Just for the record, when I was a little girl, I did not look up to Princess L. I looked up to Luke Skywalker and thought to myself, "I wanna be a Jedi Knight!". The whole only boys were Jedi Knights didn't occur to me at all... Ah to be young again.
They blow up Jabba's sail barge, not his palace. We see no women aboard (I just checked). You do hear some female-sounding screaming after Leia smashes the electricity off but that was probably Bib Fortuna.
argh! that was bugging me, too, and i had to check the comments. same comment applies to an Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder episode, where he makes the same incorrect assumption.
they were rescuing Han while the Rebel fleet was recouping and planning to assault the second death star. They had to wait like a year for that opening.
It's funny because as soon as he said "Whatever her name is" I thought "There's no way that Dan doesn't know what her name is" I like that it was addressed/became the episode's running gag. Goes to show how well formed these characters are.
Well, I knew that the Twi'lek slave is named Oola. Speaking of which, she wasn't on the barge when they blew it up, she had already been eaten by the rancor. I don't remember the film showing any slave on that barge.
Princess Leia was one of the earliest reversals of the typical damsel-in-distress cliché. In the first movie, she's the beautiful princess who's imprisoned, so the men go to save her, and f*** it up so much the Princess takes charge and gets them out of it. As for her capture by Jabba, it put her in an advantageous position to kill Jabba. I didn't see any of the other slave girls on the barge, so I assume they were still in the palace. And of course, the men didn't rescue Leah from Jabba. R2-D2 did.
Stephen Wells Yeah, Leia never really "gets saved". She always saves her own damn self. I can't name a single time when she "has to get saved by a bunch of men". In the Death Star, which, all they did was open her cell and she saved all their asses from there. In Jabba's, she strangles him... R2 just cuts her chains for her. In fact, she spends quite a bit of time saving the boys-- wow, look, including saving the rebel General Solo who is a key figure in the rebellion that she helps run, who they paid well enough to pay off his debt to Jabba earlier on and only ended up with a bounty because he stuck around to help the rebellion despite that and who was frozen in carbonite while fighting against the Empire, who another key figure in fact the only Jedi in existence at this point would have probably run off to save even without her help. (Wow, look at how different that sounds from a different POV. :P)
+Stephen Wells @4:35 Yeah, I assumed all the slave girls were back at the palace sulking because Jabba took his new favourite slave with him on his barge. I find the notion that all the slave girls were all blown up by Leia disturbing...
+Stephen Wells This works except for "earliest." Reversals of the damsel-in-distress thing are about as old as the damsel-in-distress thing. You're, at minimum, a thousand years off.
Gina Szanboti I was referring to film. And before you go looking for earlier examples of movie princesses reversing that trope, I didn't actually say it was the earliest. I said it was _one_ of the earliest.
Even in film, off by several decades. I'd give examples, but you clearly already found some before you replied. There's at least one film example from 50 years earlier just in wikipedia's "Damsel In Distress" page. Star Wars was amazing, but I'm not aware that anything in it is truly original. Lightsabers, the force, women who aren't just porcelain dolls, all done before. Hell, Leia is directly based on a character from a Kurosawa movie made in 1958, a princess who walks, talks and acts like a man. Not the earliest, not one of the earliest, just the earliest you know about.
Leia lost her family and friends but never had time to mourn them. She stayed tough through thick and thin, kicking ass and not taking shit from anyone. She was never a damsel in distress. Your argument about her saving Han being selfish and sexist is bullshit. Sure,there's other things going on at the same time, but Leia isn't the only one leading the rebellion. Not to mention that And when Leia is leading the rebellion she's ordering men and they listen to her. They respect her. She's got high authority and knows how to properly use it. Not to mention she almost never misses with a blaster. When Leia was a slave it was a very vulnerable and helpless time for her but once again, she saves herself. She kills Jabba, the person who put her in those chains. Not a lot of women are so lucky to escape their captors like that. Leia is my favourite Star Wars character and it saddens me how people only remember her for that one time she showed skin and not the times where she was a person
I think Leia is a wonderful role model for not just girls, but for everyone. She's strong, fearless and sassy but also kind, beautiful and smart. If you don't love Leia for who she is then I'm ashamed to even be the same species as you. Now, on to the other women. First there's Padmé, who's not just a Queen but a Senator. She, just like her daughter, is high in authority, respected, and great with a blaster. Then there's the female Jedi. Yes, they weren't shown until the prequels, but they still exist. Ashoka Tano for example is another popular, strong woman. There's also Ventress, the first female Sith, who poses a great threat to the Jedi council early on in the Clone Wars. The slave women, I'm pretty fucking sure did not choose to be there. You saw that green Twi'lek right? She was scared and uncomfortable. She wanted to be let go. And who's fault is that? Jabba's. A males. There are more male characters, but that doesn't mean they're all good or well rounded.
+display name With The Force Awakens coming out tomorrow, we'll be seeing many more awesome female characters such as Rey, a scavenger who takes care of herself, Captain Phasma, leader of the first order Stormtroopers, the first female X-Wing pilot from the commercials and others who we've yet to seen. Not to mention we have four more Star Wars movies coming out after that, one of which will star a woman. I'll end this argument by saying maybe George Lucas wasn't all for equality, but Star Wars definitely is
@@anubusx Ahsoka doesn't count they are talking about the Original Trilogy. But they DID forget one. Not EVERY woman is a slave girl or politician. They forgot about the Rebel officer in charge of the Ion Cannon on Hoth.
BeedlePencil Not that many. If you look at soldiers on the street, females are pretty rare. Well, I mostly see German and British soldiers. Maybe that is different in America. But it definitely wasn't in the 80s.
lil devils Now I'm just confused. The introduction did say Long ago, In a galaxy far, far away..." so it has to be in the past, but it also has futurist technology. Perhaps this galaxy far, far away is more advanced than we are?
I was thinking that. You have to take into consideration that these are movies from thirty to forty years ago and there weren't a lot of women with a lot of power even in the real world, let alone most movies. Leia is a fairly common personality in today's society, but was a groundbreaking badass in the 1970s when Star Wars came out.
+Phoebe Arellano Alright, then how about the new movies? Yeah, in the 70's things were a lot more sexist, but you think things would be different in more current times, right? Wrong. Anakin's mom is a slave and gets treated like crap. Then two men show up and pretty much take her kid. Sure, you could say she wanted a better life for him, but I mean, come on, did she really have much of a choice? Even if she hypothetically wanted to, there's no way you say no to any demands made by two strange men with weapons who were programmed from a very young age to fight for a powerful and mysterious organization. So they take her son and ditch her? Really? they couldn't free the mom too? They just leave her to remain a slave and that's just ok because she isn't useful (being a woman) and she was forced into a BS situation through no fault of her own because her husband isn't around? Sure, they claim they couldn't have done anything, but they didn't try very hard. Couldn't they have pulled some strings and gotten together some freinds or a favor or money? Mind trick? Trade? Vague threats? Snuck her out? No, they just leave her there to die, because all women are in theory already slaves in one form or another. (unless they're royalty) Even Padme drops everything, ditches her friends, and gives up her super important career to play house with her boy-toy. Even when Anakin starts doing shady things, lying, acting suspicious, doing bad things, making bad decisions, suddenly becomes emotionally unstable, irritable, irrational, distant, strung-out looking, being a crappy husband and kind of a jerk in general- she doesn't just leave his ass. Even after he gets abusive and fucking chokes her, all she can do is say you're breaking my heart and cry and be totally helpless and die of a broken heart instead of having some dignity and self-respect and tell him his behavior has been low-down and she deserves better and break up. But in the end, despite being strong, intelligent, capable, ambitious, and having every reason to go on without him and live a full life at least for her children's sake, she fucking dies, because a woman without her man is apparently nothing more than a broken shell without the capacity or strength to live on her own. You think she would have died from the injuries she sustained, which would have been forgiven, but no, she dies of a broken heart basically. So, nothing about the sexism has gotten better since the 70's. If anything, it's gotten worse. There's no positive female role models in the newer movies despite having been made in a supposedly more progressive time. There's no strong, self-empowered women with a will and mind and ambiitions of life of their own, just damsels in distress. Shit, at least in episodes 4-6 they had Leia.
+Sara Teubert this is why even though so many people are upset I'm glad disney picked it up for the sequel trilogy, they've been getting better with female characters
+Sir Fur They refer to the EU, and besides - this video was about George Lucas' Star Wars. Lucas had (of his own volition) very little creative influence over the EU. Pay attention.
That phallocracy argument kinda dies with Mon Mothma, the lady who gives the rebels their instructions, is the de facto rebel leader, and becomes chief of state of the New Republic. (until the new Star Wars movies say otherwise)
But this is concerning the holy trilogy I mean if I was able to include anything that is cannonically Star wars there are a lot more fem as le role models
***** She is still technically the leader of the rebels in the movies, even if it wasn't explicitly stated. She was handing them everyone their orders. There was even a deleted scene in the prequels that semi-confirmed it.
ltflak totally agree and have to say....Margaret Thatcher...A female Prime-minister of the United Kingdom...Mon Mothma is basically her....Shes a single woman, who runs the entire show, sending many many male soldiers to die on her command just like Margaret Thatcher did in the Falklands. I just think Its funny that they leave out the fact that Leia did not lead the rebels, Mon Mothma did. she was in charge, Boss lady....they said "Lucas Ideal world is one where all these planets and species work together, but no chicks" actually, it was not a phallocracy, it was a Matriarchy, a single woman ruling over thousands of male soldiers, doing her bidding like a bunch of Army Ants.
No there were other leaders of the rebel army Bail Organa being the one who comes to mind. That and wouldn't you think they'd have a counsel of some sort top bypass ideas.
Ok, aside from the fact that these videos are clearly (staged) arguments/discussions and therefore whichever side wins it wasn't pointless, having *one* strong female character when there are like 6 or 7 strong male characters is still significant.
I'd say considering the time, Leia is a fairly progressive female character (gratuitous gold bikini shots aside). She's a smart, feisty, stalwart, hero who is cool under immense pressure. She saved everyone more than a few times, and even stood up to Vader.
I come back to these skits every once in a while, and am reminded of a glorious time on the web when clever people got to make amazing skits for our entertainment. I miss this.
To be fair, Han isn't just Leia's "man." He's a proven and decorated battle commander in the Rebel army, a valuable military and intel asset that has to be recovered, not just the Princess' bae. Otherwise, good points.
Who Kathleen Kennedy killed off like he was a useless little bitch. Notice Leia got to be a general, Hans apparently a CIS white male got plunked by his whiny son.
Then you have the prequels, which has yet another female character that seems strong and empowering at first, then devolves into yet another character defined solely by her male counterpart. Sure, we do see a few female Jedi in those movies, but it wasn't until the first Clone Wars animated series that one was given so much as a speaking role. The second Clone Wars series was the first time (outside of the expanded universe) that Star Wars had a true female main character, and even she was pretty lackluster as a character for the first two seasons. Rebels upped the ante with two female main characters, although both are somewhat eclipsed by the two male Jedi in the group, and finally, The Force Awaken's main protagonist is a woman, as is Captain Phasma, Mas, and oh, look, Leia's back, and this time in a position of actually being a role model.
Here's a controversial point: used to be we didn't have to pretend that women NEVER need help. It's because we didn't used to believe that we could only respect them if they were always in charge and kicking everyone's ass. Leia accepted assistance, and offered it, but was always quick to assess a situation and take charge when she was the most clear-headed and qualified to do so. What she didn't do is demand to always be in command for fear she wasn't enough of a feminist role-model. Luke left his training (despite dire warnings it would lead to his and his friends' doom) to help his friends, yet nobody calls him a bad role model or a traitor to his gender. Having said that, funny video. Keep it up.
My friends said Leia was a badass for suppressing her grief towards everyone she ever knew dying, but not their role model. Everyone I knew looked up to the men, even girls I knew.
