When I picture the double sunset on Tatooine in my mind, I imagine I’m there with Luke Skywalker, wondering whether I’ll be stuck on a farm forever or I’ll be able to fulfill my dream of becoming the galaxy’s greatest pilot.
I’m exaggerating, but not much.
To start things off, I’m going to give you all an unpopular opinion, since those seem to be trendy these days: the original Star Wars movie is hands-down my favorite. The franchise has come incredibly far since 1977, but going back to the movie now known as A New Hope feels like coming home every single time. It’s such a fun ride, and I enjoy it more and more each viewing. I’m not saying it’s the best or most impressive movie of the bunch (though I think it has the best humor). But there are a number of things it did very well, and those things set the stage for the many Star Wars sequels and prequels to come. One of those things, and the one I want to take about today, is worldbuilding.
I am a worldbuilding nerd. I watch videos on YouTube about it, think about it when I am enjoying basically any work of fiction, and have entire notebooks dedicated to the craft. And other worldbuilding nerds might be thinking, “Well, if she likes good worldbuilding so much, why is she talking about Star Wars IV?” And that brings me to my second (perhaps unpopular? I don’t really know) opinion: the entire original Star Wars trilogy does worldbuilding amazingly well. Hear me out. While it lacks the intricacies and history of works like those of Tolkien, it does its job in a way that suits its medium, and I would argue that having an appropriate world is much more important than having a complex one.
The locations of the Star Wars movies are clear in my mind. I can understand the general sleaziness of Mos Eisley, the hopelessness of the deserts, the fear of encountering Sand Raiders — and all of this is just
on Tatooine! This is what I mean; the world in Star Wars exists to serve the viewer. It’s not the most out-there world we could have, but it’s one that is designed in a way that helps the viewer understand what’s
going on in the movie, and, in the original trilogy at least, it does its best not to break the immersive experience. Besides the whole muppet-Yoda and the Ewoks thing, but we understand that those elements
are a product of their time.
So, when we watch A New Hope, while we might have no idea about the history of the Sand Raiders or how Jabba the Hutt came to power or where the heck the Death Star is anyway, we don’t actually need to
know those things to be able to follow and enjoy the movie. Those places do a good job of helping the viewer understand what they are dealing with. They help contextualize the space setting by juxtaposing the more abstract concepts (such as a giant space death ship) with more familiar imagery (showing the imperial soldiers as space Nazis).
I personally think that, as time has gone on, the worldbuilding has become less and less solid in the series. I’m not going to blame the rise of CGI or anything. But I do think that less care has been put into the locations of the story in later films. For example, let’s take The Phantom Menace, which is generally not the best example of things. I would argue that the planet of Naboo breaks the immersion a bit, mostly
with he Gungans. It’s just odd, because it’s harder to contextualize. Understanding that Yoda is a muppet who lives in a swamp in the middle of nowhere? Alright. Not too hard. Understanding that a large subset of this planet’s population are frog people with whom the characters must negotiate in order to protect the planet? It doesn’t completely fall apart, but it’s a bit odder. I think we get the idea of weird people living in swamps more than we get the interplanetary politics of the prequel trilogy. It’s like the writers made the world more complex but handled the delivery of the information the same way they handled the less-complex original trilogy worldbuilding. I think the best planet we got out of the prequel trilogy was probably Mustafar, and that’s just because it’s full of lava and looks awesome. And it feels like the sequel trilogy has left worldbuilding as a mere afterthought. The locations are somewhat relatable, but not nearly as memorable as the original locations.
I guess my point is that the original trilogy is full of memorable places: Tatooine, the Death Star, Hoth, Endor, the Cloud City, Dagobah. I’m not trying to whine and say “everything older is better!” like a lot of people do on the internet. There are certainly ways Star Wars has improved over the years (for example, Yoda is no longer a muppet). But I wanted to show my appreciation for those movies and an element of theirs that I think has helped grow the franchise into what it is today. So, cheers to Star Wars.
And Han Solo shot first.
Written by Rachel Williams
Edited by Hunter Raffety
