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State of the Rebellion Address Part 1: The Fall of the Jedi
6 years ago
State of the Rebellion Address
Part 1; Fall of the Jedi
This year marks the release of the last (yeah right) of the Star Wars movies being released in theatres world wide, Star Wars, The Rise Of Skywalker. Personally, I love Star Wars; A New Hope was an impressive work given the re-writes and budget issues, Empire Strikes Back was almost Shakesperian in it's views of self sacrifice and a thirst for power, Return Of The Jedi was action packed and spoke of over-confidence being the greatest of all follies, Phantom Menace had, erm, something, I guess?
Ok, so the originals are incredable, the prequels are lackluster, and the sequels are, how do I say this politly? Fraught with issues? Yeah, let's go with that. Either way, I still love them, with all their faults, as I am a huge fan of Star Wars.
So, with the last movie coming up, I thought when better to look at the entire franchise. And at this point, we're talking about an impressive 11 movies, 3 TV series in cannon, 4 if you include the Cartoon Network Clone Wars cartoon, 6 if you count the Driods and Ewoks cartoons which few do, 12 movies if you include THE SPECIAL THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED! In comparison, Star Trek, the main geekdom rival for Star Wars, has 13 movies and 6 series, if you include the Kelvin movies and CBS timeline shows, 7 if you count the cartoon series which even Rodenberry declaired so noncannon that I'm a little shocked the universe didn't expel it, despite the better parts of it, otherwise, with a single continuity, it's actually only 10 movies and 5 series, and even that's debatable after the affects of, actually, I don't think any series of Star Trek didn't putz up the timeline some how, so maybe we'll look at that next year!
Yes, we're going to look, over the next 4 weeks, at Star Wars, starting this week in the pre-Empire era, moving to the Rise of the Rebellion next week, then the Era of The New Republic, before ending on what you could call Star Wars' own Kelvin Timeline at the end of the month!
Oh, and I forgot to ask, if you can all imagine the text you've just read was scrowling upwards through space and yellow, that'd be great, thanks...
Episode I: Phantom Menace
To save everyone's mental health, I'm not going to recount every part of each movie, but I'm going to go over them, a BIT. And to start us off, let's begin at, well, A beginning, in Phantom Menace.
Our movie opens, IN SPAAAAAAAACE, like they all do in Star Wars. The Trade Federation, a group made up of Nemoidians, kinda like fish / frog people, is blockading the world of Naboo over trade route taxation. In the prequel movies, The Trade Federation are one of the big players, and that shows, even at the start, that we've got world building.
In the original movies, the only groups we ever heard about were the Hutt, the Miners Guild, the Rebel Alliance, and of course, the Empire. The fact that no-one mentions the Trade Federation, who by their very name means a collective of people working together as a pocket government, in the later period is a good indicator that the age of the Republic was a lot more open, fragmented, a more loose collection of governments and peoples, unlike the Empire, more like the the UN is in the real world.
In response to the blockade, the Republic send out two Jedi, Qwigon Jin and Obi Wan Kenobi, to try and negotiate to settle the dispute. For those unaware, the Jedi are a mix of monk, knight errant and peace keeper, sent out by the Republic or the Jedi Order itself to try and solve problems before they can get too out of hand. The response of the Trade Federation, once these two Masters of the Mystic Arts are onboard? Destroy the transport that brought them there, try to kill them, then invade Naboo.
The fact that the Nemoidians onboard the lead ship aren't used to Jedi is a bit of a head scratcher for me; Jedi are well known about. People meet them all the time, especially the ones that are used in day to day missions like Obi Wan, but are weirdly supprised when the Jedi start cutting through the door into the command chamber. It speaks to me of trying to get the viewers into the position of understanding that these are Jedi at their most powerful, when there's a lot of them and they're well trained, unlike Luke would be later on.
Either way, we'll move on to after the Jedi have been forced off the ship, and are now on the planet's surface, being chased by the Trade Federation's Droid Army. It's one of the things I like about this part of the story, that the Republic doesn't really have it's own army, not a central one anyway, relying instead on each world or group within it to provide troops to defend itself from pirates, raiders and invasion from the uncharted reaches of the galaxy. That means that groups like the Trade Federation, who are wealthy and move a lot of goods around, have a permenant standing army, while the Naboo, have the equivilent of the NYPD to defend the entire planet.
Unsuprisingly, with so little defensive power, the Naboo are overrun, and their elected leader, Queen Amidala, she of the silly face paint, is captured. In the mean time, the Jedi, meet the first real problem with the Prequel stuff; Jar, Jar, Binks.
There is nothing positive I can say about this character; Any other, yes, I can give you one thing, no matter how unplesant they are that's either interesting or cool. Jar Jar, nothing. From the point of view of the viewer, he's annoying, loud, possibly a racist stereotype and grates on the nerves like ear buds made of steel wool! And from inside the universe? He's loud, annoying, a clutz, a thief, selfish and above all else, easily tricked. The only good thing about him is that he introduces the Jedi to the Gungans, who are the indigenouse population of Naboo, from before the Naboo settled there. Other than that, he serves no purpous, except, as jangling keys!
Yes, as I see it, this character exists to keep kids entertained while the adults watch the movie continuation of a story that they went to see as teenagers. But it doesn't work, Jar Jar is what a man who doesn't understand kids thinks that kids would be interested in, and frankly, they're not. The stuff they released with his face on it was all aimed at kids, and it didn't impress the parents.
Anyway, the convenience side of the force happens to be on the side of the Jedi, as they reach the capital just in time to rescue the Queen, recover a ship, escape the planet, get their onboard droid content reduced to one main character aka R2-D2, and limp their way to Tatooine, to pick up another main character, as Quigon heads to a nearby settlement with the Queen I MEAN the Queen's handmaiden Padme.
On Tattooine, they encounter Anakin Skywalker, working as a slave in a junk store owned by another possibly racist stereotype, Whatto, who also owns his mother. He has a hyperdrive that they need to fix their craft, but won't sell it to them because Republic Credits aren't worth anything out that far, which is weird when this world is logically between Naboo and Corisaunt. Instead, after a little character building and yet ANOTHER main character, C-3PO, Quigon makes a bet with Whatto that if Anakin wins a Pod Race that's coming up, then he'll give them the part they need. What is more, Anakin will come with them.
And I have to admit, the Pod Race is fun. Again, for those not in the know, Pod Racing is basically Roman chariot racing, but with huge turbine engines instead of horses. That said, it's not important to the story, or to the movie, except to establish that Anakin has Jedi-level reflexes, which Quigon confirms with a blood sample containing, ugh, mediclorians. That's an issue I'll get to at the end of this section.
Anyway, while all that is going on, MEN IN CLOAKS are plotting the downfall of the Jedi, a Sith lord is talking to his apprentice, Darth Maul. This is a character that will re-appear over and over in Star Wars, despite what is coming next. He promises his master that together, they'll get revenge, and soon, he's heading to Tattoine to intercept the Jedi and the Naboo before they can reach Corisaunt. And indeed, he encounters the Jedi as they take off to continue to the capital of the Republic, getting into a fight with Quigon on the surface of Tattoine. The Jedi escape, and Anakin is introduced to Obi Wan as they head to the capital.
There's a little character stuff between Padme and Anakin as they make their way there, building the two having a relationship and a compassion towards one another. It's a little stilted, and kinda weird given half the dialogue they have, but trust me, it'll get MUCH worse later on!
Finally, they reach the capital, a world given over to one vast city. Which, I have to say, is cool! The capital city of any nation ends up as a huge sprawling thing, and Corisaunt is no different. Here, the party splits as the Jedi return to their temple with Anakin and tales of the Sith that attacked them, and talk to Yoda and Mace Windoo, played by Samuel L Jackson, while the Queen goes to the Senate to beg for assistance from the Republic as a whole. When she doesn't get it, her own world's senator, the honourable not-a-sith-honest Palpeltine suggests they push for a no confidence vote, and as a result, the Chanselor is removed from office, with two candidates running for the title, Bale Organa of the 'nice planet, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it' world of Alderan, and Palpeltine himself. In the meantime, the Queen and her entorage will head back to Naboo, in an attempt to start a resistance, or maybe, rebellion, to retake the planet from the Droid armies of the Trade Federation.
The Jedi are having their own fun issues; Anakin MAY be the answer to a prophecy detailing bringing the force back into balance, but the council, headed by a muppet and Col. Nick Fury, say that he's too old to be brought into the Jedi, though Quigon says he's ready for a new padawan, as Obi Wan is old enough to be a full Jedi. The Council still says no, but will consider it. Until then, they're all being sent to help the Queen and her revolt retake Naboo, and see if they can sort out the Sith issue as well. The Sithue, if you will.
Once back on Naboo, they meet back up with the Gungans, displaced by the Trade Federation from their underwater homes. This is when Padme reveals that she's ACTUALLY THE QUEEN! I'd love to say this wasn't a supprise, but apparently the ruler of Naboo's royal costume also includes enough makeup to impersonate a legion of clowns, so it was almost impossible to tell under all that. She pleads with the Gungan leader to help repel the invaders, and they agree.
Cue the best parts of this movie; The battles. We have three going on at once, the battle between the Gungans and Battledriods of the Trade Federation outside the capital, a battle in space between the Naboo starfighters and the Vulture Driods protecting the control ship in orbit, and lastly, the Jedi Vs Maul, who is able to fight the two Jedi to a standstill with his dual-headed lightsaber.