4.: I think singling out Leia as side-tracking from the cause of the Rebellion to save "her man" is a mistake; the whole gang, Luke, Chewie, Lando AND Leia side-tracks from the rebels to save one of their own, in spite of the fact that Luke and Lando also have prominent roles in the command structure. I think this is less about Leia's supposed need to identify herself in opposition of a man, and more about the group's fidelity to one of its members - friend, brother-in-arms, AND love interest.
Well, I'd agree that she's a badass in episodes 1 and 2. However, in episode 3, name a single useful thing that she does? She's the goddamn senator of Naboo! She ought to have a lot of power and influence, but the only thing she ever does that could be considered helpful in the Star Wars universe is giving birth to Luke and Leia.
+Phoebe Arellano In episode 3 there was that whole subplot about Padme orchestrating the Coalition of 2000 Systems, that would eventually become the Rebel Alliance. Reportedly Lucas had those scenes deleted to focus more on Anakin's story.
wait. Leia didn't blow up the palace and all the slave girls. She blew up the *sail barge* where Jabba was throwing a party as he executed Han, Luke and Chewie. If any other slave girls were on board the barge they'd have been chained up next to jabba like Leia was, so It's safe to assume they were all back at the palace. Leia was his new favourite so he just took her on the sail barge.
They didn't blow up Jabba's palace, they blew up his "sail barge," and I don't remember any other strippers in the sail barge scenes, I think he just brought Leia.
I liked the video and kinda agree though it feeds into the whole, "The only way to identify with or look up to a character is if they look like me" thing and I don't really buy into that. Basically I feel women can also look up or relate to the male characters too.
I was a fan of Sailor Moon, i watch all of the old episode, when i was a young boy and Tuxedo mask wasn't a character i liked, my favorite was Ami's Sailor Mercury.
Shoehorning Mon Mothma in at the end does her character a disservice. Senator, strategist, organiser of the rebellion. Primary political leader of the rebellion after Bail Organa died. Planned the battle of Endor. Became the chancellor of the new Republic after Palpatine's death.....
Sophia Carpenter Sorry I meant to phrase that as a question. Although now I'm thinking about how Jedi Master Kitt Fisto doesn't wear a shirt or pants necessarily underwater and it makes me think about other characters that go commando or wear less. I mean look at Jabba the Hutt and his family
While I do agree that there is a great big lack of strong female characters in the star wars saga, am I the only one that reacts to the fact women are assumed to need female role models, and that men must have male role models? Can't women look at Luke and say "gosh darn, I'm going to escape my normal life and fight for good stuff", and dudes look at Leia and say "I will be a leader for my people, and fight these injustices" and so on and so on. It's just a wee bit strange in my humble opinion.
+Fredrik Wahlgren I actually think this is more about how women were represented, but I get your point. I, for example, look up to Han and Luke. I can do that. I just don't like the way women are represented through Leia, for all the reasons that were mentioned in the video. You can tell that George Lucas' ideas being ignored by J.J. Abrams was a good thing because of Rey.
+Fredrik Wahlgren I'm 4 months late but can I give a genuine, honest response to this without being barraged with insults? Here's the deal, women, and feminine men like me, get insulted and bullied just for the fact that they are women, or we're feminine, we go through specific bs that masculine men will never go through, this isn't to say men and masculine men in general don't have their own problems, they do but they're a completely different set of problems, and these problems get represented in most of the male protagonist that we've been receiving for decades. Having strong feminine, characters to look up to, and in most cases women, is empowering. It tells us the being feminine does not necessarily mean you're weak, just as many people in life would try to assert. I've heard girly or feminine as a synonym for weak so many times in my life, and it's only because of strong feminine role models that are typically women, such as Leia and Rey, and heck even Padme, I was taught that being feminine doesn't mean you can't kick ass, or you can't lead people. I mean sure, male characters can be feminine too, but they're so rare and sparse, which is why women and feminine guys, want more women in their shows, because we want or femininity to be represented and associated with strength.
Cat Riddle I don't know why you expect to be barraged with insults (well, this is is youtube after all, but I hope I haven't said anything for you to expect it from me). Anyway, I have nothing against your point here. I think it's great that there's role models of all kinds. And I don't think there's anything wrong with feminine men and masculine women, or masculine man and feminine women either (I think the very idea of masculine/feminine to be a bit outdated). All I was trying to say was that I find it strange that it's assumed men need male role models, and women need female role models.
There were female jedi.... And the leader of the Rebel alliance was a woman. There are only one or two "stripper" scenes in the entire trilogy, and the rest of the time women are either fighters, pilots, or diplomats. And the stripper scenes took place in the LAIR of one of the worst criminals in the galaxies. So the point is mute. Leia was a warrior/jedi/princess.
Leia wasn't a Jedi. She could have been and maybe JJ Abrams will lens flare her backstory that she studied after Return of the Jedi. Also there were no female Jedi's shown in the movies and as everyone knows, the prequels never happened.
You meant moot... The problem is that Lucas is an insanely overrated director/writer (possibly terrible) and without 20th Century Fox, the original trilogy would have been as terrible as the most recent one. We saw what happened when Lucas started getting his way and surrounding himself with sycophantic yes-men when Return of the Jedi came out. And, we saw what happened to the Indiana Jones series when Spielberg gave George the lead on the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's story... By the way I love the Star Wars universe and the stories. I just think Lucas is a greedy hack.
Playfulpanthress im sure they would have been given to jabba's inheritants, or killed, if that was in his will. ancient Egyptians were buried with several handmaidens, but I think it might be a bit different in jabba's palace...
surely as old as he was, being the bell ringer in the podraces in Phantom Menace, he would have selected heirs, and while its uncomfortable to imagine an ugly slug reproducing, I believe the planet nal hutta might have something to do with it. that aside, jabba would have someone to give his stuff to; he lived like a king, and at the very least one of his hutt friends would have taken his belongings
It's simple. It's f***ing Star "Wars", and back when it was written, women didn't play a big part in front line military combat. Even when you look at the prequels, they're at least a bigger part in government/ruling/diplomacy, etc. The movies just reflect the periods in which they were written and the social context of war (the most important underlying essence of the story... remember??... Star "WARS".) Call me sexist or whatever, but it's not a soap opera... and the closest it got to being so was in the pre-quels. :p Not that I agree with all that, but it's just my personal observation on why females don't have more prominent roles in the movies. Technically, sci-fi/space or whatever, they're still WAR movies.
Yes, it is a military based movie. How many women were in Platoon or The Great Escape or any war themed movie. Really when you look at Star Wars as a war movie it has female characters in some of most important roles and they are a force to be recognized.
And don't forget than in the prequels, it was mainly a war between clones (of 1 man) and droids (who don't have sexes) ... Let's hope they will have a bigger place in SW7.
That's not really the point, is it? Lots of good films don't depict women well, and that doesn't make them bad films. Depiction of one sex or another and quality of film are two separate parameters. You could have a fantastic film that doesn't have a single female character in it (say, 2001: A Space Odyssey), or a terrible film featuring only female characters. The point is that the Star Wars trilogy is terrible for female characters, despite being a good series of films.
You could use the same argument for Star Trek, and yet Star Trek managed to put female characters in the front lines as important, interesting, and strong characters. Star Wars is terrible for women, that's pretty clear. No matter how good a film it is, people can still criticize it for its failings.
Not secretly at all. Women have known this about basically every film, but when something happens about it men think its oppression (like the whole captain marvel thing)
Wow not even close. The captain marvel thing was because the actor decided to say things that she shouldnt have said. No one but the comic book fans knew anything about captain marvel and she goes and shoe horn some bullshit about sexism. She starts a controversey and wabts a damn cookie for it no. Second of all not to every film either accross the years films have stong female and male characters everywhere. To deny them their due is very wrong of you.
So... Leia doesn't need to be rescued... She does the rescuing instead. gets kidnapped and then escapes by choking her captor to death with her very chains of enslavement. She is like 10 & 0 against storm troopers in gun fights. Basically saves the lives of all the people who "save" her from the death star. Where, incidentally, as a prisoner she dresses down Vader and Tarkin! The only thing that stops the verbal thrashing is blowing up her home planet. Also she saves Luke in Empire. She might no be the best female role model but she is definitely the best Disney PRINCESS.
+snatchadams69 and shot in ROJ but none of that stopped her. She adapts and overcomes. Its not sexist for her to get shot and then keep fighting... It's kinda feminist.
That's not proof of an incest fetish, it's just perfectly normal human behaviour. Luke is cute, so Leia is attracted to him. Leia is hot, so Luke thinks she's pretty sexy. Is it unnatural and incestuous for me to think that my sister is pretty, or that my brother is physically attractive? It doesn't mean I want to snog them or sleep with them, it just means I am able to recognise that they are good looking.
Mon Mothma is awesome. Oh, and let's not forget that by the time Ep. VI was out, Han was a high-ranking officer in the rebellion, making his liberation from Jabba actually kind of an important goal.
Watching this in 2018, makes me appreciate the Star Wars movies we have now even more, despite how polarising they can be (Star Wars 7,8, Rogue One). Despite have their own issues, I'm still glad that the new movies have more women in speaking roles and with fleshed out characters (flawed as they are).
Well, the saving Han thing was a collaborative plot orchestrated by a group of his friends. Leia wasn't the only one there, neither was she the only one who wanted to save him. Also, the whole phalocracy thing is bunk because the leaders on the good side consisted of two women and I think like one dude we see in episode 4 and admiral Ackbar. The bad side was all dudes.
Oh, just remembered the guy at the beginning of episode 5. So that is mostly male leaders, but only by one, it's not that bad is it? Another thing I should point out is that I do think that the original trilogy as a whole does have bad female representation, I just don't think those were justifiable criticisms.
Haven't watched the video yet, but I'm going to throw out my why. It's because in the original trilogy, there are apparently only two women in existence. In the Prequels there are more women, which means that somwhere between the prequels, and the original trilogy, something horrendous enough to cause a disturbance in the force happened to all of the women in the Galaxy. There may have been more women on Alderaan, but that got wiped out too, so there ya go. Also, if they have more than two women in the galaxy in the 7th one, it'll totally negate ALL of this.
Just wanted to point out the statement about "literally every other female being a dancing space model" is incorrect. The rebel leader was a woman, Luke's aunt who helped keep him safe and kept his secret till he was ready. And let's not forget that since then Padme Amidalla was a good example of a strong female character who could take care of ehh own. And lead her people. And of course now we have Rey.
Heather Donahue "probably impregnated by one of her masters"? Sorry, I'm all for liking the character but you do remember the whole "there was no father" bit, right? The birth was a virgin birth as reference to the birth of Christ, announcing a saviour, in this case Anakin, the "chosen one". *If* she was "impregnated" it would have been by Darth Plagius, who was a Sith Lord and scientist, experimenting with artificially creating midichlorians in living beings. He wouldn't have physically touched her or even met her but that's the running theory.
At least Star Wars had Leia. Try the hobbit, not the new movies, the actual Hobbit. There isn't a single active female character. There are only 3 females mentioned, Bilbo’s mother, Fili and Kili's mother, and Girion of Dale's wife. Of these only Bilbo's mother is given a name,
It wasn't just Leia, it was all of them going to rescue their friend, not Leia heading out on her own ignoring her duties. Not to mention it was something like 2 years later that this happened, presumably they were still doing Rebel shit in that time.
she rescued Han because the rebellion needed him. they didnt exactly have a surplus of bodies to throw around and he was legitimately the best pilot they had.
New Leia = Katniss The leaders of the rebellion against the evil government who constantly get saved by guys and nearly abandon their mission to stand behind their man who is in no way right for them
nah cos they dont fit their agenda in all the other star wars books and movies the women are badass like Padme, Asoka, ventress etc are strong female characters
Padme is the antithesis of a strong female character. She sacrifices tons of people to further her agenda, she's terrible at her job, she immediately leaves her duties to pursue a romance with a PSYCHOPATH, and leaves her children without a mother as she "checks out" after losing her will to live. She's not even a character let alone a "strong female character".
