Spoilers Why was Luke so amazed of the size of Mos Eisley in ANH?

[Unimatrix Q]

Anchorhead also seems to be quite large for a settlement on Tatooine and has quite likely approximately at least the same size as Mos Eisley, from what we've seen in the first part of Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi.

https://www.projektstarwars.de/attachments/upload_2022-5-29_14-4-7-png.30580/

 

[fireproof78]

Anchorhead also seems to be quite large for a settlement on Tatooine and has quite likely approximately at least the same size as Mos Eisley, from what we've seen in the first part of Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi.

https://www.projektstarwars.de/attachments/upload_2022-5-29_14-4-7-png.30580/

More traffic. And Imperials.

 

[Tuskin38]

Your link doesn't work. It redirects to anti-hotlinking image.

 

[Reverend]

Mos Eisley is orders of magnitude larger, busier, noisier, and more chaotic than Anchorhead.
Besides it really wasn't the city that left him gobsmacked, it was the culture shock from walking into the cantina.

One subtle detail I noticed was the relative paucity of non-humans in Anchorhead. Clearly the spaceports are more diverse than the rural townships.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Your link doesn't work. It redirects to anti-hotlinking image.

My bad. Here's a working link:

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/.../images-optimised/obi-wan-kenobi1x01_0951.jpg

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Mos Eisley is orders of magnitude larger, busier, noisier, and more chaotic than Anchorhead.
Besides it really wasn't the city that left him gobsmacked, it was the culture shock from walking into the cantina.

One subtle detail I noticed was the relative paucity of non-humans in Anchorhead. Clearly the spaceports are more diverse than the rural townships.

Yes. Could be the culture shock

But Anchorhead looks to be around the same size of Mos Eisley or Mos Espa, from what we see when Obi leaves the town.

 

[Reverend]

Yes. Could be the culture shock

But Anchorhead looks to be around the same size of Mos Eisley or Mos Espa, from what we see when Obi leaves the town.

It's really not. I mean look at it; you can see both edges of the town in one frame. I'd say about 1km across, maybe a few thousand people tops (not counting traders and travellers.) That's a sleepy little market town compared to Mos Eisley, much less the horizon stretching sprawl of Mos Espa.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But Anchorhead looks to be around the same size of Mos Eisley or Mos Espa, from what we see when Obi leaves the town.

What? No. You can see the full extent of the town in the picture. The tower dominates the skyline of the whole town.

 

[Tuskin38]

Did I miss dialogue in the episode that called that town Anchorhead?

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Did I miss dialogue in the episode that called that town Anchorhead?

Yep. The Jawa confirmed it, when he talked with Ben.

 

[fireproof78]

My bad. Here's a working link:

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/.../images-optimised/obi-wan-kenobi1x01_0951.jpg

Does not look as big as Mos Eisley.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

It's really not. I mean look at it; you can see both edges of the town in one frame. I'd say about 1km across, maybe a few thousand people tops (not counting traders and travellers.) That's a sleepy little market town compared to Mos Eisley, much less the horizon stretching sprawl of Mos Espa.

What? No. You can see the full extent of the town in the picture. The tower dominates the skyline of the whole town.

Does not look as big as Mos Eisley.

Thinking a bit more about it, maybe you're right. But i must say that i always imagined Anchorhead to be way smaller. Just a small hamlet, not a town of this size.

 

[Reverend]

Thinking a bit more about it, maybe you're right. But i must say that i always imagined Anchorhead to be way smaller. Just a small hamlet, not a town of this size.

I mean it was always supposed to be big enough that it had a power station on the *outskirts*, and streets plural (as per the script.) Also as Luke said, it's a place where you can catch a transport to Mos Eisley, you know, like the one we saw Ben use to and from the very stinky worksite.

 

[fireproof78]

Thinking a bit more about it, maybe you're right. But i must say that i always imagined Anchorhead to be way smaller. Just a small hamlet, not a town of this size.

So it's not conforming to your expectations?

 

[Unimatrix Q]

So it's not conforming to your expectations?

I'm glad we finally got to see it, same as with Alderaan getting a lot of screentime. But i'm not sure if the way Anchorhead was depicted fits with Lucas intention, when we first saw Mos Eisley in ANH.

At least with what he intended for Mos Eisley to be like, before he thought about changing things for the SE.

 

[fireproof78]

I'm glad we finally got to see it, same as with Alderaan getting a lot of screentime. But i'm not sure if the way Anchorhead was depicted fits with Lucas intention, when we first saw Mos Eisley in ANH.

At least with what he intended for Mos Eisley to be like, before he thought about changing things for the SE.

We won't ever see original Star Wars intent.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

We won't ever see original Star Wars intent.

Actually that's pretty much surprising, considering that Disney has shown to prefer the tone of the (original version of the) OT in the new shows, especially with the heavy use of Ralph McQuarrie's matte paintings and the way the ST, Star Wars Rebels, The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett were made and depicted things.

 

[fireproof78]

Actually that's pretty much surprising, considering that Disney has shown to prefer the tone of the (original version of the) OT in the new shows, especially with the heavy use of Ralph McQuarrie's matte paintings and the way the ST, Star Wars Rebels, The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett were made and depicted things.

Tone of the OT is not the same as tone of the original Star Wars.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Tone of the OT is not the same as tone of the original Star Wars.

Yes, of course every episode has a tone of its own. But on the other side i think we can also say that every trilogy has a tone of its own.

Where do you see the differences between the tone of the original Star Wars and the completed OT?

 

[fireproof78]

Yes, of course every episode has a tone of its own. But on the other side i think we can also say that every trilogy has a tone of its own.

Where do you see the differences between the tone of the original Star Wars and the completed OT?

I think the biggest difference is how big the world is for what it becomes. STAR WARS (the original) was a film that hinted at a larger world but didn't really go fully in to it. It was a surface level fun adventure film with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Tatooine was the backwater city, or hamlet, with the larger galaxy far away. By the end of the film we really have a very small sense of the larger picture.

After Empire Strikes Back the picture becomes much larger, a lot more dangerous, and a lot more important. Once Empire happened the story bloomed in to an epic fantasy world, like the Lord of the Rings from the Hobbit. It could not become smaller.