Originally posted by: vote_for_palpatine

Originally posted by: Jumpman
Well, a version of the midichlorians was at one point in either an early draft of Star Wars or in his early notes about Star Wars. It's not something he came up with in the mid-90's. He's had the idea for it or a version of it in his notes since the beginning.

Obviously, his instinct not to include them in Star Wars was correct. The Force was much cooler when it couldn't be quantified. In Star Wars, command of the Force was apparently attainable to those willing to walk the path...in The Phantom Menace, command of the Force comes from winning the genetic lottery.

Indeed. Fans of the PT often point to PT concepts or characters that existed in some antique draft or notes developed decades ago. This gives the impression that the PT is made up of refuse, bits and pieces that were rejected when creating the Star Wars Trilogy.

I would like to offer a comparison to J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien spent fifty-six years of his life writing the Silmarillion, but it was never published while he was alive. He did include bits and pieces of it in the second edition (special edition, if you will) of the Hobbit and every edition of the Lord of the Rings. When the Silmarillion was finally published by his son, it fit very well into the universe established by the earlier books.

Elements of the PT are so jarring to many fans because they were not foreshadowed or hinted at by the OT, or the SE. There is not hint of Qui-Gon Jinn, "younglings," midiclorians, dead Padme, Fett clones, etc., even where one would expect them. There exists a very clear conceptual break between the OT and the PT, regardless of how many OT notes, drafts, etc. include characters or ideas later used in the PT.