The People vs. George Lucas: The Problem with Fandom

I completely missed writing something last year for May the Fourth and so I’ve made sure to prepare something for this year. It was a bit challenging to find what I should talk about but I settled on watching The People vs. George Lucas documentary and it sparked enough thoughts and commentary to make up a whole post.

The movie was directed by Alexandre Philippe, a lifetime Star Wars fan (aren’t we all?). It presents a discussion between the conflicting aspects of the franchise, particularly the love/hate relationship many fans have with Star Wars to a degree, but particularly with George Lucas. The movie is structure in such a way as to present a brief history of Lucas’s career up to the release of the first Star Wars movie. It then used interviews with a wide variety of people including writers, several people in the film industry, comedians, journalists and fan-submitted videos from the movie’s website. These various interviews were edited into what I thought was a poorly structured look at Star Wars, its fans, and the difficult relationship with Lucas. There are some very interesting ideas that are brought up in the movie but ultimately it doesn’t really go anywhere. In the end, the movie’s message to its viewers is that Star Wars is great, Lucas has deeply hurt us all and we feel pretty betrayed, but we hope there will be more Star Wars goodness in the future. What follows is my attempt to restructure some of the ideas from the movie, add in my comments, and try not to upset too many of the more sensitive (emotionally sensitive, not Force-sensitive) fans.

George Lucas – Duality of the businessman

One of the elements that start off the discussion from the movie is the duality inherent in George Lucas. As one person explains, they believe Lucas’s psyche is structure similarly to a Russian doll. On the onside there is a Lucasfilm, the corporation. Inside of that is Corporate Lucas. Inside of that is Lucas the Capable Filmmaker. And inside of that is a young, enthusiastic Lucas Filmmaker. That’s not quite how I see it. I think it’s simpler than that, but it does shed some light on how Lucas’s fans see him. He’s a complex and contradictory figure.

The way I see it, Lucas is internally conflicted by two aspects of his life. The first is his creative persona, the one that initially allowed for the creation of Star Wars. The second half is his business savvy persona, which also allowed for the creative success of Star Wars. During the early part of his career, Creative Lucas (that’s what I’m calling him now) has to defend his creativity and artistic vision against company executives and producers. These early battles were very difficult for him and I believe they’ve affected his development as a filmmaker. The success of the original trilogy, which I believe was made possible by the combination of Creative Lucas and Business Lucas, freed him from ever having to battle it out with a producer ever again and that’s what led to the fractured Lucas we all know now. Before, when he had to fight with his producers, both parts that make up Lucas were working together against an outside force. After Star Wars, the outside force was more or less absent and without a common enemy both sides started to fight against themselves.

 

"Advance and destroy all laser disc copies of the theatrical release!"

Fame and success have changed how Lucas feels about creating. He’s had serious issues with the lack of control he had in his early career. He had to fight for it and when you have to fight for control, you need to pick you battles. Having to struggle with producers and production company executives meant that Lucas had to fight to implement the creative ideas he thought had more potential. Since he’s escaped that type of creative environment, he’s been on his own. He no longer has the outside filter he had before. Wanting to have all the control has left him with too much control and many, many internal conflicts over various creative decisions on the franchise.

Fandom – Imitating the Duality of the Creator

Is this was betrayal looks like?

Some of the biggest fans of Star Wars are also some of the meanest towards the creator of the franchise, George Lucas. They can be huge assholes with him for rather small and petty reasons. Fans of Star Wars have been engaging in participatory culture for several years, if not decades since the release of A New Hope. They don’t simply consume Star Wars, they contribute to the development of the franchise while also acting as disciples who spread the word and share it with new fans and create new generations of fans. This participatory culture has created group of fans who enjoy pocking fun at the thing they love or re-enacting it for their enjoyment. There are countless projects that can be found online where fans are simply having a good time. Some fans are also using these projects to develop their own filmmaking or special effects skills in the hopes of becoming filmmakers someday. I like this portion of fandom. It has fun, creative, and positive aspects to it. Playing in the Star Wars sandbox has acted as their training wheels in a way. Lucas has influenced an entire generation of creators. Watch any documentary on Star Wars and you’ll have interviews with film industry professionals who started their career in filmmaking because of Star Wars.

However, there are other fans whose time engaging in participatory culture has led them to develop a penchant for remixing the beloved franchise. In essence, they’re remixing Star Wars to suit their preferences. It’s unclear why this practice originated but it’s as much a part of Star Wars fandom as dressing up as favourite characters when attending conventions. It’s pretty clear that some of this remix attitude is the result of Lucas’s crusade to shove his Special Edition version of Star Wars down the throats of unwilling fans. On its own that would be an unfortunate desire on the part of Lucas but it’s even worse if you’re familiar with a bit of film preservation history.

