• 7 months ago
Droids have feelings too, you know.
Transcript
00:00 The Star Wars franchise has been around for a whopping 45 years, with 11 live-action films
00:04 hitting cinemas during that time, plus the animated Clone Wars feature. That's quite a
00:09 lot of movie, and yet there still hasn't been enough screen time to give every tiny detail
00:13 the attention it deserves. A recent Reddit thread discussed that very subject, with Star Wars fans
00:18 bringing up various details that were either explored too little or not explored at all.
00:22 I'm Emile from WhatCulture, and these are 10 Star Wars Details That Are Almost Never Mentioned.
00:28 10. The Impact of Owen and Beru's Death on Luke
00:31 The final scene of Revenge of the Sith shows Obi-Wan Kenobi handing an infant Luke Skywalker
00:36 to Owen and Beru Lars, who go on to raise the boy like he's their own. In A New Hope, Owen and Beru
00:41 are murdered by Imperial soldiers, with Luke stumbling across the grisly sight of their charred
00:45 corpses after returning from a chat with Obi-Wan. Though Luke is visibly shaken when he discovers
00:50 what has happened to Owen and Beru, he immediately sets out on the path to becoming a Jedi Knight,
00:54 and the impact that their deaths surely had on him is never mentioned again.
00:58 Luke seems sadder about Obi-Wan's death, a guy who he barely knows, than he does about the deaths
01:03 of a couple who for all intents and purposes were his real parents. With their deaths being so
01:08 brutal, you'd imagine the image of their crispy bodies would gnaw at his insides constantly,
01:13 especially considering he never got to say goodbye. Or thank you, or anything.
01:17 From a certain point of view, it's quite cold.
01:21 9. How Palpatine Built a Star Destroyer Fleet Without Anybody Noticing
01:26 How? How do I even? Let's do it anyway. Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker did such a bad job
01:32 of explaining things that you had to go and play Fortnite if you wanted more context of the story.
01:36 Even when the movie did explain things, these explanations were lazy, such as Poe's regularly
01:41 memed line about how Palpatine has risen from the grave. "Somehow, Palpatine has returned."
01:47 Thank you, JJ. Clears things up. Something else the movie doesn't explain is how exactly
01:51 Palpatine managed to build a massive fleet of souped-up Star Destroyers, a hugely important
01:56 detail that the movie glosses over entirely. Where did he get the materials? How did he
02:00 equip each ship with the planet-killing laser? How, on Exegol, did he finance this whole venture?
02:06 With this fleet being the centrepiece of Palpatine's plan, it's unforgivable that the
02:10 movie doesn't even try to explain it. And though extra backstory is available for those who want
02:14 to do some homework, it's a total head scratch for folks who only watch the films.
02:18 8. Droids can possess human levels of sentience Some of the most beloved characters in Star Wars
02:25 are droids, with the likes of C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 delivering many highlight moments in the
02:31 movies they appear in. Despite this popularity, though, something the movies never really discuss
02:35 is that droids can possess incredibly high levels of sentience, and yet they're often treated as
02:40 emotionless, disposable or even just as jokes. Take C-3PO in Return of the Jedi, who seems
02:45 terrified at the prospect of working for Jabba, and even expresses self-doubt, wondering aloud if
02:50 he did something to warrant Luke leaving him behind. In that same movie, we even see a gonk
03:03 droid screaming with pain while being tortured, which makes you think about all the other times
03:07 droids have been damaged or mistreated, and how they must have felt. Though the concept of droid
03:12 rights was touched on in Solo A Star Wars Story, it's an issue the movies have never done justice,
03:16 despite the crucial role various droids have played in almost every single film.
03:21 Droid rights now!
03:22 7. Ewoks are highly skilled fighters Mention the Ewoks to a casual Star Wars fan,
03:29 and they'll probably start talking about how adorable they are. Which is fair enough,
03:32 just look at that fluffy little face, it's all... But look, something people never talk about,
03:37 and something that, if their reputation as lovable plush toys is anything to go by,
03:40 the movies haven't made clear, is that the Ewoks are among the most skilled fighters in the Star
03:45 Wars galaxy. Just look at how they completely outclass the technologically superior Empire
03:50 in Return of the Jedi. They coordinate their ambush outside the shield generator perfectly,
03:55 starting off by using R2 and 3PO as a distraction, and following this up by forcing the Imperial
04:00 troopers to split up and run into the woods, right where the Ewoks want them. And that's not to
04:05 mention how bloodthirsty they are, with the little beasts fully intending to dine on Han until 3PO's
04:09 magic convinces them otherwise. The Ewoks look fairly harmless, and the majority of their scenes
04:14 are played in a lighthearted way, which greatly distracts from their brutality and combat efficiency.
04:20 Teddy bears, they most certainly are not.
04:22 6. The destruction of the Death Star brought the Empire's followers closer together
04:27 The destruction of the first Death Star at the end of A New Hope was a huge victory for the
04:32 Rebel Alliance, but if you look at it from the Empire's point of view, then it was nothing short
04:36 of an act of terrorism. The movies never touch on the fact Luke murdered millions of innocent
04:40 people when he blew up the planet killing machine. All those janitors, technicians,
04:44 what about the chefs, who were only working for the Empire because it was a job, or because they
04:48 were too scared to leave? Further still, it's highly likely that this mass murder actually
04:52 brought people from the Empire closer together, and possibly even galvanised the additional
04:57 support for the Empire across the galaxy. Though this angle was somewhat explored in 2017's Star
05:03 Wars Battlefront 2 game, the movies never take the time to ponder such interesting details,
05:07 with the ramifications of the Rebel's victories never being looked at from the opposing point
05:11 of view. It almost makes you want a Taken 2-style spin-off, where the father of a murdered Death
05:16 Star employee hunts down Luke to enact his revenge. Go on Disney, you know you want to.
