RIP: Star Wars

I am passive SW fan - saw IV,V,VI fell asleep watching I, never saw II and no plans yet for III - but even I wondered about all those clones not being in IV-VI.

It's a freakin' movie … get over it, and enjoy it for what it is.

I've watched all the movies. Read most of the books. Played the games.
I'm with the 2nd poster. I am of the opinion that no matter what he did you wouldn't be happy even if you wrote and directed. Let's look at your points though. Lets face facts the original Star Wars trilogies is riddled with holes and falls apart if analyzed too closely. The difference is Star Wars was cutting edge effects to cover them up, you were a child, you wanted to believe and today the effects are excellent but hardly new, your an adult with greater critical analysis skills (and cynicysm), and you don't want to believe. Too address your points though:
1) Ignoring real world reasons - ummm why would Yoda mention Chewie? As I recall Yoda was a bit busy trying to convince Luke not too go. Wouldn't say hi to Chewie a bit out of place. How does Yoda know the that Luke know Chewie? Well I guess Luke could have told him - but that musta happened off screen, so why would a mention happen on-screen. We obvisously don't see everything that happened on Dagobah - only enough to see what is needed for the story.
2) The Death Star is being started at the end of RotS and completed by ANH. Ok it is a long development cycle - but do you think a structure the size of a small moon (try grasping what type of size that is) the most powerful laser in the universe might take some time to build. A compleatly new technology. You know maybe they came across some technical difficulties, maybe some supply shortages. Who knows what else.
The idea that Han Solo is ex-imperial is an expanded universe concept but lets go with it. Its a big empire. Its a top secret project. You think that with a boss like Tarkin and Vader that its possible the rumors never get out. That even if they do that maybe Solo just never was in a position to hear them. Yes he could have but I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility he didn't.
3) Yes there are that many droids. They are all over the galaxy. There is hardly a scene in all 6 movies without a droid (not just C3P0 and R2D2) - even on a backwater planet like Tatooine. I really need to see the movie again so I can hear that line again specifically. Yes, he mentions specifically wiping out C3P0 but I also thought it was a general order but even it if isn't - so what? Who says R2D2 doesn't get wiped later - it's been 18 years. R2D2 knows C3P0 was wiped so why question him on what he remembers. He was ordered to keep it silent. Perhaps since he just beep and boops is consider less of a risk. As for why Obi-wan doesn't remember them. Why would he specifically? We do see sereval droids looking like C3P0 through out the movies (ok - C3P0 is the only golden droid ever seen but I'm presuming in the galaxy it isn't that unique). Maybe Obi-wan has reasons of his own for not reveling he recognizes the droids. During ANH he was definately spoon feeding Luke need to know stuff and I would think that qualifies under doesn't need to know.
I know you didn't like AotC but perhaps you remember it being mentioned that the Dark Side was clouding their ability with the Force. I'm not sure that the Jedi didn't know but were ignoring it because of greater needs. They made a lot of exceptions for Anakin cause he was the chosen one. They spent their time trying to use Anakin without paying attention to Anakin cause he is the chosen one and therefore could do no wrong.
4) Leia was shown her mother. All she remembers is impressions that she was beautiful and sad. It is beleived that you remember everything but can't recall it. There are some in the world that claim they can remember back too their births (I'm not saying I believe it but it is out there, and I can't disprove them). Leia is also force-sensitive which could also play into it.
5) ANH - what was around to be telekinetically thrown. ESB - umm you don't recall Vader throwing stuff around with his mind. I believe he does it also in RotJ. Yoda isn't human - maybe his species ages better. I've been avoiding real world explanations but lets face facts, they could do only so much back then with what they had - particularly since they didn't have anywhere near the budget they had today (even adjusted for inflation).
6) Give that Palpatine executes a 10 year (at least) plan that overthrows a 1000 year old government and takes down the most powerful beings in the galaxy - you think that he would leave around little details like these droid armies lying around. You think maybe his first order to Vader after the credit rolls was hey go get these droids and destroy them. Not to mention all three movies are practically shouting droid armies suck. Plus it looks like battle droids require a lot of resources to run. Resouces that the rebellion - a hit and run group doesn't have.
7) Again - you think that maybe Palpatine might have had reason for wiping them all out. I mean after ordering Vader to kill the Jedi in the temple he orders him to go kill the leaders of the Confederacy. You think that he might of followed up on that with wiping out those groups or that maybe they side with him after that little display. Maybe they do back the rebellion - just cause we don't see doesn't mean a thing. Their is a lot about the rebellion we don't see. The movies are only glimpses of events that they are apparently not prominent in. Ulitmately their fates are not relevant to the stories of this or the latter (or is that prior) movies.
7) This is Palpatine's movie. He is the villain. IV, V, VI are about Vader. I and II he is in the background while his flunkies take the spotlight. This is his movie and I don't say how you can't say he isn't a perfect villain - vile, loathsome, and evil. Grievous was a reason to separate Anakin and Obi-wan, ultimately irrelelvant. Same is true of the other Jedi - they are their to die cause we know that the Jedi are wiped out. Do their names really matter (unless your into the expanded universe)? Would it have been nice to give them a little more screen time and make them look cooler - sure - but their is that pesky reality again. They have only have so much time to put so much into.
I'm not saying III is a perfect movie. None of the prequels or orginals are. I have my questions, nitpicks, and flaws but I think it all comes down to whether you can just sit down and enjoy or you go in look for ways to pick it apart. However, it will never be the experience you had as a child - you are no longer that person, for better or for worse.
The orginal Star Wars is far from the perfect pieces of wonder people make it out to be. However it was blessed with that wonder of childhood that has made it sacrosanct and untouchable to criticism. The orginal Star Wars told a tell always loved - the rise of a hero. The prequels tell a more difficult tale - the rise of villain. I applaud Lucas for the effort and an entertaining tale.

