Anatomy of a conspiracy theory: The Death Star truthers

When you look at it this way, Star Wars really does look kind of sketchy...

Perhaps it was Luke Skywalker's family connections that helped him do the impossible
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If you have a passing familiarity with Star Wars — the original movie (A New Hope) — and either love or hate conspiracy theories, Graham Putnam has a treat for you. Luke's Change: An Inside Job (above) is a six-minute, "pitch-perfect parody of Loose Change, one of the more famous 9/11 conspiracy videos," says David Haglund at Slate. But it's more than that, too.

First, Putnam plucks out "facts" we all know about the Star Wars saga: Luke blows up the Death Star with a nearly impossible shot, despite having zero military training; Darth Vader, Luke's father, is the only person to escape from the doomed space fortress; and the plans that show the Death Star's one vulnerability were somehow obtained by Vader's daughter, Princess Leia, and smuggled out on a droid Vader himself built as a youth. Then Putnam arranges those facts in a way that makes Vader-as-mastermind a plausible reading of events. That's how all conspiracy theories work, and Putnam provides a helpful guide to the power, structure, and duplicity of these alternate histories.

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On a lighter note, "the repeated mispronunciations of 'Alderaan' aside," says Lauren Davis at i09, Putnam "does a fantastic job of constructing a different narrative from the pieces of a familiar story." The video also works because, well, "looking at the Star Wars universe this way is pretty funny," says Susana Polo at The Mary Sue.

If the video actually has you doubting everything you ever believed about the Star Wars canon, screenwriter Ken Miyamoto has a detailed debunking of Putnam's video at Slate. Because it's the internet.

Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.