had there been 4 films instead of 3 (bare with me on this)

I love the OT, its awesome storytelling. My only real beef is that Leia turned out to be Luke's sister. I can live with it, but its the only really contrived part of the OT IMHO.

I remember reading how originally it was suppose to go to episode 9 instead of episode 6, but whent he plan changed a lot of stuff was squashed into ROTJ.

I was thinking the other day how the trilogy might of worked better as a quadrility (is that a word?)

ANH and ESB would be the same, ROTJ would be expanded into 2 movies.

following ESB, episode 6 would center on this:

act1:rescue Han from Jabba

act2:Luke learns about his sister and is sent by Ben to go find her on Endor where she lives with the Ewoks. Vader still after Luke chases them there and we get basically the ground battle part of the endor battle.

At the end Vader is put in a position where he can either kill Luke, or let him escape, and he lets him go.

Luke's sister, who is not Leia would be with him, learning for the first time about her special powers.

the film would end with a bit of surprise as Vader arrives on the new deathstar (orbiting Coruscant) and we learn it is being built

then episode 7 would be basically the second half of ROTJ, starting from when the emperor arrives on the deathstar. Instead of Endor, though Han and Leia would be sneaking around Coruscant using Han's under world connections to find the shield generator.

Thoughts?

 

Not a bad idea, but I think ROTJ is fine the way it is.

 

Those are some definite improvements, Rebel Scumb. I'd go further with a couple of things:

1. I'd replace the Ewoks with Wookiees. This would give further reason for Han and Chewie to go with Luke rather than to merely tag along.

2. I'd drop the Death Star. IMO, two Death Stars is one too many. Some things are cool only once. The Rebel fleet's final assault would then be on Coruscant rather than on another Death Star.

Even without the above two changes, I still think your scenario is better than what we got. It's too bad that Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher would have been too apathetic to turn in good performances in Episode VII, judging from their showings in ROTJ.

 

I think it would have been interesting to bring in a new character (and also to show Vader cracking a bit at the end of episode VI by letting Luke go), but I think it would have been hard to use her in only one episode. Would she be involved in the confrontation with Palpatine, or would she be as much of a background character as Leia was at that point?

 

I also think it would've been a little better to have a new character arrive and turn out to be Luke's sister. I imagine this new person would've been involved in a major way with the confrontation between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor.

 

Hmm, interesting theory Rebel Scumb.

I think the Trilogy is good how it is though! If Luke had not been Leia's brother, then she may have ended up with him rather than Han!

 

Your idea is better than the eventual ROTJ as it now stands, but I don't think the "other" sister idea would work unless we had the 9 Episodes that was originally planned.

Ep. 6: Endor was going to be Coruscant, and Luke and Vader were to have fought there. Vader would die, as would both Han and Lando. The Falcon would be destroyed. Leia would leave the story to look after the remaining people of Alderaan, and Luke would have been left alone to look for his, as yet un-named sister. And no, I don't think Yoda should have died in the saga!

Ep. 7: The story would be about Luke's life as a Jedi and his search for his sister. I think it would have been a nice stop gap episode between Luke finding out about his sister and him actually finding her. He could find new friends and would have fought other Imperial overlords along the way. GL could have called the episode something like "The Search into the Unknown", or something of that manner.

Ep. 8: This was to have been the episode where Luke eventually finds his sister. My guess is that this episode would involve the building of his sister's character along with her relationship with her newly descovered brother and her training to become a Jedi. GL could have called the episode simply, "The Other".

Ep. 9: This is where Luke would finally confront the Emperor. I'd guess that Luke and his newly trained sister would have confronted Palpatine together, because Ep. 8 would have seen to all the set up of Luke's sister's character along with her Jedi training. You never know, GL could have included another of Palpatine's Dark Jedi henchmen to fight for him! The episode could have been called something like, "The Clash of Sabres".

Don't you all think this would have been more epic in scale than what we eventually got? To think that ROTJ is enough, is to think small and to do Star Wars a diservice.

 

To think that ROTJ is enough, is to think small and to do Star Wars a diservice.

