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== General ==
* Who is the biggest hero of the Original Trilogy? Is it Luke? Han? Ben Kenobi? Leia? R2-D2? No, it is the Imperial officer who says not to shoot the escape pod containing Threepio and Artoo at the beginning of ''A New Hope''. Had they shot down the pod, just to be sure, Artoo and Threepio would never have reached Tatooine, they would never have found their way to Luke and he would still be stuck as a farmboy in Tatooine, the special message would never have reached Luke or Ben Kenobi and as such Princess Leia would never have been rescued and the Rebels would never have the plans to destroy the Death Star, Han Solo would never have been hired by Ben and never subsequently joined the Rebellion, and, further down the line, Luke would have never discovered his destiny, trained with Yoda, found out that Leia (whom he never woul've met) was his sister and that Vader (whom he never would've met either) was his father and so on. If not for that Imperial Officer, the events of the entire Original Trilogy and the Expanded Universe beyond that would never have happened at all.
** From that perspective, however, Leia's the biggest hero. The officer would have shot it down if he had known it contained occupants; he was duped. So Leia's the hero for ''knowing'' that she could trick the Imperials by firing off empty escape pods at random, then hiding the all-important droids in one of them.
*** From this perspective you can thank Obi Wan for all this, since he allowed the Organa family to adopt Leia and no doubt raise her into the tough-as-nails princess she is.
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** For what it's worth, though, even in the framework of the movies, the pod being shot down, destroying R2 and 3PO would still not necessarily imply Luke remaining a farm boy; for all we know, Obi-Wan could have decided to train Luke as a Jedi otherwise. Let's just leave it at that... - neoYTPism
*** Or the Force could have something to do with it.
** Hello, this is the Troper who started all of it - after reading through the comments, I realised that the pod not getting shot down is one of many crossroads, turning points and pivots in the whole Star Wars plot. There are several others sprinkled across the films. It's a little like with alternate-history fiction - there's a "divergence point" where things take a different turn. If the pod was shot down, things would have been affected - some things could have continued to progress as they do - but it's not the end of the galaxy, so to speak.
*** One more word on the pod not getting shot down: This troper always took it to be along the same lines as Vader wanting the prisoners alive: If they just blew it up, they would never know for sure what might or might not be concealed in it. By leaving the escape pods intact and then collecting them, they could see exactly what information the rebels had collected.
** In a ''New Hope'' Luke explicitly says he wants to join the Imperial Storm Troopers, so the droids are shot down, he becomes a storm trooper, The Emporor and/or Vader detect the "force is strong in this one." and well...
** Well not exactly. He says he wants to go off to the academy, not because he ''wants'' to be a storm trooper, but because it's his only ticket off Tatooine. He later says he doesn't like the Empire either.
** Still the point still stands, had the droids been shot down, Luke would have wound up a Stormtrooper, which puts him in the sights of th Sith, would he become Sith Lord Skywalker, be killed, or realize his destiny still?
*** He wouldn't necessarily have become a stormtrooper. After all, Obi-Wan's still around, presumably keeping a moderately close watch on him, and Obi-Wan definitely knows that it would be a Bad Idea to have Luke go off to Imperial Academy.
*** All four of the above Tropers are wrong. Luke wouldn't become a Stormtrooper, he'd be a PILOT (the Academy in question, to which Luke's friend Biggs went as well, training TIE pilots and all. what a ridiculous idea, I know)
*** Of course, even ''Han'' went to the Academy and later ended up doing other things. If Luke never ran into Vader or the Emperor (and it's a large Empire, with a very large military), they quite possibly might have never run into him before he found a reason and opportunity to defect or end his term of service. And of course, there is still that old wildcard, Obi-Wan.
**** There's no way he could ''not'' draw the attention of Vader or The Emperor, though. At some point, either word would reach them about a "Skywalker" from Tatooine, or they would sense a disturbance in The Force, leading them to him.
*** Actually Luke said he wanted to join "the academy", not necessarily become a stormtrooper. This troper finds it much more likely for Luke to wind up an Imperial pilot. Or at least start down that track before the name Skywalker becomes well known enough to get someone's attention upstairs...
**** Isn't Luke a little short to be a Stormtrooper?
**** The radio broadcast, which included cut scenes with Biggs, makes it clear the "Imperial Space Academy" trains pilots for both military and civilian purposes. Biggs had been assigned to a civilian freighter from which he was planning to jump ship.
* The Imperials fire green lasers, and the Rebels fire Red. Green electromagnetic waves have a higher frequency than red waves, and so have more energy. Therefore, as expected, the Imperials have superior weapons.
* Not sure if it was intended from the beginning, but it makes sense after Episode V {{spoiler|Vader is Dutch for father}}.
* [[Fridge Logic]], as Jon Stewart pointed out on [[The Daily Show]]: In the January 5, 2010 episode, George Lucas was the guest on the show. After Jon introduced him, he started bombarding George with questions as to how Darth Vader and Palpatine sensed no disturbance in The Force when Leia was brought to Alderaan by her adoptive father.
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** Break the blockade.
*** As a kid, I always thought Maul was the literal PHANTOM (other-worldly demon creature) Menace, which is actually another testament to the brilliant multiple-meaning of the title.
** I always thought it was referring to Anakin Skywalker. In hindsight this really has 2 aspects to it 1) the shadow/phantom aspect that Anakin's future would loom over the world of the jedi, and 2) the stain that Anakin Skywalker (played both as a boy and as a wangsty teenager) would leave on the franchise.
* It's quite ingenious when you think about it, and the only thing that made it fail was Qui-Gon sensing with the Force that Padme's life was in danger, and convincing her to flee. As a testament to his political skills, Palpatine managed to still make his plan work by getting her to call for the vote of no-confidence in his stead.-Bass
* When Anakin's stepfather is relating to him the story of his mother's capture in AOTC, he says "30 of us went out there, four of us came back". Randomly-selected to point to how grievous the losses were? Not so: the first attack on the Death Star in ANH has 30 fighters attack the massive space station, of which only four return. What's more, Cleat Lars was wounded, losing one of his four limbs, the means by which humanoids move around...and during the trench run Luke lost one of his four engines, the means by which his fighter moved around.
