Those of you who are serious Star Wars geeks may already know this, but there was a time back in the early days of Star Wars when George Lucas was considering the idea of a girl as the protaganist of the story.
That's right. Luke as Luka.
Being one of those people whose mind is always filled with exciting story ideas (when not filled with huge lists of tasks which are not being accomplished because I'm too busy thinking about story ideas), I couldn't help but wonder how that would've turned out.
There are many repurcussions to the idea, obviously. For one thing, it places a second female in a primary character role, now equalizing the male-female ratios: Obi-Wan/Leia + Han/Luka. That's nearly balanced, so far as gender is concerned. But the relative ages are a bit of a problem. Unless we adjust the Leia character to be older - say a Queen instead of a Princess - in which case we now have an older couple (Obi-Wan/Leia) and a younger couple (Han/Luka).
Now we have achieved True Balance in the Force!
That would also take care of another wrinkle in the story - the whole "twins" thing. I never liked the idea of Luke and Leia as twins. That's too much like one of those Dickensian coincidences. If Leia is an older, mature woman, no relation to Luka, then Luka can be her own person, and is free to pursue the "rogue", Han. Which makes for a more interesting romance, at least in my mind. Do you remember your first impression of the romantic triangle at the end of the original movie? Yeah, we were all wondering who was going to end up with the Princess, either Luke or Han. Now we can skip right past that and just let the Han/Luka relationship develop.
And resolve that irritating little issue with the biological connection between the main villain and the main protagonist (i.e. Darth and Luke).
Like, forget it.
Sure, the concept of having them related, father-to-offspring, is an interesting one, but it raises far too many problems from my point of view. First, I am against the "inherited Force aptitude" thing, where Luke was strong with the Force (apparently) due to his being the offspring of someone who was also strong with the Force (aka Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker). It may be that genetics plays a role in one's abilities in this area, but, as an American, I'd rather believe that with enough hard work and dedication, one can achieve anything, even aptitude with supernatural powers. One doesn't need "superior breeding" in order to achieve greatness. Having super-powers due to some blood relationship is too close to the "royalty" idea for my taste. And I believe we gave that up years go, didn't we?
Second, we don't need to know Darth Vader's backstory. He's a villain. He's an archetype. He should be left as he was at the end of the first movie - a dark, mysterious, malevolent half-human creature bent on maintaining the status quo through terror and cruelty (with the Emperor pulling the puppet strings). That raises the bar for the hero, who must overcome seemingly insurmountable odds against a powerful (and mysterious) opponent.[1]
So why muddle up the story with pointless information about a character who serves mainly to accentuate the growth of the protagonist? And why force in all those familial relationships? That will only increase the probability that some weak-minded writer will start putting in all sorts of "cutesy" tie-ins between the past and the present, like ... oh, I don't know ... father and son matching artificial hands? Protocol droids built by the father which miraculously meet up with the son years later? Hiding the son on the very planet from which the father came? ("Oh, he'll never look there!")
Then there's the issue of the sacrificial mentor.
Having Obi-Wan as a tragic hero is an interesting idea, yet his death was strangely unsatisfying in the original story. Yes, he sacrifices himself for the good of the others; but that line about being "more powerful than you can even imagine" during the duel with Darth was over the top. We, the audience, never see what a wonderful Jedi he is during his lifetime, and we never get to see him "more powerful than you can even imagine" after he dies. In fact, we never really get to see him in action at all (unless you count the wimpy Kenobi-Vader duel). We need to see a real fight, a real high-energy lightsaber duel in which Obi-Wan successfully distracts Darth so that the others can escape.
And we don't need to see Obi-Wan die. Not just yet, anyway. After all, Luke still needs guidance and mentoring, doesn't he? And from someone with whom he can identify and empathize, I mean, not from an other-wordly mutant Muppet.[2]
Besides, I'd kinda like to see ol' Obi-Wan and the queen get into some witty bantering, a la Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday".
