We just completed a long-overdue aspect of nine-year-old Caroline’s education by finishing up showing her the only three “Star Wars” films that really matter: Eps 4, 5 and 6. She actually sobbed copiously when Vader died. You know, we spend so much time bìŧçhìņg about Lucas doing this, that and the other think that sometimes we forget the power these films can pack, especially for younger viewers.
Then we asked her the obvious question. Which of the three was her favorite?
Without hesitation she said, “Return of the Jedi.” I said, “Because of the Ewoks?” She said, “No, because of Leia. This is the first movie she kicked ášš.” And I thought about that and realized she was right.
In “A New Hope,” Leia is captured, tortured, waits for rescue. Yes, granted, she immediately takes charge while castigating the guys, shooting Stormtroopers, and leading them into the dumpster. But once they escape the Death Star, she basically allows the Millennium Falcon to lead the bad guys right to the rebel HQ (remember, she says the Empire let them escape; it should have been obvious why) and then stands there silently hoping they don’t get blown up while a slew of men take care of business; she doesn’t have a word of dialogue for the last fifteen minutes except to welcome Luke and Han back.
In “Empire,” generally lauded as the best of the films, she fights with Han, sucks face with her brother, tells the rebels it’s time to run away, gets hauled around the galaxy like so much baggage by Han, bickers, bickers some more, screams when she sees a harmless flying sucking animal, falls in love with Han, gets captured, hides behind a Wookie, tells Han she loves him and gets a non-committal response in front of Vader, Boba Fett and the Stormtroopers, all of whom were probably snickering under their helmets. Han winds up frigid, hermetically sealed on Funk and Wagnall’s porch, she’s helpless to escape until Lando springs her, and she’s she’s too late to save her ingrate boyfriend. The only pro-active thing she does the whole film is pick up Luke’s mental email and go back to pick him up before he destroys the entire cloud city’s TV reception.
But in “Return,” well, first she manages to strong-arm her way into Jabba’s hut and frees Han. Then for the next ten minutes she’s stuck in the outfit that launched a million fanboy fantasies. But after that, as if spurred on by the humiliating ensemble, she goes on an absolute tear of payback. Anyone and everyone who screws with her gets his head handed to him. She strangles Jabba and helps blow up the barge; joins a raiding party on the moon of Endor, eludes stormtroopers in a high speed chase, and even after she gets knocked off the bike, the trooper who did it gets blown up. She forges an immediate alliance with the Ewoks (while her boyfriend and brother wind up getting hogtied by midget teddy bears). She joins in another raiding party, gets captured for maybe thirty seconds (the shortest capture stint of the three films), gets in a firefight, gets blasted but in no time not only shoots down her assailants (with a wound in her shoulder, no less, which never even gets bandaged–her arm isn’t even in a sling–because she’s just that bad ášš) and tosses Han’s snark from “Empire” right back at him.
I just find it interesting that the film that fans consider the strongest is when Leia is the weakest, and when women dress as Leia from “Jedi,” they invariably favor the costume that’s the most degrading. It takes a modern nine year old to zero in on what she appreciates most: a film where the lead female kicks ášš.
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I picked up the Blu-Ray Star Wars movies when they came out. In the Commentary for “Return,” Carrie Fisher notes that she never says a single word while Jabba’s prisoner. From the moment she’s captured until she kills Jabba, she has not a single line.
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I see two ways of interpreting it: she was too intimidated to speak, or too stubborn and willful. I think Lucas meant the former, but Fisher gave me a definite vibe for the latter.
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“I see two ways of interpreting it: she was too intimidated to speak, or too stubborn and willful. I think Lucas meant the former, but Fisher gave me a definite vibe for the latter.”
Or she was biding her time until an opportunity came along — and when it did, she was ready. (Seriously, how *else* would a human strangle a creature with a neck that size? Seriously!) To paraphrase a recent NCIS: LOS ANGELES, don’t mistake stillness for absence of action — that’s how most alligators catch their prey.
