ScalziThis is how old I am: I will NEVER call the first Star Wars film "A New Hope," get your bullshit retcon away from me, it is and always shall be Star Wars, forever and ever amen
Scot Close@scalzi
This is the way.
Kay Elúvian@scalzi ditto 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. It isn't called 'Indiana Jones and... whatever' 👍
@kayeluvian YES KAY THANK YOU
mattmaisonThat's just called "Raiders".
Vanessa Knipe@scalzi This is the truth. I didn't even watch the sequels because I was sure they couldn't match the original, one-and-only Star Wars.
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)I have, on my bookshelf, a copy of the novelisation of the first film, published in 1977 and written by George Lucas. As a child, the second and third were repeated on TV a lot but I never saw the first one, so I grabbed the book when I saw it.
I was confused by a lot of the uproar around the restored scenes in the remastered ones, because things like the scene with Jabba were in the novelisation.
The title of the book is:
Star Wars: From the adventures of Luke Skywalker.
thanne@david_chisnall @scalzi Based on the name I thought there must be other books in The Adventures of Luke Skywalker series, and was quite disappointed to find there weren’t any. The Star Wars books that came along later weren’t the same.
BilliglarperThe Star Wars novel was written by Alan Dean Foster.
Pointing this out because Alan Dean Foster is a fine writer and worth looking into.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_From_the_Adventures_of_Luke_Skywalker
Joe Brockmeier@billiglarper @david_chisnall @scalzi I really enjoyed the first few Spellsinger books. Need to finish the series one of these days.
I read his novelisations of the Star Trek animated series and didn't realise they were based on those, so had weird deja vu when I eventually saw the series!
I really enjoyed a bunch of his humanx novels and some other random ones. Most of the things of his I've read were novelisations, and most before seeing the thing they were adapted from. And, of those, the source material almost always proved disappointing when I did see it.
I read the Star Wars novel and liked how the force and Jedi spirituality were more fleshed out.
And his Alien books were quite enjoyable.
My personal favourite of his is "Nor crystal tears", though. First contact from the Thranx perspective. 🤩 Stumbled upon it at my smalltown library as a teen, and it got stuck in my head.
Huh, not mentioned on the cover at all, but not surprising in hindsight, it reads a lot like him.
I've read a bunch of his other things, but this was my one example of good writing by George Lucas, so now I'm just disappointed in him.
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦@david_chisnall @billiglarper @scalzi George didn't write any of his Star Wars screenplays, his ex-wife did.
PS: she is the only one of the two to have won an Oscar, and the only one in the creative division of Star Wars to do so. the franchise is notorious for winning in the tech categories not the creative ones. so it’s kinda poetic justice given his vigorous attempts at erasing her from the franchise’s history.
mossman@david_chisnall @scalzi I had an A4-sized soft cover "Star Wars storybook" (should still be in a box somewhere) which must have been created while the film was in final edit or something. It's based on production stills with accompanying text and I'm sure there were images/events in there which I never saw on the screen - or maybe it's just because Lucas kept cutting things around for TV edits and whatnot. E.g. there's a page of Luke and Biggs doing stuff on Tatooine before the droids even show up which I don't remember being in the final cut.
Q.H. Stone
Tarus
Machiel
Erik Nelson@scalzi Same. And the red-suited superhero is named Captain Marvel, and Pluto is a planet, and you type two spaces after the period.
Sean Eric Fagan@scalzi I was so very confused when I saw it an Nth time at the theatre and it had changed the scroll.
It was GASLIGHTING.
Stephen Beitzel@scalzi My kids honed their eye rolling skills on their parents’ insistence that, “watching the Star Wars movies in order,” means that we start with “Star Wars”.
draNgNonmy partner is younger than I am and watches it in "machete order": 4, 5, 2, 3, 6.
...there's a slice of people who will just say "4" instead of "star wars" or "a new hope". at least that's unambiguous, they talked about it being "4" when it was first released.
cratermoon@scalzi I also will never consider "The Phantom Menace" canon. Delete the entire film from the timeline and nothing of value is lost.
Lunar 🛸 ♾@cratermoon @scalzi Erm. Podracing.
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈@scalzi "The Great Schism Has Begun!"
But not really because you're right.
Jay Blanc@scalzi Oh so so many movies where "It was always meant to be a trilogy" when no, no it clearly was not. Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Matrix...
JdeBPEven though Lucas changed his tune several times as to how many movies he had envisaged, having in magazine interviews et al. even by the 1980s told stories of originally intending 6, 9, or even 12 movies; I think that we can be confident that he *had* always intended more than one movie.
He just didn't expect to get backing for a sequel at the time that he finally got to do the first one.