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*** My uncle described a moment of Fridge Brilliance he had with that same conversation. Palpatine described the perspectives of the Jedi and the Sith; the Jedi are inherently selfless, forsaking personal things to benefit the Republic while the Sith are inherently selfish, "Treachery is the way of the Sith." Yet the Sith learned to control the force to create life and prevent death. The Jedi found a way to achieve immortality for themselves after death. Both are essentially contrary to the philosophical beliefs of the two factions, one discovering a power to help others and one discovering a power to benefit themselves. --[[KJ Mackley]]
*** I was also confused by the contradiction of the ultimate expressions of the Light and Dark sides of the Force. It didn't make sense that the ultimate expression of the Light side was a form of immortality for oneself, while the ultimate expression of the Dark side was a technique to create life and preserve others. Then it occurred to me: the power of the Light side isn't about benefiting yourself; it's about becoming a part of the living Force itself to act as a guide for others. The main reason Force Ghosts exist is to guide the living. It's the ultimate act of selflessness, helping others even from beyond. OTOH, the ultimate power of the Dark side, creating life, represents the complete subjugation of the Force. It grants the Sith power over both life and death, essentially making him/her into a god. The Light is about acceptance and harmony with the Force, becoming part of it, and the Dark is about defying and controlling it. - M84
**** The whole Force Ghost thing, when you put it that way, is fairly reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of Bodhisattvas, people who are virtuous enough to get out of the reincarnation cycle and move on to Nirvana, but choose to stay behind and help others achieve Nirvana, which is a very interesting paralell with all the other Buddhist elements incorporated into Jedi Philosophy. I could be wrong about some of the Buddhism stuff, as I'm remembering it from a class I took four years ago, and I only took the time to use Wikipedia for spell-checking, not fact-checking.
**** That's not supprising given that Lucas originally baised the idea of the force on Taoist philosophy, much of which has been combined with buddhism over the years. some of the parralls can be seen in the light/dark creation/destruction duality (yin and yang). the force ghosts (in taoist philosophy one who lives true to the tao ascends to a higher plane and becomes an immortal) and so on.
**** It even matches older expanded universe materials like the Jedi and Sith codes. The last line of the Jedi code is There is no death, there is the Force; while the Sith Code is The Force shall free me. Jedi accept death and the cycle of life, but join with the force to help others. The Sith create life and master nature, breaking the cycle of life.
* Little worried I'm misusing the phrase, but here goes: Jar Jar Binks. I was indifferent at first, then annoyed, then I watched ''The Phantom Menace'' again three days ago. I realized Jar Jar was not an idiot, nor hyper, nor a total goofball, just a poor, clumsy guy who was always in the wrong way at the wrong time. He was even capable of solemnity, at certain points, even in Episode I. Now, I actually respect Jar Jar as a decent member of the group! And then, in a further bit of Fridge Brilliance, I realized that Lucas probably didn't mean anything by using semi-real accents for certain species! These races likely didn't have Basic as their first language. They're probably taught something else during their childhood. The language shapes the mouth, and gives the accent, and do you expect a writer to make an accent up out of thin air? He's going to borrow from something he's seen! So no offense was meant! -- Lhikan
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** He's in the water in TPM when leading the Jedi to the Gungan city. He's fairly good at swimming there. He also has a magnificent dive.
** The problem with this theory is that his natural habitat isn't water, it's air (remember the Gungan city? Sure it was underwater, but they lived in air). Also, the movie specifically states he was banished from there because he was clumsy.
** My father is not a fan of the PT, but he liked the CG-animation that went into making Jar-Jar. He thought as a interacting being, Jar-Jar absolutely worked.
*** It really did at that: people hate Jar-Jar for being a [[The Scrappy|a scrappy]] klutz used to deliver unfunny comic relief and for the unfortunate implications of his accent, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain that his [[F Xs]] were poor, or that he wasn't convincing when he interacted with the non-CG characters.
** I always took Jar Jar as a metaphor for what the prequels are about. In Phantom Menace he is comedy relief mostly, showing that despite what is going on this is a rather good time, people are happy and able to live. In Attack of the Clones he grows out of it a little, become more responsible, mirroring what is happening in the galaxy. And by Revenge when everything has gone to crap, Jar Jar is no longer comedy relief at all.
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*** Think of them more as sense organs, like ears or eyes. 1 eye or ear allows you to see light/hear sound, 2 allows you to triangulate. Insects have compound eyes, prey animals like rabbits/deer have them either side of their head instead of both up front for near 360 degree vision. Midichlorians allow you to sense the force, the more you have, the closer to compound eyes/360 vision you have.
*** I always interpreted the Force to be the active force representation of the Unified Field Theory - i.e. it is the unified force that governs all physics and movement within the universe - and hence that the Midichlorians just are a conduit to tap into the Force. I mean, technically, if everyone could tap into the Force just through years and years of practice, then Yoda would be literally a god by now (considering he was alive for 800 years) - the potential for use of the Force would be infinite if access to it was not restricted by a physiological imperative while the individual was alive. Once they die of course, we cross full on into Nirvana territory (merging with the Force, becoming one with the universe etc. etc.). I never saw it as [[Doing in the Wizard]], but rather [[Functional Magic|Giving The Wizard A Wand]]... er, [[Metaphorgotten|sorta]]. - 13secondstomidnight
* I juuust realized that the R2 units on X-Wings are supposed to emulate the round observation dome on top of bombers.
* A moment of [[Fridge Brilliance]] for myself was the pre-emptive realization that The Chosen One was always fated to destroy the Jedi Order. Even though the Jedi interpret the legend to fortell the end of the Sith, they are always careful to explicitly state: "The Chosen One will ''bring balance to the force''." At the time of Anakin's arrival, there are a tiny number of Sith and vast numbers of Jedi. Hence, to balance the force Anakin must kill most of the Jedi. By the original Star Wars trilogy we know of only two Sith (Palpatine and Vader) and two remaining Jedi (Obi-Wan and Yoda). -- Pak
** I thought this, too, until I stumbled across something George Lucas says in one of the DVD commentaries. He basically says that the Force is like a living entity, and that the Sith are akin to a cancer or disease, bringing it out of whack. Anakin/Vader fulfills the prophecy by doing away with the Sith, which requires him to sacrifice himself in the process. If a person's health is out of balance (y'know, he's sick), you don't make him sicker to make things fair, right? If you want to see how he phrased it, [http://blogs.starwars.com/moosepoodo/17 here's] a link. -- [[Lone Paladin]]
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*** Personally I've always seen it more as '''Palpatine''' being the imbalance in the Force. I mean, think about it, the Force isn't in balance when Palpatine and Vader die, there's still Luke, who is a Jedi. Going by the view that it's about the Jedi/Sith being in balance, there's simply no evidence that the Force is in balance, because there are more Jedi than Sith at the end of the movies. Plus, as the Star Wars [[EU]] shows us, the Jedi aren't the be all and end all of Force users, thery're just the most famous group. So yeah, Palps is the imbalance, because when he dies, the Force is balanced once more.
