Star Wars help.....

And I don't think Lucas knows himself, or cares really. I think whatever fits the story is the cause. As I've posted before, its a Macguffin that the character's story is told around, while introducing moral arguments to play against each other. Balance? Whatever. Bring on the angst and light sabers.

So, if I'm normal and healthy, I'm out of balance, but if I get cancer, then I'm back in balance and everything is ok?

And if I then remove the cancer, I'm back out of balance?

Because that's what we're talking about here. It's not a 'theory', it's the creator's direct statement about the nature of the 'Dark side'. The Force was in balance before the Dark Side, and the Dark Side disrupted that balance. It's removal results in a return to balance. It's really not very hard to understand.

If you are a happy shapeless mass of energy that suffuses the universe who suddenly finds itself given shape/direction by some Jedi muckity-mucks and a natural consequence of that shape/direction is a dark blight, then removing said blight whilst still beng forced into said shape/direction puts you all out of whack.

The creator is an inconsistent source.

The Dark Side only exists because of people mucking around with the Force. If it's a blight on the Force, then so is the Jedi way. In short, the only way to really remove the Dark Side is to stop using the Force altogether. Because as long as sentient beings are using the Force there will inevitably and naturally be those who succumb to anger, fear, and hatred; as well will there be those who seek power for power's sake, or simply seek expedient means to desired ends. Shining a light will ultimately create shadow.

You're being too kind.

I love Lucas, don't get me wrong, but what the force is isn't the point with him. Its how it works as a story device thats important. All this "what is the force" is fan hogwash. The moves are not consistant with it. Its as "real" as saying "The Wizard did it" or the Technobabble on Star Trek. (I know some trekkie out there is saying right now that much of the technobabble is real science, and I say hogwash fanboy.)

Anyway, thats' how I see it. Just a fun addition of magic in a science fiction fairy tail.

No one ever asks what type of poision the Wicked Witch used on Snow White
No one ever asked just how Chitty Chitty Bang Bang worked
No one ever really asked how Merlin's magic worked, or how God parted the red sea.

Its just something that happened to make the story work. Let it go. You'll enjoy the movies better without so much paperwork.

And let the Force flow through you?

The biggest thing about the that particular trilogy to me is that the kids are perfectly ok in terms of adjustment to their lives and they love their parents. But Leia and Han have been absent so much due to state stuff and the odd "save the world" debacle, that the kids would probably barely see said parents.

In terms of games though, nothing can beat Lawrence Hollands Xwing and Tie Fighter games.

Also, I know that technically Han and Lando were generals at the end of Jedi, but who thinks that they know how to command a fleet of ships in a strategic war? (see=courtship of Princess Leia)

Han Solo: Well, look at you! A General, huh?
Lando Calrissian: Someone must have told them all about my little maneuver at the battle of Taanab.
Han Solo: Well, don't look at me, pal. I just said you were a fair pilot. I didn't know they were looking for somebody to *lead* this crazy attack.

That must have been some maneuver, that must have been some battle.

Also, didn't Lando lead the fighter wing in ROTJ? As for Solo, I think his resume includes a stint at the academy. Perhaps he got some training, then some practical experience during the war.

There's a reason a lot of purists don't consider Star Wars to be science fiction.

It's a fantasy story that happens to be set in space. There's wizards and a princess and a black knight. The core of what the story is revolves around defeating evil and self redemption.

Contrast to what a science fiction is supposed to be about, using technology and future developments to examine the human condition.



-np

Meh, such purists are ignoring the methodology that many libraries and bookstores use. Sci-fi and fantasy both explore unreal worlds to examine the human condition and show it in a light that "regular" fiction usually cannot, so they're usually interchangeable, even if people don't always recognize this at first glance of their settings.

For the Lando and Han capability thing, they do have some background on the subject, and the Rebellion will take who they can get that seems capable. The movies offer just enough to show this to us, as showing us their resumes would be plain boring.

Thing is that Han in particular didn't have any experiance in LARGE scale operations. At least directing them. Small Scale I could believe, but orchestrating an entire war fleet? Gimme a break.

General is usually used to denote persons that are in charge of ground personnel or air force units. For the Rebel Fleet, it would, probably, be an Admiral that was in charge of disposition of the ships or tactical planning (hence Admiral Ackbar).

And even if someone is a General, there can be others higher than them, if you go on the U.S.-style, i.e. 1, 2, 3, & 4 star Generals.

But for Han, he did go through the Imperial Flight Academy before he went smuggler.

Per the Young Han Solo novel trilogy, he started life as an orphan "working" aka stuck in a crime organization run by a cruel boss who used him for many things from being a street thief to posing as his "son" for scams. Han picked up many skills and quickly became an excellent pilot. He escapes and after some interesting adventures working as a smuggler/pilot for an organization run by the Hutts, he joins the Imperial Academy at the end of book 1. Passed all their training and exams and was very proud to be in the Imperial service...

