How do you think the events of the films would be written in a history textbook?

Obviously, these events would not be focussed on the main characters like the novelizations are, nor as detailed.

So how exactly do you think the events would be published in a textbook?

 

So how exactly do you think the events would be published in a textbook?

I'm confused. ? But I'll answer anyway.

If anyone actually takes the idea and make a textbook solely dedicated to the films, I imagine it would be fairly complicated with character thoughts and such. That would be grand. You could make an entire textbook out of the films if you wanted to, there's that much there to work with. If you're going to take a small part of the films, basically you just need the characters, the main storylines, what happens, what could have happened and what not. You could have a section for each film, although it would have to be small.

And I'm still confused by this question. ?

Are you planning something, JMO?

-Krystal

 

It would be broken down big time:

The Destruction of the Death Star
Immediate Causes: Rebels attained plans, Imperial attack on Alderaan
Long Term Causes: Galactic Civil War, Senate dissolved
Political Effects: Empire lost biggest battle station, The Empire is no longer thought to be invincible.
Social Effects: People given hope the Empire will fall.
Religious Effects: The Force proven to be be real.
Long Term Effects: The Death Star II

and then naming big heroes who contributed to it.

 

Interesting topic

Detail would depend on who the book was geared towards. A textbook would give a quick overview of central political events leading to wars and social changes. Most of the major characters of the films would be relatively small details in a textbook.

Here's my TPM chapter in a Star Wars high school history book:

In response to the taxation of trade routes, the Trade Federation first blockaded and then invaded Naboo. The Nabooian Queen Amidala escaped the planet and fled to Coruscant. She appealed to the Senate for help and when rebuked, called for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum. Senator Palpatine (from Naboo ironically) was then elected chancellor over Bail Antilles and Aliee Teem (?).

Meanwhile, Queen Amidala returned to Naboo to organize a resistance to the Trade Federation. After establishing a successful treaty with the Gungans, the resistance launched a 3 phase attack. A Gungan army fought the Trade Federation's battle droid army in a diversionary tactic. Naboo's remaining pilots attacked the Federation's control ship in space, and Queen Amidala herself led an attack on the Theed Palace in an attempt to capture Federation Viceroy Gunray. The Naboo pilots were successful, and the control ship was destroyed by pilot Anakin Skywalker (who, at 9 years old, was the youngest pilot in the battle). This rendered the battle droids ineffective, and Queen Amidala's force was able to capture Gunray. The Trade Federation was forced to leave and an era of peace on Naboo began.

 

Yeah, that's what I was looking for.

Do you think it would cover stuff such as "Rebel hero Luke Skywalker found out that the evil Darth Vader was his father" or would that be one of those "little known facts" about history?

 

"Do you think it would cover stuff such as 'Rebel hero Luke Skywalker found out that the evil Darth Vader was his father' or would that be one of those 'little known facts' about history?"

I don't think many people would be alive that could tell the "history behind the history" in such detail, especially when it comes to the PT. Palpatine, in one form or another, was responsible for their elimination beginning with the events of TPM. Luke and Leia would be able to piece some things together, but would never be able to get the full story. They would be asking many of the same questions we do:

How, specifically, was Anakin turned to the Dark Side?

What are the Emperor's true origins?

Where did Maul come from and how was he trained?

What was Dooku's precise role?

Not to mention that they would likely never know the true depth and complexity of Palpatine's plot and how it affected history.

 

Do you think it would cover stuff such as "Rebel hero Luke Skywalker found out that the evil Darth Vader was his father" or would that be one of those "little known facts" about history?

I think that'd be one of the "little known facts" of history. I think the textbooks would have a footnote about Luke being Anakin's son considering they're both war heroes. I'm not sure if Anakin=Darth Vader would become public knowledge in the GFFA after the Battle of Endor (I haven't read the EU). If it doesn't, I can see Darth Vader biographies beginning with something like "Much of Darth Vader's orgins are shrouded in mystery. His parents, date of birth and planet of origin are unknown. He is known to have once been a pupil of General Kenobi's and rumored to have mudered Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Clone Wars and Battle of Naboo..."

