5 ms·

German Navy blasts out Darth Vader theme on Thames

62 points by croes 2y ago

cs702 2y ago
The German Navy ship blasting the Darth Vader theme on the Thames was in London for training and a supply stop. A German Navy spokesperson said the choice of music had "no deeper message." The ship's commander personally chose the music. Given the history between the two countries, it was perceived as a poor choice.[a] --- [a] In particular, think of the elderly in the UK who lived through the Nazi bombing raids and their aftermath: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz
- zo1 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - jibe 2y ago
    Playing the imperial march seems more like a “we are the bad guys” move - the German Navy finally arrives in London, 80 years late.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    … Wait, when did the UK descend into totalitarianism? Weird chaos, yes, for years. Totalitarianism, not so much (you could argue that Patel was that way inclined, but far too incompetent to actually do that much about it).
    - _cenw 2y ago
      If you want to know where things are going, watch how politics are treating their most vulnerable population. It's not going too well.
      - opheliate 2y ago
        I’m shocked to hear that I am apparently living under totalitarianism, and would love to see some concrete examples of this dramatic shift in Labour party policy, rather than vague gesturing.
        _cenw 2y ago
        the continued decline of transgender rights and support of the same in civil society. the UK has always been jokingly referred to as TERF Island, but more recently, after the made-to-order Cass review that goes against all known research in the field and was authored by a biased party (even consulting with the architect of the florida ban on transitioning), organizations that'd usually staunchly support transgender rights like Stonewall and Pink News are pulling back. newspapers have turned up the anti-trans rhetoric to 11 as well, and especially in England no mainstream party is refusing to participate in the moral panic. it has ceased to be a culture war, and is now much more of a cultural consensus. the common punching bag. that looks pretty dire for civil society to me. i didn't call it totalitarian, but it sure looks like a precursor to it.
        rsynnott 2y ago
        Oh, yeah, the UK has big problems. Brexit more or less broke it (I’m half convinced that the Tory trans obsession was borne out of a need for distraction after Brexit was no longer looking so good for them…) Totalitarian is pushing it tho.
        _cenw 2y ago
        It's a worrying direction if the forth estate is this defunct and populism is at an all time high. How the UK treats trans people (not sure if they're the most vulnerable, but they're vulnerable and easy targets) is just one very poignant example of the shift.
        vivock 2y ago
        Cass and her team did an excellent job assessing the available evidence and current clinical practice. Anyone who has read the Review with an open mind, and considers the wellbeing of children first and foremost, can see that. There's a great deal of ideologically-driven pushback to her team's work, mostly from people without expertise in the field. But that can be safely ignored due to not being based upon evidence nor reason.
      - adammarples 2y ago
        I'm english and although everything is a bit run down and creaking, we're not going through totalitarianism, in fact, we just had an election which unlike the US preceded an orderly transfer of power.
      - king_magic 2y ago
        the most vulnerable populations in the UK look to be doing a heck of a lot better than the most vulnerable populations in other areas of the world. not sure how you're concluding totalitarianism is running the show in the UK.
      - mardifoufs 2y ago
        How do they treat immigrants and racial minorities? Unless you're implying those aren't the most vulnerable?
    - zo1 2y ago
      Maybe totalitarianism is the wrong word and not 100% correct by definition, but I'm certainly struggling to find a single word to define the direction the UK is descending into. It's definitely a descent, and it's definitely not looking pretty with no hope of recovery that I can see. I mean, geeze, just the hate-speech laws that are being used to punish wrong-think. That alone should scare you to the bone.
- cjs_ac 2y ago
  Irony is a fundamental aspect of British culture and communication, and exceptionally few Britons would find this anything other than amusing.
  - leprechaun1066 2y ago
    A couple of old fogies down in Tunbridge Wells, "I say old chap, how very uncouth." Meanwhile everyone else, "It's been almost 50 years since Fawlty Towers. Took them long enough."
    - rkangel 2y ago
      The absolute funniest moment of my entire life happened to me in Germany. I was on a theatre tour (as Technical Director), the show had ended, it was late and night and everyone was tired after a long day and packing everything away. The German host gathered us together and stood on a chair to tell us about accommodation arrangements. He was clearly your stereotypical, humourless, German. He introduced himself - "Hi, my name is Hans. As you can see, I am German". Short pause, then in a loud stage whisper "Don't mention the war!". It was SO unexpected to have any humour at all, let alone self-referential Fawlty Towers reference. There was a pause while all the tired people processed what they'd just heard and then absolutely dissolved in laughter.
