Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
I'm saying that one of the most successful movies of all time, which spawned one of the most successful franchises of all time, probably didn't do that well just because it was really pretty.

Luke's aunt and uncle dying spur him to action, and he looks broken by that immediately afterwards. Leia acts exactly as tortured in ESB as she does in ANH. I'm not going to argue ANH is better written than ESB, but I am saying ANH is badly written is ridiculous.
There is a bit of a underlying argument going on here. The split between popularity making something good or not is well trodden, if that is the crux of the disagreement better to just let it be as no one is getting convinced.

For all of 30 seconds of the movie. We see a much longer scene about Ben dying then anyone else, including the effective parents of two of the main characters.

Leia also comes out of torture, witnessing her life being destroyed and then solitary confinement in perfect shape. Quipping, perfect hair buns, ready to soothe Kenobi's death for Luke. In Empire when the crew gets tortured they come out angry and disheveled, with some physical ailments like Chewy being blind.

I'm not saying that A New Hope needed to be grim dark, but those are losses that would shake most people and they get totally glossed over.