"I can't get my head around the fact that the technology of the first two movies, which are forty years prior to Star Wars, is so much better than any technology they had in Star Wars!"
About this Quote
Prowse is voicing a kind of fan-brain whiplash that only a pop-mythology like Star Wars can generate: the moment you notice the seams, the spell breaks just enough to make you laugh. His complaint targets a specific continuity headache - the prequel trilogy’s sleek, glassy tech somehow outclassing the “used future” grit of the original films - but the deeper issue is about how audiences read progress. We’re trained to treat technology as a one-way escalator. Star Wars, famously, was never interested in that story; it was interested in texture, decay, and the romance of things that have been repaired too many times.
Coming from Prowse, the original Darth Vader, the line also carries a quiet authority and an unspoken irritation: he helped embody the franchise’s most iconic machine-man, so noticing an aesthetic logic break feels personal. The intent isn’t pedantic worldbuilding; it’s a gut-level protest against the prequels’ design philosophy. George Lucas and his teams leaned into contemporary CGI polish and political “Republic at its height” opulence. The originals, made earlier but set later, deliberately looked older - analog panels, battered hulls, grime as worldbuilding.
That’s the subtext: the prequels accidentally obeyed real-world production history (newer movies look newer) rather than the internal history of the galaxy. Prowse’s bafflement names what many viewers felt but couldn’t quite articulate: not that the plot failed, but that the tactile credibility - the franchise’s greatest special effect - got traded for shine.
Coming from Prowse, the original Darth Vader, the line also carries a quiet authority and an unspoken irritation: he helped embody the franchise’s most iconic machine-man, so noticing an aesthetic logic break feels personal. The intent isn’t pedantic worldbuilding; it’s a gut-level protest against the prequels’ design philosophy. George Lucas and his teams leaned into contemporary CGI polish and political “Republic at its height” opulence. The originals, made earlier but set later, deliberately looked older - analog panels, battered hulls, grime as worldbuilding.
That’s the subtext: the prequels accidentally obeyed real-world production history (newer movies look newer) rather than the internal history of the galaxy. Prowse’s bafflement names what many viewers felt but couldn’t quite articulate: not that the plot failed, but that the tactile credibility - the franchise’s greatest special effect - got traded for shine.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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