Talking About 'Star Wars': Why does the writer of Star Wars: The Last Jedi think it is plausible for Princess Leia to survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit?

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Why does the writer of Star Wars: The Last Jedi think it is plausible for Princess Leia to survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit?
Let me ask you this:
Why did George Lucas think it is plausible for starfighters to fly through the vacuum of space and maneuver exactly like jet fighters in atmospheric flight without all the complications of reaction control systems, complicated life support systems, and all of the known problems that space travel poses?
Why did George Lucas think it was plausible for any civilization, even an advanced one with tech supposedly far more advanced than ours, to build a space station the size of a small moon?
Why did George Lucas think it was plausible that a space station the size of a small moon could travel through hyperspace without creating a noticeable gravitational disturbance in its path and wake?
Why do the crew and passengers of any starship, including the Millennium Falcon, fly in and out of space in a “shirtsleeves environment,” even during liftoffs and landings?
Why did Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas think it was plausible to create “one-environment” worlds (bog planets, desert planets, ice planets, forest moons) when we know that not every planet in the Universe would be like that?
And invoking Larry Kasdan again, why did he and Lucas have Han, Chewbacca, and Leia walking in the “asteroid cave” (which was really the stomach of a giant space slug) with only their regular clothes (and in the Wookiee’s case, only Chewie’s fur and bandoliers) and breath masks?
Why don’t humans on Tatooine die of skin cancer on a planet that’s all desert and orbits a binary star system?
Why did George Lucas think it is plausible for a “lightsaber” to work when we know that light (especially laser light) can’t really be focused and adjusted to emit a beam that is, on average, one meter in length?
Why did George Lucas think it was plausible to have a sophisticated robot such as Artoo Detoo that is so sophisticated that it (or “he”) can navigate a starfighter or repair complex machinery, yet can’t “speak” in Basic (aka English)?
Why did George Lucas think it was plausible to show spacecraft that make unique sounds (such as the TIE Fighters’ Stuka-like scream) or weapons such as the sonic charges Jango Fett uses in Attack of the Clones? Sound, after all, can’t travel in the near-vacuum of space.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Questions such as Why does the writer of Star Wars: The Last Jedi think it is plausible for Princess Leia to survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit? are annoying as all get-out.
Why?
First, because Star Wars is not, repeat not, science-fiction a la Marooned (which was based on, depending on whether you read the novel or saw the film, real NASA technology used for Projects Mercury and Apollo) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (co-written by Stanley Kubrick and the inventor of the communications satellite, Arthur C. Clarke, with technical advice from real aerospace engineers and computer experts of the time). It’s space-fantasy, which has some superficial trappings of sci-fi but is really (and Lucas himself has said this) old-school mythology written for - originally - an audience who had grown up in the era of Apollo and the Moon landings.
As the late Irvin Kershner says in the director’s commentary to The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars is a fairy tale. It’s intended to be a story that evokes the stories our ancestors shared over the campfires or jotted down in epic sagas.
Hence the tagline, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”
I’m sorry, but if you seriously nitpick at a film series that was designed from Day One to be a fun-filled bit of escapism for general audiences because you want to seem more clever than the writer-directors that make Star Wars films, you aren’t as clever or mature as you think.
News flash: You’re not.

Comments

  1. Ali McCartneySeptember 19, 2019 at 9:44 PM

    LOL, you're salty! I have a shorter answer: space magic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alex Diaz-GranadosSeptember 20, 2019 at 7:05 AM

      Better salty than bland, I always say.

      And yes, "space magic" would cover it, but I figured I'd get some things off my chest.

      Delete

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