A short time ago…
In a house in Dallas not too far, far away…
I asked some of my friends if they would want to contribute to a “Star Wars” newsletter to celebrate the end of an era. More than 40 years of moviemaking concludes this Friday with the wide release of “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker.” Thankfully, they all agreed, and sent me some thoughtful pieces about a lot of different parts of the “Star Wars” fandom.
But first, my customary dog PhotoShop, featuring Opal in the Millennium Falcon:
Legend has it that Opal made the Kessel Run in less than 10 parsecs.
In this newsletter, you’ll find a new way to watch the “Star Wars” films, an examination on the ethics of using a clone army, a defense of “Attack of the Clones” and a look back at a lifetime of “Star Wars” fandom. Reading each of these pieces was like unwrapping an early Christmas present, and this newsletter was a lot of fun to put together. Check it out, and reply to this email with your own “Star Wars” experiences.
May the Force be with you!
No, there is another…way to watch ‘Star Wars’: Skytalkers Machete Order
By Caitlin Plesher
Since 2005, it has been hotly debated what the superior viewing order for watching “Star Wars” is: Release order (Episodes 4 - 6, Episodes 1 - 3, Episodes 7 - 9), or canonical order (Episodes 1 - 9). I have marathoned the films in both orders; each come with their own sets of pros and cons. What I would like to present for your consideration today is my personal favorite viewing order, the less traditional “Skytalkers Machete Order.”
The first time I saw Machete Order explained was in this article from 2011: The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order. In it, the author recommends this order for viewing the “Star Wars” films:
“A New Hope”
“Empire Strikes Back”
“Attack of the Clones”
“Revenge of the Sith”
“Return of the Jedi”
The author based this viewing order on the premise that the saga films are first and foremost about Luke Skywalker and his hero’s journey to help redeem his father. Based on that perspective, “The Phantom Menace” is largely irrelevant to Luke’s story and thusly left out of this Machete Order.
When I discovered Machete Order, my best friend (and podcast co-host), Charlotte Errity, and I decided that for our next “Star Wars” marathon, we would give Machete Order a try. A caveat that we made, though, was to include “The Phantom Menace” (you can’t skip any “Star Wars” film in our book!). We named this modified version the “Skytalkers Machete Order” after the name of our podcast. Our preferred order of the original six saga films is as follows:
“The Phantom Menace”
“A New Hope”
“Empire Strikes Back”
“Attack of the Clones”
“Revenge of the Sith”
“Return of the Jedi”
Watching “Star Wars” in Skytalkers Machete Order allows you to step out of your routine and experience the films from a completely different perspective. As we watched the films in this order for the first time, I found myself picking up on parallels, themes, music cues and bits of dialogue that had never stood out to me before. It was like looking at a painting upside down. For me, this order works so well because it really makes the saga seem even bigger: A story of truly mythic proportions.
Let’s go through some of the key transitions in this order. The first, and perhaps most obvious wild card is the transition from “The Phantom Menace” to “A New Hope.” The transition between these two films was the biggest surprise when watching in this order. One of the reasons I love it so much is because it puts a larger spotlight on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and really plays into the intrigue of the films as a whole. You watch “The Phantom Menace” and are introduced to the galaxy far, far away: You meet Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda, you go pod-racing, etc. You also hear about the prophecy of the Chosen One, which is an integral story facet that will continue to come up throughout the saga. Turning on “A New Hope” afterward, suddenly you’re back on Tatooine, but when Obi-Wan appears it becomes obvious that many years have passed in between the films.
More: Listen to the Machete Order series of the “Skytalkers” podcast here
This is where the transition excels: It emphasizes the breadth of time that passes in these films, and pulls the audience in to wonder, “How did we get from there to here?” “The Phantom Menace” and “A New Hope” begin to function similarly as a framing narrative to the Skywalker saga.
The crux of the original Machete Order is the transition from “Empire Strikes Back” to “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.” The iconic cliffhanger that ends “Empire,” where Luke finds out that Darth Vader is actually his father: Anakin Skywalker. As an audience, the last time we saw Anakin was in “The Phantom Menace,” as a young child. It is a shocking revelation.
