I would like to begin this essay with a disclaimer, especially to partially appease the diehard fans that scream heresy whenever any aspect of the Star Wars saga is criticized: I enjoy the prequels; I appreciate much of the Special Edition changes; I can find a lot to like in the Expanded Universe mythology. However- NONE of it fits into my own personal canon, nor do I think the vast majority of it (aside from some basic concepts) can be reasonably and objectively shoehorned into the established Original Trilogy story mechanics. People like me have been dubbed “purists” because we balk and scoff at any addition (or change) to the “holy trilogy”. I’ve met people who complain and criticize just for the sake of doing so; they annoy me as much as anyone, but complaining for the sake of being “kewl” is not my mandate. Rather, I take what was established in the original three films, an entertainment culture that was untouched for fifteen plus years (allowing much individual and personal speculation of story history and unrevealed details) help judge what we’re eventually shown in the prequels, special editions and other licensed EU material. Very little of it has fit into said personal canon, and again, into what “should” be a part of the saga.
One of the first defenses to a criticism of this sort is that the saga is Lucas’ to do with as he will, and he’s been there for both the originals and perhaps even more so for the prequels. This is a point that’s difficult to argue. The best I can come up with, and it is something I believe wholeheartedly, is that Lucas is a considerably different creator than he was 20-30 years ago. Part of it is that he wasn’t the monetary powerhouse that he is now, and was greatly influenced and limited by the film collaborators and studios, respectively. His production team at the time was composed of very talented individuals who did not feel compelled to bow to his every wish. These days, the “yes-men” have no real influence on what Lucas can and can’t do in his films, and so we get a limitless imagination run wild that breaks a lot of the rules established (and made characteristically different from any other type of fantasy/sci-fi) by the original films. I truly believe that the limitations imposed on Lucas in the seventies (both monetary and creatively) resulted in much better films with a greater feeling of realism than what he produces now.
My goal here is to outline the various reasons why almost anything added or changed to the saga since the mid-90s not only doesn’t fit with established rules of the Star Wars universe, but actually diminishes the special cultural significance of the original films as beloved works of cinematic art. I’ll begin with the Special Editions and then move into the prequels, since both dramatically alter the implied history, established physics and overall presentation of film elements.
The Special Editions
There is little doubt that the changes made to the OT in the mid 90s were not to enhance or clarify story elements, but rather to flex the new CGI muscle capability that was emerging as a post-production tool. There is a considerable difference in the special effects of the original films compared to contemporary ones, and many people (including Lucas) will claim that new is better. I don’t agree with this; a physical model that captures the intricate lighting of the environment, along with movement characteristics like weight and inertia are things that the trained eye can differentiate from computer images. Furthermore, a real, believable environment is much more in the spirit of the original films than any kind of new fantastical setting. Anyhow, there are numerous points to discuss, so I’ll present them in bullet-point format for easier distinction.
-Mos Eisley: it was clear in 1977 that Tatooine in general, and Mos Eisley specifically, was a very sparse and almost desolate place. Lucas may claim these days that the SE version is what he always intended, but regardless we were originally shown that the main spaceport of Tatooine is very empty. This really enhanced the feeling that Luke was literally nowhere, one of his motivations to get into space and be a part of something greater. The SE added lots of buildings, citizens, and creatures into the old footage. This resulted in a city that seems to be a pretty happening place, with lots to see and do. If this isn’t bad enough, the addition of crowded city streets of cheering citizens at the end of the ROTJ SE makes it even worse. Back in 1977, we were shown a place where a jedi child could be hidden because there were only a few small settlements around, and nobody really cared about anybody else because of the hard, desolate life they lived on this backwater planet. Now we’re supposed to buy the fact that anybody on Tatooine would actually care that the Emperor was defeated? Furthermore, that there would be that many people in this settlement that the streets would be filled with them, cheering? Likely, these people wouldn’t even know what’s going on with the Empire at any given point anyway. Give me the few buildings and moisture vaporators from the Jerba, Tunisia location over the computer generated city any day.
-CGI Rontos and Dewbacks: the added creatures look fine and are animated well, but they’re unnecessary to the story and suggest that there is more activity to the city than what was originally shown. A personal dislike of mine is that the dewback was given thin lizard legs instead of the dinosaur limbs of the original, but that doesn’t greatly alter anything. The limitations of production in the 70s made beasts few and far between, so the inclusion of them now just sticks out from the rest of the film (and reduces the realism and believability of this fantasy setting I think).