** The point I think is that while sure, the Sith were a disease on the living force, ''so were the Old Jedi.'' They had become corrupted and misdirected, ossified, blind, dogmatic and tyrranical. If the Sith are a cancer, then the Old Jedi had become an autoimmune disease. To properly bring balance to the force, ''both'' the Sith and the Old Jedi had to be destroyed, and a new, redeemed Jedi order had to be rebuilt. So Anakin fulfilled the prophecy by destroying both the Old Jedi and the Sith, and fathering Luke and Leia.
** This was my idea on the "Balance" view of things, and it's a bit of an amalgamation of more than a couple of views stated above... I always applied the Taoist/Buddhist basis for the Jedi religion/philosophy rather strictly. Both Yin and Yang are necessary in complement to create balance within the universe, for without one the other cannot be defined - if one is diminished and the other over-reaching, the more heavily weighed side will start to corrupt/decompose in order to bring back the level balance. However, at the time of the Phantom Menace, the Sith - who were pure [[Neutral Evil]] - were only two, while the Jedi were in the hundreds. In essence the "light" side representatives of the force seriously out-weighed the dark side, and because of this, the Jedi order itself had become unstable, aligned with a corrupt government, blinded to the corruption taking place in a society they were sworn to protect, complacent and stagnant after thousands of years of stasis and a lack of growth. In themselves, the Jedi had begun to crumble and distort, deviating from the way they had prescribed for themselves and bound by a system of social and democratic governance that was in itself in decay. When the prophecy said that the Chosen One would bring "balance" back to the force, it didn't say "destroy the evil side so that the light side would reign supreme", it said, literally, bring back ''balance'' - an equal interplay of good and evil that was based on an equality of purpose so one side could define the other. Hence that is ''exactly what Anakin did''. First off, he destroyed the Jedi order, nearly eradicating all Jedi from the face of the universe, and neatly decimating the "good" or light side of the equation, bringing the evil or dark side into prominence, then he did the same with the ''dark'' side as well when it became overbearing and on the point of dominance. He brought both over-reaching weights on both good and evil back down to subliminal balance. Then after he was gone, Luke was left with a galaxy with a healthy representation of uncorrupted good, but still one with strong remnants of a clear and present evil. And that battle between good and evil is fought out and debated over the expanded universe beyond the events of episode 6. In effect, ''Anakin fulfilled the prophecy right down to the letter''. I only wished he could have done it without the excessive angsting that happened in episode III. Hope that makes sense, but that's just my view.
** As an extra note, the novelisation of [[Revenge of the Sith]] includes an interesting dialogue between Obi-Wan and Mace Windu, in which the latter describes the inherent difference between how the Jedi and Sith operate: the Jedi, as Windu puts it, "create light" by always working selflessly for the good of the galaxy, but the Sith don't "create darkness", merely use the darkness which is and always has been there, the [[Humans Are Bastards|Sentient Beings Are Bastards]] factor. Obi-Wan, trying to clarify Windu's meaning, wonders if the Jedi have cast too much light. Later on in the novel, there's a nicely poetic passage explaining how "the brightest light casts the darkest shadow". The extended metaphor suggests that the new Sith were born as a result of the unyielding and immovable Jedi Order, casting too bright a light on the Galaxy, a little darkness being needed to restore order and renew everything. If a system in equilibrium will adjust itself to accommodate a stress applied so it can right itself, then the "Reset Button" theory seems more likely. Anakin's fall to the dark side was a necessary step in bringing balance to the Force -- the excessive light of the Jedi had to be extinguished, briefly replaced by the equally unnatural excessive darkness of the Sith, for the natural balance of light and dark to be reasserted.
* I never liked the Prequel Trilogy, but then I watched them all back to back...AND THEY'RE BRILLIANT! Mostly if you look into the character of Anakin. First the annoying little kid? Even as a child you see the seeds of his turning over to the dark side. He has zero respect for authority, and this comes from him being a slave having to out smart his master. We see this, even in Episode 1, when the kid has the balls to STEAL A STAR FIGHTER AND ATTACK THE DROID CONTROL SHIP! But here's the kicker to me, this distrust of authority seems to actually have more to do with the light side than the dark side. In Episode 2, we see that Anakin is rebellious, but basically good (indeed it may be the Jedi trying to crush this rebellious streak that leads him to the dark side). In Episode 3, we see him openly espousing Crypto-fascist ideas, before submitting himself to the authority of Palpatine. He sticks to this worshipful reverence of Palpatine through out the original trilogy, and his moment of redemption is when he kills Palpatine. Also the way the Prequel Trilogy plays out like a mirror image of the Original is interesting too. In the first episode of the Prequel Trilogy we see a Hopeful world, but with a little bit of darkness hiding in the background, in the first of the Original Trilogy we see a dark world, but with a little bit of hope hiding in the background. By the end of the Prequel Trilogy the darkness basically overwhelms the hope, and by the end of the OT, Hope wins out. -[[Johni Boi]]
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** No, actually it was not stupid, not at all. Think about it. Palpatine's goal is not just to turn Luke to the Dark Side, but to turn Luke to the Dark Side ''as his new apprentice''. If he had said nothing and Luke had gone on to kill Vader in anger, that act would have been an act of ''defiance'' against Palpatine - the slaying of Palpatine's apprentice. Luke might have fallen as a result, but he would have fallen as a ''rival dark Jedi'' to Palpatine, and that would have been no good for Palpatine at all. Even if he was confident that he was powerful enough to dispose of Luke, he loses his apprentice (Vader), and gets no replacement. So he had to interject, to test Luke, to make sure that when Luke kills Vader, it is in response to Palpatine's ''own command'', making the act one of ''obedience'' to Palpatine's will, and symbolic of Luke's submission to Palpatine as his new master. If Luke refuses to fall, then Palpatine could kill Luke, and ''keep'' Vader alive. This way, he gets to retain an apprentice, no matter how Luke chooses. His one mistake was failing to anticipate (or perhaps even conceive of the possibility) that Vader would ever, ever, turn on him.
