While the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, for one film’s audiences in 1977 the trip to a time long gone and a galaxy far, far away began with a crawl instead.  Few could have anticipated what would occur that day nearly forty seven years ago – with quite a few expecting it something else – was the introduction to a film that would jumpstart a worldwide and given satellite technology, a galactic empire. Kinda makes you wonder if it instigated any interstellar rebellions – or religions – when aliens witnessed what planet Earth was preaching in A New Hope.    

E-Waaa

Until the arrival of Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, there weren’t many cringe worthy moments in the Star Wars mythos. However, the Gungan wasn’t the first – nor the greatest – stinkerwhiff in the franchise’s history. The reason you don’t hear anyone talking about it is because it only aired once: The Star Wars Holiday Special.  

It seems after the success of the original film CBS approached the production company with the opportunity of making a home televised special centering on characters and plots from the film.  Among the segments and vignettes featured on this blink and you missed it broadcast, the main plot was an opportunity for George Lucas to act on his wish of offering additional narrative focusing on Chewbacca’s character and the Wookie species.

Therefore, the assistance the Alliance was going to receive during Episode VI needed to be less advanced. Sadly, even before The Empire Strikes Back, The Holiday Special showed that even with beastly appearance, the Wookies were a technologically advanced species.  

This left a huge plot hole in the third act of Return of The Jedi. One that would eventually be filled by some characters that were half the size of Chewbacca. However, for whatever you might say about the Ewoks lack of stature, you can’t argue with their longevity. Not only did this new species steal much of the film’s finale, some versions of the film feature the Ewoks providing an extended finale.  The Ewoks also provided the final two Star Wars features fans would get until The Phantom Menace. These would be 1984’s Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Movie and its sequel Ewoks: The Battle of Endor in 1985, both from ABC – amazing how that all worked out.  That same year the network would also release two Saturday morning cartoon series.  While Droids followed the misadventures of C3-PO and R2-D2, the Ewoks would continue to present the primitive species and their mystical nature.  The only major obstacle to the show’s success was that no one understood Ewokese.  So rather than using closed captioning, Wicket and the other Ewoks learned English.

One that is truly wonderful.   

Et Tu R2

Much like the structure of the Galactic Senate, androids are also intricate systems.  This doesn’t merely refer to the internal gyros and diodes that ensure they function, but also their complex nature.  Since the original, several Star Wars films and series have shown numerous examples of them imitating behaviors associated with biological creatures.  C3-PO is a perfect example, not merely because of his biped appearance, but also for personality traits we often witness other droids lacking.  From his fearful exclamations of ‘run’ or ‘hide’, to his insistence on always ordering R2 around, 3-PO exhibits self-awareness and even agency at times.  

Which is why I imagine he will be taken aback by my assumption about the abilities of his closest associate: R2-D2.  However, recently while watching A New Hope I noticed something during the scene depicting the Jawas selling the two droids.  Initially Uncle Owen was more interested in the Red unit, R5-D4, only for it to malfunction moments later.  Suddenly, C3-PO speaks up and advises Luke to purchase the other unit instead.  So what caused this disturbance in just a few seconds. Did R2 use The Force?

A few peculiarities pop up in the moments leading to when Red’s motivator blows.  First, just moments before blowing up, Red has no problem maneuvering, even walking to his spot rather than rolling on wheelslike most R2 units.  Then, after Uncle Owen indicates which R2 he wishes to purchase, Luke – a capable mechanic – moves in to inspect the robot.  After finally deciding to take 3-PO, Owen instructs Luke to take the two droids home.  At this moment you can recognize that 3-PO is reluctant to speak up for a now protesting R2 but torn about leaving his companion behind.  When the Jawa activates the droid caller to calm R2 down all hope seems lost.  But in a foreshadowing to a lesson Luke would later learn, is it possible in that state R2 was able to access The Force?  

