Chen G.

Well that's just bad parenting.

Yeah, but then we got Rogue One, Solo, Obi Wan etc...
 
Imagine watching all that stuff and then seeing the original for the first time:
 
Vader's entrance? Meh. Seen him plenty for that to maintain its drama.
The Droids wandering through the dunes? Meh, we've seen endless amounts of far-more-impressively-framed desert shots AND we know Tatooine so its no longer about the Droids venturing into the unknown.
The cantina? Pfft, we've seen more weird aliens than stars in the sky.
The Death Star blowing up Leia's home? Pfft, please! We've seen the Death Star blow up several planets by this point.
The lightsaber battle? Pfft, we've seen people - including Vader and Obi Wan - slash and jump and throw objects at each other, so these two geezers gently poking at each other? NEXT!
 
etc... You get my point.

Yeah, but then we got Rogue One, Solo, Obi Wan etc...
 
Imagine watching all that stuff and then seeing the original for the first time:
 
Vader's entrance? Meh. Seen him plenty for that to maintain its drama.
The Droids wandering through the dunes? Meh, we've seen endless amounts of far-more-impressively-framed desert shots AND we know Tatooine so its no longer about the Droids venturing into the unknown.
The cantina? Pfft, we've seen more weird aliens than stars in the sky.
The Death Star blowing up Leia's home? Pfft, please! We've seen the Death Star blow up several planets by this point.
The lightsaber battle? Pfft, we've seen people - including Vader and Obi Wan - slash and jump and throw objects at each other, so these two geezers gently poking at each other? NEXT!
 
etc... You get my point.

I think that's very, very likely. A kid in 2024 is much more likely to first encounter a contemporary Star Wars show or a recent Star Wars film or couple of films, and much less likely to first hit upon the original, 1977 film, especially seeing as how its nestled into the midst of the whole thing as "Episode IV." There's nothing to say that's the original: its just one of the episodes.
 
And, if that's the case, I do think it will take the edge off of the original film when kids DO get to it eventually. Its a much quainter film - it was made for far less money, and with less means - its more light on its feet, much more referential of then-fashionable pop-culture works, and all those qualities really work for the film in isolation, but when viewed after having seen a good helping of the larger "saga", all that stuff make it feel out-of-place, quaint and kind of underwhelming.
 
Tatooine was probably pretty darn cool in 1977. But if you've seen Episode I (which I think had a far better location scout for Tunisia) and other entries into the expanded series that take place on Tatooine or on other desert planets (Jakku, Geonosis) and which far greater means to showcase the vastness of the desert (not to mention films depicting the antecedents of Tatooine: Barsoom and Arrakis), then the shots of the desert in the 1977 film lose a lot of their grandeur and mystique. Certainly, after all the frenetic lightsaber action in the other entries, the brawl between Old Ben and Vader comes across far lamer than it did in 1977.
 
Probably the best essay written on the film has this to say on the matter: 
 
 

Jedha, Scarif

Yeah, but then we got Rogue One, Solo, Obi Wan etc...
 
Imagine watching all that stuff and then seeing the original for the first time:
 
Vader's entrance? Meh. Seen him plenty for that to maintain its drama.
The Droids wandering through the dunes? Meh, we've seen endless amounts of far-more-impressively-framed desert shots AND we know Tatooine so its no longer about the Droids venturing into the unknown.
The cantina? Pfft, we've seen more weird aliens than stars in the sky.
The Death Star blowing up Leia's home? Pfft, please! We've seen the Death Star blow up several planets by this point.
The lightsaber battle? Pfft, we've seen people - including Vader and Obi Wan - slash and jump and throw objects at each other, so these two geezers gently poking at each other? NEXT!
 
etc... You get my point.

George could've taken more care to preserve ANH and ESB's original appeal while making the prequels.  But, we've got Tatooine, R2, 3PO, Yoda, and Anakin's fall to the Dark Side all onscreen with significant focus in the prequels.
 
But, at least he never showed the cockpit view of the Hyperspace jump until ANH.

The difference between Nicholas Meyer's Wrath of Khan and Gilroy's Andor and to a lesser extent Rogue One: Meyer made a Star Trek movie that was in many ways more Star Trek than Star Trek. It wasn't trying to go in another direction. It was trying to get back to basics.
 
Andor is addressing the Star Wars universe and presenting it in a different way. Andor is like if Star Wars was a real place and Coppola or Fincher decided to make a movie there instead of Lucas.
 
Oh, and Starfleet is definitely a military. Before TNG that wasn't even a question. (Dammit. I slipped back into Star Trek.)

He did A LOT of Tolkien-based pieces, not just this Lord of the Rings piece. He did a large number of Silmarillion pieces.
 
Haven't heard a note of any of it.

I think that's very, very likely. A kid in 2024 is much more likely to first encounter a contemporary Star Wars show or a recent Star Wars film or couple of films, and much less likely to first hit upon the original, 1977 film, especially seeing as how its nestled into the midst of the whole thing as "Episode IV." There's nothing to say that's the original: its just one of the episodes.
 
