Nope. The purists
will die before admitting this but pretty much everyone who knows the Star Wars
EU will agree that the Prequels revitalized the franchise and its stagnated EU.
George had banned writers from exploring the events leading to A New Hope so
the authors could only go forward. Now imagine exploring the same trilogy for
20 years. That’s what happened, the authors were bound to write about the OT
universe, its characters (their adventures, their families, their friends,
their enemies, etc.) for 20 years. It got to a point it nowhere else to go.
Then came
the Prequels. In the years leading up to TPM’s release, people got interested
in the EU again. Suddenly, there were new possibilities. We were introduced to
politics, the everyday life of the Republic’s citizens, the Sith, the
organization of the Jedi Order, the Senate, ships, weapons and a shitload of
new characters, species and planets.
Star Wars became
this gigantic universe because of the Prequels. No one is denying the quality
and value of the original trilogy, but, in terms of worldbuilding, the prequels
remain the successful trilogy. The bulk of what we now know as the EU was
published after the Prequels were put in production.
It’s one of
these things that always amuse me. the purists go out of the way to pretend the
prequels never happened at the same time they neglecting to recognize most of
what we know about the galaxy far far away is a result of the Prequels
existence.
Imo, the prequels
are more interesting because of the complexities of the characters and
situations. We don’t have a clear good vs evil narrative. It’s so complex and
layered. On the surface it looks like the Jedi vs the Sith but it’s also SO
MUCH more than that. The Republic feels lived in and its problems feel much
more relatable to our owns. And the heroes are not heroic, I love that about
the prequels. The good guys are the villains of someone else’s story, they are unwilling
digging their own grave. There’s a self-destructive element in these characters
that feel so very human, you know?
If the OT
is a study in what we should be (good uniting against evil), the PT is a study
in what we are (paving the road to hell with good intentions) and, in my
opinion, that makes it a more relatable story and, therefore, more interesting.
Personally, I don’t really see anything wrong with giving Luke to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. What else was Obi-Wan gonna do? (He pretty much raised Anakin and look how that turned out, he’s not gonna risk Round 2.) (He could have given both kiddos to Bail and Breha Organa, actually. Luke and Leia Organa is a cool as heck AU.)
I like Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. As much as people like to say Luke really is Padme’s son, he didn’t get those morals from her. (Keeping in mind I have read no comics or novelizations, and not seen the Clone Wars TV show) It’s pretty clear that Luke’s iron spine and goodness and refusal to abandon his friends come from his upbringing. Owen and Beru Lars are kinda the Ma and Pa Kent of the Star Wars universe.
And they are Luke’s family. Owen is Shmi’s stepson. Owen and Beru probably knew Anakin’s mother for years. It’s a neat circle, and in some ways it has the feelings of an apology, for Obi-Wan to bring Luke back to his family on Tatooine in the same way that Qui-Gon took Anakin. Obi-Wan can’t undo what’s been done, and he can’t start over, but he can give Luke what the Jedi denied Anakin: a loving family and normal upbringing.
Tatooine is Darth Vader’s home planet? Yeah, sure, but did Anakin ever go back to Tatooine? (Probably once or twice, I’m guessing, in the comics at least.) Darth Vader hates that place. Bad memories. Damn sand would fuck up his suit. He’d burn it all down and then the Hutts are gonna be pissed. And how many people actually know that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker? Like, about five? (Bail, Obi-Wan, Yoda, R2-D2, and Ahsoka?) Dude is not exactly getting invites to school reunions and the weddings of childhood friends, is all I’m saying.
Even if Darth Vader ever went back to Tatooine, Tatooine is a big place. The Lars Farm is in the middle of nowhere and Obi-Wan is hanging out left of the funky rock five miles past nowhere. Anakin met his stepbrother once in the entire film trilogy and idk if they even exchanged words, much less space e-mail addresses. I kind of doubt that Uncle Owen and Darth Vader are sending each other Life Day e-cards. (That’s really funny, actually.)
Anyway, the point of this rant is that I want you to imagine new parents Owen and Beru Lars caring for toddler Luke, it’s just after Life Day, and someone rings the doorbell. Owen Lars opens up to Darth Vader holding a fruit basket, because he didn’t know what else to do for Life Day and spontaneously decided to visit distant family rather than mope in his Evil Castle again.
(Everything Obi-Wan hoped would never happen, just… happening.)
Owen, after introductions, panicking, “Uh… the suit is… new.”