Well, James, there’s just one slight flaw to your alligator analogy: An alligator (or even a crocodile) can essentially go from a position of stock-still to explosive action in the span of a heartbeat. Plenty of programs have shown this and most experts in the crocodilians rate this as one of the two most surprising elements of the animals (the other being that, despite the jaws that can apply thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch with a single bite can’t budge those jaws when they’re held closed by an average man).
Her strangling Jabba and her being such a crack shot in spite of being from a planet with no weapons isn’t hard to understand if you remember she’s the daughter of Annakin ‘Darth – he’s just scary – Vader’ Skywalker. That she might be subconsciously tapping into the Force would make sense to me. Not enough to do the really showy stuff like telekinetics and the like, but subtly augmenting her natural abilities? Sure, why not? Which raises the question of why Vader didn’t pick up on it when interrogating her, but perhaps she wasn’t ‘reaching into’ the Force sufficiently to be noticeable early on.
Her strangling Jabba and her being such a crack shot in spite of being from a planet with no weapons isn’t hard to understand if you remember she’s the daughter of Annakin ‘Darth – he’s just scary – Vader’ Skywalker. That she might be subconsciously tapping into the Force would make sense to me. Not enough to do the really showy stuff such as telekinetics and the like, but subtly augmenting her natural abilities? Sure, why not? Which raises the question of why Vader didn’t pick up on it when interrogating her, but perhaps she wasn’t ‘reaching into’ the Force sufficiently to be noticeable early on. In fact her latent ability might help explain why she resisted the interrogation as well as she did. Works as well for an explanation as saying the members of the Royal House of Alderaan were trained to resist torture.
Well, she does have one line. Han and Luke and Chewie are dragged before Jabba, Han asks where Leia is, Leia shouts, “I’m right here.” But no, she never speaks to Jabba once. And to me, it always clearly felt like she was just biding her time, waiting for a moment. She never seemed scared in the slightest. Hëll, what was her only line to him? “We have powerful friends. You’re going to regret this.”
Ewoks aside, I’ve always considered “Return of the Jedi” to be the most under-rated and under-appreciated of the Star Wars saga. Kudos to your daughter for “sensing the good” in “Jedi”! 🙂
I’ve always felt Jedi to be the weakest of the OT, but only due to the quality of the previous two films. If nothing else, The Battle Of Endor remains my first choice for greatest movie space battle.
Seriously, look at how much is going on in each scene of the space battle. It’s insane….
I’ve always loved Jedi. If nothing else, the passing of Vader totally makes up for the Ewoks, and then some.
Good for Caroline. As you point out, “Jedi” is the only film where Leia is really take charge.
Good point about “A New Hope”. When Leia says, “They’re tracking us. It’s the only explanation for the ease of our escape” I always shout at the TV “Then why are you going to Yavin?! Go somewhere else and SWITCH SHIPS!!!”
I’m thinking the film was supposed to convey a sense of urgency, that they simply felt they didn’t have the TIME to go out of their way. But, given how fast ships appear to travel in that universe, I’m not seeing that as being an obstacle.
So…what was the time constraint again?
So, you want the good guys to paint a big fat target ror the Death Star on some innocent planet?
No, stop long enough to get Artoo, Luke and Leia onto another ship, and then just cruise around until the Death Star is destroyed. Presumably, it could even be done in space.
Exactly. Think about it for a moment. If you have no money constraint, such a tracking device can be extremely small. In the Emopire strikes back, we see how complex it can be to repair the Falcon. It might have even Han and Chewbacca taken days to find the device. All the time being hunted by the Death Star (or any other Imperial Vessel) blowing up each planet they land on.
They Already destroyed the defenseless Alderaan.
Luring the Death Star to Yavin was their only chance to destroy it.
About the Millenium Falcon. It’s no mentioned in the movies, but consider this:
It has a Missle Launcher. A retractable Blaster cannon. An extremely enhanced Hyperdrive. An extremely enhanced Sublight Drive. Heavy Blaster Cannons above and below. Smuggling compartments. A military sensor system.
