Star Wars: A Weird Feeling of Regression . . .

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I was recently watching the Star Wars cycle with my wife, starting with the oldest movie (Episode IV), through Episodes V and VI, wrapping round to Episode I, in the order in which the movies were made and released.  First, I will summarize the story, for the benefit of anyone who might have not figured it out.  Bear in mind that the setting is a multi-planet civilization, and we should think of the planets as if they were far-flung countries in the world in which we live.

I
The story opens in the Capital Planet of Coruscant, in a hoary civilization that is so ancient that the planet has evolved into a single enormous city.  (This is amplified in the printed novels that have been released to accompany the movies.)  Coruscant is supposed to be a beautiful city/planet, just beginning to fall into decline.  We see the Senator for Naboo, a minor planet, discussing the fact that his planet is being blockaded by a business conglomerate called The Federation.  It is difficult to notice, but the Senator seems only mildly concerned about the blockade.  Two Jedi Knights eventually set out for Tatooine, to help force an agreement between the Federation and the planetary government.

We see the bridge of the main ship of the blockade, with the Federation bosses talking to the Planetary ruler, young Queen Amidala.  She is angry, because evidently food is in short supply.  Soon afterwards, we see these same Federation bosses talking to someone (long-distance) on the Capital planet, Coruscant.  It is a long while before we learn that the shadowy figure, promising support for the Federation bosses, and issuing orders, is in fact the Senator for the very planet that is being blockaded, Senator Palpatine.

The Jedi arrive, and are captured.  Senator Palpatine (via long-distance hologram) tells the Federation bosses that the Jedi should be no problem.  Eventually, as the Jedi become difficult to control, he asks that they should be killed.  Meanwhile, he is also assuring the Queen that she should make a settlement with the Federation, since Coruscant is too far away to send help from.

To cut a long story short, the Jedi Knights escape, steal a spacecraft, and land on the planet.  They make their way to the planet city of the Naboo, home to the Queen, just as the Federation decides to land and attack the planet.  The Jedi rescue the young Queen and a few members of her entourage, and escape in their small craft.  Among the Queen's ladies-in-waiting is young Padme.

In the uproar surrounding the escape from Naboo, the little spacecraft needs to go to ground, and the Jedi choose the very minor desert planet Tatooine, supposedly in the middle of nowhere.  There they discover that a main component of the engines of the little spacecraft need to be replaced.  They get help from a little slave boy, Anakin, and his mother.  The little boy appears to have a physiological peculiarity that the Jedi look for in youngsters who should be trained as Jedi.  The kid wins a major race, and with the winnings, the Jedi secure the part they need, and the freedom of the little kid.  The mother has to remain behind.  In the course of the action, Padme, a girl of about 15, and the little boy (about 7) become close.

With the repaired ship, our small band goes to Coruscant for help.  There they find that the Senate is in a stalemate.  Palpatine takes them under his wing, oozing charm and assurances, and maneuvers the Queen into calling for a vote of no confidence in the Supreme Chancellor of the Senate.  Amazingly, Palpatine himself is elected Supreme Chancellor a few days later.  He is disappointed when the young Queen decides to depart, in disgust.  Meanwhile, the Jedi organization has met and examined Anakin, and reluctantly decide to train him, even though he is deemed too old.

Responding to desperate pleas from Naboo, the little group leaves for Naboo, and somehow destroy the invaders.  Palpatine arrives afterwards, and congratulates them on overthrowing the invaders.  But the Jedi who led the revolt is killed, and his apprentice, Ben Kenobi, takes Anakin under his wing, to train him.  Surprisingly, "Padme", the young handmaid of the Queen, is revealed to be the Queen, and another young woman has been masquerading as the Queen (at the behest of the Queen).

