I mentioned some butterflies concerning Henson/Disney and Miyazaki ITTL earlier. Specifically concerning a different distribution/dubbing for a Western release. Mainly happening earlier and with a more attention/heart. Especially going in to Castle In The Sky. With Paquin keeping an English accent throughout and not suddenly breaking into an Americanized accent.
A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
- Start date
- Status
Like editing for Nausica that really screwed up the American release and made it almost totally unrecognizable from the Japanese release. It was a real proper mess.
Nothin' but Staaaarr Waaars!!
Remembering Star Wars, Part III, Legacy of the Jedi (1983)
Nostalgia was Way Better when I was a Kid Netsite, June 21st, 1997
Oh yea, Star Wars! Who doesn’t like Star Wars? And with the long-awaited next trilogy coming to theaters now is the time to remember those original films of our youth. So, as we barrel head first into the long-awaited return of new Star Wars stories to the big screen (admit it, you’re already camping out for tickets!), it’s worth looking back at the film that ended it all. So today brings us to Part III of our nostalgia-driven trip into the Galaxy Far Far Away, Star Wars Episode VI: Legacy of the Jedi.
First off, let’s address the fact that this is seen today as the weakest of the films. I get why and I’ll address it. Most fans today look back on it as a huge disappointment after The Empire Strikes Back. But ironically audiences loved it at the time as a “pleasant return to form” following the “depressing and boring” Empire[1]. “If all the fighting is on planets, not in the stars, then why don’t they call it “Planet Wars”, huh?” Nostalgia can be blind. I should know, right? So, let’s go down through the plot and address what we love and don’t love about this third installment.
First off, let’s talk about the production. What happened? Why did it happen? What about those rumors of Wookies on Sicemon or Ewaaks as Lizard Men? What about Gary Kurtz and his stories of a darker film and the lost sister Nellith? Well, it all starts in ’81 with the screening of The Empire Strikes Back. The truth is that George hated the film. “It’s too good!” he reportedly told Kurtz. George’s vision for a fun, fast-paced, family friendly adventure series based on the cheesy old King Features serials of his youth was, thanks to the “three Ks” of Kurtz, Kershner, and Kasdan, now a cerebral drama with shocking twists, heartfelt romance, and real personal stakes. The horror! Kurtz claims that the original idea for “Episode VI” had a bittersweet ending with Luke heading off into the sunset leaving Queen Leia to try and restore a shattered galaxy. But Lucas wanted “to sell more toys”. Or so Kurtz tells us[2].
Somewhere in this Kurtz left the production in what Mark Hamill compared to “Mommy and Daddy getting divorced” and Howard Kazanjian came on board, as did Lisa Henson as an intern. George Lucas wrote his first draft for “Return of the Jedi” in February of ‘81[3], later briefly named “Revenge of the Jedi” at the suggestion of Kazanjian, as Kazanjian noted that it was a stronger title, avoided confusion with other “Return of” films being released at the time, and didn’t spoil the fact that the Jedi, well, return. But Lucas insisted that “Jedi don’t act in revenge”[4] and thus after a brainstorming session he took Lisa Henson’s idea and changed it to “Legacy of the Jedi”, a bit of a mouthful but kind of epic and doesn’t spoil the ending.
Much of the final story is in this first draft: Vader, Jerjerrod, and the Emperor, the rescue of Han (whose fate was left unknown in the last film until Kazanjian managed to talk Harrison Ford back into the series[5]), the raid on the green moon of Had Abbadon, the rebels being assisted by the “Ewaks”, Luke confronting Vader in the Emperor’s throne room, and the happy ending.
Two Death Stars are better than O-one! (Image source “scriptshadow.net”)
It also had two half-completed Death Stars, Obi-Wan’s and Yoda’s Force Ghosts directly interacting with the real world and even returning to life, regular references to the “Netherworld”, and a complex plot involving the rebels building two laser cannons on the green moon of Sicemon with one to destroy the communications array and one to destroy the force field protecting the two half-built Death Stars. The details are fuzzy on what happened next production-wise, but “story conferences” involving George, Kazanjian, director Lamont Johnson[6], and writer Lawrence Kasdan caused the story to evolve into its present form, with intern Lisa Henson taking notes and reportedly tossing out ideas as well. Kasdan and Ford reportedly lobbied hard to kill off Han Solo, but George refused, allegedly because “dead Han toys don’t sell well.” The “Ewaks” were discussed, reportedly starting life as half-sized Wookies (and no, Wookies were never seriously considered, that’s a vestigial remnant of an early draft of A New Hope[7]). An old Kurtz-era idea had them as scary lizard-people (hence that persistent rumor and ultimate appearance of the Lizard-like Saasala among the raiders). Lisa Henson supposedly suggested something more Lemur-like, noting that animatronics like her father’s team had developed for The Dark Crystal could bring them to life. How the “raiders” idea appeared no one really knows. Kurtz later suggested that the diversity of aliens from the raiders, cute and scary alike, was primarily intended to add to the number of toys on the market.
Anyway, enough of the sausage making, let’s taste the sausage. Our film begins a little post-Empire. The opening crawl tells us how the rebellion has stalled. The Rebels have recently won a critical victory over the Empire in the Battle of Corellia, opening the way for a direct assault against the Imperial capital of Had Abbadon, the City Planet. But the city planet is protected by a force field and the Imperial Fleet, rendering an assault suicide. Amid the ensuing stalemate, General Leia has discovered the location of Han Solo on Tatooine and Luke has agreed to mount a daring rescue.
