When I was a kid I never made it past the jawa scene where they shoot R2D2...that whole thing just terrified me, man.
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
Resistance has had kind of a slow start. My personal pet peeve is that for four of the first six episodes, Kaz is written as an unlikeable twit. The most recent episode is a significant step up.
And I mean, the first season of Clone Wars was pretty rough, and Rebels started slow.
So, you know how TFA is, like, really similar to ANH, right?
There's a Lego ad on TV about Star Wars sets and this kid is building an X-Wing and telling his friends "Remember when Luke flew into the Death Star and fired his Torpedos and blew it up!" on top of a lego animation of an x-wing flying the trench...
My seven year old turns around and says to me, "Daddy, that wasn't Luke it was Poe!" "No buddy, it was Luke. Remember..." "No! It was Poe who flew around and fired his torpedoes in the thing and blew up the planet!" "Yeah, but that was a different planet with a giant laser in it..."
So, you know how TFA is, like, really similar to ANH, right?
There's a Lego ad on TV about Star Wars sets and this kid is building an X-Wing and telling his friends "Remember when Luke flew into the Death Star and fired his Torpedos and blew it up!" on top of a lego animation of an x-wing flying the trench...
My seven year old turns around and says to me, "Daddy, that wasn't Luke it was Poe!" "No buddy, it was Luke. Remember..." "No! It was Poe who flew around and fired his torpedoes in the thing and blew up the planet!" "Yeah, but that was a different planet with a giant laser in it..."
I don’t think I’ve written a book report in more than 18 years. Certainly I’ve never voluntarily written one before, but I finally finished The Secret History of Star Wars and want to share it. The book is dense: at 626 pages the audio book is longer than 24 hours and it reads like the documentary that it is. The audio version is incredibly worth it because the narrator does an amazing job impersonating Lucas, Hamill, Kasdan, and every other quoted individual. Even so, it was a bit of a struggle to get through: I think I started ‘reading’ this back in June or July, and for those without the time or desire to, I’m going to compile what I learned below in what will probably amount to four posts.
The Secret History of Star Wars is really more the entire history of George Lucas up through 2008. Growing up in middle class Modesto Lucas did what he could to escape a hum-drum life and controlling father, going to USC’s film school and meeting up with other future revolutionary Auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas), and other well know filmmakers and writers. At that time the moving making industry was dominated by studios and their big-budget productions and big name actors like Ben-Hur and Marlon Brando, and while there were some directors who had a distinctly stylistic movies (like Alfred Hitchcock), it wasn’t yet the age of auteurs. Lucas and Coppola weren’t interested (or marketable) in the big studios and instead created a commune in the Bay Area called American Zoetrope where young film makers could collaborate and make indie films outside of studio influence. The project was fraught with high costs and low profitability and might have fizzled out completely after producing Lucas’ THX 1138 (a flop) if not for the New Hollywood Wave ushered in with Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider. Studios were amazed at the profitability that a small indie film could make and started financing young filmmakers giving Lucas his first start with American Graffiti, which was a huge hit.
At this time Lucas thought of himself mostly as a camera man rather than a director. He was already interested in pushing the boundaries of the medium itself and less interested in story or characters. However the other talented filmmakers around him urged him to hone his writing skills. With the success of Graffiti he had the clout and financing to start making Star Wars, which he had already started formulating as early as 1971. Despite the success of Graffiti he was wary of studio control as they had cut minutes from both of his previous films. His next deal with Fox over Star Wars would give him the final cut. This desire for control and independence from studio meddling would become a theme throughout his life.
”There was no reason for the cutting… You do a film like American Graffiti or THX-it takes two years of your life, you get paid hardly anything at all, and you sweat blood. You write it, you slave over it, you stay up twenty-eight nights getting cold and sick. Then you put it together, and you’ve lived with it. It’s exactly like raising a kid. You raise a kid for two or three years, you struggle with it, then somebody comes along and says ‘well, it’s a very nice kid, but I think we ought to cut off one of its fingers.’ So they take their little axe and chop off one of the fingers. They say ‘don’t worry. Nobody will notice. She’ll live, everything will be all right.’ But I mean it hurts a great deal.”
There’s a lot of documentation on the creation of Star Wars, but also a lot of misinformation, some of it spread by Lucas himself. The reality was that he spent more than 4 years formally developing the script. Famously, comic books, Flash Gordon Serials, the Lensmen novel series, and Akria Kurosawa films were some influences, but there were many others. Writing was a laborious process for George, and the book goes into great detail of each of the drafts. What started as a rough treatment titled Journal of the Whills, Part I was combined with a blatant rip-off of The Hidden Fortress and then mashed like play-doh until the desired purple color achieved. Some have derided Lucas on this board saying that he’s given too much credit. It’s certainly true that finished product had many more creative voices than his own. During the scripting process Lucas conferred with Coppola, Barwood (Close Encounters of the Third Kind (uncredited), Indiana Jones), Ritchie (The Candidate, Fletch), DePalma (Carrie, Scarface), Spielberg (lol), Kaufman, and more. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck were rewriting dialogue for him throughout preproduction. This isn’t to diminish the role that Lucas himself played in writing the film, but rather to show just how collaborative Star Wars (the A New Hope moniker would be added 4 years later) was in comparison to his later films.
The New Hollywood wave had given him his start, and continued to collaborated with him, but it also had transformed the cinema experience into one dominated by idiosyncratic edgy films like Chinatown and Taxi Driver. In Lucas’s words he had set out to make a fun adventure movie reminiscent of the adventure serials he had growing up. What he had on his hands was a mess. I think we’ve had How Star Wars Was Saved in the Edit linked before, but if you haven’t watched it yet you really should. In some ways that video is reflective of the some Lucas’s fundamental flaws as a storyteller: his poor understanding of pacing, his inability to write for and show relatable characters, his desire to show off very specific sequences without considering how they relate to the rest of the story. Luckily, as the video shows, Lucas had an amazing editing team headed by none other than his then-wife Marsha Lucas. Still, after the final cut and viewing just prior to release everyone, Lucas included, thought it would be a disaster.
”I was mixing sound on foreign versions of the film on the day it opened here. I had been working so hard that, truthfully, I forgot the film was being released that day. My wife was mixing New York, New York at night at the same place we were mixing during the day, so at 6:00 she came in for the night shift just as I was leaving on the day shift. So we ran off across the street from the Chinese Theatre-and there was a huge line around the block. I said, “What’s that?” I had forgotten completely, and I really couldn’t believe it.”
The reception was unbelievable. The main cast were instant celebrities getting literally mobbed in the street. Fans were already clamoring for more and an official newsletter Bantha Tracks was created to handle the demand. Sequels were already a foregone conclusion. In order to handle the demand for more Star Wars along with the revolutionary filming techniques and special effects created for the film George founded about a dozen various business that he later condensed into Lucasfilm, ILM, and Skywalker Sound. At this time Lucas began talking about expanding Star Wars into a massive franchise of up to 12 films. The subject for these films alternated between The Adventures of Luke Skywalker to a trilogy of trilogies detailing various parts of the galaxy. He was also explicit in saying that he wanted others to direct these movies, each trying their hand at the story until the last one when he’d come in and wrap it up.
