General Star Wars Thread

Uh, the starfighter battles. We see homing missiles for once, as well as conserving fire until the pilot is confident they can land a hit.

Abrams isn't directing Episodes 8 and 9. That would be Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow.

To be honest, I'd pay to see Endor being swapped with Pandora in Return Of The Jedi. The Na'avi's telepathic abilities could be explained as them using a form of Force mind trick applicable to animals.

edited 29th Jun '16 2:23:20 PM by FluffyMcChicken

Don't even joke about that. :|

At least the Imperials can be better forgiven for getting their asses whipped sorry by a telepathic dragon-riding ten-foot tall warrior race than four-foot bear-people with no mystical powers whatsoever.

Hmm, let me think, NO!

edited 29th Jun '16 2:38:47 PM by HamburgerTime

Why did they change their minds on it not being wookies now again?

I think it was a combination of kid appeal and wanting the natives to seem more like the underdogs.

That, and technology. Lucas wanted the Endor natives to be the bows-and-catapults kind of folk and Chewbacca had established Wookiees as being familiar with technology.

The original film was intended to be one story, detailing the saga of the heroes fighting the empire and culminating in the destruction of the Death Star while involving a commando raid on a forest planet, where the primitive Wookiee tribe lead by Chewbacca joined with the heroes. Lucas recognized it was too ambitious for one movie, and so kept the destruction of the Death Star, made Chewbacca Han's co-pilot and the forest moon of Yavin featured no action sequences. When the time came for Episode VI, Lucas recycled the original ideas with a new Death Star and the forest moon of Endor. Initially there was going to be another primitive Wookiee tribe but recognized Chewbacca the advanced mechanic would be confusing next to the bow and arrow Wookiees, so, in his own words he "Cut them in half and called them Ewoks."

What's doubly interesting is that in the original nine-movie scheme, VI would've been entirely devoted to getting Han back from Jabba, VII-VIII about recruiting Luke's sister (not Leia) to the cause, and only in IX would the Empire fall.

That's what I heard, at least.

I don't think the story was ever that tightly written. Lucas did have initial plans to make it an anthology under different directors, and as such the story could go in wildly different directions. The fact he set the first film as episode IV indicates he had changed his mind to make it a trilogy and leave room for the prequels, and not push forward to the 9 film anthology. I genuinely think the Holiday Special was his wake-up call on what can happen when passing on the saga to other hands, and as such he became more tightly controlling of the franchise.

Crazy thing is I've read a comic book based on the earlier drafts, and in it the primitive Wookiees, instead of going the "slings and boulders" route against the Empire, are taught how to fly starfighters and take on the Death Star.

Where did the thing about the Ewoks supposedly being based on the Vietcong come from? Because that's Jane Fonda-level traitorous bullshit right there if it's true.

Their fighting techniques, with the traps and using the environment to their advantage, were supposedly based on them. I'm sure you can be interested in how the Vietcong fought without supporting them...

I wouldn't have minded the Ewoks if the battle they fought in wasn't so fundementally important to the fall of the Empire. If they were a single embarrassing moment for the Empire, that'd be hilarious. But the thing that actually brings them down makes the Empire look like sympathetic ineffectual villains.

Well, Lucas was a Vietnam war protester (possibly with remote sympathies to the Vietcong), and apparently Star Wars is vaguely meant to draw parallels to it. At least, so I've heard.

edited 29th Jun '16 5:28:50 PM by Protagonist506

Daily reminder that the Ewoks are losing hard until the walker gets jacked.

Yeah. Unlike Vietnam, the Imps could bring heavy armor in. Can't do that in a jungle with treads.

Well they certainly accomplished some impressive victories when they had the element of surprise. Those log traps wreaked havoc on the walkers and they were swarming over the ground troops. It's only once the Imperial forces recovered there wasn't anything they could do to take down a walker. Now if they were primitive Wookiees using the same tactics they might have fared only a little better, only because one Wookiee could easily overpower multiple storm troopers while the Ewoks had to Zerg Rush them. They were only really able to take the last walker because Chewie was there.

And inspiration can come from any place, that doesn't mean it's an iron clad statement on political beliefs. Lucas also used the Nazi Propoganda film "Triumph of the Will" as reference for the award ceremony at the end of ANH. Despite being a Nazi production, the film is acknowledged as having some impressive camera work and editing for the time period.

I only just now realized that Ewok is essentially Wookie backwards.

The log traps were after the hijacking IIRC. The first one is hijacked, then it blows up the second one, and the remaining two fall to the log traps in the resulting free-for-all.

edited 29th Jun '16 8:11:38 PM by HamburgerTime

The swinging log traps came first, didn't they?

Ewok backwards is "Kowe" O.o

Kowe says Mooe◊

Greedo = Odeerg (Oh Dear, Gee)

Jabba = Abbaj

Calrissian = Naissirlac (Nice Sarlacc)

Darth = Htrad

Skywalker = Reklawyks (Reckless)