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Post #1279030

Author
IsanRido
Parent topic
The Original Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1279030/action/topic#1279030
Date created
27-Apr-2019, 6:34 PM

4throck said:

IsanRido said:
Also, not sure if I’d consider this radical, but I’d open Return of the Jedi with the Emperor’s arrival. Seeing Luke’s introduction as a shadowy cloacked figure would be an interesting paralell if we already met Palpatine by that point in the film. And naturally, it would get rid of the uneventful “Permission to land” opening.

You can just use the opening as is and have the Emperor arrive instead of Vader. And for extra cloaked figures you can cut from the Emperor to Luke’s deleted cave scene.

Yeah, that kind of transition is necessary. Jedi is the first film in the franchise to have editing problems, most of which are carried over to subsequent installments. As such, I believe the third act would benefit greatly from reducing the alternance between Endor, the space battle and the throne room scenes. Ideally it would go like this:

  • “Welcome Young Skywalker” and “come boy” as a singular scene. A new shot of the Emperor rotating his chair towards the window is necessary (perhaps re-purposed footage from earlier) to blend both scenes together.
  • Han entering the bunker and the deleted fight ought to be reinstated, followed by their capture.
  • Cut to the Rebel Fleet arriving and having the space battle continue up until Lando says “Come on Han don’t let me down”.
  • Cut to the beginning of the duel (“Your fleet is lost”), and continue up until the bridge collapses.
  • Resume the ground battle as Han and his crew are escorted outside. The sequence ought to continue up until the shield is destroyed. By the way, it doesn’t have to blow up and look it’s taking out much of the forest. A simple electrical current suggesting the machine is de-activated ought to work. Lando and the fleet can the approach DSII as it happens in the film.
  • Resume the duel, Luke has been hiding for quite a while. The scene can go uninterrupted until the Emperor is destroyed. Then everything goes “back to normal”, or as Lando puts it “here goes nothing”.

A more radical idea that has been discussed a lot is not having Leia as Luke’s sister. Which I think could work for a good number of reasons, but there a few things to take into account:

  • Yoda’s death. Since his last words are the reveal, much work has to be done to a) Have him say something else or have him not die at all. There’s the still the problem of him announcing “another one” in Empire. Who on Earth could it be?
  • The conversation with Obi-Wan ought to end with “you must face Vader again”, or simply not take place at all, though it would create a problem since Luke mentions Anakin later.
  • When Luke reunites with the rebels and Leia asks what’s wrong with him, either his predicament has to be a different one, or Leia doesn’t notice anything at all.
  • Luke’s farewell to Leia is extremely problematic if he’s not his sister. Maybe could silently slip away, but this has to be adressed somehow.
  • The biggest “loss” by removing the reveal is that Luke now needs a different reason to go beserk on Vader. At the moment the only thing I can think would be the Dark Lord inducing visions into Luke’s head (with a similar effect to the nightmares in the prequels) of his friends dying or something to that effect.
  • In this conext, Leia’s reveal to Han obviously ought to go, which would also rid the film of Han’s jealousy towards Luke.