05:21 5. The Jedi are incredibly rare mythical beings
05:25 The Jedi are prominently featured throughout the entire Skywalker saga,
05:28 from Obi-Wan and Anakin in the prequels, to Luke in the originals and Rey in the sequels.
05:33 This ends up giving off the impression that there's a Jedi on every street corner,
05:37 making it easy to forget that in actual fact, they are mythical beings,
05:41 and that the vast majority of people in the galaxy have never actually seen one.
05:44 Because we follow one of these lightsaber-wielding heroes for each of the nine core movies,
05:53 it does feel they're way more common than they actually are. Remember, the Jedi Order is fairly
05:57 reclusive during the prequel era, and pretty much extinct for the next six movies.
06:01 4. The dark side of the Force isn't inherently evil
06:06 Force users are divided into two camps, the Jedi and the Sith, or the light and the dark.
06:12 The movies draw a firm line between these two camps, telling us that the dark side is evil,
06:16 and that light, well, is… right. Jedi want that on a t-shirt.
06:20 While most on-screen evidence points to this being true, a notion that isn't fleshed out is
06:24 that the dark side in isolation isn't necessarily evil. Rather, it's the users of the dark side who
06:30 abuse its power for their own selfish or chaotic intentions. Look at someone like Count Dooku.
06:35 Though he wields the dark side of the Force, he hasn't let emotions like anger and hatred corrupt
06:40 him, like they have for so many other Sith. Instead, he uses his dark side abilities with
06:45 control. He's clearly far more level-headed than the likes of Vader and the Emperor,
06:49 proof that dark side users need not become moustache-twirling megalomaniacs.
06:54 And then there's Dark Vectivus, who also practiced the dark side but never let it consume him and
06:58 could save off that destructive temptation. Despite what the movies might tell us,
07:02 wielding the dark side doesn't automatically mean that a person is evil, or that they will
07:06 always succumb to the lure of power. It just depends on the person.
07:10 3. How Maz Kanata acquired Luke's lightsaber
07:14 When Maz Kanata pulls Luke Skywalker's blue lightsaber from a box and hands it to Finn in
07:18 The Force Awakens, Han Solo asks her where she got it. Her response? A good question,
07:23 for another time. In hindsight, her refusal to give an explanation feels startlingly similar
07:28 to Poe's "Somehow, Palpatine returned." Sorry, I can't even say it anymore.
07:32 And though this particular detail arguably isn't as important, it's nonetheless frustrating that
07:37 the movies never reveal how Maz acquired a lightsaber that was presumed lost deep within
07:41 Cloud City. Some fans have headcanonised that because Maz was a pirate queen, she acquired
07:45 it via her connections to the smuggling world. After all, she's lived a long life,
07:49 so had plenty of time to stumble across it. Other Star Wars media has discussed the
07:53 lightsaber's post-Luke fate too, revealing that a random Ugnaught found it on Cloud City and kept
07:58 it from being destroyed. But as for how it made its way into Maz's hands, that's a good question,
08:03 for another time. 2. Dismemberment makes Force users less powerful
08:08 Though the whole midichlorian thing has been largely swept under the rug in recent years,
08:11 it's still part of Star Wars canon. Midichlorians which live inside the body's cells are linked to
08:17 Force potential, so the higher the midichlorian count, the more Force potential an individual
08:21 will have. So what would happen if that count was suddenly reduced? In a 2005 interview,
08:27 George Lucas himself spoke about that idea, discussing how dismemberment would affect a Jedi
08:32 or a Sith's Force abilities, stating Anakin actually became less powerful after Obi-Wan chopped
08:37 him into bits. Lucas went on to explain that the Emperor viewed Luke as a primo version of Anakin,
08:42 simply because his body was more intact, and this was why he offered the younger Skywalker
08:46 the chance to join him. Despite this idea coming straight from the horse's mouth, not a single Star
08:50 Wars film has ever delved into it, which is bizarre considering how the franchise's two main
08:54 characters both suffered dismemberment at various points.
08:57 1. The severity of the Republic's Geonosis defeat The arena battle in Attack of the Clones is a
09:04 terrific spectacle, but the ramifications of its outcome are severely underplayed throughout the
09:08 rest of the prequels. To recap, Jedi Master Mace Windu leads a strike team into the Geonosis arena
09:13 to rescue Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme, only to be met by an army of battle droids. An all-out brawl
09:19 ensues and many Jedi are slaughtered, with the survivors being rescued by Yoda, who whisks them
09:24 away with some rather handy gunships. Despite hundreds of Jedi entering the arena, there's only
09:28 a handful of them left when Yoda shows up, meaning a vast majority of what was supposed to be the
09:33 most formidable fighting force in the galaxy was killed within minutes. Even worse, Mace tells
09:38 Yoda before the battle, "I'll take what Jedi we have left," implying the ones in the arena were
09:42 all the Jedi that remained. Weirdly though, the rest of the prequels fail to convey how catastrophic
09:47 it was that so many Jedi died in such a needless manner. I'm afraid to say there's not much we can
09:53 do about this now, but let's just hope that Palpatine somehow doesn't return.
09:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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