How would you have ended the saga?

I don't think Vader should have died.

 

Re-writing the end of ROTJ is difficult because you ultimately need to reconcile several different thematic issues. First of all, you need to maintain the idea that good will defeat evil. It's not so much a moral thing as an economical thing. The studio head at Fox at the time would have strongly pushed Lucas to make the ending happy. He is right of course. There is almost 100 years of Hollywood proof behind it. Then the same issue crops up in the ideology of the films. Jedis, we are led to believe, are guardians and protectors. Ergo they cannot kill indiscriminantly or in cold blood. So Luke could never have just out and out killed the Emperor or Vader unless either of them were to do something horrific, i.e. if the Emperor had his finger on "the button". The bad guys have to be directly threatening the life or lives of lots of people at the time of their demise to make it ok for them to die. Yes, Vader and the Emperor are responsible for killing all but two Jedi, destroying Dantooine, and subjugating the entire universe but those events are not actually happening at the climactic battle of the film.
You also have to tie up the love story between Leia and Han. The entire plot was just a small concern of Lucas, and could have been much more to the plot of the film. There is such a tender moment in the beginning of the film, and then they spend almost no time in any romantic sense until the end of the film. We get the sense there is something going on with both of them in the beginning og ANH, with their constant bickering ("methinks the lady doth protest too much") and it's brought along nicely throughout ESB, but then falls apart in ROTJ. A love story always makes a better film because it allows for more character development.
And finally we need to look at the issue of commericalism and marketing. It has been widely reported, in many publications over the years that the Ewoks were employed to make the film more child friendly, and therefore make more money. The first two films did not pander to any audience, child or adult and were commerical blockbusters. Star Wars coined that term, and didn't need to emphasize itself via toys, and fast-food tie ins, etc.

So, to answer the question, I would keep Vader evil. He is the ultimate bad guy. My parents booed him before they saw the movie. They had no idea who this guy was as they stood outside a Philadelphia theater 27 years ago and they still booed this guy. He MUST remain evil to the core. He can still fulfill the promise of bringing balance to the Force but do so in an unintentional manner. Luke and he could battle, and in doing so either critically wound the Emperor and the Emperor either dies sending Vader into a rage that ultimately leads to his own death (the emotion clouds his judgement and and impairs his ability to use the Force) or as Vader tends his master, Luke goes and manages to somehow damage the Death Star's main weapon system which can either kill the three or only the Emperor and Vader. In this way, Vader's emotions again lead to his destruction as he cannot leave his master's side to destroy Luke. And if Luke dies, then Leia can take up the Jedi mantle. Obi-Wan still makes guest appearances so he could help teach her. Plus she already has some Jedi sensibilities. The love story between Leia and Han needs to be amped up as well. They are two very good characters and deserve to be filled out a bit. I'd put Han in the Falcon instead of Lando, because in this way Leia doesn't know if the man she loves lives or dies as the Death Star explodes. And I'd alter the whole Endor experience to eliminate the Ewoks or tone them down considerably. Make them somehow subserviant to another race of creatures who are more developed or make them one of many races living on Endor that help the Rebellion. In this way you get the feeling that there are more than just people trying to destroy the Empire. But alas, my time machine is out of plutonium so this will need to wait for another time.

 

I think Luke should have more significance to the battle. I like TheGr8tBandito's idea of Luke taking out the Death Star's main weapon.

Also, the celebrations should be on Coruscant, where we can see that the war has truly end. No more Empire, a new republic is formed. The celebrations shouldn't be immediate, it should take place like, a week after the destruction of the Death Star, when the rebels have eliminated all traces of the Empire. I'm not fond of the original ending, the celebrations on Endor didn't seem strong enough, I always get the impression that the Empire is still out there somewhere (I also have the EU to thank for that ). The SE ending is better, but still not good enough.

 

"You refer to the prophecy of the one that would bring unbalance to the Force."



"Or do you believe it's the Prequels?"

Yep!

 

Everyone would have died in my ending. The DS explosion would´ve caused a new Big Bang and the entire galaxy would then have imploded.
That would make for pretty cool visual effects!

 

"Everyone would have died in my ending."

You sound like a Stephen King fan.

 

The ONLY thing i would perhaps add is Luke/Leia commenting on Anakin, tell her that "he was right" about him

 

"I was right and you were wrong!"

MeBe: I do like a bit of Stephen King, yes

 

I would add one more thing to the ending. When Han asks if Leia loves Luke, she will still answer yes. Though it won't be the kind of love that a sister has for her brother, this would be a more romantic kind of love. Han will then go and get the Falcon, pick up Skywalker and together the two of them crash into the forest, leaving no survivors.

 

I would have gone with the Gary Kurtz view of things.

1) I would have left Han in Carbonite.

2) I would have made Luke's sister a totally new character who lived somewhere else in the galaxy.

3) I would have killed Lando.

4) I would have made Ep. VII, VIII & IX.

5) I would have left Palpatine out of the story until Ep. IX.

6) Leia would have left the story in Ep. VI.

7) There would have been no DS II.

8) There would have been no Ewoks.

9) There would have been no cheap burp jokes.

10) Luke would have gone off at the end of Ep. VI on his own in search of his sister.

There's only one thing I'm not sure about. I think I read somewhere that Vader was to have died in Ep. VI, whether there were further episodes or not. I think Gary Kurtz said that he was always supposed to have sacrificed himself for Luke in order so his son could carry on his quest to destroy the Emperor. I think it might have been a neat and dramatic twist for such a major villain to die half way through a story. But then again, I would have liked to have seen Vader last at least one more episode, just so that his quest to recruit his son could develop further.