Had Abbadon concept art by Ralph McQuarie, c1982 (Image source “hishgraphics.com”)
This leads us to the City Planet of Had Abbadon, a name roughly translating to “had a disaster” or “had an apocalypse” (subtle, George). We first go to the Executor, Vader’s flagship super star destroyer, where a shuttle lands delivering Grand Moff Jerjerrod, who has orders to escort Vader to the Emperor himself on Had Abbadon. They exchange subtle threats and Vader goes with Jerjerrod and we get our first views of both Had Abbadon and the lava-filled hellscape of the Imperial Throne Room far below the surface. There we see the twisted appearance of Emperor Palpatine for the first time (not counting the hologram from the earlier film). Palpatine admonishes Vader for his growing weakness compared with the growing power of Luke and orders him to kill Luke, but Vader expresses plans to turn Luke to the Dark Side. Palps calls him a fool and force-chokes him, so Vader bows and swears to do his bidding and leaves. But we get our first twist when Palps orders Jerjerrod to accompany and spy on Vader, saying “I foresee that he shall betray me. If he can’t serve me, then perhaps young Skywalker will.”
This wipes to Tatooine where C3PO and R2-D2 travel to Jabba’s Palace and play a hologram of Luke to Jabba. Luke is now calling himself a Jedi Knight and announces his plans to negotiate the release of Han Solo, still frozen in carbonite. Later, a bounty hunter appears, who has captured Chewbacca and plans to sell him to Jabba, but is later revealed to be Leia in disguise as she frees Han from the carbonite. But she is captured and imprisoned as Jabba’s new slave girl in a striptacular costume that set fan boy puberty ahead 5 years and the portrayal of women in Science Fiction back 20. Not that 12-year-old me was complaining at the time. Luke arrives, Jabba throws him to the Rankor, he kills the Rankor, and now he, Han, and Chewie are sent to the Pit of Saurac for execution. Along the way on the journey to the Pit, Luke is contacted through the force by Vader, who tries again to tempt Luke to join him to slay the Emperor and rule the Galaxy together, but Luke refuses and tries instead to tempt Vader back to the light. Luke and company arrive at the Pit and the execution commences, but Luke and R2 have a surprise and R2 launches a new light sabre to Luke, who leads the exciting clash to defeat Jabba. Leia strangles Jabba with her own chain, Boba Fett is sent flying into the Pit to certain doom (and certain resurrection in the Expanded Universe), and the Good Guys escape in the Falcon unhurt.
Back in the Falcon, Luke communicates with Yoda through the force[8], but Yoda is old and weak. Luke asks for guidance on Vader, asking why Obi-Wan hid the truth from him, but Yoda tells him that he ordered Obi-Wan not to tell him because Luke “wasn’t yet ready”. Yoda warns Luke of the power of attachments and tells him he must set aside his feelings for his effectively “dead” father because he must confront and destroy Vader, as is “his destiny”. “But what if I fail?” asks Luke. “Then the Other must take your place,” says Yoda. “Leia![9]” says Luke. “I sensed the power in her!” “And hidden you must keep that power, even from her, especially from Vader and the Emperor. Betray her your thoughts must not, or all will be lost.” Yoda then passes away and fades out of existence on Dagobah, only to briefly appear before Luke on the Falcon as a Force Ghost. “Confront Vader you must,” he says. “Protect the secret, or all hope lost will be!” before fading away, seemingly for good.
Meanwhile, the Falcon makes it back to the Rebel fleet where Mon Mothma reveals that Bothan spies have handed the Rebellion intelligence on the secret location of the Imperial shield generator on the green sanctuary moon of Sicemon that protects Had Abbadon as well as an Imperial code to get past the defensive perimeter. Furthermore, they have received notice that the Imperial fleet is leaving for Malastare with plans to outflank and ambush of Rebels, leaving Had Abbadon unguarded. A small team led by Han, Luke, and Leia will go to the green moon in a stolen Imperial shuttle with a small raiding force to capture and blow up the generator in time for the Rebel Fleet to appear out of hyperspace and seize Had Abbadon, capture the Emperor, and end the Empire in one fell swoop.
Meanwhile, Vader and the fleet leave Had Abbadon for Malastare as “the Emperor orders”. Grand Moff Jerjerrod spies on Vader and finds that he’s planning to enlist his son and betray and replace Palpatine as the Emperor, and is enlisting other Imperial officers to join him. Vader senses Jerjerrod’s duplicity and force chokes him to death. Vader then tells the fleet to stand by for a return to Had Abbadon, his plans opaque.
Luke, Han, Leia, and the team travel to Sicemon using the stolen code, but Luke can sense the Emperor, and feels an invitation to join him. He tells everyone he’s “endangering the mission”, but they tell him that they need him. They have mere hours to capture and destroy the shield generator before the fleet arrives and he is their greatest fwarrior. Sicemon is revealed as a globe of green getting slowly “devoured” by a spreading gray mechanistic blur of urbanization as the Empire slowly transforms the green moon into city. As the shuttle lands, Han warns them all to not stray too far from the group. Siccemon is being transformed via slave labor, and many of the alien slaves have escaped to join the primitive “Ewaaks” that are the moon’s native species, creating “bands of savage raiders who kill outsiders on sight.” While on the march they scare up two Imperial Scouts, so Luke and Leia pursue on speeder bikes and defeat the scouts, but Leia is thrown off and encounters an initially hostile young lemur-like Ewaak named Wicket, but befriends him.
Luke returns without Leia to the group, where Han and Luke regretfully choose to go forward with the mission without her since time is short. But Chewy sets off a trap and several of them are captured by the “raiders”, which consist of various species, primarily the lemur-like Ewaaks as well as some savage lizard-like Saasala, creepy froglike Gorps, some big troll-like Grurntaaks, and other scary aliens (each sold separately). The crew are taken off to the village to be sacrificed and supposedly eaten, but then Chewy recognizes another Wookie among them, who is an old friend who was lost and enslaved by the Empire decades ago. Leia is also there, now in a more primitive linen dress.
The crew makes common cause with the Ewaaks and raiders to destroy the generator, but Luke senses that he must leave. “Vader will be here soon,” he says. “But he’s out in the Malastare system with the Imperial fleet!” says Han. “He will be here soon. I must go, or all we have worked for will fail,” says Luke, and wanders off. Leia follows and confronts him and she can sense he has more that he wants to say to her, but he only tells her that “If anything happens to me, you are the last hope for the Galaxy,” and leaves. The Force Ghost of Obi-Wan then confronts Luke, warns him that Vader cannot be turned, and tell him that it is time to face Vader alone. “I know,” Luke says, now grown beyond what Obi-Wan can teach him. Luke then wanders to where a group of Scouts confront him. He surrenders without a fight.