*** I'm not sure that's totally right either - it wasn't a matter of obedience vs. defiance, because it isn't as if Palpatine is willing Luke to kill Vader in spite of himself or anything like that, and if Luke had done it it STILL would not have been out of any sense of obedience to Palpatine, it would have been purely out of his own anger. What Palpatine was doing was forcing Luke to think about how much stronger and more capable he was once he started giving in to anger. He first made Luke feel as helpless and frustrated as possible, and then he wanted him to feel empowered by his hate. The goal was to have Luke say to himself "he's right, if I act like a passive zen master I don't get what I want and all my friends die. If I act on my feelings I become strong enough to kill Vader. I need to follow this path from now on to get what I want, and I need to learn this path from this old bastard - for now." that would have given Palpatine another powerful servant with the standard Sith "fickle loyalty in exchange for power I needeven though I hate you" arrangement.
**** Even better- If Luke had just killed his father in a momentary rage, at the end of a battle for his life, he might have immediately regretted it. He might have had a "What have I done?" moment, and rejected the dark side right then and there. Even if he didn't, Luke would only have been taking a step towards the dark side, which wouldn't have been enough as Palpatine was right there and it was about to be 'join me or die'. Palpatine needed Luke to consciously decide to give in to his anger so that there would have been no going back. It had to be a choice, not a reaction.
* I finally understands (he thinks) what Yoda was trying to say to Anakin the last time they spoke together: He didn't want Anakin to let go of his ''attachments'', as much as he wanted him to let go of ''his fear'' that stemmed from them. Anakin was blinded by it pretty much since the visions started. He was so focused on avoiding or preventing the danger that he never thought to ''identify'' it, and recognize it when it came. He blindly latched onto the first hand that reached out, and thus damned the galaxy for almost twenty years.
* For the absolute ''longest'' time, I was of the opinion that Anakin only wanted to become a fully-fledged Jedi because he just wanted power. Then I realised that in Episode II, he has recurring dreams about his mother suffering - ''he wanted to save his mother'', and he couldn't get out of his Jedi commitments when still a Padawan. When he goes to save her and fails completely, it starts to break him. In Episode III, he still wants to be a master so he can have more time with Padme and his future children, but the council still don't let him because he's unstable.
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** A comic (linked to in [[Thank the Maker]]) shows Anakin found the structure mostly intact.
** Except the "andr" in ''android'' comes from the Greek word for ''man'', and the "oid" means ''like''. So it would literally mean robots in the [[Star Wars]] universe are so called because of their resemblance to the letters "d" and "r" - brilliance!
* Up until ROTS, this troper used to think Vader's black lenses were [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|just that]]. But as his mask is being lowered, we see the lenses show red and black LCD. Red and black were the two dominant colors of Mustafar, so as Vader, Anakin sees the world looking just like the one which changed him forever. It lends a greater impact to his line "Let me look on you with my own eyes".
** It also looks like fire as we see the mask descending over him, symbolizing Anakin's descent into Hell.--ncfan
* I realized something about the OT: Luke's first and last spoken lines in the OT have to do with choice. In ''ANH'', when we first meet Luke, his Aunt Beru asks him to remind him to tell his Uncle Owen to make sure a translator droid can speak Bocce, to which Luke says "Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him". And towards the end of ''ROTJ'', he says "Father, I won't leave you" as his redeemed father Anakin dies.
* There is one very powerful theme that crosses almost the entire saga and can only be fully understood by putting both trilogies together. In Episode III Obi-Wan suggests that he raises Luke himself while Yoda says no, that he should be raised outside of the Jedi life. This is elaborated more in the novelization, where Yoda believes that he lost the duel with Sidious because he had spent his life trying to hold on to past Jedi tradition while the Sith learned to evolve. In the case of Anakin, the Jedi life was forced upon him and he constantly resented it (taken away from his mother, forbidden from marrying Padme, etc). Because of this, whenever he made a personal choice he was always worried of the backlash. In the case of Luke, when offered the chance to leave Tatooine he told Obi-Wan that he has responsibilities on the farm. Obi-Wan's reply (with a distinct sense of regret) was "You must do what you feel is right." And when Luke approached Yoda, the little guy practically made Luke beg to be trained, to ensure that he wasn't going to go at it half-assed. Because of this, whenever Luke made a personal choice he always seemed to do so with resolve and dedication. And then in the [[Expanded Universe]] Luke's new Jedi Order emphasized the importance of evolution and learning over ancient tradition. The ''[[Star Wars]]'' saga is a message about the dangers of blind tradition and the importance of personal choice. [[George Lucas]] said he wanted to tell his story, and this is what it is. --[[KJ Mackley]]
** And one line that perfectly enhances that theme is in ''[[A New Hope]]''. When Luke is disappointed to learn that Han and Chewie will not stay to help the Rebels fight the Death Star, Leia tells him that "He [Han] has got to follow his own path. No one can choose it for him."
** The Yoda theory is confirmed in the Thrawn Trilogy; when Luke is relflecting on the passing of Obi-Wan's ghost, he claims he is the last of of the Jedi... then he hear's Obi-Wan's voice "Not the last of the old jedi, but the first of the new" --[[Seekerof Alice 09]]
** It also explains the "bring balance to the Force" prophecy quite cleanly. The Sith don't represent balance because they're too self-indulgent and cruel. But the Jedi don't represent balance ''either'', because they're too [[Lawful Stupid]]. Proper balance, therefore, requires that both orders be dismantled, so that another one can rise - and indeed it does. It's less obvious there, but this is also the outcome of the [[Knights of the Old Republic]] series, and helps explain just what Kreia (and possibly Revan) intended.
*** You noticed that too? I figured out a theory recently on what 'balance' could possibly mean to the Force, which seems to be more like the life energy of the entire galaxy: if the Force itself is alive, how could a stagnant, hyper-controlling and totally unchanging Jedi Order possibly be ''good'' for it? In nature, stagnation usually equals death. The Sith philosophy seems like a good alternative in theory, but the way the Dark Side corrupts and perverts life makes it seem more like a cancer - growth for the sake of growth, power for the sake of power. Anakin's entire life was basically forcing the Force to act more dynamically, to encourage healthy development. - [[Oracle Seven]]
* I came to this conclusion last summer when I was big into my conspiracy theory Orwellian "People are Sheep" etc. phase: We're meant to hate Jar Jar. He represents the stupid, uninformed masses who come in and frak up democracy by voting without any real opinion of what's going on. He gets guilted into giving his support to Palpatine because it makes him feel good, just like how so many voters choose the candidate who "feels" like they've got everyone's best interests in mind. Jar Jar's single vote sets us on the path that will kill off the last, lingering vestiges of democracy in the Old Republic. And keep in mind what we've seen him doing in the past. He's a clumsy backwater hick who gets kicked exiled for causing massive chaos with his own clumsiness. Then he gets picked up by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and for the rest of the movie, we can barely make it 20 minutes without some new scene of Jar Jar clumsily making gigantic messes of parts shops or armies. And yet, for some reason, this buffoon is who we trust the entire fate of democracy to. Hmmm....
