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Original Trilogy Novelizations

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This may be a stupid question, but, Does anyone know if the OOT novelizations have remained true over the years, or have they been 'altered' as well?
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As far as I know, nothing has changed. I have the 1997 "special edition" paper backs, along with the original 1976, 1980, and 1983 paper back printings of the OOT books. The copyright information was the same in both versions and I haven't come across anything different in either readings. I would assume the same thing for the reprint that is out in paper back right now in book stores.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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They havent been altered by Lucas Books has now put out a new series of OT novelisations aimed at younger readers that account for the prequels. So they've been replaced with sort of Prequel-laced SE's (surprise surprise). I think the original editions are still in print though.
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Thanks for the info. I have read them a long time ago.... and was planing to re-read them come summer, and I didn't want any surprises.
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Nothing's changed in all that time, not even the absence of Alan Dean Foster's name on the cover...
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the OT novelisations suck, i couldnt beleive how badly they were written.
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How could you say that? I thought they were awsome!


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Never thought of that before! Nice that they didn't mess them up too.

I enjoyed them a lot. ANH had a bit more info than was in the movies, which was nice. ESB was closest to the movie, I'd say. ROTJ had quite a bit more in it that we didn't see in the movie. I really liked the extra dialogue between Vader, Luke and the Emperor, especially pertaining to Yoda.

I also enjoyed "Splinter of the Mind's Eye." Not great, but definitely good. Some nice foreshadowing in it with the limbs being lopped off, and it was interesting to see the relationship between Luke and Leia, considering certain things hadn't been answered yet.

P.S. I love that Zangief baby attack!

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I liked how more violent the Hoth battle was in the book. Much more grusome. Mention of Rebel bodies in the snow, people getting blown up all over the place. I need to go back and re read them for fun.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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Did Greedo shoot first in the novel? This may clear things up, after all, George wrote it.
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Here's how that scene finishes in the book:

"I don't think they'd like another killing in here," Solo pointed out.
Something which might have been a laugh came from the creature's translator. "They'd hardly notice. Get up, Solo. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. You've embarrassed me in front of Jabba with your pious excuses for the last time."
"I think you're right."
Light and noise filled the little corner of the cantina, and when it had faded, all that remained of the unctuous alien was a smoking, slimy spot on the stone floor.
Solo brought his hand and the smoking weapon it held out from beneath the table, drawing bemused stares from several of the cantina's patrons and clucking sounds from its more knowledgeable ones. They had known the creature had committed its fatal mistake in allowing Solo the chance to get his hands under cover.
"It'll take a lot more than the likes of you to finish me off. Jabba the Hut always did skimp when it came to hiring his hands."
Leaving the booth, Solo flipped the bartender a handful of coins as he and Chewbacca moved off. "Sorry for the mess. I always was a rotten host."

So there you go. Han, and only Han, fired. That's what I'd like to think, anyway.

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According to my tattered first edition, sixteenth printing dated November 1977:
Solo sat down slowly. Jabba's minions were apt to be cursed with nervous trigger fingers. The alien took the seat across from him, the muzzle of the ugly little pistol never straying from Solo's Chest.

"I haven't got it here with me. Tell Jabba --"

"It's too late, I think. Jabba would rather have your ship."

"Over My Dead Body," Solo said unamiably.

The alien was not impressed. "If you insist. Will you come outside with me, or must I finish it here?"

"I don't think they'd like another killing in here." Solo pointed out.

Soemthing which might have been a laugh came from the creature's translator. "They'd hardly notice. Get up, Solo. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. You've embarrassed me in front of Jabba with your pious excuses for the last time."

"I think you're right."

Light and noise fille dhte little corner of the cantina, and when it had faded, all that remained of the unctuous alien was a smoking, slimy spot on the stone floor.

Solo brought his hand and the smoking weapon it held out from beneath the table, drawing bemused stares from several of the cantina's patrons and clucking sounds from its more knowledgeable ones. They had known the creature had committed its fatal mistake in allowing Solo the chance to get his hands under cover.

"It'll take a lot more than the likes of you to finish me off. Jabba the Hut [sic] always did skimp when it came to hiring his hands."

Leaving the booth, Solo flipped the bartender a handful of coins as he and Chewbacca moved off. "Sorry for the mess. I always was a rotten host."


Draw your own conclusions.

Edit: Jabba the "Hut"'s scene is in this book, as is the Biggs material.
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There is a lot of materal from the book (and the Radio drama) that was never really apart of the film; even though it was part of the over all story.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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I loved the setup to the story with Leia and Bail Organa getting into the Rebel Alliance that was in the Radio Drama. I loved how the threat of tyrrany ultimately drove peaceful people to violence. That chapter, while not greatly scripted, was nonetheless a very powerful story.
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Originally posted by: 20th Century Mark
Did Greedo shoot first in the novel? This may clear things up, after all, George wrote it.
George didn't actually write it, Alan Dean Foster did. And it can't really be taken as gospel - it's very 'earthy': lots of talk of ducks and other non-star-warsy stuff.

I also seem to remember that according to the ROTJ novelization, Owen is Obi-Wan's brother, and the Ewoks are a bit less gay.

War does not make one great.

