Naturally we watched it with an eye towards seeing how much everything matched up with Episode III.
The answer is, surprisingly well. And the main reason, I think, can be summarized in two words: Alec Guiness (or, if you prefer three words, Sir Alec Guiness).
Understand, I don’t believe for a second that Lucas had already decided at the time that Leia and Luke were siblings, that Obi Wan was present at their birth. I’m even 50/50 that he’d decided Vader was Luke and Leia’s father, or even Luke’s father.
Most of the “mismatches” are centered around Obi-Wan, and thanks to Guiness’ performance–and I chalk it up to Sir Alec since Lucas is notoriously “not there” for actors–it is VERY easy to read it that he is either lying or playing things very close to the vest. Not only does he greet RD as “my little friend,” but when Luke IS conscious and R2 is beeping at him, Obi Wan fires R2 a look that could be taken, with no difficulty, as “Shut up. You’ve already said too much.” And when he’s explaining bits of his history to Luke, you can see the wheels turning as he’s doing so. He alternates between looks of craftiness and being avuncular. These shadings that Guiness brought to the role left Lucas a ton of leeway in subsequent films.
Not Sir Alec-related, but I’m surprised how much the offhand bit about 3PO getting his memory wiped actually works. Because in episode 4, when Luke is asking him about past encounters with the Empire, 3PO says hesitantly, “We’ve been in several battles…I think.” He sounds confused. If his memories had been wiped, it would make sense that there might be some memory bits still floating around in there–random flashes of images and such–that would cause him to vaguely recall that they’d seen action, but unclear as to the when or where.
And finally, for all those who complained that Anakin seemed to whine way too much…jeez, y’know, Mark Hamill is a dear friend, but sheesh, Luke whined as much as his dad. Listening to Anakin bìŧçh about not being made a Master is evocative of Luke crabbing about not being able to go get power converters. Like father, like son.
PAD
• 
I just got home from Houston to see the movie and I agree with you. Guiness put so much nuance into the Obi Wan character that he almost wrote what Ewan needed to do for this movie.
It’s kind of funny. My wife’s biggest beef with EPISODE III was that when Luke was born he had brown eyes, but Mark Hamill’s were blue. So much for that matching up.
I have to agree that Lucas may have had some general ideas where he wanted to take things, but it’s pretty clear that the addition of other writers on EPISODE V and EPISODE IV added to the story considerably. As much as I like STAR WARS Lucas’ writing always left a lot to be desired.
“Avuncular” – like an uncle?
PAD, you always were a master at getting a series inconsistencies to work plot points. Who else would have said “James R. Kirk” was a practical joke on Gary Mitchell’s part?
Of course, had I written Q SQUARED, I’d have said it was because of Mitchell’s favorite noir writer.
Of course, at present he could read my entire backlist in five seconds, but I’m thinking ahead.
After coming home from the midnight show of _Revenge of the Sith_, I too went straight to episode four and came away thinking the same thing about Guiness’ performance. Did he know how things would play out? ‘Course not; but he brings such depth to each character that he created plenty of space for us to now make those connections.
When all is said and done, the greatest thing that _Star Wars_ did for me was provide an introduction to Alec Guiness. I was 10 when the first _Star Wars_ came out, and by the time I was twelve I had seen all the major films Guiness did with David Lean.
Greatest actor I’ve ever seen – period.
Mark
Peter David: Understand, I don’t believe for a second that Lucas had already decided at the time that Leia and Luke were siblings, that Obi Wan was present at their birth. I’m even 50/50 that he’d decided Vader was Luke and Leia’s father, or even Luke’s father.
Luigi Novi: Actually, I seem to recall that he flat-out stated that he thought of that only when making Empire Strikes Back.
I’m even 50/50 that he’d decided Vader was Luke and Leia’s father, or even Luke’s father.