The reason that all imperials have British accent is because they are all recruited from Drummond Kaas, the imperial homeworld and the planet that the dark jedi settled on after they deemed Korriban to be unsuitable for their habitation. (Source: SW:TOR lore)
***** the reason for British accents is a lot of the imperial navy leadership is from upper-class coruscant society.... based to British nobility and gentry.
c Cavitt taken from Wookiepedia about Domund Kaas, The reconstituted Empire eventually dissolved before 2,000 BBY, and Dromund Kaas' jungles gave way to murky swamps over the centuries as the planet's location once again fell into obscurity. A major battle of the New Sith Wars was fought on Dromund Kaas, and several decades later the rogue Sith Lord Darth Millennial established the Dark Force religion on Dromund Kaas after he rejected the Rule of Two and abandoned the Order of the Sith Lords. The Prophets of the Dark Side who followed Millennial's religion ruled Dromund Kaas for almost a thousand years before they incurred the wrath of Darth Sidious, causing the Prophets to abandon the planet for Bosthirda. Despite its relative obscurity, the planet became embroiled in the galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars, but the powerful influence of the dark side of the Force on Dromund Kaas continued to draw both Jedi and Sith to the planet over the next several decades.
Out of those 5 women who were mentioned, 1 was a princess (is that a job?) and rebel leader, 1 was a dancer/slave, 1 was a farmers wife/probably also a farmer, 1 was a singer, and 1 was someone in some position of power within the rebellion. Now even though we never actually see her strip, we can assume that Jabbas' slave-girl was a stripper at least some of the time. Who else in there is a stripper? She says the majority of them are strippers, but I'm counting only 1 in 5. That's still fairly high, but if you add in all the other women within the star wars movies (in the prequels, and the new ones) that ratio becomes noticeably smaller. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: For the love of all that is good and holy in this world and any other, stop making everything out to be racist, or sexist, or any other 'ist' you can think of just to get views on the internet. People will watch this, and then believe the crap you spew, and start spewing it themselves, and then everything will go even more to shit then it already is. If you want to talk about ACTUAL instances of sexism, and racism, and other isms, then go right ahead, but stop trying to ruin other peoples enjoyment of things just to make some fucking money.
First of all, if you would stop ignoring the prequels you would see that Padme Amidala exists. In fact, *she* was my main role model in SW as a kid, not Leia. The prequels also have the handmaidens such as Sabe and Dorme and Corde who are badass af and keep Padme alive. Then there's Shmi, who is a badass mom who survives slavery and poverty on Tatooine and raises Anakin. The OT had Mon Mothma, and Beru also gets credit in my book for being a good mom and really kind woman. I could also talk about Oola and Zam Wessel. And yes, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel. These women are at best secondary leads without as much screen time as the main, male leads, and most are very ignored side characters. A lot are only shown as mothers and wives, and very few female characters in Star Wars are Jedi or even have any part in the main plot. It is horribly unfortunate how poor female representation is in the original six SW films, especially in the OT; there aren't even female Rebels or Imperials in the background, most of the time. But we can't simplify it down to 'only Leia'. Ignoring Padme is unforgivable, and there are several other characters that at least deserve a mention. I won't stand to see Leia criticised for saving Han. First of all, that's a decision her and Luke made together. Would Luke have left Han with Jabba? Fucking no, he wouldn't. ESB proved that. Are you going to criticise HIM for that? I don't think so. Also, if it was the other way around, Han and Luke saving Leia, I doubt you'd question it. So that argument is bogus. Also, I doubt Lucas put so much thought into the plot that Leia can be said to have deliberately and with careful thought intended to kill slave women. Leia is a good role model and you can fight me. I agree with the overall sentiment of this video, obviously. Star Wars needs a hell of a lot more women, and I'm glad the new movies are on the way there (as well as the shows). I'd also like to point out that the Star Wars fandom is a sucky place for women. We get to hear men whine about our tiny group of female leads as if there are somehow too many and criticise them and call them Mary Sues. Also, just try suggesting to the male KotOR fandom that Revan is or could be a woman. They'll cry about '''''canon''''' until you want to punch them. Because they're sexist and refuse to admit it. Maybe if Star Wars becomes a female-led franchise, they'll leave.
The problem with the new Star Wars franchise female leads is that they feel forced, not organic. The leaders are not believable to be leaders. Some of them make sense. Rey feels natural but most of them you can tell that the only reason that they got through the ranks to leader is simply because it was written that way. In our current society there are more men in higher positions not because they are men but because it is mostly men that apply for those jobs. Nearly exclusively men. Aa well as it usually men that would do overtime. So, aside from poorly written female characters (star wars) that is another reason that it is unbelievable that every job in the movie is lead by a woman. It just doesn't happen. It just comes off feeling like more sexism from Hollywood. Female leads are great but don't do it just so you have a female lead, we notice.
Three things: First, the head honcho of the Rebel Alliance is female. Second, Leia and Amidala have big roles in the movies as fighters and being close friends with Jedi, and lastly, they did not blow up Jabba's palace. They blew p his ship, which only had one woman in it: Slave Leia. The rest, aside from undercover rebels, were Jabba and his men.
9 years later... It actually got worse! Rey, independently force-strong; Mary-sue. Holdo, calls out Poe's kamikaze maneuvers because their numbers are already dwindling; mean mommy-figure. Rose Tico, received a shit-ton of backlash and was relegated to a minor-role in RoS Maz Kanata, gave them a lightsaber Captain Phasma, HAH!
This video is designed to be entertaining and also make people think a bit about more in-depth about something most of us have seen. That being said, they criticized those with a knowledge of the EU which would be considered "too in-depth" or too nerdy while thinking very deeply about the subject themselves. Very hypocritical. That being said, this video is clearly designed primarily as entertainment and not something to be taken too seriously.
I know you're only talking about the Original Trilogy, but how about: Ahsoka Tano? Aayla Secura? Assajj Ventress? Shaak Ti? Satele Shan? Bastilla Shan? Deppa Billada? Sabine Wren?
+josiah jenks Go up to any random person on the street and ask if they know who Princess Leia is. 7 / 10 you'll get the correct response (except if you're at a con then the percentage goes way up). Now do the same with any of the names you listed. Roughly 2 / 10 would know, except if you're at a con.
Bernard Gilbert The General Public doesn't matter in this topic. If they're going to diss a franchise, they need to look into all the Franchise, not just one or two movies
josiah jenks Not everyone has the time or inclination to watch, read, or play everything _Star Wars_. I consider myself rather knowledgeable about SW and I don't recognize half the names on your list. As they stated in the video, discounting the Expanded Universe (because no sane person has time to read it all) and going by just the movies, George Lucas doesn't have a good track record when it comes to representing women.
That's if your only talking about the original trilogy. Everywhere else in the other source material, such as books, and (God forbid) the other three movies, there are plenty of badass Jedi women.
9 лет назад+17
Nicholas Musser Even in the original trilogy, a dying Yoda makes it clear that the princess could become a Jedi. I'm surprised Cracked missed that one.
+Nicholas Musser or even worse in [the movie that shouldn't have been named] theres a female news lady and bartender aswell as female passersby in the background
+Nicholas Musser Hey man, the other 3 movies weren't all that bad. Biggest problem is that people were having insane expectations due to how awesome and ground breaking the original trilogy was. Nothing can live up to that. Well, the new movies do seem to have the potential, but we'll see about that.
Ayla Secura, Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala, Shaak Ti, Maris Brood, Juno Eclipse, Lana Beniko, Kira Carsen, Jocasta Nu (Comic book Jocasta), Serra Keto (Queen of roast and great moveset), Satele Shan... Damn, there is a lot of good or at least decent female characters in Star Wars, and Lana Beniko is just... Damn, that women is unbeliable. I love that part were she sits with a jedi master and just have a phylosophical conversation about leadership, responsability and Jedi/Sith ideology.
*SPOILERS* Rey. The girl who magically got her powers after ten seconds of concentrating. The powers that Luke, arguably the most powerful Jedi so far, had to spend ages acquiring through training with a Jedi grandmaster. Overcompensate much? -.- (And don't get me started on Finn being able to fight off Kylo with a lightsaber…)
Yeah I was thinking that Rey would surprise Ren with her surprise powers, but since the were new, Ren would eventually outduel her. However, Luke would then show up, injure Ren (but couldn't kill him), and the planet would split like it did in the movie. In other words, they should have had Luke come at the end to save Rey from Ren so that he has more screen-time, gets us on our feet, and have a better reason why Ren would want to become stronger through the dark side of the force.
Well, to be fair to Lucas, it IS called Star Wars... you know, WARS? For better or worse, war kinda tends to be the province of males. Plus, there is Mon Mothma (www.starwars.com/databank/mon-mothma) (oh, they do get to her at the end - well, whatever, fuck it - I'm leaving that shit right where it is). Further, while there does seem to be some real limits on the roles for women in dude's universe, the two that aren't strippers are very powerful leaders and highly respected. So, maybe we could accuse him of a kind of Madonna / whore thing (where the Madonnas aren't so much mothers as they are either kick ass, hands on rebel leaders or noble political strategists). What's more, while only a couple of the goodies are female, ALL of the villians are male. Not a single female baddie in the whole thing... unless I'm mistaken about that - hopefully someone can confirm or rebut that.
JoeNietzsche I think nowadays war _tended_ to be the province of males, with Star Wars only going with the gender roles we have/had because of the time and world it was made in.
Master Markus Tended? A quick snapshot of male to female casualty ratios. "Female veterans comprised 1.9% of all casualties [meaning 98.1% of casualties were male] and 2.4% of all deaths [meaning 97.6% of deaths were male]". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21390560 Although, as an interesting aside, women did die in higher percentages than men. "In OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom], the percent death for women was 14.5% (103 deaths) versus 12.0% (4226 deaths) for men. In OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom], the percent death for women was 35.9% (19 deaths) versus 17.0% (793 deaths) for men. Battle-injured females had a greater proportion of facial and external injuries and more severe extremity injuries compared with those nonbattle-injured." Unfortunately, all those following numbers seem to suggest is that, perhaps, those opposing women in combat may have a point. If the percentage of women dying is about double that of their male counterparts, this is a good indicator of a problem. The problem may be the reduced physical requirements placed on female soldiers, it may be something else - but it is a significant number. Now, the percentage questions aside, the actual number of women involved (even if we included forces with relatively large numbers of women like the Kurds / Israelis / etc) is so low compared, likely single digit percentages, to that of men throughout the world that to say wars are fought almost exclusively by men is accurate. Thus the statement "province of men" is reasonable.
JoeNietzsche Bloody hell. I didn't ask for statistics. Either way, I meant more that it's not that women _can't_ do it, or that it's something necessarily natural to men (you can argue what you want, I believe that people can be good or evil, or moderate, violent and not without this quality involving gender and you probably won't change my mind if that becomes your intention). Either way, there are more women in war. There will probably continue to be more women in war as long as war happens.
Master Markus Capability is irrelevant. With modern technology, children are capable of fighting wars and, in many places, they do. Does this mean that war is the province of children? No, such a claim would be absurd. The vast majority of people that fight in wars are young to early middle aged adult males. It is that simple. Thus any descriptive statement that acknowledges this is reasonable. Adding a past tense to the description is simply wrong and, frankly, a little strange. Perhaps you're confusing your oughts with what is.
JoeNietzsche I think I was confusing what I was thinking about the general topic of gender and war rather than what you were specifically talking about. I'm kind of tired, I think I got rambley.
Luminara Unduli was a female, jedi master, general, adviser to council, and chancellor, and she was present in star wars prequel trilogy... Given it was only for order 66, but point still stands. There's also Shaak Ti, who was present in the movie during order 66, but also has rich history off screen. And that is the power of 10 min research on google... :D
Leia didn't abandon her people saving Han could be seen as a rescue mission considering he was a general for the rebellion and was crucial in the battle of Ensor
Emmett Ochrach-Konradi Yeah, Leia was there. I don't recall Mon Mothma being at the base on Hoth (she was in ROTJ for sure). But for the Hoth base, I'm sure I recall seeing a couple of other women in the control center in the Hoth base, also dressed in the same outfit as Leia (I guess its a standard Hoth outfit for women).
