Star Wars - Episode VII: The Unanswered Questions

[xadrian]

I watched the original trilogy today with the kids. They dug it. The 6 year old saw Vader's scarred head and wanted to watch Sith so she could see what happened to him. Morbid little girl, but it got my brain spinning about all the little loop holes I saw between the trilogies. So I'm gonna ask 'em here, just to see if anyone has any ideas. I'm sure some time on theforce.net or wookiepedia will answer these. But hey, it's all fun, right?

To be fair and creative, answers like "because Lucas is an idiot" or "because Lucas wants your money" don't count. Those are givens.

1) "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Obi-Wan made use of several droids in the prequels and in fact knew of R2 explicitly. Dementia?

2) When did he start going by Ben? It wasn't "Oh...before you were born." Yoda called him Obi-Wan as the twins were being born. Why didn't he change his last name?

3) "She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad." Leia and Luke talk about their mother. Luke knows at this point, and so do we, that they're siblings. Luke saying he has no memory of their mother, but Leia apparently does, always made me think Padme/Amedala survived long enough for some imprinting, instead of dying immediately.

4) Why does Luke think Degobah is familiar? He's been on a sand planet his whole life. Anakin grew up on the same sand planet. Naboo isn't much of a swamp planet. Where did that come from? It seemed important and then just wasn't.

5) How did Obi-Wan get Anakin's light saber to later give to Luke? Didn't it (with Anakin's hand) fall into a river of lava?

6) In Attack of the Clones, did we ever find out who Sifo Dyas was? His name was bandied about like he's show up at the end with a big "gotcha" sign, but it never happened. I mean, thanks to that guy, there was a clone army the senator used to wage war on the separatists, but we didn't figure out who he was.

7) For a droid that I've never officially heard had its memory erased, Threepio was a vague and forgetful piece of shit. First he doesn't know who was on the Tantive IV. When Luke asks he says, "...person of some importance, I believe..." when earlier on the ship he says, "There'll be no escape for the Princess THIS time." So he's either low on RAM or he lies.

8) Yoda can see from Degobah to Bespin to see that Han and Leia are in trouble, Kenobi can feel from light years away that Alderaan was destroyed (at least something terrible happened) but neither can tell Darth Sidious is standing three feet away.

9) The deflector shield around the Death Star II is coming from the Endor moon, but in order to get to the moon, Han's covert crew have to have the shield turned off, as if the only way to the moon is to fly at the Death Star, then go down a little beam at the shield station. They couldn't have landed a few dozen miles away and speedered to the place?

10) Anyone ever wonder who those two putzes were in Emperor Palpatine's command tower with the purple and black robes and funny hats?

Tidbit to chew on while you look all this up. In ESB, the image of the Emperor was a composite. It's a middle aged lady, superimposed chimpanzee eyes and someone else's voice. Kid you not. Worked though, right?

[Craig DeBoard]

1) "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Obi-Wan made use of several droids in the prequels and in fact knew of R2 explicitly. Dementia?

I chalk it up to Obi-Wan trying to act as if they don't know what they're talking about, as if he were hiding the fact that he was a Jedi.



2) When did he start going by Ben? It wasn't "Oh...before you were born." Yoda called him Obi-Wan as the twins were being born. Why didn't he change his last name?

I'd say it falls along the lines of my answer to #1. Just trying to hide a little bit from the fact he was a Jedi. Remember the Empire rules in this time period, and he and Yoda are supposed to be in exile. But you're right, still doesn't explain him not changing his last name.




3) "She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad." Leia and Luke talk about their mother. Luke knows at this point, and so do we, that they're siblings. Luke saying he has no memory of their mother, but Leia apparently does, always made me think Padme/Amedala survived long enough for some imprinting, instead of dying immediately.

This is a tough one, that a lot of fans have complained about.