I was going to directly contradict Luigi there and bring up the “Dark Father” thing, but a quick websearch tells me not to be too confident. Still…I dunno, I kinda think he had this one in the back of his mind, if only because of the number of Vader/father discussions in ANH. Plus, the irony of seeing Ben Kenobi, Luke’s mentor and father figure, squaring off against Vader, his real father, is…yeah.
I’m even 50/50 that he’d decided Vader was Luke and Leia’s father, or even Luke’s father.
I was going to directly contradict Luigi there and bring up the “Dark Father” thing, but a quick websearch tells me not to be too confident. Still…I dunno, I kinda think he had this one in the back of his mind, if only because of the number of Vader/father discussions in ANH. Plus, the irony of seeing Ben Kenobi, Luke’s mentor and father figure, squaring off against Vader, his real father, is…yeah.
Actually the thing that hit me, and my wife, like a hammer was Leia’s comments in Jedi about her “real mother”. She was very beautiful, but kind of sad… and a little dead.
Well, there’s no reason to think she wasn’t referring to Mrs. Organa. She had no reason to think she wasn’t a natural-born Organa at that point. And it isn’t a stretch to think of Mrs. Organa being a little sad knowing who Leia’s real mother was and what happened (and living in a galaxy falling under the ever-increasing grip of the Empire).
I ran out and bought the DVD trilogy and I am finding the same things. It would have been nice to have some more Vader/Obi interaction. But things fit. Would Chewie have remembered Obi Wan?
Of course Lucas intended Vader to be Luke’s father from the getgo. Not only did he plan out the general outline of all 9 planned episodes from the getgo, but “vader” is the Dutch word for “father”.
“I’m even 50/50 that he’d decided Vader was Luke and Leia’s father”
I can’t say for Leia, but a radio news reporter I knew back in ’77 told me then that some of her sources in the U.S. had informed her of the fact that Vader was Luke’s father. So, it is fair to assume Lucas had planned it all along. It’s one of those things which sticks in memory in my case because I remember thinking at the time she’d told me “Oh, God, how corny!” Still, give Lucas his due, he made it work in EMPIRE and later.
One thing I appreciated after seeing the new trilogy was how much Luke and Anakin had in common. Luke’s arrogance and temper were definitely a shadow of his father’s.
Well yes, Luke whines…but he pretty much gets over it once they hit the Death Star and goes into hero time…
Not even geting the James Earl Jones voice box stops Anakin from whining.
If his memories had been wiped, it would make sense that there might be some memory bits still floating around in there
Except that his memory had been wiped something like 16-20 years before…
In a similar vein, the one thing that has helped me make the connection between the new trilogy and the old is Ewen MacGregor’s excellent performance as Obi-Wan, probably the best acting job in any of these movies. from the beginning, he has done an excellent job of being a “young Alec Guiness.” in appearance, voice, speaking style and mannerisms, i could really see him as eventually becoming Ben, polite snarkiness and all. that really helped make those movies for me. or at least the first two. haven’t seen the third. probably next Sunday….
Ah, but you all forget that Anakin made an appearance on Hoth with Obi-wan in one of the first drafts of Empire, and at the time Lucas credited screenwriter Leigh Brackett entirely with coming up with the idea of Vader being Luke’s daddy. I think this is the case of writing on the cuff, and doing it so well that it gives the appearance of being planned the entire time. I also recall an interview with the woman who played Aunt Beru in an issue of the Star Wars magazine many years ago in which she said her many “knowing” looks and such which we all take to be her knowledge of the Anakin/darth connection were only meant to be looks of motherly concern that he may follow anakin and die as a jedi somewhere. At the time, she mentioned, the backstory was exactly as the movie says: Anakin was a jedi who was murdered by Darth (just one of the many).
I remember once asking John Byrne (a hated name around here?) some question about a very early issue of the phoenix saga and how welll they had it planned to make it flow so well together; he laughed and said it was written entirely issue to issue with no plan at all. Which surprised the hëll out of me, since you read thru that and it seems like they are planting seeds for the dark phoenix transformation right at the start.
