The Shoulda Beens of Star Wars
I've always considered myself a Star Wars fan - but I've never really gotten into the Extended Universe (mostly because I find that the writing lacks a lot of talent, though I did enjoy the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn (I also drove my fellow girl scout campers nuts by pretending to zoom around on one of those speeders in ROTJ-- though whether I was just trying to be passive aggressive or a true fan girl I simply do not remember).
However, this article is making its way around the interwebs and I was surprised to discover that Return of the Jedi had a different ending before Lucas got all soft and gooy like reeses peanut butter cups left in the car on a midwestern summer day too long:
“We had an outline and George changed everything in it," Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.
Crystal Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.
Frack yeah! What a brilliant ending! Despite my long term adoration of the idea of the series, the ending in RotJ was always something I preferred to pretend had never happened. In my dream ending, Luke Skywalker went dark side and Princess Leia would have been the one to assume the robes of a Jedi knight while fashioning a New Jedi Order that would have been distinctly grey and Slytherin-ish (although perhaps this has already happened in the Extended Universe? I don't know). Also, the Rebellion would have been soundly whipped by the superior numbers of the Empire and it would have all been Death! Doom! The Hour of Lead! demanding a sequel trilogy in which Leia went on the hero's journey, eventually defeating Someone (maybe Luke, maybe the Empire) and eventually establishing herself as a most powerful Grey Jedi (though I didn't know Grey Jedi existed when I had this dream but yeah, that's what she was).
One of my great ambitions in life is to write a Star Wars novel for Lucas (the company, not the man himself). It would be like the Elsewhere Marvel Comics (eg, Superman Red Son), where the Rebellion would be left in tatters at the end Return of the Jedi instead of ultimately triumphant in a Hallmark card of happy endings.
Additionally, I think the Happy Ending Lucas chose to go with ultimately undercuts the science-fiction-ness of Star Wars. We have all this technology as well as the idea of the Force which, despite the less than stellar plot, dialogue, and character development, the Phantom Menace at least provided a biological explanation for it, but yet the ramifications of such a biological presence is never fully explored in either trilogy. Lucas could have used the Jedi Order to explore this, but what exploration there was was ultimately shallow with not nearly enough character development to actually make it a sufficient tool for that exploration. The Empire and the Sith are always just Evil McEvil -- the technology the Empire uses, such as the Death Star, is immense in its scope - but again the ramifications of such technology on society are never really explored either. For example, the rebel alliance has the plans of the Death Star, but no one even suggests the possibility of using those plans in other ways besides destroying the Death Star. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Lucas has a trend of choosing simplicity over the thoughtful and nuanced, much to the series detriment as a whole (yes, even the original series, but especially the prequel trilogies).
Coincidentally, I was reading Promethea Book 2 and this was on the first page:
However, this article is making its way around the interwebs and I was surprised to discover that Return of the Jedi had a different ending before Lucas got all soft and gooy like reeses peanut butter cups left in the car on a midwestern summer day too long:
“We had an outline and George changed everything in it," Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.
Crystal Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.
Frack yeah! What a brilliant ending! Despite my long term adoration of the idea of the series, the ending in RotJ was always something I preferred to pretend had never happened. In my dream ending, Luke Skywalker went dark side and Princess Leia would have been the one to assume the robes of a Jedi knight while fashioning a New Jedi Order that would have been distinctly grey and Slytherin-ish (although perhaps this has already happened in the Extended Universe? I don't know). Also, the Rebellion would have been soundly whipped by the superior numbers of the Empire and it would have all been Death! Doom! The Hour of Lead! demanding a sequel trilogy in which Leia went on the hero's journey, eventually defeating Someone (maybe Luke, maybe the Empire) and eventually establishing herself as a most powerful Grey Jedi (though I didn't know Grey Jedi existed when I had this dream but yeah, that's what she was).
One of my great ambitions in life is to write a Star Wars novel for Lucas (the company, not the man himself). It would be like the Elsewhere Marvel Comics (eg, Superman Red Son), where the Rebellion would be left in tatters at the end Return of the Jedi instead of ultimately triumphant in a Hallmark card of happy endings.
Additionally, I think the Happy Ending Lucas chose to go with ultimately undercuts the science-fiction-ness of Star Wars. We have all this technology as well as the idea of the Force which, despite the less than stellar plot, dialogue, and character development, the Phantom Menace at least provided a biological explanation for it, but yet the ramifications of such a biological presence is never fully explored in either trilogy. Lucas could have used the Jedi Order to explore this, but what exploration there was was ultimately shallow with not nearly enough character development to actually make it a sufficient tool for that exploration. The Empire and the Sith are always just Evil McEvil -- the technology the Empire uses, such as the Death Star, is immense in its scope - but again the ramifications of such technology on society are never really explored either. For example, the rebel alliance has the plans of the Death Star, but no one even suggests the possibility of using those plans in other ways besides destroying the Death Star. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Lucas has a trend of choosing simplicity over the thoughtful and nuanced, much to the series detriment as a whole (yes, even the original series, but especially the prequel trilogies).
Coincidentally, I was reading Promethea Book 2 and this was on the first page: