Originally posted by: Commander Courage

-This thread is again a testament to the superiority of ESB.

Ha!

Well, I'm a "Star Wars '77" fan meself.

But as far as the saga goes -- ESB is the keystone.

Before ESB, it was the Adventures of Luke Skywalker-- but once Vader became Anakin, the rest of the Saga crystalized into what we have now... or what we are trying to polish in this thread. So it's little wonder that ESB needs the least work -- it's the culprit who caused all the rest of the damage to the nearly perfect story that stood alone before it. ;-) And it's a beautiful, awesome movie.

I have a side pet project, though, that is not something I expect to see a lot of support for. But it would finally set this saga right for the 7 year old inside me who loved Star Wars just the way it was. I call it:

The "Star Wars Part II" edit.

This would be a sequel to "Star Wars '77." It violates nothing as originally conceived -- Vader is not Luke's father, but a henchman in the Empire. He is close with the Emperor, but he does not hold rank above local governors like Tarkin. Darth Vader killed Luke's father, a Jedi Knight who was the best star pilot in the Galaxy and a good friend. Vader was once a pupil of Obi Wan's before he turned to evil. The Millenium Falcon is a piece of junk with modifications, not "the fastest ship in the fleet." We don't get sidetracked by Jabba. We don't get sidetracked by Bespin. We just tell another adventure.

The structure is remeniscent of "The Godfather Part II." It tells two stories at once -- a story set in the past shows the origin of Vader and his role in the rise of the Empire/death of Anakin Skywalker -- and this is intercut with a second story about Luke's training and the Rebel's fight against a second Death Star.

Basically, the Luke story is the first half of ESB blended into the second half of ROTJ. Think of the Luke stuff as the "Michael Corleone" story and the past story as the "Young Vito/Robert DeNiro" story.

With The Demon Hunter's "Migraine Maker" scene, we'll see Vader kill Anakin. The final shots of ROTS allow us to see Vader watching the construction of Death Star II from the deck of the same ship where he learns the Rebels and Skywalker are hiding on Hoth.

The Rebels escape from Hoth, Luke goes to Degobah and Han takes Leia on the run. But when they charge the bridge of the Star Destroyer in the asteroid field, Han ACTUALLY make the jump to lightspeed and escapes to join the Rebel convoy.

Luke finishes his training, receives his orders from Yoda to "face Vader-r" and he runs off to join the convoy too.

A shortened battle of Endor plays out as Luke surrenders to Vader, to protect his friends. He is taken to the Emperor who temps him toward the dark side. Vader said the "son of Skywalker will join us or die" and the Emperor thinks he can make it happen. Finally, Luke cracks -- gives into his emotions and attacks -- he and Vader really go at it. He defeats Vader, but refuses to kill him-- refusing the Dark Side to finally become a Jedi "like my father before me."

THe Emperor says "Very well," and starts blasting away with the lightening. Vader watches, wounded and glad to see Skywalker dying. This would kill Luke -- But the Excelsior crashes into Death Star II, causing a powerful blast, erupting up the shaft of the Emperor's chamber -- a blast that nearly collapses the tower and topples the Emperor into the shaft. Vader nearly goes too, but he escapes as does Luke -- running for an escape. Lando gets into the heart of the battle station and blasts the core -- speeding out to save his life...

That's when Luke, heading toward his escape in the Shuttle, gets tackled by the wounded, but able Darth Vader. Luke grapples with this giant on the ramp of the shuttle. Luke has to kill him to get into the shuttle.

Barely making it out as the Death Star II explodes, Luke returns to Endor and sees the ghostly images of Obi Wan, Yoda, and the Young SE Anakin (finally a welcome addition).

The "Flashbacks" bookend many sequences. The movie opens with the "birth of Vader" sequence as Sidious finds the melted young Jedi and turns him into Lord Vader. From that we wipe to the Star Destroyer that sends out the probe droids...

Then, when Luke discovers Yoda is really a Jedi Master -- we get the flashback of Obi Wan and Anakin getting into it with Dukoo during the Clone Wars. A little set up will establish that they know Chancellor Palpatine.

Then, after Han and Leia escape the Imperials -- we get a flashback of Sidious enacting "order 66" as Obi Wan and Anakin try to rescue the Chancellor from Dukoo. They run into Vader and Vader kills Anakin (all per "the migmaker") and then we reveal that Palpatine is Sidious as Obi Wan escapes.

From this point of view, there might be just enough material in all these extra movies to make one really honest to goodness sequel. "Star Wars Part II" Baby!

But that's just me. That outlines my ultimate blasphemy to the Saga. Let's never speak of it again (unless you want to;-))

I'm of two minds -- I love the stand alone "Star Wars '77" one way, and "the Star Wars Saga" another. They aren't really the same story, and I always wanted to see more done in the vein of the original. Just straight mythic adventure. No "according to a certain point of view" "there's still good in him, I've felt it" "Leia! Leia's my sister!" stuff.

But this side project aside, this Ranch version of the Saga is the "real" Saga to me.