(Taken from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7803983/page/3/)
Not all "Star Wars" questions must be answered.
I say that as someone who, at age 8, determinedly wrote my own fan fiction — in scribbled longhand on legal pads — during the long, dark days between the 1977 original and "The Empire Strikes Back."
Life will, in fact, go on even if you don't know which planet Cloud City was on (Bespin) or what creature lurked in the Death Star garbage compactor (a dianoga) or why the rebels chose an icy hell like Hoth as their base (who knows).
But some issues have lingered all along, unaddressed questions that a viewer has every right to have answered without buying a library full of novelizations and reference guides. These aren't really plot holes; they're themes that need closure.
Ten open items on the docket, along with odds they'll be resolved in "Revenge of the Sith":
1) Leia. Yes, she kicked butt, but you get the sense George Lucas never quite knew what he wanted to do with her. (It's also a fair bet that when writing the original "Star Wars," he hadn't yet decided on her being Luke's sister.)
We eventually learn her backstory — raised as a princess on Alderaan by Bail Organa — but her purpose in the rebellion seems diminished after Luke appears. Perhaps Han Solo is meant to be her consolation prize, but (and no golden bikini comments here) why doesn't Anakin Skywalker's daughter get more of a role?
It's truly puzzling because Leia seems to have at least nascent Force powers. Unless there's some weird father-to-son midichlorian genetics at work, she presumably should have as much Jedi potential as Luke.
"You have a power I don't understand, and could never have," she tells Luke in "Return of the Jedi." He replies, "You're wrong, Leia, you have that power too. In time, you'll learn to use it as I have."
Yet all she gets are hints and glimmers while Luke gets the full Jedi treatment. Why?
Odds of resolution: 3 in 10. Leia's appearance in "Sith" is likely to be limited.
2) Vader and family. When exactly does Vader figure out that Luke is his son, and why can't he sense a Force connection with Leia — especially when he tortures her in Episode Four?
One hole was tightened in Lucas' "Empire" DVD. In the theater version, the Emperor describes Luke as a "great disturbance in the Force," but doesn't really tie him to Vader.
In the new edit, the Emperor insists Luke is "the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."
"How is that possible?" asks Vader.
"Search your feelings, Lord Vader, you will know it to be true."
No, thanks. We're still wondering when Vader figures it all out.
Plus, if both Luke and Leia are spirited away soon after being born, how come Vader learns about one but not the other? In one theory, Vader believes Leia died along with her mother. Why, then, would Luke have survived?
Which brings us to the matter of Padmé's potential demise. Luke has "no memory" of his mother. Leia says she "died when I was very young," yet remembers "images, feelings. She was very beautiful, kind, but very sad." Unlikely, then, that Padmé dies in childbirth, though she presumably passes away while the twins are still babies, before Leia is spirited off to Alderaan.
The timeline of the twins' birth, separation and concealment is essential.
Odds: 7 in 10 on the twins and Padmé, 4 in 10 on Vader.
3) Politics. Lucas has never hidden his disdain toward politicians. It permeates "Attack of the Clones." (Witness Anakin's dictator-in-training rant while trying to woo Padmé. Bad form!) But his political metaphors are clunky as he tries to merge his lords-and-knights theme with the legislative machinations of the Republic.
You sense Lucas is fascinated by medieval royalty, but can't quite make up his mind how he wants galactic politics to function. Naboo, for instance, elects queens, yet apparently appoints senators.
Lucas seems keen to show democracy corrupted, with Darth Sidious holding the reins. Add in the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guild, banking clans and all the other loose affiliations in "Phantom Menace" and "Attack," and it should be no surprise the Republic is about to crumble.
If democracy is so cherished to the Republic, why is there so little backlash when Jar-Jar stands up in Episode II, and proposes to create an army and hand the Chancellor emergency powers? Because the Sith control so many senators?
Sounds like Lucas was torn between cheap shots at politicians and trying to praise the democratic process. I'd like at least one political-textbook moment in Episode Three.
4) The Sith. One of Lucas' most fascinating inventions, and one of his least explained, even in the official databank, which threads the needle by introducing details not in the first five films.
