Lit Star Wars Archives Episode 1-3 The Prequels

Just got this 150,-€ behemoth of a book by Paul Duncan from TASCHEN publisher and it features so much unseen pics and art its mindblowing. The text too has lots of interesting new intel, but it takes a while to read it all, stay tuned. I will discuss it and post preview pics on my social media and might link to it or post it here too under spoiler tags then.

More as soon as I got pics ready, stay tuned!

 

Yes! I’ve been dying to know more about this, especially the interviews with George regarding his ideas of the Force and the sequels. The author’s unboxing video itself made it look like an amazing book.

 

Okay here we go!

Revenge of the Sith shows us alternate Separatist Commanders... like this cute

Spoiler: Leader

BabyThrawn who seems to have been a thing long before Baby Yoda came along! Coincidence that he is blueskinned? Ok, no red eyes here but I doubt he is anything other than #BabyThrawn !!!

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Next up is the Instant-Cosplay of the upcoming Celebrations:

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Look at all these white Droid-standin dudes... I guess they are the Prequels version of Bluescreenguy from the Original Trilogy

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Next in line some Fleetjunkie p0rn:

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A much better look at the Corellian Corvette ROTS Hangar




Former and beefed up Invisible Hand to make it look more aggressive



And now something odd: Either a tiny Acclamator pulling an extension carrier... or a regular Acclamator pulling an extension carrior with giant LAATs???



TPM was gonna get its own Falcon!!!

Too late for Halloween but scary nevertheless... I give you Nude... ahem Nute Gunray:

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Then there is Spider-R2

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And lots of beautiful art, a lot of it never seen before or rare for they made an effort that this book does not repeat known pics much!

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And this next one is interesting for it shows Podrace Concept art with a giant head statue on Tatooine. Previously we only saw those for Naboo. But I like to spread them to other planets and connect them via ancient mysteries or species. Is this a Kummumgah maybe? Or like the Naboo ones another ancient race? Gods?

Of course there is lots more but that is more than enough previews already to spoil the book. There is plenty of models, maps, script pages, setwork pages and really plenty to discover and that is before you get into the text and learn a lot more from George and others themselves, which I will get into as I have read more for sure with future posts!

If you got any questions, let me know. I might look some specific stuff up when I got time.

 

Does Lucas say anything about his ideas on the history of the Sith or on the Whills?

 

I heard there was also some info on what Lucas' ST might've been, and I'm curious if that's in there as well.

 

does is say anything about a space battle in AOTC that was alluded to but never filmed?

 

I remember Lucas was on one of the old Official Site Hyperspace videos going through the Grievous concept art and commented on the Thrawn child to something to the effect of: "Does someone have a problem with children?"

 

Digging into the text I will give some text samples or paraphrasing later. New unheard of dialogue and deleted scenes included!

And you definitely WANT to see the text about Midichlorians, the Force and all this explained. Wow! Even adresses the Whills and Clone Wars episodes about the Force... and yes it ties into his Sequels that are also getting referenced!

Its esoteric, mythological, scientific, political and more...


Editing this post the more i discover and putting samples with details i the next then so this one stays my personal reaction post.


This is heavy stuff and spoiling it or or excerpting/quoting it would blow the internet I am sure, so I ask the Mods @Sinrebirth etc. how to approach this. I will not post pics of it all, I won't quote it all verbatim. Paraphrasing maybe. I want to talk about it, but knowing how big this is, I am wondering how much I can give and how much I shouldn't.



Ooooohh Rule of Two explanation in detail accounting for... the fact why nearly every Sith broke it and in breaking it didn't break it.

Oh nice... cleared up everything about Sifo Dyas with a surprising revelation!

 

Wow, it sounds like this book more than delivers! Anything you can share will be very appreciated. And much discussed!

Like @darklordoftech, I'm also very curious to know if George talked about his ideas about the Sith Lords. The author made some reference to that. And I'd read recently that one of the initial treatments for Episode I would have actually been set in the distant past and dealt with the rise and fall of the first Sith Lords. Which, I believe, in George's mind were meant to have been a much shorter-lived threat before they went into hiding. So I feel like he had a very different story in mind than what we've grown familiar with over time.

 

Oh definitely, that is the part I am currently reading in the ROTS chapter. The Rule of Two subsection covers anything from the pre-Republic times, ancient Sith/Jedi, original Sith Lords up to Sidious, Sifo Dyas, Maul etc.

