Star Wars is supposed to be a family soap opera, according to George Lucas. If you don’t like it, then you just don’t really like Star Wars.
We have a whole thread about Lucas’ revisionism and his changing interpretations/press statements about his works. Also, Death of the Author (in the actual sense, not the “your fave is problematic” sense) opens the room up for all interpretations to be valid. Just because it’s George’s intent doesn’t mean it is what we take away from it/want from it.
Also, damn it’s almost like things from one family member get passed down to another. Sounds like you didn’t take a lot of science classes cause it seems you know nothing about genetics.
Luke’s father in 1977 was a Jedi, so yeah it’d be “passed down.”
It seems like you’re just infatuated with an idea without realizing that it just works poorly on screen. Having Vader once be the man Obi-Wan described Luke’s father as immediately adds way more depth to his character. Without combining Vader and Anakin they both become a lot less complex and interesting. Since when was the universe feeling vast more important then character depth and the characters having meaningful relationships with one another? Because if you ask me that was never.
You can still make the relationships meaningful and bring about complexity with them remaining separate. It’s only one additional character.
Perhaps Leia shouldn’t be the child of a Jedi? The brother-sister twist should also be on the chopping block as it really feels half-assed.
You missed the point entirely. That still doesn’t answer why Luke is the only child of any Jedi left around. If Jedi having children is something any normal Jedi would do, why is he the only one? Why doesn’t Obi-Wan or Yoda or any of the other Jedi have any children? You mean to tell me Luke is the only child of any Jedi left in the entire galaxy?
He’s the only one we see within the scope of the franchise, doesn’t mean he’s the only one.
It’s almost like having Anakin be a morally ambiguous character who then turned to the dark side and became Vader because he broke the rules that Jedi shouldn’t get married and have children kinda ties all the loose ends, doesn’t it?
It doesn’t have to necessarily be that way.
Nah. Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi expand on the themes and the characters. It makes everything a lot more complex and interesting and further develops everybody. Vader would be 1/4 of the amazing character he is without ESB or ROTJ. Vader as we know him know is defined far more by ESB then ANH. I’d even argue Luke would be half of what he is without the two sequels. Luke is made way more complex and layered by ESB and ROTJ then ANH alone. If you just have ANH as a standalone movie his journey isn’t complete. He’s not even a Jedi by the end of the first movie.
Maybe the completion we did get isn’t satisfying to me, and I regret what the completion of the trilogy has wrought for franchise filmmaking. I think ROTJ is a deeply flawed movie (Vader’s redemption is entirely undeserved to me) and kind of renders ESB in a poorer light.
And you know my Godzilla comparison? I didn’t expect you to get so offended over it and my other points to rattle off three long posts in succession. Maybe I should have compared it to the Indiana Jones series, because at least that one had similar enough operations to Star Wars.
I really didn’t expect you to take such offense to my points. But you are right about something: I’m kind of questioning why I even got into this franchise to begin with, and what is even the appeal of it. Outside of SW and ESB, I really don’t see anything worth salvaging from this franchise. But that’s a me problem and I’ll deal with it.
Pauline Kael was right and history keeps proving her correct.