 

My take:
********
HISTORICAL ACCURACY OF THE STAR WARS VIDS
BY PROF. HEDJ KOL EQEL
[This essay was originally published in ?Galactis : Journal For The Exploration Of Popular Culture' and also appeared in slightly edited form in the anthology ?Holos And History?]

I am an historian by profession but I have always been fascinated by the magic of holos. Chalk it up to a wayward adolescence on Coruscant sitting in the cool dark of the holo-theater watching the epics of Divad N?eal (?Anakin of Tatooine? being one of my favorites) and Sossil Bi d?Mil. Later, at the University Of Malastare I was introduced to the less commercial Outer-Rim ?new wave? holos. Of course this combination of interests has led me to study where history and holos intersect. While human holo-filmmaker George Lucas's kid-vid epic 'Star Wars' has been a source of inspiration for several generations of history students I thought it would be fun to pin-point some of the more glaring historical innacuracies of the holos. This is in no way a critique of the holos themselves which have proven to be enduring classics of popular entertainment. We begin our tour with holo I ?The Phantom Menace?:

· The fun starts right at the beginning! The Senate knew of and approved of the use of Jedi to negotiate the Trade Federation blockade [Senate Records Vol.10092c]. There is even reason to believe that Qui-Gon Jinn campaigned for this assignment [The Unmaking Of A Statesman: The Valorum Story by Havlor Sten].

· Nute Gunray was involved in this scheme of course - but he was never present at Naboo! Rune Haako is a fictional amalgamation of several Neimoidian politicians.

· Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn stowed aboard the same ship [?Obi-wan Kenobi: The Lost Journals? Vol. 2].

· Jar Jar Binks was already a political liason between the Gungans & the Naboo. He was sent with a scouting party to investigate the TF invasion and helped rescue the Jedi [Citizen Binks by Ttrez Hyltor, A Primer In Gungan History Vol. 6]. The portrayal of Jar Jar as bumbling fool (to be fair he was known to be accident prone) is amusing to anyone who has read any of the ten volumes of exquisite Gungan haiku he penned.

· There is no historical evidence that Boss Nass did anything to hinder the Jedi & Senator Binks [The Binks Journals Vol. 5].

· The encounters with various Core 'monsters' is fictional - it could have happened of course but it is not recorded in any official memoirs or records. See ?Naboo And Its Life Forms? and interactive computer-codex outlining Naboo ecology.

· The citizens of Theed were being seriously mistreated but Mr. Lucas chose not to show any of these horrors. I recommend 'Atrocities of The Trade Federation' and 'Amidala : Her History' both by Prof. Gaz Leeman.

· Some of the Naboo Elite Guard had been bought out by the Trade Federation and helped fascilitate the invasion. Sadly, Captain Panaka was forced to fire on some of his own soldiers. This is why he was reassigned and his post given to his nephew Jamel Typho during Jamilla's term - this goes unexplained in the second film. See 'A Soldiers Life' Panaka's strirring autobiography for more.

· Darth Maul was already on Naboo overseeing the invasion. The famous 'desert duel' between Maul and Jinn [set on Tatooine in the holo] actually happened in the hangar!

· R2D2 is a fictional droid. The escape from Naboo was made possible thanx to Ric Olie's flying skills.

· This is where things get really messy. In the holo our heroes suffer a damaged hyperdrive and land on Tatooine where they encounter Anakin Skywalker. In reality they made it to Coruscant without a problem. There Qui-Gon Jinn approached the Jedi Council with a request to follow a 'calling of the Force' to a 'remote planet called Tatooine' (I love the way Mr. Lucas works in historical quotes) to investigate 'a possible vergence in the Force'. The Jedi Council agreed on this. According to current speculation the Council sensed that they were losing ground in the Senate and the Republic at large and were hoping discovery of

 

Excellent effort, First_Stage_Lensman! I, however, have to note a certain bias on the part of Prof. Hedj Kol Eqel, who must be a descendant of Ric Olie. This may explain giving so much credit to the Grand Proclaimer of the Obvious. That notwithstanding, I am quite pleased with any historian who uses the term "what went down." One thing that I can't figure out though, did Kenobi have enough time to write in his diary regarding Mos Eisley before getting to the Death Star and have clairvoyance enough to know he was about to die, thus leaving his diary behind with someone for later publication?