The next day the Rebels make their way to the shield generator and capture it with just minutes before the Rebel Fleet will appear out of hyperspace. Lando and Ackbar lead the force that soon pops out of hyperspace, but they discover their comms are being jammed, but that would mean “It’s a Trap”! The shields are still up around Had Abbadon and Vader’s fleet soon pops back out of hyperspace. The two fleets engage in battle while Lando hopes that the team will take down the shield “soon”. On the green moon, the Ewaaks and Raiders scatter just seconds before an entire Imperial regiment with AT-ST walkers and other vehicles appear out of the forest and Han, Leia and the crew are captured, Han dryly noting “Some help they were.”
Luke is now being held at an Imperial base awaiting a shuttle to take him to the Emperor, but instead Vader appears in the shuttle. Luke verbally confronts Vader, who makes note that Luke has constructed his own light sabre, completing his training. Luke tries to convince Vader to join him to overthrow the Emperor and restore the Republic, having “sensed the good in him”, but Vader says that it is “too late” for him, but that he will take Luke to see the Emperor, where Luke “must choose [his] destiny”.
Imperial throne room concept art by Ralph McQuarie, c1982 (Image source “milnersblog.com”)
Luke is taken by Vader to the hellscape of the Imperial throne room where the Emperor tempts Luke to join the dark side. Palps reveals that he knew about the Rebel fleet all along, for he was the one who leaked the plans. He summons a hologram that shows the Rebel fleet under assault. Palps reveals that Luke’s friends on the green moon have walked into a trap, and then reveals that Luke “will now see that Had Abbadon is far from defenseless!” as defensive cannons based on Death Star technology open up on the surface of the city planet and start to decimate the Rebel fleet. Lando orders the fleet to engage the Imperial fleet at close range to “get away from those cannons”.
Back in the throne room Palps now displays Luke’s light saber and tempts him to “strike him down” and come to the dark side. With the fleet dying, Luke relents to his fear and anger and attacks, but is instead engaged by Vader.
Back on the green moon the Ewaaks and raiders, led by Chewie and other Wookies, now return in greater numbers and attack the Imperials with a combination of stolen weapons and primitive weapons and traps in a battle that veers between slapstick and horror show. Han and Leia break free and now there are three fights: on the moon, in space, and in the throne room.
In space the Executor is badly damaged and crashes into the under-construction part of Sicemon in a big explosion. In the throne room Luke hides from Vader, but his thoughts betray him and Vader learns of “the Princess!” adding “I could almost sense her great power!” and vows that if Luke won’t turn to the dark side then “perhaps she will!” Luke flies into a rage and overpowers Vader with pure hate, cutting off his hand. Palps tells Luke to strike down Vader and replace him at his side, but Luke refuses and tosses away his light saber, “a Jedi, like my father before me.” “So be it, Jedi,” sneers Palps, who hits Luke with lightning from his fingers.
On the moon with the help of the Ewaaks and raiders, Han and Leia, the latter injured, defeat the Imperial forces and set the charges, blowing up the shield generator. In space Lando detects that the shields are down, and leads a flight of ships to destroy the Death Star like cannons and save the Rebel fleet.
Back in the throne room, now shaking with the hits of the Rebel bombardment, Luke cries out to his father in pain. Vader betrays Palpatine, throwing him into the lava below, but is himself mortally wounded by the lightning. Luke removes the mask so his father Anniken [SIC] can “see him with his own eyes,” per his request. Luke tries to save him, but Anniken tells Luke that “he already has” and then dies[10]. Luke allows Anniken’s body to slip into the lava, where it floats and burns briefly like a Viking funeral before being consumed.
With the Emperor dead, the remaining Imperial fleet retreats. Luke returns to the surface where there is a worldwide celebration of the fall of the Empire. He’s soon reunited with his friends in time for a big celebration, where the Force Ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and (surprise) Anniken Skywalker look on.
And thus ended the original trilogy. Today there’s plenty of controversy among the fandom about this film. Many who loved the Ewaaks as kids fucking hate them now and claim that they always did. Much of the Ewaak hate undoubtedly comes from the marketing blitz that came later, including the cheesy made for TV movies and the animated series, the latter of which honestly wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone seems to recall it was in hindsight, claiming in bad faith that they “never watched it” as kids (liars!). But several scenes from the film like the throne room scene and space battle are considered epic classics of the series. The ILM film effects and Creature Shop, erm, creature effects were awesome. Jabba was brought to brilliant life. Certainly, those lizard-like raider aliens were nightmare juice incarnate. And Slave Leia has remained the go-to fetish for geeks, even as Carrie Fischer has been uncompromising in her negative opinions about it. While generally considered the weakest of the three films today, it was seen as a pleasant return to the “fun” of the first installment when it came out.
Whatever your personal take, there’s no doubt that Legacy of the Jedi was a satisfying enough conclusion to the story of Luke Skywalker’s rise as the galaxy’s newest Jedi and featured brilliant turns such as the redemption of Anniken, the end of the Empire, and the rescue of Han.
But I don’t have to tell you that.
[1] This was the attitude in our timeline too. Lots of people actually hated the “I am your Father” twist and were sure Vader was lying. By the way The Empire Strikes Back in this timeline is essentially identical to our timeline since production began prior to the point of departure and there’re no obvious butterflies.
[2] It’s not entirely clear how much of what Kurtz claims is true or whether it was what “he” wanted rather than George. Either way, nothing shy of something major happening to George Lucas in ’81 is going to bring about a “Kurtz cut” of the film.
[3] Outlined in Kaminski’s The Secret Histrory of Star Wars and in seven parts on the Star Wars Theory YouTube channel starting here.