Daniel S There were. and also Its funny that they leave out the fact that Leia did not lead the rebels, Mon Mothma did. she was in charge, Boss lady....they said "Lucas Ideal world is one where all these planets and species work together, but no chicks" actually, it was not a phallocracy, it was a Matriarchy, a single woman ruling over thousands of male soldiers, doing her bidding like a bunch of Army Ants.
dude I liked Luke too. and Chewy especially. but while you're right in that your role model doesn't have to reflect your gender, it would be pretty cool to just see some more chicks. they shouldn't all be main heroes, but we should see more female background characters especially considering we make up half the population.
To be fair, the two non stripping female characters, who aren't Luke's aunt, are in positions of power, and Leia is only a princess in the first movie, meaning they could've easily demoted her or put her to the side in the rebellion if she wasn't a competent leader, so I feel a phalocracy might be off the mark here.
Are you implying that she is a strong female role model? She married a kid showing signs of sociopathic tendencies simply because he said he was in love with her (more like obsessed really they knew each other for like 3 days and he never saw her again for another 10 and he says he's in love with her). Seriously though, the romance just happens it doesn't get built up realistically despite the fact that they spend half the screen time on awkward scenes between the two. Then she ends up dying for it. Not the best role model doesn't matter what badass moments she might have.
Here another fun fact. Who the heck looks at movies to fine a role model? Just because i saw the Smurf does that mean i need to fine role model in one the 100 something smurfs ...just sayin.. fine it weird that everyone needs to fine a rolemodel or "something" this days.
9 лет назад
Lord Meric It's something subliminal, it happens subtly over time and it's automatic, not something we do consciously. Given a story, in an effort to better relate to it we naturally prefer the point of view of one character a bit more than the others.
Stéphane Lavergne So in the end.. the person that sees a role model in Fictional characters is weak minded.
9 лет назад
Lord Meric It's not really about weakness, it's about adapting to the world around us (which, during a movie, is that world). It's the basis of advertising, for example, and applies to all humans, except maybe autistics I suppose. Our strength as a species has been how quickly we adapt to new situations and challenges, and that comes at the price that we're easy to brain-wash. :)
I think people are forgetting that this was made in the 70's and 80's. You can't really compare today's better standards of equality to what it was then. Tbh we're lucky we even have Leia...
Actually, that one slave girl at 4:25 survived. Most of Jabba's slave girls did survive. The one at 4:25 danced at Leia and Han's wedding. Resource comes from the character wiki book from the Clone Wars to the Return of the Jedi.
So.... Padme Amidala -Has fought in the front lines of wars -Lead a rebellion against the separatist invasion -Has broken out of multiple imprisonments without outside help -Dies due to a broken heart (depression can actually cause you're heartstrings to weaken, causing you're heart to work at a lesser capacity) during childbirth -Lead an entire planet as their queen Shaak Ti -Nearly killed Grevious -Fought in the war on Geonosis and helped win it -Held her own against Starkiller and could very well still be alive (if Boba Fett, a clone, could escape from a sarlaac pit twice, she could do it as well using the force). Asajj Ventress -Assassinates Jedi for a living -Nearly killed Dooku -Has survived more shit than any other Star Wars character. Ahsoka Tano -Just watch the Clone Wars, she's pretty much the main character of that. You guys forget that there was a prequel trilogy that wasn't actually that bad. I mean compared to a lot of other science fiction it's pretty good. Remember that George Lucas creates entire backstories for every character, even side characters. It's just the way he writes.
umm she did not abandon her people to save her man han solo (captain Solo) was part of the rebelion and since he helped destroy the death star he had value. lets not forget he was more than a boyfriend he was first of all a friend who saved her from the death star. so if anything she was repaying a debt. to a friend. ugh.
Also, as far as I can tell, it wasn't like she just dropped everything to go rescue her boyfriend, taking EU out of the table, we still have plenty of time for her to assist the alliance and develop a plan to help han. Like you said, he has value, why would the rebels even consider him on that final mission in Return of the Jedi? If he's just a smuggler or leia's boyfriend, it doesn't make sense to turn him into a general. But they did because it's Han and Han Solo is fucking awesome.
just want to clear this up my coment was made in jest of this video. I love this channel and I love to see more. but yeah what I said is still star wars fact so there
About Jabba's slave girls, the one with two tentacles on her head was fed to the Rancor by Jabba while the other ones may not have been on Jabba's sail barge but at Jabba's palace I think. Besides, in the Star wars Novel "Tales of Jabba's Palace", a number of the Sail Barge's passengers got off it before it blew up so it's not guaranteed that they died with Jabba.
Caleb Buttenhoff Well for one, the story was entirely simplistic, it had your major characters, each of which were arbitrary representations. Further, knocking someone off just because they were common does not make sense when you hold up star wars as your choice for identifiable role models. On her own, Leia kicked more ass and took more names than any other female lead had before. She was the example of what a female lead could be. She had her own agency, she organized and fought on the front lines, and she wasn't afraid to stick her neck out for the cause she believed in.
Amy and they basically refuted your argument in the video. I can understand how it was ground breaking for the time, but that still doesn't get it off the hook of blatant sexism ( you can only be the heroine if you're a princess/attractive?)
4,5, and 6 is just a small piece of the star wars universe. if their going to talk about females and star wars, they have to cover everything, the old republic, clone wars, animated series, galactic civil war, and the new republic.
***** For a LARGE portion of star wars fans, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are the only starwars movies. They're the ones people remember watching as kids. The ones people tried to re-enact when they had super soaker fights. Hell, not even fans, but just casual watchers who were born a bit before the new trilogy still think only of the original three movies when some one mentions Star Wars. I'd be willing to admit the new trilogy could be considered seeing as they were fully fledged movies (Albiet terrible), but thats where i draw the line. Animated series, books and Games just bear far too much creative license to be considered Canon.
Neat ideas, I love the After Hours videos. While Leia had a personal interest in rescuing Han, other main characters in the Rebellion also participated in the rescue. So it was not just Leia rescuing her man, I think they weighed that Han Solo was a resourceful and talented character He was also charismatic and popular. I think the main characters understood that he was a valuable resource, good for propaganda, heroic, rakish and I think he was good for morale among the Rebel personnel. In the end there was a decision made to rescue probably on the gamble that had he been a good asset to the Rebellion in the past and would be so in the future. Evidently it paid off because he was valuable on the ground with Endor strike team.
Just for the record, when I was a little girl, I did not look up to Princess L. I looked up to Luke Skywalker and thought to myself, "I wanna be a Jedi Knight!". The whole only boys were Jedi Knights didn't occur to me at all... Ah to be young again.
Same here. I didn't look up to Leia at all. I looked up to Luke and Han.
Yeah, being little was awesome.
I totally had a Han Solo costume when I was a kid! It ruled
They have a bunch of female Jedi knights though
But Jedi knights can be any gender. I thought the new Shitty sequel trilogy proved that.
Soren’s obliviously unironic admiration for Dan’s impressions are endlessly amusing.
They blow up Jabba's sail barge, not his palace. We see no women aboard (I just checked). You do hear some female-sounding screaming after Leia smashes the electricity off but that was probably Bib Fortuna.
thank you for making that point
argh! that was bugging me, too, and i had to check the comments. same comment applies to an Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder episode, where he makes the same incorrect assumption.
they were rescuing Han while the Rebel fleet was recouping and planning to assault the second death star. They had to wait like a year for that opening.
Fair, but in SW rouge squadron, you can bllw up his palace sooo
Fortuna is a male twe’lik
It's funny because as soon as he said "Whatever her name is"
I thought "There's no way that Dan doesn't know what her name is"
I like that it was addressed/became the episode's running gag. Goes to show how well formed these characters are.
Am I the only one that binge watches these?
+Randall Brittingham
not really.
nope I've been bingeing on em for two nights
+Randall Brittingham nope, youre not alone 😁
Nope I do too.
+Randall Brittingham Are you the only person who binge watches the only worth-while content on Cracked's channel? No. No you're not.
What does it say about me that I also knew Mon Mothma's name immediately?
Nah... Nothing. It's common knowledge, right?
Right...?
That you're a Star Wars fan. And to a fan, that would indeed be common knowledge. I knew it as well. Nothing to be ashamed of. Most of the time...
Mike Stone it is known.
Definitely yelled it out loud like DOB normally does
Well, I knew that the Twi'lek slave is named Oola. Speaking of which, she wasn't on the barge when they blew it up, she had already been eaten by the rancor. I don't remember the film showing any slave on that barge.
IT WAS A TRAP
I usually refer to Mon Mothma as "Space Julie Andrews".
haha so legit
Princess Leia was one of the earliest reversals of the typical damsel-in-distress cliché. In the first movie, she's the beautiful princess who's imprisoned, so the men go to save her, and f*** it up so much the Princess takes charge and gets them out of it.
As for her capture by Jabba, it put her in an advantageous position to kill Jabba. I didn't see any of the other slave girls on the barge, so I assume they were still in the palace. And of course, the men didn't rescue Leah from Jabba. R2-D2 did.
Stephen Wells Yeah, Leia never really "gets saved". She always saves her own damn self. I can't name a single time when she "has to get saved by a bunch of men". In the Death Star, which, all they did was open her cell and she saved all their asses from there. In Jabba's, she strangles him... R2 just cuts her chains for her. In fact, she spends quite a bit of time saving the boys-- wow, look, including saving the rebel General Solo who is a key figure in the rebellion that she helps run, who they paid well enough to pay off his debt to Jabba earlier on and only ended up with a bounty because he stuck around to help the rebellion despite that and who was frozen in carbonite while fighting against the Empire, who another key figure in fact the only Jedi in existence at this point would have probably run off to save even without her help. (Wow, look at how different that sounds from a different POV. :P)
+Stephen Wells @4:35 Yeah, I assumed all the slave girls were back at the palace sulking because Jabba took his new favourite slave with him on his barge. I find the notion that all the slave girls were all blown up by Leia disturbing...
+Stephen Wells This works except for "earliest." Reversals of the damsel-in-distress thing are about as old as the damsel-in-distress thing. You're, at minimum, a thousand years off.
Gina Szanboti I was referring to film. And before you go looking for earlier examples of movie princesses reversing that trope, I didn't actually say it was the earliest. I said it was _one_ of the earliest.
Even in film, off by several decades. I'd give examples, but you clearly already found some before you replied. There's at least one film example from 50 years earlier just in wikipedia's "Damsel In Distress" page. Star Wars was amazing, but I'm not aware that anything in it is truly original. Lightsabers, the force, women who aren't just porcelain dolls, all done before. Hell, Leia is directly based on a character from a Kurosawa movie made in 1958, a princess who walks, talks and acts like a man.
Not the earliest, not one of the earliest, just the earliest you know about.
"Woman who gives the rebels instructions." Come on! *Everyone* knows that Mon Mothma is the leader of the Rebel Alliance.
Michael clearly was stipulating that they couldn't use any Expanded Universe material.
He says her name at the end anyways. Also this is gonna be a throwback 6 years later
only "everyone" who never tried, let alone succeeded, at achieving a life
Leia lost her family and friends but never had time to mourn them. She stayed tough through thick and thin, kicking ass and not taking shit from anyone. She was never a damsel in distress.
Your argument about her saving Han being selfish and sexist is bullshit. Sure,there's other things going on at the same time, but Leia isn't the only one leading the rebellion. Not to mention that
And when Leia is leading the rebellion she's ordering men and they listen to her. They respect her. She's got high authority and knows how to properly use it. Not to mention she almost never misses with a blaster.
When Leia was a slave it was a very vulnerable and helpless time for her but once again, she saves herself. She kills Jabba, the person who put her in those chains. Not a lot of women are so lucky to escape their captors like that.
Leia is my favourite Star Wars character and it saddens me how people only remember her for that one time she showed skin and not the times where she was a person
I think Leia is a wonderful role model for not just girls, but for everyone. She's strong, fearless and sassy but also kind, beautiful and smart. If you don't love Leia for who she is then I'm ashamed to even be the same species as you.
