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Lucas' Worst Ideas

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Old 07-30-05 | 07:35 AM
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Lucas' Worst Ideas

Which of Lucas ideas (not characters) do you like the least in the Star Wars Universe?
Old 07-30-05 | 07:50 AM
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Episodes 1 and 2.
Old 07-30-05 | 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Fincher Fan
Episodes 1 and 2.
...Looking for stuff a bit more specific than that.
Old 07-30-05 | 06:30 PM
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One of Lucas' worst ideas:

- Making Anakin a little kid in The Phantom Menace. The reason for it is unclear and child actors are seldom as good at acting as adult actors. Making the character start off as the same age as Luke in A New Hope would've worked a lot better.
Old 07-30-05 | 07:14 PM
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50's Diner in Clones. This guy doesn't even give a shit
Old 07-30-05 | 07:22 PM
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I don't know if this is true or if it is just speculation, but I heard that Lando was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi. The movie even seems to be setting it up with the scene where Han lectures Lando to take car of the ship and says, 'Why do I get the feeling I'm never going to see her again'.

One thing that always bugged me about ROTJ was the way Han and Lando immediately became friends. Since Han had been frozen, he wasn't witness to all the help Lando gave to the rebels. Perhaps he wasn't even aware of the passage of time, so I figure Han would have to come out of the carbonite as angry at the betrayal as he was in Empire, despite everyone's assurance that Lando was a stand-up guy.

Had Lucas decided to go the Lando-dies route, he could have Han surly and nasty to Lando at the start of the film. Then when Lanod dies, we can see Han's forgiveness, him being sad not that his ship was gone, but that he had lost his friend.
Old 07-30-05 | 08:05 PM
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I'm starting to think that making Anakin such a tragic, fallen hero was a mistake. Anakin should have been a more rebellous type with a definite mean streak, who becomes corrupted by the promise of power instead of being a confused hero who sacrifices all for love. The whole self fulfilling prophecy thing is just too morbid.

Anakin should have been doing corrupt things that the Jedi didn't know about, and slowly turned into a villan. After his big showdown with Kenobi, he could have vowed revenge after being put in the Vader suit, instead of crying like Nancy Kerrigan.

People love cool villians. I think it takes something important away from the "Vader as badass" mythos to think of how he's a broken shell of a man propped up by the emporer.
Old 07-30-05 | 08:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Crocker Jarmen
I don't know if this is true or if it is just speculation, but I heard that Lando was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi. The movie even seems to be setting it up with the scene where Han lectures Lando to take car of the ship and says, 'Why do I get the feeling I'm never going to see her again'.

One thing that always bugged me about ROTJ was the way Han and Lando immediately became friends. Since Han had been frozen, he wasn't witness to all the help Lando gave to the rebels. Perhaps he wasn't even aware of the passage of time, so I figure Han would have to come out of the carbonite as angry at the betrayal as he was in Empire, despite everyone's assurance that Lando was a stand-up guy.

Had Lucas decided to go the Lando-dies route, he could have Han surly and nasty to Lando at the start of the film. Then when Lanod dies, we can see Han's forgiveness, him being sad not that his ship was gone, but that he had lost his friend.
Wow! That's exactly what I was going to post because for years those have been my gripes (Ewoks asside) with regards to Return Of The Jedi.
Old 07-30-05 | 09:07 PM
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Anakin blowing up the trade-federation ship by luck and single-handedly winning the battle.
Old 07-31-05 | 01:39 AM
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Jar Jar Binks of course and starting Ep1 too early in Anakins life.
Old 07-31-05 | 01:46 AM
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Jar Jar Binks!
Old 07-31-05 | 02:32 AM
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Originally Posted by duff beer
Anakin blowing up the trade-federation ship by luck and single-handedly winning the battle.
I just finally reassembled my surround setup today in our new house (been here since May) and of course I put in the pod race to make sure it was all hooked up right. The wife came in from the back porch and said she could hear it outside with the windows closed, so everything was good.

Anyways, watching the pod race I realized something, Anakin didn't win the race. Yes, he got the prize and all that, but he didn't beat Sebulba. Sebulba lost. Semantics, yes, but consider duff's complaint above also. Anakin "destroyed" the TF ship by accident, but the impression the other pilots get is that he did something inside to blow it up, and Anakin probably never corrected them.