      - ahazred8ta 2y ago
        There was a german-language Monty Python special, the Fliegender Zirkus: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Fliegender_Zirkus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Fliegender_Zi...
- johndunne 2y ago
  I live in the UK and this will be taken with the tongue in cheek it was delivered with. Most here in the UK will probably appreciate the humor. Now, how to counter?
  - dkga 2y ago
    Monty Python’s “Bright side of life”?
    - cs702 2y ago
      This is probably the best answer. Thank you for suggesting it!
    - bostonwalker 2y ago
      Maybe position someone on shore with a megaphone to read out The Funniest Joke in the World?
  - H8crilA 2y ago
    Next time a British RC-135 overflies Germany it should change its callsign to Obi Wan Kenobi, or something like that. People from flight tracking forums will take care of the rest. Though it is not quite flashy enough, hmmm...
    - johndunne 2y ago
      Or play out the Faulty Tower's "We didn't start it" clip. "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!" Maybe too close to the bone just yet!
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      Or cue: >Speedbird 206: Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway. >ATC: Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven. >BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop. >ATC: Speedbird, do you not know where you are going? >Speedbird 206: Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now. >ATC (annoyed): Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before? >Speedbird 206 (nonchalantly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark ... and I didn't land.”. https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=391043 https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=391043 Or perhaps this is more apt: >Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?" >Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English." >Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?" >Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war."
- mjbeswick 2y ago
  It was a great choice; as most people in Britain would find it bloody funny!
  - johndunne 2y ago
    And here's me thinking the Germans don't have a sense of humor. Well played Commander, well played. :-)
- theGnuMe 2y ago
  You do realize all of the Imperial commanders have British accents...
  - GJim 2y ago
    *English accents. I don't recall any of them sounding Welsh or Scottish! A "British accent" is something I've yet to hear anywhere in Blighty.
    - mnw21cam 2y ago
      Although you could say the same about an "English accent" as well. Which particular part of England do you want this accent to be from? For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc is a fine example of an English accent.
- projektfu 2y ago
  11 days earlier and it could have been a tribute to Peter Cushing, thirty years after his death.
- vundercind 2y ago
  Not just he history between the countries, but the heavy influence of Nazi propaganda films on the appearance of and shot choices around the Empire in Star Wars, and that two of the most-cribbed-from movies for the first film were about the British bombing either Germany directly, or German-controlled Norway, during WWII. It’s not just bad guy music, it’s bad-guys-very-directly-inspired-by-WWII-Germany music. (But put me on team “it’s funny”—oh no, ze Germans!) [edit] I just watched the video and it’s even funnier than I thought, because the lines of that vessel call to mind a star destroyer more effectively than most non-battleships do.
- kjfarm 2y ago
  That is not what the BBC link says (text copied below. including their weird British spelling of "recognisable"). It's seems much more light hearted and funny than what you are portraying. > German Navy blasts out Darth Vader theme on Thames Londoners spotted this ship on the Thames near Tower Bridge, playing the iconic Imperial March theme from the Star Wars trilogies, otherwise recognisable as the Darth Vader music. But it wasn’t coming from a galaxy far, far away - it was a German Navy ship, in London for training and a supply stop. A spokesperson from the German Navy told the BBC the music had "no deeper message" and "the commander can choose the music freely".
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- ttepasse 2y ago
  > [a] Someone who has still memories of the bombing will be in their 90s. I don’t want to complete minify that – my late German grandmother had bad memories of the allied bombing her teenage years – but witnesses who lived through WWII are very few still alive. Time flies. The release of Star Wars and the Imperial March (Ep V, 1980) is closer to WWII than to our times.
- GJim 2y ago
  > Given the history between the two countries, it was perceived as a poor choice Don't be daft! It was a damn good choice. Though I for one, won't be happy until we have extracted our revenge; sending a 00 agent undercover to retune the Kraut Kapitans musical cocktail cabinet to play 'God Save the King'.
- DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  Why are you complaining on their behalf? The number of elderly who lived through and remember the Blitz is in the hundreds at the most. And most of them recognize that the war was ~80 years ago.