And, if that's the case, I do think it will take the edge off of the original film when kids DO get to it eventually. Its a much quainter film - it was made for far less money, and with less means - its more light on its feet, much more referential of then-fashionable pop-culture works, and all those qualities really work for the film in isolation, but when viewed after having seen a good helping of the larger "saga", all that stuff make it feel out-of-place, quaint and kind of underwhelming.
 
Tatooine was probably pretty darn cool in 1977. But if you've seen Episode I (which I think had a far better location scout for Tunisia) and other entries into the expanded series that take place on Tatooine or on other desert planets (Jakku, Geonosis) and which far greater means to showcase the vastness of the desert (not to mention films depicting the antecedents of Tatooine: Barsoom and Arrakis), then the shots of the desert in the 1977 film lose a lot of their grandeur and mystique. Certainly, after all the frenetic lightsaber action in the other entries, the brawl between Old Ben and Vader comes across far lamer than it did in 1977.
 
Probably the best essay written on the film has this to say on the matter: 
 
 

Has Wagner risen from the dead?

I think to treat these things in trilogies - as Lucas would doubtlessly want us to - is wrong. In lumping these films up that way, a lot of the nuance in terms of the merits and demerits of the individual entries, is lost.
 
And, again unlike Herr Schilkeman, I personally think the stylistic incongruity between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back is a huge, gaping abyss. To me, the feeling of the films could hardly be more different if they tried. It furthers my case that these films are better seen as six entries, rather than as two trilogies, AND your point that Star Wars and the elusive Star Wars "feeling" is effectively redefined with each passing entry, certainly within the "Lucas" canon.

Now, that's not a fair accusation. I've gone through a lot of comics that Lucas seems to have been through: as far as I can tell, his research STARTED with the Weird Worlds comic-strip, which adapted several Burroughs stories, and only then got into the actual Burroughs' paperbacks. Later on, he and his artists also looked into some recent Flash Gordon strips, works by Moebius and others. And he was certainly inspired by the works of people who illustrated many of these pulp works, including Frank Frazetta, Kelly Kae Freas, John Schoenherr.
 
Furthermore, Lucas had a particular way of working where he drew on literary sources, but processed them through movies: so Dune led him to thinking in terms of Lawrence of Arabia and Metropolis, Galactic Patrol led him to thinking in terms of James Bond and 2001, Princess of Mars got him thinking of The Searchers, The Stainless Steel Rat got him thinking of Casablanca, Tolkien made him think of Disney films, et cetera...
 
Flash Gordon has obvious similarities to Star Wars, and certainly a primary source for Lucas, especially the third serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. But, as I'm sure you'll agree, the relationship is less one of the specifics. Look at the main characters: Flash, Dale and Zarkov. A simple-minded person could say "Well, they're just Luke, Leia and Ben." But anyone who watched the serials would know that's absolutely false equivalency. Lucas is influenced by Flash Gordon, but he by no means rips-off Flash Gordon.
 
That's not to say Flash Gordon isn't a crucial, primary source for Lucas, from the initial instigation to pursue the project, to its name "Star Wars" (Lucas would have known Flash Gordon as "Space Soldiers"), to the whole basic vernacular of rayguns (although in Lucas' film they look more like vintage pistols) and landspeeders (Luke's is straight out a then-recent Gordon strip) to the basic concept of a rebellion against a tyrannical emperor, and some of the (more minor) environments in the sweep of the films like Cloud City and the Gungan city.
 
 What's more, the ramshackled look and the basic approach of metaphorically taking scraps from other movies and books and hitching them together are from Flash Gordon moreso than any other space opera property.  Another hugely important influence of Flash, which is of the essence for JWFan, is the score: the idea of doing a symphonic score and many of the specific choices of the temp-track, which obviously sent Williams down certain avenues, comes from Flash Gordon.

I leave you people alone for a little bit, and y'all go off and talk about Star Trek!

I leave you people alone for a little bit, and y'all go off and talk about Star Trek!

I leave you people alone for a little bit, and y'all go off and talk about Star Trek!

All this arabic in the movie is pretty funny to me.
 
And its Lisan A-Ghaib - "Tongue from the Without."

Can't believe Warners didn't take this merchandising opportunity! 
 

Eh, I think it's fine. Though I probably wouldn't make the same connections, it's a solidly argued fan-theory, and really at its core, a great lesson on chromatic mediants. It's far better than another video I've seen which tried to claim the highest note in the Weakness and Redemption theme is a chord note (making Rivendell's A major - F major chords into F augmented maj7 - Bb augmented maj7).
Also, it's beautiful and I'm not at all envious of their video editing skills.

Forgot to respond to this, but no offence taken here. I enjoy the discussion and its good to have opposition to one's thesis. 

I think to treat these things in trilogies - as Lucas would doubtlessly want us to - is wrong. In lumping these films up that way, a lot of the nuance in terms of the merits and demerits of the individual entries, is lost.
 
