More obsessing about Star Wars as I sit here sick.

[gridlore]

More proof that George Lucas can't write his way out of a wet paper napkin.

OK, we start "Episode IV" with Princess Leia being chased down by a Star Destroyer with Darth Vader aboard. Knowing hse's about to be captured, she gives R2-D2 the plans and a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and shoot him and the gayest robot ever off to Tattooine.

Which means she knew several things. Obi-Wan survived. Obi-Wan is hiding on Tattoine. R2-D2 was once once associated with Obi-Wan. And Darth Vader picks up on none of this. Does the Empire not have intelligence officers? did nobody ask "why did she run here?" "Who lives here?" Hell, you thinbk maybe Darth Vader might have wondered why, out of all the star systems in the galaxy, she chose to come out of hyperdrive in his old home system? Hell, several times in the films Darth and Leia with face to faceplate and he never grokked the connection?

But let's move on. Obi-Wan looks everyone in the eyes/optical sensors and flat out lies about the droids. Why? Meanwhile, stormtroopers are shooting up Jawas and the Skywalker residence. Now back in my Army, we did a little thing called reporting.

"Lord Vader, we determined there were two droids in the escape pod. Both droids were acquired by an indigenous races known as Jawas. Examination of records show the two droids were sold to the Skywalker famil.. *urk*"

"Who? There were sold to who?"

"Sky..walker.. s..sir.. There were two adults at the residence.. they resisted.." *snap* *thud*

"Subcommander, access the planetary census. How many people lived at the Skywalker holding?"

"Three, my Lord. Owen Skywalker, Beru Skywalker, and a nephew named Luke."

"Captain! Send out a priority signal! Summon the fleet! Nothing leaves this world!"

Of course this could have been avoided if anyone with brains existed inside the Jedi Temple. At the end of Episode III, we have the infant twins, Senator Organa, Obi-Wan, and Yoda, the centuries old utter master of Jedi training. Why not send Obi-Wan and Yoda off with the twins to Dagobah so they can be trained from birth? When the time is right, move them to Alderan for further training.

But I think logically.

Comments

[taschoene.livejournal.com]

The only retroactive continuity I can make work for the original; trilogy is that Vader had a pretty good idea what was going on from the start and made sure that Luke and Leia were never permanently captured by the Empire with the specific idea of training one of them up as his Sith apprentice and using them to help depose the Emperor. It's the only thing that explains the apparent incompetence of the Empire given the resources that we know they had available to them.

Think about it -- In A New Hope, Vader allows the plans to get away (why else would he not order anything leaving the blockade runner to be grabbed by a tractor beam?) He stage-manages the interrogation of Leia to ensure that no useful data is learned and Alderaan is destroyed (hopefully pushing Leia toward the Dark Side). Later, he makes sure to get outside the Death Star before the rebels can destroy it (using plans that he allowed to escape...twice) and refrains from blowing Luke to bits in the process.

Now, in Empire, Vader makes his plan explicit in his dialog wiht Luke. But can we also use this to explain his earlier actions in the movie? Possibly. Admiral Ozzel initially discounts the reports of the Rebels at Hoth. Why? Because Vasder told him too. He brings the fleet out of hyperspace too close to Hoth. Why? Because those were vader's instructions. He gets Force-strangled by Vader. Why? Because he was about to blurt out that Vader had ordered him to bungle the assault. "Stupid and clumsy" indeed.

By Return, this idea isn't even in doubt. Vader is playing Luke against the Emperor quite openly at this point -- his only surprise is that Luke is stronger than any of them expected.