Most viewers probably know the Sith represent the Force's dark side, though it isn't clear why or how. We know they come in pairs — a master and an apprentice — so we can trace the Sith lineage.
At first, Darth Sidious is the master and Darth Maul the apprentice; after Maul is killed, we can presume Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) becomes the new apprentice. Under the two-at-a-time theory, you have to presume that Tyranus is somehow killed if Sidious takes Anakin under wing and transforms him into Darth Vader.
The Sith are so crucial because they help explain Vader's motives. But nowhere is it clear why the Sith are so peeved at the Jedi and the Republic. (Even the databank says the Sith order "self-destructed.")
"At last we will have revenge," seethes Darth Maul. Revenge for what? That implies the Jedi subdued the Sith, but nothing in the films confirms that.
Odds: 7 in 10.
5) Vader's ambitions. When Vader finally learns that he has an heir, he sets out to convert Luke to the dark side. What else does he want to accomplish?
"We can rule the galaxy as father and son," he offers Luke. This presumes Vader expects to supplant Emperor Palpatine. Will Vader assassinate him? Seems unlikely. Is Palpatine arranging a succession plan? Maybe, but the Emperor's role in "Jedi" was so muddled that you can't be sure.
It's plausible that once Vader discovers he has a son, he wants Luke to go the Sith way. And we see Anakin angry that Obi-Wan has held him back, and filled with rage over his mother's death. How does this translate into a thirst for galactic domination?
Odds: 8 in 10. Absolutely essential to understanding Anakin's downfall.
6) Jedi training. We know from Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan that a Padawan learner must complete trials in order to become a full Jedi. We know Anakin bristles at Obi-Wan's schedule.
Why, then, is Luke's Jedi training so haphazard? In "Empire," he hangs with Yoda on Dagobah, learns basic Force skills and then cuts short his training to dash off to Cloud City.
Yet when "Jedi" starts, he seems to have mastered his Jedi might. Back on Dagobah, the Little Green One tells him, "No more training do you require." Then Yoda retrenches and says Luke must face Daddy Darth before he can be a real Jedi.
In the post-Republic years, does Yoda excise the Padawan bit? And why does Luke have to face his father? Seems beyond the scope of the usual trials.
Could we get a ruling on exactly when and how you become a full card-carrying Jedi?
Odds: 2 in 10. We'll be too busy watching Anakin bristle.
7) Shortfalls of the Jedi. Yes, yes, we know the dark side clouds everything. That seems a rather facile explanation for some enormous Jedi missteps.
Mace Windu, for example, tells Padmé that Dooku "couldn't assassinate anyone. It's not in his nature." Yeah, right. The council knows Jedi can go bad (that Sith thing), so why not consider that another of their order has turned, especially given Qui-Gon's reported Sith sighting?
And were they truly so blind that they didn't know Sifo-Dyas commissioned a clone army?
In Episode II, diner cook Dex not only identifies a Kaminoan saber dart but offers up this chestnut on why Obi-Wan can't find Kamino: "I should think you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom." Let me translate: "Danger, Will Robinson!"
Even Yoda acknowledges standards are slipping. He calls arrogance "a flaw more and more common among Jedi." So his solution is to sit back and complain? Why not call the Jedi in and dress them down?
Talk about hubris. Lucas must, absolutely must, explain these shortcomings in "Revenge."
Odds: 8 in 10.
8) Your inner Jedi. If "Star Wars" politics are messy, the Jedi credo is a shambles.
There's nothing wrong with the stoic approach Lucas channeled into the Jedi philosophy. But the Zen approach seems to clash with the "feelings" Luke is repeatedly counseled to harness by Obi-Wan, Yoda and even Vader.
At the very moment Anakin Skywalker most needs to channel these feelings — when his own mother dies in his arms — he finds no solace in his Jedi training. How do we know? "To be angry is to be human," Padmé says to soothe him as he fills with rage.
"I'm a Jedi," he snaps. "I know I'm better than this."
Then we get the rage (and revenge on the Tusken Raiders) that opens him to the Dark Side. What use are lofty Jedi pronoucements if they lack a way to resolve a basic human emotion?
