#BUT. if any prequel-era character found out that Anakin would one day defeat the dark by chucking a Sith Lord down an energy well

[aj-artjunkyard]

NOT to cheapen a beautiful and very emotional scene but I love that Vader just tossed Sidious over a safety railing. You’re so right king he DOSEN’T deserve a climactic 10-minute lightsaber-force-lava-showdown-duel like Obi-Wan did

[jbk405]

The worst retcons in Star Wars

While I’m riding high on the finale to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (No I am not crying....I cried it all out last night) I have decided to compile a list of the worst retcons to the Star Wars franchise.

Why?  I dunno, I’m a crotchety old nerd who likes to complain about decades-old stories.  Do I need another reason?

In no particular order:

Making Emperor Palpatine a Sith

It’s been 21 years since The Phantom Menace came out, so for an entire generation of nerds he’s always been “Darth Sidious”, but we old-timers remember that for the 22 years before that there was no connection between the Emperor and the Sith.  The term “Sith” itself was present from the earliest iterations of the first film and was used in some promotional materials and tie-ins and toys, but it was solely connected to Darth Vader as a Dark Lord of the Sith.  The Expanded Universe built a specific philosophy and history around the Sith as a concept, not just as a catch-all term for darksider, and that history explicitly didn’t include the Emperor.  There was even hate and schism between the Sith and some other Dark Side philosophies, and even those who didn’t use the Force at all.  In The Truce at Bakura, an EU novel that began the day after Return of the Jedi, an Imperial governor initially dismisses the Rebels’ claims that the Emperor is dead as propaganda until they say that Vader is the one who killed him.  That he believes, and even says how foolish it was for the Emperor to have trusted a Sith.

Even without going into what Dark Side philosophy the Emperor did follow, having Vader as a Sith and the Emperor not helped flesh out the universe by showing that even amongst the totalitarian despots there were different factions.  Just like Hitler and Mussolini each had their own brands of Fascism, they can work together while still being distinct.

Introducing the concept of the Chosen One

People often forget that Darth Vader wasn’t the main antagonist of the original Star Wars film, Grand Moff Tarkin was.  Vader filled the role described as “The Dragon”, the enforcer and primary legman, and the threat they had to bypass so that they could destroy the real threat.  He was a lackey.  A cool lackey absolutely, who grew into the primary antagonist in The Empire Strikes Back, but still a lackey.  And despite how cool and badass he is (And don’t get me wrong, he is a fantastic character and one of the best villains in history) there’s nothing “special” about him within the context of the Jedi and Force users in general.  He does not have any significant advantage over Obi-Wan Kenobi in their duel and is obviously completely unprepared for Kenobi to become One with the Force at his loss (And it is debatable if he even “won” at all given Kenobi’s deliberate self-sacrifice).  When he and Luke duel in ESB he definitely has the upper hand throughout their entire fight, but only as somebody with more experience and training, not because he is Magically Superior.  By the time of ROTJ Luke has even surpassed him despite only three years of experience.

In the Original Trilogy Vader is portrayed as a dangerous, powerful, and skilled opponent, but never as somebody POWERFUL.  Never as somebody whose strength or control over the Force is legendary, who is heralded in prophecy.  Yoda performs feats with the Force that Vader never comes close to equaling.

To go back and say that actually his affinity the Force is the greatest that the Jedi have ever seen, even greater than Yoda himself (BTW, I’m including the midi-chlorians under this header) makes no sense.  To say that he was the Emperor’s #2, helping run the entire Empire right from the moment of its founding, contradicts the original film itself where he was lower on the chain of command.

Darth Vader, and by proxy Anakin Skywalker, was a good enough character without trying to shill his background all to hell.

The impending threat of the Yuuzhan Vong

I’ll be upfront, I never liked the stories with the Yuuzhan Vong in and of themselves (When they started coming in is right about when I stopped reading new EU material).  The New Jedi Order just didn’t grab my attention.  But what really riled me up was the way the EU tried to backfill the Vong into the franchise history by saying that the entire rise of the Galactic Empire was to prepare for their arrival.  That Palpatine knew they were coming, and since the Republic would have been incapable of standing against them he took over so that the galaxy could present a strong, unified front against them.

