Originally posted by: Mike O
Whom?
Besides, I may be one of the few people old enough to get Gaffer Tape's screen name. (She was amazingly beautiful when she was young)
Whom?
If by whom, you're referring to Gaffer Tape, that's me, dude. You know, we've talked some. If by whom, you're referring to "she", Anchorhead is talking about Carrie Fisher. My user name, avatar, and signature all go together and are referring to the same story. First off, I want to give Anchorhead thanks for mentioning and complimenting me. Second, I want to say that I'm not old enough to really get it. I'm only 20, so I obviously wasn't around when Star Wars first came out. I actually read this story in an issue of Newsweek that came out in 1999. It was an article written by Carrie Fisher entitled "Postcards from the Edge of the Galaxy" as a spoof on her book. And it told the story of how she was never allowed to wear underwear with her costume because there was apparently no lingerie in space. So in scenes when she had to run, her breasts were bound with gaffer tape. In addition, she xeroxed her breasts and handed them out to the entire crew and joked about holding a raffle to see who could get to rip the tape off at the end of each day of shooting.
On topic, though...
I wish I hadn't missed all this stuff because most of what I've wanted to say has already been said, and there's so much to respond to that I don't know if I can cover all that's left that I want to. So I'll do the best I can to contribute. I've always stated that Empire is my favorite Star Wars movie. Even when I first saw it at 9, I loved the darker plot, I loved the advancement of the story, I loved the lightsaber fight. Everything about it was just perfect. And I still consider it my favorite with Return sort of dragging as the tail end. Even though I've now long accepted that George didn't have the first trilogy planned out at all like he's always claimed, it still works. Considering the continuity flaws in the prequels, Obi-Wan's explanations in the original were golden. I've always thought it was a good job of tying it together. Ben wasn't lying, per se, he was just sparing Luke's feelings. The reveal is always fun and helped the story of Empire certainly. But I definitely get where you guys are coming from, and I enjoy Star Wars as a standalone movie.
But Leia being Luke's sister? Even at my original viewings, I never really took to that. I mean, Luke just picks it out of thin air. "Yes, you have a sister. She's anonymous. She could be any girl in the galaxy, you know." "Wait! It must be Leia, because she's the only girl that I know, and the only girl in these movies!" "Damn. I didn't do a good job with that one." Plus, it's a plot point that seems to exist for no reason! There is such a huge setup for this, starting with the previous movie. "There is another." In the next movie, "There is another Skywalker." I mean, you would think that they were setting up for something big. A new quest for Luke. A savior to Luke. Something. The only payoffs are the emotional scene between Luke and Leia and to tidily tie up the love triangle that George had apparently gotten bored with. But Leia doesn't really do anything in terms of fulfilling some kind of destiny as "the other", does she? She has no screen time with Vader or The Emperor in that entire movie! I suppose I'm supposed to think the payoff is when Vader plucks the information from Luke's head and uses it to get Luke to attack him, but would it have made any difference if Leia hadn't been his sister?! We already know that Luke deeply cares for her, so why did she need to be his sister?
Sorry, I could go on and on with how much that irks me.