New YouTube Series about recutting George's STAR WARS SAGA. — Page 2

Skybatman said:

JoyOfEditing said:

smudger9 said:

Watched the first two episodes. They are excellent. Very professional.

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it! The next episode (which will hopefully drop next week) is gonna cover the Utapau Duel. Here’s a sneak peak of how it might end: http://youtube.com/post/UgkxU3KJT7SZw0XqkPEB-KIVz1RoNZRfdNIV?si=RXnbrLi32x3JDZmP

i think it look a little abrupt, maybe have the way that the original was without kenobi shooting 2 times

BTW thanks a bunch for that input. I went back through that sequence and found a way to slow down Grievous’ death by a half second, and it’s SO SO MUCH BETTER! Great call! The Grievous Episode is gonna drop next week, so you’ll have to lemme know if that timing change worked.

Very cool to hear about the thought process behind your editing, very educational for the amateur editor like myself. Looking forward to future scene breakdowns!

Dazman said:

Very cool to hear about the thought process behind your editing, very educational for the amateur editor like myself. Looking forward to future scene breakdowns!

Glad you enjoyed it! The whole idea of the show is to make film editing accessible to anybody who’s interested in learning it, and if you ever have any questions about how to use the editing techniques you see in the episodes in your own work, feel free to shoot me a message.

aGreatHumanBeing said:

I’m a n00b and will never be able to pull of something like movie editing. I absolutely love to watch them though, even if I never understand how some of the faneditors are able to pull off some of their incredible work.

So this video (I just watched the first one) is so interesting and entertaining. Thanks so much for this! I will surely watch the rest of the show.

Haha! You never know! Film editing is just like everything else, practice, practice, practice!

After a long battle with YouTube’s Copyright Goblins, the next two episodes are now live!

They both cover the recut of the Utapau Duel, and I hope y’all enjoy them!

Part 1: https://youtu.be/foXKzbzaaXc

Part 2: https://youtu.be/DN6BpdJQJ-g

Skybatman said:

u made a lot of changes to revenge of the sith is ur least fav of the 6 haha

Return of the Jedi just told me to hold its beer. . .

This is next level stuff! The Utapau duel really works well with how you’ve done it. Way more engaging. Impressive work on Grievous’ death

potty meister said:

This is next level stuff! The Utapau duel really works well with how you’ve done it. Way more engaging. Impressive work on Grievous’ death

Cheers! It actually works even better in terms of the full sequence (From Obi-Wan Landing on Utapau to Order 66). If you wanna see that full section PM me, and I’ll shoot you a link. Throughout the process of recutting the Prequels, I was constantly shocked at how close George was to three masterpieces. All the pieces were on the board, just not in the right order.

Skybatman said:

JoyOfEditing said:

Skybatman said:

u made a lot of changes to revenge of the sith is ur least fav of the 6 haha

Return of the Jedi just told me to hold its beer. . .

what is ur sw ranking?

Man, that’s tricky. . . I’ll give it to you in two lists. First the Vanilla Versions (which assume the Despecialized Editions of the OT), and then my Recuts (which will sound blasphemous, lol!). The consistent “tone” I aimed for in all of the recuts was somewhere between the tones of Vanilla IV and V. If you can hit that “tone” across all 6 episodes (Spoiler Alert. . . You can. . .) then it comes down to what sequences I like best.

VANILLA VERSIONS:

1. IV - A New Hope
2. V - The Empire Strikes Back
3. I - The Phantom Menace
4. VI - Return of the Jedi
5. III - Revenge of the Sith
6. II - Attack of the Clones

RECUT VERSIONS:

1. II - Attack of the Clones
2. VI - Return of the Jedi
3. III - Revenge of the Sith
4. I - The Phantom Menace
5. IV - A New Hope
6. V - The Empire Strikes Back

Skybatman said:

cool, it is different for mine, and ur recut version rank is funny imagine showing this without context

Like I said, it’s “blasphemous” LOL!

PM sent

JoyOfEditing said:

potty meister said:

This is next level stuff! The Utapau duel really works well with how you’ve done it. Way more engaging. Impressive work on Grievous’ death

Cheers! It actually works even better in terms of the full sequence (From Obi-Wan Landing on Utapau to Order 66). If you wanna see that full section PM me, and I’ll shoot you a link. Throughout the process of recutting the Prequels, I was constantly shocked at how close George was to three masterpieces. All the pieces were on the board, just not in the right order.

G&G-Fan said:

Since you’re editing the films for better cohesion, were the Prequel duels toned down to be more like the OT duels? And/or were the OT duels edited?

First, I prefer the style of the Vader/Luke duels. Their fighting feels more powerful, it has more weight and tension. I find the Prequel ones often overstimulating and hollow.

Second, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, and eventually Luke Skywalker are (and should be) incredibly powerful Force users and skilled dualists.
They were supposed to be in the 70s/80s, and are again, canonically.
Vader and Ben in ANH should be beyond their prior selves, hence their boasts to each other. The script even describes their battle as “masterful”, “powerful”, even “lightning”.

Vader is the terrifying, powerful villain of the trilogy, the Empire’s ultimate enforcer who slayed the Jedi. The pathos relies on viewing him as imposing.
Vader is 80% as powerful as the Emperor in Lucas-Canon and Legends, and even more powerful then the Emperor in Disney-Canon (he has contingencies to ensure Vader’s loyalty).
Originally lightsabers were meant to be heavy, so Vader fighting with just one hand for part of the ESB duel showed great of a warrior he is.
Vader should be more powerful as a cyborg, not less. Also, Grievous proves cybernetics shouldn’t hamper lightsaber skills.

Obi-Wan is the enlightened, experienced mentor figure Luke, and thus the audience, looks up to and aspires to be. He’s a Master Jedi Knight, a relic of that golden age, and his skills should reflect that. Again, the pathos relies on it.
Ben canonically easily kills Maul a few years before ANH. Also, Dooku and Yoda prove old age shouldn’t hamper lightsaber skills.

This is why it’s impactful when Vader kills Luke’s mentor in-front of him. The whole trilogy builds to Luke being able to fight and beat him.
Luke’s journey is becoming a complete Jedi Knight, just as great of a Jedi as the one’s of old, as Ben. Part of that is his saber skills and Force power. It’s even stressed he has to be that, in order to face the mighty Vader. Reinforcing Vader > the Prequel duelists; the only one who can beat him is his son, his own blood.
Luke should be incredibly powerful and skilled, not lesser then the Prequel dualists, both in ESB and especially ROTJ. Vader even says his skills are "complete” in ROTJ, and in ESB, says they’re “most impressive”.
While Vader is mostly just toying with Luke in ESB, the power disparity isn’t as much as ppl think (Jedi training didn’t used to take decades). And Luke contending with Vader in ROTJ should be a mighty feat. He wins he’s become Vader’s equal in power and skill, but Vader is conflicted and Luke gets a dark side boost at the end.

Basically, the OT films were fundamentally built so Vader, Ben, and Luke are great warriors, so they shouldn’t be undermined by the Prequels.

Also, I hope none of Darth Vader’s scenes were cut from your version of ESB. That’d be blasphemy (joking… or am I).

JoyOfEditing said:

After a long battle with YouTube’s Copyright Goblins, the next two episodes are now live!

They both cover the recut of the Utapau Duel, and I hope y’all enjoy them!

Part 1: https://youtu.be/foXKzbzaaXc

Part 2: https://youtu.be/DN6BpdJQJ-g

Good videos.

One thing though, when you talk about how Grievous shouldn’t feel pain: first, droids feel pain in Star Wars. Multiple times. For example, 3PO in ESB, when Chewie doesn’t crouch low enough entering the Falcon in the escape from Bespin.
Second, so do cyborgs. The very first thing we see when Luke gets his cyborg hand is testing pain receptors. Vader yells in pain when his hand gets cut off.

