Dunno whether it was Lucas or who, but the hierarchies and even the hint of competition within/amongst those hierarchies are present-bordering-on-obvious in the first 3 (particularly the first 2). I think the SS vs. Kriegsmarine analogy isn't that fantastical. At first Vader is this sort of like feared-but-tolerated weirdo who the line officers sort of roll their eyes at behind his back but, you know, it's an Empire, and an Empire is necessary for Galactic Ordung and if you have an Empire you have an Emperor and what he says goes and he likes this guy, so, like, OKAY I GUESS. But then he starts killing off POWs and that's distasteful, yeah, but we're talking about a war for civilization so, you know, OK...I suppose. Hey, plus, do YOU want to be the one to say something about it? Then before you know it he's mind-UFCing anyone who says "uh, that's not really cool" and there you are...1945 on the Ostfront. The insufficiently aggressive units will be encouraged by the summary execution of their insufficiently aggressive junior officers and NCOs.
I mean, yeah, Lucas has turned out to be a sort of giant roll of fat with a liquid-filled nubbin where his brain should be, but I think that's drug abuse in his later years. Or maybe dementia. Star Wars was definitely B-grade, and the sets were pretty bad, and let's be honest...some of the casting wasn't so great...but it wasn't actually stupid, AFAICT.
Whereas the uh "licensed" books? Dude, they're bad. Really bad.
Eh, I can see where you're coming from on the movie stuff. It just seems like,to me, the best is outside the movie. I haven't read the books since before college so keep in mind I'm going off memory and it's been a while so no cracks about reading YA fiction. Basically I read Dune and my SW world was shattered when I realized G. Lucas cribbed everything from Herbert, Foundations (HBO series I txted you about) is the only thing out there for me. Asimov is my new idol, SW and GL is the old.
Besides, how can you not love a guy that writes about himself like this:
" Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union to his great surprise. He moved quickly to correct the situation. When his parents emigrated to the United States, Isaac (three years old at the time) stowed away in their baggage. He has been an American citizen since the age of eight.
Brought up in Brooklyn, and educated in its public schools, he eventually found his way to Columbia University and, over the protests of the school administration, managed to annex a series of degrees in chemistry, up to and including a Ph.D. He then infiltrated Boston University and climbed the academic ladder, ignoring all cries of outrage, until he found himself Professor of Biochemistry.
Meanwhile, at the age of nine, he found the love of his life (in the inanimate sense) when he discovered his first science-fiction magazine. By the time he was eleven, he began to write stories, and at eighteen, he actually worked up the nerve to submit one. It was rejected. After four long months of tribulation and suffering, he sold his first story and, thereafter, he has never looked back.
In 1941, when he was twenty-one years old, he wrote the classic short story "Nightfall" and his future was assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his robot stories, and shortly after that he had begun his Foundation series.
What was left except quantity? At the present time, he has published over 340 books, distributed through every major division of the Dewey system of library classification, and shows no sign of slowing up. He remains as youthful, as lively, and as lovable as ever, and grows more handsome with each year. You can be sure that this is so since he has written this little essay himself and his devotion to absolute objectivity is notorious."