Star Wars

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(Texts copied from the Star Wars Wikipedia article)

The Star Wars franchise began as a film series. The initial trilogy was comprised of three films: Star Wars, released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983. The opening crawl of the sequels disclosed that they were numbered as "Episode V" and "Episode VI" respectively, though the films were generally advertised solely under their subtitles. Once Star Wars became a success and sequels were realized, Lucas numbered the initial film as the fourth episode in his series, and gave it the subtitle A New Hope when the film was re-released in 1981. This was among the first of what would become many changes.

In 1997, to correspond with the twentieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars, Lucas released "Special Editions" of all three films to theaters. The re-releases featured many alterations to the original films, primarily motivated by the improvement of CGI and other special effects technologies, which allowed visuals that were not possible to achieve at the time of the original filmmaking. Lucas continued to make changes to the original trilogy for subsequent releases, such as the first ever DVD release of the trilogy on September 21, 2004.

On May 19, 1999, Lucas released the first of the long-awaited prequel trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. This was followed Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on May 16, 2002, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on May 19, 2005.

Plot overview

The prequel trilogy follows the upbringing of Anakin Skywalker: A child of parthenogenesis who is discovered by Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn who believes him to be the "Chosen One" foretold by Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. The Jedi Council, led by Yoda, sense his future is clouded by fear, but reluctantly allow Jinn's apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Skywalker after Jinn is killed.

At the same time, the planet Naboo is under attack, and its queen, Padmé Amidala, seeks the assistance of the Jedi to repel the attack. The attack is, in fact, merely a ploy by Naboo senator Palpatine, to overthrow and replace the Supreme Chancellor of the senate. Palpatine is secretly Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and is attempting to take over the galaxy. The remainder of the prequel trilogy chronicles Skywalker's fall to the dark side, as Sidious attempts to create an army to defeat the Jedi and lure Skywalker to be his apprentice. Amidala and Skywalker fall in love and eventually she becomes pregnant with twins. However, Skywalker soon succumbs to his anger, culminating in a lightsaber battle between him and Kenobi. Kenobi leaves Skywalker for dead, but Sidious arrives shortly after to save him and put him in to a suit of black armour that keeps him alive. The original trilogy begins nearly 20 years later as Vader nears completion of the massive Death Star space station which will allow him to crush the rebellion which has formed against his evil empire. He captures Princess Leia Organa who has stolen the plans to the Death Star and hidden them in droid R2-D2 who, along with his counterpart C-3PO, escape to the planet Tatooine. There, the droids are purchased by Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin, and his adoptive step-uncle and aunt. R2-D2 escapes and leads Skywalker to Ben Kenobi — formerly Obi-Wan. Kenobi tells Luke of his father's greatness, but tells him that he was killed by Vader. Kenobi and Skywalker hire pilot Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca to take them and the plans to the rebels. Kenobi begins to teach Skywalker about the Force, but is killed in a showdown with Vader during the rescue of Princess Leia. His sacrifice allows the group to escape with the plans that allow them to destroy the Death Star.

Vader continues to hunt down the rebels, and begins to build a second Death Star. Skywalker travels to find Yoda and become trained as a Jedi, but is interrupted when Vader lures him into a trap by capturing the others. Vader reveals that he is Luke's father and attempts to turn him to the dark side. He escapes, and returns to his training with Yoda. He learns that he must face his father before he can become a Jedi, and that Leia is his twin sister.

As the rebels attack the new Death Star, Skywalker confronts Vader under the watch of now-Emperor Sidious. Instead of convincing Skywalker to join the dark side, Skywalker defeats Vader and is able to convince him that there is still some good in him. Vader kills Sidious before succumbing to his own injuries and the second Death Star is destroyed.

A starship, also known as a starcruiser, was a spaceship designed for interstellar travel, specifically between star systems. In 29 BBY, there were approximately twenty billion starships total in the galaxy.

Starships were commonly powered by ion engines, the most common form of sublight drives, and many - usually the larger vessels - were equipped with hyperdrive generators, used to reach Hyperspace as Lightspeed wouldn't be fast enough. Light-years would take years to travel across using sublight drives. Across the galaxy, many starships were armed, usually with laser cannons. Capital ships often featured turbolaser emplacements or missile launchers, and some featured hangar bays that could carry starfighters. Weapons helped defend against star pirates and military forces. Deflector shields countered the effects of laser weaponry, protecting the starship from attack. Once these shields fell the captain would surrender to their attackers.

A starship's bridge was its control room, most often seen at the stern of large vessels such as Star Destroyers and other capital ships. Smaller ships, like transports and fighters, had cockpits rather than actual bridges.

The bridge was an essential part of the craft. Most of the time, the controls to a starship's subsystems were located here. The bridge was therefore usually the first area of a starship to be targeted when under attack. Knocking out the bridge usually rendered the starship useless for the duration of the battle. For example, when the Imperial Star Dreadnaught Executor had its bridge obliterated by an out of control A-wing starfighter during the Battle of Endor, she plunged out of control into the second Death Star, and was destroyed.

Intergalactic starflight became possible with the invention of the dual-drive system, which included an anti-grav drive to exit a system's gravity well, allowing inter-system travel, and a hyperdrive system for faster-than-light travel.