The Clone Wars - S3E15 - "Overlords"

Throughout the scene in "Overlords" where Anakin uses the Force to compel the Daughter and the Son to release Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, he uses his left, biological arm to control the Daughter (who represents the light side) and his right, mechanical arm to control the Son (who represents the dark side).

This arrangement has some significance.  At the very least, it foreshadows the association between artificial limbs and the dark side of the Force that Anakin will exhibit as Darth Vader.  In a comment to Luke in Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan mentions this connection:  "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."

(The different qualities of Anakin's arms also hold significance in a scene in "Crisis at the Heart" [S6E7], which I've written about here.)

The Clone Wars - S1E1 - "Ambush"

When Lama Su gives Obi-Wan a tour of the cloning facility in Attack of the Clones, he explains, "Clones can think creatively.  You will find that they are immensely superior to droids."  This ability to "think creatively" is subtly demonstrated by Lieutenant Thire in "Ambush."

Roughly halfway through the episode, as Yoda and his squad of clone troopers retreat from a group of destroyer droids, Yoda deflects the droids' blaster fire into a coral branch that then falls on the droids and crushes them.  Later, when Yoda is holding off an-other group of destroyer droids by himself, Thire uses the same sort of technique:  he fires the clones' one remaining rocket at a cliff so that it explodes and the resulting rubble falls on the droids.  He paid attention to Yoda's strategy (taking advantage of his environment) and was then able to adapt it to his own circumstances.

The Empire Strikes Back

The Rebels become concerned when Luke fails to return from placing sensors on Hoth, and in order to re-assure R2-D2, C-3PO says, "Of course, we'll see Master Luke again, and he'll be quite alright; you'll see!"  Then, to himself, he remarks, "Stupid little short circuit.  He'll be quite alright."  The second half of C-3PO's repeated copulative sentence exhibits assonance ("quite alright"), and this provides a sense of thoroughness or completeness, which matches the meaning in a way.

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Yoda's name seems meant to reflect his size.  It sounds similar to the names of the smallest letters in the Hebrew and Greek alphabets:  yodh (י) and iota (ι), respectively.

A New Hope

A number of design elements in A New Hope illustrate the contrast between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

The Imperial forces exhibit an extreme degree of standardization.  Barring different heights, each stormtrooper or TIE pilot looks exactly like any other.  While the Rebel forces wear uniforms too, they're not so restrictive that the individual's identity is obscured.  (This difference between the two factions is shown most clearly in the battles that bookend the movie, the boarding of the Tantive IV and the Battle of Yavin.)

The construction of the Death Star is completed during the course of the movie, so it couldn't be any newer.  The equipment that the Rebels use, however, shows its age, especially the Y-wings.

The groups' respective headquarters also differ in that the Death Star is artificial and somewhat isolated in space while the Rebel base on Yavin IV is constructed primarily of stone (a natural material) and located in the midst of a jungle.

Even in their appearances, then, the Empire and the Rebel Alliance oppose each other.

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In the scene where Obi-Wan gives Anakin's lightsaber to Luke, he also briefly comments on the Jedi:  "For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic, before the dark times, before the Empire."  Luke de-activates the lightsaber at the end of Obi-Wan's remark, and in a small way, this extinguishing mirrors the Jedi's near extinction.

Revenge of the Sith

The last scenes of Revenge of the Sith show the four members of the Skywalker family.

Padmé at her funeral procession:

Anakin, now Darth Vader, watching the construction of the Death Star:

Leia on Alderaan:

Luke on Tatooine:

Various aspects of these scenes highlight how Vader now differs from the others.

Padmé, Leia, and Luke are each accompanied by family, but Vader joins the Emperor and Tarkin, powerful figures in the new Empire.  Since Padmé's dead and Leia and Luke are infants, they're mostly passive in these scenes (Luke seems to be asleep), but Vader strides down the bridge of the Star Destroyer.  In contrast to the natural locations the others are shown in, Vader's environment is completely artificial (as if to match Obi-Wan's "more machine now than man" comment in Return of the Jedi), and while the colors on Naboo, Alderaan, and Tatooine may not be particularly vivid, there's a greater variety in each than on the Star Destroyer bridge, which is primarily grayscale.

