Darth_Davi posted:Master_Starwalker posted:The Anakin interpretation is possible I guess, but it seems strange to me that he would get that much focus when his redemption serves solely as a part of Luke's hero's journey. I would suggest that sometime between the release of ANH and the scriptwriting for TESB and ROTJ, Lucas realized how popular a character Darth Vader was becoming. He has always said Star Wars was intended to be a modern day mythology, a space fairy tale type thing...that means happy endings. Once he figured out that Vader was incredibly popular as a bad guy, he knew he had to give him a happy ending as well...thus, instead of Luke killing the fallen Jedi-murderer of his father, Vader became his father, and we get the whole "certain point of view" thing, making Anakin's redemption necessary for Luke to get his happy ending. Luke finishes ROTJ knowing that his father was redeemed before he died, so he shouldn't mourn. He still loses his father, but Luke knows that he succeeded in winning back his father's soul away from the Emperor. I think that Lucas had already decided to make Vader much more important than he intended back when he wrote the ANH script, before he even wrote TESB, which would explain why Vader could be the subject. I submit that Lucas had already decided Vader would be the focus of any additional movies...He has in interviews consistently stated that the Star Wars Trilogy (OT) was the middle act of a 9 movie cycle, which explains why the Episode IV bit was added to the ANH title when it was re-released in 1981. He didn't have it originally because he didn't think he would get a chance to make any other Star Wars movies, so Chaptering it wouldn't be necessary. However, as soon as he got the green light to make TESB and ROTJ, he added it. From that, it makes sense that he knew even then that Episodes I-III would revolve around Anakin/Darth Vader. So, while the PT would still be a decade and a half away, By making ANH Chapter IV as early as he did, I think it isn't unreasonable at all that ROTJ could refer to Anakin. By making the OT IV-VI, he clearly anticipated telling Vader's backstory, which also means his redemption becomes more significant, which adds to the title possibly referring to him, even back in 1983.
Master_Starwalker posted:The Anakin interpretation is possible I guess, but it seems strange to me that he would get that much focus when his redemption serves solely as a part of Luke's hero's journey.
Master_Starwalker posted:Lucas currently maintains it was always supposed to be six. That's not true. He said in the 70s and 80s it was supposed to be at first twelve but in later interviews it became nine and then six. "STAR WARS is really three trilogies, nine films.....it won't be finished for probably another 20 years." - George Lucas, L.A Reader - March 7, 1980 As for value, Luke couldn't have done it without Vader, but Vader couldn't have done without Luke either. If not for Luke, Vader would have remained broken to the Emperor's will for the rest of his life. The story wouldn't work without any of the main cast of characters in each of the films.
T-R- posted: The problem is that Vader doesn't get redeemed until the 4th or 5th draft of the script. All of Lucas' original concepts had Luke kill him, making the Return highly unlikely to refer to Anakin/Vader.
