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he original Star Wars takes on a whole new meaning with the release of this once untold story.
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00:00Of all the Disney Star Wars movies, Rogue One is perhaps the most beloved.
00:04This proved that you can do a side story and still have it be hugely meaningful to the overall
00:09narrative. Critics loved it, the fans loved it, and it's still heavily talked about today.
00:14So in honour of how much it changed the game, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and this is Star
00:19Wars Rogue One 10 Ways It Changed A New Hope. Number 10, The Boarding of the Tantive IV.
00:25Most obviously, the iconic opening scene that kicked off the Star Wars saga nearly 50 years
00:30ago takes on a whole new meaning after Rogue One, given how the events of this movie had
00:35literally just taken place. Probably just a few hours to a day at most before this scene,
00:41Jin and Oso and co had just given their lives in a successful effort to steal and transmit the
00:46Death Star plans, which were now in the custody of Princess Leia. As a result, the entire scene is
00:51now even more urgent than it already was. Leia's cover story as well of being on a diplomatic mission
00:56sounds even more like a last minute lie, as she obviously did not have much time to prepare
01:00for Darth Vader's arrival. Speaking of Vader as well, it appears that he is far angrier in this
01:05scene than previously thought. Now he does come off as more reserved in comparison to the slaughter
01:10that he committed in the final minutes of Rogue One, but that makes sense, as he appears to have
01:15gotten most of his initial anger out of his system. In addition, 3PO's line of,
01:19there'll be no escape for the Princess this time, suddenly fits in with everything much better,
01:24considering we now know he was referring to what had transpired only several hours beforehand.
01:29The bedying troll plot holes that bothered Star Wars fans for decades is how the Empire,
01:34the ultimate military force in the galaxy, could allow such a potentially devastating flaw
01:39in their supposedly all-powerful superweapon. Rogue One, of course, filled us in on that,
01:44as it turned out that the flaw in the Death Star was not naive oversight on the part of the
01:48Empire, but rather sabotage of the main reactor by Galen Erso, a traitor with the Empire's trust.
01:54So, it was not incompetence on the part of the Empire, it was someone on the inside setting them
01:59up to fail right under their noses. Now, they come off as a much more believable threat in regards to
02:04battle strategy given this information. Also, as an added bonus, the Empire's decision to build a
02:09second Death Star in Return of the Jedi suddenly makes a lot more sense, since they knew that the only
02:15reason the first one failed was because of the aforementioned sabotage. The berate, Darth Vader's
02:20behavior and musings. Despite his relatively restrained nature in the opening scene, Darth
02:25Vader still appears to be very high-strung throughout the duration of A New Hope. Granted, he's not going
02:30on an absolute madman rampage like he did at the end of Rogue One as again, that likely served as a
02:35way for him to vent. But, he still has absolutely no problem choking a rebel to death with minimal
02:40effort. While it's not always overt, it now very much seems that Vader is almost running on an
02:46adrenaline high after the events of Rogue One. This is apparent by the aforementioned choking of a man
02:51to death during the interrogation, his merciless killing of Obi-Wan which was preceded by self-indulgent
02:56gloating, and his haste in taking to his fighter to put a stop to the assault on the Death Star himself.
03:01At this point, Vader is absolutely furious that the Rebel Alliance got the best of him and managed to
03:06escape with the plans in the first place, and as such is determined to not let such a defeat befall
03:11him again. In addition, certain quotes and reflections the Sith Lord has throughout the film now seem to
03:15feel much more at home. Most notably, his line similar to that of C-3PO's, in which he proclaims
03:21to an Imperial officer that, there'll be no one to stop us this time. We now know that he was referring
03:26to what had just taken place on Scarleth. Number 7, R2-D2 Secrecy. Throughout the early
03:31goings of A New Hope, R2-D2 is something of a painfully stubborn little spy, not sharing his
03:37mission of delivering the Death Star plans with even his closest companion, 3PO. In addition,
03:41he tricks Luke into turning off his projector to keep him from seeing Leia's message, as well as
03:45sneaking off in the middle of the night to search for Obi-Wan and complete his objective. All of this,
03:50of course, is much to the frustration of 3PO and Luke. However, given the events of Rogue One,
03:55R2's behaviour now feels much more logical, especially from his perspective. Given the
04:00countless number of Rebels who had just died in the effort to steal these plans, plus the ones who
04:05were slaughtered like fish in a barrel by Darth Vader while trying to get them to Leia, it's
04:09understandable that he would rather nobody know that he was now their custodian. And that means
04:14nobody. Rewatching A New Hope with this in mind makes R2's behaviour come off as smart strategy,
04:19as opposed to just obnoxious sort of evacuating. Another point of criticism for A New Hope has been
04:24Grand Moff Tarkin's brash arrogance during the assault on the Death Star. Many have deemed this
04:29as foolish overconfidence, but Rogue One told us that this was far from the truth. Was he overconfident?