A couple nuggets for now:

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Sifo Dyas was Sidious apprentice before he took on Darth Maul and that is why/how he ordered the clone army all the time pretending to be a Jedi still.

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Some ideas he posits go against the past Legends introduced as well as canon runs with. But they do make sense from a story perspective.

Some I will paraphrase later, but some I might quote for any paraphrasing may only confuse those fans that read to much into exact wording.

 

Saw nothing on that sadly.

 

Whoa.

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That certainly is a way of making sense of things. Does that mean Sifo-Dyas was apprenticed at the same time as Maul? I recently rewatched the Yoda arc from TCW, and it sure did seem like Dooku sacrificed Sifo-Dyas when he pledged himself to Darth Sidious. That he would have been Sidious's other apprentice or replacement for Maul makes that even more fitting.

 

Okay.. Lucas Sequels...

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I am not going to spill all...

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at least not just yet and the book is worth your money... but:

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Darth Maul was in it thx to his TCW resurrection and his apprentice was Darth Talon lifted from the comics.

But before people scream... the way and with detail the book presents it, it does make sense!

Inspiration was among others post-Iraq war rebuilding and and people not letting go starting their own nation and making trouble, like ISIS.

PT was the Father, OT, the son, ST would focus on the Daughter and Grandchildren both, hence Leia and offspring.

Prominent criminal elements like Hutts and gangsters feature into the story.

Set few years after ROTJ with the first movie already!

Luke searching for Forcesensitives to train, be it little kids or survivors of the former wars.

When it comes to the Chosen One... it's Leia or rather ended up being her. She is the hope and the one rebuilding and reuniting where others in her family were more destroying the old and sickened parts that ruined the past. Luke too rebuilds, but Leia is more the rebuilder than him.

Be aware a lot of stuff I did not post yet, regarding the nature of the Force and Midichlorians also plays into this and as aforementioned will burn the internet down probably. But we get to that... patience. I at least love it, really!

 

Fascinating

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I can still kinda see elements in the Sequels we have now...More in how the EU material portrays things more than the movies...But the First Order ISIS comparisons have been around since Force Awakens time

The Criminal stuff defiantly got downplayed

Maul was cut out...but I do wonder if that story will be used for anything him and Kira related.

So when you say a few years after ROTJ are we talking like 10 instead of 30 years?


Leia still have a pretty important role in the Sequel Trilogy regardless so I'm glad that kinda stuck.

@Sauron_18

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I feel like a lot of the Lucas elements are still being played out even for the Sequel era...But more emphasized in Expanded Universe Material.

 

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The Criminal stuff is there, but given the closer setting to ROTJ it will come in the currently unfolding post ROTJ expanded universe especially Mando I think and likewise offshoot series.

If you combine what Archives tells of Lucas ST with the earliest concepts from Art of TFA both complement each other nicely.

Maul's role certainly became part Snoke, while Talons also became part of Snoke when they removed her character and threw the rest into Kylo instead of showing his fall or seduction.

Few years post ROTJ, they said "a couple years" so your guess is as good as mine but I think Mando shows timeline placement is it.

About 10 seems to fit plus/minus a few years.

 

So is this book even out yet or is it just out in Europe....Kinda shocked no one is talking more about this yet?

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The Maul stuff seems to also be recycled into the Solo timeline

Would have been cool to see Maul in the ST but kinda happy overall with his Arc especially how it ended with Kenobi but that's just me

You are right also i think a lot of the criminal elements are now going into the Mando series and subsequent offshoot stuff since those stories are very much directly post Return of the Jedi.

Wonder how long Lucas kept Maul before going to Uber?

But it make sense given how much Lucas wanted Maul and Talon to meet each other.

 

Well according to Pablo's book that came out last month, the main character was initially 14 year old so the ST would probably have begun around that time after RotJ give or take. The book is already out in Europe (I'm kinda noticing this trend for reference books). Can't wait to know more about the Force.

No mention of Luke Kurtzwalker?

 

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This is defiantly where the First Order comes from. Especially when you get the EU material that more or less gives you the broad strokes of how it was formed

 

Nope no Kurtzwalker but I read fast over some sections that seemed more production oriented rather than storyrelevant so I may have missed it.

 

Despite what Lucas says you do see the arc of his Sequel trilogy becoming the Sequel Trilogy we know.

