DominicCobb said:
SW
Luke doesn’t mourn his aunt and uncle’s death. This is silly to me. We see he’s clearly broken up about it, then we cut away and when we cut back some time has passed, but he’s still broken up about it and because of it has decided to move on and join the fight against the Empire.
I find the lack of references to Alderaan and its destruction in later scenes and in TESB/RotJ more jarring.
ESB
Vader being Luke’s father turns it into a soap opera. Star Wars was mythic from the start and this seems to fit that pretty well, amongst other things. This is not a hard one to defend.
It also reduces the Star Wars mythos to a bunch of characters deeply involved with each other. Ancient Greece seems to have more people than the Star Wars galaxy. Except when you go to both the old and the new EU. Then it seems Star Wars has too many people.
TPM
That Darth is a title, not a name. I mean, why the hell not? First of all, it’s a solid portmanteau (“Dark Lord of the Sith”). Second of all, maybe this is just me, but I think Darth is kind of a funny name, but works fine as a title. Also, despite what people say, there is nothing in the OT that would suggest this shouldn’t be the case.
Obi-Wan calls Vader “Darth” when they’re alone. There is no clear indication in the OT that Obi-Wan was mocking Vader. For me, his name is Darth.
ROTS
Grievous’s cough. I think it’s actually a pretty good way to immediately establish that he’s not just a droid, and to sort of anticipate Vader’s breathing. Not sure what about it people hate.
It’s pointless and not really properly introduced.
When you first see Vader in Star Wars, you see him coming to the aftermath of a battle, with Rebels corpses in the floor, searching for the plans. He has a full armor, his face is unseen, his voice is modulated, his body movement is limited, he chockes a guy to death, he interrogates Leia, the breathing fits what Lucas was trying to do with this menacing character: he’s human yet he’s not a human.
When you first see Grievous in Revenge of the Sith, he is in his battleship, we don’t know what was he doing, what is he going to do. He isn’t really a Vader-like character, he’s more humanoid than human, he isn’t always coughing and the viewer has no clue as to why is he coughing in the first place. Is he ill? Is it a limitation of whatever process he underwent before he became RotS Grievous? What was Lucas’ point here? The movie never addresses this.