I haven't seen the Force Awakens yet but that's OK. I already knew some of what went on, if not all of it. I knew--from a Wikipedia article a few years back before this movie was conceived--that in the "expanded universe", OK so the death star 2.0 blows up, the Emperor Palpatine is killed and the "empire" fragments into a bunch of little petty dictatorships ruled by warlords who were former imperial admirals.
Or something.
And the new republic is trying to get the old capital back, yadda yadda.
I'm more into the political thing behind movies like this. But there are some iinconsistencies I am not happy with in the whole series of movies.
SPOILER HEREIN IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE PREQUELS:
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I thought it was neat how the galactic civil war was brought to a close, and then the chancellor, having the executive powers he managed to grab thanks to the war (that he engineered) declares himself the emperor. The senators, in true, political, lemminglike fashion, all clap (except for Senator Panda Bear or whatever her name is "so this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause!" yeah, honey, you're a real social justice warrior, especially considering your stand-in in the republic senate made the motion to give Palpatine emergency powers in the first place, so he could pull the republic army out of his ass in five seconds--wow, where'd that whole f**** army come from just now?--that he had really been planning for years as his great galactic power-grab.)
If you have the Director's Cut DVD of Revenge of the Sith (ep. III) you'll see the scenes they cut out. They were typically very political and were, in my opinion, too important to have cut the hell out. Damn! There was a whole scene where the secret anti-palpatine cabal which becomes the rebel alliance comes together in padme's swanky apartment on Corscant. Very important scenes, a few of them that they should have left in. It explains a lotta stuff that happened between III and IV (another 30 year gap).
Really in my opinion, II should have been I. I was horrible. But neat in some parts like when we see the Republic Senate for the first time. That was a nifty concept of a senate chamber, especially when you have to represent thousands of worlds. That was cool lookin'. I can just imagine Mitch McConnel or whoever rising from the floor on a gigantic column...and then falling off of it like Yoda.
OK, my point. There was a lotta stuff mentioned in IV (A New Hope) that didn't quite "square" with what went on in the prequels, politically. But at least they resolved it some way.
By the by: Has anyone seen the "Robot Chicken" episodes where they make fun of Star Wars? Where you see Palpatine (now emperor) in the old chancellor's office laughing it up with the blue guy and some other alien about "throwing the whole senate" at Yoda. He picks up the phone. I don't remember the dialogue specifically but it went something like:
OPERATOR: will you accept a collect call from [Vader breathing noise] ?
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PALPATINE: you're where? Wait, WHAT? the whole damn thing? by a bunch of ***** space teenagers? God ************ ********! We just finished paying that ****** thing off!
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PALPATINE: yeah well why don't I tell everybody what a big pussy you were with Panda Bear or whatever her name was? [puts hand over the receiver] Oh, he's crying! [laughs]
I wish I could remember it but I practically crapped my space-pants it was so funny. Then there was the Family Guy Star Wars, in which the opening credits says "And the hot chick is actually the good guy's sister and they kiss. What if they had done it instead of just kissed???" Oh, that's another one. Guess they didn't have that plot worked out yet when they filmed V. Oops.
But I digress.
Some inconsistencies. In IV, when Luke Skywalker gets the droids to "General Kenobi" the Princess Leia recording says "You helped my father during the Clone Wars." And sooething about following your father on "some damn crusade" (mentioning the clone wars).
And who the hell is General Grievous that suddenly appears in III? And we learn the death star was being built by the rebel (not rebel, you know, the secessionists, separatists, whoever?) leaders, not the empire. Apparently, it took 30 damned years to build.
So, like, not all of the storm troopers are clones? Wow. OK I guess that makes sense.
And if Yoda was on that swamp planet for so long? And they didn't find him? And what was he doing all those years?
Does anyone remember when the special editions came out? They showed four scenes of partying because the empire had fallen (see? it's like it fell all at once! more inconsistency!) one on Cloud City, one on Tatooine, and even one on the capital Coruscant and you even see a little statue of the Emperor tipping over in the corner of the screen like it's Saddam's statue in Firdos Square in 2003. They had that in the special ed. originally. But after III was filmed, they went BACK and edited the special edition to show a party scene on Naboo (that you saw in I and II) AND AND! they used to have some old guy that was Annakin Skywalker in the original special edition, that they edited to put in Hayden Christiansen.
When Kenobi and Yoda are on Senator Organa's (father of Princess/Senator Leia Organa) spaceship (that she inherited from her father, it's captured by the empire in the beginning of IV) they talk about splitting up baby Luke and Leia. Leia will be adopted by the Organa family on Alderaan, but Luke---why the hell would they send hiim back to Tatooine to be "with his family"? Isn't that a little friggin obvious? In IV there's an indication that uncle Owen & Aunt Veroo knew about Anakini Skywalker/Darth Vader, somehow.
The famous "galactic empire" speech that I love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo4cFViNLesAlso, there can't have been too many Jedi left after the huge massacre in III. So I'm wondering who the hell Luke Skywalker stars this new Jedi movement with.
That's all. May the Force be with you!