But let’s talk about the moments right after that and the reason it provides to love Star Wars and one of the greatest gifts it gave fans: the sounds of blasters. Let’s dive into the Pew Pew Pew of it all.
Sound designer Ben Burtt has as much to do with the success of the Star Wars franchise, particularly A New Hope, as any one because he was able to create sound effect after sound effect after sound effect that stuck with you long after you left the theater. His sound design became the voice of Chewbacca, the breathing of Darth Vader, and the roar of the Millennium Falcon. Yes, the story, the characters, and the sequences that fans saw were important, but you cannot overlook the tremendous impact of the sounds you took home with you.
It was unintentionally brilliant marketing. In backyards and playgrounds everywhere, Star Wars was being played out by all these new fans. Whether it was with the Kenner figures (the ultimate marketing strategy) or something as simple as a stick for a lightsaber and your hands for a blaster, the sounds of Star Wars became one of the reasons you loved it.
Pew.
Pew.
Pew.
Now it’s a meme. A beloved wink and a nod to the sounds you made as a young fan. A shared sound effect amongst fans. Pay close attention and you can even see Laura Dern as Admiral Holdo mouth “pew” as she fires a stun blast at Poe Dameron’s mutinous cohorts in The Last Jedi. And it all began in that hallway.
Many were still processing the sensory overload of a Star Destroyer rumbling over their heads when the next sequence began. Worried Rebels, members of the Alderaanian security team, ran past some talking robots; one was gold and seemed really uptight, and took somewhat defensive positions against an unknown threat. A door starts to burn, their faces get tense, and blasters are raised.
Stormtroopers enter. The faceless “bad guys.” And the fight is on. Sometime later fans would come to know (and study, memorize, and brag about knowing) that the blasters were E-11s, standard-issue Imperial weapons, and the overwhelmed Rebels were wielding DH-17s. Cool details that flesh out the world, but all that matters in that moment were the sounds the blasters made. It was familiar, but it was clearly from out of this world. It felt like science fiction, yet it wasn’t hokey or over the top. It was metallic, yet part of it floated through the ether. It was immediately that sound you knew these space guns would make.
Ben Burtt is a genius.
By now, how Burtt made these sounds is the stuff of Star Wars behind-the-scenes lore. While on a family vacation, Burtt, who always traveled with his trusty Nagra recorder, climbed up a hill in the Pocono Mountains to reach an old radio tower. Striking a rock against the cables supporting the tower, he created the sound that would fuel the fire of many a playground Star Wars reenactment. According to his late father, Ben knew right away that it was how an “imaginary laser gun ought to sound.”
Indeed, it was.
So, come for the dramatic tension, visual storytelling, and life-altering impact of the opening minutes of A New Hope, but stay for the sound effect that became the universal signpost for a battle amongst the stars.
Pew Pew Pew.
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A golden droid, a red arm,
and the comedy of character
Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens
Writers: J.J. Abrams & Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt Director: J.J. Abrams
The Force Awakens was about returns just as much as debuts. The legacy of this film may well end up being all the new characters it brought to us like Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Rey, but there is no mistaking that part of what was being presented to fans in December 2015 was a few more rides around the space block with your old friends. The Force Awakens was chock-full of new glimpses of our lifelong heroes.
Whether these first looks came at the very end, part of an emotional crescendo to the new story, or popped up along the way, it was nostalgic fun attending this reunion. Han Solo and the Mighty Chewbacca had the most celebrated of these returns (more on this later), but the others kept pace, mostly. Luke Skywalker waited around on a hill in one of the most daring story beats of the movie. General Leia showed up with a knowing smirk at her husband, in the middle of leading a resistance. Admiral Ackbar was too busy planning to wink at the camera. R2-D2 was taking a nap. And Nien Nunb, well, it was just nice knowing that our favorite Sullustan was back. Yet one return of a classic character actually struck a chord—striking a pitch-perfect balance between string-tugging nostalgia and staying true to the character.
C-3PO was back!
Episode VII was really moving along by the time everyone’s favorite, high-strung protocol droid showed up. It was almost a surprise. The audience was investing more and more in the adventures of our new heroes Rey and Finn when, suddenly, General Leia and her Resistance fighters show up. That itself is a great moment. The door to the Resistance transport opens to reveal Leia. Always a leader and not just a princess, she was now a general, the weight of the galaxy once again on her shoulders. Her expression is both weary and wry as her estranged husband stands before her. As fans, this is one of the moments we bought a ticket for. Leia…and Han…once again.
Then, like he’s done so many times before, most notably on the Millennium Falcon while it was resting not-so-comfortably in the belly of the Exogorth in The Empire Strikes Back, C-3PO interrupts. He’s once again robbed Han Solo of a moment alone with Leia and the moment earns its laughs. And C-3PO comedy is very much a reason to love Star Wars.
There are a lot of great Threepio moments to revel in and so much of that has be chocked up to the masterful performance of Anthony Daniels. Humor in Star Wars has and always will be important, but the humor around C-3PO always seems to work best. It’s the comedy of character. Similar to how Han Solo being Han created some of the fandom’s favorite jokes, bits, and declarations of love, the character of Threepio constantly earns laughs by being…well…himself.
The saga of Star Wars is fueled by serial adventure craziness. Something’s always going wrong, something’s blowing up, people are fighting, things are moving fast, and the opera in space opera is always moving forward. And in the middle of that is an anxiety-riddled droid just trying to hold on to one small piece of calm and adhere to his protocol programming. He just wants to do right by you…and for his princess. Yet flummoxed Threepio is best Threepio and time and time again some of the biggest laughs in Star Wars circle around him.
Does it always work? No. No it doesn’t. The Threepio cameo in Rogue One is fun, but doesn’t have time to breathe and, quite frankly, the comedy around him in Attack of the Clones veers way too far into wackiness and is a legendary stumbling block for fans looking to unilaterally love Star Wars. Even for Star Wars, a world in which giant space slugs rule criminal undergrounds and a pet dog inspired the best copilot in the galaxy, Threepio losing his head in the Petranaki Arena on Geonosis didn’t seem real.
Which is why the grand return of C-3PO stands tall among his portfolio of laughs. He’s excited to see Han Solo despite the years of verbal jabs he’s received from the crusty smuggler. (Perhaps that’s one of the added benefits of memory wipes.) He has no ego, so he’s not going to assume Han remembers him. And because he’s polite, he’s going to give you the out of blaming his new red arm and wants to make sure Leia knows it’s him. It would never occur to C-3PO that any of these feelings or assumptions are wrong, especially against the backdrop of two reunited lovers standing among the rubble of a freshly destroyed castle burning because of their son and his band of evil soldiers.
And we wouldn’t want C-3PO, who is fluent in over six million forms of communication, any other way.
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