Is this Star Wars nerd-rage worthy?

[JoeP]

We may already have had these. It will be good to have them again.



Via Star Wars Album Cover Parodies.... - Album on Imgur from WhyTheLongPlayFace? (@whythelongplayface) • Instagram

[The Man]

Brie Larson reveals that Samuel L. Jackson gave her his lightsaber, and it has "Bad Motherfucker" engraved on it.

Brie Larson on Fallon

A lot of other interesting stuff in here, too, though it's primarily Avengers-related. She had no idea she'd been cast as Captain Marvel until they began shooting Endgame (which was shot before her eponymous film).

[Kyuss Apollo]

Happy dork day, ya dinguses pic.twitter.com/yfXhomqGE5

— Tsundere Clegane (@chachch_changes) May 4, 2019

[specious_reasons]

This made the rounds recently, a reimagined fight between Vader and Obi Wan from "Star Wars":

Star Wars SC 38 Reimagined - YouTube

My response?

It's certainly more exciting than the original, but is it better? I hated it when Yoda went from a limping elder to a leaping, spinning dervish in the prequels. This is more moderate than that, but still Obi Wan takes a bigger beating in this than would be expected.

I also remember an article I read by a martial arts expert that the style given to Obi Wan in "Star Wars" was that of an elderly master, conservative and centered. It was played as mostly defensive, as he didn't plan to defeat Vader, only to distract him from the goals of rescuing the princess, securing the plans for the rebels, and ensuring Luke escapes.


I could have specific quibbles about the contents of the scene, but it doesn’t really matter. The more visually exciting fight scene would not make "Star Wars" a better movie.

[The Lone Ranger]

Hmm. Well, it isn't as ridiculous as the Anakin/Obi-Wan vs. Dooku fights in Episodes 2 & 3. Not to mention the Yoda vs. Dooku fight.

Of course, as is standard in the Star Wars movies, both combatants are using wildly impractical and exaggerated moves that would get you killed very quickly in a real fight. That having been said, at one point, Vader does make a nice attempt at a classic disarming move.

Obi-Wan is fighting a lot more aggressively here, and seems to truly be out for blood -- as opposed to the original scene, where he clearly was just trying to delay Vader. In fairness, though, this version, to its credit, does a nice job of displaying the hate and anger that drives Vader -- something that was never present in the original.


But then, that's re-writing history, to an extent. Now that the technology is available, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if George Lucas re-releases the original Star Wars yet again -- only this time with the Vader/Kenobi fight re-done like this.

In the original Star Wars, Vader was typically quite controlled and disciplined in his demeanor and in his actions. Indeed, his discipline resembled that of the samurai that the Jedi and Sith were supposedly based upon. That was seen in his fighting style, too -- controlled and disciplined.

At some point after the original movie, Lucas apparently came up with the notion that Sith are driven by hate and anger, and Vader underwent something of a personality change. Vader went from the fearsome but very controlled and disciplined person we saw in the original to the angry, aggressive, "I'll murder you if you so much as look at me funny" sort of person that we typically remember him as. Sure, he was more than willing to threaten or even outright kill people in the original Star Wars, but he only did so if there was some more or less legitimate reason to do so. It was only in the subsequent movies that he started killing everyone who annoyed him even slightly.

[erimir]

tbf if the Rebels destroyed your Death Star and sent you spinning out into space in a tiny little TIE fighter for who knows how long, it might put you in a bad mood for a quite a while afterwards.

And cinematically, there's something to be said for a little flash. A completely realistic fight might not be as exciting to watch. But they definitely went too far in the other direction in the prequels (they have calmed down the acrobatics a bit in the new films). But the use of the Force can justify using flashier techniques and acrobatics than possible in real swordfighting, in addition to attacks that don't use the lightsaber, so it doesn't seem it should look like a real life fight either.

Getting the balance right seems to be something they've had difficulty with, but the original Vader-Kenobi fight scene doesn't seem to be the best of either world, tbh. Of course, it's understandable given the limitations they had.

I think the scene at the end of Rogue One is interesting for showing Vader as a formidable opponent without showing him doing much in the way of pointless flourishes or acrobatics. But he's also not fighting against any Jedi/lightsaber users.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

At some point after the original movie, Lucas apparently came up with the notion that Sith are driven by hate and anger, and Vader underwent something of a personality change. Vader went from the fearsome but very controlled and disciplined person we saw in the original to the angry, aggressive, "I'll murder you if you so much as look at me funny" sort of person that we typically remember him as.

I initially reacted with a "Wait, what, didn't he choke that dude for mouthing off in Tarkin's ready room on the Death Star?"

So I rewatched it:

Vader Chokes Officer - "I find your lack of faith...

