I stumbled across this poster called Star Wars Saga, and after careful examination, realized that it perfectly captures everything that’s gone wrong with the series in the last decade. Let’s review some of the highlights.
Exhibit 1: Anakin Skywalker. Right off the bat, the first thing that jumped out at me is the center. Who is placed as the center of the Star Wars Universe? Anakin Skywalker. One could argue that, in essence, the Star Wars series is all about Darth Vader. Specifically, George Lucas could and did argue that the entire series was really about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Certainly that’s what the new trilogy was centered around. The problem is that it’s absolutely and completely wrong. Darth Vader is the villain of Star Wars, not the hero. I only gained a slight amount of sympathy for him seeing his tragic path in the new trilogy, but that didn’t make me change my opinion on who the hero is. Even in the prequels, I thought of Obi-Wan as the hero, not Anakin. Lucas basically tried to retroactively change the focus of the series, but he failed. If you ask any fan worth his salt who the hero of Star Wars is, he or she will immediately say…
Exhibit 2: Luke Skywalker. He’s the one that we love and identify with. Luke is the one we all root for when he destroys the Death Star, fear for when he fights Darth Vader, and cheer for when he overthrows the Empire and saves the day. I understand that Lucas needed to change the focus a little bit because Luke wasn’t even born in the period of time that the prequels are set. But in most fans’ minds, we’re just in it to see how Luke Skywalker’s father and archenemy came to be. But not in George Lucas’ world. In his world, Luke Skywalker is just another character to be shunted into a corner next to…
Exhibit 3: Princess Leia. Okay, now we’re getting into nitpicks, but I didn’t think that Padme was hotter than Princess Leia. This is kind of related to the debacle of Anakin, because Leia should be close to the center, but she’s not. She’s tucked away in a corner like Luke, and they have her in the least attractive of her outfits. And what’s with that face?! She looks like she’s gonna go for your jugular. Lesson here? They have no idea what the fans want to see.
Exhibit 4: George Lucas. Why is George Lucas in this poster of Star Wars characters? Go ahead, say he had a cameo in Revenge of the Sith. That’s true, but he’s not wearing his outfit from his cameo. He’s wearing his regular clothes. It’s a depiction of George Lucas the man, not the character. He’s become so egotistical that he can’t resist sticking himself into the series. I’m surprised he didn’t put himself in the center. Even if he had, it would have made more sense than Anakin. Lucas has lost perspective on what made Star Wars great…not him. Lucas, I don’t want a poster with your face on it, unless it has a target to throw darts at.
As with everything else in Star Wars these days, if you want to see a poster of the entire saga done right, go to the fans. In this case, I’ll point you to SimonZ’s website where he created a fantastic poster with Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan side-by-side in the center, thank you very much. And Princess Leia in her slave outfit, which is undoubtedly her most popular one.
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="42735 ">5 Comments
This poster sums it up alright. You could just talk about the placement of the characters which put minor characters in major focus and major characters to the side, but here's a point. Anakin is in here three times! Once, as a boy. He appears again as a Jedi and then a third time as Darth Vader.
Ah, both Natalie Portman and Hayden Christiansen were positively horrible in STAR WARS, I don't think I've ever seen such display of amateur acting and stiff facial expressions. I'm not sure what was Ewan McGregor, as great as he always is, doing in the sequels or prequels in such a bad company.
I didn't notice that, good point. And Luke is in there once, off-center
And in retrospect, I realized this title is wrong. Not everything wrong with "Star Wars" is in that poster. For instance, the poster doesn't have wooden dialogue, distracting special effects, nonsensical plot holes, thousands of plot threads that never get tied up, and overly choreographed fight scenes. I also never spent half my life waiting for that poster, only to face disappointment.
I know what you mean. Until the third movie they acted like they were in an empty room talking to brick walls…probably because they were. And I've heard better romantic dialogue from a Bazooka Joe gum wrapper.