[4] Lucas always intended to name it “Return” and was only briefly convinced by Kazanjian to change it to “Revenge”.
[5] As in our timeline. I considered having Ford refuse and butterfly the Jabba set piece, with Lando filling in as the lovable rogue, but then there’d be so many more butterflies.
[6] Famous as a TV director, in particular The Twilight Zone. In our timeline he instead went on to direct the 3D B-Movie and Mad Max rip-off Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, a film I saw as a kid and honestly really liked and is actually quite well directed even if the editing sucks. Jedi instead went to Richard Marquand, another mostly TV director who is a competent workhorse director, but not on anyone’s list of great auteurs.
[7] Contrary to later “common knowledge”, there was never a serious plan to make Wookies the main creatures to assist the Rebels and the first rough draft by Lucas specifically calls out small, furry “Ewaks”. This misnomer likely comes from the early drafts of “The Star Wars” where the rebels enlist “primitive Wookies” to fly some spaceships against the Death Star.
[8] The trip to Dagobah was added in our timeline by Richard Marquand, who felt that the trip was critical to wrapping up the dilemma from the earlier film. Here, the dilemma was dealt with in the Yoda Force Ghost appearance from the First Draft to keep the plot more focused.
[9] My research indicates that the “Other” mentioned in The Empire Strikes Back was originally the sister Nellith, who would have featured heavily in the Sequel Trilogy, but George Lucas, burned out on Star Wars in 1981 (it was literally taking over his life and destroying his already fraying marriage) made the decision to end Star Wars at 3 episodes (I see little potential to realistically butterfly that at this point in the timeline). Tying up the loose end by making Leia the Sister and Other was the easy way out of the quandary. Here let’s just say that Lamont Johnson, Lawrence Kasdan, and Lisa Henson talk him out of making her his sister both for the cheese factor (it’s a poor follow-up to Vader as Father and has no meaningful foreshadowing) and the obvious squick factor of the unintended incest plot.
[10] Johnson convinces Lucas to let David Prowse portray Anniken rather than bring in Sebastian Shaw in order “to save time and money”.
Nostalgia was Way Better when I was a Kid Netsite, June 21st, 1997
Oh yea, Star Wars! Who doesn’t like Star Wars? And with the long-awaited next trilogy coming to theaters now is the time to remember those original films of our youth. So, as we barrel head first into the long-awaited return of new Star Wars stories to the big screen (admit it, you’re already camping out for tickets!), it’s worth looking back at the film that ended it all. So today brings us to Part III of our nostalgia-driven trip into the Galaxy Far Far Away, Star Wars Episode VI: Legacy of the Jedi.
First off, let’s address the fact that this is seen today as the weakest of the films. I get why and I’ll address it. Most fans today look back on it as a huge disappointment after The Empire Strikes Back. But ironically audiences loved it at the time as a “pleasant return to form” following the “depressing and boring” Empire[1]. “If all the fighting is on planets, not in the stars, then why don’t they call it “Planet Wars”, huh?” Nostalgia can be blind. I should know, right? So, let’s go down through the plot and address what we love and don’t love about this third installment.
First off, let’s talk about the production. What happened? Why did it happen? What about those rumors of Wookies on Sicemon or Ewaaks as Lizard Men? What about Gary Kurtz and his stories of a darker film and the lost sister Nellith? Well, it all starts in ’81 with the screening of The Empire Strikes Back. The truth is that George hated the film. “It’s too good!” he reportedly told Kurtz. George’s vision for a fun, fast-paced, family friendly adventure series based on the cheesy old King Features serials of his youth was, thanks to the “three Ks” of Kurtz, Kershner, and Kasdan, now a cerebral drama with shocking twists, heartfelt romance, and real personal stakes. The horror! Kurtz claims that the original idea for “Episode VI” had a bittersweet ending with Luke heading off into the sunset leaving Queen Leia to try and restore a shattered galaxy. But Lucas wanted “to sell more toys”. Or so Kurtz tells us[2].
Somewhere in this Kurtz left the production in what Mark Hamill compared to “Mommy and Daddy getting divorced” and Howard Kazanjian came on board, as did Lisa Henson as an intern. George Lucas wrote his first draft for “Return of the Jedi” in February of ‘81[3], later briefly named “Revenge of the Jedi” at the suggestion of Kazanjian, as Kazanjian noted that it was a stronger title, avoided confusion with other “Return of” films being released at the time, and didn’t spoil the fact that the Jedi, well, return. But Lucas insisted that “Jedi don’t act in revenge”[4] and thus after a brainstorming session he took Lisa Henson’s idea and changed it to “Legacy of the Jedi”, a bit of a mouthful but kind of epic and doesn’t spoil the ending.
Much of the final story is in this first draft: Vader, Jerjerrod, and the Emperor, the rescue of Han (whose fate was left unknown in the last film until Kazanjian managed to talk Harrison Ford back into the series[5]), the raid on the green moon of Had Abbadon, the rebels being assisted by the “Ewaks”, Luke confronting Vader in the Emperor’s throne room, and the happy ending.
Two Death Stars are better than O-one! (Image source “scriptshadow.net”)
It also had two half-completed Death Stars, Obi-Wan’s and Yoda’s Force Ghosts directly interacting with the real world and even returning to life, regular references to the “Netherworld”, and a complex plot involving the rebels building two laser cannons on the green moon of Sicemon with one to destroy the communications array and one to destroy the force field protecting the two half-built Death Stars. The details are fuzzy on what happened next production-wise, but “story conferences” involving George, Kazanjian, director Lamont Johnson[6], and writer Lawrence Kasdan caused the story to evolve into its present form, with intern Lisa Henson taking notes and reportedly tossing out ideas as well. Kasdan and Ford reportedly lobbied hard to kill off Han Solo, but George refused, allegedly because “dead Han toys don’t sell well.” The “Ewaks” were discussed, reportedly starting life as half-sized Wookies (and no, Wookies were never seriously considered, that’s a vestigial remnant of an early draft of A New Hope[7]). An old Kurtz-era idea had them as scary lizard-people (hence that persistent rumor and ultimate appearance of the Lizard-like Saasala among the raiders). Lisa Henson supposedly suggested something more Lemur-like, noting that animatronics like her father’s team had developed for The Dark Crystal could bring them to life. How the “raiders” idea appeared no one really knows. Kurtz later suggested that the diversity of aliens from the raiders, cute and scary alike, was primarily intended to add to the number of toys on the market.
