Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope

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Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope is near as damn it to the perfect movie. Action, droid baths, miniature princesses, trash compactors, impenetrable mysticism, womp rats. Who can ask for anything more in a movie?

So many awesome moments. But probably my very favourite scene in the movie takes place just prior to the Death Starâ„¢ battle, when the various X-Wing pilots check in.

“Red Ten standing by.”
“Red Seven standing by.”
“Red Three standing by.”
“Red Six standing by.”
“Red Nine standing by.”
“Red Two standing by.”
“Red Eleven standing by.”
“Red Five standing by.”

10, 7, 3, 6 , 9, 2, 11, 5? Boy, they really didn’t want to stick to traditional ordinal counting, did they? None of that tedious Peano-based 1, 2, 3, etc nonsense for this lot.

No wonder they were considered Rebels.



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11 Comments (including Trackbacks, Pingbacks, Razorbacks and, uh, Nickelback)

  • James says:

    Well, presumably Red Leader is Red 1, but that's a good point – there's no Red 4?!

    Really, at this point, I'm terrified to even watch the original films. If they're released in HD, panoramic widescreen, I'll think about it.

  • Dan Liebke says:

    You're probably right. If Red Leader had simply had the good sense to say 'Red One standing by', the others would probably have followed in some kind of numerical order. There may have been a few missteps (after all – at least two of them were products of the famously substandard Tatooine schooling system), but still, I'm sure they would have come a lot closer to the right order than the gibberish we ended up seeing.

    I say, lift your game Red Leader!

  • PyjamaShark says:

    Red 4 was the guy with the nifty red and black tiger stripey helmet who had the honour of being shot down by ties before anyone else, though Porkins still died before him.

  • Dan Liebke says:

    I see. Oh, Porkins… you were a lame excuse for a X-Wing pilot. Did the Rebels not have a basic physical fitness requirement?

    However, none of this yet explains why the Rebels did not just count themselves off in proper numerical order. Come on guys. How hard is it?

  • PyjamaShark says:

    Maybe it was a secret order that you had to know to be in the X-Wing club.

  • Dan Liebke says:

    That would certainly explain Porkins:

    “Well, heck. He's got limited flying ability and there's a risk he might eat his R2 unit, but he knows the secret X-Wing number order, so we've got to let him fly with us.”

  • PyjamaShark says:

    Well, it was a suicide mission, I guess they threw anybody who could fit (albeit dubiously) into a cockpit in one.

  • Dan Liebke says:

    Yes, Porkins' idiotic piloting certainly helped distract the TIE fighters from the one Rebel who knew who to use the Force. I sure hope Porkins' got a posthumous medal. Or, at the very least, was buried with a crate of hot dogs.

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