Anyways, Will has graciously wrote a rant for me and I hope he will continue to do so in the future and this could bring about healthy debates. Anyways, I need to go brew up some caf. Enjoy the rant. (it's wordy so fyi)
Let me just make one thing clear, before you read this. At one point, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas knew what he was doing. You can not overestimate his cultural significance.
Trust me, I've tried.
But lets put Fanboyism aside for a moment. Ok, what have you noticed? Oh, yeah. The man became a fucking moron.
So, yeah, he's the god of Star Wars. I'm not arguing against that fact, nor how much weight that pulls. But even christians would admit that their god isn't perfect; I mean, he made butterflies, and they're all pretty and shit, but he also made downes syndrome and cancer. Everything's Swings and roundabouts.
I'm just saying, this is one of many points where I feel he lost the plot. To you, it might seem pedantic, even... dare I say it?
Obsessive. But to me, it matters.
There's one thing that bugged me more than anything about the new trilogy; more than the poorly deployed romantic plot lines,
more than the unsatisfying depicture of vaders downfall, more than the racial stereotype that is Jar Jar binks- MORE THAN BINKS? what is it, you ask? Is it... like, a family members death, personally organised by Lucas? Or... rape. Rape death? Lucas Rape death? Oh my god, is Lucas orchestrating rape death?
No, that's not it. I mean, he is, but that's to a completely different fanchise. Nobodies talking about you right now, Indy. (Although You can leave your hat on by Tom Jones will never sound quite the same....)
No, for some bizarre reason this bugs me more than all of that.
What is it?
It's what the fuck the jedi council is wearing, that's what.
Why you hating on the robe? you ask. It's a timeless classic, you say. It's a simple fact of the star wars universe that that's what Jedis wear, I hear. But no, no it's not.
Let's take this in proper chronological order. We have old ben, living up in the mountains, watching over Luke, just itching to get that
young boys hand around a saber, if you know what I mean. (You don't know what I mean. What you're thinking is sick, and I should report you.)
And what's that he's wearing? Why, he's sporting a rather charming brown robe- "A jedi robe," you say, "One that the entire order wears to signify its-" WRONG.
At this point, all we've seen of the Jedi order is Obi. It's an easy assumption to make that that's just how Jedi dress. But take a closer look. Uncle Owen is dressed in a similar fashion; does it not therefore not seem plausible, if not probable, that Obi's just dressing like the lower class working locals, in order to fit in? Like someone who's trained as a jedi general, assasin and all round SAS style baddass would be prone to do?
Look at it this way. Your a highly trained military personnel serving in Iraq, when BOOM; your entire force is wiped out, except for you
and some dyslexic little midget dude who has obvious learning difficulties.
What do you do?
A) Don the local inhabitants clothing, in order to avoid detection from enemy forces.
B) Go back in time and team up with the dyslexic midget to take out the two real threats posed to your command unit one at a time rather than splitting up and trying to take them individually because in retrospect that plan was fucking retarded
C) Walk around near your last real hope dressed in your standard issue, obviously recognisable military uniform?
Congratulations, if you chose A/B then you are smarter than Obi Wan / Yoda / George Lucas... and all of the above combined.
And I'd assumed this was Lucas's original intent, in the original trilogy. It's not like Luke mastered the force, donned a bath robe and went out to kick ass and take names. No, he sported attire suitable to each situation.
People try and make the argument that in Return, Luke was walking dangerously close to the dark side, and that's why he was dressed all in black, an outfit closer to Maul than Yoda, as a reminder that he could possibly be the next vader.
I agree; the symbology was there for a reason. The problem is that symbology has been taken, perverted, and re-defined as a one size fits all jedi outift which is only there because that's what people EXPECT to see.
And that's what's wrong with post return star wars cannon. By trying to give people what he thinks they want, Lucas has lost what it was that made his creation special; a unique, gritty and imaginative universe that redfined peoples perceptions.
Not one that catered to them.
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