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scans_dailyFirst 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 11:01 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 07:24 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 09:42 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 12:07 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 07:54 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 02:58 pm (UTC)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