This is something I actually see a lot of in fiction, and it pisses me off each time: The evil despot actually had noble goals because they knew of an even greater threat and they needed to take control in order to deal with it, because a dictatorship gets things done.  You even see this in real life when people try to say that for all Hitler’s faults you have to respect that he made Germany a powerhouse that was this close to conquering the world, and that Mussolini made the trains run on time.  Not only are these examples patently false (Nazi Germany never was “this” close to winning the war, and the trains never did run on time in Italy), but they come with the tacit endorsement that maybe their evilness would be worth it for the benefits.

The Galactic Empire explicitly wasn’t a Super Efficient Society.  We saw time and again how wasteful the Empire was with its resources as it squandered them on inefficient superweapon after superweapon, how it laid waste to planet after planet for the purposes of propaganda.  The Empire was so inefficient that it was able to be toppled by a ragtag band of rebels who had nowhere near the resources, population, wealth, or control it had.  If the Empire couldn’t even defeat the Rebellion, just how was it supposed to stand against the Vong?  And if the explanation is that the Emperor had been seduced by his own ambition and forgotten his original “noble” goals, why would other characters who knew the truth have gone along with his wanton oppression even after his death?

Trying to give the Empire a “reason” for existing was self-contradictory and borderline offensive.

Having the Clones fight for the Republic

I’m very much in two minds over this one, because as bad as the original retcon was other creators have managed to turn it into genius (Looking at you Clone Wars and The Clone Wars).  But I’m nothing if not petty, so...

The Clone Wars were one of the eras that had not been discussed in great detail in the EU before the Prequels came out, instead only being vaguely alluded to.  George Lucas was already talking about making more movies and they didn’t want to contradict what was to come.  But even with only those vague allusions, it was established that the Clones were the bad guys.  The Clonemasters were regarded monsters who unleashed hordes upon the Republic like a swarm of locusts or a plague.  The Clones themselves were often unstable, and regarded by the populace as soulless duplicates overwhelming the galaxy.  The clones were held in such fear by the populace that Mara Jade -- an Old Empire loyalist (Sort-of) -- decided to switch from passively assisting the New Republic because her boss told her to to actively assisting them at the thought of the Empire starting the Clone Wars again.

Even the name of the conflict implies that the Clones were the enemy: People don’t name a war after their own soldiers.  The Droid War, Separatist Secession, Clone & Droid Conflict, Jedi Aggression, etc. all would have made more sense for the war as depicted.

Getting into philosophy, the idea of cloning soldiers expressly for war is morally abhorrent.  It’s mass slavery.  And I am far from the first person to point this out, but that aspect is not even mentioned in the Prequel films.  The Jedi accepting this clone army is repugnant, and some people have used this to show that the Jedi Order was already corrupt at the time of the rise of the Empire, but this wasn’t explored at all in the films that introduced the clones as the Grand Army of the Republic.

Getting into just simple common sense...HOW FUCKING DENSE DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO JUST ACCEPT A MYSTERIOUS ARMY THAT APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE?!?!

That makes no sense.  It never made sense.  The idea that nobody in the Republic, from the government to the military to the populace at large, questioned the very existence of the clone army....it was too much.  The exploration of just how ridiculous this is made for great fodder in The Clone Wars, but only because they had to paper over the GIANT GAPING CHASMS that the concept created.

Making the Jedi a cult

In the old EU, the Jedi of the Old Republic were described as allowed to have families, even being encouraged to do so.  They were allowed to pursue lives and interests and careers outside of the order itself, and didn’t need to forsake who they used to be.  The Jedi Council didn’t have legal authority over the lives of its members, and didn’t try to mandate personal lifestyle.

People started training in their teens when they were old enough to at least understand the concept, and if they were taken as children it was in unusual extraneous circumstances.

While there were Jedi customs, and Jedi Codes, and they had rules and regulations to follow, but they addressed how they should act as Jedi.  They didn’t care what kind of clothing you wore.