Early in his career, Lucas was a main proponent against the colourization of black and white films. He would argue that colouring black and white movies went against the creative visions of the people who originally worked on the movie. It was disrespectful. He also presents arguments that preserving films in their original appearance was a way to preserve cultural history. He went further in stating that the reasons why he thought it was important to preserve our culture history. You can easily find plenty of information on this part of Lucas’s life online. It actually makes for a rather interesting read.

Older George Lucas always looks sad. Even sadder
than young George Lucas. You can see the regret
in his eyes. Tugs at my heart strings, it does.

These earlier arguments made by Lucas seem to contradict the release of Star Wars: Special Edition in which Lucasfilm did several revisions, changes, additions and tweaks to the theatrical release version of the original trilogy. That in itself isn’t a necessarily a bad thing. After all, it’s the creator tweaking his own work with the intent of having the finished product more closely resemble his artistic vision. I’m ok with that as long as the original work is still available. For the most part, it’s not, and that’s what’s problematic for me. Lucas has been attempting, and as far as I know continues to attempt, revisionist history. By refusing to continue to produce and sell the theatrical version of Star Wars, he’s not only disrespecting everybody else who worked on the films, he’s being disrespectful of our shared cultural history. The Star Wars of 1997 isn’t the same Star Wars people saw back in 1977. Lucas isn’t only being hypocritical, he’s being disrespectful to fans and the people who helped make the Star Wars films.

The problem though is that certain fans continue to allow Lucas to do as he wishes because they continue to support him throughout all of the various releases, his new films, and basically anything else that has the Star Wars brand name on the product. Fans will buy it. There is a moment in The People vs. George Lucas were a fan lists all of the different VHS and DVD versions of Star Wars he’s bought over the years. In essence, it was all of them. When discussing the release of The Phantom Menace, there is a scene in which a journalist asks two fans “What are you going to do if the movie really sucks?” To which one of them answered “I’ll go see it again.” That’s part of the problem! Why go see a movie you don’t like? Why financially support the man who is responsible for producing the movie you thought sucked? It’s a vicious cycle in which fans complain about the changes being made but continue to pay to watch it or own it. Nobody is forcing you to be a ridiculous, all-consuming fan. I have some distance between my love of Star Wars and how much money I spend on it and that allows me to continue to love the franchise and not lose my mind or get insanely angry at Lucas.

The remix culture allows for fans to continue enjoying Star War by taking out or changing the parts they don’t like. Perhaps without realizing it they continue to support a franchise that no longer reflects what they like. They’re taking the good and taking out the bad in order to be able to enjoy the good. I think it’s an unhealthy approach to entertainment consumerism because it’s symptomatic of radical fanaticism. Do you really love Star Wars if you’re changing it to better suit what you think it should be? When you’re watching the fan-edit of The Phantom Menace, are you still watching The Phantom Menace?  I’m interested in seeing how fans will react to the new trilogy being worked on by J. J. Abrams. I know that part of me will enjoy some of it even though I’m also pretty convinced I won’t enjoy parts of it. There are a few reasons for that but I won’t get into them hear aside from mentioning that I’m worried about what Abrams will do with the franchise simply because his first Star Trek film is about the only film or TV series by him that I’ve enjoyed. The other thing is that there appears to be as much importance played on looking back as there is looking forward. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can lead to self-indulgence and lack of narrative progression. We’ll wait and see but really, other fans’ reactions is something I’m looking forward to. The discussion of the franchise’s future as well as the pervasive remix culture leads me to another point of contention among fans, what exactly is the “true” Star Wars?

Is this awesomely ridiculous book
"true" Star Wars? Hells yes it is.

The “true” Star Wars?

I’m curious as to why George Lucas is so adamant in having his vision be the only “true” Star Wars. By deciding not to release the theatrical release on blu-ray, he’s clearly supporting one version of Star Wars above another. Maybe he wants to make his revised, Special Edition version the only “true” version because he’s had to suffer through seeing his films be interpreted in hundreds if not thousands of different ways. Sometimes this was done reverently, other times in ways combining amateurish invention and unfiltered adoration and other times filled with hatred and condescension. With so many different versions of Star Wars available to the masses, maybe he’s worried his version, the only one he thinks really matters, is being lost in the mix.

I have to admit I find it kind of sickening to watch people argue, rather than have open and honest discussions, but argue and fight over silly things like Han shooting first. Who gives a shit? Multiple versions of that same event exist on official releases. That in itself is problematic but at the end of the day, regardless of your opinion, all those versions exist. If you choose to accept one version over another, that’s fine. I’d actually encourage it because I would then ask you why you preferred one over the other and that could be the start of a fun conversation about Star Wars and who doesn’t like that? But once the discussion evolves into which version of Han shooting Greedo is the “right” one, you enter dangerous territory. That leads to remixing Star Wars and it becomes of battles of which version is right and which version is wrong.