II, III
In the next two episodes, the friendship between little Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala (Padme) ripens into love, as Anakin comes into manhood.  However, as a Jedi, Anakin suffers setbacks and frustrations, since he has an impatient temperament.  All his weaknesses are blamed on Ben Kenobi's ineffective training, supervised by none other than Master Yoda, the diminutive ancient being.  Senator Palpatine has Anakin's mother murdered, deliberately to embitter young Anakin.  Several Jedi defeats at the hand of the Sith, a rival group that gets its strength from the so-called Dark Side, frustrate Anakin further.  Anakin marries the Queen.  But as Anakin's frustrations grow to insurmountable proportions, Palpatine succeeds in persuading him to come over to the winning side: the Sith.  He names himself Darth Vader, and gives up all connections to his former self, including his dead wife.

Palpatine declares himself Emperor, and dissolves the Senate.  With Anakin at his side, he embarks on a rule of repression and terror.  Before Queen Amidala died, she had given birth to twins.  The Emperor sets Anakin to hunt down these infants, but Ben Kenobi has separated them, and hidden them away.

IV
One of Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala'sdeath star inside a little robot, R2-D2.  R2-D2, and C3-PO, a robot that Anakin Skywalker had built, and which had come into the possession of Leia, are placed in an escape pod, and fired off to Tatooine.  The Princess is taken on the ship to be interrogated by Darth Vader.  (At this stage, since this is the first of the episodes released, we are unaware that Darth Vader is Leia's father.  Neither of them are aware of it, either.)

The robots land on the planet Tatooine surface.  It is many years after we see the place, and the main city has grown.  It is mainly controlled by the gangsters called Huts, and there is little law and order.  In a remote farm, a young boy called Luke Skywalker lives with his uncle and aunt.  He accidentally comes into possession of the robots, and sees a brief clip from a holographic video the Leia has made, asking for help from one Obi Wan Kenobi.  The only Kenobi Luke knows is Ben Kenobi, who lives some distance away.  Ben manages to get the robot to release the entire message, and Luke is drawn to the holographic image of the Princess.  Returning home, Luke finds his home destroyed.  He decides to go with Ben to rescue the princess.

The Princess is rescued, with the help of a smuggler called Han Solo, who is being sought by the Hutts for being late with a fee.  The plans are delivered to the Rebels, and the death star is destroyed.  But Ben Kenobi is killed in a duel with Darth Vader.

V
Luke narrowly escapes a battle on an icy planet in the Hoth system, and hears Ben Kenobi's voice encouraging him to travel to the swamp planet of Dagobah, where Jedi Master Yoda has retired.  Luke trains with Yoda.  Meanwhile, Leia and Han seek shelter with Lando Kalrissian on a certain gas planet.  When they arrive, they find that Darth Vader has set a trap for them there.  Han is frozen in a block of Carbonite, and shipped off to Tatooine, where his debtors want him.

Luke has a feeling that Leia is in trouble and goes to find them.  He encounters Darth Vader, who has recognized him as his son.  Together, Darth Vader says, we can rule the galaxy.

Lando and Leia evade Darth Vader, rescue Luke, and rejoin the Rebels.

VII
The Empire has built a second death star, near the moon of the planet Endor, home to the Ewoks.  Han, Leia, R2D2 and C3PO end up on the moon, meet the Ewoks, and get ready to attack the power station on the moon which generates the shield that protects the death star, which is in stationary orbit around the moon.  The Rebellion has planned an attack on the death star, and the little advance group has undertaken to disable the shield in time for the attack.

Luke gives himself up, insisting that he can enlist the aid of Darth Vader to neutralize the death star.  But the Emperor, Palpatine, has arrived, and is eager to turn Luke to the Dark Side.  As the Emperor's needling of Luke turns vicious, Darth Vader snaps, and hurls the Emperor into the power shaft of the death star, a sort of well that leads to the central power source of the structure.  The Rebellion, which had emerged from light speed into the space around the death star too early, had been taking a beating.  But the advanced group, belatedly, disable the shield with the aid of the Ewoks, and the death star is destroyed.  Luke escapes just in time, with Darth Vader's body.

There is much rejoicing.