Anybody with CIPA will tell you, pain is very important. You want to know what’s happening with your own body (recommend the House MD episode “Insensitive”, if you want to know how ppl who can’t feel pain live).

Star Wars droids/cyborgs are advanced enough to have artificial pain receptors. And therefore it makes sense that they should. You don’t want to accidentally put your hand on a stove for a half-hour without even noticing.

Goodness Gracious, that’s a lot of questions, lol! I’ll do my best to address them all, but if I miss one gimme a shout.

1. How did you bring the Prequel Duels into alignment with the Duels in the OT? - There’s two pronged answer to that. On the technical side the OT Duels are cut on the wrong frames which makes them feel slow. If you use the same cutting techniques that Ben Burtt used in the Prequels, they can hit with the same speed/force (except the famous SC38, but I came up with an unorthodox way to fix that problem).

On the other hand, the Prequel Duels suffer from sequencing issues (that’s why they feel “overstimulating and hollow” as you correctly pointed out), but if you resequence them to match the sequencing of the OT Duels, they also line up nicely. That’s exactly what I did to make the Grievous Duel more engaging.

2. How did you address the “power levels” of the duelists across the SAGA? - I made a single story decision, and then recut all the duels to serve that decision. Basically, there’s a story problem when it comes to the duels. The visual symbolism is telling one story, and the dialogue is telling another. The dialogue says that Luke must train hard enough to tear down Darth Vader in a death match, whereas the visuals say he must stay his hand to break the cycle of violence.

Watch the Visuals: Maul cuts down Qui-Gon, so Obi-Wan retaliates by cutting Maul in Half. Dooku cuts off Anakin’s arm, so Anakin cuts off his hands and kills him. Obi-Wan de-limbs Anakin, so Anakin kills Obi-Wan out of revenge. Vader cuts off Luke’s hand, so Luke cuts off Vader’s hand, BUT!!! in that moment Luke stops and looks at his own hand. The reason he does that is because he finally understood the meaning of his vision in the Cave of Evil. If he cuts off Vader’s head, he becomes Darth Vader, and the cycle of violence and revenge continues. That is why Luke throws away his lightsaber and says he’s a Jedi like his father before him. The Jedi in the Prequels had become like the Sith, engaged in the never-ending cycle of revenge. That circle must be broken for balance to return to the Force. Obi-Wan’s sacrifice in A New Hope is actually his most important lesson to Luke. He is showing Luke the way to bring balance: lower your guard and sacrifice yourself. If you recut the OT so that Obi-Wan and Yoda tell Luke he must “face” Vader but cut all mentions of them telling Luke to kill him, the whole SAGA suddenly makes thematic sense.

3. Did you cut any Vader scenes out of Empire Strikes Back? - Yes. Several. But cutting out those scenes, massively improves the Vader scenes that remain, so you ironically end up with more iconic Vader scenes instead of less. I’m not gonna tell you which Vader scenes I cut here, cause you’ll have to wait for the episode where I address that part of the recut 😉.

4. Grievous can feel pain in his robot arms, why did you goof that up in your recent episode? - First, you’re absolutely right that cyborgs (like Luke Skywalker) can feel pain in their artificial limbs. Second, I cut most of the “Droid Pain” out of my version of the SAGA (Threepio doesn’t bonk his head on Bespin, the Droid Torture Scene has been cut from Return of the Jedi, The Battle Droids don’t scream when they’re killed, ect. . .) My thinking is that Droids can “express” pain as part of their self-preservation programming, but do not “feel pain” the way a human or a cyborg would. When it comes to General Grievous, I’m sure he “feels pain” in his organic bits, but I cannot imagine there would be a tactical advantage to him “feeling pain” in his limbs. In Grievous’ fighting style his “limbs” are used like “tools” (think the Buzz-Saw-Arm-Move). If one arm goes down, the other three need to keep spinning to finish the kill shot. If you’ve ever watched Robot Wars, the robot that generally wins isn’t the one that doesn’t get hit, but rather the one that follows through with it’s own hit as it’s being hit. In my view pain receptors would get in the way of that particular fighting style, so I recut the scene as if Grievous had 4 “weapons”, not 4 “hands”. Does that make sense?