TFA and TLJ seeing the most natural evolution.

I do wonder how much TROS changed given it's turbulent production, although again I do think the broad strokes are still there.

 

The book is supposed to be out in December in the U.S., I think, but Taschen is a European publisher, so maybe it came out there first? The author did do an unboxing video in mid-October, but the only date we had until recently was Fall 2020.

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Having Maul in the sequels definitely seems to fit with some of the hints we had seen here and there. And I agree, Lucas did want him and Talon to feature together rather badly. And considering Maul's role in the criminal world, I can see him trying to destabilize the New Republic and to generally sow chaos. Meanwhile Luke is probably struggling to find Jedi to train, so they can form the backbone of the new government.

If the story was set soon after ROTJ, I wonder if Lucas had already thought of recasting the main characters for that first movie. We know he definitely wanted the original actors back eventually, so maybe only the first movie was set so soon after ROTJ. If the others were set later, I can see Talon eventually coming into conflict with the Skywalker grandchildren.

I do also remember some of the artwork in the Art of TFA showing destroyed Jedi ruins, which was very reminiscent of ISIS. Although I think those ideas were probably formulating even before ISIS became a bigger thing, which is interesting. It definitely doesn't sound like it would have been neo-Imperials, though, which we knew from the Art book was JJ's idea.

 

It seems like the major point of contention between both version is that DLF got spooked that GL wanted to go deep into the nature of the Force in his movies (hence why this is only explored in TV series so far) and the lack of significant time jumps in-between movies.

 

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Given the much closer to ROTJ setting, TROS seems rather different to the original, earlier set ending. While the strokes of people coming together to rebuild the Republic are there, I think the Mortis bits from Duel of the Fates are much closer to the original microbiotic world stuff than TROS Exegol.

What I found most surprising is, that despite all the Midichlorian hate among fans, how Lucas explained them and expanded on them here and would have incorporated that into his ST somehow really is great and fitting. A lot pulled from real world esoterics and concepts about life, death, god, mankind, souls, rebirth or not and how it all fits together. So that in the end it is not just science replacing believe as it looked in the PT but rather both, a natural marrying of science and mythology, not lessening the mystic Force and still giving it some scientific shape while not being limited by it.

some more fuel to the fires...

If you followed my TFN posts in the past, a lot of ideas I had about the Force seem to be confirmed in here. But there are other sections where Lucas tries to explain some ideas simplified or with few words that would require more maybe where his wording seems to be like right out of some heated fandebates on the Force and related topics.

The Force episodes from TCW are very relevant in hindsight after his explanation.

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Symbiosis, life working together for the benefit of both/all is a/the key element Lucas talks about in the TPM section. And it mirrors in the entire story and characters everywhere. Be it Midichlorians and Humans, Naboo's Humans and Gungans, Government and its people, Corporations and the people that make them and they were supposed to serve, etc.

Lucas is very direct in his interview here, even adressing topics outside of SW from the real world that are relevant to SW as well as that SW is relevant to those. Including current politics, climate change, mission to mars, mankinds fate or how mankind selfdestructs if it does not get its act together for any planet can outlive us, even if we attempt to destroy it and glass it, life finds a way to use a Jurassic Park quote. Humanity though.. may not be it if it fails itself.

I am not ready yet to give the full explosive bit on the Force and Midichlorians, but something along the way already...

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I can give you some very relevant questions:

What happens before birth? (No, not sex you fools, but what happens to a soul before birth? )
What happens after death?
What is Life?
How does Life work?
What is the difference between humans and animals or other life?
One-cellular lifeforms are important and manifold!
Our body consists of billions of bacteria and other mono-cellular lifeforms who live in a symbiosis with us.
Why did they contribute to... us? What do they contribute? What happens if some would no longer stick to the rules?

As above, so below.

Sorry to be so cryptic. We'll dive into that wave, once the storm hits!

And here some visual paraphrasing not by me but...

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Funny enough, upcoming movie Soul by the makers of Inside Out could have been a Midichlorian Microbiotic World movie by Pixar... once you learn what Archives tells about the Midichlorians, Whills and the Force, it will make sense what I mean:

Soul:

Inside Out:

 

@ColeFardreamer

I still think a lot of that stuff with the Force is gonna come back into play in maybe another animated series and most likely will involve Ashoka given her prior experience to Mortis