...Then comes Book 2 which starts out with Han in a bar drowning his sorrows while a certain Wookie named Chewbacca was trying to buddy up to him and explain the whole
"life-debt" thing. We then get a recap of how he was drummed out of the service for stopping a superior officer from killing Chewbacca. Han eventually accepts his new friend and they become smugglers. Han gets his own ship, eventually meets Lando who just got the Falcon and Han aids him in learning to fly it. The book ends with Han gathering his funds to ante up for a big sabbaac tournament in Cloud City.

Book 3 starts with the tournament and how it comes down to Lando vs Han and Han of course wins and gets the Falcon. Lando decides to stick around the city to recoup some funds while Han and Chewie obtain the Falcon and start upgrading her to what we'd see in the movies. Among the adventures he has in the novels is organizing the smugglers into a militia and leading them into battle so Han does have leadership ability.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Leia had skill in that duel with Luke, but I dont think Luke was taking her seriously at first in that fight. Still I would think that after the Thrawn trilogy and the whole "Clone Reborn Emperor" thing that Leia would have worked more at becoming a Jedi if for no other reason then to help keep her kids safe from all the kidnapping attempts that seemed to occur frequently.

Also the nature of evil was given an interesting spin in the Legacy novels when Jacen Solo started following in his grandfather's footsteps.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

*thinks back* didn't they also make motions towards the fact that Leia might be more powerful than Luke?

I think you mean sexists... because if they were misogynists, they'd be more likely to go after her and kill her, I think.

Back in the Dark Empire comics, we got glimpses of Leia's power as he used it to help Luke break free of the darkside and her power combined with Luke's did turn the Emperor's Force Storm back upon him. Then came Dark Empire 2 and Empire's End and Leia's powers seemed diminished again.

Courtship of Princess Leia gave another small glimpse of her power but it was pretty much all Luke.

Black Fleet Trilogy was typical barely trained Leia.

Correllian Trilogy showed that Leia secretly practices her saber technique and got lucky and disarmed Luke.

Jedi Academy Trilogy showed Leia's untrained toddlers were already stronger then her. However I chalk that up to them being young and thus not chicken hearted about their heritage like Leia is.

Crystal Star (YUCK! lousy story) showed even young Anakin Solo had already surpassed her.

At the end of the NJO, once Luke gets his head screwed on straight about the light/dark side concepts is basically performing as a Super Saiyan level 9000 uber Jedi Master against the Vong, and Leia was still practically inept.

Dark Nest Trilogy, Leia finally sucks it up and asks to be trained as a Jedi and earn her place in the Order.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

In Highlander, the immortals automatically sense one another, in Star Wars the Force user be they Jedi or Sith must actively scan for another Force user. However said user they are locating seems to require:

1. the target having some Force training to activate their power.
2. be actively using their powers
3. have a strong presence in the Force that they can be felt across the galaxy. (Luke on Dagobah and the Emperor alerting Vader)
4. Not be concealing their presence somehow, (Sidious in prequels, Yoda in Ep 5).

In the movies, Leia was never trained and not even using her powers on an unconscious level, vs. Luke who was already an accomplished pilot to rival his father (skill + Force) and then gets some quick training by Obi Wan.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Not even sure what needed to be moderated, either. *scratches head* Nothing you said was bad or against the forum rules at all. Unless using the wrong word=deletion is in some extremely small type I missed somewhere?

Thought it was kind of funny, too!

Yes I recall that, Lucas gave approval for Chewbacca to perish and his other decree to the authors that is that only HE can ever kill Luke, Han, and Leia.

I remember the reason he gave about Anakin Solo and just face palmed. The author's later stated that Kyp Duron should be grateful to Lucas since he was the one slated to die. Also were supposed to get Jacen vs. Jaina until Anakin's demise threw things off.

So we then get Jacen vs Jaina in the Legacy novels since once again Luke's head isn't screwed on straight, and I think that novel series was cut short due to fan complaints.

Ever think that maybe the Star Wars novels need a "crisis" to reboot things a bit now that the prequels are done?

I always thought it was dumb to have Artoo out of the blue be revealed to have knowledge of Padme in his primary memory all these years despite being blasted and blown up in Ep 4 and shorted out in Ep 6, his memory allegedly wiped in Dark Empire by Dark Luke and other times he was damaged or sabotaged and yet NO ONE could discover this data......

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

As I recall, in the novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye," there's a point where Vader senses Leia's force potential and writes it off as some sort of "reflection" of Luke's.

normally id be down for a reboot. but this time around, no. they can continue to tell stories all throughout the era, so long as i never have to read anything that uses those characters and takes place after NJO. Knowing they killed Mara and that Jacen turned into the 'new Darth' is what killed any interest i had in reading that particular series.

better off moving to another era. Dark Horse's Legacy series was a good idea. Id like to move past the 'classic era' and just tell stories there. as an aside, one of the cooler things about the series was seeing that there were two Jedi Orders. one devoted to the defense of the Empire and the Emperor, the other your traditional galactic guardian Jedi. i wish they'd delved more into that.