Random Musings about the Empire Strikes Back Draft Script — Page 2

NeverarGreat said:
Could the words ‘Father changes into Darth Vader’ be a reference to a Force vision, much like Luke’s Dagobah Cave experience? In the finished film Luke defeats Vader and his face turns into Luke’s face, but perhaps there was a version where Luke’s father appears to him in a dream or vision but then changes into Vader to represent the revenge that Luke feels that he needs to take.

I suggest this alternate explanation merely because if I suddenly had the idea to combine the two characters, I would simply write ‘Father is Darth Vader’, or ‘Father changed to Darth Vader’. It’s very strange to use the present form of the word ‘changes’ since it suggests something which happens within the film, rather than being a revelation of an unchanging fact.

A couple things immediately apparent with these notes are that they’re pretty much stream-of-consciousness, and they’re not just for Empire in particular but the entire saga (oh, and George Lucas has absolutely terrible handwriting, lol). The whole thing is in present tense and is almost the kind of thing you’d write on a napkin.

I’d emailed J.W. Rinzler a couple years back (this turned out to be mere months before he passed away - RIP) to get some clarification on these notes. Rinzler confirmed again they were undated and it’s possible they could’ve been moved around over the years so they could’ve been written anywhere from 1975 to 1978, but they were indeed found in the archives for Empire and he wasn’t just going back and referencing stuff found from the first Star Wars’ production.

I’m going to hazard a guess that the notes were written in the second half of 1977, before November of that year ahead of his conference with Leigh Brackett. The details read like the first film was already complete (the characters introduced in that film already have their correct names, for one), and appear to be trying to turn Star Wars into a 9-12 part saga (as opposed to the first 1-3 installments of a 12-episode serial). And in general you’d presume you’d want to get all your brainstorming and outlining done by the time you’re writing the first treatment.

On the other hand, you could suppose that after Brackett’s draft and subsequent death Lucas went back to the drawing board a bit to prepare for writing the second draft himself - and indeed the 2nd draft is the first time Empire opens with “Episode V” (on the typed copy, at least).

(More scans of the notes/treatments/drafts at link: https://imgur.com/a/B8Xd69U)

Channel72 said:
But on the other hand, there is some evidence that Lucas actually decided that Vader was Luke’s father even before Leigh Brackett wrote the first draft. Kaminski points out how ridiculous this claim seems, because it means Lucas purposely withheld vital story information from Brackett, even while paying her to write the script (presumably out of paranoia of leaking the twist). And yeah, this does seem kind of ridiculous - but maybe it’s more like Lucas was just indecisive about the idea.

I’m thinking he hadn’t decided yet, as we have multiple accounts about Lucas taking his time to mull over where exactly he wanted to go with the character. The thing is, as far as Empire goes, whether the twist is there or not is just a matter of a few lines in a couple scenes near the end. All the real details about Darth’s past are handled in the third film. In their story conference they went over Darth Vader’s motivations and he even gave Brackett a treatment to work off of. I don’t think he wasn’t counting on her bringing in the ghost of Skywalker Sr, that seemed to be something she added on her own.

^ Your point about the “I am your father” plot twist having little effect on the overall screen play is important.

This ties into another issue I’ve always had with Empire Strikes Back, even the final version. (Obligatory qualifier: the final version of ESB is one of the few films I’ve seen that comes close to being a “perfect” movie, so my criticism here is less about the quality of the script/film and more an attempt to make sense of Lucas’ thought process regarding Vader in relation to the rest of the film.)

One thing that always (slightly) bothered me about ESB is that Vader’s motivations - and how they tie in with his actions throughout the film - always seemed a bit “off”, and the reason for this I think connects back to the insight that the “BIG REVEAL” at the end has little effect on the rest of the movie. We can start with a simple question, often seen around the Internet on Quora or various fan sites: “Why is Vader so eager to catch the Millennium Falcon?”

At first, the question seems really stupid. I mean duh… it’s the ship that destroyed the Death Star, right? But Vader isn’t really after the Falcon - he’s after Luke. But Luke’s not on the Falcon. Okay, well Vader doesn’t know that, so Vader is just pursuing the Falcon because he knows the ship is at least connected to Luke, so it’s his only lead. Okay, makes sense.

But wait…

Why is Vader so interested in catching Luke? Again, at first the question seems stupid and obvious. But that’s only because we view the movie with all the foreknowledge and surrounding context of the entire saga. In 1980, when people first saw the film, they first find out Vader is after Luke in the very first scene introducing Vader and his awesome fleet. Vader sees some drone footage of a power generator on Hoth, and says “That’s it. The Rebels are there. And I’m sure Skywalker is with them.”

So this would lead to what I’ll call the “DEFAULT INTERPRETATION”: the default interpretation that a typical 1980s movie goer would assume, which is Vader just wants to kill Luke Skywalker, because Luke Skywalker is an obnoxious rebel terrorist that blew up the Death Star. Very simple, straightforward motivation. The DEFAULT INTERPRETATION is from the perspective of a 1980 moviegoer who is watching for the first time, and doesn’t yet know that Vader is Luke’s father.

With this simple “default interpretation” in mind, the whole Hoth invasion sequence makes sense. Vader’s plan is to drop out of hyperspace, and destroy the Rebel base before they have a chance to turn on their deflector shields. This means Skywalker will be killed, along with all the other Rebels. But Vader hits a snag. Admiral Ozzel comes out of hyperspace incorrectly (the logistics of this are obscure), giving the Rebels the time/opportunity to raise the shields. Vader is pissed, because now he has to go through the hassle of a ground invasion. So he kills Ozzel, promotes Piett, and tells Piett to have General Veers prepare ground troops for an invasion.

So far everything makes sense. Then after the Battle of Hoth happens, and Vader is in pursuit of the Falcon, he gets an incoming transmission from his boss, the Emperor. The Emperor tells him that Luke Skywalker is a significant threat. Vader responds: “he’s just a boy.” Then the Emperor expresses interest in converting Luke to the Dark Side. At this point, under the DEFAULT INTERPRETATION (i.e. from the perspective of a 1980 movie goer), there is NO “Sith Rule of Two” subtext going on here, or any deeper subtext about how Vader really feels about his son, and how the Emperor may suspect some disloyalty, etc. There is NONE of that. There is just the idea that Vader thinks “well, I fucked up at Hoth and didn’t kill Skywalker, and my boss is probably mad now. But at least I can keep my boss happy by capturing Skywalker alive.”