 

Zethlin_Maximus, when was it said that Leia was a completely new character that lived on another planet?

Also, I think it would be stupid to have Han stuck in carbon-freeze like a zombie the entire movie.

If there were no Death Star to destroy, what would be the whole mission at the end of the film?

 

HanSolo29 is correct.

Gary Kurtz Reveals Original Plans for Episodes 1-9

Gary Kurtz, the producer of ANH and ESB, spoke at the Sci-Fi Expo in Plano, TX this weekend along with his daughters Tiffany and Melissa (as children they played Jawas in ANH). He shared with the crowd about meeting Lucas, leaving the Star Wars films and the original plans for the entire saga.

Back in the early 70s, Kurtz was looking to use the new Technoscope technology in an upcoming film. Francis Ford Coppola hooked him up with George Lucas who had recently filmed TXH-1138 with Technoscope. Kurtz became interested in Lucas' planned American Graffiti and the partnership was born.

When the time came to produce ROTJ, Kurtz was unhappy with the story direction Lucas was taking. He felt that it was too much of a rehash of the first films with no real challenges. At the same time, Jim Henson was inviting him to produce his experimental film, Dark Crystal, which he chose instead.

Kurtz gave TPM a mixed review as he was clouded by plans made for Episode 1 back in the early 70s. As someone involved with Star Wars from the initial concepts, Kurtz revealed the original intentions for the nine films as they were laid out BEFORE 1980. Very interesting.

# EPISODE 1: Was to focus on the origins of the Jedi Knights and how they are initiated and trained

# EPISODE 2: Introduction and development of Obi-Wan Kenobi

# EPISODE 3: Introduction and life of Vader

# EPISODE 4: There were seven different drafts of the film. At one point, they pursued buying the rights to Hidden Fortress because of the strong similarities. At one point, Luke was a female, Han was Luke's brother, Luke's father was the one in prison (interesting point for some debates) and the film featured 40 wookies

# EPISODE 5: Once written, the screenplay of Empire is almost exactly what is seen on screen. The only cut scenes were those involving wampas in the rebel base (cut because of time and unsolved technical glitches) and about two minutes of Luke/Yoda Jedi training with no real dialog.

# EPISODE 6: Leia was to be elected "Queen of her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.

# EPISODE 7: Third trilogy was to focus on Luke's life as a Jedi, with very few details planned out.

# EPISODE 8: Luke's sister (not Leia) appears from another part of the galaxy.

# EPISODE 9: First appearance of the Emperor.

 

3) I would have killed Lando.

Agreed!

I would have a scene where Luke and Leia rinse their mouths out when they find out they're siblings and made out.

 

I liked the way it ended. If everyone had died at the end, it would have been Deep Space Nine.

Sure it would have been, except only 3 major characters died at the end of Deep Space Nine.

 

No no no. Three characters did not die at the end of Deep Space 9. Jadzia died, Sisko joined the Prophets and Odo went into the Great Link. Everyone else survived.

BTW I know it's off-topic, but who cares?

P.S. I really like RoTJ. I'd leave it as it is (with the exception of a couple of a couple of pedantic fixer-upperers).

 

Plus Worf disappeared too (or was at least supposed to, but he kept coming back in TNG movies).

EV, you're quite the romantic. Seriously, I would have gotten rid of the brother-sister thing and just have Luke and Leia get together. I was really pulling for them when I watched the trilogy for the first time. I like Luke a lot better than Han, anyway, so he deserved the girl.

 

ANAKINSKYWEEZER: Why does there need to be a mission at the end of each movie for it to be dramatic? ESB didn't have a mission at the end. Why does a story need a mission at the end for it to be dramatic and gripping?

The DS II was a rushed idea in order to finish the Star Wars Saga off as quickly as possible. Just imagine, the Death Star had already been designed for ANH, and the idea of an assault on the DS was something that needed minimum effort on GL's part in terms of scripting.

Do you really think that Imperial scientists were so unimaginative as to only design one super weapon in all the years of the Emperor's rule? Like Nazi Germany, they must have had loads of plans for new weaponry in development. Maybe Ep. VI, VII, VIII & IX could have focused on new threats to the Rebels, along with their further attacks on the Empire's infrastructure and visa-versa.

Just imagine all the ideas for storylines, battles and covert missions that Lucas could have taken from WWII and alike! Just imagine things like a Rebel attack on the Imperial Star Destroyer dry docks, covert missions to destroy the Imperial labs and factories that were designing and building weaponry for the Empire, attacks on Imperial alien concentration camps, or even simple massed armour and infantry battles between the Rebels and Imperial forces! And amongst it all, we would see Luke's further quest to find his sister and eventually meet and destroy the Emperor! The options were all there, but Lucas chose to **** things up by rushing the end.

 

No no no. Three characters did not die at the end of Deep Space 9. Jadzia died, Sisko joined the Prophets and Odo went into the Great Link. Everyone else survived.

I said major characters i.e Weyoun, Damar and Dukat.

 

Wow I thought you guys would have come up with some better ideas then this so far the best ending in this thread is the one in the movie.

 

What, do you mean that rushed crap thing vaguely resembling a story that I saw in ROTJ?

 

What, do you mean that rushed crap thing vaguely resembling a story that I saw in ROTJ?

Or maybe TPM?

 

I think the Wampa should have come back, Wampas replace Ewoks

 

I would've shown a montage...

Luke rebuiding the Jedi Order
Han and Leia getting married
Return of senators to the Senate building
Imperial equipment being destroyed

 

Unfortunately, Zethlin_Maximus, Star Wars wasn't meant to be a war documentary about weapons, it is actually about the characters.