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Scruffy

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29-Nov-2005
Last activity
31-May-2016
Posts
625

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Post
#165348
Topic
Definition of names in the SW universe.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165348/action/topic#165348
Time
Personally, I believe the Jedi Order of the PT was hopelessly corrupt and immoral, and that Qui-Gon was working consciously or unconsciously (guided by the Force) towards the destruction of the Order. There is some small amount of evidence in the films that this was Lucas's intention at some point, but was dropped late in the process. The evidence is not entirely convincing, however, and I don't think Lucas has addressed this specific point. But the Jedi of the PT do have some notable features in common with the worldwide Islamist movement (i.e. Wahhabism, Salafism), so I think looking for Arabic language influences is worthwhile.
Post
#165321
Topic
Definition of names in the SW universe.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165321/action/topic#165321
Time
[quote]he made the prequels for his kids they are his gift to them[/quote]

He must not like his kids very much.

Here's a few more namey things...

Qui-Gon Jinn -- Jinn is Arabic for devil, or demon, I forget the exact translation. Jinn, like the Biblical serpent, was the first to tempt Anakin with power. Also like the Biblical devil, Jinn was the "father of lies," the chief proponent of a false exegesis that led to the destruction of the Jedi. One could even read an anti-semitic message into Jinn's story, if one were so inclined; upon his advice, the high priests chose the wrong messiah, and Caesar sacked their city and cast them into diaspora.

Leia Organa -- "To lay" is a verb meaning "to have sexual intercourse with." "Organa" may be derived from "orgasm," a word denoting intense pleasurable feelings associated with intercourse, or from "organ," slang for "penis."

Mon Calamari -- French for "my squid." Odd that the Quarren or the more squid-like of the Calamarian species.

Salacious Crumb -- Salacious means something grotesquely appeals to the prurient interests. A crumb is a small bit of something, frequently food. Salacious Crumb probably subsists on crumbs from Jabba's mouth.

Greedo -- Probably refers to avarice.

Rancor -- Probably refers to anger.

Stormtroopers -- Translation of sturmtruppen, IIRC. Originally applied to sturmabteilung? The Imperial Stormtroopers have more in common with WWI stormtroopers than Nazi stormtroopers. We don't really see any Nazi-style SA in the Star Wars films, although a type exists in the EU as part of COMPNOR.

Alderaan -- Derived from Aldebaran?

Endor -- Has several meanings. Is the word for Middle-earth in Sindarin, and the location of a biblical witch somewhere in the OT.

Nute Gunray -- Possibly a play on Newt Gingrich, or Ronald Reagan; Reagan played a character named "Knute," and Gunray is a rearrangement of ray gun.

Lott Dod -- Derived from Trent Lott and possibly Christopher Dodd? Though it's strange that Lucas would name a villain after a Democrat.

Han Solo -- "Hand Only," refers to Solo's sex life (and preempts any inane speculation about his relationship with the Wookiee).

Sith -- Anagram of something, though I can't figure out what.

Tarkin -- You can't possibly compare Palpatine with Palatine and not know where Tarkin came from....

Edit: Djinn is the collective noun for the race of spirits, the singular is djinni.
Post
#164074
Topic
<strong>Clone Wars</strong> (2003 animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky) - a general discussion thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/164074/action/topic#164074
Time
I don't think I've seen the Clone Wars chapter in question, but I came across the Jedi you're talking about in the Databank yesterday. I threw up in my mouth a little and swallowed it back down. Then I figured, why the hell not? Let's fill Star Wars up with pop culture references and genre in-jokes. It's not like I'm getting my weekly Futurama fix anymore, and there's only so much "modern mythmaking" you can do before you run out of the sublime and there's nothing left to rip off but the ridiculous. I hope we get a big muscular Jedi in furry briefs named Heem'an in the next series. And for a sweeps let's tear down the fourth wall and let Jay Sherman review it.
Post
#164073
Topic
McCallum comments on the TV series and the prequel special editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/164073/action/topic#164073
Time
If that's a concession, Tim, I accept it and encourage you to go and sin no more. Remember, kids: The immaculate conception was the miracle in which, by the grace of God, Mary was conceived without the stain of Adam's original sin. The Virgin Birth was the miracle in which the Holy Spirit quickened Jesus in Mary's womb without the usual generative act. These doctrines are ancient, and their meaning doesn't change just because some drooling TPM fans over on TF.net or overpaid publicists playing film critic get them confused.

