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Lemonstein said:
I agree. But given that Vader's reveal at the end of Empire, and the conversation that he and Luke have in Jedi, it would be rather difficult to write the prequels without it spoiling the reveal. You would still have to establish Anakin as a character, in order for the reveal to mean anything. It might have worked had it been written that way, but personally I agree with what Lucas did, which was write it for an audience that already knew what happens later. It wouldn't have made sense to do it any other way.
A few decades down the line if people come to them totally new, it might have worked better had they been written how you suggest, but you can't write things in that way. You have to write for the people who are going to see it on release. And we all knew who Anakin Skywalker was.
Dude, when we watched the OT it meant something because this was Luke's father, not because it was Anakin Skywalker. It was because we gave a damn about Luke and we were surprised about who his father was as well as Luke.
And when Yoda tells Luke the truth in RotJ it's because we're concerned LUKE will follow the same path as his father, not because we care about Anakin.
Keeping the reveal a secret is a brilliant idea and can be done.
edit: Just make Darth Maul Darth Vader from the get go and be done with it. Keep him through all three prequels. Then have it established that a sith student takes the name of his teacher/rival when he kills him and takes over. To the victor go the spoils or something like that. So Anakin does really become Darth Vader.
It also drives home the idea that individuals lose themselves when they turn to the dark side. They become slaves literally in how they function and figuratively in the idea their real name is gone.
It would also add weight to Luke's line in RotJ: I know that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father.
And why Vader snaps back that that name no longer has any meaning for him. They lose themselves to the dark side all the way.
It's who he becomes after that matters to the OT. And it still makes the PT interesting enough on its own. It also gives some depth to the Sith and how they do stuff(which we barely got in RotS).
edit2:
So here's what you do:
You make the name Darth a title and Vader the name of an ancient sith lord. Like Darth would be like Duke, Lord, President, etc.
But Vader. Everyone was wanting to know where the name Vader came from. But Lucas just had Palppy pull it out of thin air in RotS with no explanation.
Well it's simple: Darth Vader is the name of the sith lord formerly known as Darth Maul.
You just make that guy Vader. Then people would see him come back as Grievous in RotS. So that by the time we get to Vader people would think "Damn Palppy's saving Vader again", not knowing it was Anakin. This would be the folks watching it 1-6 for the first time.
But even for those who have seen the films and know the secrets, they still get the full effect.
Listen man, anything is better than that "I shouldn't have done that!" What have I done?!" crap Lucas gave us from Whinykin in RotS.