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During Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel over the lava on Mustafar, Anakin uses the Force to control a mining droid* so that, standing on top of it, he can move closer to the platform where Obi-Wan is and continue the fight.  In a small way, this imposition of his will upon the droid demonstrates a quality that's part of his character now that he's turned to the dark side (his "lust for power" as Obi-Wan calls it).  As Anakin told Padmé shortly before this, they can now "make things the way we want them to be."

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*I have to credit LEGO Star Wars in 100 Scenes (p. 94) for pointing this out to me.  In the movie, what Anakin is doing isn't as obvious, but when he leaps from the droid's head to the other side of Obi-Wan's platform, the droid zooms off on its own again, suddenly released from Anakin's hold.

The Phantom Menace

There's some small significance in Qui-Gon's syntax in the scene in The Phantom Menace where he asks Obi-Wan to analyze Anakin's blood for midi-chlorians.  Obi-Wan is surprised by the results:  "The reading is off the chart, over 20,000.  Even Master Yoda doesn't have a midi-chlorian count that high."  Qui-Gon replies, "No Jedi has."  His response exhibits ellipsis; for brevity, he leaves out some words.  In full, it would be "No Jedi has a midi-chlorian count that high."  In a way, however, this elision matches the context.  The omission in Qui-Gon's remark is similar to how other Jedi's midi-chlorian counts fall short of Anakin's.  There's a lack common to both.

Rebels - S4E9 - "Rebel Assault"

There's some significance in the composition of one shot in "Rebel Assault."  After the squad of Rebels on Lothal sees that the assault led by Hera has failed and that all the Rebels ships have been shot down, there's a wide angle view showing both the falling ships and the Rebels helplessly watching them:

The framing isn't level with the horizon, and this skewed perspective matches the unsettled nature of the characters' feelings:  dismay that the attack has failed and uncertainty about what has happened to Hera.

Rebels - S3E16 - "Legacy of Mandalore"

The colors in "Legacy of Mandalore" hold some significance.  The episode starts with Sabine returning to her family home on Krownest where she doesn't receive a warm welcome.  Her ship is shot down, and her mother's first words upon seeing her are, "So, it's true, then.  Put her in a cell; she'll be held for trial."

The environment of Krownest is predominately black and white:

Consequently, Sabine's brightly colored hair and armor really stand out:

This contrast mirrors the characters' relationship.  Sabine doesn't fit in with the palette of Krownest in the same way that she's not fully accepted by her family.

Rebels - S3E11 - "Visions and Voices"

A trivial detail in "Visions and Voices" matches a more significant element in the story.

About five minutes into the episode, after Ezra sees visions of Maul, Kanan has Sabine put a tracking device on Ezra's wrist comm:

Later, after Maul appears on Atollon, makes a deal with Ezra in which each will share the information he saw when they joined the holocrons in "The Holocrons of Fate," and then leaves with him, Kanan and Sabine are able to follow Ezra using this signal.

On Dathomir, Maul tells Ezra that "the only way to access the knowledge we seek is to merge our minds again."  He explains that "I have studied the ways of the Nightsisters and found a spell that suits our needs... to initiate the merge, we, we must each drink this potion."  When Maul drinks, his own wrist comm is plainly visible, and it has the same basic design as Ezra's:

Since they opened the holocrons together in "The Holocrons of Fate," Ezra's and Maul's minds have been linked to a certain degree, and in a small way, the similar design of their wrist comms visually indicates this connection between them.

Rebels - S2E21 - "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I"

When Ezra first encounters Maul in "Twilight of the Apprentice - Part I," he definitely doesn't trust him.  He draws his lightsaber on him and tells him to "Stay back!"  After Maul says, "You came for the same reason I did, years ago:  you seek knowledge" and explains that he knows how to get into the Sith temple, Ezra agrees to go with him but insists that Maul walk in front of him, apparently so that Ezra can keep an eye on him.

