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Severed hands in Star Wars: Hank's count of 13, revisited in John's 'Zero Severed Hands' (2016)

running joke · status: running joke (last seen 2016) · last event: callback (2016-01-12)

John recalls Hank's old count of at least thirteen severed hands in the first six Star Wars films and notes that The Force Awakens has none, which gives his 2016 video its title 'Zero Severed Hands'.

About: Star Wars, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

date event what video
2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) first use Hank will walk through every hand removal of a major character in the Star Wars movies, noting more in minor battle scenes and many more in the books. 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) 00:00:43
2009-09-30 callback Hank walks through every hand removal of a major character in the Star Wars movies, noting there are more in minor battle scenes and many more in the books. 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) 00:00:43
2009-11-22 callback John says that when Hank does break the rules, as when he briefly uploaded a seven-minute version of his Severed Hands of Star Wars video, he argues he broke the letter but not the spirit of the law. (playful) Hank in FAMY 00:00:59
2016-01-12 callback John recalls Hank's video counting at least thirteen severed hands in the first six Star Wars films, and finds none in The Force Awakens (title: 'Zero Severed Hands'). (playful) → refers to 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things 00:00:32

Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).

What is said about it

30 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).

  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says Chewbacca was always supposed to rip people's arms out of their sockets but never did, and kept both his hands through all the movies. — 00:00:31
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says that, unlike some Star Wars purists, he considers the prequels to be Star Wars movies, so he goes chronologically. — 00:00:53 · also in: 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2)
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank calls The Phantom Menace arguably the worst live-action Star Wars movie ever; no hands are removed in it. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says Attack of the Clones, a much better movie, opens with Obi-Wan Kenobi cutting off the hand of a jerk with a gun in a bar, and later Count Dooku cuts off Anakin Skywalker's hand. (playful) — 00:01:07
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank points out a theme: in Star Wars, whoever cuts off someone's hand has a good chance of getting their own hand chopped off too. (playful) — 00:01:24
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says Revenge of the Sith, a very good movie, is the peak of hand removal: Count Dooku loses both hands, and four-handed General Grievous loses only two. (playful) — 00:01:30
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says Anakin Skywalker cuts off Mace Windu's arm, having chopped off three hands in that one movie while losing only one himself. (playful) — 00:01:58
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says that when Anakin turns evil, Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off both his legs and one of his hands, leaving Anakin with one hand, a robotic one. (playful) — 00:02:09
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says in A New Hope C-3PO's arm is yanked off by a Tusken Raider (off screen), and Obi-Wan cuts off a second gun-wielding arm in a bar. — 00:02:21
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says in The Empire Strikes Back Luke cuts off the arm of the giant snow beast that captured him, then Luke loses his own hand, one of the most memorable scenes in film history. (playful) — 00:02:32
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says Return of the Jedi has one hand removal: Luke cuts off Darth Vader's third hand, then sees its wires and feels his own bionic hand. (playful) — 00:03:00
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank says that counting the comic books and books, Darth Vader has his hands chopped off no less than five times. — 00:03:08
  • 2009-09-30 (said on 2009-10-01, implied) · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (1) — Hank concludes that being a Jedi sounds cool but is far too dangerous a line of work for him. (playful) — 00:03:28 · also in: 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2)
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Chewbacca was always supposed to rip people's arms out of their sockets but never did, and kept both his hands through all the Star Wars movies. — 00:00:29
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank calls The Phantom Menace arguably the worst live-action Star Wars movie ever; no hands are removed in it. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Attack of the Clones, a much better movie, opens with Obi-Wan Kenobi cutting off the hand of a jerk with a gun in a bar, and later Count Dooku cuts off Anakin Skywalker's hand. (playful) — 00:01:05
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank points out a theme of the Star Wars films: whoever cuts off someone's hand has a good chance of getting their own hand chopped off too. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Revenge of the Sith, a very good movie, is the peak of Star Wars hand removal: it opens with Count Dooku losing both hands shortly before he is killed. (playful) — 00:01:30
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says General Grievous has four hands but loses only two of them in Revenge of the Sith, which always made Hank angry. (playful) — 00:01:45
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Anakin Skywalker cuts off Mace Windu's arm, so in Revenge of the Sith Anakin has chopped off three hands while losing only one himself. (playful) — 00:01:58
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says that when Anakin Skywalker turns evil, Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off both his legs and one of his hands, leaving Anakin with one hand, a robotic one. (playful) — 00:02:09
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says that in A New Hope C-3PO's arm is yanked off off screen and later seen lying on the ground, and Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off his second gun-wielding arm in a bar. — 00:02:21
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says that in The Empire Strikes Back the giant snow beast captures Luke Skywalker and hangs him upside down in a cave, and Luke chops its arm off. (playful) — 00:02:33
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Luke Skywalker losing his hand in The Empire Strikes Back is one of the most memorable scenes in science fiction; Luke gets a bionic hand like his father's. (playful) — 00:02:44
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says Return of the Jedi has only one hand removal: Luke Skywalker cuts off Darth Vader's third hand, sees its wires and feels his own bionic hand. (playful) — 00:02:58
  • 2009-09-30 · 13 SEVERED HANDS! (2) — Hank says that counting the Star Wars comic books and books, Darth Vader has his hands chopped off no less than five times. — 00:03:06
  • 2016-01-12 · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things — John: Citing Hank's video from over five years earlier, John says the first six Star Wars films contain at least thirteen severed hands, Anakin Skywalker losing one three separate times. (playful) — 00:00:32
  • 2016-01-12 · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things — John notes that Anakin Skywalker also cuts off three hands over the films, calling Star Wars justice 'a hand for a hand': cutting off a hand risks losing your own. (playful) — 00:00:59
  • 2016-01-12 · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things — John says that when George Lucas is asked about all the severed hands, he always answers that that's what happens when you play with swords. — 00:01:22
  • 2016-01-12 · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things — John: With mock outrage, John notes that despite plenty of swordplay, no hand is severed in The Force Awakens. (playful) — 00:01:27