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Post #1475231

Author
Stardust1138
Parent topic
What do you think of the Sequel Trilogy? - a general discussion thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1475231/action/topic#1475231
Date created
9-Mar-2022, 11:28 AM

yotsuya said:

Those who don’t like these films find ways to explain why they don’t like them. That some don’t like them because they are too different and others don’t like them because they are too similar shows that both views are in they eye of the viewer. Apply the same critiques to the PT and you will get the same result. They are either too similar or too different. TPM, ANH, and TFA all have similar beats and echo each other. In each one a young person with no direction finds a mentor and before the mentor can impart very much, they die. In each one there is a space battle where the hero plays a decisive part (in TFA Rey helps plant the explosives that opens the whole for the destruciton of Starkiller base where in the other two Anakin and Luke are the fighter pilot who fires the shot that destroys the base). The hero meets the other two in the trio that carries through the trilogy. TPM doesn’t have any plans or map as a McGiffin. And I could go on, but why? I think I made my point.

Technically The Phantom Menace and A New Hope do share many similar story beats but equally The Phantom Menace shares many story beats with Return of the Jedi too. The difference between them and The Force Awakens is one isn’t going out of its way to copy and paste the same story we’ve seen before to the minutest detail. The story surrounding a young Force sensitive who gets off planet to begin their journey as a Jedi is vastly different in both of George’s two films. It has the same basic framework of the story being told through two characters Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan and R2-D2/C-3PO as is the personal story of Padme and Leia of trying to help their people while being juxtaposed alongside the fractional stories of Anakin and Luke. The intentions are all different to create symmetry and poetry within the narratives. It’s all meant to echo but not copy and paste. Poetry has to be different to work but with The Force Awakens it’s lifting the complete story from A New Hope beat for beat. There’s nothing new or anything that isn’t meant to draw lines between it and the Original Trilogy. You don’t have that with The Phantom Menace per say as it’s new and original but at the same time familiar with the shift towards the Empire gradually being painted subtly. It’s a difficult tightrope to execute as there’s so much nuance to making a Star Wars film.

Rey may have planted explosives but it’s meant to be just like Han in Return of the Jedi. She also has parallels with Anakin, Luke, and Obi-Wan. That’s a real problem as it’s lifting parallels without understanding context as to why they’re there in the first place. The why is mostly to echo and illustrate the sins of the father and son and their shared journey to finally fully intertwine on Death Star II. It could be extended further with the next generation of the Skywalker family through the “Skywalker Parallels” but the intention of the first six films is to create symmetry between Anakin and Luke. It’s not to create a mismatch of parallels like they give Rey and ulimately through giving her everything as the plot says she must have them as she’s the protagonist. There’s always an exception to every rule within reason through George’s six films but not without thought put behind its purpose within the narrative. His films were an ecological value system and about the collective whole as much as they were about poetry.

The Phantom Menace also does have one through a map. The map R2-D2 shows Padme, Boss Nass, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and indirectly young Anakin of Theed to illustrate the plan to capture Nute Gunray. However it’s not blatantly drawing lines. It’s much more subtle and letting the viewer find the connection instead of telling you as the pointer scene in The Force Awakens does.

These two videos explain what I’m saying:

https://youtu.be/Btp1BoGbuiM

https://youtu.be/XtArKawnWNI