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Star Wars Fun Fact
Surprising and little known Star Wars tidbits, usually related to today’s Force Feature.Did you know? Steven Spielberg collaborated with George Lucas on the climactic lightsaber battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith. See, and we thought Lucas couldn’t take advice from anyone about his movies anymore. How silly of us!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
A featured dispatch from the Star Wars Twitterverse!@Mean_Old_Ben For once tell the truth pic.twitter.com/bViiqSSdJ1
— Darth Vader No1™ (@DarthVader_No1) August 5, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
So many fun, quirky, and awesome ways to bring Star Wars into your daily life!Millennium Falcon Chopping Board – click the pic for details!
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Orange
Today’s question: What Rebel announced, “We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle,” in Return of the Jedi?
Force Feature: “Noooooo!”
Exploring the many worlds of Star Wars, in the imagination and in real life!So, who really screams “Noooooo!” in real life? Have you ever met anyone who ever did it?
Okay, I think I’ve seen some Internet videos of people watching “Game of Thrones” when the Red Wedding massacre happened. Die-hard sports fans probably yell it at their TVs and at referees when the calls don’t go their way, or when the rally falls one run short. I’ve probably been known to do that.
Now, the way characters in Star Wars movies yell “Noooooo!” you’d think there was some sort of epidemic going on. And I got to thinking about this when I discovered that for the Blu-ray edition of Return of the Jedi, George Lucas got up to his old tricks again.
It used to be that when the Emperor is shooting Luke Skywalker with lightning blasts, Vader doesn’t say a word, not while he’s turning his head back and forth like a confused dog who knows his owner’s talking to him, but he doesn’t know what it means. He doesn’t even make a peep when he snatches the Emperor and throws him down the power shaft. Incidentally, the guys on the Star Wars Minute podcast are right, safety regulations are about the last thing the Empire cares about. That came up in their discussions about the first Death Star, and I’ve no doubt it’ll come up again when they tackle Death Star II during Return of the Jedi in 2015.
So now, to get back to the point, in the Blu-ray, Vader’s watching, watching, and then he says, “No.” Kinda like he’s waking up. And then he yells “Nooooo!” and then picks up the Emperor and gives him the old heave ho. Which means the circle is now complete, because now every Star Wars film has a “Nooooo!”
You know, I’d still just as soon Lucas had left Jedi alone, but the execution of it is pretty decent. Meanwhile, you know what’s a really decent “NOOOOOO!”? Ewan McGregor’s in The Phantom Menace. I’d practically forgotten that that’s what Obi-Wan yells when Qui-Gon gets it through the heart from Darth Maul. Ewan pulls that off very well, in my opinion.
Mark Hamill, of course, gets a famous “NOOOOO!” but before we get to that one, I want to talk about his other one – the “NO!” from Star Wars, aka A New Hope. That one is terrific – it comes out so raw and shocked, like he truly was surprised. The more I watch movies in general, the more I think we’ve lost a lot of the great naturalistic acting that we had back in the 70s and 80s. It’s almost too polished the way things are now.
Meanwhile, there’s a really weird “Noooo!” in Attack of the Clones. Do you remember it? It’s right after Anakin finds his mom, and starts killing all the Tusken Raiders. Then the scene cuts to Yoda in a meditation chamber, and you hear Qui-Gon’s voice saying, “Anakin! Anakin!” and then this strange dream-like “Noooo!” before Mace Windu comes in to ask what’s wrong.
The two you kind of have to compare, though, are Mark Hamill’s “Nooooo!” in Empire and James Earl Jones’ “Nooooooo!” in Revenge of the Sith. I’ve heard it said that Mark’s borders on campy, and possibly goes over the top. What do you think? Chime in on it at Facebook.com/sw7x7. For me, it looks like he didn’t act it; it looks like he had it wrenched out of him. I think it’s about as authentic a wildly crazed and despairing “Noooooo!” could sound.
Which is, of course, the polar opposite of James Earl Jones’ version at the end of Sith. And look, he did the new one at the end of Jedi well, so I can’t totally lay the blame on him. I can, however, lay it at the feet of Lucas, or some nameless sound editor, for deciding to run the cry at what sounds like half-speed. It’s when you can hear the “Nnnnnnnn” in the “Nnnnnnnnnooooooooooo!” that it sounds campy and ridiculous.
So, tell me, what’s your favorite “Nooooo!” from the Star Wars movies? Join the conversation at Facebook.com/sw7x7.