• Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    Kenobi could just be a common name, like looking for a John Smith. Also, with multiple planets full of people, there could be thousands of ‘Kenobi,’ even if the name is not common.

  • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I hate to defend bad writing, and I hate even more when fiction feels the need to retroactively try to explain things that don’t need it, but here goes anyway.

    In the novel Kenobi the Tatooine locals find out his last name and immediately start wondering if he’s related to any of the other Kenobis they know in the area. So they do at least give a few paragraphs to pointing out that it’s a somewhat common last name.

    Then there’s “Skywalker,” where fans say oh it’s a common last name that’s why no one batted an eye at it. But I just assume that Luke went by Luke Lars up until the events of ANH.

    There’s probably something in canon that contradicts that, and the Kenobi novel is no longer canon either, but you know what? It’s all made up and I don’t care, I just picture it like I want to.

    • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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      7 days ago

      It leaves a bitter taste that the blockbuster Fantasy need to have writing that falls apart the moment you look slightly deeper into it (Star Wars and Harry Potter come to mind).

    • VinegarChunks@lemmus.org
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      6 days ago

      I can appreciate a little fun pointing out inconsistencies while still understanding the movies would be considerably worse if the writers spent any effort trying to prevent Lemmy inconsistency memers.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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      8 days ago

      In the Radio Drama, Obi-Wan even says to Han Solo that he hasn’t touched money in a long time and has been making his way on his own for some time.

      I take that to mean he has no official presence on tatooine.

      Plus let’s be honest, rim worlds don’t exactly have good, robust governments that keep track of everyone. They made that clear early on. You can patrol the streets of major cities and their space ports, but without a major presence, the empire has no idea who lives where in the outer rim.

      Plus “Skywalker” would definitely be a common name given how historically on earth a lot of last names correspond to trades and careers, so a “Skywalker” was descended from someone who got their name piloting, or generally being someone who spends a lot of time in space.

      So combine all those together with the characters being on a planet that Darth Vader has every reason to hate and disregard, (he was a slave there, his mother died there and he feels responsible, and also… Sand…) the empire could comb the desert and not find shit.

      • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        I love the radio dramas. I also love that George Lucas loved NPR so much that he worked with the NPR station near Skywalker Ranch to make it happen.

        • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          I love that George Lucas was in it for the love of the game. He’s a true artist.

          edit: fuck me he’s pro AI in movies.

          People love to shit on his creative decisions in the prequels… but at least he wasn’t making them for the vapid commercially driven motivations infecting everything now a days.

          Dude was passionate about making cool movies in new ways; and he succeeded.

            • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
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              8 days ago

              TBF they made some really cool toys. Like the “extending nested plastic sword” for lightsabers. All the lego sets. The video games. I played the crap out of OT side scrollers. The Star Wars trading cards predate Pokémon.

    • AmyAye@nord.pub
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      7 days ago

      Darth Vader never once in all those years went to have Thanksgiving Dinner with his half brother.

      Think of what good for the Empire would have occured.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        He wasn’t his half brother, he would’ve been a step brother, wouldn’t he?

        Also the Lars family always over-cooks the turkey and Owen is always saying some racist bullshit about sand people at the dinner table every fucking year.

        • AmyAye@nord.pub
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          7 days ago

          I thought Shimi was mother to Darth and Owen but I may be wrong. I suppose probably not since it was only like 5 years or something when he went back.

    • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      In the novel Kenobi the Tatooine locals find out his last name and immediately start wondering if he’s related to any of the other Kenobis they know in the area.

      Kenobi is from a grassworld so I don’t buy the “common name” thing. Doesn’t make sense. In my head cannon he jedi mind tricked people around him into thinking they knew someone with the same last name. If Vader got too close he’d get sent on a bunch of wild goose chases. Also if there were actual Kenobi’s Obiwan would be putting them in danger and probably assume a false identity instead.

      But I just assume that Luke went by Luke Lars up until the events of ANH.

