#and in general the whole muppet franchise just.... it's comfort to me

[fabcreature]

the muppets has rly become my comfort franchise

[xellandria]

Chainmail Memes

@hellokibby tagged me and I’m in the mood so LESGO

Directions: Answer 11 questions, tag 11 people, and then come up with 11 questions for your people to answer. 

1. What is your ultimate pizza, you know topping, crust, sauce, and anything else that describes it. I grew up on Long Island and while I suspect the 22 years (jesus) since I moved to the west coast has both changed my tastes somewhat and also added some rose-flavoured glasses to my recollection, meatball pizza (with red/tomato sauce and the typical NY crust) was suuuuuper good.  There’s a place here in Bend that’s pretty good too, with a white/alfredo sauce, chicken, and pineapple and it makes me very happy every time I taste it, so I’m not sure at this point which I’d prefer.  Combination of both, probably—not a huge fan of tomato sauce these days, but meatball and white seems as awkward to me as pineapple and red, so idk.  Then again, 10 Barrel’s white with chicken, pineapple, and ground beef was pretty good and the only reason I don’t do that combo with Raganelli’s is bc they don’t have the ground beef (iirc), so SHRUG

2. What if your favorite board game, and why? I... am not entirely sure I have one?  Monopoly is the board game I’ve played most, but I don’t often have opportunities for board games, especially less “classic” ones, haha.

3. Is there any fictional character you particularly related to growing up? Um.  After moving to California but just before my weeb stage, I was really into Sailor Moon.  Like, really into it.  Sailor Jupiter in particular was like, my thing—she was taller than everyone else and that was occasionally a problem for her, and she had to switch schools and she was dealing with people being not-nice to her and she had brown hair like I did, and so on.  There was a couple years there where I convinced myself (and to some extent, everybody else) that “Lita” was one of my middle names; looking back I’m pretty sure I bought into that more than anybody else did, but that lasted a long-ass time so y’know :x

4. What is your first Halloween costume that you can remember wearing? What is your most recent and most importantly what is your favorite? Remember wearing?  Tails from the Sonic franchise, age 6-7ish.  First one I know I wore was Elmo, but I was like three at the time so I don’t personally remember it, but I definitely remember my mother “helping” me make a Tails costume a few years before we moved; it was made out of that kind of generic plain linen/cotton cloth that’s a little bit itchy until you run it through like twelve gallons of fabric softener, and the tails were very heavy and bogged the whole thing down.  My most recent is harder, because I think the most recent was seventh or eighth grade (which would have been like, 98-99) when I went to school dressed up as Vegeta from DBZ.  I got a lot of shit from my classmates for that one, but whatever I got a lot of shit from them constantly so fuck ‘em in retrospect.

Somewhere between Tails and Vegeta was a Sailor Jupiter costume, which I also got a lot of crap about (large fat girl in a short skirt walkin’ around your neighborhood, ooooh lock the doors she’ll jiggle you to death >:\) but at the time I’m pretty sure that one was my favourite; I remember wearing the skirt itself around the house afterwards and enjoying the way the pleats moved.  It wasn’t very comfortable (Halloween was cold out that year, and also it was made of that same type of fabric as Tails) but y’know.

5. If you could live in any film genre which one would you choose? What would be your role in this reality? Romanticized/utopian high fantasy, definitely.  Gotta be the romanticized kind tho, cos “realistic/gritty” high fantasy is like, woo I’m in exactly the same boat as now but without toilets and even less access to healthcare.  Granted, I’m super unimaginative so I suspect that would be my role regardless of genre, background serf doing exactly what I do now but with a wardrobe change.  Fantasy’s got the best wardrobes though so that’s fine.

6. Do you collect anything? if so what is your favorite thing in that collection? I don’t collect much IRL anymore except art and craft supplies, which get hoarded forever and rarely used.  It’s not a case of “they’re too expensive to use” or anything either, it’s just I never really see a good opportunity to whip out, for example, the giant matte acetate sheets I inherited from my mother when she stopped doing old school freelance graphic design stuff or the remnant of neon animal-print quilting cotton that would make a fantastic T-shirt if it was of an appropriate stretchiness and not, you know, quilting cotton.

In World of Warcraft I collect all the things you can collect in the collections nowadays—pets, mounts, toys, transmog appearances.  Even prior to any of the collections though, I collected shirts, and I own every shirt and shirt appearance available to players in the game (there’s one that Wowhead lists as having been in the game that I don’t own, but I’m reasonably certain that was a TBC beta-only shirt that never made it to live servers and have never seen any evidence to the contrary—it certainly wasn’t equipped on freshly-created blood elves who were supposed to have it, anyway).  My favourite shirt that I never get to use in transmog is the Trapper’s Shirt, previously called the Thug Shirt, which was the shirt that troll rogues were created wearing prior to... I think it was Cataclysm that all those shirts turned into chest pieces instead.  It’s not the most useful of the shirts available atm (that would probably be the Floot-Tooter’s Tunic, which is as close as we can currently get to a black turtleneck), but it’s aesthetically pleasing and I like it a lot.

7. What is your DnD alignment? Do you have any evidence to support this claim? Oof I’m bad at alignments.  I’d say probably Neutral Good-ish, leaning towards Lawful?  Breaking the rules mostly makes me anxious as hell, unless I’m really angry or the particular rule in question is exceptionally stupid.

8. When you were 10 what career did you think you would pursue? I dunno about when I was ten (I was still recovering from moving cross-country and losing all my friends and not having made any new ones yet), but I really only remember ever wanting to be an animator and artist.  Got on the path to do that at some point too, though it ended up not working out for a variety of reasons. Ten may have been the year I wanted to go into theater instead, but I have this very vivid memory of my mother watching a movie about auditions (I’m hesitant to say it was A Chorus Line but it may have been) and the lady I was rooting for got like, completely fucked over in some way that I can’t recall.  Whatever it was, it scared me away from anything bigger than community, lol :x

9. Do you have any fictional ship you really wish would happen even if it doesn’t make sense in canon? What is it, I wanna know. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm see one of my things about ships is that they have to make sense, unless we’re talking total crackships like Loken/Mal’Ganis.  I had an elaborate theory for how Chin Isou and Dokugakuji (from Gensomaden Saiyuki) could know each other and I sort-of shipped it, but I don’t remember exactly what all my reasoning was, and I’m no longer in a place in my life where I feel like I have to ship things.

10. Which Ninja Turtle or Power Ranger were you? Unless you were a person on a different team, then what team? Donatello was my turtle, and the Yellow Ranger was my jam (until she was replaced, then I think my affections went more pinkish).

11. If you could pick any Muppet to be roommates with who would you choose? Bonus points again why? Rowlf, probably.  I dunno, Kermit seems like the logical roommate but I think he and I would drive each other crazy (we both make that scrunched-up hand-face all the time, y’know? :P).  Rowlf just seems like he’d get along without fuss, and also he’s a chill talking piano-playing dog-thing so?

Optional tagging for @damantru​, @dundee998​, @angryfuturerobot​, @baronberserker​, @unlimitedgoats​, @amongthegentlymad​, @delphina2k​, @astrakiseki​, @bellamop​, @celestialmayhem​, and @grimmhooke​—I know y’all’ve got more important and/or interesting things you could be doing with your time so let’s try and give you more procrastination tools eh? :P  good plan xella A+ can’t go wrong

Anyway feel free to answer or not at your own discretion and/or whim!

1. Do you speak more than one language semi-fluently?  Are you interested in (or working on) learning more languages than you currently know?

2. When you’re having a down/blah day, what’s something that’s likely to make you feel slightly less shitty?

3. Are you an egg drop, hot & sour, or won ton soup kinda person?

4. If you wanted to order mixed vegetables, some sort of optional meat, and soft noodles at a chinese restaurant, what would that be called in your region? (this:)

5. What are your top five most-used spices/condiments?

6. If you’re cooking just for yourself, are you more likely to eat something quick or prepare a “full” meal?

7. What did “Exit Only” mean when seen on a road sign in the area you grew up?  Is it different where you live now?

8. Is there a word that, no matter how many times you try, you can never spell correctly on the first attempt?

9. How would you characterize your online “voice”?  Do you have different ways of typing for different situations, or do you “talk” the same way on Tumblr that you do on Twitter or Skype/Discord?

