How things change...

[Jedi Master Kyle]

This is the classic moment at the official site:

"We've had a lot of speculation about sequels. We are working on story material that will develop into potentially one or more motion pictures that will use the same characters, and I'd like to consider them different adventures rather than direct sequels." -Gary Kurtz, Making of Star Wars, 1977

Not direct sequels huh? I wonder what happened there? :)

[Jedieb]

I think GL and Kurtz may have thought at one point that each SW film could be a self contained film like ANH. But as the script for ANH, SW went through SEVERAL changes. I mean in ANH Luke's character could have been a girl, in ROTJ Ben could have materialized from wherever he was and battle Vader over a pit of lava. The annotated screenplays are great because they show you many of the changes the SW films went through before they became the films we know today.

[Starquest aka AndyR]

Speaking of the annotated screenplays... are they anywhere on the net? I would love to read them...

[Jedieb]

I've found screenplays on the net, but never annotated ones. There not that expensive and there in paperback form. The OT anotated scripts all come in one volume. I consider it a bargin and money well spent.

[Doc Milo]

I have a link to them at Amazon.com on my site.

click here: members.aol.com/DrMilo/sci-fi2.html#sp (http://members.aol.com/DrMilo/sci-fi2.html#sp)

[Jedi Master Kyle]

This one is good:
Today's classic moment from the official site:

"One of the things that will never get explained in the films is how Ben was able to retain his identity, because it happened somewhere between the third and fourth movies. I set up that this is a discipline that he learned from Yoda; Yoda told him how to do that."
- George Lucas
1997
Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays

So George says we'll never know...yet, this here is a snippet from an archived "Ask the Jedi Council" where Steve Sansweet draws his quote from GL himself:

"The key line to understanding this is when Ben Kenobi tells Darth Vader, ‘If you strike me down...’ And it'll be explained as we go along." So we just have to wait a while longer. In the meantime, feel free to speculate.


So will it be explained, or won't it? Of course, we have to assume that the disappearing act is infact the same as retaining your identity. What gives?

[Jedieb]

I think it will definitely be explained in either EP2 or EP3. That's something I think fans wanted to learn about the Force, unlike the whole midichlorian count issue. I think the annotated ROTJ script is really fascinating. Seeing all of the different directions Jedi could have taken. I think we may see some of those images in EP2 and EP3. In fact, Coruscant was in one of the drafts so we've already seen some of what was cut from ROTJ.