Promus

Wow, I'm glad I could come up with an idea that you liked!

Yoda doesn't have to already be on Dagobah; depending on how the events play out across your three prequels, he certainly wouldn't be on Dagobah during the Clone Wars (but he'd still remain unseen). You could hear in passing about where Yoda is - he led a glorious battle on so-and-so planet, etc.

I'm not sure the Jedi have to be demonized in the prequels, though; that's one of the things I didn't like in the "official" prequels (although the prequels handled it very awkwardly). In fact, making the Jedi "less-than-good" weakens the effect of the Empire, which is supposed to be truly evil. I think the Jedi should remain paragons of virtue, even as they're being hunted down and destroyed one by one. It certainly makes the Empire more threatening, that even the Jedi at the height of their strength couldn't stop the Empire from coming about. In fact, the only reason they were nearly destroyed is because of Vader; if there hadn't been an ex-Jedi on the side of the rising Empire, the Jedi might have been successful in stopping the Empire from coming into existence.

Tyrphanax said:

It's funny, because the volume is always way low on the TVs around campus, but I can always hear an AT-AT firing, or a lightsaber igniting and my head immediately snaps up to look for the source.

Haha, the same exact thing happens with me...I imagine it happens to a lot of SW fans!

georgec said:

but in the end he gives it 5/5 because of the "SW on BD!" rationale.

I am so sick of this happening...

Wow! You should collect all your ideas into a single work and share it; I'd love to read what you have!

You mentioned Yoda's role, and I wanted to say something about that because I had an idea. Personally, I don't think we should see or hear Yoda at all, at any point. Yoda's reveal in ESB (and the drama/emotional context involved) should be intact, or even enhanced by the prequels. The point of Yoda was to illustrate an important detail about the nature of the Force; that "size matters not" and that it's something beyond the physical. Luke was expecting Yoda to be this great big warrior dude, but he was actually just a little guy.

I think the prequel characters should talk about Yoda a great deal - add to the mystique, so the audience keeps building a mental image about Yoda being this big, majestic, super-heroic figure. Yoda-this, Yoda-that...which makes the impact of Yoda's appearance in ESB all the more poignant. When Obi-Wan tells Luke on Hoth to go see Yoda (if you've watched these prequels), you'd think "oh man, we're finally going to see Yoda!" The excitement would build throughout ESB, and the audience's expectations (built up while hearing about Yoda in the prequels) would create a lot of depth to what you actually get: a little troll living in a shitty swamp. You're still surprised even if you don't watch the prequels, but if you DO watch the prequels, it's an even deeper experience. That should be the overarching goal of any prequel, I think.

rpvee said:

Just convinced a friend to cancel their Blu-Ray order and get the 2006 Best Buy tin instead (they liked that it was a limited edition rare thing, and they have NEVER seen the originals.  No Shaw, no eyebrows, no Yub Nub, no good sabers).

You have done a great service, good sir!! I can't imagine what it would be like to never have seen the actual Star Wars movies. The horror!!!

CWBorne...That. Was. Awesome!

I LOVE the idea of Anakin being Beru's brother! It makes so much sense...the name issue always threw a wrench into my ideas. Have you written an entire script for your vision of the prequels, or are you still just working on it? Because I LOVE your ideas and I'd love to brainstorm the other details with you too, if you'd like.

With all the fanfilms that have been made, I've always felt that it might be possible (with some extra money...) to make my own prequel fanfilms. And working with other people is an important part of doing anything like that...

Mrebo, CWBorne...we really should collaborate on something big!

Diego said:

just like when he was presented the design for the Jedi fighter and R2 could fit in there with a little bit of cheating. He doesn't care and has surrounded himself with a lot of idiots.

Who knows, maybe Lucas actually restrains some of the "computer people" at Lucasfilm, perhaps someone has already suggested to replace Yoda with CGI, only to be hold off by Lucas.

And let's not forget the cartoonish, unrealistic monstrosity of the Naboo fighter, that forces Artoo to have a stretchy neck just to cram himself into (although there's still no room for his headless body).

I seriously doubt that Lucas has to restrain anybody - the only sad thing is that like you said, there's no one who wants to restrain him!

As for the Sand People not noticing Artoo, I always figured it was because the Sand People don't give two shits about droids. They don't like using advanced technology, and in the OT droids are mostly seen as nothing more than tools that can talk. Artoo was probably "hiding" more as a reflex, not realizing that the Sand People wouldn't bother with him any more than they would bother a wrench. Droids always seemed to not realize that organics don't really regard them as very important - Luke gives a half-assed "hello" to R2 when C-3PO introduces them, Lando blows off C-3PO in ESB (although he WAS focused on Leia).

The rocks are pointless and unnecessary, is what I'm getting at.

The thing I'm most pissed off about when it comes to Boba Fett (besides the shitty backstory they made for him in AOTC, which I refuse to accept as canon when the short story "The Last One Standing" was so much better), is the voice change. I HATE the new voiceover by Temura Morrison - he sounds bored and monotonous. Jason Wingreen's voiceover was by far more badass. Fett only had four lines, but they sounded so f*cking cool because of Jason Wingreen.

F*ck Temura Morrison, and f*ck George Lucas!

^ True. Thank you. For a minute there I was afraid I might have to count myself among the pro-Lucas fanwankers. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to brace myself for the inevitable backlash to this post.

Well to be fair, he didn't edit ROTJ. Oh shit, am I defending Lucas? Someone please shoot me.

Dunno if this has been posted yet or not, but I thought it was pretty funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nny7w_eLIT0

CWBorne said:

You could probably in a sense present three variations of Tatooine: the one with burgeoning development and some authority in the first prequel, one with abandoned buildings and clear decay in Obi-Wan/Owen scene via the last prequel, and finally the craphole we see in A New Hope.  

That's exactly what I'd love to see in our theoretical prequels, but that doesn't help me figure out how to work Owen into it (if at all), OR Anakin. Or Obi-Wan finding him there...now I'm all confused!

Didn't the ROTJ novelization have the Emperor make a reference to Yoda? I thought I heard that somewhere...

As for Owen being Obi-Wan's brother, I could actually accept that almost, now that I think about it. Owen never refers to Anakin as his brother, or anything like that...Owen and Beru always refer to Anakin only as Luke's father, not in any relation to them. "Uncle" could simply be an honorary title...that's pretty common.

Huh, now my whole prequel pitch might need to be changed around...but I like the idea of seeing a pre-Empire pre-end-of-the-Clone-Wars Tatooine that's a lot nicer than the dump we see in ANH.

Based on my "pitch" for the prequels, how would you fit Owen into that particular interpretation/imagining of the events?

Also, in WHICH novelization was it said that Obi-Wan and Owen were brothers? And what's the "stuff in the RotJ novel" that you're referring to?

Sorry if I seem somewhat noobish, but no matter how much you know about something, there's always more that you DON'T know...

What do you think of that idea, Mrebo? I don't really like it myself, and I don't think it meshes with the "final" version.

Yeah, I actually like that change, although I haven't seen it in motion, OR how it blends with the other shots that come before and after it. My judgement might change after that, I'm not sure.

But the framing in the shot looks more dynamic and visually interesting compared to the "flat" framing of the original. Hmm...

That might be a different take of Han Solo, but that's the same take of Fett. If you look closely, you can see that the blu-ray Fett looks pasted into the frame; that's because it looks like they used the same take of Fett (cut and pasted against a new background), just repositioned and "squeezed" horizontally (look at how his helmet is flattened side-to-side) to give the illusion of a different angle.

I have to say, I don't really mind this new angle. Granted, I'd have to see both shots in motion to really compare them (but I'm still not buying the blu-ray). The original shot was always framed a bit flat; the new angle and framing makes the shot a bit more dynamic.

But again, I'd have to see it combined with the other shots to see how well it fits.

So wait...are you saying that Obi-Wan and Owen should be linked somehow, instead of Anakin and Owen?

theprequelsrule said:

Yes, I think he actually considers the prequels to be the superior films. Young George Lucas would never have thought so. But he is not alone; I think Peter Travers from Rolling Stone said that ROTS was the second best film in the "saga" next to ESB!

That...that can't be true...holy shit!!

You hit the nail on the head, doubleofive. Can he also not see that the changes mess things up - like how the stupid "traveling to the SSD" completely obliterates the pacing and tension in the "rescue" scene?

adywan said:

So younger George knew that the audience didn't need to hear what he was thinking to understand the scene. I'm really surprised that this comment made it onto the Blu-Ray, unless adding the No's was a last minute decision when everything else was finished.

Young George knew a LOT of things that his current incarnation seems to have totally forgotten or completely disregarded. I wouldn't be surprised if adding the "no's" was a last minute decision; the sound bytes themselves are nothing more than alternate takes of JEJ's "NOOO" for ROTS that they had lying around. Doesn't take a lot of thought or effort to plaster those into a classic scene to mess it up.

Hey, now THAT'S a cool idea!! Show Tatooine as basically being almost a different planet entirely than what we see in ANH; a planet full of hope and possibility, and then we can see the ravages of war (and the Empire) on Tatooine by seeing how much it's deteriorated. Maybe Mos Eisley wasn't always a "wretched hive of scum and villainy," maybe it used to be really nice and classy (same with the cantina).

georgec said:

But, in considering the SW property, let's all remember that Lucas owns SW, and when he passes on he'll make all the necessary legal arrangements to prevent the UOT from being released by ANYONE.

Well, if he does something like that, then we'll know for sure that he's not just doing this crap because of a neurosis or anything. We'll know he's just being an asshole, because that would be a bigger dick move than simply refusing to release them while he's alive.

Mrebo said:

That should have raised a non-digitally removed eyebrow.

Haha, nice reference! The eyebrow removal thing bugged me. I mean, I've singed off my arm hair on the grill, and it grows back...eyebrows and body hair are persistant buggers! And they went to the trouble of removing the eyebrows, but not giving him the stupid scar from the prequels (the scar that they shouldn't have given him anyway, considering that ROTJ Vader didn't have it)? Ugh. Anyway, back on topic...

I think Tatooine SHOULD make an appearance, but I agree that it should only show up in the first establishing movie, and then only briefly, for the meet-up sequence. The fact that it's in the middle of nowhere makes it a good hiding spot; maybe the evil clones had set up a secret base there during the Clone Wars, and Obi-Wan was checking it out when he came across Anakin. As for hiding Luke there, even though his father is from that world...well, some people say that the best hiding spot is the most obvious place to look.

I like the idea of Luke and Leia's mom being from Alderaan! Seems kind of obvious now that I think about it, especially since Naboo has a lot of similarities to Alderaan (so why did they bother creating Naboo anyway when they could have just used Alderaan?).

Mielr said:

^^ Great pics of Sebastian Shaw, Promus! Never seen pics of him that young before.

Thanks! The one picture is an old publicity photo of his, and the other is photoshopped from a screencap of an old movie he was in. Didn't mean to take the thread off-topic, but I wanted to reply to you.

georgec said:

Why does he do it?

Because f**k you, that's why.

That made me laugh pretty hard. That would sum up a lot...

And actually, George Lucas dying MIGHT actually be a good thing. I mean, I try not to wish death upon people, but it wouldn't hurt. I think he's the reason the OUT isn't being released; if the tyrant dies, then the other people might think, "Why the hell not? Sheesh..." and release them finally, without GL stopping them.