I'll admit that the lightsaber fights in the prequel trilogy are impressive, especially in this first movie, and doubly so when balanced with the music, Dual of the Fates. It's fast flowing, in a wide open area, and features the aggressive fighting of Maul, the methodic nature of Quigon, and the youth and impatience of Obi Wan.
Meanwhile, the battle outside the city ends with a win for the Droids, until the battle in space ends, with Anakin, who ended up in a fighter, destroys the control ship in the time honoured method of Star Wars, blowing up the un-protected reactor! This results in the droids deactivating world wide, and the forces of Naboo winning.
The same cannot be said for the Jedi, as Quigon gets stabbed, before Obi Wan retaliates and cuts Maul in half and the sith topples into a pit they were fighting around. Quigon gives a short dying speech, telling Obi Wan to train Anakin, to take him as a padawan, and that he has faith that nothing stabby or fascist will happen!
The new chancelor, Palpatine, and a force of Jedi, arrive to attend the funeral of Quigon, as the Jedi burn their dead, and the voice of Miss Piggy and the guy with the afro from Pulp Fiction talk about what the fall of this sith means, as there are always two sith, and they only got one, but which one did they get?
The issues with this movie are REALLY well documented. One character adds litterally nothing of worth to the story, a huge plot hole is created by the addition of one section of dialogue between two characters, and the main villain of the movie is wholey underused. There's also a significantly large scene that adds nothing to the main story of the movie, or the over-arching narative of the universe, and after this movie, will have no bareing on the direction anything goes.
If I were to change anything, I'd alter a few things, like removing Anakin's mother from the equation all together, like she'd had to sell him herself, making him feel bitter against the world. Take the Tom Riddle route, rather than the 'love makes you suseptable to turning evil' route they went with.
Which is another problem with the series as a whole. Love does not make you vulnerable, it makes you stronger some would say. The idea that the Jedi cannot be allowed to love because it makes them too emotionally unstable is the ideas of a person who doesn't get love.
But here's an idea to cut out the Pod Racing scene that adds nothing to the story; Have Quigon try to exchange Repiblic Credits for, what-ever it is that the Hutt use through a Banking Clan outpost. Then, not long after that happens, Maul turns up, having some how found out their location. We find out in the next movie that the Banking Clan, another of the heavy-hitters in the Republic, are unhappy with how things are going, so it would allow for the existance of a larger, over-arching conspiracy to add to the series. After all, this is NOT a stand-alone movie, it's part of a bigger story that you know is going to happen, so why not use that to your advantage?
And with the mention of the broader franchise, let's move on to the next movie!
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Y'know what, I kinda hate that title. It makes it sound like the Clones are the bad guys. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Our movie starts IN SPAA ok you know where I'm going. Senator Amidala is returning to Corisaunt to argue her case against the formation of, amongst other things, a more inter-woven system that would allow more power over each system to the Chancelor. Almost as soon as she lands, her ship gets blown up GUUUUD, and thus her bodyguard is killed, and Padme escapes to wear more silly head-dresses I MEAN stand up for what she believes in.
After this assassination attempt, rather than capitulate, Padem requests the aid of both the Senate and the Jedi to protect her, and thus she gets Obi Wan and Anakin dispatched to aid her, the young Jedi now fully grown, and his master sporting a very nice beard.
And here's another issue I have. Anakin knows he's supposed to be the chosen one, which was a stupid move on the part of the Jedi, as it means that even a normal, level headed guy would be a little over-confident and arrogant, but Anakin? He acts far TOO arrogant, and if there hadn't been the stuff with his mother in the previous movie, I'd have felt it was more warented; Some-one who's never had real affection, put on a pedistal from the moment he joined the Jedi, it would be far more fitting. As it is, it feels, forced, to try and make us dislike him, especially given what he's going to turn into.
Anyway, after another assassination attempt and a -yawn- thrilling speeder chase, they corner the assassin, who is killed by the person who hired them, who escapes via jetpack. The only evidence they now have, is the dart the assassin was killed with, and nothing more...
The two Jedi split up, Anakin taking Padme back to Naboo via comercial service with R2-D2 accompanying them, and Obi Wan investigating the dart. Obi Wan heads to an old friend, who points him in the direction of a system on the outer rim, but this doesn't perfectly tally with the last movie, as the Trade Federation acted as if they knew little about the Jedi, but they seem to walk around in the wide open enough to be a more well known and understood group. Again, maybe that first interaction was to impress rather than story build...
At the senate, Palpaltine is talking to Anakin. The Chancellor has, apparently, become close friends with the Jedi, and has been a confidence to the young padawan. That in itself isn't bad, the fact that we're seeing more of the two interacting, especially before we start to see the darker side of the nature of the Chancellor, but knowing what will happen colours the interaction, and we can see how sinister these meetings really are. Anyway, he congratulates Anakin on his first independent assignment, looking after Padme and escorting her back home, and tells him that he knows more responsibility will be placed on him by the Jedi.
Anakin and Padme, after some talk about how Jedi aren't allowed to feel love for others intimatly, soon arrive back on Naboo, and the new Queen, complete with Joker disguise, sends the pair to a small lake island, where we get, THAT line. You know the one, even people that've never seen the movie, know the line. We also get him admitting how he feels about this woman he's seen maybe twice in a decade, and how much he loves her.
Meanwhile, Obi Wan arrives on the ocean world of Kamino, a world of cloning experts. They've been raising an army of clones for the Republic, hired 10 years earlier by a lost Jedi, at around the same time that Anakin was brought into the Jedi order. They're all clones of a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter called Jango Fett, who lives on one of the cloning cities along with his cloned son, Bobba. After a clumsy attempt to hide it, it turns out that Jango is the Bounty Hunter hired to kill Padme, and Obi Wan confronts him, with a lightsaber.
The fight that follows is fun and fast paced, with Jango using his weapons and equipment to great affect against the Jedi, utilising jetpack, blaster pistols and bolas lines to both limit Obi Wan's movement and gain the highground on him enough to use the missile launcher built into his jetpack. After all, Mandelorians are Jedi hunters, so I imagine any fight between one of these guys and a Jedi should be fairly balanced, right?
Eventually, Jango escapes, but not before Obi Wan can attach a tracking unit to it's hull, and follows in hot pursuit, arriving at the ringed world of Genosis, a world inhabited by an insectoid race. After another scene that I personally enjoy, where Jango's ship chases Obi Wan through the planet's rings, the Jedi lands, and infiltrates a droid factory, to discover a new Sith Lord, Count Dooku, his own master's former teacher, and former padawan to Yoda, heading a meeting between several of the bigger, more wealthy players in the Republic; The Trade Federation, the Banking Clan, the Techno Union to name but a few.
Some distance away, Anakin has been having nightmares about the death of his mother, and he heads to Tattoine with Padme. Upon arrival, they discover that Anakin's mother was sold to a moisture farmer named Larrs several years earlier, who then married her. Recently, however, shes gone missing, abducted by Sandpeople. Anakin goes looking for her and finds her, dying, in a Sandpeople settlement. After she dies, he snaps, and kills all the Sandpeople, men, women, children. For some reason, after he gets back to the Larrs farm and tells Padme, she doesn't leap into the first available ship and run for the hills, but comforts the massicaring snuggle ball instead.
The two stories re-intersect here, as Obi Wan needs Anakin to relay a message to the Jedi temple, but during the transmission, he is attacked and captured. Anakin and Padme set out to try and rescue him, with C-3PO now onboard as well.
Anakin and Padme reach Genosis, and infiltrate the droid factory, before engaging in, for want of a better word, movement porn. This part has no real plot, it's just the 4 characters, Anakin, Padme, R2 and 3PO moving around, and getting themselves into trouble, until they themselves are finally captured.
In the mean time, Dooku tells Obi Wan that there's a Sith Lord in control of the Senate. To most this would seem like a stupid thing to say, 'oh yeah, my boss is in charge of your lot, and I'm controlling the Separatists', but given how little trust you can put in a Sith, this is fine, no Jedi would believe what he says, so it makes sense, and gives a feel of the world opening up, that sometimes the bare-faced truth is a weapon in your favour.
Back in the Senate, Jar Jar, as a representative of the Gungans, or maybe as a representative of poor comedy and even worse writing, is tricked into putting forward a vote to grant the chancellor executive powers, like the ability to create a vast Grand Army of the Republic to fight it's battles for them. GOD I hate that character! If it hadn't been for this ONE action, I could have avoided talking about him all together!
At last, the Jedi and Padme are re-united in a huge arena, ready to be sacrificed to a trio of vicious wild animals, and when that doesn't work, Battle Droids are sent in. It doesn't go as the Genosians or the other Separatists expect however, and the two are able to hold off long enough for other Jedi, lead by that guy from Snakes On A Plane, who's had it with these Monkey Flipping Droids in this Monday to Friday arena!
The Jedi fight off the Droids until Jango gets involved himself, and is sumonary beheaded by aforementioned Jedi, which is a little supprisingly easy, but hey ho, just before Yoda turns up with an army of Clones, and the fight moves outside the arena, to the Separatists' starship marshalling yard, as they try to flee the planet.
It's a hectic battle, with Clone tanks fighting Droid walkers and missile tanks, transports fighting Genocian fighters, and the two lead Jedi heading after Dooku. That said, for all the action of this battle, with it being so huge, you feel, detached as a viewer; you know none of the fighters, bar the Jedi themselves, the stakes are irrelivent, it feels, some-how boring...
