Lucas Cared More About Toys, Says Star Wars Producer

Tom Phoenix

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Waw, if they had used the intended ending with the original trilogy, I might have actually liked Star Wars. As it stands, however, Therumancer summed up my feelings about Star Wars quite nicely:

Therumancer said:
fairy tale in space...
 

Treblaine

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I remember hearing on the HAWP podcast Anthon and Ashley Burch debating that Return of the Jedi had a cheap ending, and none of the principals getting killed off made it... well, less worth it.
 

Arehexes

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to all those who said han dying would have been said, this is true but remember loin king when the father died? It gave reason for simba to take down scar in the end. And for anime people when Major Hughs(how ever you spell his name) how many people didn't want Envy to be killed (watch how Roy took him out in the manga). Death of a fan loved character can but the viewer on the side of the person was on to get his revenge.
 

Latino Gamer

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I've actually always liked Return of the Jedi the best, mostly because I though the beginning was very well done. I love the whole interaction between Luke & Jabba and seeing the whole crew fight their way out, plus seeing Luke more "grown-up" now and confident in his Jedi skills.

Still, I'd honestly like to see this "alternate ending" to the trilogy.
 

Therumancer

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SelectivelyEvil13 said:
AlternatePFG said:
metalhead467 said:
Hell, if they had just replaced the Ewoks with Wookiees, and left everything else the way it was, I might have liked it as much as ESB.
Yeah, Wookiees would have actually made much more sense in the context of the story, sense they've already shown that they could easily overpower a stormtrooper.
You know, I've never actually thought about that, but that would have been pretty awesome!

Thanks to those stupid care bears, both Star Wars battlefronts had a pretty stupid Endor level (Hint: Who wants to get knocked over all the time by an ewok you can't see?)

I think I blocked that whole jar jar thing out of my memory. That was a definite "for the kids" inclusion, primed and ready for the toy market.

As for the more somber ending, it may have been alright, but I honestly liked Harrison Ford in the films.
Some people might get the impression I hate Star Wars given my previous rant, nothing could be further from the truth despite me thinking it could have been better if they had explored the concepts as intended. I have gone though the trouble to learn a bit about it.

One of the stories I have heard about "Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi" which might have already been mentioned was that the Ewoks were intended to be wookies, however allegedly they didn't have enough material for all the costumes, so they cut it down to Ewoks.

At the same time this is also reported as an excuse because apparently George Lucas had already worked out the merchandising for things like the "Ewoks" Cartoon and a number of products intended for children like stuffed Ewoks, and of course action figures which could be produced and moulded more cheaply due to the reduced size.

One thing that you can take away from this though is that at least with "Return Of The Jedi" he at least felt the need to try and justify himself to the fans, rather than pretty much flat out saying "oh yeah, I sold out creative vision for toys". I noticed with the prequel trilogy his attitude seemed much more self-righteous, ditto for the changes made to the original movies which seemed to insert a lot more "cutesy" stuff into the backround as much as anything.

Of course then again, one thing to consider though is that George Lucas also seemed to think that "Star Wars" was tapped out after "Return Of The Jedi". The attidue being that he had exploited the liscence so much that it wasn't worthwhile anymore. He sold the rights to other sources, and seemed to be a bit surprised when despite everything fans still loved the universe enough to keep it alive. One of the nastier battles I remember of my youth was when "Dark Horse Comics" who made a big deal about having the rights to Star Wars and write the "canon" since Lucas had abandoned it, did a pretty good job of keeping things going, and had some pretty neat ideas. The same could be said of the old "childrens" sequel novels such as they were. Eventually Lucas realized that there was still long term money to be made and fought to get those rights back, and did so in a really underhanded manner. While it was a long time ago, I basically remember a lot of it coming down to him appealing to pity and playing the role of the "beloved creator" who wanted his work back. "Shadows Of The Empire" being officially inserted into the canon even when Lucas got it back was a part of the settlement at the time, and one of the reasons why it was a big deal with video games, and the whole nine yards. Of course we all see how that worked out despite a few merchandising tie ins, you'd never guess at how that series defined a "Sith" (as in the Alien Race) given where things went.

Honestly, despite all my criticisms I think George Lucas has some major talent as a creator, you can see it with some of the things he writes. I think his problem is that he has yet to realize that people will flock to good writing in general, and he does not need to "dumb down" and kiddify everything to make money. Besides, even as a capitolist I do not see why everything has to have absolutly optimized profits in every respect.

My personal dream has always been that George Lucas would tie off the original storyline on an appropriate note going by the "fall of good" intent, and then launch a TV or Mini-series or something to deal with the cycle after that where it's time for the empire of evil to fall. Now that he's old, just imagine say Mark Hamil appearing as an image in the last remaining Holocron to instruct the first of the new Jedi who finds it by accident in how to use those powers... and then watching the Jedi come out of nowhere and start pwning Sith left and right the same way your watching Jedi masters get taken out in the current series.

