So I joined this board a while ago. I’ve skimmed this thread (there’s a lot, after all), and intend to continue reading through it in more thorough detail, but I wanted to throw a couple things out regarding ESB and ROTJ, based on everything I’ve absorbed over the years, based on my storytelling instinct, based on continuity… I admit I am feeble in edit-y, Photoshop-y skills, but have spent much of my life honing my sense of what Mark Twain called “good stories, well told”. I’ve spent many years working on my writing, in learning how to recognize what works and what doesn’t, of believing that internal consistency is not a dirty phrase, and that relatable verisimilitude is a perfectly legitimate scaffold to build a fictional universe on (id est, I can at least theoretically explain how everything seen in Star Wars works except tractor beams and artificial gravity, and that’s because we’re still figuring out what the heck gravity even is, let alone how to manipulate it).
I have also spent most of my life absorbing the behind-the-scenes evolution of Star Wars. The scripts, the cut scenes, the indications of intent (regardless of how often George might have changed his mind later on…), the interviews, and so on. So bear that in mind as where I’m coming from here.
First of all is a macro-wish that the entire saga be renumbered. The Prequels definitely need to be rewritten and uncollapsed back out into six films focused on Obi-Wan, with Anakin as a strong supporting character (as George originally intended), Rogue One so perfectly embodies the Saturday-morning-serial model George was emulating that it deserves an opening crawl and episode number (as well as minor rewrites/tweaks)… And then we get to the Original Trilogy – which was also supposed to be six films. Per George’s original notes and his earliest interviews, the saga was to be twelve movies. The first arc was “From the Adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi”, and the second was “From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker”. He decided to start with Luke’s arc for story purposes and – since he figured this was his one shot – he took the big megaweapon from the end of the arc and moved it up to that one episode he thought he’d get to do.
So we already have a problem when we get to ROTJ of him uncreatively keeping the same story element… and just making it bigger. But there’s the larger problem that ROTJ was the final four Luke films compressed into an overbusy lump. Luke’s sister was originally going to be a new character, introduced after ESB. But with the foreshortening of the story, a quick bodge was made to have it be Leia instead – creating problems, but oh well. I like Rogue One as the first Luke episode, incorporating the cut Anchorhead reunion with Biggs. I like the scene and what it adds to the larger story, but it doesn’t fit, timeline-wise. There’s not enough time for Biggs to report to his ship, desert, hook up with the Rebellion, prove his loyalty, and get in a position to be able to vouch for Luke in the time available if it takes place as originally scripted. And with Rogue One as Episode VI, that leaves three films to expand ROTJ back out into.
First one is a rejiggered first act – the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. It ends with them getting back to their ships (sandstorm scene intact) and finding a message from the Alliance that they’ve just discovered the Empire’s building a new superweapon and get back on the double.
Second one is Han actually having a point post-thaw. He works with Alliance Intel and uses his old underworld contacts to try to learn what and where. This is the one where many Bothans die. Ends with the stolen shuttle heading off to infiltrate the shield generator.
Third one is the infiltration, space battle, and Luke’s confrontation with the Emperor. I have a lot more to say about this one, but not now. I can get into more details on all of these if folks are actually interested in my rewrites.
I like a lot of what I’ve read in my skimming of this thread. I like the metal “bones” in Vader’s stump. I like the re-editing suggestions and color tweaks. I like more ominous presence of Palpatine’s guards (guess what my favorite costume is). I am glad to see I’m not the only one disappointed by the ROTS prune-face. I also preferred the explanation that the Emperor looked like that in ESB and ROTJ due to the long-term corrupting influence of the Dark Side. If that was just force lightning backblast, and he otherwise would have looked normal, then what’s the downside of the Dark Side? I saw all the back-and-forth about the eyes. I personally like the Eyes of the Sith, but more as a thing that happens over time as one gives oneself fully to the Dark Side. My suggestion for ROTJ Palpy is to take a cue from the original ESB Emperor – use chimpanzee eyes as a starting point. Wide, dark ring around the iris fading to bloodshot sclera. And make the iris a bit more fluorescent/baleful, rather than the warm gold of unaltered chimp eyes.
I also like the retouched Sebastian Shaw for the Ghost Anakin. I agree – he was back to being Anakin again at the end, so that would be his initial residual self-image. I further have no problem with Anakin and Obi-Wan “de-aging” as Luke continues to converse with them in the post era. While I like the alteration to Anakin having his Prequel robes… I have a problem with the tan-and-brown being Jedi robes at all. Obi-Wan was wearing what everyone else on Tatooine was wearing. Be silly if one was in hiding to keep wearing recognizably Jedi apparel. I much prefer what George was saying to Mark during the costume fitting sessions for ROTJ – that that was a true Jedi outfit (albeit with a longer sleeveless kimono – Mark’s was originally long, but shortened to make his stunt work easier). Since we know Luke was trying to find out as much as he could about the Jedi post-ANH, it makes sense that in presenting himself to Jabba as a Jedi, he’d wear something recognizably Jedi. If they’re a quasi-monastic order, as was heavily implicit, they’d have fairly uniform attire. So my preferred Jedi baseline is black linen placketed shirt and pants, off-black roughspun silk sleeveless kimono or sleeveless duster (like what Vader wears) or both, brown hooded robe (with no sleeves). I’ll point out also that early concept art of a solo Obi-Wan for Phantom Menace showed him dressed like that, too.
With the re-edits and such, I see each as an opportunity to fix things that slipped through the cracks, both subtle and gross. George is a great idea guy and I respect the hell out of him for all that he came up with… but he also needs at least one skilled actual writer to help him wring his ideas into consistent, coherent stories. It’s never too late. 😉
–Jonah