ! I'm glad Lucas took that back out, because it sucked.

Personally, I'm waiting for the day when an individual viewer can cherry-pick the changes and edits he likes, while leaving out the ones he doesn't, and enjoy his own personal "definitive vision" of the Star Wars movies. But technology still hasn't advanced that far yet.

Ifhe would have just released the original versions on DVD and Blu-ray as well, and given people the choice of what version that they wanted to buy, then I doubt that this would be as big of a controversy as it is. It's the lack of that choice that really ticks a lot of people off.

And I like some of the changes myself. Making Sheev look like Ian Mc Diarmid in ESB (not a big fan of the dialogue changes in that scene, but I do like the physical one), making Cloud City looks bigger, more open, and brighter, making the Sarlaac look more like an actual animal, changing the "victory song" on Endor to something more appropriate (imo). And then there's stuff that I don't necessarily like, but I also don't mind (like making some of the battle scenes seem bigger/grander by adding more troops/ships in).

But then there's stuff that I don't like. Shoving a bunch of CGI stuff in so that it actually distracts from the important stuff (Mos Eisley's says hello), the AWFUL new song and dance number in Jabba's palace, Vader screaming "nnnooooo" before attacking Sheev, changing the Han/Greedo scene for no good reason (and the awful special effect thrown in that just makes Greedo look incompetent to boot), the new Jabba scene in ANH (which just repeats the info that we'd just gotten in the Greedo scene immediately before, ruins the mystique of Jabba, and kind of also ruins the "big reveal" of the Falcon later on with Luke), etc.

But I could accept all of those, because it's interesting to compare/contrast the version and see how an artist's views/sensibilities have changed over the years, IF he gave us the option of also getting the original versions. But he doesn't.

It's not. Greedo was going to kill him. Han was acting completely in self-defense and not out of any kind of malice whatsoever. It does paint him as a bit more ruthless but that's not necessarily bad in terms of making him a more interesting character.

Which is why the change, and George's reasoning for it, annoys so many people. It's not even accurate to what was in the scene and if anything, it makes both characters look dumb and incompetent.

I think is to mantain the black and white morality of the series.

Because let face it, Solo being a scoundrel feel like informed atribute, he is snarky and anti-authoritariam but nothing about that said a grey or amoral chararter, he is just chaotic good contrasting with Leia and Luke(who are lawfull and Neutral good) so Solo doing that come as out of place.

No it doesn't, it just means that he has a brain cell in his head. You have a notorious bounty hunter (who it's implied you have past no-so-great history with) pointing a blaster at you and gloating about how much he's going to enjoy killing you, you don't let him shoot at your head first before deciding to fight back. Especially if he's sitting like less than two feet away from you (which retroactively make him look extremely incompetent since he apparently cannot hit a sitting target from such a short distance away). It's why I take issue with people who argue that Rey trying to shoot that one Stormtrooper first (in the forest) in TFA makes her seem "cold-blooded." No it makes her look like she's not stupid.

And given that barely five minutes before, Obi Wan (a freaking Jedi) cut a guy's arm clean off for just, roughing Luke up a little, George's explanation makes even less sense, as it does given Han's other actions for most of this movie. He WASN'T a hero, so comparing him to John Wayne just doesn't work.

Actually, the only character who looks dumb in that scene was Greedo...and considering how he was portrayed in The Clone Wars, I say it wasn't a big loss. If anything, it makes Greedo stand out from the rest of the Bounty Hunters.

edited 29th Mar '16 10:39:13 PM by Shadao