Ezra's feelings toward Maul begin to change after Maul says, "The Sith took everything from me, ripped me from my mother's arms, murdered my brother, used me as a weapon, and then cast me aside, abandoned me."  Ezra replies, "I know how you feel.  The Empire, it took away my home and my mother and my father."  As they approach the door to the temple, Maul claims that the knowledge inside is the key to destroying the Sith, and when he says that he'll share this knowledge with Ezra, Ezra starts walking up the steps in front of Maul:

Ezra keeps Maul in front of him when he first meets him, but after Maul entices him with the knowledge inside the Sith temple, Ezra goes before him.  This change visually indicates that there's a more or less definite point where Ezra starts to trust Maul.

Rebels - S2E19 - "The Forgotten Droid"

There's some slight significance in the composition of a particular shot in "The Forgotten Droid."

Near the beginning of the episode, Chopper abandons The Ghost to steal a leg that would replace his mismatched one and then escapes aboard an Imperial freighter.  Later, he contacts Hera, who's angry about his disobedience.  After she says, "Really?  So you didn't leave The Ghost to go after that leg?" he appears a bit ashamed (doing what is apparently the droid equivalent of scratching his head in an act of discomfort, unwilling to admit the truth).  In this shot, the leg is looming behind him, almost as if weighing on his shoulder in a picture of his guilt:

Rebels - S2E17 - "The Honorable Ones"

At the end of "The Honorable Ones," there's a brief moment that seems to foreshadow the change that Kallus undergoes in season three (taking over the Fulcrum moniker to feed the Rebels information and ultimately defecting to their cause).  Before Zeb returns to The Ghost, he turns and bows to Kallus.  Kallus had been sheltered behind a rock, but he steps out into the sunlight in order to return Zeb's bow.

His coming into the light prefigures the events of season three, as Kallus slowly moves from the darkness of the Empire to the light side embodied by the Rebellion.

Taken an-other way, the sunrise illuminating Kallus's face represents the beginning of his enlightenment.  He eventually starts to understand what the Empire truly stands for.

Rebels - S2E1 - "The Siege of Lothal - Part I"

After a successful rebel mission in "The Siege of Lothal - Part I," there's a meeting on one of the command ships.  Significantly, Kanan is sitting apart from the others:

Shortly after this scene, he complains to Hera about joining a larger rebellion:  "When you and I started together, it was rob from the Empire, give to the needy:  a noble cause.  Now we're gettin' drawn into some kind of military thing, and I don't like it."  The distance between him and the others in this meeting visually indicates his misgivings.

Rebels - S1E6 - "Breaking Ranks"

At the beginning of "Breaking Ranks," there's a brief establishing shot of Lothal City.

The shot contains some visual symmetry (the Imperial facility is centered, and the Star Destroyer on the left is somewhat balanced with the sunset on the right), but the two sides of the shot also exhibit a contrast that illustrates how the Empire's occupation is changing Lothal.

The right side shows a bright city with rolling hills beyond it, but the left side shows a darkened city emitting smoke from Imperial factories.  The Star Destroyer overhead indicates the Imperial oppression, and the sunset with which it's balanced may even represent the fading of the old days of Lothal.

There are episodes later in the series that demonstrate more clearly how the Empire is stripping the planet of its resources ("The Occupation" S4E5 and "Crawler Commandeers" S4E8), but this episode shows it in its early stages.

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Ezra poses as cadet Dev Morgan in order to infiltrate the Imperial facility and acquire a device that will allow The Ghost crew to locate an Imperial shipment containing a Kyber crystal.  During his time there, he befriends fellow cadets Jai Kell and Zare Leonis.  These three contrast with an-other cadet named Oleg in superficial ways that mirror deeper differences in their characters.

Ezra Bridger (even undercover as Dev Morgan), Jai Kell, and Zare Leonis all have first and last names, and their last names highlight their familial connections:  although he's separated from them, Ezra has a strong attachment to his parents, and he recently joined his Rebels family; Jai mentions that his family consists of just him and his mother; and Zare is looking for his sister, who disappeared from the academy.  Oleg's single name seems to indicate that he lacks a family; all he has is the Empire.

Throughout the episode, Ezra, Jai, and Zare frequently take off their helmets or at least open the face panel, but Oleg is never seen without his.  That Oleg remains faceless illustrates that his individuality is being subsumed as he becomes part of the standardized Empire.