Starting with The Phantom Menace, Jedi were taken at such young ages to begin their training that they could not give any consent to their enlistment, nor were they offered any alternatives when they had grown up and may be able to decide for themselves.  They are indoctrinated into a singular Jedi philosophy, not allowed to even debate the dogma of the Council without ostracism, let alone actually defy it.  The Jedi Council unilaterally makes decisions for the entire Order galaxy-wide without any apparent method for dissent or appeal, or any devolution of authority.

Taking (Abducting) children as infants, not allowing them any contact with their families, mandating an isolated ascetic existence...the Jedi Order became a cult.

That’s a cult, plain and simple.

These changes didn’t make the Jedi “complex”, didn’t make the conflict “shades of grey”, they’re just creepy and nonsensical.

[aion-rsa]

The Mandalorian: How Luke’s Powers Compare to Ahsoka’s

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Just last year, The Mandalorian’s unforgettable second season finale provided the early post-Original-Trilogy glimpse of Luke Skywalker for which Star Wars fans have long-craved. Yet, it was apparent that the Original Trilogy protagonist’s powers increased exponentially in the five years that passed in the timeline; a notion that reinforced the belief that Luke is the most powerful Jedi in the universe. However, the impressive live-action debut of animated icon Ahsoka Tano earlier in the season invited a debate on Jedi powers. It’s a topic that was recently reignited, thanks to comments from executive producer Dave Filoni.

The recent premiere of Disney+ documentary series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 2 has proven profoundly revelatory about the technological magic that brought a Return of the Jedi-era Mark Hamill back onscreen in 2020 as Luke Skywalker for The Mandalorian “Chapter 16: The Rescue.” Interestingly, it also revealed the thought process that went behind the way that this rendition of Luke would be presented, powers-wise. After all, the scene in question, while poised to deliver the reddest of red meat moments to the fandom, still needed to be executed with the narrative discipline to present Luke as an awe-inspiring Force-powered figure while avoiding the pitfalls of making him an obscenely overpowered plot-lifting deus ex-machina manifestation. However, in explaining his though process on limiting Luke’s powers, Filoni unwittingly kicked an Ahsoka-shaped hornet’s nest.  

“It would be very easy to just make [Luke] so over-the-top skilled,” says Filoni. “But I was like, ‘You know, what’s interesting is he’s had training, but I don’t know who’s been teaching him sword-fight training lately.’ So, he had to have a style that was better than what we saw in Jedi, but fundamentally still of the same tree of sword-fighting technique. And his technique and Ahsoka’s technique should be very different. And technically, she’s had vastly more training than he ever has. She’s actually his senior, which is, I think, difficult for people to remember ‘cause of when these characters were created.”

Filoni’s comment led to a debate of sorts on (where else?) Twitter, the welcoming social media hub for measured, mature and always-respectful discourse over differing opinions. Possibly attributed to perceived bias on the part of Filoni (as Ahsoka’s creator), the comment was taken as a claim that Ahsoka is more powerful than Luke. While that, of course, remains subjective, his actually-stated notion of Ahsoka being Luke’s senior is factually accurate, based on the canonical timeline. Additionally, her training in the ways of the Force was substantially longer and more formal. While that doesn’t necessarily make her more powerful, it does likely mean that she’s more knowledgeable than Luke, not just from being older, but due to the pedigree of her Jedi training.

Ahsoka’s academic program started after being found by Jedi Master Plo Koon as a small child on her native planet of Togruta, after which she went through the regular academic wringer at the Jedi Temple under the direct tutelage of myriad Jedi Knights and Masters, patiently trained to harness her innate Force powers in what was to be a life-long learning endeavor. Indeed, the grandiose, elite life path of Jedi was first implied in The Phantom Menace when Yoda initially deemed an 8-year-old Anakin Skywalker “too old” to be trained in the ways of the Force. Clearly, Coruscant’s Jedi Temple is no one’s backup school.

