What was the point of Zam Wesell's "changeling" ability?

Anakin: "I think he is a she - and she is a changeling"

Kenobi: "Then we should be extra-cautious or something. Now time for some booze."

We see Zam change for an brief moment during the speeder chase, and she does it again when she dies, but she doesn't do it while she's creeping around the bar, hiding from the Jedi. Her changeling abiltiy would have come in handy at this point, but instead of using this strange and exotic shape-shifting power to evade, escape, confuse, bewilder - she just pulls her gun out and tries to blast Obi-Wan while he's doing shots. Which is fine and well, but why go to all the trouble of building up this ability for the audience if she never really uses it for anything?

 

Never understood it myself- made it seem very Star Trekie, which i dont like.

Anyway- why didnt she just change into something else in the bar and hide?


CLone

 

Obi-Wan and Anakin mainly saw what clothes she was wearing, so they could have identified her by that, she was wearing that face mask remember!

 

she was wearing that face mask remember!

which only further supports orlok77's questioning of why she was a changeling in the first place.. why would she need a fabric mask when she had the ability to change her appearance? she had a "built in" mask

as for the clothing that Anakin and Obi-Wan would have identified her by, she probably could have done something about that to make her blend in more - such as dress in a common fashion, or uniform.. but, that's beside the point..

i hadn't considered it before; i don't think there was a point.. unless it was just to put Clawdites into that universe.

 

I asked this question the other day, though I forgot which thread it was in. Anyway here goes


Why did Bobba hire Zam to murder Padme? why did he not do it himself if he's a bounty hunter?

 

You mean Jango, right? He hired her so that she could have an exciting speeder chase with Anakin and Obi-wan.

The thing I tell myself is that Lucas only used 20% of his original pT outline and just filled in the rest with a lot of scatter-shot, perhaps not very well thought out ideas, like Dooku parking his ship hundreds of miles away from the hanger in which he parks his speeder bike. I think other users may be more informative than I am, but the changeling thing was not in the original screenplay, but must have been added in later during production. I don't know if it was to make her seem more dangerous or to test out ILM's face morphing software for when it happens to Palpatine.

Anyway, as it is, it's very useless to her in that sequence and ought to have a date with the cutting room floor IMO.

 

Why did Bobba hire Zam to murder Padme? why did he not do it himself if he's a bounty hunter?

Because killing himself to lead the Jedi to Kamino wouldn't be very productive.

 

There *was* no purpose to it, actually. In fact, GL didn't decide to make her a changeling until post-production. Even the actress playing Wessel didn't know.

If it was to explain why she was hard to spot in the bar, then I would say that was a weak plot point, as Obi-Wan and Anakin already knew what she was wearing...

Never mind that she didn't appear to change into her alien form in the bar...

 

There doesn't need to be a REASON for everything in a story, specially good stories. Sounds to me like passive bashing. Why is Lando a black man, what purpose did it serve? Why is Chewie a Wookie? Why is Luke caucassian? Why does Dex have 4 arms? etc. Zam is a changeling because that is what she is, it doesn't need a purpose. If anything it was just extra cool. Just because there isn't a purpose doesn't make it a bad thing.

Face mask? Hide that she is a chageling when she isn't transformed? Who cares? It's neat.

Ben warning Annie? If you MUST have a reason for everything and as to eliminate reasons to bash endlessly, here ya go:
Zam could have shed her clothes and transformed into anything. Or, simply, in a crowded bar, in the lows of Coruscant, when ppursuing an assassin, who happens to be a changeling, it's better to exercise a bit more caution that normal. Sounds good enough to me.

I guess that just because you don't like a reason why something is the way it is in SW doesn't make it a bad thing, or an error, or a flaw, rather it makes it something YOU individually, do not like.

 

Oh, and using Zam? Maybe it was safer that way for Jango in keeping his involvement secret.

 

Sweetcurse, I agree that SW is full of a lot of things which are just cool and should be accepted as such, but Anakin makes specific reference to Zam's being a changeling, as if it will be important later on.

Why is Lando a black man, what purpose did it serve?

Han Solo never said, "Lando's a card player, a scoundrel, a black man."

 

"Lando's a card player..."

And this piece of information made a big difeerence in ESB? No, but then again, I forgot it's ESB and no one questions that film, boring as it may be.

 

Still, he just points out something unusual. Again it doesn't have to be important, it just is.

"Droids do not pull your arms off when they lose, Wookies are known to do that..."

Cool, though I never saw Chewie do that either, or it making a difference in that film. Quite the opposite, Chewie was cowardly and foolish several times and his strenght played no role in that.