Memorial Day Weekend Game Plan:
1.) Watch (Suffer Through) EPs 1 & 2
2.) Go see Ep 3
3.) Come home and watch IV-VI
Hey, if Hamill can play a whiner with such conviction maybe there’s room for him on the re-vamped Left, I mean, West Wing!!
Funny you should mention the Luke/Anakin whining. A buddy and I were talking about the very same thing last night and I said the same thing, like father like son. Luke is so annoying in that first movie.
Further to the like father, like son thing — Ep.3 really strengthens Luke’s character through IV-VI. Now that we’ve seen his father, who was much like him, actually succumb to the dark side, Luke’s refusal to do so in VI is a much more dramatic feat. And so on and so forth. I really liked III, the more that I think on it.
I don’t think enough has been written about Alec Guinness and his overall importance to the first Star Wars film. Bear in mind that most of the British crew at the time thought the film was going to be absolute rubbish, and there was a very real divide between the well-established British cast of supporting actors, and the young, largely inexperienced stars such as Hamill, Ford and Fisher. I think the presence of Guinness went quite a long way in terms of convincing people, gosh, if he’s working on this film, maybe there’s something too it after all! By all accounts a lot of people on the cast and crew took their lead from Guinness, and Lucas reportedly rewarded him with a couple of percentage points of the profits, probably more money than the actor had made for most of his career. This is not to say that Guinness ever thought he was creating a landmark of modern cinema; he was just being a professional, and as the elder statesman on the film, he doubtless felt there was a certainly responsibility on his shoulders to lead by example.
Playing off of that, Matt, what struck me the most about Ep. III in relation to VI was Obi-Wan’s last failure, at Mustafar. When Anakin’s lying on the ground doing his best Black Knight impression, Obi-Wan shouts recriminations at him, watches the lava start to burn his body, and then turns and walks away. Watching the scene, I couldn’t help but feel that that was the last chance to salvage everything, including Anakin’s soul. He could have taken Anakin with him, tried to turn him back from the Dark Side. Heck, I wanted to scream at the screen, “Save him, dammit!” But instead, Obi-Wan let his hate, either for Anakin or himself (or maybe both) cloud his judgement, and was unable to show the most important quality of the Light Side, forgiveness.
Contrast this with Luke in Episode VI, who does show that quality when he refuses to kill Vader, and in so doing, shows his father the path back to the Light Side. In that moment, he surpasses both his father figures. When he says “I am a Jedi, like my father before me,” he’s more right than he knows.
As an aside, that scene also wipes away the last shreds of credibility Obi-Wan has during his argument with Luke on Dagobah in Episode VI. “He’s more machine now than man, twisted and evil.” Yeah, and whose fault is that, you dìçk?
It’s Anakin’s fault, absolutely and totally.
