ST Episode 7 - parallels to TPM and ANH

What if the mentor, is someone we've never seen before, maybe an older force sensitive, who Luke has trained in the way of the Jedi, or someone who left during the clone Wars, and joins Luke's New Order

 

Just for reference, here's a pretty comprehensive list from the Saga forum:

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/repeated-themes-scenes-and-visuals-of-the-saga.17156797/

 

I was considering this... After all, at the time of both previous movies' releases, the mentor was someone who was introduced in that movie, so the same could certainly hold true here. I'm just wondering if they can build up another older character to have maximum impact when he/she dies this time around. Maybe that's where they can tie it into Rebels, by developing a character there who will be the right age for that role in Episode VII. We'd just have a good explanation for why they weren't around during the OT. Or, I hate to say it, but... Ahsoka?

 

Well they did say that some characters from Rebels will find their way, into the ST, and the TV Producers, are in constant communication with the Film producers, thanks to Kinberg, Kasdan. and the Story Group. In the last arc of TCW, Yoda, and Mace stated that many Jedi left the order during The Clone War/
If they had stopped being Jedi, and become shopkeepers, farmers, and so on, and didn't draw on the Force, they, and their children would be available to Luke.
And George Lucas must have ok'd that plot point for a reason. Yoda, and Obi Wan were the last active Jedi, that survived the purges, but dormant Jedi, would have hidden. Yoda, and Obi Wan became active because they were needed.

 

A villainous mentor dies (instead of a heroic one).

 

Luke will die in IX after telling his wayward apprentice/child that "He will not fight them"....

And Episode VII SURELY ends with some sort of parade/award ceremony.

 

Maybe Luke will live to episode 12

 

Maybe, except my hope would be that, in death, Luke's relationship with the wayward apprentice will be reconciled, much like that final conversation between Luke and Vader.

And, as a twist to the ceremony motif, what if instead of a celebration it's... a funeral?

 

Personally, I think it would be neat to not have Luke die, but to have him retire to the Tatooine farm that he left behind in ANH. That could be a beautiful shot, and a cool bittersweet end to his "character arc."

 

I think we need to say goodbye.

 

Count Yubnub , the only thing problematic about that for me is... who's story is the saga supposed to be? Is it Anakin's, is it Luke's, is it some new protagonist's, or does it belong to the Skywalker family, and the galaxy as a whole? To have Episode XI end with such a scene would, I think, firmly frame the saga as Luke's story, which I'm not so sure is the case.

 

1 to 6 Anakin, 4 to 9, Luke, 7 to 12, the new hero

 

Who said anything about twelve? I don't even know if I can count that high.

 

Episode I already had a funeral followed by a celebration. I think the final celebration is a must for Episode VII.

 

If the story goes past 9, I wonder if 10 and up will feature the actors from 7-9, or if the story will be set in the distant future, and new actors will portray those characters. Kind of like Hayden taking over for Jake Lloyd in the Prequels.

 

If you figure twenty years of time passes between each trilogy, the next gen actors of 7 to 9, can be in 10 to 12

 

It would, but I'm not suggesting ending Ep. 9 that way. I'd put that scene somewhere in Ep. 7, maybe Ep. 8.

Besides, I don't think these sagas need a single protagonist.

 

It's definitely possible, but if 10-12 are made in 2021 (two years after 9 is supposed to arrive in theaters), then the new actors would still be in about their late twenties/early thirties, then if 10-12 are set twenty or so years after 9, the actors characters would be in their 40's or 50's (I think I did the math right there). That might make it less likely for the same actors to reprise their roles, although still not impossible.

 

true, but we have precedent with the PT, With Ewan, and Hayden

 

Title Parallels :

A New Hope : describes the hero ( Luke Skywalker )
The Empire Strikes Back : describes the bad guys army in military action
Return of the Jedi : describes the good guys return / revenge

The Phantom Menace : describes the Villain ( Darth Sidious )
Attack of the Clones : describes the good guys army in military action
Revenge of the Sith : describes the bad guys revenge / return

 

Yes, but I think the OP's point is that with the PT the rhyming was expanded from "in trilogy" to the "rhyming saga". While each trilogy is telling its own part of the story, rhymes within a trilogy only rhyme within that part of the story. When branched out, the rhyming between trilogies creates both surface and underlying connections between all parts of the story.

 

The thing is, George Lucas didn't exactly invent this concept. It's very standard faire in storytelling, and it especially works well as the first act in a trilogy. It The Hobbit, AUJ, Bilbo leaves home to realize his destiny. Frodo does the same in Fellowship of the Ring. Harry Potter does it. Even Captain Kirk does it in the 2009 Abrams reboot. Heck, looking at a stand-alone movies, you see it all the time as a first act. Just about every superhero movie imaginable has the same thing, where a character leaves behind his old life and steps out into a new one. So yeah, I imagine E7 will have something similar.

 

While I would agree that George Lucas certainly didn't invent the concept (something I never attempted to claim) I do find it funny that nearly all of the examples you gave came after Star Wars, or, in the case of Star Trek, were directly inspired by it. Heck, even Fellowship of the Ring was changed significantly from the book to make Frodo's thrust into adventure more urgent and "Luke Skywalker"ish (originally, he kept the ring in his house until he was in his fifties, and only then did a Gandalf come back with the news.)

But how that story element is emphasized will determine whether it's being used merely as a common storytelling motif, or something that is specifically meant to parallel with the protagonists of the previous two trilogies.

 

Well the Hobbit and FoTR are based on books written several decades before Star Wars, and the movies are based on those books. And while the timeframe of FoTR differs from that of the book, the general concept of innocent nobody venturing out into the dangerous world was very much the same.

If you want some examples before Star Wars, I could easily mention such movies as Willy Wonka, 10 Commandments, Ben-Hur or Wizard of Oz or books such as The Chronicles of Narnia (not to mention the books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wizard of Oz which inspired the aforementioned movies). Heck, even The Godfather has elements of this theme as Michael Corleone goes from an innocent "don't want to get involved in the family business" guy to fully immersed.

 

I'm pretty sure that's the first comparison between The Godfather and Willy Wonka that I've ever seen.