Barriss Offee

Depa Billaba

Queen Jamillia (played by ayesha darkar, of ‘the terrorist’ fame)

I would say the force is more comparable to the concept of Bramhan or paramatman

exactly right. Lucas borrowed from stole from Kurosawa. Not only that the clothes worn by the jedi and their light sabers reflect the samurai. The word “Jedi” itself is a mispronunciation of the Japanese word “jidai” …as in “jidai geki“, or period drama. and of course the Force is nothing else but prana or qi. watch The Hidden Fortress and you will see many similarities with Star Wars.

May the Force Be With You Always…or Live Long and Prosper

Joseph Campbell also met with and had a discussion with J. Krishnamurti about these issues. In looking at Lucas’s motivation, its tough, because actually he was a PA on one of Coppola’s films, and it was Coppola who encouraged him to write a script in the first place.

Now, as for his writing influences, Kurosawa is probably his most stiking influence, the joseph campbell mythology stuff was actually a bit more cursory.

Here, I traced the connections:

“In the writing of anthropologist Joseph Campbell, Lucas had learned about the myths that pervade many disparate cultures, and it is this mythology that gives Lucas’ space age epic its timeless resonance. Both of the sequels and the one prequel continued in the same vein and with equally successful.” – from a PBS documentary

“Joseph Campbell defined the Hero cycle, a course of events that occurs as a rite of initiation in every myth, pinpointing the need for mentors, villains, elixirs and jesters along the way. Each step can be traced in the adventures of Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker.” *

Joseph Campbell was a student of Heinrich Zimmer (1890 – 1943) **who was an Indologist and historian of South Asian art. Zimmer began his career studying Sanskrit and linguistics at the University of Berlin where he graduated in 1913. Between 1920-24 he lectured at the University of Greifswald, moving to Heidelberg to fill the Chair of Indian Philology.”

*A quote by Steve Persall, Times Film Critic: ** From Wikipedia

Ahsoka Tano sounds Japanese, dunnit? Some samurai connection, maybe? Btw, Hayden ‘Anakin’ Christiansen’s new movie was also released today – Jumper. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a movie about woolies. Since the reviews have been so bad, perhaps they can add a Casanova-ish storyline & call it Humper. Now that would be some movie.

Although Ahsoka has an Indian (South Asian) first name and a so-called “Indian” (Native American) last name, I have to give George Lucas credit for doing something that Christopher Columbus couldn’t do in over 500 years.

That Hanuman cartoon is filled with white people

Have you watched Indian TV lately? Everyone is bleached white.

Hmm, kinda like Univision, where 99.9% of Latinos are depicted as white.

Why would he? The only one he’d potentially recognize is threepio.

For that matter why doesn’t Ben or Vader recognise them too?

Well, in ben’s case, he says, “I dont ever remember owning a droid” in ANH. I think here it’s just been so long, that he forgot. The key question is, why doesnt threepio remember all these other people, after all he’s a machine. but they had his mind wiped, which was a bit of a copout I think, but there was no other way.

Why, in the new release of Return of the Jedi, are Ben and Yoda old in their ghostly form and freakin Anakin is a young man?

Yes this is true. a fake reconnection to the prequels.

How can Leia recount her mother to Luke when she was seconds old before she died and didn’t really see her?

Another good point. Although you’re referring to the scene in Jedi where Leia recounts the stories, Here I’d just say she was going on intuition, as her descriptions were vague, they werent of the sort, “oh she had a gap in the middle of her tooth,” etc…

And why the hell is Leia a princess?!

Not really explained. My guess is Bail Organa is some kind of royalty.

When did the Imperial Army decide that it was better to do away with the robot and multi alien army entirely and replace them with a, mostly white, male and British armed force (including generals and the like)?

Replacing the leadership doesn’t make sense I agree, The droid army was part of “the trade federation”, and I think Palpatine wanted some kind of clean slate (sort of like Michael taking out the heads of the 5 families, mo green, barzini, tattaglia, stracchi..) The eventual storm troopers are all clones of Jango Fett.