I'm with you Chris, I'm considering these three movies apocryphal.

They are movies! For your entertainment! Get over yourself and just enjoy them.

Dude, hand in your Star Wars fan badge. Your gripes were pathetic and pedantic.
1) RE: Chewbacca. Perhaps Yoda just didn't care. In Empire he told Luke, 'Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.' So, wisely Yoda may not use his clairvoyant abilities unless absolutely necessary. I'm quite sure that Robbie Williams doesn't walk around singing everything he says. He uses the ability when appropriate. RE: Anakin's fatherhood. As above, but also because
Anakin an did the right thing and approached Yoda. Yoda was fan more concerned about discovering the mysterious Sith Lord, and his focus would have been on that. Remember what Qui Gon said Yoda had taught him, 'Keep your focus on the here and now.' In Empire Yoda said, 'there goes our last hope.' It was Ben who replied, 'no… there is another'. Yoda, unfortuantely, is powerful, but not perfect.
2)18 Years to build a battle station the size of a small moon! And how many people would know the exact details of what was built. Lackeys probably thought they were building the universes biggest casino or brothel or something. The Emporer was cunning and smart, he knew who to get to do what, and keep it all secret.
3) RE: memeory wipes. Yes, it might have been better if BOTH droids were mentioned for memory wipes. It also brings up the interesting question of why didn't Vader recognise Threepio in The Empire Strikes Back. Perhaps he did.
4) Leia says that, 'her mother died when she was very young.' How young we don't know (well, we do now). She also says that she remembers, 'thoughts and feelings'- traits of a Jedi. Undoubtedly the Organa's did tell her she was adopted, and may have had images, or at least told Leia comforting things about her mother to show that she was loved.
5) Yes, there are that many droids. There would be more than one r2 unit. In a New Hope, Ben says, 'I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid'. So, whilst familiar with artoo, young obi-wan probably wasn't paying too much attention to yet another astromech.
6) Making stuff fly? I suggest you watch the battle bettween Luke and Vader again in Empire, also the scene where Vader extracts the blaster from Han Solo's hand after Lando betrayed him.
7) Battle droids shut down? What the hell do you think they built the Death Star out of????
8)With their leaders gone it would be quite easy for the individual seperatist units to fall into disarray. Palpatine would have used this to his advantage in amalagamting these and others into 'The Empire'. Cool Guy? ****, if Anakin wasn't cool enough, you need a life.
I am not a fan of the expanded Star Wars universe either, but I will qualify this. In 1988 I stopped counting the amount of times I'd seen Return of the Jedi at 152! Combined viewing of all movies, easily over 1,000. and…. Sith has become my favourite. After an agonising struggle it pushed Jedi into number two spot.

After reading my post I came up with heaps more. For instance, Yoda teaching Luke to levitate rocks, and Artoo in Empire. Yoda vs the X-Wing in Empire.
If you were a Star Wars character you'd be Grand Moff Tarkin.