You can also throw in the whole idea of canon into that discussion. Star Wars is a multi-media franchise. Comics, novels, video games, TV series, etc. Many stories from different genres directly contradict things in the movies and in other stories. The development of an Expanded Universe of tie-in media before the release of the prequels trilogy inevitably led to contradictions galore once the prequels were finally released. The same thing is bound to happen with the release of Episode VII and Disney has already published a press release on the matter. Which stories are “true” Star Wars and which ones aren’t? Which stories count? I know that this is opening the floodgates but really, there is an easy solution to all of these questions. It all counts. It’s all one glorious mess of super-continuity.

No two fans can agree on what Star Wars really is. So why not embrace it all? Lucas and the fans need to embrace it all. Why is it so difficult to be able to admit that you like certain things and dislike others? Where does this need to erase the things you don’t like come from? Is it in reaction to Lucas’s own hypocrisy? Do fans who re-edit the films feel as though they’re sticking it to Businessman Lucas? All of that doesn’t matter to me because I love it all. I even love to hate the parts I don’t like (“Yippee”, anyone?).

Love 'em or hate 'em, Ewoks are part of Star Wars. I choose to love 'em. 

The idea of super-continuity isn’t mine. I’m borrowing it from Grant Morrison’s take on Batman. While writing his multi-year Batman story, Morrison decided that all of the published Batman stories have actually happened to the character. There is a way to better understand and appreciate all Star Wars stories in how Morrison treated Batman. He attempted to reconcile large section of the character’s past into one huge, ever-expanding history for Batman. In this idea of super-continuity, if something was published with Batman in it, it “counted”. It happened. The same idea can be applied to Star Wars and essentially all other entertainment franchises. You can choose not to read or watch any stories in which Jar-Jar appears, that’s your call, but you cannot dismiss him by pretending he never existed in the first place. He did and it’s up to you to reconcile that.

I like to embrace it all, the good with the bad. By not allowing myself to watch Episode I, I’ll never have to deal with some of Jar-Jar’s worst moments. That’s true. But I’m also missing out on tons of other cool ideas that are present in the movie. I also miss out on Obi-Wan’s early days and that’s a shame because he’s one of my favourite characters. I’m not trying to tell you Episode I is a misunderstood masterpiece because it’s not. It’s a visual masterpiece; the entire prequels trilogy is a visual feast. Yes, Episode I (or maybe Episode II) is the worst Star Wars movie but it’s still has its moments. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it’s not the worst thing to ever have happened to Star Wars, it’s also not the first thing that “ruined” the franchise. I’d like to offer up Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith as one of the worst stories in the franchise. It’s certainly one of the worst comics. As for things that happened before Episode I that contributed to ruin Star Wars for a certain category of fans, you can kind of take your pick. It can be a pretty selective list. Some people will posit that Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was the first step in a dumber Star Wars. Others will mention Star Wars Holiday Special.  I for one love Return of the Jedi. Ewoks? Love the little bastards. You can hate them and you can disagree with me but Ewoks are still Star Wars. You can’t change that and neither can I. What Lucas has forgotten is that he can’t change that either and he has to stop trying.

Have fun with continuity. Embrace it. Hell, the first obvious thing that comes to mind is a drinking game. Take a drink every time something happens in Episode I that you don’t like. I guarantee you’ll like the movie by the time the end credits roll because you’ll be so inebriated.

Overall The People vs. George Lucas was very frustrating to watch. It’s well put together and some of the people in the movie actually had some very interesting things to say but really, it’s just inconsistent in what it’s trying to be. It wants to discuss what Star Wars is to fans and the difficulties that come with being a fan, many of them having their source with Lucas. It’s also trying to be a comedy and it kind of undermines some of the more serious and interesting discussion. Some of the comedy works, but a lot of it doesn’t. It also feels very one-sided and I feel as though the movie was trying to make me hate Lucas. It’s all a bit difficult to understand though; it’s not an easy subject for a documentary. Star Wars fandom is filled with confusion and contradictory emotions and opinions. I think it’s important that we remember that Star Wars is a multigenerational franchise. The first generation of fans had so little Star Wars for so long that they invested themselves in the franchise. The newest generations of fans have been bombarded with Star Wars media their entire lives. For them, it’s been non-stop.

The movie ended on a hopeful note. People are willing to give Lucas and the franchise the chance to amaze us again. When a fan’s reaction to not liking the first of the prequels is to go and watch it twelve other times, it’s a strong sign that he has faith in the creator and the series. Fans felt betrayed by the prequels because they had very specific expectations and when they were giving something different, they wanted to continue watching until they “got it”. Fans acted as though they didn’t understand the movies, as though they were the problem. When it finally clued in that they weren’t the problem the finger was pointed at Lucas and the remix culture caught on. I don’t agree that Lucas has a responsibility to the fans. I think that’s a perceived responsibility. However, I think he does have a responsibility in preserving cultural history and it’s up to us to ensure he acknowledges that. As for fandom, it grows and changes hand in hand with the franchise. It’s bigger than all of us combined and the contradictions is what fuels the growth of its fans by always having another element to enjoy, criticize, and debate.

Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye review

Notice how it doesn't say Star Wars
anywhere on the cover?

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is a pretty well-known Star Wars novel. The reason why is rather simple, it’s the first Star Wars Expanded Universe story. It was written by Alan Dean Foster, who also ghost wrote the novelization of A New Hope for George Lucas. It’s also well known for being the only example of what Star Wars could have been had the second film gone in a different direction. Originally, Splint of the Mind’s Eye was intended to be a low budget alternative sequel to Episode IV on the off chance that Lucas wouldn’t be able to secure the funding necessary to film the sequel he intended. Lucky for us, The Empire Strikes Back was made into a movie but let’s not completely dismiss Foster’s book just yet. It’s good, not great, but good and I enjoyed reading about this alternate Star Wars that could have been (and depending who you talk to, still is).

I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this novel. I think the best way to think of the book is to consider it as that weird little brother of Star Wars who’s fun to hang out with for short periods of time but you’re always kind of happy when he leaves. What I’m trying to say is that I’m really glad this isn’t really representative of the Star Wars I’ve come to know and love but at the same time, I appreciate the look at an alternate low-budget version of the story. You see, the problem with Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is that it doesn’t work as a Star Wars story but it does work as a science fiction/fantasy story. 

Let’s recap the overall story first. Several months after the end of Episode IV, Luke and Leia are travelling in separate fighters on their way to a conference on Circarpous IV to convince the citizens of the planet to join the Alliance. There are technical difficulties with Leia’s ship and they crash land on the Circarpous V, also known as Mimban, which is a jungle planet. While trying to find a way off-planet, they discover a secret Imperial mining operation. None of that really matters because they simply continue to try finding a way off planet but they’re imprisoned by Imperial for having a mud fight in the middle of the mining settlement. The rest of the novel consists of them breaking out, failing miserably at finding the Kaiburr crystal and just having walking around on the planet trying to avoid getting killed. What’s the Kaiburr crystal? It’s a shabby plot device. It doesn’t really matter, it just gives Luke and Leia and excuse to stay on Mimban and have an adventure.

The back of the book makes it sound like the whole story is some grand quest to capture the Kaiburr crystal. It’s not about that at all. It's mostly about Luke and Leia exploring a sparsely populated planet and trying to get a ride off of it. Considerable sections of the books don't focus on plot or story; it's limited to Luke and Leia surviving in the wilderness. It's a neat trick to show character traits but Foster uses it ineffectively because Luke and Leia only act like themselves about 50% of the time. Overall, I enjoyed the exploration of Mimban. The idea of two people crash landing on a jungle planet is very simple, but it’s got plenty of potential as a science fiction survival story. There are moments in the book where Foster convinces me of certain alien elements of Mimban but all the odd not-quite-Star-Wars moments suck me right out of the book. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a plot and no real momentum is built. Silly things like Luke’s inner monologue making it sound like Kenobi taught him so much about the Force is just too off-putting to truly allow me to believe in the story and the setting. Those are the two ways I think you can enjoy the book: 1) A light-hearted science fiction survival story or 2) faux-Star Wars.

The most interesting thing about Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, for me, was the strange faux-Star Wars bits that I could point. Unsurprisingly, some of these things that didn’t survive into the Star Wars we know are actually rather annoying. Some of the annoying things include the characterization of the main characters. Leia’s emotionally crippled by the memory of her interrogation by Grand Moff Tarkin while on the Death Star. It’s disappointing to read her character as being rather boring and generic, for most of the book she’s missing that snarky attitude of hers. It’s almost as if she’s in the novel to serve as an object of desire for Luke. As for Luke, he’s incredibly sure of himself and he’s far more resourceful than I would have thought him to be soon after A New Hope. Luke is good with action, he’s very good and that’s ok, I buy that because it fits with the Luke we were introduced to in the first movie. Most of his inner monologues are brutal to read. All he does is swoon for Leia and it’s very strange to read. Lucas has tried to convince us that he wanted them to be twins from the get go but it’s nearly impossible to believe that after knowing he approved the things Foster writes about in this book.