10. What was your least favourite fashion trend of the last few* years?  What do you want to come back in style? (*few = probably from like 2000 to now bc I have no sense of time lol)

11. If you had to choose only one, who would be your favourite character of yours (original or fan, idc)?  What are they like?  Describe them, I want them, give them to me!

[imagitory]

D-Views: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Good day, my followers, and welcome to another installment of D-Views, my written review series that focuses primarily around Disney-owned and/or produced films! Feel free to comb through my “Disney Reviews” tags for reviews on films like The Great Mouse Detective and The Muppets (2011) and even occasionally “Disney-look-alike” films like Dreamworks’ The Prince of Egypt! And of course, you can always submit suggestions for future subjects – here is my current list of upcoming reviews.

On December 27, 2016, the world mourned the loss of a blazing star in human form. Her name was Carrie Fisher, and today I’ll pay some tribute to her by reviewing the film that made her a household name – Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope!

The Star Wars franchise was the baby of film director George Lucas. In the 1970’s, George Lucas was a young, bright-eyed director who dreamed of making his own films outside the studio system. The idea of Star Wars started as early as 1971, at which time all Lucas knew was that he wanted to tell a “Space Western,” in the tradition of the old Flash Gordon serials he’d loved as a kid. In fact, in the very beginning, he thought to make a Flash Gordon movie, but he couldn’t get the rights. Lucas proposed two films to different studios with the hopes of getting them made – The Star Wars and American Graffiti – and although all the studios passed on Lucas’s “Space Western,” Universal picked up American Graffiti. When that film did well, it gave Lucas enough leverage to try to produce Star Wars at 20th Century Fox. In 1973 the screenwriting for Star Wars began. Many aspects of the story were retooled and edited over the next few years – for example, the very first draft of the film originally centered on an old general named “Annikin Starkiller” and featured Han Solo as a large, gilled, green-skinned alien. The single biggest influence on Lucas’s finished product, however, is unquestionably the work of Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who researched and wrote books about the different tropes commonly found in folklore around the world, most notably the Hero’s Journey. Over time, Lucas edited his story to follow these tropes more closely – changing his old hero into a young man, introducing the difficult relationship between father and son, and rewriting the tale to be about temptation and redemption. As Lucas refined the story, he soon realized that his tale could not be told in one film…and so the idea of splitting the script into three “acts” was born. The script for the first film, which at that time was just called Star Wars rather than Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, was not completed until 1976.

The production of Star Wars is an adventure unto itself. Not only were the effects needed for this kind of a film completely uncharted territory for the time; not only were the desert locations very difficult to work in; not only was the production constantly straining the small budget they had; not only was the production constantly behind schedule due to glitches in machinery and bad weather; not only was Lucas not very good at directing his actors (which apparently he has never really improved in); not only was 20th Century Fox’s board of directors looking down their noses at the project and constantly one foot away from pulling the plug on it; not only was the first cut of the film so bad that Lucas had to re-shoot a lot of footage after the fact and Lucas’s wife ended up re-editing it; but also nobody – and I mean nobody – believed that this film would do well. George Lucas was so convinced that this film would fail that at the very beginning, he’d put it in his contract with Fox that he had to be allowed to produce all three Star Wars films, even if they did badly at the box office.