These are all modifications from the standard freighter it was when it came from the assembly line. It still has it’s original cargo and passenger capacity.
Because of all that the ship is incredibly difficult to repair and fly. A small tracking device could have been anywhere.
In Han’s defense, I would also have though Leia was out of her mind. Easy? You call that easy? They were shot at from the moment they busted her out of the cell, to the moment they finished off the last TIE. Could the Death Star have puked out a few more TIEs? I suppose (but it wouldn’t have moved the movie forward. We’d spend the rest of the movie watching them dodge TIEs trying to get into hyperspace). And of course, there’s that little incident of losing a JEDI MASTER.
So yeah. Not easy. Was she right? Sure. But it wasn’t easy.
Truthfully, I have always considered Return of the Jedi the best – for me, the scene making it was when Luke is sitting alone in the Ewok village, and Leia comes out to ask him about what is troubling him, and he tells her of them being family. That one scene showed me that there actually was real emotional depth available, which I didn’t see in the first two movies.
Interesting perspective indeed. Never actually thought about that before, but wow. Yeah.
Also, it should be pointed out that aside from her capture in ANH, Leia was never really a damsel. She’s a better shot than anyone else in the films, for one.
Heck – she fared better than Padme did in the prequels. While Natalie Portman was somewhat badass in the first one and to an extent in the second one, in the third one she was definitely a damsel, sadly.
Dear God, I’m such a geek —
As I was reading all of this, the first thing that popped into my head was “Wow, Leia would’ve made a great companion for The Doctor!”
Time to read “Bimbos of the Death Sun” and “Zombies of the Gene Pool” again.
Leela *did* make a great companion for the Doctor! I always thought her savage cunning made a perfect complement to the Doctor’s scientific decadence.
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I just dug the fact that she was written to hold her own and be more action oriented than a lot of the companions that came before her. It made her seem like she had a reason to be there beyond just having a character who would stand there and let the doctor explain entire paragraphs of plot to the viewer through.
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Granted, she did that as well, but she did a lot more than just that.
Absolutely. Sharyn McCrumb — “the Jane Goodall of science fiction,” as she put it — nailed us.
In the mid-90s Rusty Shock wrote a fanfic novella “Stars and Time” in which the Fourth Doctor and Leia battle the Master in the GFFA.
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I’ve always found that kind of interesting. I know a lot of women who like Return for exactly this reason, but when the go to conventions as a female character from Star Wars, it’s almost always as slave Leia. Not complaining mind you, but I’ve always thought it was funny that they dig on the fact that she’s at her most kick ášš and assertive in that film, but it’s always the guy fantasy outfit they plan on wearing.
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Of course, as one of those ladies put it one time, the slave outfit is a lot easier to put together than the bounty hunter outfit, the slave outfit gets you invited to a lot more parties and works as much better bait for meaningful and significant relationships of the 24/48/72 hour convention variety. Can’t argue with that logic.
“I’ve always thought it was funny that they dig on the fact that she’s at her most kick ášš and assertive in that film, but it’s always the guy fantasy outfit they plan on wearing.”
I always thought the whole “Slave Leia” thing was a perfect illustration of the difference between fantasies of men and women. (Prepare for massive generalization about the genders, cap’n!) While women often fantasize about a seemingly plain woman suddenly beautiful, whether by taking off their glasses and letting down their hair (beautifully parodied on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, btw) or getting a makeover and new dress (from CINDERELLA to PRETTY WOMAN), men fantasize that beneath the exterior of any woman is a hot, sexy, potentially freaky (metal bikini and slave collar/chain?) babe. We dream…
Thanks for the comment about “massive generalization” because I’ve been around costumers since … er, well, let’s just say a LOT of years, and I’ve known quite a few female costumers who did get decked out that way, and in similarly showy outfits. I got the sense that, generally, it wasn’t to satisfy male fantasies, but rather to satisfy their own of leaving behind what they perceived as their drab, day-to-day existence in favour of a more alluring, exotic one, even if only for a few hours. Sometimes it can be as simple as their smiling as they comment that “My mother would kill me if she saw me dressed like this.”