George and Marsha, already millionaires from Graffiti, suddenly had more wealth than they could reasonably spend in a lifetime, but George had plans. American Zoetrope hadn’t achieved full independence from big studios, but Lucasfilm might be able to. At the same time he started laying down the foundation for the sequels Lucas also began construction on Skywalker Ranch which was to become an independent filmmaker’s paradise. The cost was astronomical: $20 M in 1977 at a ballpark and Star Wars was going to be his money ticket to complete it. Writing began for Star Wars II (as The Empire Strikes Back was originally called in November of 1977. Brutally self-aware of his weaknesses and hesitant to return to the writing process Lucas hired legendary pulp fiction author Leigh Brackett to adapt his story treatment. Tragically she died from cancer soon after completing the first draft. To make matters worse, Lucas wasn’t happy with the draft; a scenario that would repeat itself countless times. Back in the writer’s chair Lucas continued to iterate on his story again borrowing from other films, such as Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, and mixing in nixed ideas from earlier drafts of Star Wars.
The contemporary tale of the original and prequel trilogies is that Lucas had them all planned out from the beginning. Prior to that it was that what became the original trilogy was all part of the original A New Hope script that was simply cut because it was too long, and the prequels were crafted from an elaborate and complete backstory Lucas developed while writing A New Hope. The truth, as the book provides numerous examples of, is that Lucas approached the screenplay for each film independently, creating (and sometimes recreating) plotlines and backgrounds to suit the stories’ needs. This started immediately in The Empire Strikes Back. With the death of Ben Kenobi Luke needed a new mentor figure found in Yoda. Additionally the fan favorite Darth Vadar took on a much larger role in the film. To better thematically link the two and simplify the number of characters Vadar became Luke’s father early in the development process. I cannot stress enough in case anyone doesn’t already know this, but Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vadar were two different people until this decision was made, retroactively changing the history of Star Wars, and also of Ben Kenobi’s character. With the drafts complete Lucas turned to longtime friend Lawrence Kasdan to write the screenplay and hired Irvin Kershner to direct. Gary Kurtz, another long-time friend of Lucas, would produce allowing Lucas to manage the businesses he’d created and work on his ranch.
I won’t talk too much about the filming itself, but needless to say the team took a much different angle on it that Lucas would have. Lucas was all about speed and clarity (of story) saying that “Well, if we have enough action, nobody will notice [the lack of emotional content]”.The Kurtz, Kershner, Kasdan team however was not easily dissuaded. Together they further developed the characters and concepts like Yoda and The Force beyond what Lucas had originally envisioned. Morever, Kershner was extremely character focused, and worked tirelessly to get the best takes from his actors. This lengthened the filming process, which had also suffered setbacks from weather and other unforeseen complications. Lucas had financed the film on his own, but even with the millions he had made from Star Wars it wasn’t enough. He took out numerous loans, literally betting the farm (or Ranch rather) on the endeavor. It made him nervous. He engaged as best as he could through Kurtz, never pressuring Kershner directly, but growing more and more worried as the production went on.
”I’m faced with a situation where everything I own, everything I ever earned is wrapped up in this picture. If it isn’t a success not only could I lose everything, but I could also be millions of dollars in debt…It has to be the biggest grossing sequel of all time just for me to break even.”
”George also came over once when I was shooting the X-wing being pulled out of the water and moving across the swamp, based on the magic power of our little man. It had taken some time to set up, a few hours actually, and now we did the shot, and the haze was right-because we had the set closed off so that you actually had clouds hanging-and then the ship came out of the water. It looked beautiful, and there was moss and seaweed, and the water is dripping off, and suddenly the two wings just collapsed.
I felt so badly for George, because I knew it was his money. I said ‘What happened?’ and they said, ‘well, we didn’t realize it wasn’t waterproof, and all the wings are wood, and they couldn’t take all the weight.’ I said, ‘now you tell me!’ It took hours to rebuild it-they put in structural things and a little steel. Ten hours to do the shot, and it was maybe six seconds…
I once called George and said, ‘George it’s taking a little longer than we though. Do you want me to take some pages out of the script or, you know, what the hell can we do?’ and he said, ‘Don’t do anything, just keep shooting.’ Those were his words, and that’s of course the one thing you want to hear.”
Still tensions continued to mount. Lucas started getting mad at Kurtz for not holding Kershner to a tighter schedule which was only exacerbated when he took Kershner’s side continually appealing to Lucas that they were making an incredible film. In post-production Lucas just about lost it; he watched the rough cut and panicked thinking he had a disaster on his hands. He attempted to salvage it by creating his own rough cut which was heavily criticized by Kirshner, Kurtz, and the editor Paul Hirsh. Lucas exploded:
”You guys are ruining my picture! You are here messing around and we’re trying to save this thing…It’s my money, it’s my film, and I’m going to do it the way I want to do it!.”
He eventually relented and recut the film more in accordance with the team’s advice, but it seems like the damage was done. Gary Kurtz who had worked with him starting with American Graffiti and he would part ways following this film. In post the film continued to be delayed and accrue debt. Eventually 20th Century Fox had to help with the financing and in return get an improved distribution deal out of the bargain making Lucas even more upset.
Even though Empire was a hit and did make back its budget and more, it wasn’t as big of a hit as Star Wars was (what could ever be?). More importantly the process had changed Lucas. He was literally working himself to death between trying to manage the movie and the businesses stemming from it. His family life was also becoming strained. Marsha couldn’t understand her husband’s obsession with Skywalker Ranch. In her mind all the expensive equipment and expansive studios were unnecessary to make the kinds of films she and he and previously enjoyed making. George wasn’t that excited about making more Star Wars movies either, and definitely didn’t want to repeat the process he had just undergone for Empire ten more times. Still he persisted on with making Return of the Jedi, this time hiring a much more amicable director (Richard Marquand) and taking a more direct role in the actual production. He wrapped up plotlines like “No, there is another” and the ultimate fate of the Rebellion as he put the affairs of Star Wars and his businesses in order hoping to finish up the series and the ranch and semi-retire to be with his family. Sadly the damage at this point had become irreparable, and he and Marsha divorced just weeks after Jedi opened.
Marsha was the heart of Star Wars; not just saving the original in the edit, she complemented George’s lack of empathy and understanding. She was also instrumental in getting him to take and follow advice. With the divorce she took the emotional half of Lucasfilm with her, and also the literal half of the net worth of the company. George was left with the studio equipment and empty coffers; his dream of a filmmaker’s paradise realized but only as a lifeless husk. Lucas had adopted a baby girl in 1981 with Marsha after finding that he was sterile. He eventually adopted two more children after the divorce and devoted his time to raising them. Meanwhile the Star Wars fervor eventually died down as no new material was produced and Lucas had lost all enthusiasm in the project.