Anakin and Obi Wan follow Dooku to a hanger, and fight him, trying to prevent him from escaping. The three duel, and Dooku is able to hold his own easily against the two Jedi, and in the end takes Anakin's arm off almost at the elbow, before Yoda arrives, and demonstrates that he's not just a powerful force wielder, but also a competent duellist.
I like this scene for one major reason, it shows the different schools of training for both Jedi and Sith; The Sith are far more accomplished duellists, while the Jedi have always been more trained at using their blades to deflect incoming fire in a desired direction, which begs the question, why not a broader blade, or a shield, like Captain America uses, only generated by the same method as a Lightsaber.
In the end, Dooku escapes, and the Chancelor and his peons arrive to look over their newly aquired army of clones, as the Clone Wars, begin. And somewhere else, on a place that's nothing like sand, Anakin and Padme are wed to one another....
The action scenes of this movie are better than the ones of the previous movie, but still, something feels off watching this. Like, you're eating a sandwich, but the filling is too thin to give any real flavour to it.
We get more world building, as we start to see what allowed the Empire to form, the willingness of people to give up freedom for security, as people tell themselves that 'I'll be ok, it's not MY freedom that's being affected, it's the bad people's freedoms!', without ever seeing the over-arching picture. In some ways, these movies are an analogy for the actions taken by the US government after the terrorist attacks in the early 2000's, but, that some-how feels really out of place...
Anyway, let's move on to our next movie, The Clone Wars, and the subsiquent series!
The Clone Wars, Movie and TV series
This is more of an overview. This is the only one of the two cartoons set at this point in the cannon that's officially cannon, the Cartoon Network series not being made or owned by Disney. In these series, we get a LOT of character development, from things like Anakin getting a padawan, Ahsoka Tanno, aka Snips, to the development of the Clones as a group.
We also learn more about the Force in these two, especially when Anakin, Obi Wan and Snips are drawn to a planet that is entirely made of the Force, with the son and daughter of a powerful, balanced force wielder fighting for dominance in a microcosm of the war in the rest of the galaxy. We learn that some Jedi are being tempted with offers of power after comuning with the Dark Side of the force, and how it can corrupt them very easily. We also find out that the Sith don't believe in the living side of the force, the side that allows a Jedi to become a force ghost after death, and as a result, they are power hungry, wanting to have as much as they can before their inevitable death, by old age, Jedi or even an aprentice turning on them, takes it all from them.
We see Anakin and Padme interact more, and sadly, we get more Jar Jar. If you watch this series, AVOID the Jar Jar episodes, which try to make out like he's some great hero, or that his bumbling can be useful IT CANNOT! But there are few things I want to talk about in more depth, the first being Mandalor.
In this series, we find that not every world is for either the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems or the Republic, there are a number of worlds wanting to stay out of it, and they are led, by the Mandalorians! We're introduced to Deathwatch, a group of Mandelorians that want to take Mandalor back towards a more warlike society, and the Mandelorian Duchess, the ruler of Mandalor, who wants to keep her now peaceful world out of the fighting, and even more to our supprise, was in a relationship with Obi Wan when he was a padawan himself, and the Jedi was actually tempted to leave the order so that he could be with her, until he decided his loyalty to the order came first. On their few interactions, we see how much they care about each-other still, right up until, he looses her in a way I won't mention.
As I mentioned the Deathwatch, I can't avoid talking about the Dark Sabre, a lightsaber with a flat, broad blade that seems to cut the air as it's wielded, and is a cherrished item of the Mandelorians, but I'll explain more about this next week.
The next thing to talk about, is Maul! Yes, some how he survived, and had robotic legs fitted, starting with a more spider like set-up, before getting reverse jointed ones. He survives, and starts to try to become a new Sith Master himself, before he's finally kicked to the curb by Darth Sideous, the Master manipulating the war.
Now then, the Clones. We learn a lot about 3 clones in this series; Commander Cody, the leader of the Clone regiment attached to General Obi Wan Kenobi, Captain Rex, commander of the 501st Clone regiment attached to General Skywalker, and Fives, an ARC trooper that moves around a bit over the series. Cody will go on to appear in the last movie of the prequel trilogy, but the other two don't. We learn about how Rex is a loyal trooper, that he wants nothing more than to help the Republic claim victory, but the most important is Fives.
During a mission to take a shipyard, one of the Clones in Fives' team snaps, and kills his Jedi. After that, the body and Fives are taken back to Kamino, where Fives discovers that there's an organic chip in his head, and in every other Clone's head, that has secret instructions built into it, and it can be set off at any time. He manages to get it removed, but after going to Corisaunt, he's framed for an attempt on the Chancellor's life. Cornered, he tells the other clones about what he's discovered, before he's finally shot by several Clones, his body taken away for, purposes...
Lastly, let's talk about Snips; She's an interesting character, full of energy, and a good character to play explenation off of, just as in the dark about a lot of things as we are, but ironically, is saved from what is coming next when one of her friends in the Jedi temple, another padawan frames her for an explosion. In the end, Snips leaves the order after the others would not support her side of the story about what happened, and she leaves for more future appearances...
Now let's talk about the Cartoon Network series, but only very briefly; It's got little plot to it really, though there are some stunning scenes, such as Obi Wan jousting with a Confederacy general on speeder bikes, Anakin Vs Asage Ventris, a Sith assassin, and two that have a lot more weight than the other scenes, specifically more character building for Greivous, who was a bit of a wimp in the Disney series, who in this series, when we first see him, is fighting a half dozen Jedi on his own, and the next time, we see him chasing three Jedi and the Chancellor across Corisaunt, on foot, and keeping pace all the time against their lifts and other transport tools.
Lastly, we see Anakin, face the mirror. This is an ancient Jedi custom, where a Jedi faces their own dark self. In this sequence, we see Anakin experience the animated story of the locals on the planet he's trying to protect, where he sees a local warrior loose their arm, and use something similar to the Force to protect his loved ones, but rapidly it becomes corrupt, killing the rest, until it claims the local warrior's life, the vision turning into the mask of Darth Vader for a moment, just a split second.
Through little to no dialogue, we get some VERY good character development in these scenes, and in action scenes no less. There's something far more wholesome about these brief moments than there was in the action scenes of the previous movies. I'm starting to get a feeling about something, but I can't narrow it down any further than a feeling as of yet...
Let's talk about the last movie we're going to look at this week, and maybe we'll be able to sort this feeling out as well!
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
We open, off the New Jersey Turnpike, about 2pm NAH, it's space again. Specifically, we open slap-bang in the middle of the Battle of Corisaunt, a huge space battle between the Confederacy fleet, and the Vendetta-class Star Destroyers of the Republic. It's a huge, close fought battle, with ships on both sides being hulked as turbolaser batteries pound each-other, fighters cutting through enemy squadrons, and we see it all, following behind a pair of Jedi interceptors, flown by Anakin and Obi Wan, as they fight their way to the Confederacy command ship, which is playing host to General Grievous, Count Dooku, and their captive, the Chancellor of the Republic.
This is one of the best space battles in all of Star Wars, and it finally leads us to the problem with these movies. But I'll get to that at the end of the review, let's just say that while this is an awesome scene, and beautifully choreographed, it has no real weight to it.
The two Jedi board the Confederacy command ship, along with R2-D2, who was the astromech on Anakin's fighter. The two Jedi work their way up through the ship to the command tower, while R2 fights off a couple of battledroids in the hanger. It's one of the other issues with these movies, that R2 basically ruins the crap of anything he comes into contact with, despite his abilities in the original trilogy.
Finally, the Jedi reach the command tower, where they find the Chancellor, but also Dooku, and a fight breaks out, the two fighting until Obi Wan is knocked out and trapped under debris. Dooku is disarmed, litterally, and the Chancellor instructs Anakin to kill him. The look on Dooku's face is perfect, Christopher Lee the perfect actor here, his dominating presence matching perfectly with his ability to emote with even simple body cues telling us that, he REALLY wasn't expecting this, just before Anakin cuts his head off.
Anakin rescues the Chancellor, and then Obi Wan, and they head back down the tower towards the body of the ship, only for it to take a heavy pounding, and start to drop into the atmosphere, which some-how alters the onboard gravity? Slack physics asside, the three soon arrive back in a coridor in the main body of the ship, where they're captured and brought to the bridge to be harassed by Grievous, another fight breaking out, the cyborg general escaping through a window. Into space, before returning aboard and escaping via escape pod.
The ship has suffered huge damage, and starts to plummet into the atmosphere of Corisaunt, snapping in two as it falls, the front half some how gliding in until it crashes, almost at a flat level, at a star port on the surface, fire ships following it all the way down. The Jedi,Chancellor and R2 survive with no injury, and are recovered by the Jedi.
So, we're less than 30 minutes in, and we've had 2 Lightsaber fights, a space battle and a ship CRASHING into a planet, oh, and a little bit of plot as well.
After being recovered from the crash, Anakin and Padme meet up, and she tells him, that she's pregnant. He's pleased, but more worried than ever about what's going to happen to them, especially as he's started having nightmares of her dying during childbirth, similar to his nightmares about his mother's death. A little while later, the Chancellor asks Anakin to be his representative on the Jedi council, to advise him of what they're doing, and to give them the point of view of the senate.