Odds: 1 in 10. We know the Jedi are all but wiped out in the Clone Wars, so their response to the Sith's growing power probably isn't a group hug.
9) Yoda. Given that he's arguably the most revered character in the entire series, why is Yoda such a mystery?
His race? Unknown. (Though the thought of a planet full of Yodas is pretty cool, no?) His original master? Unknown. His role in shaping the Jedi council? Unknown.
We know he's almost 900 years old, which means he witnessed a good chunk of the Republic's history. He certainly should have at least some familiarity with the Sith, which makes you think he should have been savvier about the Dark Side's potential.
Who were his other Padawans? Dooku was one, and we can assume Luke was his final, if not official, learner. But who else was his Jedi offspring?
And why did he choose to go to Dagobah, of all places, after the Republic fell? Was that a strategic decision? Did he just like hanging in the galactic bayou?
Rather than that stupid Ewok TV movie, Lucas might have spent some time sharing a backstory on Yoda. I certainly would have paid to see it.
Odds: 5 in 10. Dagobah might get some time, but I'll be impressed if we get more than a few other scraps about Yoda's backstory.
10) The Force's source. So which is it: a "quaint old religion," as portrayed in the first three films, or is it all about biology and midi-chlorians, those microscopic life forms described in the next two?
Many fans hate the midichlorian concept; I'm not that down on it. I like Lucas' attempt to surpass the original films' mealy-mouthed animism. But it's a huge step to go from lively bacteria to Qui-Gon's theory that Anakin was conceived by midi-chlorians. That would be a Force to be reckoned with.
I'd wager most longtime fans are waiting for a good Force mechanics explanation in "Sith."
Also: Remember how Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin appear as phanstasms at the end of "Jedi"? I'd also like to know why some Jedis — Yoda and Obi-Wan, notably — vanish when slain, while others (in the Geonosis battle, notably) just ... die. Vader doesn't at the end of "Jedi," either, though maybe that's the dark side at work.
In any case, let us know: Do Jedi actually die, or do they just go to that great cantina in the sky?
Odds:4 in 10. A lot of Jedi are set to die in "Sith," but I doubt it will explain Luke's visions.
Not all "Star Wars" questions must be answered.
I say that as someone who, at age 8, determinedly wrote my own fan fiction — in scribbled longhand on legal pads — during the long, dark days between the 1977 original and "The Empire Strikes Back."
Life will, in fact, go on even if you don't know which planet Cloud City was on (Bespin) or what creature lurked in the Death Star garbage compactor (a dianoga) or why the rebels chose an icy hell like Hoth as their base (who knows).
But some issues have lingered all along, unaddressed questions that a viewer has every right to have answered without buying a library full of novelizations and reference guides. These aren't really plot holes; they're themes that need closure.
Ten open items on the docket, along with odds they'll be resolved in "Revenge of the Sith":
1) Leia. Yes, she kicked butt, but you get the sense George Lucas never quite knew what he wanted to do with her. (It's also a fair bet that when writing the original "Star Wars," he hadn't yet decided on her being Luke's sister.)
We eventually learn her backstory — raised as a princess on Alderaan by Bail Organa — but her purpose in the rebellion seems diminished after Luke appears. Perhaps Han Solo is meant to be her consolation prize, but (and no golden bikini comments here) why doesn't Anakin Skywalker's daughter get more of a role?
It's truly puzzling because Leia seems to have at least nascent Force powers. Unless there's some weird father-to-son midichlorian genetics at work, she presumably should have as much Jedi potential as Luke.
"You have a power I don't understand, and could never have," she tells Luke in "Return of the Jedi." He replies, "You're wrong, Leia, you have that power too. In time, you'll learn to use it as I have."
Yet all she gets are hints and glimmers while Luke gets the full Jedi treatment. Why?
Odds of resolution: 3 in 10. Leia's appearance in "Sith" is likely to be limited.
2) Vader and family. When exactly does Vader figure out that Luke is his son, and why can't he sense a Force connection with Leia — especially when he tortures her in Episode Four?
One hole was tightened in Lucas' "Empire" DVD. In the theater version, the Emperor describes Luke as a "great disturbance in the Force," but doesn't really tie him to Vader.
