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How did you envision the prequels?

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I certainly pictured them quite differently and figured the OT laid the groundwork for them. This is what I envisioned.


Episode 1:
-Anakin would be at least 15 years old.
-There would be no Qui-Gonn character. Obiwan would fulfill that role as he was supposed to.
-Anakin would be the best star pilot in the galaxy
-There would be some kind of falling out between Owen and Obiwan and they'd actually establish a relationship between Owen and Anakin.
-he starts to get trained in the force

Episode 2:
-Anakin meets Padme
-he is a full fledged Jedi
-The Clone wars are fought
-it ends with Anakin being captured by his enemy


Episode 3:
-The Clone wars continue, Anakin has been a prisoner of war for several months. He was tortured and feels betrayed that his fellow comrades didn't find him right away
-The Emperor sees that Anakin is starting to become disillusioned with the Jedi and uses that to turn him to the dark side
-Padme survives childbirth and agrees with Obiwan to live on Alderaan with Leia and the Organas. She also makes the painful decision to let Luke live on Tatooine (realizing that separating her children would make them safer)


how did everyone else picture the PT?
George Lucas was seduced by the dark side. The OOT ceased to exist in his mind and became the Special Editions...." "They're more maching now than movies. Twisted and evil."
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My perceptions changed quite a bit as information began to trickle in, I recall that the first news / gossip I'd heard was that Ewan McGregor had been cast as Obiwan Kenobi. For some reason I had visions of Mark Renton in the desert wearing a red dressing gown. There was a lot of speculation but I really had no idea what the story would be about back then.



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One of the first peeks I got from the actual filming of Episode 1 was a report about Liam Neeson being filmed in a swamp area, which turned out to be Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escaping the tanks on Naboo. When I've read the report though, I always envisioned that swamp as dark and moody as Dagobah was... probably at night, blueish lighting, a lot of fog. Well, it turned out to be a rather lush green and sunny scene...

Actually I think since Lucas always stated that the prequels were going to be darker than the OT, "Empire" and especially the Dagobah sequences were what I've based my basic expectations for the prequels on in terms of atmosphere. Several dark and very moody paintings by Ralph McQuarrie (especially of Imperial City on Coruscant) supported this... and even now, when looking at McQuarrie's concept art, I wish that was how the prequels looked.
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what do you expect lucas took the greatest space opera of the later 2oth Century and shit all over it to turn a huge profit.

The original trilogy lovingly evoked the classic sci fi and fantasy and space fantasy/space opera it was based and inspired by.

Things like E.E. "doc" smith's lensman saga, dune, lord of the rings, flash gordon via larry buster crabbe and alex raymond and al williamson, John Carter of mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan.

the influences are endless.

if he was really trying to evoke milton's paradise lost he failed miserably. he seems to think he was doing a milton esque film with revenge see star wars in hell 60 minutes.

he seriously has to go back to college and learn how to write,LOL because he sucks.

even the pulp fiction and dime novels of the early twentieth century and the depression era movie serials which are today viewed as rubbish that star wars was based on were written better.


“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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I honestly envisioned the PT to be the story of Episode III spread out over 3 movies, instead of just one. I have my faults with alot of stuff in ROTS, but the movie is entertaining mainly cause it is the PT story, the real red meat of the trilogy.

I wanted to see Anakin/The Emperor relationship develop over 3 movies ON screen, and I wanted to see more scenes of The Emperor pushing Anakin towards the darkside, so eventually when it turns it is believable because you can see the influence The Emperor has on Anakin.

I wanted to see the Birth of the Rebellion, and how it started and how they realized what the Empire was doing to the republic, so you can watch Episode IV and realize who fought hard to give Luke/Leia a chance to win in the OT movies.

I wanted to see ObiWan/Anakin on a mission together as good friends for the whole Episode I movie, and just have that cracks jokes and be friends, to show how much they cared for each other, so when they fight in Episode III, you would feel awful it has come to this. Just think of Luke & Han fighting in ROTJ and how you would feel, that is what Anakin/Obiwan fight should have been like.

I finally wanted to see Anakin as cool superstar jedi, and not in the Han Solo cool, but the 'golden boy' cool that many athletes are like. I wanted him to be a premadonna, as he would be someone who you would want to be cause he was sauve and confident, and his arrogance would eventually be his undoing, not his stupidity as portrayed in Episode III.