We see what has become of the Jedi order since the start of the war, with Jedi knights and masters spread across the galaxy, fighting the Confederacy on all fronts, each leading a force of Clones, with only a few Jedi left behind in the temple to look after the youngest Jedi, aka Younglings, those that don't have a master to look after them yet. The council still meet, via holograms, in the council office at the top of the temple, and discuss the Chancellor's request, agreeing to allow Anakin onto the council, but not to grant him the possition of a Master of the Jedi order.
Anakin is furious, ranting about how this is unpresidented, how no-one that's sat on the council hasn't been a Master for centuries. And, it's only because I'm a nerd that I know that the guy 3 seats over from Yoda, with the stupidly tall head and the beard, is only a Knight, and one of the lead trainers within the temple, his position on the council due to the need to get a view of the training of young Jedi, and to be advised on any that are having issues. This speaks, once again to the character of Anakin as a petulant youth, one who hasn't been loved, one that feels that his status as special even amongst those already special makes him entitled to even more preferential treatment. Which is as odds, in part, to how he's been raised. He was loved as a child, he's been well respected, and Obi Wan has great kindness for him, but still the writing of his dialogue is to make us dislike him more and more.
As Obi Wan and Yoda are deployed off to new battlefronts, Anakin meets back up with the Chancellor, at some kind of cultural event, to talk about what's happened. Here we get one of the better parts of the entire prequel trilogy, and that's the tale of Darth Plagus the wise. It's not long, in fact the entire story takes less than 5 minutes to tell, but it's about a Sith lord who had mastered the ability to cheat death, to escape it entirely. He was then killed by his own apprentice, despite all this. Anakin asks if this technique to escape death can be learned, and Palpaltine says “Not, from a Jedi!”
While Yoda has teamed up with the Wookies of Kashyke, Obi Wan has come to a world on the outer rim, where people from the planet cordiry, given their facial texture, has been invaded, with the Confederacy's command hidden above their city, until the Jedi arrives, and they flee to the volcanic world of Mustafar, leaving Obi Wan to corner Grievous before he can escape, and finally kill him, all but severing the military head of the Confederacy.
There's a cut scene from the DVD and cinematic releases of the movie, and I can only guess that it was cut because there wasn't enough shooting in it. Padme meets up with several other senators, including Bael Organa, and Mon Mothma, who are discussing the direction the Republic is taking, as the Chancellor is voted more and more powers, the old systems such as the Banking Clan have been consumed into the Republic as the war has continued, and that it may be time to plan for the worse. As such, the group decides that, if democracy should fail, a rebellion will be needed, to restore the hope of freedom to the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Anakin has finally discovered, or rather bold-facedly been told, that the Chancellor is actually the Sith lord, Darth Sideos, who has been manipulating the war from behind the scenes for years, pushing it in the direction he has wanted the entire time. Anakin then heads to the Jedi temple, and tells them what's happened, that Palpaltine has announced himself as the Sith mastermind behind it all. The remaining Jedi, lead by Samuel L Jackson but with a purple lightsaber, head to confront the Chancellor, leaving Anakin behind, as they intend to forcably remove the Chancellor, by force if needed.
However, seeds of doubt have been planted in Anakin's mind, and after a few minutes, he follows, needing the Chancellor alive to teach him how to save Padme. With the other Jedi dispatched, bar Windoo, Anakin arrives, trying to stop the Chancellor from being killed, and after a few moments, strikes at Windoo, taking his hand off, which appears to be his go-too move. Palpaltine, now deformed by his own Force lightening, blasts Windoo out of the window, and turns to Anakin, making him his new apprentice, Darth Vader.
Now, remember I spoke about that organic chip in the heads of the clones? Well, they now come into affect, as the Chancellor executes what is know as Order 66; It activates the chip, and causes the Clones to turn on the Jedi commanding them, and almost all of the Jedi are shot down in seconds by their clone troopers. Few survive, Yoda being one, decapitating the Clone troops that have been coming up to kill him and escaping with the aid of a young Chewbaca in an escape pod, Obi Wan surviving a near-glancing hit from a Clone tank's main gun and fleeing in Grievous' escape ship, and in a far unseen battle, a young padawan is ordered by his master to flee....
Back on Corisaunt, the Jedi temple is assaulted by a huge force of Clone troops, lead by the newly reborn Darth Vader, the force cutting down the few surviving Jedi, all of them, down to the youngest of the Younglings.
Yoda and Obi Wan are rescued by Bael Organa, who recently left Corisaunt after witnessing first hand the assault on the Jedi temple, and tells them what has happened. Not only has the Jedi Temple been assaulted, but Palpaltine has used the attempt on his life as an excuse to declare the Jedi as enemies, and crown himself Emperor, moving all the powers of the Senate into his new position, to tumultuous applause. And as she watched, Padme says “This is how democracy dies, to the thunder of applause...”.
The two remaining Jedi return to Corisaunt to deactivate the recall message for the few surviving Jedi, and discover what has happened, and who is at fault. Finally putting two and two together, Yoda goes to confront Palpaltine in the Senate building, while Obi Wan goes to talk to Padme, realising that Anakin is the father. In worry for Anakin's life, she heads to Mustafar, with Obi Wan stowing away in the ship.
Arriving on Mustifar, Padme confronts Anakin about what has happened, horrified at what he's done not only to the Confederacy leadership, all executed by his hand, and the Jedi that he also executed. On seeing Obi Wan stepping from the ship, Anakin looses it, almost throttling Padme in his rage, before tossing her aside to confront his former master.
When Obi Wan asks why he's done this, Anakin tells of what he's seen, what he knows is coming, that he would do anything to save the woman he loves, and that Obi Wan doesn't know what it's like to know you're going to loose some-one you love so deeply. With what we've seen in the Clone Wars series, it's not hard to understand why Obi Wan looses his temper, and starts to duel against Anakin over the molten surface of Mustafar.
Back at the Senate, Yoda confronts the now Emperor, and after a few moments of verbal sparing, begin to duel as well, the Emperor resorting to using the moduals of the building itself as a weapon, throwing them at the Jedi in an attempt to kill him, Yoda finally escaping into a speeder, piloted by Bael, saying that he shall have to go into hiding.
Quickly back to Mustafar, Anakin and Obi Wan are now fighting on a lava flow, which looks impressive, but makes little sense given the heat and gas under them, with Obi Wan leaping to one of the banks, and lopping off Anakin's remaining organic arm and both his legs, leaving him to struggle up the bank, catching fire as he struggles. Obi Wan screams that Anakin was supposed to bring the force into balance, not to leave it a wreck. Obi Wan leaves, taking Anakin's Lightsaber with him, and takes Padme to join Bael on a mining world, where the heavily traumatised Padme survives long enough to give birth to two future protaganists, before she dies. The two children are split up not long after birth, the girl, named Leia by her mother, goes with Bael to Alderan, while Obi Wan takes the boy, Luke, to his aunt and uncle back on Tattoin before he goes into hiding on the same world.
As Yoda goes into hiding on Dagoba, Anakin is rescued by the Emperor, and is given medical treatment to bring him back to a sembelance of life, though trapped in an armoured suit that is designed to keep him alive, but in constant pain, the Emperor knowing that his new apprentice is too strong to be controled by him, and that other methods are needed to constrain him. Vader, discovering what has happened to his wife, destroys most of the medical equipment around him, the Emperor laughing at the carnage wrought by his new tool of control over the galaxy, before the final scenes of the movie, as both Sith look over the construction of their next tool of control, the Death Star...
I've alluded to it several times in the review, but here's the big problem with these movies; There is little to no substance in these movies. Oh sure, there's some character building, and most of the time when it's good, it's great. The majority of scenes, however, are spectacles, not real content. There are a lot of flashy battles, a great many lightsaber fights, but none of these have any weight. Most of them involve characters we either don't know, or include characters we know are going to survive so there's no risk to them.
What's more interesting is the stuff that can be read out of the series and movies; The Jedi are weakened by their sheer numbers. The more Jedi there are, the less strength each one has in command of the light side of the Force, and the fact the Sith limit themselves to just 2 at a time gives them stronger control over the Dark side.
And that brings me to medichlorians. Unsupprisingly, they're never mentioned again in the prequels, or in any other movie or book. Why? Because 'bacteria that create Force sensitivity in lifeforms' is crap. Dan Shive, a cartoonist and webcomic artist, had the best solution; Keep them as bacteria, but that they're attracted to the Force sensitive. Then, they still work as an indicator. Or, otherwise, just say that 'we don't understand how or why, but those of us who are Force sensitive seem to host many of these bacteria in our blood. Some say that if we understood why, we'd know a lot more about the Force than we do,' adding yet another layer of mystery to the Force itself as well!
It's also interesting to see the wider galaxy. The Original Trilogy went to, let me see, 6 worlds, while the variety of worlds visited in the Prequel Trilogy is far more extensive, and far more interesting, even if it's only for a short time, and the variety of worlds and cultures is extended further still by the Clone Wars cartoon series and movie.
It's hard to say what order you're supposed to watch these movies in. If you go chronologically, then all the surprises and shocks in the Original Trilogy loose their weight. If you go in production order, the suspense of any scene featuring Anakin, Obi Wan or Yoda are ruined, because you know what happens to them.
These movies then, are popcorn flicks. Don't have the attention to watch the more cerebral nature of the Original Trilogy? Watch these. Fancy seeing an impressive fight scene? The Prequel Trilogy is for you!
But that said, we're ending almost 19 years before the Battle of Yavin, one of the most famous battles of the Rebellion, and the start of the Original Trilogy! What happens in that huge gap?
Well to answer that, join me next week, when we'll be having a look over The Rise of the Rebellion!