In the new edit, the Emperor insists Luke is "the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."
"How is that possible?" asks Vader.
"Search your feelings, Lord Vader, you will know it to be true."
No, thanks. We're still wondering when Vader figures it all out.
Plus, if both Luke and Leia are spirited away soon after being born, how come Vader learns about one but not the other? In one theory, Vader believes Leia died along with her mother. Why, then, would Luke have survived?
Which brings us to the matter of Padmé's potential demise. Luke has "no memory" of his mother. Leia says she "died when I was very young," yet remembers "images, feelings. She was very beautiful, kind, but very sad." Unlikely, then, that Padmé dies in childbirth, though she presumably passes away while the twins are still babies, before Leia is spirited off to Alderaan.
The timeline of the twins' birth, separation and concealment is essential.
Odds: 7 in 10 on the twins and Padmé, 4 in 10 on Vader.
3) Politics. Lucas has never hidden his disdain toward politicians. It permeates "Attack of the Clones." (Witness Anakin's dictator-in-training rant while trying to woo Padmé. Bad form!) But his political metaphors are clunky as he tries to merge his lords-and-knights theme with the legislative machinations of the Republic.
You sense Lucas is fascinated by medieval royalty, but can't quite make up his mind how he wants galactic politics to function. Naboo, for instance, elects queens, yet apparently appoints senators.
Lucas seems keen to show democracy corrupted, with Darth Sidious holding the reins. Add in the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guild, banking clans and all the other loose affiliations in "Phantom Menace" and "Attack," and it should be no surprise the Republic is about to crumble.
If democracy is so cherished to the Republic, why is there so little backlash when Jar-Jar stands up in Episode II, and proposes to create an army and hand the Chancellor emergency powers? Because the Sith control so many senators?
Sounds like Lucas was torn between cheap shots at politicians and trying to praise the democratic process. I'd like at least one political-textbook moment in Episode Three.
4) The Sith. One of Lucas' most fascinating inventions, and one of his least explained, even in the official databank, which threads the needle by introducing details not in the first five films.
Most viewers probably know the Sith represent the Force's dark side, though it isn't clear why or how. We know they come in pairs — a master and an apprentice — so we can trace the Sith lineage.
At first, Darth Sidious is the master and Darth Maul the apprentice; after Maul is killed, we can presume Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) becomes the new apprentice. Under the two-at-a-time theory, you have to presume that Tyranus is somehow killed if Sidious takes Anakin under wing and transforms him into Darth Vader.
The Sith are so crucial because they help explain Vader's motives. But nowhere is it clear why the Sith are so peeved at the Jedi and the Republic. (Even the databank says the Sith order "self-destructed.")
"At last we will have revenge," seethes Darth Maul. Revenge for what? That implies the Jedi subdued the Sith, but nothing in the films confirms that.
Odds: 7 in 10.
5) Vader's ambitions. When Vader finally learns that he has an heir, he sets out to convert Luke to the dark side. What else does he want to accomplish?
"We can rule the galaxy as father and son," he offers Luke. This presumes Vader expects to supplant Emperor Palpatine. Will Vader assassinate him? Seems unlikely. Is Palpatine arranging a succession plan? Maybe, but the Emperor's role in "Jedi" was so muddled that you can't be sure.
It's plausible that once Vader discovers he has a son, he wants Luke to go the Sith way. And we see Anakin angry that Obi-Wan has held him back, and filled with rage over his mother's death. How does this translate into a thirst for galactic domination?
Odds: 8 in 10. Absolutely essential to understanding Anakin's downfall.
6) Jedi training. We know from Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan that a Padawan learner must complete trials in order to become a full Jedi. We know Anakin bristles at Obi-Wan's schedule.
Why, then, is Luke's Jedi training so haphazard? In "Empire," he hangs with Yoda on Dagobah, learns basic Force skills and then cuts short his training to dash off to Cloud City.
Yet when "Jedi" starts, he seems to have mastered his Jedi might. Back on Dagobah, the Little Green One tells him, "No more training do you require." Then Yoda retrenches and says Luke must face Daddy Darth before he can be a real Jedi.
