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garran(I just posted this somewhere else, but it feels like it can go here, too.)
We can now place in order the titles of the six Star Wars movies, and examine them as a narrative, themselves:
The most striking thing about seeing them together like this: Man, Star Wars is pulp SF, isn't it?
'Revenge of the Sith' looks a little out of place in the title-narrative; the Sith are not revenging themselves for anything mentioned in the previous titles, as they themselves were at the cold, dark heart of that phantom menace, which coalesced into the attack by the clones. So the fact that, having initiated all of the titular offenses so far, they still get their final cataclysmic overthrow of the established order classified as 'revenge' comes off as a little unbalanced.
(Contrast this with how well the next three convey their swings of fortune, the story in miniature - A New Hope in the battle against evil (which handily implies that all old hope was nearly spent), at which The Empire Strikes Back, and then, when things look most grim, the Return of the Jedi to fulfill the hope after all. Try to put something like that together from the titles I discussed before, and you'd think that the Clones Attacked the Sith!
EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that actually, they did, which, now that I think of it, fuzzily aligns with my memory. I guess I ought to have payed closer attention to that movie. I still recall it being ultimately at the Sith's behest, though.
In general, too, the original titles seem to be the better ones; more vital, and tapping into broader archetypes.)
We can now place in order the titles of the six Star Wars movies, and examine them as a narrative, themselves:
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The most striking thing about seeing them together like this: Man, Star Wars is pulp SF, isn't it?
'Revenge of the Sith' looks a little out of place in the title-narrative; the Sith are not revenging themselves for anything mentioned in the previous titles, as they themselves were at the cold, dark heart of that phantom menace, which coalesced into the attack by the clones. So the fact that, having initiated all of the titular offenses so far, they still get their final cataclysmic overthrow of the established order classified as 'revenge' comes off as a little unbalanced.
(Contrast this with how well the next three convey their swings of fortune, the story in miniature - A New Hope in the battle against evil (which handily implies that all old hope was nearly spent), at which The Empire Strikes Back, and then, when things look most grim, the Return of the Jedi to fulfill the hope after all. Try to put something like that together from the titles I discussed before, and you'd think that the Clones Attacked the Sith!
EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that actually, they did, which, now that I think of it, fuzzily aligns with my memory. I guess I ought to have payed closer attention to that movie. I still recall it being ultimately at the Sith's behest, though.
In general, too, the original titles seem to be the better ones; more vital, and tapping into broader archetypes.)