Lucas was aiming for a Virgin Birth scenario, what with Anakin having no father and being the Chosen One (i.e. "annointed one," literally "Messiah" or "Christ"). An Immaculate Conception makes no sense, because there is no JudeoChristian God (that we know of) in the Star Wars universe, and there is no reason to believe that Star Wars humans are descended from Adam, one of that God's creatures. Even if the idea of an immaculate conception did exist in the Star Wars universe, in a more general sense, Anakin's conception certainly wasn't without some original sin -- he was created by Sith magic, which is about as sinful as you can get. So while the Immaculate Conception theory had some small hope of life before 2005, RotS blew it out of the water. The idea should be discarded like the nonsensical speculation it was.
Post
#164051
Topic
McCallum comments on the TV series and the prequel special editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/164051/action/topic#164051
Time
"SHMI
There was no father... I carried him, I gave him birth... I can't explain what happened. Can you help him?"

Implying that Anakin was concieved through the Force, with the destiny of "The Chosen One". this metaphorically refers to the biblical "Immaculate Conception" is this the first time you've heard Anakin's birth referred to as that?

That has nothing to do with immaculate conception (which isn't Biblical; even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits, "No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture"). Perhaps immaculate conception doesn't mean what you think it means?

I don't think it really matters if I classified Anakin killing Children and others as him being a cerial killer or mass murder, I know what the difference is, it's pretty obvious what the point was..


If you knew what the difference was, why did you use the incorrect term? Again, I think you are using words without knowing what they mean. You shouldn't lecture other people about how "obvious" your points are if you use imprecise (or completely wrong) language in making them.
Post
#164030
Topic
McCallum comments on the TV series and the prequel special editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/164030/action/topic#164030
Time
It wasn't enough to have Anakin born on Tatooine and have a senario where he was inspired to go on some idealistic crusade (clone wars) with Kenobi...instead we have a plot where Anakin is turned into a 9 year old immaculate concepted slave boy with a high midichlorian count

There's no evidence one way or the other that Anakin's conception was immaculate, or that the phrase even has any meaning in the Star Wars universe.

and because his mother was killed by Sandpeople, he is quick to turn into a child serial killer for the chance of saving his wife


Serial killers kill for personal satisfaction and have a waiting period between kills. That doesn't describe Anakin. If you want to characterize his kills as murder, he's a mass murderer. Even that's not entirely accurate, as he was taking orders from the legitimate head of the Republic and Jedi have never been shy about performing extrajudicial executions -- the killings were probably quite legally defensible. It's hard to tell for sure, but given the way the Jedi hack-and-slash anyone they choose, they probably have de jure broad authority to use force in the accomplishment of their missions.
Post
#164008
Topic
Jedi Temple In ROTJ!?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/164008/action/topic#164008
Time
Palpatine probably defiled the Jedi Temple. Turned it over to Vader, or his other Dark Side acolytes. Filled it with trophies of the Purge. So Luke would've avoided the place if he was ever in the neighborhood -- to him, it wouldn't be "the Jedi Temple," it'd be "Vader's Palace," or "the Imperial Museum -- Jedi Coup Annex," or just "the site of the greatest massacre of the Jedi in four thousand years."

That's assuming he ever was in that neighborhood. That region of the city might've been destroyed by the Lusankya's exodus shortly after the Alliance/NR took Coruscant. Even if it survived that, it was probably destroyed during the Mutiny, the Imperial resurgence and interneccine warfare leading up to the events of Dark Empire. Or maybe Luke's Star Destroyer landed on it, in a sort of ironic twist on Force piloting?
Post
#163888
Topic
McCallum comments on the TV series and the prequel special editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163888/action/topic#163888
Time
I found another beautiful McCallum quote at http://www.chefelf.com/starwars/ep2_31-40.php -- this one about Episode II. It doesn't have a citation, but I'll assume it's accurate.

"You get to understand the relentlessness that Boba has," McCallum says. "Here, and especially in 'Episode III,' you’ll understand why he’s so obsessed with destroying any part of the Skywalker family."


This puts to the test McCallum's notion that he knew what was going to be in Episode III many years in advance. If he didn't even know the broad outlines of the plot (or, hell, Boba Fett's motivation in ESB), there's no way he knew specifics like the dialog on Mustafar. His reading of Episode II is pretty senseless, too. Why would Boba Fett hate the Skywalker family? Obi-Wan ruined the nice little home they had on Kamino. Yoda led the attack on Geonosis. Mace Windu killed his dad. Does this guy not think before he speaks, or is he just some actor hired to be the public face of Lucasfilm?

I'm calling shenanigans on you, Rick McCallum. George Lucas is still playing Independent Filmmaker with a Vision, and maybe that's what he still is, but you're Hollywood all the way. You're a liar and a profitteer. Get lost and let someone who cares about the franchise run things.
Post
#163871
Topic
McCallum comments on the TV series and the prequel special editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163871/action/topic#163871
Time
Ooooh, meat for the grinder.

