086: “Hocus Pocus”
Who needs speeches? Not SWa9 it seems. Han Solo loses all of his great lines in this page.
“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no substitute for a good blaster by your side kid” and “I’ve seen a lot of straaange things…” etc. I love that ‘strange things line actually. Like when Ben alluded to the ‘Clone Wars’ earlier, we were left wondering what it might have been like. It stimulated our off-screen imaginations and made the story expand beyond the movie itself.
But all we get here is
“Hocus pocus”
Han Solo’s academically acclaimed book: ‘The Jedi Delusion’
A pity. Though Harrison Ford might have preferred it that way in 1975. He famously complained to Lucas:
“You can type this stuff—but you can’t SAY it”.
Ford’s long line “I’ve seen a lot of strange things…” was one of the hardest for him to nail. Happily – he did.
Nah, don’t need that—or that…
So, lots of important Jedi theology is dumped; and that whole apparently boring coming out of hyperspace into “some kind of asteroid collision” bit is dropped too! How could I ditch a meteor shower for goodness sake? Sorry George, wee John knows best. “NAARG!”
BONUS: This is hilarious: Richard Dawkins reads his hate mail.
PANEL 1
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Aboard the Millennium Falcon...
Ben has his eyes closed, thinking, feeling, "I felt... a sudden great ebbing in the force. The cry of a million beings... stopping all at once!"
"You mean," asks Luke, "the way the force is an energy given out by all living things?"
"Yes, it was a feeling of death!"
PANEL 2
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"Hocus pocus!" is Han Solo's only, scornful and bored reply. "Well, we're approaching Alderann."
PANEL 3
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"Don't eveyone thank me at once" continues Solo form out of shot. We see a close-up of Chewie. "NAARG" the Wookie growls, having spotted something.
PANEL 4
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Wide shot of the Falcon and TIE fighter in space.
"A T.I.E.? Don't be crazy!" shouts Solo, but then, "Hey, he's right."
Luke asks, "It followed us through hyper-space?"
"No Luke," says Ben, "it's a short-range fighter."
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