LogFAQs > #945749422

r/prequelmemes
I don't normally go onto Reddit, but I do occasionally when someone either links me to a specific thread or when I hear about a particular embarrassing subreddit. I had heard of Prequel Memes before, but I'd never been to it. Skimming it really quickly, I am not impressed. These are some pretty weak joke images I'm seeing here, sorry.

Han Solo
I said before that Darth Vader is the only character in Star Wars with nuance, but I guess I have to take that back. Han Solo has something. He has something to work with. "I'm a guy who only cares about myself, but oh wait I just grew a conscience and I learned to care about other people" is a really solid character arc, so much so that Rian Johnson decided to ruin it in TLJ with... Jesus, does anyone even remember that guy's name? Why do I have so much trouble remembering Disney Wars' characters' names?

Look, Han Solo is great, everyone knows it. He's the only character in the OT with, like, grit. I can't imagine another Star Wars character just ruthlessly murdering Greedo like that, or trying to slime his way out of talking with Jabba. Han Solo really should have died in the carbonite, or on Endor, since they completely ran out of things for him to do in RotJ, but it's fine. Everyone loves Han Solo. He's great.

... However, if we're including his Disney appearances, and I have to because I held Spock's DIS appearances against him in the Star Trek topic, then he goes down a bit in the ranking. I have two problems with him here.

1. The idea that in thirty years, Han Solo is still a smuggler wearing literally the exact same clothes is absurd. Like, he married Leia, right? He married the queen. How can he still be a smuggler even if he wants to? This is like Prince Phillip being the husband of Queen Elizabeth, divorcing her, and running a smalltime drug ring for the next thirty years, and everyone in Britain just looking the other way because he's too important to arrest.
2. That Solo movie. The movie itself, completely independent of any exterior canon, is merely whatever. "We need to explain where Han Solo got his last name" being maybe the dumbest thing in it. But as part of the broader Han Solo character? Like, the point of Han Solo is that he's a selfish rogue at the start of ANH. Having him be a good guy all along, and in fact responsible for the Rebellion itself, is insane. It displays a complete lack of understanding of what makes him a compelling character. It's just irredeemably stupid.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
The black sheep of the OT, RotJ is... not quite on the level of the first two, but still good enough. It's a "good enough" conclusion. The best stuff is behind us, but RotJ mostly sticks the landing. It's not a completely embarrassing ending to something that was once good, like Game of Thrones season 8, but it's a noticeable decline in quality from what came before.

I'm far from the first person to say this, but sure: the best part is the Emperor stuff. Luke with Vader and the Emperor is legitimately entertaining. Palpatine trying to turn Luke and just acting silly, Vader defending him and saying infuriating things to Luke, Luke realizing he's turning into his father, it's all wonderful. If that was the entire movie, we'd be golden. I think my favorite part is after the Emperor is dead and Luke is towing Vader through the Death Star, there are just a million stormtroopers in the background running around ignoring them because they're all a minute away from dying, that's just wonderful.

But man, everything else. Those Endor scenes are hard to sit through. I get the idea, I get the idea of the big powerful technologically-advanced Empire being brought low by tribal midgets who are more in tune with nature, but Jesus Christ, there are scenes that are just painful. We should be so far beyond this sort of silliness at this point in the trilogy. I realize it's for kids, but ANH and ESB have nothing like this. Then you have the Death Star battle sequence, where Lando is the most important character involved. Lando is fine, people, but no one really cares about him at this point. After ESB, Lando is basically just a guy instead of an untrustworthy rogue. No wonder people remember Admiral Ackbar more.

There are good moments elsewhere, I will always love the Rancor Trainer crying, but we're talking about like 20% of the movie being 10/10, 20% being 8/10, 20% being 6/10, and 40% being 3/10. I can understand people not liking RotJ, but I'll never understand liking RotS more, except for meme purposes.

Brain Invaders (Episode)
Again, my Clone Wars exposure is limited, but Brain Invaders is one of the few episodes I'd known about beforehand. "Evil brain slugs" is always a good premise, Stargate and Animorphs prove that. Is there something just instinctive in humanity that makes us scared of evil brain slugs? Because I've never seen like an evil earwig or something. Look, this is basically a kiddie episode of The Thing, and all of the "can I trust this guy I don't knowwwww" that works there, works here. Barriss asking Ahsoka to kill her and Ahsoka refusing is WHAT how does Google Chrome's spellcheck have Ahsoka as a real word, but underlines Lando as misspelled? Holy ****, what a damning condemnation of Lando.

R2-D2
Everyone loves Artoo. He's probably the most universally beloved character in the franchise. Is there a single bad thing to say about him other than that he apparently knew everything going on in the ST all along and never told the heroes?

Instead, I'll just talk about Kenny Baker almost dying in the role. They were filming a scene on Tatooine in a desert, put him in the Artoo costume, and then just forgot to pull him out when they took a break for lunch, and he almost roasted to death. God. You watch basically any movie involving a dwarf, and it's always just a little uncomfortable how they're exploited, but that knowledge of how they almost a cooked a man alive because they forgot they'd stuck him in a mobile trash can makes it even weirder.

Spaceballs
I have a confession to make: I have never seen Blazing Saddles. When Mel Brooks died, I--he's still alive? Jesus. Well, Spaceballs is pretty fun. It's not really on the top of my list of comedies, but it's got some okay jokes. A lot of the humor is kind of surface level, though? "Pizza the Hutt" is... ehhhh. The other Mel Brooks thing I've seen is the 2005 Producers, I think his humor might just not be for me.


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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005