I HATE EWOKS

[GLURP]

Thanks to EWOKS (and a number of other issues) Return of the Jedi is largely considered to be the least successful film in the original Star Wars trilogy.
To be fair there are other glaring problems with the narrative and composition of ROTJ.

1. EWOKS (every scene with EWOKS is cringe). The truth is if Emperor Palpatine had such amazing oracular abilities he would have foreseen the EWOKS as the threat they became and would have had them eradicated from Endor before they built the shield generator facility in the first place.

2. Over reliance on juvenile or slapstick humor.

3. Han Solo behaves as if he's suffered brain damage due to his being frozen in carbonite.

4. The threat posed by the Empire's forces, especially Storm Troopers, is nearly non existent due to their baffling levels of incompetence that rise to the level of farce.

5. Obi-wan Kenobi's explanation for Darth Vader being revealed as Luke's father in the previous film is a major issue. The "certain point of view" excuse is lazy, confusing and unconvincing. Obviously this was a ham-fisted attempt to retcon Obi-wan Kenobi's dialog presented in A NEW HOPE that was based on the fact that at the time Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were two separate people and one had supposedly straight up killed the other, which is impossible if they are the same person.

[thomasallencummins]

I hate EWOKS.

I realize GL was simultaneously trying to make some kind of point about primitive societies defeating technologically superior adversaries and also giving toddlers a cute, furry character to relate to in his story but both motivations fall short of making much sense IMHO.

[Zombie of the CAD.]

Darth Vader did indeed kill Anakin Skywalker (in the spiritual sense) when Anakin succumbed to the dark side. That's what I took from it when I watched it for the first time as a kid.

[GLURP]

Aug 31, 2022 21:46:01 GMT -5 Zombie of the CAD. said:

Darth Vader did indeed kill Anakin Skywalker (in the spiritual sense) when Anakin succumbed to the dark side. That's what I took from it when I watched it for the first time as a kid.

That's exactly what the film makers intended so it makes perfect sense you'd feel that way. Also, exploring that dynamic further in the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi mini series helped reinforce that idea.

However anyone that is old enough to have watched Star Wars the very first time in 1977 would probably call BS given the way it was originally presented, without any other context. It doesn't help that George Lucas definitely wrote the original screenplay for what would become "A New Hope" with Anakin and Darth Vader as separate characters.
Its all a matter of reception and perception.

Obi-Wan didn't say something like "Your father was consumed by the dark side of the force and he ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader, destroying the man I once knew." No he literally said “A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.” That explanation, the way it's phrased, doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation. IMHO.

The truth is there's nothing at all wrong with Darth Vader and Anakin being the same person. I would argue that the explanation given in ROJ could have been framed in a way that made more sense. Obi-Wan spoke very directly and plainly to Luke in just about every other conversation. For Obi-Wan to explain what happened to Luke's father in the first film in such a strange and cryptic manner makes Obi-Wan seem like he's being deliberately evasive to downright dishonest to some degree. I never liked that.

[thomasallencummins]

Aug 31, 2022 6:27:01 GMT -5 GLURP said:

if Emperor Palpatine had such amazing oracular abilities he would have foreseen the EWOKS as the threat they became and would have had them eradicated from Endor before they built the shield generator facility in the first place.

This makes sense

[GLURP]

Speaking of the shield generator, if "It's a Trap!" as Admiral Akbar exclaims, then why wouldn't the actual Death Star be able to generate its own shield with the one on the surface of Endor being a redundant system or just a decoy? Palpatine was an idiot. Or more accurately George Lucas wrote him as an idiot. :-)
I know, I know. It was Palpatine's overconfidence that caused his downfall. Or so it would seem.