My favorite Sci Fi book author rips into Star Wars (B5 mention_)

[Andrew_Swallow]

Africa is full of heads of state who come to power as (apparently) good people and then turn evil - death squads, stealing all the countries money and other immoral behaviour. Just tell the story of a couple of them set in the future.

[JohnFourtyTwo]

I think Catherine Tramel said it best in Basic Instinct when she was explaining writing/lieing to Nick. She said something about suspension of disbelief. It has to be believable or the readers won't believe it either.

[Hal_10000]

Well

I think what frustrates a lot of people about the prequels is that they had a great movie within them. And all we got was a good movie. Slice a lot of the politics out (they aren't suited to the crude narrative of Star Wars); slice out the distracting family reunions; have the conflicts more direct and self-contained within each film so you can focus more on Annakin's progression to the dark side -- his inability to control his phenomenal powers slowly corrupting him until all he can see is power. Make him into a Michael Corleone type figure, who is slowly but thoroughly corrupted by power until he cares for nothing else -- even to the point of killing those he should love. A character like that is still be sympathetic in some ways. By trying to force our sympathy, Lucas overplayed his hand.

[moreorless]

While the prequels are to say the least childish and lacking, I would have to say that George Lucas’s biggest mistake was numbering the episodes for the series… Had he just named the episodes (“A New Hope”, The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”) the prequels could have been more flexible in its delivery and conclusion to an “A New Hope” i.e. it could have taken him a total of 4 or 5 movies to get to “A New Hope” and show how evil Darth Vader have become. As it stands right now it would have been great if they showed Darth Vader hunting and fighting Jedi’s with a few escaping to fight another episode… But maybe that is what they intend to do with the TV version of the series in the future… Only thing is Darth Vader would have to be a better at fear tactics then what was already established in episode 3. 20 years is a long time for Darth Vader to get from Whiny emotional Jedi to a dreaded feared Lord Sith. I just hope the TV show does justice... ?

From what I'v heard the TV show will focus on the minor characters so I doubt we'll get to see much of Darth.

As I said I thought the original trilogy gave as much background info as was needed so I was hoping the prequals came up with a good story of their own. I remember reading an idea someone came up with that would IMHO have worked much better than the weak love plot we got. Introduce Anakin as a Han Soloesque cocky hero in part one and have him save the day with Obi Wan as Luke did in the original, then in the second film have his arrogance cause the death of another character. He won't take responibility for it and that pushes him towards the darkside and agenst the Jedi leading to him joining the emporer and confrontation with Obi Wan in the third film.

What we ended up seeing was Anakin pretty much forced into the darkside then suddenly switching from emo kid to brutal child killer with little buildup.

[rallytbk]

The smaller clichÚÆsà the series biggest problem was that it couldnÆt let go of the originals. Far too many characters and plot points existed only to reach the situation we saw at in Episode 4à

While the prequels are to say the least childish and lacking, I would have to say that George LucasÆs biggest mistake was numbering the episodes for the seriesà Had he just named the episodes (ôA New Hopeö, The Empire Strikes Backö and ôReturn of the Jediö) the prequels could have been more flexible in its delivery and conclusion to an ôA New Hopeö i.e. it could have taken him a total of 4 or 5 movies to get to ôA New Hopeö and show how evil Darth Vader have become. As it stands right now it would have been great if they showed Darth Vader hunting and fighting JediÆs with a few escaping to fight another episodeà But maybe that is what they intend to do with the TV version of the series in the futureà Only thing is Darth Vader would have to be a better at fear tactics then what was already established in episode 3. 20 years is a long time for Darth Vader to get from Whiny emotional Jedi to a dreaded feared Lord Sith. I just hope the TV show does justice...

"He is too old to train to be a Jedi." -- Uh, Yoda? You say 6 is too old, but Luke Skywalker will be a doable fixer-upper at 20? When do you recruit novices -- ripping them from the breast, like the Psi Corps in "Babylon 5"? Does the Jedi Way require complete denial of normal childhood? An odd message for a kid flick!

I have always taken that comment to mean both characters had too may worldly distractionsà in AnakinÆs case, his disappointments.
In LukeÆs case, his reasoning. It may have been worth the Jedi Order to take children at birth or shortly after to avoid limiting the childÆs mental ability with negative thoughtsà You wouldnÆt want a Jedi with phobias would ya? Yoda to Luke has always been ôAlways with you it is impossibleö thatÆs because Luke mentally limited himself to believe that (magic) is not possible. Just my 2cents.

I always considered the Special Editions to be his practice run on making sh*t.

Thankfully we have the originals on DVD, my teenage daughter does notice the darker element to Darth Vader and the character flow in the original series. The Special Editions and the prequels tone down the intensity of the action and the moodà What can anybody do?

[Dr Maturin]

I always considered the Special Editions to be his practice run on making shit.

[moreorless]

Although that has zero to do with the prequel trilogy ...

The "prequal" Lucas made the changes though and I suspect many of them were to test out CGI for the new films.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Not to mention making Han less cool by making Greedo shoot first... *sigh*

Although that has zero to do with the prequel trilogy ...

[I love Lyta]

It's amazing, he actually managed to make Darth Vader un-cool.

Not to mention making Han less cool by making Greedo shoot first... *sigh*

[rallytbk]

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

Star Wars 3 Redux, funny stuff

Lucas managed to take one of the greatest screen villains of all time, Darth Vader, and turn him into a whiny emo bitch. It's amazing, he actually managed to make Darth Vader un-cool.

Totally agree

[moreorless]

What focus there was did them no favors. Lucas managed to take one of the greatest screen villains of all time, Darth Vader, and turn him into a whiny emo bitch. It's amazing, he actually managed to make Darth Vader un-cool.

Big props to Robot Chicken & Seth McFarlane for partly lampooning what a big emo bitch Vader became in this brief skit.

Indeed, although I'd say that was partly because Lucas only seemed interested in constantly nudging the audience with not very thiney veiled hints at his turn rather than actually making an interesting character. If he'd actually been a character the audience cared about then perhaps his fall would have had more of an impact.

[Dr Maturin]

Was he asking a rhetorical question there? Because that actually is a plot point that has been covered before in the Star Wars expanded universe. Some cultures in the Old Republic hated the Jedi because they would take young children and raise them, rather than letting them grow up with their own people / parents.

Check the date on the article. Nothing was known about Jedi recruiting techniques before Episode I (or its novelization, which came out first).

[Karachi Vyce]

Anakin and Obi Wan's characters should have been the focus thoughout IMHO not all the political mumbo jumbo which really could have been gotten across in a few lines anyway.

What focus there was did them no favors. Lucas managed to take one of the greatest screen villains of all time, Darth Vader, and turn him into a whiny emo bitch. It's amazing, he actually managed to make Darth Vader un-cool.

Big props to Robot Chicken & Seth McFarlane for partly lampooning what a big emo bitch Vader became in this brief skit.

[Karachi Vyce]

Was he asking a rhetorical question there? Because that actually is a plot point that has been covered before in the Star Wars expanded universe. Some cultures in the Old Republic hated the Jedi because they would take young children and raise them, rather than letting them grow up with their own people / parents.

[Phil Harmonic]

Nothing to do with B5, moving it to Off Topic.

Well it does what I said. He mentions the Psi Corp, thoguht it was interesting he's seen the series.

"He is too old to train to be a Jedi." -- Uh, Yoda? You say 6 is too old, but Luke Skywalker will be a doable fixer-upper at 20? When do you recruit novices -- ripping them from the breast, like the Psi Corps in "Babylon 5"? Does the Jedi Way require complete denial of normal childhood? An odd message for a kid flick!