What Luke’s father and Darth Vader would have been like had Lucas kept them separate?
Then a lot of scenes in ROTJ would need changing from a redemption arc to a forgiveness one.
What Luke’s father and Darth Vader would have been like had Lucas kept them separate?
You can find out by reading Leigh Brackett’s first draft of Empire Strikes Back. In this early 1978 version of the movie, Vader is not Luke’s father. Also, Luke’s actual father appears to Luke as a Force ghost. Luke’s father is portrayed as a stereotypical wise old Jedi character, very similar to Obi Wan.
“The Star Wars – Rough Draft” script from 1974 is an interesting read too, and certainly worth it for seeing Vader and Luke’s father being those entirely two different characters.
JW Rinzler was so taken with it he eventually persuaded George to give him the okay to do an official comic book version of it, released in 2014, as “The Star Wars”.
The official trailer for it is a cool watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0uTm-4XZQU
Announcement from Dark Horse comics: www.darkhorse.com/Blog/1349/lucasfilm-and-dark-horse-announce-star-wars
“The Star Wars-Taking a Look at the Comic Adaptation of George Lucas’s Original Script”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmNOOk5-TDg is an 18 minute video overview for the 8 part comics book series.
It is also cool to see Vader “character” essentially being 4 separate characters at this stage, before being eventually merged, blended, and revised, with traits and attributes belonging to Prince Valorum, Kane Starkiller, Annikin Starkiller, and possibly others (Darklighter is a Jedi who betrays the order to go join the Sith - introduced as a storyline in the next draft), to become the more familiar character of Vader that we see in the films.
Then a lot of scenes in ROTJ would need changing from a redemption arc to a forgiveness one.
There would probably be a whole Disney+ series with much fan service flashbacks just for that! 😉
The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Formerly Emre1601 - computer hard drives are brittle too!
The logo used for 2014 “The Star Wars” was very cool too.
Back to the OP; certainly interesting to think how the story could have evolved with Vader, Anakin, and Kenobi being 3 completely separate characters, but also good friends.
Is there any fan fiction continuing on the premise in Leigh Brackett’s 1978 draft of Empire Strikes Back? Or similar media such as an “animated comic” type story?
“In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.” - George Lucas
Back to the OP; certainly interesting to think how the story could have evolved with Vader, Anakin, and Kenobi being 3 completely separate characters, but also good friends.
Is there any fan fiction continuing on the premise in Leigh Brackett’s 1978 draft of Empire Strikes Back? Or similar media such as an “animated comic” type story?
I have not found any. I hope someone else knows of some as it is such an interesting idea.
There are some good fan stories and analysis of early drafts here: www.starwarz.com/starkiller/category/fan-creations
It does make me wonder how George would have wrote Vader and Anakin being the two separate characters in the films, and if and how he’d have used that ‘Vader, still pretending to be a Jedi, repeatedly lured the few remaining Jedi left, to their deaths’ idea.
The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Formerly Emre1601 - computer hard drives are brittle too!
Wasn’t Naboo originally Aquilae the world annexed by the Galactic Emperor, not the Trade Federation. And the purge of the Jedi was the end of the Jedi rebellion. Valorum the Knight of the Sith, right hand man of the Emperor was involved in both. No order 66, no Space taxes.
Jake Lloyd would say, “I’m a person and my name’s Darth.”
Wasn’t Naboo originally Aquilae the world annexed by the Galactic Emperor, not the Trade Federation. And the purge of the Jedi was the end of the Jedi rebellion. Valorum the Knight of the Sith, right hand man of the Emperor was involved in both. No order 66, no Space taxes.
Aquilae is the planet that Leia is Princess of in “The Star Wars”, the rough draft script for what would become A New Hope. It gets annexed by the Empire instead of getting destroyed.
It does make me wonder how George would have wrote Vader and Anakin being the two separate characters in the films, and if and how he’d have used that ‘Vader, still pretending to be a Jedi, repeatedly lured the few remaining Jedi left, to their deaths’ idea.
A time machine, Keith Carradine as Annikin Starkiller, with Timothy Dalton as Darth Vader, and I’m all in for an alternative “what if?” OT universe based on those early drafts. Where they and Obi-Wan Kenobi are good friends, yet Vader is also betraying them and the Jedi behind their backs! 😃
To me, the draft stories are more absorbing than what we saw on screen with the Prequel films; where Vader was still secretly luring the Jedi into traps and their deaths. So much that their numbers had drastically declined over the years, and even when they tried to regroup they were betrayed and massacred. The Battle of Condawn where Vader killed Luke’s father just sounds awesome, coupled with Obi-Wan later defeating Vader at the volcano pit, where Vader was severely injured and left in need of a mask and suit just to breathe:
Lucas is also on record in Rinzler’s Making Of book: “The thing about Vader wasn’t developed until the 4th draft [of Star Wars], when I was sorting out Vader’s real character and who he was”. Yet even here Vader and Annikin are still two completely separate characters:
Even in this 4th draft of Star Wars, the backstory has Vader written a disciple of Ben Kenobi, who betrayed the Jedi, and stole a kyber crystal from Ben, to become a Sith Lord. Annikin, Luke’s father, died at the Battle of Condawn, slain by Vader. Kenobi then defeats Vader, nearly killing him, and leaving Vader in need of the mask to breathe:
Phil Szostak, the Lucasfilm Creative Art Manager & author, in his 2019 “Star Wars Mythbusting” twitter thread:https://twitter.com/PhilSzostak/status/1157776519923552256 (when debunking George’s “Darth Vader = Dark Father” claim)
‘Darth Vader is not Luke Skywalker’s father until the April 1, 1978 second draft of Empire Strikes Back.’:
Even when Vader had a wife and child as a kind of cover for his secret dark side deeds, and was able to lure other Jedi to their deaths:
^ by Brian Ashmore in 1993.
and this picture of Obi Wan, by Hugh Fleming in 1994, always fires up some “what ifs? thoughts”:
Edit: there is more on this, and the pre-PT era lore in general, in this new thread:
Pre-PT era lore | an OT & EU scrapbook resource | additional info & sources welcome
“Don’t tell anyone… but when ‘Star Wars’ first came out, I didn’t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you’ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories - let’s call them homages - and you’ve got a series.” - George Lucas
It does make me wonder how George would have wrote Vader and Anakin being the two separate characters in the films, and if and how he’d have used that ‘Vader, still pretending to be a Jedi, repeatedly lured the few remaining Jedi left, to their deaths’ idea.
A time machine, Keith Carradine as Annikin Starkiller, with Timothy Dalton as Darth Vader, and I’m all in for an alternative “what if?” OT universe based on those early drafts. Where the they and Obi-Wan Kenobi are good friends, yet Vader is also betraying them and the Jedi behind their backs! 😃
For some reason I think Obi-Wan would be Qui-Gon, Luke’s father would be Ewan’s Obi-Wan while Vader would be like Kylo Ren
It does make me wonder how George would have wrote Vader and Anakin being the two separate characters in the films, and if and how he’d have used that ‘Vader, still pretending to be a Jedi, repeatedly lured the few remaining Jedi left, to their deaths’ idea.
A time machine, Keith Carradine as Annikin Starkiller, with Timothy Dalton as Darth Vader, and I’m all in for an alternative “what if?” OT universe based on those early drafts. Where the they and Obi-Wan Kenobi are good friends, yet Vader is also betraying them and the Jedi behind their backs! 😃
For some reason I think Obi-Wan would be Qui-Gon, Luke’s father would be Ewan’s Obi-Wan while Vader would be like Kylo Ren
Ooh1! That is a good call, and an interesting idea worthy of some thought! A mix of all 3 current trilogies too.
“Don’t tell anyone… but when ‘Star Wars’ first came out, I didn’t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you’ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories - let’s call them homages - and you’ve got a series.” - George Lucas
It does make me wonder how George would have wrote Vader and Anakin being the two separate characters in the films, and if and how he’d have used that ‘Vader, still pretending to be a Jedi, repeatedly lured the few remaining Jedi left, to their deaths’ idea.
A time machine, Keith Carradine as Annikin Starkiller, with Timothy Dalton as Darth Vader, and I’m all in for an alternative “what if?” OT universe based on those early drafts. Where the they and Obi-Wan Kenobi are good friends, yet Vader is also betraying them and the Jedi behind their backs! 😃
I would love to see this original story, an alternative Prequel Trilogy, even with a time machine! Or in animation, or even in a fan film. But I think my imagination will just have to do.
(the 3 screenshots below are from the “George Lucas Unreliable Narrator thread”, Category #5)
^ 'George Lucas: The Wizard of Star Wars’ - https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/george-lucas-the-wizard-of-star-wars-2-232011 (August 25th, 1977)
^ the screenshot of ‘Princess Leia’s History of Darth Vader’ is from Page 352 of JW Rinzler’s ‘Making Of Star Wars’ book.
^ ‘Darth Vader’s Original Backstory (Before He Was Retconned To Be Luke’s Father)’ - https://screenrant.com/star-wars-darth-vader-original-backstory
‘The Empire Strikes Back – First Draft by Leigh Brackett’ - https://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/the-empire-strikes-back-first-draft-by-leigh-brackett-transcript
The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Formerly Emre1601 - computer hard drives are brittle too!
Back to the OP; certainly interesting to think how the story could have evolved with Vader, Anakin, and Kenobi being 3 completely separate characters, but also good friends.
Is there any fan fiction continuing on the premise in Leigh Brackett’s 1978 draft of Empire Strikes Back? Or similar media such as an “animated comic” type story?
I have not found any. I hope someone else knows of some as it is such an interesting idea.
The fan community’s more concerned with animated adaptations of EU stories and comic adaptations of Colin Trevorrow’s rejected Duel of the Fates script. Blecch.
“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