And let’s not frget this wonderful PSA on the topic, featuring Kaley Cuoco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4m6CrBUvWw
So, Peter, when are you going to let Caroline read the scripts for your various parodies of the movies? Still get a kick out of remembering the scene from Return To Jedi: Address Unknown when Luke explains to Leia about their family.
Return of the Jedi has always been my favourite, ever since I first saw the movies as a kid (I think I was around 13 or so). And it’s never had anything to do with the Ewoks, which is what everybody brings up when they talk about Jedi, slightly annoyingly.
It is Leia being brilliant. I’ve always felt that Star Wars – both the films and sadly the EU – has a tendency to appear to have strong female characters who take action and have central roles, but when you look closely the vast majority of the time it’s the men doing the important stuff, which drives me up the wall. But in Jedi, Leia actually does have the role that everybody always THINKS she has throughout the movies, despite the humiliating outfit.
It is also the growing family connection (especially that moving scene where Luke leaves Endor & Leia figures out their relationship). It is Vader’s redemption (well, his caring for his son – I never felt wanting to save your son’s life automatically made you not-evil, but never mind). It is Han & Leia finally getting that kiss. Basically it’s combination of an awesome Leia and a real emotional heart.
I like all three originals pretty much equally.
I hate how most people ignore the obvious fact of the Ewoks: their first thought when they meet another sentient species is to hook them up to a spit so they can cook and eat them. They’ve probably already eaten the stray Stormtrooper from the Empire’s force on the ground. They’re savage little omnivores who see other talking species as dinner. Cute? Not to me. They’re savage teddy bears. They lure you in with their cute exterior then strap you to a spit. I ever see a Ewok, I’m heading for the hills, cause those things are more dangerous than a Wookie, Wookies are probably herbivores, but Ewoks eat any flesh they can cook, even human.
And yeah, Leah does kick ášš in this movie, and to that guy who claims Lucas wanted to paint her as weak when she was enslaved: She had already gone in there, with very little backup (Lando, Luke and Chewie) to get Han, outnumbered and out gunned by at least ten to one. What more do you need to prove Lucas wanted her to be tougher. She kills Jabba as soon as she gets a chance. She doesn’t mess around, she just chokes the slug.
Trust me, I didn’t ignore the savage nature of the Ewoks. I wrote a sketch parody called “Return to Jedi: Address Unknown.” And when they’re having the big celebration at the end, Leia is munching on some of the food being cooked up, and she says to one of the Ewoks, “This is delicious! What do you call it?” And the Ewok replies in a high pitched voice, “Stormtrooper.” Whereupon a gagging Leia spits it out.
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I thin there was a brilliant sketch from an issue of Star Wars Tales with a poor traumatised Stormtrooper who survived Endor. His reaction to being told the Forest Moon wasn’t obliterated by fallout from the exploding Death Star is priceless…
You should make your scripts available sometime for those never had the chance to see them performed but have heard about them often. We’d like in on the jokes (so to speak).
I grant the ferocious and sneaky nature of Ewoks. But it’s still a case of man-sized opponents in heavy armour with strength augment (remember how easily one backhands Han off his feet?) and blasters, against two-foot tall furballs with rocks. Even granting a few special surprises (like the ATST getting squished between heavy logs) this should be a case of fierce Zulu tribesmen against a brigade of Abrams tanks. I know who wins.
Yes, except if you watch the flow of the battle, slowly the (to keep with your analogy) Zulus start getting their áššëš kicked. They are on the run, things are looking bad…and suddenly a seven foot tall Zulu and two half-sized companions take over one of the tanks and start shooting the šhìŧ out of the other tanks who weren’t prepared for it.
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Agreed. Chewie taking over the ATST helped a lot. The problem I have is when we were seeing troopers being taken out by Ewoks armed with nothing but wooden clubs and relatively small stones. An unprotected human would be in bad shape against even such primitive weapons, but an armoured Stormtrooper?