Lucas wasted too much time in Episode I & II, as they just seem like exposition to the real story in Episode III, and I honestly think if he really started the PT movies with Anakin & ObiWan flying in this huge space battle in Episode I the same way he started with Episode III, and eliminated the crap like Jar Jar Binks, many fans would have really enjoyed the PT, and would probably say the OT is still better, but the PT is still good.
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There are a few rules to good storytelling, and Lucas, with the PT broke many of them.

First rule: One must always SHOW, not TELL things about characters (it is different, however, for plot changes). Merely stating that two characters are friends or are in love is not enough. Show it, don't tell it... Obi Wan and Anakin, as we're told, are "friends". However, that isn't evident until ROTS, and even then it's still a bit lacking. We're told that Anakin and Padme are in love, but merely stating something does not make it true...

Second rule: Never dedicate too much attention on minor characters who add little-to-nothing to the plot. Lucas, especially in TPM, focused much on Jar-Jar. The character not only was annoying, but wasted time on screen... He added nothing to the plot, story, and so-on. Given, other storytellers, such as Tolkien, have broken this rule as well (such is the case with Tom Bombadil, who I believe to be the Jar-Jar of LOTR). Tolkien was a master storyteller, but the character of Bombadil has been criticized much since his appearance. (Thank God Jackson cut him from the film.)

Third rule: Never let the gems (i.e. landscape, music, etc) steal from the story (or in this case, steal from the film). These components are meant to be positive endowments to the story, not overshadow it. The PT is not remembered for story, but for its components (e.g. the action, cgi, etc).

There are many other rules, but these three reigns supreme when I think about the PT...

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Originally posted by: MJR80
Given, other storytellers, such as Tolkien, have broken this rule as well (such is the case with Tom Bombadil, who I believe to be the Jar-Jar of LOTR). Tolkien was a master storyteller, but the character of Bombadil has been criticized much since his appearance. (Thank God Jackson cut him from the film.)


I don't think Tolkien gave a flying donkey for the rules of story telling. But as for Bombadil being the Jar Jar of The Lord of the Rings, keep in mind that Bombadil lasted for little more than one chapter, not the entire story. And for the time he was in the story he contributed a great deal by aiding the traveling Hobbits. Unlike Jar Jar, who is merely just there and contributes nothing to anyone but yet manages to be in nearly every scene of the film. I never heard too many people complaining about old Tom until after the movies came out, then suddenly he became a gay and annoying character that was cool to hate. Tolkien often side tracked and spent some time on a side character, or sometimes on a character that has nothing to do with the story at all, such as the moments where he goes into a tangent about some historical figure. If you are not into that sort of thing, you can't truely appreciate the brilliance of Tolkien's work, that is why I always say Tolkien is not for everyone. He doesn't conform to the rules of story telling, he probably breaks just about every one of them, but yet his works never goes out of print and have held a huge fan base ever since the very beginning.

Lucas broke plenty of rules too, and in all fairness, his work has a pretty decent sized fan base too. Though I am very interesting to see how SW is fairing in ten - twenty years.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I honestly didn't envision much about what the movies would be before they came out. At most I thought it would dwell on other characters and other stories, but in way where they would impact what we think about the OT. After seeing the final films, however, I've thought of many, many, many ways they could have been better. It's kind of depressing.

Originally posted by: C3PX
I never heard too many people complaining about old Tom until after the movies came out, then suddenly he became a gay and annoying character that was cool to hate.


Nobody should pick on a dude who can land a chick as hot as Goldberry.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

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Originally posted by: Tiptup


Nobody should pick on a dude who can land a chick as hot as Goldberry.


That is a very good point.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Originally posted by: C3PX
Originally posted by: MJR80
Given, other storytellers, such as Tolkien, have broken this rule as well (such is the case with Tom Bombadil, who I believe to be the Jar-Jar of LOTR). Tolkien was a master storyteller, but the character of Bombadil has been criticized much since his appearance. (Thank God Jackson cut him from the film.)


