Promus

I think he's already raped childhoods...AND cinematic history...

Oh, did you mean FIST-raping? Oh...oh shit...

Wow, I've really learned a lot from this thread - I had no idea that Marcia Lucas existed. It's pretty shocking (as well as a damn shame) that she's been erased from history...that's some pretty messed-up behavior from George, I think.

It's SO MUCH FUN to brainstorm with other people! Especially when it comes to Star Wars. :D

I'm not really sure how many star systems are in the Republic, either; I think I remembered reading the "one million" amount somewhere, and that's what I've used. Personally I think that's a little bit TOO big, and I would prefer a number somewhere in the lower thousands, myself. And like you said, it would still make it easy for the Republic to create an army out of all the member worlds in a very short amount of time.

And yes, Anakin HAS to be from Tatooine. I don't think it would hurt things too much; it would make Tatooine's appearence in ANH less "random" if we've seen it before, essentially. That was one of the things that the PT actually did get right - but executed EXTREMELY poorly.

Plus, things can change on Tatooine a lot, ESPECIALLY if you make the gap between conflicts wider. We can first see Tatooine circa 35 BBY, when Anakin meets Obi-Wan, and it can seem a lot different from years later. Then we'd only see it again briefly in the third episode, when Obi-Wan drops off Luke and goes off into the desert, so we wouldn't really see how much it's changed until ANH. The cantina scene can still have a "wow factor," but of a different sort. Instead of "ooh this place is exotic and cool!" upon seeing it in ANH (after seeing it in our theoretical prequels), the audience might think "ooh, look how much this place has changed!"

What do you guys think of that? Let's toss some more ideas around!

Responding to the issue from earlier, RoflRick isn't trollish because he disagrees - I'm a firm believer that everyone is entitled to their opinion. He seemed trollish because it seemed like he was trying to stir up stuff. That's not an attack on RoflRick, though; he seems like a pretty cool guy.

As much as I hate the prequels, as a C-3PO fan, I would most likely murder a hobo if it meant being able to see that scene where Padme puts on his cool panels. I would never buy the Blu-Rays to see it, but I WOULD murder a hobo (probably).

I think the generalization that all Star Wars fans will moan and complain, but STILL hash out for crappy releases is false. It may be true for some fans, but plenty of people here, for example, are strong enough not to do it.

Klingon_Jedi said:

Really, one of the minor issues I had with the PT was the lack of an overarching villian like Vader (himself only the main badguy in ESB). Sure, Palpatine's there in the shadows, but each film essentially had a "new Vader". Maul could've fulfilled that if done properly.

That was DEFINITELY an issue. The audience had no emotional connection with anything going on, because there was nothing to make an emotional connection TO. There's no clear protagonist, there's no real antagonist, or any single embodiment of the "bad guys." Maul was certainly promoted as a "new Vader" (the Hasbro toy packaging for TPM had Maul's face where Vader's face was for the OT action figures, etc), but he didn't DO anything.

You mean the pics in my signature? I photoshopped them myself, so if you've seen them before then you either saw them on my DeviantART account, or my Wookiepedia user page. :)

Thanks for the welcome! :)

Yeah, the timeline thing is tricky, but it apparently didn't really bother people in the past, before AOTC came out. I'm not really on board with the whole "multiple Clone Wars" thing, because the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire don't have to be the same event, or directly related. I can accept that there was the Clone Wars, which was fought during the waning glory days of the Old Republic, and afterwards came some other stuff that caused the downfall of the Jedi and the establishment of the Empire.

OR...and I just thought of this now...the Empire COULD rise directly out of the Clone Wars, and the Empire could declare the Jedi as enemies of the state (either publicly or in secret). Now, it would take a long time to kill everyone involved in an order like the Jedi (especially with a lack of "Order 66" nonsense), which would give the Jedi enough time to form their own resistance or underground. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Anakin's wife would be part of this underground - Anakin being one of the Jedi, of course, and Anakin's wife being a sympathizer. This underground could also be the start of the Rebellion, which would explain why the Rebellion always seemed more "religious" (saying "May the Force be with you" to its pilots, in an era when most people seemed to think the Force was "just a bunch of simple tricks and nonsense"). Eventually, the Empire has been around for a while, the majority of the galaxy doesn't believe in the Force due to the Emperor's influence (he seemed paranoid in ESB about another Force user rising up to destroy him, so if nobody believed in the Force, they wouldn't train themselves in it...which is why I think he wanted people to think the Force was just a myth).

Anakin, for some reason or another, is "seduced" (NOT tricked) by the Dark Side and betrays his fellow Jedi (at around 19 BBY). Obi-Wan goes to take him out himself, in order to stop Anakin from destroying their entire underground, and of course he is only partially successful.

What do you think of that idea? I'd also like to hear yours! :)

So do you guys think that he honestly can't help himself? That somewhere deep down, he KNOWS he's being retarded...but does it anyway because he's the "Michael Jackson of cinema?"

That's actually a pretty good theory - because unless that's the case, he's just a total asshole. And somehow I don't think he does this stuff on purpose...maybe he does. I don't know! I can't ever figure it out.

RoflRick is starting to seem a bit like a troll.

I would have changed EVERYTHING. First off, I would have made Anakin and Obi-Wan be about the same age, since Sebastian Shaw and Alec Guinness were around the same age, as well. I would have put the Clone Wars as ending much earlier - old EU sources established the Clone Wars ending 35 years before ANH - plenty of time for the Jedi to fall into myth.

The Clone Wars themselves I would change. When I was younger, I always assumed that the Clone Wars were fought over the sensitive issue of cloning, while the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn suggested that the clones were an outside menace that the Republic and the Jedi fought against. Also, the Mandalorians were established as the "bad guys" in the Clone Wars as well, in early EU material (and in the ESB novelization). The Republic doesn't need a clone army...just recruit like ten guys from each of the 1 million planets in the Republic and whammo, you've instantly got 10 million soldiers. It would be easy to make an even bigger army the same way, almost instantly.

And I would most CERTAINLY get rid of the "Boba Fett is a clone" thing. Of all the stupid shit from the prequels, that was the most offensive thing to me, especially since Fett's backstory in "The Last One Standing" was so f*cking cool.

As for the storyline itself...when you watch ANH, when Obi-Wan talks about the past you get the feeling he found a young MAN named Anakin during his adventures in the Clone Wars. Who knows what brought Kenobi to Tatooine, but that's where he would have met Anakin. Maybe Anakin really DID do work as a navigator on a spice freighter originally, but he obviously lived on Tatooine and was a great pilot.

Maybe Obi-Wan met Anakin at the Mos Eisley cantina - how else would Kenobi know that the cantina is a great place to find talented pilots?

Befriending Anakin, he fills his head with tales of glory, and war, and the wonder of the Force, all of which eclipsed the monotony of his safe, boring little life. Against the wishes of his brother, Owen, Anakin leaves the family farm and all of its mundane responsibilities to fight in the Clone Wars, "on some damn fool idealistic crusade" and hopefully return as a Jedi.

But he never does return. Instead, Obi-Wan comes back with a baby, a tragic story and an empty apology. The baby being all that's left of his brother, Owen raises him, hoping never to send him along to share his father's fate.

When Obi-Wan returns, lightsaber in hand, to "Begin the young lad's training" Owen realizes the old wizard thinks himself a warrior and exile, and views the child as a weapon he's forging for a future continued battle.

Dead set against continuing this cycle of exploitation, Owen banishes Ben from his home. But the old man waits, knowing the call to action will come.

The screencaps of the Emperor's guards brandishing their pikes at Vader - what scene is that from?!? It looks REALLY interesting!! Awesome to see the guards with their force pikes ready to strike. And it's nice to see that Koo Stark's scenes are featured (since I'm somewhat of a fanboy of hers).