G&G-Fan said:

JoyOfEditing said:

Goodness Gracious, that’s a lot of questions, lol! I’ll do my best to address them all, but if I miss one gimme a shout.

My apologies. I get carried away sometimes.

JoyOfEditing said:

1. How did you bring the Prequel Duels into alignment with the Duels in the OT? - There’s two pronged answer to that. On the technical side the OT Duels are cut on the wrong frames which makes them feel slow. If you use the same cutting techniques that Ben Burtt used in the Prequels, they can hit with the same speed/force (except the famous SC38, but I came up with an unorthodox way to fix that problem).

On the other hand, the Prequel Duels suffer from sequencing issues (that’s why they feel “overstimulating and hollow” as you correctly pointed out), but if you resequence them to match the sequencing of the OT Duels, they also line up nicely. That’s exactly what I did to make the Grievous Duel more engaging.

I’m glad. I’m quite interested in seeing the results.

For the record, I’m not of the opinion that the OT duels are too slow, tho I find the ANH one a little clunky. I think the Vader and Luke duels are perfect the way they are, but I’m still interested in seeing your versions.

JoyOfEditing said:

2. How did you address the “power levels” of the duelists across the SAGA? - I made a single story decision, and then recut all the duels to serve that decision. Basically, there’s a story problem when it comes to the duels. The visual symbolism is telling one story, and the dialogue is telling another. The dialogue says that Luke must train hard enough to tear down Darth Vader in a death match, whereas the visuals say he must stay his hand to break the cycle of violence.

Watch the Visuals: Maul cut’s down Qui-Gon, so Obi-Wan retaliates by cutting Maul in Half. Dooku cuts off Anakin’s arm, so Anakin cuts off his hands and kills him. Obi-Wan de-limbs Anakin, so Anakin kills Obi-Wan out of revenge. Vader cuts off Luke’s hand, so Luke cuts off Vader’s hand, BUT!!! in that moment Luke stops and looks at his own hand. The reason he does that is because he finally understood the meaning of his vision in the Cave of Evil. If he cuts off Vader’s head, he becomes Darth Vader, and the cycle of violence and revenge continues. That is why Luke throws away his lightsaber and says he’s a Jedi like his father before him. The Jedi in the Prequels had become like the Sith, engaged in the never-ending cycle of revenge. That circle must be broken for balance to return to the Force. Obi-Wan’s sacrifice in A New Hope is actually his most important lesson to Luke. He is showing Luke the way to bring balance: lower your guard and sacrifice yourself. If you recut the OT so that Obi-Wan and Yoda tell Luke he must “face” Vader but cut all mentions of them telling Luke to kill him, the whole SAGA suddenly makes thematic sense.

But the dialogue isn’t ever explicitly telling Luke to kill Vader.
While the trilogy builds up to Luke being skilled enough to fight Vader, it’s not saying he should murder his father in rage.
It’s telling him to face and defeat him, but warning him that he might have to kill him out of duty, if he has to. Whatever it takes to render him a non-threat to the galaxy’s freedom.

Luke is Vader’s blood, thus he’s their only hope of defeating him (besides Leia, but she hasn’t even started her training yet).

The Jedi aren’t counting on Vader being conflicted (as is what happens), nor do they want Luke to give into a dark side power boost, so even sending Luke to fight Vader is risky, because normally, in the ROTJ-era, they’re equals in terms of power and skill (which is essentially peak Force-user).
But again, Luke’s their best chance. As such, he needs to go in with full conviction.

Obi-Wan and Yoda don’t believe there’s any good in Vader. Of course they don’t, Vader is a cold-blooded monster, at this point.
What they didn’t know is that he still had a genuine soft spot for his son, beyond wanting him for power.
But even so, Anakin doesn’t resurface until after two movies of psychologically and physically abusing his son to try and make him his too. Vader even sadistically gloats about turning his sister after killing him if he refuses, and watches him get excruciatingly electrocuted for over a minute.

