Star Wars Joy and Fun-Ness Episode II: Attack of the Favorite Moments
LAST TIME ON MY BLOG: I started answering a Star Wars-y list of things from Twitter, but there are 30 and that's a lot for one post. So this is the middle 10, with the last 10 to come.
I kind of don't want to write this because then it will be that much closer to being over and I love this kind of stuff so much. HERE WE GO!!
(Note: I haven't gotten to my rewatches for all of the movies, so "favorite moments" are going to be from not-necessarily-recent memory)
11: Favorite Empire Strikes Back moment - gotta be the asteroid field chase. It's so frantic and the MUSIC (some of my favorite in the whole thing) and the space rocks exploding (I don't think they actually explode in real life) and Threepio won't shut up and Han says "Never tell me the odds" and then they end up in the stomach of a huge space slug - man, it's glorious, innit? Here, just watch it yourself:
12: Favorite Return of the Jedi moment - There are so many to choose from, but I'm going to go back to my childhood here: it's when Luke, standing on the plank above the sarlaac at the Pit of Carkoon, steps off, turns around, grabs the plank and does a WICKED MID-AIR FLIP-TWIRL-SPIN AND LANDS ONLY TO THEN GRAB HIS LIGHTSABER WHICH R2-D2 JUST LAUNCHED INTO THE AIR. I can't tell you how many times I imagined myself doing this exact move, and how often I was tempted to do it on a diving board (understanding I'd likely end up with a shattered spinal column).
13: Least-favorite character - It's hard to come up with one because they're all so awesome in their own way, but one that sticks out is Captain Panaka. I just...he...he's just a stick in the mud from start to finish. Lighten up, grumpy gills!
14: Star Wars in three words - Space Weirdos Abound
15: Favorite The Phantom Menace moment - I kind of already expounded on the Darth Maul/double lightsaber moment, so for this I'll say the podrace. It's so new and fresh - nothing like it before in Star Wars, nothing like it since - and it's exciting. I LOVE the chariot race from Ben-Hur, and this is an amazing homage with the perfect Star Wars flavor. Whatever you think of the prequels or The Phantom Menace, if your pulse doesn't go up a little watching the Boonta Eve Classic, you're literally the walking dead.
16: All-time favorite outfit #2 - You can't do a "best outfits" list from Star Wars and not include Queen Amidala. The costume designers absolutely pulled out all the stops with her, and there are so many amazing looks to choose from. Someone even ranked them all! At this point, you're probably thinking I'm going for the iconic red dress that shows up everywhere, and you'd be CLOSE, but not quite. It's probably the most recognizable, but it's not my favorite. Well certainly, you say, it has to be her dress from the victory parade on Naboo! And again you'd be close. Nope, my favorite is actually one she wears only briefly on screen: it's the black dress she wears shortly before returning to Naboo from Coruscant. I love that it reflects her sad mood at facing the prospect of war and further suffering for her people; again, it's not a prominent outfit, but it's my favorite.
17: All-time favorite fan fiction - I haven't really read any Star Wars fan fiction, but I did read SO MANY of the Legends books, and those are basically fan fiction now. Of those, my favorite is of course Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, introducing us to one of the best characters ever invented for Star Wars. Thrawn is so awesome they made him canon!! Also, read the Spectre of the Past/Vision of the Future duology. It's so good.
18: Change one thing in Star Wars - I know I blogged about this at some point but I can't find the link right now. The TL;DR version is that we don't get enough time with Darth Maul or Count Dooku or General Grevious to REALLY get invested in them as villains, not like we do with Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine. So what I'd do is keep Maul and have him absorb the Count Dooku role (thereby adding emotional weight to the duels in Episodes II and III) and introduce General Grevious in Episode II so we get more of him before his demise.
19: Favorite Attack of the Clones moment - It frequently bottoms out my ranking of Star Wars movies, but there's so much to enjoy in it! For this one, I'm going with the moment in the Geonosis arena sequence when you see the Jedi come to the rescue, and they're all lining the balcony above the ground and ignite their lightsabers - it's the first time EVER in a Star Wars movie we get to see more than two Jedi. It's a whole battalion of Jedi with lightsabers, and they're all different alien races, and it's so awesome to watch!