There are plenty of other things that are interesting about this book. Some of my favourites include:

• Han Solo and Chewie don’t show up at all. Han gets a dismissive mention near this end and that’s it. Threepio and Artoo are both there for the duration of the book. I always thought it was interesting how many iconic elements of Star Wars were constantly in flux until the final moment of their capture on film. Things like Han Solo not going to appear past the first movie is but one example.
• Ralph McQuarrie did the cover for the book and it’s great! McQuarrie is the famous artist who worked on the original trilogy as a conceptual designer and matte painter. As far as I could tell from a quick search online, this is the only cover he’s done for a Star Wars novel. That’s a shame because this cover is great. I think it’s far superior than all of the digitally painted covers we see today. Is it just me or are book covers now either overly stylized graphic design or muddy digital paintings?
• They never made a movie out of this but Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse did a comic book adaptation.
• Did you know that lightsabers use up energy like blasters do? Luke uses an “energy pistol” he stole from an imperial guard to charge up his lightsaber. During a couple chapters Luke and Leia are travelling in underground tunnels and Luke contemplates using his lightsaber to create some light be decides against it because he’s worried it would drain the energy. Did you also know that lightsabers have a low setting? According to Foster they do and it’s used for things such as cutting bonds made of vines. In Foster’s Star Wars, lightsabers are like Swiss army knives you need to charge and it only have one tool which you can use on two power settings. Jedi are so crafty!
• Luke, having grown up on the desert planet of Tatooine, is scared of open water. And Leia can't swim. The Empire doesn’t stand a chance. Hard to imagine these two defeat Darth Vader at the very end of the book.

My absolute favourite part happens about three quarters in where Luke has a one-on-one fist fight against a Coway, a small subterranean inhabitant of Mimban. Foster days a very good job with the fight scene. I didn’t think he could write fight scenes well but he does. I’m really hoping somebody uses this as inspiration to write a punchy action novel titled Luke Skywalker Galactic Brawler. Quick Del Rey, make it happen! I’ll buy two! Better yet, someone make a movie and the writer of the novelization can embellish the background stories of the alien opponents. The move I think about this idea the more I think the movie should be anime. Yeah, like Bloodsport but with aliens and Star Wars anime dripping with crazy action scenes. Man, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was a huge missed opportunity for Foster and Lucas. I’m pretty disappointed all of a sudden. Still, for

I'm really hoping somebody uses this as inspiration to write a punchy action novel titled Luke Skywalker Galactic Brawler. Quick Del Rey, make it happen! I'll buy two! You know what, better yet, someone make a movie and the writer of the novelization can embellish the background stories the alien opponents. The more I think about this the more I think he movie should be anime. Like Bloodsport but with aliens and Star Wars as anime. Huge missed opportunity Foster and Lucas. I'm very disappointed. Still, it’s not all bad. I would recommend Splinter of the Mind’s Eye to avid Star Wars fans because they’d be the only ones to get a kick out of pointing out the various differences between Foster’s sequel and the movies . . . and don’t forget to enjoy Luke’s brawl. It’s great.

Star Wars Trilogy Review – part four

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Written by James Kahn

I don’t know why none of the novelizations of the original Star Wars Trilogy are written by the same author. Was someone displeased with the work of the authors? Whatever the reason, I would have like it if Glut has also written the third novel. James Kahn’s style is not unlike the style of Alan Dean Foster which is unfortunate. Kahn writes clunky descriptions in his adaptation of Episode VI. His descriptions feel forced and unnecessary.

Throughout the book Kahn annoyingly spells out sounds such as Chewbacca’s growling, Artoo’s beeps and whistles and other alien languages. Normally, I don’t think such a technique would work well but in this particular case it’s absolutely disastrous. Chewie’s growling and Artoo’s electronic speech patterns have, by this third chapter in the Star Wars sage, become iconic sounds. Everybody is able to recognize those sounds and many other sounds from the Star Wars universe (the hiss and hum of the lightsaber is another example). In the novel Kahn gives us such gems as “Roo roowfl” and “Ararh gragh” to quote while dressed up as Chewbacca next Halloween. It’s ludicrous.

Luckily for Khan, Return of the Jedi, more than the other parts of the trilogy, strengthens the relationship between evil and technology and good and biology. This is also present in the other parts but more so in Episode VI. For examples in Episodes IV and V you need only consider the stormtroopers. They are nearly identical in their white battle armour with their rigid, inexpressive faces and their electronic voices. Compare them to the Rebels who wear more supple armour, often have their faces displayed and also count various aliens in their group. They’re individuals, all unique, forming a group as opposed to identical pieces fighting at the command of a few individuals.

These elements are also present in Luke and Vader’s respective struggle with the Dark Side of the Force. Vader gave in to the Dark Side, a more powerful side of the Force but more volatile, and it took not only most of this body but also his family and his greatest friend. The Dark Side comes at a price. The Dark Side doesn’t want an ally, it wants a disciple and it likes them as obedient as a machine. Vader reflects this in his appearance. He looks more like a humanoid robot than he does a real man. After Luke flirted with the Dark Side in Episode V, he lost his arm and it was replaced with a cold mechanical hand. Although he ultimately rejects the Dark Side, he will forever bare the reminder of his dark temptation.

Return of the Jedi also demonstrates this theme in its climatic Battle of Endor where the Eworks and their rudimentary weaponry help the Rebels fight off and defeat the Empire’s highly advanced TIE fighters, Star Destroyers and destroy the second Death Star.

It’s unfortunate that the writing was bland, uninteresting and at times simply odd. At times it was difficult to read, not because of the story which is very good but because of the quality of writing. I a similar problem with A New Hope but it bugged me more this time around.