Vader then attempts to do just that: he tracks down the Falcon, tortures Han, and lures Luke to Bespin so he can convert Luke to the Dark Side. All of this happens pretty much exactly the same in both Brackett’s draft and the later drafts.

Then we get the “BIG reveal” in Cloud City.

Now, the “DEFAULT INTERPRETATION” is shattered. But when we retroactively apply this new revelation backwards through the script, as the new interpretation ripples over each scene, it creates a LOT of new questions and makes some of Vader’s actions very hard to explain.

Like… when did Vader discover Luke was his son? Was it through his brief conversation with the Emperor? That seems plausible, because before that conversation, Vader was ready to carry out an ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT to instantly kill ALL the Rebels on Hoth. It was only Admiral Ozzel’s incompetence that forced Vader to carry out a ground assault. (Even without Ozzel’s fuck up, the rebels would have been prepared because they found the probe droid, but Vader doesn’t know this.) And even during the ground assault, Imperial troops are just indiscriminately killing everyone - they could easily have killed Luke if he wasn’t lucky. And Vader KNEW Skywalker was on the base way before he spoke with the Emperor in the asteroid field.

We don’t know if Vader knew Skywalker was his SON at that point. (Some Boba Fett comic tells us Vader knew Luke was his son way before Hoth, but that’s irrelevant.) But presumably even if Vader knew Luke was his son at that point, his plan was still to KILL him via orbital bombardment - NOT convert him, nor secretly train him to overthrow the Emperor. And what about the fact that Luke’s last name is “Skywalker”? Even if Vader didn’t know for certain that Luke was his son, the fact that he stumbled upon a force sensitive young teenager with the last name “Skywalker” who hangs out with Obi-Wan Kenobi should DEFINITELY have been setting off alarm bells in Vader’s mind. At the very least, Vader should be thinking: “This needs further investigation.”

Yet Vader is happy to just instantly vaporize everyone on Hoth, including Luke. Then during and after the Battle of Hoth, the Falcon manages to escape, and for some reason Vader zeroes in on THAT particular little Correllian freighter, out of ALL the other countless ships that escaped. Why? Is it because that ship was directly involved in destroying the Death Star? Maybe, but probably it’s just that the Falcon was his best lead at finding Luke, and its hyperdrive was conveniently broken. But until Vader talks with the Emperor (which happens mid-way through the asteroid chase sequence), we can only assume that Vader’s current plan is to find and KILL Luke Skywalker. (And this fits perfectly with the DEFAULT INTERPRETATION).

Now, there’s sort of a “head-canon” version of these events that we probably all have in our heads, from 40+ years of ESB floating about in the public consciousness, and merging with later context from subsequent movies. I’ll call this the “POST-FACTO INTERPRETATION”. The “post-facto interpretation” is: “At some point before ESB, Vader learned he had a son named Luke (possibly from hiring Boba Fett to investigate). Vader then had the idea to use Luke to overthrow the Emperor, which is why Vader is a bit cagey when speaking to Palpatine about Luke. That’s why Vader was so committed to finding Luke, and why he was chasing the Falcon throughout the film. His goal was to confront or capture Luke, turn him to the Dark Side, and then team up to overthrow the Emperor. During the asteroid chase, Vader discovered that the Emperor was probably on to him, but Vader played dumb. Ultimately, Vader’s plan failed when Luke ostensibly committed suicide on Bespin.”

Unfortunately, the actual film does NOT support this “head-canon” or “post-facto” version of events, because we know that Vader was happy to simply vaporize Luke from orbit, along with all the other Rebels, via an orbital bombardment, at the beginning of ESB - after Vader explicitly mentioned that “Skywalker” was on the base. It was only after the orbital bombardment failed due to Ozzel’s blunder, that Vader seemed to switch from “kill mode” to “capture mode”.

The point of this lengthy post is just to highlight how the “big reveal” about “Father Vader” was a very last-minute addition to all this, because it doesn’t really fit logically into the mechanics of the script. It was sort of clumsily dropped into the script, without ironing out all the ripples caused by the addition. It makes little sense that Vader would want to KILL Luke on Hoth, unless we are viewing the movie through the lens of the “DEFAULT INTERPRETATION” - which is how the script was originally written.

Even if Lucas was toying with the idea of “Father Vader” before Brackett wrote her draft, the idea was still sort of clumsily forced into the script, giving the impression of a “last minute rewrite”. The fact that Vader apparently is okay with KILLING Luke at the beginning of ESB is a vestigial remnant of the original script, where Vader very much explicitly really did want to murder Luke: there’s a scene where Vader tries to force choke Luke to death as Luke escapes Hoth in his X-wing. This early motivation partially carries over into the final draft, when Vader orders the orbital bombardment; Vader’s actions were never properly updated to reflect the later revelation at the end.

TLDR:

The original arc for Vader’s motivation was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke to appease the Emperor”

The UPDATED motivation in later drafts was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke because Luke is his SON, and can be used to overthrow the Emperor.”

But in everyone’s head-canon, the motivation is more like “(1) Discovers Luke is his son, but hides this from the Emperor, (2) tries to capture Luke to overthrow the Emperor”

The head-canon version at some point became ACTUAL canon via some Boba Fett comics. The head-canon version also makes the most sense given the “big reveal” at the end of ESB, as well as the wider context of Star Wars lore. But the head-canon version just is NOT supported by the first act of the actual movie.

Channel72 said:
Even if Lucas was toying with the idea of “Father Vader” before Brackett wrote her draft, the idea was still sort of clumsily forced into the script, giving the impression of a “last minute rewrite”. The fact that Vader apparently is okay with KILLING Luke at the beginning of ESB is a vestigial remnant of the original script, where Vader very much explicitly really did want to murder Luke: there’s a scene where Vader tries to force choke Luke to death as Luke escapes Hoth in his X-wing. This early motivation partially carries over into the final draft, when Vader orders the orbital bombardment; Vader’s actions were never properly updated to reflect the later revelation at the end.

TLDR:

The original arc for Vader’s motivation was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke to appease the Emperor”

The UPDATED motivation in later drafts was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke because Luke is his SON, and can be used to overthrow the Emperor.”

But in everyone’s head-canon, the motivation is more like “(1) Discovers Luke is his son, but hides this from the Emperor, (2) tries to capture Luke to overthrow the Emperor”

The head-canon version at some point became ACTUAL canon via some Boba Fett comics. The head-canon version also makes the most sense given the “big reveal” at the end of ESB, as well as the wider context of Star Wars lore. But the head-canon version just is NOT supported by the first act of the actual movie.