The original Star Wars was always intended as a pastiche of the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. Hence the title crawl, and resurrecting the long out of fashion wipe transitions. This was an affectation of being one of many serial episodes.
There was no plan for a sequel. Empire being written almost entirely by Leigh Bracket on a very light synopsis, and originally being a more self contained story. Then Lucas redrafted it to add "I am your father" pivoting the franchise.
@JdeBP @scalzi The whole basis for the "Skywalker Saga" came as a very late edit to an already functionally complete screenplay. And one that actually substantially changed the original intent of Bracket setting up a love triangle that would tempt Luke to the dark side rather than some inherited destiny.
On the contrary, there was definitely a plan for a sequel back in 1975 when it was 'Episode One: The Star Wars', to become 'Saga 1' in 1976, of 'The Adventures of Luke Starkiller'.
In 1978, TIME reported:
> Lucas has set up four corporations: Star Wars Corp. will make Star Wars II and the ten, count ’em, ten other planned sequels;
There are a few versions of the tale told by Lucas, ranging from 6 movies to 12 movies, but they have never involved a plan for just 1 movie. The 1980 Prevue interview, for example, talks of having to rewrite the then story into chapters, the first of which became the first movie.
Daniel
Allan Chow
Butch Henderson 
@scalzi YES and get off my lawn 😐
Verđandi K Soldusty@scalzi
My first slice of sci-fi was Star wars, age 2, watching it on ITV at the beginning of the 1980s.
It & Doctor Who were my gateway drugs.
Mr. Big John 
@scalzi heck, I'll go a step further.
If you did not see Star Wars in the movie theater in 1977, then you are either an incurious luddite or a fetus. In either case, I don't have time for you.
HighlandLawyer
MostlyTato@HighlandLawyer @johnhattan @scalzi
As a young child, that was an amazing experience. I remember my jaw dropping with the opening space battle scenes, I'd never seen anything like it.
As a young child, that was an amazing experience. I remember my jaw dropping with the opening space battle scenes, I'd never seen anything like it.
@MostlyTato @HighlandLawyer @scalzi I remember our local theater in Sherwood Arkansas was playing "Star Wars" and "Starship Invasions" on the opening weekend.
Guess which one my little brother wanted to see.
I still tease him about it.
Rob Homsi@scalzi A copy of the original screenplay of "Star Wars", as found in the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Luke Starkiller!?!
I think that Lucas would have had a better relationship with audiences if he had not tried to declare himself the sole arbiter of what is canon whilst at the same time (having told at least three different stories of his original plan, 6 movies, 9 movies, or even 12 movies, even by the 1980s, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye being plan B … erm … C … erm … P?) very clearly not having any sort of stable grand vision.
Virgil Tibbs 🏳️🌈 🇺🇦 🇬🇱@scalzi
seen it '78 in the cinema
seen it '78 in the cinema
Dr. Juande Santander-Vela@scalzi I’m afraid I’m old enough to have seen Star Wars when it debuted… and the fact that it was labelled as Episode IV was always in my mind… so it was Star Wars (A New Hope) for me.
(Of course, it was not Star Wars here; it was “La Guerra de las Galaxias”, which is even more powerful 😉)
Curioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)Fun fact: the "Episode IV" and the "A New Hope" weren't really in the original version; they were added in a re-released version that came shortly, once Lucas have seen what a huge success it was.
Lo que no impide que probablemente en la primera versión que se estrenó en España ya estuvieran; imagino que pasarían varios meses por medio.
TrimTab 🇺🇦@scalzi
With all due respect I'm as old as many here and clearly remember: from day one in the 70's our brains boggled that it was episode 4. We immediately craved prequels from the start, for decades (which we got even if a bit disappointing). And the first thing you read right after the horns sing the intro fanfare is the title of the chapter. A new hope.
These are not the controversies you are looking for.
@TrimTab No. "A New Hope" was added to the crawl in the 1981 reissue. Also, memory is a funny thing.
Todd Vaziri@scalzi correct
Marty Fouts@scalzi Sure Grandpa, and I suppose Han shot first.
Cheshire Lunar Kitten@scalzi my grandad says the same. He never watched episode 4 a new hope.
Just star wars
camethedawnxp. @scalzi same.
Dr_Bombay
TheoWasHere@scalzi k gramps
Drew Ames
This is Hell
earthtopus@scalzi I like how "old enough" works both for as a description of just how far back in time the retitling was, and also serves as a warning signal for a reactionary opinion about name changes (which one also sees about, say, Pluto)
Gerard Cunningham ✒️@scalzi Remember the happy era when it was a story of how any farm boy could grow up to destroy the evil empire, and not the story of the chosen son of Evil Jesus?
Cultura Iconica Awards@scalzi Haha, same, but most around my age also does that... guess it's a "kids these days" kinda thing.
Penguin