Credit goes to a friend on Facebook:

So, I’m drunk and watching Star Wars-Return of the Jedi. I realize I would have done things a little differently at Endor. Here is my break down:

I would not have had Ewok support at the final battle because I would have slaughtered/Light Sabered/ Blasterd the shiza out of them. Why? Because I would not have allowed them to capture me as Luke did. Why? Because there was no time to dick around and have C-3PO do story time the night before a major battle to win their trust. What would I have been doing in lieu of hugging the big Teddy Bears? Good question.

I would have been using the cover of dark to do a RECON on the field generator site I planned on assaulting the next day; thereby possibly knowing that the Emperor had an entire Legion of his best Storm Troopers waiting to ambush me. I would not have been captured on my assault the bunker battle drill because I would have had a basic thing like rear security to ensure that all of eight Storm Troopers didn’t capture my entire assault team.

Now, to play devil’s advocate, the Ewoks might have come after me in the end instead of the empire due to mass slaughter. I may have lost the battle because of this error. This is irrelevant. I think my hero GEN Hon Solo batched the mission and mealy got lucky.

a much better strategy imo

the best Storm Troopers still can't shoot for shit.

I've often wondered what a final battle/plotline would;ve looked like without the 2nd Death Star setup. They infiltrate Coruscant for something... fly into the planet core?, Luke/Vader duel at the top of the Emperor's Tower, etc. A final scene with Luke at the Jedi Temple ruins, etc..

often, really?

I'd have flown the fleet to the other side of the Death Star so it couldn't shoot my ships up.

I would have nuked Endor

/thread

Watch it again. Han dies in the carbonite, and the entire film is his deathbed dream. All the clues are there.

Don't worry:



Yeah, why else did Lucas want Lynch to direct it?

Yep, this guy with too much time on his hands explains it quite well: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html

I wonder how would fans take it if the movie ended with Han, Lea, Luke, and Chewbacca getting roasted to death by the Ewoks.

If you read that annotated screenplay book, apparently there were scenes of Moff Jerjerrod trying to do exactly that before the Death Star went kablooey.

...I can't believe I just wrote that sentence.

That's the Ruggero Deodato edit.

Revisiting familiar locales (Tattooine, Death Star), convenient wish fulfillment fantasies (Leia "suddenly" turns out to be Luke's sister, arch enemy Jabba is killed)... and the slave Leia outfit speaks for itself.

It's also in the novelization.

There's so many little goodies in the novel that would really help the movie, even though I enjoy it, I still miss those bits from the novel.

The other strategy that actually is going on, and we just don't see it, is the other ground troops that came down with our heroes. If we had seen them in the battle taking out some of the stormtroopers, it would have made the Ewoks far more believable as a additional forces, and not the main body of the ground force.

I've heard the novelizations are superior to the films in almost every regard. Going to have to check them out eventually, I've been sitting on that idea for like 5 years now.

Interestingly enough, the worst of the six is Empire Strikes Back. So much of that story's success is due to Irvin Kershner's hand creating the mood and feel on set.

But yes, all six are still well worth the read, especially Revenge of the Sith. That's just fantastic.

Honestly, things like this are the main reason I no longer enjoy Star Wars. I try to put these wacky theories out of my head but then I watch the movie and I spend the whole time thinking about the theories. I wish I could back to when I was a kid.

Damn, never would have figured. Thanks for the heads up though. ROTS I have to figure is a really dark novel. What's the cheapest place to get them? Amazon?

Lucas himself has come out and said this (the Endor holocaust) doesn't happen, and the folks that maintain SW continuity rank Word of Mouth from Lucas as top tier information.

He doesn't give an explanation, but I'm sure there's also folks that have figured it out.

ROTS isn't just the best because it's the darkest, it's the best because it's well written dark.

I bought mine ages ago, probably did the bookclub thing to get them super cheap. I'm sure you could find them used very cheaply as they were all mass-produced (esp. The Phantom Menace hardcover, which was released with 4-5 different cover arts).