The one that was most painful for McCallum to let go was Yoda's voyage to take exile on the swamp planet of Dagobah, where we meet him again as the Jedi trainer of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in "Episode IV (sic) -- The Empire Strikes Back."

McCallum's taste is not in sympathy with my own. It is better for Yoda to say he's going into exile, then not be seen again until Luke finds him. To show Dagobah in the PT is to continue the unfortunate recent trend of showing things before introducing them -- the first and most objectionable example of that probably being the inserted Docking Bay 94 footage in ANH:SE.

"Personally, I felt they held things up and I was bored by them. At the end of the day, all anybody wanted young and old was to find out how Anakin turned to the Dark Side. We were already on dangerous ground as to how and why. Basically because he's in love with his wife and wants to protect her."

First of all, I've got to commend McCallum on his uncharacterstic honesty here. He admits they were on shaky ground with the Anakin subplot, and that he was bored with the other subplots. (Maybe because they didn't have CGI automatons flying around and killing each other?) Anyway, if McCallum believed that all anybody wanted was to see Anakin's fall, that goes a long way towards explaining the paucity of development the other characters and plot threads got. Why should we care about the disposable villains, the incompetent heroes, or the gaping plot holes? We came here to see Hayden Christiansen fall into lava and talk like James Earl Jones!

At first, McCallum said, he thought that the thought of love turning Anakin to the Dark Side would be a difficult concept for the hard-core "Star Wars" fan base to accept.

His first instinct was correct. While I find the concept less objectionable than others, I find the execution to be shoddy. We are given a rather shallow reason for why Anakin first began his investigation of the Dark Side, but not why he would continue being a Darksider for twenty years, or how he got on the path to being a hotshot Imperial commander. If anything, the ending of Episode III made me think he was a man destroyed, useless to himself and others, and probably a suicide case.

McCallum said, in fact, that there was never really a consideration of implementing (Qui-Gon) in "Revenge of the Sith," at least in a physical form.

Sithspit. Or equivocation and dissimulation. The scene, as filmed, doesn't work. It violates the fundamental rule of storytelling: Show, don't tell. Surely Lucas at least considered using Liam Neeson in Episode III? The real reason for Neeson's absence, when revealed, will be either incredibly interesting or incredibly banal.

Of course, McCallum knows that he and Lucas will be up for criticism for putting special editions out in the marketplace again, but he insisted that it's not about money.

Kinda ironic, given that Lucasfilm just released the special editions again with no "improvements." It clearly wasn't about George Lucas seeing more "new light," but Ricky says it wasn't about money, so ... :confused:

"There are a group of people out there who are fascinated by the very creative process of what it's like to put all this s--- together, to change things and see the impact those changes have," McCallum mused.


Why don't you give us the original version of "all this s---" so we can see how things have changed and the impacts those changes have had? Don't cloak your greed and George's filmic OCD with an appeal to film buffs.

"It's like the extended versions of 'The Lord of the Rings.' One of the great things about having conversations with Peter Jackson about it, was finding out, that, people who didn't like 'Lord of the Rings,' particularly, liked it a lot more in the extended versions because everything made more sense for them.


Peter Jackson released the theatrical versions of his films and is on record saying that he doesn't see one as more real than the other. The theatrical cut is the director's cut; he's not shy about saying that. The Extended Editions are alternative versions, not replacements. And don't talk about "making sense" after a six-year exercise in anti-sense.

"That's such s---, I promise you," McCallum told me. "I know there's one line -- 'You're either with me or you're against me' -- that echoes something.


People have been pointing out the crypto-leftist ideas in the prequel trilogy since 1999. Remember Nute Gunray and Lott Dod?

In fact, McCallum added, if the film echoes any war, it's Vietnam.

"George is a product of Vietnam, not a product of Bush," McCallum said.


So Lucas hasn't had a single original idea since the Vietnam War ended? I can almost believe that. How ironic that George Lucas brought McCallum on as his producer, and now McCallum views Lucas as a product.

"It's trying to say, 'Look, if you lie to your parents, if you lie once, it gets easier. If you lie again, there are consequences to everything you do,


That's great. I wish they'd showed that. It would've been really neat to see Anakin slowly seduced by the increasingly easy power of the Dark Side. But that's not what happened.

"We know we want it to be darker, edgier and have fun sense of humor, but it will be more character--based,


Isn't that what they said about the last two movies? And now they're going to try to do "100 hours," "three or four years" (at least four for syndication, probably five) worth of stories? Fixing plot holes instead of introducing them this time? I'll believe it when I see it.