I really do appreciate all the thought you’ve put into this so I hope I don’t come off flippant at all, but I think your concerns over the plot’s integrity stem pretty much entirely from an assumption that Vader for sure would have order the “orbital bombardment” and that this would entail the instantaneous extermination of the rebel base and its entire population. General Veers simply informs Vader that the Rebels have a shield up strong enough to deflect anything their ships can throw at it, and Vader is perturbed that this means the Rebels already know they’re in town. We don’t actually know what Vader would’ve done otherwise or if the rebels had any other defenses against being fired on from space. (if there’s a script weakness to this scene, it’s more that you can just feel the plot contriving itself to accommodate its spectacular land battle sequence, but would we have it any other way?).

As far as the Hoth battle itself putting Luke’s life into potential jeopardy, I also get the sense that Vader and The Emperor don’t believe Luke can be taken out randomly in battle. To them he’s a mysterious phantom youngster who inexplicably showed up out of nowhere and blew up their Death Star, he’s caused a “great disturbance in the Force,” etc. They know if he is to be dealt with, they have to go out of their way to do it themselves.

Barfolomew said:

Channel72 said:
Even if Lucas was toying with the idea of “Father Vader” before Brackett wrote her draft, the idea was still sort of clumsily forced into the script, giving the impression of a “last minute rewrite”. The fact that Vader apparently is okay with KILLING Luke at the beginning of ESB is a vestigial remnant of the original script, where Vader very much explicitly really did want to murder Luke: there’s a scene where Vader tries to force choke Luke to death as Luke escapes Hoth in his X-wing. This early motivation partially carries over into the final draft, when Vader orders the orbital bombardment; Vader’s actions were never properly updated to reflect the later revelation at the end.

TLDR:

The original arc for Vader’s motivation was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke to appease the Emperor”

The UPDATED motivation in later drafts was: “(1) Find and kill Luke, (2) Change of plans: capture and convert Luke because Luke is his SON, and can be used to overthrow the Emperor.”

But in everyone’s head-canon, the motivation is more like “(1) Discovers Luke is his son, but hides this from the Emperor, (2) tries to capture Luke to overthrow the Emperor”

The head-canon version at some point became ACTUAL canon via some Boba Fett comics. The head-canon version also makes the most sense given the “big reveal” at the end of ESB, as well as the wider context of Star Wars lore. But the head-canon version just is NOT supported by the first act of the actual movie.

I really do appreciate all the thought you’ve put into this so I hope I don’t come off flippant at all, but I think your concerns over the plot’s integrity stem pretty much entirely from an assumption that Vader for sure would have order the “orbital bombardment” and that this would entail the instantaneous extermination of the rebel base and its entire population. General Veers simply informs Vader that the Rebels have a shield up strong enough to deflect anything their ships can throw at it, and Vader is perturbed that this means the Rebels already know they’re in town. We don’t actually know what Vader would’ve done otherwise or if the rebels had any other defenses against being fired on from space. (if there’s a script weakness to this scene, it’s more that you can just feel the plot contriving itself to accommodate its spectacular land battle sequence, but would we have it any other way?).

As far as the Hoth battle itself putting Luke’s life into potential jeopardy, I also get the sense that Vader and The Emperor don’t believe Luke can be taken out randomly in battle. To them he’s a mysterious phantom youngster who inexplicably showed up out of nowhere and blew up their Death Star, he’s caused a “great disturbance in the Force,” etc. They know if he is to be dealt with, they have to go out of their way to do it themselves.

Sure, I could be overstating the case here. The main issue is we know that the script was originally written with Vader not being Luke’s father, and very explicitly trying to kill Luke on Hoth. Later, during subsequent rewrites, Vader was turned into Luke’s father, but he still seems to want to kill Luke on Hoth. It’s pretty hard to interpret the dialogue between Vader and Piett any other way than that Vader had planned on killing all the rebels via orbital bombardment, and only resorted to a ground invasion because of the shield. I guess you’re right that the dialogue leaves some wiggle room here, but not much in my opinion. (I mean the entire first movie was about blowing up a secret rebel base from orbit - so the audience would naturally assume the same idea in ESB.)

But on a broader level, after reading Brackett’s script, ESB gives me “last minute plot twist” vibes, commonly found in many Hollywood movies that feature some crazy twist at the end that recontextualizes the entire movie. Very often, the earlier events in the film don’t QUITE make sense in light of the later twist - possibly because the bulk of the script was written before the twist was conceived.

A movie like The Sixth Sense is an obvious example of this. If you watch the movie a second time, knowing the main character is dead the whole time (25 year-old spoiler alert), there are some scenes that seem to cleverly support the twist, but other scenes that really just don’t make any sense in light of the twist. I’ve come to view the aborted orbital bombardment of Hoth (along with some of Vader’s dialogue) as a similar example of a later-draft plot twist not quite fitting with previously written material.

Channel72 said:

Sure, I could be overstating the case here. The main issue is we know that the script was originally written with Vader not being Luke’s father, and very explicitly trying to kill Luke on Hoth. Later, during subsequent rewrites, Vader was turned into Luke’s father, but he still seems to want to kill Luke on Hoth. It’s pretty hard to interpret the dialogue between Vader and Piett any other way than that Vader had planned on killing all the rebels via orbital bombardment, and only resorted to a ground invasion because of the shield. I guess you’re right that the dialogue leaves some wiggle room here, but not much in my opinion. (I mean the entire first movie was about blowing up a secret rebel base from orbit - so the audience would naturally assume the same idea in ESB.)

It’s valid to have these assumptions/expectations, but similar to what you’ve said, the whole function of these context-redefining plot twists is to throw our assumptions on their head. We the audience are obligated to see events in this new light so long as there’s any room to do so (I suppose our argument is over just how much room there is).

Consider - I never had the impression that Vader’s plan was to just blow the base up. Before they’re even on their way to Hoth, Vader specifically tells General Veers (General being an army or marine rank) “prepare your men,” which right off the bat has me envisioning an occupation. Later, Veers brings up a hypothetical “orbital bombardment” unprompted, in the context of the shield’s strength - his message is “Hey, the Rebels already have a big ass shield up and it’s REALLY strong, we won’t be able to battering ram our way through it.” And finally, when they actually do bring the shield down, Vader follows up by landing there himself. True, circumstances have changed by that point, but it feels incongruous if the ultimate goal was to simply wipe the base out.

