The General Star Wars Thread

So, I have a question: what are your favorite scenes from the Star Wars films?

Edited by gjjones on Oct 23rd 2019 at 2:02:49 PM

Of course there's a Wookieepedia article: Moisture vaperator

Edited by alanh on Oct 23rd 2019 at 11:13:43 AM

I love the idea of moisture evaporators, because you can tell Lucas wanted to think of the most mundane, unremarkable Status Quo for Luke to be stuck in before The Call.

He freaking farms drops of water. Hell, the machines do most of the work. He just sits there making sure they don't fall apart.

I'm almost surprised we wasn't, like, a sand merchant or something.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 24th 2019 at 12:17:56 PM

Why be a sand merchant? It's everywhere on Tatooine. Practically worthless to make a living on sand trade.

Now getting water on Tatooine, which apparently rarer than gold on this backwater planet, now that's hard work.

Do sand merchants actually exist?

If there were sand merchants, they're likely extinct during the Age of the Empire.

I got the idea from Aladdin: The Series, where a villain hypnotizes a guy into being a sand merchant because it was the most pointless thing he could think of (the characters of Aladdin living in the desert).

Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 24th 2019 at 12:57:23 PM

Vader killed all the sand merchants. Their wares are coarse and rough and get everywhere.

XD

> Do sand merchants actually exist?

Yes,same with bridge salesmen

"So, I have a question: what are your favorite scenes from the Star Wars films?"

In ROTJ there's a scene in the space battle at Endor where Akbar orders the fleet to concentrate their fire on the Super Star Destroyer. The focus is on Akbar, but while he's saying that you can see a different Star Destroyer being blown completely to smithereens in the background.

That always stayed with me. I felt it was like a symbol of how much things had escalated and how much higher the stakes were. In the very first scene of the first movie, the Star Destroyer flabbergasted us with how huge and terrifying it was. Fighting against it was a fool's errand. It was the first showcase of Imperial power.

Fast forward a few years and the Alliance has so much more important things going on at Endor that Akbar doesn't even acknowledge it. The Star Destroyer being utterly obliterated is an afterthought in the background.

Hmm...

The Battle of Freaking Scarif, for one.

Yoda in general, in particular Luke’s first meeting with him - which I swear gets more hilarious thanks to Dramatic Irony the more content with Yoda we get. But also the early parts of his training with Luke, where he’s just telling us a what the force really is.

The Podrace.

It’s an odd choice, but another from ESB I’d say is a favorite is everything from Han and Leia arriving in Bespin into them meeting Lando and realizing something is up: mostly because it’s one of the best examples of how when he was at the top of his game, Lucas could be amazing at setting and character establishment.

While not one of my favorites overall, I’m oddly partial to Dex’ scene from AOTC, and really all of Obi-Wan’s investigation like him meeting Yoda and tracking down Dooku. They’re the only parts of that movie I actually like, and its a strange thing to say but I think the film really could have used more of that kind of thing.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 24th 2019 at 11:31:32 AM

Yeah, Obi-Wan's investigation in AOTC is like suddenly we're in a completely different movie. A much cooler sci-fi noir movie.

I will said rouge one third act, specialy the droid holding against stormtropers knowing he is going to die, or the mon calamari ramming is ship against a star destroyer or those shots of rebel and imperial ships being blow up.

I get the feeling it was a toss of power, of rebels and imperial thorwing everything trying to out maneuver their oponent, for once I cheer the resistance because it really feel they are throwing their lot to ensure victory rather than letting the main chararter with plot armour doing everything.

Sand 'merchants' actually do exist; sand is a major component of concrete and asphalt. Removal of sand for the construction industry is a significant environmental problem due to the changes sand mining creates in the landscape.

Tatooine might be pretty useless in that sense, though. Currently wind eroded desert sand is too fine for traditional concrete. There have been alternatives developed but they haven't been approved yet for large scale construction.

Edited by Pseudopartition on Oct 24th 2019 at 4:14:06 AM

While Sand Merchants do exist, you would tend not to find them on a planet like Tatooine, however, because it's everywhere. Indeed, sand is probably an export of Tatooine if anything.

By contrast, Moisture Farming makes sense because water is difficult to acquire and a resource all organic life needs. Indeed, I might even argue it could be somewhat more profitable than the movies imply, as it would probably a pillar of their economy.

I could see sand being an export of a desert planet in general, but Tattooine is just so far out that no one cares about anything coming from there. And even if they did export sand, it would be giant corporations, not plucky individuals.

As for moisture farming, I got the impression that the Lars family were sustenance farmers. They grow what they need to eat, and then sell any leftovers (which might include leftover water) at market. So there might be someone getting rich off the water trade on Tattooine, but it's not them.

