krpalmer | A Sodden Possibility (Reply)

The peculiar Peanuts tribute comic Haircut Practice has been appearing online at longer and longer intervals, and I have to admit to a thought or two it’s coasting to a close. Today, though, there was another new comic, in which one of the nameless (or “name them yourself”) kids described a theory of his father’s “that every good movie as someone either falling in the water or someone getting really wet.” I now have to admit my thoughts settled all of a sudden and with some rapidity on “say, The Phantom Menace has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan swimming underwater, doesn’t it? In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan is soaked by rain twice, and in Revenge of the Sith he falls into water. Oh, and Luke is pulled underwater in Star Wars: A New Hope and he jumps into water in The Empire Strikes Back.” Even with all of those somewhat smug thoughts, though, I did bump into the realization there doesn’t seem anything like that in Return of the Jedi... and then, for all that I’m relying on recollections of a single viewing apiece, I happened to recall “soaked by water” moments in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. I suppose “setups for punchlines” can only be carried so far.