Star Wars Episode VII: Thoughts and Predictions

In honor of May the Fourth and the recent announcement of the new Star Wars cast, it seems like a good time to discuss some thoughts and predictions concerning the film which is still a year away.

First, I want to make it clear that I take my Star Wars very seriously and I have a lot of controversial things to say about the Star Wars saga. For starters, I actually liked the Prequels. While Episode I was the weakest, it was still a very strong film. One aspect that I really liked about it was that at the end of the film everyone is celebrating even though the worst possible outcome has occurred. The bad guy won and no one even noticed. The audience goes into the film thinking Anakin is the “Phantom Menace,” but it really is Palpatine.

I was worried when I heard that Episode II was going to feature a lightsaber fight with Yoda because the way I see it, one of the main themes of the saga is that the lightsaber is a tool and not a weapon. In Episode IV, Obi Wan refers to it as a weapon, but by the end of the film he redeems himself by turning off his lightsaber, “becoming more powerful” than Darth Vader “can possibly imagine.” Obi Wan’s attachment to the lightsaber is amplified throughout the prequels. In ROTJ, Luke throws his lightsaber away before declaring that he “is a Jedi.”

Fortunately, AOTC handled the Yoda fight perfectly with Yoda and Dooku using other Force powers while trying to talk each other out of their philosophical positions until Dooku finally declares that they aren’t going to settle their dispute through their knowledge of the Force and that they should just settle it with lightsabers, as if to say that lightsabers are merely toys.

Episode III have the lightsaber fight between Yoda and Darth Sidious in which Yoda was the aggressor. As a result, Yoda lost the fight which again plays into the theme that the lightsaber holds the Jedi back.

When I heard that the new Star Wars series was going to ditch the Extended Universe, I was thrilled. This is another controversial view I have, but my issue with the Extended Universe was that they had too many Sith Lords. Yoda made it clear in Episode I that there can only be two Sith Lords at a time, one Master and one Apprentice. However, this can be stretched to a maximum of four since each Sith is plotting against the other and is actively recruiting a replacement for the other in some way — the Master plots to find a better Apprentice and the Apprentice is looking to find an Apprentice to Master. The EU scrapped that and starting having armies of Sith Lords.

This is my Yoda moment. If the new series holds to the two (maybe four) Sith rule, then I will probably love the new films just like I love the prequels on large part because of how Lucas dealt with Yoda’s lightsaber fights in Episode II and III.

Predictions: One of the actors announced for the new Star Wars series is veteran actor, Max von Sydow. He seems like he would be a great actor to take on the role of a new Sith Lord considering he did the voice for Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II. In ROTS, Darth Sidious told Anakin about a Sith Lord (most likely Sidious’s former Master), Darth Plagueis who learned how to cheat death itself. Sidious thought that it meant Plagueis couldn’t die, but it probably meant that he beat Qui Gon to the punch. Qui Gon discovered the secret of becoming one with the Force and being able to manifest himself in ghost form.

With that in mind, I hope that the new series will feature Max von Sydow as the ghost form of Darth Plagueis as he mentors a new living Sith Lord. This would be really interesting and with properly meld this new series with prequels. Luke and his new Jedi recruits would have to face the challenge of no only defeating a new Sith Lord, but also the ghost of one of the most powerful Sith Masters of all time. How do you defeat a Force Ghost when Yoda and Obi Won cannot interfere?

May the Fourth Be With You!