Edited by Discar on Oct 24th 2019 at 2:39:49 AM

My favourite scene, no contest, is the interactions between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor on the Death Star in ROTJ; and, before that, the scene with Luke and Vader on Endor where Luke turns himself in. They’ve got more emotional impact than anything else in the series and encapsulate the moral themes of the Star Wars universe.

I’m also rather partial to the Jabba’s Palace sequence, which is sort of an extended Batman Cold Open in that it showcases the heroes’ competence (Luke and Leia especially). It shows our heroes having enough contingency plans that they can roll with whatever happens and come out as the winners.

No surprise that ROTJ is my favourite.

It's been a while since I've watched most of the films, but let me think...

Attack of the Clones: Obi-Wan meeting Jango Fett for the first time. Reminded me of watching Space Seed.

ANH: Just watching the X-Wings bank in formation in the Special Edition. They're so graceful!

ROTJ: Quite a bit, really. "The Emperor is coming here!?", the silent nods and looks everyone gives each other before the sail barge plan starts up, Luke pulling out his lightsaber for the first time, Luke going to Vader, Luke losing his shit, Luke regaining his shit, and the entire goddamn space battle.

TFA: The TIE Fighter escape and the Falcon's first flight. Han's death, wherein Harrison Ford gives a damn about acting for the first time all movie. It's amazing. Also, Finn's short duel with Kylo, and the gloriously brutal choreography featured therein. (Ryan Wieber worked on the movie, didn't he?)

Rogue One: Both firings of the Death Star, and especially seeing Anakin in the tank.

TLJ: "I believe he's tooling with you, sir." Finn and Poe plotting. Luke's sunken X-Wing. Rey and Kylo's first shared vision. Rey going into the cave. Hux pulling a blaster on Kylo after finding Snoke's body. Everything about Snoke himself. The animal stampede at the casino. Rey and Kylo struggling over the lightsaber, and the parentage reveal right before it. Rey showing up with the Falcon at the last minute and luring away all the TIE Fighters while grinning ear-to-ear, having done something right for the first time in the movie. Luke flexing on the entire First Order (and Kylo in particular) through astral projection. Twin motherfucking suns. TLJ was one hell of a ride.

The Always a Bigger Fish scene is my favorite from TPM. I always have a soft spot for scenes with weird creatures, especially deep sea creatures. In AOTC my favorite scene is the Obi-Wan vs Jango fight. In ROTS it's easily the Darth Plagueis scene. Palpatine in general steals the show in that one.

In ANH it's either the destruction of Alderaan or the cantina. In ESB it's the Dagobah scenes, they're the reason Yoda's my favorite character. In ROTJ I can't choose between Jabba's Palace or the final confrontation with the Emperor.

In TFA Han's final scene with Kylo is the one that's stuck in my head the most. The climactic scene in Snoke's throneroom is the best in TLJ. The Vader scenes are my favorites in Rogue One and the Kessel Run is my favorite in Solo.

If I were to pick a favorite scene from TFA, it'd be the bit where Han gives Rey the blaster - particularly the exchange:

• "I can take care of myself."
• "I know. That's why I'm giving it to you."

Which... I dunno, it's just a great brash adventurey exchange.

I don't entirely mind the direction we went, but man would it have been cool if they had decided to play Rey more as a "plucky adventurer" type.

Scarif is definitely one of my favorite scenes too, probably one of the best battle scenes in the entire franchise. Everything fits together so smoothly and the tone is also consistent.

Battle of Geonosis is also a big one, seeing the clones kicking ass.

Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel

The throne room fight in Last Jedi

I think Maz's conversation with Rey in The Force Awakens is a good one too, where she takes apart her character and essentially tells her: move on.

Luke's death is also a great scene, I think. It was a binary sunset when he was born, and it was a binary sunset when he died. Really tied the entire franchise together.

I’ve been thinking for a while that a dark side order that had Villainous Friendship between them would make a great Contrasting Sequel Antagonist in comparison to the Sith.

Edited by Novis on Oct 25th 2019 at 3:55:10 AM

Probably not a darksider, then. One of the biggest characteristics of dark side users is selfish sociopathy.

That is correct: The Dark Side's backstabbery is meant to be something kind of intrinsic to it, and something it's trying to say about the nature of evil. The Light Side wins, essentially, because evil is self-destructive.

Mind you, there is a lot between "too evil to have a functioning society" and being non-evil, so a villainous friendship, though it wouldn't be fully darkside. You could go for some sort of evil light-siders, actually. I'd actually probably make it a Path of Inspiration with a sort of Individuality Is Illegal bent.

In a sci-fantasy setting I made, I did use villainous friendship as part of the justification for the main antagonists not backstabbing each other. The main villain's inner circle are all family of sorts (The Dragon is her lover, the evil wizard is her dad, etc). The other justification is that her job actually kind of sucks, and anyone with enough power to become The Starscream quickly realizes this.