Poor Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru... Oh Well!

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Albertese, Jan 30, 2013.

  1. EnsignRicky

    EnsignRicky Commodore Commodore

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    Filling a fun escapist space adventure with a continuous underlying sense of profound loss sounds exactly like the sort of thing Abrams would do.
     
  2. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    I'm down. One thing Star Wars has always lacked is realistic human emotions.
     
  3. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And that's why it's awesome.
     
  4. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    It was awesome when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I can barely get through any of them anymore (even ESB) because I have absolutely no emotional connection to any of the characters.
     
  5. Chaos Descending

    Chaos Descending Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Luke Skywalker spent virtually the entire movie in post-crisis shock. He was in a life-or-death situation right up until the conclusion of the Battle of Yavin. He had literally NO TIME TO PROCESS what was going on. This is not in any way incredible. This is rather normal and common.

    I think, offscreen, about 20 minutes after the little medal giving ceremony, he probably had a nervous breakdown and needed inpatient psychotherapy.
     
  6. EnsignRicky

    EnsignRicky Commodore Commodore

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    Exactly, no time for sorrows.
     
  7. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Somewhere, there's an EU novel or comic set between the movies with Luke, Leia and Han all in therapy.
     
  8. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I like to think that Luke and Leia were demonstrating the lack of empathy and underlying selfishness that you would expect of sithspawn. Great foreshadowing, George! :D
     
  9. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    It was the effect of the blue milk. Little known fact: The empire distributes blue milk to every citizen free of charge. It's been engineered to keep people in "good health" and is a major part of the state run medical plan.
     
  10. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    One additional scene, with Luke standing over their graves, saying some appropriate words conveying sorrow and determination and the reason to go on, would have helped. But I'll bet time/money constraints were the reason we never got this scene.
     
  11. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I believe that such a scene wasn't necessary. I looked down, thought about it.. but, the story, being the archetype of the adventrue, needed to expand at that point rather than stop for reflection. The narrative was picking up momentum, and following ht beats along that path.

    I think that's what I hate the most about the prequels, is that Lucas didn't pay enough attention to the how the stories are paced, and how you can build momentum from emotional and narrative landmarks and move forward. He was nearly able to achieve this at the end of ROTS, because the Order 66 really takes the narrative and thrusts it forward.
     
  12. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And then they refer to the children killed as "younglings" and the whole moment is lost.
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Yeah, the use of the word "younglings" was a strange choice there. It dehumanizes the tragedy (and the power) of the moment in a way that saying "you killed the children" would have brought.
     
  14. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    True. Their father was a psychopath and their mother was a necrophiliac-- the nuts don't fall far from the tree. :rommie:
     
  15. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The fact that he calls them "Uncle" and "Aunt", rather than "Mom" and "Dad" or even their first names, suggests to me that they may never have been terribly fond of each other.

    Heck, for all we know from ANH, Luke spent most of his childhood in the care of a larger, warmer family, and only started living in the isolation of the homestead when he became old enough to be useful there. Kinda like professional apprenticeships in the days before formal education of children became the norm - not as tough as slavery, but nowhere near as loving as parenting as we think of it today.
     
  16. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    :confused: Clearly I'm WAY behind on my Clone Wars viewing...
     
  17. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That was actually my first movie gore. It still resonates the emotional impact it had the first time when I see it today.
     
  18. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Urk. It's a kid's show people! :rommie: Maybe I should just skip the current season?
     
  19. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That would explain this:

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhtQX8E8jwM[/yt]
     
  20. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Owen and Beru have to die so that Luke is an orphan Hero. Also, because it's why Luke is instantly a die hard rebel with a cause. Also, because someone who matters has to die horribly so that we understand the Empire is evil. This is the US, there are lots of people who prefer Empire and find great satisfaction in seeing its enemies slaughtered, so this had to be dramatized so our sympathies fell right.

    As to why it is right and proper that Luke be so unfeeling, well there was a severely compressed time frame,. Pausing at all, much less pausing to indulge a downer moment for personal loss, wasn't really in the cards.

    Nonetheless when all is said and done, the writing for the first movie simply wasn't that good. Any perceived deterioration for the prequel trilogy is imaginary.