ST Anyone else want to know the original Lucas ending?

What?

 

Agree except the Expended Universe was never cannon. George always said that Luke would not get powers like that for example.

I do think these movies are following more of what George envisioned in a grand sense because ultimately it's the story of a family (Skywalkers) but George wanted them younger and more of them. George also didn't want them the original characters lives to be crap on so much. Yes not everything went perfectly post-Endor but I also don't think he wanted them to be a dysfunctional broken family with the only offspring being a crazy homicidal Vader wannabe.

One of the things I do think that survived is the idea that the Skywalker clan is kind of the Churchills of the galaxy in that they are the only ones that truly believe the rise of evil was at hand and they must be ready to fight with everything they have once again and then some. Gandalf is another good example. But that is just Leia in this version. Luke is Cartman while Han is a broken man.

 

I think you pinpointed something that I didn't like about TFA, but didn't realize it. The fact that Episode 7 turned the Skywalkers disfunctional after such a happy ending in Episode 6.

 

It's one of the many (but near the top) reasons why while I enjoyed TFA quite a bit, I did not loved it and consider it to be horrific sequel to ROTJ but to be fair, it wasn't made to be a sequel. It's really a reboot/homage to the OT (particularly ANH and Empire) that is meant to turn it into what it is..."Disney's Star Wars". Now I really like Disney a lot. And like I said, I enjoyed TFA quite a bit. But it never be something I love. Quite frankly the values and story telling I love is in the OT to me. It's speaks to me, speaks to my generation even though I only saw ROTJ in the theater during its original run since I was too young for the ANH and Empire.

Tying this all back on topic, I think it's one of the things that bothered George. Not only a lot of the true mythology was kind of glance over but a lot of the heart and spunk of the OT. George said he made Star Wars originally in order to "give a new generation a sense of values". This was clearly intended to appease audiences and make as much money as possible. Again nothing wrong with it but it's not something that is going to truly captivate my soul.

I be curious to see if George will ever talk about it at exactly what he had in mind when it comes to the heart/soul of it.

 

What I really dislike is the attitude among some fans that only Star Wars with George Lucas involved is "true Star Wars" or that he definitively would have done a better job.

Just because someone is the creator of something doesn't mean that they always know what's best for the property or that what they intend to happen is automatically the best course of action.

Look at Daredevil for instance. He was created by Stan Lee and his early adventures were light and campy. While that take still has his proponents, most fans that I've encountered will tell you that Frank Miller's take on the character is the definitive one and redefines the character to the point that that's the version that most fans identify with and is the basis for the current Netflix adaptation, which has already become a fixture in pop culture. And as others have brought up, the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation were Gene Roddenberry's vision, and they sucked. It was only when different creatives took over that it started to get good.

Think of it this way: my kids are my kids, but if I become an abusive parent, then I'll have them taken away by Child Services and placed in the cafe of a different set of parents who will actually raise them right. Just because I'm the father doesn't mean I'm going to raise them better than anyone else would.

At this point, the saga has gotten much bigger than its creator, and I honestly believe that it's new stewards have the potential to do even greater things with it than Lucas ever did if we just keep an open mind and let them show us what they're capable of.

 

Sources?

When weren't the Skywalkers dysfunctional?

 

@TheLegionsofLettow

 

The Legions of Lettow

Exactly. Look up "dysfunctional" in the Galactic Dictionary and there is a montage of the Skywalkers. Anakin leaves his mother with barely a hesitation, and only comes back when he thinks she is in serious danger. Anakin force chokes his wife into a coma. Padme gives up and dies of (only) a broken heart after bearing twins; abandoning them to unknown fortune in the hands of others. Luke is an unhappy teenager feeling repressed by his step uncle, and when he discovers Lars and Beru have been incinerated by Stormtroopers, he has a few moments of semi-mournful silence, then continues off on his adventure with Obi-wan, and never mentions them again. Luke really likes his sister (though this is forgiven due to ignorance). Anakin / Vader tells the Emperor that if he can not get his son to turn to the Dark Side, then he will be destroyed. Vader cuts off his son's hand. Luke cuts off his Father's hand (well, kind of a hand). Some serious bumps in the Skywalker family along the way.

 

Yes, I have seen very old interviews with Mark Hamill where he said those things...that he and Harrison and Carrie would not be involved in the next trilogy because they were set before and were about Vader and Obi-Wan's young days...and then also about coming back to pass the torch in about 2005 or something, he was a few years off but he clearly had been told the larger plan. So George Lucas did most definitely know the larger story. Nitty-gritty specifics no, but the plan was there.

 

The plan actually wasn't there. There was some vague idea of a serial format that would follow on from Empire Strikes Back, but never any plan for a post ROTJ ST once the loose ends had been tied off - what plans there were for a ST were to follow the "other" that Yoda spoke of, before Leia was retconned into that role. There was never any grand plan. Lucas's statements are not credible on this, as he contradicted himself many, many times.

What plan there was certainly didn't amount to a grand saga; at the time that a twelve episode series was something being discussed, it was in the vein of the serial storytelling, not a grand mythology.

 

I guess many people simply want to know how many "homages" to ANH were in the original treatment.