Now that I’m done reading the Star Wars Trilogy, my introduction to the Expanded Universe novels, I’ll continue to explore a few other novels and write about them. I just finished a book that takes place during the time between Episodes IV and V and I will be posting my thoughts shortly.

Star Wars Trilogy Review – part three

"Search your feelings," Vader said, sounding like an evil version of Yoda, " you know it to be true."

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Written by Donald F. Glut

I had a thought while watching A New Hope right after finishing the novelization: the dialogue matters much more in the book than it does in the movie. There were parts in the dialogue I noticed much more clearly while rewatching the movie. It never mattered before but since I read it I heard it more clearly. Without the visuals the words take on more importance. I haven’t rewatched Episode V yet but I had the opposite happen. There was dialogue from that movie that I remembered and recognized while reading the novelization. It is so strange.

The novelization of The Empire Strikes Back is written by Donald F. Glut. He’s a better writer than Alan Dean Foster. One of the reason I say this is that Glut doesn’t have the awkward descriptions in his book that Foster had. He also doesn’t have strange, out of place references to Earth. On the subject of descriptions, both authors stay clear of visual descriptions for the most part. Glut barely describes the machinery the Rebels and the Empire use. At best, the descriptions are very vague with the exception of the AT-ATs, which he describes surprisingly well. The way he sets up the AT-AT’s attack on the Rebel base on Hoth is rather good. He’s the excerpt:

“No one on Hoth heard the sound. At first, it was simply too distant to carry above the whining winds. Besides, the Rebel troopers, fighting the cold as they prepared for battle, were too busy to really listen.

In the snow trenches, Rebel officers screamed out their orders to make themselves heard above the gale-force winds. Troopers hurried to carry out their commands, running through the snow with heavy bazookalike weapons on their shoulders, lodging those death rays along the icy rims of the trenches.

The Rebel power generators near the gun towers began popping, buzzing, and crackling with deafening bursts of electrical power – enough to supply the vast underground complex. But above all this activity and noise a strange sound could be heard, an ominous thumping that was coming nearer and was beginning to shake the frozen ground. When it was close enough to attract the attention of an officer, he strained to see through the storm, looking for the source of the heavy, rhythmic pounding. Other men looked up from their work and saw what looked like a number of moving specks. Through the blizzard, the small dots seemed to be advancing at a slow yet steady pace, churning up clouds of snow as they moved toward the Rebel base.

The officer raised his electrobinoculars and focused on the approaching objects. There must have been a dozen of them resolutely advancing through the snow, looking like creatures out of some uncharted past. But they were machines, each of them stalking like enormous ungulates on four jointed legs.

Walkers!

With a shock of recognition, the officer identified the Empire’s All Terrain Armored Transports. Each machine was formidably armed with cannons placed on its foreside like the horns of some prehistoric beast. Moving like mechanized pachyderms, the walkers emitted deadly fire from their turnstile guns and cannons.”

There are a few other descriptions that are worthy of being noted. For some reason, Glut doesn’t refer to the Jedi’s weapon as a lightsaber for most of the book. Instead, he calls it a laser sword. The first time he uses the word lightsaber is during Luke’s confrontation with Darth Vader: “Lightsabers clashed in Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader’s battle on the platform above the carbon-freezing chamber.” Of course, after that first use, he doesn’t stop for the rest of the book. The other description has to do with the colour of Darth Vader’s lightsaber in Luke’s vision in the cave on Dagobah. It’s blue. Why is it blue? No clue! But for a short while there is some blue on blue lightsaber action between Luke and his vision of Vader and it’s pretty cool.

I have to talk about Yoda. He talks differently than he does in the movie. He still talks in an odd way and some of the dialogue is word per word but overall it’s different to what I’m used to hearing. Glut is surprisingly descriptive of Yoda’s appearance. It’s odd that many, many other people, creatures and objects are so vaguely described if at all but two elements; two key elements of The Empire Strikes Back which are very well described. Glut describes Yoda from top to bottom. Even his tattered clothes get a mention. The main difference in his appearance in his skin is blue in the book. Blue! Yoda is blue!! I can’t get over it. He would look so ridiculous. I’ll be forever relieved that he ended up being green.

 

Glut does a good job showing Yoda’s unique combination of senility and profound wisdom. Credit is also due to the scriptwriter for the movie because a lot of these elements are first conveyed in Yoda’s dialogue. Glut strengthens this with Luke’s inner monologue where he directly comments on the contrast in his old teacher.

