The Puzzle PieceApril 2021

Current Events- Daniel S.Biden Signed a 1.9 Trillion dollar COVID relief bill.

New Zealand experienced an 8.1 magnitude earthquake that triggered a tsunami warning.

Pope Francis visits Iraq for the first time.

Guess That Picture- Christian F.

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Lego Fun Facts-Ijah W.

● The way you pronounce “Lego” in plural is… well, “Lego.” Yeah, the word is alreadypluralized.

● The Lego meant for toddlers, known as “Lego Duplo,” are eight times the size of normalLego.

● Lego is the world’s largest producer of rubber wheels. They produce more thanBridgestone, Goodyear and all other car tyre manufacturers.

● You can stack the Lego all the way from Earth to the moon. TEN TIMES. You need 40million bricks with it being over 384,400 kilometers tall.

● Every second passed equal seven Lego sets sold. That means:○ Minute = 420 Lego sets.○ Hour = 25,200 Lego sets.○ Day = 604,800 Lego sets.○ Week = 4,233,600 Lego sets.

Memes of the Month- Jeremy N. and Tom J.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy RankedReview by Sheldon Eads

The original trilogy of Star Wars is an iconic trio of films that all tell a unique story. Even if you only watched one of them, you wouldn’t really have to watch all of them. Sure, certain plot points make more sense when watched in order but I feel these films were made to be as timeless and accessible as possible. Of course, there is debate as to which one is the best in their own personal opinion. This is where I go in and decide. It might get a little controversial but hey, this is the internet.

Star Wars/Episode IV: A New Hope:It’s not entirely uncommon for the first installment of a series to not be as goodas its sequels. Sure, there are exceptions like The Incredibles for instance, but ANew Hope feels pretty slow in comparison to the other films. Story-wise, I thinkit’s quite compelling, especially when Grand Moff Tarkin destroys Alderaan,making his demise satisfying to watch and all the characters in the film haveappropriate interactions. In fact, this film has the most main characterscompared to any other movie here and the special effects are shockingly decentfor 1977. The soundtrack, while the weakest, is still pretty good. The problem to me arrives at the fact thatit can be really slow. We are introduced to Luke Skywalker way later than we should’ve and Tarkin rarelymakes that much appearances despite being one of the main antagonists of the film. I have no idea whythe latter gets very few screen time as he works great as a villain. While the soundtrack is good, I justdon’t think it’s as exciting as John Willaim’s other works. Overall a good film, but not my favorite.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back:Coincidentally, all of these movies from worst to best are in release order.Regardless, The Empire Strikes Back is outright amazing. The locations are themost diverse in any OT movie so far, the plot has so many twists and turns andconvey different feelings. The soundtrack is a major improvement from the firstand the production values are much better. The only reason it’s behind Returnof the Jedi though is mainly because some of the issues from A New Hope arestill there. Darth Vader is introduced much later than he should’ve and theEmperor and Boba Fett don’t really have that much personality. The special

edition does try to change The Emperor’s and Boba’s voice to match the continuity better so there’s thatbut without context of the later released prequel films, it’s not anything mind blowing. It’s funny how theEmperor plays a larger role in the movie after this. There’s also not as much excitement compared to ROTJor even ANH. Honestly, it might as well be the villains. Sure, Vader is much better than his appearance inthe first one but Tarkin also showed dominance and cruelty. Vader just wants Luke to join the Empire andthat’s pretty much it for his character. Maybe I just really like Tarkin, I don’t know.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi:This film has a mixed reputation from what I can gather. I hear people sayit's their least favorite because of the Ewoks (which are usually comparedto Jar Jar Binks), the laziness of using the Death Star again, or the overuseof prequel-styled humor. Others however praise it for doing what theprevious films did right, the development of Luke’s character and DarthVader redeeming himself and becoming Anakin Skywalker again. I’m on thelatter for, Return of the Jedi. The film manages to convey a lot of tone unlikethe other film. It can be mysterious, humorous, heartwarming,heartbreaking, or even straight up terrifying. By fair the best thing in thismovie though is The Emperor. Unlike the original version of Empire, he isplayed by Ian McDiarmid who is a phenomenal actor. He manages torepresent pure evil flawlessly and is straight up threatening. His lines “You,like your father, are now mine!” and "So be it, Jedi.” clearly represent a cruel dictator perfectly. One of themost epic lightsaber fights from the original trilogy comes from here. I won’t get into everything becauseit would take up too much of this newsletter but I bet George Lucas likely knew the pros of this film as TheEmperor (now renamed to Darth Sidious) reappears in the entire prequel trilogy and he is the highlight ofthose films, especially Revenge of the Sith. While Richard Marquand did a great job on the film, Lucas haddecent foresight on what are good ideas and added scenes that make the film the way it is.

If you had to watch at least one of these films, pick Return of the Jedi. Unlike the others, I wouldn’t needthings changed for me to enjoy it. Yes, it isn’t perfect, I do think Boba is an underdeveloped villain after allbut at the end, I enjoy it for the story it was telling and the attempts at improving. You could skip A NewHope and The Empire Strikes Back, but you can’t convince me to skip Return of the Jedi at all.

Thanks for reading The Puzzle PieceWe will see you again next month!