Manga ESB, #3 of 4 - "Do, or do not. There is no try."

[cmdr_zoom]

First of all, because this deserves to not get lost in comments:
What if ESB had been made 60 years ago, not 30?

And now, on with our show.




The chapter begins with the recently-promoted Admiral Piett grumbling about the riff raff tracking mud all over his nice clean bridge.




In many ways, the growth of Boba Fett from one-off character to memetic unkillable badass parallels that of Wolverine. Check out the first appearances of both (if you can stand to watch the Holiday Special).

Back on Dagobah, Luke's lesson in balance and telekinesis is interrupted when he notices that his X-wing is sinking deeper into the swamp, and loses his concentration. Yoda tells him to lift it out. He gives it the old college try, but...




"You want the impossible," Luke wearily complains.
Cue the impossible.



"I don't believe it."
"That is why you fail."

(And for your further enjoyment, here's John Williams' score for this scene, which makes it even more magical.)

The Millenium Falcon finally manages to evade Imperial pursuit and sets off for Bespin, where Han knows a guy. Soon afterward, during another exercise, Luke has troubling visions:




Arriving at Cloud City, Han renews his acquaintance with an old friend, Lando Calrissian.



He actually turns out to be friendly - very friendly, especially to Leia. But for all his charm, she still has her suspicions... concerns shared by Luke, who can't keep the vision out of his head and wants to rush off to rescue his friends. Yoda and the ghost of Ben Kenobi try to persuade him not to go, but his mind's made up. Sensing this, they offer what advice they can: don't give in to hate, and be mindful of what he's learned.




Cryptic, hm? Who could Yoda possibly be referring to? (This wouldn't be answered - as in, not even the writers knew - until the third movie. Another thrown-in line. But in hindsight, it makes for a lovely juxtaposition.)

Leia is proven right when the dinner party that Lando leads them to has an unexpected and most unwelcome guest of honor.




"I'm sorry too."

(Vader's calm, polite invitation is one of his most badass moments in a movie full of them.)

Some time later, after Han's spent a while on the rack and Chewbacca's been subjected to painful noises, Lando explains the Dark Lord's plan.





The process they intend to use to capture Luke is untested. Han is picked to be the guinea pig. Chewbacca objects to this, and has to be talked down before he gets himself killed.



(For all of the attention that the romance between Han and Leia gets, including in the very next set of scans, I thought it was important to show the bond between these two as well.)

And now, the Famous Declaration:



This exchange owes everything to Ford's improvisation. Like his intercom bluff in A New Hope and just shooting the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark because he was sick that day, this was an ad-lib: after many takes where he was supposed to reply with some mostly-forgotten line, his tired "I know" turned out to be a rough gem that could be polished to brilliance with a better delivery. Who knows if the original line would have had nearly the same impact?



20 pages + cover out of an 80+ page volume.

Comments

[icon_uk]

"But you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered"... Ummm... Yoda old bean, HOW exactly did Luke's actions do that? The whole situation for Han and Leia was screwed already.

[sianmink]

It all but happened. When facing the Emperor, on his father's behalf by the way, Luke was so very close to tipping over, it was just a matter of luck that he didn't.

of course jedi don't believe in luck. >_>

[icon_uk]

That was months (at least) later than the event Luke foresaw, and Luke came back to Yoda before then, so I find it hard to believe that Yoda is referring to that.

[cmdr_zoom]

He probably feared that Luke would fall to the Dark Side and accept Vader's offer to rule together. And then the Rebellion is pretty well fucked.

[icon_uk]

He really had no faith whatsoever in Luke, in other words. Seems about par for the course for the Jedi training system.

[aaron_bourque]

Hey, the last Skywalker anyone trained fell to the Dark Side . . .

[devastron]

Well Leia, Chewie, 3PO and Lando all escaped with basically no help from Luke. They in fact had to stick their asses waaaaaaaay out on the line to come back and rescue Luke. Perhaps Yoda even foresaw Leia in the gang getting out and even rescuing Han if Luke didn't show up to help. Either way though it looks like Leia and her group would have made it out fine without Luke's intervention, assuming they would have eventually figured out the hyperdrive was deactivated. I suppose that could be a sticking point there.