An appropriate "fairy tale" ending would be if somehow the good guys were to win, and then somehow remove "The Force" from the equasion entirely and give the universe true control over it's destiny from that point onward, albiet with a bright start point. Meeting Kreia's ambitions basically, albiet with an opposite tendency. :)

Of course that would involved getting rid of some of the "sequel" novels and such, but I've never been fond of "force invisible aliens" as a concept, not to mention the so called "gray side of the force" which seems to defeat the entire point. Some of this stuff was well written (but with so many authors, a lot wasn't). It's a giant mess. I'd honestly be less sad to see it go than some of the stuff "Dark Horse" did as while less prolific their pre-lucas writing also seemed to actually be of a higher quality on average.... and yes I am a RA Salvatore fan, and still think his aliens were silly.
 

Colonel Alzheimer's

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MercenaryCanary said:
Though to be honest, the sad version might have obliterated some childhoods.
Hell, that 15 second scene where they showed some of the Ewoks dying must have ruined some childhoods.
OT: I agree that it should have been Wookies instead of Ewoks. Otherwise, I think the ending turned out well, although if they were going to kill someone off, I think Lando would have been a good choice. He would have achieved a more complete redemption that way.
 

AlternatePFG

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Colonel Alzheimer said:
MercenaryCanary said:
Though to be honest, the sad version might have obliterated some childhoods.
Hell, that 15 second scene where they showed some of the Ewoks dying must have ruined some childhoods.
OT: I agree that it should have been Wookies instead of Ewoks. Otherwise, I think the ending turned out well, although if they were going to kill someone off, I think Lando would have been a good choice. He would have achieved a more complete redemption that way.
My thoughts exactly. I thought it would have been much more intersting if they sacrificed the Millennium Falcon to destroy the Death Star.
 

Jake the Snake

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The dark ending I don't think would've meshed well with Star War's opera/whimsically dramatic style. But yeah if you could just nix the Ewoks ...and the fucking Gungans, and Hayden Christianson...oh and add a better script writer we'd be good to go.
 

awsome117

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Despite all the hate for Lucas, the man is a genius, like it or not. Sure, he made some mistakes, and we all do from time to time.

While some of the hate for Lucas is justified, I still enjoyed the prequels and I still would kill to meet Lucas in person.

Ah well, I guess I'm too much of a fanboy to hate Lucas oh well.
 

BlueHighwind

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I liked the ending of Return of the Jedi. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the final battle was the largest and most impressive of the entire series.

The prequels were awful, though. They should just declare the whole lot of it non-canon and try again.
 

Caligulove

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The darker ending is something I would have liked to see, maybe not as dark as they made it out to be originally, but something that seemed to capture the weight of what had happened would have been appreciated. I mean, it just felt like the care bears helped destroyed the empire and then everything was hunky dory.

I mean, sure, there was time for celebration but a nagging thought in the back of my nerdy, pre-teen brain still was thinking "that's it? I'm pretty sure the Empire isn't down and out just because they lost the Emperor"
And though I dont think I could express it as so- I think I wanted more of a feeling of 'winning the battle' but the War still uncertain and quite daunting.
 

Vrach

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deth2munkies said:
Yeah, the somber ending would be crap IMO. I like the way Star Wars turned out, despite all the negativity this story brings up, and that's really all that matters to me.
This. The first SW films were fine, the ending was good (and certainly viable without being cliche at the time it was made) and that alternative ending doesn't sound too awesome to me (although I'm sure it might've been, especially if the one we got was a quick rewrite). Either way, don't really care, it's like suddenly coming out and saying some famous writer like Tolkien wrote his greatest works for the money. That info is for the historians and philologists, I don't give a shit myself.
 

LesIsMore

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Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!
 

xyrafhoan

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I think the 3rd movie could have done away with the cutesy ewoks or other blatant new things that could potentially be turned into toys, but I don't agree that a somber ending would have been good, either. Not everything has to have a downer ending and I don't like the idea of a dead Han Solo either. The other two movies in the triology already had bittersweet endings, so having a happy resolution just felt like a relief.
 

matrix3509

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I would rather prefer an ending where Luke dies, to be honest. Roll with me here... what group is responsible for every major war in the entire Star Wars history? The Jedi and Sith of course. With both Palpatine, Vader, and Luke all dead, any reason that other (non-Force using) people have to fight will fly out the window, therefor: eternal peace. BAM! There's your happy ending.
 

Xiorell

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who cares WHY they turned out like they did?
Don't like Star Wars? Don't watch or get involved with it! Not point whinging about how YOU think it shoulda been. Make your own damn films.
People really need to learn to fuck off.
 

Parnage

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Nah I really don't want a unhappy dark ending for the end of the trilogy. Unhappy endings kinda tick me off. Also at the time Boba Fett wasn't that huge of a character and Lucas has said if he had known Fett would be so popular he wouldn't of ended up Sarlacc bait. *shrug*

I am okay with Empire getting owned by ewoks. I guess I am a sap.
 

samsonguy920

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Kurtz's ideal ending would have had me leaving the theater in disgust as I did after I watched Matrix Revolutions.
Not sure if I care about his willingness to sling mud here, but it does fit with what Lucas did with the prequels. Merchandising can be such a slippery slope into the pot of gold.
And I rather enjoy the space combat in Jedi.