The second and third chapters of the prequels are then treated as an extended flashback. The audience moves from immediately finding out the truth about Darth Vader to then being brought into the story of how he fell to the Dark Side. The remaining prequel films allow the audience to sympathize, if not understand, the reasons why Anakin Skywalker was seduced by the Dark Side.
“Revenge of the Sith” to “Return of the Jedi” is also a crucial transition within this viewing order. In traditional viewing order (“Empire Strikes Back” to “Return of the Jedi”), the audience does not have as much time with Luke to fully understand why he is compassionate toward his father. We admire his compassion and resolve because he is our hero, but there are a lot of pieces in the middle that we are not privy to where Luke works out his own feelings about his lineage. Machete Order gives the audience a chance to immediately identify with Luke’s compassion: after all, we just saw Anakin be manipulated by Emperor Palpatine over the fear of losing his wife. The Machete Order emphasizes that compassion and the audience is more invested in Luke reaching out to his father and Anakin’s eventual redemption.
Once “The Rise of Skywalker” comes out, it will be time to review and update the Skytalkers Machete Order with the completed Skywalker Saga. In our marathon viewings, we’ve generally placed “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi” after “Return of the Jedi,” but this will likely change once we have the last piece. Notably, the spin-off films (“Rogue One” and “Solo”) are not included in the Skytalkers Machete Order. We choose not to include them because it takes the focus of the story away from the Skywalker family specifically. I’ve seen many versions that do include them, but that is the reasoning behind why we do not.
As we all prepare for the final installment with “The Rise of Skywalker,” it is worthwhile to return to the original six and see where it all began, but from a “certain point of view.” Like the rest of the world, I cannot wait to see what secrets the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga has yet to reveal to us. May the Force be with you!
Caitlin Plesher is one of the co-hosts of the podcast Skytalkers with her best friend and co-host, Charlotte Errity. Every other Saturday, they talk about the films, books, TV shows, themes and more in their comprehensive, three-part format. You can find Caitlin on Twitter @caitlinplesher, and the podcast @skytalkerspod or at www.skytalkers.com.
‘If you cut me, do I not bleed?’: Why does nobody care about the clones?
By Jordan Rubio
“Attack of the Clones” is widely considered one of the worst movies in the entire “Star Wars” franchise, with critics lambasting its overlong runtime, wooden acting and some of the worst dialogue in the series.
(Don’t worry Anakin, I too don’t like sand.)
Despite the movie being panned by critics and audiences alike, it is one of the most important in the saga, with the Clone Wars making their appearance (although the conflict was first mentioned in a throwaway line in “A New Hope”).
In case you’ve forgotten some of your Star Wars lore, the Clone Wars is basically a rehashing of the American Civil War in space, with planets trying to secede from the Galactic Republic. The clones, fighting on the side of the Republic, aim to keep the state whole.
The war also sets off the chain of events that lead to Anakin turning to the Dark Side and the near extinction of the Jedi due to the infamous Order 66, where the clones turn on the Jedi.
But I’d argue that the use of the clones is far more problematic than just them betraying and killing off many of the Jedi.
The choice to use clones to fight against the Separatists represents the complete moral failure of the Jedi and how badly they had strayed from their supposed code.
The clones have no other purpose besides fighting and dying for the Galactic Republic. That’s it. That’s the entire purpose of their existence.
And the Jedi, moral guardians of the galaxy, have no qualms with this.
Let’s take it from the top.
The clones are better fighters than the droids used by the Separatists because, like a human, they can improvise and react better than a robot. Which is useful in a war. But they also come without that pesky free will and simply carry out whatever their orders are.
As the Kaminoans note to Obi-Wan, the clones, in addition to aging faster, are bred to be more “docile.”
They are tools of war, nothing more.
Sure, they can think and they can feel pain and they can die like people, but they’re not really people, in a sense. And the Jedi and the Republic are okay with using these thinking, feeling, living beings as nothing more than weapons to fight a war.
In a way, it is deeply fitting that the Jedi in their arrogance would be undone by the clones’ docility and strict obedience to orders. They had no qualms about it before when the clones fought by their side. Such oversight, and such gross violations of ethics, led to the downfall of the Jedi.
Now, some of you may be saying “But Jordan, it’s OK to use the clones because war is all they know.”
It is simply not OK. To use an imperfect metaphor, if war is all they know and that makes it OK to use them for nothing but fighting, then I guess child soldiers are fair game, too.