Read more

TV

How The Mandalorian Resurrected a Jedi to Cover Luke’s Surprise Role

By Joseph Baxter

TV

What The Mandalorian Means for Ahsoka Tano’s Future in Star Wars

By John Saavedra

Indisputable facts state that Ahsoka was wandering the galaxy toward the end of the Clone Wars as a formidable apostate Jedi well before Luke was even a forbidden gleam in the sand-hating Anakin Skywalker’s eye. We even witnessed a notable step in her extensive training process in Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ 2008 series-launching feature film, in which an adolescent Ahsoka—already a skilled fighter—was first assigned as a Padawan learner to an initially-reluctant Anakin. Naturally, we saw Ahsoka’s skills evolve for years on the series, tested against the events of the titular war, and she would even rise to supreme splendor years later upon resurfacing on Star Wars Rebels to take on Darth Vader. Consequently, by the time we reach the post-Return of the Jedi era of Rosario Dawson’s live-action Ahsoka on The Mandalorian, she clearly achieved a sagely level—not just when comes to her signature two-lightsaber combat style, but also deep wisdom regarding her spiritual connection with the Force, through which she was able to reveal Baby Yoda’s true name as Grogu. In the very least, most can agree Ahsoka would have a lot to teach Luke—that is, if they haven’t met already, which we don’t know for sure.

Nevertheless, in a stark contrast pertinent to our pandemic era, Luke Skywalker was the original distance learner; a product of formerly-lofty institutional standards loosened out of necessity (in this case the extermination of the Jedi Order). His in-person training was—at least, as portrayed in the Original Trilogy—severely limited to a few fundamentals imparted ever-so-briefly by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Millennium Falcon, and later from what amounted to a few days of Force training on Dagobah with Yoda. Consequently, in the arena of formally recognized Jedi credentials, Ahsoka is an Ivy League university graduate with workplace experience from years fighting the Clone Wars. Luke, on the other hand, came off a fast-tracked Jedi GED to earn a Jedi Skills Certificate from the proverbial online school of discovered Jedi texts and holocrons, making him a galactic Zoom class student, presumably deprived of opportunities to physically implement what he’d learned.

Of course, those ideas don’t necessarily seal the deal in the Luke/Ahsoka debate (if it even is a debate), since the true extent of Luke’s post-Jedi education is not really known. While “The Rescue” didn’t answer the question of who’s been teaching Luke advanced lightsaber techniques, the ease and stylistic panache with which he single-handedly dispatched a heavily-armed and armored platoon of Moff Gideon’s robotic Dark Troopers make it abundantly clear that his combat skills somehow evolved substantially from the rudimentary wide swipes and overhead caveman-swings showcased in Return of the Jedi. Thus, Luke’s upgraded skills seem attributed to something far more substantial than ancient books. Additionally, his life in the post-Original Trilogy, pre-Sequel Trilogy remains fertile ground in the Disney-designated franchise; a state due in no small part to the company’s canonical erasure of the vast array of Expanded Universe books and comics, now dubbed the “Legends” lore, which extensively showcased a now-apocryphal version of that era.

However, as we’ve seen with the Force, combat skills don’t necessarily make one more powerful, at least not in the manner through which the Jedi view the balance of the universe. For example, Qui-Gon Jinn was defeated in a duel with a mere Sith apprentice in Darth Maul, but his spiritual knowledge facilitated a subsequent trail-blazing ascension to the living Force, becoming the first fully-manifested Jedi Spirit, as vaguely teased in the Prequel Trilogy, and showcased on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Moreover, Matthew Stover’s novelization of Sequel Trilogy closer Revenge of the Sith provides a key contextual moment omitted from the film, since Qui-Gon appears to Yoda fully-manifested as a Jedi spirit, offering to teach him the technique. At that point, the ancient and conventionally more-powerful Jedi master admits his hubris and exercises humility, stating to the spectral Qui-Gon, “A great Jedi Master you always were, but too blind I was to see it. Your apprentice, I gratefully become.”

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Pertinent to this point, the version of Luke we saw over 30 years beyond the timeline of his monumental Mandalorian moment in sequel films The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi may have been—to much controversy—disheveled, disenchanted and oddly-indifferent, but he was able to demonstrate some unprecedented Omega-level abilities (to borrow from the X-Men’s parlance). This idea proves that Luke’s Force education—such as it was—was nevertheless substantial enough for him to form a Jedi Academy to carry on the lost traditions—tragic ending of said academy notwithstanding. Consequently, any earnest debate about which Jedi is more powerful would likely require far more detail and nuance than the various agendas of the Twittersphere are able to conjure.

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