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Ducks in Star Wars?

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There have been ducks in Star Wars since "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" was published in 1976. I's no more surprising than humans or giant redwoods being in Star Wars. In fact, it's less surprising -- humans are a species, and ducks are a whole family.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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....and Luke apparently doesn't know what they are. He said something like "what's a duck?" in the SW novel.

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I guess that's understandable. I mean, ducks wouldn't generally live in the desert.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ? Like..did anyone get hounded, or go batty or such? I know Leia said Tarkin emitted a 'foul stench' , but not sure if she meant he smelt like a chook.

They have holographic images that fit on something the size of a floppy disk, but nothing like a home entertainment system where you can watch old episodes of Galactic Geographic, and see ducks laying eggs and migrating and other duck-related stuff or do they, and I just missed it?


Besides in the bar in AOTC displaying droid-sports, are there any other screens displaying anything like entertainment in any of the movies? Or for that matter, anyone reading anything that would be the equivalent of a magazine? I guess they might have like a tablet that you can get the 'net on anywhere you go, so noone has things like magazines laying around the floor of their waiting rooms.
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Originally posted by: Ozkeeper
SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ?

Humans?

They have holographic images that fit on something the size of a floppy disk, but nothing like a home entertainment system where you can watch old episodes of Galactic Geographic, and see ducks laying eggs and migrating and other duck-related stuff or do they, and I just missed it?


I think the only home entertainment system we saw was in the Holiday Special. As for Galactic Geographic showing ducks, remember that there's millions of life-bearing worlds in the galaxy far, far away, and it's unlikely that ducks are important enough to be common knowledge where they don't occur naturally.

Besides in the bar in AOTC displaying droid-sports, are there any other screens displaying anything like entertainment in any of the movies? Or for that matter, anyone reading anything that would be the equivalent of a magazine? I guess they might have like a tablet that you can get the 'net on anywhere you go, so noone has things like magazines laying around the floor of their waiting rooms.


But that's how real people spend their time. Fictional people spend their time meditating or pontificating.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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Originally posted by: Scruffy
But that's how real people spend their time. Fictional people spend their time meditating or pontificating.
Yeah, and they don't even need to take bathroom breaks.

Seriously though, this Duck entry on databank is nothing more than another Lucasfilm retcon attempt to try and explain a scriptwriting mistake in TPM when the guy says 'we're sitting ducks'. I know they were mentioned in the original novel but I think we can excuse Alan Dean Foster for making that mistake back in 1976 before Star Wars took off.

But as I said last time this was bought up: Thanks to the prequels there's a Fifties diner in the Star Wars universe, so why not ducks?

War does not make one great.

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I have less trouble with ducks in Star Wars than I do with the 50's diner.
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Yeah same here. Ducks are creatures and could theoretically evolve elsewhere in the universe, but the 1950s were a cultural thing. Earth Culture. It never should have been in there.

War does not make one great.

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Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
Yeah same here. Ducks are creatures and could theoretically evolve elsewhere in the universe, but the 1950s were a cultural thing. Earth Culture. It never should have been in there.

It's not quite a 1950s diner, although the crucial point is of course that it's close enough, so that the source of inspiration is a dead giveaway. This is an interesting point on the list of the many things that went wrong with the prequels. The PT, like the OT, is full of subtle analogies and parallels to the real world, but the notable difference is that where the OT artists took something familiar from several sources and then redesigned and extrapolated it into something that was just subconsciously familiar to the viewer at the time, the PT craftsmen too often simply made a few small tweaks, making it blatantly and intrusively obvious to everyone what had influenced their work and what the original starting point was.

A practical example of this is Yoda in the OT and the Nemodians in the PT. Yoda is a character which, both in character and appearance, appears to have been subtly inspired by the Asian culture of knowledge and wisdom as well as the great Western philosophers and then extrapolated in age into an over 800 year old sage of unparalleled wisdom. It worked great because the end result appeared refreshingly new (no pun intended) and everyone saw something slightly different in him, so lots of very different people were collectively able to recognize something familiar to them, something similar, and when he reveals his true identity to Luke, there is soon no doubt in anyone's mind about what sort of character he really is. He was just the perfect wizard and philosopher for this type of fairy tale.

Contrast this with the Nemodians in the PT, which were poorly designed and voiced, consequentially with the exact opposite result. Lots of people saw a strong controversial Asian connection immediately, but due to the nonsensical and cartoonish design of these characters, it was never really possible for people to agree in any way on what sort of cultural aspect they actually represented, if any at all. Accusations and arguments about derogatory cultural stereotypes and racism soon ensued, and little is known on whether the dust ever fully settled on that debate or whether it was silenced simply because the PT movies just got old pretty fast and everyone grew tired both them and the new characters really quickly. In the end though, nobody really cared.
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By that same logic YIYF, it's possible that on some other planet we have not encountered in the SW universe there was a cultural equivilent of the 50's style of living. Let's just say it's not impossible, but infinitely gayer than mentioning ducks or Hell or Falcons.

