MovieChat Forums > Star Wars (1977) Discussion > 'Star' makes no more sense than 'Wars'

'Star' makes no more sense than 'Wars'


According to the title, this movie is supposed to be about WARS (it isn't) of a STAR.

There's supposed to be a star that wages multiple wars. This never happens, we rarely even see stars as anything other than meaningless backdrop.

So the title, right off the bat, makes NO sense. This movie is not about a war, let alone multiple wars, and it has NOTHING to do with ANY specific STAR whatsoever. It should be called 'old TV serials in space', just like Raiders of the Lost Ark should've been called 'old TV serials as a movie'.

Let's think about what the word 'Star' for a moment. What is a star? It's like George Lucas didn't even know. Our sun is a good example of a relatively small star, there are way bigger ones, but generally speaking, a star is this interesting, glowing miracle of energy in space. There are so many of them, we can't even count them. They come in all kinds of colors and they move around at high speed - there are even pulsating ones that we call 'pulsars', I think.

These stars, or suns ('Sun Wars' makes about as much sense as 'Star Wars', just saying) can support life as the center of solar systems, which consist mostly of planets orbiting the star or sun in the middle.

There are so many references to 'Star' in names, but NONE of them make any sense, which is almost a miracle in itself. How did they name so many things as 'Star' something without stopping to consider what the word 'Star' means?

Let's list a few of these:

- Starkiller (Luke's original name - how do you KILL a STAR as just a puny, tiny bipedal entity? Does Lucas not know how ENORMOUS even our relatively small star called 'The Sun' is compared to even planet Earth, let alone a bipedal entity like Luke? Plus, Stars are not considered to be 'living entities', even though they are very lively and full of energy and 'fusion reactions' not to mention the interdimensional energy flow, magnetic fields and other stuff that's beyond the scope of this post, so you can't REALLY 'kill' a star anyway)

- Death Star (Um.. STAR? Why not a 'Death Moon' or 'Destroyer Planet' at least? Why 'DEATH' Star, as in it CONSISTS of DEATH, as if 'Death' is the MATERIAL it's made out of? It makes no more sense than giving a sword or a gun the name 'Death Building' or 'Death Car', like who the heck named this thing? How do they get funding for something named 'Death Star'? Also, STAR?! REALLY? HOW IS THIS 'almost moon-sized' THING A _S_T_A_R_?! HOW!! Maybe in the Hollyweird-meaning of the word 'star', as in 'a movie star', but I can't even imagine this thing being the lead actor in some stage play... so.. HOW? This is NOTHING like a star!)

- Star Destroyer (Err.. according to this movie, it's a MASSIVELY impressive feat to be able to destroy a planet. These big ships are not even 'moon destroyers', let alone 'Planet Destroyers' (way more fitting name for the 'Death Star' than 'Death Star').

(To name something according to activity is illogical anyway - an activity can't define something that's static and mostly not doing that activity, but we can of course debate about it, as in 'pinch runner' isn't pinching or running all the time, either).

I mean, first of all, to be defined by activity, you would at least have to DO that activity sometimes. You are not a runner if you never run. You are not a killer, if you never kill. You are not a destroyer, if you never destroy.

What do the 'Star Destroyers' ever destroy in this movie? Wouldn't the ability to destroy a friggin' STAR be much bigger an achievement than whatever we're shown Death Star to ever do? How could a lesser tech destroy a bigger object than the most advanced tech in the galaxy?

Why is the ability to destroy a planet such a huge, shocking achievement in this movie, if they ALREADY had ships that can destroy whole STARS?!

So obviously someone didn't understand what 'Star' means, when naming ANY of these things. Death Star is NOT a star, it's barely a 'moon'! Star Destroyers CAN'T destroy stars, they can't even destroy planets (barely moons - did someone confuse 'moon' with 'star'??). 'Stars' can't, don't and probably won't wage wars - especially in this movie, where there's only a skirmish after another, not a full war, and even if there was, the timespan isn't long enough to show MULTIPLE wars unless they're happening at the same time, but we're not shown any of that!

Things would make a bit more sense, if we were to replace 'star' with moon. Let's try it.

'Moon Skirmishes' - well, immediately it seems more plausible. 'Death Moon' is a place where some skirmishes happen, both inside and outside of it. 'Moon Destroyer' - now it makes sense that 'Death Moon' is hailed as something impressive, because previously planets couldn't be destroyed, only moons.

Did someone SERIOUSLY just confuse the meanings of 'moon' and 'star'?

Does 'Star' just 'sound cooler', so they swapped the words?

The names would make sense as 'Moon Skirmishes', 'Death Moon' and 'Moon Destroyer'..

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..but I would still rather rename 'Death Star' to something more congruent with the other names and more descriptive, as in 'Planet Destroyer', so now we'd have a movie aptly called 'Moon Skirmishes', with old, terrifying ships called 'Moon Destroyers', and this new, scary weapon called 'Planet Destroyer'.

Wouldn't that make a lot more sense?

I realize it wouldn't be as 'cool', and of course we're all so used to 'Star Wars', 'Death Star' and 'Star Destroyer' by now, it would sound weird, but you have to admit, it would make a heckuva lot more sense!

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I used to bullseye Wamp rats in my T16 back home, they're not much more than 2 metres

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