-Greedo shoots first: so much has been said about this change that I don’t think it’s necessary to get into yet again. For me, the major problem is not who shoots first, but that the scene now looks so damned forced and awkward. Still, if left as originally cut, the journey from scoundrel to hero for Han is more pronounced than it is in the SE.
-The Jabba scene: of course, the major problem here is that Jabba’s final look had not been established yet (in 1977), so the scene would have been fine with the human actor as originally shot. But ROTJ introduced us to the wonderful puppet that Jabba turned out to be: an enormous, bloated slug that is restricted in movement and permanently bound to his dais. I’ve never been comfortable picturing a slightly slimmer Jabba able to slither on the ground, and it immediately looked wrong to my eyes when the scene was added. Furthermore, the CGI animation was too cartoony and rapid in movement when compared to the slow and deliberate movements of the large ROTJ puppet.
-Vader communicates with the Emperor: the fact that Ian McDiarmid was used to replace the existing scene was actually a great move (even though he appeared a bit heavier in the face and neck than the ‘younger’ ROTJ version), but the change to the dialogue makes a retroactive continuity issue that I’ll discuss in the prequels section. It probably should have remained the same dialogue with the new footage.
-Cloud City: admittedly, the animation here is quite beautiful. The addition of windows with outside views doesn’t change the story at all, but has a subtle effect on the environment. The stark white hallways convey a slightly different emotional response than do the beautiful orange skies. Also, the citizens stopping to listen to Lando’s announcement isn’t a scene necessary to show.
-Rebo Band: this scene is perhaps the biggest offender to my eyes (and ears) of the entire SE. The original musical number was considerably more exotic sounding than this new jazz theme. Sy Snootles went from strange alien being to silly cartoon. Added band members were unnecessary, and the back-up singer alien women were terrible. This is a scene I simply cannot watch.
-The Sarlacc beak: without a doubt, the creature as presented in the original release is far more terrifying than a CGI beak. One can almost smell the rank interior of the creature buried in the sand; it frightens because you don’t exactly know what’s down there. The SE version is too animated, and reveals too much of the creature.
-Ewok village finale: the replacement song here is actually quite nice as a trilogy wrap-up, perhaps more fitting than the yub-nub song. But Lucas tries to do too much here, when it is supposed to be a farewell to friends and a thanks to the ewoks for their help. We don’t need to see what’s going on around the galaxy; we can speculate for ourselves. Tatooine and Bespin should never have been shown, as mentioned earlier, since I refuse to believe those people would know or care that the Empire had been toppled (this addition also suggests that the Empire is more far-reaching than what was originally shown in the films). Mos Eisley in particular is just not that bustling of a city. Coruscant makes sense in this context, since this is where the Empire is based, but again the viewer can speculate on how the galaxy takes the news. As far as replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christiansen: there is absolutely no reason other than to force a retcon with the prequels. The other two jedi appear as they did at the time of their deaths, and so should Anakin.
The original trilogy is an icon of filmmaking and should never have been altered. At most, a cleaning of the film and removal of matte lines should have been all that Lucasfilm changed. George’s seeming refusal to release the original, untouched trilogy on DVD quality means that the SE versions will become the only versions available for future generations. I couldn’t imagine, for example, a Godfather Special Edition with CGI gangsters and people edited to shoot their guns in a different order than originally presented, and so should this not have been changed. The overall point, though, is that the prequels should have been made to fit the established (and beloved) original trilogy, and not the other way around.
The Prequel Trilogy
As mentioned earlier, I really enjoy the prequels. In fact, I enjoy them much more now that I don’t have to accept everything in them as canon. Many of the generalities and specifics of the prequels do not fit into the established characteristics of the OT, and therefore I consider none of it as canon. Accepting that finally (after a few years of forcing myself to like it all) was very liberating, both in enjoyment of the films and the collecting trends I had established. No longer did I “have” to love everything Lucas and his people created, nor buy everything Hasbro had duplicated. This is an interesting phenomenon to me: though many people genuinely like and accept the prequels as canon, many others force themselves to accept it even though they do not agree with it. Somehow it’s a very difficult thing to pick and choose parts of a whole that one likes, at the expense of the rest of it. In collecting, it’s called completism, and it can and does transfer into acceptance of the films as well.
If I completely had my way, the prequels would not, and would never, exist at all. Despite the fact that the prequel films would be completely different had they been made in the 80s instead of the late 90s and beyond, there really is no need for them. The exposition offered in all 3 OT films was sufficient to give us a history without needing to show it. Some things are better left mysterious, in fact. More importantly, the prequels now alter (and actually ruin) many of the monumental revelations throughout the saga. I’ll outline those in detail shortly. Several things could have been changed without eliminating the prequels entirely, though, to have them fit better into the mythology. Those will be outlined as well.