McCallum reminds me of Rick Berman. You think Star Wars is bad now, wait until George dies.
Post
#163634
Topic
ESB (OOT version) - My thoughts
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163634/action/topic#163634
Time
I've never cared much about the wampa one way or another. But I have to say that I do like the original Emperor, even if I view the later Emperor as the "real" one. Just the same way I like Brian Cox's "Hannibal Lecktor," Julianne Moore's Clarice Starling -- who is actually closer to the Starling I saw when I read the books, but I digress -- et cetera. It's a good performance and a good visual effect. It's also a neat might-have-been, when you compare it to the gleefully cackling over-the-top nutjob that Palpatine evolved into.

Edit: Oh, yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Adamwankenobi. Now you've seen what everyone's been raving about for 25 years.
Post
#163382
Topic
No Golden Globe nominations for Sith
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163382/action/topic#163382
Time
Why would you need to see it? Art cannot be judged, so you would get the same utility out of watching Power Rangers as you would watching me do Lapti Nek. Or watching the O-OT, or reading Shakespeare, or whatever. Merely wanting to see it is making a judgment, you're saying that you want to see it more than you want to see the set of alternatives. (Not judging it as art per se, but still evaluating it against its opportunity cost.)
Post
#163364
Topic
No Golden Globe nominations for Sith
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163364/action/topic#163364
Time
Movies, like any other form of art, should not be "judged".


I agree, art should never be judged. I've seen some Futurama porn on the internet that belongs in the Louvre, next to the Mona Lisa. There's a couple of cereal bowls sitting in my floor with dirty spoons. It's an avant garde installation, sure to revolutionize the art world. I have written several thousand pages of an action-adventure story set in Middle-earth starring myself, and it's just as much art as the Iliad, Hamlet, or Huck Finn. I used my camcorder to tape myself, nude, singing Lapti Nek and writhing in front of a strobe light for two hours. As a performing artist, I am the equal of Peggy Lee, Connie Francis, Anne Baxter, and Jodie Foster. The video is just as artistically valuable as Gone with the Wind, Schindler's List, and Citizen Kane.
Post
#163090
Topic
obi wans name in ANH
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/163090/action/topic#163090
Time
And I doubt the Emperor does his own hiring, so Luke could become some petty officer and never be found out for being Darth Vader's son.


If Luke graduated from the Academy, he'd be an Ensign in the Starfleet, or some kind of Lieutenant or Pilot Officer in the TIE Corps. Not a petty officer. (Realistically, in ANH I'd peg him for a brief career as a junior enlisted man followed by a return to farming. But I guess the Imperial Academy isn't terribly selective when it comes to its flight cadets.) Saxton's take on the Imperial rank structure is here.

As for being found out, I'm sure officers undergo at least some background investigation, as well as a genetic screening. Those would've set up all kinds of red flags. Assume a four year course at the Academy, followed by one year of flight instruction, then five years of active commissioned service, that's ten years for someone to notice

a) This guy shares half his DNA with Darth Vader,
b) He has the same name as Darth Vader (or the Jedi Councillor who liased with Chancellor Palpatine, depending on who's doing the research), and
c) He's Force-sensitive.

One could argue whether or not Luke would last that long in service to the Empire he claimed to hate, but I think even applying to the Academy would've brought the Empire down on Tatooine in force.
Post
#162861
Topic
POLL: How many times have you seen The Star Wars Holiday Special?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/162861/action/topic#162861
Time
I had to vote NOOOOO, because I couldn't watch the whole thing the last time I tried. I think I gave up when an Imperial officer went shopping, or maybe on the fourth or fifth scene consisting entirely of Wookie-speak. I couldn't get to Boba Fett or Chief Bast (he lives!). Maybe getting a better version of it will help; I'll try again this year.
Post
#162847
Topic
obi wans name in ANH
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/162847/action/topic#162847
Time
Okay, so if Obi-wan never ever used his name, he could hide out there. But he clearly did use his name, because Luke knew it. If Obi-wan had been careful, Luke would never have learned his name. The fact that Obi-wan (evidently) remained unnoticed is due to luck (or the Force), not due to his tradecraft.

Imagine the number of ways things could've gone wrong. Luke could've sent his application to the (Imperial?) Academy, prompting a background check. He might've mentioned "crazy Old Kenobi" in a letter to his friend Biggs (an Imperial officer according to most EU sources), catching the attention of Imperial Intelligence. His friends in the Mos Eisley cantina might've turned him in (well, they did, eventually). The local constabulary might've decided to look at Imperial warrants, so they didn't appear completely useless. Jabba could've heard that there's a Kenobi on his planet, and make the connection -- Jabba could've sold him to the Imperials, or probably even taken him himself.

