The War in Star Wars is there for a reason. In every episode, we see war in some kind of form. Be it from the occupation of Naboo to the end of the galactic civil on Endor. The war also continues in various forms in the EU and in Star Wars games such Rogue Squadron, Battlefront and Knights of the Old Republic.

What is different is that the realism of the battles changes from episode to episode like the light hearted rescue mission of A New Hope to the uncomfortably realistic in Revenge of the Sith.

I remember when seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time in 1999 when I was 10. I wanted to see action, loads of action and even more action. I wasn't disappointed, kind of. I got to see Jedi weilding lightsabers like they hadn't done in the Old Trilogy, but what about the space battle?

Growing up watching A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, I grew to have a certain love for space battles since the attacks on both Death Stars were just amazing, packed with action and they had Wedge, the coolest pilot in the Rebel Alliance. I had never really appreciated The Empire Strikes Back because a) no space battles b) Darth Vader throttles people which freaked me out as a kid. I have now grown to love The Empire Strikes Back as much as the other episodes.

Back to The Phantom Menace. I remember being disappointed that the space battle weren't as good as those seen in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. I mean, there were like a hundred ships in those battle but I only saw something like 4 pilots in The Phantom Menace. I didn't even want to compare the ground battle because, those aren't as good as those space battles.

This changed when I saw Attack of the Clones. I was then 13 and even though I thought it was a cool ride, the lack of battles were getting at me. Then POW! Hundreds of Jedi descend saving the day and then loads and loads of Clone Troopers land and, in my 13 year old opinion, a battle of epic proportions started. I remember thinking that these Clone Troopers were too cool to be true and since then I've been a Clone fan.

This battle was, however, different from the one in The Phantom Menace. How Lucas used the camera with Saving Private Ryan style close-ups (though, no shaky-cam) made one feel that you were in the battle. I remember a special shot when you see a separatist missile winding it's way through the battlefield and hits a Clone Walker which explodes and several Clone Troopers get crushed during the impact. The camera goes into closeup and it's almost documentary style and you feel some kind of hopelessness that the guy behind the camera can't do anything. Attack of the Clones put a whole other perspective of the war in Star Wars that would continue into Revenge of the Sith.

Even though I had come to appreciate ground battles after Attack of the Clones, I was still happy to finally see a space battle that was on par with the Original Trilogy ones. Also, this one was had a twist to it, with crackling comlinks that were interrupted in the middle of a sentence reminded me of the movie The Battle of Britain and it was somehow weird to see bodies fly out of the exploding ship, twisting around in a futile attempt to escape death. That's when it hit me that Revenge of the Sith is going to be a whole another experiance then the others were. I was right.

Utupau and Kashyyyk are probably most prominent in this case. I remember seeing the Separatists slowly moving across the lagoon and then suddenly, Clone Troopers emerge (fully camoflagued as well) from Hoth style trenches and the massive branches firing at the enemy (it reminded me of the Kashyyyk Docks level on Battlefront). We also see Wookiees come flying down, dropping onto Separatist tanks, laying explosives and jumping off.

Even though real, that wasn't what hit me most of the battle for Kashyyyk. It was that Lucas showed us the aftermath, which he hasn't done before. Ok, so it was only a short scene with Clone Scouts looking at some dead Wookiees in their crashed flying machine, but it does show that casualties are always on both sides in war.

Utupau was maybe a more prime example, there it took the leap into full realism. What struck me with this battle is only two things, two thing that are easily missed but enhances the feeling that Revenge of the Sith shows battles in a totally different way then the other movies. The first on is when a fallen Clone Trooper needs medical attention and one of his comrades are standing over him calling for a medic. My thoughts wandered unhindered to the Band of Brother mini-series, especially the episode where you follow the medic of Easy Company. Another was the Clone Trooper boxing with a droid (I noticed this after reading the Easter Egg article on the site). It somehow shows the will to survive exists, even though you are just cannon fodder and a nobody. Those small things made the battles of Revenge of the Sith more realistic then the ones of the rest of the series

That being said, I'm not saying that the battles of the Original Trilogy are not somehow unrealistic when it comes to the human element. They are maybe not as graphically serious and sometimes not as psychically realistic as the ones in Revenge of the Sith, but it's there, but not as much or as obvious as Revenge of the Sith

The Battle against the Death Star in A New Hope is a thrill ride but we are reminded of the seriousness of warfare by the death of Biggs.
It's the same in The Empire Strikes Back when Dack gets stuck in the speeder and squashed by the AT-AT and Luke is forced to abandone him.
And even though the Battle of Endor can be described as cartoony, it does show a serious undertone when two Ewoks get blasted and one gets up and tries to get the other one with him but his friends is dead. He realises this and leans over his friend, crying.

The Original Trilogy was definetly more light-hearted then the Prequel Trilogy when it came to battles but it did have serious undertones to it all.

And I just want to state that the ground battles belong to the Prequels whilst the space battles belong to the Original Trilogy

I want to also mention the games that makes you be a part of the battle, more specifically Star Wars Battlefront. Recently I played the Battlefield 2 demo at a friends house and I was surprised by the realism of it all because Battlefield 1942 was very much an arcade game, very light hearted. I've been thinking what if the same was for a Star Wars game, that it was realistic? That's not Star Wars. I know I've said that Revenge of the Sith was uncomfortably realistic and it was, but it fits in the context of what was happening plotwise. It's a very dark plot. Star Wars can never be as serious or realistic as Band of Brother or Saving Private Ryan but it can show war (through the eyes of Sci-fi or Sci-fantasy, whatever you want to call it) and still make a statement that war is hell and should be avoided.



And I'm open to comments, so please submit them. Not only to this entry but any of my other entries