Well, I’m perfectly aware that Star Wars has not always been Anakin’s Saga since '77, but I actively support the retcon, and I think that the Hexology, as a whole, can be described as Anakin’s Saga, even if Star Wars has not always been so from the beginning.
I mean no disrespect but it only become retconned to be Anakin’s Saga around '99, or maybe '05 when ROTS was released and this new Saga was completed.
I was only mentioning it as some fans online claim “it was always Anakin’s Saga” elsewhere online which is both annoying and untrue.To be fair I think it could be said it goes back even further than that in a way. George told Jim Bloom of ILM during stages of post production of Empire, “The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke’s father when Luke is a little boy.”.
Of course we never got to see Luke as a little boy but the story grew and evolved. However the key I think is that he said the first trilogy would focus on Anakin and Obi-Wan. This ended up being true. He talked about this in another quote that the Prequels were meant to give Anakin’s side of the story since the Original Trilogy is more relying information from a certain point of view of those that knew him. The Prequels in a general sense when he puts it that way contextualised and added new meaning to what certain things meant in the Original Trilogy. That was all intentional come time of the Prequels. They were meant to change our views on certain things. Marcia Lucas also said in Jonathan Rinzler’s book for Howard Kazanjian that George was really struggling with writing The Empire Strikes Back and once when Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck visited they joked about what if Darth Vader was Luke’s father. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility George was already thinking it either with some of the early concepts for A New Hope. However it is interesting to see how the story grew and evolved. I understand why some wouldn’t like the directions the story took but it took the natural progression I think George wanted it to for better or worse depending on who you ask. It is his story after all up until Disney came into the picture and decided to not use his Sequel Trilogy treatments. The context is different from retconing like the cat and mouse game played with Rey’s Parentage.
It’s also curious the original concept for A New Hope had a prophecy called the Son of Suns. So he was toying with idea of a prophecy in the early concepts too.
I think you may have missed the context of the first conversation:
I believe that disposing of The Prophecy/The Chosen One is the best change one can make in a PT fanedit, aside from cutting the toilet humor in TPM. I just don’t like retroactively trying to reframe the OT as also part of “Anakin’s saga.” It’s just my preference and if you like the reframing that’s fine with me.
I agree with this, a hundred times.
The Saga was never about Anakin as there was never a Saga to start with. Just 1 film, then 3 films. But only half way through the second film Vader is Luke’s dad, to be made a stronger character after George previously said he was not strong enough to be the main villain. The 3 films we are told are “The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker”.
Then 6 films, with a large number of disconnects introduced between the old 3 films and the new 3 films.
We are then told is now somehow “Anakin’s Saga” instead.
But people growing up during the times of the OT know this is not true. Or even younger people who look through the history. I do not mind people wanting to believe it is “Anakin’s Saga” or want to “reframe” (a good description BedeHistory), but it is annoying when fans rewrite history and tell others online “it was always Anakin’s Saga” as is claimed elsewhere.
It has been retconned to be “Anakin’s Saga” is more accurate, and before the retcon it was “The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker”.
Well, I’m perfectly aware that Star Wars has not always been Anakin’s Saga since '77, but I actively support the retcon, and I think that the Hexology, as a whole, can be described as Anakin’s Saga, even if Star Wars has not always been so from the beginning.
I mean no disrespect but it only become retconned to be Anakin’s Saga around '99, or maybe '05 when ROTS was released and this new Saga was completed.
I was only mentioning it as some fans online claim “it was always Anakin’s Saga” elsewhere online which is both annoying and untrue.To be fair I think it could be said it goes back even further than that in a way. George told Jim Bloom of ILM during stages of post production of Empire, “The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke’s father when Luke is a little boy.”.
Of course we never got to see Luke as a little boy but the story grew and evolved. However the key I think is that he said the first trilogy would focus on Anakin and Obi-Wan. This ended up being true. He talked about this in another quote that the Prequels were meant to give Anakin’s side of the story since the Original Trilogy is more relying information from a certain point of view of those that knew him. The Prequels in a general sense when he puts it that way contextualised and added new meaning to what certain things meant in the Original Trilogy. That was all intentional come time of the Prequels. They were meant to change our views on certain things. Marcia Lucas also said in Jonathan Rinzler’s book for Howard Kazanjian that George was really struggling with writing The Empire Strikes Back and once when Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck visited they joked about what if Darth Vader was Luke’s father. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility George was already thinking it either with some of the early concepts for A New Hope. However it is interesting to see how the story grew and evolved. I understand why some wouldn’t like the directions the story took but it took the natural progression I think George wanted it to for better or worse depending on who you ask. It is his story after all up until Disney came into the picture and decided to not use his Sequel Trilogy treatments. The context is different from retconing like the cat and mouse game played with Rey’s Parentage.
