Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

ANH Novelisation had given it away years earlier, in any case.

 

Also, I think there's a difference between expecting people not to realize it and not having the narrative acknowledge it.

 

That is pretty much what all the threads on this forum are like where the content being talked about has yet to air. Posters talk about what they want to see, what they don't want to see......wash, rinse, repeat.......for hundreds of pages.

What is amazing about this forum is that people seem to never get tired of the washing, rinsing, and repeating.

 

But that is what Senator Palpatine's evil twin brother who stole his identity wanted you to think!

 

You know, if Moffat had been writing the prequels, that's pretty much certainly how things would have gone.

"What do you mean you KNOW the Eighth Doctor fought in the Time War? YOU KNOW NOTHING!"

 

If Moffat was writing it, he would have had Anakin capture Mortis and it become his TARDIS that he uses to reappear in Episode 7 and be the Hero Without Fear for the Sequel Trilogy, before transporting back in time to ROTS and becoming Darth Vader to fulfil the Prophecy that he had fixed in time through having already now been Grand Master Anakin Skywalker in 40 ABY.

Edit: Oh, and Grand Master Skywalker would have had a bow-tie.

 

Fez, Zorr, Fez.

 

Thing is, most Prequels want to throw in something new that nevertheless syncs up with the story it's leading to, therefore the notion of the PT being a double tragedy, that the Sidious = Palpatine doesn't play out how we expect wasn't that crazy a line of thought. Consider: Palpatine actually did act as a good politician, he did do what he could to protect Naboo, then ultimately ends up possessed or replaced by Sidious. Just as any of the good Anakin Skywalker did is destroyed by his becoming Vader, so too is Palpatin's name linked to infamy by Sidious.

Oh and C_B? That Keep Calm riff is far, far too British for you volatile Americans!

Time to return to the Darth Plagueis theory. Why should Plagueis be the villain? Because he was mentioned in Ep3. You watch SW, there's Vader and Tarkin, jump to ESB and there's the Emperor in hologram, jump to ROTJ, the Emperor arrives properly, TPM gives us Maul and Sidious, then there's Sidious and Dooku, what better way to set up an Ep 7 revelation of Sidious being fooled by his master then Sidious mentioning him in Ep 3? It's quite tidy and I just like the idea of Luke and the gang having to go up against the Sith who taught Sidious.

 

Although, Plagueis is weaker than Palpatine, so he won't be as big of a threat. Actually, that might not be the case. He's smart and could do a lot of damage without being as strong in the force. Also, I agree, seeing Plaguies would be awesome.

 

That's always been the basis of my suspicions, too, yeah. Lucas is often pretty... predictable, in that respect.

It also plays into the Fathers and Sons motif that has kinda tied the saga together, only here you'd have the Sith's Father fighting the Jedi's Son, metaphorically that is.

 

Tit, tut! Remember the no body, no death rule! Plus, in-film terms, we only have Sidious' word for that and he ain't exactly trustworthy.

Yet the business angle would also fit the current climate, when SW came out in '77, the USSR was very much a real enemy, the Cold War in full swing - now the main adversaries, such as they are, are amoral multinational corporations caring only for profit. Of course, it'd take some serious nerve to go down this route!

 

From the Opera scene

IAN MCDIARMID
Did you know that those who embrace the Dark Side have a lot of powers that Jedi do not? For example, they can influence that midichlorian bullsh#@# to create life.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
Create life? Wait, are you implying that my supposed virgin birth was--
IAN MCDIARMID
And they can stop others from dying.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
Stop others? Like, if someone force chokes them and they start to die because of it hours later?
IAN MCDIARMID
Yup.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
That's distracting enough that I'll not bother following up on the other thing you said.

 

When Lucas allegedly wrote these treatments for Episodes 7, 8, and 9, Plagueis didn't exist though. I doubt he existed until like 2003 or 2004.

 

Is that from an earlier draft?

 

I hope so.

 

Weren't Episodes 7,8,9 originally written to feature the Death Star, the Emperor, and Luke's sister (not Leia) and then just condensed into RotJ because GL got bored.

 

DigitalMessiah

From here

http://www.the-editing-room.com/revengeofthesith.html

 

I knew where it was from -- the use of the actors' names instead of the characters is a giveaway.

I still hope it was in an earlier draft.

 

No no, he had this all planned out since 1977. Just ask the man himself.

 

We have ourselves the antagonist.

Less sarcastically, I agree that something like that would make the story more contemporary; it doesn't even necessarily require that much nerve, as you see corrupt corporations in superhero stories. It's whether it'd be exciting enough would be the major problem in my eyes more, as RePlanetHab being run by Lumiya isn't quite as exciting a premise as the Supreme Chancellor himself overthrowing his own government. It's what still has me half expecting something Mortis-like, and more metaphysical, which could feasibly again work for Plagueis the immortal -- as much as I adore the novel and it's one of my absolute favourites, I'm pretty resigned to the "film Plagueis" being his own character if they did choose to use him.

 

No need to ask, it's all there in the notebook.

 

I'm willing to believe he wrote extremely short treatments for a sequel trilogy around 1983.

I sorta suspect the prequel trilogy isn't a good gauge of his planning, because I'm really willing to believe that Lucas planned all the political backstory and other background stuff ahead of time and just never actually really gave it much attention in the film once he decided to make it about Anakin.

 

I'm not so certain Zorr, I could easily see the US right-wing jumping all over a SW story that has a corporation as its central villain, likely declaring it commie and anti-business and "liberal". Now I'd love it for Disney to actually take on those idiots, but I'm sceptical it'd happen.

 

Just wait until Disney reveals that Luke Skywalker is gay.