And, again unlike Herr Schilkeman, I personally think the stylistic incongruity between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back is a huge, gaping abyss. To me, the feeling of the films could hardly be more different if they tried. It furthers my case that these films are better seen as six entries, rather than as two trilogies, AND your point that Star Wars and the elusive Star Wars "feeling" is effectively redefined with each passing entry, certainly within the "Lucas" canon.

I think the kind of "connections" this guy makes are so academically "musicologistic" as to be practically nonexistent:
 
 

Now, that's not a fair accusation. I've gone through a lot of comics that Lucas seems to have been through: as far as I can tell, his research STARTED with the Weird Worlds comic-strip, which adapted several Burroughs stories, and only then got into the actual Burroughs' paperbacks. Later on, he and his artists also looked into some recent Flash Gordon strips, works by Moebius and others. And he was certainly inspired by the works of people who illustrated many of these pulp works, including Frank Frazetta, Kelly Kae Freas, John Schoenherr.
 
Furthermore, Lucas had a particular way of working where he drew on literary sources, but processed them through movies: so Dune led him to thinking in terms of Lawrence of Arabia and Metropolis, Galactic Patrol led him to thinking in terms of James Bond and 2001, Princess of Mars got him thinking of The Searchers, The Stainless Steel Rat got him thinking of Casablanca, Tolkien made him think of Disney films, et cetera...
 
Flash Gordon has obvious similarities to Star Wars, and certainly a primary source for Lucas, especially the third serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. But, as I'm sure you'll agree, the relationship is less one of the specifics. Look at the main characters: Flash, Dale and Zarkov. A simple-minded person could say "Well, they're just Luke, Leia and Ben." But anyone who watched the serials would know that's absolutely false equivalency. Lucas is influenced by Flash Gordon, but he by no means rips-off Flash Gordon.
 
That's not to say Flash Gordon isn't a crucial, primary source for Lucas, from the initial instigation to pursue the project, to its name "Star Wars" (Lucas would have known Flash Gordon as "Space Soldiers"), to the whole basic vernacular of rayguns (although in Lucas' film they look more like vintage pistols) and landspeeders (Luke's is straight out a then-recent Gordon strip) to the basic concept of a rebellion against a tyrannical emperor, and some of the (more minor) environments in the sweep of the films like Cloud City and the Gungan city.
 
 What's more, the ramshackled look and the basic approach of metaphorically taking scraps from other movies and books and hitching them together are from Flash Gordon moreso than any other space opera property.  Another hugely important influence of Flash, which is of the essence for JWFan, is the score: the idea of doing a symphonic score and many of the specific choices of the temp-track, which obviously sent Williams down certain avenues, comes from Flash Gordon.

Certainly. Many a great composer were lousy pianists: Haydn comes to mind, but also Schubert and Wagner.
 
Okay, "lousy" is not necessarily the right term, but certainly not very great pianists.

Now, that's not a fair accusation. I've gone through a lot of comics that Lucas seems to have been through: as far as I can tell, his research STARTED with the Weird Worlds comic-strip, which adapted several Burroughs stories, and only then got into the actual Burroughs' paperbacks. Later on, he and his artists also looked into some recent Flash Gordon strips, works by Moebius and others. And he was certainly inspired by the works of people who illustrated many of these pulp works, including Frank Frazetta, Kelly Kae Freas, John Schoenherr.
 
Furthermore, Lucas had a particular way of working where he drew on literary sources, but processed them through movies: so Dune led him to thinking in terms of Lawrence of Arabia and Metropolis, Galactic Patrol led him to thinking in terms of James Bond and 2001, Princess of Mars got him thinking of The Searchers, The Stainless Steel Rat got him thinking of Casablanca, Tolkien made him think of Disney films, et cetera...
 
Flash Gordon has obvious similarities to Star Wars, and certainly a primary source for Lucas, especially the third serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. But, as I'm sure you'll agree, the relationship is less one of the specifics. Look at the main characters: Flash, Dale and Zarkov. A simple-minded person could say "Well, they're just Luke, Leia and Ben." But anyone who watched the serials would know that's absolutely false equivalency. Lucas is influenced by Flash Gordon, but he by no means rips-off Flash Gordon.
 
That's not to say Flash Gordon isn't a crucial, primary source for Lucas, from the initial instigation to pursue the project, to its name "Star Wars" (Lucas would have known Flash Gordon as "Space Soldiers"), to the whole basic vernacular of rayguns (although in Lucas' film they look more like vintage pistols) and landspeeders (Luke's is straight out a then-recent Gordon strip) to the basic concept of a rebellion against a tyrannical emperor, and some of the (more minor) environments in the sweep of the films like Cloud City and the Gungan city.
 
 What's more, the ramshackled look and the basic approach of metaphorically taking scraps from other movies and books and hitching them together are from Flash Gordon moreso than any other space opera property.  Another hugely important influence of Flash, which is of the essence for JWFan, is the score: the idea of doing a symphonic score and many of the specific choices of the temp-track, which obviously sent Williams down certain avenues, comes from Flash Gordon.