STAR WARS

Of Wookiees and clones

After Kenobi leaves, the droids prove their usefulness to the royals once again by locating Leia. Luke, being a royalist sympathizer, wants to dash off and rescue her. Han doesn't, and I love him for it. Let the royals rot. Luke is all for charging right in and getting everone's ass shot to ribbons over the princess. Unable to convince Han using emotional appeals, he is forced (as Kenobi was on Mos Eisley) to use a more conventional means of persuasion: money. Warily, Han agrees (again as with Kenobi) and they shackle Chewie and dash off.

Along the way Luke mentions, "I can't see a thing in this helmet". Han doesn't seem to have the same problem. In the Expanded Universe, captain Solo was in the Imperial Navy. Anything you'd like to share with the audience, Han?

When they get to the detention center we get some anti-Wookiee racism with the officer asking, "Where are you taking this... thing?" In the Expanded Universe, Wookies are supposed to have been enslaved by the Empire to build their many war machines. I see. So of course this is NEVER mentioned in five of the six movies (ROTS has yet to come out as of this writing). And if you think the Rebels view Wookiees any better, check the end of this movie for a nasty bit of exclusion for Chewie - Luke and Han get medals, Chewie doesn't.

When Han and Luke freak and start shooting up the place, watch the moisture farmer. He guns like crazy and the bodies start piling up. Kid turns out to be ferocious in a gun battle.

So now we have the first meeting between princess Leia, leader of the Rebellion, and Luke Skywalker, son of the Rebellion's greatest adversary. Remember that Leia is the one who sent the droids to Tatooine to pick up Kenobi. She no doubt knows why Kenobi was there; to watch Luke. So she knows that Luke is the son of Darth Vader. Numbed by her impending death sentence and the sudden rescue, she gives nothing away upon hearing that the son of Skywalker is now standing in front of her. Though she does recognize the name "BEN Kenobi" (Obi-Wan's psuedo alias), yet another indication of her close ties with the man.

Long story short, they escape the detention center and then escape the trash compactor. Once in the compactor, Han fires at the walls. When the dust settles from the richochets (possible further evidence that we're dealing with projectiles) Luke yells, "I already tried it". WHEN? The millisecond his ass hit the water? Han jumps down approximately THREE seconds after Luke. This kid loves to fire that gun. He also mentions it was "magnetically sealed", another indication that we may be dealing with ballistic technology.

**UPDATE** Just saw ROTS recently and saw the giant SHELLS the artillery crews were using on the space cruisers. Just for the record, I've been saying for a year or better that at least some of the 'blasters' were firing ballistics.

Meanwhile, the unresponsive command office by the docking bay is investigated. When the troopers rush in we get the most compelling proof against an odd assertion that has crept up over the years. It has been suggested that the stormtroopers are clones (presumably linked to the "Clone Wars" that Luke mentioned) and that their masks hide this fact from the general public. The main argument I've always heard for this is that the stormtroopers are suspiciously all the same height. Not true. And if just watching a line of troopers go by isn't proof enough, watch when stormtroopers break into the command office that Threepio and R2 have locked themselves into. All the troopers easily walk under the door without bending or stooping over. Except one guy, who cracks his FOREHEAD on the partially raised door! You can actually hear this as well. He must be at least six inches taller than his fellow troopers.

so.

Stormtroopers: not clones.

A minor note while I work on a page for this: these 'blasters' everyone's firing are actually ballistic weapons. They need to be "loaded", case shells can be seen being ejected when they fire, and a round bounces off a "magnetically sealed" door! You CAN magnetically seal something so that lasers bounce off, but at that point it looks like a mirror because LIGHT is bouncing off of it. So. Blasters. They're ballistic weapons. No big deal, just another misinterpretation :)

Threepio pulls his mind trick on the guard, R2 saves everone's ass, and we're off.