Any republic or democracy whose citizens refuse to fight for its preservation does not deserve to continue existing. And it seems the Republic’s citizens are perfectly fine with the clones doing the fighting and dying to preserve the state.
That begs the question, if not for Order 66, what was the plan for the clones after the war was over? Would the Republic keep a standing army, something they clearly had a mistrust of? Would the clones be integrated into the Republic’s society? Or would they instead be “destroyed”?
Now, I know that there are other storylines involving the clones outside the prequel trilogy. There is “The Clone Wars,” an animated series that premiered in 2008 about the conflict that features clones’ perspectives heavily.
While I have never seen an episode of this show (although I’ve heard it’s excellent), the immense popularity of characters like the clone commander Cody illustrates a much more mundane, audience-driven reason why the Republic in Star Wars uses clones.
It is easier for audiences, especially children, to identify with the good guys when they are humanoid. We can’t identify with droids and since they’d lack any sort of human personality the entire war saga would be a boring affair.
But the clones give us somebody to root for. We can somewhat identify with them and cheer for them as they battle to keep the Republic whole.
However, just like the droids, there are billions of them. And if a few grunts get killed off in a firefight, who cares? There are countless others just like them, growing rapidly and heading off to the only thing they were bred for: War.
So, we want the clones to win. But we really don’t care what happens to them or how many die just as long as the war is won.
Just like the Jedi and the Republic at large.
Jordan Rubio is a data journalist at the Houston Chronicle. He has loved Star Wars deeply since he was a child, even though it took him far too long to realize no one ever responded “And also with you” whenever someone said “May the Force be with you.” When he is not thinking too deeply about space westerns, he enjoys reading, watching football and playing soccer. Follow him on Twitter at @jordan_rubio.
Forget it, Obi-Wan, it’s Kaminotown: ‘Attack of the Clones’ as film noir
By Jake Harris
Tortured protagonists. Doomed romances. A detective who doesn’t know how far into it he is until it’s too late. Government conspiracies that go all the way to the top. Unhappy endings.
The above characteristics are all elements and motifs one would find in film noir. They are also all present in “Attack of the Clones,” and that is how I choose to look at one of the most derided chapters in the “Star Wars” saga. The second chapter in the prequel saga is a film noir, and it’s my favorite of the prequel trilogy. It’s also an unintentional example of where “Star Wars” could go next in the age of the sequel trilogy and “The Mandalorian.”
First: What is film noir? It’s notoriously difficult to define. According to James Naremore in his book “Film Noir: a Very Short Introduction,” the term originated in the 1930s with French film critics who were describing films about “doomed low-life or working-class characters.” The term started being used in America with the release of “The Maltese Falcon” in 1941, and would go on to be associated with the combination of German expressionism and American crime writing in Hollywood. Film noir has been defined as a genre, a mood, a period or a style. For the purposes of this analysis, film noir is a genre that includes all of the traits I’ve mentioned in the first paragraph, plus an examination of the genre’s tendency to look at how seemingly insignificant choices can cause ruptures in societal institutions.
As you’ve already read, Jordan explained the basic plot of “Attack of the Clones”: Amid an oncoming civil war, many planets are trying to secede from the Galactic Republic. The Jedi Council, along with the Galactic Senate, wonder if maybe they should form an army to defend the Republic against the Separatists, led by Sith Lord Count Dooku. But where will they find such an army?
While all of this is happening, an assassination attempt is made on Senator Padmé Amidala. Obi-Wan Kenobi is tasked with tracking her would-be assassin, who was hired by bounty hunter Jango Fett. Obi-Wan’s search for the killer (complete with a library research scene!) leads him to the secretive planet of Kamino, where a whole army of clones is being built from Jango Fett’s DNA.
Obi-Wan learns that the clones were commissioned a decade earlier by a former Jedi Master, Sifo-Dyas, who was kicked off of the Jedi Council for his warnings of an impending civil war. He told the Kaminoans he had the full authority of the Jedi Council and the Galactic Senate to build the clone army when he really didn’t. In doing so, he drew the attention of Senator Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, who used his apprentice to orchestrate Sifo-Dyas’ murder.
