Very interesting Avimo9! 🤔
I think another possible back up plan was the August 1977 note - before Brackett was hired - that Darth Vader was a “passing manifestation”, a “spell” put upon the father character (by the Emperor? By himself?). Luke and Ben traveling the galaxy to “undo” the spell and bring him back.
Thanks! And yeah I’ve always found that quote interesting too, but it’s pretty hard to figure out what Lucas meant by that given how vague everything is worded; it goes from talking about Ben being the good father to “Father changes into Darth Vader who is a passing manifestation” to Luke traveling to the end of the world and undoing a spell put on his father and restoring happiness. “End of the world” sounds very weird since it’s a galaxy, and saving his father doesn’t sound like it’d immediately restore happiness when the Emperor and Empire are still around, so given the manifestation part my guess is that none of this was intended to be real and that it was some early version of the scene where Luke fights in imaginary Vader in the Dagobah cave. But I can’t say for sure given how weird and ambiguous everything in that quote is