Hey look, a bear!

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Originally posted by: JarHead413
By that same logic YIYF, it's possible that on some other planet we have not encountered in the SW universe there was a cultural equivilent of the 50's style of living. Let's just say it's not impossible, but infinitely gayer than mentioning ducks or Hell or Falcons.

None of these things have ever bothered me actually, especially not those from the OT since they're rather small and insignificant. In the PT, design and execution always tended towards the more contrived and inappropriate by default:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n83/lord3vil/shreknass-1.jpg
I don't care that Shrek was made after Episode 1. Whatever his coolness factor, he just isn't fitting for a live action movie feature like Star Wars!
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Originally posted by: JarHead413
By that same logic YIYF, it's possible that on some other planet we have not encountered in the SW universe there was a cultural equivilent of the 50's style of living. Let's just say it's not impossible, but infinitely gayer than mentioning ducks or Hell or Falcons.
Yes, it is possible I suppose.

I'm surprised that the retcon people at Lucasfilm haven't tried to somehow explain Hell or Falcon now that you mention it. But like Lord3vil said, none of these things really bother me - I can accept that the scriptwriters simply slipped up when they had Han say 'Hell' and Millenium Falcon sounds cool so whatever...but a Fifties diner on Coruscant?! Come On!! Where were the bad idea police when that one was conceieved?

War does not make one great.

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Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
Yes, it is possible I suppose.

I'm surprised that the retcon people at Lucasfilm haven't tried to somehow explain Hell or Falcon now that you mention it. But like Lord3vil said, none of these things really bother me - I can accept that the scriptwriters simply slipped up when they had Han say 'Hell' and Millenium Falcon sounds cool so whatever...but a Fifties diner on Coruscant?! Come On!! Where were the bad idea police when that one was conceieved?


Sayings are easly overlooked. I can forgive the lamest dialouge around, but entire scenes are harder. Plus, using too many 'alien' sayings can get confusing. You have to use them in a context were they are obvious what they mean. A movie could spend more time explaining the saying to the audience than its worth. So use a familiar earth saying, and move on. If Han Solo says "then I'll see you in hell" you know what he means. If the line was "then I'll resaturastas askaseas" You would have no idea what he meant.

But the 50's diner to me was just too much.
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Originally posted by: Ozkeeper
SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ? Like..did anyone get hounded, or go batty or such? I know Leia said Tarkin emitted a 'foul stench' , but not sure if she meant he smelt like a chook.


There are snakes and lizards on Degobah in ESB.

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Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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Originally posted by: andy_k_250
Originally posted by: Ozkeeper
SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ? Like..did anyone get hounded, or go batty or such? I know Leia said Tarkin emitted a 'foul stench' , but not sure if she meant he smelt like a chook.


There are snakes and lizards on Degobah in ESB.


There's teddy bears on Endor.

“I love Darth Editous and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” ~ADigitalMan

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The things never really bothered me either, it's just another kinda funny thing to go on about. Bullseye wamprats, rendezvous point....indeed.

But I think the SW universe makes up for it in it's creative names list. Where the hell Boba Fett, Bossk, Anakin, Leia, Yoda, Chewbacca, Jerjerrod, Jabba, Obi-Wan, Padme.....the list would go on for a hella long time. Some names suck, are uninpired, or just plain silly but a lot are kinda interesting and aren't really words I could form on my own.

Hey look, a bear!

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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Yes, but is Howard one of these species?

Can't believe this is actually on the home page today.


I think that this entry was created as an April Fool's Day joke a few years back - and I guess it comes up every now and then randomly in the cycle on the home page.
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Originally posted by: JarHead413
Anakin.
I think Anakin is an actual name like Luke or Ben, isn't it?

War does not make one great.

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Originally posted by: boba feta
Originally posted by: andy_k_250
Originally posted by: Ozkeeper
SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ? Like..did anyone get hounded, or go batty or such? I know Leia said Tarkin emitted a 'foul stench' , but not sure if she meant he smelt like a chook.


There are snakes and lizards on Degobah in ESB.


There's teddy bears on Endor.
Who ride horses...

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Originally posted by: andy_k_250
Originally posted by: Ozkeeper
SW universe is a weird place. Is a duck the only animal the SW universe shares with ours , either in image or in speech ? Like..did anyone get hounded, or go batty or such? I know Leia said Tarkin emitted a 'foul stench' , but not sure if she meant he smelt like a chook.


There are snakes and lizards on Degobah in ESB.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/devilman1369/snakes_on_an_xwing-1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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Just remembered...there is a toad or frog in Jabba's snack bucket thing next to him in ROTJ.