And yes, I believe that still fits the description of controlled and disciplined.

[Kyuss Apollo]

[Limoncello]

But is it comfy?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

R2D2 Budgie - YouTube

[JoeP]

Where's the C3PO Canary to translate?

[BrotherMan]

The real travesty is we don't have a threepio smilie.

show spoiler

[JoeP]

[Kyuss Apollo]

What is this I can't even

Greedo Maʖʌ̃ki! - YouTube

[erimir]

He's not saying "maclunkey", the thing people are writing as isn't a [kl] sequence, it's a click. I'm pretty sure it's a lateral click, which might explain where people are hearing the [l] sound, since [l] (L) is also lateral.

To use Xhosa spelling convention, then, that sound is spelled with an 'x'. In IPA, it would be <ǁ> or <ʖ>.

So it could be "maxunki" in a Xhosa-like spelling. But really the second vowel sounds like [ʌ̃] (basically the vowel in English "huh?") without much of an actual nasal consonant. In an IPA-like spelling, I'll go with the second symbol since it looks nicer as a letter and do "maʖʌ̃ki".

Aside from the maclunkey, it seems they completely redid Greedo's dialogue to replace the nonsense Quechua from the original release (they used Quechua words, but as word salad, so it doesn't mean anything) with some new language that uses clicks. Why did they do this? Who knows.

But this perhaps changes the story, since Huttese, spoken by Jabba, is also based on Quechua, so you could argue that perhaps Greedo was speaking Huttese in the original version, which would make sense since he was working for Jabba, and thus would maybe know the language. And Han clearly understood it for the same reason - he worked for the Hutts. Now Greedo speaks his own language, and Han can understand it for some unknown reason that doesn't connect to anything else in the story.

Anyway, you should say it properly, and say it proud, like Greedo: "Maʖʌ̃ki!"

I think "maʖʌ̃ki" means "fucking George Lucas".

Also: I don't get why they don't just give the people what they want. But I do recall hearing (maybe incorrectly?) that Lucas put conditions on the sale of Star Wars that prohibited Disney from re-releasing the original versions. Maybe he has to die before it can be released in its original form in high quality.

[Kyuss Apollo]

My issue isn't linguistic. It's the repeated digital fiddling with this scene and fucking with the character development of Han Solo.

I think your translation of maxunki/maʖʌ̃ki should actually read as "George YOU FUCKING CUNT Lucas."

At least he can't go in twenty years from now and screw up The Mandalorian...

I didn't know about Quechua or Huttese being fully worked-out languages but given what happened with the development of Klingon, I am not surprised someone did the same thing with Greedo's translated shpeel from the cantina scene. Interesting.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

I didn't know about Quechua or Huttese being fully worked-out languages but given what happened with the development of Klingon, I am not surprised someone did the same thing with Greedo's translated shpeel from the cantina scene. Interesting.

So the answer is yes? Star Wars is nerd-rage worthy?

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

My issue isn't linguistic. It's the repeated digital fiddling with this scene and fucking with the character development of Han Solo.

Oh I know. I was going off on a tangent because I'm a linguist.

I didn't know about Quechua or Huttese being fully worked-out languages

Quechua was the official language of the Inca Empire and its modern varieties are spoken by millions of people in South America, it's not an invented language.

Huttese, in the original films, isn't particularly elaborated, but the pronunciation is based on Quechua phonology.

I don't know whether they've since expanded it in other media in any systematic way or whether they've continued to use Quechua influence.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

So the answer is yes? Star Wars is nerd-rage worthy?

[BrotherMan]

I'm still not done being angry about the first change. Everything since then is like putting more clowns in the car.

[erimir]

The language changes aren't rage inducing, they're more just like "Why did you bother?" "What is the purpose of this?"

I suppose if they thought that the original was disrespectful to Quechua speakers, that would be a decent enough motivation.

The changes to whose blasters shot when and Han's inhumanly mobile neck are far worse.

The "maʖʌ̃ki" is mostly bad in that it seems to be an exclamation accompanying Greedo firing.

[Miisa]

Am I the only one who doesn't hear the "maklanki" as an exclamation? Sounds like the other parts of the speech with no stress or urgency added?

[LarsMac]

Slightly off on a tangent, but now that the final episode is coming out, I can finally put this thing to rest.
I have several grandkids, now, who are older than I was when the first episode released.
And with the probable exception of the second, and "maybe" the third (Episodes 5 and 6?) I have suffered the disappointment and pain of sitting through several cinematic abominations for the last couple of decades.
When I go into the theater next week, I will have one thought on my mind: "This better be fucking good."

[JoeP]

[Qingdai]

Baby Yoda is what capitalism would look like if an economic system were cute - The Washington Post

My God. Washington Post wrote an article worth reading