Now, on to the other women. First there's Padmé, who's not just a Queen but a Senator. She, just like her daughter, is high in authority, respected, and great with a blaster.
Then there's the female Jedi. Yes, they weren't shown until the prequels, but they still exist. Ashoka Tano for example is another popular, strong woman. There's also Ventress, the first female Sith, who poses a great threat to the Jedi council early on in the Clone Wars.
The slave women, I'm pretty fucking sure did not choose to be there. You saw that green Twi'lek right? She was scared and uncomfortable. She wanted to be let go. And who's fault is that? Jabba's. A males.
There are more male characters, but that doesn't mean they're all good or well rounded.
+display name With The Force Awakens coming out tomorrow, we'll be seeing many more awesome female characters such as Rey, a scavenger who takes care of herself, Captain Phasma, leader of the first order Stormtroopers, the first female X-Wing pilot from the commercials and others who we've yet to seen.
Not to mention we have four more Star Wars movies coming out after that, one of which will star a woman.
I'll end this argument by saying maybe George Lucas wasn't all for equality, but Star Wars definitely is
+display name its not that deep homie
+yasmine zahid fuck off homie I'm not in a good fucking mood
display name y can't we all just be friends
2:22 "In the extended universe!" spot on impression of all of us.
Also Dan.
(Yes, I am replying to a comment from 5 years ago)
I need them to come back just to revisit this topic in 2019
They forgot Ahsoka Tano.
She now has Rey and Jyn Erso to pick from now.
@@anubusx Ahsoka doesn't count they are talking about the Original Trilogy. But they DID forget one. Not EVERY woman is a slave girl or politician. They forgot about the Rebel officer in charge of the Ion Cannon on Hoth.
@@anubusx And... I assume women wandering around Cloud City dont count because they are extras
They were wrong back then, they will be wrong now.
The lack of women is easily explained.
Most characters are soldiers.
But there are female soldiers today. Why can't there be female soldiers in the future?
BeedlePencil Not that many. If you look at soldiers on the street, females are pretty rare. Well, I mostly see German and British soldiers. Maybe that is different in America.
But it definitely wasn't in the 80s.
Schwarzer Ritter Also wasn't Star Wars set in the past? Like, "Long Ago, in a galaxy far far away"
lil devils Now I'm just confused. The introduction did say Long ago, In a galaxy far, far away..." so it has to be in the past, but it also has futurist technology. Perhaps this galaxy far, far away is more advanced than we are?
I think like the technology was futuristic, but the concept was past if you get what I mean
To be fair, how many movies back in the 70s and 80s had a large female cast?
I was thinking that. You have to take into consideration that these are movies from thirty to forty years ago and there weren't a lot of women with a lot of power even in the real world, let alone most movies. Leia is a fairly common personality in today's society, but was a groundbreaking badass in the 1970s when Star Wars came out.
+Phoebe Arellano Alright, then how about the new movies? Yeah, in the 70's things were a lot more sexist, but you think things would be different in more current times, right? Wrong. Anakin's mom is a slave and gets treated like crap. Then two men show up and pretty much take her kid. Sure, you could say she wanted a better life for him, but I mean, come on, did she really have much of a choice? Even if she hypothetically wanted to, there's no way you say no to any demands made by two strange men with weapons who were programmed from a very young age to fight for a powerful and mysterious organization. So they take her son and ditch her? Really? they couldn't free the mom too? They just leave her to remain a slave and that's just ok because she isn't useful (being a woman) and she was forced into a BS situation through no fault of her own because her husband isn't around? Sure, they claim they couldn't have done anything, but they didn't try very hard. Couldn't they have pulled some strings and gotten together some freinds or a favor or money? Mind trick? Trade? Vague threats? Snuck her out? No, they just leave her there to die, because all women are in theory already slaves in one form or another. (unless they're royalty) Even Padme drops everything, ditches her friends, and gives up her super important career to play house with her boy-toy. Even when Anakin starts doing shady things, lying, acting suspicious, doing bad things, making bad decisions, suddenly becomes emotionally unstable, irritable, irrational, distant, strung-out looking, being a crappy husband and kind of a jerk in general- she doesn't just leave his ass. Even after he gets abusive and fucking chokes her, all she can do is say you're breaking my heart and cry and be totally helpless and die of a broken heart instead of having some dignity and self-respect and tell him his behavior has been low-down and she deserves better and break up. But in the end, despite being strong, intelligent, capable, ambitious, and having every reason to go on without him and live a full life at least for her children's sake, she fucking dies, because a woman without her man is apparently nothing more than a broken shell without the capacity or strength to live on her own. You think she would have died from the injuries she sustained, which would have been forgiven, but no, she dies of a broken heart basically.
So, nothing about the sexism has gotten better since the 70's. If anything, it's gotten worse. There's no positive female role models in the newer movies despite having been made in a supposedly more progressive time. There's no strong, self-empowered women with a will and mind and ambiitions of life of their own, just damsels in distress. Shit, at least in episodes 4-6 they had Leia.
+Sara Teubert
Brava.
+Sara Teubert this is why even though so many people are upset I'm glad disney picked it up for the sequel trilogy, they've been getting better with female characters
Ehem ehem Alien ehem aliens
Mon Mothma, man.
Mon Mothma.
+Digishade Someone didn't finish the video.
+Digishade They ignored ALL OF THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE!!! Dislike and leave b4 vid's over.
+Sir Fur They refer to the EU, and besides - this video was about George Lucas' Star Wars. Lucas had (of his own volition) very little creative influence over the EU. Pay attention.
many bothins died to bring us that information.....
She knew... some how shes always known.
That phallocracy argument kinda dies with Mon Mothma, the lady who gives the rebels their instructions, is the de facto rebel leader, and becomes chief of state of the New Republic. (until the new Star Wars movies say otherwise)
But this is concerning the holy trilogy I mean if I was able to include anything that is cannonically Star wars there are a lot more fem as le role models
***** She is still technically the leader of the rebels in the movies, even if it wasn't explicitly stated. She was handing them everyone their orders. There was even a deleted scene in the prequels that semi-confirmed it.
***** Fair enough.
ltflak totally agree and have to say....Margaret Thatcher...A female Prime-minister of the United Kingdom...Mon Mothma is basically her....Shes a single woman, who runs the entire show, sending many many male soldiers to die on her command just like Margaret Thatcher did in the Falklands.
I just think Its funny that they leave out the fact that Leia did not lead the rebels, Mon Mothma did. she was in charge, Boss lady....they said "Lucas Ideal world is one where all these planets and species work together, but no chicks" actually, it was not a phallocracy, it was a Matriarchy, a single woman ruling over thousands of male soldiers, doing her bidding like a bunch of Army Ants.
No there were other leaders of the rebel army Bail Organa being the one who comes to mind. That and wouldn't you think they'd have a counsel of some sort top bypass ideas.
Ok, aside from the fact that these videos are clearly (staged) arguments/discussions and therefore whichever side wins it wasn't pointless, having *one* strong female character when there are like 6 or 7 strong male characters is still significant.
I'd say considering the time, Leia is a fairly progressive female character (gratuitous gold bikini shots aside). She's a smart, feisty, stalwart, hero who is cool under immense pressure. She saved everyone more than a few times, and even stood up to Vader.
I come back to these skits every once in a while, and am reminded of a glorious time on the web when clever people got to make amazing skits for our entertainment. I miss this.
To be fair, Han isn't just Leia's "man." He's a proven and decorated battle commander in the Rebel army, a valuable military and intel asset that has to be recovered, not just the Princess' bae. Otherwise, good points.
Who Kathleen Kennedy killed off like he was a useless little bitch. Notice Leia got to be a general, Hans apparently a CIS white male got plunked by his whiny son.
Can we talk about how badass Admiral Akbhar was?
The fleet that attacked the death star in return of the jedi was nearly all under his control.
Dylan McElveen no h in akbar
Dylan McElveen I just know you were saying "it's a trap" in your fishiest voice when you wrote that
Dylan McElveen He is definitely one of the most underrated, best fleet commander's in the entire rebel alliance.
Dylan McElveen Ackbar*. Seriously, even the first correction was wrong. Did you even look it up? Admiral Gial Ackbar.
typical nerd response....
lets talk about....
can't talk about it cuz you spelled it wrong.
i smell virgin. xD
Then you have the prequels, which has yet another female character that seems strong and empowering at first, then devolves into yet another character defined solely by her male counterpart. Sure, we do see a few female Jedi in those movies, but it wasn't until the first Clone Wars animated series that one was given so much as a speaking role. The second Clone Wars series was the first time (outside of the expanded universe) that Star Wars had a true female main character, and even she was pretty lackluster as a character for the first two seasons. Rebels upped the ante with two female main characters, although both are somewhat eclipsed by the two male Jedi in the group, and finally, The Force Awaken's main protagonist is a woman, as is Captain Phasma, Mas, and oh, look, Leia's back, and this time in a position of actually being a role model.
But said male counterpart was defined in turn by his relationship with her.
By the first one you mean the one by Gendy right?
Here's a controversial point: used to be we didn't have to pretend that women NEVER need help. It's because we didn't used to believe that we could only respect them if they were always in charge and kicking everyone's ass. Leia accepted assistance, and offered it, but was always quick to assess a situation and take charge when she was the most clear-headed and qualified to do so. What she didn't do is demand to always be in command for fear she wasn't enough of a feminist role-model. Luke left his training (despite dire warnings it would lead to his and his friends' doom) to help his friends, yet nobody calls him a bad role model or a traitor to his gender.
Having said that, funny video. Keep it up.
My friends said Leia was a badass for suppressing her grief towards everyone she ever knew dying, but not their role model. Everyone I knew looked up to the men, even girls I knew.
4.: I think singling out Leia as side-tracking from the cause of the Rebellion to save "her man" is a mistake; the whole gang, Luke, Chewie, Lando AND Leia side-tracks from the rebels to save one of their own, in spite of the fact that Luke and Lando also have prominent roles in the command structure. I think this is less about Leia's supposed need to identify herself in opposition of a man, and more about the group's fidelity to one of its members - friend, brother-in-arms, AND love interest.
Except for the millions of women who love Star Wars. You always fear what you don't understand.
What about Padme Amidala? I know she's from the prequels but she kicks a lot of ass, and her husband isn't there to save her most of the time
+Ian Easton I was thinking the same thing!
Well, I'd agree that she's a badass in episodes 1 and 2. However, in episode 3, name a single useful thing that she does? She's the goddamn senator of Naboo! She ought to have a lot of power and influence, but the only thing she ever does that could be considered helpful in the Star Wars universe is giving birth to Luke and Leia.
+Phoebe Arellano In episode 3 there was that whole subplot about Padme orchestrating the Coalition of 2000 Systems, that would eventually become the Rebel Alliance. Reportedly Lucas had those scenes deleted to focus more on Anakin's story.
+Bernard Gilbert Too bad he didn't focus on it.
They were talking about the orig trig....
wait. Leia didn't blow up the palace and all the slave girls. She blew up the *sail barge* where Jabba was throwing a party as he executed Han, Luke and Chewie. If any other slave girls were on board the barge they'd have been chained up next to jabba like Leia was, so It's safe to assume they were all back at the palace. Leia was his new favourite so he just took her on the sail barge.
Leia was A leader, not THE leader of the rebellion, That was Mon Mothma.
They didn't blow up Jabba's palace, they blew up his "sail barge," and I don't remember any other strippers in the sail barge scenes, I think he just brought Leia.
I liked the video and kinda agree though it feeds into the whole, "The only way to identify with or look up to a character is if they look like me" thing and I don't really buy into that. Basically I feel women can also look up or relate to the male characters too.
I was a fan of Sailor Moon, i watch all of the old episode, when i was a young boy and Tuxedo mask wasn't a character i liked, my favorite was Ami's Sailor Mercury.
Shoehorning Mon Mothma in at the end does her character a disservice.