In short, the production of Star Wars Episode IV was a true underdog story…and boy oh boy, was the finished result the perfect ending for such a story. We all know how big Star Wars became. Episode IV earned over a million dollars in its opening weekend alone – globally it earned $530 million and is, when box office profits are adjusted for inflation, the third highest-grossing film of all time. It also won six Academy Awards, won a Golden Globe for Best Score, was nominated for six British Academy Film Awards, received twelve nominations at the Saturn Awards, and won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Both critics and audiences adored this film; at Rotten Tomatoes it has a comfortable 93% Fresh Rating. Episode IV also paved the way for its sequels, Episode V and Episode VI, as well as two spin-off TV series, a whole bunch of comics and books, a terrible holiday special, a popular ride at the Disney theme parks, a prequel trilogy that likewise inspired its own spin-off TV series, and lots and LOTS of toys. Today the franchise, now owned by Disney, is still making movies (the most recent of which is a direct prequel to Episode IV), and there are even plans to build a full “Star Wars Land” in Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Star Wars became a phenomenon, and even with its ups and downs through the years, it still is one. Disregarding all the hype, however…let us now venture into this movie and review it properly.

…GAH, I CAN’T – THAT OPENING THEME MUSIC JUST MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME NOT TO BE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY EXCITED – CURSE YOU, JOHN WILLIAMS, YOU’VE ALREADY REDUCED ME TO SQUEEING LIKE AN IDIOT –

Okay, okay, gather your composure, Tory. Remember, that music has preceded some stupid stuff. Get it together. (takes a breath) All right…let’s continue.

GODDAMN IT, THAT OPENING SHOT – THAT TOO-PERFECT, AMAZING OPENING SHOT THAT WITHOUT ANY DIALOGUE COMPLETELY SUMS UP BOTH THE MIGHT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE HOPELESSNESS OF THE REBELLION’S CAUSE AND GETS US COMPLETELY SUCKED INTO THE DRAMA AND –

OKAY, ENOUGH. Use your big, intelligent words, Tory – for goodness’ sake. I know it’s cool. It’s very cool. It’s cool from a filmmaking perspective and it’s cool from a dramatic perspective. It’s so cool that The Force Awakens knew that it had to evoke that kind of scale when portraying the First Order.

Anyway, the soldiers on Leia’s ship try hopelessly to fend off the Stormtroopers; laser blasts are everywhere, and smoke obscures the halls. Admittedly I’ve always found it weird and kind of hilarious that both the Rebels and the Stormtroopers’ aim is so awful that R2D2 and C3PO can just walk right through the battle and not suffer any damage. But I am fortunately distracted from that by the door to the hallway opening behind the Stormtroopers, announcing the arrival of…

VADER!!! THE SITH LORD OF MY HEART! THE CHOSEN ONE – AS IN THE ONE I HAVE CHOSEN TO LOVE WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING – !

Yeah, I think those of you who’ve followed me for a while expected this. Darth Vader is my favorite character in the Star Wars films, no contest. The reason behind this I sadly will have to go more into when I talk about Return of the Jedi, but fortunately I’ve already talked about Revenge of the Sith, so perhaps in that review, you can get a hint of my thoughts regarding my bae. What I’ll say for now, however, is that the film introduces its primary antagonist perfectly. You don’t even need that much screen time with this character to know you don’t want to mess with him. The foreboding chord of music announcing his entrance; the way he silently looms over the dead Rebel soldiers; the mechanical breathing; the fact that you can’t see his face and therefore can’t know what he’s thinking or feeling at any particular time; and then finally his low, dark voice when he speaks – Good GOD, James Earl Jones. It’s funny when you remember that David Prowse, the man who actually acted in the Darth Vader suit, had no idea that his voice was going to be dubbed over, but thank whatever God there is that he was. The people who worked on all the folly, sound effects, and other post-production audio of Star Wars I think were some of the most unsung heroes of the film – without their contribution, this film would’ve fallen flat on its face, and Darth Vader wouldn’t be half as memorable and menacing as he is.

It is after the entrance of Darth Vader that we finally see our princess, Car – I mean, Leia Organa. God, she looks so young…it’s kind of surreal, really, looking back at Carrie in this film after only just starting to get used to a much older Carrie portraying Leia in The Force Awakens. It had been surreal first seeing her play that older Leia, too. You forget sometimes how very mortal these people are, when you associate them with a certain character for so long, particularly when the character is in a live-action film as opposed to an animated one.