Anyway, enough of the sausage making, let’s taste the sausage. Our film begins a little post-Empire. The opening crawl tells us how the rebellion has stalled. The Rebels have recently won a critical victory over the Empire in the Battle of Corellia, opening the way for a direct assault against the Imperial capital of Had Abbadon, the City Planet. But the city planet is protected by a force field and the Imperial Fleet, rendering an assault suicide. Amid the ensuing stalemate, General Leia has discovered the location of Han Solo on Tatooine and Luke has agreed to mount a daring rescue.
Had Abbadon concept art by Ralph McQuarie, c1982 (Image source “hishgraphics.com”)
This leads us to the City Planet of Had Abbadon, a name roughly translating to “had a disaster” or “had an apocalypse” (subtle, George). We first go to the Executor, Vader’s flagship super star destroyer, where a shuttle lands delivering Grand Moff Jerjerrod, who has orders to escort Vader to the Emperor himself on Had Abbadon. They exchange subtle threats and Vader goes with Jerjerrod and we get our first views of both Had Abbadon and the lava-filled hellscape of the Imperial Throne Room far below the surface. There we see the twisted appearance of Emperor Palpatine for the first time (not counting the hologram from the earlier film). Palpatine admonishes Vader for his growing weakness compared with the growing power of Luke and orders him to kill Luke, but Vader expresses plans to turn Luke to the Dark Side. Palps calls him a fool and force-chokes him, so Vader bows and swears to do his bidding and leaves. But we get our first twist when Palps orders Jerjerrod to accompany and spy on Vader, saying “I foresee that he shall betray me. If he can’t serve me, then perhaps young Skywalker will.”
This wipes to Tatooine where C3PO and R2-D2 travel to Jabba’s Palace and play a hologram of Luke to Jabba. Luke is now calling himself a Jedi Knight and announces his plans to negotiate the release of Han Solo, still frozen in carbonite. Later, a bounty hunter appears, who has captured Chewbacca and plans to sell him to Jabba, but is later revealed to be Leia in disguise as she frees Han from the carbonite. But she is captured and imprisoned as Jabba’s new slave girl in a striptacular costume that set fan boy puberty ahead 5 years and the portrayal of women in Science Fiction back 20. Not that 12-year-old me was complaining at the time. Luke arrives, Jabba throws him to the Rankor, he kills the Rankor, and now he, Han, and Chewie are sent to the Pit of Saurac for execution. Along the way on the journey to the Pit, Luke is contacted through the force by Vader, who tries again to tempt Luke to join him to slay the Emperor and rule the Galaxy together, but Luke refuses and tries instead to tempt Vader back to the light. Luke and company arrive at the Pit and the execution commences, but Luke and R2 have a surprise and R2 launches a new light sabre to Luke, who leads the exciting clash to defeat Jabba. Leia strangles Jabba with her own chain, Boba Fett is sent flying into the Pit to certain doom (and certain resurrection in the Expanded Universe), and the Good Guys escape in the Falcon unhurt.
Back in the Falcon, Luke communicates with Yoda through the force[8], but Yoda is old and weak. Luke asks for guidance on Vader, asking why Obi-Wan hid the truth from him, but Yoda tells him that he ordered Obi-Wan not to tell him because Luke “wasn’t yet ready”. Yoda warns Luke of the power of attachments and tells him he must set aside his feelings for his effectively “dead” father because he must confront and destroy Vader, as is “his destiny”. “But what if I fail?” asks Luke. “Then the Other must take your place,” says Yoda. “Leia![9]” says Luke. “I sensed the power in her!” “And hidden you must keep that power, even from her, especially from Vader and the Emperor. Betray her your thoughts must not, or all will be lost.” Yoda then passes away and fades out of existence on Dagobah, only to briefly appear before Luke on the Falcon as a Force Ghost. “Confront Vader you must,” he says. “Protect the secret, or all hope lost will be!” before fading away, seemingly for good.
Meanwhile, the Falcon makes it back to the Rebel fleet where Mon Mothma reveals that Bothan spies have handed the Rebellion intelligence on the secret location of the Imperial shield generator on the green sanctuary moon of Sicemon that protects Had Abbadon as well as an Imperial code to get past the defensive perimeter. Furthermore, they have received notice that the Imperial fleet is leaving for Malastare with plans to outflank and ambush of Rebels, leaving Had Abbadon unguarded. A small team led by Han, Luke, and Leia will go to the green moon in a stolen Imperial shuttle with a small raiding force to capture and blow up the generator in time for the Rebel Fleet to appear out of hyperspace and seize Had Abbadon, capture the Emperor, and end the Empire in one fell swoop.
Meanwhile, Vader and the fleet leave Had Abbadon for Malastare as “the Emperor orders”. Grand Moff Jerjerrod spies on Vader and finds that he’s planning to enlist his son and betray and replace Palpatine as the Emperor, and is enlisting other Imperial officers to join him. Vader senses Jerjerrod’s duplicity and force chokes him to death. Vader then tells the fleet to stand by for a return to Had Abbadon, his plans opaque.