 

Too bad there aren't any books in AGFFA.

 

PA you'll note that our Historian mentions that Lucas extracted Kenobi's remarks about Mos Eisley "from an unrelated incident". Our Historian is also of the type who write popular articles using such phrases as "what went down" - "Galactis" is hardly the newsletter for 'The Early English text Society'! Not that I ever miss an issue, mind you...
PS: all historians are biased. Feel free to counter with quotes from more critical analyses of Mr. Olie's contributions to the Naboo Incident. There are plenty out there.
PSS: books no - holo-documents, yes.

 

Excellent work, Lensman!

I might have my own "historical" analysis of the trilogy, but I have to eat lunch now.

God bless,

X-Wing Pilot 5

 

Oh. This is brilliant.

As a classicist, I can say that this is just dead on parody of academic de-bunking of popular narrative.

And it's such an excellent opportunity for further expansion of the SW universe.

But ... I would like to have read more about Lucas' whitewashing of Ewok casualties and his romanticized vision of what was really a very vicious and deadly species.

Also, I would like to see an example of an "history text" from the imperial period chronicling the rise of Palpatine. It would be a blast to read how Palpatine perpetuated myths about himself and his totalitarian regime. As you say, Lensman, all historians (and all histories) are biased and subjective. But some histories are more biased and subjective than others ...

 

The book set up would be something like this.

I think there could be a whole history book to chronicle Palpatine and the struggle with the Empire after Palpatine.

Chapter 1. The early rise of Palpatine.
This chapter would deal with how Palpatine went from Senator to Chancellor. A small part of it would deal with the blockade of Naboo and the origins of Anakin.

Chapter 2. From Chancellor to Dictator
This chapter would deal with Count Dooku and the early states of the Clone Wars. It would shortly explain what Anakin was doing and what Padme was doing. The later parts of the chapter would deal with how Palpatine manipulated Jar Jar into getting him emergency powers.

Chapter 3. The Clone Wars
Basically this would explain battles and different stages in the war. Maybe a little bit would be written about Mace Windu and Depa and the incident they run into. I don't know too much about Clone Wars to fully say what this chapter would be about.

Chapter 4. The Rise of an Empire
This would explain the events of Episode III. It would shortly explain the death of Dooku and the turn of Anakin.

Chapter 5. The Imperial Senate and the Death Star
This would be a chapter devoted to how Palpatine destroyed the Imperial Senate. It would also detail Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader aboard the Death Star. The stolen plans, and the appearance of Luke would be explained. The chapter would also tell about the death of Kenobi and the destruction of the Death Star.

Chapter 6. The Battle with the Alliance
This would basically be about the battle of Hoth and chasing down Han Solo. It would deatil the battles on Bespin and how Luke confronted Vader (not all of the facts would be known.)

Chapter 7. The Fall of Palpatine
This would explain the battle of Endor. It would quickly cover the whole ewok situtation and would go into detail about the assalt on the Death STar II. The death of Palpatine and Vader would also be covered.

Chapter 8. New Threats
This chapter would be about Grand Admiral Thrawn and his attack on the New Republic. The later part of this chapter could explain the rebirth of Palpatine and his defeat.

Chapter 9. The battles Continued
This would explain the history of the Maw and Admiral Daala. This could explain her struggle and then later cover Kyp Durron and the Sun Crusher. The chapter could also discuss the Jedi Academy and the hiding place of the Jedi Children.

Chapter 10. The Hand of Thrawn
This would discuss the events of the Hand of Thrawn.

Chapter 11. New Jedi Order
This would talk about the events of NJO.


Anyway that is how I would set the book up.

Darth-Seldon