(Also, this might just be me, but it’s a space opera convention that space weapons are flashy but puny, in order to facilitate lengthy and spectacular pew-pew battle scenes, so I tend not to presume anyone can just nuke-the-site-from-orbit-it’s-the-only-way-to-be-sure unless they specifically tell us, even if logically you’d think they should be able to!)

Barfolomew said:

Channel72 said:

Sure, I could be overstating the case here. The main issue is we know that the script was originally written with Vader not being Luke’s father, and very explicitly trying to kill Luke on Hoth. Later, during subsequent rewrites, Vader was turned into Luke’s father, but he still seems to want to kill Luke on Hoth. It’s pretty hard to interpret the dialogue between Vader and Piett any other way than that Vader had planned on killing all the rebels via orbital bombardment, and only resorted to a ground invasion because of the shield. I guess you’re right that the dialogue leaves some wiggle room here, but not much in my opinion. (I mean the entire first movie was about blowing up a secret rebel base from orbit - so the audience would naturally assume the same idea in ESB.)

Consider - I never had the impression that Vader’s plan was to just blow the base up. Before they’re even on their way to Hoth, Vader specifically tells General Veers (General being an army or marine rank) “prepare your men,” which right off the bat has me envisioning an occupation. Later, Veers brings up a hypothetical “orbital bombardment” unprompted, in the context of the shield’s strength - his message is “Hey, the Rebels already have a big ass shield up and it’s REALLY strong, we won’t be able to battering ram our way through it.” And finally, when they actually do bring the shield down, Vader follows up by landing there himself. True, circumstances have changed by that point, but it feels incongruous if the ultimate goal was to simply wipe the base out.

Well, I’m almost certain the original intention of the script writers was that Vader wanted an orbital bombardment, but was forced to deploy ground troops when he discovered the shield was up. I can prove this with a little “script archeology”. In the Fourth Draft of the script (the second to last draft), the conversation between Vader and Veers goes like this:

VEERS: My Lord, the fleet has moved out of light speed. Com-Scan has
detected an energy field protecting an area on the sixth planet
in the Hoth System. The field is strong enough to deflect any
bombardment.
VADER: (angry) The rebel scum is alerted to our presence. I told Admiral Ozzel
not to go out of light speed so close to the system.
VEERS: He felt surprise was a wiser…
VADER: He’s as clumsy as he is stupid. A clean bombardment is impossible
with that energy shield up. Prepare your troops for a surface
attack.

The bolded part is what I want to emphasize here. I think it’s pretty much impossible to deny that the writers expected the audience to understand that Vader wanted an orbital bombardment, but changed plans due to Ozzel’s incompetence. There’s very little wiggle room here.

Now, in the Final Draft or actual shooting script, the dialogue is tightened up a bit and some lines are removed. This happens all throughout the script, but here they specifically removed Vader’s line where he says “A clean bombardment is impossible with that energy shield up.” It’s possible Kasdan or someone specifically removed this because it doesn’t fit with the ending twist, or it’s possible the line was removed coincidentally as part of an overall effort to tighten up the dialogue.

Either way, I think this more or less proves the original intention of the writers, was for Vader to want to kill everyone on Hoth. Of course, I fully concede that the final shooting script is the only thing that matters in terms of how we interpret the film. But my argument here is simply that, in my opinion, the efforts the script writers made to modify Vader’s motivations (in light of the new ending twist) are not really sufficient to dissuade the audience from believing that Vader’s original plan was to kill everyone on Hoth via orbital bombardment. (Especially since that’s exactly what Tarkin/Vader tried to do in ANH.)

Now, I understand that you (and probably many other audience members) did not come away with the impression that Vader definitively wanted an orbital bombardment. So in that sense, the script writers successfully did their job by leaving things vague or open to interpretation. But I guess we just have a difference of opinion in how well they did this. I always thought Vader wanted an orbital bombardment, even before the Internet existed and I had access to earlier drafts. So it seems the earlier, original intentions of the writers have leaked into the final script.

And finally, I suppose you could argue that even in the earlier Fourth Draft, Vader’s line about a “clean bombardment” could be interpreted to mean something like a strategic bombardment of defenses/power-grid as a prelude to a ground invasion. (Much like how in real life, the US bombarded Iraq to destroy infrastructure before the ground invasion.) But (A), this is not in the spirit of the “evil moustache-twirling Empire” that we saw in ANH, where Tarkin blows up entire planets without a second thought. And (B), it doesn’t account for the fact that Vader specifically tells Veers to prepare for a surface invasion only AFTER Vader learns about the shield.

(Also, this might just be me, but it’s a space opera convention that space weapons are flashy but puny, in order to facilitate lengthy and spectacular pew-pew battle scenes, so I tend not to presume anyone can just nuke-the-site-from-orbit-it’s-the-only-way-to-be-sure unless they specifically tell us, even if logically you’d think they should be able to!)

I agree with this sentiment, but only for Star Wars material created during or after 1999 when the Prequels came out. In the OT, beginning with A New Hope, they were always trying to blow up Rebel bases from orbit. Yes, I know ANH was unique because of the Death Star, but this helped set audience expectations about what sort of firepower the Empire had and how they usually wielded it. In the Prequels, George Lucas wanted to have grandiose ground battles, so the writers pretend that orbital bombardments don’t exist. (The most hilarious example of this is in A Phantom Menace where the Gungans gather out in an open field like a Napoleonic era army. I always think, why doesn’t the Trade Federation just obliterate them all from orbit?)

First off, I must say it’s amusing and interesting how much mileage we’ve gotten out of the words “orbital bombardment” from a single line! But I think we’ve come to a mutual understanding of sorts, we more or less agree:

• Certainly Leigh Brackett, at the least, wrote murderous intent into Darth Vader in the first half of her draft.
• Subsequent drafts show an evolution playing this aspect down.
• By the final script they’ve got it to a point where for many viewers (like me!) they’ve successfully rid the script of any overt murderous motivation…
• But Lucas and Kasdan have perhaps underestimated that many other viewers (like you!) may still take the term “orbital bombardment” to specifically reference a plan of guaranteed eradication of the rebels, including Luke.
• I think we agree that even if we go with the most uncharitable read of this scene, it’s at worst a very minor flaw in a masterpiece of genre cinema.

Works for me!

While thinking about all this, something did occur to me, though:

Channel72 said:
But I guess we just have a difference of opinion in how well they did this. I always thought Vader wanted an orbital bombardment, even before the Internet existed and I had access to earlier drafts. So it seems the earlier, original intentions of the writers have leaked into the final script.

