It is set in ancient China during the time of the warring kingdoms. China is under an evil emperor (Palpatine). A Rebellion has formed led by a former court official(Bail Organa and Mon mothma).

The series starts off with the Rebel leader's daughter(princess Leia)going on a mission to find someone important. Her convoy is intercepted by the evil emperor's troops (starting scene of ANH) and princess is captured. A loyal but bumbling messenger (C-3PO and R2-D2) manages to get away but gets lost in the mongolian desert (Tatooine). He is taken as a slave by slave traders (the Jawas) and sold to a farmer.

To cut a long story short, the farmer's son (Luke Skywalker) finds out that the messenger was meant to find an old sage (Ben Kenobi) who is rumoured to live in these parts. One day the son returns home to find hjis parents killed by the emperor's troops.

Swearing revenge, the son seeks out the old Sage himself. After finding the Sage, he is taught the "ways of the warrior". The sage reveals that he was the last of the previous emperor's elite warrior battallion (The Jedi) which was almost wiped out by the Evil emperor and his troops.

Ok lets just cut the long story shorter here. There is a corrupted governor(Tarkin), a "Shogun" warrior/sorcerer in black armour who was the Sage's previous learner(Vader) and a smart-mouth mercenary who excells in horse riding and is an excellent marksman (Han Solo).

The sage is struck down by the Shogun as he tried to save his apprentice (almost the same way Ben died). And a final assault is launched at the emperor's fortress (Death star). And like the Death Star, the fortress has 1 weakness. 1 solder has to make it through the sewers and break some "foundation pillar" which will cause the walls to crumble.

In the end (just like Star Wars) good triumphs over evil.

Seriously, I think the entire plot is just one big generality which more than likely has been played over and over in many different scenarios throughout history: Bad circumstances, long lost heir to throne/unsung hero type, various and assorted lovable but excellent sidekicks, dark nasty bad guy with darker and nastier puppet; mighty fortress with one weakness...

I think the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is similar!!!

--and there's actually a good thread on this somewhere--

--there are some serious Biblical parallels in SW as well.

Nice thread O-B-1, very interesting stuff! Just goes to show you that it really IS a small world after all!