Chris - I'm with you. Too many holes in a crappy story line. To all those that said, “It's a movie, get over it.” I think you should do the same.

My own $0.02 from watching the movie and reading the associated novels - If you read the book adaptation of revenge of the sith it clears up many of the finer points which they just didn't have time to put in the movie in all honesty…
1) The time Luke spent on Dagobah was much longer than it appeared on screen, that's a given. We never actually see much of his conversations with Yoda and his full training, nevertheless Yoda wouldn't mention Chewbacca to Luke, it would likely leave the young Jedi in training with a sense of the awesome powers the Force gifts one with - he was awestruck at seeing Yoda lift an X-Wing, imagine his reaction to hearing about his prowess in battle… I don't believe Yoda would want to instill in Luke a sense of the power that the force gives a Jedi in combat, especially given his father's history.
2) The Death Star scene was likely something a few years forward - they were aboard a different style Star Destroyer as I recall (something more inline with the “modern” star destroyers from the original trilogy) which indicates some development along the way. This also would have been the first attempt at building a death star and would definitely have taken longer, especially given the fact that the confederacy leaders who designed it were now dead.
3) One of the novelizations describes Bail Organa's answer to Capt. Antilles question “What about the astro droid?” after 3POs mind is ordered wiped as being, “He's a decorated war hero Captain, we owe him this much at least.” Its cheesy but its a nice nod to the significant role R2D2 played in the EU clone-war era.
4) This is a bit of a hole but one of the reasons that Lucas gave was that Luke was born with his eyes closed (in the movie you see it on Tatooine) while Leia was born with her eyes open and thus obtained a force imprint of Padme. I don't necessarily agree with that…
5) This is more a matter of an older Alec Guiness fighting a body builder in a plastic suit, the sword fight couldn't be dramatic - plus at this stage in his life Obi Wan had begun to more or less master Form 3 lightsaber dueling (defensive stance) leaving him as a purely defensive combatant… yeah, so they couldn't have Guiness move around the same way they did Christopher Lee basically :-p
6) This is supposed to be explained in the Dark Lords novel coming out next month which is the official follow up to sith.
7) Some of them did actually help the rebellion, the Quarren who share a homeworld with the Mon Calamari were vital in providing resources to the rebellion for starship construction but were members of the Confederacy.
8) I actually liked not having a Vader predecessory, it shows how Palpatine is just toying with his “apprentices” until the right one comes. His reaction to Luke's almost beating Vader in RotJ shows that he doesn't even care that much about Vader either. He's the big boss and everyoen else is just a stepping stone on the way to galactic domination.

also it is an expanded universe thing that there were pre- death stars built in the maw cluster at a secret research station several years before the death star was actually built and Han Solo was only a low ranked officer when in the Imperial navy but he did meet Chewie at a wookie slave camp where they were mining metal for the death star.

