Star Wars kick...

[dangermousie]

I am watching Empire Strikes Back, which I haven't seen in years and years and years, and I've forgotten how incredibly awesome and OTPish Han/Leia are. *mad squee* Yup, I just got to the kissing bit and the whole 'you like me because I am a scoundrel' thing. SQUEE.

It's funny, with the Original Trilogy, because the effects and hair styles are rather dated, acting is still not the best seen ever, and I know the story backwards, and yet somehow...it all still miraculously works together into something of an almost ur-story. It's still grabbing me and holding on like mad.

And because I still think Revenge of the Sith is the best of SW movies (don't care whether it's blasphemy or not, but I think it's the only one that is really...art), and because I love the doomedness of Padme and Anakin and the whole Wagenrian opera feel and the darkness and tragedy of it all, here is a vid about ROTS:

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I never did understand why everyone was so hard on the fact that Anakin was whiny. I mean, of COURSE he's whiny. Someone who turns into an arrogant dark lord WOULD be the whiny kid in school.

While I understand the original trilogy is far superior, ROTS at least gave a good backstory and did an excellent job of telling the story of an arrogant young man selling his soul to the devil, slowly and methodically.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. If you were reserved and stoic and all good with authority, you would not be the evil overlord!

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I've been SW deprived for a while. I need to watch 'em again!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

They are so eminently rewatchable!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I've never really understood the mass hatred for the prequel trilogy. I mean, I don't love it to the same degree as the original trilogy, but it's far from bad(though I do think the first 2 seriously should have been shorter...)

One thing that I think a lot of people miss is the prequel trilogy is just as much about the heroic journey as the original trilogy is...but it's about the FAILURE of the heroic journey...the best villains are the ones who didn't start evil, but that had something happen to take that path instead of the hero's path, and that was the whole point of eps 1-3...that Anakin had the ability and potential to be the greatest hero ever, to be better than Luke, but that he made the wrong choices and was denied what he wanted(things like trust and the right to love, things most are able to have) and became a villain because of that...remember...Luke was expected to follow certain rules, but he was largely able to make his own choices...if he had fallen in love, he would have been able to pursue it, and he was able to make whatever friends he wanted and had almost complete freedom of choice, not to mention Han, Leia,Yoda and Obi Wan to whip him into shape. Anakin was expected to live by impossibly(for him) strict guidelines and told not to love and had his social interaction controlled, and all he had was a well intentioned but inexperienced mentor, with everyone else heaping rules, restrictions and regulations on him...even Padme, at times.

*has not pondered this or anything and is not obsessively devoted to the coming of age heroic journey fantasy plotline, either*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I agree with every word. I find PT actually more interesting because of this darker, tragic bent.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Had PT banked more on story and squality and less on special effects and the SW name, the PT could have been the best set of fantasy movies ever. Anakin annoyed me with his whininess in ep, but unlike others, it didn't bother me(and let's face it...Luke is whiny too, but we don't hold it againt him because it would be rather like holding it against an annoying puppy...as Han quickly learns) because I knew what was coming.

One day I shall make a "How to properly write a coming of age heroic fantasy" post and there will be much on both SW trilogies.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Ha, this is my only SW related icon.

I've forgotten how incredibly awesome and OTPish Han/Leia are
Ohgodyes. This is possibly why Empire Strikes Back is my favourite movie of original trilogy. Oh, and the fact that of course it's one of the rare sequels that is better than the first film. IMO anyway. I mean,putting the H/L aside, there's battle of Hoth, YODA (!!!), Luke/Vader duel #1, "I am your father", Lando.. It's just made of pure awesome. I love it.

The last time I rewatched the movies on TV the Han/Leia hit me over the head - previously I'd been too youg to sort of realize that part of the plot but just then I fully *got* their wonderful bickering unfit but yet so fitting relationship and fell in love. I went on a huge fic finding expedition and mm, for an ancient fandom like SW there's a lot of good fic out there.

I even tried reading some of the SW Extended Universe books for H/L but it's not really the same and some fans have told me that a couple of EU authors completely fuck up their chemistry and forgot they ever fell in love and make Han just waste nights at bars and Leia all workaholic.. Of course, they do have kids and everything but after hearing about the monstrously bad, OOC book that details how they got married (Han apparently kidnaps Leia wtf wtf and the whole wedding is from Luke's perspective - again, huh), I decided screw EU, I'll just read fics.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You;ve described those books and now I am scarred for life.

[fire-snake.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer Empire Strikes Back to all other SW movies. I agree with you about Revenge of the Sith, but I watched it as an adult, and it made a tremendous difference in my perceptions. It was a dark and panoramic picture of mistrust and betrayal on all levels, from personal to galactic. Overall, it was better made and acted than anything in the original trilogy, but I didn't feel the same overwhelming excitement as twenty years ago. Plus, ESB is about hope and regeneration (literal and figurative), while Revenge is essentially a tale of doom. I understand that it is about cycles of life (to paraphrase the Lion King), and I even used to have a poster of a boy Anakin casting a shadow of Darth Vader on a desert stand, but I still prefer my stories more upbeat. I can always read ancient Greek tragedies for tragically doomed heroes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love my angst, you know me. So ROTS rules :P