7 Days to SW EP8 – Creatures of A New Hope – Dianoga
The Death Star trash compactor monster is one of those rare creatures of A New Hope that just makes you go “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?” But not in a bad way. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. And it’s such a cool spin to the “monster lurking in the shadows” sci-fi trope. But really, the Death Star is a feat of Geonosian engineering prowess. A mechanical marvel. A technological terror, if you will. Why is there a tentacle monster in the garbage disposal system? Is this standard Empire garbage protocol? Does the Emperor have one these in the disposal unit of his Coruscant palace? Were they in the middle of installing these creatures into the Death Star II when the Rebel Alliance attacked? But regardless of how cray-cray the idea is, it’s still a really fun and exciting scene.
And the monster itself was pretty cool. I don’t remember when they started calling it the Dianoga, but trash compactor monster works for me. I recall reading something or another, a few years back, about the Empire actually keeping them in their disposal units to take care of any organic material that fell into the system and the compactor took care of all the inorganic stuff. But then, fairly recently, I read some such nonsense that they stow away on cruisers venting systems, cause they are warm (or something like that, I really don’t remember or care), and this one just happened to stow away on a cruiser that docked with the Death Star and it found a suitable habitat to live in within the disposal system. That is a very convoluted story. And just sounds silly.
The idea that the Empire keeps them to take care of organic material makes some sense, cause right before the compactor walls start moving in, you hear a mechanism that kinda sounds like a hatchway opening or closing, and I always thought that’s how the creature moved in and out of the compactor unit. Cause if it was there by accident, then it would have gotten crushed with the rest of the garbage. So again, we’re back to the idea of adding a back story or explanation to every single thing within the Star Wars universe. Sometimes I like it cause it fills in some gaps not seen in the films. But other times, like this case, it just ruins the fun of a really cool monster scene that is so wacky that it just works. No explanation needed. It’s just nice to know that the Empire is so progressive when it come to waste disposal… even 40 years later.
What are you gonna do after you see The Last Jedi? I’m probably gonna go to the bathroom because I was holding it the whole time but making sure there is no Dianoga in the toilet first. But after that SEE THE LAST JEDI AGAIN!!!! Enter below and get chances to win a $100 Fandango Gift Card so you can see it again and again! Enter now!!!!
