What we knew about the Star Wars prequels, part II
Perhaps I should have called this 'what we suspected.' Heh. Anyway, here are some quotes from various interviews and such that I've compiled over the years.
George Lucas, from Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of Empire Strikes Back: "... The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke's father when Luke was a little boy. This trilogy takes place some twenty years before the second trilogy which includes Star Wars and Empire."
George Lucas, from The Making of Star Wars: "Then someday I want to do the backstory of Kenobi as a young man -- a story of the Jedi and how the Emperor eventually takes over and turns the whole thing from a Republic to an Empire, and tricks all the Jedi and kills them. The whole battle where Luke's father gets killed. That would be impossible to do, but it's great fun to dream."
And another: "The thing about Vader wasn't really developed until the fourth draft, when I was sorting out Vader's real character and who he was. The backstory is about Ben and Luke's father and Vader, when they are young Jedi Knights. Vader kills Luke's father, then ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being."
And from Star Wars, the Annotated Screenplays: "You will see at some point in the future that the Jedi have the same real relationship with the Republic [as Vader has with the Emperor]; they're like public servants, they're like marshals or policemen. They basically do what they're told to do. They're not independent agents who can do whatever they want."
And another: "One of the things that will never get explained in the films is now Ben was able to retain his identity, because it happened somewhere between the third and fourth movies. I set up that this is a discipline that he learned from Yoda; Yoda told him how to do that. We don't ever get to see how he does it, but the idea of retaining your identity after you've passed on is something that Ben learned as a Jedi."
And another: "The man Leia called Father is obviously not her father. He is part of the group that ends up having to fight Darth Vader in the film that will be out in 2003 (laughs). The part that I never really developed is the death of Luke and Leia's mother. I had a backstory for her in earlier drafts, but it basically didn't survive. When I got to Jedi, I wanted one of the kids to have kind of memory of her because she will be a key figure in the new episodes I'm writing. But I really debated on whether or not Leia should remember her."
And another: "I didn't have a very specific idea about what Vader might look like underneath the mask. I knew he had been in a lot of battles, and at one point I thought that he had had a confrontation with Ben and Ben had sent him into a volcano. But he was all but dead, and basically he was manufactured back together even though there was very little left of him."
I'm going to comment on this one a bit, because it's not as straight forward as the previous entry. First, The Making of Star Wars came out pretty recently, but the interviews were taken at the time the film was being made or just after it's release. The public had no access to these interviews, so I can't honestly say that we knew the information in them, but it's fun to see what he had planned.
Second, these are simply points of interest, and obviously he could change his mind about any of it at any time. That said, some of the points are pretty vivid. I think George Lucas is like me, in that he envisions scenes and sort of pieces them together when he writes. The battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan seemed to be pretty clear in his head from early on, though he coyly doesn't give away the fact that Anakin and Darth Vader are the same person. (Also, he wasn't sure they would be or not until writing later drafts in The Empire Strikes Back.)
The way of the Jedi seemed pretty set. The takeover of the Emperor seems to have been well-thought out. (In the previous entry, there is even a reference to the 'organs of commerce'; the Trade Federation in an early, ill-defined form!) Padme seems to barely exist in his mind at all, except that she will be important. The bit about how Jedi retain their identity never getting explained in the films is a bit TOO spot-on...
In a scene in an early draft of Star Wars, Luke is suspended in mid-air by four bracelets, slowly rotating. This is re-used on Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, though in the original he is suspeded upside down and unconscious. Additionally there is a character named Mace Windy in the earliest draft and from what George Lucas says, Mace Windu is an old character, so I don't think he just recycled the name!
George Lucas says in The Annotated Screenplays that ideas are not precious and that you can't be afraid to throw out an idea if it doesn't work; you can always try to use it again later. This is really true! I applied this to a few of my stories, thinking to myself, nothing is sacred, and in the end, my stories were really improved, I think. As I said before, I think George Lucas and I think alike, and we get ideas in our head and they fester there until we can find the right place to plug them in.
As one last note, George Lucas gets some fire for misremembering (or even lying) about the genesis of Star Wars. I think this is unfair. If I may speak about myself, I recently went through my old D&D maps and tried to write a definitive history of them and all their versions, while it was still reasonably fresh in my mind. I found that the hard facts didn't match up with my memories, in many instances, no matter how sure I was of my memory. I have a strong, visual imagination, like George Lucas, and it's very easy for me to create false memories for myself. So, what I'm saying is that what George Lucas says now doesn't always add up with what the evidence says, but if he's wrong, it's not done purposely to manipulate.
Additionally, there is a strong tendency to not give poor ol' George the benefit of the doubt, especially when a person's developed a very strong interpretation of a quote, only to find that George Lucas's interpretation is very different. As Yoda says, "You must unlearn what you have learned!" It's important to have an open mind when discussing Star Wars. (Also like me, George Lucas has a weird way of talking and isn't always very clear, which gets him in trouble sometimes, too.)
There are always more sources I don't have access to. A guy wrote a gigantic document, which he has published, called The Secret History of Star Wars. It no longer exists on the internet, but it had a tremendous number of quotes and information. (The problem is that the guy had an end in mind when he wrote it and tried to slant all the comments toward that end, via manipulative writing and other dishonest techniques. Basically he had his own idea of the history of Star Wars, and the numerous quotes, which he included in his document, that didn't agree with his ideas are dismissed as erroneous; the quotes and his interpretation of them paint two very different pictures. If you read the book, beware of this angle.) Anyway, this is mostly just easy stuff. I think there may be some quotes at the beginning of my THX or Special Edition VHS tapes regarding the prequels.