I don't think Tolkien gave a flying donkey for the rules of story telling. But as for Bombadil being the Jar Jar of The Lord of the Rings, keep in mind that Bombadil lasted for little more than one chapter, not the entire story. And for the time he was in the story he contributed a great deal by aiding the traveling Hobbits. Unlike Jar Jar, who is merely just there and contributes nothing to anyone but yet manages to be in nearly every scene of the film. I never heard too many people complaining about old Tom until after the movies came out, then suddenly he became a gay and annoying character that was cool to hate. Tolkien often side tracked and spent some time on a side character, or sometimes on a character that has nothing to do with the story at all, such as the moments where he goes into a tangent about some historical figure. If you are not into that sort of thing, you can't truely appreciate the brilliance of Tolkien's work, that is why I always say Tolkien is not for everyone. He doesn't conform to the rules of story telling, he probably breaks just about every one of them, but yet his works never goes out of print and have held a huge fan base ever since the very beginning.

Lucas broke plenty of rules too, and in all fairness, his work has a pretty decent sized fan base too. Though I am very interesting to see how SW is fairing in ten - twenty years.


I wasn't criticizing Tolkien; I was merely attempting to state that all storytellers sometimes break the "rules”, including the masters. I love Tolkien's work.

I should have been more articulate in what I was trying to say, but no harm done.

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Originally posted by: MJR80


I wasn't criticizing Tolkien; I was merely attempting to state that all storytellers sometimes break the "rules”, including the masters. I love Tolkien's work.

I should have been more articulate in what I was trying to say, but no harm done.



There was nothing at all wrong with what you posted, you were plenty articulate. I was merely adding to the discussion by saying that I didn't even bother trying to follow any rules, and that is what I feel makes him so great, and also that Bomadil may have been his first major tagent in the story, but that there were plenty of others too. I disagreed with you about Bombadil being Tolkien's Jar Jar, but that was your personal opinion, which you have every right to, whether others disagree with it or not. I also did not intend to suggest that you had anything against Tolkien, the mere fact that you brought him up and that you have read his work shows that you like him.

No need to apologise or to explain yourself.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I pretty much envisioned it as being like the classic Star Wars comics, some of which were quite cool. Although I collected them recently and some of it was really quite generic filler..

My god, there was a time when the words "The Clone Wars" sent shivers up my spine as I imagined all kinds of amazing things. I thought cloning would be an essential PART or REASON of the warS. Who would have thought that it would be most literal, least interesting explanation: a war fought by soldiers who all look exactly the same.
Darth Lucas: I am altering the trilogy. Pray I don't alter it further.
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Before TPM came out I envisioned the PT being good . After seeing TPM, the others were more or less exactly what I expected.
The movie from 1977 was called Star Wars, not Episode IV, not A New Hope, not Star Wars Episode IV: a New Hope, just plane Star Wars
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To answer the primary question, as others have said before, I envisioned the PT to be a bit darker (albeit that Ep. III was dark, but it was a little too late). Ep. I was a "laugh fest" (and I'm stating that very loosely), and Ep. II seemed to be more-or-less a filler of a movie... Nonetheless, I felt as though this dark story would have had a large dark and sinister over and undertone. We didn't get that at all.

I also wished to see more of one main “mobile” villain or “side villain”, like Darth Maul, explored more. Instead, we were introduced to a new side villain in every film. Honestly, it got a bit redundant and confusing. Half the time I remember asking myself, "Who's this guy? Why is he here? What relationship does he bring to the overall story?"

Also, I would have liked to see Anakin older, Palpatine would not be in the Senate, but more of an enigma, much as he was in the OT.
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In the early days of the Empire to be honest. When I originally thought of what could have happened before "A New Hope" after noticing it was labeled "Episode 4" I just thought the early days of the Empire was the story beforehand. Keep in mind when I was watching it as a kid I didn't notice that line about the clone wars at all. Since, almost every time I rewound the tape I was just to anxious to watch that I'de often start it in the middle of Leia's speech. Anyways, as a kid I just thought it would take place in the early days of the Empire. Plus, I expected more backstory for Alderaan. Hell, I thought the majority of it would be on Alderaan...

http://twister111.tumblr.com
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Originally posted by: CO
I honestly envisioned the PT to be the story of Episode III spread out over 3 movies, instead of just one. I have my faults with alot of stuff in ROTS, but the movie is entertaining mainly cause it is the PT story, the real red meat of the trilogy.

I wanted to see Anakin/The Emperor relationship develop over 3 movies ON screen, and I wanted to see more scenes of The Emperor pushing Anakin towards the darkside, so eventually when it turns it is believable because you can see the influence The Emperor has on Anakin.