Star Wars might have died for good if not for Lou Aronica of Bantam Publishing who pursed a book deal with Lucasfilm in 1989. It took a year for Lucas to reply and Timothy Zahn was contacted to write it. Zahn devoted himself to recreating the look and feel of the original trilogy and the then fledging expanded universe. Famously Lucasfilm gave him the West End Games Star Wars RPG as source material. Released in 1991 Heir to the Empire was an incredible success peaking at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Its two follow-ups released a year apart were also hugely successful and like the Big Bang the expanded universe exploded into full swing. Aided by the 1995 Definitive Collection VHS release of the original trilogy Star Wars experienced a renaissance in both interest and content as an entire new generation was introduced to the films. As an aside this is where my 12-year-old self first watched the films and forever started down this dark path.
With hype building Lucas was enamored by the idea of a 20th anniversary rerelease in theaters. He originally imagined them as limited release, single weekend affairs but the scope of the project started to increase. Working on Jurassic Park, ILM had developed incredible digital filming technology, and the possibilities were tempting. Moreover the financial allure of returning to the franchise was couldn’t be ignored.
”[I realized the] Star Wars audience was still alive-it hadn’t completely disappeared after fifteen years. I decided that if I didn’t do the backstory then I never would. So I committed to it…I got a divorce and that set me back quite a ways, and then I decided one of the reasons to go back to Star Wars was that it would hopefully make me financially secure enough to where I wouldn’t have to go to a studio and beg for money.”
As 1997 approached, Lucas became hard at work investing himself and his company in developing advanced digital techniques to be put to use in the upcoming trilogy. The Special Edition rereleases would serve as a test bed, though Lucas would go slightly further with his edits bringing the story more in line with his aesthetics (despite in some cases going back on decisions he had made or been told to make in the past). The Hollywood New Wave that had supported him during the development of A New Hope was all but disbanded: the individuals involved parting to work on their own individual projects. Lucas had to assemble a new team for the prequel trilogy, and he needed to get busy writing the scripts.
Originally he had planned to pen out all three scripts and shoot all three movies at once. Later he revised the plan to shooting each movie sequentially, but still hoped to have the complete story developed. But as pre-production approached Lucas fell more and more behind. He had originally hoped to hire both a writer and a director, similar to Empire or more probably Jedi’s production. Neither of those materialized and eventually Lucas resigned himself to fulfilling those roles himself. In Red Letter Media’s reviews they accused him of going with his first draft. Technically he produced 4 drafts of the screenplay for A Phantom Menace, but the script didn’t materialize until well through pre-production. The drafts themselves arrived late and often shifted major components of the film. Concept artists often went on tidbits and spitballs from Lucas who might be “thinking” of doing a scene one way only to completely change his mind a few weeks later. Moreover many of the poor decisions RLM pointed out were deliberate, such as visually linking the Jedi order to Obi-Wan via the desert robes he wore (prior to this the concept for what a Jedi Knight wore was the unrelieved black that Luke wears in the beginning of Episode VI). Clearly things were spiraling outside of his control, and even pushing the film back a year wasn’t enough to put him back on course.
I won’t go into any more detail about Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith other than to say their production was just as rushed on account of incredibly late scripts. I think RLM more than adequately covers the flaws of the prequels, and a lot of their guesses as to the state of affairs at Lucasfilm were on target. Still, as Movies With Mikey points out despite some fan backlash the prequels were both very profitable and somewhat well received.
”That’s what I’ve earned. That’s what I’ve been struggling for all of these years in the end, to be able to do what I want to do without a lot of corporate interference and craziness. And I felt strongly enough about it to where I dedicated myself to getting to a point where I could be independent enough to not have to go down the path of compromise for the sake of somebody who isn’t really that interested in what you’re doing anyways.”
Interviewer: “But are you saying you just got to that point?”
“Pretty much. I’ve always had to invest everything in what I’ve been doing. So, like what all the Star Wars films, I took everything I made out of Star Wars and invested it in Empire Strikes Back. I took everything that I made in Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars and I put it into Return of the Jedi. When I finished all of that, unfortunately I got a divorce and that sort of set me back quite a ways. So then I had to kind of start over again. So then it took me six years to get back to the point where I was financially even. And build my companies up. And then I started working again. And then I decided one of the reasons to go back to Star Wars was that it would hopefully make me financially secure enough to where I wouldn’t have to go to a studio and beg for money. And so I took all the money I had at that point and I invested it in The Phantom Menace, and then I did the other one [Attack of the Clones], and now I’ve got it all in this one [Revenge of the Sith].”
So what did I learn from all this? That Lucas is an evil money-grubbing executive just using the fans to isolate himself from the world? No I don’t think so. When he sold Star Wars to Disney for $4.05 Billion he pledged to give the majority of it to charity. He’s donated some since then: $1 M to the MLK Jr Memorial at National Mall, $180 M to USC to expand the film school, $25 M to After School Matters, somewhere between $501 k and $1 M to the Obama foundation. He’s still trying to build an art museum somewhere (LA is the latest word) valued at $1 B. I mean, that doesn’t total most of 4 billion yet, but figure he already gave about ½ of that to Uncle Sam, and he seems well on his way. At the core Lucas is a man who wanted to make interesting movies. And Star Wars was a fun thing he was going to make for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had the same Flash Gordon Saturday Matinee experience their parents did.
”I expected this to be one movie. I expected to move on to other things. Especially in the storytelling sense, [Star Wars] was very stylized, very much in opposition to what my natural inclinations are. It was kind of a whim which turned into my life…I had mixed feelings about being George ‘Star Wars’ Lucas. That was a hard thing, but I did finally accept the fact that there was probably nothing I was going to do with the rest of my life that was going to change that, that I might as well live with it. It’s not the worst thing in the world.”
The biggest irony of it all to me is that Lucas seemed to be a very happy man following American Graffiti. He was working, surrounded by friends and family, and just rich enough that he didn’t have to worry about money. He and Marsha had built the house of their dreams, complete with extra bedrooms that served as editing rooms and an attic movie theater where he collaborated with his colleagues. Then in an effort to get what he already had in everything but name he worked himself nearly to death, wound up divorced, and became estranged from the majority of his friendships. To add insult to injury Lucas’ inspiration for the Force was Buddhism, something that he and Gary Kurtz all but converted to. Clearly he understood at some level the Second Noble Truth: “Desire and attachment are the causes of suffering.” He even used that as the foundation for Anakin Skywalker’s fall:
”What drove me to make these movies is that this is a really interesting story about how people go bad. In this particular case, the premise is: nobody thinks they’re bad. They simply have different points of view. This is about a kid that’s really wonderful. He has some flaws-and those flaws ultimately do him in.
The core issue, ultimately, is greed, possessiveness-the inability to let go. Not only to hold on to material things, which is greed, but to hold on to life, to the people you love-to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go… That’s why he falls-because he does not have the ability to let go.”
There’s a lesson there for all of us I think. But another important lesson I learned from it was Star Wars wasn’t just a product of Lucas. It was a product of his own experiences, the Hollywood New Wave, the comradery, companionship, and competition of a like-minded crowd of thinkers, and even of the perfect timing of its release. When Lucas grew frustrated and bitter about collaboration in Empire, when he distanced himself from friends and family and stopped listening to advice on Jedi, when he surrounded himself with yes-men and refused to believe he could fail during the prequels, Star Wars became a smaller universe with each of those steps. A New Hope was a cultural leviathan, and its impacts are still felt today, but without the same passion and collaboration that went into its creation I don’t think we’ll see another.