[icon_uk]

Well Leia, Chewie, 3PO and Lando all escaped with basically no help from Luke

Well yes, but that's more or less my point, Luke's intervention changed bugger all, so what's the "you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered" all about, because Luke's presence here is either incidental to them, or on a grander scale, important to Luke's destiny since he finally finds the truth that Ben or Yoda could have told him in far more controlled conditions, and which ultimately led to to the Emperors defeat.

[devastron]

Like I said, maybe if Luke doesn't show up they rescue Han. They did just barely miss Fett taking off with him. Its the best I can come up with unless you just assume Yoda and Ben were exaggerating, which certainly could be the case, that whole 'certain point of view' thing.

[mola_ram]

Vader torturing Han was his way of sending Luke a "ransom note" by force-o-gram that he held (or was going to hold) his friends prisoners to force him to go to Bespin, so Vader is pretty much forcing Luke into a open confrontation where he holds all the cards.
Yoda knew this, but not how it would all turn out. Chalk it down to "Difficult to see. Always in motion the force is" I guess.
So Yoda feared that Luke might fall to the dark side, and with the last real threat against the emperor and Vader gone they were in no real danger against the rebels, who would most likely slowly be grounded into dust over time, if not falling into a trap a la the one over Endor.

Vader even ups the ante by telling Lando to bring Leia to his ship, so even if the plan on Bespin fails, he got Leia (perhaps as a as backup torture victim) in the future which would have worked if Lando hadn't switched sides.

[icon_uk]

Vader torturing Han was his way of sending Luke a "ransom note" by force-o-gram that he held (or was going to hold) his friends prisoners to force him to go to Bespin, so Vader is pretty much forcing Luke into a open confrontation where he holds all the cards.

Vader has never actually met Luke at this point (Death Star dogfight notwithstanding) and has no clue as to what level of Force training he might have received (Except that it's probably minimal since Obi-Wan is dead and Yoda is presumed dead), so torture-gram is a very odd way of trying to ensure his arrival.

Yoda knew this, but not how it would all turn out. Chalk it down to "Difficult to see. Always in motion the force is" I guess.

So he shouldn't have been so negative and doom-y about Luke's choice, since he had no ruddy clue how it would turn out and Luke's choice, as it turned out, was the one which set events in motion which led to the Emperors defeat.

If Yoda was their oracle, no wonder the Jedi always seemed so miserable. It'd be like having Boober Fraggle as your Morale Officer.

[mola_ram]

Luke destroying the Deaths Star actually convinced Vader that Luke had had a lot of force training than he acutally had. For all he knew, Luke could have been brought up, and trained by Obi Wan. Vader telling the Emperor that he was just a boy and that Obi Wan couldn't have taught him much was just him lying his ass off, in order to set up his own takeover of the emperial throne.

Luke destroying the Deaths Star actually convinced Vader that Luke had had a lot of force training than he acutally had. For all he knew, Luke could have been brought up, and trained by Obi Wan. Vader telling the Emperor that he was just a boy and that Obi Wan couldn't have taught him much was just him lying his ass off, in order to set up his own takeover of the Imperial throne.

Yoda's negativity was most likely based on him calculating Luke's odds in the Bespin fight between him and Vader, which you got to admit looks pretty slim, even without Vader telling Luke that he was his father.

The emperor's defeat came too far down the line to have any immediate connection to the vision of the Bespin fight so Yoda couldn't know that, and probably never found out before he died. I don't think Yodas view on the outcome of the Bespin fight was negative, but his opinion (which was shared by Obi Wan) that there was still good in Vader was.
Luke sensing some sliver of goodness in Vader was probably the one good thing that came out of the fight between Vader and Luke.

I don't think that the Jedis were miserable as such. The only one you see miserable, is Anakin bitchin' and whining.

[icon_uk]

How many happy Jedi Knights or Jedi Masters do you remember seeing in the prequels?

Most were, at best, morose. We had Qui-Gon, taciturn to say the least, Obi-Wan, possibly the closest thing to a well rounded human of the lot of them, but hardly a chuckle-meister, Mace Windu, Mr Serious-face and the rest of the Council. All the other Jedi we saw hadn't got a personality between them.

