Lucas messed up, pure and simple. I'm not at all a "Lucas basher" (although this comment may indicate otherwise). However, while I admire his success, achievements and consider him imaginative, GL's screenwriting/screenplay skills are ...well...to be charitable, not the highest caliber.

In hindsight, this is an issue (and only one of a great many) only because of Star Wars initial mega success. Had SW been just another 1977 release with typical BO, there most likely would not have been an ESB, ROTJ, or prequels, and consequently none of the SW "issues" would have reared their ugly little heads.

But here's something to think about. Without the mega succes of SW and it's kickstarting of the rebirth of the SF film genre, we probably would not have seen all those other films that have come since then. At least not anything like we have.

Just imagine: no Trek films, no CE3K, no Indiana Jones, no Harry Potter, LOTR, KONG, etc., etc., etc.

So, with that in mind, I say...Go George Lucas! Give us another "Star Wars" like the very first one.

Like others have said, you could go on and on with trying to tear the movies apart. There are major issues that make little to no sense, as have already been gone over. A good example is 3PO/R2-D2 in the prequels/OT. 3PO probably had memory wipes, but R2-D2 didn't. The whole Obi-Wan Kenobi thing is relative proof of that. Why nothing else is said and why Vader doesn't recognize the droids...

At least in EU/Novel's this is finally starting to try and work it's way in. Only one major problem, at this point in EU Luke is in his 60s. In the most recent novel, The Swarm War (Released a week ago)

The EU has done some amazing things with continuity considering you've got 20 authors working and doing their own things. That being a prime example of trying to go back and "fix" some Lucas created errors.

A good example of EU continuity... There's evidence a novel released five years ago has a "vision" involving a character having something happen to them because of a species that just showed up in the most recent trilogy (2005), and that the vision will be fulfilled in the next "mega-series" coming in May. Bottom line, Lucas should have hired whoever he's got overseeing continuity in the EU to oversee his scripts instead...

Yeah, the EU novels have taken great care in the area of continuity. Sometimes it is amazing, since you have to figure there are a half dozen novels in the works at the same time by different authors.

Just a quick hijack, I quit reading them with about 3-4 books left in the NJO series. What are a few of the newer ones worth picking up?

But that is my point. Only 3 people KNOW that Anakin is Vader. Two of which are hermits on out of the way planets, and don't converse with anyone. The other is the Emperor of the galaxy. I doubt Palpatine hits the local pub and shoots the shit with the commoners. HOW is anyone going to know Anakin Skywalker lived? How is that story going to make it out to be able to look up Skywalker in the Tatooine directory? That is what I was getting at.


It's been a while since I saw it, I thought the only footage they saw was of Anakin killing the younglings.

That's a good point. I didn't think back to the movie and realize how few people probably actually knew, although I would assume there would be at least a couple others, like Bail Organa, maybe Chewbacca...

...actually, wouldn't there be a shitload of stormtroopers who knew the story? After all, they were in on the plot to overthrow and destroy the Jedi. I guess that would depend on how often stormtroopers get to go out when they get off work and go spread the latest office gossip: "Hey, guess who our new boss is? Remember that kid they found on Tattooine? Yeah, that's him...'The Chosen One'. Well, apparently he's all evil and shit now, and the Emperor gave him a management position! What ever happened to working your way up the ladder?!?"

Well, it can be just as easily argued that there are literally thousands upon thousands of protocol droids in the Star Wars galaxy that looks just like 3PO. In fact, we see numerous protocol droids. Some are silver, some are gold. So if protocol droids are that numerous, and droids are treated as nothing more than a convenience, why should Vader recognize a gold droid in pieces strapped to the back of a wookie? 3PO is never called by name in that scene. Let's be honest here, that is a great scene and let's say Vader does recognize 3PO. What's he supposed to do? Come over in the middle of a dramatic scene and strike up a friendly chat with 3PO about old times?

This in my opinion is not a plot hole. Vader has no reason to remember 3PO for all the reasons I listed above, plus the fact that Vader is a very different person from the Anakin that built 3PO. Funny thing is that Anakin spends most of him time with R2.