Going forward with Disney, I think they too should heed these lessons. Star Wars isn’t about its characters or story or special effects or any other single aspect. It’s about all those things. It’s about being a fun light hearted adventure with lovable good guys fighting villainous bad guys. It’s about matinee soap-opera like twists and turns (but hopefully better acting and dialogue) but holding on to a largely congruent storyline replete with an underlying emotional connection to the audience. It’s about being distilled Americana: mixing in what we love about our own hero and cinema tropes with just a bit of the foreign and exotic. Finally Star Wars isn’t some money-printing machine as Solo: A Star Wars Story demonstrated. As shallow and infantile as fans have been portrayed, the truth is that we love Star Wars for being something fun and uplifting and unique. To achieve that is going to take passionate individuals who have a strong vision, a deep understanding of the underlying facets, and the ability to collaborate effectively.
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飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
That was neat. Thanks for sharing.
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I those books.
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I those books.
The core story and use of technology was tiiiiight. The use of the cloaking devices, Thrawn's everything, the Dark Force fleet, the Emperor's pack rat habit, all great. I can't really think of some bit in there that I thought was just stupid technobabble, it all managed hold together and be consistent. The only thing I didn't like was that Karrde was a bit too much of a Han Solo only different.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I those books.
The core story and use of technology was tiiiiight. The use of the cloaking devices, Thrawn's everything, the Dark Force fleet, the Emperor's pack rat habit, all great. I can't really think of some bit in there that I thought was just stupid technobabble, it all managed hold together and be consistent. The only thing I didn't like was that Karrde was a bit too much of a Han Solo only different.
The cloaking was especially clever, partly because Zahn presents drawbacks caused by the tech and then workarounds utilising C'baaoth and falsifying tractor beam launches. The shield strike and cloaked asteroid gambits in The Last Command were wonderful!
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Yeah reading about Zahn's trilogy and the Star Wars renaissance was pretty neat. Especially because it reminded me of and demystified a formative time of my life. I remember the introduction to the 1995 VHS Box set, and though I had no idea who Leonard Maltin was I still remember that interview through repetition if nothing else. My godmother worked at Disneyland at the time and she'd take me there monthly. I remember being incredibly surprised to find out that Star Tours had a movie tie-in. I don't think I started reading the Extended Universe until 1997, but at one point I found one of West End Game's source-books at the end of that ride, and though I had no idea what an RPG was I knew I wanted it. Star Wars at that time seemed like a huge place with endless possibilities. Then there was the Shadows of the Empire game and novel tie-in, and the following Rogue Squadron games and novels. I don't often use this phrase unironically, but what an incredible time to be alive!
I understand why Disney wouldn't want to be shackled by what is truly an incredible volume of work, but I can see why fans would be upset about it too. The Thrawn trilogy truly did restart Star Wars, and at the very least it seems uncharitable to completely disregard it.
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daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I those books.
The core story and use of technology was tiiiiight. The use of the cloaking devices, Thrawn's everything, the Dark Force fleet, the Emperor's pack rat habit, all great. I can't really think of some bit in there that I thought was just stupid technobabble, it all managed hold together and be consistent. The only thing I didn't like was that Karrde was a bit too much of a Han Solo only different.
The cloaking was especially clever, partly because Zahn presents drawbacks caused by the tech and then workarounds utilising C'baaoth and falsifying tractor beam launches. The shield strike and cloaked asteroid gambits in The Last Command were wonderful!
It wasn't just using the technology as a magic solution to problems, it was Thrawn being smart enough to either work around the tech's problems or using it in a situation where the drawbacks didn't matter. So good.
Plus the first two books weren't just Thrawn going around as the Big Bad Empire threatening to take over the galaxy again. He had the more immediate goals of getting both ships and men that he was working on.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
The Thrawn trilogy truly did restart Star Wars, and at the very least it seems uncharitable to completely disregard it.
Aside from whether they're any good (I think they're not, but obviously YMMV), it would seem pretty weird for the new movies to care about some tie-in fiction a couple of decades old and treat it as canon so people going to see the new movies are told hey read these other books first yeah even the bit with the clone named Luuke. No, Luuke. There are two u's. No, you're still saying it wrong.
I guess it might have been nice for readers to see Thrawn in the background of a shot in the new movies or something, but he's in Rebels, I think. They haven't abandoned him entirely. The events of the books, though, I can't see a good reason for the movies to take anything from them for the sake of charity.
I forgot that he made it into Rebels. I need to finish watching it. Yeah I agree that the movies shouldn't be beholden to the books in any way. Certainly Lucas never allowed himself to be restrained by novelization, or really any previous sort of canon. It was more to the point that this Wisecrack video makes:
Right or wrong, good or bad, it doesn't feel good to be told your understanding of a beloved story is now outdated, unpopular, or simply wrong. Also my sister is really disappointing that Mara Jade isn't in the new continuity, and I think that counts for something.
edit: I always get canon and cannon mixed up. Obviously one plays a big part in war and the other shoots projectiles.
Right or wrong, good or bad, it doesn't feel good to be told your understanding of a beloved story is now outdated, unpopular, or simply wrong. Also my sister is really disappointing that Mara Jade isn't in the new continuity, and I think that counts for something.
True, but that was something Lucas was already doing when he had control. He just didn't do it on that scale. Numerous stories and aspects within the EU have been de-canonised and retconned on his whim and by other creators.
Your sister can be disappointed! No one is saying you can't be, either! The EU books are still all there. If your enjoyment of them rests on the official edict that they're canon or not canon I don't know what to tell you. The creation of new movies pretty much ensured that the books would be chucked out of the window.
I think it's a bit of a generational thing to be honest. While some young people are interested in books that came out in the 90s I don't think they or adult fans who saw the original trilogy in theaters find them to be particularly relevant or interesting. And like you pointed out the quality control in them is seriously lacking. Like this current trend of "The prequels weren't as bad as you remember them to be." There's a healthy bit of nostalgia fueling the sentiment.
I kind of thought of the books as being a replacement for the years when you had no new Star Wars movies. If you missed it so much you wanted more you could go to the books, same as people missing certain eras of Star Trek could always gorge themselves on tie-in books if they wanted more, same as the audio adventures and tie-in books worked with Doctor Who during those wilderness years.
The problem (in terms of tying them into any future movies) with Star Wars is that the books moved the central story forward in ways the future films (theoretical at that point) wouldn't necessarily want to follow. You don't have that issue with Doctor Who so much because you can always just fit adventures into gaps and you're fine, or you just press the timey-wimey reset button on continuity you don't like. Star Wars doesn't have that luxury.
I always felt that one of the biggest problems with the EU was that it mostly focused on the main characters long after they should've been put aside (and not just replaced by their kids). Despite the unevenness of the sequel trilogy, I'm happy we've gotten new heroes who are mostly unrelated to the previous generation.
