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Revenge of the Sith Easter Eggs
Ant writes "Via TheForce.Net, a StarWars.com article with a great list of Easter Eggs from the third prequel movie, Revenge of the Sith. There were many cameos and hidden images." From the article: "
It's tiny, but visible enough to send a warm fuzzy through the hearts of original trilogy fans. In the establishing shot of the expansive Senate docking bays, there's a tiny Millennium Falcon easing into frame. And it's not just a non-descript Corellian freighter; it's on good authority -- namely George Lucas -- that this is the infamous hunk-of-junk before it came into the ownership of either Lando Calrissian or Han Solo."
Who you calling a hunk o junk, that baby can do the kessel run in 12 parsecs!
(Warning : spoilers)
He went straight into "evil mode" right after Palpatine gives him the Darth Vader title. It's like there's a "good/evil" toggle switch he pushed (maybe that's what the buttons on Darth Vader's suit is) to turn him evil. No conflicted feelings. Nothing. He could have at least said "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do" to the younglings. Anakin wasn't evil enough yet to slaughter children. He should have been obeying his new master's orders but hating them, and hating himself too... it would have been much much more tragic that way.
In the end, Obi-Wan should have tried to bring him back to the good side much the way Luke did ("Obi-Wan once thought as you do"). The fight would have been much more personal then. They should be not wanting to fight each other, but both are compelled to... that would have made awesome drama. But no....
There's also two Easter eggs not mentioned in the article, because they're very difficult to find. In the first you can see someone in the background mumbling something, which is clearly a decent part of a dialogue. In the second, for one frame, you can see Hayden Christensen actually acting (it's uncertain, however, is it the real Hayden Christensen or just a Hayden Christensen 3D-model).
I did not know for instance, that the original YT-1300s have seperate jets while the MF has a big semi-ring of motor power block jet thingies.
(Girl going tech/mech here, beware.)
Ah well, Lando did some last minute remodifications when visiting the Second Death Star and scraped the hull a bit, incidentally losing the communications array too.
What do you mean, -3 off-topic? I'm a girl geek, what do I know of topics anyway!
> You forgot about the references to Bush in the Darth Vader
> dialog.
The dialog is superficial. Calls for dramatic absolutes are common when dictators are trying to gain power, as well as anyone with extreme viewpoints. It helps them manage the cognitive dissonance.
Actually all the Star Wars movies are describing, among other things, how Democracy can fall to fascism.
In summary, Palpatine starts a fake war[1] (where he controlled both sides[2]) in order to get elected and stay in office[3] by appealing to people's fear and rallying nationalism [4]. He convinces the Senate to vote Emergency Powers to him [5] in order to consolidate more power under himself. He finally declares the end of the Republic [6] in order to bring "peace" to the galaxy.
The movies are not intended to directly catalog Bush or his policies. The original plot was written in the 1970s, and it was inspired by a number of events in history, including Hitler's rise to power and the Vietnam War. The way we humans move from democracy to fascism happens in roughly the same way each time.
It just so happens that it can be argued that Bush has been following the same pattern as any drive towards fascism. Thus, any parallels to the current state of the U.S. is purely coincidental.
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[1] Whoops! No weapons of mass destruction found. Our bad.
[2] Didn't we used to fund and support Saddam Hussein?
[3] Tom Ridge finally admits that the Department of Homeland Security twice questionably raised the terror alert status in order to prop up Bush's poll ratings during the election.
[4] Freedom fries, anyone?
[5] Secret sneak and peek searches via the PATRIOT Act, anyone?
[6] "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier," Bush said, pausing and then joking, "just so long as I'm the dictator."
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Other issues are more important. Although I generally consider the new movie to be excellent, I wish that Lucas would have un-did a major thematic flaw in the first 2 stories in this new trilogy. I am referring to the comment, in "Star Wars I", about the force being transferred from person to person via mitochondria (which is labeled "mito chlorians" by one of the characters.)
Note that in the original trilogy, episodes IV-VI of "Star Wars" (SW), Lucas alludes that anyone can be part of the force. Your participation depends solely on your commitment to open-mindedness and the good side of the force. With this force, you can transcend the difficulties that you currently face. That message is a wonderfully uplifting message for kids of past and present generations.
Then, in SW I, Lucas trashes that egalitarian view and says that Jedis are born, not created. Namely, you cannot be part of the good side of the force by your own choice. Jedis are some sort of elite, snobby group whose membership is determined by blood. Such a message, in my opinion, is atrocious and runs counter to the fundamental egalitarianism of Western society.
Was anyone bothered by this fundamental change in one of the themes of SW?
Six degrees of separation my butt! From what Lucas has shown us, it is more like one or two in the "Star Wars" universe. Between the droids being around young Anakin and now the Millennium Falcon showing up, I have lost track of how many times things are tied in together. I am surprised that the Ewoks did not turn out to be Chewbacca's midget children that he never knew about.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters