CT Star Wars Misconceptions You Had as a Kid. (RE-MADE)

Hogarth Wrightson
That's awesome. Creative spelling! Like Chester Drawer for chest of drawers.
As a child, I didn't initially get that R2 was carrying the DS plans. I just thought Leia wanted to be rescued over and over. I wondered why she kept saying 'you're my only hope.'
Also Lifesavers...

 

She wanted to be rescued over and over again? Talk about a drama queen!

 

Exactly! I didn't know how strong she was at the time. Killing Jabba and whatnot.

 

I wonder how common the childhood misconception that some people like me had about the Death Star II being Death Star I really is.

 

My dad thinks that. I learned from playing rogue squadron 2 thats not the case. Mission briefing: The Empire is constructing a second death star over the forest moon of Endor..... blah blah blah."

 

I thought Death Sticks referred to cigarettes, which is why I was confused by the brightly colored vials in the visual encyclopedia.

 

I have that book.

 

it means the about the same. cigarettes are deathsticks.

 

Eh, they're a brightly colored liquid hallucinogen. Not really sure that's comparible to a roll of dried tobacco plant leaves.

 

but it means the same thing. that's the point.

 

When I was a kid , I really thought Lucas could do no wrong. When I heard about the prequel trilogy in 1994 when THX vhs was released , I was so excited. I felt that Lucas had all this time since 83 to come up with another amazing trilogy. I thought he was a flawless filmmaker that couldn't make a bad movie. Well, in 1999, I felt that was my biggest misconception of Star Wars. I never imagined in a MILLION years Lucas would make three bad Star Wars films in a row. Later on, when I got more in depth into film making - I realized the errors he has made. He surrounded himself with yes men. He was rusty as a film maker. His screenplays were rushed with probably one draft. He was way more interested in special effects, CGI development than the actual films. I think he used the prequel trilogy as just an excuse to take digital film making to the next level, so the story / script truly suffered. To this day, I can't believe the man who wrote and directed A New Hope and created this wonderful sci fi universe would come up with Jar Jar Binks & midi-chlorians. Its not only the biggest misconception in my life - but down right shocking. I'm not bitter toward Lucas for making bad movies - I know a lot of fans are and they call him names. But I understand that franchise films are a coin toss. Either they are going to work or fail badly because fans won't accept 'okay' films in a series they absolutely love. Either they are going to go on one side or the other. I think Lucas regrets his mistakes deep down but will probably never publicly admit them.

 

i don't think gl regrets anything. your opinion is your own.

 

I thought he could do no wrong until I was, like, fifteen. But the truth of the matter is that he did not lose his touch. He never had it. Lucas had friends who helped him write ANH, and Gary Kurtz, his producer, also helped him with ideas. (Kurtz may have had more to do with the Force as a concept than Lucas did.) Science fiction novelist Leigh Brackett helped Lucas to write TESB a little bit before her death, but Lawrence Kasdan was the main co-writer of the film. It is true that Kasdan, Kurtz, director Irvin Kershner, and, to lesser extent, the actors had significant input on how the story developed, but Lucas deserves credit for story ideas like Darth Vader being Luke's father, which he came up with after ANH was released, and other things like Yoda's height, etc. Lucas began to exert much more control over ROTJ. While Kasdan was still involved and had significant say, Kurtz was fired as producer and replaced, and director Richard Marquand didn't have as much input over ROTJ as Kershner did with TESB, with the exception of things like Yoda actually appearing in the film. (Yeah, it almost didn't happen, but Marquand changed that.) That is arguably why ROTJ is not well-liked by some people, although I love it for the whole Luke-Vader-Palpatine dynamic. The problem with the prequel films is that Lucas surrounded himself with yes-people and tried to do almost everything himself. He works best as a collaborator in my opinion. Ironically, when he did work with someone (the co-writer of AOTC), that film didn't turn out well. (Ironically, Yoda speaks in a grammatically correct manner in TESB and ROTJ because Lawerence Kasdan was writing him. He speaks in a grammatically incorrect manner in TPM and ROTS due to Lucas writing him. He speaks more correctly in AOTC due to the co-writer of that film.) Lucas was more focused on special effects and the scripts of TPM and especially AOTC came in way too late. He didn't put sufficient thought into them. However, he did take more time with ROTS when he decided that Anakin would fall to the dark side mainly over fear of losing Padme instead of many things, a decision I think people should debate in a Prequel Forums thread if necessary. Lucas is not stupid, but he has strenghts and weaknesses like any creative businessman. I don't think he regrets anything, either. I like many things that he brought to Star Wars in the Classic Trilogy and a few things he came up with for the prequel films and the few times he worked with EU authors. I'm neither a Lucas-basher nor a Lucas-gusher. I'm in the middle. Lucas dreaded writing a script when he was in film school. He always preferred other things. If you watch his first film, THX, there's very little dialogue in it, but it's an effective dystopic film.

 

yeah, that's not true either.

 

It's what the record shows us. Sorry. Have a good day.

 

the record doesn't show gl had nothing to do with sw.

 

thanks i didn't feel like having to write all that stuff again.

 

You're taking an extreme position based on an opinion from the middle (between bashing and gushing). Why be so black-and-white about this, Tiger? No prequel bashing here, friend. My other posts can attest to that. No need to jump and leap to conclusions. The research about the behind-the-scenes work of all the people who made Star Wars prequel and classic films possible, not just Lucas, backs up what I said. It's interesting how you bash Kurtz when there is a lot of written evidence to back up his contributions. If you read The Secret History of Star Wars, as well as what other producers, actors, and writers had to contribute, then you find this amalgamation. There is no need to over-simplify and misinterpret what others say or believe. I love the prequel films. I just have a complex opinion of them that nets positive in the end despite some of my quibbles. Some people have grey opinions.

 

Focusing on the OT if I may, SateleNovelist11 has a point insofar as Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz gave the original 1977 film's script a pass in which they punched up the dialogue and gave it that "shoot from the hip" feel that the other films, even the vaunted ESB, lack. Brian dePalma wrote the opening scroll, which also has a brisk, breathless quality the other scrolls lack. As to ESB, while Lucas certainly came up with an ingenious story and oversaw the post-production effects, the script was delivered without his further input, and day-to-day shooting was achieved by Kershner and his assistant directors. So there is a case to be made that Lucas worked best with collaborators who could temper his more ineffective or "out there" ideas.

 

Yes. That's all I'm trying to say. I think Lucas is a great producer and ideas-man.

I think that many of us as kids had the misconception of the Star Wars mythology that resulted in the belief that Lucas could do no wrong. I love a lot of his ideas in both the PT and CT. I love the CT more than the PT, to be sure, but I appreciate and respect the ideas therein. I think a true fan of any work can see the flaws and imperfections involved and still love the heck out of that story, and that's how I feel about the Star Wars films and EU.

 

Oh, okay. Well, I'm willing to do further research, and I can always change my opinion with regard to that book. I'll be sure to check that out. Thanks for the heads-up. I just didn't like the notion of being called a prequel-basher. I can love those movies while still not liking the missteps.