Star Wars

Star Wars Identities : The Exhibition

After two unsuccessful attempts to attend it earlier this summer, I finally went to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition in Montreal.

This exposition is presented as a exploration of what forges a person’s identity and uses the different characters of Star Wars to represent this. It’s divided into sections that explore these factors, and in each section, you build your character by responding to questions relative to your character’s identity. The first choice you make is the species of your character. From there you choose genes, parents, a culture, mentors, friends, events, an occupation, a personality, and values. From these choices you build an identity, and this experience is meant to give visitors some insight into how identity is formed.  I was very skeptical about this part of the exposition. If it were about some historic figures, instead of the fictional Star Wars universe, it might have been more interesting to me. Maybe if George Lucas had a Ph.D in Psychology and had made sure his characters were built to reflect the latest scientific research on the subject of identity, I could have better understood the connection. So, while some others visitors around me seemed to enjoy the character identity building, I wasn’t really interested in that part of the exhibition. I did design my own hero and I watched most of the videos on the subjects which were scattered all over the exhibition, but I skipped some in the end. It was not that boring and I would probably have watched all of them if I had had more time. However, there were so many other things I wanted to see.  Anyway, it was a good decision, because after two hours of exhaustive examinations of the other areas the clerks had to kick me out of the showroom because they were closing.

So, the quest to identity yourself as a Star Wars character is not why you should visit this exposition. The real reason to go is to see the impressive collection of original artifacts. Being in the same room with all these objects is something a Star Wars fan should not miss.

First, you can see at least one costume for each of the main characters. The Jedi Knight outfits are a bit redundant, but  Amidala’s dress is beautiful. The real treasures are the Stormtroopers, Bobba Fett, C-3P0, and Darth Vader. All are worth a lengthy examination.  And Chewbacca! You have to stand in front of his fur costume how realize how tall and impressive he is!

I was also quite impressed by the various artworks. They are meant show the progression of the characters identity when they were designed. My favorite was one showing Han Solo as a bearded lightsaber wielder. How awesome it would have been if Han had sliced first!

Additionally, there are many other props, like the ominous Meson Taloscope (Midi-chlorian analyzer), a carbonite frozen Han Solo, and Anakin’s full size pod-racer. But the things I found the most impressive were the starships and the starfighter models. The details on those! I would still be staring at them and discovering new features, if I hadn’t eventually been kicked out.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition and recommend it to every Star Wars fan. I will probably forget about all the identities theories, but will forever remember leaning toward an incredibly detailed Imperial Star Destroyer.

You may check out some of the photos I took during my visit. bitmask also visited the exposition last April, and you can see his photos here. If you want to see the exhibition with your own eyes, the show will be in Montreal until September 16, 2012. It will be in Edmonton, Canada, from October 27, 2012, to April 1, 2013. Note that this exposition is quite popular and I had to buy my tickets a day in advance to finally see it.

SciFi.StackExchange in Practical Use – In what order should the Star Wars movies be watched?

This question was posted on Feb 1st, 2011 inquiring about what the is the best order to watch all six of the the [tag]Star-Wars[/tag] saga movies.

After receiving my own copy of the newly released Blu-ray version of the epic tale, I brought it upon myself to actually do what the most popular, and accepted answer to this question was as a test to see if the answer to the question has merit, or just looked good on paper.

The sugested reading order given by user Mike Scott with graphic by neilfein

56 of the users of SciFi.SE voted the answer “Watch the movie in this order: Episode IV -> Episode V -> Episode I -> Episode II -> Episode III -> and finally Episode VI.” I even upvoted this question. But alas, I haven’t actually watched this series in order (any relative order, in fact) ever. The last time I watched a Star Wars movie was when Episode III came to theatres in 2005. And before that I watched Episode II and I. I never actually watched all 3 of the original trilogy in order either. I only ever watched it when it was on the TV in passing. I did see the re-release in theatres in 1997 but before that, I don’t think I ever actually saw the whole trilogy.

I always considered myself a fan of the series, but when I look back on what I have actually exposed myself to, my main viewing of Star Wars has been mostly the New Trilogy.

This got me thinking about more than just how I voted on that one question, but how I vote on a lot of questions. I fully support ever answer I upvote, but in all honesty, most of the answers that I have given the “big up arrow” to were ones I just believed were right.

But I wanted to change that. I wanted to actually use the information given to me on this wonderful site and put it to practical use.

So, lets get started…

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Featured Question: Why Do We Hear Leia’s Theme During Kenobi’s Death

[This post is based on our Question of the Week #1!  Periodically, we’ll feature questions (and their answers) that demonstrate the type of question that we’re extremely interested in having on scifi.stackexchange.com.  These questions aren’t just well asked (and answered), but are interesting and worth reading even if you’re not familiar with the work.]

 

Adrian Petrescu asked “Why do we hear Leia’s Theme during Kenobi’s death?“, referring, of course, to the death of Obi-Wan ‘Ben’ Kenobi in the classic Star Wars (or less-classic Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope).  For those that haven’t seen Star Wars, my apologies for the spoiler (and go watch them all, in whatever order you prefer).

During the film, the composer, John Williams, uses several musical themes (the “Force theme”, “Luke’s theme”, an “Imperial theme”).  When Kenobi is killed, when any of those themes would seem appropriate, Williams (and/or possibly Lucas) chooses to play “Leia’s theme” instead, even though there is little connection (especially as known at this stage) between the two characters.

Adrian posits a theory from his music professor:

Kenobi has taken on a paternal role for Luke and so Williams is co-opting Leia’s “feminine” familial theme for the entire Skywalker family, thereby foreshadowing that entire connection.

However, Adrian is doubtful that Williams knew about the familial connection at this time, and so whether he could have been foreshadowing it.

DVK‘s excellent answer references Michael Matessino‘s liner notes on RCA release of “Star Wars: A New Hope: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack“:

Interestingly, Williams uses Princess Leia’s theme at the moment Ben vanishes, deferring to the purely musical effectiveness of the sweeping melody over any apparent thematic relevance, although the theme does reinforce the connection between the Princess and the old Jedi suggested by her holographic message.

In other words, Kenobi’s connection to Leia in Episode IV, as far as Williams knew, was not via Luke, but via her father, Senator Bail Organa (“… years ago, you served my father in the clone wars”).  DVK also clarifies that Williams could not have known about the Luke & Leia family connection at this time.

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