That last sentence there got me thinking: we got on this semi-tangent in the first place due to a not-unreasonable presumption that dialing back Vader’s desire to kill Luke on Hoth in Brackett’s draft must have been done to accommodate the twist that Vader is Luke’s father.

Except now that I think about it, I don’t think we can just take that for granted at all. Here’s what Lucas told Brackett again:

Barfolomew said:

1. Deep down Darth Vader is still conflicted with being evil.
2. Vader has a personal agenda to “get” Luke that transcends even victory over the rebellion.

The conclusion I came to in my earlier posts in this thread was that Lucas planned Empire/Jedi to basically retell Star Wars as the two-parter he’d envisioned at one point, and for them to cover as much material that he couldn’t fit into the first film as they could, and his desire for that to include “the cyborg father’s heroic death” is what ultimately inspired Lucas to bring the Father back by merging that plot point with “the black knight villain turns against the empire.”

By all accounts at that conference between Lucas and Brackett Vader was not Luke’s father, either because Lucas hadn’t thought of it at all (per fan theory) or it was something Lucas was considering but hadn’t yet pulled the trigger on (claims Lucas). And yet Vader’s character profile above isn’t really any different (though it would’ve been helpful if Lucas was more specific than “get Luke”) and the overall plot is hardly any different, either; and even at that early stage it appears the “go back and do that two-parter” plan was a go.

Basically what I’m saying is that there’s no reason at all this story wasn’t still heading toward Vader’s redemption regardless. Certainly it majorly effects the backstory, but the general sequence of events in ROTJ’s plot don’t have to be overwritten from what we know. You’d only have to make adjustments in motivations, something like Luke’s existence profoundly triggering the remorse Vader still feels for betraying Anakin Skywalker (or whatever Skywalker Sr’s name would’ve ended up being).

This probably occurred to many other people long ago (I’m aware there’s a whole other thread devoted to this specific “what if,” lol), but somehow I’d always taken it for granted that if Vader remained a separate character from Skywalker Sr. then the plot would’ve had to have taken a much different direction, but the more I think about it, the plots for both ESB and ROTJ don’t actually have to change much at all.

Barfolomew said:

First off, I must say it’s amusing and interesting how much mileage we’ve gotten out of the words “orbital bombardment” from a single line! But I think we’ve come to a mutual understanding of sorts, we more or less agree:

• Certainly Leigh Brackett, at the least, wrote murderous intent into Darth Vader in the first half of her draft.
• Subsequent drafts show an evolution playing this aspect down.
• By the final script they’ve got it to a point where for many viewers (like me!) they’ve successfully rid the script of any overt murderous motivation…
• But Lucas and Kasdan have perhaps underestimated that many other viewers (like you!) may still take the term “orbital bombardment” to specifically reference a plan of guaranteed eradication of the rebels, including Luke.
• I think we agree that even if we go with the most uncharitable read of this scene, it’s at worst a very minor flaw in a masterpiece of genre cinema.

Works for me!

Yeah, that’s a good summary. I agree with everything you say here.

Regarding the “orbital bombardment” line - maybe I read too much into it, but I always took General Veers’ line to strongly imply that Vader must have previously ordered Veers to bomb the base from orbit. In my reading of the scene, it makes more sense that Veers brings up the infeasibility of bombardment because Vader had earlier ordered Veers to carry it out. And more significantly, Vader orders Veers to prepare for a surface assault only after Veers explains that bombardment from space is infeasible. (I admit this is muddled somewhat because earlier on the bridge Vader had already ordered Veers to prepare his troops. But I always interpreted that line as more of a generic order to have troops standing by ready for deployment just in case.)

Also - you brought up earlier how a lot of the plot mechanics surrounding Hoth are designed to setup an excuse to have a visually awesome ground battle. I agree with this. But then why do we even need the scene where Ozzel messes up Vader’s plans? The excuse for a cool ground battle should be trivially easy to write if you know about the ending twist. Vader should demand a ground invasion as Plan A because he wants to capture Luke alive. The whole business with Ozzel coming out of hyperspace early, forcing Vader to adjust plans, simply muddles this whole issue. But it makes sense once we realize that Vader’s motivation was originally just to kill Luke, but Lucas/Kasdan needed some excuse to have a cool ground battle with impractically awesome AT-AT walkers. (To be fair, even without the ending twist, the Hoth ground battle could be justified simply by the Rebels’ discovery of the probe droid prompting them to raise the shield.)

Ironically, in Brackett’s draft (page 40), no reason for the ground invasion is provided. (Also there is no Imperial probe droid - Vader finds the location of the Rebel base on page 21 by interrogating some alien smuggler.) It’s implied that the “ice castle” that the Rebels use as a base is somehow immune to orbital weapons. Maybe at some point, Kasdan/Lucas/whoever decided they needed to explicitly justify the ground invasion, (Kasdan’s writing for ESB is more military sci-fi than Brackett’s more fantasy-heavy style) so they developed the “Ozzel excuse”. This ironically became unnecessary once the ending twist was decided. (But Ozzel’s death is such a cool scene, establishing Vader’s infamous habit of casually murdering underlings when they mess up, so I’m glad the scene exists.)

Anyway, I think the earlier drafts strongly support the interpretation that Vader ordered the bombardment and intended to kill Luke, which is why I always felt something was a bit off about Vader’s motivations.

Basically what I’m saying is that there’s no reason at all this story wasn’t still heading toward Vader’s redemption regardless. Certainly it majorly effects the backstory, but the general sequence of events in ROTJ’s plot don’t have to be overwritten from what we know. You’d only have to make adjustments in motivations, something like Luke’s existence profoundly triggering the remorse Vader still feels for betraying Anakin Skywalker (or whatever Skywalker Sr’s name would’ve ended up being).

You’re probably correct. Even in Brackett’s draft, there are some hints of nuance in Vader’s portrayal. Brackett’s draft also depicts tension between Vader and the Emperor (page 71 and 90), which is an obvious setup for Vader to later betray his master. And of course, there’s precedent in earlier drafts of a black knight that makes a last minute turn to good. But the thing that really started me on this whole tangent was that in Brackett’s draft, Vader definitely, indisputably, unambiguously tries to murder Luke by force choking him from a distance (page 45) - an event that Luke barely survives due to a fortunately timed jump to hyperspace. And my primary point is that Vader’s desire to kill Luke seems to have made its way into Act I of Empire Strikes Back as a vestigial remnant, in the form of Vader’s attempt to destroy the entire Rebel base from orbit.

I also suspect a related vestigial plot remnant is to be found in the general weirdness surrounding Vader’s conversation with the Emperor. This brings up the question of what exactly Vader knows about Luke and when, what the Emperor knows, and at what point Vader decides to use Luke to overthrow the Emperor. To me, Act I of ESB seems to imply that Vader is just straightforwardly carrying out orders to kill Luke and the other rebels. Vader openly throws around the name “Skywalker” in front of his crew. But when speaking to the Emperor, Vader is very cagey and downplays Luke as a threat, suggesting either subterfuge on Vader’s part, or perhaps merely an attempt to downplay his failure to kill Luke.

In Brackett’s draft, the Emperor scene is the turning point in Vader’s motivation, where he now wants to capture/convert instead of kill Luke, to overthrow the Emperor. In Kasdan’s drafts and the actual film, the Emperor suggests converting Luke at the prompting of Vader, whereas in Brackett’s draft, the Emperor firmly wants Luke dead (page 71) but Vader secretly decides to use Luke to overthrow the Emperor (page 91) after sensing that Luke is becoming powerful. Either way, the Emperor scene functions as a pivotal turning point in the script for Vader’s motivation, and explains why Vader was originally trying to kill Luke in Act I, but then changed to trying to convert Luke. But the ending twist nullifies this scene’s function as a turning point, since the twist implies Vader always wanted to secretly capture Luke, even before speaking with the Emperor. The Emperor doesn’t really tell Vader anything he doesn’t already know. It seems to be public knowledge that Luke is a Skywalker, and the Emperor mentions “the son of Skywalker” as if Vader already knows Luke is his son. So the scene loses much of its original purpose when viewed post-twist, functioning mostly as a way to simply introduce the Emperor as a character for later movies, and to setup/mislead the audience about Vader’s intentions on Bespin. (The altered 2004 Blu-ray dialogue tries to better clarify the situation, albeit in a very clumsy way. Vader asks “how is this possible?” after the Emperor claims Luke is Anakin’s son. This implies either that Vader is very transparently playing dumb or is actually clueless/unsure about Luke at this point. The latter possibility would restore the scene’s function as a turning point for Vader, since Vader is now discovering/confirming for the first time that Luke is his offspring. I wonder if Lucas changed the dialogue here because he realized it makes no sense that Vader was trying to kill Luke in Act I if Vader had always known Luke was his offspring.)

Finally, the lightsaber battle on Bespin also may have some traces of earlier plot mechanics. The lightsaber battle plays out like Vader really IS trying to freeze Luke in carbonite so Luke can be transported to the Emperor. (Vader uses the Force to flip the “on switch” to the carbon freezing device after knocking Luke into the chamber.) But after the twist, it’s kind of unclear what exactly Vader was trying to achieve by freezing Luke in carbonite. It can be interpreted in many ways: (A) Vader initially intended to obey the Emperor and bring Luke to him, but changed his mind after seeing that Luke was powerful and/or after unexpectedly feeling affection towards Luke; (B) Vader was trying to freeze Luke in order to transport him somewhere away from the Emperor where Vader could privately train/convert Luke; or (C ) Vader didn’t intend to reveal his identity to Luke at all on Bespin - because it’s a lot easier to convert someone to the Dark Side when they’re mad at you for killing their father - but after Vader failed to make any progress and Luke was cornered, Vader gambled (unsuccessfully) that revealing his identity as Luke’s father would at least buy him some form of tentative loyalty from Luke. In any case, I get the sense the writers didn’t actually have a solid idea in their minds to explain Vader’s attempts to freeze Luke, apart from the dramatic story-telling requirement to mislead the audience before the big reveal. This ambiguity may be traceable to Brackett’s draft (page 116), where there is no carbon freezing chamber at all on Bespin, and Vader is just straightforwardly trying to convert Luke to the Dark Side in order to overthrow the Emperor.

My point is just that the final script contains vestigial traces of changing motivations and relationships from earlier drafts throughout the writing process, revealing a more muddled story, rather than the straightforward story we all have in our heads, where Vader wants Luke for his own secret purpose and is not aligned with the Emperor on this issue from the very beginning of the movie. If the ending twist had existed since the very first drafts, the whole Hoth sequence would probably be written differently such that Vader explicitly orders a ground invasion as Plan A, specifically instructs his generals to capture Luke alive, and perhaps treats Luke’s last name as privileged information so that efforts to capture Luke alive fly under the Emperor’s radar.

The film is still a masterpiece. The criticism I have here is something only us overly analytical fans would notice or care about - but I find the topic interesting because it’s a window into the evolving story behind the scenes.

Vader should never have been made Luke’s father. It shrinks the galaxy.

Channel72 said:
My point is just that the final script contains vestigial traces of changing motivations and relationships from earlier drafts throughout the writing process, revealing a more muddled story, rather than the straightforward story we all have in our heads, where Vader wants Luke for his own secret purpose and is not aligned with the Emperor on this issue from the very beginning of the movie. If the ending twist had existed since the very first drafts, the whole Hoth sequence would probably be written differently
Channel72 said:
but I find the topic interesting because it’s a window into the evolving story behind the scenes.

I took some time to think before responding because there’s been a broader point on my mind that I couldn’t quite put my finger on during our debates over relative minutiae, and I didn’t want to keep arguing about trees when it’s the forest that’s really nagging at me.

I think it’s that I’m wary of us assigning too much authority to Leigh Brackett’s draft as The State of The Star Wars Storyline Circa 1978, which is something I think fans have been doing since even before it got put on the web. There’s a tendency to regard the Brackett draft as “the way it was going to be” and that subsequent drafts sort of retroactively applied changes to its baseline, rather than it being an interpretation of Lucas’s storyline that he rejected because it got it all wrong. Like I’m pretty sure after she died Lucas put her draft in a drawer and never consulted it again, by all accounts when he got on the script himself it was a page one rewrite.

I think I was reflexively pushing back against what I perceived was tacit acceptance of the Brackett draft’s depictions and the notion that subsequent drafts were a retcon, when I feel pretty strongly from the available material that Brackett’s draft reflected a misunderstanding of Lucas’s intentions and that his subsequent drafts were a correction.

This is all actually sort of beside the point you were trying to make - even assuming I’m right, it’s certainly still possible that just having her draft fresh in his mind could subconsciously influence how Lucas set up certain scenes, misunderstanding or not. And while I still don’t personally see any real issue with the story’s integrity in the finished film, it’s probably good that I realize what the bush I was beating around actually was before I let it drag me into any more pedantic arguments, lol!