I wanted to see the Birth of the Rebellion, and how it started and how they realized what the Empire was doing to the republic, so you can watch Episode IV and realize who fought hard to give Luke/Leia a chance to win in the OT movies.

I wanted to see ObiWan/Anakin on a mission together as good friends for the whole Episode I movie, and just have that cracks jokes and be friends, to show how much they cared for each other, so when they fight in Episode III, you would feel awful it has come to this. Just think of Luke & Han fighting in ROTJ and how you would feel, that is what Anakin/Obiwan fight should have been like.

I finally wanted to see Anakin as cool superstar jedi, and not in the Han Solo cool, but the 'golden boy' cool that many athletes are like. I wanted him to be a premadonna, as he would be someone who you would want to be cause he was sauve and confident, and his arrogance would eventually be his undoing, not his stupidity as portrayed in Episode III.

Lucas wasted too much time in Episode I & II, as they just seem like exposition to the real story in Episode III, and I honestly think if he really started the PT movies with Anakin & ObiWan flying in this huge space battle in Episode I the same way he started with Episode III, and eliminated the crap like Jar Jar Binks, many fans would have really enjoyed the PT, and would probably say the OT is still better, but the PT is still good.


I agree...


Originally posted by: twister111
Plus, I expected more backstory for Alderaan. Hell, I thought the majority of it would be on Alderaan...


It was...they just called it Naboo.....!!






http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

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Someone named borgmatrix summarized the problem of time wasted in the prequels quite nicely:

Lucas could have done better service to the material if he would have found a way to increase the Anakin/Obi-wan screentime.

Look at ROTS. There's a lot of stuff he had cut/dropped in order to give the needed to time to Anakin and his fall. He could have lessened the time devoted to Anakin's fall in order to incorporate more Padme scenes, or to develop the Rebellion subplot, or get Boba Fett in there, or whatever. But he didn't, and ROTS was about as good as it could have been given the time contraints. He gave focus to what mattered most.

Now, if only he would have done that with the TPM and AOTC. Lucas himself has admitted that about 60% of the prequel story he had envisioned was in ROTS and only about 20% each over TPM and AOTC. By his own account TPM and AOTC are each about 80% filler. Because of that, ROTS was harder for him than he'd initially thought. He had less time to fit in everything he would have wanted. If he would have approached TPM and AOTC with more urgency and tried to make the best use of the time and space he had to tell the prequel story, these movies would have been better for it, including ROTS.

By doing more with the Anakin/Obi-wan relationship over TPM and AOTC, he would have saved himself the need to play catch-up in ROTS and given himself (and the movie) more breathing room. All three movies would have been more balanced and complete if he'd spread the plot out more evenly between them.
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After watching Star Trek: Nemesis the other night, it occurred to me that, although the movie failed in some areas, it was excellent in others. To expound upon something I stated earlier on this thread, I believe that a good, central villain (notice how it's not plural) is crucial to a good story, Nemesis, with all its faults as a film, succeeded in having a great villain, Shinzon. Shinzon was intimidating, charming, hateful, vengeful, intelligent, dark, mysterious, articulate, and, above all, had ties in with some of the major characters in some crucial way... The villains from the PT lacked these. In my opinion, the only villain who came close was Dooku, but, with so little screen time, the guy had no time to show the audience who and what he was about. In other words, I would have loved to have seen a wonderful villain, such as was not given in the PT.

P.S. I know that mentioning Star Trek in a Star Wars website is a bit taboo; but hey, I enjoy all kinds of sci-fi.
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Some friends and I are contemplating doing a graphic novel/comic or flash animation rewrite of the prequels to fit more along the lines of what we as fans would have liked to see in the prequels. One of the biggest beginning questions is whether or not to acknowledge any elements from the prequels (other than things that were obviously referenced in the original trilogy). Darth Maul, I thought, had a good deal of potential as a character, and the whole Palpatine playing both sides was a fantastic way to develop him towards the Emperor, so those are things that might be worth saving?

