- Latham2000Level Three
Is Star Wars internally consistent?
February 5th 2021, 2:31 pm
To expand on what the title means, has the Star Wars universe been good at maintaining internal consistency? Star Wars obviously doesn't conform to real world logic, nor does it have to, because it's a heightened, fictional universe with a lot of fantasy elements. However, that doesn't mean that there is no logic in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars has its own ground rules and standards on how shit works and doesn't work e.g. how the Force operates. Has Star Wars been good at being consistent with its own ground rules and standards?
Here's a description of internal consistency if you don't know what it is:
You can read the rest of the article from the link. Take G canon, T canon and C canon into account because this is the Legends Discussion forum.
Here's a description of internal consistency if you don't know what it is:
- Spoiler:
Description: In psychological testing, internal consistency refers to how well items on a particular test measure the same construct. In principle, items that purport to measure the same construct should strongly correlate to each other. We can make use of a similar idea when writing fiction.
A story is made up of multiple components, and it has internal consistency when all of these components operate and abide by the rules and logic that govern the world the story is set in. In other words, internal consistency in a story refers to how closely the components of a story adhere to the rules and logic set out by the story itself.
But why does the internal consistency of a story matter?
Let us begin by considering a fantasy story in which the characters possess magical powers. Magic, almost by definition, allows people to do things that would otherwise be impossible (e.g., create and control fire). But magic is not random – it cannot be if the story is to make any sense.
Try to imagine what a fight between two characters with magical powers would be like if there are no rules about how magic works and what it can do. It would be utterly ridiculous. So much of the tension in a fight scene derives from the combatants pitting their strengths and weaknesses against each other. But without rules or logic, there are no strengths or weaknesses. Characters could simply do whatever they please without any limitations whatsoever.
If there are no rules, could characters even run out of magic? No. Being able to run out of magic is one of the most common rules in fantasy fiction. Would there be different types of magic? No. It would be impossible to distinguish between different types of magic without rules or some kind of logical classification system. Could characters simply alter reality on a titanic scale and simply will themselves to victory? Quite possibly. Rules and logic are what set the limits on what magic can achieve. Without them, there is no reason to limit what characters with magic can do (which would make for a thoroughly boring story and fight scene).
Internal consistency is also vital because it allows the readers to engage with the story. Readers typically enjoy thinking about the characters, plot, settings, and ideas of a story. But thinking about these things in a meaningful manner involves trying to understand and even predict them, and understanding and prediction are impossible without rules and logic.
[...]
Source — The Importance of Internal Consistency
You can read the rest of the article from the link. Take G canon, T canon and C canon into account because this is the Legends Discussion forum.
- ZenwolfLevel One
Re: Is Star Wars internally consistent?
February 5th 2021, 3:19 pm
We kind of can't take T canon into account with C canon because T Canon doesn't adhere to anything of what C canon had established prior, T canon is basically a clean slate.
Now G to T Canon, well...having Dooku fight Obi-Wan and Anakin so many times it kinda...ignores the implications of the dialogue spoken in ROTS, that they hadn't fought one another since AOTC. Grevious vs Obi-Wan on Utapau is the same thing. So...it's not really consistent there to adhering to what the movies themselves established. There's also no mention of Maul or Ahsoka, which you'd think at some point would have been brought up even in passing. Yoda doesn't even do anything or mention anything about the visions he experienced to anyone about the fall of the Republic and the Jedi, which is sorta messed up.
Regarding the Force....I guess it was consistent, but only really just because everyone did the standard TK stuff and Dooku/Sidious sometimes used Force Lightning and the typical Force Jumps. When another ability came about, it was situational and not really used much. The Jedi/Sith were powerful, but not so much so that they could wipe out huge squads of enemies at a time and big Force feats were rare. So that falls in line with the movies I suppose.
Now G to C Canon....plot wise to the movies, I feel it did pretty good. There wasn't any Anakin or Dooku fighting, Obi-Wan didn't fight Grevious and Anakin didn't have a Padawan, Maul stayed dead. Yoda as far as I recall didn't have any visions about the Republic or Jedi falling, or at least I don't think it was as blatant about it.
Now regarding the Force...yeah that was greatly expanded upon and not just in your standard Force abilities, but others too. So to the movies it wasn't really consistent, although to the movies there wasn't any real need for that considering the fights that went on with circumstances surrounding them.
Now apart from all of that mind you....SW has been a bit inconsistent with blasters, in some cases it blows right through someone's body and another it just doesn't. You could chalk this up to variable dial yield which all blasters have some sort of power management, but still. Kinda the same with Turbolasers too.
Regarding hyperspace travel, I believe they were consistent enough about it...roughly.
Really I believe you'll see more inconsistency in like the 80s/90s material mainly because I feel the SWU was still trying to find its footing. It is consistent though however that the Galactic Empire is extremely huge, numbers and the like might vary in sources but the gist of it is, it's big so that in a broad way is consistent.
But overall I feel G to C canon was consistent.
Now G to T Canon, well...having Dooku fight Obi-Wan and Anakin so many times it kinda...ignores the implications of the dialogue spoken in ROTS, that they hadn't fought one another since AOTC. Grevious vs Obi-Wan on Utapau is the same thing. So...it's not really consistent there to adhering to what the movies themselves established. There's also no mention of Maul or Ahsoka, which you'd think at some point would have been brought up even in passing. Yoda doesn't even do anything or mention anything about the visions he experienced to anyone about the fall of the Republic and the Jedi, which is sorta messed up.
Regarding the Force....I guess it was consistent, but only really just because everyone did the standard TK stuff and Dooku/Sidious sometimes used Force Lightning and the typical Force Jumps. When another ability came about, it was situational and not really used much. The Jedi/Sith were powerful, but not so much so that they could wipe out huge squads of enemies at a time and big Force feats were rare. So that falls in line with the movies I suppose.
Now G to C Canon....plot wise to the movies, I feel it did pretty good. There wasn't any Anakin or Dooku fighting, Obi-Wan didn't fight Grevious and Anakin didn't have a Padawan, Maul stayed dead. Yoda as far as I recall didn't have any visions about the Republic or Jedi falling, or at least I don't think it was as blatant about it.
Now regarding the Force...yeah that was greatly expanded upon and not just in your standard Force abilities, but others too. So to the movies it wasn't really consistent, although to the movies there wasn't any real need for that considering the fights that went on with circumstances surrounding them.
Now apart from all of that mind you....SW has been a bit inconsistent with blasters, in some cases it blows right through someone's body and another it just doesn't. You could chalk this up to variable dial yield which all blasters have some sort of power management, but still. Kinda the same with Turbolasers too.
Regarding hyperspace travel, I believe they were consistent enough about it...roughly.
Really I believe you'll see more inconsistency in like the 80s/90s material mainly because I feel the SWU was still trying to find its footing. It is consistent though however that the Galactic Empire is extremely huge, numbers and the like might vary in sources but the gist of it is, it's big so that in a broad way is consistent.
But overall I feel G to C canon was consistent.
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