Episode 1
· C-3PO as Anakin’s hobby project: this has bothered me since day one. No way, no how did Darth Vader create C-3PO. This was a connection between the trilogies that I refuse to accept. The sheer coincidence of the thing notwithstanding, Threepio should never have been introduced as a coverless droid with a childlike personality. A better fit would be to have introduced him as a snooty secretary droid of some other senator, perhaps of Bail Organa, in the Senate.
· Anakin on Tatooine: though it makes a bit of sense to later hide Luke on a planet that Anakin would be reluctant to visit again due to his mother’s death, the sheer importance of Tatooine has been ramped up beyond the desolate backwater planet seen in the first movie. Again, I don’t like that both Anakin and Luke grew up on the same planet. Furthermore, the inclusion of jawas and tusken raiders in Episode 1 and 2 now negates each race’s clever introduction “later” in ANH.
· Mos Espa Arena: a major issue that I have with Episode 1 is the stadium arena in Mos Espa. A city on Tatooine should not be capable of filling an arena of that sheer enormous size. In fact, I’d go so far as to claim the entire planet probably shouldn’t have as many people living on it as were witnessed in the arena. The podracing sequence was thrilling, but it probably should have occurred on Malastare like Qui-Gon mentioned, or some other planet.
· R2-D2 should never have interacted with either Anakin or Obi-Wan. The odds of this one droid being so prominent in both trilogies’ situations are impossible, not to mention that Ben Kenobi doesn’t recognize him in Episode 4.
· Jar Jar was meant to be the Wicket of Episode 1, as the link between cute character and formidable army of primitive creatures. Instead, he was an embarrassing buffoon. A character like Chewbacca was both adorable and frightening at the same time, and Jar Jar should have been designed in a similar fashion.
· The Gungans: generally, this race is pretty cool, with an interesting method of battle and armaments. But the underwater city may have been too exotic for a typical Star Wars environment. We were used to seeing desert wastelands, frozen tundra, swamps, and forests as planetary backdrops, and all of those things are familiar to us and therefore believable. Underwater cities are not something we’re accustomed to seeing, though, so for me it was too unusual. Similarly, in the OT, characters interact with their environment in realistic ways. Here, the jedi have to swim to great depths to reach it, with no apparent problems of deep water pressure.
· Battle Droids and other new droid styles: another major issue that I have with the prequels is the gravity-defying, laws-of-physics-breaking new droid styles. In the OT, droids were heavy, clunky, thick-limbed or treaded, and moved slowly. In the PT, droids have been designed with impossible locomotive capabilities. There are battle droids with thin skeletal frames, uni-wheeled robots, and anti-grav floating droids all over the place. Absolutely worst of all, though, is the addition of booster rockets to astromech droids. I absolutely cringed when R2-D2 fired up his booster rockets in Episode 2; here was a droid that had trouble getting around the sandy streets of Mos Eisley and other OT locations, but now he can fly anywhere he needs to. What’s the point of rolling around at all now?
· Alien races: in the OT, aliens were the exception, not the rule. Scenes like the Cantina and Jabba’s Palace were meant to surprise us with how different things were away from the human-only Empire and rebellion, as well as most of the other locations in the films. In the PT, aliens are more prevalent than humans, and seem less special for it. In ANH, there was mention of the Senate, but in my mind this was an almost humans-only organization. To see all of the alien races shown thus far (and new ones) as senators was just too much in my opinion. Aliens were supposed to be almost inferior when compared to humans. This brings me to my next point.
· The Jedi Council: such a cool idea, but with fundamental flaws. First of all, the fact that Yoda is such a major part of the PT now completely ruins the surprise for future audiences of the TESB reveal. The prequels should have mentioned him, but not actually shown him, in my opinion, to better preserve the storyline and surprise later on. Secondly, aliens outnumber humans in the jedi ranks. Yoda isn’t so special anymore now that there are other small alien jedi as well as many other kinds of alien jedi. Even though it’s possible for it to happen, I believe certain alien races shouldn’t have jedi at all. For example, a Nikto, Barada, or Twi’Lek jedi is less believable for me since the representatives of those races had thus far been shown to be thugs, sneaks, or female dancers. Also, Aayla Secura bothers me greatly: no jedi should be dressed in a skintight sexy outfit with a bare midriff. That’s a product of the bad-girl comic book trend, not the wise teachers we’d been led to believe the jedi are.