Both of these contrasts also match the difference in the characters' ties to the Empire.  Ezra was never truly a cadet; he was only working undercover at the academy.  Jai defects at the end of the episode, after Ezra and Zare explain the true nature of the Empire to him.  While Zare does stay at the academy, he does so only to continue searching for his sister, not because of any true allegiance.  Oleg, on the other hand, was always loyal to the Empire.

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Near the end of the episode, the Inquisitor reviews the events that happened at the academy.  He looks at images of Jai and Ezra and says, "I do not know this boy [Jai], but this one [Ezra] I know."  His comment has a chiastic structure, which emphasizes these opposites:

I do not know

this boy,

but this one

I know.

Rebels - S1E5 - "Rise of the Old Masters"

After the Ghost crew hears Senator Gall Trayvis's broadcast claiming that "one of the Republic's greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, is alive," Kanan says that "she was a great Jedi master, brave, compassionate, disciplined" and tells Ezra that "she'd made an excellent teacher for you."  From the moment she's introduced, Luminara is presented almost as the epitome of the Republic-era Jedi, but in this time period (the "dark times" of the Empire, as Obi-Wan describes it in A New Hope), she's more suited for this idealization than some other Jedi.  Luminara's name is related to lumen (gen. luminis), the Latin word for light, so in a way, she's the embodiment of the light side of the Force and acts as a symbol of the old Jedi order.

Revenge of the Sith

After the crawl, the first shot of the movie pans down to reveal the top of a Jedi cruiser:

This is nearly the opposite of the shots from underneath Star Destroyers that start the movies in the original trilogy.  Instead of the oppression of the Empire, this seems to give the impression of the stability of the Republic, although when the camera follows Obi-Wan and Anakin's ships beyond the cruiser, the battle raging beneath it is revealed.

Later in the movie, there's a shot that's closer to the opening of the original trilogy movies.  A Jedi cruiser flies overhead, but in the opposite direction of the Star Destroyer in A New Hope:

That the shots are becoming more similar illustrates that the events of Revenge of the Sith are leading into those of A New Hope.  There's still a difference, though, because the Jedi are working towards peace and justice in the Republic; they're not yet "all but extinct" in the "dark times" of the Empire, as Obi-Wan tells Luke.

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When Palpatine tells Obi-Wan and Anakin, "Get help.  You're no match for him [Count Dooku]; he's a Sith Lord!" he's still maintaining his façade as chancellor (they don't know that he too is a Sith Lord), but his comment may illustrate his hubris.  As the chancellor, at least, he thinks that a single Sith Lord (and the apprentice, at that) is more powerful than two Jedi.  Luke points out his flaw in Return of the Jedi when he tells him, "Your overconfidence is your weakness."

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When Anakin says, "I'm not the Jedi I should be.  I want more, and I know I shouldn't" in his conversation with Padmé, he turns away while saying, "I know I shouldn't," as if he can't bear to maintain eye contact with her while admitting this fault.

In the featurette titled "The Chosen One" on the bonus DVD, there's even behind the scenes footage of George Lucas directing this scene, and he specifically tells Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin, to turn away during that line.

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Most of the names of the Sith lords come ultimately from Latin.  Maul is from molere, which means to grind.  Tyrannus is the Latin word for tyrant.  Sidious seems to come from insidious, which is from the Latin insidiae, which means ambush or trickery.  Even Plagueis, who is only mentioned, has a Latinate name; it's similar to plague, which comes from plangere, to beat or to strike.  Vader is the exception.  While it's pronounced differently, vader is the Dutch word for father.

In the same way that Vader's name comes from a different language family, his motivation for becoming a Sith lord is different from the others'.  Sidious's goal is clearly the acquisition and maintaining of power.  ("Unlimited power!")  The motivations of Maul and Tyrannus really aren't explored to a great degree, but they seem similar to Sidious's.

Vader, on the other hand, throws in his lot with Sidious and becomes a Sith lord primarily to save Padmé from his premonitions of her death.  He does want power (over death), but his desire for power isn't a selfish one like Sidious's is.

