miker71 said:
Leia's "walking carpet" line has always bugged me, do we even see a carpet anywhere in the trilogy? It's an instant back-to-Earth-ism for me that line. And it's not even funny...
That part of it has never bothered me, while I am not sure if we ever see a carpet in the trilogy (Ben's hut? Yoda's hut? Jabba's palace? Owen and Beru's? Bespin, perhaps. Those are the only potential places for them I can think of. It isn't like the films spend any time in the dwellings of the average citizen of the Galactic Empire, which would be the sort of setting one might expect to see a carpet), it isn't like the camera spends much time looking at the floor either. They've developed technology way beyond ours, I am sure someone would have gotten tired of walking around barefoot on cold floor and invented a rug at one point or another. I don't really see that as a back-to-Earth-ism.
When I was a kid, I did think that line, along with "Laugh it up, Fuzzball" was pretty funny. But as I got older it began to bother me because it seemed out of place for Leia. SW Leia was royalty and a stuck up, selfish, spoiled snob. In that context the line fit. However, trilogy Leia evolved into something much more than that, and it makes her seemingly racist comment seem out of place for her character. Referring to him as a "walking carpet" and not addressing him directly when he clearly understands basic suggests she thinks of Wookies as lessers to humans (not to mention, she didn't give the poor guy a medal).
I guess we could chalk the whole thing up to her just having a really bad day and being in a bit of an irritable mean mood in the first film. She did just watch her planet get blown up, lost her family, and-- What the hell!? We went through three freaking crappy prequel films and we never got to see Alderran? What a missed opportunity to add some extra emotion to that scene! Six movies, hours spent on the same lame backwater desert planet, and we never even get a glimpse of Alderran? Sorry, just now realizing that. Where was I? Oh yeah, I guess we can forgive Leia's out of character racial slam on Wookies since she had just gone through so much. Humorously, I've always thought that line a better candidate for removal than Han's BAMF shooting first moment.