 

The most interesting story element of this book is Luke’s quest to learn the mysteries of the Force. It’s fascinating. It’s one of the strongest elements of the trilogy. It’s easy to see in this story why the Dark Side is so attractive to him. He has to become a powerful Jedi in order to fight Darth Vader and protect his friends. He has a lot of responsibilities due to his increasingly large involvement in the Alliance and the only way he can face them is by becoming a powerful user of the Force. The Dark Side is seductive because it enables you to learn to use a lot more power much more quickly. The Dark Side is about taking action of nigh-uncontrollable power. Yoda’s plea to be patient and to make sure he learns the proper way to control his feelings and use the Force is a difficult thing for Luke to accept. Luke needs to be strong as soon as possible. He’s struggling the entire time he’s on Dagobah because he can’t help but think he could be more helpful to his friends if he wasn’t taking so long with his training with Yoda. It’s tragic that he should be so focus on quickening his training while being distracted from his training with that very thought. He’s his own worst enemy at this point in his training.

Darth Vader is also very interesting in The Empire Strikes Back. What’s going on in his head when he goads Luke to kill him? Is he taunting the novice Jedi or is he pleading to be put out of his servitude to the Emperor? Perhaps it’s a combination of both? He could also be taunting him in the hopes that Luke will complete his Jedi training under him and rule the Galaxy by his side. You have to ask yourself, is Vader proud of his son? He’s accomplished so much in so little time. Has Vader’s final conflict with Obi Wan Kenobi make him feel guilty for being absent from his child’s life? Add an element of boredom since he’s reached a point in his life where he has no true enemies worthy of his power and skill. What is driving him to goad Luke and then to choose to spare him at the last moment? He’s still stronger than his son at this point; Luke survived his time at Cloud City only because Vader let him go.

The Book ends with Luke realizing that his decision to cut his training short has cost him a hand, a friend and the discovery of a dark secret which will only serve to make his task ahead more difficult. He wisely chooses to complete his training with Yoda before facing Darth Vader another time. His hand will serve as a constant reminder of this decision.

Star Wars Trilogy Review – part two

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 

Written by Alan Dean Foster based on a screenplay by George Lucas

Whether you’re the biggest Star Wars fan around or a more relaxed fan, reading the novelization of the movie is an interesting, and overall enjoyable, experience. It’s also a bit odd. The book provides interesting “extended scenes” type material that embellish or further contextualizes the events of the movies. It’s quite the treat even if the book can be very frustrated at times either because of the differences between the movie and the novel or because of Foster’s strange (or lack of) descriptions throughout.

The story is rather simple. For some reason it seems simpler than it did in the movie. The main elements lacking from the book are the visual elements. There is an odd lack of description of people and objects in the book which is probably a result of the book being written before the release of be film. From what I could find online the book was released several months before the movie was released in theatres. It's possible he final look of many of the iconic ships and sits and masks weren't finalized when Foster was writing the book. That being said, it's not really a bad thing for modern audiences. I imagine if someone is reading A New Hope novelization today they do so because by love Star Wars and are already familiar with the movies. Foster doesn't need to explain to me what a TIE fighter looks like but I imagine it was frustrating reader the book before the release of the movie.

A big part of what makes Star Wars work for me, and I imagine many other fans, is the importance given to the visuals. I’m not simply talking about special effects, though that does play a considerable part in it; I’m talking about the iconic imagery. I’m also talking about the sound effects. When Luke first lights up the lightsaber, it’s incredibly impressive. The glowing energy sword, the humming sound effect, it makes it look like a formidable weapon. It’s still pretty cool in the novel but without the signature hum and the visual elements, the impact is lessened. Similarly, Darth Vader has nearly no depth as a character and much less as a villain. Again, I blame the lack of visual description for this. It’s not all bad, though. Since I have seen the movie, I had all of those great visual and audio elements playing in my head while reading the book. I’d be curious to know what a person would think of the book if they read it before ever seeing the movie.

One of the stranger aspects of the novel is the weird references that are made about Earth. They all seem out of place and it raises several questions, some pertaining to the writing and some pertaining to the fictional universe of Star Wars. Does Earth even exist? Didn’t this happen “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”? If so, Earth is most likely extremely far (even by light speed space travel standards) and is more than likely populated by dinosaurs if at all. The ducks and pandas Foster refers to likely don’t exist at the time of the story. More importantly, it feels forced and it sucked me right out of the story. I think that Foster added a few Earth references to help ground the reader in a space setting where Earth exists. I’m not sure why he thought this would be a good idea because the only effect it had on me was to remind me how earth has nothing to do with Star Wars and that giving the reader points of reference that belong to Earth serves only to cause confusion.