Go, Caroline. I think sometimes it’s easy to zero in on the sillier stuff in ‘Return’ – the Ewoks, Leia’s slavegirl costume, levitating C3PO etc. – and forget there are other strong things in the film than just the Luke/Vader arc. Leia throttling Jabba is one of the most badass moments in that whole first trilogy, and I still want to punch the air when I re-watch it. One of the few feats of simple physical strength in the first 3 films – no guns, no TIE fighters, no Force – and Leia gets it. She is fierce. It’s a perfect subversion of the harem outfit, too.
(Although to be fair, when I first saw ‘Star Wars’ aged 7, I was really impressed by her attitude and badassery there. She may have had to be rescued, and gotten underused in the latter half, but back in those days a heroine who did more than scream and look pretty, who could diss the two-foot-taller Big Bad without blinking and shoot a gun and snark at her would-be knights in shining armour, was a huge surprise and very welcome).
As I mentioned earlier, I think a case could be made that she was indeed tapping a little into the Force, albeit subconsciously. Which doesn’t take away from her courage and determination as she didn’t realize she was doing it.
You know, just because Leia in Ep. 4 says that Alderaan is peaceful and has no weapons doesn’t mean that’s true. She’s trying to save her world from being destroyed. Seconds later she lies about the location of the rebel base; why wouldn’t she say anything that comes to mind to save Alderaan? What’s she GONNA say? “No! Granted, Alderaan has a standing army of two million, but please don’t blow them up!” “Peaceful” could simply be equated to “neutral,” but even Switzerland has an army, and their knives are pretty nasty.
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So I don’t see why Leia couldn’t have been given marksmanship lessons growing up.
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Hëll, the Shaolin Monks were peaceful. They could still leave a band of thugs in a bloody heap without breaking a sweat.
Greg Costikyan did some pretty good fleshing out of the universe and its characters in the first Star Wars Role-Playing game. In his version, Alderaan was just that peaceful, but Leia adoptive father could see the writing on the wall and had her trained in marksmanship and such, knowing that she’d need those skills. He was supposed to be a Jedi Knight, so one could believe that he had some foresight…just not enough to get the hëll off Aleraan in time….
As someone who lived in Switzerland for a year, it’s a very peaceful place, very relaxing, etc.
It’s also somewhere that I’d never even think about invading; the only way to take out the Swiss would be to nuke ’em from orbit. Repeatedly.
Seriously, when I was getting a tour of the apartment/rooming house I was living in, the owner opened up a closet to show me the house arsenal; rifles, automatic weapons, grenades, etc. Asked me if I knew how to use any of it. I said no. He said “Then you won’t go in here.” Me: “That is correct”
And that sort of arsenal is mandated by law to be in every Swiss house. All males have to spend a couple of years in the armed forces, with several weeks of refresher training each summer until age 50. Random fields are mined. All the tunnels and bridges in the Alps are mined. If you invade Switzerland, you’ll have to literally take it house by house and then have a really nasty bunch of trained and well-armed guerillas pestering you for as long as you’re there.
Believe me, I’d take the Swiss against Imperial Stormtroopers any day. Or the Ewoks.
You got it.
Without the bridges and tunnels, your troops can only get in by parachute and you can practically forget your heavy equipment. Your supplies have to be brought in the same way and your opponent might get some of them because you may not be there fast enough if your pilots guessed the winds wrong.
If you thought Saddam had difficult bunkers, you don’t want to see the swiss ones. I’m not sure, but at least a few of them should be immune to something like the ‘bunker-busters’.
And the problems go on and on.
