Cousins?

Oh, Captain, my Captain!

Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

Let's take a moment and discuss some of the pros and cons of spoilers.

Below are a few examples/anecdotes about some interesting spoilers.  All of these are fairly or very old...so they are HEAVILY spoiler laden.  I'm guessing anyone reading this post has seen them all...or at least know the twists.  In order to give you a chance to avoid the below spoilers...before you get to these spoilers, I will be embedding a kick butt photo of Star Wars Kittens.

But before we get to that, I wanted to point out that this post is in response to listening to the Echo Base podcast on ForceCast.net (hosted by Erik Blythe, Eric Geller, Louis Secki and Justin Bolger.  One or two of these fellow geeks (I'm sorry...I can't remember which ones) reported that they got more enjoyment of their first viewing of the movie Revenge of the Sith (May 2005) because they had already read the novelization of Revenge of the Sith (April 2005) before watching the movie.  One said, "I was spoiled up the wazoo and I loved it."  (Awesome quote!)

Anyways...their contention was that this was not a "spoiler" because they still got to experience the narrative flow as intended.  They got their surprises during their reading of the book instead of during their watching of the movie.  This is even less of a potential spoiler, in this case, because so much of the events after Episode III get revealed just by watching Episodes IV, V and VI.  (Please see my thoughts on the "correct" viewing order at: http://rosie-verses.blogspot.com/p/the-definitive-okaythe-highly.html.  Hint: It's 451236...mostly.)

Here is the link to the full podcast episode to listen for yourself: Echo Base #2: Knowing Too Much.

I have to say that I found that to be a fascinating idea! I had read both Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings prior to seeing the films, and they greatly added to the experience.  And I agree that this is very different than knowing a big twist from the beginning. However, my short response is that if a film needs a novel to complete the narrative, then it has failed in the medium of filmmaking as a complete piece. But that's okay. It doesn't mean it is bad or is without any merit at all. There was LOTS that I truly enjoyed about Ep. III, but, sadly, the bottom line is that I contend it was not a complete film. (I'll do my best to explain why below.)

But before I go on...let's discuss spoilers, in general.

I will start with a premise.  The premise is that what truly stays with us in our experiences is not the details of an event, but the memory of how the event made us feel.

In a narrative, the satisfaction of a dramatic climax is the result of following the following basic sequential steps:

1. Introduce Characters and Setting.
2. Put Characters in Danger.
3. Resolve Danger.

If this formula is not followed in this order, then there is no tension...no excitement...no emotional connection. There is some flexibility in Steps 1 and 2.  You can start the story by presenting the danger, then introducing the characters & setting.  But the resolution of the conflict must be in the final act.

Goosebumps and Feels

Geekbumps and Feels are those moments: sometimes your hair stands on end...sometimes some dust drifts into your eyes.   Either way they are the moments that stick with you and why we love our stories.

Please comment with any I left out...

Star Wars: 

• Luke looking over the horizon at the twin setting suns.
• The swing over the chasm.
• "Never tell me the odds!" followed by the music crescendo.
• "I love you."  "I know."
• "No...that's not true.  That's impossible. No!  Nooooo!"
• Lando and Chewie fly off with Luke, Leia and the droids watching...then the fleet moves forward...followed by the music crescendo.
• Luke losing it when Vader indicates that he will try to turn Leia.

Star Trek:

• "Ship out of danger?"  "You are now, and will always be...my friend."
• "Of all the souls, his was the most...human."
• Tasha Yar's Memorial Service
• Inner Light
• Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.   Shaka when the walls fell.
• Lorcutus
• Pilot of DS9.  "Why do you keep returning to this moment?"

Doctor Who:

     • Bad Wolf Bay

     • Martha inspires the world to believe in The Doctor

     • Donna's Mind burns

     • The Doctor introduces Vincent van Gogh to the docent (Bill Nighy)

     • "Rory?   Rory who?"

     • "Hello, Stonehenge!!!"

     • Amelia Pond blinks

     • John Hurt saves The Doctor from The Doctor

     • "I've always believed in Santa Claus."

Others:

• ET Dies
• ET Lives
• Independence Day speech
• Indiana Jones loves Marion
• Juliet falling into the shaft during The Incident in LOST
• Hurley remembers Libby in the Flashsideways in LOST
• Hurley sees Charlie in the Flashsideways in LOST

George Lucus on midichlorians

George Lucas in the audio commentary of the 2008 DVD version of Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope: 

"The film was kind of shot from the robots point of view.  I was sort of amused by that...at the time it was a very bold idea to have the first half hour to be mainly about robots.  The only real human character in the first 20 minutes of the movie is Princess Leia. 