* George Lucas was inspired by many things in creating Star Wars: the old Buck Rogers serials, Joseph Campbell books on mythology, Japanese Samurai movies like ''The Hidden Fortress'' on so on. It just occurred to me that Lucas may also have been inspired by Medieval tales like the King Arthur legend as well: The union of Anakin is Padme is that of a knight (a Jedi Knight) and a lady (Queen-turned-senator), and Palpatine is in effect an evil sorcerer of sorts. Obi-Wan perhaps played the Merlin role, as did Yoda.
** Lucas has long acknowledged that Joseph Campbell's work on the Arthurian legend inspired a lot in Episode IV. One example you missed; Obi-wan presenting Luke with his father's Light Saber is analogous to Arthur claiming Excalibur (which had been his father's sword).
* I just had a stroke of possible [[Fridge Brilliance]] while reading through these Star Wars Fridge Brilliances. It's an ironic twist that love is what causes Anakin to fall to the [[Dark Side]] (and even more ironic that this leads to him killing his love), while love is what brings him back to the light at the end of the series. Consider this: plenty of times throughout the EU, Vader is shown to loathe himself, and the reason is obvious. ''He killed the only woman he ever loved.'' Hence the annoying [[Big No]] at the end of Revenge of the Sith. This was his own personal hell that he had created for himself: to always remember that he ruined his own life by killing his love. Then, about 21 years later, he sees his son in a position that echoed Padme's hauntingly. Pleading for Anakin to save him while in agony from a Dark Side attack. Luke had tried to turn him back to the Light since they first met in ''Return of the Jedi'', but it isn't until his son is put in that situation that he does. I think that's what did it; not just that his son, the only thing of Padme he had left, was in mortal danger, but he was forcibly reminded of the time he failed her and he couldn't bear to allow it to happen again.
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** But you forget the fans reaction to it that small edit. Pure Hatred towards Christiensen. And just in time for Revenge of the the Sith to come out.
* Another case of [[Fridge Brilliance]], you know how people often complain that Anakin's personality in [[The Phantom Menace]] seemed so contradictory to his original-trilogy personality, and that both personalities seemed contradictory to the personality he had in [[Attack of the Clones]] and [[Revenge of the Sith]]... but then again, [[Truth in Television|adults often ARE quite different as adults than they were as children]], so of course Anakin's going to have different personalities as a child, as a teenager, and as an adult. [[The Phantom Menace]]'s Anakin was a child, so of COURSE he's going to be more sweet and friendly than he was later on. The Anakin of [[Attack of the Clones]] and [[Revenge of the Sith]] was a teenager, so of COURSE he's going to be more whiny and arrogant than he was later or earlier on. The Vader of the original trilogy was an adult, much older than the Anakin of [[Revenge of the Sith]], so of COURSE he's going to be more mature than any other version of Anakin. This is, if not perfectly in line with actual age difference, at least in line with PERCEIVED age differences, and if one is to complain about this, their real complaint is with popular age stereotypes, not [[Star Wars]] movies. - neoYTPism
** What you've said echoes the comments of Kevin Smith, when he was interviewed for the History Channel documentary ''Star Wars: The Legacy''. I think a large part of why a lot of fans felt that the character of Vader was ruined was not so much about the whininess of the character, but the flatness of the actors portraying him.
* In the prequel trilogy, especially in Phantom Menace, much is made of Anakin's great power in the Force and how important he is as the Chosen One. Because of his general visual appeal, James Earl Jones' voice, and the admitted awesome of [[The Reveal]] in Empire, it took me a while to realize this, but... Vader's largely inconsequential throughout the series after blowing up the droids' command station in Phantom Menace. He does nothing of import during Attack of the Clones other than brashly undermining Obi-Wan. In Revenge of the Sith, he kills children, chokes his wife, and gets crippled. In the original trilogy, he's a badass, sure, but we saw him as the ultimate force user for two movies straight, and had no idea there was more to it than telekinesis and hypnosis (the latter of which he never used). Jedi shows the real big bad, and Vader does kill him, but... ultimately, isn't Vader just a visually-impressive Dragon to Palpatine, and for all his purported power, he just throws junk at Luke and force-chokes stuffy Brits who annoy him. Power? What power?
** The power was what Anakin could have been and was supposed to become, but never did. He was going to be the super-end all force user...which was why Palpatine was after him to be his apprentice, and why he put Order 66 in place the moment he had Anakin on his side. He knew that with Anakin as his apprentice, rounding up the Jedi would be no problem...which we see in that he pretty much destroyed the Jedi Temple on his own (which a squad of troopers - well known Jedi bait). Unfortunately, what Palp did not see coming was that Obi-Wan was going to defeat Anakin and reduce him to a (literal)half-man shell of what he once was...and what he was going to be. Obi-Wan was able to destroy Anakin's potential right there on Mustafar. If we accept that the number of midiclorians determines force power...if you lose half your body, you lose half your midiclorians. Every time a Jedi or Sith loses a limb it reduces their power level. Ironically, the Darth Vader of the original trilogy is a crippled and defeated old man in a walking iron lung who is not nearly as powerful as Palp thought he was going to be - but since most of all the other force-users are dead...he is a bad-ass. Vader's reduced capacity might also be why the Rebels were able to survive to cause so much trouble. Perhaps in Palp's original visions, his apprentice, fully-powered Vader, would have been able to sniff them out and destroy them utterly. It is also the reason why Palp was so eager for Luke to kill Vader and become the new Sith apprentice...Luke (and Leia) have that same potential to become just as powerful as Anakin would have. - [[Bad Sintax]]
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** Exactly. Palpatine isn't a racist who holds nonhuman life in contempt; he's a [[Complete Monster]] who holds ''everybody's'' life in contempt, human or otherwise. His favoritism towards humans stems solely from A) the fact he is one, so is better-equipped to appeal to human racists' preferences in a leader than, say, Twilek racists' preferences; and B) the fact that humans happened to be in the best position to become his hate-motivated minions.
** All this is assuming that Palpatine is even his real name and Naboo is even his home planet....
* The human specism, and even racism, particularly on the part of the Empire. For one, it was a clever way to explain why we see so few non-humans on the Death Star, or as extras. Rather than say that they just didn't have the budget to create hundreds of aliens for the purpose of just background characters, the explanation is entirely in universe.
