Things You Still Don't Understand About Star Wars

Over the past four decades, there have been so many Star Wars movies, comics, games, and
TV shows that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all.
And that might explain why there are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings about
the Star Wars universe.
Because no matter how much you think you know, there some things most people still don't
understand about Star Wars.
Vader was just a mini-boss
The armor.
The helmet.
The rasp.
Darth Vader has become such an essential part of pop culture that it's hard to remember
he was little more than a trumped up henchman when he debuted in Star Wars Episode IV: A
New Hope.
Blasphemy?
Well, take a second look at A New Hope and you'll see that the real bad guy is Grand
Moff Tarkin, while Vader is just his attack dog.
In fact, the other members of the Empire's military establishment have nothing but open
contempt for Vader, which is why he has to go around choking them with his mind just
to get them to stop making fun of him.
Even George Lucas himself thought that Peter Cushing's performance as Tarkin was much more
interesting than Darth Vader.
While planning Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a low budget sequel to A New Hope that was
never filmed, he said that Vader was "not strong enough as the villain to hold the villain
role.
He doesn't have the persona that you need.
You really need a Cushing guy."
Midichlorians aren't an exact science
There are fewer more controversial aspects of the Star Wars prequels than midichlorians.
The original trilogy presented the Force as a mysterious and mystical energy field.
However, Phantom Menace presented the Force as something that could be measured by testing
for tiny bugs in someone's blood, leading many outraged fans to think that the mystical
Force had been replaced by something mundane and scientific.
"The reading is off the chart.
Over 20,000."
That's not really true, though.
If you notice, the midichlorians are barely mentioned in later movies.
And if you could tell who was a Force user just by testing someone's blood, Palpatine
would have been outed as a secret Sith years before he took over.
So what's the truth?
Lucas offered up an intriguing possibility on the Star Wars Minute podcast, saying, "well,
maybe Qui-Gon was wrong."
This makes it seem like Qui-Gon had a fringe theory about the Force, which is actually
much more in line with the character as a weird, Council-defying maverick.
Speaking of which…
Qui-Gon isn't a wise Jedi mentor
Liam Neeson is such a great actor that many people walked away from The Phantom Menace
thinking that Qui-Gon is a wise Jedi and mentor.
However, throughout the film he makes a series of errors, mistakes, and downright dumb decisions.
As an example, at the start of the film, he says he doesn't sense anything is wrong right
before someone tries to kill him and the entire planet is invaded.
He then tries to mind trick Boss Nass and instead gets duped into a suicide run through
the most dangerous part of the ocean.
He also uses Jedi manipulation on Watto to set up a bet for Anakin's freedom, but if
he's going to go that far with his flexible morals, why not just use his powers to, y'know,
take the kid outright?
And once he does have custody of Anakin, he immediately endangers his life by bringing
him to the war on Naboo.
He's basically a bad dad, and a pretty terrible teacher, too.
Lucas didn't write the opening crawl
George Lucas patterned Star Wars: A New Hope after the 1940s serial Flash Gordon Conquers
the Universe, which is where he got the idea for the iconic crawl that begins each Star
Wars film.
But it's not just the idea for the crawl that came from someone else — the words for the
crawl were written by another person too.
Now, let's be clear: Lucas did write a crawl for A New Hope.
But in a turn of events that should surprise no one, he went way overboard, writing a rambling
narration that veteran director Brian de Palma said "didn't make any sense at all" when he
saw a sneak preview of the film.
De Palma then took it upon himself to help rewrite it into the crawl that fans know and
love.
If you're curious what Lucas's original crawl said, though, you can check it out in the
pages of the Marvel Comics adaptation of the film, which went into production before the
crawl had been altered.
George Lucas isn't why Star Wars is successful
The biggest Star Wars assumption is also the most basic: that George Lucas is the main
reason that Star Wars is successful.
It was his idea, he was the writer and director of A New Hope… he has to be the main reason
everything succeeded, right?
Wrong.
It turns out that, as the prequels indicated, Star Wars is something that often succeeded
despite Lucas, rather than because of him.
The first film was very much a movie saved in editing, — in fact, it was his wife,
Marcia Lucas, who was part of a team that won an Oscar for transforming A New Hope into
a movie filled with both the gravitas and triumph that fans love, from the death of
Obi-Wan to the return of Han Solo.
And that famous Star Wars music?
Lucas reportedly wanted to use established classical music pieces to accompany the film.
But Lucas's friend Steven Spielberg suggested he connect with composer John Williams, who
created what's arguably one of cinema's most unforgettable original scores.
And for The Empire Strikes Back, largely regarded as the best Star Wars movie, director Irvin
Kershner and writer Lawrence Kasdan overrode Lucas on much of the story.
For example, Lucas wanted an action-filled movie with silly touches like wampas attacking
the base and no romance in the movie.
The writer and director said no, providing a slower movie filled with characterization,
romance, and mythic plot development.
Overall, it took a village to create Star Wars.
It took George Lucas to fill it with Ewoks.
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Things You Still Don't Understand About Star Wars

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