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So I am one of those weird people who likes to analyze even the most basic of stories. Pick ’em apart and see what makes ’em good— or bad. Either way. 😀
And I got to wondering, why do so many people (myself included) love Star Wars so much? I mean, as far as plot goes, it doesn’t get much more typical than that. I’ve only seen ‘A New Hope’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’, so I don’t know about the other three, but for those three I loved them. So I asked myself why?
I could do this with any story, but I figured I’d use Star Wars because most of us have probably seen that one, therefore spoilers are a minimal risk. 😛
I’m going to list a few reasons right off the top of my head that so many people love those movies. Please join in. And I’ll give you until the end of this post to figure out who my favorite character is.
1. The dialogue is absolutely fantastic. Especially Han Solo’s— who doesn’t wish they could think of the perfect sarcastic retort at the perfect time?
2. Great attention is paid to little things. Think— if the Millennium Falcon hadn’t been a bucket of bolts, what fun would that be? Half the epic chase scenes would have been dull and typical, not to mention it’s used to develop Han Solo’s character. And if Yoda didn’t speak in reversed sentences, half the charm of his character is gone.
3. Protagonists doesn’t necessarily mean best friends. You love both C3PO and Han Solo, yet they absolutely cannot stand each other. Same with Chewie and C3PO. Hm… it must be a ‘3PO problem. 😛 And so much tension and subject matter is added that way.
4. The end scene for the entire series (that I’ve watched) had everyone in it. Every character you cared about was there— they got one more moment in the spotlight, however brief, and you smiled because they were happy, and you wanted them to be happy.
5. ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (my favorite) ended on an extreme cliffhanger (at least for anyone who cares an iota for Han) and carries over very well into the last one.
6. SPOILER ALERT. Han’s romance with the Princess, though technically typical, was actually very well done to my thinking. I think it was because of the unique circumstances, and the different settings used for each scene that progressed that love story. Especially the circumstances under which Leia told Han she loved him. I mean, for goodness’ sakes, he was about to die! And die being used as an experiment, too— and for the bad guys! How can it get any worse than that? And the whole Cloud City sequence— that was probably almost my top favorite series of scenes in the whole story. You feel awful for Leia and terrified for Luke, but Han completely stole the show for me. Anyway. I’m done ranting on that.
7. SPOILER ALERT. Vader’s ‘treachery’ was totally unexpected— only once was it foreshadowed, and that was good. It’s not always good to do that, but it worked very well in this instance.
8. In the scene where the Emperor is trying to turn Luke to the Dark Side, there is a very distinct conflict of ideals with no obvious resolution. If Luke attacks the Emperor and kills him, the Emperor will have won, because Luke would have given in to his anger and hatred as the Emperor wanted him to do.
9. Comic relief (in C3PO’s form) was well used— not too sparingly, but not overdone either. The tension was still great, and the comic relief stopped quite a few scenes from bordering on melodrama.
10. All the characters were great. Conflicted, contradictory, challenged, distinct, human… even the droids had personalities. All the characters are wonderful. Especially Han Solo. (I just gave myself away there, didn’t I?) Because you don’t necessarily like him at the outset. He’s greedy and selfish and sarcast— okay, he doesn’t ever get un-sarcastic. But he grows on you. You watch him look after Luke, and you see his affection for Chewie, and you watch him falling in love with the Princess, and you’re like… this guy isn’t so bad after all.
So… what do you think?
I haven’t watched star wars in forever but I think I can say that it had a good plot in that you never really knew what was going to happen next, you were kept in the present and that made things more exciting.
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Yes, definitely. Not a whole lot of foreshadowing with anything— a few vague, disquieting hints here and there, but otherwise you’re left on your own and the discovery is all yours when it comes.
And then there are the home grown effects, they look real, not “render farmed” It’s something that looks different, realer.
Or something like that.@Mark-McGuire— yes! They did it without any of the fancy modern computer stuff, and in consequence it looked amazingly real. That’s a win for the cinematographers, though, not the storytellers! But yes, it’s great. It definitely contributes to the overall quality of the experience.
Hey, what are your thoughts on C3PO, guys? He’s a droid— not human, not even technically living. There are some parts of his ‘personality’ we as humans can’t sympathize with (it’s been awhile since I last worried about my joints freezing up or getting filled with sand…or being shut down… or my head being screwed on backwards). And yet he’s human all the same. He has a great, well developed personality, and so many of his concerns are concerns humans can sympathize with. What do you think?
(it’s been awhile since I last worried about my joints freezing up or getting filled with sand…or being shut down… or my head being screwed on backwards).
Perhaps, tho he has different concerns, we can sympathize because we have learned how to do it with other people, a rancher has different problems/concerns then a welder yet they can still sympathize. Could that be part of it?
You also see things PG-13 because the dog dies when it would only be PG if it were a human instead. We do not seem to have as much respect for humans as animals, or in this case, droids.
Also, he is a chicken, R2 is is off Bleeping about Obi-wan and C3 is all “No, this is stupid, we will get…” We are all scared of something! We can feel him easily. R2 we admire for his heroics, C3 we sympathize with.
Could that be the reason we like C3 so much?Hey you may have it there, Mark. Good analysis.
That was another thing I liked about Star Wars— even the characters who didn’t speak (whistle, gurgle, bleep bleep, and Gah! don’t count as speaking, at least not in my book) had personalities. They weren’t just droids or wookiees— they were people, even if they weren’t.
Doesn’t that make all the sense in the world.
Would Chewy be so neat if he said “There is not enough headroom”?
We love him, and understand “GAAAAAAHHHH!” means that^ Because of body language.
I think that is another thing that makes Starr Wars good.Yes. Definitely. Chewy’s body language is very good. In fact it’s probably better he didn’t speak. Then words don’t get in the way of whatever emotion he’s trying to get across.
If he had confessed he was worried about Han out in the freezing snow instead of moaning softly and bowing his head against one of the Falcon’s ladders, we would have had to process the words instead of just immediately sympathizing with him.
Sometimes words can get in the way.Oh boy. I never thought I’d hear myself say that.
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