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BTS How did we know about Anakin's "volcano planet battle" so long ago?

Discussion in 'Star Wars Saga In-Depth' started by darky, Nov 14, 2011.

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  1. darky

    darky Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2002
    Title pretty much says it all. I have looked for the answer to this all over, and I can't find a clear answer. I am sure many of the older users on this forum know what I am talking about. I seem to have known that the Obi-Wan vs Anakin battle occurred on a volcanic planet for years. The oldest source I actually own is Star Wars: Behind the Magic, which if you don't know, is sort of a cd-rom encyclopedia of SW. I think it came out in 1999 or 98, and yet I knew about this battle even before then somehow.

    Did Lucas reveal it in an interview? Is it mentioned in a novel? How did we know about the volcanic battle 20 or maybe even 30 years ago?
     
  2. MatthewZ

    MatthewZ Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 21, 2003

    It's in the RoTJ novel. Not sure if Lucas ever mentioned it before that.
     
  3. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

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    Jul 2, 2004
    I think it was alluded to in an old interview, or so I've heard.
     
  4. Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

    Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 23, 1999
    GL talked about a volcano battle involving Ben Kenobi, Luke's father, and Darth Vader in an interview with Rolling Stone shortly after the original film came out, if I recall.

    EDIT: "It's about Ben and Luke's father and Vader when they are young Jedi knights. But 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. That's why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it's a breathing mask. It's like a walking iron lung. His face is all horrible inside. I was going to shoot a close-up of Vader where you could see the inside of his face, but then we said, no, no, it would destroy the mystique of the whole thing."
     
  5. Alexrd

    Alexrd Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 7, 2009
    The first time I've heard of it was on the RotJ novel, as mentioned above.
     
  6. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Apr 26, 2009
    It's from Rolling Stone, August 25, 1977. Full article here:

    http://starwarz.multiply.com/journal/item/10/1977_Rolling_Stone_George_Lucas_Interview
     
  7. Ord-Mantell70

    Ord-Mantell70 Jedi Master star 3

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    Mar 9, 2009
    There's only slight indication in ROTJ's novel actually, when Vader's about to die and remembering things of the past :
    "These were memories he wanted none of, not now. Memories of molten lava, crawling up his back...No." No more.
    But it sure can be seen as a sort of confirmation.

    Everything on this had been leaked and alluded to before, as mentioned by the other posts.

    I remember in the early 90's stumbling across a Star Wars Trilogy's novels special issue in some bookstore. Attached was a sort of compendium and index where elements of the backstory were addressed. It was indeed stated again that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi fought a lightsaber duel near a volcano, and that Anakin fell into a molten pit, being horribly injured and scarred. Thus becoming quasi-official information even more.

     
  8. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Apr 26, 2009
    The ROTJ novel includes more about the 'volcano duel' in Obi-Wan & Luke's conversation on Dagobah:

    "'You should not think of that machine as your father.' It was the teacher speaking again. 'When I saw what had become of him, I tried to dissuade him, to draw him back from the dark side. We fought...your father fell into a molten pit. When your father clawed his way out of that fiery pool, the change had been burned into him forever--he was Darth Vader, without a trace of Anakin Skywalker. Irredeemably dark. Scarred. Kept alive only by machinery and his own black will...'"

    It's roughly the same as what was in the ROTJ shooting script, although it's unknown if it was ever actually shot.
     
  9. Krueger

    Krueger Chosen One star 5

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    Aug 9, 2004
    If it was in the shooting script, and providing they shot it, I wonder why they cut it out.
     
  10. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Apr 26, 2009
    Sorry, I was mistaken, the references to the Duel aren't in the shooting script, just more elaboration on hiding the twins (including the reference to Owen as Obi-Wan's brother) and Leia's Alderaan backstory:


     
  11. Ord-Mantell70

    Ord-Mantell70 Jedi Master star 3

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    Mar 9, 2009
    God damn, you're right ! :eek:

    How could I forget this...Shame on me.

    My mistake everybody.:(
     
  12. obi-rob-kenobi4

    obi-rob-kenobi4 Jedi Master star 4

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    Apr 17, 2007
    I remember there was nothing more satisfying than seeing the fabled "volcano planet" in the trailer for ROTS.