Back to the plot, though. Leia passes the plans to the Death Star off to R2, and R2 and 3PO sneak into an escape pod that drops them off on the desert planet Tatooine, while Leia and the other Rebels are captured. The Stormtroopers pursue the droids (without Vader in tow, because of course not – HE HATES SAND!), and R2 and 3PO end up in the hands of Owen Lars and his nephew, Luke Skywalker.

LUUUUUUKE, WOOK AT THE WITTLE LUUUUUKE, I JUST WANNA PINCH HIS CHEEKS.

Yeah, sorry, I can’t get over how young these guys look. I have since fallen in love with Mark Hamil for his career in voice acting and his overall awesomeness, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t also adore him as Luke. Even though Mark, like the rest of the cast, did not think this film would succeed, and I would argue Hamil’s performance in this film isn’t half as good as in Empire and Jedi, he still just conveys such likeability. And before any of you try to say that this kid is whiny just because he wanted to go get some power converters rather than do his chores…dude. It’s called an arc. A character has to start off with some flaws if he is to grow over the course of the story. There are plenty of “Hero” characters that have had whiny or angsty moments toward the beginning of their arc too – Sailor Moon and Bilbo Baggins, for example. And that supposedly whiny aspect of Luke is only really expressed in one scene – Anakin was a hell of a lot worse in Attack of the Clones, and considering that Luke is his son, I think Luke’s more than entitled to a little bit of drama. It’s practically in his blood – his mother Padme ended up being melodramatic a few times in Clones and Sith, Leia gets plenty of opportunities to be totally bossy and obnoxious…and I’m not even touching Kylo. (In short? Skywalker family = drama queens all.)

Luke stumbles upon the transmission of Leia and is intrigued by this strange, beautiful girl asking for help. R2, however, goes about his mission of locating Obi-Wan Kenobi by leaving the Lars home that morning, and Luke and 3PO are forced to give chase to find him before Owen discovers that R2 has gone missing. The three get attacked by Sand People (goddamn it, Anakin, your bad karma is going to get your son killed! Honestly!), and Obi-Wan comes to their rescue.

I have to admit...as soon as Alec Guiness takes off his hood, I can’t stop myself from grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Obi-Wan as a character I have such a complicated relationship with (hewasyourbrotherObihowDAREyouevenTHINKofleavinghimbehindtoburntodeathyoulovedhimandyou’rebetterthanthatandwaaaaaaaah), but I still love him so. Alec brings so much likeability to this character that we will see more and more flaws from as the series goes on. Apparently on set, all the younger actors greatly respected Alec’s professionalism – even despite the ridiculousness of the script, he took his performance so seriously that he ended up rubbing off on some of the fresher faces on set. Honestly, I’m not surprised. Even when he’s talking to a little blue and white robot, Alec acts alongside it like he would any other actor. Speaking of R2, though, it’s very strange to think of R2’s role in the prequel trilogy and the Clone Wars TV show when Obi-Wan says things like, “I don’t recall ever owning a droid.” I know that R2 was originally Padme’s and ended up belonging more to Anakin than Obi-Wan, but Anakin and Obi-Wan worked together a lot, and R2 accompanied them on missions. R2 didn’t have his memory wiped like 3PO did, and even if he had, Obi-Wan should definitely still remember him. Moments like this show that R2 and Obi-Wan were not originally meant to have any history – otherwise Obi-Wan would’ve been like, “This little droid and I are old friends…aren’t we?” and R2 would’ve been like, “Beep-beep boooop~!”

Obi-Wan and Luke go back to Obi-Wan’s place with 3PO and R2 in tow, and Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father. There are a couple of other lines in this exchange that don’t ring true, when one looks at the prequel trilogy. This one sticks out the most to me –

“[Your uncle] didn’t hold with your father’s ideals, thought he should’ve stayed here and not gotten involved.”

