Confessions of a Spoiler-Avoider - Ep III factoids

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

In less than 2 weeks I get to stop avoiding spoilers and this forum and see the movie. YAY!!

But one can't stay completely spoiler-free in this media-saturated world. Here's my Ep III knowledge-scorecard, that I plan on coming back to in 2 weeks to see how I did. Am I truly spoiler-free? Or do I know it all?


From Lucas interviews, 27+ years ago after the first movie came out and from the original trilogy:

Obi-Wan Kenobi is responsible for Darth Vader's black suit after their huge battle where Kenobi tries to destroy his fallen student and Anakin falls into a volcano.

Obi-Wan and Yoda survive and escape the demise of the Jedi.

Padme gets pregnant and has twins. Anakin/Vader didn't seem to know about it. Possibly he suspected. Obi-Wan seems to only know about Luke. Yoda knows about both of them. The Emperor specifically does NOT know about them.

Lucas wanted a huge fight with Wookies in the orginal trilogy, but it was technically impossible for the time. He had to settle for Ewoks. I surmised a long time about that this ambition would resurface if Lucas ever got the chance.


From the prequel and original trilogy DVD:

Obi-Wan Kenobi brings Luke to Owen Lars. That bit was filmed during ATOC, presumably to save money on making ROTS and to spare everyone going back to Tunisia.

Darth Vader's mask will be more symmetrical in ROTS than in the original movies.

At some point Vader and Sidius will pose next to each other.

There will be some stone walkways and doorways where Obi-Wan and Anakin have their big fight. Obi-Wan wears white, Anakin wears black. Anakin is a stonger fighter; Obi-Wan is more experienced, which allows Obi-Wan to win, more or less.

Vader/Anakin is significantly diminished by his injuries after his fight with Kenobi. He cannot defeat Sidius after that and must settle for being the second-most-evil-guy in the galaxy.

Bail Organa has more to do in this movie than he had in the last one.

Qui-Gon Jinn's voice appearing in Yoda's meditation while Anakin is massacring Tusken Raiders in AOTC is important, new and significant for Jedi.


From the cartoons

Palpatine has been kidnapped by Grievous and must be rescued. I didn't read the opening crawl that was released online, but I presume that this is what it's about and how ROTS will start out.

There are horses somewhere in ROTS and Yoda is presumably riding one of them.

Anakin is a full Jedi at the start of ROTS.

The Sith have been baiting Anakin for awhile and Kenobi doesn't like it.

General Grievous is the bad guy, at least in the opening of ROTS.


From inadvertant glances on the internet and elsewhere

Anakin kills all the baby padawans at the temple; I assume it's done off-camera or ROTS would have gotten an "R" rating.

Mace Windu is killed in Palapatine's office, but I don't know by who. Presumably he doens't die easily.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is hairier than he was in AOTC and Anakin inherits the "Jedi mullet" from him.

Padme wears the famous "buns".

Padme wears more than one outfit. Long, dramatic, dark skirts and the "fighting" outfit on display at CIII at least.

There are horses somewhere in ROTS.

Padme may not die, which would contradict what Leia says about her mother in ROTJ.

Oui-Gon Jinn may appear in dis-embodied form, presumably to Obi-Wan or Yoda or both? In a similar fashion that Obi-Wan and Yoda appeared to Luke?

Sidius commands Lord Vader to "Rise" and presumably this is when we first see the black suit (in this movie at least).

Sidius has his lightsaber up his right sleeve and it appears from there. It's a compact model. Presumably he fights with it as well.

Anakin gets yellow eyes; possibly this is the Sith trait that clues Kenobi in on the fact that there's something going on with his former student?

Chewbacca and all the Wookies that Lucas could want will appear in this movie along with the Wookie homeworld. There is some fighting.

Tarkin makes a small appearance in ROTS.

Mon Mothma(sp?) makes a small appearance in ROTS.

We get to see Alderaan.

General Grievous is at least partly organic somewhere; possibly in the same way Vader is organic underneath? Possibly Grievous is the pre-Vader?

[Tobbok Nassias]

You said: "Padme may not die, which would contradict what Leia says about her mother in ROTJ."
No, actually that would would make it fit BETTER into the plot. Leia remembers the way her mother looks, as though she were older than a new born when her mother dies...that would make sense. Possibly Padme is weakened enough that she will die soon, but not immediatley.
Do you see where I am comming from?

[Qual Totem]

on this matter Leia does remember her mother although only slightly she says its just feelings really. it could be the force acting through her or her just being very young and not remembering it all that well so by making her live it would not neccesarily contradict ROTJ

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

qualtotem said:

on this matter Leia does remember her mother although only slightly she says its just feelings really. it could be the force acting through her or her just being very young and not remembering it all that well so by making her live it would not neccesarily contradict ROTJ

I just assumed the same thing, that Leia's "memories" of her mother came from the Force when she was very young. She just didn't know what it was and her adoptive parents never corrected her. That would lend some credibility to her accepting Luke's familial declaration so quickly.

There's also the annoying quirk of when Obi-Wan tells Luke that he hasn't gone by the name of Obi-Wan since before he was born. But we already knew that Obi-Wan wasn't 100% accurate with the facts with Luke anyway.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

I have seen the movie! Yay! My spoiler-avoiding was well worth the effort and I was rewarded with some surprises as well as spectacle. I did not cry during the movie because everyone said they did, so that naturally meant that I wouldn't. I'll have to look at it a few more times.

