Originally posted by: MTHaslett
In what movie do we see the Jedi unlock cuffs and lift rocks to crush giant beasts with the Force? I remember a couple movies where the greatest Jedi of all has to struggle to lift big rocks or pull an X-Wing out of the swamp.

By your reasoning the entire Death Star Trench sequence makes no sense-- why doesn't Darth Vader just force-wish all the Rebel fighters into the sides of the trench? Answer: because that ain't how it works.

If the Harryhausen homage of the arena sequence doesn't give you a thrill, then I'm sorry. But that's the reason it's there-- it's the kind of scene Lucas loves from the movies that inspired Star Wars and it's done to his taste here. I'm not thrilled with the beats of it and I look forward to the new version (where Anakin and Padme have a plan)-- but I sure get why it's there.

Did they really put these arena creatures into Happy Meals, or are you making that up?

Oh yeah, I believe they were part of some fast food promotion as every star wars prequel was in some way. You're right. I forgot that it was a homage to classic Harryhausen but now I remember since I listened to the commentary for AotC years ago. If it were in a movie meant for homages I suppose then sure it'd be no problem, but Harryhausen's didn't involve jedi, I think. I really don't have a problem with homage, really but then I know Jar Jar is a homage to comedians like jerry lewis (my best guess), and I absolutely love Lewis' work but definitely that doesn't mean I like jar jar or Threepio's slapstick gags in a Star wars film unless it's necessary to for the story. I'll use the tarzan yell as another example as homage that I don't like (of course that's because it's a joke in pop culture. I didn't even remember the arena fight was harryhausen inspired. I'm more focused on the incredibility of jedi being chained up.) But that's besides my point about the scene where a cuffed anakin and obiwan use lightsabers to free themselves so I expect to just take it as it is and move on. How can that be changed? [additionally: Alright, I can stretch my suspension of disbelief extremely far. I'm a fan of stuff that's not to be taken seriously like power rangers and crap like that, but when I have to sit through a scene where a jedi is chained to a carriage and yacking about love my mind wonders why he's not using his force powers (powers he'll use to slice a piece of fruit mind you) to unlock himself and his new girlfriend, ok.]

I think it was Magfan or you, Trooperman, who said there are just some things that are so wrong, no amount of editing will fix them and that's what I think this is. ie: all jedi must wear tatooine farmer garb.

That's why I view the arena fight as being as exciting as the Greivous fight in Rots. If you remember, it was minutes, no, seconds before that fight, Obiwan just uses the force to drop a huge thingy on some droids not to mention how many times he's thrown droids around. Was anybody at all worried for Obi-wan during that battle? Vader decided to do whatever he decided to do and by my best guess it'd be extremely difficult to lock onto and control something moving at a gazillion miles per hour. Though one can easily assume Vader's force abilities aided him in his destruction of the rebel ships one by one. Is that comparable to a pair of handcuffs? Well that's up to the individual to decide. Imo, it's not, However we do know he's using the force during aerial combat when he comments on Luke's force power. Now that I think of it, why else did the proton torpeos not go in if the computer was perfectly locked on and everything? We have no reason given why neither Anakin nor Obiwan can release themselves. Another thing from the OT you should have brought up to argue with was Luke throwing a rock at the control panel to kill the rancor. He's a novice jedi so I bought that he'd just chuck a rock but maybe some don't.

Trooperman, after some deep thought for an entire minute I've decided the best way to explain it is that the cuffs are specifically designed for use on Jedi. Maybe you could dub Anakin saying they're special magnetically binding cuffs (stole the idea from the magnetically sealed trash compactor) or something like that?