Owen and Anakin have no relationship in the prequels at all. Anakin only meets Owen – the son of the man who bought and later married his mother Shmi while he was off training with Obi-Wan – when he and Padme go back to Tatooine in Attack of the Clones. In that time, they spend almost no time together – Owen barely gets any screen time that isn’t devoted to exposition or Shmi’s funeral. There’s no time for Anakin and Owen to learn anything about one another in Clones, and I don’t think that dynamic is changed at all in the Clone Wars TV series, since Anakin has no desire to return to Tatooine after what happened to his mother. Even if Owen cared for Shmi as a mother and therefore felt sour that his stepmother’s first son sort of just left her behind on Tatooine (which I think is totally legit) and later left a son behind too, I have trouble seeing that as evidence of Owen “not holding with Anakin’s ideals.” If anything, I think it’d be more likely Owen would just think of Anakin as a deadbeat son and father (again, pretty justifiably, given his limited knowledge base). This particular relationship is one that I wish had been delved into more in the prequels, but I suppose I should hold off on talking about this fully until any future review I do of Attack of the Clones.

Then of course in this scene you also have Obi-Wan giving Luke Anakin’s lightsaber, which apparently Anakin would’ve wanted Luke to have, when he was old enough. …Right. I’m sure he would have, Obi-Wan – was that edited out of his wrathful, screaming speech at the end of Revenge of the Sith? “I HATE YOU! Also, please give Luke my lightsaber when he’s old enough. ARGGGGGHHHH!” But regardless, I’d like to think that Obi-Wan is saying this because he thinks Anakin would’ve wanted Luke to become a Jedi like him, if everything hadn’t gone so bad in Sith. I’d like to think that – even if he’s lying through his teeth. After all, who’s to say that Anakin wouldn’t have expected Luke to build his own lightsaber, like all the other wittle Jedi did? I would rant more on this, but…my fangirling over the coolness of the lightsaber sound effects is kind of making it hard for me to be cohesive again.

Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father, pointedly leaving certain things out and manipulating his words in a way that is so totally not lying (o hai sarcasm), and then comes across Leia’s full transmission. Obi-Wan tries to enlist Luke to train with him in the Force and accompany him to Alderaan, but Luke, in classic Hero’s Journey fashion, “rejects the call.” He’s too focused on his life on Tatooine and his responsibilities to his aunt and uncle to immediately jump ship and go off on an adventure. This all changes, however, when Luke discovers that the Stormtroopers traced the droids to the Lars moisture farm and slaughtered his aunt and uncle. It is only then, when Luke has nothing left, that he accepts Obi-Wan’s request and starts his journey.

Meanwhile, on the Death Star, we return our focus to the Sith Lord of My Heart, talking over the threat of the Rebellion with Moff Tarkin and the other Imperial officers. Something really fun to do while watching this scene is to try to imagine Anakin’s facial expressions under Vader’s mask – when that one Imperial officer insults Anakin’s “devotion” to his “ancient religion,” I can’t help but picture Anakin’s eyes glinting a very cold yellow and, as he Force-chokes the officer, Anakin looking down his nose at him like he’s some lowly insect. I also just love Peter Cushing as Tarkin – his screen presence is so strong that he really only needs a few short scenes to assert himself as a villain on the same level as Vader, even though he doesn’t have the power to crush someone’s throat with a thought.

Luke, Obi-Wan, 3PO, and R2 go to Mos Eisley to find themselves a ship to Alderaan, where we first meet Chewbacca and our handsome rogue Han Solo. Now, of course, since I’m watching the special edition DVD of this film, I sadly have to watch Greedo shoot first as well as that thoroughly unnecessary scene with the horrifically rendered CGI Jabba the Hutt, but this doesn’t change the fact that Han is a total bad ass. His snarkiness and streetwise air are just so inherently charming. It also creates a great contrast between him and naive, idealistic Luke, which makes for some very amusing banter between them. And if that wasn’t enough, Han has the coolest spaceship ever – even if it looks like a giant pizza pie.

