Star Wars Villains Poster

1. L
   May 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

   Gay.

2. Yoda
   May 26th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

   Evil, they are.

3. ted
   May 26th, 2008 at 8:23 pm

   How mature, L.

   But your comment does raise an interesting point. I can't think of any evil women in Star Wars.

4. Jeffrey
   May 26th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

   This is a bit geeky, but...

   I don't believe that it's accurate to describe the Biker Scouts (or even Storm Troopers) as "evil"?
   They're just soldiers working for their government of the day.

   It would also be a bit of a stretch to call Bobba Fett "evil" for the same reason; do you consider American bounty-hunters to be "evil" as well?

   Just a few thoughts.

5. Ola Amigo
   May 26th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

   Jeffrey, interesting point. Geeky but still intesesting.

   If your interested in that kind of discussion, I heard Robert J. Sawyer, an SF author, talking about some of this sort of stuff on Big Ideas, the Canadian lecture podcast (of which I am a fan).

   Anyway, back to Star Wars and Evil. The power hungry were evil and lots of people were just trying to make their living inside an evil empire. From the movies perspective, evil is the Emporers side and the rebels were the good guys. Good guys were farmers, Ewoks (indigenous people), and rogues. Bad guys were by the books semi-robots (storm troopers). Leigh's last name is Organa, which also implies she shops at Whole Foods. Nuff Said.

6. L
   May 27th, 2008 at 12:33 am

   Yes, ted, isn't that fascinating?

   Or perhaps not. Perhaps it is simply a symptom of geek-dom, to which Lucas belongs.

   Women are treated poorly in Star Wars, from Annakin's mother to Princess Leia to Padmé. Women in Star Wars are "instruments" rather than actual characters with any depth. They're all very passive. All the actual responsibility and heroism are left for the men to pat each other on the back by saying "jolly good show chaps," that sort of thing.

7. plainswalker75
   May 27th, 2008 at 9:44 am

   Who are the guys in the top bubbles? I don't recognize them at all . . . 0_o

8. Erik
   May 27th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

   WTF no Stormtroopers?

9. License Farm
   May 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am

   plainswalker75: They were attaches to the Emperor. They're with him when he shows up on the Death Star, and you see them hanging out with him at a couple other points, too.

   Erik: I wondered that, too.

   Also, it's not the 25th anniversary of STAR WARS; it's the 25th anniversary of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

10. ted
    May 29th, 2008 at 12:23 am

    L, I don't know if I agree entirely with your analysis.

    There are a few (very minor) women in the latest three - the kid's mother (a virgin who gave birth) and some Jedi chick (who gets killed), who are little more than cardboard cutouts. But then, so were most of the actors except maybe Obi Wan and Yoda.

    Padme is crippled more by the one-dimensional scowling of her moody husband than by any lack of character on her part.

    Princess Leia (all puns aside), is a strong character throughout, and is just as 3-dimensional as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo.

    I just don't think Lucas, in borrowing from older genres, knew how to draw characters, especially women, out of their stereotypes.

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