ethbr1 2y ago
Say what you want about the tenets of the Galactic Empire, but at least it's an ethos...
- throwaway984393 2y ago
  [dead]
- gitanovic 2y ago
  Always better than the nichilists
- throw0101d 2y ago
  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes/?item=qt0464759 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes/?item=qt0464759
drcongo 2y ago
The stereotype of Germans having no sense of humour is so wrong.
- slightwinder 2y ago
  German humor is either terrible, or too subtle to be recognized as humor by most other cultures.
  - johndunne 2y ago
    So you're saying... "It's a trap!!"
  - Tomte 2y ago
    Was machst Du denn hier? — Ich wohne hier. — Aber doch nicht jetzt, um diese Zeit! (Husband home early) What are you doing here? — I live here. — But not now, at this time of day!
c0l0 2y ago
The German military seems to have a thing for Star Wars-related themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsxN4HNrNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsxN4HNrNw (... and yes, they ACTUALLY do have a "Weltraumkommando"!) I find it kinda funny that they apparently consider themselves part of the Empire. But it seems accurate, too >:-)
- hulitu 2y ago
  > I find it kinda funny that they apparently consider themselves part of the Empire. You should check the headlines in major German newspapers. /s
yourstruly1337 2y ago
It was towed backward, up the river ... not a good luck for the Empire. I would see that as some self-deprecating german spaß
kjrfghslkdjfl 2y ago
[dead]
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
Interesting choice considering the influence that Triumph of the Will had on Star Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will
m3kw9 2y ago
Isn’t Vaders posse modeled after the German military?
- rich_sasha 2y ago
  Darth Vader's helmet, with the crease around the lower edge, certainly looks like German WWII helmets.
  - vundercind 2y ago
    Vader’s outfit is mainly intended to look like samurai armor that’s been kinda bent toward a WWII German army aesthetic.
    - ethbr1 2y ago
      The internet loves samurai Vader https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laDBqnU5yH0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laDBqnU5yH0 Especially because, you know, filmmaking credit where credit is due. (Not that Lucas isn't talented, but Kurosawa should never not be mentioned)
  - pragma_x 2y ago
    It's not just the helmet. I will maintain that Star Wars was quite possibly the best WWII movie of all time, although purely as an allegorical and referential work. In the timeless tradition of tailoring your story to your audience, the whole film is packed with references and ideas from other WWII movies, people, and events. Although, it also borrows from just about everything else - a true artifact of its era. For the Boomer post-WWII era, I believe drawing from familiar material like this is one of the keys to its success. After all, a story about "a young hero and laser swords" doesn't hold a candle to "a bunch of underdogs blow up a gigantic space station filled with space Nazis." I don't know about you, but I know which of those I'm going to see 10 times. > The attack on the Death Star in the climax of the film A New Hope is similar in many respects to the strategy of Operation Chastise from the 1954 British film, The Dam Busters. Rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and drop a single special weapon at a precise distance from the target to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the A New Hope climax are similar to those in The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. These scenes are also heavily influenced by the action scenes from the fictional wartime film 633 Squadron. That film's finale shows the squadron's planes flying down a deep fjord while being fired at along the way by anti-aircraft guns lining its sides. George Lucas has stated in interviews that this sequence inspired the 'trench run' sequence in Star Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues#Film_and_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogue... > The stormtroopers from the movies share a name with the Imperial German stormtroopers and the Nazi German Sturmabteilung (lit. Stormtrooper). Imperial officers' uniforms also resemble some historical German Army uniforms and the political and security officers of the Empire resemble the black clad SS down to the imitation silver death's head insignia on their officer's caps (although the uniforms technically had more basis with the German Uhlans within the Prussian Empire[71]). World War II terms were used for names in Star Wars; examples include the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (Hermann Hoth was a German general who served on the snow-laden Eastern Front).[61] Lucas himself has drawn parallels between Palpatine and his rise to power to historical dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler, saying the films exist as an examination of how democracies allow themselves to become dictatorships.[72] The space battles in A New Hope were based on filmed World War I and World War II dogfights.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues#Modern_and_early_modern_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogue...
zingababba 2y ago
Open comments, grep 'nazi', sigh, close tab.