He has to invite Vader in, because it’s Life Day and how exactly do you tell Darth Vader to fuck off? Then Owen and Beru have a hushed argument in the kitchen while Darth Vader is sitting awkwardly in their living room with a drink that he can’t actually drink but took to be polite. When they come out, they introduce Luke as Luke Whitesun, Beru’s late brother’s kid, which they guess makes Luke… Darth Vader’s… nephew. (They can’t hide him, Vader’s already seen this 2-3 yr old Luke and the house is COVERED in baby and kid stuff.)
And Darth Vader just… fucking falls for it.
And the Lars family has to spend the holidays with Uncle Darth Vader who is super keen to have a step-nephew-in-law. Beru is showing off her cross-stitching to Darth fucking Vader as Luke plays at their feet. Owen is in the kitchen sending a desperate space text to Obi-Wan, who basically has a heart attack on the spot when Owen sends a shitty stealth-pic of Darth Vader on their couch.
Bonus points if the Lars’ don’t even move after this, because Vader left without issue and Uncle Owen afterwards was like, “It turned out fine. I don’t want to move, that’s too much hassle.” So, every major holiday, Luke gets a visit from his Uncle Darth Vader, which works out fine so long as they instigate a “Don’t Talk About Politics” rule when Luke starts getting excited about Rebellions and starts bad-mouthing the Empire (Vader making small talk at a Star Destroyer water cooler to his terrified staff: “Ugh, I’m going to have to debate my liberal 13-yr-old nephew at the dinner table again.”), and Vader even helps with the dishes and stuff, and every time Obi-Wan ages an extra year from stress.
Guys, please, the way this continues is that the general events of the Star Wars universe continue as normal (Leia, having literally just left a space battle: “Darth Vader, the AUDACITY of attacking an innocent diplomatic vessel!”) UNTIL the stormtroopers show up at the Lars Farm. (Luke is desperately chasing down the droids he lost and properly meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi.)
At first, it’s business as usual, y’know? Stormtroopers break down the door and interrogate the occupants and start prepping to burn the place down, and the leader is in the middle of shouting, “TELL US WHERE THE DROIDS A-” when he pauses and just… stares… at the mantlepiece.
Because on the Lars family mantlepiece and walls are, like, a hundred family photos and roughly half of them have Darth Vader in them. There’s Darth Vader wearing a Life Day party hat at a dinner table. There’s Darth Vader holding a toddler and playing with model ships. There’s Darth Vader and a pimply thirteen year old in the stands at the Boonta Eve Classic. There is a cross-stitched pillow on the couch that says OUR FAMILY on it, consisting of a man, a woman, a boy, and Darth fucking Vader.
Stormtrooper Grunt #1: “What… what… what the fuck.”
Aunt Beru, who has HAD it with these guys wrecking her house, already angrily jabbing at their space phone: “I am calling Mr. Vader RIGHT NOW about this.”
Darth Vader, excusing himself from the bridge of his Star Destroyer to take a call from his stepsister-in-law: “Beru. This isn’t a good time-”
Beru: “Well, MAKE TIME, because your stormtroopers broke down our door and tracked SAND all over my nice clean floors and they won’t stop yelling about the droids we just bought! You better have a good explanation for this!”
Darth Vader does not, actually, have a good explanation for this. The stormtroopers can feel his wrath from across the galaxy. It’s a work thing and he’s very sorry and he’ll make the stormtroopers fix their door, but he does really need those droids and could they hand them over, please? He’ll have the Empire compensate them. Yes, he’ll pay them back and send new droids. Yes, kicking doors down is very rude, Beru, you’re absolutely right.
So Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru promise to pick up Luke and the droids, and hop in the spare Landspeeder to go looking for them. Owen is Not Happy to find that Obi-Wan’s given Luke a lightsaber, and Aunt Beru is Not Happy to find out that the Empire’s made some superweapon. Of course they have to get these plans to the Rebellion! Yes, she promised Vader, but he should have told her it was for such a terrible thing! Yes, Owen, they’re all going to Alderaan.
So the Lars family runs away to Mos Eisley and get on the Millennium Falcon to Alderaan, while the stormtroopers are standing around like, “Are they… coming… back???” And Han Solo does not know what the hell is going on or what to do about the Weird Old Wizard talking about “universe-penetrating magic”, or the Grumpy Farmer who keeps trying to fix his “piece of junk” ship that excuse you does not need fixing, or the Sunny Farm Boy waving a light sword around, or the kindly old woman who is currently cross-stitching in his back seat and gossiping with Chewie like he’s not even there.
Later, after the Death Star’s been destroyed, Owen and Beru Lars are now a part of the Rebellion with Luke. Beru sends Darth Vader a piece of fabric in the Space Mail, and it’s the little cross-stitched Vader from her OUR FAMILY pillow who’s been cut out because she’s mad at him. (Except her note says DISAPPOINTED and that’s worse.) Darth Vader is more upset about this than the Emperor being mad at him for the destruction of the Death Star.