One of the elements of the book I really liked does not appear in the movie. It’s the conversation between Luke and Biggs regarding Biggs’s decision to join the rebel Alliance. It’s refreshing to see that the people who are part of the rebellion choose to be there. They want to fight the Empire because it represents something they don’t believe it. The Empire itself is not an incarnation of evil but it is an incarnation of something the members of the Alliance consider to be evil. The Alliance is fighting for an alternative form of government. They wish to reinstate the Republic but unable to do so politically they are doing it militarily. When Biggs tells Luke he wants to join the Alliance to fight for something he believes in, something he considers important, he not only shows us that he’s a thinking individual, but he’s humanizing both the Alliance and the Empire to a certain degree. Yes, of course, Palpatine is evil but the guy serving food in the Death Star’s mess hall isn’t necessarily. It’s great that this conversation takes place on Tatooine is that you’re surrounded by people who don’t seem to care too much about the Galactic Empire of the rebels trying to overthrow it. You’ve got farmers, you’ve got the bar owner at Mos Eisley, etc. Foster succeeds in showing us that there is more to just the Evil Empire and the Good Alliance in the world of Star Wars and that’s something that’s potentially missing in the movie.

Luke's feelings for Leia are much more obvious in the novel. This is due in part because of the internal monologue. The book allows us to be inside Luke's head. If Lucas was aware of their familial relation at the time he didn't make it apparent in the script nor did he mention anything to Alan Dean Foster. Luke clearly has a big crush on his twin sister and is rather jealous when Leia pays any attention to Han.

Luke seems more immature in the book than he does in the movie. I think it’s because of the way Foster describes Luke’s thoughts. The conversation he has with Biggs also had an impact in demonstrating his maturity level. Luke is a young adult of not quite twenty years old but he doesn’t act like that. He’s clearly got his head in the clouds and when talking about the Alliance and the Empire with Biggs he comes off as much younger and wide eyed than Biggs. It’s not very surprising considering he grew up in near isolation working on the farm with his uncle but it still works as a part of his character arc for the second and third parts of the story still to come.

The novelization of A New Hope continuously has to work against its movie counterpart. Star Wars relies so heavily on iconic imagery and signature sound effects that the novel in comparison can seem like a second rate version of the story. In many ways it is. Oddly enough, its reliance on the movie is only its primary strength. While reading A New Hope I could hear Threepio’s voice in my head. When Foster told me Chewbacca was growling sadly or angrily I could hear him in my head. In other instances, such as descriptions Darth Vader’s appearance, telling me he wears a mask seems like a grossly incomplete description. I don’t mean to sound too harsh on Foster because he probably wrote the book without knowing a lot of the details regarding the look of the movie since it the book released several months before the film. Besides, Star Wars was just a science fiction movie, a genre that didn’t fair too well in theatres until after the film release of A New Hope. Considering the daunting task of writing the novelization of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time without knowing what the final product will be, it’s relatively easy for me to cut Foster some slack.

Star Wars Trilogy Review – part one

Not too long ago I got the urge to read a Star Wars novel. I’ve never read one before but I’ve got a friend who has read at least 25 and he’s still reading more. Now, he’s a much bigger fan of Star Wars than I but you don’t read 25 novels if none of the first few are actually good. I must confess I have read a Star Wars novel but it was before I went to high school and I don’t remember much. It wasn’t very big and all I remember about the story was a small group of people who were in a large cruise-like spaceship and there was an attack on the ship. The small group of people we’re going around the ship and, um, doing something? I remember so little from the first Star Wars novel experience that it’s safe to assume I have never really read one.

Since I like Star Wars and I like to read books, I figured I would start with one book or a small series of them (there are many trilogies that have been written in the Expanded Universe) and if I enjoyed it I’ll continue to explore more novels. There was a problem, though. Where should I start? The Expanded Universe of Star Wars is ridiculously huge. There are so many novels and comics and it makes for a daunting task to choose which book to start with. I decided to narrow down the focus. I don’t want to read about stuff that happened thousands of years before episode IV, notably stories set in the Old Republic. That eliminated quite a few books. I also don’t want to read about a Star Wars that is not the Star Wars I know, primarily the movies. I like the world of episodes IV to VI much more than episodes I to II so I decided to look for something that happens between movies or right after.

It seems odd to want to start with a novel that takes placed during or in-between the original trilogy. You would think that my desire to read Star Wars novels is to explore the Expanded Universe but I want my experience to be a pleasant want. I want to like the novels I read. I guess I’m stacking the deck in my favour by exploring something new but still staying in familiar territory. If that goes well then I’d like to explore some more, probably stories that take place after Return of the Jedi.

After reading up on novels online, I figured I knew enough to go browse in a book store and that’s what I did. That’s when I saw it. There was this big leather-bound volume with silver, gold and black art on the front and back covers. It was the collected edition of all three Star Wars movie novelizations. Now this would be a good starting point. You might be thinking, “Why read the novels when you’ve seen the movies dozens of times?” The way I see it, by reading the novelizations I will familiarize myself with the names to people, places, creatures, alien species and vehicles found in the movies and be able to associate the names to the images from the movies. There are so many things shown to us in the movies that aren’t given a name on screen. Because I’m so familiar with the original trilogy I’ll be able to keep track of who is who and what is what. Essentially, it’s a good way to train myself to be a reader of Star Wars novel. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I get go ahead with my reviews for the novels. Part two coming up shortly.