Nixon in Star Wars

I have been reading J.W. Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars Return of the Jedi and came across a great quote about George Lucas' early conception of politics in Star Wars. In one the July 13-17, 1981, story conference with Richard Marquand, Lawrence Kasdan, and Howard Kazanjian, Lucas explained about Emperor Palpatine:

... he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. He sucked Luke’s father into the dark side.

It is well known that Lucas based parts of the Original Trilogy on political events in the 1970s, with the concept of primitive natives defeating a technologically superior army taken directly from the Vietnam War (as discussed here). Nevertheless, I was taken with how directly Lucas equated Palpatine with Nixon. To what extent does Palpatine really reflect Nixon?

CLONE WARS REVIEW: Yoda arc (Season 6, Episodes 10-13)

Yoda, in touch with nature

In honor of the release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Netflix, I've decided to review Season 6, the previously unreleased "Lost Missions." Overall, this is some of the best we've ever seen in the series. Even when I had complaints about plot elements, the characterization is rich and animation gorgeous. These reviews are meant more to think critically about the plot and character elements in the episodes, so there are spoilers - I strongly recommend readers watch each episode before continuing. With that said, on to the Yoda arc...

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I know many fans are already calling the Yoda arc - "The Lost One", "Voices", "Destiny", and "Sacrifice" (Season 6; Episodes 10-13) - one of the most important stories of The Clone Wars. For me, it seems a case of style over substance. I get the sense that The Clone Wars team wanted us to believe that these episodes explained key aspects of Yoda's character and the Force, but there were just too many plot holes and questionable choices for me to become fully invested. However, ignoring the story, the episode features some interesting abstract imagery and symbolism, as well as some innovative ways to allow viewers to see fan-favorite characters one last time.

Images of Power Part I: The Empire (and Palpatine's wardrobe)

How the Emperor got his clothes...

Unfortunately, there isn't much scholarship about Star Wars by political scientists. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll engage with one of the brave few. Our "Images of Power" mini-series will use Professor Jeffrey A. Hart's "Images of Power in Hollywood Films: The Example of Star Wars" conference paper as a springboard for discussion about the imagery of power in the Star Wars movies. Hart identifies several strains of power-based imagery throughout the Star Wars saga, most of which focus on the conflict between good versus evil. Today, we begin with: Part I: The Empire (and Palpatine's wardrobe).

Using Google N-grams to evaluate Palpatine's many roles

Throughout the Star Wars saga, Palpatine has been a senator, chancellor, emperor, and Sith lord. So, we were curious - which one of his many political roles has gained him the most notoriety amongst Star Wars fans? Thanks the power of Google N-grams Viewer, we can observe how references to Palpatine have changed over time.

Of course, in the film version of Return of the Jedi, we only knew the character as the Emperor. As such, in books Palpatine was only referred to as "the Emperor" until the late 1980s. After Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy were published in the early 1990s, fans became more familiar with the Emperor's actual name and started to refer to him as Emperor Palpatine.