Senator, strategist, organiser of the rebellion.
Primary political leader of the rebellion after Bail Organa died.
Planned the battle of Endor.
Became the chancellor of the new Republic after Palpatine's death.....
The only other female character of star wars I can think of besides leia is padme
She is not in the original trilogy
Females Jedi
Shaak Ti
Ashoka Tano
Forget the rest
Infernalhypernova but are not part of the holy trilogy (BTW fuck the prequels)
Aurra sing... Female bounty hunter
GingerBomb Fuck the original trilogy. The prequels are the only SW movies I like.
Just here to say that females can have male role models. And vice versa.
in that sense more males in Star Wars should show more skin and the ladies should wear gaudier dresses like Padme & her double did as Queen
How about men that women can look up to because they have qualities we like and admire
Sophia Carpenter Sorry I meant to phrase that as a question. Although now I'm thinking about how Jedi Master Kitt Fisto doesn't wear a shirt or pants necessarily underwater and it makes me think about other characters that go commando or wear less. I mean look at Jabba the Hutt and his family
I'm a guy and Samus Aran is my hero
goldenmelody722 I'm a girl and some of my fave people are Han Solo, Bret Hart, and Batman.
While I do agree that there is a great big lack of strong female characters in the star wars saga, am I the only one that reacts to the fact women are assumed to need female role models, and that men must have male role models?
Can't women look at Luke and say "gosh darn, I'm going to escape my normal life and fight for good stuff", and dudes look at Leia and say "I will be a leader for my people, and fight these injustices" and so on and so on. It's just a wee bit strange in my humble opinion.
Agreed. Of all my role models from movies, books and real-life history, the large majority of them are males, and I am a girl.
+Fredrik Wahlgren I actually think this is more about how women were represented, but I get your point. I, for example, look up to Han and Luke. I can do that. I just don't like the way women are represented through Leia, for all the reasons that were mentioned in the video. You can tell that George Lucas' ideas being ignored by J.J. Abrams was a good thing because of Rey.
puzzledpoison Yeah the way women are represented in the original trilogy is definitely a bit.. old school, no doubt about that.
+Fredrik Wahlgren I'm 4 months late but can I give a genuine, honest response to this without being barraged with insults?
Here's the deal, women, and feminine men like me, get insulted and bullied just for the fact that they are women, or we're feminine, we go through specific bs that masculine men will never go through, this isn't to say men and masculine men in general don't have their own problems, they do but they're a completely different set of problems, and these problems get represented in most of the male protagonist that we've been receiving for decades.
Having strong feminine, characters to look up to, and in most cases women, is empowering. It tells us the being feminine does not necessarily mean you're weak, just as many people in life would try to assert. I've heard girly or feminine as a synonym for weak so many times in my life, and it's only because of strong feminine role models that are typically women, such as Leia and Rey, and heck even Padme, I was taught that being feminine doesn't mean you can't kick ass, or you can't lead people. I mean sure, male characters can be feminine too, but they're so rare and sparse, which is why women and feminine guys, want more women in their shows, because we want or femininity to be represented and associated with strength.
Cat Riddle I don't know why you expect to be barraged with insults (well, this is is youtube after all, but I hope I haven't said anything for you to expect it from me).
Anyway, I have nothing against your point here. I think it's great that there's role models of all kinds. And I don't think there's anything wrong with feminine men and masculine women, or masculine man and feminine women either (I think the very idea of masculine/feminine to be a bit outdated).
All I was trying to say was that I find it strange that it's assumed men need male role models, and women need female role models.
There were female jedi.... And the leader of the Rebel alliance was a woman. There are only one or two "stripper" scenes in the entire trilogy, and the rest of the time women are either fighters, pilots, or diplomats. And the stripper scenes took place in the LAIR of one of the worst criminals in the galaxies. So the point is mute. Leia was a warrior/jedi/princess.
Leia wasn't a Jedi. She could have been and maybe JJ Abrams will lens flare her backstory that she studied after Return of the Jedi. Also there were no female Jedi's shown in the movies and as everyone knows, the prequels never happened.
You meant moot... The problem is that Lucas is an insanely overrated director/writer (possibly terrible) and without 20th Century Fox, the original trilogy would have been as terrible as the most recent one. We saw what happened when Lucas started getting his way and surrounding himself with sycophantic yes-men when Return of the Jedi came out. And, we saw what happened to the Indiana Jones series when Spielberg gave George the lead on the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's story... By the way I love the Star Wars universe and the stories. I just think Lucas is a greedy hack.
Joseph Campbell wrote Star-Wars. Stands to reason Lucas' follow ups would be poop since Campbell is dead.
The Gamers Grind She did kinda study after RotJ, but never actually became a Jedi.
AnakinSolo1701 She is a bad ass Jedi in EU.
The slave girls were still in has palace, not on his barge. Hole poked. Patch it.
I fed them the COCK
A giant radioactive maggot
Sounds like someone is projecting
Playfulpanthress im sure they would have been given to jabba's inheritants, or killed, if that was in his will. ancient Egyptians were buried with several handmaidens, but I think it might be a bit different in jabba's palace...
surely as old as he was, being the bell ringer in the podraces in Phantom Menace, he would have selected heirs, and while its uncomfortable to imagine an ugly slug reproducing, I believe the planet nal hutta might have something to do with it. that aside, jabba would have someone to give his stuff to; he lived like a king, and at the very least one of his hutt friends would have taken his belongings
Holy smokes. At 1:17 it shows Malcolm Reynolds picture saying "I love you DAD"
It's simple. It's f***ing Star "Wars", and back when it was written, women didn't play a big part in front line military combat. Even when you look at the prequels, they're at least a bigger part in government/ruling/diplomacy, etc. The movies just reflect the periods in which they were written and the social context of war (the most important underlying essence of the story... remember??... Star "WARS".)
Call me sexist or whatever, but it's not a soap opera... and the closest it got to being so was in the pre-quels. :p Not that I agree with all that, but it's just my personal observation on why females don't have more prominent roles in the movies. Technically, sci-fi/space or whatever, they're still WAR movies.
Yes, it is a military based movie. How many women were in Platoon or The Great Escape or any war themed movie. Really when you look at Star Wars as a war movie it has female characters in some of most important roles and they are a force to be recognized.
And don't forget than in the prequels, it was mainly a war between clones (of 1 man) and droids (who don't have sexes) ... Let's hope they will have a bigger place in SW7.
That's not really the point, is it?
Lots of good films don't depict women well, and that doesn't make them bad films. Depiction of one sex or another and quality of film are two separate parameters.
You could have a fantastic film that doesn't have a single female character in it (say, 2001: A Space Odyssey), or a terrible film featuring only female characters. The point is that the Star Wars trilogy is terrible for female characters, despite being a good series of films.
skreeran
The point is, the films don't depict women at all. They depict war.
;)
You could use the same argument for Star Trek, and yet Star Trek managed to put female characters in the front lines as important, interesting, and strong characters. Star Wars is terrible for women, that's pretty clear. No matter how good a film it is, people can still criticize it for its failings.
Not secretly at all. Women have known this about basically every film, but when something happens about it men think its oppression (like the whole captain marvel thing)
Wow not even close. The captain marvel thing was because the actor decided to say things that she shouldnt have said. No one but the comic book fans knew anything about captain marvel and she goes and shoe horn some bullshit about sexism. She starts a controversey and wabts a damn cookie for it no. Second of all not to every film either accross the years films have stong female and male characters everywhere. To deny them their due is very wrong of you.
I wish they had gone into any of the other possible Star Wars topics posited at the beginning of the video.
I really liked "jawas as a metaphor of the armenian genocide".
So... Leia doesn't need to be rescued... She does the rescuing instead. gets kidnapped and then escapes by choking her captor to death with her very chains of enslavement. She is like 10 & 0 against storm troopers in gun fights. Basically saves the lives of all the people who "save" her from the death star. Where, incidentally, as a prisoner she dresses down Vader and Tarkin! The only thing that stops the verbal thrashing is blowing up her home planet. Also she saves Luke in Empire. She might no be the best female role model but she is definitely the best Disney PRINCESS.
Nah, I'm still going with Mulan. Leia is like... number 4.
9-1 she got stunned in ANH
Technically, Disney Princesses are only in an animated movies.
+Teagan Richichi technically, she is a princess and Disney owns her.
+snatchadams69 and shot in ROJ but none of that stopped her. She adapts and overcomes. Its not sexist for her to get shot and then keep fighting... It's kinda feminist.
I love the running gag where Soren thinks Dan is great at impressions. LOL
Going by the Cracked logic, George Lucas is also into incest.
Never forget the time Luke and Leia kissed.
Never ever forget the time George Lucas allowed Luke and Leia to be siblings who kissed.
Lannister Power Nah it's rad
That's not proof of an incest fetish, it's just perfectly normal human behaviour. Luke is cute, so Leia is attracted to him. Leia is hot, so Luke thinks she's pretty sexy. Is it unnatural and incestuous for me to think that my sister is pretty, or that my brother is physically attractive? It doesn't mean I want to snog them or sleep with them, it just means I am able to recognise that they are good looking.
Mon Mothma is awesome. Oh, and let's not forget that by the time Ep. VI was out, Han was a high-ranking officer in the rebellion, making his liberation from Jabba actually kind of an important goal.
Watching this in 2018, makes me appreciate the Star Wars movies we have now even more, despite how polarising they can be (Star Wars 7,8, Rogue One). Despite have their own issues, I'm still glad that the new movies have more women in speaking roles and with fleshed out characters (flawed as they are).
I was gonna say 'Cool new intro!' Then I looked at the post's date ... 'Cool OLD intro?'
Luke was part of the mission to rescue Han, they weren't saving Leia's boyfriend but rather they were rescuing a team member.
Well, the saving Han thing was a collaborative plot orchestrated by a group of his friends. Leia wasn't the only one there, neither was she the only one who wanted to save him. Also, the whole phalocracy thing is bunk because the leaders on the good side consisted of two women and I think like one dude we see in episode 4 and admiral Ackbar. The bad side was all dudes.
Oh, just remembered the guy at the beginning of episode 5. So that is mostly male leaders, but only by one, it's not that bad is it?
Another thing I should point out is that I do think that the original trilogy as a whole does have bad female representation, I just don't think those were justifiable criticisms.
Uh... The bad side were the people in power
and the bad side was all dudes. so the the more accurate representation of a phalocracy is the empire, i.e. the bad guys
Plus the Empire was exclusively human and very speciesist to aliens (and. sexist)
Like 95% of the empire were clones of the same man. The other 5% was admirals and generals that all had mysterious British accents.
1:14 , bottom left corner.
Book writing space cowboy.
malcom from firefly. boom.
Haven't watched the video yet, but I'm going to throw out my why.
It's because in the original trilogy, there are apparently only two women in existence. In the Prequels there are more women, which means that somwhere between the prequels, and the original trilogy, something horrendous enough to cause a disturbance in the force happened to all of the women in the Galaxy.
There may have been more women on Alderaan, but that got wiped out too, so there ya go.
Also, if they have more than two women in the galaxy in the 7th one, it'll totally negate ALL of this.
Just wanted to point out the statement about "literally every other female being a dancing space model" is incorrect. The rebel leader was a woman, Luke's aunt who helped keep him safe and kept his secret till he was ready.
And let's not forget that since then Padme Amidalla was a good example of a strong female character who could take care of ehh own. And lead her people.
And of course now we have Rey.
And didn't the original version include Leia taking over the battle as Luke died?
They mention the rebel leader ;-) They make a pretty big point out of Daniel knowing her name.
silentlamb21 Posted this long before said scene came up. ;)
This was a year ago considering only the original trilogy
Heather Donahue "probably impregnated by one of her masters"? Sorry, I'm all for liking the character but you do remember the whole "there was no father" bit, right? The birth was a virgin birth as reference to the birth of Christ, announcing a saviour, in this case Anakin, the "chosen one".
