CT What do you think of the idea of Luke and Leia being siblings?

I'd never really questioned it until now, actually. I think it's so widely ingrained as part of the immediately recognisable lore of Star Wars that it can be taken for granted. I think it complements Leia's development in the Expanded Universe as a Force-sensitive. The same can be said for The Last Jedi, on reflection.

 

What would you want Leia to do? Act like Luke did? Luke even says that Leia was emotionally stronger than him.

 

But ROTJ does show Leia having the same rash impulsiveness as Luke at least once. In ESB Luke rushed to Cloud City to face Vader and got his hand cut off. In ROTJ Leia rushes to unfreeze Han at Jabba's palace and ends up becoming a pleasure slave.

 

I feel like there never really was a love triangle in the OT. In ANH, Luke was interested in Leia, but by the beginning of ESB that seemed to have been over. And Han clearly wasn't interested in her until ESB.

 

There are indications from surviving photographs that Lucas shot two versions of the Yavin medal ceremony, one with Luke wearing the yellow jacket and one without it. Apparently the idea was that Luke's wardrobe would foreshadow the outcome of the love triangle: the take including the golden jacket would be used if Luke ended up involved with Leia, and the take without it would be used if Han won Leia's affection.

Apparently Lucas re-evaluated his plans for the love story between editing ANH and beginning writing on ESB. No doubt Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford's on-set closeness (and budding off-set affair) caused him to veer away from a more traditional character arc with Luke "getting the girl".

"Nothing gold can stay," as Robert Frost put it.

 

That would be an interesting discussion between Luke and Leia. If they had this discussion, it would also explain why Luke didn't call her over during Vader's cremation.

 

Out of universe, one reason Leia isn't present during the cremation scene is it was shot in post-production. In the footage from principal photography, what happened to Vader's body wasn't addressed; apparently Luke left it on the Death Star.

 

Do it!

 

That has nothing to do with Leia being present or not. They could have shot with her during pick-ups as well.
The only reason, in and out of universo, is that the OT is Luke's journey, the climax was about Luke and his father, and Leia had no relationship (in terms of the story) with Vader. In fact, they only had dialogue together in the first movie.

 

Possibly. But Mark Hamill had to be present for reshoots in any case, as he had to appear in the deleted scene where Luke finishes building his lightsaber and gives it to R2-D2. As far as I'm aware, Carrie Fisher didn't.

 

Those scenes were not even filmed at the same time. The funeral scene was shot much later than Luke building his lightsaber.
I don't think they had any problem bringing back the actors whenever they needed. They would also be required for the ADR process as well.

 

Fair point.

 

Simply having SOME sort of reaction would have been a nice touch. Emotionally strong is one thing, but having zero reaction to finding out Vader is her father is another.
It's almost as if Lucas forgot that by making Luke her brother he was also making Vader her father.

 

Or he didn't want to confront the narrative weirdness that results retroactively from this new relationship in light of Leia & Vader's earlier interactions.

 

I always took that as being Han trying to mess with Luke, and not actually being interested.

 

I love it. Yoda wanted them separated, but the force brought them back together. Call it destiny or what have you, but the Skywalker twins were always meant to find each other and have an instant connection. I think the initial crush was rather one sided, and Luke could have mistaken the force connection with romance, since he had never felt that with anyone before. Leia was more poised, but she did instantly click with him...maybe because he was as young as her or because she respected the selfless hero he was shaping up to be. And she probably knew she didn’t love him romantically, but she had a supernatural connection with him that she couldn’t define.

Notice how Luke immediately identified Leia as his sister when he learns he has one...and how Leia knows, always has known somehow, that they were bound by spirit and blood.

I love it. So much.

 

The scene where Tarkin says she's "charming to the last" and holds her chin, with Vader standing right there beside them, is rather awkward in hindsight lol.

 

I love that idea actually, as Luke really felt more like a supportive brother to Leia the more I watch the Star Wars originals... And Han has the charisma and attitude to be her love interest, despite the rough-around-the-edge vibe we get from him at times...

Even if it did make the kiss between Luke and Leia in ESB become so awkward, in the end!

 

I've never heard any of this. According to The Making of Star Wars, the yellow jacket was conceived by Lucas for the purpose making Luke look more similar to Han, most likely in order to visually communicate the fact that Luke had become a man and was now the equal of the older brother figure:

“I think we asked George, ‘Is Luke wearing his flying suit in his last scene, or does he go back to his own clothes?’ ” Mollo continues. “And George said, ‘No, I think he ought to look a bit more like Han.’ It was a very last-minute thing, but we concocted an outfit like Han’s in different colors.”

The passage notes that this was a last-minute change, which perhaps could explain why there are photos of Luke without the jacket, if it is indeed the case that there are. But I don't know why there would be, given that John Mollo, the costume designer, would presumably have created the jacket well in advance of the scene being shot.

Where did you get the information about it having to do with the resolution of the love triangle? And what exactly was the logic behind that supposed to be?

 

Mollo's initial idea, as seen in a sketch uploaded during the Bonhams auction of his notebooks, was that Luke would wear a white vest over his black shirt, making him a mirror image of Han. So if that was the only idea that was intended, it'd have fitted the bill rather nicely.

Lucas probably suggested a yellow jacket because it's based on the yellow jersey worn by the Tour de France péloton leaders. He knows some French: the text on-screen in THX 1138 is Franglais, and many SW character names are based on French (such as the rough draft's corrupt politican "Count Sandage", from "sondage", meaning "opinion poll"). However, we also know from surviving photos that there's at least one take of the medal ceremony where Luke isn't wearing the jacket.

The jacket's presence/absence probably symbolizes who wins Leia's hand because of a rather vulgar historical anecdote: when Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother, married Spanish princess Catherine of Aragorn, the next morning he allegedly bragged to one of his retainers that "this night I have been in Spain". A fact which became pertinent during Henry's divorce proceedings from Catherine decades later.

Here, by analogy, Luke makes the "tour de France", drawing on Leia being a liberty-goddess figure, like Marianne for the French revolutionary state.