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I’ve been meaning to write this article for a long time, probably over a year actually, but I’ve never gotten around to really doing it. In any case, I’ve decided to get off my lazy ass and actually do it.

C3PO is one character that a lot of people tend to mock and hate for his effeminate and annoying behavior. He’s always complaining, and his antics and freak outs distracting usually make people wonder as to what the hell is he doing tagging along in some places while they could have locked him up on a ship most of the time. The funny thing here is that Anthony Daniels, the actor in the suit, was not a likeable person and didn’t get along well the rest of the cast. He even hated Kenny Baker and refused to be in the same room as him unless they were filming a scene (this might explain why R2D2 often acts like an asshole to C3PO, which I’ll mention later), so maybe his real behavior reflected in that.

But for me, I think his character could have been handled very differently, even when keeping his anally retentiveness and Upper Class twit accent, he could have been made into an effective and a sortof bad ass character in a way, and here’s why.

Firstly, C3PO is often called a protocol droid, and he mentioned several times of being able to use 6 million forms of communication (not strictly verbal languages, sign language, enigma code, and binary are also legit languages), but here’s the catch: As a protocol droid, he’s piss poor at it. Protocol and etiquette means knowing how to behave and what to say (as well not to say and behave) in certain situations and know what’s expected. That’s the basic gist of it.

But C3PO fails miserably all the time, he often talks out of line, goes on needless explanations to people who don’t care about it, and doesn’t have any idea of what is going on between people. He’s only good as a translator (which, granted, is the reason why he should be kept along. Especially in a galaxy with millions of populated systems), but is no good at bargaining or speaking or negotiating, and even says he isn’t much of a story teller (which is contradicted by his Ewok story telling scene that he apparently does well). The only instance he’s ever shown being good at isn’t even in the movies, it’s in the droids cartoon when he apparently negotiates a good offer with some people in exchange for a material.

If they made him a real protocol droid everything would have been different. Imagine him knowing exactly what is expected of storm trooper behavior and giving quick pointers to Han and Luke while they’re in the Death Star, or helping Luke get a better bargain for his speeder (Luke wasn’t very charismatic at that time and could have used some help. Ironically, Obi-Wan was there and didn’t intervene for some reason), or during the ESB he could have decoded that message that the probe droid let out (“Oh sir, that’s not an Alliance mode of communication, it’s an Imperial probe droid and they’ve zeroed into our position.”), and might have been of assistance in getting them to land on Bespin without having the patrol craft shoot at them (he actually does something like this in the Droids cartoon at one point).

And finally, in ROTJ, during the whole Jabba the Hutt scene when he’s agitated and panicky, while R2D2 apparently knows everything, he might have known how Hutt gangsters behave and what they do and do not respect, and thus appeared more confident in what he was doing, and maybe even did something other than get his eye eaten out and land head first into the sand.

To me, he was a wasted character opportunity. They could have still made him the butt of jokes, but he had more potential than that. Instead he was made into a hyperpolyglot idiot.

Last summer I made a post showing old Star Wars cartoons from 1985, specifically the Ewoks cartoon (at that time, they were up for only a few days), and yesterday, I did see a few episodes of the Droids cartoon. It featured (you guessed it) R2 and C3PO going through their wacky, wacky adventures and mischief. The show was so incredibly lame it isn't funny. The animation is average, nothing horrible I assure you, but nothing to really write home about either.

So here's my question to you people... which do you believe is worse? In my own opinion, I would have to give it to the Ewoks... it really was horrible and had no reedeming features whatsoever... seriously, I couldn't even IMAGINE th Ewoks, or Wickett (the Ewok that Leia found) being anywhere half as lame as the portrayal, and don't even get me started on the opposition in the show and the creatures displayed.

So to give some assistance in figuring out which is worse for yourselves, I'll give two links to one Droids epsiode and an Ewoks episode (though I think they were both shown in the 'droids and ewoks' hour when they first aired in 1985).

http://www. youtube.c...h?v=oodIjnH4lQQ

http://www. youtube.c...Q...&playnext=1

Well, there are you are.

http:// www.youtube.c...feature=related

Anyone ever watched the old Ewok cartoon that was made in the 1980's? Well, I was never curious to watch it, but since I came across it by accident on youtube (and BTW, from the posting date, it's only been up for a few days). All I can say is, thank goodness I gave up being a Star Wars fan years ago, otherwise I'd be pretty pissed off to see how they can butcher a Star Wars concept (even though this series started only 2 years after Return of the Jedi), and not to mention trying to connect what's happening on the show to what happened in the movies! I can safely envision it as just some stupid, sub-par Saturday morning cartoon along the lines of Teddy Ruxpin, and other similiar childish shows that never quite achieved any real status.

What do you people think of it? If you never watched any of those episodes, just try to endure at least the first part or so, I tried to make it to the third part of the episode, but my headache got too big to endure because of it.

OK everyone, I am aware that there's a thread on a topic similiar to this on judging the Prequels on their own, but I decided to bring up this particular hypothsis for discussion.

What if the Original Triology just didn't exist to begin with? And that George Lucas somehow got his success from some other movie or whatever and then, in 1999, released the Phantom Menace with the full intention of starting a long movie series and franchise.

Now as we know, the primary reason why we and other people dislike the prequels so much is not simply because of them being bad movies (if that was the case then people would have quickly forgotten about them. After all, there are loads of bad movies out there and few people bother to spend so much time breaking them apart), but because of their butchery of the one of the most beloved and famous movies of our past and popular culture.

But how would the whole thing, and Star Wars itself, be treated if it simply didn't exist before 1999? Also, what if after Episode III, Episode IV, V, and VI would have been made in the same style and writing and whatever as the previous ones where made? How would have things been different? The people's reactions to the movies, and most of all, your reactions and attitudes towards them?

Let's hear your thoughts.

I was bored and so decided to come back here for a quick survey.

In ESB, what was your favorite scene other than the part where Darth Vader gives the 'I am your father' moment? For me, personally, it was the part when Chewbacca gets 3PO and tries to reassemble him, at first 3PO gives the incoherant babbling sequence and shuts off, afterwards he start speaking clearly and mentions his shock at storm troopers being there in the city and ends by yelling 'I've been shot'.

That scene definately had some good moments to it, and it was my second most favorite scene. So this got me wondering... what is everyone else's favorite scene in the movie other than the 'I am your father' part?