Now, how did I do on what I knew before seeing the film?

From Lucas interviews, 27+ years ago after the first movie came out and from the original trilogy:

Obi-Wan and Anakin's fight over the volcano. Wow! Now, that's a fight genuinely worth wating 28 years to see.

I loved Yoda's escape. Obi-Wan's was OK, too, but I was so happy when the Wookies saved him and then when got away after losing to Sidius.

Yeah, it's not clear to Vader that Padme had the kids before she died. He must have assumed that the kid died. And, uh, why was Padme hiding the fact that she had twins? Was she going to surprise Anakin? Or did she already have doubts early on? There is no way that she couldn't know. I think Obi-Wan suspected that Anakin was responsible as soon as he heard Padme was pregnant; he just had too many things going on at the time to ask about it.

The movie could have had more Wookies in it, but I didn't really miss them, either. Lucas made up for it with everything else that was going on. This was the climax of an all-out galactic war after all. The Rebellion just a pea-shooting gallery compared to that.

From the prequel and original trilogy DVD:

Great closing scene with Owen, Beru and Luke at the end. That movie needed that hopeful visual at the end.

Darth Vader looked cool in his new black outfit at the end. We saw it little, but it was used very effectively.

Again, the fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin was epic.

I was surprised by how much Vader realized what a devil's bargain he'd made when Sidius told him he'd killed Padme. She was tied to him I think and she went the way of Anakin.

Hmmmm, didn't Leia say that Obi-Wan had helped her father during the clone wars? Looks like Bail Organa was doing all the helping, but he could have owed Kenobi many favors before then I suppose.

Awwwwww, no Qui-Gon in the movie.

From the cartoons

Anakin walked into Palpatine's trap so easily. Dooku didn't last long at all! And why did Greivous have a bad cough?

No horses. Just a big, loud, fast lizard.

Anakin and Obi-Wan worked much better as a team in this one. It was good to see. Anakin was a little more mature in this one, but only a little. He had a hissy-fit over not being made a Jedi master when he's 23; what's his problem?

From inadvertant glances on the internet and elsewhere

The Temple purge was worse than I thought it would be. Yow.

Mace Windu's death struggle did not disappoint. THAT was the pivotal scene where Anakin has to choose, the one that is mirrored in ROTJ when Vader chooses. Anakin said he did it for Padme, but it was really for his own power. Vader' choice really was selfless; he did it for love.

I don't think Windu could have defeated Sidius without Anakin's help. He was faking distress. But Luke wasn't faking.

I liked everyone's hair in this movie. Even the buns.

Padme's wardrobe is so dark and gloomy in this movie! Everyone is sinking into the fashion simplicity that has completely taken over the galaxy in ANH.

Padme's death was beautifully handled. Darth Vader killed her. I assume that Leia's vague memories of her mother came from the Force.

No visions of Qui-Gon! BUMMER! Yoda's admission that he's been channeling Qui-Gon (for how long, I wonder?) has a mere fraction of the impact as a ghostly glimpse, especially for a movie that relies so much on visual metaphor. That would have fit so well with the ghostly images of Obi-Wan in the next trilogy. Was Yoda channeling Qui-Gon when he was giving Anakin advice? And now we know that Obi-Wan will be channeling Qui-Gon while hanging around on Tatoonie. Now we know he wasn't bored.

Sidius was super evil in this film. I don't think it was possible to over-act a guy who was that evil. Yeah, he fights with a lightsaber, but he obviously gets off on that force lightning.

They didn't really need to explain the yellow eyes, obviously a side effect of Sithiness; it just looked cool.

You wonder if Chewie and Han, Luke and Leia ever got together and compared notes? Possibly Luke's training from Yoda convinced Chewie that he really was a Jedi?

I don't remember seeing a Tarkin. Did I miss him?

Where was Mon Mothma(sp?)?

I thought Alderaan would be flatter than that. But it was otherwise pretty.

Where did Greivous get that nasty cough?

And finally......R2D2 knows everything!!!

[kivaanzion]

I don't remember seeing a Tarkin. Did I miss him?

He briefly appeared at the end on the Star Destroyer as the camera moves in on Vader and the Emperor. He doesn't say a word, just turns and walks away from the viewscreen revealing the construction of the Death Star.

[Eki Colta]

adavenport said:

Where did Greivous get that nasty cough?

In the last episode of the Clone Wars cartoon, as General Grievous is boarding his ship with Palpatine in tow, Master Windu uses the Force to crush his chest. Grievous then stumbles into the ship, coughing.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

:-D I think Ole' Greivous has to stop smoking those cheap cigars. ;-) Sriously though, he has tohave lungs to cough right? Ithought the only organic parts he had left were he brains, eyes, hearts and a spinal collum.

[Mon-Jas Charan]

I read in an on line interview that Stover said the book was more of an addendum to the movie than a novelization of the screen play, I found that to be very true, I real glad I had read the book before the movie, not the you have needed too, but it sure made the flow better for me ...

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Oh, I think the flow of the movie will look pretty good for me, the 4th or 5th time I see it. But too much expectation for seeing a movie for the first time dulls the experience for me; that's what happens if I know too much about it beforehand. If it's really good, I'll go back and see it again to figure it out.

Ah, I remember the damage Mace Windu did, but I'd just assumed that Greivous would have fixed that. Didn't he cough when he fought Obi-Wan that last time? That was a long time; the movie basically spans Padme's pregnancy.

How ironic that Obi-Wan had to do in Grevious with a blaster.