Until then, may the Force be with you!
TTFN,
Omega
Part 1; Fall of the Jedi
This year marks the release of the last (yeah right) of the Star Wars movies being released in theatres world wide, Star Wars, The Rise Of Skywalker. Personally, I love Star Wars; A New Hope was an impressive work given the re-writes and budget issues, Empire Strikes Back was almost Shakesperian in it's views of self sacrifice and a thirst for power, Return Of The Jedi was action packed and spoke of over-confidence being the greatest of all follies, Phantom Menace had, erm, something, I guess?
Ok, so the originals are incredable, the prequels are lackluster, and the sequels are, how do I say this politly? Fraught with issues? Yeah, let's go with that. Either way, I still love them, with all their faults, as I am a huge fan of Star Wars.
So, with the last movie coming up, I thought when better to look at the entire franchise. And at this point, we're talking about an impressive 11 movies, 3 TV series in cannon, 4 if you include the Cartoon Network Clone Wars cartoon, 6 if you count the Driods and Ewoks cartoons which few do, 12 movies if you include THE SPECIAL THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED! In comparison, Star Trek, the main geekdom rival for Star Wars, has 13 movies and 6 series, if you include the Kelvin movies and CBS timeline shows, 7 if you count the cartoon series which even Rodenberry declaired so noncannon that I'm a little shocked the universe didn't expel it, despite the better parts of it, otherwise, with a single continuity, it's actually only 10 movies and 5 series, and even that's debatable after the affects of, actually, I don't think any series of Star Trek didn't putz up the timeline some how, so maybe we'll look at that next year!
Yes, we're going to look, over the next 4 weeks, at Star Wars, starting this week in the pre-Empire era, moving to the Rise of the Rebellion next week, then the Era of The New Republic, before ending on what you could call Star Wars' own Kelvin Timeline at the end of the month!
Oh, and I forgot to ask, if you can all imagine the text you've just read was scrowling upwards through space and yellow, that'd be great, thanks...
Episode I: Phantom Menace
To save everyone's mental health, I'm not going to recount every part of each movie, but I'm going to go over them, a BIT. And to start us off, let's begin at, well, A beginning, in Phantom Menace.
Our movie opens, IN SPAAAAAAAACE, like they all do in Star Wars. The Trade Federation, a group made up of Nemoidians, kinda like fish / frog people, is blockading the world of Naboo over trade route taxation. In the prequel movies, The Trade Federation are one of the big players, and that shows, even at the start, that we've got world building.
In the original movies, the only groups we ever heard about were the Hutt, the Miners Guild, the Rebel Alliance, and of course, the Empire. The fact that no-one mentions the Trade Federation, who by their very name means a collective of people working together as a pocket government, in the later period is a good indicator that the age of the Republic was a lot more open, fragmented, a more loose collection of governments and peoples, unlike the Empire, more like the the UN is in the real world.
In response to the blockade, the Republic send out two Jedi, Qwigon Jin and Obi Wan Kenobi, to try and negotiate to settle the dispute. For those unaware, the Jedi are a mix of monk, knight errant and peace keeper, sent out by the Republic or the Jedi Order itself to try and solve problems before they can get too out of hand. The response of the Trade Federation, once these two Masters of the Mystic Arts are onboard? Destroy the transport that brought them there, try to kill them, then invade Naboo.
The fact that the Nemoidians onboard the lead ship aren't used to Jedi is a bit of a head scratcher for me; Jedi are well known about. People meet them all the time, especially the ones that are used in day to day missions like Obi Wan, but are weirdly supprised when the Jedi start cutting through the door into the command chamber. It speaks to me of trying to get the viewers into the position of understanding that these are Jedi at their most powerful, when there's a lot of them and they're well trained, unlike Luke would be later on.
Either way, we'll move on to after the Jedi have been forced off the ship, and are now on the planet's surface, being chased by the Trade Federation's Droid Army. It's one of the things I like about this part of the story, that the Republic doesn't really have it's own army, not a central one anyway, relying instead on each world or group within it to provide troops to defend itself from pirates, raiders and invasion from the uncharted reaches of the galaxy. That means that groups like the Trade Federation, who are wealthy and move a lot of goods around, have a permenant standing army, while the Naboo, have the equivilent of the NYPD to defend the entire planet.
Unsuprisingly, with so little defensive power, the Naboo are overrun, and their elected leader, Queen Amidala, she of the silly face paint, is captured. In the mean time, the Jedi, meet the first real problem with the Prequel stuff; Jar, Jar, Binks.
There is nothing positive I can say about this character; Any other, yes, I can give you one thing, no matter how unplesant they are that's either interesting or cool. Jar Jar, nothing. From the point of view of the viewer, he's annoying, loud, possibly a racist stereotype and grates on the nerves like ear buds made of steel wool! And from inside the universe? He's loud, annoying, a clutz, a thief, selfish and above all else, easily tricked. The only good thing about him is that he introduces the Jedi to the Gungans, who are the indigenouse population of Naboo, from before the Naboo settled there. Other than that, he serves no purpous, except, as jangling keys!
Yes, as I see it, this character exists to keep kids entertained while the adults watch the movie continuation of a story that they went to see as teenagers. But it doesn't work, Jar Jar is what a man who doesn't understand kids thinks that kids would be interested in, and frankly, they're not. The stuff they released with his face on it was all aimed at kids, and it didn't impress the parents.
Anyway, the convenience side of the force happens to be on the side of the Jedi, as they reach the capital just in time to rescue the Queen, recover a ship, escape the planet, get their onboard droid content reduced to one main character aka R2-D2, and limp their way to Tatooine, to pick up another main character, as Quigon heads to a nearby settlement with the Queen I MEAN the Queen's handmaiden Padme.
On Tattooine, they encounter Anakin Skywalker, working as a slave in a junk store owned by another possibly racist stereotype, Whatto, who also owns his mother. He has a hyperdrive that they need to fix their craft, but won't sell it to them because Republic Credits aren't worth anything out that far, which is weird when this world is logically between Naboo and Corisaunt. Instead, after a little character building and yet ANOTHER main character, C-3PO, Quigon makes a bet with Whatto that if Anakin wins a Pod Race that's coming up, then he'll give them the part they need. What is more, Anakin will come with them.
And I have to admit, the Pod Race is fun. Again, for those not in the know, Pod Racing is basically Roman chariot racing, but with huge turbine engines instead of horses. That said, it's not important to the story, or to the movie, except to establish that Anakin has Jedi-level reflexes, which Quigon confirms with a blood sample containing, ugh, mediclorians. That's an issue I'll get to at the end of this section.
Anyway, while all that is going on, MEN IN CLOAKS are plotting the downfall of the Jedi, a Sith lord is talking to his apprentice, Darth Maul. This is a character that will re-appear over and over in Star Wars, despite what is coming next. He promises his master that together, they'll get revenge, and soon, he's heading to Tattoine to intercept the Jedi and the Naboo before they can reach Corisaunt. And indeed, he encounters the Jedi as they take off to continue to the capital of the Republic, getting into a fight with Quigon on the surface of Tattoine. The Jedi escape, and Anakin is introduced to Obi Wan as they head to the capital.
There's a little character stuff between Padme and Anakin as they make their way there, building the two having a relationship and a compassion towards one another. It's a little stilted, and kinda weird given half the dialogue they have, but trust me, it'll get MUCH worse later on!
Finally, they reach the capital, a world given over to one vast city. Which, I have to say, is cool! The capital city of any nation ends up as a huge sprawling thing, and Corisaunt is no different. Here, the party splits as the Jedi return to their temple with Anakin and tales of the Sith that attacked them, and talk to Yoda and Mace Windoo, played by Samuel L Jackson, while the Queen goes to the Senate to beg for assistance from the Republic as a whole. When she doesn't get it, her own world's senator, the honourable not-a-sith-honest Palpeltine suggests they push for a no confidence vote, and as a result, the Chanselor is removed from office, with two candidates running for the title, Bale Organa of the 'nice planet, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it' world of Alderan, and Palpeltine himself. In the meantime, the Queen and her entorage will head back to Naboo, in an attempt to start a resistance, or maybe, rebellion, to retake the planet from the Droid armies of the Trade Federation.
The Jedi are having their own fun issues; Anakin MAY be the answer to a prophecy detailing bringing the force back into balance, but the council, headed by a muppet and Col. Nick Fury, say that he's too old to be brought into the Jedi, though Quigon says he's ready for a new padawan, as Obi Wan is old enough to be a full Jedi. The Council still says no, but will consider it. Until then, they're all being sent to help the Queen and her revolt retake Naboo, and see if they can sort out the Sith issue as well. The Sithue, if you will.
Once back on Naboo, they meet back up with the Gungans, displaced by the Trade Federation from their underwater homes. This is when Padme reveals that she's ACTUALLY THE QUEEN! I'd love to say this wasn't a supprise, but apparently the ruler of Naboo's royal costume also includes enough makeup to impersonate a legion of clowns, so it was almost impossible to tell under all that. She pleads with the Gungan leader to help repel the invaders, and they agree.
Cue the best parts of this movie; The battles. We have three going on at once, the battle between the Gungans and Battledriods of the Trade Federation outside the capital, a battle in space between the Naboo starfighters and the Vulture Driods protecting the control ship in orbit, and lastly, the Jedi Vs Maul, who is able to fight the two Jedi to a standstill with his dual-headed lightsaber.