// Of course Lucas intended Vader to be Luke’s father from the getgo. Not only did he plan out the general outline of all 9 planned episodes from the getgo, but “vader” is the Dutch word for “father”. //
Lucus did not plan all nine movies from the onset. That’s the story he told after the success of the original but not the story he was telling way back when. The idea of Vader being Lukes father was originally credited to screenwriter Leah Bracket, (who wrote Empire Strikes Back). Before the orginal movie was released Lucus was already thinking of a sequel but he figured it was have to be done even cheaper then the first one, (no one expected the first one to make any money, never mind become the biggest sucess in the history of American film, that’s why Fox had no problem letting Lucus keep the rights, a mistake that goes along side Decca Records turning down the Beatles (because guitar bands were on the way out) as one of the biggest misjudgements in the history of the Entertainment bussiness). Lucus hired Allen Dean Foster, (who wrote the novelazation of the first film) to come up with a story for a sequel that could be done on an even cheaper budget then the first film. The Story Foster came up with took place mostly on a foggy swamp planet, featured only Luke, Leia and Vader, and has several things that contridicted the later movies, (like more romantic involvement between Luke and Lea, Vader using the force to induce sexual dreams in Lea, Luke having a force induced dream of his father, (who was clearly not Vader). Lucus approved all of this. When Star Wars became a hit he realized he could do a film that was bigger then the first and gave his permission to Foster to turn his script outline into a novel, (Splinter in the Minds Eye). Lucus also told Marvel Comics what they couldn’t do in the comics, and those restrictions are one of the reasons why Roy Thomas, (Lucus’ own choice to handle the comics) stopped writing them. One of the things he didn’t restict Marvel from doing was a flashback story (Written by Cris Clarmont I believe) that had Obi-Wan, Vader and Lukes farther, (clearly not Vader) having a adventure during the clone wars. Now it’s entirly possible that Lucus himself knew nothing of this story but one has to wonder why he didn’t include the “don’t show Luke’s father” in his list of other restictions he gave to the comic book creators back then, and when one thinks that way one must conclude that it’s probably because Vader wasn’t Luke’s father yet.
Lucus is a natural born mythmaker, and a natural born marketer. And like all great mythmakers he’s very good at creating a mytholigy about himself. Saying “I wrote the outline for all nine films when I was 19” is simply more impressive then saying he made a movie that became bigger then he ever thought it was and with the help of others was able to use that movie as a template to create a spawing saga. Star Wars was out for almost a year before he began talking about his ideas for a saga of 12 movies, (yes originally it was 12, that went down to 9 then finally to 6), the “saga” bit is mentioned in none of his early interviews. Books released at the time of the fist filem included early concept art and script notes for the first film that doesn’t even have Luke in then, but a griseled old space prirate, (Han)and a princess (Lea). And at one point in that development it was a space pirate and two twins (Luke and Lea, an idea Lucus came back to obviously). Even when developing the first film Lucus went though several changes, (as does any screenwriter), the idea that he had an outline for all 9 films written back when he was in college just doens’t jive with that, but it does however make for a better story, so that’s what the story became.
Sure, Luke whined. He’s a simple teen farm boy. Annakin had a decade of training in a supposedly disciplined order.
About Luke’s eyes being brown when he was born and blue in ANH? Duh, the Spice.
Adding to the true history of Star Wars as listed above: the decision to make Luke and Leia siblings didn’t come about until “Return of the Jedi”.
In “Empire”, when Obi-Wan says that Luke is their only hope, Yoda replys that there is another. In hindsight we know this to be Leia, but at the time Luke’s real sister was a characyer that hadn’t been seen yet, hidden at the far side of the galaxy. When production on “Jedi” started, Lucas blended Leia with the sister character. That explains why Vader didn’t send the Force in Leia during “A New Hope” and “Empire” even though he was standing right in front of her. She was not yet his daughter.
The notion that Lucas had these stories mapped out in advance in pure myth. He simply made them up as he went along. Nothing wrong with that, but he’s not being honest about it.
“No, there is another” always gnawed at me. Maybe it’s just the feminist in me talking, but wouldn’t it have been cool if somewhere in RotJ, Leia suddenly exhibited a MASSIVE Force power that she didn’t know she had?
Would’ve been so awesome…
*sigh*
>>Dean Wells: When production on “Jedi” started, Lucas blended Leia with the sister character. That explains why Vader didn’t send the Force in Leia during “A New Hope” and “Empire” even though he was standing right in front of her. She was not yet his daughter.
During New Hope I understand that, but not Empire. It was fairly obvious from the book and the movie that Leia was his sister in Empire. I forget exactly what Yoda said, “There is another” or something and then Leia hearing Luke call her through the Force made it clear that was the direction they were going.
