Tailkinker

Answer: Right at the very bottom, you have the younglings, who appear to have no particularly official title, but who have been variously referred to as Jedi Initiates, Jedi Students and occasionally Jedi Hopefuls. As they age and are apprenticed to a Jedi Master or Jedi Knight, they become a Padawan, travelling with their mentor. Once a Padawan is deemed ready by his or her mentor, they will enter a series of trials, at the end of which they will have the rank of Jedi Knight conferred upon them (in certain cases, where a Padawan has performed some act of extraordinary heroism, this may be taken in lieu of the trials, an example being Obi-wan Kenobi, who was promoted to Jedi Knight after his defeat of Darth Maul). The remaining official rank is that of Jedi Master, which is most commonly conferred on a Jedi after they successfully train their first Padawan to Knight rank, but may also be awarded by their peers after some particularly grand act or major advancement in the Force. While not technically possessing a higher rank, the twelve Jedi who sit on the council can be considered to possess higher authority within the Order. Finally, an unofficial but acknowledged position within the Order is that of Grand Master, considered "first among equals" in the council, held by Yoda at the time of the fall of the Old Republic.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: It's never explained. This is what's known in the film industry as a McGuffin, a term popularised by Alfred Hitchcock, which is an item that's crucial to the plot, but the exact nature of which is never revealed because it actually doesn't matter in the slightest.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: This is very much a matter of opinion. As with any film, some people consider there to be multiple plot holes, whereas others don't. One thing that Lucas did originally say would be explained was the erasure of Kamino from the Jedi Archives (as discovered in the second film). This ultimately didn't happen, which some have claimed represents a plot hole in the series, whereas all it really is is an omission of information (which was ultimately dealt with in the book "Labyrinth of Evil" anyway). It's really down to how people look at it and what they consider to be a plot hole.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No, it's not an absolute prerequisite. Sith are obviously very dark by their nature, so murders tend to follow in their wake, but it's not essential to become one. A murder may well advance them towards the Dark Side, thus improving their eligibility for Sithdom, but it's not absolutely necessary.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No, it was purely a publicity shot.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The Jedi are shown to have something of a blind spot in regards to matters of the heart. Note that when Luke confronts Obi-Wan over lying to him about his father's fate, Obi-Wan's response is haughty and defensive, and gives Luke nothing in terms of regret or apology. They're focused on their mission, not on how Luke feels. Why waste time, in their eyes, telling Luke about his mother? If they had their way, he wouldn't even know about his father. The prequels would make this more explicit, showing that the Jedi are conditioned from the beginning to let go of all "passions" because they could so easily be corrupted, and their inability to understand Anakin's emotions just contributes to his downfall.