4) Why does Luke think Degobah is familiar? He's been on a sand planet his whole life. Anakin grew up on the same sand planet. Naboo isn't much of a swamp planet. Where did that come from? It seemed important and then just wasn't.

Never noticed this error. Possibly a plot line that just got scrapped?




5) How did Obi-Wan get Anakin's light saber to later give to Luke? Didn't it (with Anakin's hand) fall into a river of lava?

Episode IV, Obi-Wan simply picks it up as Anakin lies there with only one limb left. It didn't fall into the lava.




6) In Attack of the Clones, did we ever find out who Sifo Dyas was? His name was bandied about like he's show up at the end with a big "gotcha" sign, but it never happened. I mean, thanks to that guy, there was a clone army the senator used to wage war on the separatists, but we didn't figure out who he was.


Count Dooku also known as Darth Tyranus....at least I think. Dooku (Tyranus) made mention that he may have at one point been a Jedi. Perhaps this was him, using an old name he went by long ago, to throw off anyone snooping to much? Just a theory.




7) For a droid that I've never officially heard had its memory erased, Threepio was a vague and forgetful piece of shit. First he doesn't know who was on the Tantive IV. When Luke asks he says, "...person of some importance, I believe..." when earlier on the ship he says, "There'll be no escape for the Princess THIS time." So he's either low on RAM or he lies.

Anthony Daniels is a drunken fool. :D




8) Yoda can see from Degobah to Bespin to see that Han and Leia are in trouble, Kenobi can feel from light years away that Alderaan was destroyed (at least something terrible happened) but neither can tell Darth Sidious is standing three feet away.

The dark side makes things difficult to see.




9) The deflector shield around the Death Star II is coming from the Endor moon, but in order to get to the moon, Han's covert crew have to have the shield turned off, as if the only way to the moon is to fly at the Death Star, then go down a little beam at the shield station. They couldn't have landed a few dozen miles away and speedered to the place?

I would imagine that since this space station has (or would have had, had events gone differently) the ability to blow up an entire planet, it could probably spot them if they were a few dozen miles away. They were going for a more stealthy route. And lots of folks believe the best place to hide, is the place where a person is least likely to look. Right in front of them. Then again it could just be George Lucas didn't notice his mistake. I like to think the hiding in plain site theory works though. There's enough holes in the films already.




10) Anyone ever wonder who those two putzes were in Emperor Palpatine's command tower with the purple and black robes and funny hats?

Tag and Bink.
http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/13/13691.jpg


Tidbit to chew on while you look all this up. In ESB, the image of the Emperor was a composite. It's a middle aged lady, superimposed chimpanzee eyes and someone else's voice. Kid you not. Worked though, right?

HA! HA! You moolish fortal! I didn't have to look up anything.







What the hell is ESB???



Crap.




Now I have to go look something up.

[xadrian]

ESB Empire Strikes Back

I'll have to get a screen shot of the to guys I'm talking about. Not the Imperial Guards, but the "advisors?" he goes to after he tells Vader to go back to the command ship and await orders.

[BringerOfStorms]

7) For a droid that I've never officially heard had its memory erased, Threepio was a vague and forgetful piece of shit. First he doesn't know who was on the Tantive IV. When Luke asks he says, "...person of some importance, I believe..." when earlier on the ship he says, "There'll be no escape for the Princess THIS time." So he's either low on RAM or he lies.



That is THE FUNNIEST bit of STAR WARS rant I have ever, heard, read or thought about! Biggest laugh I have had in a long, long time.

Thanks bro!
~BoS

[McNiel]

In the "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" trade paperback, there is a little prologue from the novel's author, Alan Dean Foster. In it he says that Lucas approached him to write the story and that he hoped to turn it into a possible sequel for a movie he was making called "Star Wars". Lucas didn't believe that Star Wars would be a huge success and so he needed a story that they could film on the cheap. Hence only Luke, Leia, the droids and Vader are prominent characters. Also, most of the action takes place on a mist shrouded swamp world. This leads me to believe that he hadn't plotted out his 6 movie saga, let only the first trilogy, prior to the release of Star Wars.

