Chris' Fish Place

Disclaimer: I won an ARC via a giveaway on Booklikes.  The book arrived with two posters.

Are Ewoks too cute?  That is the question.

Whether it is nobler to kill Vader or redeem . . .

Whatever.  I give in.

Jedi Doeth Return is Ian Doescher’s adaption of the last classic Star Wars movie into Shakespearean verse.  One hopes that it is not the last Star Wars movie Doescher attacks in such a way.

Attacks is too harsh a word.  Adapts. 

Please Doescher do more because that way there will be some news about Star Wars that will be happy.

So what to say about this book?  It actually hews more closely to the movie than the previous two, so some of that humor of Mr. Doescher’s that made the last two such fun.  It’s there, just not as much.

Though Obi-Wan’s comment about midi-chlorians is priceless.

Considering the saga’s plot problems in terms of Leia’s remembering her mother as well as Vader’s inability to know that Leia is his daughter until the end of Jedi, I was hoping for some type of comment, but there wasn’t one.  Luke’s reaction about his relationship to Leia doesn’t quite make up for it, though it is a wonderful speech and neither does his reason for thinking about Leia in the ending duel.  Parody should also have some truth to it.  Monty Python’s sketch about Hamlet works because at the heart of the bit is a truth or revelation about Hamlet in terms of criticism.  While Doescher’s adaptations of both New Hope and Empire had these light hearted good natured criticisms, Jedi doesn’t.  Perhaps this is because, as Doescher freely admits, Jedi is his favorite of the three.  Regardless of the reason, it feels like Doescher let a prefect showcase for his humor go by.

The two wise guards, however, do return.  I suppose they are different guards, but if you like the whole discussion scene from Empire, you will like this conversation.

        What I really liked was Leia.  I remember when Jedi first came on broadcast television.  It was, I believe, on NBC.  This was back in the days before computer television, Hulu, Acorn and years before many people have cable.  It was basically an event.  Like most networks at the time, NBC edited the movie to meet the time and commercial demands.  How?  By editing out all the scenes of Leia kicking ass with the exception of her shooting the gun during the shield generator fight.  Lately, the predominant image has been of Princess Leia in her slave girl outfit.  While the illustrator, Nicolas Delort, does include a picture of Leia in her slave girl outfit; it is Leia in her slave girl outfit killing Jabba.  She has a don’t mess with me look on her face.  Nice!  Additionally, Leia’s dialogue in terms of her battle and interaction with the Ewoks is great.

        R2-D2, the fool of the series, is joined and rivaled by another fool here and leads up to a fool duel.  (I just wanted to type that out, really).  The fool duel and rest (Solo as Benedick especially) make this an enjoyable ending to a funny series.