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Thoughts on Star Wars Titles — Page 2

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John_ said:

I honestly don’t have a problem with the title for any Star Wars movie.

+1

I also think they are all fitting and tie in well to what happens in the movie, at least for the OT and PT. The ST titles are not as obvious or entwined in the events of the movies they belong to:


The Phantom Menace
The events at Naboo happen and are resolved but you can feel there is some darker, menacing force at work behind the machinations that brought about the Naboo conflict and one wonders to what end (pretty easy to join the dots though if you’re older than 10 and have seen the OT 😉 ).

Attack of the Clones
A clone army attacks an army of droids (essentially clones as well) and thus begins the Clone Wars.

Revenge of the Sith
The Republic is under the control of a Sith Lord who executes order 66, wiping out the Jedi and the Jedi Order, claiming revenge on the Jedi and fulfilling the pre-shadowing by Darth Maul in TPM.

A New Hope
From the despair and dark times of the Empire’s reign springs fresh new hope in the form of Luke Skywalker. The Rebellion strike a major blow to the Empire and a new hope for the galaxy itself is ignited.

The Empire Strikes Back
After losing the Death Star and nearly Darth Vader himself, Vader and the Empire turn their full focus on hunting down the Rebels. Many losses are experienced by the Rebels as a result while they escape / flee, ending up a fleet adrift in space without a home, all our heroes take bit knocks and the flame of hope is nearly blown out by the end of the Empire’s retaliation against them.

Return of the Jedi
Luke returns as a Jedi in mind and skill and having constructed his own lightsaber (something of a right of passage to becoming a Jedi I believe - apart from needing one anyway 😉 ). He brings his father back to the light, returning the ex-Jedi to the Jedi way and therefore can become a force ghost. Their’s and the Rebel’s triumph over the Empire will also usher in a new Jedi order led by Luke and potentially Leia.

The Force Awakens
Rey learns that the Force is not a myth and finds it awakening in her as a result of the events she gets drawn into. It’s not really clear past this how the Force awakens, I mean you’ve still got Kylo, Snoke, Leia and Luke out there as Force users (though TLJ retcons that Luke has cut himself off from it). You could possibly attribute it to the Force re-awakening in the fandom as a result of this being the first new movie 13 years after ROTS.

The Last Jedi
Luke is the last Jedi with Rey potentially being the new last Jedi in XI after Luke dies (and therefore not the last Jedi as he says to Kylo). I can’t attribute the title to saying anything about Rey since I cannot consider her a Jedi after her not believing the Force was even real a week earlier…


OutboundFlight, please note that it was not intentional to copy your style of reply. I actually started writing this a couple of weeks ago when the thread first popped into existence but have only gotten round to finishing it now 😛

Val

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When the first and only film is titled Star Wars, that’s a very tough act to follow. I’ve never been a fan of any of the Lucas titles after that. They’re borderline silly sounding or they’re just bad. If it were me, I’d have gone with just II, III, IV, V, etc. let the stand-alone/anthology films have their proper titles to differentiate them from The Saga.

Maybe if I’d seen Attack Of The Clones I’d understand the title, but it seems to me the obvious & better title would have been The Clone Wars. Currently, I’m drawing a blank on the third prequel title. Doesn’t matter anyway. Never saw it either, never will.

The Disney titles are fine to me because they’re short. I think The Last Jedi works really well. I think Rogue One is an excellent title because it works on two levels and fits the seriousness of the film. I also like Solo. The character is as iconic as there is in the Star Wars universe, so his his last name, which everyone in-story has used so often, works perfectly.

I don’t have strong thoughts either way on The Force Awakens. It’s fine, it fits, it works, it’s short. Ok film, ok title. I’m not too concerned with whatever the next one will be. I’m not emotionally invested in the story at this point. I’m looking forward to seeing if they make Rose a deeper character and I’m always up for anything Chewie, so hopefully he’s featured a lot.

I think the TV show The Mandalorian is a great title. Perfect as a lone gunslinger type of moniker. Tells us where the mysterious traveler is from, nothing more. It continues a tradition of a lot of Westerns: The Virginian, The Rifleman, The Lone Ranger, The Shootist, The Kentuckian, The Americano, The Texan, etc. Looking forward to it.