KIP
Queen Anthai wrote “”No, there is another” always gnawed at me. Maybe it’s just the feminist in me talking, but wouldn’t it have been cool if somewhere in RotJ, Leia suddenly exhibited a MASSIVE Force power that she didn’t know she had?
Would’ve been so awesome…”
But she did! After all, strangling Jabba certainly took more strength than an ordinary human could possess. And she didn’t seem to struggle too much while doing it.
And somebody should really ask where did Lucas get his obsession with chopped arms. I mean, in every movie of the saga, there’s one or more characters who loses one or both hands.
What REALLY kills me about “No, there is another” is that you’d think Obi-Wan, having actually been there when the twins are born, wouldn’t have needed to say “That boy is our last hope.” He’d already have known about Leia. Further proof, I guess, that Lucas was winging it.
“It was fairly obvious from the book and the movie that Leia was his sister in Empire.”
Yeah, that fairly obvious sequence where Leia practically put her tongue down Luke’s throat in the hospital was the sure-fire tip off. First time I saw it I said, “That clinches it for me. They’re siblings.” Yes, I know she was doing it to make Han jealous, but when I saw the film re-released a few years ago, the moment they liplocked the entire audience, now knowing the truth, uniformly said “Ewwwwww.”
“What REALLY kills me about “No, there is another” is that you’d think Obi-Wan, having actually been there when the twins are born, wouldn’t have needed to say “That boy is our last hope.” He’d already have known about Leia. Further proof, I guess, that Lucas was winging it.”
Understand, I don’t disagree. I think Lucas was indeed winging it. But it could be argued that, if the scene hadn’t been cut where it was, Obi Wan could have responded to Yoda, “You must be referring to Leia. But she’s shown no talent for the force at all.” To which Yoda could respond, “Possibilities have I foreseen,” etc.
To me, it was screamingly obvious that Leia was “the other.” The hands-down, slam dunk moment was when she reacted to Luke’s plight by sensing his distress and knowing they had to return to Bespin. But that didn’t automatically mean they were sibs. Keep something in mind: There was no guarantee that Harrison Ford would be returning for the third film. That’s part of the reason they stuck him in carbonite. I’m thinking that if Han Solo had remained a coffee table, Luke and Leia wind up together to make Jedi babies and there’s no family connection at all. But when Ford signed up for the third film, Lucas needed a fast, simple way to have Leia wind up with Han in order to pay off the romance, and the sibling angle was it.
PAD
“What REALLY kills me about “No, there is another” is that you’d think Obi-Wan, having actually been there when the twins are born, wouldn’t have needed to say “That boy is our last hope.” He’d already have known about Leia. Further proof, I guess, that Lucas was winging it.”
Understand, I don’t disagree. I think Lucas was indeed winging it. But it could be argued that, if the scene hadn’t been cut where it was, Obi Wan could have responded to Yoda, “You must be referring to Leia. But she’s shown no talent for the force at all.” To which Yoda could respond, “Possibilities have I foreseen,” etc.
Another interpretation is that Yoda is referring to Darth–and indeed, it is he who ultimately defeats the emperor.
Ok, here’s another question. Why did Obi Wan leave Luke with his family instead of training him in secret on tatooine (or, conversely, somewhere more logical, like anywhere else in the galaxy)? Now mind you, I think the fact that Luke got as little Jedi training as possible was all to the good. It should not escape anyone’s attention that 3 of the most powerful people in the series–Luke, Darth and Palpatine–got little, some and no training, respectively. i think that growing up in a family and not getting force fed Jedi BS in his formative years made Luke a far more powerful warrior than he would have been had he been raised like veal in the Jedi academy. But it’s surprising that Obi and Yoda would recognize this.
Darth was trained by the Jedi since he was what? Six? Fifteen years of jedi training before he goes bad doesn’t sound like “some”. Plus, he’d then get Sith training from Palpatine. And Palpatine didn’t get no training — he got no Jedi training. He was a Sith Lord, which presumably means he followed the Sith pattern of learning everything from his master then killing him.