Two things like this right in a row at a young age could start certainly start up a bit of a mental thing where he starts to believe the hype about himself, maybe even starts to get a little arrogant, believing he's better than even his master?


As for what Jason said, I think that was exactly what Lucas meant to do. Vader is a bad guy, and I think Lucas was a little concerned about how people thought Vader was so cool. I think him being a tragic character, being Vader pre-suit (complete with all the little kid-kebobs and crying) creates a total tonal shift from what we were expecting, and even changes the way we look at the OT. I've heard more than one person mention how they see Vader as more of a pathetic thug under the Emperor's thumb now. It certainly makes it easier to believe his return to the lightside in ROTJ more believable, and it certainly makes him more human.
All of Lucas's technical mistakes in the PT aside, I think the direction he took the story was a great decision, and I'm glad I saw it. I've said before I was actually a tad disappointed when the PT was announced as I had always wanted a sequel trilogy, but I think this new "point of view" as it were is a great addition to the saga.
Old 07-31-05 | 10:58 AM
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Originally Posted by Crocker Jarmen
I don't know if this is true or if it is just speculation, but I heard that Lando was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi. The movie even seems to be setting it up with the scene where Han lectures Lando to take car of the ship and says, 'Why do I get the feeling I'm never going to see her again'.

One thing that always bugged me about ROTJ was the way Han and Lando immediately became friends. Since Han had been frozen, he wasn't witness to all the help Lando gave to the rebels. Perhaps he wasn't even aware of the passage of time, so I figure Han would have to come out of the carbonite as angry at the betrayal as he was in Empire, despite everyone's assurance that Lando was a stand-up guy.

Had Lucas decided to go the Lando-dies route, he could have Han surly and nasty to Lando at the start of the film. Then when Lanod dies, we can see Han's forgiveness, him being sad not that his ship was gone, but that he had lost his friend.
lando and han knew each other for years, if not a decade or more. I'm sure han could understand lando really not having a choice considering vader and a super star destroyer showed up right before han got there and would be willing to forgive him, especially once he saw that chewie had seemingly forgiven lando
Old 07-31-05 | 07:14 PM
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midichlorians totally ruin the mystique of the force.
Old 07-31-05 | 07:37 PM
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Lucas' bad ideas started with the Ewoks...and it all went downhill from there.
Old 07-31-05 | 08:52 PM
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icky poo doo
Old 07-31-05 | 09:54 PM
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lack of development of the "jedi ghost" concept

The whole thing turned into a 30-year tease... it is never adequately explained.


... but Midicholorians runs a close second for bad ideas.
Old 07-31-05 | 10:36 PM
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The only thing Lucas missed out wrt midichlorians was expanding on the whole idea. We'll probably never know, but he may have had a lot more planned for Ep 2 and 3 that might have shed some more light on them, but the fanboys started screaming like little schoolgirls and he dropped the idea.

For the record (and I'm starting to feel like a broken record), the midichlorians do not create the Force. They only channel it. How the Force comes to be and exactly how a person uses it are still a mystery.
Old 08-01-05 | 09:19 AM
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Greedo Shoots First

Dubbing Boba Fett

Changing Lukes line "You're lucky you don't taste so good" to the lame "you're lucky you got out".
Old 08-01-05 | 12:57 PM
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In order:

Jar Jar
Greedo shooting first
Ewoks
Old 08-01-05 | 01:07 PM
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Ewoks instead of wookies
Old 08-01-05 | 03:53 PM
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Starting it all in 1977. He should have waited until 2005 to do a New Hope then gone from there.
Old 08-01-05 | 05:44 PM
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Bottom line: When Lucas saw dollar signs and decided to start making "kid's movies".
Old 08-02-05 | 07:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Shannon Nutt
Lucas' bad ideas started with the Ewoks...and it all went downhill from there.

I still dont get why people hated the ewoks so much. Lucas had short aliens in all 3 of the movies (Jawas, those weird little wolfmen in Empire).
Old 08-02-05 | 08:58 AM
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Originally Posted by snoogins
Lucas had short aliens in all 3 of the movies (those weird little wolfmen in Empire).

You mean the little PIG guys, or Ugnauts in Bespin? What about Yoda.

The complaint against Ewoks is that Lucas made too many of them too cute. If you look at the trap scene when the R2 cuts them down, most of those Ewoks look like they mean business. But then Lucas had to go and get too cutesy with the damn things.


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