Ashoka might count but is only a Padawan and looks set to never make it to Knighthood.

[mola_ram]

Kit Fisto (the green guy with the many tentacles where his hair should be) seemed to enjoy himself immensely during the battle in the gladiatorial arena when he whupped C3PO.

Yoda seems to have a great time with the younglings, even making a chuckling comment about Obi Wan loosing a planet (Kamino)

Except for that, I suppose it's pretty much my own assumption on what is being said and done.

At one point Obi Wan talks about the forcepowers making Anakin arrogant, to which Yoda replies that a lot of Jedis, even the older ones have this same flaw. While arrogance certainly isn't a postitve character trait, it's something that usually springs up when people are on top of their game, feeling too secure of themselves.

btw I agree on Ashoka. She got "Kenny" written all over her

[aaron_bourque]

Because it risked Luke being captured by Vader and handed gift wrapped to the Emperor, who almost turned Luke later after he'd matured and "finished his trainining." If the Sith had gotten their hands on Luke before he could handle the truth about his parentage (and other things), the Galaxy Far Far Away would have been epically screwed.

[punishermax]

Ya that was romantic and all but shit bro what about

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."

Romance bitches

[cmdr_zoom]

why did you have to go and do that?

WHYYYYY?

DO NOT WANT!

[punishermax]

~slaughters an entire town of people~

DSJAKHUFDSUIFHDFDUH I KILLED THEM ALLLLLLLLLLLL RAGAHGAHAGAHGAHGAAHGA

That's okay honey...anger makes us human.

[icon_uk]

"...and clearly turns me on like nothing short of a lightsabre with THREE settings!!"

[schala_kid]

Ohmygod that made me extremely uncomfortable when I watched it as a kid, I liked Padme up until that point.

Seriously if it was Leia she would have given him a good smacking and then she would have told the order not to send more Jedi to protect her.

[outlawpoet]

one of my favorite vid sequences is a bunch of youtubes where they dub in the Imperial March over every wooden romantic moment in the last two prequels, making it look like Anakin is just mentally dominating her into loving him, it's creepy how effective it is, it makes the monotone dialogue look like her stumbling through sentences while he's puppeting her. Supremely evil.

Can't find the vids now. Take my word for it.

[icon_uk]

Sodding hell, that's an actual quote isn't it?

[punishermax]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1L63TdhC8&feature=related

[bj_l]

I can accept lines like that because they're both trying to be romantic and failing horribly, but they don't really know any better so, hey, they have sex instead.

[punishermax]

The problem though isn't just that line. The entire romantic subplot is so poorly handled it's astounding.

I mean, like I said, Anakin slaughters an entire village of aliens, he comes back to Padme and describes how he did and makes special emphasis on how he killed the kids. Yet Padme just says that to be angry is to be human.

How can you possibly justify a mass murder like that?

[bj_l]

Anakin using the force without knowing it to manipulate her? Padme thinking the sand people are animals at the best of times, especially since killing his mother?

[punishermax]

First idea is what Lucas wold probably pull out of his ass to try and explain his own lazy writing and two makes Padme a fucking horrible person.

We've been led to believe that alien species are, you know, deserving of life. You can't just say "SAND PEOPLE KILLED MY MOM SO I KILL ALL SAND PEOPLE EVEN THEIR KIDS". For Padme to call them just animals is a fucking horrible idea that makes her awful.

And here's a thought, why didn't Anakin just take his mom, who was enslaved, away from fucking Tantooine? In TPM he saved a planet for god's sakes. He couldn't roll up and save his mom in the fucking years between TPM and AOTC?

[mola_ram]

It was Anakin that called the sandpeople animals (and that he slaughtered them like animals), not Padme.

She's still as sharp as a sack full of hammers for staying around the psycho boyfriend and not reporting him to the jedi council.
Even if she had fallen head over heels in love with Anakin she should know that he needed some serious support, anger management and councelling.

I'll up your question and ask; Why didn't the friggin' all powerful JEDI COUNCIL swoop down and rescue Anakins mother. I'd assume they would have several questions about her immaculate conception etc. to get to the bottom of this.

[twigcollins]

Slaughters an entire village after his mother, who has been missing for months, I believe, picks that exact moment to die in front of him.

