Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

So, we've all heard the stuff about Prowse being given the "Obi-Wan Kenobi killed your father!" line to avoid him leaking spoilers, but it looks like that came way too late.

From 1978, last two paragraphs:

 

I've seen that before. Ironically he may not have actually been correct at the time, as from what we know Lucas hadn't definitely decided on the "I am your father" twist in 1978.

 

But that's probably why he was given the wrong lines.

I had heard he was surprised and disappointed when he heard it in the theater. But that might have been his voice being dubbed over for the first film and I'm misremembering. Supposedly he was pretty bad about leaking plot information in his interviews.

I'm mostly amused by the post-Empire theorizing that Boba Fett was Luke's real father and Vader was a clone of Fett. And Fett was incognito so no one knew he was Anakin.

Edit: In searching for this, I found this


(this explains why the stormtroopers are terrible shots though)

This is from the Dec 1980 issue of Fantastic Films magazine



I find myself kind of wondering how the franchise would go without the father angle. Now it seems like Vader is pretty twisted. Kind of interesting how the prequels seemed to toy with the idea of reusing this idea for a love triangle between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme, which Stover used to a degree in his novelization, at least by making Anakin suspicious of the possibility.

 

The world before the Internet was pretty sad. The nuanced reasoning about upcoming Star Wars films today stands in stark contrast to the wild speculation and bizarre fan theories of yore.

 

I like that Skywalker, as he was known before ROTJ, was this huge mysterious figure that rumors ranged from being a smuggler to Boba Fett. Don't get me wrong, I think the way that Anakin's arc plays out is pretty satisfying from a thematic standpoint, but I kind of hope that the ST is mysterious in this regard. I know we've got a lot of wacky rumors about Kylo Ren already. I hope we don't learn squat about him in 7, or what we do learn just leads to more questions.

 

The crazy thing about that Prowse father bit is that nowadays, even if it was just a wild guess on his part, it would've gone viral and been at minimum a well-known theory by the time the movie came out, rather than (as I understand it) totally blindsiding everyone. I was reading something the other day where Dan Harmon was talking about how you can't do reveals like that anymore--not even because of spoilers, but because post-internet audiences are like a giant render farm that can work out every possible permutation of the story faster than you can actually release it.

 

He was. There was endless speculation about the characters in school, especially just before the next film was released - especially since there was so little sources of information to go upon. (The nature of Jabba was a big topic prior to ROTJ) I recall that some people correctly guessed that the big threat in ROTJ would be a new Death Star.

 

I think from a storytelling standpoint, the biggest benefit of the rise of binge-watching is fans no longer have time to compare notes.

 

Reach, grasp the stars? Darth Vader sounds like he's been listening to too much S Club 7.

Pfft, Kylo Ren being an anagram for Ken Rylo is not a wacky rumour, but a sensible informed conclusion that Rylo is the middle name of Ken Rylo Palpatine.

 

Ken? O RLY?

 

Good lord

 

I still like your idea that he's the mechanical body controlled by Luke's severed hand.

 

Posting just because it's cool:

 

You've now reminded me that after the opening crawl I want the first scene to be Luke's hand swirling through space like the baby at the end of 2001 Space Odyssey.

 

It's really the only satisfying way to continue the saga.

 

What Star Wars Can Learn From Hideo Kojima

 

supposedly Kojima and del Toro are still collaborating on a game despite Kojima leaving Konami and Silent Hills getting axed

hopefully it's a mecha game. Kojima loved Pacific Rim and has done Zone of the Enders.

 

Vader's cut off hand possesses Kylo Ren.

As people are watching Ep 7, Kylo turns to the screen and says: stop texting your friends.

 

I'm imagining the villain from Episode VII yelling "SIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTER!" at Leia and it is the best thing. The best thing.

 

get cam clarke to dub over adam driver

 

It's worth noting that we're also far more accustomed to major plot twists in general than we were in 1980, and we've a lot narrower expectations about how they should be handled. If you tried to pull that kind of trick today, people would (probably rightfully) be complaining about the lack of proper foreshadowing and how old and tired a cliché it is. "Obi-Wan killed your father" likely would go over better as the 21st century's version of "I am your father." Maybe that's how it'll go in the eventual remake.

 

There might actually be done truth to that statement!

--Adm. Nick

 

I am really amused by the idea of people thinking that Jabba was going to be a rogue with a heart of gold and help the alliance. I mean, it is reasonable given the lack of other information, but still so weird after growing up with him as a vile sadist.

I wonder what people thought of him back then. I bet if ROTJ had come out now people would be complaining about wasting so much screen time on a side villain that had barely been mentioned before, but he has become iconic by today at least.