Two things that are VERY much alike in Star Wars and Willow are the Willow fairies and the fairie-like “Wisties” from Star Wars EU.
A “Wistie” from the movie Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
(Go to 59:00 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SghKMwhak-A
Willow Fairies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfdh0BRBWFg
George Lucas was writer and executive producer of Caravan of Courage in 1984.
At the risk of inviting ridicule, I'm going to resurrect this thread.
(Here's hoping it takes to new life better than Ludger Brink.)
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Ur-Willow is, without suffering a serious case of teal deer.
You have to see it for yourself... on my thread at the TFN forums, I'm afraid.
Hold on to your butts, it's 13 pages long and still growing. And that's almost entirely me talking.
(Feel free to read it and come back to comment here, though!)
In brief:
Just as there was evidently an idea for a SW Sequel Trilogy from waaaay back when, I suspect that GL in fact came up with an outline for a whole trilogy of fantasy films back in the mid-1980s... of which only the first part, Willow, was ever made.
I've noted previously that the original version of Willow was apparently much more mature in content (in terms of both explicit violence and sexuality) than the final film.
There were also considerably more fantasy tropes--Elves, fallen angels, ghosts, a trip to Hell, and even a Ragnarok of sorts in the third film.
Most surprisingly, it seems, GL actually shared his notes for the unmade Willow saga with several other writers... who went on to become household names in their own right.
It might seem crazy, but I'm pretty sure that certain extremely popular multi-million-dollar fantasy franchises owe a great debt to "Mad" Martigan and Sorsha Stormdaughter.
(Incidentally, as a result of this research, I'm forming a theory as to who will walk away with the Iron Throne... and also who will rule in Westeros at the end of Game of Thrones.)
“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”
After re-watching Willow after the PT the whole 'chosen one' prophecy stuff seemed to be a recycle from Willow.
I imagine the clumsy outcast would have had more of an arc in the PT iteration if he hadn't been so universally loathed.
Queen Bavmorda and Emperor Palpatine would make a lovely couple.
TheBoost said:
ATMachine said:
My point was that Lucas apparently felt he could not use the name Picts--it was too close to something pre-existing. And given the similarity of "King Kael" to "King Kull," another Howard connection seems quite logical.
If you still don't believe that Lucas frequently took pre-existing names and lightly altered or combined them, all I can do is point you to the word "Jedi" itself.
The Jedi were originally called "Jedi Bendu" in the early scripts of SW 1977. But in fact, this name is really a combination of the first part of jidai-geki, the Japanese name for period-piece samurai films, and the second half of "prana-bindu," a set of meditative exercises mentioned in Frank Herbert's Dune.
And if that doesn't convince you, then it's obviously fruitless for me to spend any more time arguing with you.
You can stack cow-patties all you like they never turn into bricks.
You're making LOTS of assumptions. Let's follow this chain of reasoning.
- A: Lucas used the name of a real historical people in an early script.
- B: A comic adaptation called them something else.
- something something something
- C: Therefore Robert E. Howard.
or
- A: The word Jedi probably comes from samurai films
- something something someting
- B: Therefore "Arik Thaughbeaer" is clealy based on the name "Theoden"
(FYI: Since Prana Bindu is a really yoga practice, the Picts are real people and Tir Na Nog is real Celtic folklore, pointing out that it is used in another work of literature means very little as evidence)
I'm with Boost on this. In nearly all of these explanations, your topic sentence is wildly speculative and you support these supposed discoveries with paragraphs of heavily embellished assumptions. Using your thesis statement to show the connections as fact does not validate your pages of supposition.
"I'm With Boost" was the name of my failed sitcom pilot.
As a geometry student quondam et futurus, I might as well say that Boost's argument has a bit of a flaw of its own.
Namely: If you skip over the intervening stages of a mathematical proof, you can end up in entirely the wrong place.
Still, even a broken sword can be reforged, as George knew. And Sigurd used his father's formerly broken sword to slay Fafnir the dragon... who used to be a dwarf.
The path of metamorphosis is not always clear to the naked eye. That's where imagination must come in. But of course doing your background research helps tremendously.
“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”