The prequels have really left me thinking that the Jedi philosophy didn’t help their cause. Yoda saying “oh, you’re afraid of losing what you love? Just stop loving things”… yeah.
The one moment for me in Episode 4 that works so well in hindsight is when Luke tells Ben “I want to be a Jedi. Like my father.” The look Alec Guiness has on his face before giving a tolerant smile is priceless, akin to Luke having given him a verbal kick in the happy-sacks.
“Darth was trained by the Jedi since he was what? Six? Fifteen years of jedi training before he goes bad doesn’t sound like “some”. Plus, he’d then get Sith training from Palpatine. And Palpatine didn’t get no training — he got no Jedi training. He was a Sith Lord, which presumably means he followed the Sith pattern of learning everything from his master then killing him.”
Well, yeah, Jedi training was what I was talking about. And certainly it’s true that Anakin got the most Jedi training of the three–and look how great THAT turned out! But also not that having missed those fist 6 years was considered so important that the council was willing to let this prodigy slip through their fingers. Apparently Jedi indoctrination is so fragile that if it isn’t ground into your head before you get toilet trained it just doesn’t take.
I agree that Yoda’s philosphy was no dámņ help at all and besides, for people who preach that “desire nothing, you should” they spend a lot of time trying to get things to go their way.
That’s why I hold that Anakin Skywalker truly did fulfill the prophecy, and restore balance to the Force.
The Jedi taught all of their students to deny half of their humanity (or whatever species they were – you know what I mean). No desire, no anger, no connections… They ignored the power of righteous anger, which does not necessarily lead to other bad feelings. If you let anger guide you, it will destroy you, even in real life, but anger can be used as a fuel to righteous behavior, as well.
The Sith denied the other half – claiming that honor, honesty, and compassion were weaknesses, and that power should be desired only for its own sake. It has been observed that hatred is an acid that destroys its own container, and that is certainly true of the Sith I’ve seen – Maul, had he been thinking with his brain, would have chopped Obi-wan’s hands off and let him fall to his death (see, there’s that hand thing again!). Instead, he toyed with his opponent – and was destroyed.
Luke Skywalker was raised to be a good man, rather than being marinated in the philosophy of helplessness that doomed the Jedi, or being exposed to the philosophy of bleakness that was the Sith’s fatal flaw. He was able to experience the entire panoply of human emotion – good and bad, love and hate – and he learned to balance this. All of that was only possible because Anakin, his father, had destroyed the Jedi Order that would have twisted his thinking as a child, and because, due to their fear of his father, the last remaining Jedi hid him from the Sith and their machinations. Luke was thus free to start a new order of Jedi, one more grounded in the world – and thus did Anakin restore a balance that had been unbalanced for thousands of years.
Jonathon,
Hey that’s good. Very good.
Jonathon,
I like that. Its better than my explanation, which has always been “before Anakin there were lots of Jedi and only two Sith. After Anakin there were only two Jedi and two Sith. See, balance. Jedi are stupid.”
Ok, here’s another question. Why did Obi Wan leave Luke with his family instead of training him in secret on tatooine (or, conversely, somewhere more logical, like anywhere else in the galaxy)?
It’s possible that had Luke been trained by Obi-Wan from the start, Vader and the Emperor would have sensed the increase use of the force and the growing power of another Skywalker. It would be too risky to have Luke discovered as a child and therefore they had to wait until he was old enough to begin the training.
The prequels have really left me thinking that the Jedi philosophy didn’t help their cause. Yoda saying “oh, you’re afraid of losing what you love? Just stop loving things”… yeah.
In fairness, Yoda’s pronouncements of Jedi philosophy are reminiscent of Buddhism–suffering is caused by desire; to be free of suffering, one must be free of desire etc.–and that seems to have caught on with more than a few people…
Nate wrote:
It’s possible that had Luke been trained by Obi-Wan from the start, Vader and the Emperor would have sensed the increase use of the force and the growing power of another Skywalker. It would be too risky to have Luke discovered as a child and therefore they had to wait until he was old enough to begin the training.