As for the Darth Maul as Grievous thing...although I think it doesn't matter because the prequels aren't canon anyways, it would have added much-needed dramatic and emotional depth to Grievous' character (because otherwise he just comes out of nowhere), ESPECIALLY for Obi-Wan. Not to mention Grievous is supposed to be a "precursor" of sorts to Vader's cybernetics...and Palpatine bringing back both of his apprentices with cybernetics would be an interesting recurring theme. I remember some comic somewhere that showed a cybernetic Maul, and he had legs similar to Grievous...maybe his design was based on early concept drawings for Grievous/Resurrected Maul?

Well I don't want to start yet another argument between fans, I just wanted to know if anyone had any theories as to WHY he does what he does, despite the fact that he's surely aware of all this backlash. Hell, he was even spotted wearing that "Han Shot First" shirt that one time...

Glad you like my sig, RoflRick! :)

With all the justified fan complaining, and the constant hatred towards Lucas and everything he's done since 1997, sometimes I just sit down and ask myself WHY.

WHY does he think adding eyelids to Ewoks is more important than giving the film a proper color balance, or making sure Vader's lightsaber isn't pink? Why does he think Obi-Wan's krayt dragon scream needs to sound like Obi-Wan scraped his balls on a rock? Did he honestly hear that sound effect and think, "This sounds cool"? Surely he knows how Vader's "NOOO!" at the end of ROTS is a universal joke - so why did he add yet ANOTHER Vader "NOOO!" to ROTJ? And most of all, why does he adamantly refuse to release the OUT in any quality format?

I know people joke about Lucas hating his fans and just wanting to mess with us, but is that what he REALLY does? Does he REALLY do this stuff just to make people angry and upset? I honestly can't think of any other reason - I mean, there's such an overwhelming and vocal opposition to his recent "works" that there is NO WAY he can't be aware of it. So why does he keep doing things that he surely knows will piss people off (fanboys and film critics alike)?

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

What gets me are the people that will fork out $75 for deleted scenes.  Is there any other movie in the history of moviedom for which people will spend that kind of money on low res versions of bits that were thrown out?  I know we're star wars nerds and all, but geez in a normal world that stuff is worthy of being a free download.

Not to mention that a lot of the scenes were deleted FOR A REASON - mostly because the scenes sucked, or they didn't add ANYTHING to the narrative or character arcs (like the pointless Jabba scene in ANH). As much as I love the OT, the editors back then (unlike the people responsible for the prequels) knew what sucked and what had to be cut out to make the film good.

Take the deleted scene of Han and Leia in the corridor on Hoth - we're already told enough about the state of their relationship from the bits that ARE included in the film. If that deleted scene had been added, it just would have dragged on (like the prequels do). Not to mention that somehow, the acting in that scene (particularly from Harrison Ford, oddly enough) is VERY sub-par, and dare I say, prequel-Portman-ish. So I'm glad it's cut, and there's no way in hell I'd buy a bloated blu-ray release of some bastardized versions of some otherwise great movies just to see them.

I think this is a really cool idea! Although, a lot of the formerly rejected McQuarrie art WAS used a lot in the prequels.

I did MY part...gave a crappy review and rated it as one star.

Let's "stay on target," people! This is our chance to "strike back" in some small way at Lucas!!

Nobody should buy these discs. An underwhelming sales performance might actually get through to Lucas that people won't continue to give him money for crappy products.

I was disgusted. Not only does Shaw evoke so much more emotional depth in his "performance" - and all he was told during the filming of that shot was to "smile and look happy" - but he just fits better. Luke wouldn't recognize Hayden, anyways.

Plus, Shaw has a warm, fatherly smile - Hayden's creepy glower makes him look like some kind of child molester!

Let's just hope that Lucas doesn't give us any more unwanted "surprises" - like, heaven forbid, replacing Shaw in the scene with Luke with a CGI-pasted Hayden. That would be the last straw.

And I miss unmasked Shaw's eyebrows!! :(