*If* she was "impregnated" it would have been by Darth Plagius, who was a Sith Lord and scientist, experimenting with artificially creating midichlorians in living beings. He wouldn't have physically touched her or even met her but that's the running theory.
The Rebellion was fairly small. They needed Han. And it wasn't even her idea, it was Luke's.
At least Star Wars had Leia.
Try the hobbit, not the new movies, the actual Hobbit.
There isn't a single active female character.
There are only 3 females mentioned,
Bilbo’s mother, Fili and Kili's mother, and Girion of Dale's wife.
Of these only Bilbo's mother is given a name,
8 real characters and not a single female, your right
But lord of the rings has Eowyn
It wasn't just Leia, it was all of them going to rescue their friend, not Leia heading out on her own ignoring her duties. Not to mention it was something like 2 years later that this happened, presumably they were still doing Rebel shit in that time.
she rescued Han because the rebellion needed him. they didnt exactly have a surplus of bodies to throw around and he was legitimately the best pilot they had.
New Leia = Katniss
The leaders of the rebellion against the evil government who constantly get saved by guys and nearly abandon their mission to stand behind their man who is in no way right for them
Katniss is the main character not the damsel in distress
Are the prequels that bad to not be mentioned...?
Not part of the Holy Trinity of Star Wars movies, so they're not on the table.
Victory Rose Makes sense, I guess.
nah cos they dont fit their agenda in all the other star wars books and movies the women are badass like Padme, Asoka, ventress etc are strong female characters
yes, yes they are
Padme is the antithesis of a strong female character. She sacrifices tons of people to further her agenda, she's terrible at her job, she immediately leaves her duties to pursue a romance with a PSYCHOPATH, and leaves her children without a mother as she "checks out" after losing her will to live. She's not even a character let alone a "strong female character".
Before watching this video i received an ad showing a bunch of kids getting star wars stuff for christmas.... bravo youtube.... bravo
The reason that all imperials have British accent is because they are all recruited from Drummond Kaas, the imperial homeworld and the planet that the dark jedi settled on after they deemed Korriban to be unsuitable for their habitation. (Source: SW:TOR lore)
***** which time?
***** the reason for British accents is a lot of the imperial navy leadership is from upper-class coruscant society.... based to British nobility and gentry.
c Cavitt taken from Wookiepedia about Domund Kaas, The reconstituted Empire eventually dissolved before 2,000 BBY, and Dromund Kaas' jungles gave way to murky swamps over the centuries as the planet's location once again fell into obscurity. A major battle of the New Sith Wars was fought on Dromund Kaas, and several decades later the rogue Sith Lord Darth Millennial established the Dark Force religion on Dromund Kaas after he rejected the Rule of Two and abandoned the Order of the Sith Lords. The Prophets of the Dark Side who followed Millennial's religion ruled Dromund Kaas for almost a thousand years before they incurred the wrath of Darth Sidious, causing the Prophets to abandon the planet for Bosthirda. Despite its relative obscurity, the planet became embroiled in the galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars, but the powerful influence of the dark side of the Force on Dromund Kaas continued to draw both Jedi and Sith to the planet over the next several decades.
At least now we have Rey, and Phasma was pretty badass, and all those rebel ladies and Leia could STILL get it.
+LittleMintBird Pretty badass at what? betraying her organization because an old guy, his dog and ex janitor threatened her. lmao!
Let's not forget Gin ursa or will it just be gin
also there are a lot of female stormtroopers!! :)
phasma was a nothing burger sadly:/
I love how they have to ignore every Starwars movie which came out after they were born to prove Lucas is a sexist.
Prequels are no better.
+Ariel Steinsaltz The clones were better than the Stormtroopers.... which one can hit a tree in front of them.... not the Stormtrooper.
I know they deliberately missed, it was just a joke.
As a straight man, I don't have any issues with saying that sauren looks dapper as fuck in that jacket and shirt.
Out of those 5 women who were mentioned, 1 was a princess (is that a job?) and rebel leader, 1 was a dancer/slave, 1 was a farmers wife/probably also a farmer, 1 was a singer, and 1 was someone in some position of power within the rebellion. Now even though we never actually see her strip, we can assume that Jabbas' slave-girl was a stripper at least some of the time. Who else in there is a stripper? She says the majority of them are strippers, but I'm counting only 1 in 5. That's still fairly high, but if you add in all the other women within the star wars movies (in the prequels, and the new ones) that ratio becomes noticeably smaller. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: For the love of all that is good and holy in this world and any other, stop making everything out to be racist, or sexist, or any other 'ist' you can think of just to get views on the internet. People will watch this, and then believe the crap you spew, and start spewing it themselves, and then everything will go even more to shit then it already is.
If you want to talk about ACTUAL instances of sexism, and racism, and other isms, then go right ahead, but stop trying to ruin other peoples enjoyment of things just to make some fucking money.
If you want female character role models, Watch Farscape.
First of all, if you would stop ignoring the prequels you would see that Padme Amidala exists. In fact, *she* was my main role model in SW as a kid, not Leia. The prequels also have the handmaidens such as Sabe and Dorme and Corde who are badass af and keep Padme alive. Then there's Shmi, who is a badass mom who survives slavery and poverty on Tatooine and raises Anakin. The OT had Mon Mothma, and Beru also gets credit in my book for being a good mom and really kind woman. I could also talk about Oola and Zam Wessel.
And yes, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel. These women are at best secondary leads without as much screen time as the main, male leads, and most are very ignored side characters. A lot are only shown as mothers and wives, and very few female characters in Star Wars are Jedi or even have any part in the main plot. It is horribly unfortunate how poor female representation is in the original six SW films, especially in the OT; there aren't even female Rebels or Imperials in the background, most of the time.
But we can't simplify it down to 'only Leia'. Ignoring Padme is unforgivable, and there are several other characters that at least deserve a mention.
I won't stand to see Leia criticised for saving Han. First of all, that's a decision her and Luke made together. Would Luke have left Han with Jabba? Fucking no, he wouldn't. ESB proved that. Are you going to criticise HIM for that? I don't think so. Also, if it was the other way around, Han and Luke saving Leia, I doubt you'd question it. So that argument is bogus. Also, I doubt Lucas put so much thought into the plot that Leia can be said to have deliberately and with careful thought intended to kill slave women. Leia is a good role model and you can fight me.
I agree with the overall sentiment of this video, obviously. Star Wars needs a hell of a lot more women, and I'm glad the new movies are on the way there (as well as the shows).
I'd also like to point out that the Star Wars fandom is a sucky place for women. We get to hear men whine about our tiny group of female leads as if there are somehow too many and criticise them and call them Mary Sues. Also, just try suggesting to the male KotOR fandom that Revan is or could be a woman. They'll cry about '''''canon''''' until you want to punch them. Because they're sexist and refuse to admit it. Maybe if Star Wars becomes a female-led franchise, they'll leave.
The problem with the new Star Wars franchise female leads is that they feel forced, not organic. The leaders are not believable to be leaders. Some of them make sense. Rey feels natural but most of them you can tell that the only reason that they got through the ranks to leader is simply because it was written that way.
In our current society there are more men in higher positions not because they are men but because it is mostly men that apply for those jobs. Nearly exclusively men. Aa well as it usually men that would do overtime. So, aside from poorly written female characters (star wars) that is another reason that it is unbelievable that every job in the movie is lead by a woman. It just doesn't happen. It just comes off feeling like more sexism from Hollywood. Female leads are great but don't do it just so you have a female lead, we notice.
We do not talk about the prequels...
Three things: First, the head honcho of the Rebel Alliance is female. Second, Leia and Amidala have big roles in the movies as fighters and being close friends with Jedi, and lastly, they did not blow up Jabba's palace. They blew p his ship, which only had one woman in it: Slave Leia. The rest, aside from undercover rebels, were Jabba and his men.
4:10 holy shit, Dan predicted the plot of “America: The Motion Picture” like 10 years ago
I love when people refer to Star Wars as 'the future'. What part of 'A long time ago...' didn't you pick up on?
Whoa, whoa, whoa! No warp speed in Star Wars; it's light speed. Warp speed is Star Trek. Come on now.
Dan not knowing who Mon Mothma is, is surprising
9 years later...
It actually got worse!
Rey, independently force-strong; Mary-sue.
Holdo, calls out Poe's kamikaze maneuvers because their numbers are already dwindling; mean mommy-figure.
Rose Tico, received a shit-ton of backlash and was relegated to a minor-role in RoS
Maz Kanata, gave them a lightsaber
Captain Phasma, HAH!
this is true but if a character is an not a human how do you know if
they are male or female
Soren looks especially good in this video ;)
This video is designed to be entertaining and also make people think a bit about more in-depth about something most of us have seen. That being said, they criticized those with a knowledge of the EU which would be considered "too in-depth" or too nerdy while thinking very deeply about the subject themselves. Very hypocritical.
That being said, this video is clearly designed primarily as entertainment and not something to be taken too seriously.
Yep. The Harry Potter one was pretty infuriating, though.
Han, has a picture of Malcolm Reynolds, a bad ass space cowboy that fly's a spaceship....! lol
I know you're only talking about the Original Trilogy, but how about:
Ahsoka Tano?
Aayla Secura?
Assajj Ventress?
Shaak Ti?
Satele Shan?
Bastilla Shan?
Deppa Billada?
Sabine Wren?
Prequel Power!
+josiah jenks Go up to any random person on the street and ask if they know who Princess Leia is. 7 / 10 you'll get the correct response (except if you're at a con then the percentage goes way up). Now do the same with any of the names you listed. Roughly 2 / 10 would know, except if you're at a con.
Bernard Gilbert The General Public doesn't matter in this topic. If they're going to diss a franchise, they need to look into all the Franchise, not just one or two movies
josiah jenks Exactly!
josiah jenks Not everyone has the time or inclination to watch, read, or play everything _Star Wars_. I consider myself rather knowledgeable about SW and I don't recognize half the names on your list. As they stated in the video, discounting the Expanded Universe (because no sane person has time to read it all) and going by just the movies, George Lucas doesn't have a good track record when it comes to representing women.
That's if your only talking about the original trilogy. Everywhere else in the other source material, such as books, and (God forbid) the other three movies, there are plenty of badass Jedi women.
Nicholas Musser Even in the original trilogy, a dying Yoda makes it clear that the princess could become a Jedi. I'm surprised Cracked missed that one.
+Nicholas Musser or even worse in [the movie that shouldn't have been named] theres a female news lady and bartender aswell as female passersby in the background
+Nicholas Musser Hey man, the other 3 movies weren't all that bad. Biggest problem is that people were having insane expectations due to how awesome and ground breaking the original trilogy was. Nothing can live up to that. Well, the new movies do seem to have the potential, but we'll see about that.
These writers either have the strongest friendships possible with each other or hate each other entirely. No middle ground.
Ayla Secura, Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala, Shaak Ti, Maris Brood, Juno Eclipse, Lana Beniko, Kira Carsen, Jocasta Nu (Comic book Jocasta), Serra Keto (Queen of roast and great moveset), Satele Shan...
Damn, there is a lot of good or at least decent female characters in Star Wars, and Lana Beniko is just... Damn, that women is unbeliable. I love that part were she sits with a jedi master and just have a phylosophical conversation about leadership, responsability and Jedi/Sith ideology.
well they solved that with rey
And Rogue One.
Or not it's still early....
rey Palpatine
*SPOILERS*
Rey. The girl who magically got her powers after ten seconds of concentrating. The powers that Luke, arguably the most powerful Jedi so far, had to spend ages acquiring through training with a Jedi grandmaster.
Overcompensate much? -.-
(And don't get me started on Finn being able to fight off Kylo with a lightsaber…)
Yeah I was thinking that Rey would surprise Ren with her surprise powers, but since the were new, Ren would eventually outduel her. However, Luke would then show up, injure Ren (but couldn't kill him), and the planet would split like it did in the movie. In other words, they should have had Luke come at the end to save Rey from Ren so that he has more screen-time, gets us on our feet, and have a better reason why Ren would want to become stronger through the dark side of the force.