I take your point about Leia being the most active in Return of the Jedi (and count me amongst those who think ROTJ is underrated) I do think you don’t give Leia enough credit for A New Hope. You skipped over the boarding of the Tantive IV. She takes the Death Star plans herself and hides them; then, instead of escaping herself, she buys time by taking on armed Stormtroopers herself. Their blasters were set to stun; hers wasn’t. Captured, she stands up to both Darth Vader and Tarkin. This is a 20-year-old Senator. That is guts. She WITHSTANDS torture. She’s not just tortured. She never gives in. She gives them ruse with Dantooine, and loses her adopted father and homeworld as a result, but she is never a victim. Ever. So, she “waits” to be rescued; but again, she has done quite a bit from her position. As soon as there is hope, she takes charge of the rescue, does the only planning and blasts plenty of Stormtroopers herself, in the cell block corridor, while Luke sets up the grappling hook. Yes, the pilots take the gun turrets and fly the spaceships. They are pilots. She is a Senator. She gambles that they can get the plans back and a weakness can be found–whether the Empire is tracking them doesn’t relate to whether she is doing something, being brave and heroic. Then she lets the pilots do what they need to do. She is a leader; that’s what leaders do. Obama wasn’t in a compound in Pakistan; he sent the Navy SEALS. FDR wasn’t storming the beach at Normandy; he sent 160,000 Allied troops. Leia is far from the damsel in distress. That’s exactly what Lucas is playing with here. Leia is a princess…with a blaster. She’s captured as a slave…and kills her captor. Not that dissimilar to Buffy (she’s a cheerleader in a dark alley…who stakes the vampire). It may be more obvious that Leia is a badass hero in ROTJ, but she was one from the beginning.
Whenever the subject of Jedi silliness comes up, I ALWAYS think of this post, which points out the complete absurdity of Luke’s rescue plan. Reads like it could have sprung from Peter’s pen itself.
Why does everyone get down on the Ewoks. The Ewoks were awesome. I loved them when I was a kid. I even had an Ewok treehouse toy with a little plastic Wicket figure.
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Uhm… Good taste?
As Barney Stinson pointed out, one’s feelings about the Ewoks depends on how old you were when the movie came out. I was young enough to like them at the time, and I still do. The fact that the Emperor’s plan fails simply because he didn’t factor in these primitive teddy bears is easily the most inspired element of the film.
I was at such an age that I knew about the Ewoks before I knew about Star Wars. No, seriously. It was after Return of the Jedi came out and there was an Ewoks cartoon that I used to watch on Saturday morning and Ewoks toys and a straight-to-VHS movie called “The Ewok Adventure”. There was plenty of Ewoks stuff to go around, but Star Wars was over.
Anyway, people’s main problem with it is that they have a hard time believing that the Ewoks could beat the Imperial troops. And I’m going to say right here, blasphemy that it might seem: I don’t care. The thing is that I love the Ewoks because they’re a nostalgic part of my own childhood. But I’m not a big enough fan of the rest of Star Wars that it really matters to me how the Empire was beaten. :p
The Ewok Adventure was actually made for television, and it totally rocked. The sequel, not so much. I never got into the Ewoks cartoon, though. I think I was too old by then.
Oh, and curiously enough, I recently sold most of my Star Wars figures on e-Bay. Other than the rare blue Snaggletooth, you know what got the most attention from buyers, by far? That’s right, the Ewoks.
I even had an Ewok treehouse toy with a little plastic Wicket figure.
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For which Lucas’s bank account thanks you.
Jedi’s always been my favorite. Granted, it was because Luke finally grew up and started legitimately kicking butt, not Leia, but your daughter makes a very good point as well.
You know I like Jedi too. The Slave Leia outfit was classic and Your daughter does have a point since she actually strangles Jabba. As for Ewoks, I like them, but Barney Stinson’s right. I also think it’s great that people are showing kids the original trilogy, not just the prequels or even worse Clone Wars.
I still hang my head in shame that my offspring has no desire to see these movies.
