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7-Year Old Prequel Fan On ANH
Random BedHead Ed writes "It is a subject often pondered by Star Wars fans: what is it like to watch the six films in order with a fresh perspective? From the Desk of Ghent, On one of the Star Wars blog site's many journals, answers this question in a recent blog entry about the writer's 7-year old son, who recently watched A New Hope for the very first time. Some enlightening quotes: 'Look... Obi-Wan is pretending he doesn't know R2-D2,' and 'Why don't those ships need Hyperspace rings?' It's a pity the end of Empire has been spoiled."
According to the books, the fact that X-Wings and such had hyperdrive was something of a novelity, most fighters didn't, and used larger ships for long distance travel.
An example of this is in episode 3 when they talk about the short range TIE fighter.
In reality this makes perfect sense. Hyper drive units would add a lot of bulk to a combat fighter. Yet add nothing to it's abilty to actually fight in comabat.
So keeping the Hyper Drive unit seperate would be a simple way to increase combat performance.
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I would create an account but after 10 attempts to find a user name that isn't taken...
Episode IV is very slow paced compared to III. There is only one light-sabre battle, and it consists of Obi-Wan and Darth walking around calmly while being careful not to break a sweat.
Well, perhaps if you knew a little about fencing... allow me to explain.
I am a fencer of.. yay.. two years. What I notice about Vader vs Obi-Wan is that it's actually quite frantic. Obi-Wan is an old man, with slow reflexes and low energy levels. He can't afford to twirl and swing wide - when fighting with a very centered style like that, he could effectively hold Vader off all day without tiring. Vader, of course, would get quite frustrated and then be prone to making silly mistakes. That's Obi-Wan's best hope for winning.
Of course, Vader isn't exactly normal - he's getting on, too. He must be about 40 by that point, so his reflexes are long gone, not to the point of Obi-Wan's, but still he's not a young man. He does have strength and stamina that Kenobi doesn't have and so will use them to his advantage. Naturall, Obi-Wan won't run around in circles because he's just not capable of it any more.
I remember reading a study where a 30 year old male has lost around 15% of his reflexes, on average, over an 18 year old. I did a few tests in class 4 years backs. I was 26, and the kids I was testing against were all 18. My reflexes were noticably slower than theirs.
Don't make the mistake of seeing an old man using a technique with small movements as "useless"... something you learn pretty damned quick in fencing is that when you make a big movement, even if your opponent is a 70-year-old, a skilled opponent will make an attack around your movement and nail you. Fencing is very, very fast and precise.
I've fenced a 78 year old who just had a knee replacement. He wouldn't be capable of doing the big wide swings that we see in the prequels, but by god, try one of those against him and you're screwed.
So now you know. If you're curious as to what I'm talking about, get in touch with the local Salle or fencing club, and go along for a look. You'll discover that fencing isn't much fun to watch unless you know what you're looking at, and while it has a reputation as a "gentleman's sport" it's certainly a lot of hard work, too.