What's more, in 1994 I purchased a "Star Wars" screensaver which had a secret message from Lucas. Essentially it was this, "Hi there, George here. I'm fixing to start writing some more Star Wars movies." That was 11 years after Jedi. That's a long gap, and the plot holes show it.

[acosby]

Yeah, I've seen so many interviews where people are trying to revise history by saying that lucas had it all planned out all along, but that is so clearly crap I'm surprised at how many people swallow it.
If you look at any of the creative work like Splinter of a mind's eye or just about any of the Mcquarrie works you realize he was all over the place and had clearly not made any sort of grand plot line. You also see just how much credit gets given to him for other peoples work as well.
he gets all the accolades, but there were so many creative guys involved.
it always bugs me they don't get more recognition.

Although McQuarrie finally got a book published of all his cool preproduction stuff so maybe it is changing slowly.

You guys ever watch in the wide screen New Hope when the stormtrooper walks into the low hanging door then goes staggering back trying to straighten out his helmet. Probably my favourite part in the movie. lol. Its when the stormtroopers bust R2 and Threepio in the control room above the docking bay in the death star.

[Ian Miller]

1) "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Obi-Wan made use of several droids in the prequels and in fact knew of R2 explicitly. Dementia?

He's in exile and probably doesn't want Luke to find out who he really is (Because of his ties to the Jedi, and the truth about Luke's father). Most likely playing dumb.


3) "She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad." Leia and Luke talk about their mother. Luke knows at this point, and so do we, that they're siblings. Luke saying he has no memory of their mother, but Leia apparently does, always made me think Padme/Amedala survived long enough for some imprinting, instead of dying immediately.

Well Leia was adopted by Bail Organa and his wife. Perhaps she was referring to her adoptive mother on Alderaan? I don't think Leia knew that they were siblings at this point.


6) In Attack of the Clones, did we ever find out who Sifo Dyas was? His name was bandied about like he's show up at the end with a big "gotcha" sign, but it never happened. I mean, thanks to that guy, there was a clone army the senator used to wage war on the separatists, but we didn't figure out who he was.

Like someone else said, it may have potentially been Dooku. Dooku was actually a member of the Jedi Council before defecting. But I always thought Sifo Dyas was an alien.


7) For a droid that I've never officially heard had its memory erased, Threepio was a vague and forgetful piece of shit. First he doesn't know who was on the Tantive IV. When Luke asks he says, "...person of some importance, I believe..." when earlier on the ship he says, "There'll be no escape for the Princess THIS time." So he's either low on RAM or he lies.

I seem to remember at the end of "Sith" someone just casually ordering someone to wipe the droids' memories. They switched owners so much and each time they have their memories wiped. I guess it's protocol. Uncle Owen told Luke to wipe their memories when they bought them in Episode IV.


9) The deflector shield around the Death Star II is coming from the Endor moon, but in order to get to the moon, Han's covert crew have to have the shield turned off, as if the only way to the moon is to fly at the Death Star, then go down a little beam at the shield station. They couldn't have landed a few dozen miles away and speedered to the place?

Didn't they get clearance? Han talked to a staff member on the Death Star and read off some codes and they were let in. I don't know if they completely turned off the shield, but it was deactivated for a moment as they flew through.


10) Anyone ever wonder who those two putzes were in Emperor Palpatine's command tower with the purple and black robes and funny hats?

They're from Coruscant. They aren't guards, but probably advisers or assistants or ambassadors.




Also, like someone mentioned, there are a lot of plotholes. Essentially Lucas never planned on making any more movies than "A New Hope". The story he tells is that he was gonna make the original trilogy into one giant movie, but it was too long and complex, so he broke it up. But most sources say he made the first one, and as its popularity increased he plotted "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" as a book and a potential movie if a sequel was ever to be made but the first movie bombed.

The first movie is essentially self-contained. At this point Vader and Anakin are essentially two different people. Luke blows up the Death Star, they have the award ceremony, Vader is blasted into space, evil's gone, that's it. Han gets his reward money to bring to Jabba, and that's it. But then all these behind the scenes events were created that take place between ANH and ESB so that more story could be made.

[Repo Man]

Maybe some of you have read this, but if not --- someone sent me this link a few years back:

Han was Chewie's front man (http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html)

It's basically an idea by a fan who put all the errant Star Wars threads together by realizing that Chewie and R2 (the only two who have memories of the prequel events) were pulling all the strings in the original Star Wars.

It's longish and maybe slightly off topic, but it made me chuckle.

[fatmancomics]

This always makes me laugh:

http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/Divx%20links/Star_Wars.html

[fatmancomics]

Maybe some of you have read this, but if not --- someone sent me this link a few years back:

Han was Chewie's front man (http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html)

It's basically an idea by a fan who put all the errant Star Wars threads together by realizing that Chewie and R2 (the only two who have memories of the prequel events) were pulling all the strings in the original Star Wars.

It's longish and maybe slightly off topic, but it made me chuckle.

Interesting but I'm pretty sure that Chewie is wearing a medal at the end of the movie. Other than that, a great and fresh way of looking at things. Too bad it takes fans to clean up Lucas' mess.

[50%grey]

Because Lucas is an idiot and he wants your money?

[Victor-17]

Maybe some of you have read this, but if not --- someone sent me this link a few years back:

Han was Chewie's front man (http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html)

It's basically an idea by a fan who put all the errant Star Wars threads together by realizing that Chewie and R2 (the only two who have memories of the prequel events) were pulling all the strings in the original Star Wars.

It's longish and maybe slightly off topic, but it made me chuckle.

You know, this actually makes sense.

[true_illusion]

I watched the original trilogy today with the kids. They dug it. The 6 year old saw Vader's scarred head and wanted to watch Sith so she could see what happened to him. Morbid little girl, but it got my brain spinning about all the little loop holes I saw between the trilogies. So I'm gonna ask 'em here, just to see if anyone has any ideas. I'm sure some time on theforce.net or wookiepedia will answer these. But hey, it's all fun, right?

To be fair and creative, answers like "because Lucas is an idiot" or "because Lucas wants your money" don't count. Those are givens.

1) "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Obi-Wan made use of several droids in the prequels and in fact knew of R2 explicitly. Dementia?

2) When did he start going by Ben? It wasn't "Oh...before you were born." Yoda called him Obi-Wan as the twins were being born. Why didn't he change his last name?

3) "She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad." Leia and Luke talk about their mother. Luke knows at this point, and so do we, that they're siblings. Luke saying he has no memory of their mother, but Leia apparently does, always made me think Padme/Amedala survived long enough for some imprinting, instead of dying immediately.

4) Why does Luke think Degobah is familiar? He's been on a sand planet his whole life. Anakin grew up on the same sand planet. Naboo isn't much of a swamp planet. Where did that come from? It seemed important and then just wasn't.

5) How did Obi-Wan get Anakin's light saber to later give to Luke? Didn't it (with Anakin's hand) fall into a river of lava?

6) In Attack of the Clones, did we ever find out who Sifo Dyas was? His name was bandied about like he's show up at the end with a big "gotcha" sign, but it never happened. I mean, thanks to that guy, there was a clone army the senator used to wage war on the separatists, but we didn't figure out who he was.

7) For a droid that I've never officially heard had its memory erased, Threepio was a vague and forgetful piece of shit. First he doesn't know who was on the Tantive IV. When Luke asks he says, "...person of some importance, I believe..." when earlier on the ship he says, "There'll be no escape for the Princess THIS time." So he's either low on RAM or he lies.

