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I'm reading the second link, and it's kinda inconsistent.

First, it starts off with a weird obsession with "disproving" the Red Letter Media reviews of the Star Wars Prequels. That's weird, but...sure, if that's the point of ring theory...

But then it's inconsistent. It compares E1 to E6, stating that in the ring theory, the first film connects to the last. But then later on, the article starts talking about Campbell's monomyth, which is best exemplified in the Star Wars canon with E4, not E6. Yet, he's also saying that E1 is mirroring E4's monomyth here (loss of the mentor is cited). Never mind that the loss of the mentor happens at different times in E1, E4, and E6 (Yoda's death/ascension happens relatively early, Obi-Wan bites it at the transition from act II to act III, but Qui-Gon manages to hang on until the climax of the film). Circling back around to the RLM stuff, the ring theory writer doesn't critically engage with one of RLM's best points: the incoherent protagonist problem in E1: Qui-Gon? Obi-Wan? Anakin? It's just not a good enactment of the monomyth.

Around this time, he does quote RLM again, but dismissively (he uses a punchline with no context to disprove it?) while quote George Lucas comparing E1 to E4.

So...is it a ring? Or a cyclical set of three films - beginning, middle, and end - which show the patterns of the universe? The cycle of Order to Chaos (Republic to Empire) and back again?

He establishes that it's a rhyme scheme. Okay. He literally says it's ABC, ABC: 1-2-3 "rhymes" with 4-5-6. So, it's cycles. Got it.

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Wait. No. 'cause after he describes ring structure, he then shows that 1 goes with 6, 2 goes with 5, and 3 and 4 are paired. While he describes ring structure, actually, he points out that it's like a mirror (JFK's famous quote), which should make the end of 3 mirror the beginning of 4. But they don't. It's a funeral (like 6), looking out a spaceship window (like 4?), and then delivering Leia and Luke (???). E1 begins with a spaceship, though, so Luke on Tattooine, although close to the start of 4, isn't the true mirror there. Even if it was, the end of E2 corresponds with the end of E4 (new hands!), but the end of E4 (mirrored) would correspond to the beginning of E2 (assassination attempt). So, it's not a mirror.

All of this in the face of Lucas' statements about rhyming and the (obvious) attempt to make the "rhyme scheme" happen.
E1 opens with a spaceship flying into another spaceship; it closes with the destruction of the ring ship.
E4 opens with a spaceship being taken into another spaceship; it closes with the destruction of the orb ship.

For example. RLM breaks down a bunch of images from E2 and E4 that are similar.

That's just the first page.

Does it get more logical after that? I'm not sure I want to slog through nine pages of this stuff.

I love the idea of a mirrored story that is a circle and symbolises cycles within the story, but I don't think this is it.

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It's pretty retarded. Basically any theory that makes the prequels seem like anything other than a rushed garbage cash grab is just objectively wrong.

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I don’t think they can be considered rushed. I mean , it took 15 years between Star Wars movies for the Phantom Menace to come out, and Clones and Sith were each released 3 years after the previous.

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I don't think they were rushed, either, but he didn't spend 15 years writing them. There's footage of Lucas in the documentary making-of video where he's talking about how they're building sets so he should finish the script. He probably had the story and the plot bubbling around in his head for awhile, but it seems like he didn't set about putting it down until very late in the game (which explains a lot about the script quality).

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