This was a level of realism virtually unheard of in science fiction before Star Wars (1977) came out.
Jar Jar on trial for war crimes.
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This was a level of realism virtually unheard of in science fiction before Star Wars (1977) came out.
I will say, as a VFX artist at least partially inspired by Star Wars, that meganooks are my God, and you severely disappoint me by speaking against them.
Now I have to go sacrifice something to the Divine Hypercranny to restore balance to the universe.
SW doesn't have rastafarian frogs, but it does have a rastafarian human.
CorporalCaptain said:
Similarly, the so-called "mystical" plot has been clearly established since the Episode I trailer and requires no further explication by TCW. However, taking the Mortis arc as an example, if TCW even hints at going in this direction ever again, we know exactly what will happen. The PT-haters will immediately launch into all kinds of surreal bad predictions and wishful thinking about how TCW is about to change everything, throwing out both trilogies and reducing everything to a repugnant, nonsensical mess. And the best part? When it doesn't actually take place, they'll still insist that it did. My word against yours, full steam ahead, on to the next ill-fated prediction.
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Star Wars doesn't have cannibal teddy bears. We saw no indication that the Ewoks eat their own kind.
Yeah, ruin the fun, will you? I obviously meant "sentient-creatures-eating teddy bears", but that doesn't sound quite as exciting.
Or "bloodthirsty teddy bears".
Accuracy is always exciting.
I wonder if the Ewokes are related to the teddy bears with 6 inch fangs that live on Vulcan?
True, but other Golden Age stories did, and Episode One had a real Golden Age look to it.
I suppose so, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that (aside from speculative or imaginative fiction being better when it's creative rather than realistic), but it put us on the unfortunate trend to where "futuristic" now means looking like the basement of a factory built in the 1950s.
But what are the meganooks and hypercrannies for. They just make the ships harder to clean-- which is probably why they're all as gray as cigarette ash. But if it makes you feel any better, I do like the Millennium Falcon.
I will say, as a VFX artist at least partially inspired by Star Wars, that meganooks are my God, and you severely disappoint me by speaking against them.
"Clarify that point! Oh, God, yes, clarify it! Now the footnotes! Yes, yes!"
Getting bogged down is inefficiency and possibly collusion, but that's not corruption per se. Corruption is when public servants are taking bribes and embezzling public funds, that sort of thing. When TCW depicted inspectors abetting the importation of dangerous goods, that's my idea of corruption.
Also, a little corruption is very normal in a democracy. You could find examples of corruption all over the place in America. For example, that judge who was taking bribes to keep a juvenile detention center full, by tossing kids in there who didn't deserve it. One of the kids committed suicide. Now that's what I call corruption, and it goes on every day in America. Is America unsalvageable? If so, every nation in the world is unsalvageable.
For the Republic to be depicted as unsalvagably corrupt, as opposed to just normally corrupt, in that normal way I'm sure we're all familiar with, there would need to be a lot more evidence of corruption being a long-term and pervasive thing. The PT didn't make the sale that the Republic couldn't have been salvaged by a reasonable effort at reform.
The other part of the equation is that Anakin needs to notice the corruption and get mad enough about it that he's willing to overthrow the Republic. If that's the plan. In the PT, he was trying to save Padme by very stupidly trusting a Sith. We're talking about two completely different plotlines, one of which is merely theoretically. But unless the corruption is shown as a major impetus to Anakin's actions, the corruption has no purpose in the story at all.
Then why didn't she join the Separatists, since their whole philosophy was that the Republic is unsalvageable and they're better off without it? Just because Naboo is having issues with the Republic doesn't mean that the whole galaxy is having issues.
TCW's writers clearly think they need to make this point - otherwise, why are they inflicting boring episodes about corruption on us to begin with? It's not an interesting topic, and I don't want to think they're just sadists.
Or maybe they just don't agree with you and think it's an interesting topic?
Well, I should have also said this from The Phantom Menace:
Those bogging the Senate down on the question of the Trade Federation's actions are being paid by the Trade Federation. Sounds like the bureacrats are indulging in influence peddling, to support an unholy alliance between the Republic and the Trade Federation, so that the Trade Federation can extort a treaty with Naboo. And even the mere fact that it sounds like this is enough for me personally to conclude that Lucas wants us to think that the Republic has, by this time, become politically corrupt in the literal sense you state.
On these issues:
I should have gone on to say that, while she is certain that the Senate cannot help Naboo right after she speaks to the Senate, Padme does believe that the Senate can have its sanity restored, and she hopes that Palpatine will see to that while she's back on Naboo. Later, with the threat to Naboo lifted, by her last line in Episode I, Padme is naive enough to believe that the Viceroy will be called to account. Palpatine then fans Padme's ego and assures her that everything will be peaceful and prosperous. By this dialog, I think we are supposed to believe that, at least as Episode I concludes, Padme believes that everything will indeed be peaceful and prosperous.
However, since we were given advance knowledge back in 1976 as to who Palpatine is, in the prologue to the novel Star Wars, we ourselves know that any belief that Palpatine will restore sanity to the senate is just whistling Dixie. This is enough for me to conclude that the sample of the Senate's behavior we have just witnessed is indicative of a systemic problem, and the situation will only get worse.
When the Separatists come on the scene in Episode II, Padme is no longer Queen of Naboo. Queen Jamillia decrees that they must keep faith in the Republic, and keep believing in democracy in order to avoid losing it. Padme agrees with this, which means that she agrees to remain with Naboo in the Republic. She views herself as "serving" rather than leading. Later When she and Anakin are lazing with the giant cows, and waxing politic, she defends democracy, which means by extension that she defends the Republic, IMO at least as an ideal.
Further keeping Padme fenced inside the Republic is the fact that its Jedi are protecting her from assassination.
Palpatine manipulated several factions of the Republic government. He also saw that Padme was an naive idealist with little experience on the galactic front and took advantage of that to suggest a no-confidence vote. He probably also manipulated the process so that he could be one of the top nominees for Chancellor, most likely considering the others ineffectual and just as incompetent as Vallorum must have been to him.
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Yeah that's what I was referring to. He was manipulating everyone and had his thumbs in a lot of pies.