· The total number of Jedi was far too many. Though the films did not mention it, the fact that there were multiple thousands of them is overkill (despite the size of the galaxy). At most, I think a few hundred would have been realistic, primarily so that each one is special in his or her own right.
· Starship designs: the OT vehicles, whether Imperial, rebel, or other (Millennium Falcon, etc), were designed with an older, real-world style but were capable of space flight; cockpits looked like old airplanes, nuts, bolts, wiring and cables were visible everywhere, and generally everything was boxy. The Naboo ships were all sleek and curved, looking more like modern futuristic than dated futuristic. Furthermore, they were silver, yellow, chromed, and without any visible machinery. I was sure during the production of Episode 1 that we’d see early versions of Y-Wings and even bulkier freighters than the Falcon, and instead I was unpleasantly surprised by the sleek designs that seemed more at home in other sci-fi epics.
Episode 2
· Jango Fett: here is a prime example of an unnecessary character and story element added simply due to the popularity of Boba Fett. Did anyone really want to see Boba as a child? His mysterious motivations were perfectly satisfactory. Now we have a character with diminished uniqueness because we’re shown his father who dressed much like him and flew the same ship (though the colors on both are just a little different).
· Zam: this bounty hunter served no purpose whatsoever. It should have been Jango attempting the assassination, and without deadly creatures (unless he himself was present at the assassination site). Why have Zam do the deed from so far away, when he could have done it himself from the same distant location?
· Sifo Dyas: the order for creation of the clone army wasn’t explained satisfactorily, nor were Yoda and Mace portrayed as particularly curious or concerned about the discovery of it. Should they not have found out exactly who placed the order, on whose authority, and why it was done?
· The clones: I had no real problem with the genesis of the clones, though I think it was unnecessary to have two earlier designs before the stormtrooper armor. What bothered me, however, was the choice to make them all CGI. I thought they moved with no weight, and were a stark contrast to the suited real people of the OT.
· Tatooine: as previously mentioned, I don’t think this planet should have had a role in the PT. C-3PO and R2-D2 should not have been here before ANH, the Tusken Raiders should not have been who killed Anakin’s mother, and Anakin should never have been in the Lars garage. Darth Vader asking a jawa where his mother is? These are connections that should never have been created between the trilogies.
· Emergency powers: there wasn’t any reason for JarJar to suggest that Palpatine be granted emergency powers; he had plenty of senator allies and clearly the congregation approved (except for Bail and Padme, of course). It would have been more believable for a “bad” alien race’s senator to be the one who nominated the motion.
-CGI Threepio: perhaps one of the top 3 things I hated to see in this film was a CGI Threepio hanging on by his fingertips to an automated flying foundry droid. We've seen that he has a difficult time doing anything other than walking around and talking, and suddenly he's supporting his entire weight by his fingertips as this droid tries to throw him around and shake him off? This scene was very awkward to me; if Anthony Daniels in his suit couldn't do it, then 3PO shouldn't be able to do it!
-C-3PO's head-switch: compare this scene to the one in TESB where Chewbacca had to carefully and painstakingly reattach Threepio's head to his torso, correcting his voice patterns and activating his photoreceptors. The AOTC scene was done for comedic effect, and all it took were two rapid welding moves by an automated droid factory arm for Threepio to have full awareness. Where were the loose wires and ripped cables we saw the first time he lost his head?
-Arena creature battle: I was a little disturbed by Obi-Wan's vicious slaughtering of the Acklay. At first, he was purely defensive (as we were led to believe Jedi were, as explained by Yoda), but once he was given a lightsaber, he chopped off limbs and stabbed the thing right through the head (with a vicious expression on his face, no less). He seemed angry, in fact- there's a very blurry line between calm and angry for Jedi in the PT.
· Yoda’s lightsaber battle: this is it; the moment that solidified my exclusion of the PT from my personal SW canon. I still remember feeling almost... betrayed by the CGI Yoda spinning, flipping, and twirling like a crazy frog with his little lightsaber. First of all, I don’t believe Yoda should carry or use one. He was not shown with one in TESB, which (at least in my mind) meant he didn’t need one, and was of a skill level beyond the necessity of a physical weapon. Masters of fighting here on Earth are known to be more efficient with their bodily movements, expending the least amount of energy possible and rarely carrying a weapon. This is how Yoda should have been portrayed, rather than as the most physically active Jedi.
· Death Star plans: I refuse to believe that the Death Star was designed by a bug alien, or built by bug aliens. This was an enormous space station built and operated by military humans.