Vader’s stance is “Join me or die” (at least, that’s what he says, and thus, it must be accounted for). Luke has to be comfortable with fighting for his life and the freedom of the galaxy.
Luke can’t kill him out of revenge (the dark side, thus going down the path of an addiction to this dark magic that’s incredibly hard to let go of), but must be willing to out of duty, compassion for the people of the galaxy (the light side), if he must.

Vader and the Emperor are space Nazis. Fascists’ endgame is always violence. If a supernaturally powerful space Nazi is trying to kill you because you won’t join him, you can’t just let him. Otherwise, you’ve let fascism win. This is why Anakin killing Palpatine out of love for his son is framed as heroic.

And while Luke makes the right choice to not give into revenge, he still makes a mistake in completely letting his guard down, he leaving himself vulnerable to the Emperor’s lightning, which is exactly what Yoda and Obi-Wan warned him about. While this is remedied by the return of Anakin, that wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

Obi-Wan surrendered to Vader because he knows he can’t beat him, and Luke was gonna rush up to help him. The galaxy’s hope would’ve gotten himself killed too soon. Ben surrendered to teach Luke to let go and protect him and his friends, so they could escape.

Obi-Wan killing Maul isn’t wrong. He did it in self-defense. He was in a life-and-death situation and did his duty. There is no negative consequence to this kill, nor does Obi-Wan have any arc about revenge.

I hear ya, but while ol’ Ben doesn’t technically tell Luke to go kill his daddy, when Luke tells Obi-Wan he “Can’t kill his own father,” Ben’s responds, “Then the Emperor has already won.” To me that implies that Obi-Wan is telling Luke that he has to kill Vader.

To your main point on the logic of the duels. I can see how that would work, but I don’t think that was the specific logic Lucas was going for. I think STAR WARS’ narrative (like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter) relies on Religious Logic, specifically Christian Logic, to tell it’s story. A lot of stories in the Western Canon use Christian Logic to shape their narratives even if the stories themselves are not “Christian” per se.

Before I explain STAR WARS’ Christian Narrative Logic, lemme be clear that I’m not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn’t believe, lol! I agree with ol’ George that religious questions are important to ponder, but that’s not what I’m trying to do here. I’m just trying to show you how religious logic affects a story’s narrative structure.

Basically, in the Gospels, Jesus’ disciples think he is going to violently overthrow the oppressive Roman Empire and lead them to freedom. Instead, Jesus allows himself to be sacrificially killed in order to restore Mankind’s relationship with God, Nature, and other Human Beings by defeating Sin, Death, and Evil on the cross. In STAR WARS, the Jedi in the Prequels and the Rebel Alliance in the OT try to defeat evil politically and through warfare, but the real victory comes when Luke and Anakin both sacrifice themselves to defeat the Emperor. Does Luke’s decision to lay down his weapon make sense? No. Neither did his decision not to kill the Ewoks that captured him and Han a few scenes prior. Both of those irrational decisions lead to the Force being brought back into balance, whereas Anakin’s rational decision to try to save Padme from death, led him down a dark path. In this way Obi-Wan’s destruction of Darth Maul wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t lead to the Force being brought back into balance, rather it continued the cycle of violence. The Biblical/Christian narrative logic is that the restoration of loving relationships between God, Man, and Nature, and the destruction of violent cycles doesn’t come through victory in battle or politics, but through loving sacrifice. That is why the “victory” in Lord of the Rings comes through Frodo’s sacrifice, not Aragorn’s victory in battle.

Essentially, in my recut I tried to streamline the Religious Narrative Logic that I think George was aiming for. That’s not the only way to cut the STAR WARS SAGA, but I think it’s one of the best ways to stay as true as possible to George’s original vision. Hope that makes sense. 😉

JoyOfEditing said:

G&G-Fan said:

JoyOfEditing said:

Goodness Gracious, that’s a lot of questions, lol! I’ll do my best to address them all, but if I miss one gimme a shout.

