Chefelf.com Night Life: Ferris Wiel - Viewing Profile

This one has to be seen to be believed:

Why I LOOOOOVE The Phantom Menace

**DEVELOPING, more later**

--FW

This is hilarious. If you don't laugh I'll eat my hat.

What if...

--FW

PS - I'm not wearing a hat.

Welcome to Lucasfloor, where we paint ourselves into corners and can't get back out. Allow me to share a brief history:

*Killing Obi-Wan
Sure, it heightened the drama and made the Imps seem like they meant business, but eliminating Obi-Wan created all kinds of problems for the training of Luke as a Jedi. The novel (SME), Marvel comics and newspaper strips did a good job of allowing Luke to gradually gain power, but Lucas destroyed all that by...

*Hitting the reset button on Luke's Jedi skills
In the comics and book Luke's skills had progressed quite nicely. He could do some basic Jedi maneuvering and had learned several tricks - a showcase of his power, in some ways, plus he had bumped into a few good mentors, even a "fake" Obi-Wan and his skills had come quite a ways from the parlor tricks of ANH, but then he can't even levitate his lightsaber out of the snow in ESB? Of course that means...

*Luke needed a new trainer
Enter the green dude. Luke has to get Grover to teach him the ways of the Force. I have no problem with Yoda the puppet or even as a Jedi Master, I always thought he filled the role well and Frank Oz did amazing work. As a matter of fact, I would replace Hayden Christensen with a Muppet if I thought it would make the PT better. The problem I have is that Obi-Wan was supposed to be the "Gandalf" in the story he admittedly ripped from LOTR. Why not resurrect him or allow him to train luke in his ethereal form? Another question is raised by this as well. I also wonder at this, there was no mention of going to Dagobah (for obvious reasons like it hadn't been thought up, yet) on Obi-Wan's part, but I would imagine, that after the alleged "failure" of Obi-Wan as a Jedi Master that he speaks of in ROTJ, that it had to be on the agenda. More than that, though, approximately three years passed between ANH and ESB according to official timelines, and in this time Luke didn't learn very much, but then, under Yoda's tutelage...

*Luke learns "everything" in a few days
George Lucas sees time as an abstraction, I'm guessing. That's the only answer I can see. I could imagine Han and Leia staying in the same clothes for a week or so, but much beyond that seems a little silly. I also wonder at the supplies Han keeps aboard the Falcon and how he kept everybody fed for that period of time, especially a Wookie. The nice thing about SW is that it doesn't attempt to explain this stuff a la Star Trek, thus creating more plot holes, instead it is left to the viewer's imagination, the problem, though, is that it leaves the audience wondering exactly how much time passed between Hoth and the rendevous point with the frigate at the end of ESB. Apparently, Yoda was also able to complete Luke's training, but it took the additional nine months of Han's big sleep in the carbonite to hone the skills. I'll try to leave ROTJ alone, because I've read the best list ever about why it sucked, but I have a question...

*Would Obi-Wan have taken both Luke and Leia to train?
I mean, it only stands to reason. If they're brother and sister then he should have been far more concerned about her being directly in the presence of Darth Vader. It's been revealed in books, and even hinted at in the movies that somebody with strong Force sensitivity can be opened to a few broad powers by a period of great duress. I would imagine that being tortured and then watching your home planet and only surviving parent get destroyed at the hands of lunatics would be pretty stressful, so where were the powers? Then again...

*Was Darth Vader really Luke's (let alone Leia's) father in ANH?
Watch the film closely, or even haphazardly, there was no hint at all. It was completely out of left field, now, this isn't to say that it wasn't an interesting (and probably the most famous) plot twist, but all signs point to no. He had Luke on the Death Star, the name Lars came up on Tattooine reports, because they had the 'Droids, I'm sure that local documents even showed that Luke Skywalker resided there. Even when Luke was using the Force it should have been apparent, but then again...

*The Force not has not been very well explained (or demonstrated)
As to its limitations (unfortunately reminding me of the continuum transfunctioner in Dude, Where's My Car) "its mystery is only exceeded by its power," (strangely, this is also a Fox film). Anakin can break the laws of Physics in a free fall, but the Emperor cannot survive a drop down a reactor core; Yoda can, at 900 years old engage in a massively (stupid) acrobatic duel but Obi (50-60ish) and Darth (40ish) in ANH look like a pair of geriatrics, Qui-Gon can tell of Anakin's Force power through a few discussions and a couple of little demonstrations (plus the midichlorians, but let's not touch that), but Vader, the ultimate Jedi hunter, can't tell that a)Leia is Force sensitive and b)she is his daughter? None of it makes sense.

What is a little comforting about the perceived contrivances and problems in ANH and ESB is that the majority of these come about due to problems in ROTJ, TPM and AOTC and not the other way around. Some solutions to these problems:

1. ESB should have allowed some progression of skill in the period after ANH. He shouldn't have been as completely helpless as he was after three years of being open to the Force.
2. The training with Yoda should have taken place between Eps V and VI or Luke at least shouldn't have been told "your skills are complete" and "already know you that which you need," perhaps it would have been more dramatic in ROTJ for Luke to have been a virtual novice taking out Darth or getting a last key piece of training information. Instead, they have a little chat about families and death, and then Obi stops by to catch up and gossip.
3. Create some accountability for those writing about Force powers. Jedi should have been either legendary and powerful magicians (but how could they have been forgotten so quickly) or lesser, but still powerful, warriors, much like the samurai, who had an edge by being able to tap into the power of the Force, but whose demonstration would never be so obvious as falling 300 stories and surviving the impact.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

--FW