      Unfortunately he must have gone by Skywalker because after ANH Vader sent Boba to hunt the unknown pilot. Which led Boba to Tatooine, where he interrogated people who knew luke, fought him in Obiwans house, and revealed to Vader he had a son via the name Skywalker; which is probably the only reason Vader gave him future chances.

      Easily the biggest plot hole in the entire star wars universe.

      • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I don’t think it makes any sense to debate what makes sense in a fictional universe.

        Unfortunately he must have gone by Skywalker because

        I mean, you could just…ignore all that. I never read that particular part of the EU so I just don’t consider it.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      7 days ago

      I mean the empire hunted down every Jedi, you’d think they could hunt down every Skywalker and every Kenobi as well

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        So, the storyline on “every last Jedi” gets soft around the edges with all the EU material. Because everyone wants to write a book or do a game or whatever about “the OTHER other last Jedi”. And then you’ve got to explain Joruus C’baoth. And nobody wanted to see Ahsoka Tano die. And they resurrect Darth Maul at some point. And and and…

        This means you get a bunch of hand-waving explanations for why this or that professionally trained force user doesn’t fall under Yoda’s strict categorization of “Jedi”, at the moment he says the thing to Luke Skywalker in the Third Movie. And, along the way, it carves out a bunch of caveats and exceptions for why Darth Vader didn’t quite get them all.

        Frankly, I think it’s enough to say the galaxy is big and Tatooine is very remote and the Empire doesn’t have a ton to fear from a Jedi survivor who kept his head down for twenty years.

      • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        That’s why I choose to believe Luke went by Lars, and just sort of ignore the fact that they knew Ben’s last name.

  • Sundray@lemmus.org
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    8 days ago

    Nothing in the prequels contradicts the possibility that Anakin Skywalker is kind of a doofus.

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.today
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      8 days ago

      One on one Anakin is a goat. In a solo space craft, he is also a great.

      But he never got to Jedi Master for lots of reasons and I suspect that part of it is his problem with large complex situations. He can’t even keep the Han from getting his peeps and two idiot droids from escaping in front of him while surrounded by his troops

    • FrChazzz@lemmus.org
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      7 days ago

      You bring up one of my annoyances with Lucas. It’s clear, when re-watching Jedi that Luke’s black attire is intended to be the dress of a Jedi, indicating that he’s finally made it as a full-fledged Jedi knight. And if you look at both Kenobi and Yoda, they are wearing some kind of brown colored shirt under their busted robes that has a similar collar like what Luke is wearing in Jedi. So, like, the robes are covering a Jedi uniform, but are not themselves actual Jedi dress.

      By the prequels, Lucas has completely forgotten this and makes Kenobi and Yoda look like they’re stupid. And Vader too, for that matter. But, the bright side is that wonderful blue drip that Ben is rocking in the Kenobi series might not have happened, so… trade off?

      • stark@sopuli.xyz
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        7 days ago

        Lucas is a just a shit writer. Great world builder. But terrible at executing that vision into a coherent screenplay. All his great works are co-written with someone else or Lucas only wrote the story and an other writer turned that into the screenplay. The only good movie where he was the only writer is A New Hope but that one was basically saved in the editing room by his ex wife. It’s no wonder that she won an Oscar for editing that movie.

        The Prequels is when he got full creative control. Besides directing and production, he also wrote the screenplays by himself and was more deeply involved in the editing. He was constantly in the editing room giving notes to the editor. And it just shows, the Prequels are his worst movies.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        He never expected to make 3 movies, much less 6. The original footage was a mess till his first wife re-cut it for him. He was so green when he started, as he moved along he changed him mind on how he wanted things to look/work so strongly that he went back and edited the crap out of it all. Most of our love for the series is based on how good she handled ANH, how well he managed to direct the actors, and how well the actors did themselves for being green themselves. His story for it all was pretty consistently inconsistent :)