My apologies. I get carried away sometimes.

JoyOfEditing said:

1. How did you bring the Prequel Duels into alignment with the Duels in the OT? - There’s two pronged answer to that. On the technical side the OT Duels are cut on the wrong frames which makes them feel slow. If you use the same cutting techniques that Ben Burtt used in the Prequels, they can hit with the same speed/force (except the famous SC38, but I came up with an unorthodox way to fix that problem).

On the other hand, the Prequel Duels suffer from sequencing issues (that’s why they feel “overstimulating and hollow” as you correctly pointed out), but if you resequence them to match the sequencing of the OT Duels, they also line up nicely. That’s exactly what I did to make the Grievous Duel more engaging.

I’m glad. I’m quite interested in seeing the results.

For the record, I’m not of the opinion that the OT duels are too slow, tho I find the ANH one a little clunky. I think the Vader and Luke duels are perfect the way they are, but I’m still interested in seeing your versions.

JoyOfEditing said:

2. How did you address the “power levels” of the duelists across the SAGA? - I made a single story decision, and then recut all the duels to serve that decision. Basically, there’s a story problem when it comes to the duels. The visual symbolism is telling one story, and the dialogue is telling another. The dialogue says that Luke must train hard enough to tear down Darth Vader in a death match, whereas the visuals say he must stay his hand to break the cycle of violence.

Watch the Visuals: Maul cut’s down Qui-Gon, so Obi-Wan retaliates by cutting Maul in Half. Dooku cuts off Anakin’s arm, so Anakin cuts off his hands and kills him. Obi-Wan de-limbs Anakin, so Anakin kills Obi-Wan out of revenge. Vader cuts off Luke’s hand, so Luke cuts off Vader’s hand, BUT!!! in that moment Luke stops and looks at his own hand. The reason he does that is because he finally understood the meaning of his vision in the Cave of Evil. If he cuts off Vader’s head, he becomes Darth Vader, and the cycle of violence and revenge continues. That is why Luke throws away his lightsaber and says he’s a Jedi like his father before him. The Jedi in the Prequels had become like the Sith, engaged in the never-ending cycle of revenge. That circle must be broken for balance to return to the Force. Obi-Wan’s sacrifice in A New Hope is actually his most important lesson to Luke. He is showing Luke the way to bring balance: lower your guard and sacrifice yourself. If you recut the OT so that Obi-Wan and Yoda tell Luke he must “face” Vader but cut all mentions of them telling Luke to kill him, the whole SAGA suddenly makes thematic sense.

But the dialogue isn’t ever explicitly telling Luke to kill Vader.
While the trilogy builds up to Luke being skilled enough to fight Vader, it’s not saying he should murder his father in rage.
It’s telling him to face and defeat him, but warning him that he might have to kill him out of duty, if he has to. Whatever it takes to render him a non-threat to the galaxy’s freedom.

Luke is Vader’s blood, thus he’s their only hope of defeating him (besides Leia, but she hasn’t even started her training yet).

The Jedi aren’t counting on Vader being conflicted (as is what happens), nor do they want Luke to give into a dark side power boost, so even sending Luke to fight Vader is risky, because normally, in the ROTJ-era, they’re equals in terms of power and skill (which is essentially peak Force-user).
But again, Luke’s their best chance. As such, he needs to go in with full conviction.

Obi-Wan and Yoda don’t believe there’s any good in Vader. Of course they don’t, Vader is a cold-blooded monster, at this point.
What they didn’t know is that he still had a genuine soft spot for his son, beyond wanting him for power.
But even so, Anakin doesn’t resurface until after two movies of psychologically and physically abusing his son to try and make him his too. Vader even sadistically gloats about turning his sister after killing him if he refuses, and watches him get excruciatingly electrocuted for over a minute.

