The One Man Who Brought Down The Empire

Star Wars is something that is so ingrained into the pop culture landscape that its hard to imagine if it had never happened. Where would we be if there was no Star Wars? Would movies be near as creative? Would science fiction cinema be where it is today? Would there be fans who refuse to by the new release DVDs because they don’t like the added special effects? Would there be a Dungeons and Dragons prequel trilogy that every serious fan really doesn’t care for a whole lot?

But Star Wars did give us this. And this is AWESOME.

Now fans can say that Anakin’s ambition and his fear of losing control is what eventually lead to his downfall and the near extinction of the Jedi, and that set in motion the births of Luke and Leia Skywalker, and Luke would eventually help bring balance to the Force in Return of the Jedi, and Anakin would return to the Light Side of the Force by defeating the Emperor and helping destroy the Empire. That is 100% valid and true, I’m not here to argue that. What I am here to argue is that if one man had done one little thing, the redemption of Anakin through Luke and the downfall of the empire would have never happened.

Although Anakin Skywalker the actor almost singlehandedly destroyed the audience.

At the beginning of Episode IV (A New Hope) we see the Empire assaulting a ship carrying Princess Leia, C3PO, R2D2 and the stolen Death Star plans. Leia, knowing she will be captured uploads the plans into R2’s databanks and the droids escape in the escape pod down to the planet Tatooine. Now there is one moment here that many people really don’t understand the gravity of. This moment is what affects the entire saga. We see two Emperial men manning a laser and its been assumed that they have been destroying escape pods trying to leave the ship. The dialogue follows as this:

Guy 1 – There goes another one.
Guy 2 – Hold your fire, there’s no life forms. It was probably a short circuit.

I’m sure most people would see this and not really think anything of it, I sure didn’t when I saw it as a kid. But looking at it later in life I realized what a MASSIVE mistake Guy 2 made. If anyone has ever seen any sort of crime or war movie, when you’re getting raided by the enemy, you dump the evidence. Drug dealers flush drugs and army commanders destroy documents. Its a natural fact of life. What does this have to do with Star Wars? Death Star plans do not register as lifeforms.

Not Pictured: Life Form

But, he didn’t shoot the pod and destroy the droids and plans. Instead the droids landed on the planet, are sold to Luke Skywalker, said droids lead him to Obi Wan Kenobi who leads Luke on a path towards the Force, they meet Han Solo and run into the Death Star, they rescue Leia and deliver the plans to the Rebels, who use said plans to exploit the weakness of the exhaust port which leads to Luke destroying the Death Star. And thats just A New Hope. Imagine if Empire and Return of the Jedi had never happened either. All because one man had a lapse in judgement. I bet Vader Force choked him while he was spinning out of control in his TIE Fighter after the Death Star was destroyed.

“I don’t feel like blowing this one up. I think it’s kinda cute.”

I was sold after I saw the dental plan.