This is such a wild ride and I want more.
Please, kind writer, may I have some more?
See, the thing about Uncle Darth Vader is that the Lars family lives in the middle of nowhere Tatooine. Luke has to get his news off his friends, who have to get their news from shitty Space Radio, and the Empire’s suppressing a good three-quarters of the terrible things it does. The Lars family, largely, has no idea who this Darth Vader guy is except that he’s Anakin, who did a bunch of shit in the Clone Wars and he’s evil now? (Obi-Wan is dying, guys. He’s dying.)
Oh, yeah, quick summary: the events on the Death Star proceeded more or less as they did in canon. Except Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru don’t make convincing stormtroopers, so they tagged along with the droids and found the Death Star Laundry Service and dressed up as an Empire officer and his wife on their way to a vacation on Beach Resort Planet. Luke and Han sneaking Leia out is a lot easier with Admiral Lars and his wife loudly complaining to every stormtrooper they come across that their ship isn’t being fixed fast enough and sending stormtroopers marching off in every direction.
(The Empire… does not… have high standards… for officers. It is corrupt as hell. The stormtroopers look at this middle-aged, slightly chubby guy complaining obnoxiously about his ship not being fixed fast enough, and his overbearing wife complaining shrilly about not being able to get their deposit back, and are like, “This is legit. Also, sir, I’m part of sanitation, I don’t fix ships. I don’t know where customer service is… this is a Death Star. We don’t have customer service. Uh, I guess my ‘manager’ would be Admiral Bob??? Oh, well, you’re right, I should go clean up that mess you saw on the other floor. I will agree to literally anything you say to get away from you.”)
So, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru get to the Rebellion, right? (And they have already adopted the heck out of Leia, who has been given ALL the Aunt Beru hugs.) And someone starts listing off ALL of the awful stuff that Darth Vader has done, like, the dude is SUPER EVIL. And the Lars family is just… what. (And it’s a good thing that Obi-Wan is already dead by this point, or Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would bring him back just to kill him again.)
Luke goes to destroy the Death Star and Vader is just like, “Luke???? What are you doing???” And Luke is ignoring all of Vader’s attempts to comm him and blows up the Death Star while giving his uncle the cold shoulder.
And later, at the Rebellion, people are like “Darth Vader is your uncle???” And Luke’s just like, “YEAH, AND A LIAR!!!” (Later, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru will have a long talk with Luke about the truth and the lies they told. And Luke will forgive them because he loves them and they love him, but this doesn’t really change much, especially about how mad he is at his dad.)
Later, when they finally meet again. The rebels are just… completely stunned… because Darth Vader is desperately trying to get through to Luke, like, “Luke, nephew, please, let’s just talk about this. Beru won’t answer my voice mails. Owen unfriended me on Space Chat. We can talk about this.”
And Luke is angrily shooting at Darth Vader and shouting, “What’s there to talk about?! It’s not like you LIED TO US ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU DID BY TELLING US YOU WORKED IN I.T.?!??”
“Luke…”
“YOU DON’T WORK IN I.T.!”
@makiruz said: I have questions, like WHAT did Obi-Wan tell Luke? Does Luke know how is “Uncle” Darth Vader related to Uncle Owen? Does he think he’s a Whitesun? Does he know how he’s related to Darth Vader? Since Owen and Beru aren’t Jedi do they tell Luke the truth eventually? Do they know about Leia?
WHAT did Obi-Wan tell Luke?
Everything Obi-Wan was beginning to plan flew out the window when Luke was a toddler. So he just went with what he said in canon, that Luke’s father was a Jedi Knight and Darth Vader murdered him. And Luke was like, “?!??!? Uncle murdered somebody?? (That doesn’t sound unlikely, actually.)”
Does Luke know how is “Uncle” Darth Vader related to Uncle Owen?
Yeah, Luke knows Vader is Gran Shmi’s son. But idk, he’s not really sure, but it doesn’t matter? You know how you have those people in your life who are “Aunt This” and “Uncle That” and sometimes you look them in the eyes and you’re just like, “I have no idea how or if you’re related to me.” It’s kind like that. It just is.
Does he think he’s a Whitesun?
Yes. He does. His parents died in a Tusken Raider attack and they don’t talk about it. (According to the story, which makes Darth Vader not ask questions but also unfortunately endears Luke to him even more because they have stuff in COMMON! My mother was also murdered by Tusken Raiders! 10-yr-old Luke, “That’s… neat… I guess.”)