That's fanfic timing right there.

(Let's not discuss leaving your mother in slavery for an entire decade and not even knowing enough to realize she got married. BAAAAAAD WRIIIITING!!!)

"Cue the impossible."

[digicom]

Row row fight the power!

(Ever notice Kamina's glasses are shaped like Yoda's ears?)

[starwolf_oakley]

Is the quote "You ask the impossible" or "You want the impossible."?

Sheesh, every time I'm confused about a specific line from ESB.

[cmdr_zoom]

You're right, I'm wrong. Fixed.

[punishermax]

You know....this is a Star Wars post so I'll just ask this.

What the hell does Yoda and all the other Jedi mean when they say a young Anakin is "the one who will bring balance to the Force".

Like is this explained in any Expanded Universe stuff? Did he fulfill his destiny as Vader? Was is a neutral act? Evil?

I ask, because it's bandied about in the Prequels as why Anakin is such a fucking badass super duper Jedi contender, but it's never fucking elaborated on.

[devastron]

Officially he was the 'chosen one' because he was the one to actually kill the Emperor/Palpatine/Darth Sidious there by bringing 'balance to the force.' Apparently no one else was capable of doing that.

On the other hand you could look at everything he did as bringing 'balance to the force.' He did bring the number of Jedi down to equal the number of Sith.

[punishermax]

Okay, but you think Lucas could fucking spell it out when he spent all of movie one and two having the Jedi Council jack off about ORDER TO FORCE .

Also, are Sith like an alien species? Or are they like...just the evil Jedi name?

[bluefall]

It's... complicated. Broadly, though, they were a species once, so long ago that nobody can begin to remember where they were from or what they looked like. Now it's more a term for a religion/philosophy, or just a culture in general, inherited from that long-lost species.

Or a term for evil Jedi. Depends who's using it.

[punishermax]

So basically a bunch of evil assholes learned of this old race and decided to be badass and since Sith sounded sweet as hell and Darth and the Rule of Two was cool they just co opted it?

[cmdr_zoom]

Pretty much.

[icon_uk]

Yeah it always struck me as nuts that Vader was "The Dark Lord of the Sith" without us ever actually seeing a Sith... EVER in the movies. I'd hoped the prequels might explain it, but no, we got midichlorians and "There are always only two" which is stunningly bad as a concept on so many levels it's past insane.

[cmdr_zoom]

There was apparently some sort of old prophecy. What the Jedi never seemed to have considered in their pride (that being their tragic sin) was the possibility that their own order's ascendance was unbalancing, and that almost destroying it - as the Sith were almost destroyed, long ago - would fulfill the conditions of that prophecy. If there are no more Jedi than Sith around...

And to answer your other question, it varies somewhat depending on who you ask (surprise), but most agree that "Sith" is a philosophy and order that champions and uses the power of the "dark" side of the Force much as the Jedi follow the light. They may have taken their name from some race in the distant past, but in the "present", Sith can be of any species.

(The real answer is that "Sith" is another way of writing "Sidhe" or "Shee", as in faeries, and that George is a stealing bastard who steals.)

[bluefall]

Luminous beings are we... not this crude matter.

You can tell Lucas didn't write this one. That line is so epic.

[cmdr_zoom]

It really is, that whole poetic speech.
And then he has to go and mess it up with m... mid... I can't say it.

[punishermax]

Midichloreans is quite possibly the single dumbest moment in the entire Prequels. It literally goes back and actually destroys the entire mythos of the Force. It's like Lucas WANTED to destroy the original movies. It's beyond stupid, it passes by moronic town and settles into a new life into fucking incompotentville.

[skjam]

*Somewhere* I have a version of "A New Hope" as it would have been done by Lux Radio Theater back in the 1940s. I've never actually heard it; the CDs vanished between the time I bought them and when I had time to listen.

[kingrockwell]

In the future, could you copy/paste the suggested tags from the previous post instead of saying "same tags as before"? Thanks.

[cmdr_zoom]

Just one more to go, but sure.

[silverzeo]

This is awesome. Wish Family Guy took itself a bit more seriously and it could have been an epic comedy, like Ninja Turtles or Road Rovers