The TIE Fighter Pilot who Helped the Rebellion.

[Christopher]

But with the PT and adding that The Force is generated by microbes in the body...

The microbes only grant the user access to the Force, they don't create it.

Thank you. I'm surprised how many people misinterpret that. The Force is still the same thing it always was, a cosmic essence that unifies all life. Midichlorians are merely the intermediary between the Force and living beings -- which I've always found to be an intriguing (and clearly intentional) analogy to mitochondria, the symbiotic organisms that inhabit every cell of our bodies and are the source of our metabolic energy. It's basically taking the profound symbiosis on which all multicellular life depends and recasting it in more spiritual and symbolic terms, which is really rather clever.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

As the Reverend said, "Spaced" did this bit years ago, and it's far better IMO. In fact...here it is. IIRC, they're all either high, or their buzz has worn off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZnsOZsA7_4

Simon Pegg gives Star Wars too much thought, such as his university dissertation on A Marxist overview of popular 70s cinema. He broke it down elsewhere further than he does in the linked article, about how people like Lando were horrible stereotypes of oppressed peoples.

 

[I Grok Spock]

What makes even less sense than that is that they give some farmboy who's only flown the equivalent of an atmospheric crop-duster the keys to a military space-superiority fighter.

There's a space station the size of a small moon headed towards your once-secret base. Said space station has the ability to blow up entire planets, and you know already that your enemy is entirely willing -- hell, perhaps even eager -- to use that weapon. There is a slim chance, based entirely on a design flaw, that your pilots may be able to take out this station before it can fire and destroy the planet you're on. Even if the strike force isn't able to take it out prior to blowing you to hell, maybe they'll at least take it out after -- you'll still be dead, but at least the Imperials won't have the weapon anymore. In such a situation, you need everyone who can fly to get up there. Even if this new guy isn't the greatest pilot in the galaxy, he'd at least be another body to thin the ranks of the enemy's defending fighters and maybe his death would buy another pilot the time needed to destroy the station.

In short: desperation, as Silvercrest said.

Yes, of course. But I guess this means the Rebels had more X-Wings than they had pilots. (And yes, I read the comic that explains that.) However, at the medal ceremony, there are a butt-load of dudes in orange pilot uniforms. Where'd they come from? I can't imagine they'd hang around on Yavin IV long enough for them to ship in all those pilots for the fun medal ceremony, considering that the Empire must be sending every available SD to their position, once contact was lost with the Death Star or Vader made contact with the Emperor.

Ultimately, Star Wars can't (and was never intended to) withstand this type of analysis, nor do I particularly care that it can't. It's awesomeness is undiminished.

 

[I Grok Spock]

But with the PT and adding that The Force is generated by microbes in the body...

The microbes only grant the user access to the Force, they don't create it.

Thank you. I'm surprised how many people misinterpret that. The Force is still the same thing it always was, a cosmic essence that unifies all life. Midichlorians are merely the intermediary between the Force and living beings -- which I've always found to be an intriguing (and clearly intentional) analogy to mitochondria, the symbiotic organisms that inhabit every cell of our bodies and are the source of our metabolic energy. It's basically taking the profound symbiosis on which all multicellular life depends and recasting it in more spiritual and symbolic terms, which is really rather clever.

Qui-Gon says, "Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force." The symbiosis goes beyond spiritual and symbolic to the more direct relationship of their original inspiration.

 

[Silvercrest]

Yes, of course. But I guess this means the Rebels had more X-Wings than they had pilots. (And yes, I read the comic that explains that.) However, at the medal ceremony, there are a butt-load of dudes in orange pilot uniforms. Where'd they come from?

Evac pilots, unqualified for X-wings but fine for freighters and the like. They probably started breaking camp five minutes after the ceremony.

And Luke is lucky he wasn't stuck doing that instead!

Qui-Gon says, "Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force." The symbiosis goes beyond spiritual and symbolic to the more direct relationship of their original inspiration.

I just realized that statement makes no sense at all. Yeah, I bet you'd have no knowledge of the Force IF YOU DIDN'T EXIST.

 

[Christopher]

It makes perfect sense, since both parts of the statement are true. At worst, it's redundant. But a redundant statement does make sense because it is self-consistent.

 

[Silvercrest]

Okay, I over-spoke. I should have said "the priorities of the speaker don't seem to make a lot of sense, if he thinks knowledge of the Force is equal-priority with being able to exist at all." But given that Qui-Gon was considered kind of an odd duck anyway (and that he was in communion with the Force even after everyone thought he ceased to exist), it does make sense. For him.

 

[Myasishchev]

I Grok Spock wrote:
What makes even less sense than that is that they give some farmboy who's only flown the equivalent of an atmospheric crop-duster the keys to a military space-superiority fighter.

Same level of Rebel desperation (and story logic, not to mention type of movie) that let them do it again in Independence Day.

Pick your poison. Which is more preposterous? That a drunken hick like Randy Quaid would be allowed to fly an advanced military jet fighter?

You know, that never really bothered me. By the film's logic, they had aircraft, and no pilots, and this was basically the last fight--I think all they cared about by that point is whether they could successfully take off.

But I doubt they cared if they could land.

There's a lot of stuff in that movie that is much dumber, is all...

Thank you. I'm surprised how many people misinterpret that. The Force is still the same thing it always was, a cosmic essence that unifies all life. Midichlorians are merely the intermediary between the Force and living beings -- which I've always found to be an intriguing (and clearly intentional) analogy to mitochondria, the symbiotic organisms that inhabit every cell of our bodies and are the source of our metabolic energy. It's basically taking the profound symbiosis on which all multicellular life depends and recasting it in more spiritual and symbolic terms, which is really rather clever.