8) Yoda can see from Degobah to Bespin to see that Han and Leia are in trouble, Kenobi can feel from light years away that Alderaan was destroyed (at least something terrible happened) but neither can tell Darth Sidious is standing three feet away.

9) The deflector shield around the Death Star II is coming from the Endor moon, but in order to get to the moon, Han's covert crew have to have the shield turned off, as if the only way to the moon is to fly at the Death Star, then go down a little beam at the shield station. They couldn't have landed a few dozen miles away and speedered to the place?

10) Anyone ever wonder who those two putzes were in Emperor Palpatine's command tower with the purple and black robes and funny hats?

Tidbit to chew on while you look all this up. In ESB, the image of the Emperor was a composite. It's a middle aged lady, superimposed chimpanzee eyes and someone else's voice. Kid you not. Worked though, right?

I think i can answer some of these questions...

1. While Obi-Wan employed many driods during his time, he in fact never did own them. They were always republic property and the fact that he dealt with and also destroyed so many would help explain why he doesn't remember one or two n paticular.

2. Couldn't tell you why he didn't change his last name, but it was close enough to "Before he was born" to let it slide...

3. My guess would be just a story flaw, at this time as far as i know Leia didn't know she was adopted. So she would have been speaking about what's his names wife not their actual mother.

8. They mention specifically that the dark side is clouding the identity of the Sith lord in the prequels

[Beastie]

Maybe some of you have read this, but if not --- someone sent me this link a few years back:

Han was Chewie's front man (http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html)

It's basically an idea by a fan who put all the errant Star Wars threads together by realizing that Chewie and R2 (the only two who have memories of the prequel events) were pulling all the strings in the original Star Wars.

It's longish and maybe slightly off topic, but it made me chuckle.

This is f*cking fantastic -- and has satisfied my geek requirements for the next 2 weeks.

I'm gonna be boring people to death with this shit for months :D

[penabled]

regarding number #9....the Death Star having a shield but not the moon. Perhaps the shield covered an area around the generator large enough to protect the generator as well from orbital bombardment....and let's assume that any craft flying in on anything other than a direct path to the site was assumed to be hostile and met with appropriate force. Not too far a reach really...oh sure the other side of the moon may have been open but they just shot at anything that showed up on sensors outside of the accepted flight paths.

Also keep in mind that Han and crew had no communication with the approaching fleet....so landing on the other side and hiking in would have left them no way of guaranteeing the fleet would know when the shield was down...they could barely hold out a few hours with the Death Star picking them off.....imagine if they had to wait days...or weeks.

As for just landing a few miles off and speedering in....well....I'm guessing that they would have been detected and the whole point of the mission was surprise....I imagine that reinforcements were close enough that if some patrol out in the jungle saw rebels and word got back ...it would have been impossible to get close.

[sadman2000]

As far as number 2 goes I'd have to say it's likely that "Ben" was his birth name, since force-adept children are adopted at infancy and given a new "jedi" name. So, Ben Kenobi is probably a hybrid of his child and jedi name used to hide from the Empire, as a Jedi name is very distinctive and noticable and the Emperor had access to all the Jedi Archives when the Temple was over-taken. In otherwords old Obi's Jedi and birth name are in the archive so a fake name is the best way to go.

[xadrian]

As far as number 2 goes I'd have to say it's likely that "Ben" was his birth name, since force-adept children are adopted at infancy and given a new "jedi" name. So, Ben Kenobi is probably a hybrid of his child and jedi name used to hide from the Empire, as a Jedi name is very distinctive and noticable and the Emperor had access to all the Jedi Archives when the Temple was over-taken. In otherwords old Obi's Jedi and birth name are in the archive so a fake name is the best way to go.

He took one of those MySpace quizzes where he got his Jedi name by combining his first pet and the street he grew up on.

[Wild&Uncouth]

I'm sure if Akira Kurosawa had made a prequel to Hidden Fortress none of these continuity errors would have happened.
BAM! Roasted.