The Missing Scene in RotJ Lucas dropped the drama ball.
#1
Posted 05 December 2004 - 11:41 AM
Luke decides that saving his father's soul is going to be his number one objective. What is overlooked here is that Vader murdered Leia's father. And mother. And presumedly her entire extended family.
Now listen closely, George Lucas. You probably haven't heard this word before. But this is called...DRAMA. If you are going to have a story where the hero chooses to redeem his sociopathic mass murderer of a father, there has to be a voice in opposition and that voice, by the logic of your story construct, is Leia: the woman Luke loves and the woman who has every reason to hate his father. Where is the scene where Leia declares to Luke he mustn't do this thing, that if he does she will hate him forever? Now, at least, his decision wil have consequence.
And what's more, this solves the triangle without having to resort to the brother-sister crap. Luke chooses Vader over Leia, and Leia, seeing in the end Vader's happy ghost, knows that she and Luke can never be.
#2
Posted 05 December 2004 - 03:38 PM
That was all... there was not a single bit of drama in that, with an exception of Luke having that conversation with Vader on Endor.
Which reminds me -- I think I need to start a thread about a new topic.
#4
Posted 05 December 2004 - 10:57 PM
Quote
#5
Posted 06 December 2004 - 08:31 AM
- J m HofMarN on the Sand People
#6
Posted 06 December 2004 - 10:25 AM
The problem is we then see him minutes later, living it up in the afterlife. It just takes the weight away from the scene.
And on a slight tangent... seeing Yoda and Obi Wan again takes the weight out of their own demises. Death really doesn't seem to mean much in Star Wars films, does it? Your good old Jedi friend can be killed right before your eyes... but don't be disheartened. You can still sit down together and talk the whole night away just as you easily as you could when he was alive.
Look at the guy in my avatar on the otherhand. He dies at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and it's a very sad and poignant scene. You know why? Because Boromir is not coming back. He will not see the end of the war and the reunion of the fellowship. He is gone forever.
So in this case, the death of this character is a very heavy moment. In Return of the Jedi, the deaths of three major characters are played down and undermined by a silly gratutious happy ending that shows them all enjoying the party.
#7
Posted 06 December 2004 - 01:11 PM
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the expanded unvierse novels/comic books of Star Wars said that a Jedi's ghost could only come back a few times before burning itself out.
Perhaps there should have been some kind of alternate confrontation between Luke and the ghost of Anakin Skywalker where the ghost mentions going to a sort of Jedi Hell to suffer all eternity and never see Luke again the way Obi-Wan seems able to?
I'd like a qui-gon jinn please with an obi-wan to go.
#8
Posted 07 December 2004 - 05:11 AM
I think that George should try to make up for the lack of emotion at the end of Jedi by retooling the ending one final time, only this time when we see the ghosts of Yoda, Anakin and Obi-Wan they replace it with a montage, (complete with clouds around the screen) showing Anakin and Obi-Wan back in the good old days fighting back to back with lightsabers drawn, laughing together, training together, crying together, back in the good old days when Anakin was still a good kid, all the while Barbara Streisand sings "Memories". When they fade back from the dreamlike flashback we see Darth Vader burning on the funeral pyre.
Oh God, I'm getting choked up here.... SOB! someone hand me a tissue, I'm crying like a little girl... SNIFF!
#9
Posted 07 December 2004 - 11:26 AM
Redemption isn't about making up for what he's done, but a change of heart and the will to follow up. By acting as he did, he rejected everything he'd worked for since his fall, so that Luke would have the oppertunity to set things right.
JM's official press secretary, scientific advisor, diplomat and apparent antagonist?
#10
Posted 07 December 2004 - 08:16 PM
Sorry to go off topic. Yes, ROTJ is silly.
#11
Posted 08 December 2004 - 12:30 AM
#12
Posted 08 December 2004 - 12:31 AM
Still... that's a very cool theory you put forth there.
#13
Posted 08 December 2004 - 08:41 AM
- J m HofMarN on the Sand People
#14
Posted 08 December 2004 - 08:13 PM
i always imagined that right after that conversation she walked away and went: "wait a minute... if lukes my brother... and vader's his father... that would.. but i... holy... i think i'm going to spew!!!"
Also: The Chefelf.com Lord of the Rings | RoBUTZ (a primative webcomic) | KOTOR 1 NPC profiles |
Music: HYPOID (industrial rock) | Spectrox Toxemia (Death Metal) | Cannibalingus (80s style thrash metal) | Wasabi Nose Bleed (Exp.Techno) | DeadfeeD (Exp.Ambient) |||(more to come)
#15
Posted 09 December 2004 - 12:10 AM
I remember watching the scene in ESB where Luke sees Ben on Hoth. Now I always chalked it up to Luke being in a state of near death and his seeing Ben was really just his powers of the force manifesting itself in some way to keep him going. It kind of added to the drama. However seeing Luke talk to Ben on Dagooba, (sp?) I remember not really being that emotionaly involved, that scene relied more on shock value (i.e. Leia is your sister) and still really didn't deliver on the drama.
Now that I'm thinking about it, seeing as how Leia was the other, it almost sounds as if Luke was meant to fail and Leia would have to be the one to take Vader down, I'm not sure if this would have been better or not. Comments anyone?