My introduction to Kurosawa films were very powerful because it happened in film school and I knew very little about Japanese history at that point.  And when I would get thrown into something like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo or any of those movies, it was like I had no idea what was going on.  

I mean, I could follow the human story, but the culture was completely complex and oblique...and I liked that feeling of being thrown into an environment, you know...trying to get my bearings and still be able to tell a story that made sense.  That you weren't so confused that you couldn't follow it.

I can't stand it when in a fantasy film you just sit around and try to explain how a teleporter works or why.   You know...it's just not what the movie needs to be about."

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"I was very keen on making a movie that was like watching a foreign film where you just didn’t know the world you were in.  You just didn’t know what was going on.  You didn’t know the politics.  You didn’t know anything and nothing was explained to you.

So, you were simply thrown into this world and there’s an adventure going on and you have to, you know, get with it, as opposed to a traditional fantasy film where they spend a lot of time sort of explaining everything.

Unfortunately, now I’m in the position of having to explain everything."

Was Yoda the "one" that cheated death? (A Rosie's Revisions Essay)

Ok..let's see where this goes:  In Episode III, Palpatine mentioned that only one person had ever figured out how to use The Force to cheat death.  Many fans assumed that this referred to Darth Plagieus.  I think even some of the legendary Extended Universe novels confirms that Plagieus was the individual who Palpatine was referring to.

But what if it was Yoda who was the being who had learnt to cheat Death?   Maybe that is why there was a Dark Cave on Dagobah.   

In the films, they say that the Sith have been vanquished for a thousand years.  Well what if that was approximate?   With a time gap that long, it would be easy to be off by a few hundred years.   Say that Darth Bane actually started the Rule of 2 not 1,000 years ago, but, say 870 years ago.   (I know this has no correlation in the Legends books about Bane...but I am just going with what is shown in the movies and in The Clone Wars series)

Anyways, if THAT were the time of Bane's life and death, then Yoda could have been among the Jedi who hunted him down and defeated the Sith.  Yoda would have been about 30 years old.

Now, say, during the climax of this final battle to defeat the Sith, Yoda participates with an elite squad of Jedi to eliminate the Sith leader, Darth Bane and the last of Bane's apprentices.  They chase the remaining Sith to the solar system holding Bane's secret sanctum in a cave complex on a distant, uncharted planet called Dagobah.   Bane has selected this planet because although it is uninhabited by sentient beings, it is teeming with life...life that using Dark rituals, Bane tapped into to siphon off of and to strengthen his ties to the Dark Side and, thus, his own power. 

Recall that the cave had parts with formed concrete-like door arches and  relatively smooth walls.  Someone built a lasting structure there ages ago.

Ok...back to 870 years ago...

After a fierce and deadly firefight above the planet, the remaining combatants either landed on whatever solid ground they could find or survived their crashes.  Both sides converged on each other for a final lightsaber confrontation.   

Fierce duels erupted and for days both sides drew on The Force in an all out melee to finally put an end to their opponents.

Eventually, only two remained.   Yoda and Bane.   Although nearing utter exhaustion, the two continued to duel for hours...each knowing the the other's death would bring lasting victory for their side.

Bane finally bests Yoda, cutting a gash in his leg and stabbing the young Jedi Master through the chest and leaves him for dead.   Bane realized that in the aftermath of the slaughter of the Sith at the hands of the Jedi still vast in number throughout the Galaxy, Bane was now alone in the universe. Only through guile and deception could the Sith ever hope to gain enough strength to return to their former glory.

Bane overconfidently whispered his new Rule of Two into Yoda's ear thinking his secret plan would go to the grave with his defeated pursuer to torture him in his last few moments.   Bane kicked Yoda's limp body into the cave and left him in what he believed would soon be Yoda's tomb.

As the sound of the thrusters of Bane's escaping ship fades into the natural muffled sounds of the Dagobah wilderness, Yoda weakly reaches out to The Force begging for a chance to prevent the implementation of Bane's horrors.