On the Death Star, Leia is brought before Tarkin by Vader and, in true Skywalker fashion, sasses Tarkin’s face off. (Oh Leia, how I love you.) Unfortunately Tarkin is in no mood to be merciful, and he demonstrates the Empire’s new might by using the Death Star’s lasers to blow up Leia’s home planet, Alderaan. One of the major criticisms I have for the Star Wars films in general is how much this scene could’ve been devastating, either by having the prequels or just A New Hope show more of the planet and its people (therefore making us see how much we were losing) or by actually showing Leia mourn the loss of her people. A New Hope, however, completely sidesteps this. I didn’t need to see Leia break down in front of Tarkin and Vader, but I still think it would’ve been nice to have a scene afterwards of Leia breaking down in her cell or referencing the loss of her family and people in a later scene. I also think that it would’ve been interesting to show more scenes with Vader and Leia that could’ve hinted more to their true relationship – like maybe Vader greatly detests Leia because she reminds him of his dead wife visually and, on an even deeper level, she subconsciously reminds him of the man he used to be. I almost could read this meaning into when Vader coolly tells Tarkin that he knew Leia would never betray the Rebellion – Leia, like Anakin, would’ve seen betraying his friends as the ultimate dishonor. But again, this is a head-canon, more than a theory based on any actual canon. And before any of you try to correct me, yes, I know that Lucas was still rewriting stuff in the second two volumes of the trilogy while and after working on A New Hope, and that Leia, Luke, and Vader all being related may or may not have been fully planned by Lucas from the beginning. I’m just pointing out how this film doesn’t set up for the major plot developments that happen later, since most people know all about these twists, many before even seeing the films, and so will notice where plot elements don’t match up.

While en route to the now-destroyed Alderaan, the Millennium Falcon gets stuck in a tractor beam from the Death Star, pulling Luke and the others into the Empire’s grasp. Luke, Obi-Wan, Han, Chewbacca, and the droids sneak off the ship, trying to find a way to escape, and in the process find out that Leia is on board. When investigating the Falcon, Vader senses something that he hasn’t sensed in a long time – and as I know other people have pointed out, it may not have been Obi-Wan, as we are led to believe, but his son, Luke, who had just started learning the ways of the Force a few scenes prior. Couldn’t the Force, so like his own and his wife’s, have called out to Vader? But admittedly, he never sensed any bond to Leia and Vader speaks of sensing Obi-Wan to Tarkin, so it’s nothing more than a fan theory. Han, Chewbacca, and Luke go to save Leia, while Obi-Wan goes to turn off the tractor beam and the droids try to stay hidden in the control room. And in traditional Hero’s Journey fashion, as soon as our three major characters come together, sparks fly and fun ensues. Just like other Heart-Body-Brain trios like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, Luke, Han, and Leia’s personalities bounce off each other perfectly and balance out each other’s flaws. Something else I also love about this rescue scene is Leia completely dismantling the idea that she is the damsel in distress by snatching Luke’s blaster away and shooting the Stormtroopers up herself. (Hellz yeah! Hail to the princess, baby!) Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca jump into the garbage chute to escape the Stormtroopers, right before having to escape a monster living in the slowly closing garbage chute, and then run back toward the Falcon. Even as they’re doing that, though, Leia can’t help but sass it up some more. 

(grins like an idiot)

Obi-Wan and Vader confront one another, and I must admit, after watching Revenge of the Sith pretty recently, I find this duel a million times more engaging than that one. I think part of it, admittedly, is that the Sith duel was so long and this one is not as drawn-out, but I also think a lot of it comes from the fact that there is actual suspense. In Sith, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel is highly choreographed and challenging, but it’s also done mostly in CG environments and with a lot of cuts. We don’t really see them getting tired or struggling that much, and it’s so intricate and well-timed that it looks more like a dance than a fight. But in this duel, we see that both of these characters are not invulnerable…and really, considering that we’ve seen Vader Force-choke a dude a few scenes prior, I think that Vader choosing not to do that and instead to simply lightsaber-duel with Obi-Wan says something. It’s like he’s trying to evoke their last battle – the one where he lost his limbs and his ability to breathe on his own. Vader has enough honor left in him that he will kill Obi-Wan in a duel, not with Sith tricks. Admittedly the lightsaber battles get much better in future films from a choreography standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint, I still think this one holds up pretty well.