 

It was done so George "CGI" Lucas could play with his computer toys again. No other reason.

In my opinion, the OT remains superior by not using Special Effects just for the hell of it.

 

I'm with you on this one, Sweetcurse, I'm a novelist myself and have lots of characters that are simply fun and each has their own distinction, even if this distinction doesn't serve the overall story.

Why was she a changeling? Because it hadn't been done yet, and Lucas thought it would be cool.

Calling him a cop out for using digital effects is just very close-minded IMO. Why make Yoda a puppet? Why not a small person (you could still have the "size matters not")

Why are changelings extra dangerous? Presumably she could make her hand a knife, hammer, etc. Makes sense to me. Zam just chose a blaster.

Why did Jango not do it? Didn't want to be revealed to the Jedi yet (the fact that things went wrong and he was forced to use the dart that would eventually bring Mace to Geonosis after all that was set in motion didn't turn out that well for him, did they?)

 

Actually I thought it was purposely put in there to show that when he is focused, Anakin is more adept in using the force than Obi-Wan, and that by actually capturing Zam, that Obi-Wan is more wise about the nature of the force - and people in general.

 

There's ways to explain it certainly. But I'd prefere her not to be one as the actress was easy on the eyes
Doesn't ruin anything for me though.

 

On the AOTC commentary Lucas said that he decided to make her a changeling cause he wanted to show that nothing is ever as it seems, which is a big theme in AOTC. Our heroes thought that she was a beautiful woman, but in truth she was a lizard monster from beyond the grave...ok so she wasn't from beyond the grave, but nonetheless, she was a lizard monster. Regardles of whether or not what Lucas said is the true reason, and he really just put in there "just cause," that still doesn't make it a bad idea. She's just another different kind of being in the universe than what we've seen before. I think what you guys are really complaining about is the fact that her changeling abilites weren't taken advantage of enough in the scene, and that IS because Lucas didn't come up with the idea later. Would have it been cool too see her change into a bunch of different things? Sure, but nothing can be done about it now. At any rate, it doesn't make a difference in my eyes, the scene is just fine, as is the changeling idea.

Oh, and Deeysew...was that an ROTS/Palpatine spoiler, or speculation?

 

Speculation. I have no idea how Palps becomes all mutant-looking.

Oh and it's a legit argument to me because it's given time, and Obi-wan considers it a threat, which it obviously was not since they: 1. knew what she wore. 2. have jedi powers. 3. she doesn't change anyway.



Lando being a card player, a gambler helps explain how Han lost the falcon to Lando and builds up some character for the old smoothie.

 

Well, the card player element establishes Lando as the previous owner of the Falcon and is more capable of having it repaired. It's a part of the plot.

And Chewie being a Wookie is useful as it gives the heroes the opportunity to use him as a ploy to get to the detention cell and rescue the Princess.

And using the human character's race is a pretty sorry attempt to rationalize Zam. Luke's being white was never brought up as a plot point that went nowhere.

 

No, there is a real reason.

If she was a bona-fide female, and she was seen getting roughed up by men, it would compromise the PG-13 rating in certain countries.

By making her... not necessarily female, it became OK to show the boys taking their frustrations out on her.

 

I agree with sweetcurse. There dosen't really have to be a reason.
Even in the same clothes, the ability to change form would be useful in the crowded nightclub.
She probably didn't see the need to change in there anyway. She probably figured that she could sneak up behind one of the jedi and shoot them in the back and get out of there.

 

I didn't understand this much in the cinema. I was worried she would do that awful T-1000 morphing thing at some point so I was kind of relieved when she didn't.

I've heard a few reasons none of which really warrant the changeling nonsense:

1. It is symbolic of things not being quite what they seem. That's ok I guess but I have a big problem with things being in films JUST to show symbolism. It should have purpose as well.

2. George was worried showing the Jedi chop off a girl's hand. This is more likely. It may be a product of our society but men in films seem to be allowed to be tortured and mutilated but the same scale of violence isn't appropriate for women. Take Han being tortured and not Leia in TESB.

3. Because it makes you think she will change and create more suspense. I don't know but on some level, it is original to have a changeling that doesn't change her appearance. You expect her to turn into Greedo or something but she comes right out as the same person.

Either way, it seems like an afterthought which makes me think 2. is probably the case.

 

#2 has much merit as Lucas is sensitive to violence towards women.
Although, if he wanted to lessen the blow, he culd've had the toxic dart like, sag her skin or deform her or whatever. In fact, if she didn't morph in the speeder, it'd seem very likely that that's what happened.
Ah well.

 

He he he... doesn't take much talking bad about ESB to bring out PT bashers like Loco huh? I jest, I jest!