Luke, Han, Leia, and the team travel to Sicemon using the stolen code, but Luke can sense the Emperor, and feels an invitation to join him. He tells everyone he’s “endangering the mission”, but they tell him that they need him. They have mere hours to capture and destroy the shield generator before the fleet arrives and he is their greatest fwarrior. Sicemon is revealed as a globe of green getting slowly “devoured” by a spreading gray mechanistic blur of urbanization as the Empire slowly transforms the green moon into city. As the shuttle lands, Han warns them all to not stray too far from the group. Siccemon is being transformed via slave labor, and many of the alien slaves have escaped to join the primitive “Ewaaks” that are the moon’s native species, creating “bands of savage raiders who kill outsiders on sight.” While on the march they scare up two Imperial Scouts, so Luke and Leia pursue on speeder bikes and defeat the scouts, but Leia is thrown off and encounters an initially hostile young lemur-like Ewaak named Wicket, but befriends him.
Luke returns without Leia to the group, where Han and Luke regretfully choose to go forward with the mission without her since time is short. But Chewy sets off a trap and several of them are captured by the “raiders”, which consist of various species, primarily the lemur-like Ewaaks as well as some savage lizard-like Saasala, creepy froglike Gorps, some big troll-like Grurntaaks, and other scary aliens (each sold separately). The crew are taken off to the village to be sacrificed and supposedly eaten, but then Chewy recognizes another Wookie among them, who is an old friend who was lost and enslaved by the Empire decades ago. Leia is also there, now in a more primitive linen dress.
The crew makes common cause with the Ewaaks and raiders to destroy the generator, but Luke senses that he must leave. “Vader will be here soon,” he says. “But he’s out in the Malastare system with the Imperial fleet!” says Han. “He will be here soon. I must go, or all we have worked for will fail,” says Luke, and wanders off. Leia follows and confronts him and she can sense he has more that he wants to say to her, but he only tells her that “If anything happens to me, you are the last hope for the Galaxy,” and leaves. The Force Ghost of Obi-Wan then confronts Luke, warns him that Vader cannot be turned, and tell him that it is time to face Vader alone. “I know,” Luke says, now grown beyond what Obi-Wan can teach him. Luke then wanders to where a group of Scouts confront him. He surrenders without a fight.
The next day the Rebels make their way to the shield generator and capture it with just minutes before the Rebel Fleet will appear out of hyperspace. Lando and Ackbar lead the force that soon pops out of hyperspace, but they discover their comms are being jammed, but that would mean “It’s a Trap”! The shields are still up around Had Abbadon and Vader’s fleet soon pops back out of hyperspace. The two fleets engage in battle while Lando hopes that the team will take down the shield “soon”. On the green moon, the Ewaaks and Raiders scatter just seconds before an entire Imperial regiment with AT-ST walkers and other vehicles appear out of the forest and Han, Leia and the crew are captured, Han dryly noting “Some help they were.”
Luke is now being held at an Imperial base awaiting a shuttle to take him to the Emperor, but instead Vader appears in the shuttle. Luke verbally confronts Vader, who makes note that Luke has constructed his own light sabre, completing his training. Luke tries to convince Vader to join him to overthrow the Emperor and restore the Republic, having “sensed the good in him”, but Vader says that it is “too late” for him, but that he will take Luke to see the Emperor, where Luke “must choose [his] destiny”.
Imperial throne room concept art by Ralph McQuarie, c1982 (Image source “milnersblog.com”)
Luke is taken by Vader to the hellscape of the Imperial throne room where the Emperor tempts Luke to join the dark side. Palps reveals that he knew about the Rebel fleet all along, for he was the one who leaked the plans. He summons a hologram that shows the Rebel fleet under assault. Palps reveals that Luke’s friends on the green moon have walked into a trap, and then reveals that Luke “will now see that Had Abbadon is far from defenseless!” as defensive cannons based on Death Star technology open up on the surface of the city planet and start to decimate the Rebel fleet. Lando orders the fleet to engage the Imperial fleet at close range to “get away from those cannons”.
Back in the throne room Palps now displays Luke’s light saber and tempts him to “strike him down” and come to the dark side. With the fleet dying, Luke relents to his fear and anger and attacks, but is instead engaged by Vader.
Back on the green moon the Ewaaks and raiders, led by Chewie and other Wookies, now return in greater numbers and attack the Imperials with a combination of stolen weapons and primitive weapons and traps in a battle that veers between slapstick and horror show. Han and Leia break free and now there are three fights: on the moon, in space, and in the throne room.
In space the Executor is badly damaged and crashes into the under-construction part of Sicemon in a big explosion. In the throne room Luke hides from Vader, but his thoughts betray him and Vader learns of “the Princess!” adding “I could almost sense her great power!” and vows that if Luke won’t turn to the dark side then “perhaps she will!” Luke flies into a rage and overpowers Vader with pure hate, cutting off his hand. Palps tells Luke to strike down Vader and replace him at his side, but Luke refuses and tosses away his light saber, “a Jedi, like my father before me.” “So be it, Jedi,” sneers Palps, who hits Luke with lightning from his fingers.
On the moon with the help of the Ewaaks and raiders, Han and Leia, the latter injured, defeat the Imperial forces and set the charges, blowing up the shield generator. In space Lando detects that the shields are down, and leads a flight of ships to destroy the Death Star like cannons and save the Rebel fleet.
Back in the throne room, now shaking with the hits of the Rebel bombardment, Luke cries out to his father in pain. Vader betrays Palpatine, throwing him into the lava below, but is himself mortally wounded by the lightning. Luke removes the mask so his father Anniken [SIC] can “see him with his own eyes,” per his request. Luke tries to save him, but Anniken tells Luke that “he already has” and then dies[10]. Luke allows Anniken’s body to slip into the lava, where it floats and burns briefly like a Viking funeral before being consumed.
With the Emperor dead, the remaining Imperial fleet retreats. Luke returns to the surface where there is a worldwide celebration of the fall of the Empire. He’s soon reunited with his friends in time for a big celebration, where the Force Ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and (surprise) Anniken Skywalker look on.