In order to begin accepting this occurrence of a droid using The Force you “must unlearn what you have learned.”  Recent franchise entries tend to turn the Jedi teaching into something combative or devastating however, according to Yoda they were to be used for knowledge and defense. Even if in some instances where it appeared to offer neither. Although as Obi-Wan advised Luke, our eyes can be deceived. Even going as far as to show him by disabling his lightsaber and a slight smirk before Vader would presumably strike Kenobi down for good.  

Maybe, as Yoda stated, “that is why you fail.”

Too Old To Complete the Training

Although at least Anakin endured much more training, including participating in The Clone Wars, which earned him the title of General. Plus, he did seem to complete the trials prior to the Council’s decision to assign him the rank of Master.  However, this was partially just a means to manipulate Skywalker into spying on Palpatine and reporting any discoveries to Obi-Wan. It wasn’t until his arrival on Mustafar that Kenobi would find out first hand that Anakin was no longer interested in following the Jedi code.

While Luke does follow Obi-Wan’s instruction to travel to Dagobah to begin training with Yoda, he later disregards both Jedi’s advice by deciding to leave before it can be completed.  Instead, he rushes to the final requirement – a confrontation with Vader – before he was prepared to complete it successfully.  Lucky for Luke his impulsiveness doesn’t cost him his arms and legs like his father.  And while he regains his hand thanks to cybernetics, I’m more interested in Luke’s other upgrade he mentions when we first see him as a holographic projection from R2-D2 in 1983’s Return of the Jedi.  One that he expects will cut Jabba down quicker and make the negotiation of Han Solo’s release short.

As he begins his bargain with pleasantries by referring to Hutt as the ‘Great Jabba’, Luke also introduces himself as a Jedi Knight. This becomes more interesting in hindsight, considering what occurs after he arrives on Tatooine and successfully saves Han and his other friends. Answering R2’s question, Luke advises the droid they are returning to Dagobah to “keep a promise to an old friend.”  That promise to Yoda was that once he saved his friends from Vader’s trap he would return to finish what he had started.   

Unfortunately by the time this mini-adventure was completed Master Yoda was much older and realized that “twilight is upon me.”  As the two discuss “the way of things” Luke questions who will complete his training. It is here that Yoda indicates Skywalker’s training too has come to an end.  Upon hearing this statement Luke looks stunned as he half assuredly states “then I am a Jedi.”  To which Yoda remarks that only after confronting and defeating Vader will he truly become a Jedi.

Until he does that it seems Han was right to accuse Luke of developing “delusions of grandeur” in his absence.     

Han Shoots First

Admittedly, so far this article may have you assuming my aim is as off as a Stormtrooper’s.  Well, hopefully this last one will hit the mark even if it makes the maker of the series a little mad. This one deals with a rather touchy matter that came from some cinematic correction , and a catchphrase surrounding one of the star characters of the Star Wars Universe.  That character is none other than Han Solo; captain of the Millenium Falcon.  If you watched Solo: A Star Wars Adventure, however, you know his acquisition of the Falcon herself wasn’t completely honest.  So for the Han that audiences initially met in Episode IV to act like a hero in all instances would have been out of character. Especially when you consider where it is that Obi-Wan and Luke first encounter him.  

Or maybe  the song is meant to reflect how Han Solo is feeling at that moment.  His pockets and reputations are hurting after he had to drop a shipment of smuggled cargo during an encounter with an Imperial star cruiser. This leads to Jabba the Hutt placing a bounty on his head, or at least that is the new arrangement according to bounty hunter Greedo as he confronts the smuggler.  Staring down the barrel side of Greedo’s blaster, Han weighs his options.  Allow the bounty hunter to escort him back to Jabba’s palace or there was Greedo’s offer to forget he found Han in exchange for the credits Solo was promised by Obi-Wan.  