Vader’s stance is “Join me or die” (at least, that’s what he says, and thus, it must be accounted for). Luke has to be comfortable with fighting for his life and the freedom of the galaxy.
Luke can’t kill him out of revenge (the dark side, thus going down the path of an addiction to this dark magic that’s incredibly hard to let go of), but must be willing to out of duty, compassion for the people of the galaxy (the light side), if he must.

Vader and the Emperor are space Nazis. Fascists’ endgame is always violence. If a supernaturally powerful space Nazi is trying to kill you because you won’t join him, you can’t just let him. Otherwise, you’ve let fascism win. This is why Anakin killing Palpatine out of love for his son is framed as heroic.

And while Luke makes the right choice to not give into revenge, he still makes a mistake in completely letting his guard down, he leaving himself vulnerable to the Emperor’s lightning, which is exactly what Yoda and Obi-Wan warned him about. While this is remedied by the return of Anakin, that wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

Obi-Wan surrendered to Vader because he knows he can’t beat him, and Luke was gonna rush up to help him. The galaxy’s hope would’ve gotten himself killed too soon. Ben surrendered to teach Luke to let go and protect him and his friends, so they could escape.

Obi-Wan killing Maul isn’t wrong. He did it in self-defense. He was in a life-and-death situation and did his duty. There is no negative consequence to this kill, nor does Obi-Wan have any arc about revenge.

I hear ya, but while ol’ Ben doesn’t technically tell Luke to go kill his daddy, when Luke tells Obi-Wan he “Can’t kill his own father,” Ben’s responds, “Then the Emperor has already won.” To me that implies that Obi-Wan is telling Luke that he has to kill Vader.

To your main point on the logic of the duels. I can see how that would work, but I don’t think that was the specific logic Lucas was going for. I think STAR WARS’ narrative (like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter) relies on Religious Logic, specifically Christian Logic, to tell it’s story. A lot of stories in the Western Canon use Christian Logic to shape their narratives even if the stories themselves are not “Christian” per se.

Before I explain STAR WARS’ Christian Narrative Logic, lemme be clear that I’m not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn’t believe, lol! I agree with ol’ George that religious questions are important to ponder, but that’s not what I’m trying to do here. I’m just trying to show you how religious logic affects a story’s narrative structure.

Basically, in the Gospels, Jesus’ disciples think he is going to violently overthrow the oppressive Roman Empire and lead them to freedom. Instead, Jesus allows himself to be sacrificially killed in order to restore Mankind’s relationship with God, Nature, and other Human Beings by defeating Sin, Death, and Evil on the cross. In STAR WARS, the Jedi in the Prequels and the Rebel Alliance in the OT try to defeat evil politically and through warfare, but the real victory comes when Luke and Anakin both sacrifice themselves to defeat the Emperor. Does Luke’s decision to lay down his weapon make sense? No. Neither did his decision not to kill the Ewoks that captured him and Han a few scenes prior. Both of those irrational decisions lead to the Force being brought back into balance, whereas Anakin’s rational decision to try to save Padme from death, led him down a dark path. In this way Obi-Wan’s destruction of Darth Maul wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t lead to the Force being brought back into balance, rather it continued the cycle of violence. The Biblical/Christian narrative logic is that the restoration of loving relationships between God, Man, and Nature, and the destruction of violent cycles doesn’t come through victory in battle or politics, but through loving sacrifice. That is why the “victory” in Lord of the Rings comes through Frodo’s sacrifice, not Aragorn’s victory in battle.

Essentially, in my recut I tried to streamline the Religious Narrative Logic that I think George was aiming for. That’s not the only way to cut the STAR WARS SAGA, but I think it’s one of the best ways to stay as true as possible to George’s original vision. Hope that makes sense. 😉

I love this explanation so much

potty meister said:
I love this explanation so much

Oh good! I’m glad that made sense. If you want to know why all the Disney STAR WARS stuff hits different, that is the reason why. Disney abandoned the spiritual narrative framework George was using to link the original six films together, probably because they never realized it was there, haha!