** One line by an Imperial officer in ANH said it all: "Where are you taking this...thing?"(referring to Chewbacca, a Wookie)
** The second layer of brilliance has to do with the story explanation. Yeah, it does connect them to Nazis, but it goes beyond just allegory. It makes perfect sense that humans would be the most specist, since in [[Real Life]], it's pretty much how it is here. How many humans actually view other species as equal? We cage, enslave, kill, skin, eat, and experiment on other species all the time, exploiting and killing non-humans by the billion year after year. If the humans in the Star Wars universe are anything like us, then why would they be any different?
*** Maybe because many of the aliens in Star Wars universe are actually able to reason with others, develop a code of ethics, culture and political system just like us humans? Really, the only difference between humans and aliens in Star Wars is perhaps limited to appearance and natural habilitate. It is much more about racism in real life instead of animal rights. People in Star Wars (both humans and aliens) eat the meat, wear the fur, and experiment on other less evolved species too you know.
** Actually, this is brought up many times in the Expanded Universe (especially ''The Thrawn Trilogy''), where it turns out the Palpatine was really a racist, sexist bastard who hand-picked humans to work in his empire, and was extremely intolerant of women, while deliberately subjugating all non-humans as sub-sentient. Though in the trilogies themselves we never really see ''why'' exactly the Empire is so evil - apart from them destroying a planet, destroying the last vestiges of a democratic system of governance... oh wait - but in the Expanded Universe, we see that Palpatine really was this tyrant who was basically the galaxy's answer to Hitler. The descriptive term [[Jerkass]] doesn't seem to quite cut it.
* think about who the best know force users to have a reverse lightsaber grip were. think about who their master was. the actual style is a reverse grip form of the shien form, which is. according to wookiepedia, basically a defensive form, with a bite.
* For a long time, the idea of "spice mines" seemed to be just a bit of silliness I quietly ignored. Mining spices? How ridiculous can you get? Then I realized that far from being stupid, it's perfectly reasonable. The most common spice in the world is salt, and do we get salt? From mines!
** Except "Spice" is the name of a crystalline narcotic produced from inorganic spiders to catch beings made of energy, not flavorful minerals.
* Yoda's comment to Luke to sacrifice his friends for the ideals they cherish makes more sense when you remember that Yoda could've dispatched Dooku by allowing Anakin and Obi Wan to die. Not only would this have meant the loss of both Palpatine's apprentice and the future Lord Vader, it also would've ended the separatist movement early enough that the Jedi could've afforded more time to investigating the clones' true benefactor.
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** Point of fact: Mace only decided to kill Palpatine ''after'' he carved several Jedi up like a Hibachi chef. The toughest guy he fought, before then, was Kar Vastor, and he was {{spoiler|incarcerated in the Jedi temple, after being charged with crimes against ''civilization''. He nearly destroyed an entire city; he was that dangerous.}} And Mace Windu, the guy who took ''that'' guy down, thinks Palpatine is too dangerous to let live. In addition to that, his strongest Force Talent is [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shatterpoint knowing where to hit things so they break], up to the scale of the entire Clone Wars, and he was looking at the big fat spider in the middle of his web who started it all. ''I'm inclined to believe him''.
* Everybody--and This Troper used to fall into this camp--laughed their collective behinds off when Han Solo stated in ''[[Star Wars]] Episode IV: A New Hope'' that he'd made the Kessel Run "in under twelve parsecs". However, his comment that misrouting the hyperdrive could send one into a supernova or something comparable stuck with him. Eventually, This Troper realized that Han wasn't making up random technobabble--he was stating that his hyperdrive could find more efficient or daring routes!
** That was what this troper thought too, but [[The Cuckoolander Was Right|everyone around her kept calling her names for years]]! I always thought that the incredulous look that Obi-wan gave Han was the "Really, you found a shorter way to fly that route? Seriously, what are you insane?!" type.
** In the Expanded Universe, it's stated that the exact method he used was to fly through something called The Maw. What is The Maw? A giant nebula MADE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BLACK HOLES. Had the calculations been off by as little as three inches, he would be very very dead.
** However Obi-Wan clearly falls into the collective laughter. Seriously, check the look he gives right after the Parsecs line. Though, considering his intense dislike for flying in the prequels, maybe he doesn't know quite as much as the seasoned smuggler?
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** Actually, in Original Trilogy holograms are more colorful then they are in Prequel Trilogy.
* The first character to call Luke a Jedi to his face is Emperor Palpatine. Luke called ''himself'' a Jedi knight on a few occasions, but pretty much every time he was told that no, he wasn't. Even Han accuses Luke of having delusions of grandeur when Chewbacca mentions it to him. Hell, Palpatine practically knights Luke himself, immediately before he gives up on trying to convert him and decides to just kill the insufferable whelp.
* [[The Distressed Watcher]] claims that seeing the Jedi act like bureaucrats in the prequels didn't line up with the way they were described by characters in the original trilogy. Think about it, though... how often in real life do people who view old traditions through rose-tinted glasses know what they're talking about? Perhaps the point very well was to imply that Obi-Wan's fondness for the past was very much like that which some people have for the 1950s in real life?
* The prequels, specifically Episode III, make Vader's redemption even more understandable. The very thing he'd turned to the dark side to save (at least partially) was now being killed right before him. More subtly, watching Luke be electrocuted definitely reminded him of Mace Windu's death and of how he too was screaming for help from the Emperor.
* This is more [[Fridge Horror]], but Vader probably still {{spoiler|doesn't think of the James Earl Jones voice as his own. When he's thinking, he probably still uses the Hayden Christensen voice. Just imagine Hayden Christensen saying "No, I am your father," or "I find your lack faith disturbing," or "You have failed me for the last time." Loses a lot of awesome, doesn't it?}}
* Alternativly the [[James Earl Jones]] voice is a coping method to devorce him from the past ah la [[That Man Is Dead]]
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* The fact that if you do watch the movies in numerical order(Episodes I,II,III,IV,V, and VI), they do get '''better and better'''. Also, the Force, introduced in a biological, scientific way(midichlorians) is given deeper meaning when the more spiritual nature is explained later on. Science becomes "magic".
* Obi-Wan and Vader are supposed to be Luke's evil and good Fathers. We know that. However, this logically makes Yoda his crochety, cranky, selfish, but still wise grandpa. And Palpatine suddenly becomes an abusive patriarch who likes pitting his descendants against each other.
