Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Blogging A to Z: Yoda

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge! All month long we'll be creating posts for each letter of the alphabet according to a theme. Click here to see the list of participating blogs.

My theme is Memorable Characters featuring characters from books, movies, and TV.

Yoda

From: Star Wars

Known For: Jedi wisdom, odd speech patterns

I love puppet Yoda the best, mainly because of his Muppet linkage, but CGI Yoda is pretty fierce too. In the prequels, he's a fighter and a dangerous Jedi to mess with who has years left before swamp retirement. While the Dagobah scenes in The Empire Strikes Back are some of the least interesting in the series, Yoda is who grounds Luke in understanding the force, which ultimately saves them from the empire. But he's just a little green dude with pointy ears! And yet, a legend.

I've already featured Star Wars several times this month. Instead of a question, I will leave you with this Yoda-esque Star Wars viewing suggestion, which reverses the standard order of the films. Perhaps the best way to watch the series as it stands: 4,5,1,2,3,6 (New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of Sith, Return of Jedi (or omit Clones entirely). This was not my idea, but it's pretty much right on. Thoughts?

8 comments:

  1. I love Yoda. He says so many wise things. Thank you for visiting my blog at Tattered Past.

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  2. I read the article and I have to say, "Machete Order" makes a lot of sense. I'll have to re-watch the movies in that order sometime. Much of what the article writer says about how his new ordering fixes the story structure speaks so much to writing novels. He says how frustrating it is to have Episode 1 first when it contains virtually no plot and few memorable characters. Is that a description of our first chapters? Wouldn't we rather have our novel opening compared to Episode IV than Episode I? Also the points he makes about dramatic tension, and asking 'who's this story *really* about"--all great points to consider in our writing.

    I would recommend this article to all novelists, regardless what they think of Star Wars. Thanks for the tip, Stephanie! :)

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    1. I end up cutting all of my first chapters, or rewriting so much that they are indistinguishable from early drafts. That's the problem with pre-quels sometimes is it focuses maybe too much on leading up to the story we know without creating enough of its own story. Had Ep 1 began with kid Anakin that would have helped, much like how A New Hope mainly focuses on Luke's journey. None of the prequels seem to have POV character we journey with.

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  3. I didn't know there was a CGI Yoda. I have only seen the first Star Wars and that was back in 1977 (I only saw it once) so I don't remember much. I was young then. I know, your computer may have blown up reading these words, but... they are what they are and I am what I am...

    Thanks for reading and commenting on my w is for wacky post. Thank you for not coming through the internet to strangle me now! :-)

    Julie Jordan Scott
    The Bold Writer from A to Z

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  4. Yoda is a good one! Just goes to show you that the small ones can pack a punch! Don't underestimate them.

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  5. All my friends grew up loving Disney princesses, but my dad raised me on Star Wars, so I grew up loving Yoda. Also, that order is probably the most brilliant thing ever. :)

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  6. Yeah... I don't agree with the whole out of order thing. I'm not into the whole flashback idea. I kind of hate it. In everything.

    You should watch "The Padawan Menace" from Lego. It has excellent Yoda.

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  7. Guess I'm behind the Star Wars thing.Oops! How did that happen? Oh, maybe because I live on an island.

    Maui Jungalow

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