62 points by croes 2y ago

The German Navy ship blasting the Darth Vader theme on the Thames was in London for training and a supply stop. A German Navy spokesperson said the choice of music had "no deeper message." The ship's commander personally chose the music. Given the history between the two countries, it was perceived as a poor choice.[a] --- [a] In particular, think of the elderly in the UK who lived through the Nazi bombing raids and their aftermath: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz

zo1 2y ago
[flagged]
- jibe 2y ago
  Playing the imperial march seems more like a “we are the bad guys” move - the German Navy finally arrives in London, 80 years late.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  … Wait, when did the UK descend into totalitarianism? Weird chaos, yes, for years. Totalitarianism, not so much (you could argue that Patel was that way inclined, but far too incompetent to actually do that much about it).
  - _cenw 2y ago
    If you want to know where things are going, watch how politics are treating their most vulnerable population. It's not going too well.
    - opheliate 2y ago
      I’m shocked to hear that I am apparently living under totalitarianism, and would love to see some concrete examples of this dramatic shift in Labour party policy, rather than vague gesturing.
      - _cenw 2y ago
        the continued decline of transgender rights and support of the same in civil society. the UK has always been jokingly referred to as TERF Island, but more recently, after the made-to-order Cass review that goes against all known research in the field and was authored by a biased party (even consulting with the architect of the florida ban on transitioning), organizations that'd usually staunchly support transgender rights like Stonewall and Pink News are pulling back. newspapers have turned up the anti-trans rhetoric to 11 as well, and especially in England no mainstream party is refusing to participate in the moral panic. it has ceased to be a culture war, and is now much more of a cultural consensus. the common punching bag. that looks pretty dire for civil society to me. i didn't call it totalitarian, but it sure looks like a precursor to it.
        rsynnott 2y ago
        Oh, yeah, the UK has big problems. Brexit more or less broke it (I’m half convinced that the Tory trans obsession was borne out of a need for distraction after Brexit was no longer looking so good for them…) Totalitarian is pushing it tho.
        _cenw 2y ago
        It's a worrying direction if the forth estate is this defunct and populism is at an all time high. How the UK treats trans people (not sure if they're the most vulnerable, but they're vulnerable and easy targets) is just one very poignant example of the shift.
        vivock 2y ago
        Cass and her team did an excellent job assessing the available evidence and current clinical practice. Anyone who has read the Review with an open mind, and considers the wellbeing of children first and foremost, can see that. There's a great deal of ideologically-driven pushback to her team's work, mostly from people without expertise in the field. But that can be safely ignored due to not being based upon evidence nor reason.
    - adammarples 2y ago
      I'm english and although everything is a bit run down and creaking, we're not going through totalitarianism, in fact, we just had an election which unlike the US preceded an orderly transfer of power.
    - king_magic 2y ago
      the most vulnerable populations in the UK look to be doing a heck of a lot better than the most vulnerable populations in other areas of the world. not sure how you're concluding totalitarianism is running the show in the UK.
    - mardifoufs 2y ago
      How do they treat immigrants and racial minorities? Unless you're implying those aren't the most vulnerable?
  - zo1 2y ago
    Maybe totalitarianism is the wrong word and not 100% correct by definition, but I'm certainly struggling to find a single word to define the direction the UK is descending into. It's definitely a descent, and it's definitely not looking pretty with no hope of recovery that I can see. I mean, geeze, just the hate-speech laws that are being used to punish wrong-think. That alone should scare you to the bone.
cjs_ac 2y ago
Irony is a fundamental aspect of British culture and communication, and exceptionally few Britons would find this anything other than amusing.
- leprechaun1066 2y ago
  A couple of old fogies down in Tunbridge Wells, "I say old chap, how very uncouth." Meanwhile everyone else, "It's been almost 50 years since Fawlty Towers. Took them long enough."
  - rkangel 2y ago
    The absolute funniest moment of my entire life happened to me in Germany. I was on a theatre tour (as Technical Director), the show had ended, it was late and night and everyone was tired after a long day and packing everything away. The German host gathered us together and stood on a chair to tell us about accommodation arrangements. He was clearly your stereotypical, humourless, German. He introduced himself - "Hi, my name is Hans. As you can see, I am German". Short pause, then in a loud stage whisper "Don't mention the war!". It was SO unexpected to have any humour at all, let alone self-referential Fawlty Towers reference. There was a pause while all the tired people processed what they'd just heard and then absolutely dissolved in laughter.
