THE MEANING OF THE TITLES

the way i see it the titles of the star wars episodes could be seen to have several meanings:

a new hope: luke, the destruction of the death star, first victory for the rebels etc

the empire strikes back: the battle of hoth, the emporer&vaders plans for luke, vaders revelation

return of the jedi: the jedi return as luke becomes a jedi, also anakin returns as a jedi when he destroys the sith

the phantom menace: sidious, maul, the phoney trade federation invasion, anakin, the sith in general

revenge of the sith: sidious & the siths revenge overall, anakins 'revenge' on the jedi order for what he percieves to be their failings in his training

the only title that seemingly just has a straightfoward meaning is attack of the clones although i think the title of the clone wars has another meaning in as much as they are a 'imitation wars' where neither side will really win & the only purpose of the war is to enable an empire to rise from the ashes created by it

any views folks?

 

THE PHANTOM MENACE:
Darth Sidious/Palpatine and his hidden agenda to domiante the galaxy.

ATTACK OF THE CLONES:
The Clone Army of Sidious is unleashed upon the galaxy, to enforce the Republic and the will of it' Chancellor.

REVENGE OF THE SITH:
Sidious finally gets to avenge the near defeat of his order at the hands of the Jedi, and recreates the dreaded Empire of the Sith.

A NEW HOPE:
The Jedi, guardians of the galaxy, have a new chance to finally overthrow the evil Emperor Palpatine of the Sith.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:
Emperor Palpatine gets to crush the Rebel Alliance, and puts the galaxy back in line.

RETURN OF THE JEDI:
The final battle between the Sith and the Jedi, the Empire and the Rebellion, finishes with the betrayal and death of Darth Sidious, thanks to the love of the Chosen One for his offspring.

 

ANH- Luke brings hope for the galaxy by blowing up the Death Star, winning the Battle of Yavin for the Rebel Alliance

ESB- The Empire is back and comes out winning, the Rebels lose the Battle of Hoth, Vader beats Luke on Bespin.

ROTJ- Luke returns to his path of becoming a jedi by facing Vader on Endor. Anakin Skywalker returns to being the good jedi he was before he turned to the darkside.

 

Some of these may have been mentioned but this is how I see each one.

They each have a few meanings.
The Phantom Menace- Obvious answer would be Sidious. He is a shadow instructing the Federation, a phantom causing problems for Naboo. Some could also argue Darth Maul to a lesser degree. Another explanation is Anakin who seems innocent but will become a phantom menace later on.

Attack of the Clones
Obviously the clones attack.
also, the creation of the clones is an attack of sorts on the fabric of the republic. There are even further explanations of possible meanings.

Revenge of the Sith
Sidious and his revenge.
The Sith order and their revenge.
Anakin's revenge.

A New Hope
Luke is a new hope to the galaxy
The destruction of the Death Star gives new hope.
The Stolen plans give new hope.

The Empire Strikes Back
The Actual Empire strikes back and has revenge.
Vader strikes at Luke.

Return of the Jedi
The Return of Luke on Tatooine
The Return of Anakin Skywalker
The Return of the Jedi Order.


-Seldon

 

I was quite surprised as I saw the title "Revenge of the Sith".

On the other hand, I was not , because I remembered thatb the title "Return of th Jedi" was initially plnned as "Revenge of the Jedi" (yes, and there were even some posters printed !) but that was chanced because it sounds too "evil" for a Jedi (that's the story I've heard).

So Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi (ROTS/ROTJ) make an excllent complement to me , like two sides of a coin (or rather of the Force in this case).

The "Phantom Menace" could've been called a "phantom", because the menace actually wasn't one - like all phantoms. There wasn't really a threat to Naboo, only a scheme that ... well, led to the known results.

That's my opinion.

Alrik.

 

Alrik: That is the story I've always heard about Return of the Jedi's title.

Lucas has a clever system where all the titles must have a certain amount of words and deal with either the good or bad guys.

Basically
The first film in each trilogy must have three words.
THE PHANTOM MENACE & A NEW HOPE
In Episode I the title refers to evil, while in Episode IV it refers to good.

The second film in each trilogy must have four words.
ATTACK OF THE CLONES & THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Episode II it refers to good while in Episode V it refers to evil.

The final film in each trilogy must have four words.
REVENGE OF THE SITH & RETURN OF THE JEDI
The first refers to evil while the latter refers to good.

Each title refers to either the good or the bad, leading to the pattern of,
bad good bad good bad good.
With the basic cycle of beginning with evil and ending with the triumph of good.

So Lucas won't just give a one word title, he has thus far followed a scheme to the title making, just as all the opening sequences of the two trilogies follow similar structures. Each of the original films with a star destroyer, and each of the prequels with Republic ships being blown up (I'm spoiler free for EIII so I don't know about the third film.)

It didn't suprise me when Revenge of the Sith was announced as the title, I had expected it for years. Lucas seems to always follow the same patterns and structures.

-Seldon

 

Toys R Gus has an example of the "Revenge of the Jedi" posters : Poster

Gus is one of the oldest and biggest archives about Star Wars, especially toys.

 

The Phantom Menace

Part Emperor, part Vader. We see Palpatine, and he just seems like a good person, but we know otherwise . And Vader, we meet him and we know what he becomes one day.

Attack of the Clones

Pretty self explanatory. Clones attack...with the goodguys for now

A New Hope

Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando and the droids. Without them, it couldn't have happened.

Empire Strikes Back

The Empire deals blows back to the Rebellion, but was it really for their benefit or the Rebellion's? I think it benefitted the Rebellion more, because it compelled the rebels to fight harder, and it let Luke learn his true person and to get under the armor of Vader, and into what is left of his conscious (sp)

Return of the Jedi

The rise of Luke. The return of him from giving in to the dark side on the Death Star. The return of Vader to Anakin

86

 

I always thought RotJ was a metaphor for the " death " of Darth Vader and consequently the " Return of the Jedi ", being Anakin, to sort of connect it to Obi-Wans cryptic explanation of Anakins' " death " to Luke by the hands of Vader in ANH. We off course realize at the end that Obi-Wan is not lying and it really is the epic struggle of ONE mans humanity, within himself. Luke would not be able to comprehend such a nuanced scenario at the time that Obi-Wan explains Anakins death to him in ANH, but Luke certainly understands what he meant at the end of RotJ. I get a kick out of people who basterdize Kenobi for his " lie " in ANH - it was a totally necessary way to begin the second Skywalkers training, and absolutely equipped with a fail safe to prevent Luke from turning to the darkside like Dad when the time came that he would find out what really became of his father.

 

Interestingly, A New Hope could also be for Luke, finding something to fight for after the unsatisfying live of tatooine/losing his simple live on that planet. And basically, the same for Han Solo.

I tend to think The Pantom Menace also could be the not yet very visible cracks in the new republic, and the rather blind jedi council. Sure, Palpatine is the threat here, but they couldn't even begin to see the real evil behind the Good Senator Phantom.

It is actually quite interesting that both in TPM and for the clone wars, palpatine sets up a faction to pose a threat and allow him to grow in power. Never change a winning number!