Episode 3
Unlike the OT, this third film is largely considered the best of the prequels (even though, structurally, episode 1 most closely resembles the OT film structure). There isn’t much done “wrong” here, and I suspect it is mostly due to Lucas learning his lessons from the criticisms of the first two prequel movies.
-Opening space battle: beautifully animated, and a great interactive scene. The only real problem I have, touched upon earlier, is the working relationship between the future Darth Vader and R2-D2. In my mind, these two never met, much less worked together intimately (including Obi-Wan, who did not recognize R2 in ANH). Since I’m being picky, I’ll mention that some of the ship designs are a bit too exotic for standard SW I think, including the buzz droids, tri-droids and a few of the land vehicles seen later. The original trilogy vehicles were made with real-world model parts, and therefore looked like actual aircraft, whereas prequel vehicles were created with limitless resources, resulting in uncharacteristic designs. Furthermore, Grievous and his droid guards do not move at all the way we expect SW droids to move. Our expectations of killer droids went no farther than the bulky IG-88 and 4-LOM, so to be introduced to an earlier killer droid style that moved as fluidly as the Magnaguards was uncharacteristic of the droid dynamic.
-Anakin’s motivation for the council: one thing that the novelization touched upon, but the film unfortunately did not, is that Anakin’s motivation to get onto the Jedi council as a master was to have access to Sith information that would allow him to save Padme’s life. In the film, it was portrayed simply as if he were offended to not be asked.
-Clone armor: in the OT, we were introduced to one stormtrooper design and one pilot design per film, and all were white, black, or grey. In episode 3 alone, there are scores of different designs, and in multiple colors including yellow, blue, and red. I felt the designs were too extravagant and complicated for what we had seen before. Could the Imperial army have evolved from these early clone army designs? Theoretically, yes, but it just didn’t feel right to me.
-Yoda and Obi-Wan's temple assault: instead of trying to sneak into the temple in order to warn the Jedi from returning to Coruscant, Yoda and Obi-Wan directly attack and murder several clone soldiers. These were the men they recently worked alongside, and Yoda is hurling his lightsaber like a spear, killing all of them. What happened to the avoidance of violence like Ben did in sneaking around the Death Star itself?
-Lava battle: what made Vader so special if Obi-Wan (a moderately-powerful jedi) could defeat him? We are told that Anakin has more midichlorians than any other jedi, he defeated Count Dooku by himself when Obi-Wan could not, but then he is beaten by Obi-Wan after all? There needed to be something else other than the “higher ground” that Obi-Wan claims to be his advantage.
-Yoda’s defeat: in TESB, Yoda claims that only a fully-trained Jedi knight has a chance of defeating the Emperor and Vader. Luke is largely considered to be powerful, but not nearly as skilled as Yoda, Obi-Wan, or scores of other Jedi in the prequels. So how could Luke be expected to defeat them when Yoda (who is vastly more powerful) could not? In fact, Yoda almost won- there was no reason to go into hiding other than to fit into the OT story. He should have regrouped with Obi-Wan and any other Jedi, and confronted the Emperor again. The battle with Yoda and the Emperor should not have occurred at all; if he was that easy to reach, then he should have been defeated before ROTJ by either Yoda or Obi-Wan. What should have happened is that the Emperor surround himself with his army so that no one could get close. This would preserve the effect of the audience seeing how powerful he was for the first time in ROTJ.
-Final scenes: the last several scenes alone spoiled many of the surprises of the OT. We see both Luke and Leia born (spoiling the surprise of ROTJ), how much of Vader is made of machines, that Luke is brought to Tatooine (with the awkward accept-the-baby-and-look-at-the-sunset scene), the construction of the Death Star, and Yoda’s plans to go to Dagobah. In ROTJ, Leia claims to remember images and feelings of her mother being sad; she had only seconds with her mother before Padme died, another inconsistency.
In conclusion, I want to reiterate that I enjoy watching the prequels for what they are. But they are not canon to my mind, and I’m firmly convinced that many things shown to us were not a part of Lucas’ original story. Lucas as a writer in the late 90s and early 2000s was probably influenced by a lot of his later life experiences as well as the state of the film industry by that point. The immense popularity of the saga motivated him to make connections between the trilogies that most writers would not have made, most notably the Anakin/C-3PO/R2-D2/Luke relationships, which were too coincidental to be believable.
Since my love of the saga is firmly tied into my love of the toys and collectibles, it was very difficult to make the decision to collect OT-only (which I did shortly after the AOTC toys were released). Many times while selling off my TPM and AOTC toys I wondered if I was going to later regret it, or not feel like I was a true fan, but eventually I became truly happy with my decision to isolate what I loved about Star Wars.