I always felt that one of the biggest problems with the EU was that it mostly focused on the main characters long after they should've been put aside (and not just replaced by their kids). Despite the unevenness of the sequel trilogy, I'm happy we've gotten new heroes who are mostly unrelated to the previous generation.
Yeah, that's a positive development with the Disney 'verse. Too often the younger generations got sidelined for the OG stars. I do miss the various characters who were in Luke's Jedi Council and their allies, though.
Thrawn showing up in Rebels as the main antagonist was a perfect way to make him canon.
The universe gets to offically use an excellent character and the rabid fans of said character get that delicious bone to gnaw on.
I was super happy with it
They also have Zahn writing new Thrawn novels. I’ve only read the first one, but I liked it.
What!?
WHAAT!?
Why have we been arguing about The Last Jedi all this time when we can argue about whether the new or old Thrawn series is better? Well thank you for mentioning that. I've certainly got a lot of reading to do on the flight to PAX tonight.
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I those books.
I imagine it was mentioned in the book, though Italian Saotome's excellent book report didn't cover it, Timothy Zahn also triggered the arguable golden age of Star Wars videogames, coinciding with the reorganization of Lucasfilm Games as the LucasArts studio. Lucasfilm Games had already had an impressively diverse roster of publications, but this was the age of the Totally Games partnership that produced X-Wing (1993) and still-unrivaled TIE Fighter (1994), followed by Dark Forces (1995)--all of which borrow from Zahn's themes (and in the case of TIE Fighter very prominently use his characters).
One thing that might not be accurate, though, is when Lucas decided to make Old Ben's outfit the template for all Jedi.
I mean, Ghost Anakin was wearing the same thing in 1983.
The original intent behind that scene was to show that the Force projections of Ben, Yoda, and Anakin were how Luke would have remembered them (which made the insert of Hayden Christensen's character incredibly awkward). Sure, Luke never saw Anakin outside of the robot suit, but I think it's a logical step to assume that Luke would remember him wearing clothing he was familiar with. Regardless the book is pretty clear about that particular development:
During the initial period of pre-production for Episode I, Lucas had toyed with his original concept of a more police-like Jedi... as can be seen in Episode I production artwork where Obi Wan is portrayed in black body armor (Episode I's rough draft explicitly describes him as being dressed in black). In the 1983 Return of the Jedi documentary Classic Creature, lucas remarked to Mark Hamill during a costume fitting that his new, militaristic black costume was "Jedi-like." However in re-developing the Jedi order as a dogmatic monk-like organization [as opposed to a Teutonic order of Knights or Samurai] for the prequels, their visual look shifted accordingly, presenting them clad in priestly robes...
"Everything from full body armor to long, flowing capes were considered for the Jedi's costumes-although Lucas eventually went back to the desings from the first trilogy. 'George wanted to make sure that when the audience saw these characters for the first time, it would immediately register that these where Jedi knights,' [concept designer Ian] McCaig explained. "For these characters and for Yoda, we had to establish some familiarity in the costumes with those existing films."
That being said, as much as it tries to be A Secret History of Star Wars isn’t an academic publication, by which I mean it wasn’t subject to peer review. There could be inaccuracies, and the author occasionally sprinkled in his own conjectures. Synthesis is correct in both the Lucasfilm Games anecdote and that there’s a lot of information I left out of my report. There’s simply too much info there, but if anyone has any questions I’ll try to answer them if there’s anything in the book about it.
飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
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Bloods EndBlade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered Userregular
The site Sci fi debris also has an incredible oral history of star wars. I think it is about 6 hours total
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
The other thing is that it's perfectly ok to go over RLM's prequel criticisms again, because presumably you will leave out the rape jokes.
I won’t make any excuses for them. Even when they were new I wasn’t fond of the Plinkett moments because they interrupted the actual criticism. And honestly I find the whole facade tiresome at the very least. Lessons From the Screenplay and Every Frame a Painting are able to communicate without using a character. I can’t fault people who won’t watch them or simply refuse to listen to their arguments. It’s not good enough to be right: you need to also be respectful if you want to deliver a message. Still I did a complete rewatch over the last two weekends as I was painting up some Warhammer. I think their most powerful criticisms are at the beginning and ending where they talk about the blandness of the characters and the failings of Lucas’s digital directing style. A lot of their videos focus on plot holes, and while I think there’s merit in Plinkett’s refrain of “You may have not noticed it, but your brain did” I’ll defer instead to Mr Hitchcock philosophy:
screenwriter Richard Maibaum discusses working with Alfred Hitchcock on Foreign Correspondent (1940). He says, “I was writer number thirty... primarily I rewrote the... part of the old statesman who was kidnapped. (Hitchcock) said to me, ‘Did you read what we’ve got?’ Which was half a screenplay. I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘What do you think about it?’ I replied, ‘It’s not very logical.’ He grimaced and said, ‘Oh, dear boy, don’t be dull. I’m not interested in logic, I’m interested in effect. If the audience ever thinks about logic, it’s on their way home after the show, and by that time, you see, they’ve paid for their tickets.’”
I am very annoyed that suddenly TIE Fighter (1998) doesn't work with Windows 10...at least on my gaming PC. No explanation, the GOG version just up and stopped working.
Which I could figure out why. Especially since I've learned there are HOTAS profiles that might make them usable in game.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
At least the EU had a better hook than the Disney trilogy, with the empire being a group of assorted rabble and the Republic being stuck as an established power unable to properly respond.
Wasn't Lucas notoriously infuriated by Spaceballs? Or something like that.
I am very annoyed that suddenly TIE Fighter (1998) doesn't work with Windows 10...at least on my gaming PC. No explanation, the GOG version just up and stopped working.
Which I could figure out why. Especially since I've learned there are HOTAS profiles that might make them usable in game.
I'm glad my desktop has 8, I was just playing it last week.
Wasn't Lucas notoriously infuriated by Spaceballs? Or something like that.
I don't remember ever having read about Lucas being angry about Spaceballs.
The story I heard was that Brooks went to Lucas and got the thumbs up for the parody before they started filming it, and Lucas gave them the thumbs up with the requirement that there not be any merchandise made for the movie (which gave rise to Yogurt's Merchandising bit).
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Bloods EndBlade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered Userregular
Lucas is pretty big on parodies. he loved hardware wars, gave Express permission for family guy and robot chicken star wars specials
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And I mean, the first season of Clone Wars was pretty rough, and Rebels started slow.
There's a Lego ad on TV about Star Wars sets and this kid is building an X-Wing and telling his friends "Remember when Luke flew into the Death Star and fired his Torpedos and blew it up!" on top of a lego animation of an x-wing flying the trench...
My seven year old turns around and says to me, "Daddy, that wasn't Luke it was Poe!" "No buddy, it was Luke. Remember..." "No! It was Poe who flew around and fired his torpedoes in the thing and blew up the planet!" "Yeah, but that was a different planet with a giant laser in it..."
The more things change...
