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5 Things We Want to See in the New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy

Posted: March 15, 2013 at 1:12 pm   /   by   /   comments (4)

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1. Keep it mystical

The Jedi Knights of the original trilogy sounded incredible. I imagined an order of space knights who did all kinds of valiant things, and were as impressive as the name of their order. What I got in the prequel trilogy was an order crumbling under political pressures and outdated wisdom. It was like a modern day version of the Vatican. It was one of the many things Lucas did that demystified the series for a lot of people.

The sin most people remember is the demystifying the Force. Rather than a magical element that takes place within a galaxy, he made it a medical condition. Those with higher midichlorian counts were destined to be Jedi. Those with the highest counts were destined to be great Jedi (or Sith). It took a lot of the fun out of it. No one thought everyone had Force capabilities, but absolutely no one thought that there was a definable medical test to show who had more Force power.  So, if you were born with enough midichlorians to be a Jedi, but it was still pretty low, does that mean you are stuck being one of those silly Jedi Librarians? Taking the mystical nature out of the Force ruined a lot of fun behind it.

Many people might describe Star Wars as science fiction, but in reality it is a space fantasy.  It takes place in a universe with completely different rules than our own, and as such much of what it contains shouldn’t need to be explained. We’ve already accepted lightsabers, the Force, hyperspeed, all of which have no bearing in science. Why try to make sense of them? The only thing that comes from that is the viewers suspension of disbelief being stretched to dangerously thin levels.

Are they going to fix it? I hope so! There has been enough complaints about it from people who aren’t even huge fans of the series, that it’s obvious Lucas made an awful choice. The ongoing problem is that Lucas is still an consultant for the projects, and that his vision might still include elements of why certain things can’t happen.  If we are lucky, he’ll explain why things are, and the writers of the new films will take it into consideration, and not put the explanation into film. There isn’t any harm in George Lucas knowing about midichlorians, but explaining it to the movie audience is where the magic is ruined.

All writers have backstories and reasoning behind certain decisions, but most of these are for internal organization. Explaining everything away gives nothing for the audience to think and dream about, which means it’s less likely to stay in their head days or years later.

We’ve given you 5 things we want to see. Now we want to hear what you want as well! Let us know in the comments! Be sure to read our 5 Things We Want to See in Man of Steel!