    - ahazred8ta 2y ago
      There was a german-language Monty Python special, the Fliegender Zirkus: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Fliegender_Zirkus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Fliegender_Zi...
johndunne 2y ago
I live in the UK and this will be taken with the tongue in cheek it was delivered with. Most here in the UK will probably appreciate the humor. Now, how to counter?
- dkga 2y ago
  Monty Python’s “Bright side of life”?
  - cs702 2y ago
    This is probably the best answer. Thank you for suggesting it!
  - bostonwalker 2y ago
    Maybe position someone on shore with a megaphone to read out The Funniest Joke in the World?
- H8crilA 2y ago
  Next time a British RC-135 overflies Germany it should change its callsign to Obi Wan Kenobi, or something like that. People from flight tracking forums will take care of the rest. Though it is not quite flashy enough, hmmm...
  - johndunne 2y ago
    Or play out the Faulty Tower's "We didn't start it" clip. "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!" Maybe too close to the bone just yet!
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    Or cue: >Speedbird 206: Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway. >ATC: Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven. >BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop. >ATC: Speedbird, do you not know where you are going? >Speedbird 206: Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now. >ATC (annoyed): Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before? >Speedbird 206 (nonchalantly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark ... and I didn't land.”. https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=391043 https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=391043 Or perhaps this is more apt: >Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?" >Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English." >Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?" >Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war."
mjbeswick 2y ago
It was a great choice; as most people in Britain would find it bloody funny!
- johndunne 2y ago
  And here's me thinking the Germans don't have a sense of humor. Well played Commander, well played. :-)
theGnuMe 2y ago
You do realize all of the Imperial commanders have British accents...
- GJim 2y ago
  *English accents. I don't recall any of them sounding Welsh or Scottish! A "British accent" is something I've yet to hear anywhere in Blighty.
  - mnw21cam 2y ago
    Although you could say the same about an "English accent" as well. Which particular part of England do you want this accent to be from? For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc is a fine example of an English accent.
projektfu 2y ago
11 days earlier and it could have been a tribute to Peter Cushing, thirty years after his death.
vundercind 2y ago
Not just he history between the countries, but the heavy influence of Nazi propaganda films on the appearance of and shot choices around the Empire in Star Wars, and that two of the most-cribbed-from movies for the first film were about the British bombing either Germany directly, or German-controlled Norway, during WWII. It’s not just bad guy music, it’s bad-guys-very-directly-inspired-by-WWII-Germany music. (But put me on team “it’s funny”—oh no, ze Germans!) [edit] I just watched the video and it’s even funnier than I thought, because the lines of that vessel call to mind a star destroyer more effectively than most non-battleships do.
kjfarm 2y ago
That is not what the BBC link says (text copied below. including their weird British spelling of "recognisable"). It's seems much more light hearted and funny than what you are portraying. > German Navy blasts out Darth Vader theme on Thames Londoners spotted this ship on the Thames near Tower Bridge, playing the iconic Imperial March theme from the Star Wars trilogies, otherwise recognisable as the Darth Vader music. But it wasn’t coming from a galaxy far, far away - it was a German Navy ship, in London for training and a supply stop. A spokesperson from the German Navy told the BBC the music had "no deeper message" and "the commander can choose the music freely".
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
ttepasse 2y ago
> [a] Someone who has still memories of the bombing will be in their 90s. I don’t want to complete minify that – my late German grandmother had bad memories of the allied bombing her teenage years – but witnesses who lived through WWII are very few still alive. Time flies. The release of Star Wars and the Imperial March (Ep V, 1980) is closer to WWII than to our times.
GJim 2y ago
> Given the history between the two countries, it was perceived as a poor choice Don't be daft! It was a damn good choice. Though I for one, won't be happy until we have extracted our revenge; sending a 00 agent undercover to retune the Kraut Kapitans musical cocktail cabinet to play 'God Save the King'.
DiggyJohnson 2y ago
Why are you complaining on their behalf? The number of elderly who lived through and remember the Blitz is in the hundreds at the most. And most of them recognize that the war was ~80 years ago.