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I don’t think I’ve written a book report in more than 18 years. Certainly I’ve never voluntarily written one before, but I finally finished The Secret History of Star Wars and want to share it. The book is dense: at 626 pages the audio book is longer than 24 hours and it reads like the documentary that it is. The audio version is incredibly worth it because the narrator does an amazing job impersonating Lucas, Hamill, Kasdan, and every other quoted individual. Even so, it was a bit of a struggle to get through: I think I started ‘reading’ this back in June or July, and for those without the time or desire to, I’m going to compile what I learned below in what will probably amount to four posts.
The Secret History of Star Wars is really more the entire history of George Lucas up through 2008. Growing up in middle class Modesto Lucas did what he could to escape a hum-drum life and controlling father, going to USC’s film school and meeting up with other future revolutionary Auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas), and other well know filmmakers and writers. At that time the moving making industry was dominated by studios and their big-budget productions and big name actors like Ben-Hur and Marlon Brando, and while there were some directors who had a distinctly stylistic movies (like Alfred Hitchcock), it wasn’t yet the age of auteurs. Lucas and Coppola weren’t interested (or marketable) in the big studios and instead created a commune in the Bay Area called American Zoetrope where young film makers could collaborate and make indie films outside of studio influence. The project was fraught with high costs and low profitability and might have fizzled out completely after producing Lucas’ THX 1138 (a flop) if not for the New Hollywood Wave ushered in with Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider. Studios were amazed at the profitability that a small indie film could make and started financing young filmmakers giving Lucas his first start with American Graffiti, which was a huge hit.
At this time Lucas thought of himself mostly as a camera man rather than a director. He was already interested in pushing the boundaries of the medium itself and less interested in story or characters. However the other talented filmmakers around him urged him to hone his writing skills. With the success of Graffiti he had the clout and financing to start making Star Wars, which he had already started formulating as early as 1971. Despite the success of Graffiti he was wary of studio control as they had cut minutes from both of his previous films. His next deal with Fox over Star Wars would give him the final cut. This desire for control and independence from studio meddling would become a theme throughout his life. There’s a lot of documentation on the creation of Star Wars, but also a lot of misinformation, some of it spread by Lucas himself. The reality was that he spent more than 4 years formally developing the script. Famously, comic books, Flash Gordon Serials, the Lensmen novel series, and Akria Kurosawa films were some influences, but there were many others. Writing was a laborious process for George, and the book goes into great detail of each of the drafts. What started as a rough treatment titled Journal of the Whills, Part I was combined with a blatant rip-off of The Hidden Fortress and then mashed like play-doh until the desired purple color achieved. Some have derided Lucas on this board saying that he’s given too much credit. It’s certainly true that finished product had many more creative voices than his own. During the scripting process Lucas conferred with Coppola, Barwood (Close Encounters of the Third Kind (uncredited), Indiana Jones), Ritchie (The Candidate, Fletch), DePalma (Carrie, Scarface), Spielberg (lol), Kaufman, and more. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck were rewriting dialogue for him throughout preproduction. This isn’t to diminish the role that Lucas himself played in writing the film, but rather to show just how collaborative Star Wars (the A New Hope moniker would be added 4 years later) was in comparison to his later films.
The New Hollywood wave had given him his start, and continued to collaborated with him, but it also had transformed the cinema experience into one dominated by idiosyncratic edgy films like Chinatown and Taxi Driver. In Lucas’s words he had set out to make a fun adventure movie reminiscent of the adventure serials he had growing up. What he had on his hands was a mess. I think we’ve had How Star Wars Was Saved in the Edit linked before, but if you haven’t watched it yet you really should. In some ways that video is reflective of the some Lucas’s fundamental flaws as a storyteller: his poor understanding of pacing, his inability to write for and show relatable characters, his desire to show off very specific sequences without considering how they relate to the rest of the story. Luckily, as the video shows, Lucas had an amazing editing team headed by none other than his then-wife Marsha Lucas. Still, after the final cut and viewing just prior to release everyone, Lucas included, thought it would be a disaster.
The reception was unbelievable. The main cast were instant celebrities getting literally mobbed in the street. Fans were already clamoring for more and an official newsletter Bantha Tracks was created to handle the demand. Sequels were already a foregone conclusion. In order to handle the demand for more Star Wars along with the revolutionary filming techniques and special effects created for the film George founded about a dozen various business that he later condensed into Lucasfilm, ILM, and Skywalker Sound. At this time Lucas began talking about expanding Star Wars into a massive franchise of up to 12 films. The subject for these films alternated between The Adventures of Luke Skywalker to a trilogy of trilogies detailing various parts of the galaxy. He was also explicit in saying that he wanted others to direct these movies, each trying their hand at the story until the last one when he’d come in and wrap it up.
George and Marsha, already millionaires from Graffiti, suddenly had more wealth than they could reasonably spend in a lifetime, but George had plans. American Zoetrope hadn’t achieved full independence from big studios, but Lucasfilm might be able to. At the same time he started laying down the foundation for the sequels Lucas also began construction on Skywalker Ranch which was to become an independent filmmaker’s paradise. The cost was astronomical: $20 M in 1977 at a ballpark and Star Wars was going to be his money ticket to complete it. Writing began for Star Wars II (as The Empire Strikes Back was originally called in November of 1977. Brutally self-aware of his weaknesses and hesitant to return to the writing process Lucas hired legendary pulp fiction author Leigh Brackett to adapt his story treatment. Tragically she died from cancer soon after completing the first draft. To make matters worse, Lucas wasn’t happy with the draft; a scenario that would repeat itself countless times. Back in the writer’s chair Lucas continued to iterate on his story again borrowing from other films, such as Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, and mixing in nixed ideas from earlier drafts of Star Wars.
The contemporary tale of the original and prequel trilogies is that Lucas had them all planned out from the beginning. Prior to that it was that what became the original trilogy was all part of the original A New Hope script that was simply cut because it was too long, and the prequels were crafted from an elaborate and complete backstory Lucas developed while writing A New Hope. The truth, as the book provides numerous examples of, is that Lucas approached the screenplay for each film independently, creating (and sometimes recreating) plotlines and backgrounds to suit the stories’ needs. This started immediately in The Empire Strikes Back. With the death of Ben Kenobi Luke needed a new mentor figure found in Yoda. Additionally the fan favorite Darth Vadar took on a much larger role in the film. To better thematically link the two and simplify the number of characters Vadar became Luke’s father early in the development process. I cannot stress enough in case anyone doesn’t already know this, but Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vadar were two different people until this decision was made, retroactively changing the history of Star Wars, and also of Ben Kenobi’s character. With the drafts complete Lucas turned to longtime friend Lawrence Kasdan to write the screenplay and hired Irvin Kershner to direct. Gary Kurtz, another long-time friend of Lucas, would produce allowing Lucas to manage the businesses he’d created and work on his ranch.