Wow. As a fan of ROTJ, I find that very insulting. Don't limit your SW experience to just the films if it makes you happy, but don't try to reason that someone's letting SW down in some way by being happy with the way things are

By your definition, I'm perfectly happy remaining small-minded.

 

I favor Lucas' original plans for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 as the staple for the Star Wars saga. Forget the PT and focus on those six. They're much more interesting. All the important info in the PT could have been told through the characters surrounding Luke. It would be nice to know what happened back then, but that's just cannon fodder. A history lesson if you will.

What's great about myth stories is that we as the audience learn the history of the protaganist with him and that we follow this character on a very long journey upon completing many task.

 

No insult intended. I don't mean people who like ROTJ are small minded, but merely lacking big ambitions for the Star Wars Saga and what it could have been. Making do with ROTJ as it is, is like making do with being a cleaner at a studio, rather than aiming to be one of the stars. I myself would want the last part of the Star Wars Saga to be one of the stars, rather than the cleaner. I want the most from Star Wars, just like a parent wants its child to be the best it can be in life.

I agree totally with TheEliteFetus. The saga should have continued with 7, 8 and 9, with Luke being the only constant character. It would have been an epic knight's tale, if you will, that would focus on Luke's journey in life until his final confrontation with the Emperor.

 

They couldn't have done Coruscant for ROTJ. Technology just wasn't there at the time to have thousands of futuristic cars flying in the background. Every shot would have taken months to produce.

Could ROTJ have been more? Absolutely. But, that's the way it always is in filmmaking.

As it stands, though, the ROTJ space battle is still the best one yet, the confrontation with Luke taking on two Sith is still the most appropriate final battle, the ending ties everything up on a positive note, and the character development of Luke and Vader during this film is some of the best yet in a Star Wars film. I'm happy with it.

 

I would have Luke (in ROTJ) confront Vader in some kind of private, castle refuge on some mountainous/lava planet leaving the introduction of Coruscant for episode 9 as we meet the emperor for the first time.

All_Powerful_Jedi - They could have done Coruscant, but not like what we have today. Depending on what camera angles they shoot from and having Mcquarrie's artistry filling in the blanks would have worked, to a degree. From his early painting's, Coruscant had a very heavy gothic emphasis. I don't think so many flying speeders are all that important.

As for the Vader/Luke stuff in ROTJ, if Kurtz was on board and Lucas still on the path, it would have been even stronger. I don't if you or anybody has read this, but here is a quote at Film Threat.com from Kurtz.

"The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn't him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition. It was Vader saying, "I'm looking again at what I've done and where my life has gone and who I've served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends."

 

"I'd drop the Death Star. IMO, two Death Stars is one too many. Some things are cool only once. The Rebel fleet's final assault would then be on Coruscant rather than on another Death Star."

The other option would be not to have the death star in ANH, and just focus on the rescue of Leia, but ANH being so perfect, its hard to consider the idea of altering it in any way.


"I think it would have been interesting to bring in a new character (and also to show Vader cracking a bit at the end of episode VI by letting Luke go), but I think it would have been hard to use her in only one episode. Would she be involved in the confrontation with Palpatine, or would she be as much of a background character as Leia was at that point?"

Well Luke said to Vader in ROTJ "You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't think you'll destroy me now."

I never really got what he meant by that, Vader didn't show any signs of holding back in ESB, so I was working off of that line. As for Luke's sister, she would probably be about a Lando level character, involved witht he coruscant mission or the space battle in a prominent way.

"Don't you all think this {the 9 films structure} would have been more epic in scale than what we eventually got?"

epic? yes. Interesting? no. For me the story is Vader/Luke centric, it needs Vader. Not that I'm of the midnset the that the saga is about Anakin and that Vader is somehow the main character, but I think Luke's search for his father (both figuratively and literally) is the core of SW and why it works so well. Luke fighting the emperor is just more plot IMHO, just more battles, it lacks the inner conflict of the Luke/Vader story arc.

"What's great about myth stories is that we as the audience learn the history of the protaganist with him and that we follow this character on a very long journey upon completing many task."

I agree, the harry potter books implore this same device, and its why retrospectively I think the prequels should not have been made.