As for R2, his kind are just as common, and if memory serves me correctly, I don't think Vader ever saw R2. Remember, he didn't see him in Star Wars except during the Battle of Yavin, and every X-Wing had an astromech droid. He was with Luke in ESB up until Cloud City, and Vader never saw R2 on Cloud City that I can remember. In ROTJ, Vader never saw R2 on Endor.

Just one man's explanation.

The only problem is 90% of the suck.

The mosquitos would have eaten him alive. Duh.

Why are people obsessed with insisting that George Lucas changed some details as he went along. Of course he did, and who cares? Why is it important for him to have planned out 12 hours of film in the early seventies? It isn't. Its called editing people. Authors do it all the time. You make up a story, send it to others to read, and they make suggestions or changes to it. This is not a big deal. I am sure he had general ideas worked out, and made some revisions as the years went by.

Imagine you wrote something 20 years ago and you picked it up today to read it. Do you think you wouldn't edit it at all? Do you think you haven't changed even a little bit in 20 years?

And if he didn't try to spackle some of the continuity issues, even more people would now be complaining that the new movies suck because they have deep flaws.

In Luceno's new book The Dark Lord, it is stated that Luke was taken to Tattoonie because it was one place Vader would never return. Anakin was still a part of him and there was so much pain and anger tied to that place, that he never dared to set foot there for fear that Anakin may be able to resurface and his strength in the Dark Side would suffer.

That and Tattoonie was one of those places where no one asks questions, as stated in the books and movies, so why on earth would news of some moisture farmers son named Skywalker ever come up?

I don't think most people care that he changed the story as he went along -- I think they care that he did it poorly. If he had edited well, then he would have caught inconsistencies before they happened.

Yeah, totally not anything Tolken would have or ever did.

Thought they also saw an instance of Anakin kneeling before Palpy

Why are some people obssessed with crapping all over the people who feel like talking about it? It's no different from any other conversation about any other subject in that if you don't like what's being talked about, don't participate. Pretty simple.

"Tattoonie"!!!

Oh yeah. Cause you never crap on other people's posts.

Come on, I laughed at "Tattoonie" as well. It's funny. Say it.

I think the thing that bugged me the most is the lack of explaination (in the movie) of why they did what they did. Why separate the twins? Why go into hiding? Why hide Luke on the home planet of his father? Why doesn't Yoda go to Tatooine? Why not try to recruit more Jedi's and secretly train them and rebuild the order?

Sure, we could try to guess reasons to all of these questions. And most of these guesses would probably make sense. But wasn't the whole point of Episode III to answer these questions?

Interesting how some folks are arguing that Tatooine was the perfect placed to hide Luke from Vader because Anakin would never want to return there, and others are arguing that no one knew that Anakin was even still alive.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Skywalker is the new Nguyen.

Laughing at an amusing typo and post/thread-crapping are pretty different. Deal with it.

Not sure what was in that pic, but if it's the one I think it is it's not even in the movie. If I recall, the whole Luke/Leia/Han thing's point was that it WAS intended at first (hence Luke and Leia weren't originally sibs) and it was all cut out of the finished product leaving no triangle. Just watched them again over the holidays and still stand by my point. I did miss another conversation between Luke and Leia, though, but it was about Han, naturally.

Long ago in a trilogy far, far removed...

Midichlorians & Jar Jar Binks...thankyou George, thankyou so very much.
Kind of a given that Lucas didn't have the stories fleshed out in the 70's. Everything about these...er....prequels is too far removed from the style - sophistication and overall appeal of the originals. In my eyes they will never be linked to the original trilogy - never.
I often say, and you'd be astonished how many agree, that sequels would have gone down better. I was far more interested to see where the universe went from there than seeing how Vader grew from pint sized droid builder and 'pod racer' to a confused teenager, loving husband and an anguished cyborg. It seemed that the movies were intentionally drawn out to produce another trilogy (cos these days if you don't have a trilogy it's not in style). It should have been two movies at the very most.

All of this was plainly obvious, and didn't need an explanation.

Perhaps you missed the part in A New Hope that said "Episode 4"

because only one of vader's kids can be powerful enough to defeat the wimp that vader turned out to be

What the hell does that mean? Of course I didn't, but the content of these new ones was drawn too long, it would have been more interesting to have many more story arcs and narrative to make another solid trilogy.