Waterloo, IA
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Iowa City, IA
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Plymouth, MN

I read your blog and enjoyed your insights. I agree with some of them. I'll add some thoughts with yours

-the Alien races: I believe the role of aliens between the PT and OT changes radically. Alien races of all kinds participate in the daily activites of the SW galaxy: cooks, Jedi, senators, aides, business leaders, etc. I think we see that Palpatine uses aliens as a threat on human-types as Sidious uses Gunray and the Separatists to form an opposing threat to the Republic. All of the separatists were alien, save for Dooku, who was a former Jedi working with Sidious to build the Empire. Once we get to the OT, the Empire is comprised only of WASPs (no humans of color, no aliens of any kind in their ranks). Aliens are seen by the Empire as subhuman, a blight on the Empire. Aliens were left with no productive jobs except to be slaves or dancers, thugs, mercenaries, etc. (not accounting EU here)

-Jedi: I had a problem with some of the Jedi, too. Aayla Secura is an obvious example with wardrobe. Jedi aren't supposed to be individualistic and having a separate wardrobe than the others (Anakin also fits in this, though he was supposed to be more self-absorbed) just didn't fit with the ideology... same with their starships having different color designations to identify the Jedi, or personalized lightsabers (I know, boring).

-General Grievous: Not that I don't like his character, I just thought he was unnecessary to bring into Sith. I felt several bad guys were wasted to bring more in (Maul, Dooku, Fett). I thought Dooku's character should have been expanded more than what we got in Clones and Sith... Dooku didn't have much screen time (probably 15 minutes all-together) for such the schemer that he was. Dooku should have lasted though at least midway into Sith. Grievous just shows up in Sith and a casual watcher doesn't know who he is if he never saw the Clone War cartoons, and he never comes off as badass as he does in the cartoons. He's supposed to be a Jedi-killer, yet never kills a single Jedi. In fact, he comes across as a coward with an unexplained hacking cough.

-Buzz droids: Saw no need for them to progress the story.

Well, I'll got off my soapbox. These are a couple of issues I had... and i probably didn't explain them as best as I could. I do enjoy the movies for what they are- entertainment- but they could have been done better.

Interesting thoughts, Justin...

I awoke from a nap with this thought. Could Ellen be the 12th Cylon and reincarnated though Saul and Number 6's love child? Or would the child be #15?

Thanks to Jeff for some backfillers!

Happy birthday, Justin! Hope you had fun with the wife and kids!

Well, Eagles just didn't do it. Oh well. I like both teams, more Pitt than the Cards, but Warner graduated from my alma mater...

I feel the same way.  I'd want a couple of the cart, but as much I love the droid and have been waiting for him forever, I only need one.  Maybe they'll do another set with a different droid/pilot later on.

That would be a great idea... running changes on the pilot and droids. Hasbro could already repack it with Lepira/droid, Luke/R2, Biggs/droid, Dutch/droid, and give us new pilots as well. I believe there were a couple droids in the droid 5-packs a few years back that were from the Battle of Yavin.

I must concur with Corran's assessment with the episode. Very powerful, interesting twist in the show. Very emotional in regards to one character... didn't see that coming. Just stunned. Lots of surprises, though one of my suspicions was confirmed at the end.