Does he know how he’s related to Darth Vader.
Nope.
Since Owen and Beru aren’t Jedi do they tell Luke the truth eventually?
Yes. Owen and Beru meet up with Luke and Obi-Wan, and Luke is like, “Old Ben’s been telling me weird stories. I thought my parents were farmers? He says my dad was Anakin Skywalker and a Jedi Knight? And that Uncle Vader killed him????” And Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru spent most of the way to Alderaan glaring at Obi-Wan and trying to sort out the lies and the truth.
As above, after the Death Star is destroyed, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru tell Luke the truth and everything they know, including that Darth Vader is his father. They’re very sorry about it. Ghost Obi-Wan is like, “What are you doing? You’re not supposed to communicate and tell Jedi-in-training the truth about stuff??”
Do they know about Leia?
No. But they basically adopt her anyway. And so when the truth eventually comes out (sometime between ANH and ESB, probably through some medical emergency or blood test, or Luke just shaking down Ghost Obi-Wan for info), Luke is just upfront like, “Leia, we’re siblings.”
Leia, “Yeah, sure, I guess we’re kind of like siblings. I’m the favorite.”
Luke, “No??? You’re not??? I’m the favorite. Also, no, like, these medical results show that we’re literally siblings. Didn’t you once say you’re adopted?”
I saw the tweets about this today, and I was like oh yeah, I remember hearing about that.
And then I saw the pictures and just— wow. What it would have meant to have these women in the movie, all this time. I can’t properly articulate it but it’s hitting me unexpectedly hard.
Wow thats a shame, even a nice old lady too. These Space Valkyries should have been left in.
I lived, ate, and breathed Star Wars from age 2 until 2005 when RotS finally beat the enthusiasm out of me, and I have NEVER, EVER in all my reading on behind-the-scenes and makings-of heard of these shots. It’s a shame there was no relaunched edit of the original trilogy they could have slipped these in OH FUCKING WAIT THERE’S BEEN LIKE 3 OF THOSE NOW.
Fuck. FUCK. Whoever decided to edit out and bury these needs to french kiss an angle grinder.
I want to see the old lady in the A-Wing. Seriously, it’s like, she’s somebody’s grandma. Some kid in the Outer Rim Territories got greased by the Empire for seeing something she wasn’t supposed to see, and her grandma, the bush pilot, decided “Fuck this, I’m gonna strap on an fighter and make the Empire fucking PAY for the moment it decided to fuck with MY FAMILY.”
DON’T. MESS. WITH. GRANDMA.
These are quickly being put into the “always reblog” category.
Whenever there is a war, there are women who are warriors. Then they get erased from history. Happens in real wars and fictional ones alike.
Less than 5% of general aviation licenses go to women. If these had been left in, you can bet that number would be higher.
^^^That knocked the breath out of me.
I just can’t believe they not only took them out, but refused to put them back in during the seventeen times they updated the movies. And of course the only possible explanation for this is: you do not belong here.
Literally though. How many stupid remasters have they done but THIS gets left out? Ugh
Vader: I used to not understand why people cared so much about their dumb children until I found out I have a kid. If anything bad were to happen to Luke I would kill everyone in this room and then myself
I’ve come to realize that this is literally exactly what happened in return of the jedi and I can’t believe I didn’t make that connection sooner
like this isn’t a joke the way I meant it to be, it’s full on canon
#i feel like this is also the stance of the movies#because lando spends approximately zero seconds redeeming himself#think of how black characters are usually treated for betrayals#even if it is an airquote betrayal#lando helps at the end of esb and is officially one of the heroes no redemption necessary#the whole choking thing is a misunderstanding really tags via cadesama
#star wars #this is the thing that makes me SUPER love lando #not just that he’s dashing and glamorous which he is #but that when he’s in an impossible pinch he knows he has responsibilities and he makes a hard choice #it’s sad but i don’t blame him #and i think leia totally gets it #(leia/lando is my secret ot otp and i need to write it)
YEAH YOU DO
Leila gets it because of Alderaan. She didn’t know that she was making a choice at the time, and it wasn’t her fault. It was Vader who did it. But Alderaan still echoes in her heart and mind, and when Landon makes the choice he did, she forgives him for it because she gets it. More than anyone else, Princess Leia of Alderaan gets it.
I don’t know what it is about Star Wars but even if it’s not your biggest fandom, it still has the funniest memes by a long shot I mean “look at all the fucks i give anakin” and “your poncho is a piece of junk” and anakin hates sand it’s all just 1000% pure class
i'll apple your turnover 