Star Wars fannishness
Oct. 20th, 2004 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupI finished reading A New Hope tonight. Or, as it was originally titled, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. I was surprised by how much it actually deviated from what was shown on screen; it must have been written from an earlier version of the script. I don't have a perfect memory by any means, but I've seen the original trilogy enough times that every line of altered dialogue stuck out like a sore thumb.
For example, Han's famous quote about making the Kessel Run in "twelve parsecs" -- which bit of illogic ended up causing the Expanded Universe writers to invent an explanation involving a collection of black holes called the Maw that can distort distance as well as time along the Run -- is presented as "twelve standard timeparts". The scene added to the Special Edition version of the movie with Han meeting Jabba outside of Docking Bay 94 is there, supporting Lucas' claim that he always wanted it in the movie but hadn't the technology to make it appear properly, except for one detail: "Jabba the Hut", with one T, was apparently just an ugly, overweight humanoid when Lucas first imagined him.
Luke's famous "I have a bad feeling about this" on approach to the moon was instead "I have a very strange feeling about this" in the original, and the exchange between Han and Obi-Wan about fools is completely altered as well. Instead of the memorable "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" Obi-Wan says, "What does that say of the man who allows himself to be hired by a fool?" Not to mention Obi-Wan's conversation with Vader. *wince*
The list goes on. They must have rewritten a lot of the wording on the fly during filming as they realized how awkward it sounded, considering just how much got altered. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining read.
On to The Ruins of Dantooine next. Then Splinter of the Mind's Eye, followed by the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. I think Shadows of the Empire is after that, then Return of the Jedi, and then ... well, I'll re-check the EU timeline when I get that far.
*grin* I'd forgotten just how much I loved the Star Wars universe; "The Phantom Menace" nearly drained all the fannish-ness out of me five years ago, and "Attack of the Clones" just made it worse. The only good thing to come out of the prequels, in my opinion, was a glimpse at Obi-Wan in his prime and a better idea of what the Jedi in general could do. My affection for the younger generation seems to have fully recovered now, though. I just hope "Revenge of the Sith" doesn't destroy it all over again.
For example, Han's famous quote about making the Kessel Run in "twelve parsecs" -- which bit of illogic ended up causing the Expanded Universe writers to invent an explanation involving a collection of black holes called the Maw that can distort distance as well as time along the Run -- is presented as "twelve standard timeparts". The scene added to the Special Edition version of the movie with Han meeting Jabba outside of Docking Bay 94 is there, supporting Lucas' claim that he always wanted it in the movie but hadn't the technology to make it appear properly, except for one detail: "Jabba the Hut", with one T, was apparently just an ugly, overweight humanoid when Lucas first imagined him.
Luke's famous "I have a bad feeling about this" on approach to the moon was instead "I have a very strange feeling about this" in the original, and the exchange between Han and Obi-Wan about fools is completely altered as well. Instead of the memorable "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" Obi-Wan says, "What does that say of the man who allows himself to be hired by a fool?" Not to mention Obi-Wan's conversation with Vader. *wince*
The list goes on. They must have rewritten a lot of the wording on the fly during filming as they realized how awkward it sounded, considering just how much got altered. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining read.
On to The Ruins of Dantooine next. Then Splinter of the Mind's Eye, followed by the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. I think Shadows of the Empire is after that, then Return of the Jedi, and then ... well, I'll re-check the EU timeline when I get that far.
*grin* I'd forgotten just how much I loved the Star Wars universe; "The Phantom Menace" nearly drained all the fannish-ness out of me five years ago, and "Attack of the Clones" just made it worse. The only good thing to come out of the prequels, in my opinion, was a glimpse at Obi-Wan in his prime and a better idea of what the Jedi in general could do. My affection for the younger generation seems to have fully recovered now, though. I just hope "Revenge of the Sith" doesn't destroy it all over again.
