A thread of Star Wars thoughts, because why not.

1. In The Phantom Menace, it’s odd that such an epic, bombastic piece of music like Duel of the Fates was given to a fight with Darth Maul—a guy who barely got any dialogue or screen time in prior scenes, and has no real history w/ Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan.

Was he on the verge of taking over the galaxy or anything if the two Jedi didn’t stop him right then and there? Well no.

He was Palpatine’s apprentice, but a character can’t be important *solely* because of their affiliation with another important character. That’s bad writing.

Conclusion: the fight isn’t epic because of the inherent stakes or drama.

It’s because the music told you it was. And because... Maul’s saber goes two ways.

2. For being a series of family-friendly adventure films, the Star Wars prequels are surprisingly unfunny, but two laughs do come to mind for me:

•In III, Yoda arrives to confront Palpatine and the royal guard approach him but he nonchalantly force pushes them both down.

•In II, Anakin, captured, meets Obi-Wan and explains, “I came to rescue you.” Obi-Wan glances at his own wrist restraints and tells him “good job.”

That’s it. Two chuckles.

3. Star Wars has always had a weird side. But for all the imagery the sequel trilogy lifts from the originals, what’s missing is that the OT had weird *hostile* characters too.

Whereas in the sequel trilogy, doesn’t it seem like anyone who’s even mildly offbeat is also friendly?

Btw, I’m not counting this tentacled thing from The Force Awakens because it doesn’t register as a character; it doesn’t communicate or build a relationship with anyone.

Maybe SW is too market-conscious to think weird-hostile characters can work anymore? Maybe gross or scary-looking characters in live-action family movies was more of an 80s thing?

A bit of both?