I think that Luke was left in the open as “bait” so that Vader/Palpatine weren’t running around the galaxy looking for Padme’s child. Easily found, if so desired, but nothing to lead them on to another jedi child.
Leia probably didn’t have as many midi-chlorians.
There ya go.
Posted by Darren J Hudak at May 22, 2005 10:42 AM
Allen Dean Foster, (who wrote the novelazation of the first film)
Ummm — (A) last i heard Lucas was still claiming to have written that book himself (it came out over his sole byline) and (B) at the time the (very strong) rumour was that there had, indeed, been a ghost, but that Foster was not the spook in question. A specific name was named, but, having never had definite confirmation (not even as much as for some other books that Ron Goulart is alleged to have dumbed down his writing for), i’m not repeating it here.
Leia probably didn’t have as many midi-chlorians.
Ugh, don’t even get me started on that…
So, once Vader lost both arms AND both legs, does that mean he has less midi-chlorians than before? That might explain why his final duel with Obi-Wan aboard the Death Star was so dámņ stiff and weak. 🙂
Back to Leia sensing Luke’s plea in “Empire”, one can argue that at the time, Leia didn’t demonstrate any Force powers at all. Luke used the Force to send his thoughts to Leia, and thus she heard him. A variation of Obi-Wans’ Jedi Mind Trick. Now in hindsight, we know that Leia had Force powers of her own. It’s still a retcon.
I noticed some Christian Nutballs getting upset on radio about Yoda’s “Do not be attached” speech. Really though he never says don’t love or deny your humanity. What he’s telling Anakin is specific to Anakin’s problem. Anakin thinks he’s going to lose Padme and Yoda is telling him that even if he does, it will be ok. Yoda is pointing out basically what .38 Special said years ago “When you cling too tightly you’re gonna lose control” 😉
Also some are upset about the whole communing with the dead thing but that’s just sillyness.
Oh and I like the idea that Yoda could’ve been talking about Anakin when he said “There is another”. Hindsight, it’s gotta be Leia but still….Everyone says Leia knows her mom thru the force or that she’s referring to Organa but isn’t it possible she’s seen pictures? That got me to thinking….noone has pictures in this whole stinkin’ universe! lol Even the Stormtroopers looking for the droids on Tatooine don’t have their pictures! LOL
Michael J Norton
On a note about stuff “matching up” between the trilogies, I have to say one that really works for me after seeing Episode III is the Hayden Christensen ghost at the end of the “Jedi” DVD.
Wha..huh? Hey! Stop throwing stuff at me! No, really. I like it. Yes, it was inserted later so its not really. Yes, it doesn’t make a lick of sense that Luke is smilling away, or why Anakin appears as a young man (even if you do buy into the “Anakin died on Mustafar” argument), or why he gets to mack it up in the afterlife as a 20something ghost while Obi-Wan and Yoda get to be old farts, or anything.
But – emotionally, I think it works well. Because, viewing all 6 as one big movie, the last time you saw Anakin (ie. Hayden Christesen) he was a pretty pathetic display. (I don’t mean “NOOOOO!!”, I mean him being destoryed & chopped up). Seeing him “alive” and well and smilling at the end of “Jedi” gives it the mega-happy feeling that counteracts the total downer of what happens to him in Episode 3.
Yah, kind of off topic, so I apologize. But, it does match up well. I think.
“Ah, but you all forget that Anakin made an appearance on Hoth with Obi-wan in one of the first drafts of Empire, and at the time Lucas credited screenwriter Leigh Brackett entirely with coming up with the idea of Vader being Luke’s daddy.”
Does anyone have any source about this? I’ve never heard anyone but Lucas’ himself being credited with the idea.