    Oh the memories...[face_love]
     
  13. Lord Tyrannus

    Lord Tyrannus Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Oct 18, 2012
    George Lucas mentioned it somewhere.

    To all the prequel bashers, the duel between young, agile, obi wan and vader on mustafar, that epic hellish lava planet, and where Vader was burned to crisps and put in the samurai robot suit for the first time, redeems the prequels from any bad love story dialogue, whiny anakin, jar jar, plot holes, whatever. It was legendary.
     
  14. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Apr 26, 2009
    Uh, yeah, exactly where he first mentioned it is pointed out specifically several posts above.

    Sorry if I sound rude, but do you actually read any of the the posts in threads you reply to? Or are you happy to blindly post broad statements like "The Expanded Universe is canon" and "the Darth Plagueis novel is 100% canon" while ignoring a couple of decade's debate and various official LFL statements about just what 'canon' in the SW universe is?

    I'm calling shenanigans.
     
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  15. DarthBoba

    DarthBoba Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2000
    Lets watch the snippy comments, people.
     
  16. StampidHD280pro

    StampidHD280pro Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Jul 28, 2005
  17. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

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    Sep 2, 2012
    I have a guidebook type thing to the OT somewhere that mentions Vader's mask and other gear and it mentions the battle on a volcanic planet.
     
  18. Lord Tyrannus

    Lord Tyrannus Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Oct 18, 2012
    I wish I could go back in time and watch ROTS for the first time. It's way funner watching it the first time, so much that it can't be put into words.
     
  19. obi-rob-kenobi4

    obi-rob-kenobi4 Jedi Master star 4

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    Apr 17, 2007
    The best, most genuine Lucas interview that exists. The last line almost made me cry.

    I hope we make it to mars just so the astronaut can say "I was hoping to find a wookie up here" @};-
     
  20. Sethian Eber

    Sethian Eber Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 2012
    In one of the earlier ROTJ scripts, Obi Wan comes back from the dead. "In the flesh" which is what it even said in the script, and helps Luke in his fight against Palpatine on or near a volcano with lava. They nixed bringing Obi Wan back as anything fleshy and the lava thing was probably too expensive to shoot so it became Anakin's fate in a reference to his backstory which only wound up in the novel. That's my guess anyways
     
  21. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    The ROTJ novelization was the first mass public release of the info about the volcano.

    The RS interview preceded it but was not as mass market as the novelization.

    Sethian Eber, the early Vader/Luke duel ideas included the molten pit inside the planet core of Had Abaddon(Lucas' planet name for what would become Coruscant).

    The idea was that the Imperial throne room would be way down into the planet's core and the throne would be surrounded by a lake of lava.
     
  22. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Apr 26, 2009
    Not quite. Vader's/Anakin's backstory regarding the volcano duel dates back to 1977 (probably quite early that year, when the concept of Vader as a 'walking iron lung' came about in post production), as shown in the RS interview above. The lava motif in the rough draft of ROTJ was most likely intended by GL to echo the duel between Obi-Wan & Vader/Anakin (although given that the PT was yet to happen and only serious fans knew about the original duel, such a reference could have been a bit pointless). Ralph McQuarrie art of the throne room:

    [​IMG]

    I'm not sure exactly why it was dropped, probably had more to do with the action being switched to the Death Star & the abandonment of the Imperial planet altogether.

    The Brackett draft of ESB also contains similar imagery surrounding Vader's home, although it's not specified that it's lava:


    Some McQuarrie artwork for ESB:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  23. Blur

    Blur Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 11, 1999
    Thanks for all the posts/clarifications, everyone. I was aware of the reference to the molten lava duel in the 1983 ROTJ novelization (by James Khan), but was unaware of the '77 RS interview.
     
  24. Morgan Solo

    Morgan Solo Jedi Grand Master star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 20, 2000
    Yeah, when they land on the "Volcano Planet" I thought to myself 'I've been waiting since the sixth grade for this'
     
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  25. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

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    Jul 2, 2004
    "We found these great things in Tunisia, little grain houses that were four stories high but with little tiny doors, little tiny windows, it was a hobbit village."

    They went back and used these for the slave quarters in TPM.
     
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