Week 3: Why can I not understand the Star Wars accents?

I’ve loved the original Star Wars movies since I was a kid and first saw them in a theater.  And as I got older I began to notice that the Evil Empire people had English accents and the good guy Rebels had American accents.  After watching some of the films over again and also watching the newest “The Force Awakens”, I am now really confused about the accents.

Ok yes some of the Evil Empire officers had the English accent, but all the Stormtroopers seem to be American.  How did that work?  You don’t hear many Stormtroopers actually talk in the movies, but when they did, it sounded American.  Darth Vader sounded American.  He was a huge Empire bad guy!  Why didn’t he sound English?

I’ve played an online game about Star Wars and when you create your character, all the Empire side characters sound English and the Rebel characters sound American.  Want to be a Jedi?  Your character sounds American.  Want to be an evil Sith?  Your character sounds English.  Shouldn’t we have a few Empire characters with a German accent?  Wouldn’t that be more appropriate?

And while I’m on the subject of Germans, why do so many Nazis in the movies have an English accent?  The Nazis were NOT ENGLISH!  Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to make movies where Germans weren’t played by German actors?  The world is so baffling to me sometimes!

Anyway, back to Star Wars.  Han Solo sounds American.  Of course he’s a smuggling pirate.  Or is he?  Some people will argue that he’s a hero.  Maybe he is a hero, but he was still a pirate.  And of course since he ends up joining the rebels, he has an American accent.  Princess Leia has an American accent…sort of.  *chuckle*

One of my favorite actors in the Star Wars movies only has one line.  I honestly don’t know who he is, but I remember him saying, “You Rebel scum!” just before they blow him away.  American accent.  What the hell?  Now I’m losing track of things. 

Now I’m watching The Force Awakens and the main character of Rey has an English accent.  She becomes part of the “Rebels”.  “Finn”  or FN-2187 is part of the “First Order” and has an American accent.  What happened to the Stormtroopers?  Why are there no Stormtroopers now?  I’m not sure I like changes like that!  You don’t just get rid of Empire Stormtroopers! 

In the “Prequels” the mercenary Jango Fett had an English accent.  Actually his accent was from New Zealand.  Could the English people who watched the movie tell he wasn’t English from his accent?  And again, why is one of the bad guys speaking with an English accent?  Or New Zealand accent?  I’m quickly losing track of things now!

I give up.  It’s taking too much energy now to try and sort out the Star Wars accents, let alone the new plot line.  I need to go back to when I was a kid and didn’t question how people spoke as much.

The End for this week.  Until next week, question everything.