George Lucas, from Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of Empire Strikes Back: "... The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke's father when Luke was a little boy. This trilogy takes place some twenty years before the second trilogy which includes Star Wars and Empire."
George Lucas, from The Making of Star Wars: "Then someday I want to do the backstory of Kenobi as a young man -- a story of the Jedi and how the Emperor eventually takes over and turns the whole thing from a Republic to an Empire, and tricks all the Jedi and kills them. The whole battle where Luke's father gets killed. That would be impossible to do, but it's great fun to dream."
And another: "The thing about Vader wasn't really developed until the fourth draft, when I was sorting out Vader's real character and who he was. The backstory is about Ben and Luke's father and Vader, when they are young Jedi Knights. Vader kills Luke's father, then ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being."
And from Star Wars, the Annotated Screenplays: "You will see at some point in the future that the Jedi have the same real relationship with the Republic [as Vader has with the Emperor]; they're like public servants, they're like marshals or policemen. They basically do what they're told to do. They're not independent agents who can do whatever they want."
And another: "One of the things that will never get explained in the films is now Ben was able to retain his identity, because it happened somewhere between the third and fourth movies. I set up that this is a discipline that he learned from Yoda; Yoda told him how to do that. We don't ever get to see how he does it, but the idea of retaining your identity after you've passed on is something that Ben learned as a Jedi."
And another: "The man Leia called Father is obviously not her father. He is part of the group that ends up having to fight Darth Vader in the film that will be out in 2003 (laughs). The part that I never really developed is the death of Luke and Leia's mother. I had a backstory for her in earlier drafts, but it basically didn't survive. When I got to Jedi, I wanted one of the kids to have kind of memory of her because she will be a key figure in the new episodes I'm writing. But I really debated on whether or not Leia should remember her."
And another: "I didn't have a very specific idea about what Vader might look like underneath the mask. I knew he had been in a lot of battles, and at one point I thought that he had had a confrontation with Ben and Ben had sent him into a volcano. But he was all but dead, and basically he was manufactured back together even though there was very little left of him."
I'm going to comment on this one a bit, because it's not as straight forward as the previous entry. First, The Making of Star Wars came out pretty recently, but the interviews were taken at the time the film was being made or just after it's release. The public had no access to these interviews, so I can't honestly say that we knew the information in them, but it's fun to see what he had planned.
Second, these are simply points of interest, and obviously he could change his mind about any of it at any time. That said, some of the points are pretty vivid. I think George Lucas is like me, in that he envisions scenes and sort of pieces them together when he writes. The battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan seemed to be pretty clear in his head from early on, though he coyly doesn't give away the fact that Anakin and Darth Vader are the same person. (Also, he wasn't sure they would be or not until writing later drafts in The Empire Strikes Back.)
The way of the Jedi seemed pretty set. The takeover of the Emperor seems to have been well-thought out. (In the previous entry, there is even a reference to the 'organs of commerce'; the Trade Federation in an early, ill-defined form!) Padme seems to barely exist in his mind at all, except that she will be important. The bit about how Jedi retain their identity never getting explained in the films is a bit TOO spot-on...
In a scene in an early draft of Star Wars, Luke is suspended in mid-air by four bracelets, slowly rotating. This is re-used on Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, though in the original he is suspeded upside down and unconscious. Additionally there is a character named Mace Windy in the earliest draft and from what George Lucas says, Mace Windu is an old character, so I don't think he just recycled the name!
George Lucas says in The Annotated Screenplays that ideas are not precious and that you can't be afraid to throw out an idea if it doesn't work; you can always try to use it again later. This is really true! I applied this to a few of my stories, thinking to myself, nothing is sacred, and in the end, my stories were really improved, I think. As I said before, I think George Lucas and I think alike, and we get ideas in our head and they fester there until we can find the right place to plug them in.
As one last note, George Lucas gets some fire for misremembering (or even lying) about the genesis of Star Wars. I think this is unfair. If I may speak about myself, I recently went through my old D&D maps and tried to write a definitive history of them and all their versions, while it was still reasonably fresh in my mind. I found that the hard facts didn't match up with my memories, in many instances, no matter how sure I was of my memory. I have a strong, visual imagination, like George Lucas, and it's very easy for me to create false memories for myself. So, what I'm saying is that what George Lucas says now doesn't always add up with what the evidence says, but if he's wrong, it's not done purposely to manipulate.
Additionally, there is a strong tendency to not give poor ol' George the benefit of the doubt, especially when a person's developed a very strong interpretation of a quote, only to find that George Lucas's interpretation is very different. As Yoda says, "You must unlearn what you have learned!" It's important to have an open mind when discussing Star Wars. (Also like me, George Lucas has a weird way of talking and isn't always very clear, which gets him in trouble sometimes, too.)
There are always more sources I don't have access to. A guy wrote a gigantic document, which he has published, called The Secret History of Star Wars. It no longer exists on the internet, but it had a tremendous number of quotes and information. (The problem is that the guy had an end in mind when he wrote it and tried to slant all the comments toward that end, via manipulative writing and other dishonest techniques. Basically he had his own idea of the history of Star Wars, and the numerous quotes, which he included in his document, that didn't agree with his ideas are dismissed as erroneous; the quotes and his interpretation of them paint two very different pictures. If you read the book, beware of this angle.) Anyway, this is mostly just easy stuff. I think there may be some quotes at the beginning of my THX or Special Edition VHS tapes regarding the prequels.