I'll admit that the lightsaber fights in the prequel trilogy are impressive, especially in this first movie, and doubly so when balanced with the music, Dual of the Fates. It's fast flowing, in a wide open area, and features the aggressive fighting of Maul, the methodic nature of Quigon, and the youth and impatience of Obi Wan.
Meanwhile, the battle outside the city ends with a win for the Droids, until the battle in space ends, with Anakin, who ended up in a fighter, destroys the control ship in the time honoured method of Star Wars, blowing up the un-protected reactor! This results in the droids deactivating world wide, and the forces of Naboo winning.
The same cannot be said for the Jedi, as Quigon gets stabbed, before Obi Wan retaliates and cuts Maul in half and the sith topples into a pit they were fighting around. Quigon gives a short dying speech, telling Obi Wan to train Anakin, to take him as a padawan, and that he has faith that nothing stabby or fascist will happen!
The new chancelor, Palpatine, and a force of Jedi, arrive to attend the funeral of Quigon, as the Jedi burn their dead, and the voice of Miss Piggy and the guy with the afro from Pulp Fiction talk about what the fall of this sith means, as there are always two sith, and they only got one, but which one did they get?
The issues with this movie are REALLY well documented. One character adds litterally nothing of worth to the story, a huge plot hole is created by the addition of one section of dialogue between two characters, and the main villain of the movie is wholey underused. There's also a significantly large scene that adds nothing to the main story of the movie, or the over-arching narative of the universe, and after this movie, will have no bareing on the direction anything goes.
If I were to change anything, I'd alter a few things, like removing Anakin's mother from the equation all together, like she'd had to sell him herself, making him feel bitter against the world. Take the Tom Riddle route, rather than the 'love makes you suseptable to turning evil' route they went with.
Which is another problem with the series as a whole. Love does not make you vulnerable, it makes you stronger some would say. The idea that the Jedi cannot be allowed to love because it makes them too emotionally unstable is the ideas of a person who doesn't get love.
But here's an idea to cut out the Pod Racing scene that adds nothing to the story; Have Quigon try to exchange Repiblic Credits for, what-ever it is that the Hutt use through a Banking Clan outpost. Then, not long after that happens, Maul turns up, having some how found out their location. We find out in the next movie that the Banking Clan, another of the heavy-hitters in the Republic, are unhappy with how things are going, so it would allow for the existance of a larger, over-arching conspiracy to add to the series. After all, this is NOT a stand-alone movie, it's part of a bigger story that you know is going to happen, so why not use that to your advantage?
And with the mention of the broader franchise, let's move on to the next movie!
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Y'know what, I kinda hate that title. It makes it sound like the Clones are the bad guys. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Our movie starts IN SPAA ok you know where I'm going. Senator Amidala is returning to Corisaunt to argue her case against the formation of, amongst other things, a more inter-woven system that would allow more power over each system to the Chancelor. Almost as soon as she lands, her ship gets blown up GUUUUD, and thus her bodyguard is killed, and Padme escapes to wear more silly head-dresses I MEAN stand up for what she believes in.
After this assassination attempt, rather than capitulate, Padem requests the aid of both the Senate and the Jedi to protect her, and thus she gets Obi Wan and Anakin dispatched to aid her, the young Jedi now fully grown, and his master sporting a very nice beard.
And here's another issue I have. Anakin knows he's supposed to be the chosen one, which was a stupid move on the part of the Jedi, as it means that even a normal, level headed guy would be a little over-confident and arrogant, but Anakin? He acts far TOO arrogant, and if there hadn't been the stuff with his mother in the previous movie, I'd have felt it was more warented; Some-one who's never had real affection, put on a pedistal from the moment he joined the Jedi, it would be far more fitting. As it is, it feels, forced, to try and make us dislike him, especially given what he's going to turn into.
Anyway, after another assassination attempt and a -yawn- thrilling speeder chase, they corner the assassin, who is killed by the person who hired them, who escapes via jetpack. The only evidence they now have, is the dart the assassin was killed with, and nothing more...
The two Jedi split up, Anakin taking Padme back to Naboo via comercial service with R2-D2 accompanying them, and Obi Wan investigating the dart. Obi Wan heads to an old friend, who points him in the direction of a system on the outer rim, but this doesn't perfectly tally with the last movie, as the Trade Federation acted as if they knew little about the Jedi, but they seem to walk around in the wide open enough to be a more well known and understood group. Again, maybe that first interaction was to impress rather than story build...
At the senate, Palpaltine is talking to Anakin. The Chancellor has, apparently, become close friends with the Jedi, and has been a confidence to the young padawan. That in itself isn't bad, the fact that we're seeing more of the two interacting, especially before we start to see the darker side of the nature of the Chancellor, but knowing what will happen colours the interaction, and we can see how sinister these meetings really are. Anyway, he congratulates Anakin on his first independent assignment, looking after Padme and escorting her back home, and tells him that he knows more responsibility will be placed on him by the Jedi.
Anakin and Padme, after some talk about how Jedi aren't allowed to feel love for others intimatly, soon arrive back on Naboo, and the new Queen, complete with Joker disguise, sends the pair to a small lake island, where we get, THAT line. You know the one, even people that've never seen the movie, know the line. We also get him admitting how he feels about this woman he's seen maybe twice in a decade, and how much he loves her.
Meanwhile, Obi Wan arrives on the ocean world of Kamino, a world of cloning experts. They've been raising an army of clones for the Republic, hired 10 years earlier by a lost Jedi, at around the same time that Anakin was brought into the Jedi order. They're all clones of a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter called Jango Fett, who lives on one of the cloning cities along with his cloned son, Bobba. After a clumsy attempt to hide it, it turns out that Jango is the Bounty Hunter hired to kill Padme, and Obi Wan confronts him, with a lightsaber.
The fight that follows is fun and fast paced, with Jango using his weapons and equipment to great affect against the Jedi, utilising jetpack, blaster pistols and bolas lines to both limit Obi Wan's movement and gain the highground on him enough to use the missile launcher built into his jetpack. After all, Mandelorians are Jedi hunters, so I imagine any fight between one of these guys and a Jedi should be fairly balanced, right?
Eventually, Jango escapes, but not before Obi Wan can attach a tracking unit to it's hull, and follows in hot pursuit, arriving at the ringed world of Genosis, a world inhabited by an insectoid race. After another scene that I personally enjoy, where Jango's ship chases Obi Wan through the planet's rings, the Jedi lands, and infiltrates a droid factory, to discover a new Sith Lord, Count Dooku, his own master's former teacher, and former padawan to Yoda, heading a meeting between several of the bigger, more wealthy players in the Republic; The Trade Federation, the Banking Clan, the Techno Union to name but a few.
Some distance away, Anakin has been having nightmares about the death of his mother, and he heads to Tattoine with Padme. Upon arrival, they discover that Anakin's mother was sold to a moisture farmer named Larrs several years earlier, who then married her. Recently, however, shes gone missing, abducted by Sandpeople. Anakin goes looking for her and finds her, dying, in a Sandpeople settlement. After she dies, he snaps, and kills all the Sandpeople, men, women, children. For some reason, after he gets back to the Larrs farm and tells Padme, she doesn't leap into the first available ship and run for the hills, but comforts the massicaring snuggle ball instead.
The two stories re-intersect here, as Obi Wan needs Anakin to relay a message to the Jedi temple, but during the transmission, he is attacked and captured. Anakin and Padme set out to try and rescue him, with C-3PO now onboard as well.
Anakin and Padme reach Genosis, and infiltrate the droid factory, before engaging in, for want of a better word, movement porn. This part has no real plot, it's just the 4 characters, Anakin, Padme, R2 and 3PO moving around, and getting themselves into trouble, until they themselves are finally captured.
In the mean time, Dooku tells Obi Wan that there's a Sith Lord in control of the Senate. To most this would seem like a stupid thing to say, 'oh yeah, my boss is in charge of your lot, and I'm controlling the Separatists', but given how little trust you can put in a Sith, this is fine, no Jedi would believe what he says, so it makes sense, and gives a feel of the world opening up, that sometimes the bare-faced truth is a weapon in your favour.
Back in the Senate, Jar Jar, as a representative of the Gungans, or maybe as a representative of poor comedy and even worse writing, is tricked into putting forward a vote to grant the chancellor executive powers, like the ability to create a vast Grand Army of the Republic to fight it's battles for them. GOD I hate that character! If it hadn't been for this ONE action, I could have avoided talking about him all together!
At last, the Jedi and Padme are re-united in a huge arena, ready to be sacrificed to a trio of vicious wild animals, and when that doesn't work, Battle Droids are sent in. It doesn't go as the Genosians or the other Separatists expect however, and the two are able to hold off long enough for other Jedi, lead by that guy from Snakes On A Plane, who's had it with these Monkey Flipping Droids in this Monday to Friday arena!
The Jedi fight off the Droids until Jango gets involved himself, and is sumonary beheaded by aforementioned Jedi, which is a little supprisingly easy, but hey ho, just before Yoda turns up with an army of Clones, and the fight moves outside the arena, to the Separatists' starship marshalling yard, as they try to flee the planet.
It's a hectic battle, with Clone tanks fighting Droid walkers and missile tanks, transports fighting Genocian fighters, and the two lead Jedi heading after Dooku. That said, for all the action of this battle, with it being so huge, you feel, detached as a viewer; you know none of the fighters, bar the Jedi themselves, the stakes are irrelivent, it feels, some-how boring...