I don't pretend to be a huge Star Wars fan, but all the EpI-III bashing is, IMO, just sour grapes. So it isn't the best movie(s) ever. So what? Lucas is an adept storyteller, but he's not perfect. Also, realize that he's kept this story in his own head for over 30 years now. There's bound to be some plot holes.
But here are my takes on the nits…
1) IMO, making Yoda and Chewie old friends was just begging for fanboys to yell “foul!” But the reality is that Yoda is hiding out in a place that is teeming with Dark Force energy, so that he may hide better. There's no telling why he wouldn't know that Luke knows Chewie. But it's not really odd. Do you go to your new professors and flatly state, “here's a list of people I have met in my life… know any of them?”
A friend of mine made an interesting comment about this once. He said it was quite “odd” how Ben went straight to Mos Eisley and then disappeared for a few minutes and immediately “found” Chewbacca, and transport to their destination. I would wager that Obi Wan and Chewie had been in communication, at least sparsely, over the years.
2) It's a big galaxy. There's no telling how the construction of the Death Star was kept relatively under wraps. Obi Wan lost a whole planet, for goshsakes. Surely the Emperor figured he would have a top secret construction spot (like Area 51) and he makes sure that no one gets in. Even so, some Bothans got the plans for the station and got them to the Rebellion.
3) Who knows? Maybe Artoo was running Windows and had a serious crash… maybe he just got old and forgot. Maybe he was sworn to secrecy. Maybe he realizes that Obi Wan and Yoda are hiding to stay alive and that 3PO is a blabbermouth.
4) Leia says she remembers her mother. She doesn't say real mother. But my take is that she was never told she was adopted. In RotJ she is speaking of Bail Organa's wife who must have died when Leia was young. Realize, Leia takes the Organa name, whereas Luke stays a Skywalker (who knows Owen and Beru are not his parents). Chances are Bail Organa complained continually about his reduction in power over the years and his wife got more and more depressed over it, and then Leia picked up on that.
For me, I would have thought it would be better to have Padme live, making it that much more of a manipulation by Palpatine. He could still have told Vader that she died so that he wouldn't be running off looking for her, and it would have been just that much more dramatic. And of course, meanwhile, Padme would not have known that Vader was Anakin, thinking that he was dead as well (shades of Romeo and Juliet).
5) Realize, Obi Wan's (Ben's) comment was, “I don't recall ever owning any droids.” He never owned C3PO or R2D2. Droids are sort of like pets in the Star Wars universe. Imagine that you never owned a dog, yet you played with your friend's dogs for years. Then 20 years later someone comes up and goes, “hey, here are your dogs.” Don't you think you would be thinking, “hm, don't recall ever owning any dogs.” Artoo was on a mission and he was basically lying to accomplish his mission, telling C3PO whatever it would take.
6) If you play any of the video games, you know that every Jedi “trick” takes effort. In a Jedi-vs.-Sith battle, you want to pull out the stops. But realize that by ANH, there were VERY few people who could contend with a master of the Force. Should Ben have swooped up every glass on the bar and pelted the ne'er-do-well with them? Or was it enough to just dismember him right quick and get back to business.
7) I'm sure the Emperor had them dismantled and made into Star Destroyers. Or maybe they were reprogrammed to be worker droids until they stopped functioning. If it had been me, I would have used them. “Okay, worlds of the new Empire… remember that war thing? Well, guess what. I command BOTH armies. So if anyone wants to step out of line, they'll be paid a visit.”
8) They were probably enslaved. That'd be my guess.
Lastly, did someone above mention, “what happened to the clones in Eps 4-6?” Hellooooo! See those guys in white? All those stormtroopers? It wasn't until Ep2 that Leia's, “aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?” comment made sense.
Of course, I want to go back and watch all the eps again to see if all stormtroopers' voices sound like Bob Fett.

The worst thing about star wars was the acting, full stop. Even great actors like ewan mcgreggor and Samuel L Jackson were way under par. Plus there was no cool good guy like Han Solo to really bring the movie together. Also it shouldn't have been made for kids, ROTS would have been a lot better if it was a darker movie, because essentially that is what ep III is, a very dark chapter of star wars. in summary
Awful Acting
No Han Solo Character &
Movie should have been darker, blacker film, not made for kids.

Chris you are DEAD on. The prequels were all ****. The only shinning light in all 3 was Qui-Gon Jinn and he was killed off.

Lucas said all through the 80’s the story was about how anakin was this GREAT jedi who was admired and loved and a hero of the galaxy and who reached these great heights only to have a tragic fall from grace and fall prey to the dark side of the force….and what did we get instead?

a 2nd grader…a teen age smart mouth punk anakin who whines and cries and disrespects his Master from scene one of episode 2 …even if you didn’t know he would turn to vader eventually you would almost expect this punk to turn evil….what’s so tragic about that? Wheres the fall from grace? How can you have a fall from a great height when you were never nothing but a smart azz tennager brat to begin with?

George Lucas ruined star wars for me. There are so many plot holes its unreal. Ben tells luke in a new hope “that’s what you uncle told you..he didn’t agree with your fathers ideals and though he should have stayed home and not gotten involved” involved in what? owen knew anakin for a day. he also told luke..” your uncle wouldnt allow it..he thought you might follow old obi-wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did” hmm what idelaistic crusade? what the hell? I could go on and on and on.

It’s pathetic and all these fans who defend the prequels are usually just KIDS 17 18 19 yrs old who have no idea of what star wars is/WAS and how lucas said it was going to be.

Oh well….we always have the original 3. sad as it sounds….Mark hamil and a pupper gave us better acting, better screen play and more emotion in 45 mins on dagobah in ESB than the entire prequel trilogy combined. SAD! F.OFF Lucas.

Rock on Chris.