A few things I thought would have been there and or could have been (or I guess will hopefully be ) improved upon are:

- Anakin's age in the films should parallel those of Luke in the OT. We do not need to know about his childhood in order to understand his struggle. I never even imagined that the prequels would deal with him as a child. His journey should also parallel Luke's, but the key moment being his choice to follow the dark path. I think it might even be interesting to have another parallel where Anakin leaves his training to help his friends and ends up causing their deaths or being helpless to stop those deaths, and that moment (rather than some awful shit about his mother) being key to his doubting the light side of the force/the jedi way.

- Darth Maul, or another primary villian other than Palpatine/the Emperor/etc, should have been left to exist for AT LEAST two of the films, if not all three. Maul had 2 speaking lines, no background, no real character AT ALL. I'm imagining something running parallel to Vader in the original trilogy, someone that Anakin could ultimately destroy and open the space at Palpatine's side for him. The only thing about this is that I also like the idea of several "sith" believing themselves to be the apprentice and vying for Palpatine's favor. That, however, could get a bit too complicated and difficult to follow, as it was in the actual prequels. Anakin has no true foil in the prequels, although I guess we are supposed to believe that Obi Wan should represent that. There should be a character that Anakin is aware of, that he fights against becoming similar to, and that he ultimately finds appealing via Palpatine's persuasion. In other words - combine the characters of Dooku and Maul, and perhaps even Grevious. There were obviously things that worked in the OT and those should be the reference points for the prequels, though it wouldn't hurt to throw new elements into the mix if they are well-executed (the prequels WERE NOT).

- GOOD MINOR EVIL CHARACTERS! Boba Fett's lineage be damned... that was such a weak way to include some minor characters and connect unnecessary dots between the PT/OT. What about the Tarkins, Jabba the Hutt, etc? Wattoo? The Trade Federation? Jango Fett? There is nothing about any of those characters that was interesting, much because the dillydallying that occurred throughout the three films... they were obvious filler, and I can't think of one example of those characters improving the story.

- Palpatine as rising political star/sith lord. While I think this idea was good, there needed to be more subtlety. How could the Trade Federation not have known that Palpatine was the guy on the hologram, or nobody else would realize this? I think it could have been written better to emphasize that he was both but making a point of the importance of the disconnect between the two characters... perhaps an execution of a key character who discovers the secret?

- This one is probably going to be controversial, but either little or no Yoda. The entirety of Luke's training in the OT shows a lightsaber once - when Yoda tells him that he does not need his weapon. Why then would you show a 'badass' Yoda in the prequels with a pen light duking it out with Dooku and Palpatine? Yoda's presence in the OT, that of the 'mysterious stranger', whose origins and going-ons remain a mystery but whose wisdom changes the course of events, is something that I think is incredibly compelling and strong. I always imagined Yoda as living on Dagobah and promising Jedi going there to learn with him. Or maybe he shouldn't even have that background - just remain a mystery that is relegated to the OT, or perhaps only referenced by Obi Wan, or shown only interacting with Obi Wan. His whole presence in those action sequences, in the Jedi Council, and as a major speaking character diminished his presence in the 6 films a great deal. It was almost laughable, especially with the completely different look across 3 movies.

- Beyond Yoda, there was no real reason to include C3P0 or R2D2, and it just contributed to fucking up the continuity between the trilogies.

- I'll never buy the justifications for the technology in the prequels looking newer than the OT. They should either look similar or predate the OT.

- Humor. The prequels were a humor vacuum of poor dialogue and slapstick b.s. Is there anything from the prequels that was actually humorous and not a cheap gag or poorly written one-liner?

- Believable love story. IT ISN'T THAT HARD TO DO! Han and Leia was almost accidental in its simplicity and believability, so why would it be so difficult to write something that would show a conflict for Anakin? Keeping the whole thing hidden from the other Jedi seems key, and perhaps even Anakin's love interest keeping her pregnancy secret from Anakin as he begins to go down a dark path should be key.

- More development of other Jedi... not necessarily a Qui Gon, but we don't learn ANYTHING about the other Jedi Council members, and yet we're expected to care when they are brutally murdered. I thought that sequence could have been very powerful had it involved characters whose names I could even recall.

- The Clone Wars. I'm not really sure how this could have been approached... I thought it was really haphazardly integrated into the already shoddy plot that Lucas had built up, so this needs to be treated differently. I like the idea of not making it the main conflict and arch, but what better way to show a republic turning into an empire than war. I don't like what the clones ended up being and their origins AT ALL, so some serious rethinking on this topic would be good. I always kind of liked Zahn's crazy fucking jedi clone from that otherwise blah book trilogy, so perhaps something along those lines?