This makes what happens after their arrival unfortunate, especially Han’s reaction to the encounter.  Lando arrives to personally invite Leia – along with everyone else – to refreshments.  During their walking tour Lando comments on the difficulty that comes with protecting Cloud City before mentioning an arrangement that would keep the Empire out forever.  At this moment he opens the doors to reveal Darth Vader awaiting them at the other end of the banquet table.   

Now as we all know, unlike what took place on Mos Eisley, the outcome of this scene is explicitly tied to the film’s storyline.  However, imagine if, sensing an opportunity to overthrow Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, Vader was attempting to foster an alliance with Leia.  Cloud City – its Bespin location currently outside the reach of The Empire – provided the perfect cover for a clandestine negotiation, with Lando acting as arbitrator.  Even if this had been the case, Solo’s next act would definitely have changed the trajectory of the talks.  

And exactly what does Han do?     

Did you think that was the end? That’s not how things work in the Star Wars Universe. It may have been logical to limit this conversation to 4 items, in keeping with the May the 4th celebration However “only” doing anything is an absolute, and that is said to be the way of the Sith.  Although what does it say about Mace that he is the one that said it?  

There’s Only One Way to Destroy the Death Star

Upon hearing Han urging him on, Luke focused, then fired his torpedoes before flying out of the Death Star trench and rejoining the remaining Rebel fleet.  The survivors would return to a rejoicing Yavin 4 base in the climatic finish to A New Hope.  Based on what both the Alliance pilots and audiences witnessed at the end of 1977’s blockbuster, the battlestation was completely destroyed.  But was that really the case because by The Return of the Jedi there is another Death Star under construction by The Empire?

I have wondered how that is possible, when Rogue One showed that the man primarily  responsible for designing the Death Star – Galen Erso – was dead before A New Hope began.  As for the plans, they seem to have only been in two places with one being the databanks on Scarif; also gone before Episode IV. The other copy of the schematics was uploaded to R2 by Leia before she was captured by Vader.  After her rescue, Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia would resume her original mission of ensuring the Death Star plans made it to the Rebellion leaders.  

These Death Star plans would not only damage The Empire’s position in The Galactic Senate, but according to Jyn in Rogue One they offered her “father’s revenge.”  A small thermal exhaust port, no bigger than 2 meters wide, gave way to a shaft leading to the Death Star’s main reactor system.  The Rebellion pilots were advised it needed to be a precise hit, and we all believed that despite the odds, that is exactly what Luke did.

Going back a bit to an earlier prequel, Attack of the Clones, brings up another reason besides the schematics that Return of the Jedi’s Death Star might just be a restoration of the original; not enough time. Think about when the “Empire” began construction on the first Death Star.  I put it in quotes because if you know your hi-Star-y you’ll remember the manufacture of the material was beginning before there was actually an Empire at all.  It would be over a decade after Hayden Christensen’s Anakin and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan had their first duel before the Death Star was operational.  Even then Rogue One showed the weapon wasn’t completely online.  So how could The Empire construct another one so quickly?  

Among revelations like Rey’s parentage we got in Episode VIII there is also evidence of what happened to the 2nd Death Star after the battle above Endor.  This means either Luke’s precise hit completely destroyed the Death Star, or there ought to be some wreckage of the first destroyer on Yavin 4.

Otherwise this leaves open the possibility that Luke simply damaged but didn’t completely destroy the Death Star and it would take Lando’s act aboard the Millennium Falcon to completely take down the battlestation.

What’s really interesting is when you consider what it actually accomplished. Don’t forget that the First Order in The Force Awakens were taking orders from a senator who appeared in The Phantom Menace.

So in essence recognizing “there’s only one way to destroy the Death Star” is acknowledging what the Sith were able to accomplish and using the other side of The Force to do the same. Sensing what is possible by going through and enduring something. Taking on situations that on the surface may not seem similar, but often are analogous to the experiences these individuals encounter in the Star Wars franchise. Choosing to face our fears, stretch forth and focus on the desired outcome.

Of what is possible when you DO more than simply TRY.