Well, to be fair to Lucas, it IS called Star Wars... you know, WARS? For better or worse, war kinda tends to be the province of males. Plus, there is Mon Mothma (www.starwars.com/databank/mon-mothma) (oh, they do get to her at the end - well, whatever, fuck it - I'm leaving that shit right where it is). Further, while there does seem to be some real limits on the roles for women in dude's universe, the two that aren't strippers are very powerful leaders and highly respected. So, maybe we could accuse him of a kind of Madonna / whore thing (where the Madonnas aren't so much mothers as they are either kick ass, hands on rebel leaders or noble political strategists). What's more, while only a couple of the goodies are female, ALL of the villians are male. Not a single female baddie in the whole thing... unless I'm mistaken about that - hopefully someone can confirm or rebut that.
JoeNietzsche I think nowadays war _tended_ to be the province of males, with Star Wars only going with the gender roles we have/had because of the time and world it was made in.
Master Markus
Tended?
A quick snapshot of male to female casualty ratios.
"Female veterans comprised 1.9% of all casualties [meaning 98.1% of casualties were male] and 2.4% of all deaths [meaning 97.6% of deaths were male]".
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21390560
Although, as an interesting aside, women did die in higher percentages than men. "In OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom], the percent death for women was 14.5% (103 deaths) versus 12.0% (4226 deaths) for men. In OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom], the percent death for women was 35.9% (19 deaths) versus 17.0% (793 deaths) for men. Battle-injured females had a greater proportion of facial and external injuries and more severe extremity injuries compared with those nonbattle-injured."
Unfortunately, all those following numbers seem to suggest is that, perhaps, those opposing women in combat may have a point. If the percentage of women dying is about double that of their male counterparts, this is a good indicator of a problem. The problem may be the reduced physical requirements placed on female soldiers, it may be something else - but it is a significant number.
Now, the percentage questions aside, the actual number of women involved (even if we included forces with relatively large numbers of women like the Kurds / Israelis / etc) is so low compared, likely single digit percentages, to that of men throughout the world that to say wars are fought almost exclusively by men is accurate. Thus the statement "province of men" is reasonable.
JoeNietzsche
Bloody hell. I didn't ask for statistics. Either way, I meant more that it's not that women _can't_ do it, or that it's something necessarily natural to men (you can argue what you want, I believe that people can be good or evil, or moderate, violent and not without this quality involving gender and you probably won't change my mind if that becomes your intention).
Either way, there are more women in war. There will probably continue to be more women in war as long as war happens.
Master Markus Capability is irrelevant. With modern technology, children are capable of fighting wars and, in many places, they do. Does this mean that war is the province of children? No, such a claim would be absurd. The vast majority of people that fight in wars are young to early middle aged adult males. It is that simple. Thus any descriptive statement that acknowledges this is reasonable. Adding a past tense to the description is simply wrong and, frankly, a little strange. Perhaps you're confusing your oughts with what is.
JoeNietzsche
I think I was confusing what I was thinking about the general topic of gender and war rather than what you were specifically talking about. I'm kind of tired, I think I got rambley.
Luminara Unduli was a female, jedi master, general, adviser to council, and chancellor, and she was present in star wars prequel trilogy... Given it was only for order 66, but point still stands. There's also Shaak Ti, who was present in the movie during order 66, but also has rich history off screen. And that is the power of 10 min research on google... :D
I'm pretty sure they were only talking about the original trilogy.
Leia didn't abandon her people saving Han could be seen as a rescue mission considering he was a general for the rebellion and was crucial in the battle of Ensor
Wait, wasn't there a couple of women at the Hoth base in ESB in the control center?
Daniel S 2 leia and mon mothma
Emmett Ochrach-Konradi Yeah, Leia was there. I don't recall Mon Mothma being at the base on Hoth (she was in ROTJ for sure). But for the Hoth base, I'm sure I recall seeing a couple of other women in the control center in the Hoth base, also dressed in the same outfit as Leia (I guess its a standard Hoth outfit for women).
Daniel S i don't remember any female rebel workers but then again i haven't watched it for a year or two
Emmett Ochrach-Konradi It's been a while since I watched it myself.
Daniel S There were. and also Its funny that they leave out the fact that Leia did not lead the rebels, Mon Mothma did. she was in charge, Boss lady....they said "Lucas Ideal world is one where all these planets and species work together, but no chicks" actually, it was not a phallocracy, it was a Matriarchy, a single woman ruling over thousands of male soldiers, doing her bidding like a bunch of Army Ants.
My role model growing up was Luke.
I'm a girl.
A character doesn't need to be the same gender as me for me to look up to them.
dude I liked Luke too. and Chewy especially. but while you're right in that your role model doesn't have to reflect your gender, it would be pretty cool to just see some more chicks. they shouldn't all be main heroes, but we should see more female background characters especially considering we make up half the population.
Rhojosor Atthar Chomokh Made it more difficult to pick out Halloween costumes as a female fan. Pretty much have to wear a mask and be a guy.
I'm a time traveler from the year 2020. The sequel trilogy have strong women alright. But be careful what you wish for.
To be fair, the two non stripping female characters, who aren't Luke's aunt, are in positions of power, and Leia is only a princess in the first movie, meaning they could've easily demoted her or put her to the side in the rebellion if she wasn't a competent leader, so I feel a phalocracy might be off the mark here.
they forgot about natalie portmans character
I think they were talking about the original Trilogy...
Are you implying that she is a strong female role model? She married a kid showing signs of sociopathic tendencies simply because he said he was in love with her (more like obsessed really they knew each other for like 3 days and he never saw her again for another 10 and he says he's in love with her). Seriously though, the romance just happens it doesn't get built up realistically despite the fact that they spend half the screen time on awkward scenes between the two. Then she ends up dying for it. Not the best role model doesn't matter what badass moments she might have.
hiimchrisj no im implying that they didn't mention her....
hiimchrisj i'd much rather them do a rant on her than you.
I see your point. Very well then.
Here another fun fact. Who the heck looks at movies to fine a role model? Just because i saw the Smurf does that mean i need to fine role model in one the 100 something smurfs ...just sayin.. fine it weird that everyone needs to fine a rolemodel or "something" this days.
Lord Meric It's something subliminal, it happens subtly over time and it's automatic, not something we do consciously. Given a story, in an effort to better relate to it we naturally prefer the point of view of one character a bit more than the others.
Stéphane Lavergne So in the end.. the person that sees a role model in Fictional characters is weak minded.
Lord Meric It's not really about weakness, it's about adapting to the world around us (which, during a movie, is that world). It's the basis of advertising, for example, and applies to all humans, except maybe autistics I suppose. Our strength as a species has been how quickly we adapt to new situations and challenges, and that comes at the price that we're easy to brain-wash. :)
Stéphane Lavergne soo in the end... we still weak minded.
+Lord Meric no just the ones who forget (what) "we are." ;)
I think people are forgetting that this was made in the 70's and 80's. You can't really compare today's better standards of equality to what it was then. Tbh we're lucky we even have Leia...
Actually, that one slave girl at 4:25 survived. Most of Jabba's slave girls did survive. The one at 4:25 danced at Leia and Han's wedding. Resource comes from the character wiki book from the Clone Wars to the Return of the Jedi.
So....
Padme Amidala
-Has fought in the front lines of wars
-Lead a rebellion against the separatist invasion
-Has broken out of multiple imprisonments without outside help
-Dies due to a broken heart (depression can actually cause you're heartstrings to weaken, causing you're heart to work at a lesser capacity) during childbirth
-Lead an entire planet as their queen
Shaak Ti
-Nearly killed Grevious
-Fought in the war on Geonosis and helped win it
-Held her own against Starkiller and could very well still be alive
(if Boba Fett, a clone, could escape from a sarlaac pit twice, she could do it as well using the force).
Asajj Ventress
-Assassinates Jedi for a living
-Nearly killed Dooku
-Has survived more shit than any other Star Wars character.
Ahsoka Tano
-Just watch the Clone Wars, she's pretty much the main character of that.
You guys forget that there was a prequel trilogy that wasn't actually that bad. I mean compared to a lot of other science fiction it's pretty good. Remember that George Lucas creates entire backstories for every character, even side characters. It's just the way he writes.
Mytru Mara Star Wars is more space fantasy than sci fi.
umm she did not abandon her people to save her man han solo (captain Solo) was part of the rebelion and since he helped destroy the death star he had value. lets not forget he was more than a boyfriend he was first of all a friend who saved her from the death star. so if anything she was repaying a debt. to a friend. ugh.
Also, as far as I can tell, it wasn't like she just dropped everything to go rescue her boyfriend, taking EU out of the table, we still have plenty of time for her to assist the alliance and develop a plan to help han.
Like you said, he has value, why would the rebels even consider him on that final mission in Return of the Jedi? If he's just a smuggler or leia's boyfriend, it doesn't make sense to turn him into a general. But they did because it's Han and Han Solo is fucking awesome.
just want to clear this up my coment was made in jest of this video. I love this channel and I love to see more. but yeah what I said is still star wars fact so there
well what freedom did they really have when trapped on tatooine
IcyGirl 337 no they were at the palace
IcyGirl 337 and the only slave was oola but she dead as hell
Favourite inside joke is Sorin geeking over Dan's impressions.
About Jabba's slave girls, the one with two tentacles on her head was fed to the Rancor by Jabba while the other ones may not have been on Jabba's sail barge but at Jabba's palace I think. Besides, in the Star wars Novel "Tales of Jabba's Palace", a number of the Sail Barge's passengers got off it before it blew up so it's not guaranteed that they died with Jabba.
And there was also Mon monthma who was the supreme commander of the rebellion.
But how much air time do they get. Also, why aren't there other role models with names that people remember.
Caleb Buttenhoff Well for one, the story was entirely simplistic, it had your major characters, each of which were arbitrary representations. Further, knocking someone off just because they were common does not make sense when you hold up star wars as your choice for identifiable role models. On her own, Leia kicked more ass and took more names than any other female lead had before. She was the example of what a female lead could be. She had her own agency, she organized and fought on the front lines, and she wasn't afraid to stick her neck out for the cause she believed in.
Amy and they basically refuted your argument in the video.
I can understand how it was ground breaking for the time, but that still doesn't get it off the hook of blatant sexism ( you can only be the heroine if you're a princess/attractive?)
Caleb Buttenhoff
Have you ever known a hero of a story to look hideous? I can't think of a single main male nor female character that is ugly.
Alex Steel Thank you for proving my point :)
What about all the female Jedi ? Also you can't rule out the animated series considering George over sees the entire production.
this is only about episode 4,5,6.
not the prequels or the animated series.
4,5, and 6 is just a small piece of the star wars universe. if their going to talk about females and star wars, they have to cover everything, the old republic, clone wars, animated series, galactic civil war, and the new republic.
*****
For a LARGE portion of star wars fans, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are the only starwars movies. They're the ones people remember watching as kids. The ones people tried to re-enact when they had super soaker fights.
Hell, not even fans, but just casual watchers who were born a bit before the new trilogy still think only of the original three movies when some one mentions Star Wars.
I'd be willing to admit the new trilogy could be considered seeing as they were fully fledged movies (Albiet terrible), but thats where i draw the line. Animated series, books and Games just bear far too much creative license to be considered Canon.
well to bad cause they are cannon. You can make your own headcannon but that doesn't really matter does it?
Milienius
True, but if its canon that nobody cares about, then THAT doesn't really matter, does it?
Neat ideas, I love the After Hours videos. While Leia had a personal interest in rescuing Han, other main characters in the Rebellion also participated in the rescue. So it was not just Leia rescuing her man, I think they weighed that Han Solo was a resourceful and talented character He was also charismatic and popular. I think the main characters understood that he was a valuable resource, good for propaganda, heroic, rakish and I think he was good for morale among the Rebel personnel. In the end there was a decision made to rescue probably on the gamble that had he been a good asset to the Rebellion in the past and would be so in the future. Evidently it paid off because he was valuable on the ground with Endor strike team.
Leia withstood the torture and mind-control of Vader