The screwy logic and time line of the Star Wars series... -- Rhinotainment

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Date Posted: 19:03:41 12/07/03 Sun
Author: Silk
Subject: The screwy logic and time line of the Star Wars series...

I enjoy the Star Wars movies for what they are, but Lucas's timeline and some of the logic is so screwy. This is my breakdown ~

The Phantom Menace
~ Senator Palpatine makes moves toward becoming Emperor. How long's this take him? Well, the next movie is about 10 (or more - Anakin goes from about 8 years old to 18 years old) years later, and he's still not Emperor! What the hell's taking him so long?

Okay, maybe he had to make his clone armies and all that, but why weren't they made in preparation for his initial move? Because as it is, how long could somebody of his power (as a Sith Lord) keep his anonymity?

And how ruthless are the Jedi? They have access to the Republic's Treasury, but do they go back to Tattooine to buy Anakin's mother's freedom? Nooo...let her suffer instead.

Attack of the Clones
After losing Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, what's Darth Sidius do? He recruits a much older apprentice (Christopher Lee, the seditious bastard).

And how weak has Obi Wan become? He handled Darth Maul, but couldn't handle Christopher Lee?

As almost an aside, the first 20 minutes are shocking - the bugs sent in to assassinate (cliche), the speeder-chase (read: car-chase), and the assassin being killed just before she revealed the name of her employer. This opening should've been cut and covered in the scrolling prologue.

Movie III
It looks like the Empire will be established right around the time of the birth of Luke and Leia. This means the Empire only exists between Movie III and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - about 20 years. That's a pretty shitty Empire.

You can stretch out the length of its existence a bit - by 10 years at most, but that still makes it a pretty shitty empire.

I always got the sense that it'd been around a lot longer than that.

A New Hope
I've always had two main questions about this movie.

1) When the Death Star went to destroy the Rebel Base, why did it have to navigate around the obtruding planet? Why didn't it just destroy it?

2) What the hell did Han Solo do to deserve a medal right at the end? He comes in, fires a few cheap shots, and he gets a medal for this? What about the other surviving pilots?

The Empire Strikes Back
The best movie, but the worst offender in terms of the timeline.

First, Yoda says Luke's too old to start the training to become a Jedi. Maybe that's a possibility given the age of Luke. But it's also the reason given not to train Anakin in Phantom Menace. Is this the generic cop-out? And at what age are apprentices suitable? 6 months? 9 months?

Also, Luke's on Dagobah training to become a Jedi for the length of time it takes the Millennium Falcon to escape their Imperial pursuers and get to Cloud City. Then Luke has the vision of his friends in trouble and goes to save them.

So how long was Luke training? Being extremely generous, let's say it took Han Solo a week to ditch his Imperial pursuers and get to Cloud City - is that really enough time to become a Jedi?

And when Luke wants to go and rescue them, Yoda and Obi Wan caution against it, say he's not ready, he's not a Jedi yet, he's aware of the Force but can't control it, and that it's premature to face Darth Vader. This leads to...

Return of the Jedi
I always thought that between Empire and Jedi Luke went back to Dagobah, was trained further, then was given the call about Han's location and went to rescue him.

That's the way I rationalized it. Otherwise, you have to look at it this way...

Luke returns to Dagobah. Now Yoda tells him he doesn't need any further training and that he'll officially become a Jedi when he confronts Vader.

What?

A movie ago he wasn't ready, still had lots to learn, and wasn't prepared to face Vader. This is a complete turnaround, and totally illogical.

Also, it's difficult to reconcile how immature and inexperienced Luke was in Empire with how cool and methodical he was in Jedi. Did facing Vader and losing a hand accomplish this? I would've thought it'd have the opposite effect.

Obviously Lucas has a lot of notes detailing the genre, but in terms of an actual timeline and logic, he's really found wanting.

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Replies:

Anakin wasn't denied training coz of his age, -- Macho, 02:08:07 12/11/03 Thu
- Anakin was denied training by the Jedi Council... -- Silk, 03:50:32 12/11/03 Thu
  - It's important to understand why Anakin was denied training -- Macho, 14:01:27 12/11/03 Thu
    - Anakin hasn't turned yet. -- Silk, 18:41:57 12/11/03 Thu
      - Hints? -- uncleboonie, 01:19:04 12/12/03 Fri
        Re: Hints. -- Silk, 02:18:19 12/12/03 Fri
        Re: Hints. -- uncleboonie, 20:38:47 12/12/03 Fri
        Jar Jar Binks was subtle, wasn't he? (NT) -- Silk, 20:43:58 12/12/03 Fri