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I use A New Hope mostly for practical reasons, but I much prefer to call it plain Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are both great titles, and I love hearing the narrator in the trailers gleefuly announcing them. Why can’t we have that in the new trailers, they’d get me so excited about the films.

The Phantom Menace I don’t think is such a terrible title. Having “Episode I” preceding it makes the title seem more ridiculous than it is. If it was simply Star Wars: The Phantom Menace it would open up a lot of interesting possibilities. Attack of the Clones is plain deceptive, I’d expect a truly awesome throwback film with intentionally campy dialog and production design from it (perhaps the title and crawl could have been fashioned in a font different from the norm that was more suited for that idea). Revenge of the Sith would make for a much compelling title if we knew what they were having revenge for.

The Force Awakens does start out nicely by breaking the “X of the X” pattern, but at the same time it feels like an obvious soft reboot title. I suppose it was the most logical choice for the time being. The Last Jedi is another deceptive title, which would seem to fit the film’s main drive to subvert expectations. However, on a closer examination it does make a lack of focus evident (the storyline about the Jedi hardly provides any more impetus than the other 3 stories at play).

And naturally I despise having “A Star Wars story” as part of the titles. We’re already reminded they are that because they exploit the tropes and imagery of the franchise. I would have gone with something like “Rogue One: Or how we stole the plans to the first Death Star”.

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A New Hope: Meh. Luke isn’t yet cast in the role of Jedi savior as he was in ESB and ROTJ, which makes this title rather unfitting. The previously suggested A Princess of Alderaan would be much better.

The Empire Strikes Back: Nice throwback to the old serials, doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Return of the Jedi: My favorite of the OT titles, not least of all for its triple meaning.

The Phantom Menace: Fairly good description of the film, but the issue is that the film it describes isn’t great. In mirroring A Princess of Alderaan, A Queen of Naboo would be decent.

Attack of the Clones: For being the title of the film, the clones have almost nothing to do with Anakin’s part in this movie. If the film focused on Obi-wan and his investigation, it would be far more fitting. In keeping with the throwback titles, Machines of War would be okay, since it could also have multiple meanings which include Anakin and his mechanization.

Revenge of the Sith: Perhaps the best of the prequel titles, since it mirrors ROTJ and describes the central threat of the movie.

The Force Awakens: Okay. I guess. Whatever. Funnily enough, A New Hope would have worked much better here, or Shadow of the Empire.

The Last Jedi: A great title, but maybe not when describing the penultimate movie of the saga. Spark of Rebellion would apply to all parties in the film equally.

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Shadow of the Empire was actually the title for VII early in development.

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“The Force Awakens” has an energy to it that perfectly matches the tone of the film. Might be in contention for my favorite subtitle. “Shadow of the Empire” sounds like a boring EU novel (in other words, does not match the spirit of the film, even if it does relate well to the content).

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DominicCobb said:

“The Force Awakens” has an energy to it that perfectly matches the tone of the film. Might be in contention for my favorite subtitle. “Shadow of the Empire” sounds like a boring EU novel (in other words, does not match the spirit of the film, even if it does relate well to the content).

I think in general, throwing “of the” gives the title a passive sound. For Star Wars you want the title to be exciting getting you invested in the story right from the start.

For example:
Attack of the Clones VS The Clones Attack
There is something about the latter that sounds more exciting. It’s not the best wording but it feels much more emotional than the boring former. Although I suppose AOTC did it’s job as a title- it was indeed a boring movie!

The Force Awakens VS Awakening of the Force
The latter makes me think of a slow film dedicated towards exploring the force, while TFA feels like a modern blockbuster. In which case TFA did a good job choosing titles.

Return of the Jedi VS The Jedi Return
Here is a special case where I prefer the passive variation. The latter is a too much over the top. ROTJ is very elegant, matching the epic nature of Luke’s journey in this film.

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OutboundFlight said:

Return of the Jedi VS The Jedi Return
Here is a special case where I prefer the passive variation. The latter is a too much over the top. ROTJ is very elegant, matching the epic nature of Luke’s journey in this film.

Another reason the passive voice works better here is that it keeps the plurality of Jedi ambiguous.

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