Originally posted by: Anchorhead
He was. It's been confirmed several times over. He didn't have a story beyond Star Wars. Vader-as-father, Leia-as-sister - none of that was there in his "original vision" and the weakness of story, by inventing them later, is obvious. As I've said before, he took an outer space adventure that was on a grand scale - and reduced it to The Wizard Of Oz. Their being related feels out of place and added on - because it was.
He didn't even know what to do with it after he added it. It's not only cheap - it serves absolutely no purpose in the story. It's a useless, weak story arc that goes nowhere. It's embarrasing enough that he made up stuff up on the fly - turns out he's not even good at it.
In answer to the question - Star Wars for me consists of a single film. An outer space adventure in a galaxy far away - and none of the characters are related to each other. They weren't when I was a kid - they aren't now. It's not even a consideration when I watch Star Wars. I can't pretend or imagine they are because I know they aren't. I know they weren't when the story was first written and I know it was thought up later.
Revisionist history only works on people who weren't there during the actual history.
Originally posted by: MJR80
... it does seem like Lucas was making things up as he went along... He may have felt a burden to conjure another "plot twist" or "surprise"
... it does seem like Lucas was making things up as he went along... He may have felt a burden to conjure another "plot twist" or "surprise"
He was. It's been confirmed several times over. He didn't have a story beyond Star Wars. Vader-as-father, Leia-as-sister - none of that was there in his "original vision" and the weakness of story, by inventing them later, is obvious. As I've said before, he took an outer space adventure that was on a grand scale - and reduced it to The Wizard Of Oz. Their being related feels out of place and added on - because it was.
He didn't even know what to do with it after he added it. It's not only cheap - it serves absolutely no purpose in the story. It's a useless, weak story arc that goes nowhere. It's embarrasing enough that he made up stuff up on the fly - turns out he's not even good at it.
In answer to the question - Star Wars for me consists of a single film. An outer space adventure in a galaxy far away - and none of the characters are related to each other. They weren't when I was a kid - they aren't now. It's not even a consideration when I watch Star Wars. I can't pretend or imagine they are because I know they aren't. I know they weren't when the story was first written and I know it was thought up later.
Revisionist history only works on people who weren't there during the actual history.
Nah, it works in Return of the Jedi.
1. Leia revealing her connection to luke with han, settles han's feelings about leia's strong feelings for luke.
2. Giving Luke the truth about his sister leads to vader discovering this information during the final duel. Without the emotional thrust of us having known leia throughout two movies, vader's threat of turning her to the dark side wouldn't have held as much weight, I think. So we wouldn't know fully why that thought sends luke into a frenzy. But Leia being a likable, though fiesty little woman, gives us a clearer understanding of luke's feelings.
I think I might be in the minority but I loved it. Yoda's final words before death are "there is another skywalker... cough cough" and luke's left to be wondering "WTF?" And then Obi-wan's ghost clues him in nicely. Which of course leads to the pay-off of the set-up, which is Vader discovering the truth himself by probing luke's mind... it seems to work fine for all dramatic purposes here, really. If it were just a throw away detail that didn't matter at all to the story like anakin building threepio, then I'd understand all the fuss over it.