Anakin and Obi Wan follow Dooku to a hanger, and fight him, trying to prevent him from escaping. The three duel, and Dooku is able to hold his own easily against the two Jedi, and in the end takes Anakin's arm off almost at the elbow, before Yoda arrives, and demonstrates that he's not just a powerful force wielder, but also a competent duellist.
I like this scene for one major reason, it shows the different schools of training for both Jedi and Sith; The Sith are far more accomplished duellists, while the Jedi have always been more trained at using their blades to deflect incoming fire in a desired direction, which begs the question, why not a broader blade, or a shield, like Captain America uses, only generated by the same method as a Lightsaber.
In the end, Dooku escapes, and the Chancelor and his peons arrive to look over their newly aquired army of clones, as the Clone Wars, begin. And somewhere else, on a place that's nothing like sand, Anakin and Padme are wed to one another....
The action scenes of this movie are better than the ones of the previous movie, but still, something feels off watching this. Like, you're eating a sandwich, but the filling is too thin to give any real flavour to it.
We get more world building, as we start to see what allowed the Empire to form, the willingness of people to give up freedom for security, as people tell themselves that 'I'll be ok, it's not MY freedom that's being affected, it's the bad people's freedoms!', without ever seeing the over-arching picture. In some ways, these movies are an analogy for the actions taken by the US government after the terrorist attacks in the early 2000's, but, that some-how feels really out of place...
Anyway, let's move on to our next movie, The Clone Wars, and the subsiquent series!
The Clone Wars, Movie and TV series
This is more of an overview. This is the only one of the two cartoons set at this point in the cannon that's officially cannon, the Cartoon Network series not being made or owned by Disney. In these series, we get a LOT of character development, from things like Anakin getting a padawan, Ahsoka Tanno, aka Snips, to the development of the Clones as a group.
We also learn more about the Force in these two, especially when Anakin, Obi Wan and Snips are drawn to a planet that is entirely made of the Force, with the son and daughter of a powerful, balanced force wielder fighting for dominance in a microcosm of the war in the rest of the galaxy. We learn that some Jedi are being tempted with offers of power after comuning with the Dark Side of the force, and how it can corrupt them very easily. We also find out that the Sith don't believe in the living side of the force, the side that allows a Jedi to become a force ghost after death, and as a result, they are power hungry, wanting to have as much as they can before their inevitable death, by old age, Jedi or even an aprentice turning on them, takes it all from them.
We see Anakin and Padme interact more, and sadly, we get more Jar Jar. If you watch this series, AVOID the Jar Jar episodes, which try to make out like he's some great hero, or that his bumbling can be useful IT CANNOT! But there are few things I want to talk about in more depth, the first being Mandalor.
In this series, we find that not every world is for either the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems or the Republic, there are a number of worlds wanting to stay out of it, and they are led, by the Mandalorians! We're introduced to Deathwatch, a group of Mandelorians that want to take Mandalor back towards a more warlike society, and the Mandelorian Duchess, the ruler of Mandalor, who wants to keep her now peaceful world out of the fighting, and even more to our supprise, was in a relationship with Obi Wan when he was a padawan himself, and the Jedi was actually tempted to leave the order so that he could be with her, until he decided his loyalty to the order came first. On their few interactions, we see how much they care about each-other still, right up until, he looses her in a way I won't mention.
As I mentioned the Deathwatch, I can't avoid talking about the Dark Sabre, a lightsaber with a flat, broad blade that seems to cut the air as it's wielded, and is a cherrished item of the Mandelorians, but I'll explain more about this next week.
The next thing to talk about, is Maul! Yes, some how he survived, and had robotic legs fitted, starting with a more spider like set-up, before getting reverse jointed ones. He survives, and starts to try to become a new Sith Master himself, before he's finally kicked to the curb by Darth Sideous, the Master manipulating the war.
Now then, the Clones. We learn a lot about 3 clones in this series; Commander Cody, the leader of the Clone regiment attached to General Obi Wan Kenobi, Captain Rex, commander of the 501st Clone regiment attached to General Skywalker, and Fives, an ARC trooper that moves around a bit over the series. Cody will go on to appear in the last movie of the prequel trilogy, but the other two don't. We learn about how Rex is a loyal trooper, that he wants nothing more than to help the Republic claim victory, but the most important is Fives.
During a mission to take a shipyard, one of the Clones in Fives' team snaps, and kills his Jedi. After that, the body and Fives are taken back to Kamino, where Fives discovers that there's an organic chip in his head, and in every other Clone's head, that has secret instructions built into it, and it can be set off at any time. He manages to get it removed, but after going to Corisaunt, he's framed for an attempt on the Chancellor's life. Cornered, he tells the other clones about what he's discovered, before he's finally shot by several Clones, his body taken away for, purposes...
Lastly, let's talk about Snips; She's an interesting character, full of energy, and a good character to play explenation off of, just as in the dark about a lot of things as we are, but ironically, is saved from what is coming next when one of her friends in the Jedi temple, another padawan frames her for an explosion. In the end, Snips leaves the order after the others would not support her side of the story about what happened, and she leaves for more future appearances...
Now let's talk about the Cartoon Network series, but only very briefly; It's got little plot to it really, though there are some stunning scenes, such as Obi Wan jousting with a Confederacy general on speeder bikes, Anakin Vs Asage Ventris, a Sith assassin, and two that have a lot more weight than the other scenes, specifically more character building for Greivous, who was a bit of a wimp in the Disney series, who in this series, when we first see him, is fighting a half dozen Jedi on his own, and the next time, we see him chasing three Jedi and the Chancellor across Corisaunt, on foot, and keeping pace all the time against their lifts and other transport tools.
Lastly, we see Anakin, face the mirror. This is an ancient Jedi custom, where a Jedi faces their own dark self. In this sequence, we see Anakin experience the animated story of the locals on the planet he's trying to protect, where he sees a local warrior loose their arm, and use something similar to the Force to protect his loved ones, but rapidly it becomes corrupt, killing the rest, until it claims the local warrior's life, the vision turning into the mask of Darth Vader for a moment, just a split second.
Through little to no dialogue, we get some VERY good character development in these scenes, and in action scenes no less. There's something far more wholesome about these brief moments than there was in the action scenes of the previous movies. I'm starting to get a feeling about something, but I can't narrow it down any further than a feeling as of yet...
Let's talk about the last movie we're going to look at this week, and maybe we'll be able to sort this feeling out as well!
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
We open, off the New Jersey Turnpike, about 2pm NAH, it's space again. Specifically, we open slap-bang in the middle of the Battle of Corisaunt, a huge space battle between the Confederacy fleet, and the Vendetta-class Star Destroyers of the Republic. It's a huge, close fought battle, with ships on both sides being hulked as turbolaser batteries pound each-other, fighters cutting through enemy squadrons, and we see it all, following behind a pair of Jedi interceptors, flown by Anakin and Obi Wan, as they fight their way to the Confederacy command ship, which is playing host to General Grievous, Count Dooku, and their captive, the Chancellor of the Republic.
This is one of the best space battles in all of Star Wars, and it finally leads us to the problem with these movies. But I'll get to that at the end of the review, let's just say that while this is an awesome scene, and beautifully choreographed, it has no real weight to it.
The two Jedi board the Confederacy command ship, along with R2-D2, who was the astromech on Anakin's fighter. The two Jedi work their way up through the ship to the command tower, while R2 fights off a couple of battledroids in the hanger. It's one of the other issues with these movies, that R2 basically ruins the crap of anything he comes into contact with, despite his abilities in the original trilogy.
Finally, the Jedi reach the command tower, where they find the Chancellor, but also Dooku, and a fight breaks out, the two fighting until Obi Wan is knocked out and trapped under debris. Dooku is disarmed, litterally, and the Chancellor instructs Anakin to kill him. The look on Dooku's face is perfect, Christopher Lee the perfect actor here, his dominating presence matching perfectly with his ability to emote with even simple body cues telling us that, he REALLY wasn't expecting this, just before Anakin cuts his head off.
Anakin rescues the Chancellor, and then Obi Wan, and they head back down the tower towards the body of the ship, only for it to take a heavy pounding, and start to drop into the atmosphere, which some-how alters the onboard gravity? Slack physics asside, the three soon arrive back in a coridor in the main body of the ship, where they're captured and brought to the bridge to be harassed by Grievous, another fight breaking out, the cyborg general escaping through a window. Into space, before returning aboard and escaping via escape pod.
The ship has suffered huge damage, and starts to plummet into the atmosphere of Corisaunt, snapping in two as it falls, the front half some how gliding in until it crashes, almost at a flat level, at a star port on the surface, fire ships following it all the way down. The Jedi,Chancellor and R2 survive with no injury, and are recovered by the Jedi.
So, we're less than 30 minutes in, and we've had 2 Lightsaber fights, a space battle and a ship CRASHING into a planet, oh, and a little bit of plot as well.
After being recovered from the crash, Anakin and Padme meet up, and she tells him, that she's pregnant. He's pleased, but more worried than ever about what's going to happen to them, especially as he's started having nightmares of her dying during childbirth, similar to his nightmares about his mother's death. A little while later, the Chancellor asks Anakin to be his representative on the Jedi council, to advise him of what they're doing, and to give them the point of view of the senate.
We see what has become of the Jedi order since the start of the war, with Jedi knights and masters spread across the galaxy, fighting the Confederacy on all fronts, each leading a force of Clones, with only a few Jedi left behind in the temple to look after the youngest Jedi, aka Younglings, those that don't have a master to look after them yet. The council still meet, via holograms, in the council office at the top of the temple, and discuss the Chancellor's request, agreeing to allow Anakin onto the council, but not to grant him the possition of a Master of the Jedi order.
