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Post #1022382

Author
Frogpaws
Parent topic
"Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival." What was the point?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1022382/action/topic#1022382
Date created
21-Dec-2016, 10:26 PM

I just watched the despecialized version of ESB and I am overjoyed to see the Vader “Bring my shuttle” line restored to all of its glory.
I always loved that line and remember being horrified when I saw it had been taken out. To me it’s the worst change in the SE’s for many reasons.

  1. The original line itself encapsulates how upset Vader is over what has just transpired with Luke. He is in no mood for any conversation and he is making it crystal clear that, if his orders aren’t obeyed immediately, bad things are going to start happening to the Imperial personnel around him.

  2. The replacent line is dumb as hell. Not only does it not sound like JEJ, but it sounds almost nonchalant, like nothing had just happened with Luke and it was business as usual.
    Also, why does the Executor need alerting? Wouldn’t the ship already be at high alert waiting for the outcome of the events on Bespin? And what are they going to do to “prepare” for his arrival? Have an honor guard? I don’t think Vader was particularly concerned with protocol at this point.

  3. It horribly screws up the pacing of the whole scene, especially musically. First, when Vader walks to the shuttle, to add music to the extra few seconds of footage, they recycle the que of the Imperial March when Luke reacts to finding out Vader is his father. This was a slower and more dramatic que that was perfect for the revelation scene, but horribly out of place here. The original scene had a faster and more intense que of the march that fit perfectly with the quick pace of the scene.
    Second, and most offensive, is when they cut to the recycled footage of Vader’s arrival from ROTJ. They not only insert it right into the middle of a sequence of TIE’s pursuing the Falcon, but, when Vader disembarks from the shuttle, they play the music that immediately follows Luke losing his hand. WHAT…THE…HELL? Out of all the music in the film, Lucas decided the one from the most shocking moment, which had just happened 5 minutes previously, was the one that best represented Vader walking off his shuttle!!!

  4. Finally is the fact that this change seems to reinforce the belief that George Lucas just seems to think we’re all idiots with no inferring skills. Even as a 7 year old, seeing ESB for the first time, I never had the slightest bit of confusion of how Vader went from being on Bespin to the Executor in the time it took the Falcon to fly back to Cloud City, slow down, stop, rescue Luke, speed up, and take evasive actions from the TIE’s before getting to space and being intercepted by the Executor.
    Yet Lucas seems to have believed, for 17 years, many fans were sitting around while scratching our think monkey craniums and saying “Whoa, whoa, whoa…So Vader asks for his shuttle and the next time we see him, he’s on the Executor? What the hell? We didn’t see him board the shuttle and leave, and we also never saw him arrive on the Executor. Do you expect us to accept this happened off camera while they were rescuing Luke? Come on!”

Most of the changes in the SE, regardless of how much I may hate them, I can at least understand the rationale Lucas used in making them, even if I think they’re pretty dumb reasons. But this was so ridiculously pointless, it eliminated a great line for a horrible one, chopped up the tone and pacing of the scenes and, to boot, it was done in a half assed way using mostly recycled footage, voice recordings and music.
All of which was done for the sake of adding footage that totaled less than 10 seconds and added nothing to the film from a visual or storytelling experience

I actually thought the quick clip of the shuttle flying to the Executor was pretty neat and I think they could have added that in seemlessly. But, unfortunately, there’s no option to just have that nice addition without all the other crap too.

That’s ultimately what I hate most about Lucas’ all or nothing attitude about the SE. We can’t have the nice cosmetic changes that cleaned things up and made it look nicer, unless we accept all the BS too. Well I’ve decided that I don’t want ANY of it then. If that means I have to see a clip of Vader’s uncolored saber in ANH to avoid a scene of Han running into a thousand storm troopers in a totally ridiculous way…so be it.