ethbr1 2y ago

Say what you want about the tenets of the Galactic Empire, but at least it's an ethos...

throwaway984393 2y ago
[dead]
gitanovic 2y ago
Always better than the nichilists
throw0101d 2y ago
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes/?item=qt0464759 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes/?item=qt0464759

drcongo 2y ago

The stereotype of Germans having no sense of humour is so wrong.

slightwinder 2y ago
German humor is either terrible, or too subtle to be recognized as humor by most other cultures.
- johndunne 2y ago
  So you're saying... "It's a trap!!"
- Tomte 2y ago
  Was machst Du denn hier? — Ich wohne hier. — Aber doch nicht jetzt, um diese Zeit! (Husband home early) What are you doing here? — I live here. — But not now, at this time of day!

c0l0 2y ago

The German military seems to have a thing for Star Wars-related themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsxN4HNrNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsxN4HNrNw (... and yes, they ACTUALLY do have a "Weltraumkommando"!) I find it kinda funny that they apparently consider themselves part of the Empire. But it seems accurate, too >:-)

hulitu 2y ago
> I find it kinda funny that they apparently consider themselves part of the Empire. You should check the headlines in major German newspapers. /s

yourstruly1337 2y ago

It was towed backward, up the river ... not a good luck for the Empire. I would see that as some self-deprecating german spaß

kjrfghslkdjfl 2y ago

[dead]

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago

Interesting choice considering the influence that Triumph of the Will had on Star Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will

m3kw9 2y ago

Isn’t Vaders posse modeled after the German military?

rich_sasha 2y ago
Darth Vader's helmet, with the crease around the lower edge, certainly looks like German WWII helmets.
- vundercind 2y ago
  Vader’s outfit is mainly intended to look like samurai armor that’s been kinda bent toward a WWII German army aesthetic.
  - ethbr1 2y ago
    The internet loves samurai Vader https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laDBqnU5yH0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laDBqnU5yH0 Especially because, you know, filmmaking credit where credit is due. (Not that Lucas isn't talented, but Kurosawa should never not be mentioned)
- pragma_x 2y ago
  It's not just the helmet. I will maintain that Star Wars was quite possibly the best WWII movie of all time, although purely as an allegorical and referential work. In the timeless tradition of tailoring your story to your audience, the whole film is packed with references and ideas from other WWII movies, people, and events. Although, it also borrows from just about everything else - a true artifact of its era. For the Boomer post-WWII era, I believe drawing from familiar material like this is one of the keys to its success. After all, a story about "a young hero and laser swords" doesn't hold a candle to "a bunch of underdogs blow up a gigantic space station filled with space Nazis." I don't know about you, but I know which of those I'm going to see 10 times. > The attack on the Death Star in the climax of the film A New Hope is similar in many respects to the strategy of Operation Chastise from the 1954 British film, The Dam Busters. Rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and drop a single special weapon at a precise distance from the target to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the A New Hope climax are similar to those in The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. These scenes are also heavily influenced by the action scenes from the fictional wartime film 633 Squadron. That film's finale shows the squadron's planes flying down a deep fjord while being fired at along the way by anti-aircraft guns lining its sides. George Lucas has stated in interviews that this sequence inspired the 'trench run' sequence in Star Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues#Film_and_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogue... > The stormtroopers from the movies share a name with the Imperial German stormtroopers and the Nazi German Sturmabteilung (lit. Stormtrooper). Imperial officers' uniforms also resemble some historical German Army uniforms and the political and security officers of the Empire resemble the black clad SS down to the imitation silver death's head insignia on their officer's caps (although the uniforms technically had more basis with the German Uhlans within the Prussian Empire[71]). World War II terms were used for names in Star Wars; examples include the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (Hermann Hoth was a German general who served on the snow-laden Eastern Front).[61] Lucas himself has drawn parallels between Palpatine and his rise to power to historical dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler, saying the films exist as an examination of how democracies allow themselves to become dictatorships.[72] The space battles in A New Hope were based on filmed World War I and World War II dogfights.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues#Modern_and_early_modern_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogue...

zingababba 2y ago

Open comments, grep 'nazi', sigh, close tab.