Look mommy! There's the sith!

Just so.

I've heard lots of people tell me they didn't realize Senator/Chancellor Palpatine was the Emperor in ROTJ.

"Palpatine" was never uttered in the OT.

Plus, the OT is waaaaaaaaaaay more straightforward, good guys versus bad guys, Empire vs. Rebellion, etc.

The PT is more complex, and I'm sure most people aren't paying THAT close attention when they watch the films.

Not to mention the fact that most of the general public, even most SW fans, haven't watched the films dozens, if not hundreds of times.

 

When someone asks me, I tell them:

"It's an evil Jedi who carries a red lightsaber."

 

If an average view of Star Wars actually pays attention to the story of the PT, they are given a general idea of what the Sith are. However I do wish they gave a deeper history of the Sith thoughout the PT and even a little in the OT wouldn't hurt either.

When I went to episode III different times with different friends, I got sick of having the get them up to speed on the concept of Sith.

 

I know really....its not a hard concept to grasp, yes the PT is more complicated with its politics and "who's side are you on" thing goin, but it tells you over and over again, who the sith are, its not hard to grasp.

My mom is accually very familiar with the compexities of the prequels, shes fascinated by the Jango Fett-Clone Wars story arc, and yes she knows that Darth Vader is a Sith Lord. And that its basically a cult of Dark Side devotees. She understands. And she even refers to Anakin with his yellow eyes and cloak(before the suit) as Darth Vader.

 

Lucky you, when I saw it with my mother I had to basically reexplain the previous 2 movies to her, even though she has seen them. After that and clearing up the Sith thing for my non-SW fan friends, I wondered how complex these movies appear to the casuall audience.

 

When someone asks me, I tell them:

"It's an evil Jedi who carries a red lightsaber."

There's a risk with that explanation, though: that they won't see Vader as a Sith in ROTS, because he wields a blue lightsaber.

Lucky you, when I saw it with my mother I had to basically reexplain the previous 2 movies to her, even though she has seen them.

I did that too, before we went to see ROTS. My mother had recently seen TPM, though, and had meant to see AOTC too before she saw ROTS, so I just had to summarize AOTC for her(she had seen it a couple of years ago).
She's good at understanding Star Wars, though(might be because there are three fans in the family).

Anyway: These movies are made for kids who are about 11-13 years old. When you are that age, you usually have a talent for picking up on plot details of this kind. All the important stuff will stick.
Younger kids won't understand everything because it's too much for them to take in and adults won't understand everything because they don't care. They focus on everything that's irrelevant.
I'm speaking generally, of course. There are always exceptions(my family, for instance).

That's just the way things are.



Reality - it is what it is
/LM

 

Well this is really nothing new.This happened to me back when the special editions were released and I finally had a chance to see ANH on the big screen for the first time.The Only mistake was that I went with two people who knew absolutely nothing about SW...It was quite a horrible experience I have to tell you.The whole time I was trying to actually watch the movie(and even enjoy it!)these two would ask all thease questions from me "Who is that?"(Darth Vader)"Is he a robot?" "What is that?What's goin on?" etc.It was pretty frustrating... But I don't really care if some people don't know what the sith are.I mean if they are that stupid,or pay so little attention to the movie there's really no point in explaining it to them.Why the hell should I care what they think if they are so dumb!!
I knew what the sith were way pefore the prequels because unlike some I was never afraid of EU and there is plenty of stuff about the sith there.And the whole thing was pretty much explained anyway to everyone else by the prequels so...If someone doesn't know by now,they really are just stupid

 

The thing abotu SW is that many people can easily miss the depth of the movies because so much is elaborated in EU or in one's mind. This is a good thing and bad thing and I think that's why some didn't like the PT. Other than beating some issues to death the movies don't really spell out everything that is happening like some movies do.

 

The whole time I was trying to actually watch the movie(and even enjoy it!)these two would ask all thease questions from me "Who is that?"(Darth Vader)"Is he a robot?" "What is that?What's goin on?" etc.It was pretty frustrating...

I know that type. They make themselves stupid by not taking in the movie. They depend on others to watch and understand movies for them(especially when they know you're a fan of the movie in question). I don't know, it feels like wasted time to explain things for them.



Why do they even watch movies?
/LM

 

when it comes down to it the sith are the evil force users and you can infer why they want revenge by what sidious says after anakin becomes vader

 

That's probably the best definition I've seen on this thread - at least as far as what the PT (aside from the EU) seems to be conveying.

As most of us here are versed to some degree (many of us to a great degree) on EU lore and backstory, it's pretty easy to dismiss the confusion of the casual viewer as "moronic" - but I think this is actually a pretty good question. What is the audience meant to think/know about the Sith?? Why are they so bad? Why should we care if they control the Republic and wipe out the Jedi? The Republic is filled with problems, and the Jedi Order doesn't seem to add a whole lot of "justice" to the galaxy....so why should we give a damn that the Sith take the reins?

The PT gives lots of "unimportant" details about the Sith: they come in two's, like the name Darth, and have a grudge against the Jedi....that really tells us jack about them. Some of Palp's "lessons" to Anakin give some more insight, but as Palpy is speaking manipulatively, it's hard to find out any of his "true" beliefs and motivations. Even the main premise of RotS is more concerned with the HOW of the revenge, instead of they WHY - quite frankly, HOW palps created his little scheme tells me a lot less about the Sith, then WHY he bothered with it all anyway.

The only message the PT conveyed to me about the Sith was: they're the enemies of the Jedi, ergo they are Evil. Seems a little weak to me....

 

Even George Lucas has his Non-EU explanation of what the Sith are:

"The Sith are the arch-enemies of the Jedi," George Lucas explained, "and for a long time, they ruled the Universe until the Jedi came along and got rid of them. The Sith Characters in the previous Star Wars films were Darth Vader and the other apprentices-Darth Maul from Episode I and Count Dooku, or Darth Tyrannus from Episode II and the soon to be released Episode III. The evil master of the Sith in all of the films is Darth Sidious, who becomes the Emperor of the Universe."
-Star Wars Insider 78

No mention of Grievous. But that kid must NOT be a dedicated Star Wars fan. My 5 year old cousin gets mad, when kids like him ask, "What's a Sith?" or "Who's the guy in the black suit?"
It runs in the family.What a dedicated fan he is...

 

TPM and AOTC gave us hints on WHY the Sith wanted revenge just from these quotes:

"The Sith have been extinct for a millennium"-Ki-Adi Mundi

"There hasn't been a full-scale war since the formation of the republic."-Sio Bibble

"I will not let this republic, which has stood for 1,000 years, be split in two."-Palpatine.

From the bolded words on these quotes, I will say that the full-scale war was between the Jedi and the Sith because the Republic has been standing for 1,000 years which is the same amount of time the Sith were extinct. Back before the Republic was created, the Sith were an enormous group that wanted to take charge over the universe but the Jedi wouldn't allow it by kicking their asses which led to some death and bloodshed. In the end, the Sith were defeated and were reduced into being a 2-man group which pissed them off very much so that tells us why they wanted revenge against the Jedi.

It's not that hard to put 2 and 2 together.

 

i totally agree with this which is why ive always found the PT weak. i suppose alot of people feel this way since some think the jedi were destined to be wiped out anyways. what are we supposed to think about the sith or the for that matter the jedi?

 

Sith are cool?







Continue...

 

For me, Mr Trull provided the answer to this question long before it was even asked. Here is his eloquent and succinct answer:

 

"Look mommy! There's the sith!"
"Wait he's running towards us, and.... he's got a red sword and-"
-Then he gives a quick swipe of the blade


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