And thus ended the original trilogy. Today there’s plenty of controversy among the fandom about this film. Many who loved the Ewaaks as kids fucking hate them now and claim that they always did. Much of the Ewaak hate undoubtedly comes from the marketing blitz that came later, including the cheesy made for TV movies and the animated series, the latter of which honestly wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone seems to recall it was in hindsight, claiming in bad faith that they “never watched it” as kids (liars!). But several scenes from the film like the throne room scene and space battle are considered epic classics of the series. The ILM film effects and Creature Shop, erm, creature effects were awesome. Jabba was brought to brilliant life. Certainly, those lizard-like raider aliens were nightmare juice incarnate. And Slave Leia has remained the go-to fetish for geeks, even as Carrie Fischer has been uncompromising in her negative opinions about it. While generally considered the weakest of the three films today, it was seen as a pleasant return to the “fun” of the first installment when it came out.
Whatever your personal take, there’s no doubt that Legacy of the Jedi was a satisfying enough conclusion to the story of Luke Skywalker’s rise as the galaxy’s newest Jedi and featured brilliant turns such as the redemption of Anniken, the end of the Empire, and the rescue of Han.
But I don’t have to tell you that.
[1] This was the attitude in our timeline too. Lots of people actually hated the “I am your Father” twist and were sure Vader was lying. By the way The Empire Strikes Back in this timeline is essentially identical to our timeline since production began prior to the point of departure and there’re no obvious butterflies.
[2] It’s not entirely clear how much of what Kurtz claims is true or whether it was what “he” wanted rather than George. Either way, nothing shy of something major happening to George Lucas in ’81 is going to bring about a “Kurtz cut” of the film.
[3] Outlined in Kaminski’s The Secret Histrory of Star Wars and in seven parts on the Star Wars Theory YouTube channel starting here.
[4] Lucas always intended to name it “Return” and was only briefly convinced by Kazanjian to change it to “Revenge”.
[5] As in our timeline. I considered having Ford refuse and butterfly the Jabba set piece, with Lando filling in as the lovable rogue, but then there’d be so many more butterflies.
[6] Famous as a TV director, in particular The Twilight Zone. In our timeline he instead went on to direct the 3D B-Movie and Mad Max rip-off Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, a film I saw as a kid and honestly really liked and is actually quite well directed even if the editing sucks. Jedi instead went to Richard Marquand, another mostly TV director who is a competent workhorse director, but not on anyone’s list of great auteurs.
[7] Contrary to later “common knowledge”, there was never a serious plan to make Wookies the main creatures to assist the Rebels and the first rough draft by Lucas specifically calls out small, furry “Ewaks”. This misnomer likely comes from the early drafts of “The Star Wars” where the rebels enlist “primitive Wookies” to fly some spaceships against the Death Star.
[8] The trip to Dagobah was added in our timeline by Richard Marquand, who felt that the trip was critical to wrapping up the dilemma from the earlier film. Here, the dilemma was dealt with in the Yoda Force Ghost appearance from the First Draft to keep the plot more focused.
[9] My research indicates that the “Other” mentioned in The Empire Strikes Back was originally the sister Nellith, who would have featured heavily in the Sequel Trilogy, but George Lucas, burned out on Star Wars in 1981 (it was literally taking over his life and destroying his already fraying marriage) made the decision to end Star Wars at 3 episodes (I see little potential to realistically butterfly that at this point in the timeline). Tying up the loose end by making Leia the Sister and Other was the easy way out of the quandary. Here let’s just say that Lamont Johnson, Lawrence Kasdan, and Lisa Henson talk him out of making her his sister both for the cheese factor (it’s a poor follow-up to Vader as Father and has no meaningful foreshadowing) and the obvious squick factor of the unintended incest plot.
[10] Johnson convinces Lucas to let David Prowse portray Anniken rather than bring in Sebastian Shaw in order “to save time and money”.
Last edited:
The Jabba Palace plan in Legacy of the Jedi is as daft as the one in the OTL film. Such a stupid plan- why did Leia try and get Han down before waiting for Luke? Wait for the man who is going to do the negotiations, not go off half cocked when Jabba is 10ft away! It was an excuse to get Leia in a shitty outfit to be drooled over. The Pit fight was not even that exciting to compensate. Though Fett should forever be dead.
How was Leia to be trained as 'the last hope' if Luke died and the other old Masters where dead? Stupid line really, but nicely averted on the Sister plot.
Nice that the 'Rebels' on the Moon where of mixed species, I like that touch. Does Chewie still do the Tarzan yell?
The Throne Room fight with the lava seem like it would be good spectacle. Hooray that Prowse gets to be Vader in the final scene and 'sees' Luke at the end!
It is a shame you are telling us there is not more 'decent' Star Wars after this until 1998-9 as I was hoping you might depart from OTL and give us more movies or decent TV as opposed to just 'kids' animations. I can see how Lucas might do everything to sell more toys though.
How was Leia to be trained as 'the last hope' if Luke died and the other old Masters where dead? Stupid line really, but nicely averted on the Sister plot.
Nice that the 'Rebels' on the Moon where of mixed species, I like that touch. Does Chewie still do the Tarzan yell?
The Throne Room fight with the lava seem like it would be good spectacle. Hooray that Prowse gets to be Vader in the final scene and 'sees' Luke at the end!
It is a shame you are telling us there is not more 'decent' Star Wars after this until 1998-9 as I was hoping you might depart from OTL and give us more movies or decent TV as opposed to just 'kids' animations. I can see how Lucas might do everything to sell more toys though.
The scene is one of the few things from Lucas' original draft to survivethe the final movie. My personal fan justification is that rather than it being some overly complex "gambit roulette" plot, it's an "Indy Ploy" style series of failed attempts with the Light Saber beng the "last resort" plan. Thus a) send in Lando to scout it out (works), b) send in the droids to try and bribe Jabba (fails), c) send in Leia and Chewy to break Han out and escape in the night (fails), d) send in Luke to Jedi mind trick Jabba (fails), e) "well, shit, out of ideas, R2, my light saber!" I admit I'm probably giving it too much credit. Left to his own devices Lucas tends to come up with amazingly overcomplicated plotlines.
