Useless Things in the Star Wars Story?

If you've read the ROTS novel, Windu advocated sending Obi-Wan against Grevious because of Obi-wan's mastery of Soresu, the classic, defensive style.

"Who better, the man who created a killing style or the master of the classic style?"
"Well, I'm glad you consider me a master-"
"Not a master. The master."

And not useless, but poor planning, how would the battles have gone if Obi-wan got his way and HE went to kill the Emperor and Yoda went after Anakin?

Williamkaede wrote: If you've read the ROTS novel, Windu advocated sending Obi-Wan against Grevious because of Obi-wan's mastery of Soresu, the classic, defensive style.

"Who better, the man who created a killing style or the master of the classic style?"
"Well, I'm glad you consider me a master-"
"Not a master. The master."

Interesting! I didn't know that.

And not useless, but poor planning, how would the battles have gone if Obi-wan got his way and HE went to kill the Emperor and Yoda went after Anakin?

Actually, wouldn't that be better? Yoda would have no problem killing Anakin, which would end the horrors of Darth Vader later on. Obi-Wan might have suceeded in defeating the emperor....:huh: I have no idea what would happen if they faced off, really.

SeanChing wrote: Episode IV, A New Hope: Greedo

This was difficult to decide, considering how few things Episode IV did wrong. It was a solid movie on its own, and I personally thought Star Wars would have been complete with or without the other movies added afterwards.

However, I digress. Let's examine Greedo.

He was some small-scale Rodian Bounty Hunter - hired by Jabba to capture Han Solo. Here's why he was useless, however. He didn't really do anything to add to the story, since he was simply easy target practice for Han Solo, not to mention a really bad excuse for any bounty hunter by any bounty hunting standards.

But what did he do wrong? A LOT! He was largely responsible for the whole "Han Shot First" controversy that got people obsessed about him in a completely negative way. To this day, despite him wearing a "Han Shot First" T-Shirt on occasion, Lucas never fully addressed the problem. He tried to edit the films a little, to make the shoot-out more even, but he never changed it back to the original version where Han shoots Greedo without Greedo's retaliation.

Now I know that there is debate on whether or not Han truly shot first or not. Some people, after all, claim that Greedo can be heard shooting first, even in the original version of "Star Wars" where Greeo's blaster isn't seen.


However, my main point is that Greedo brought a whole lot of controversy along with no significant contributions to the plot of Star Wars. That is why he was a useless element of Star Wars.

Ah, greedo's purpose (in the original release) was to show han as a true scoundrel/survivor that had no problem shooting first (basically doing whatever he had to to survive) with the re-edited release this purpose was sacrificed in order to display the lightning fast reflexes han was said to have in the novels ...

SeanChing wrote: Episode II, Attack of the Clones: Dexter

This was the guy in the Coruscant diner who was Obi-Wan's friend and gave Obi-Wan "valuable" information on the whereabouts of the mysterious Kamino planet.

I found it odd that Obi-Wan was "long time friends" with Dexter, even though he's a Jedi and Dexter is some shady, obese slob. I mean (correct me if I'm wrong, but...) Obi-Wan, as a Jedi, wouldn't really go to diners and bars for drinks and indulgences, right? I mean he wouldn't be going out to eat and drink (instead, he probably ate modest meals at the Temple, right?) So how would he end up not only meeting Dexter once, but also befriending him?

Also, there's no mention of Dexter in Episode I, so it can be inferred that Obi-Wan supposedly met and befriended Dexter between Episodes I and II (which is a long time period, arguably). However, wasn't Obi-Wan completing the trials and practicing being a great Jedi Knight for the first time? I still can't see how and why Obi-Wan would befriend Dexter.


In the end, I felt that Dexter was a useless plot element of the Star Wars Story because he was just some random contact that Obi-Wan had in his magical contact list that could provide some underground information that not even the advanced Jedi Library could provide.

It's possible that obi-wan met dexter during his apprenticeship to qui-gon...remember qui-gon was considered a bit of a maverick/rogue so it's very likely he had some underworld contacts that gave him access to info the jedi wouldn't have...and he could have possibly taught obi-wan the value of these sort of information sources...and don't forget anakins association with the shady underworld types (watto anyone?)

Obi-Wan leaving Anakin to die was a surprisingly dark moment.

'It would be an act of mercy for Obi-wan to put him out of his misery. Obi-Wan was not feeling merciful.'

Yoda would very likely have been able to kill Anakin but Obi-Wan killing the Emperor... very maybe.

As for Dexter's diner, maybe it was Anakin's doing, looking for an alien diner to remind him of home?

To risk seeming like I'm going out on a limb here. but, err. There are many layers of meaning to films such as Star wars and The Matrix. This doesn't mean any of your ideas about it will last. But if you are the true master, then you will notice, but not need to know, All of the things that are there in the plot. Writers like George Lucas use real principles to describe interesting and mysterious stories. This is the reason for Chapters in the book "The Making Of star wars" being given titles like "Mind Storms in the sand"

It has a meaning, and quite a lot of seriousness. You take from it what you want.

In addition to my previous post, I myself have numerous "shady type" contacts that I frequently make use of for various bits of information etc....

Naturally I don't trust them with anything of value to me, nor would I turn my back on them blindly...then again I don't turn my back to anyone

RyuJin wrote: In addition to my previous post, I myself have numerous "shady type" contacts that I frequently make use of for various bits of information etc....

Naturally I don't trust them with anything of value to me, nor would I turn my back on them blindly...then again I don't turn my back to anyone

I can see that from your very honourable profile picture.

oh my... It was Darth Vader that consumed Anakin, not the other way around. Yoda never explicitly ordered Obi-wan to kill him. Besides, he was too busy with the Emperor.

But all of this is just a lot of what if this had happened, then we would be all right.

please refer to my spirit of an age post on the fact of being attached to past generations.

The point of being a Jedi is not killing. It is serving the force, which a lot of people here believe doesn't even exist. So if there are any faithful Jedi out there, I'd just like to say that we are fighting a loosing battle here...

Don't you remember that Obi-wan allowed himself to be transformed to the force, and appear to die right in front of Luke Skywalker in the first ever film?

That's just a message for all of you who think you can make an example out of obi-wan and call him insensitive and foolish for actions that he needed to commit.