I won’t talk too much about the filming itself, but needless to say the team took a much different angle on it that Lucas would have. Lucas was all about speed and clarity (of story) saying that “Well, if we have enough action, nobody will notice [the lack of emotional content]”.The Kurtz, Kershner, Kasdan team however was not easily dissuaded. Together they further developed the characters and concepts like Yoda and The Force beyond what Lucas had originally envisioned. Morever, Kershner was extremely character focused, and worked tirelessly to get the best takes from his actors. This lengthened the filming process, which had also suffered setbacks from weather and other unforeseen complications. Lucas had financed the film on his own, but even with the millions he had made from Star Wars it wasn’t enough. He took out numerous loans, literally betting the farm (or Ranch rather) on the endeavor. It made him nervous. He engaged as best as he could through Kurtz, never pressuring Kershner directly, but growing more and more worried as the production went on. Still tensions continued to mount. Lucas started getting mad at Kurtz for not holding Kershner to a tighter schedule which was only exacerbated when he took Kershner’s side continually appealing to Lucas that they were making an incredible film. In post-production Lucas just about lost it; he watched the rough cut and panicked thinking he had a disaster on his hands. He attempted to salvage it by creating his own rough cut which was heavily criticized by Kirshner, Kurtz, and the editor Paul Hirsh. Lucas exploded: He eventually relented and recut the film more in accordance with the team’s advice, but it seems like the damage was done. Gary Kurtz who had worked with him starting with American Graffiti and he would part ways following this film. In post the film continued to be delayed and accrue debt. Eventually 20th Century Fox had to help with the financing and in return get an improved distribution deal out of the bargain making Lucas even more upset.
Even though Empire was a hit and did make back its budget and more, it wasn’t as big of a hit as Star Wars was (what could ever be?). More importantly the process had changed Lucas. He was literally working himself to death between trying to manage the movie and the businesses stemming from it. His family life was also becoming strained. Marsha couldn’t understand her husband’s obsession with Skywalker Ranch. In her mind all the expensive equipment and expansive studios were unnecessary to make the kinds of films she and he and previously enjoyed making. George wasn’t that excited about making more Star Wars movies either, and definitely didn’t want to repeat the process he had just undergone for Empire ten more times. Still he persisted on with making Return of the Jedi, this time hiring a much more amicable director (Richard Marquand) and taking a more direct role in the actual production. He wrapped up plotlines like “No, there is another” and the ultimate fate of the Rebellion as he put the affairs of Star Wars and his businesses in order hoping to finish up the series and the ranch and semi-retire to be with his family. Sadly the damage at this point had become irreparable, and he and Marsha divorced just weeks after Jedi opened.
Marsha was the heart of Star Wars; not just saving the original in the edit, she complemented George’s lack of empathy and understanding. She was also instrumental in getting him to take and follow advice. With the divorce she took the emotional half of Lucasfilm with her, and also the literal half of the net worth of the company. George was left with the studio equipment and empty coffers; his dream of a filmmaker’s paradise realized but only as a lifeless husk. Lucas had adopted a baby girl in 1981 with Marsha after finding that he was sterile. He eventually adopted two more children after the divorce and devoted his time to raising them. Meanwhile the Star Wars fervor eventually died down as no new material was produced and Lucas had lost all enthusiasm in the project.
Star Wars might have died for good if not for Lou Aronica of Bantam Publishing who pursed a book deal with Lucasfilm in 1989. It took a year for Lucas to reply and Timothy Zahn was contacted to write it. Zahn devoted himself to recreating the look and feel of the original trilogy and the then fledging expanded universe. Famously Lucasfilm gave him the West End Games Star Wars RPG as source material. Released in 1991 Heir to the Empire was an incredible success peaking at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Its two follow-ups released a year apart were also hugely successful and like the Big Bang the expanded universe exploded into full swing. Aided by the 1995 Definitive Collection VHS release of the original trilogy Star Wars experienced a renaissance in both interest and content as an entire new generation was introduced to the films. As an aside this is where my 12-year-old self first watched the films and forever started down this dark path.
With hype building Lucas was enamored by the idea of a 20th anniversary rerelease in theaters. He originally imagined them as limited release, single weekend affairs but the scope of the project started to increase. Working on Jurassic Park, ILM had developed incredible digital filming technology, and the possibilities were tempting. Moreover the financial allure of returning to the franchise was couldn’t be ignored. As 1997 approached, Lucas became hard at work investing himself and his company in developing advanced digital techniques to be put to use in the upcoming trilogy. The Special Edition rereleases would serve as a test bed, though Lucas would go slightly further with his edits bringing the story more in line with his aesthetics (despite in some cases going back on decisions he had made or been told to make in the past). The Hollywood New Wave that had supported him during the development of A New Hope was all but disbanded: the individuals involved parting to work on their own individual projects. Lucas had to assemble a new team for the prequel trilogy, and he needed to get busy writing the scripts.
Originally he had planned to pen out all three scripts and shoot all three movies at once. Later he revised the plan to shooting each movie sequentially, but still hoped to have the complete story developed. But as pre-production approached Lucas fell more and more behind. He had originally hoped to hire both a writer and a director, similar to Empire or more probably Jedi’s production. Neither of those materialized and eventually Lucas resigned himself to fulfilling those roles himself. In Red Letter Media’s reviews they accused him of going with his first draft. Technically he produced 4 drafts of the screenplay for A Phantom Menace, but the script didn’t materialize until well through pre-production. The drafts themselves arrived late and often shifted major components of the film. Concept artists often went on tidbits and spitballs from Lucas who might be “thinking” of doing a scene one way only to completely change his mind a few weeks later. Moreover many of the poor decisions RLM pointed out were deliberate, such as visually linking the Jedi order to Obi-Wan via the desert robes he wore (prior to this the concept for what a Jedi Knight wore was the unrelieved black that Luke wears in the beginning of Episode VI). Clearly things were spiraling outside of his control, and even pushing the film back a year wasn’t enough to put him back on course.
I won’t go into any more detail about Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith other than to say their production was just as rushed on account of incredibly late scripts. I think RLM more than adequately covers the flaws of the prequels, and a lot of their guesses as to the state of affairs at Lucasfilm were on target. Still, as Movies With Mikey points out despite some fan backlash the prequels were both very profitable and somewhat well received.
So what did I learn from all this? That Lucas is an evil money-grubbing executive just using the fans to isolate himself from the world? No I don’t think so. When he sold Star Wars to Disney for $4.05 Billion he pledged to give the majority of it to charity. He’s donated some since then: $1 M to the MLK Jr Memorial at National Mall, $180 M to USC to expand the film school, $25 M to After School Matters, somewhere between $501 k and $1 M to the Obama foundation. He’s still trying to build an art museum somewhere (LA is the latest word) valued at $1 B. I mean, that doesn’t total most of 4 billion yet, but figure he already gave about ½ of that to Uncle Sam, and he seems well on his way. At the core Lucas is a man who wanted to make interesting movies. And Star Wars was a fun thing he was going to make for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had the same Flash Gordon Saturday Matinee experience their parents did. The biggest irony of it all to me is that Lucas seemed to be a very happy man following American Graffiti. He was working, surrounded by friends and family, and just rich enough that he didn’t have to worry about money. He and Marsha had built the house of their dreams, complete with extra bedrooms that served as editing rooms and an attic movie theater where he collaborated with his colleagues. Then in an effort to get what he already had in everything but name he worked himself nearly to death, wound up divorced, and became estranged from the majority of his friendships. To add insult to injury Lucas’ inspiration for the Force was Buddhism, something that he and Gary Kurtz all but converted to. Clearly he understood at some level the Second Noble Truth: “Desire and attachment are the causes of suffering.” He even used that as the foundation for Anakin Skywalker’s fall: There’s a lesson there for all of us I think. But another important lesson I learned from it was Star Wars wasn’t just a product of Lucas. It was a product of his own experiences, the Hollywood New Wave, the comradery, companionship, and competition of a like-minded crowd of thinkers, and even of the perfect timing of its release. When Lucas grew frustrated and bitter about collaboration in Empire, when he distanced himself from friends and family and stopped listening to advice on Jedi, when he surrounded himself with yes-men and refused to believe he could fail during the prequels, Star Wars became a smaller universe with each of those steps. A New Hope was a cultural leviathan, and its impacts are still felt today, but without the same passion and collaboration that went into its creation I don’t think we’ll see another.
