TheBoost said:
If Anakin is one of many Darth Vader's, isn't this a plot point that should be explianed at some point? And isn't his accepting this identity, as well as the history of this identity, the sort of thing that the OT should have dealt with? Perhaps Palpy could have offered for Luke to become the new Vader?
In a way he was though, right? He says "Now,fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!" instead of "Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place as the new Darth Vader at my side!" but would you really have him say that even if you could? Supposedly, if you take Lucas's PT into account, you do expect that Luke might become a new Darth Somebody in the scene, but they don't address this directly in the scene either.
And it would sort of be a secret that there had been other Vaders too. So it probably wouldn't come up.
This is a dramatic and total reinterpretation of the character. Darth Vader isn't one dude... he's like the Phantom. Anakin didn't become Vader, he took someone elses mantel. If the goal of the NPT is to write a series more in line with the OT, I think that would be a step in the wrong direction. In this case, I think the reaction to "I am your father" would not be shock, but confusion.
I gave this some thought over the weekend. I don't think it has to be confusing, depending on how it is handled, but I hear you. I can't point to any one thing that you said, but I think you are convincing me to steer clear of the many Vaders idea. How about Mini-Vaders? Now THAT'S an IDEA!
On the otherhand, the lie starting immediately has a lot of potential. Obi-Wan, who has to know Vader's actual identity, lying to the people around him immediatly (specifically NotPadme) to spare their feelings is an interesting note to his character, withoutreworking our understanding of him in the OT.
As long as he knows that Anakin had turned bad and that he's trying to protect his memory, why would Obi-Wan have to know Vader's actual identity?
And that photo is badass. What is it from?
The McQuarrie Vader costume? I don't know the history, but it comes up every time I search for McQuarrie Vader on google images. I dig it.
Also, if there are so many fallen Jedi around, how come they seem to have so little bearing on the OT? And if Obi's apprentices keep going bad, why doesn't he stop training people!?!?
I would have to make another long winded post about Jedi, which I intend on doing soon. But in short: I think the Jedi would have almost as many turn bad as stay good. Isn't that sort of the way these things go? Power corrupts and I think the Jedi Order would do its best to train people to use the power responsibly... but c'mon. And since the Jedi Light or Dark would all be dead or in serious hiding due to the purge (a non-screen based fact I assume we're keeping in the canon) at the time of the OT, I don't see why there can't be lots of Dark Jedi in the NPT. As far as Obi-Wan not training anyone else, it seems that he exiles himself after this point in time, and maybe this is part of the reason why. It also might make the viewer more nervous about Luke if it's that likely to turn to the dark side... But I wouldn't think Ben's error rate would be ridiculously higher than the rest of the Jedi trainers.
My proposal is that when Anakin goes bad (still Anakin), he leads a contigent of red-sabered former-Jedi as the bodyguards of Emperor/President Palpatine. Yong bold Jedi have always looked up to him because he's badass, and his defection to Palpatine's party leads to a mass exodus from the Jedi Knights. It's not a club of evil like the Sith, but a political schism in the Jedi.
It is this group (The Legion of Lettow) that help wipe out the Jedi. But at some point Anakin/Vader or Palpatine realize that a group of superpowered asskickers with no moral code is not a good thing to have in a new government, and assassinates them all via a bomb in their shuttle. (Inspired by the Nazi's Night of Long Knives).
This schism lets us have large scale lightsaber battles, whille not having to create some kind of 'Evil' club or having apprentices go bad left and right.
I think this could work. It doesn't really fit with a lot of the other pieces I have up in the air... but other than that I have no real problem with it.