04:35Well, arguably, but it was far from foolish. In fact, had it not been for Galen Erso's actions,
04:41he would have been absolutely justified in his refusal to evacuate the base. As stated before,
04:45the Death Star's only weakness at this point was the result of an inside job, something Tarkin was
04:50unaware of and could not have planned for. The only two Imperial officers who knew of the
04:55sabotage were Galen himself and Director Krennic, both of whom perished during the events of Rogue
04:59One before the information could get back to Tarkin himself. Moreover, Tarkin's attitude towards the
05:04Death Star in Rogue One tells us a lot as well. The sheer amount of pride that the Grand Moff had,
05:09which we only had gotten a glimpse of in A New Hope while he made an example of Alderaan,
05:14for instance, was now on display in full force. The Death Star was so destructive that Tarkin had
05:19both Jedha and Scarif fired upon on the station's weakest setting, and yet it still caused cataclysmic
05:26devastation. The Death Star created something of a god complex for Tarkin, and he refused to
05:30entertain the idea that it could be destroyed. And given what we saw in Rogue One, who can honestly
05:35blame him? Number 5, The Rebels' Will to Fight
05:38Throughout their appearance in A New Hope, the Rebel Alliance seems willing to take the fight directly
05:42to the Empire, no matter what the cost. However, the first two acts of Rogue One tell a very
05:47different story. In fact, many were disillusioned with the cause, disgusted with themselves and some
05:53of the heinous orders that they'd had to carry out, and were beginning to feel the apparent
05:57hopelessness of fighting the Empire. In short, they were just about ready to give up, and it was the
06:02sacrifice of Rogue One that caused their change of heart. The Rebels' original motivation of simply
06:07wanting to restore freedom to the galaxy is all well and good, however now knowing that they were doing
06:12what they did to honour those who gave their lives just to give them a fighting chance, makes their drive and
06:17determination mean before the size of the Death Star assault team. Continuing from the last point,
06:22the Rebels having such a small team for the famous assault on the Death Star now seems much more
06:27fitting, given the fact that a sizable portion of their forces had just been wiped out during the
06:31Battle of Scarif. During said battle, we see an absolute fleet of X and Y wings, most of which
06:36would be destroyed while Rogue One fought below to retrieve the Death Star plants. So when it came time
06:42to attack the Death Star directly, thirty one-man fighters were all that the Rebellion had left to
06:46spare for the battle that would decide the very fate of them and their cause. Worse yet, all but
06:52three ships, the Millennium Falcon excluded, would meet their bitter end over the course of this assault.
06:58The attack on the Death Star truly was an all-or-nothing gamble for the Rebels, sending what
07:03small amount of men they had left in a last-ditch effort to get the job done. The job not being merely win
07:09the war against the Empire, but simply to survive another day.
07:12Number three, the Stormtrooper's inability to hit targets.
07:16For years, the Stormtrooper's apparent ineptitude when it came to firefights had
07:19been the subject of mockery and ridicule amongst fans. This, of course, goes all the way back to
07:25A New Hope, in which the Imperial soldiers were completely unable to hit the film's protagonists
07:29with their blasters, despite them having perfectly clear shots throughout the movie,
07:33and our heroes being sitting ducks at times. So, what gives?
07:37Well, in Rogue One, despite his blindness, Donnie Yen's character is able to not only
07:42effectively dodge each blast that came his way, but walk through a chaotic battlefield
07:46without so much as being graced, all the while proclaiming,
07:50I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. He is only finally hit and killed after making
07:55it across the firefight and scathed and flipping the switch that would help make the Rebels mission
07:59a success. His dying words are, I fulfilled my destiny. Provided this was the intention,
08:04this information kind of changes everything. This tells us that when the Force is involved,
08:09not even the most highly trained soldiers in the galaxy can keep something from their purpose.
08:15So, how did Luke Skywalker and company manage to remain unshot for so long? Well, it's because they
08:19hadn't fulfilled their destiny yet, and the Force was going to help make sure they did.
08:24Number 2. The Destruction of the Death Star
08:26Because of the information given to us in Rogue One, the ultimate destruction of the original Death
08:30Star in A New Hope retroactively becomes one of the most emotional moments in all of Star Wars,
08:35if it wasn't already. Rogue One gave the mission everything, up to and including their lives,
08:40just for a chance. A chance and nothing more. A chance that maybe what they did could help the
08:46Rebellion succeed. They clung to the last bit of hope there was all the way to the bitter end,
08:51just to buy a little more time for everyone else, and it paid off. It was because of the bravery and
08:56selfishness of Rogue One that Luke Skywalker was even given the chance to go on his iconic mission.
09:02So, the Death Star's destruction was not only Luke's moment of triumph, but also, and arguably
09:07more so in a way, that of Rogue One. The last will and testament of those previously unsung heroes,
09:12was what made the Rebellion's finest hour a possibility. The Force truly was with Rogue One,
09:17and you can bet that somewhere they were smiling when the Empire's ultimate weapon,
09:21the one they had given their lives to stop, went up in flames.
09:24Number one, the title. When the original Star Wars film was rebranded as A New Hope,
09:29four years after its initial release, everyone assumed that this was referring to Luke Skywalker.
09:33And how could they not given the content of the film? However, after Rogue One, the title takes
09:38on a whole other meaning. Throughout Rogue One, we are constantly reminded that Rebellions are built
09:43on hope. They drive this point to the viewer over and over again. The team do what they do in the name
09:50of hope, and this culminates in Leigh's last line that closes the film in which she receives the
09:55stolen Death Star plans. When the Rebel who gave her the transmission asks what had been delivered,
09:59she replies simply with the word hope. The hope that one day the sacrifices made to steal those plans
10:06would be worth it. Well, that day would come sooner than they may have thought, as the assault on the
10:10Death Star would come shortly after the events of Rogue One concluded. Which begs the question,
10:15was this new hope really Luke? Or was it what came of Rogue One's first and last stand? Well,
10:21why can't it be both? So that's our list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments
10:24below. Are you still loving Rogue One as much as you did back in 2016? And has this list given you
10:30a kick to go and rewatch it? I know it has for me. While you're letting me know in the comments,
10:34could you please also give us a like, share, subscribe, and head over to whatculture.com for more
10:37lists and news like this, giving you a kick to go and rewatch it? I know it has for me. While you're
10:42letting me know in the comments, could you please also give us a like, share, subscribe, and head over to
10:45whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day. Even if you don't though,
10:49I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.
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