TonyPH

Answer: Why can we assume that she was discussed off-screen? Luke's got more important things to talk about than who his mother was. Yoda dies shortly afterwards and Luke's understandably more interested in how Darth Vader, given that he's got to go up against him, can be his father when talking to Obi-wan's ghost shortly after. Not a lot of time for general chit-chat. Behind the scenes, at that point, very little would have been decided about their mother, as it would be irrelevant to the plot of the trilogy and to discuss her on-screen would have wasted time and slowed everything down.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No. As, being the hero of the piece, there was no chance of it actually happening, it's highly unlikely that the subject was ever considered. Even when Luke temporarily joined the Dark Side in the EU comics, no Sith name was ever given.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The Viceroy contracted Fett to assassinate Padme. Fett worked with Wessell to do the job. Wessell never knew who had ordered the assassination; she only knew that the job had come from Fett. As for what Gunray himself gains, it's largely revenge; he's never exactly forgiven her for foiling the plot to take over Naboo. You do have to bear in mind, however, that much of the impetus for the hit may well have come from Dooku as part of the plan to set off the war. Amidala's potentially a major opponent in the Sith plans; eliminating her could be useful. Even if the assassinations don't succeed, they're still useful in raising the tensions between the Republic and the Seperatists, so it's largely a win-win situation from Dooku's point of view, so he may well have influenced Gunray towards ordering the hit.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Being fictional weaponry, precise details can be hard to come by and may potentially be contradictory as different authors provide different interpretations. Much information on the different types of weaponry used across the Star Wars universe and what's known about how they operate (often very little) can be found here.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: He simply guessed. He's a master at manipulation and scheming. Anakin's come to see him, he's uncomfortable, Palpatine has to know that the Jedi Council have their concerns about him. The council asking Anakin to pass on information about his movements is a logical move on their part; they simply underestimated Anakin's personal loyalty to the chancellor and how well Palpatine can read Anakin's emotions. His uncomfortableness was a dead giveaway.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: There are two options with regard to the Falcon; either Luke's on-board, in which case Vader needs to track it down to capture him, or he isn't, in which case the people who are on-board will be excellent bait to draw Luke into his trap. Either way, he needs to find the ship. Jedi can sense the presence of living beings, not just other Force sensitives, so there's no particular reason why he shouldn't be able to sense the Falcon's crew. There's no particular indication that he's mistaking Leia's force sense for Luke's - if he was, then he'd immediately realise his mistake and, in all likelihood, that she's his daughter when he met up with her later in the film. Which he doesn't.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Because while they could use the midi-chlorians to create a powerful apprentice, they can't use them to grow that apprentice to adulthood in the blink of an eye. Sidious needs an apprentice to do his bidding and advance his agenda in the meantime; he's not going to sit there twiddling his thumbs while he waits for Anakin to grow up. As far as choosing Shmi Skywalker, they need to choose a host mother who's not going to come to the attention of the Jedi. If the Jedi pick up on Anakin shortly after his birth, then they will simply take him away and raise him from scratch, which would ruin him for Sidious' purposes. They need Anakin to grow up a bit, develop attachments that can be manipulated to turn him to the Dark Side, so picking a humble slave on an out-of-the-way world is a perfect choice.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: According to Expanded Universe materials, Luke constructed his new lightsabre using instructions and materials that he found hidden in Obi-Wan Kenobi's abandoned dwelling on Tatooine.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The force ghosts could've talked him through it.

Answer: None whatsoever. While the trailer's a clever example of an editing job, the actual concept is absurd to a truly spectacular degree, and would undoubtedly be seen as a completely shameless cash-in on the original, to the extent where even studio executives might well balk at the idea.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Some bits of his score bear a small resemblance to a choral piece called "Ave Verum Corpus", but to suggest that it's a full-scale rip-off is a serious exaggeration.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: That's the English expression, yes. We use "series" to refer to both the overall run of the show and, with the appropriate number or year added, to what the US would refer to as a "season". As complete conjecture, it may have come about because in the UK we don't really have a TV "season" as such - while some shows start in September, our shows are shorter, and as such start and stop randomly throughout the year, meaning the word "season" wouldn't really be appropriate.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: That role was played by David Acord, assistant sound editor on the film.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: They simply don't think he could have survived. Even if he did, they could hardly take the time to search for what could be miles downriver. Aragorn would want to make sure that the people of Rohan reached safety, so that's what they do, better to accompany the column to Helm's Deep, rather than abandon them in the face of possible further attacks. Also, King Theoden had given orders to leave the dead, and assuming that Aragon could not have survived such a fall, they were being ordered to leave him.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: It's simply an error. While efforts are made to keep the expanded universe materials such as the books and comics consistent with the films, there is inevitably the possibility of inconsistencies creeping in. By Lucasfilm rules, the only inviolate canon are the movies themselves - information gleaned from other sources that contradicts the movies is automatically considered to be incorrect, even if it appeared prior to the film in question. The movies say that Anakin is the youngest ever to sit on the Council, so that's what's considered to be the canon. Billaba may appear on the council in Episode 1, but whatever information suggests that she is, in fact, younger than Anakin is to be considered incorrect.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The strong implication is that it doesn't. He's described as being able to "prevent those he loved from dying", which is a little different from actually bringing them back from the dead. There are also references to manipulating the midi-chlorians in order to create life, which appears to refer to the ability to create a new organism (as may possibly have been done with Anakin himself), rather than any form of resurrection.

Tailkinker ★