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As I’ve been diving into my memories of The Empire Strikes Back these past couple of days, I think I’ve finally hit upon a couple of big reasons why the Prequel Trilogy doesn’t sit as well with me as the Original Trilogy does.
I’m not going to belabor points about things that I got into back in Episodes 4, 5, and 6 of this podcast – if you want to go and take a trip back in time to listen to them. Ultimately, I like the Prequel Trilogy, though not as much as the Original, and I’ll stop and watch any of them if they happen to come on TV.
And it’s possible that others have said more completely and eruditely what I’m about to say , but I’m sharing them with you as I discover them within my own inner life, and I’d love to hear what any of it triggers for you on our Facebook Page.
So for today, one of the things I want to talk about is the idea that, compared to the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy seemed to have lost its nerve. What occurred to me – and this is not a clean fit, so bear with me – was to think about it in terms of how kids were treated in the OT days versus the PT days.
In the PT days, there weren’t organized play dates – you were kicked out of the house on a weekend morning and told to stay out and play with the neighborhood kids until dinnertime. Or given free reign to go off and ride your bike anywhere, without carrying a cell phone in case of emergency. Seat belts? My mom was more cautious than most, but as far as I recall, I wasn’t strapped in nearly as much as our kids today are.
And I was subjected to second-hand smoke for my entire childhood, from both my mother and my grandmother. I know I just said “subjected,” but that’s because that’s what we would say today. I didn’t feel that way back then – it was just what life was. A teacher or two at the Catholic high school I attended were convinced that I was the one smoking, because they could smell it on my clothes. Nope. Not me. Never was a cigarette smoker, never will be.
Meanwhile, here in the PT days, it’s a whole different world. We’re so much more aware of the dangers, and we’re so much more inclined to protect our children from them. I wish I could find one of these things now that I want to see one, but you’ve probably seen those chain mail things that go around and are, like, “When I was a kid, not everybody made the team, and if you didn’t make it, you learned to live with it,” and the rest of that kind of stuff. The opposite of that, the softening up of the Prequel Trilogy era seems to be reflected in the PT movies themselves. The characters rarely seem to be in much danger – really, did you think anything bad was going to happen to Anakin in the podrace, for example? – but how cool would it have been to have Anakin lose his arm in the podrace, and already be working with a prosthetic by the time he gets to be a Padawan. No one would have seen that coming.
And I think we’re doing our kids a bit of a disservice. No, of course I don’t plan to smoke with the car windows up and my kids crawling around the compartment. What I mean is that, think of how popular the Lemony Snicket books were. A Series of Unfortunate Events, with the three Baudelaire orphans. Kids were eating that stuff up! Grimm’s fairy tales have been popular with kids for a super-long time, and some really bad stuff happens in those.
Our kids want to be scared. They want to be emotionally committed. They want the tension AND the relaxation, over and over again. The Prequel Trilogy isn’t giving that to its audience, young or old, because there’s barely any danger in those three movies. The less danger there is, the less we get sucked into the action, because we all know how it’s going to turn out. And that’s where I think one of the biggest opportunities of the PT was missed.
Star Wars Fun Fact
Surprising or little known Star Wars tidbits, sometimes related to today’s Force Feature.Did you know? The signature TIE fighter engine sound is made from a combination of an elephant shriek and a car speeding by on wet pavement? In fact, here’s what Joe Johnston says about it in The Sounds of Star Wars:
In World War II, the super dive bombers had an artificially created siren wail created by air ducts,” explains Joe Johnston, visual effects art director. “They didn’t serve any purpose except to create this noise, which would terrify people. It was intended that the TIE should achieve the same effect.
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
A featured dispatch from the Star Wars Twitterverse!1983 Star Wars Chewbacca Bandolier. #Iwant #StarWars #Chewbacca pic.twitter.com/WxNZuEkhvi
— Old School Ads (@oldschoolads) October 3, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
So many fun, quirky, and awesome ways to bring Star Wars into your daily life!Han Solo Costume A-Line Dress – click the pic for details!
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Chewbacca
Today’s question: Who discovered two wrecked Imperial speeder bikes while searching for Leia on Endor?