^ Well, you might be right about how Lucas perceived Brackett’s draft. I mean, at the very least, we know he was unsatisfied enough with it to rewrite from scratch. But if Lucas’ later Star Wars movies are anything to go by, there’s one aspect of Brackett’s draft that is quintessentially Lucas - even more so than Kasdan’s later drafts. I’m talking about the whole idea of how one falls to the Dark Side.

One issue I always had with Return of the Jedi was that I never really bought into the idea that Luke was at risk of turning evil. I love the whole Throne Room sequence with the Emperor, but I always questioned how the Emperor believed he had any chance of converting Luke. In fact, there’s little in the first two OT movies that really explores exactly how someone falls to the Dark Side. Yoda says that anger, aggression, etc. are the path to the Dark Side, that the Dark Side is perhaps quicker and easier, more seductive, but the actual process is left mostly to the imagination. Through later material, like ROTJ and the Prequels, we learn that the actual process of converting someone to the Dark Side basically involves really pissing them off and forcing them to act violently out of anger. This is what Vader does in ROTJ, and it almost works - but Luke manages to regain control of his rage.

The problem is that Vader being Luke’s father muddles this whole process. Luke loves his father - that’s the whole point - so the usual “Dark Side conversion therapy” doesn’t work. And not only does it not work on Luke, we have little reason to believe it really could have ever worked. But… if Vader wasn’t Luke’s father - if instead, Vader murdered Luke’s father - then Vader and the Emperor would have a lot more to work with in terms of converting Luke.

And this is exactly what we see play out in Brackett’s draft. The Luke vs. Vader fight in Brackett’s draft reads almost like a scene from the Prequels, with Vader taunting Luke about his murdered father, trying to make Luke angry enough to start using the Dark Side. And Vader’s tactics almost work - but Luke throws himself down the Cloud City ventilation shaft at the last minute. This whole sequence plays out exactly the way George Lucas seems to envision the “Dark Side conversion process”, as seen in later movies like ROTJ and the Prequels. So Brackett seemed to have a really good handle on the whole Force mythology and how the Dark Side works.

But when Vader became Luke’s father, this whole process became much more complex and muddled. If Vader’s goal was to convert Luke to the Dark Side, it makes little sense to reveal his identity as Luke’s father. From Vader’s perspective, it would be much easier to harness Luke’s anger if Luke believed Vader murdered his father, than it would be if Luke knew the truth that Vader IS Anakin Skywalker. This knowledge might trigger positive emotions in Luke, like affection or even love - which is exactly what happens. Now, I think ultimately the twist makes for a much more compelling story. (I’m not one of those fans that dislikes the big twist in ESB.) But it comes at the cost of muddling the whole Dark Side conversion mythology, and it makes the Emperor’s attempt to convert Luke in ROTJ seem like a long shot.

But the point is, later movies reveal that Brackett really nailed Lucas’ ideas about how the Dark Side works, and how one can fall to the Dark Side via embracing anger. And I think this was lost in later drafts of ESB. Vader has a few lines about “giving in to hatred” while fighting Luke on Bespin, but it’s all sort of deflated once Vader reveals he never actually wronged Luke (by killing his father), and in fact, actually IS his father. It also lessens the stakes during the final battle in ROTJ, because there’s much less the Emperor has to work with to make Luke turn evil. Still, I think it was worth it - because the twist in ESB is just too awesome to leave on the cutting floor.

There’s also some concept art by McQuarrie based on ideas exclusive to Brackett’s draft. So Brackett’s ideas at least got far along enough in the production process that McQuarrie created some art based on these ideas (or maybe it was the other way around and Brackett based ideas on some of McQuarrie’s available concept art). Ironically, even though Lucas famously hated Brackett’s draft, her draft gives me stronger vibes of “Prequel era Lucas” (i.e. the real Lucas) than Kasdan’s stuff.

Anyway, it would be nice to be able to read the 2nd draft of ESB, which Lucas wrote after reading Brackett’s draft. This would shed some light on the transitional stage of the script after Brackett but before Kasdan/Lucas ironed out Vader’s role. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to find a legit scan of the 2nd draft anywhere online.

According to the “Icons Unearthed” documentary, Lucas came up with the “Vader is Luke’s father” idea before Brackett’s draft was written, which is interesting. I assume that for whatever reason, he didn’t tell her—maybe the idea hadn’t been 100% finalized by that point? Though I haven’t actually seen the documentary (I’m just going off what I’ve heard from others), so although it’s clear that he had come up with the twist before Brackett’s script, I don’t know how finalized the idea was. I suppose it’s also possible that Brackett knew about the twist but ignored it, but it doesn’t seem likely that she’d ignore such a major plot point.

Also interesting is that the Kaminoans were basically recycled from this draft, which has similar aliens on Bespin. They’re described as having a similar appearance, they ride flying whale creatures, and IIRC their use of saber-darts (including the term itself) was an idea taken from this draft. It’s entirely possible that the Kaminoan city was inspired by Cloud City too, what with its similar appearance. It’s unclear whether all of this was Lucas’s concept, or if it was Brackett’s concept that he borrowed. However, if Lucas couldn’t be bothered to tell Brackett about the Vader father twist, it seems unlikely that this was one of Lucas’s ideas—unless this was a concept that Lucas (or McQuarrie) had come up with much earlier. So even if Lucas considered Brackett’s script flawed, assuming the Bespin aliens were her idea, he still was willing to borrow some concepts from it.

Channel72 said:
But the point is, later movies reveal that Brackett really nailed Lucas’ ideas about how the Dark Side works, and how one can fall to the Dark Side via embracing anger. And I think this was lost in later drafts of ESB. Vader has a few lines about “giving in to hatred” while fighting Luke on Bespin, but it’s all sort of deflated once Vader reveals he never actually wronged Luke (by killing his father), and in fact, actually IS his father. It also lessens the stakes during the final battle in ROTJ, because there’s much less the Emperor has to work with to make Luke turn evil. Still, I think it was worth it - because the twist in ESB is just too awesome to leave on the cutting floor.

Haha, this reminds me me how even as a kid I’ve always felt the weird paradox of the Emperor’s whole spiel “don’t you just HATE me? I’m really PISSING you off, aren’t I? Good! Now, JOIN me!” If that were me, it would make me want to reject him all the more, just out of spite.

