Just one of the ways Star Wars ripped off Dune…
Well it is happening a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and all politics is local.
I’d like to point out one error. Luke did not kill the Emperor, Vader did.
Two errors, given that Luke doesn’t kill Vader either.
Okay but how about we stop killing Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru as well as watching for the signs of the monsters we make?
Problem solved?
I always thought the TSA was modeled after those crack marksmen and security gurus, the Imperial Stormtroopers.
To be fair, mashing together multiple sources frequently ends up with treasured classics. Star Wars is Dune meets Kurosawa, Star Craft is Warhammer 40K meets Starship Troopers, etc.
Kurosawa is way too deliberate, pensive, paced, and artful to be compared to Star Wars! I just… Roshomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo… Even though all my friends and family think Kurosawa is a sleep aid, I will never tire of those films (or of imposing/sharing them with others). Really though, I’ve heard the SC/WH40K comparison but never SW/Kurosawa. Do you think it’s common, or do you take credit for the heresy?
The most interesting abut this – to me – is to flip it around to get a bit of a window into the mindset of real Jihadis; the way n which they can envision what we see as horrific cruelty, instead, as a heroic personal quest against a monolithic universal evil. The strength of that narrative outweighs the promise of capitalism.
Yeah, but Luke was the proximate and necessary cause of their deaths. Technically the Luke subplot wasn’t needed because Vader and the Emperor would have died when the Death Star blew up, but in the romantic world of Lucas only Great Men can kill other Great Men. For the sake of the mythos Luke had to be there and had to bring about both of their deaths because you can’t have those two killed by the near-nobodies Lando and Wedge.
That is, of course, if you accept the idea that Force users such as the Emperor can have no influence on the outcome of a large scale conflict.
There is also the question as to whether the Emperor would have come at a stage when the Death Star was nowhere near completion (so much for “supervising the last stage in person”, at least a third was missing) if it were not for the wish to convert Luke.
In other word, such analysis (and the analogy originally made, by the way) have a quite important shortcoming: they fail to take the in-universe reality of the Force into account.
Don’t forget Nien Nunb!
A new convert in the making…
Although the Force appears to actually work in the Star Wars universe. Skeptics who mock the “sorcerous ways” of Jedi (or fallen Jedi like Vader), get choked by the mystical power itself. That makes it different from religious warriors in our universe where rather than powers from nonexistent gods, the warriors have to use non-mystical guns and bombs for their violence.
Yeah in my bfi copy of the hidden fortress there is even an interview with George Lucas about the films influence on him
The Jedi weren’t a religious order. The Force isn’t a religion. It’s just learning to harness a natural power. It’s more like a Martial Arts system with a stringent rule/philosophy system.
One thing I explored in my RPG and wish they explored more in the SW Universe is Force using groups that WEREN’T Jedi or Sith. They may be good or evil or even neutral. I know there have been a few groups shown en the EU, like the Sith Witches. I imagine there are other groups I am not aware of, but the concept is rich for adventures in a giant Galaxy.
Supposedly the Emperor employed other Force users and Force sensitive people as agents and the Royal Guards. In the RPG game and other games I have played, Han Solo is Force sensitive, meaning he may not consciously harness the power of the Force, but has some natural attunement that helps him be a bitter pilot or marksman.
I could imagine total pacifist groups who just meditate all day, who one day wish to just basically become one with the Force (like a Buddhist Nirvana). Others who perfect fighting forms OTHER than light sabers or using them in combination with other weapons. Personally, I’d have a blaster and a light saber. Some could be back water dojos where you have a teacher teaching other wash outs like an over the top karate instructor wanna-be.
