Riffing on Star Wars: #14 – The Sadness of The Force Awakens
Tragedy is inherent in the Star Wars franchise, and this is never truer than in The Force Awakens.
Riffing on Star Wars: #13 – Concealment in the Star Wars Universe
Star Wars is a franchise which revolves around concealment of one’s identity. It’s most famous villain resides behind an impenetrable mask for almost the entirety of his screen time, and the removal of masks is nearly entirely the role of the protagonists. Its prevalence throughout the Star Wars films occurs because concealment is simply excellent…
Riffing on Star Wars: #12 – Why Water Matters in Star Wars
Few things are more exciting to discuss about Star Wars than the role of water in the films. There’s snow, there’s rain, and even a waterfall or two. Okay, perhaps water isn’t quite the hot topic for the franchise at the moment or ever, for that matter, but its presence in the films has often…
Riffing on Star Wars: #11 – The Sequels to Star Wars
For the seventeen years that separated the end of the original trilogy and the start of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars fans were forced to sit on their hands and simply hope that one day there would be a cinematic return to the galaxy far, far away. The Phantom Menace, released in 1999, was the…
Riffing on Star Wars: #10 – The Fall of the Jedi
“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic…” Intoned and infused with mystical gravitas by Alec Guiness, these words for millions of fans represented the first time we learned about the Jedi in Star Wars. Our own hunger and interest grew over the years,…
Riffing on Star Wars: #9 – Humanizing the Enemy
Our first introduction to the evil Galactic Empire began in the stars over Tatooine, as a monumental starship, a star destroyer we would later learn, paralyzed and then figuratively devoured a rebel corvette. Our second introduction was a door blasting to smithereens and white armored stormtroopers pouring through an opening concealed in smoke and blaster…
Riffing on Star Wars: #8 – The Why of Tatooine
The planet of double suns, Tatooine looms large in the mythos of Star Wars. The setting for the first act of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, the second act of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and part of the concluding final act of Revenge of the Sith. Only The…
Riffing on Star Wars: #7 – The X-Wings of Our Youth
In Riffing on Star Wars #6, we discussed the most well-known ship in the Star Wars galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. Today, we will talk about one of the most identifiable, the X-wing, the star fighter debuted in the final act of our favorite film from 1977. Revealed in the rebels’ hangar bay inside a vine…
Riffing on Star Wars: #6 – How the Millennium Falcon Got Its Groove
Of all the named ships of the Star Wars franchise one is universally known and beloved, the Millennium Falcon. Sure, the deeper one’s knowledge of Star Wars goes, the more you recall Slave I, Tantive IV, or the Executor, but the Falcon clearly stands alone at the front of the galaxy’s ships. Why Han Solo’s…
Riffing on Star Wars: #4 – Droids, Slaves or Machines?
“We don’t serve their kind here!” Uttered by Wuher, the barkeep in the Mos Eisley cantina, those words establish the peculiar place that droids inhabit within the Star Wars galaxy. At a glance in any visual medium in the franchise, comic book, animation, or film, droids are omnipresent. You see them in the service of…
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