Going forward with Disney, I think they too should heed these lessons. Star Wars isn’t about its characters or story or special effects or any other single aspect. It’s about all those things. It’s about being a fun light hearted adventure with lovable good guys fighting villainous bad guys. It’s about matinee soap-opera like twists and turns (but hopefully better acting and dialogue) but holding on to a largely congruent storyline replete with an underlying emotional connection to the audience. It’s about being distilled Americana: mixing in what we love about our own hero and cinema tropes with just a bit of the foreign and exotic. Finally Star Wars isn’t some money-printing machine as Solo: A Star Wars Story demonstrated. As shallow and infantile as fans have been portrayed, the truth is that we love Star Wars for being something fun and uplifting and unique. To achieve that is going to take passionate individuals who have a strong vision, a deep understanding of the underlying facets, and the ability to collaborate effectively.
And it makes me incredibly happy Zahn was the one who jumpstarted Star Wars again. I
The core story and use of technology was tiiiiight. The use of the cloaking devices, Thrawn's everything, the Dark Force fleet, the Emperor's pack rat habit, all great. I can't really think of some bit in there that I thought was just stupid technobabble, it all managed hold together and be consistent. The only thing I didn't like was that Karrde was a bit too much of a Han Solo only different.
The cloaking was especially clever, partly because Zahn presents drawbacks caused by the tech and then workarounds utilising C'baaoth and falsifying tractor beam launches. The shield strike and cloaked asteroid gambits in The Last Command were wonderful!
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"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
I understand why Disney wouldn't want to be shackled by what is truly an incredible volume of work, but I can see why fans would be upset about it too. The Thrawn trilogy truly did restart Star Wars, and at the very least it seems uncharitable to completely disregard it.
It wasn't just using the technology as a magic solution to problems, it was Thrawn being smart enough to either work around the tech's problems or using it in a situation where the drawbacks didn't matter. So good.
Plus the first two books weren't just Thrawn going around as the Big Bad Empire threatening to take over the galaxy again. He had the more immediate goals of getting both ships and men that he was working on.
Aside from whether they're any good (I think they're not, but obviously YMMV), it would seem pretty weird for the new movies to care about some tie-in fiction a couple of decades old and treat it as canon so people going to see the new movies are told hey read these other books first yeah even the bit with the clone named Luuke. No, Luuke. There are two u's. No, you're still saying it wrong.
I guess it might have been nice for readers to see Thrawn in the background of a shot in the new movies or something, but he's in Rebels, I think. They haven't abandoned him entirely. The events of the books, though, I can't see a good reason for the movies to take anything from them for the sake of charity.
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Right or wrong, good or bad, it doesn't feel good to be told your understanding of a beloved story is now outdated, unpopular, or simply wrong. Also my sister is really disappointing that Mara Jade isn't in the new continuity, and I think that counts for something.
edit: I always get canon and cannon mixed up. Obviously one plays a big part in war and the other shoots projectiles.
True, but that was something Lucas was already doing when he had control. He just didn't do it on that scale. Numerous stories and aspects within the EU have been de-canonised and retconned on his whim and by other creators.
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The problem (in terms of tying them into any future movies) with Star Wars is that the books moved the central story forward in ways the future films (theoretical at that point) wouldn't necessarily want to follow. You don't have that issue with Doctor Who so much because you can always just fit adventures into gaps and you're fine, or you just press the timey-wimey reset button on continuity you don't like. Star Wars doesn't have that luxury.
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Yeah, that's a positive development with the Disney 'verse. Too often the younger generations got sidelined for the OG stars. I do miss the various characters who were in Luke's Jedi Council and their allies, though.
The universe gets to offically use an excellent character and the rabid fans of said character get that delicious bone to gnaw on.
I was super happy with it
They also have Zahn writing new Thrawn novels. I’ve only read the first one, but I liked it.
Do those tie in with Rebels? Doe they take place after or before the show?
Asking because at the end of rebels
What!?
WHAAT!?
Why have we been arguing about The Last Jedi all this time when we can argue about whether the new or old Thrawn series is better? Well thank you for mentioning that. I've certainly got a lot of reading to do on the flight to PAX tonight.
One thing that might not be accurate, though, is when Lucas decided to make Old Ben's outfit the template for all Jedi.
I mean, Ghost Anakin was wearing the same thing in 1983.
I imagine it was mentioned in the book, though Italian Saotome's excellent book report didn't cover it, Timothy Zahn also triggered the arguable golden age of Star Wars videogames, coinciding with the reorganization of Lucasfilm Games as the LucasArts studio. Lucasfilm Games had already had an impressively diverse roster of publications, but this was the age of the Totally Games partnership that produced X-Wing (1993) and still-unrivaled TIE Fighter (1994), followed by Dark Forces (1995)--all of which borrow from Zahn's themes (and in the case of TIE Fighter very prominently use his characters).
*eyes glaze over in nostalgic bliss*
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The original intent behind that scene was to show that the Force projections of Ben, Yoda, and Anakin were how Luke would have remembered them (which made the insert of Hayden Christensen's character incredibly awkward). Sure, Luke never saw Anakin outside of the robot suit, but I think it's a logical step to assume that Luke would remember him wearing clothing he was familiar with. Regardless the book is pretty clear about that particular development:
That being said, as much as it tries to be A Secret History of Star Wars isn’t an academic publication, by which I mean it wasn’t subject to peer review. There could be inaccuracies, and the author occasionally sprinkled in his own conjectures. Synthesis is correct in both the Lucasfilm Games anecdote and that there’s a lot of information I left out of my report. There’s simply too much info there, but if anyone has any questions I’ll try to answer them if there’s anything in the book about it.
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I am very annoyed that suddenly TIE Fighter (1998) doesn't work with Windows 10...at least on my gaming PC. No explanation, the GOG version just up and stopped working.
Which I could figure out why. Especially since I've learned there are HOTAS profiles that might make them usable in game.
Wasn't Lucas notoriously infuriated by Spaceballs? Or something like that.
The Hand of Thrawn duology was pretty bad, I felt.
I'm glad my desktop has 8, I was just playing it last week.
The story I heard was that Brooks went to Lucas and got the thumbs up for the parody before they started filming it, and Lucas gave them the thumbs up with the requirement that there not be any merchandise made for the movie (which gave rise to Yogurt's Merchandising bit).