On the Internet, Star Wars geeks debate endlessly over the finer points of the Lucas storyline, often invoking the vagaries of The Force to explain the unexplainable. Here is an arbitrary Top 10 list of plot turn peculiarities that, if nothing else, can generate healthy debate among the uber-fans:
-Obi-Wan Kenobi’s age. The Jedi master goes from young action hero as played by Ewan McGregor to the distinctly elderly Old Ben Kenobi that young Luke meets at the outset of A New Hope. Alec Guinness was 63 at the time and Luke goes from birth to just a teenager between the two films.
-Forgetting the robots. Conveniently, R2-D2 and C-3PO have their memories wiped at the end of Revenge of the Sith. But isn’t it curious that Darth Vader doesn’t seem to notice Threepio, especially since as the child Anakin, he personally built the fussy golden robot? And when we meet Kenobi in the original film, he looks at R2 and declares: “I don’t seem to remember ever owning a droid.” This, though they had plenty of adventures together.
-Luke and Leia discuss their real mother in Return of the Jedi. Luke cannot remember her but Leia says that she died when Leia was very young (Duh! Like at birth!) and that all she remembers are images, feelings. “She was very beautiful, kind, but sad.” Hmm, must be The Force within her that allows such memories for a newborn.
-It was common knowledge that Obi-Wan would be no match for his former padewan Anakin in a light sabre duel and yet he manages to nearly finish the future Darth Vader off in their climactic face-off in Revenge of the Sith, leaving him sans face and legs and one arm.
-In the original trilogy, Darth Vader reveals to Luke that he is Luke’s fatherand invites the lad to join him in ruling the galaxy. Fine, but even at the end of Sith, Anakin makes the same offer to Padme, to join him as his queen when he overthrows the Emperor. But he has just converted to the dark side and it seems awfully premature for Anakin to be having such dreams of power when he supposedly is still so loyal to Palpatine.
-Didn’t the Jedi give up rather easily? Despite their 1,000-year code of honour, at the end of Sith they scatter to the far reaches of the galaxy in exile – Yoda on the swamp planet Dagobah and Obi-Wan on Tattooine – and take nearly 20 years before they are lured back into action by young Luke Skywalker. Some knights.
-The biggest credibility gap between the two trilogies will undoubtedly be the plummet in film technology between episodes III and IV. Obviously there is also a budget gap since Lucas shot the first film on a relative shoestring. Admittedly when the saga opened in 1977 the galaxy was in a depression and everything was rusted and clunky. But check out R2-D2 in the original and how cheesy this hand-painted tin can looks compared to the slick piece of technology he ended up as in the prequels.
-In Sith, Natalie Portman’s Padme Amidala briefly sports the much-mocked cinnamon-bun hairstyle first worn by Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie. Like mother, like daughter, perhaps, but everyone knows that, even a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, no woman would ever wear a 20-year-old hairdo.
-It’s interesting that despite the interstellar sophistication of the Star Wars era, obstetrics is still so primitive. Padme has no idea she is carrying twins until they are born. And Bail Organa agrees to adopt Leia because he and his Queen are unable to conceive themselves.