The most powerful point, of course, is at the end when Obi-Wan, catching sight of Luke, knows he has won…and so stops fighting, raises his lightsaber to his face, and accepts his death. In a demented way, Obi-Wan knows that Luke watching him die at Vader’s hands will give him the motivation needed to kill Vader and “bring balance to the Force” – because of course, being Vader’s son, Luke would be the only one powerful enough to defeat Vader. Obi-Wan may be a manipulative little so-and-so…but one cannot deny that he went out with style. And now that he’s one with the Force, he can be with Luke wherever he goes.

Han and Chewbacca fly Leia, Luke, and the droids to the Rebel base, but unfortunately the Empire cleverly put a tracking device on the Falcon, which allows the Imperial forces aboard the Death Star to find them. The Death Star gets into position to destroy the base, and the Rebels try to use the plans inside R2 to counterattack. Han bails, fully intending to go back to smuggling, and Luke bitterly scolds him for his selfishness. Even so, they wish each other the best before they part. (And honestly, the entire audience knows that Han is going to come back later -- that kind of plot thread was hackneyed even back in the 70′s.) Luke, meanwhile, joins the Rebel fighter pilots, and while there meets up with an old friend from Tatooine, Biggs Darklighter. Biggs’ and Luke’s friendship is not really explored that much in the movies, and I frankly would’ve liked to see more of it, since he ends up dying not long after we meet him and so it’s sort of hard to care that much.

The Battle of Yavin begins, with the Rebel Squadrons trying to take down the Death Star. At first they’re able to avoid the Death Star’s blasts, but as soon as Darth Vader takes his own Imperial Squadron into the fight, the Rebel ships are shot down en masse. True to Obi-Wan’s words, Vader in this battle proves that he was “the best star pilot in the galaxy” by shooting the Rebel pilots down with precision. Luke is almost taken out as well, but in the nick of time, Han (of course) comes back in the Millennium Falcon and shoots down Vader’s ship, making it spin off into distant space. Luke finally has the chance to fire at the Death Star’s weak point and decides, upon hearing Obi-Wan’s advice in his head, to turn off his navicomputer. He will not trust the machinery – instead he’ll trust his instincts, and it’s his instincts that help him take down the Death Star and save the Rebel Alliance. And so our film ends triumphantly, with our heroes reunited and looking to the future with optimism.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, despite its shortcomings (bad CG updates, dialogue that doesn’t make sense with the films that came later, the lack of development for certain characters), perfectly encapsulates its title. By the end of the film, my heart is completely full of hope. Even though I know everything to come – even if I know that Star Wars as a franchise created a lot of bad along with the good – it’s close to impossible for me to look at this first installment with anything other than fondness. It reminds me of how much this film, and the original trilogy in general, was lightning in a bottle, unable to be replicated again. There will never be another performance like Mark Hamil’s of Luke Skywalker. There will never be another performance like Peter Cushing’s of Moff Tarkin.There will never be another performance like Alec Guiness’s of Obi-Wan Kenobi.  There will never be another performance like James Earl Jones’s of Darth Vader. There will never be another performance like Harrison Ford’s of Han Solo. Most relevantly, there will never be another performance like Carrie Fisher’s of Leia Organa. We can try to pick apart Star Wars as a franchise, but I truly think that this first chapter was the best one it could’ve possibly started with. A New Hope is not a perfect film by any means. The effects, both in the original and updated versions, do not always hold up; the loss of Alderaan and of Luke’s friend Biggs don’t leave much of an impression; sometimes the acting can be stilted; and the strict adherence that this film and its sequels give to the Hero’s Journey formula makes their stories almost comically predictable. But I almost think the little foibles and flaws make the film that much more human and authentic, as well as interesting to examine from a filmmaking perspective. After all, when this movie came out, nobody really cared about the flaws we can pick apart today – audiences just got so invested in the story, the characters, the effects, and the drama. And that says something about film in general – even the most standard story in a flawed, imperfect film can touch people so much that it becomes an icon, if it mixes the old with the new.