To all us living dinosaurs who saw this magnificent Holiday Spectacle the first time around: Cheers and lots of strange Wookie noises! For all you young 'uns, enjoy this rare glimpse (with original commercial breaks) into the Lucas genius that would eventually give us Jar Jar Binks.
. I didn't see the Holiday Special at the time, but when I did see it more recently, I was convinced once and for all of Lucas' deep malice toward humanity. His fiendish plan was obviously already in place way back then - this unforgiveable plan to ruin Star Wars, forever. Nice to see Harrison Ford taking his role as seriously as ever, though.
For a while, after the original trilogy, Lucas had the money, power and backing to ban Christmas if he'd wanted to, or to abolish the bond between parent and child - but instead he did something far crueller and more insidious.
He released the Special Editions.
The hopes and dreams of a whole generation were slain in their seats. No young father could now, in good conscience, share the formative films of his youth with his progeny, for they had been made all shitty.
Why, George, why?
Then he made the prequels, and released them into theatres worldwide. I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that the world has never really recovered from The Phantom Menace.
Happy Life Day? As Chewbacca, or his son, Lumpy (FFS), might say : Arrrwuuuuuuuagh!
Bea Arthur singing a sub-Kurt Weill number to a car-seat cover. Yeah, that's what I want from my Star Wars. Cheers George!
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."
I kinda hate to evidence knowledge of this, but anyone else willing to admit having seen the recent 'clone wars' animated tv show? The last few episodes were the most subversive things I've seen spring from the lucasverse in awhile, it's really showing how the banking guild and trade guilds are playing both sides and encouraging the war to profit and empower themselves. Not a huge deal, but it really heavily parallels the wall-street supporters of the nazi's, the bush-dules-etc war bastards. Now some might say that detracts and distracts from the reality by parodying it, but it could also be that seeing the info-situation in this form first can create a receptive situation to finding out the truth.
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
justdrew wrote:I kinda hate to evidence knowledge of this, but anyone else willing to admit having seen the recent 'clone wars' animated tv show?
No.
Or should I say: .
justdrew wrote:The last few episodes were the most subversive things I've seen spring from the lucasverse in awhile, it's really showing how the banking guild and trade guilds are playing both sides and encouraging the war to profit and empower themselves. Not a huge deal, but it really heavily parallels the wall-street supporters of the nazi's, the bush-dules-etc war bastards. Now some might say that detracts and distracts from the reality by parodying it, but it could also be that seeing the info-situation in this form first can create a receptive situation to finding out the truth.
You might have a point there.
The problem with George Lucas' Star Wars is that it's only good if George Lucas can be kept out of it somehow, or at least have his power and authority (and writing) forcibly constrained. A New Hope worked because he didn't have the money to do what he wanted, and the whole cast and crew resisted him at every turn. Plus, his wife re-wrote and re-cut it for him. What he wanted to do was terrible). Empire was good because somebody else directed and wrote it. Jedi was alright - it was my favourite as a younger.
The prequels, though... that was all his own work. That was what he really wanted to make in the first place. Thank God he was stopped, until he wasn't anymore.
I remember an early Star Wars novel that I read as a kid, where George, through a ghost-writer, was already developing his ideas on Empire, space trade, and galactic taxation. In this book he had The Empire, through the now-subordinate Trade Federation, charging a 500% tax rate on all trade goods, and this was enforced by military strength. Everything in the universe was at negative value, x5, so there was no point in trading anything at all - but no thought was given as to how the Empire made any money, or why a trade federation would even exist under such a system.
Sure, it shows the Empire as being a Very Bad Thing to a young and impressionable audience - we all know how much kids hate oppressive taxation of trade - but what was he thinking? He wasn't. He just didn't like taxes at the time. He hasn't grown to like or understand them since. Even as a kid I knew a 500% tax rate on everything was over-the-top and dumb.
I suppose The Empire spent all that tax revenue (which must have kept rolling in for, like, a couple of weeks after the policy was passed) on generous social services and benefits for the unemployed. That would explain why nobody has a job in Star Wars, and why you can be promoted to the rank of general in an army just because you're good at smuggling. In the Lucasverse, even the slaves don't do any work, and seem to enjoy complete autonomy, unless the story fitfully says otherwise.
But Star Wars can still be alright so long as someone else is writing it. That sounds like what must be happening with the Clone Wars cartoon. I mean, animated series.
Sorry for this rant. I am very angry about Star Wars.
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."
by thurnundtaxis » Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:29 am 