Anakin is furious, ranting about how this is unpresidented, how no-one that's sat on the council hasn't been a Master for centuries. And, it's only because I'm a nerd that I know that the guy 3 seats over from Yoda, with the stupidly tall head and the beard, is only a Knight, and one of the lead trainers within the temple, his position on the council due to the need to get a view of the training of young Jedi, and to be advised on any that are having issues. This speaks, once again to the character of Anakin as a petulant youth, one who hasn't been loved, one that feels that his status as special even amongst those already special makes him entitled to even more preferential treatment. Which is as odds, in part, to how he's been raised. He was loved as a child, he's been well respected, and Obi Wan has great kindness for him, but still the writing of his dialogue is to make us dislike him more and more.
As Obi Wan and Yoda are deployed off to new battlefronts, Anakin meets back up with the Chancellor, at some kind of cultural event, to talk about what's happened. Here we get one of the better parts of the entire prequel trilogy, and that's the tale of Darth Plagus the wise. It's not long, in fact the entire story takes less than 5 minutes to tell, but it's about a Sith lord who had mastered the ability to cheat death, to escape it entirely. He was then killed by his own apprentice, despite all this. Anakin asks if this technique to escape death can be learned, and Palpaltine says “Not, from a Jedi!”
While Yoda has teamed up with the Wookies of Kashyke, Obi Wan has come to a world on the outer rim, where people from the planet cordiry, given their facial texture, has been invaded, with the Confederacy's command hidden above their city, until the Jedi arrives, and they flee to the volcanic world of Mustafar, leaving Obi Wan to corner Grievous before he can escape, and finally kill him, all but severing the military head of the Confederacy.
There's a cut scene from the DVD and cinematic releases of the movie, and I can only guess that it was cut because there wasn't enough shooting in it. Padme meets up with several other senators, including Bael Organa, and Mon Mothma, who are discussing the direction the Republic is taking, as the Chancellor is voted more and more powers, the old systems such as the Banking Clan have been consumed into the Republic as the war has continued, and that it may be time to plan for the worse. As such, the group decides that, if democracy should fail, a rebellion will be needed, to restore the hope of freedom to the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Anakin has finally discovered, or rather bold-facedly been told, that the Chancellor is actually the Sith lord, Darth Sideos, who has been manipulating the war from behind the scenes for years, pushing it in the direction he has wanted the entire time. Anakin then heads to the Jedi temple, and tells them what's happened, that Palpaltine has announced himself as the Sith mastermind behind it all. The remaining Jedi, lead by Samuel L Jackson but with a purple lightsaber, head to confront the Chancellor, leaving Anakin behind, as they intend to forcably remove the Chancellor, by force if needed.
However, seeds of doubt have been planted in Anakin's mind, and after a few minutes, he follows, needing the Chancellor alive to teach him how to save Padme. With the other Jedi dispatched, bar Windoo, Anakin arrives, trying to stop the Chancellor from being killed, and after a few moments, strikes at Windoo, taking his hand off, which appears to be his go-too move. Palpaltine, now deformed by his own Force lightening, blasts Windoo out of the window, and turns to Anakin, making him his new apprentice, Darth Vader.
Now, remember I spoke about that organic chip in the heads of the clones? Well, they now come into affect, as the Chancellor executes what is know as Order 66; It activates the chip, and causes the Clones to turn on the Jedi commanding them, and almost all of the Jedi are shot down in seconds by their clone troopers. Few survive, Yoda being one, decapitating the Clone troops that have been coming up to kill him and escaping with the aid of a young Chewbaca in an escape pod, Obi Wan surviving a near-glancing hit from a Clone tank's main gun and fleeing in Grievous' escape ship, and in a far unseen battle, a young padawan is ordered by his master to flee....
Back on Corisaunt, the Jedi temple is assaulted by a huge force of Clone troops, lead by the newly reborn Darth Vader, the force cutting down the few surviving Jedi, all of them, down to the youngest of the Younglings.
Yoda and Obi Wan are rescued by Bael Organa, who recently left Corisaunt after witnessing first hand the assault on the Jedi temple, and tells them what has happened. Not only has the Jedi Temple been assaulted, but Palpaltine has used the attempt on his life as an excuse to declare the Jedi as enemies, and crown himself Emperor, moving all the powers of the Senate into his new position, to tumultuous applause. And as she watched, Padme says “This is how democracy dies, to the thunder of applause...”.
The two remaining Jedi return to Corisaunt to deactivate the recall message for the few surviving Jedi, and discover what has happened, and who is at fault. Finally putting two and two together, Yoda goes to confront Palpaltine in the Senate building, while Obi Wan goes to talk to Padme, realising that Anakin is the father. In worry for Anakin's life, she heads to Mustafar, with Obi Wan stowing away in the ship.
Arriving on Mustifar, Padme confronts Anakin about what has happened, horrified at what he's done not only to the Confederacy leadership, all executed by his hand, and the Jedi that he also executed. On seeing Obi Wan stepping from the ship, Anakin looses it, almost throttling Padme in his rage, before tossing her aside to confront his former master.
When Obi Wan asks why he's done this, Anakin tells of what he's seen, what he knows is coming, that he would do anything to save the woman he loves, and that Obi Wan doesn't know what it's like to know you're going to loose some-one you love so deeply. With what we've seen in the Clone Wars series, it's not hard to understand why Obi Wan looses his temper, and starts to duel against Anakin over the molten surface of Mustafar.
Back at the Senate, Yoda confronts the now Emperor, and after a few moments of verbal sparing, begin to duel as well, the Emperor resorting to using the moduals of the building itself as a weapon, throwing them at the Jedi in an attempt to kill him, Yoda finally escaping into a speeder, piloted by Bael, saying that he shall have to go into hiding.
Quickly back to Mustafar, Anakin and Obi Wan are now fighting on a lava flow, which looks impressive, but makes little sense given the heat and gas under them, with Obi Wan leaping to one of the banks, and lopping off Anakin's remaining organic arm and both his legs, leaving him to struggle up the bank, catching fire as he struggles. Obi Wan screams that Anakin was supposed to bring the force into balance, not to leave it a wreck. Obi Wan leaves, taking Anakin's Lightsaber with him, and takes Padme to join Bael on a mining world, where the heavily traumatised Padme survives long enough to give birth to two future protaganists, before she dies. The two children are split up not long after birth, the girl, named Leia by her mother, goes with Bael to Alderan, while Obi Wan takes the boy, Luke, to his aunt and uncle back on Tattoin before he goes into hiding on the same world.
As Yoda goes into hiding on Dagoba, Anakin is rescued by the Emperor, and is given medical treatment to bring him back to a sembelance of life, though trapped in an armoured suit that is designed to keep him alive, but in constant pain, the Emperor knowing that his new apprentice is too strong to be controled by him, and that other methods are needed to constrain him. Vader, discovering what has happened to his wife, destroys most of the medical equipment around him, the Emperor laughing at the carnage wrought by his new tool of control over the galaxy, before the final scenes of the movie, as both Sith look over the construction of their next tool of control, the Death Star...
I've alluded to it several times in the review, but here's the big problem with these movies; There is little to no substance in these movies. Oh sure, there's some character building, and most of the time when it's good, it's great. The majority of scenes, however, are spectacles, not real content. There are a lot of flashy battles, a great many lightsaber fights, but none of these have any weight. Most of them involve characters we either don't know, or include characters we know are going to survive so there's no risk to them.
What's more interesting is the stuff that can be read out of the series and movies; The Jedi are weakened by their sheer numbers. The more Jedi there are, the less strength each one has in command of the light side of the Force, and the fact the Sith limit themselves to just 2 at a time gives them stronger control over the Dark side.
And that brings me to medichlorians. Unsupprisingly, they're never mentioned again in the prequels, or in any other movie or book. Why? Because 'bacteria that create Force sensitivity in lifeforms' is crap. Dan Shive, a cartoonist and webcomic artist, had the best solution; Keep them as bacteria, but that they're attracted to the Force sensitive. Then, they still work as an indicator. Or, otherwise, just say that 'we don't understand how or why, but those of us who are Force sensitive seem to host many of these bacteria in our blood. Some say that if we understood why, we'd know a lot more about the Force than we do,' adding yet another layer of mystery to the Force itself as well!
It's also interesting to see the wider galaxy. The Original Trilogy went to, let me see, 6 worlds, while the variety of worlds visited in the Prequel Trilogy is far more extensive, and far more interesting, even if it's only for a short time, and the variety of worlds and cultures is extended further still by the Clone Wars cartoon series and movie.
It's hard to say what order you're supposed to watch these movies in. If you go chronologically, then all the surprises and shocks in the Original Trilogy loose their weight. If you go in production order, the suspense of any scene featuring Anakin, Obi Wan or Yoda are ruined, because you know what happens to them.
These movies then, are popcorn flicks. Don't have the attention to watch the more cerebral nature of the Original Trilogy? Watch these. Fancy seeing an impressive fight scene? The Prequel Trilogy is for you!
But that said, we're ending almost 19 years before the Battle of Yavin, one of the most famous battles of the Rebellion, and the start of the Original Trilogy! What happens in that huge gap?
Well to answer that, join me next week, when we'll be having a look over The Rise of the Rebellion!
Until then, may the Force be with you!
TTFN,
Omega
