Anakin Skywalker Explained

[Sharktopus]

The emo kid analogy makes sense to me. I hate to invoke the Hitler argument, but Adolph was just a sexually-frustrated struggling painter deep down. If he'd had more success as an artist things might have gone much differently in Germany.

But yeah, the fact that Lucas never made Anakin the least bit likable or relatable ruins the movies.

[Junkyard]

I haven't watched the Star Wars specials on the HC, but in general I'm carful to take retrospectives from movie makers with a grain of salt.

Do you have any idea how many different origins were given for the Gojira (Godzilla) concept by the director alone?

[Hobbit]

I haven't watched the Star Wars specials on the HC, but in general I'm carful to take retrospectives from movie makers with a grain of salt.

Do you have any idea how many different origins were given for the Gojira (Godzilla) concept by the director alone?

The special isn't so much how Lucas was inspired (although it does touch on that, mostly with people quoting things Lucas said while still making the movies, such a telling the actors in the original trilogy that the lightsaber was huge and powerful, like Excalibur, and that they needed to always hold it with 2 hands, though they relaxed that a little).  Instead, it's relating the films to other classical archetypes.  It's not saying that Luke is derived from Odysseus or Arthur so much as it's saying, "Luke is the hero going on the journey, a classical heroic archtype that can also be seen is such things as 'The Odyssey' or 'King Arthur.'"

It concentrated more on discussing classical character archtypes (along with new ones, like Han Solo's sort of mercenary pirate/cowboy theme), and comparing how they evolved through the ages.

[Sideswipe]

I saw that too, and I thought it gave Star Wars way too much credit. Linking the light sabers to Excalibur, Luke and Darth to Homer's stories.... it seemed like a pretty big stretch and the resemblances were all very subjective. I doubt Lucas had Homer in mind when he thought up Luke and Vader's relationship.

I think this has spawned a new field: Star Wars Apologetics.

I was thinkning exactaly the same thing and stopped watching the show after about 30 minutes.

[starfighter]

   I got fed up with it about half-way through.   The academics seemed like the "publish or perish" types who probably have their own Star Wars books to sell.  They did have an interesting group of show-biz talking heads though with Stephen Colbert, Kevin Smith, JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon but Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw seemed out of place.
      History Channel has also had the occasional pop-culture piece on Marvel Comics and Superman.  Give them credit for trying to drop the All-Hitler channel reputation.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Yuck.


I'm tired of all these mythological allegories and whatnot. All allegory is ultimately a creation of the viewer, and since most viewers are not aging professors who treat fantasy and science fiction movie the same way high school biology students treat frogs, it doesn't work. What any of this will amount to is making great leaps of logic and gross distortings to make everything fit the "universal" archetypes of a few masculine western mythos.

[Junkyard]

As a history major, I find all the stuff that the History Channel doesn't get to overwhelming. There's so much facinating stuff that's happened in Humanity's history!

Of course, what I consider facinating and what most other Americans consider facinating.... sigh. I guess HC does what it can to keep the viewer's attention.

[pyro]

I like this whole "retroactively attach a lot of meaning to something" thing people do. Star Wars was a sci-fi movie. It was made after some people got together and wrote a script. They weren't scouring history and legend to construct some ultimate story, they were trying to entertain. Jar Jar Binks wasn't some call back to the Brittish's dealings with the Polynesians, (or however they explained away that CGI monstrosity,) he was just a failed attempt to entertain.

I actually think people do this a lot with art, too.

I've always hated that stuff, not everything is that fucking deep just because you want it to be....  My dad once tried to tell me the elaborate social commentary of "Help, I'm a Rock"

[Junkyard]

You know that guy who did those "straigt lines with occasional primary color rectangles" paintings? Whatever his name is? The people who declared him a genius are a prime example of that kinda thing.

[Sharktopus]

You know that guy who did those "straigt lines with occasional primary color rectangles" paintings? Whatever his name is? The people who declared him a genius are a prime example of that kinda thing.

You mean Mondrian?

Yeah, not exactly artistic genius, but I like it.

[Junkyard]

Thanks, not being able to remember that was killing me.
I got no problem with his art on it's own, it's just when critics try to explain what he meant by a red square's corner touching the blue square's corner. Even if Mondrian explicitly stated what he meant by it, if this

is how he expressed it, he and all the critics that use his defenition can kiss my ass.

[gbeenie]

When I see that, I start humming the theme to The Partridge Family by reflex.

[J-Proof]

Well, from an art student perspective, one can appreciate that that version of artwork was able to be conceived by Mondrian..... Not my favorite kind of art, but after the era of impressionists, artwork started to turn toward "new" and "never before seen" pieces. So, Mondrian was innovative in that nobody else thought of doing it this way!

[Chaos]

The emo kid analogy makes sense to me. I hate to invoke the Hitler argument, but Adolph was just a sexually-frustrated struggling painter deep down. If he'd had more success as an artist things might have gone much differently in Germany.

But yeah, the fact that Lucas never made Anakin the least bit likable or relatable ruins the movies.

Sharktopus,

I know this is an aside, but your comments sparked a memory. Have you ever seen this?

http://www.amazon.com/Making-History-Stephen-Fry/dp/0099457067/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-0543273-0733515?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180491885&sr=8-2

[Hobbit]

   I got fed up with it about half-way through.   The academics seemed like the "publish or perish" types who probably have their own Star Wars books to sell.  They did have an interesting group of show-biz talking heads though with Stephen Colbert, Kevin Smith, JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon but Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw seemed out of place.
      History Channel has also had the occasional pop-culture piece on Marvel Comics and Superman.  Give them credit for trying to drop the All-Hitler channel reputation.

Actually, they pulled out Hitler during the second half, when they were comparing the uniforms and Vader's helmet to German uniforms.  There's the 'stormtroopers,' which, in the real world, were Hitler's personal bodyguards.  Then there's Hitler himself, who used national crisis to justify the creation of an army and the siezing of 'emergency' powers.