History WesternAnimation / StarchaserTheLegendOfOrin

''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'' is a 1985 animated SpaceOpera film. The story follows Orin, an escaped slave who must free his people from the DarkLord after being [[TheChosenOne chosen]] by a MagicSword. Helping him along the way are a cigar-chewing smuggler, his neurotic RobotBuddy, a sassy fembot, a governer's daughter and a FairyCompanion.

* MagicFeather: The hilt of the sword, it turns out. The magical blade was a power Orin had by himself the whole time, and he unleashes it with no placebo to finally defeat Zygon.

* FantasticRacism: This film has at least Arab and gypsy stereotypes.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: When Aviana and Orin arrive at the mines again, she greets Zygon as the facility's administrator when he meets them at the hangar, and doesn't believe Orin's claims about the miners. [[spoiler:It's not until Orin slashes his face with the Sword and reveals he's a robot that she realizes he was telling the truth.]]

** Expands to inanimate objects and vehicles as well, as the [[LaserBlade Hilt]] is a lightsaber, the ''[[CoolStarship Starchaser]]'' is the ''Milleinum Falcon'', and the bi-pedal tank during the crystal raid is an AT-ST.

* CoolSword: Orin's sword. The blade is normally invisible, and can willed into existence by Orin when he needs it to defeat evil (it notably fails to appear when he tries to stab [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Dagg]] during their initial meeting).

* RoboticReveal: [[spoiler:When Orin slashes Zygon's cheek with the sword. Orin is shocked at this, but it really shouldn't have been a surprise, as he already knew that Zygon leads a private robot empire and is strong enough to do a one-handed NeckLeft.]]

* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Zygon makes an allusion to Earth but doesn't mention it by name.

** [[BigBad Zygon/Nexus]] is [[DarthVaderClone Darth Vader]] and [[BigBad Emperor Palpatine]]
** Zygon's troops are The Stormtroopers. [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy They can't aim]].

** [[FemBot Silica]] is R2-D2
** Expands to inanimate objects and veichles as well, as the [[LaserBlade Hilt]] is a lightsaber, the [[CoolStarship Starchaser]] is the Falcon and the random bi-pedal tank during the crystal raid is a AT-ST.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The fate of a ''lot'' of the villains, particularly [[spoiler:Zygon]] who is cut in half and falls into lava.
* HandStomp: Zygon does this to Orin when he's hanging over the lava at the end.

* WholePlotReference: It's an obvious ripoff of ''Franchise/StarWars''. There are a few changes that keep it from being a direct copy, but the plot (to an extent) as well as many characters, locations, and sequences are clearly lifted straight from ''Star Wars''. Even some of the ''sound effects'' are sampled from ''Star Wars'', such as the ''Starchaser'' sounding exactly like the ''Millenium Falcon''.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: It's an obvious ripoff of ''Franchise/StarWars''. There are a few changes that separate this from ''Star Wars''. However, the characters, the plot (sorta), the locations and some sequences have been ripped off. Hell, even some of the ''sound effects'' are sampled from ''Star Wars''.
** To some extent, the movie also seems to want to follow in ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'''s footsteps.

--> '''Orin:''' ''(spotting Aviana being taken aboard one of Zygon's ships)'' There she is!
--> '''Dagg:''' Well, that's great. How the hell are we going to get to her without getting our heads shot off?
--> '''Orin:''' ''(determined)'' We'll just have to do our best!
--> '''Dagg:''' ''(unimpressed)'' Gee, why didn't I think of that?

* ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway: It's a fairly standard example, copying ''Star Wars'' with humans and almost no mention of Earth.[[labelnote:*]]Zygon makes an allusion to Earth at one point but doesn't mention it by name.[[/labelnote]]

* ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway: It's a fairly standard example, copying ''Star Wars'' with humans and no mention of Earth.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** How they got away with the [[BlackComedyRape re-programming scene]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDnBLvk8u4 is one of earth's greatest mysteries.]]
** Don't forget the pedophile jokes from the [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Jabba the Hutt]] [[CaptainErsatz clone]]
** The [[BodyHorror nightmare]]-[[{{Crunchtastic}} tastic]] man-droids.

** [[BigBad Zygon/Nexus]] is [[DarthVaderClone Darth Vader]]

* Stripperific: Zygon's outfit, which one review joked looked like something an evil overlord might wear if he moonlighted as a Chippendales dancer.

** [[LovableRogue Dagg]] is Han Salo.

* ReplacementLoveInterest: Elan [[spoiler:is somewhat-shockingly killed]] near the start of the movie. She's soon replaced by Aviana who has a similar look and the ''same voice actress''.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: This film is very dark and violent, even by 80’s cartoon standards. An old man is killed by burn damage from a laser whip, a slave is crushed by a cave in, and a young woman is strangled partly on screen, the man-droids (whose are already frightening before things get violent) end up being killed pretty graphically, desert men being nuked, and so on.

** Raymo, Orin's fellow slave who eagerly collaborates with the minemasters. He's no less eager to make Orin and Elan suffer than the slaving robots are.

** A minemaster does this to Orin's little brother after the cave-in near the beginning. [[BigBrotherInstinct Orin attacks the robot and almost gets killed in retaliation before everyone is interrupted by the summoning to Zygon's mass.]]

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The slaves push all of the minemasters into the lava when rebelling at the end. Note that this happens ''after'' [[spoiler:Zygon]] has been killed, so there was arguably no need to do this to them. However, considering the generations of torment these people endured, their actions are understandable if not justifiable.

* PlotHole: The crystals are very volatile and ignite by laser fire, and yet the slaves mine them with what seem to be laser jackhammers.

--> '''Orin''' (spotting Aviana being taken aboard one of Zygon's ships): There she is!
--> '''Dagg''' Well, that's great. How the hell are we going to get to her without getting our heads shot off?
--> '''Orin''' (determined): We'll just have to do our best!
--> '''Dagg''': Gee, why didn't I think of that?

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Zygon]] gets bisected and falls in lava. The lava is boiling for several seconds as if to make sure that he's [[DeaderThanDead gone for good.]]