It's actually astonishing that the Jabba/Leia scenes in ROTJ didn't cause a scandal, back in 1983

[Kor]

Well, Palpatine was Anakin's closest friend and ally.

That's how Anakin saw Palpatine; somebody he could trust and confide in, a mentor figure who really understood him because he wasn't beholden to all those inflexible and frustrating rules of the Jedi Order, and recognized and encouraged Anakin's potential in ways that the Jedi weren't doing. In reality it was just Palpatine manipulating him and getting Anakin more and more under his control.

I vaguely remember in one of the comics there was a Jedi who was human but grew up with a Tusken tribe or something, and Anakin told him about killing the Tuskens. But he didn't spill the beans to the Council.

Also, from the movies and Clone Wars, it seemed that Anakin never told Palpatine about his marriage, or his fear of losing Padme. That was the one thing he didn't dare tell anybody. He had vaguely asked Yoda about premonitions of losing someone, but didn't go into detail about who (whom?). So in ROTS when Palpatine gave him that line about "you will be able to save your wife from certain death," it was clear that Palpatine was more than met the eye, along with the revelation moments before that Palpatine knew the ways of the Force.

Kor

 

[fireproof78]

I vaguely remember in one of the comics there was a Jedi who was human but grew up with a Tusken tribe or something, and Anakin told him about killing the Tuskens. But he didn't spill the beans to the Council.

A'sharrad Hett. He tried to help Anakin overcome his prejudice by revealing that Tuskens were not monsters.

 

[Ithekro]

I seem to recall that by the Legacy era, Hett was still alive and the Sith Lord Darth Krayt. Though a lot had happened to him in the intervening hundred and fifty or so years.

 

[Tuskin38]

Leia's slave outfit is in the new lego game, called Princess Leia (Jabba's Palace). It's a bit more modest, she's wearing a full skirt now than just a loin cloth and underwear.

 

[Christopher]

I've never understood the appeal of LEGO minifigs as character designs in animation, and the above photo really drives home how bizarre they are as representations of the human form. Especially a human form like Carrie Fisher's in 1983.

 

[fireproof78]

I've never understood the appeal of LEGO minifigs as character designs in animation, and the above photo really drives home how bizarre they are as representations of the human form. Especially a human form like Carrie Fisher's in 1983.

You probably don't want to see the make up done to make a Lego person look like a real hum then.

But, I also grew up with Legos in every variation and I love the minifgure in animation.

 

[Christopher]

But, I also grew up with Legos in every variation and I love the minifgure in animation.

The minifigs didn't come along until I was ten. As a kid, I made my own LEGO people by sticking one of the little two-pip pieces on top of another one and drawing a face on the top one in pencil, or sometimes pen. So their heads were the same size and shape as their bodies. To my credit, I didn't always use a white brick for the head, although the only other colors available at the time were red and blue.

Back then, there were no licensed tie-in LEGOs or even specialized themed sets like the Space set introduced in '78 along with the minifigs. There were just three colors of bricks in three sizes, and blue rectangular platforms to use as bases. There was a specialized set that had wheels and gears, and bricks with holes you could stick their axles into, but nothing like the fancy Technic sets. The goal wasn't to build a specific ship or structure as shown on the box, just to build whatever you imagined. These days, there doesn't seem to be anything left except the media tie-in sets.

 

[fireproof78]

The minifigs didn't come along until I was ten. As a kid, I made my own LEGO people by sticking one of the little two-pip pieces on top of another one and drawing a face on the top one in pencil, or sometimes pen. So their heads were the same size and shape as their bodies. To my credit, I didn't always use a white brick for the head, although the only other colors available at the time were red and blue.

Back then, there were no licensed tie-in LEGOs or even specialized themed sets like the Space set introduced in '78 along with the minifigs. There were just three colors of bricks in three sizes, and blue rectangular platforms to use as bases. There was a specialized set that had wheels and gears, and bricks with holes you could stick their axles into, but nothing like the fancy Technic sets. The goal wasn't to build a specific ship or structure as shown on the box, just to build whatever you imagined. These days, there doesn't seem to be anything left except the media tie-in sets.