Palpatine then funded the cloning operation while at the same time pulling all of his political strings (including getting Jar Jar Binks to vote to recognize Palpatine as Chancellor — the old noir trope of a small moment having far-flung ramifications) to ensure he attains more and more power while playing both ends against the middle in a galactic civil war. To cap it all off, he implanted Order 66, a killswitch in each clone that would make them kill the Jedi on command. Ironically, in this way, the Jedi caused their own undoing — a hallmark of noir.
That labyrinthine plot would be right at home in a Raymond Chandler novel or a Howard Hawks noir picture. Just substitute Obi-Wan in for Philip Marlowe, and you have yourself a detective novel waiting to happen. Obi-Wan spends most of this movie on his Kamino mission, woefully out of his depth learning new twists at every turn. It must also be noted that the Kamino scenes, as well as the early assassination attempt scenes, are filmed like a “Star Wars”-filtered version of the neo-noir “Blade Runner,” with neon lighting, chiaroscuro tints — and a femme fatale assassin.
Another noir element to “Clones” is the doomed romance between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala. After the attempt on her life, the two retreat to hide out on Naboo. Their romance, while forbidden by the Jedi code, is nonetheless growing. George Lucas gets a lot of flak for the wooden dialogue in these scenes (Jordan already mentioned the “sand” line, but there’s also the overdramatic declarations of love), but I will defend them here on the grounds that he was trying to make an expansive space opera love story, where everything is overstated.
When the two aren’t making overt speeches about love, much of the romance subplot is implied, which was something that many noir films had to do in order to get around film censors. And while Padmé is no femme fatale, the film treats their budding romance as a good thing (the last shot of the film is their wedding, the traditional end to a comedy), but we as the audience know that their union is doomed because Anakin will eventually give in to the Dark Side.
Speaking of giving in to the Dark Side, is there a more tortured “Star Wars” protagonist than Anakin? His descent into darkness is rooted in love and his failure to save those he loves. When he fails, he reacts badly: His mother is killed by Tusken raiders, so he murders her captors. His anguished monologue about “killing them all” honestly ranks up there with the best of the tortured noir protagonists.
Aside from the doomed romance ending, the other ending to the film is also framed as a failure; in fact, every plot strand here ends in a failure of sorts for our protagonists, which makes “Clones” line up with the other two middle installments in the series, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Last Jedi.” After the clones rally and help the Jedi fight Dooku and the Separatists on Geonosis, Obi-Wan remarks that had the clones not helped, the Jedi would not have had a victory. He still doesn’t see the grand scheme for what it is. Yoda knows, though:
“Victory? Victory, you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen. Begun, the Clone war has.”
While I realize making a noir was probably not Lucas’ intent, I’m not the only person to interpret “Clones” this way. “Clones” is pessimistic, distrusting of political systems and deeply cynical about the role of institutions in society. By exhibiting the hallmarks of genre film, it’s also an early introduction to where the franchise could go after the Skywalker Saga is over.
“The Mandalorian” has already established itself as a Flash Gordon-style serial, with each episode aping a different genre. “Solo” was essentially a heist flick in space, while “Rogue One” was a war film. “Clone Wars,” “Rebels” and “Resistance” all tell different stories in the “Star Wars” universe. With the Expanded Universe, there’s so many more directions to go, in so many different genres. Give me more Obi-Wan detective adventures. Give me a “Star Wars” space horror movie, a “Star Wars” hangout flick, a “Star Wars” coming-of-age sitcom where an alien learns how to grow up.
There’s a whole galaxy to explore, and “Attack of the Clones” laid the blueprint.
Jake Harris is a digital producer at WFAA in Dallas and is the writer of this very newsletter. His favorite Star Wars film is The Last Jedi and he actually enjoys the prequels. Catch more of his work at jakeharrisblog.com or follow him on Twitter @jakeharris4.
My little ‘Star Wars’ thing: Thoughts, experiences, and opinions from a life in the saga
by Marshall Doig
All right, let’s start with the anecdote: When Jake asked if I’d write a Star Wars piece for his newsletter, I agreed without hesitation. The trouble was that I didn’t know what specific subject I would cover. So I brainstormed, throwing down any subject, thought, or opinion on Star Wars that I could recall. When I finished, my answer was right there: I’d focus on everything I had just shortlisted. Please take a fairly prequel-tinted, roughly chronological tour through my life in Star Wars.