"Force Ghosts"
, thank you, yes he Tarzans, yes it would, and yea, justice for Prowse who was unfairly branded as a leaker.There will be more Star Wars (YMMV on if it's "decent"), but George Lucas is George Lucas. He has had a real love-hate thing for SW his whole career. He's tried to kill it off and put it behind him, but the fact is that it's just too lucrative to leave behind, the ultimate Cash Cow. Like Michael Corleone in everyone's favorite Godfather" "Just when I think I can get out, they reel me back in!" So he'll keep trying to milk it in the most expedient matter possible, which involves acknowledging the marketplace.
I always thought George needed to hand it off to a committee or another director so he could get on with film making and let other people deal with it- which is what I guess was partly behind the Disney sell. Perhaps here he hands it off to Spielberg, or Gary Kurtz to helm - after all he is 'getting a cut' anyway?
If Lucas clearly walks away while retaining control he gets the best of both worlds- the money and the freedom to make other stuff having left SW in others hands.
Maybe Henson and Stephen can persuade George to walk away from SW and leave it in others hands.
If Lucas clearly walks away while retaining control he gets the best of both worlds- the money and the freedom to make other stuff having left SW in others hands.
Maybe Henson and Stephen can persuade George to walk away from SW and leave it in others hands.
Last edited:
I like some of this better than RotJ, some of it less than RotJ myself. Essentially I took the original Lucas plan, drew a line between it and the OTL RotJ, and picked a few points in the middle. For example, IOTL Lucas ditched Had Abbadon and went with the half-completed Second Death Star while I dropped the Death Stars and stuck with Had Abbadon just for "something plausibly different". My goal is verisimilitude, after all, not blatant fan service or fix-fic (I'm not JJ!). Personally, I'd love to follow the Kurtz Plan, but that would be hard to justify without a pre-1979 POD or extreme action (e.g. Lucas car accident leaving him recovering and forcing Kurtz to take over). I'd also be curious to try the "Lucas" Empire Strikes Back which would be the fast-paced, deliberately campy black-and-white story we see in the original Star Wars (i.e. A New Hope) and what the series would look like going forward without the heavier themes the 3 K's added to it, and which birthed the deep drama "dragon" that every SW production since has tried to chase.
Speaking of popular science fiction franchises, we are approaching the troubled years of Doctor who. 6th Doctor actor Colin Baker, Producer John Nathen Turner and head of BBC1 Michael Grade are clashing all the time, it would lead to the show bearly avoiding the axe and taking a year off, with Baker being fired the next year. The show never really recovered from this point, dispite my love for the McCoy era, and would be canned until the 2005 reboot.
A quaint little scifi show from the UK may not be of interest to Disney or the big studios, but you never know.
A quaint little scifi show from the UK may not be of interest to Disney or the big studios, but you never know.
Last edited:
but with henson having lived in the uk, he might have picked up a liking to it
Last edited:
It's interesting that this movie explicitly shows Vader plotting to overthrow the Emperor. How does that square with the throne room fight where he is once again super loyal? In the OTL movie Vader is consistently portrayed as loyal to a fault through the entire film, which makes his defection at the end super powerful. Does this mean that Vader's 'redemption' is seen as a little more hollow or self-serving by the general public, with people questioning whether Vader was truly redeemed at all?
Last edited:
Very fair points, I just didn't see how the butterflies so far in this timeline would have created the alternate movie (although I agree with your/Lisa Henson's reason to change the title to Legacy). It just struck me as Change for Change's sake.
Still, the quality of this timeline continues to impress. Eagerly anticipating the next instalment!
I'll think a little about the 6th Doctor (the 5th is as OTL). Not sure who else was in consideration besided Colin Baker or if any different writers or producers were potentially involved. Research will be necessary.
Well, there's a lot not shown in this post just due to time, of course. In short Vader here hoped to use Luke for his own means. His realization of his evil was as much about realizing that he had endangered his own son in pursuit of power and revenge. Love winning out over vengance and power lust. There are fan disagreements (there always are!) but the GL "official" stance remains an honest redemption.
The OTL RotJ showed him loyal, or at least cowed, which of course conflicted with his desire to overthrow the Emperor in ESB. There are so many contradictions in the SW world that changing one will create others every time.
Oh, and as in OTL this is (for the moment) the "Official End" of the Star Wars saga according to Lucas. A single trilogy, "just like he planned all along."
That's why I stuck to plot points that could logically have come out of GL's original draft with small butterflies rather than go out somewhere else (Wookies on Endor, which were never really the plan, common knowledge aside). The idea here isn't change for change's sake, but "what is the art of the possible?" This is intended to represent some natural evolution, removing the Marquand influences and adding in the Johnson influences, with a dash of Lisa Henson. Of course any time you touch something as loved/controversial/argued about as Star Wars you're going to please some and piss off others. There's a reason I resisted covering SW until you guys basically twisted my arm about it.
Baker was semeingly the only real choice, he and JNT moved in the same circles and he was easy to work with. I actually don't think Baker needs butterflying as he was never the problem with his era, the writing was.
And the fact that one BBC manager called Grade who wanted to kill the show. Grade is the one BBC DG who has never been Knighted- apparently Her Majesty is a fan of the show... wonder if that’s related?
Yeah, Colin Baker's largely (and correctly, imo) come to be regarded as a great actor for the part of the Doctor, it's just there was a confluence of other factors that came to a head at that time. The various audio plays he's down with the character in more recent years have shown he's genuinely a great actor to play the Doctor (I think there's even been polls of fans that find while he's usually placed last when it comes to ranking Doctors by their TV appearances, he's come in first when it comes to the audio stories).
He's also a relative of Lew Grade.
Edit: and I just remembered that was talk of casting a woman as the Doctor as early as 1986!
Last edited:
i wonder if his opposition to the doctor had anything to do with that family relation
now which woman could be the doctor in the early 90s (i assume the show won't go on hiatus)/late 80s
Maybe just a little too early for Caroline Quentin.
and please not joanna lumley.
Diana Rigg would be perfect
- Status