So ... let's re-imagine the story as it might have been ...
A young farm girl, stuck on a dead-end planet and yearning for adventure. A cynical young star pilot, yearning for a love to restore his faith in mankind. A tired old warrior longing for the far-off days of strength and vigor. And a beleaguered queen who longs for her once-and-future-king.
Picture this.
Luka Skywalker, the legitimate niece of a moisture farmer on some backwater planet, comes across the hidden recording of the queen's plea for help while cleaning the droids her father purchased from some local merchants. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan is traveling under the radar, hot on the trail of the Queen who has been captured by the Empire. He tracks down the droids at the farm and attempts to persuade them to hand them over to him. Owen smells money and tries to make a deal, but the Stormtroopers bust in and break up the negotiations. Obi-Wan grabs the droids and flees the scene, unaware that Luka has stowed aboard his tiny ship. But his ship is damaged in the escape, and only makes it as far as Mos Eisley. He discovers the stowaway. They go to the bar to find a ship.
{No, we really can't toss out the whole bar scene. It was way too much fun!}
They hire Han, and bust out of Mos Eisley just in the nick of time. Then they head to Alderaan to deliver the plans, but Alderaan is gone. The Death Star grabs them with the tractor beam and pulls them in. They sneak out of the bay, intending to locate the source of the tractor beam so they can disable it. They discover that the Queen is imprisoned. This time, Obi-Wan goes to rescue the Queen while Han and Luka attempt to disable the tractor beam. Lots of stuff gets blown up, Obi-Wan gets to do some fancy light-saber dueling with some bad guys, including Darth Vader, but manages to make good his escape; then they all meet up back at the Falcon and blast out of the bay like a bat out of a very dark cave.
So the good guys warp off to the secret base; the Death Star follows the hidden beacon; the big, final battle commences. As before, Han is in a hurry to leave with his payoff (for helping rescue the Queen), but this time, Obi-Wan is in the X-wing ("Red 5 standing by"), and Luka goes with Han.
{Why? Because someone needs to talk some sense into that big lug-headed half-hero. Someone who can come up with some witty banter.}
We run into a bit of a problem at this point. Here's the rub: we all know there is no way the Empire would be stupid enough to have such an obvious, gaping hole in their defenses like a straight-line exhaust port which leads right to the central reactor. So there has to be a more clever method for destroying it. I'm not really sure what that might be.
But it would need to involve Han and Luka. Something that they see which is unseen by everyone else. Something that would draw them back to the fight, turning them both into unlikely heroes.[3]
I haven't got it all figured out, and neither did George. He eventually gave up the idea, and inevitably kept Luke as a boy. And then tossed in a whole lot of interesting but ultimately annoying plot ideas (e.g. Darth being Anakin).
It would be fun to try and take the story in a different direction, just for fun. And I might eventually find the time to do it. If I can come up with anything interesting, I'll put it up on my other website, The Writer (Blocked).
But for now, my brain is tired and I must rest. Tomorrow is another busy day!
[1]This isn't to say that some kind of redemption isn't possible, even with an incredibly powerful (and non-related) antagonist; it is perfectly credible to imagine in some later movie that the "man behind the mask" is pulled back from the Dark Side through some altruistic gesture by the protagonist (although we still need to see the Emperor utterly destroyed). But, frankly, it doesn't add that much to the story.
[2]Yoda brings the movie into such a bizarre realm. Yes, I get the whole concept that body size is not indicative of power; but, frankly, I'd rather see a deeper relationship developed between Obi-Wan and Luke. When you put in all the "real" time they had together, they still barely knew each other. So why was Luke so heartbroken about his loss?
[3]One idea is to have Darth Vader wound Obi-Wan to the point where he would be unable to fly the X-wing, which provides an opportunity for Luka to jump in and fly it; but that doesn't solve the problem of the exhaust port issue.
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