ST Crane Iron Star Wars

I was driving to the Dojo on the weekend listening to the Forcecast and they mentioned two rumors/reports about Episode VII - 1) that Hamill's part was beefed up to the point that he'd probably have to be on set for the full 6 month shoot (Ford and Fisher weren't mentioned, meaning their parts are probably not as big as Hamills) and 2) One of the reasons Arndt was removed from writing duties is that he wanted to focus on the Solo children while Abrams thought the move should focus on a Skywalker.

These two reports got me thinking about Star Wars, how similar it is structurally to the Crane Iron Pentalogy, and how the 4th book in that series, I think, can/does/will show Episode VII will work as a story.

For those who don't know it the Crane Iron Pentalogy is a series of Chinese books (the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the 4th book in the series). The first 2 books are about Li Mu Bai (Cho Yun-Fat int he movie) and Yu Shien Lin (Michelle Yeoh), their tragic (for lack of a better word) love story and adventures together. The 3rd book is a Prequel about Jiang Xiao, his own tragic love story and how he becomes the Southern Crane, Li Mu Bai's sifu who appears in the 1st two books. I think these two are structurly very similar to the OT and PT.

The 4th book, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, features older versions of Li Mu Bai and Yu Shien Lin, but as anyone who has seen the movie knows Jen Yu (played by Zhang Ziyi) is the real protagonist. Its her love story that is center stage, and her redemption is the main goal of the older Li Mu Bai and Yu Shien Lin. Both older characters play major roles, have action sequences, Li Mu Bai is the one who ultimately kills the antigonist (SPOILER) at the cost of his own life. The 5th book Iron Knight, Silver Rose (being turned into a movie staring Donnie Yen) is about Jen Yu and her son (and finally there is a love story with happy ending).

Even though Mark Hamill is going to have a large role, is probably going to be one of hte main protagonist's, could even be the character who ultiamtely takes out the bad guy etc... doesn't mean his son and/or daughter (and/or other new characters) can't/won't be the main characters, that Episode VII won't be THEIR story and not Lukes. Passing a torch in a story doesn't have to take place in the first 10 minutes only, If Star Wars (either by design or by accident) does end following the structure of the Crane Iron Pentalogy Episode VII will just be a longer, deeper, passing the torch story.

I think another thing to keep in mind when looking at how the ST will be/could be structured is, how long after Episode VII will Episode VIII take place? If there is a 5-10-15 year gap, Episode VII could be used mroe to set up the galaxy, conflict and characters of Episodes VIII and IX rather then start the story itself. Both the PT and OT does this. If Luke just plays a role in setting up who his child is, maybe setting up the conflict he'll face down the road....