WheresBlackhawk said:

Greetings.

Just to chime in on the Tatooine thing...

I was never a fan of Tatooine being in the PT. It all depends on what lines in Star Wars you want to give your attention to.

You are focusing on Ben's line about Anakin "should have stayed here," and taking it literally. What if it's figurative or he was actually quoting Owen? "Here" meaning WITH his family not necessarily a defined place. Otherwise, think of Ben's line in ROTJ: "To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born." With your father's name? On his home planet? To paraphrase Comicboook Guy from the Simpsons: WORST HIDING PLACE EVER!

And with his real Uncle? Yeah, I have to say that's a bad idea. I'm actually very comfortable with no back story for Owen Lars. Pretty much evertything else he's told Luke about his father is so much cabbage that I don't think any of his other lines should be taken as truth. He was hiding Luke. He was trying to convince Luke to stay in hiding.

The idea that Owen had a relationship with Anakin rings false to me. I think he probably had a relationship with Obi-Wan. Owen is probably projecting his feelings about Obi-Wan onto Anakin. He should have stayed here. Crazy ideas of destiny, etc... And when Obi-Wan says his bit about damn fool idealistic crusade, again, I think he's projecting his own leaving home- however that affected Owen.

Getting rid of Tatooine gives you two opportunities:

1. To not retread old ground. According to Luke, If there is a bright center to the galaxy, Tatooine is the planet that is the farthest from it, yet it is in FIVE of the six movies.

2. To create more variety of environments. I always like that the OT had such a great variety of settings: ANH- dessert and high-tech station. ESB- snow, jungle and cloud city. ROTJ- dessert and lush forest. What new setting can be introduced in NPT?

Its a great big galaxy. Where else can we tell your story?

And I agree with you here as well. Except that I think Dagobah is more swamp than jungle, and you forgot the jungle in ANH.

Anywho- count me down for no Tatooine in the PT. I don't even see a real need for it even at the end of E3. I think audiences can figure it out just fine.