"They couldn't have done Coruscant for ROTJ. Technology just wasn't there at the time to have thousands of futuristic cars flying in the background. Every shot would have taken months to produce."

So get rid of the sky traffic. Just have the buildings, I would of been fine with that.

"As it stands, though, the ROTJ space battle is still the best one yet, the confrontation with Luke taking on two Sith is still the most appropriate final battle, the ending ties everything up on a positive note, and the character development of Luke and Vader during this film is some of the best yet in a Star Wars film. I'm happy with it."

Agreed. I'm not suggesting a change to any of this.

 

Even though he might have of been doing that, it was still very Sith oriented. He was still trying to rule the galaxy.

 

I like your idea, but take out the ewoks!!

 

What does everybody have against the ewoks? It really doesn't make any sense to me.

 

It amy sound weird, but I kinda think it would be cool if Admiral Piett didn't die, but instead lived to sign the imperial surrender argreement.

 

"It amy sound weird, but I kinda think it would be cool if Admiral Piett didn't die, but instead lived to sign the imperial surrender argreement."

Admiral Piett surviving? Don't know about that, but I would've liked to see a treaty between the Rebellion and Empire as well, signaling the start of the New Republic.

I actually had a bunch of ideas on how to improve RotJ, but it's too long to go into right now. I even had a solution to the whole Death Star problem, which is basically how if you don't have the DS the threat wouldn't be as great as ANH and wouldn't be a good climax, and if you did have the DS it would be too repetivive (which is what actually happened). The solution is quite simple- have a new Death Star, but give it a different design, more threatning then the first in multiple ways, and have it not be destroyed in almost the same way.

My 'improvements' are too long to list right here, since I would prefer to tell it as a psuedo-movie summary, but I'll probably post it here later.

 

cool. The reason I picked Piett is because he never seemed very evil to me, we don't see hime ver do anything evil. I understand that as the head of the imperial navy, he probably has his share of blood on his hands, but I'm just going by his characters portrayll. Its not a big thing, but I could see him being the one ordering the surrender after the DS2 was destroyed.

 

up! for first catch of the day

 

I think the OT is as close to trilogy perfection as you can get
sure, it does seem like a last minute idea to make Luke and Leia siblings, but they never even HAD to give Luke a sibling to begin with, so it's likely that it was intended all along, and in the end, I personally like that they're related, it makes the story more intimate and it would be terribly sad if after Vader's death, Luke was totally alone, at least he has Leia

I understand how we ALL want more SW, how we can't get enough, heck, I even continue to read the EU even though most of it sucks, but really, I would much rather have the original 3 movies in all their glory, then to have it have turned out like the PT has so far by stretching it out and milking it too much

( not to mention, they would have NEVER gotten the actors to do more than the 3 movies, especially not 6 of them!)

 

"I think the OT is as close to trilogy perfection as you can get sure,"

Except for ROTJ.

"I personally like that they're related, it makes the story more intimate and it would be terribly sad if after Vader's death, Luke was totally alone, at least he has Leia"

Luke and Leia as siblings is spoonfeeding the audience towards accepting a ridiculous conclusion. And it would have been more entertaining for Luke to have been alone. That what was going to happen with the planned sequel trilogy. He would have to accept his destiny that he can't be with his friends forever. They have their own lives to live. Or they die. Luke has to move on and complete his own quest. His own set of goals. They can't be around forever. Like life itself.

"I would much rather have the original 3 movies in all their glory, then to have it have turned out like the PT has so far by stretching it out and milking it too much"

My philosophy is that the PT isn't needed to tell the SW saga. They haven't added much. If Lucas had done it right the first time and explain those past events than he wouldn't be wasting his time. Luke's quest would have been fleshed out more had there been 2 or 3 more films to conclude Luke's story. And it would have been more believable. And certainly more epic.

"( not to mention, they would have NEVER gotten the actors to do more than the 3 movies, especially not 6 of them!)"

You don't need Han or Leia to continue the story. Luke's the main character. The one that we're following. Everybody else is cannon fodder. Besides Hamill would have liked to have continue the franchise because he's geek like the rest of us. That's partly why he was excited back in the day when doing ANH, because of all the rich and fantastical storytelling interwoven into Lucas' myth.