As you know, the most recent update to Alliance at War was incomplete. I felt kind of lazy uploading an incomplete version but do not worry to much; there will be another update. I am aiming for a later 2014 release.
I realize I have been kind of quiet with what is coming next; I do not want to give away to much. If I tell you all everything then the next update will not be a surprise.
Anyway, I have a question: has anyone else noticed that most of the Imperials have British accents? I bet that on the "join the Imperials" form their is a box that says "Check here if your British!" I have nothing against the British, they are okay by me. In fact I am not even really bias when it comes to nationality. I am just wondering, is there some type of subliminal messages I am missing? Just curious is all.
I think it had something to do with core world accents in canon being British.
That does make sense. The heart of the Empire is the center of the Core Worlds.
In most films, the bias is that is that british play the evil villains of the movies. epicly if they are doing southern english accents as they sound as if they have more authority. also Britain tends to have better actors and it is often harder to play the more villainous characters
Now that you mentioned it... they do seem to play a lot of villains.
When "Star Wars" began official casting, George Lucas knew that he would need big name actors and actresses to help sell the movie to movie going audiences.
Alec Guinness was a peer without equal, both in the black & white film era, and in color. Well established, and undoubtedly British.
En.wikipedia.org
Perter Cushing was well known as the Sheriff of Nottingham in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Richard Greene. This series ran for a long time, and was pretty good. Peter Cushing also played in many other distinguished roles as can be seen here:
En.wikipedia.org
Carrie Fisher is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, both were the iconic stars of their time, and thus a movie starring their daughter would draw a large block of viewers.
If you go to the link below and look up the principle characters of the original trilogy, you will find that they each were fairly well known before they did Star Wars. For Lucas, using these established actors was a wise choice, and really helped to sell the movie.
En.wikipedia.org
Aside from this, "Star Wars" drew heavily from WWII. The "Empire" was modeled after the "Third Reich," which in German means "Third Empire."
When watching the movies, you will notice that the uniforms are cut in the same fashion that the German and English militaries of WWII used.
The emphasis on the Imperial Navy, corresponded with Germany's reliance on their naval superiority.
The word "storm trooper" was coined by the Germans for their heavy infantry. En.wikipedia.org
What we must remember though, is that WWII had been over for roughly 33 years, and therefore using German actors or names in the film would have been seen as far more than merely bad taste. At it was, the German tactics, tech, machines, names, -etc. gave George Lucas more than enough adaptable material to help create a believably evil "Empire." As for the British side: with American and French aid, the British had a large part in helping to defeat the Axis Powers; so to use British actors to help play the villains would not be seen in a bad light, not like it would have if German or Japanese actors had been used.
Somebody give Darth Saber a Corellian cookie. I did know that Lucas used WWII footage to help create the Battle over Yavin IV, but I did not know the rest. I have learned quite a bit today.
Thank you for the Corellian cookie Larry-3, it was delicious. There are two things that I wish to say regarding my previous post:
1. The "uniforms" to which I referred in the second post, are the ones mainly worn by the officers of the Empire. The uniforms were cut in the same fashion as those used by the British and Germans.
2. There was a Japanese element in the Star Wars films: George Lucas said in an interview that the inspiration for Darth Vader's helmet came from the helmets warn by the Samurai warriors of Japan. Thus the two main Axis Powers are represented in the Star Wars films.
In a way, the droids of the Trade Federation / CIS are a lot like the Japanese of WWII: the droid soldiers are robots, they had no flexibility in their orders, and they served unquestioningly in doing anything that their superiors ordered, including suicide missions.
The Japanese soldiers were much the same way: they were not flexible in interpreting their orders; whatever they were told to do, they either did or died trying. Their loyalty to their Emperor was absolute.