Attack of the Clones

Near the end of the conversation that Anakin and Padmé have while she's packing in her apartment, she tells him, "Anakin, don't try to grow up too fast."  When he replies, "But I am grown up," he stands up, as if to prove his point by showing that he's taller than she is.

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Jocasta Nu's insistence that "if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist!" is an example of what Yoda comments on in an earlier scene, after Obi-Wan remarks on Anakin's arrogance:  "A flaw more and more common among Jedi.  Too sure of themselves they are, even the older, more experienced ones."

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When Darth Tyrannus meets Darth Sidious near the end of the movie, he greets him with, "The Force is with us, Master Sidious."  Unless I'm mistaken, this is the closest that any Sith gets to saying, "May the Force be with you" in the entire series.  That none of them say this is an indication of the character of the Sith.  As Palpatine explains in Revenge of the Sith, "All who gain power are afraid to lose it."  The Sith want to keep the power of the Force for themselves, so they don't wish it upon others.

The Phantom Menace

Like Return of the Jedi, the title The Phantom Menace is ambigious.  There are three characters who could be "the phantom menace":  Anakin, who is only a child in this movie but will grow up to become Darth Vader and terrorize the galaxy; Palpatine, who uses his position as a senator to disguise his identity as a Sith Lord; and Darth Maul, who mysteriously appears in order to track down Queen Amidala and harrass her Jedi protectors.

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During their dinner conversation, Padmé tells Anakin, "Our ship was damaged, and we're stranded here until we can repair it," and he replies, "I can help; I can fix anything."  His prodigious technical ability seems to be an attribute of his status as the Chosen One.  In the same way that he will restore balance to the Force, he can restore balance to mechanical systems and get them to work again.

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While Qui-Gon cleans Anakin's cut, they talk about the stars, and Anakin comments, "I wanna be the first one to see 'em all!"  There may be a nascent feeling of conquest in this that's fulfilled later when Anakin becomes Darth Vader and takes over the galaxy with the Empire, but considered together with Anakin's interest in podracing, this also illustrates simply that he has qualities that make him a less than ideal candidate for a Jedi.  These are the same qualities that Yoda specifically warns Luke against in The Empire Strikes Back:  "Adventure.  Heh.  Excitement.  Heh.  A Jedi craves not these things."  That Anakin does crave these things may be part of why the Jedi council initially rejects him for training as a Jedi.

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In the movie, the chancellor is referred to only as "Chancellor Valorum," but in the expanded universe, his first name is Finis.  Finis valorum is the Latin phrase "the end of values."  Finis is a third declension masculine singular noun in the nominative case, and valorum is a third declension masculine plural noun in the genitive case.

Based on the little that's seen of him in The Phantom Menace, it seems that Chancellor Valorum is a chancellor "of values," as his name suggests.  (Senator Palpatine tells Queen Amidala that the "accusations of [Valorum's] corruption" are "baseless," but this might just be part of his manipulation.)  His name has more significance in light of Palpatine's replacing him as chancellor.  Valorum represents "the end of values" because once Palpatine becomes the chancellor, he uses deception to gain power and eventually turns the Republic into the Empire.

Return of the Jedi

It's ambiguous who the titular Jedi in Return of the Jedi is.  Originally, I thought it referred to Luke, either specifically or as a representation of the whole Jedi order.  Yoda tells Luke that he will be a Jedi only after he confronts Vader.  Since he does confront him, he earns the title, and the order is revived in him.  As he tells the Emperor, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me."  By the end of the movie, the Sith have been defeated and the Emperor has lost his hold on the galaxy, so, in a broader sense of the title, the entire Jedi order can return from near extinction.  Luke is free to follow Yoda's instructions and "pass on what you have learned."

The "Jedi" in the title could also refer to Anakin.  He had been a Jedi and turned to the dark side, but near the end of the movie, he returns to the light side and becomes a Jedi again.

The Empire Strikes Back

When Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO arrive at Cloud City, there are panels in the background that have a warm glow behind them:

By the time Luke arrives, however, after the Empire's trap has been sprung, this warmth has disappeared, and the panels are colorless:

This contrast in color illustrates the change that has occurred.  At first, Cloud City seems like an inviting place, but once the Empire's presence is revealed, it becomes a stark and unwelcoming environment.