It’s also curious the original concept for A New Hope had a prophecy called the Son of Suns. So he was toying with idea of a prophecy in the early concepts too.
I think you may have missed the context of the first conversation:
I believe that disposing of The Prophecy/The Chosen One is the best change one can make in a PT fanedit, aside from cutting the toilet humor in TPM. I just don’t like retroactively trying to reframe the OT as also part of “Anakin’s saga.” It’s just my preference and if you like the reframing that’s fine with me.
I agree with this, a hundred times.
The Saga was never about Anakin as there was never a Saga to start with. Just 1 film, then 3 films. But only half way through the second film Vader is Luke’s dad, to be made a stronger character after George previously said he was not strong enough to be the main villain. The 3 films we are told are “The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker”.
Then 6 films, with a large number of disconnects introduced between the old 3 films and the new 3 films.
We are then told is now somehow “Anakin’s Saga” instead.
But people growing up during the times of the OT know this is not true. Or even younger people who look through the history. I do not mind people wanting to believe it is “Anakin’s Saga” or want to “reframe” (a good description BedeHistory), but it is annoying when fans rewrite history and tell others online “it was always Anakin’s Saga” as is claimed elsewhere.
It has been retconned to be “Anakin’s Saga” is more accurate, and before the retcon it was “The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker”.
So I did. My apologies for the misunderstanding on my part. I find this to be part of George’s genius. The great thing about A New Hope originally and I’d even say The Phantom Menace for those of us that experienced it first before seeing the Original Trilogy is both leave the door open for so many possibilities and truly allow you to create stories with your imagination as much as it is what is on screen that you can make your own. It’s one of my favourite aspects of how George creates the opening episode of the trilogies. They’re both very important to the whole narrative but they also stand alone the most of all six. Yet they can all stand on their own at the same time. It’s truly a balancing act and hard to follow this rule of structure with how they’re all meant to be seen as a collective whole at the same time according to George.
That is interesting. To leave an imprint on our minds, so we create stories with our imagination so we want more as well as what is onscreen. This is something that occurs regularly in the early Flash Gordon serials and Westerns that George was inspired by. I find George’s genius to be more in the portrayal and reinvention of himself. Someone who is obviously adept at rewriting history. Anchorhead’s post here says this better than I can:
Stardust1138 said:
the only thing I can think of that I dislike about the Original Trilogy is Luke and Leia kissing but in a way there’s a lot of mythology that does the same thing. So while it is weird that they do kiss it’s not completely unheard of within myth and we know it influenced GeorgeThey weren’t related when he wrote the movie. No mythology, no influences, no anything else. It was a farm boy and a princess in the only thing Lucas had written. There was no Original Vision or multi-film Saga
Star Wars was just a single outer space adventure movie. It’s well documented that he wrote the Empire line ”no, there is another” without having any idea where he would go with the story.
He had writer’s block later and ham-fisted his way out of it. It’s weird because it was poorly handled by a bad writer. If Lucas really had anything beyond one film in mind, he wouldn’t have hired two writers to come up with possible sequels to his only script.
It’s truly sad how Lucas has spent decades crafting this revised image of himself as some deep thinker who embarked on a grand 12-film/6-film/9-film/the media made that up/it was always my idea/etc, Saga (genuflect).
The only thing Lucas is truly great at is revising history. Some of us got on this merry-go-round at the beginning. We know the truth because we were there as it was happening.
I find it fascinating George is so persuasive at this rewriting history that many fans will believe any of his retcons and debunked claims, almost without question. Instead of looking at things with a more balanced and subjective view, facts are instead casually twisted or spun but only to show George in a more positive light. So much is about George, and yet so little about the many other fantastic and creative talents that worked and contributed so much on the films.
That is not to forget that Irvin Kershner and the creatives on Empire really took the Empire Strikes Back to a whole other level, completely across the board, a level that unfortunately has not been achieved since in Star Wars.
Creatives who pushed each other and challenged each other to do better, including challenging George himself. Many find it disappointing that the same challenging dynamic didn’t occur for the making of the Prequels, and the result is there for all to see.
But I am also happy others enjoy and love the Prequel films and look to find deeper meaning in them. And anything else Star Wars anyone enjoys.