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The Darth Vader/Anakin reveal

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I've been considering my own Prequel rewrite ideas for a while now (inspired by various ideas from this site as well as others), and one of the big areas of debate seems to be that if the reveal in ESB is to be kept secret, how can Anakin's fall also be shown in a prequel film. 

My way of tackling this was going to be have Obi Wan and Anakin meet in Episode 1 (or shortly before it) where they become good friends.  Obi Wan begins teaching Anakin towards the end of this film.  Then by the start of Episode 2 Anakin is already showing much promise as a Jedi, however, he does seem to be less true and noble than Obi Wan, and it seems that Obi Wan has to keep him in line so as not to stray to the Dark Side.  Then as the movie goes on Anakin is away from Obi Wan, and when the two are next reunited Anakin does seem to have developed some bad ideas and have slipped a little, but Obi Wan manages to convince Anakin to do the right thing and go help fight the new bad guy (Darth Vader).  The bad guy wears a Vader style outfit (Vader-lite if you will), but no helmet.  This style of costume however, is worn by many of the Jedi as their battle armour, and Anakin's and even Obi Wan's clothing is not massively different. 

Then the audience would only see clips of the fight (because Obi Wan would be off fighting someone elsewhere and it would be cutting between the two scenes).  We would see the two prepare for battle, perhaps casting their cloaks to the floor, Anakin wound Vader's face, Vader seeming to get the upper hand, both dropping their lightsabers during the struggle, and then Obi Wan appraoching so only from a distance we see the characters fighting near an edge, neither still holding a Lightsaber, and one falling to their death (in a way in which the body cannot be found, lava perhaps).  Obi Wan shouts 'No!', then before he can arrive we see the surviving character pick up a cloak from a dead soldier nearby, wipe his face and we see the blood on his arm, so he wraps the cloak around his face, then a helmet from a nearby guard he killed earlier is lying there.  He picks it up and puts it on, then he picks up the two lightsabers, throws Anakin's asside and leaves.  Obi Wan then arrives to find Anakin's lightsaber, and is clearly upset.  He gives the news to the others that Anakin has been killed by Darth Vader. 

As long as there was a scene or two before this where we see this Vader character killing other jedi, and those scenes were only shown in brief clips, it could be done because the audience doesn't know the name of this character and that would seem like it is his identity being kept secret, Anakin could be shown elsewhere during these murders so that he isn't a suspect. 

Then to solve the Obi Wan/Anakin fight, it would be that Obi Wan fights the new Vader (who is actually Anakin), where he could seem to be angry with him, and we assume it is because he killed Anakin, whereas really it is because it is Anakin, just like we assumed when he saw someone fall off the cliff and die Obi Wan shouted NO because it was Anakin, when really he just didn't want Anakin to kill someone (this interpretation would vary depending on how early you wanted Obi Wan to know Vader was Anakin).  Then when they fight Obi Wan 'defeats' Vader and leaves.  Then Vader is repaired and the rest is still in tact.  After this point I don't think there would be many people left for Obi Wan to have to inform about the true identity of Vader, and the lie he tells Luke could be the one he had originally told people after he initially thought Anakin was dead.

I think we are possibly overthinking this because the whole idea is to make it so first time viewers are shocked by the fact Vader is Luke's father.  I think this way it would be quite shocking, the only reason we don't think it is shocking enough is because we already know the outcome. 

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from this site as well as others

Ooo, do tell.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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I try to take inspiration from lots of sources, particularly ones that aren't particularly Star Wars related (as I think it helps generate wider ideas).  For example I enjoy looking on sites like Deviant Art as there are hundreds of brilliant drawings and paintings and suchlike.  Also more relevant to this topic I have considered other films and stories with big twists.  I would say a couple of brilliant examples are the Prestige and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where once you have seen the film for the first time and you become aware of the twist, when you watch it again you notice all the little clues and things that were included to make it consistent with the twist, but during the first viewing you thought nothing of it.

That is exactly how I think the Anakin Vader reveal should work. 

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 (Edited)

I started a thread here for inspirational art work around the net.  If you can post some stuff, you should.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Prequel-Rewrite-Concept-Art/topic/11513/

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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I think this is a relatively important thread for this forum and no one really ever engaged with Johannus.

My take on the unreveal is this, and if you're paying attention it will more-or-less look like the one that I have posted here in other threads.

Anakin is very Lancelot-ish.  It's not that he appears to be a little shady or a little less dedicated than Obi-Wan... he's almost too dedicated.  He's the shining star and the unfallible one.  He's the greatest among them... Until he falls to the Dark Side.

But this post is more about the reveal. 

Again, I've said most of this before... but here it is again.  There is another Vader.  As Johannus said, not Vader exactly as we know him, but a close prototype.  Anakin fights him (for reasons I won't go into here, but they're not that good- it's clear that Dark Anakin wants to kill him), damages him, but Obi-Wan stops him from killing him.  They argue, Anakin's view being distorted by his turn to the Dark Side.  This is when Obi-Wan realizes the depths to which he's fallen.  He tries to talk Anakin down.  The argument leads to a fight.  This fight then leads to a duel to the death.  The fight brings Obi-Wan to the brink and he taps into the Dark Side which gives him a slight upper hand (the theoretical high ground) and he delivers a fatal blow to Anakin- knocking him off a catwalk above a molten pit.  Obi-Wan realizes what he's done- what he's momentarily become- and reaches for his friend.  (Or does he?)  Perhaps Obi-Wan says that together they can bring him back from the Dark Side.  Perhaps Anakin realizes that he will never be free from it.  Perhaps he let's go.  Instead maybe Anakin doesn't trust Obi-Wan as he comes toward him.  Maybe also, Obi-Wan, crushed with grief, decides to put his friend out of his misery and cut the railing supporting him.  Maybe he simply does nothing.  I'm not sure yet.

But the important bits- Darth Vader gets away.  Anakin dies.  Obi-Wan is responsible for his death.  Obi-Wan, returns to his friends- to Mrs. Skywalker.  To preserve the memory of his friend (and just maybe to ignore his own guilt in the matter) he begins the lie- Darth Vader murdered the Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker.  Anakin's lightsabre is placed somewhere for heroes.

The tragedy is complete.  The end.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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xhonzi said:

The tragedy is complete.  The end.

Something feels missing between these two sentences...

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TV's Frink said:

xhonzi said:

The tragedy is complete.  The end.

Something feels missing between these two sentences...

Something about the Death Star IV?

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The idea that a Vader style suit is worn by many jedi is intriguing to me. Vader's 'sad devotion to that ancient religion' and his status as 'the last of their kind' could be quite literal in that he is the only one still wearing the jedi costume. Also provides some cover for the idea that "Vader" killed Anakin, since Vader could have been any bad jedi.

I'm not sold on there being another Darth Vader. I think I'd need to see how it works within a story.

Here are my ideas which I've expressed to some extent in this forum (the following is mostly copypasted from another forum, where I recognize at least one member from here):

Let Anakin go off to the volcano planet to meet Palpatine, leaving his saber behind with Obi Wan to give to his still unborn child. It will be reminiscent of Luke going into the cave on Dagobah, except Anakin leaves his weapon of his own motivation. For the audience it may be ambiguous whether Anakin is joining the dark side or nobly sacrificing himself. We show Anakin confront Palpatine. Then the scene cuts to Obi Wan who, after some hesitation, goes to save his friend. I am leaning toward not showing a duel between Obi Wan and Anakin.

Later on Vader duels Obi Wan. Obi Wan double talks about Vader killing Anakin. In this way, Obi Wan's later explanation to Luke is seen as less of a jerky plot gimmick and more of 'this is seriously how Obi Wan sees the world.' Vader retorts that it was Obi Wan who killed Anakin (double meaning of 'drove him to the dark side' and 'literally sliced him up').

If many jedi wear Vader style clothing, it can be even more believable that Vader is someone other than Anakin.

As for this epic duel, here is something I wonder:

I think we all have it burned into our minds that Anakin gets the Vader suit following a duel with Obi Wan. Even those of us who have little regard for the EU. I can't remember if it's from the novelization? But I guess that is how it should be. What do you think?

The blue elephant in the room.