* As many others, I sometimes wondered: why did the Death Star had to wait for Yavin IV to come into range instead of blowing Yavin itself and having a free shot. But then it occured to me: Yavin is a gas giant. It means it is mostly hydrogen. It is also way bigger than Jupiter, judging by view from the base. Had the Death Star blown it off like Alderaan, the shock would cause all the hydrogen to fuse, essentially making Yavin into one '''huge''' nuke. The resulting explosion would be likely orders of magnitude stronger, and would blast the Deast Star (which was sitting directly on top of Yavin and has crappy shields) to bits.
* The prophecy isn't about Anakin. The prophecy doesn't even matter. The dual-trilogy isn't about [[Origin Story|how it all began]], it's not about [[Grand Finale|how it all ends]], it's just the life of one man at this one point in the history of the wars between the Jedi and the Sith.
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**** I realized, about the time of the third movie, when i was depressed utterly with Lucas' lost talent, that he wasn't as terrible as i thought. "Balance to the force" -- how can it be balanced when there are two dark-practitioners and hundreds that follow the light? He manages to balance it on a fundamental, simple level: by bringing the Jedi in line with the Sith, only having a master and an apprentice (Yoda and Obi-Wan) remain. 2=2, thus balanced.
*** This has been brought up before (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's mentioned somewhere on this page already), but that's not what he meant by "balance". It means destroying the Sith because they're, as Palpatine alluded to, unnatural.
** The word 'balance' was poorly chosen. The Force and the Jedi religion are essentially Space Daoism. There is a natural order to things and the ultimate goal of a person's life is to fit himself into harmony with the universe, to find his path (his dao) and walk it. The Sith are out of harmony, they are an unbalancing force. The Jedi seek harmony, balance with the will of the Force. It would have been better if the prophecy said that the Chosen One would bring harmony.
* I realized the title ''The Phantom Menace'' is brilliant. It refers not only to the Sith, who are returning unbeknownst to the Jedi, and also to Anakin! Anakin is, or will be, a great threat to the Jedi, but nobody knows it yet!
** You may be right, though I've always thought it to refer, in all likelihood, to the opening dialogue:
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* After a few ties watching the Yoda vs Palpatine fight scene I saw something, at the very end, just as Yoda manages to deflect the final force attack, you see him reeling back from it, and just before he rebounds and deflects it you can see his expression change, he is PISSED, and it's this surge of anger that gives him the ability to save himself at the last second, and also why he ran immediatly after, it wasn't that he didn't have the power to challenge him, but that he realized he couldn't do so without falling to unleashing the anger at what Palpatine had managed to do, and why no Jedi alive at the time stood a chance, it was just too personal. They needed to wait for a strong force user for who Palpatine's deeds wouldn't be so immediately personal.
** This idea actually reinforced earlier in the same movie, since there WAS a Jedi who managed to overpower Palpatine in combat: Mace Windu, a Jedi that invented his own form of lightsaber combat that feeds off of raw emotion and strays dangerously close to the Dark Side.
*** Mace Windu's fighting style is based on him letting himself enjoy the fight, and using the same principles as the Dark Side...does that mean he [[Pulp Fiction|strikes down his enemies with great vengeance and furious anger]]?
* One of this criticisms I've heard for "Attack of the Clones" was that the final battle between the clone troopers and droids was idiotic - they just lined up and shot at each other. Then I realized that this might actually make sense for two reasons:
** The clone troopers were trained, but who trained the trainers? The Republic apparently hasn't a major war in a thousand years. That's a lot of time for bad ideas to creep into their institutional experience, and good ones to drain out (particularly if most of their ground troop usage was for things like police actions/suppressing riots, where marching in ranks would be a good tactic).
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** Nope. Read the book. Obi Wan knew that to kill him would be to show mercy. "He was not feeling particularly merciful." He wanted Anakin to burn.
** Obi-Wan didn't expect Vader to survive. Vader lost all three of his remaining real limbs and he was on fire. In a book set shortly after Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan is clearly surprised to hear Vader is still alive and kicking. Anakin was also the closest thing Obi-Wan would ever have to a son. He literally couldn't bring himself to strike a killing blow on a man who was essentially his child. --jedimaster91
* I thought Anakin's Force-choking Padme was done perfectly. Everybody knows since Anakin turns to the Dark Side, he'll Force-choke someone for the first time. But who? Obi-Wan? [[The Scrappy|Jar Jar]]? Nope, it was Padme. Anakin's love, and his moral anchor. The only one who was stopping Anakin from completely slipping into darkness. It definitely plays into the perspective that Darth Vader is a damned Anakin Skywalker, and every time we see him choke someone in the OT, he's reliving that tragic moment where he lost his love.
** And illustrating that point of reliving that moment is this scene in ''[[A New Hope]]'':
{{quote|'''Motti:''' [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|Don't try to fighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure the stolen datatapes. Or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fortre-]]<br />
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*** Maybe that's why it made Vader get so chokey.
** Interestingly, Vader's earlier statement was also right: "The ability to destroy planets is insignificant next to the power of the Force". Death Star, for all its power, was essentially taken out by a single force-sensitive fighter.
* Many people find Vader's [[Big No]] in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' to be pure [[Narm]], but it's entirely in character. Despite his [[Moral Event Horizon|horrific actions towards the movie's end]], Anakin is not quite Vader yet. Not as long as he's attached to Padme. I personally think there never was a Darth Plagueis, let alone one who manipulated the Force to extend or create life. I think Palpatine/Sidious was simply stringing Anakin along. He saw Anakin's strong attachment/devotion to her, and expanded his trilogy-long [[Xanatos Gambit]] to take her out. Padme was Anakin's moral hypothenus, if you will. It's only when Anakin loses his dearest supporter that he embraces the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader, and [[That Man Is Dead|declares Anakin Skywalker dead]]. That is, till he sees Luke in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' and ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''.
** [[Word of God]] says you're wrong about Plagueis as well as the creation of life thing (Lucas has explictly stated Anakin was created by Plagueis). But Palpatine was stringing Anakin a long, since as he admits after Anakin turns to the Dark Side that he didn't know the mecanics of Plagueis' powers, just that Palgueis had these capabilities.
* I always thought the Buzz Droid missiles in Revenge of the Sith were stupid and pointlessly inefficient, since a missile would do the job better. Then I realized, they're ''anti-capital ship weapons.'' They're probably designed to break through the hull of large ships and wander through the crawlspaces ripping apart vital electronics and subsystems, causing more damage to a ship than a single explosive torpedo could ever do. This still doesn't explain why the fighter fired them at starfighters instead of their intended target, but at least they have a logical purpose.