•••
I first watched (and re-watched, and re-watched) “Star Wars” on VHS. Specifically, my family had the original trilogy box set that was released in 1995, touted as the “final video release of ‘Star Wars’ in its original version.” The movies were in full-screen format, and I didn’t realize I wasn’t seeing the full picture for more than a decade, when I bought the special-edition DVDs. Instead, I always wondered why it took so long for a full line in the opening crawls to show on screen.
•••
Why did it take me about 10 years to figure out the “Star Wars” VHS picture had been modified from its original version? Well, I’ve never seen any of the original trilogy films in the theater. Somehow, I don’t remember seeing the special editions in 1997 and haven’t seized the chance to attend any screenings since. Please, start a GoFundMe.
•••
I devised a corollary to Barney Stinson’s Ewok line. The Jar Jar line is for those of us at or below the age of 10 when “The Phantom Menace” came out. If you were born after May 19, 1989, then I believe you are more apt to like/appreciate/not utterly loathe the prequels.
•••
I like the prequels. Heck, I even enjoy ’em. Deal with it. Despite some plodding plotlines and excruciating dialogue, they’re incredible technical achievements. There are stunning action sequences — the lightsaber duels alone! — and some notable performances, namely from Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz, and Ian McDiarmid, whose Palpatine arguably steals the whole trilogy.
But more than all that, the prequels were a part of my childhood like the originals were for the kids of the late ’70s and early ’80s. They expanded on a universe I already deeply loved, and for that, they’ll always be special to me.
One more prequel hot take: I’d put the symphonic scores for the prequels up against the original trilogy any time. If there’s one area the prequels might surpass the originals (special effects and lightsaber play aside), it’s in the music.
•••
Speaking of the music, there’s nothing in all the “Star Wars” films more defining than John Williams’s scores. “Star Wars” music is the reason I started listening to film soundtracks, and Williams’s themes for the franchise alone would be enough to make a legendary career for any composer.
On a related note, I can assign each “Star Wars” main title to its appropriate trilogy just by hearing the opening blast of the fanfare. Also, yub nub forever.
•••
During the summer of 1999, I kept a “Phantom Menace”–branded journal. I made two notable “Star Wars” mentions in it:
June 20, 1999 Sunday
Dear Journal,
… I’m in my room right now trying to look for my Obi Wan Kenobi action figure. After Mom gets up from her nap I want to go to KFC [likely to get a meal with a “Star Wars” toy]. … Adios, señor Journal.
June 22, 1999 Tuesday
Dear Journal,
… we went to see “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” [Odd lack of any value judgment on the movie.] Now I’m at home with [my brother] Travis, Dad & Mom. …
•••
Another early, hazy “Star Wars” memory is a screensaver pack my family had for our Hewlett-Packard computer that ran Windows 3.1. My absolute favorite was one that had Obi-Wan and Darth Vader slowly dueling across the screen.
It wasn’t until I started to write this piece that I finally leveraged the power of the internet to try to find them. YouTube provided me a playlist that shows each screensaver in full, and Wookieepedia confirmed the name of the program: “Star Wars Screen Entertainment.” At last, my journey to rediscover this random piece of my “Star Wars” past was complete.
•••
I started to care about picture and sound quality for my home media experiences because of “Star Wars”; the DVDs even came with a THX optimizer for audio and video calibration. So I did my best at optimizing my first amusing attempt at a home theater in my room, circa 2005: there was a 13-inch, mono speaker TV; an AV splitter I brought home from church (to address the mono sound issue); a cheap DVD player; and a presentation board I rigged up around my chair like a reverse opera concert shell in an attempt to create “surround sound” (it did not create surround sound). To top it off, I didn’t even have the official DVDs at first. A friend gifted me pirated copies of all six movies after a visit to China. But the ripoffs were of the quality you’d expect: most of them skipped.
I started my “legal” “Star Wars” DVD collection by capturing “Revenge of the Sith” the day it was released. I bought “The Phantom Menace” on a school trip for UIL academic competitions by using the per-diem money the teachers gave students to buy meals. I bought a used copy of “Attack of the Clones” at Hastings, and I capped it all by saving up the $50 I had to pay at Target for the special-edition original trilogy box set (the one in the silver box — for widescreen, naturally). I haven’t bought any physical “Star Wars” visual media since then (mainly because streaming exists).