In the post-Republic years, does Yoda excise the Padawan bit? And why does Luke have to face his father? Seems beyond the scope of the usual trials.
Could we get a ruling on exactly when and how you become a full card-carrying Jedi?
Odds: 2 in 10. We'll be too busy watching Anakin bristle.
7) Shortfalls of the Jedi. Yes, yes, we know the dark side clouds everything. That seems a rather facile explanation for some enormous Jedi missteps.
Mace Windu, for example, tells Padmé that Dooku "couldn't assassinate anyone. It's not in his nature." Yeah, right. The council knows Jedi can go bad (that Sith thing), so why not consider that another of their order has turned, especially given Qui-Gon's reported Sith sighting?
And were they truly so blind that they didn't know Sifo-Dyas commissioned a clone army?
In Episode II, diner cook Dex not only identifies a Kaminoan saber dart but offers up this chestnut on why Obi-Wan can't find Kamino: "I should think you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom." Let me translate: "Danger, Will Robinson!"
Even Yoda acknowledges standards are slipping. He calls arrogance "a flaw more and more common among Jedi." So his solution is to sit back and complain? Why not call the Jedi in and dress them down?
Talk about hubris. Lucas must, absolutely must, explain these shortcomings in "Revenge."
Odds: 8 in 10.
8) Your inner Jedi. If "Star Wars" politics are messy, the Jedi credo is a shambles.
There's nothing wrong with the stoic approach Lucas channeled into the Jedi philosophy. But the Zen approach seems to clash with the "feelings" Luke is repeatedly counseled to harness by Obi-Wan, Yoda and even Vader.
At the very moment Anakin Skywalker most needs to channel these feelings — when his own mother dies in his arms — he finds no solace in his Jedi training. How do we know? "To be angry is to be human," Padmé says to soothe him as he fills with rage.
"I'm a Jedi," he snaps. "I know I'm better than this."
Then we get the rage (and revenge on the Tusken Raiders) that opens him to the Dark Side. What use are lofty Jedi pronoucements if they lack a way to resolve a basic human emotion?
Odds: 1 in 10. We know the Jedi are all but wiped out in the Clone Wars, so their response to the Sith's growing power probably isn't a group hug.
9) Yoda. Given that he's arguably the most revered character in the entire series, why is Yoda such a mystery?
His race? Unknown. (Though the thought of a planet full of Yodas is pretty cool, no?) His original master? Unknown. His role in shaping the Jedi council? Unknown.
We know he's almost 900 years old, which means he witnessed a good chunk of the Republic's history. He certainly should have at least some familiarity with the Sith, which makes you think he should have been savvier about the Dark Side's potential.
Who were his other Padawans? Dooku was one, and we can assume Luke was his final, if not official, learner. But who else was his Jedi offspring?
And why did he choose to go to Dagobah, of all places, after the Republic fell? Was that a strategic decision? Did he just like hanging in the galactic bayou?
Rather than that stupid Ewok TV movie, Lucas might have spent some time sharing a backstory on Yoda. I certainly would have paid to see it.
Odds: 5 in 10. Dagobah might get some time, but I'll be impressed if we get more than a few other scraps about Yoda's backstory.
10) The Force's source. So which is it: a "quaint old religion," as portrayed in the first three films, or is it all about biology and midi-chlorians, those microscopic life forms described in the next two?
Many fans hate the midichlorian concept; I'm not that down on it. I like Lucas' attempt to surpass the original films' mealy-mouthed animism. But it's a huge step to go from lively bacteria to Qui-Gon's theory that Anakin was conceived by midi-chlorians. That would be a Force to be reckoned with.
I'd wager most longtime fans are waiting for a good Force mechanics explanation in "Sith."
Also: Remember how Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin appear as phanstasms at the end of "Jedi"? I'd also like to know why some Jedis — Yoda and Obi-Wan, notably — vanish when slain, while others (in the Geonosis battle, notably) just ... die. Vader doesn't at the end of "Jedi," either, though maybe that's the dark side at work.
In any case, let us know: Do Jedi actually die, or do they just go to that great cantina in the sky?
Odds:4 in 10. A lot of Jedi are set to die in "Sith," but I doubt it will explain Luke's visions.