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The duck is in the Star Wars databank ( http://www.starwars.com/databank/creature/duck/ ). The same databank entry also says that it was mentioned by Captain Panaka in TPM. The duck is canon.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
Originally posted by: 20th Century Mark
Did Greedo shoot first in the novel? This may clear things up, after all, George wrote it.
George didn't actually write it, Alan Dean Foster did. And it can't really be taken as gospel - it's very 'earthy': lots of talk of ducks and other non-star-warsy stuff.

I also seem to remember that according to the ROTJ novelization, Owen is Obi-Wan's brother, and the Ewoks are a bit less gay.


Who is Alan Dean Foster? All the copies I have seen say, "Star Wars From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, A Novel by George Lucas"

Never mind. He was the ghost writter. Just found that.

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Heh, I'd forgotten the duck entry in starwars.com. Have you read the behinds the scenes tag? It mentions Howard the Duck!

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Originally posted by: Scruffy
The duck is in the Star Wars databank ( http://www.starwars.com/databank/creature/duck/ ). The same databank entry also says that it was mentioned by Captain Panaka in TPM. The duck is canon.
Yeah, I know the duck's on Databank, but I don't really care for canon or any of that retcon crap. In my mind it's a mistake by the script writers of TPM and Alan Dean Foster (although I don't blame Foster because he was writing in like 1975 or 1976 and had no idea really). Making the duck canon is a kinda cool in-joke, but nothing more. Believe what you want though - if you think there are ducks in the star wars galaxy, cool. There's a 50s diner, so why not a duck?

War does not make one great.

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It's when they take elements of the old movies, usually mistakes or inconsistencies, and try to weave them into canon. For example, they puposely showed Jango Fett bumping his head in AOTC as a way of explaining the stormtrooper who bumps his head in ANH - according to Lucasfilm, Jango's clumsiness was passed on to his clones, which explains the stormtrooper bumping his head in ANH. Totally lame. I think it's short for 'retrospective continuity', as in retrospectively trying to fit something into the continuity even though it wasn't originally part of it, but that's just a guess.

If I'm wrong here, feel free to correct me.

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[quote]Believe what you want though - if you think there are ducks in the star wars galaxy, cool. There's a 50s diner, so why not a duck?[/quote]

There's also homo sapiens and Sequoiadendron giganteum, along with various other grasses, flowering plants, trees, etc. There's no particular reason to believe that anatidae (or a similar family with enough morphological similarity that "duck" adequately translates whatever name they bear in Galactic Basic) don't exist anywhere in the known Star Wars galaxy. I'd certainly expect them to have evolved on at least one of the thousand-thousand worlds that make up the Empire, along with one of everything else that we know here on Earth. (Except the platypus. That bizarre thing doesn't even belong in sci-fi.)

It could be worse. Lucas/Foster could've gone the Hubbard route and called them "water-swimming birds" or "oil-feather birds."
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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Thanks for the nice explanation of retcon, YIYF (can I call you that?). That Jango thing really is nonsense, isn't it? It's like, there can't be anything but perfect stormtroopers, but for one to actually bump his head must mean he has a birth defect! Heh. That might also explain how their marksmanship is described as "precise" in one scene, and then in the next, they can't hit anything.

One retcon thing I did like, however, was on the show Deep Space Nine, where the crew went back in time to the first Enterprise. It was during the time of "The Trouble With Tribbles." There's a scene where Worf, Miles and Julian are in a bar and they see those old human-looking Klingons. Miles and Julian give Worf a look like "those are Klingons? What happened?!" Worf's explanation was a simple line about not talking about that with outsiders. Simple, mysterious, and perfect! Kinda like how there was little known about Boba Fett. Then they managed to mess him up, too, just as they did with explaining the whole Klingon thing a few years later on Enterprise.

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Originally posted by: Scruffy
[quote]Believe what you want though - if you think there are ducks in the star wars galaxy, cool. There's a 50s diner, so why not a duck?[/quote]

There's also homo sapiens and Sequoiadendron giganteum, along with various other grasses, flowering plants, trees, etc. There's no particular reason to believe that anatidae (or a similar family with enough morphological similarity that "duck" adequately translates whatever name they bear in Galactic Basic) don't exist anywhere in the known Star Wars galaxy. I'd certainly expect them to have evolved on at least one of the thousand-thousand worlds that make up the Empire, along with one of everything else that we know here on Earth.

^For F**k Sake!

Originally posted by: Ripplin
YIYF (can I call you that?).
Sure can.


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Originally posted by: Ripplin
One retcon thing I did like, however, was on the show Deep Space Nine, where the crew went back in time to the first Enterprise. It was during the time of "The Trouble With Tribbles." There's a scene where Worf, Miles and Julian are in a bar and they see those old human-looking Klingons. Miles and Julian give Worf a look like "those are Klingons? What happened?!" Worf's explanation was a simple line about not talking about that with outsiders.
I never saw that, but that is kinda cool. That kind of retcon I think is ok - acknowledging a continuity flaw in a jokey way but still not really explaining it. But like you said, they went and tried to properly expalin it in Enterprise and it all went pear-shaped.

EDIT: sorry 'bout the double post - I meant to just add to my last one but messed up.

War does not make one great.