I mean, I had freebuild sets since I was 5 so I recall building whatever, including an Enterprise bridge

And Lego has moved back towards that with their Classic and Freestyle lines, which is what I primarily use at work. They also have some incredible modular city systems now too.
I know the minifigure was a new addition when I first got my Legos, since I had the finger puppets, and some other basic figures (i.e. no arms or legs).

But, I grew up in the hayday of themed sets, and seeing minifigures in video games and variety of other things. So, minifigures were part of my Lego shortly after I got in to them, around 8 or so.

 

[JD]

I've never understood the appeal of LEGO minifigs as character designs in animation, and the above photo really drives home how bizarre they are as representations of the human form. Especially a human form like Carrie Fisher's in 1983.

I think it's just that, for those of us who grew up with them, and played them as kids, it's kind of fun to see them kind of come to life.
That appears to be from the Skywalker Saga LEGO game. I haven't played that one, but I have played all the rest, and if you like silly platformers, I highly recommend them, they're an absolute blast.

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[fireproof78]

I think it's just that, for those of us who grew up with them, and played them as kids, it's kind of fun to see them kind of come to life.
That appears to be from the Skywalker Saga LEGO game. I haven't played that one, but I have played all the rest, and if you like silly platformers, I highly recommend them, they're an absolute blast.

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They have very fun gameplay. Even my mom likes them and she hates Star Wars.

 

[JD]

Yeah, they're a ton of fun, the Star Wars games have been some of the best, along with the superhero ones.

 

[Qonundrum]

There was nothing remotely novel or shocking about that kind of thing in 1983. The Leia/Jabba scene was basically an homage to a scene depicted countless times on the covers of vintage pulp sci-fi magazines from the '30s through the '50s, slavering space monsters drooling over scantily clad women in chains. After all, Star Wars never contained a single original idea; the whole thing is a hodgepodge of homages to the media images George Lucas grew up with. There wasn't anything in it that hadn't been seen before, except for its innovations in visual effects technology.

What made the new franchise work had to do more with special effects of the likes not seen before splattered rabidly across the screen, and the acting having a certain panache to the character archetypes (raising them above their generic origins). Storywise, TESB appears to be the most innovative of the OT, and not just because there's no death star orb floating by and not because it's the same movie that has Vader revealed as big daddy with Leia frenching (which everyone forgets about, since ROTJ is quick to have Leia saying she always knew Luke was her brother... even the weakest elements of the Sequel Trilogy hasn't gone to that level of oversight...)

But not even the Death Star was an innovation?! (Granted, doomsday machines are an old trope...)

The implied or overt threat of sexual assault as a source of peril for women has been a constant in fiction going back centuries, and was often not taken very seriously by the men writing the stories -- e.g. at the end of Star Trek: "The Enemy Within," where Spock actually teases Yeoman Rand about the evil Kirk's earlier rape attempt on her. And in the 1980s, there were plenty of far more overt depictions of rape in the movies than the vague implications in the Jabba scene.

Excellent and depressing point, as well as the men writing those stories put no thought into how the victims of assault might feel.

 

[fireproof78]

Excellent and depressing point, as well as the men writing those stories put no thought into how the victims of assault might feel.

Frustratingly, it's a common enough trope without much though to the actual trauma that would be experienced.

 

[Christopher]

But not even the Death Star was an innovation?! (Granted, doomsday machines are an old trope...)

Yep, plenty of planet-busting weapons in science fiction history, such as Star Trek's "Doomsday Machine." They were a staple of the pulp sci-fi space operas that were antecedents of Star Wars, though often in the form of bombs or destructive fields rather than mobile weapons platforms.

The whole point of Star Wars was nostalgia, after all. It was a tribute to Lucas's childhood favorites. It wasn't meant to innovate, but to evoke what had come before.