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== Other ==
* While watching The Clone Wars movie just now it came to the point where Anakin and Ahsoka are coming out of hyperspace after rescuing Jabba's son and on approach to Tatooine (this is before the space battle with the two magnaguards). Anakin says something to the effect of "Tatooine, I wish I wouldn't have to see this dustball again." Followed by a prompt from Ahsoka asking about what happened and Anakin not wanting to talk about it. It came to me that this interaction is probably the very reason why Anakin never found Luke and Obi-Wan, he never approached Tatooine in the 20 years since ROTS. Now this was something I'd already known, but it's another thing that shows how clever the "Clone Wars" writers can be.
* Mostly an Expanded Universe thing, but there didn't seem to be an appropriate SWEU column in either comics or lit, so I'm posting it here: The worst damage the Sith ever did to the Jedi (I suppose you could argue their near-total extinction at the hands of Sidious, but shut up, I'm trying to make a point here) was the war with Exar Kun. Prior to Exar Kun falling to the Dark Side, the Jedi were a massive, loose coalition of wandering monks and righters-of-wrongs, Jedi Masters would keep in contact with each other and refer apprentices to one another. Masters would train a couple new Knights, whatever suited their personal style, and, on the whole, the Jedi seemed very open-minded and trustworthy (possibly a side-effect of there not being a whole lot of stories set beore TOTJ). But in response to Exar Kun declaring himself the Lord of the Sith and declaring war on the Jedi and the Republic, the Jedi are forced to crystalize into something more akin to the Jedi we see in the Prequels. In fact, reading Tales of the Jedi after the release of the Prequels, keeping in mind the KOTOR games and comics and the other stuff in between, such as Jedi Vs. Sith and the Pre-Prequel stories of their prominent Jedi, you can almost see the Butterfly Effect rippling out from the Jedi getting together to fight Exar Kun, watching them slowly evolve into the impotent, detached order we see euthanized in the Prequels. 4,000 years of your worst enemy gradually evolving into something completely powerless to stop your successors from taking over the Galaxy. Not bad for a snot-nosed punk who just thought his Zoideberg-esque master needed to take off the training wheels a bit sooner.
* I've been watching these movies, reading the books, and playing the video games literally my whole life, and I can't believe that in all that time I hadn't wondered about this much earlier. But it hit me when I was playing ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' and was introduced to the Wookiee named Zaalbar. If you're a Wookiee and you want to introduce yourself to a human, your ''name'' ought to sound the same in Basic as it does in Shyriiwook, right? So when somebody asks Chewbacca what his name is, and he says "Urf-rawr-growl," people are going to call him "Urf-rawr-growl," right? For people to call Chewbacca or Zaalbar "Chewbacca" and "Zaalbar", the Wookiee would need to be able to make the sounds that make up his name...right? That's how it works with other languages in the SW universe; despite speaking his own language, Greedo still distinctly says "Solo" and "Jabba" in ''[[A New Hope]]''.
** It could be that most races aren't capable of making the sounds Wookies use to name themselves, so they adopt names in Basic for communicating with others. Greedo speaks a language with sounds humans can produce, so he can keep his old name; Chewbacca doesn't seem to. (Many immigrants who move to English-speaking countries in the real world change their name for this reason, if their language is hard to pronounce in the local tongue.)
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* Not only was it [[What an Idiot!|downright stupid]] for the Jedi to make use of the clone army without question, it was also incredibly immoral: They're essentially ''an army of brainwashed slaves'', since it's not like the clone troopers exactly got a choice about joining. Extra material points out the fact that many clones could prove mentally unstable and their accelerated development included a shortened lifespan. So essentially, the Jedi condone the creation of ''genetically-modified child soldiers''. Not to mention the fact that they're ''still'' on guard duty and quite possibly have been for hundreds of years
** In the EU, there are clones who do end up deserting, however their lives aren't exactly easy after that. Palpatine's method for dealing with deserters? Send Clone assassin squads after them. Or worse yet, what happens to clones who are injured to the point that they can survive, but never be fit for duty again? The only way you could officially leave the army was in a body bag.
*** Except for the fact that they didn't quite condone it. Get Traviss's preaching out of your head, what other choice did they have? It was either the clones or the few poorly trained and equipped security forces they had. Besides, they had no input into the creation of this army, it was literally a last-minute reveal. Is it still bad to use slave armies? yes it is, but it would kind of be a kick in the nuts to just cast them aside right after they deployed.
* Stop and consider for a brief moment the fact that nobody bothered to tell Luke was Vader's son. Essentially, Obi-Wan and Yoda had set up Luke to kill his father without ever knowing the truth. He might have even gone further down the Oedipus Rex path if he'd married Leia!
* In the original trilogy, Palpatine and Vader seem perfectly aware of the force, and Vader is shown mentioning it to other Imperial officers in [[A New Hope]], but they seem to perceive it as just another religion. However, they (or at least some of them) also seem to be aware that the Jedi were mostly wiped out, as implied by one of Tarkin's conversations with Vader, in which Tarkin says ''"you, my friend, are all that is left of their religion."'' Now think about this in light of the prequel trilogy. ''"Order 66"'' was already [[Moral Event Horizon|heinous]], but we know from the context that it was at least somewhat pragmatic; Palpatine wiped out the Jedi because they were the only rivals to himself and Vader in knowledge of the force. Tarkin, however, not believing in the Force, is probably unaware that this was the reason. Now think about what he said once more. ''"All that is left of their religion."'' In other words, he [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|condones having people rounded up and killed for their religious beliefs]]. Sure, we know he was [[Complete Monster|bad news]] from the start, [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|but still]]...
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* Why do clone troopers have New Zealand accents, apart from the obvious? If we're going by [[Translation Convention]], they're the Star Wars equivalent of New Zealanders- and when [[Magnificent Bastard|Erwin Rommel]] says he could take and hold hell with New Zealanders, they're tough little buggers.
* ''Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.'' Obi-wan should know- he probably ''used to lead them.'' Alec Guinness' monotone delivery [[My God, What Have I Done?|now seems more like a tortured man trying hard not to relive the days he led the stormtroopers and their predecessors...]]
** Also doubles as [[Fridge Brilliance]] : The actual Stormtroopers [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|have long ceased to be so precise]], but of course Obi-Wan remembers them differently...
* The Expanded Universe tells us that the main Imperial Pilot Academy (or whatever it was called) was located on Alderaan. Which means that when Death Star blew it up, they also killed all the would-be pilots training there. This takes [[For the Evulz]] of this act to a whole new level - not only was it unnecessary, it was also extremely counterproductive and may explain why good pilots were hard to find for the Empire...
* Ewoks. They seem cute, but barbecue humans and now they have guns and vehicles?
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