He knew that it would be up to him to make sure that the Jedi remain strong enough to be prepared for the return of Bane's followers and the inevitable Revenge of the Sith.  The Jedi must know that the Sith remained and would return someday stronger than ever to get their revenge.

Having no other options, Yoda desperately tapped into the deepest reaches of The Force searching through the Light and then in sheer desperation opened his heart to the Dark for any chance to fight death so he can live long enough to train the Jedi for the coming battles...to watch and wait until the One who has been Chosen to bring balance to The Force is finally revealed.

Yoda sacrifices his own purity with this one ultimate act of Dark Force.  By consuming the vast life forms surrounding him on Dagobah, this dark, unnatural act, which would go on to sustain the Jedi Master's life far beyond his time would imprint The Cave forever with echos of its Dark past.

Yoda's silent torment of his dark sacrifice burned through his every moment for the millennium that follows.   This is how he knew, first-hand, that once you walk down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.   It consumed him.   He wrapped himself in a mask of shame for what he had done, hiding this dark secret from even his closest of allies.

But he carried on knowing that his sacrifice must not be in vain.   He blocked out the Darkness that forever burned at his soul.   He knew that he must live on until he could train the Chosen One...whenever that may be.

Over 800 years passed and he would go on to train generation after generation of Jedi.   Eventually, with the fall of the Jedi after Order 66, he thought that he HAD trained the Chosen One, but because he had blinded himself to the Power he was not able to protect him or to teach him to protect himself for the Dark temptations...until it was too late.

The only thing that protected Yoda during the Dark Times of the Empire during his hiding and exile following Order 66 was his return to Dagobah...the location of his greatest failure and self-sacrifice.  As bright a Light that Yoda was during his long life, there would have been nowhere in the Galaxy that he could hide from one as powerful as Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine would could reach out into the Force and sense others strong in The Force...especially one as strong as Yoda.  The Darkness of the Cave and Brightness of Yoda's Spirit balanced one another and cancelled themselves out,  obscuring him from their distant gazing reaching out through and with the Dark Side of the Force.  From Vader's point of view...Dagobah was a blank...a void...a nothing,  like the rest of the Galaxy.

Just as Obi-wan built a home by the remains of the Tusken Raiders that Anakin had slaughtered to mask himself, so too did Yoda remain hidden from any sensitive to The Force.

In his final hours, after centuries of torment, Yoda realized that it would be Luke who would be able to fulfill the ancient promise of bringing balance to The Force.  He would finally be able let go of his crude matter and with balance restored could finally become one with The Force.

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And if Kathleen Kennedy uses this as the story for one of the Anthology films, all I want is a guarantee that Mark Hamill voices Darth Bane under the mask and that I get to go to the premiere and sit next to him.  I will leave it up to Ms. Kennedy to decide between Frank Oz and Tom Kane for the voice of Yoda.  I'd be happy with both.  However...my head might explode if I sat between Mr. Oz and Mr. Hamill at the premiere...so, for my safety, it probably aught to be Mr. Kane.  Nah...if that's how I die...I'd be happy with that.  Either way...it'll be a hell of a night!

Expectations of Episode VII - Part One (The Tone)

What are my expectations the Episode VII?

I agree that one's opinion of the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy (PT) greatly depends on your point of view (in other words...how old you were when you saw the films, and in what order).  But there WERE some key differences between the OT and the PT they differentiate between the two eras.   I think the most significant is character interaction and storytelling style.

The characters in the OT related to one another organically.   They were just fun.   Had it only been the 1977 film, Star Wars could have been a one-shot classic like Jaws or The Goonies.   That enough would have locked it in our collective subconsciousness.  But what made the saga so long lived were the pathos and relatable trials of the heroes in ESB and ROTJ.

Luke was shown as he grew as a man from an impetuous, cocky, idealistic youth into a...ok...he was still pretty impetuous, cocky, idealistic and young by the end of ESB, but you could SEE through his many failures (the cave, the ship in the swamp, the duel on Cloud City, etc.) how he gained the wisdom and patience to begin to truly face his demons in ROTJ.   The films SHOWED the steps of his journey and where his turning points were.

Anakin's story never quite left the outline stage.   His story was TOLD to the audience through exposition.   The action on the screen rarely showed his developmental story.   Sure, there were a few sequences that showed his character (pod racer = bravery; Coruscant speeder chase = determination; sand people slaughter = giving in to hate, etc.).  But very little was conveyed more than very superficial concepts.