Recently came across an interview with Gary Kurtz. There’s a specific section from that interview that caught my eye, which I thought I’d share.

Gary Kurtz said:

The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn’t him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition. It was Vader saying, “I’m looking again at what I’ve done and where my life has gone and who I’ve served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends.”

Also found this:

Reconstructing Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi

Not a perfect reconstruction — Fett’s expanded role, in particular, is iffy — but it hits many of the right thematic notes for me.

SW '77 is a pretty straightforward “black-vs-white” morality tale. Aside from Han, the heroes were perfectly virtuous, the villains umambiguously & unrepentantly evil. But with TESB, a potential game changer was introduced to the mythos with the revelation that Vader was Luke’s father. No longer was he just the ex-student who turned out the bad egg; he was the “good friend” Obi-Wan had waxed wistful for. And while an argument can be made that Vader’s interest in his son began and ended with Luke’s usefulness as a pawn, I got the sense by movie’s end that Vader felt a strong yearning to be a father to his newfound child. So where once was only clear-cut black & white now existed an element of gray. The ideal ROTJ would’ve taken that gray element and expanded upon it, cemented it as an intrinsic attribute of the SW Universe. I find that ideal ROTJ in the links above.