- Obi Wan. Obi Wan. Obi Wan. In my mind, I almost feel like Obi Wan should have been THE main character of the prequels... with his course as a senior Jedi paralleling Anakin but ultimately choosing good over evil (with plenty of tension and conflict, of course). We should feel his anguish when he realizes that Anakin has turned.

- The Turn. The turn should not have happened in a 2 minute scene. Yeah yeah, Lucas tried to plant the seeds of that in the other films and in the beginning of the third episode... It wasn't believable AT ALL. There was no resistance on Anakin's part, no real tension or conflict...

I'm skipping a lot of details on the last couple (I should probably do my actual work), but you probably get most of the points...
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Originally posted by: ronlaw
I thought cloning would be an essential PART or REASON of the warS. Who would have thought that it would be most literal, least interesting explanation: a war fought by soldiers who all look exactly the same.


Interesting. Meaning what exactly, that the wars would be fought over cloning technology or morality? Please expand.

xhonzi

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 don't think this has much to do with the discussion, but I believe it's funny, nonetheless!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f37/MJR1980/noattachment.gif
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gethedgical,

That sounds like a very exciting and ambitious plan. I think you're asking the right questions and going in the right direction.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Your idea of removing or severely reducing Yoda's role is interesting. If anything, it might make the Jedi seem more like a mystical band of protectors instead of a bunch of social workers with super powers.

  • I always imagined the droids would be part of the prequels. I would like to see them stay (but not the way Lucas had them).

  • The bad guys in the Clone Wars should be the clones and/or their creators.

  • How about actually showing how Kenobi served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars.

  • Give us some surprises. You could see everything coming from miles away in the PT. For this reason, I'm not sure the dual Palpatine/Sidious approach would work.

  • More Tarkin. Governor Tarkin. He seemed to know Obi-Wan Kenobi in the OT.

  • If you're going in the graphic novel/comic direction, I think it would be a good idea to use as much of the "look" of the PT as possible, including ships, planets, etc. That way, it will feel more familiar and we can all imagine that this is the real movie.

  • And that reminds me, use some Y-Wings in the PT.

    • You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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    Is anyone else having a math problem with the prequel trilogy...?

    This is something that has been bugging me in trying to understand the prequel/original trilogy timeline...

    Excatly how old are Anakin and Obiwan in the 2 trilogies?

    I'd say from the OT that Anakin is 50ish (Shaw was 77 during Jedi filming) and Obiwan is maybe 60ish (Sir Alec was 62 during the filming of ANH). Sine Luke is 18-20 at most, the PT can only be 21 years earlier than the OT... which would place Anakin at 29 and Obiwan at 39, obviously not the ages they were in the PT. Anakin is, again, 20 at most at the end of RotS so that makes him 41 at most in ANH...

    Do you know what I mean? How old do you think they should have been in the PT?

    xhonzi

    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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    Actually that's the funny part, and it never even occurred to me until now. In the original movie from '77, Obi-Wan never says he trained Anakin (that part should've been more obvious to me) but more importantly he never says Anakin was younger than him. It's just that it's a conclusion that can be drawn when you consider that Owen knew Anakin and Owen calls Ben Kenobi "a crazy old man." Even in Return of the Jedi when we find out Vader and Anakin are the same person, Obi-Wan never explicitly states that Anakin was younger than him, although he did say in the original movie that Vader was a "young jedi." It's just that with the line "when I first knew him, you're father was already a great pilot" you can easily construe that Obi-Wan meant Anakin was exceptionally skilled for his young (as in younger than Obi-Wan's) age. Another possible interpretation is that Obi-Wan says "already a great pilot" because he didn't meet Anakin until he was a great pilot. As for Shaw being much older than Guinness in real life, if you just look at it in terms of the movies it's easy to justify since Vader/Anakin would seem that old after all the lava pit damage he sustained. Nevertheless, that is a failing of the prequels in my opinion. I remember one of the first rumors about Episode III was that we would see Anakin/Vader gradually collecting the pieces that make up his armor. I thought this was a cool idea because it would make the movie a nice bridge to Episode IV, and I was expecting the entire movie to be that, not just the last 5 fracking minutes.