•••
The “Revenge of the Sith” DVD was released Nov. 1, 2005. The opportunity for costume contests at Halloween midnight release parties was obvious, and my local Hastings obliged. I went as Anakin Skywalker; I had already grown out my hair to mimic Anakin’s helmet cut from Episode III. It’s the only cosplay I’ve ever done, but I had a blast. The only lamentable part of this story is that I maintained that hairstyle for most of the next six years.
•••
“Star Wars” ignited my interest in how the filmmaking process works. One of my favorite parts to explore was the art involved in imagining the films both before and after they were made. Today, I have seven “Art of Star Wars” books and three full-size “Star Wars” movie posters. My framed “Revenge of the Sith” poster took up about half the wall behind my bedroom door from the time I got it for Christmas 2006 until I moved out of my mom’s house. At Christmas 2016, the younger of my two brothers-in-law, who worked at a Cinemark at the time, surprised me with a double-sided “Rogue One” poster. (My third “Star Wars” poster is an “Empire Strikes Back” print.) Sadly, I have yet to find a place to hang the posters in my house (outside of my closet, that is) that would be acceptable to my wife.
•••
Throughout high school, when I would watch the movies by myself, I read the opening crawls aloud in my deepest, most epic voice. (This practice derived from my dad reading the crawls when we first watched the original trilogy together.) It made for a supremely awkward moment when my mom walked in on me one time.
•••
Early in my last semester of college, “The Phantom Menace” was released in 3-D. I went to a midnight showing at the West 7th Movie Tavern in Fort Worth and decided I’d play this drinking game. I rapidly realized my mistake; I had never really paid attention to how many times lightsabers were turned on or off in that movie. Despite that, I got one of the coolest pieces of “Star Wars” memorabilia I own: Darth Maul 3-D glasses.
•••
I’ve talked a lot about the first six episodes so far, but here’s a shocking revelation: I love the sequel trilogy, plus most of the rest of the official post-prequel shows and films. “The Force Awakens” was a warm embrace back into a familiar universe, and “The Last Jedi” was simply beautiful. “Rogue One” might be the best of all the “Star Wars” movies, and “Solo” was terrific even if I found the last-act appearance of a certain character exasperating. Among the animated fare, the “Clone Wars” series is wonderful, and “Rebels” built off that foundation to do them one better. I still need to start “The Mandalorian,” but don’t worry, I will experience Baby Yoda soon enough.
•••
I thought “Star Wars” would always be an indisputably summer franchise, but I warmed up to Disney’s winter releases in no time. Perhaps it’s because they bring back strong feelings I associated with the release of the “Lord of the Rings” films in the early 2000s. But May is, has been and always will be the month of “Star Wars,” with May the Fourth, the release of seven movies, and even the birthday of the Creator himself, George Lucas. I always loved the month of May because it’s when school ended and when the summer movie season began — and for a precious, wonderful few of those years, I got to celebrate that season with a “Star Wars” release. May the Force always be with May.
•••
Lightsabers are the coolest movie weapon ever devised. I still have my telescoping toy saber and keep it in my closet. Whenever I open the closet door, my 1-year-old son knows exactly where to find the lightsaber. He can already swing it around, but the best part is he already makes humming noises while doing so. I am beyond proud to see him gleefully taking his first steps into a larger world.
•••
The “Star Wars Holiday Special” is as bad as everyone says, and worse. Don’t ever watch it, even to just say you made it through. It is not so bad it’s good. It’s just bad. The program’s entire existence is a mistake. Please believe me. Regrettably, I watched it last year.
•••
For all the problems the internet has, it also provides a bottomless well of amazing Star Wars content, both official and fan-made. I have a bookmarks folder with just a little more than 100 links alone, from a 16-bit re-creation of the climactic fight scene in “The Last Jedi” to this compilation of mundane, interesting, or plain bizarre “Star Wars” clips that one YouTube channel put together for the original film’s 40th anniversary. If you want “Star Wars,” nothing but “Star Wars,” the well will never run dry online.
•••
Han shot first, always and forever.
Marshall Doig is a recovering journalist and current software developer in Austin, Texas. He still hopes to one day own the closest thing to a real lightsaber this galaxy can produce. You can find him on Twitter @MarshallDoig.
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