7 ms·

After looking at pictures of a bunch of samurai helmets, I came to a realization that Darth Vader's helmet is more or less the shape of a samurai helmet. Maybe

After looking at pictures of a bunch of samurai helmets, I came to a realization that Darth Vader's helmet is more or less the shape of a samurai helmet. Maybe this should have been obvious to me (especially being a fan of the Hidden Fortress film), but it was a cool discovery for me.

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
George Lucas was heavily inspired by "7 Samurai" by Akira Kurosawa. Its a must watch if you like samurai movies.
- qusi 7y ago
  that is the most awesome thing (hevqcz) i have ever seen
- guiomie 7y ago
  Interesting I always thought it was artistically derived from the german ww1-ww2 helmets.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    It's a blend of both. The breathing mask was lifted off ww2 equipment IIRC.
  - hangonhn 7y ago
    The Stormtroopers are based on WWII German army uniforms and equipment, even down to the gas mask cylinder that German soldiers carried behind them. Even the name Stormtroopers comes from German WWII unit type name.
    - jbattle 7y ago
      sturmtruppen were 'invented' in WW1 to capture trenches, though yeah the term lived on to the next WW
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      > Even the name Stormtroopers comes from German WWII unit type name. Stormtroopers were from the First World War. > Stormtroopers were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper
zentropia 7y ago
George Lucas was inspired by samurai films. This film are called jidai seki (period films). From jidai --> jedi. Also C3PO and R2D2 are inspired by the couple of mongrels in Hidden Fortress.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- DavidAdams 7y ago
  This is also why the Jedi (at least in the earlier films) use two hands to hold their lightsabers. It's the Japanese style. Of course, Samurai swords were two-handed because they were heavy, due to the poor quality of steel available. A light saber "blade" would presumably weigh nothing, so it would make more sense to hold it one handed like a, well, saber. A master of the more technologically advanced European saber would probably cut a Katana-wielding Samurai to ribbons. Good thing the Samurai would probably just shoot him from horseback anyway.
  - benj111 7y ago
    I've been mulling the cause and effect mentioned in your comment. Poor quality steel -> heavy -> 2 handed. I don't ever recall seeing a 2 handed bronze sword, and if the steel is worse than bronze, why didn't they go back to that? Which kind of suggests that it isn't. I'm assuming low quality steel is overly soft rather than overly brittle. If it were overly soft wouldn't that favour shorter blades? You'd either get flex, or as you mentioned, added weight, which seems a bad trade off compared to a shorter sword and shield? I got the impression 2 handed swords/no shield was an honour thing, rather than a tactically advantageous thing, I'm in no way an expert on such things though.
    - krapp 7y ago
      >I got the impression 2 handed swords/no shield was an honour thing, rather than a tactically advantageous thing, I'm in no way an expert on such things though. I am not an expert either but as I understand it, Samurai were nobles and fought on horseback with their primary weapons being spears and bows, and they considered swords a backup weapon.[0] The mythologizing of the Samurai, their honor-above-reason mentality ("bushido") and the katana as their primary weapon was a retrofiction created in the Edo period, when the Samurai had been disarmed and relegated to bureaucrats, and they wanted to justify and romanticize their violent past, and the term bushido was invented in the 20th century, and was itself based on Western ideals of chivalry in knighthood (which also, really, didn't exist.)[1,2] [0]https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/10331/why-didnt-japanese-infantrymen-and-samurai-use-shields https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/10331/why-didnt-... [1]https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ [2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721
markandrewj 7y ago
George Lucas was influenced by Akira Kurosawa. Most closely by Hidden Fortress (although he puts it lowest on his list), but by other Kurosawa movies too. He talks about it some of his interviews. https://youtu.be/E9V2T1ONA2I https://youtu.be/E9V2T1ONA2I

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago

George Lucas was heavily inspired by "7 Samurai" by Akira Kurosawa. Its a must watch if you like samurai movies.

qusi 7y ago
that is the most awesome thing (hevqcz) i have ever seen
guiomie 7y ago
Interesting I always thought it was artistically derived from the german ww1-ww2 helmets.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  It's a blend of both. The breathing mask was lifted off ww2 equipment IIRC.
- hangonhn 7y ago
  The Stormtroopers are based on WWII German army uniforms and equipment, even down to the gas mask cylinder that German soldiers carried behind them. Even the name Stormtroopers comes from German WWII unit type name.
  - jbattle 7y ago
    sturmtruppen were 'invented' in WW1 to capture trenches, though yeah the term lived on to the next WW
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    > Even the name Stormtroopers comes from German WWII unit type name. Stormtroopers were from the First World War. > Stormtroopers were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper

zentropia 7y ago

George Lucas was inspired by samurai films. This film are called jidai seki (period films). From jidai --> jedi. Also C3PO and R2D2 are inspired by the couple of mongrels in Hidden Fortress.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
DavidAdams 7y ago
This is also why the Jedi (at least in the earlier films) use two hands to hold their lightsabers. It's the Japanese style. Of course, Samurai swords were two-handed because they were heavy, due to the poor quality of steel available. A light saber "blade" would presumably weigh nothing, so it would make more sense to hold it one handed like a, well, saber. A master of the more technologically advanced European saber would probably cut a Katana-wielding Samurai to ribbons. Good thing the Samurai would probably just shoot him from horseback anyway.
- benj111 7y ago
  I've been mulling the cause and effect mentioned in your comment. Poor quality steel -> heavy -> 2 handed. I don't ever recall seeing a 2 handed bronze sword, and if the steel is worse than bronze, why didn't they go back to that? Which kind of suggests that it isn't. I'm assuming low quality steel is overly soft rather than overly brittle. If it were overly soft wouldn't that favour shorter blades? You'd either get flex, or as you mentioned, added weight, which seems a bad trade off compared to a shorter sword and shield? I got the impression 2 handed swords/no shield was an honour thing, rather than a tactically advantageous thing, I'm in no way an expert on such things though.
  - krapp 7y ago
    >I got the impression 2 handed swords/no shield was an honour thing, rather than a tactically advantageous thing, I'm in no way an expert on such things though. I am not an expert either but as I understand it, Samurai were nobles and fought on horseback with their primary weapons being spears and bows, and they considered swords a backup weapon.[0] The mythologizing of the Samurai, their honor-above-reason mentality ("bushido") and the katana as their primary weapon was a retrofiction created in the Edo period, when the Samurai had been disarmed and relegated to bureaucrats, and they wanted to justify and romanticize their violent past, and the term bushido was invented in the 20th century, and was itself based on Western ideals of chivalry in knighthood (which also, really, didn't exist.)[1,2] [0]https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/10331/why-didnt-japanese-infantrymen-and-samurai-use-shields https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/10331/why-didnt-... [1]https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ [2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11990721

markandrewj 7y ago

George Lucas was influenced by Akira Kurosawa. Most closely by Hidden Fortress (although he puts it lowest on his list), but by other Kurosawa movies too. He talks about it some of his interviews. https://youtu.be/E9V2T1ONA2I https://youtu.be/E9V2T1ONA2I