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As for Leia’s arrival as a heroine in Jedi, I always thought it was due to circumstance. In the first movie, she’s one rebel against a small moon full of Imperials. Granted, three more show up to rescue her and all hëll breaks loose. In Empire, she’s again slightly outnumbered and not really in the best combat scenario. As for the mynock on the canopy, hëll, one of those things shows up all of a sudden on my windshield and I might scre—er, let out a startled but manly gasp. Throw in the fact that its really a Luke story with occasional other characters thrown in to break up the training and there you have it. Jedi is the first time she really gets to show off due to the situation.
One of the best convention masquerade costumes I ever saw was a slim woman with her hair carefully braided into two pig-tail locks rolled up tightly and flatly on both sides, wearing Luke’s black costume from Return with a light-sabre hanging from her belt. As she stood ramrod-straight at attention, the announcer read into his microphone her title:
“Princess Leia, ten years later.”
She got a standing ovation.
To be fair, I don’t think Leia or how she’s portrayed is the reason why most fans prefer “Empire” over “Return.”
The problem with ROTJ is that it is a totally retread of the previous two movies. I was amazed at the weapons and creatures in ANH and then ESB came out and upped the ante with the The Emperor and AT-AT Walkers. Wow! ROTJ has the same mission (blow up the Death Star) and the same creatures and vehicles. You can definitely tell that Lucas was tired by the third movie.
I still remember being at the “RoTJ” screening that was arranged for all Star Wars licensees, of which Marvel was one. I was seated nearby Barry Kaplan, who was–I think–Marvel’s CFO. His commentary was hilarious. When Yoda died, someone could actually be heard audibly crying. Barry murmured, “That’s the person who has the Yoda license.” When they arrived in the Ewok village, Barry said softly, “Plush Ewok, $10.95. Plush Ewok mother with baby, $18.95. Ewok plastic village playset, $29.95.”
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They did market the heck out of those Ewoks, didn’t they?
Okay, okay, I admit, I had a plush Ewok. I was 7, all right?
(Runs and hides in corner)
We have in Ariel’s room a “life-sized” Wicket that was a Pepsi give-away at the time of the film. It is a little worn with all the hugs it has gotten over the years.
Leia may be at her most kick-ášš in this movie, and it does have the best space battle ever – but that still doesn’t excuse the large amounts of re-hashing the movie does, for me at least. I’ll always love it, but it’ll always be the lesser of the original trilogy.
I remember the cheer in SW IV when in the Death Star prison block, some ladies cheered when Leia took the gun and shot the hole in the convenient air duct so they could escape: “Someone’s got to save our skins! Into the chute, flyboy!”
As for the Ewoks, Lucas should have made their arrows effective. Like having a storm trooper hear a twig snap, he turns, and THWIP! THOCK!!! And he falls with an arrow embedded in his helmet’s eye socket. Then the hundreds of Ewoks surrounding the stormtroopers stand up, bows ready to fire, and a trooper says, “Uh oh. Fire, FIRE!!!!” Blaster fire, swarm of arrows, more troopers with arrows stuck in them. Stuck in the joints and eye sockets for fans who people who say the stormtrooper armor should be tough, and a few arrows in the butt to make the little boys laugh.
As it was, the arrows looked about as effective as chopsticks tossed by a fussy toddler.
At a party after a preview showing of Return before its release, a group of fans were discussing the Stormtrooper armor. It didn’t stop arrows, the head could receive concussion wounds from blows to the helmet, it certainly didn’t stop blaster bolts.
Maureen Garrett, who worked for Lucasfilm at the time said meekly, “It’s only fiberglass.”
I love RoTJ because it was the end of Luke’s hero journey to become a Jedi, and it finally answered the questions “Is Darth Vader REALLY Luke’s father?” “Why did Obi-Wan lie?” we (fans) had been debating since Empire.
I personally never had a problem with the Ewoks because the good guys won just when the Empire was gonna slaughter them. There is a scene with Wicket (IIRC) where he’s running with another Ewok that gets killed and he starts moaning at the loss.
Again, for me, that scene was a clear messsage after the suprise attack, the longer the battle went, the easier it wasn’t going to go the Ewok’s way unless there was a turning point (provided by Chewbacca and highjacking the ATAT)