Contrary to popular belief, the best way to keep a secret is not to "hide it in plain sight." It's not to tell anyone. Obi-wan Kenobi failed on this point.
Post
#162793
Topic
obi wans name in ANH
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/162793/action/topic#162793
Time
For the "Ben" name, I find it has sense. You say that "it dosen't take too much brainpower to know that Ben Kenobi = Obi-Wan Kenobi". Yes, for us, cause "Kenobi" name seems "exotic" to us, but maybe it's a usual name in the Star Wars universe.


If the Galactic Emperor puts me in charge of hunting down and killing the Jedi, and I've got a score to settle with one particular Jedi named Obi-wan Kenobi, you betcherass I'm going to find every person in the Galaxy named Kenobi and everyone named Obi-wan. It doesn't matter if there's trillions of them; that's what computers and data mining are for. To do any less would be criminally negligent. Besides, when people really want to hide -- say, relocated witnesses, or intelligence officers and agents -- do you really think they just change their first name and hope that'll be enough?

Surely, at some point, Obi-wan was visited by some ISB agents or someone like that. He must've just mindwiped them and sent them on their way. Or maybe killed them and falsified their report.
Post
#162006
Topic
Why do they go into exile?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/162006/action/topic#162006
Time
But Mace and Company didn't go planning to kill Palpatine. They went in to arrest Palpatine. Only after Palpatine began fighting did Mace change his mind and decide to assassinate him. They spent maybe five minutes coming up with an arrest plan, it failed, and Palpatine killed the lot of them. They failed because they were using the law enforcement method -- utilize the minimum amount of force and take your target alive, with minimum injuries.

This has no bearing on Obi-wan and Yoda's failure to come up with a viable assassination plan over the next month, year, or 20 years. Obi-wan and Yoda knew that the law enforcement method wouldn't work, so they could use the military method -- utilize as much force as necessary to neutralize your opponent as quickly as possible. We know the Emperor left Coruscant -- the Jedi could've struck at his shuttle or his Star Destroyer. We know the Jedi could enter the Imperial Capitol with impunity -- they could've gone back and caught him unawares, or booby-trapped his office. We know the Emperor surrounded himself with armed guards and courtiers -- the Jedi could've infiltrated them. The surviving Jedi could've marshalled their resources to strike against their enemy; they really only needed to get two targets, since the deaths of the Emperor and Vader inexorably led to the attrition of the Empire down to the Remnant.

But they didn't do any of those things. Yoda lost one fight -- really a ritualized duel -- and went into comfortable retirement while Palpatine inflicted unprecedented depredations on the galaxy. Can you imagine if modern wars were fought like that? George W. Bush would sneak into Osama bin Laden's headquarters and they'd have a fistfight. George played rugby and keeps in pretty good shape, but Osama's got reach on him. Let's ignore the purported kidney problems and say Osama knocks George down. Doesn't kill him, doesn't even capture him or wound him, just knocks him down. Then George runs away, "Ah've gotta go inta exile back on ma ranch," and Osama bin Laden takes over the United States and puts all our women in burkas. On his way to Crawford, George runs into Dick Cheney, fresh from maiming and burning alive Abu Musab al Zarqawi. They decide that Osama is too powerful to fight, so Dick is going to go into exile, too. Pretty ridiculous, right? That's how the Sidious-Yoda confrontation turned out. Yoda was *knocked down* and he gave up ran away. "Wars not make one great." Losing a duel and running away makes one great.
Post
#161987
Topic
ROTS Satellite Feed
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/161987/action/topic#161987
Time
Well, the whole point of encryption is that the intended recipient is able to decrypt it. Otherwise you're destroying the original, and that's called destruction, not encryption.

If he meant, "There is no encryption that is not vulnerable to cryptanalytic attack," that's not true, either. A properly-implemented one-time pad system is invulnerable to attack; that is, the ciphertext is indistinguishable from random data and no amount of poking or prodding will make it make sense.

It's unlikely[1], though, that Lucasfilm used a OTP to encrypt its movies. It's more likely they used some standard block based cipher. There are attacks against those, but it is not feasible to brute force them unless they are really, really, truly broken. The best way to break a crypo system is still just finding the key+ciphertext or finding the plaintext. Either one requires some unscrupulous exhibitor to smuggle 80 GiB to a bootlegger. (Probably has already happened, but it's not trivial.)

[1] But not impossible -- some banks in Europe are using OTPs to communicate with their customers over the Internet.