So the title for the sixth and final Star Wars film has been officially announced.  I can now put together the following list:

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

As anyone who knows me will attest, I am completely George Lucas’ bitch.  I’m powerless.  If I misbehave there’s the threat he will punish me in some fashion.

Before Ep. 2 came out a few years and Lucas was trying to appease all the fans he pissed off with Ep. 1 he made quite a few comments about how the films were like poetry, where certain cadences and themes would be repeated.  This was all in the context of attempting to tie the prequel trilogy into the classic trilogy (never mind that he has done everything in his power with CGI and more to revise the classics to fit his new prequel mindset).  He may as well have just said, “Really, this will remind you why you loved the first three movies.  Please come see my movie!”.  Unfortunately, he then cast Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker.

One area Lucas has been good at hitting his “repeated themes” concept with are the chapter titles.  They fit a very nice pattern as you can see:

Eps 1 & 4 – Descriptive
Eps 2 & 5 – Decisive action by a large group
Eps 3 & 6 – Emotional action by a small group

Kudos to Lucas also for using “Revenge” which any Star Wars fan will be able to tell you was part of the original title for Ep. 6, i.e. “Revenge of the Jedi”.  The story goes that this was the title until Lucas decided that the concept of revenge didn’t really fit into the idea of the Jedi as a group who have learned to master their emotions and not let them cloud the use of good judgment to decide action.

However it turns out, I’m going to be there for Ep. 3.  I’ll get the DVDs of the original trilogy no matter what the CGI changes are that have been made.  I’ll get the DVD of Ep. 3 and probably the box set of the special editions of the six-part epic that is a couple years away.  I’ll get the DVDs of the Ewoks and Droids TV series and pretty much anything else that comes with the SW name attached.  As I said, I’m Lucas’ bitch.  We all have that one relationship that we can’t break off no matter how self-destructive it might be.  I know it’s not healthy, but that really doesn’t change anything.

But let’s get back to the big question: Do I like the title?  Yes, I do.  It fills out the pattern nicely.  My hope is that when the entire epic is viewed we will be able to see one arch reaching over 12-15 hours of film, with “Revenge of the Sith” dovetailing nicely into “A New Hope”.  It would be a shame if Lucas can’t bridge the two (something he has said he will do primarily with hairstyles) as that would almost completely invalidate everything he strove for.   Here’s hoping.