I actually don’t think channeling one’s hatred is meant to be the only approach to turning to the dark side, it’s just the one the Emperor seems to think will be most effective on Luke given the circumstances in ROTJ (and for whatever it’s worth - I know Lucas made lots of last minute changes - it’s not really how we eventually see Anakin fall in ROTS). The “dark side” of the force is that its power is intoxicating, and if you’re not a trained, disciplined professional you’re liable to become hopelessly addicted to using it for your own selfish interests (note that the movies never mention a “light side” of the force - the “dark side” is simply the force being abused). Luke is too loyal to his friends and too far along in his training to give in to persuasion, so the Emperor opts to make him feel a direct dose of its sweet, sweet power, and he fully expects Luke to be hooked and that his need for another hit (and another, and another) will override all his allegiances (“Your hate has made you powerful”).

In both the Brackett draft and the finished ESB Vader actually comes at Luke from multiple angles, at certain points even appealing to Luke’s altruism (the Brackett draft: “The Emperor is a harsh master. YOU would not be.” The film: “Together we can END this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy!”). For most of the duel in the film Vader appears to be praying on Luke’s fear, desperation, and hopelessness: demonstrating how helplessly outmatched Luke is (“You are beaten. It is useless to resist.”), cutting off any alternative ("There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you," “It is the only way.”), and finally revealing that even Luke’s precious heroic father couldn’t resist, and Vader should know, because “I am your father!” And then sweetening the deal: “You can destroy the Emperor,” “Together we can rule the galaxy,” and making it seem inevitable and what he’s essentially supposed to be doing anyway: “He has foreseen this. It is your destiny.” Frankly, between the Emperor and Darth Vader’s two sales pitches, I find Vader’s more convincing!

From a story standpoint, it does seem a bit of a missed opportunity not to be able to more fully exploit the idea of Vader having killed Luke’s father, but I also sort of like the implication that Luke might’ve come prepared for this line of attack (especially taking into account Mark Hamill’s performance): “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” “He told me enough!” (ie. “I already know, so if you’re trying to shock me, forget it.”) “He told me YOU killed him.” (The emphasis on “YOU” says to me, “Taunt me about it all you like, asshole, in the end YOU did it and therefore I won’t ever be on YOUR side.”)

Gandalf the Cyan said:

According to the “Icons Unearthed” documentary, Lucas came up with the “Vader is Luke’s father” idea before Brackett’s draft was written, which is interesting. I assume that for whatever reason, he didn’t tell her—maybe the idea hadn’t been 100% finalized by that point? Though I haven’t actually seen the documentary (I’m just going off what I’ve heard from others), so although it’s clear that he had come up with the twist before Brackett’s script, I don’t know how finalized the idea was. I suppose it’s also possible that Brackett knew about the twist but ignored it, but it doesn’t seem likely that she’d ignore such a major plot point.

The more I hear about this “Icons Unearthed” show the more I want to see it. I believe that’s the one where Marcia Lucas recalls a cheeky anecdote that George might have gotten the idea for Darth Vader being Luke’s father from a joke made by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom writers Willard Huyck Gloria Katz.

The thing that sticks out to me about that story, though, is that she said Lucas was trying to come up with a twist, and what interests me about that is I’ve had a suspicion for a while now that at some point in writing Star Wars - some time after the moment he “split the story in half” and before he condensed back into one film again - that Darth Vader killed Luke’s father was going to be a major revelation (and I think this might’ve been the origin for the title “Revenge of the Jedi”).

If I’m right about that, it could mean the decision to make Darth Vader Luke’s father was not only so he could reintroduce the “cyborg father’s noble sacrifice” plot point from earlier drafts, but also because with the first film he’d ended up blowing what would have been a great dramatic moment if he’d known he’d have the opportunity to use it, and he was motivated to find something to replace it.

Anyhow, what the show apparently says about Brackett jibes with what we know of what Lucas told her about Darth Vader (sorry I know this is like the third time I’ve posted this):

He says more or less explicitly that there’s more to Vader than he’s telling her (saving it for the next film, apparently). Whether it’s “he’s Luke’s father” or “he’s going to turn good” or something else at that point we can’t say.

And yeah, he definitely didn’t do Brackett any favors by withholding whatever his plans at that moment were, because I think the biggest weakness of Brackett’s draft as a story (so aside from not really getting the feel of Star Wars right) is that she’s clearly having trouble getting a handle on Darth Vader as a character, struggling to find a throughline for his various motivations. What she seems to settle on is that Vader is insecure - first he’s obsessed with killing Luke because Luke’s victory over the Death Star humiliated him; then he wants to to turn Luke to his side because he’s tired of being afraid of the Emperor.

I think what Brackett is missing, what she needed to hear from Lucas, is that it’s Luke himself that has awakened a tiny part of Vader’s dormant humanity. This is {his son/ the last living remnant of the old friend he betrayed}, he must meet this boy, the soul he didn’t realize he still had demands it.

Barfolomew said:

And yeah, he definitely didn’t do Brackett any favors by withholding whatever his plans at that moment were, because I think the biggest weakness of Brackett’s draft as a story (so aside from not really getting the feel of Star Wars right) is that she’s clearly having trouble getting a handle on Darth Vader as a character, struggling to find a throughline for his various motivations. What she seems to settle on is that Vader is insecure - first he’s obsessed with killing Luke because Luke’s victory over the Death Star humiliated him; then he wants to to turn Luke to his side because he’s tired of being afraid of the Emperor.

This is how I interpret Vader’s motivations in Brackett’s draft: In Act I, Vader’s is just a straightforward villain carrying out instructions to kill Luke. But then in Act II, two things happen that change Vader’s motivation: (1) he talks with the Emperor, where we learn Vader is afraid of his boss and there’s tension between the two of them, and (2) he discovers Luke is becoming very powerful while training on Dagobah. These two things make Vader decide to try and convert Luke to the Dark Side, so the two of them can team up and overthrow the Emperor. Vader believes he has a good chance of converting Luke, because of course Vader killed Luke’s father in this version, and thus can leverage this fact to harness Luke’s rage.

There’s nothing really wrong with this - it’s a good a way as any to handle Vader’s character arc, given the information Brackett had about Vader while writing this. It’s certainly not as good as the final version of ESB, but it more or less works.

Another semi-related thing I find interesting: in Brackett’s draft, there’s no “cave scene” on Dagobah. Instead, Vader appears to Luke through some kind of “force vision” and the two of them have a conversation, where Vader begins trying to convert Luke to the Dark Side. It reminds me of the Sequels, where Kylo Ren speaks with Rey via the Force while she trains. It’s a convenient (if clumsy) way to have the hero and villain communicate before their big showdown later. Although, Brackett portrays the conversation between Luke and Vader as more dream-like, whereas in the Sequels it comes off as a straightforward Force Zoom call.