20: Pick a lightsaber color - White. Or green. White and green? Like a spearmint swizzle stick? And also "swizzle" is the sound it makes as I swing it in battle?
STAY TUNED FOR THE FINAL PART NOT COUNTING THE RISE OF SKYWALKER BONUS POST!
I kind of don't want to write this because then it will be that much closer to being over and I love this kind of stuff so much. HERE WE GO!!
(Note: I haven't gotten to my rewatches for all of the movies, so "favorite moments" are going to be from not-necessarily-recent memory)
11: Favorite Empire Strikes Back moment - gotta be the asteroid field chase. It's so frantic and the MUSIC (some of my favorite in the whole thing) and the space rocks exploding (I don't think they actually explode in real life) and Threepio won't shut up and Han says "Never tell me the odds" and then they end up in the stomach of a huge space slug - man, it's glorious, innit? Here, just watch it yourself:
12: Favorite Return of the Jedi moment - There are so many to choose from, but I'm going to go back to my childhood here: it's when Luke, standing on the plank above the sarlaac at the Pit of Carkoon, steps off, turns around, grabs the plank and does a WICKED MID-AIR FLIP-TWIRL-SPIN AND LANDS ONLY TO THEN GRAB HIS LIGHTSABER WHICH R2-D2 JUST LAUNCHED INTO THE AIR. I can't tell you how many times I imagined myself doing this exact move, and how often I was tempted to do it on a diving board (understanding I'd likely end up with a shattered spinal column).
13: Least-favorite character - It's hard to come up with one because they're all so awesome in their own way, but one that sticks out is Captain Panaka. I just...he...he's just a stick in the mud from start to finish. Lighten up, grumpy gills!
14: Star Wars in three words - Space Weirdos Abound
15: Favorite The Phantom Menace moment - I kind of already expounded on the Darth Maul/double lightsaber moment, so for this I'll say the podrace. It's so new and fresh - nothing like it before in Star Wars, nothing like it since - and it's exciting. I LOVE the chariot race from Ben-Hur, and this is an amazing homage with the perfect Star Wars flavor. Whatever you think of the prequels or The Phantom Menace, if your pulse doesn't go up a little watching the Boonta Eve Classic, you're literally the walking dead.
16: All-time favorite outfit #2 - You can't do a "best outfits" list from Star Wars and not include Queen Amidala. The costume designers absolutely pulled out all the stops with her, and there are so many amazing looks to choose from. Someone even ranked them all! At this point, you're probably thinking I'm going for the iconic red dress that shows up everywhere, and you'd be CLOSE, but not quite. It's probably the most recognizable, but it's not my favorite. Well certainly, you say, it has to be her dress from the victory parade on Naboo! And again you'd be close. Nope, my favorite is actually one she wears only briefly on screen: it's the black dress she wears shortly before returning to Naboo from Coruscant. I love that it reflects her sad mood at facing the prospect of war and further suffering for her people; again, it's not a prominent outfit, but it's my favorite.
18: Change one thing in Star Wars - I know I blogged about this at some point but I can't find the link right now. The TL;DR version is that we don't get enough time with Darth Maul or Count Dooku or General Grevious to REALLY get invested in them as villains, not like we do with Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine. So what I'd do is keep Maul and have him absorb the Count Dooku role (thereby adding emotional weight to the duels in Episodes II and III) and introduce General Grevious in Episode II so we get more of him before his demise.
19: Favorite Attack of the Clones moment - It frequently bottoms out my ranking of Star Wars movies, but there's so much to enjoy in it! For this one, I'm going with the moment in the Geonosis arena sequence when you see the Jedi come to the rescue, and they're all lining the balcony above the ground and ignite their lightsabers - it's the first time EVER in a Star Wars movie we get to see more than two Jedi. It's a whole battalion of Jedi with lightsabers, and they're all different alien races, and it's so awesome to watch!
20: Pick a lightsaber color - White. Or green. White and green? Like a spearmint swizzle stick? And also "swizzle" is the sound it makes as I swing it in battle?
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| "I see you constructed a new...sweet...minty...festive lightsaber." |
STAY TUNED FOR THE FINAL PART NOT COUNTING THE RISE OF SKYWALKER BONUS POST!
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