Well, that's lame for us. All Earth life got were the endosymbionts that respired and the endosymbionts that photosynthesized. I want the endosymbiont that did magic.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

People, people! You're missing the point. "Midichlorians" sounds like Star Trek technobabble, which is fine for Star Trek, but it sucks all the magic and mystery out of Star Wars.

Star Trek is rational, Star Wars is emotional. Star Trek is democratic, Star Wars is fascist (which is not a criticism, strangely enough! If only Lucas would have the guts to embrace the essential fascism of the cosmos he created.) Star Trek can have technobabble pseudo-science up the wazoo and survive just fine, but it curdles the milk of Star Wars. Everything should be what it is and not slop over onto other turf, where it doesn't belong.

 

[Mr Light]

but it curdles the milk of Star Wars.

I really wish you'd said "curdles the blue milk of Star Wars"

 

[HobartFloyt]

Exactly. You might as well nitpick the physics of a Quidditch match. The reason Vader didn't hit Luke is the same as the reason Solo didn't hit Vader: because both characters needed to survive the battle. There's no more logic behind it than that.

I've read a lot of screen writing books. That there? Is bad screen writing. If the reason why something happens is because the plot needs it to happen then that's just bad writing. It has to, and should, make sense "in universe." And by "in universe" it means the "universe" established in the movie itself (not explained by later movies, shows, books, etc.)

So in the movie itself, why did Han not shoot at the lead ship and why was Vader's aim so bad on his ship? Saying "the plot needs that to happen" isn't a good answer.

I can bullshit up an answer if you like.

Watch as I dazzle you with my amazing CGI recreation of the Death Star run:

Han was just clearing the fighters trailing Luke one at a time. If they hadn't all plowed into each other he would have gone after Vader next and the one closest to the left side wall after that when he was lined up with the trench.

As far as Vader not hitting Luke, if the Force can guide Luke's shot into the thermal exhaust port, what's to say that it can't guide Vader's shots away from killing his son, or that Vader himself subconsciously sensed their connection and avoided killing him, just as he consciously did in the subsequent films.

Not only that, if you're bushwackin' a flight and aiming to get all of them, you don't shoot the leader and warn everybody behind him. You start at the end of the line and work your way up.

 

[Trekker4747]

Above... and to the left.

Above... and to the left.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

It's basically taking the profound symbiosis on which all multicellular life depends and recasting it in more spiritual and symbolic terms, which is really rather clever.

Urgh, it's pretty dumb. Sort of like expecting us to be more excited by an opening text crawl that talks about taxes and trade routes.

 

[Christopher]

Some of us are excited by (or at least appreciative of) creative analogies between science and spirituality, and it doesn't make much sense to assume that being engaged with scientific and philosophical concepts is isomorphic with being "dumb."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

but it curdles the milk of Star Wars.

I really wish you'd said "curdles the blue milk of Star Wars"

Dagnabbit! Why don't I think of these things till its too late???

 

[Whofan]

Midichlorians was sort of ignored entirely in AOTC, but it kind of creeped back in ROTS, with the implication that Anakin was perhaps created by Plagueis or Palpatine (" so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life...". The original script makes it quite clear that this was the case, but it's left hanging in the film; also some of the reference books say this is the case as well, and that Palpatine already was aware of Anakin prior to his arrival on Coruscant).


I remember there was a lot of speculation before TPM that Liam Neeson would play Kane Skywalker, a character from the really old scripts and Anakin's father:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kane_Starkiller


Kane (Although changed slightly to Cade) and Starkiller of course would later be reused in the EU.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Midichlorians was sort of ignored entirely in AOTC, but it kind of creeped back in ROTS, with the implication that Anakin was perhaps created by Plagueis or Palpatine (" so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life...". The original script makes it quite clear that this was the case, but it's left hanging in the film; also some of the reference books say this is the case as well, and that Palpatine already was aware of Anakin prior to his arrival on Coruscant).

My personal hope before the other two prequels played out was that Anakin was not conceived by the midichlorians at all, but at some point in her life as a slave on Tatooine Schmi was rendered unconscious and artificially inseminated with Palpatine's Sith-Sperm to give birth to a child that would fool the Jedi into believing the prophecy had been fulfilled so Palpatine could use that to his advantage in destroying them (because he had foreseen Anakin's eventual discovery by the Jedi) and to give him more time to find the true Chosen One himself.

I like the symmetry in having Palpatine, Vader, and Luke all be one big secret dysfunctional family. Palpatine wouldn't reveal the truth because he wants Anakin to still think he's the Chosen One and he wants Anakin to continue to hate him to feed his anger and make him more powerful yet easy to manipulate. If Anakin knew he was his father he might feel some compassion or hesitation to kill like Luke did for him.

In the EU Palpatine had a few children spread across the galaxy as I recall, so it's not unprecedented. Plus, it only adds to his manipulation of the Jedi and badassedness, and leaves the story direction open to either introduce a true Chosen One later on or to say that trying to follow destiny and prophecy can blind you to what's going on in the here and now.

 

[Myasishchev]

Yeah, what Star Wars needed was more rape. There wasn't nearly enough off-screen and implied rape. I mean, sure, there was a lot--like, a whole lot--but enough? How can you ever have enough implied rape?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah, what Star Wars needed was more rape. There wasn't nearly enough off-screen and implied rape. I mean, sure, there was a lot--like, a whole lot--but enough? How can you ever have enough implied rape?

Your sarcasm is cute, but given the slavery, torture, spousal abuse, dismemberment, burning alive, being eaten alive, kidnapping, murder, child murder, assassinations, and genocide that are rampant throughout the films you choose a strange line in the sand to draw here.

 

[Christopher]

And let's not forget the borderline incest!