Return Of The Jedi: "The First Prequel"

A teeny, tiny addition here. I was just re-reading this thread, or the opening post, and something there struck me: 


At some point in TPM, Qui-Gon (and Obi-Wan, maybe separately) intuits that Padme is the real Queen. Many prequel fans note that Qui-Gon appears to be teasing Padme about her concealed identity when she objects to them trusting their fate to a boy they hardly know. As he's entering Watto's shop, he turns back to her with a conspiratorial or mocking glance after reassuring her, "The Queen doesn't need to know." Later, when they're about to ascend in that observation tower at the start of the podrace, he gets right in her face after she scolds him for being reckless, baldly asserting, "The Queen trusts my judgement, young handmaiden. You should, too." Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan also share a knowing glance when Padme outs herself as the Queen in front of Boss Nass and her entourage.

Luke intuiting that Leia is his sister is therefore a neat little echo of his Jedi "grandfather", you might say, outsmarting Padme right around the time that Anakin, his father, was discovered on that same backwater planet they both grew up on (and which Qui-Gon came dangerously close to stranding everyone on when he bet everything on Anakin). Leia's own ability to recall Padme -- still hotly-debated to this day amongst fans -- maybe now has more grounding as well. If Luke is Qui-Gon, or a "connection trace" of him, then Leia is Padme, or a "connection trace" of her. Platonic shadows on the homestead dome of the OT (or the "mundus" ball of the six-movie saga). Thus, Luke senses Padme when he gets "Padme" (Leia) to reveal her "identity" to him. He tugs on that rope and finds a glimmer of Padme ("images and feelings") at the end of it.

In another light, Luke has "no memory" of Padme in a mirror of Anakin suppressing the memory of her -- in overseeing the father (Anakin), he undersees the mother. Luke is so attached to the innate good of Anakin that he needs other eyes to report consciously on the mother. No Force user can see it all. The Force summons people into groups and bands -- little symbiont circles -- in order that they may know each other and the universe better. The same applies to the Star Wars films (and conversation spaces established to discuss them!). The films are sustained and deepened by "living together for mutual advantage". Jedi/Menace. Empire/Clones. Hope/Sith. Just one set of endless configurations. A tapestry of rich interleaving.

Interesting take. In my view, TESB is the most "prequel-ish" of the three, especially because of Anakin/Vader's active role and the presence of a beautiful high-tech planet.

Nice perspectives -- and proof that there is nothing more complicated or variegated than perception.

Last year, in the first week of my thread, inspired by a reply of Subtext Mining's, I actually listed two-dozen thematic, plot, and visual links between TESB and the PT (Reply #7).

ANH certainly has a lot in common with the PT, of course. Indeed, pieces of the prequels can be found in all three of the original movies, which is hardly original or a surprise revelation by itself, but certainly worth noting, because the OT is like a basic blueprint for the PT, establishing the "grammar" of Star Wars and a good deal of its thematic "way" of doing things -- and, of course, the six films are meant to stand as one total expression. 

However, I think the rhyming aspect of the saga only really comes into proper focus in ROTJ, and only in ROTJ is the Emperor, the grand weaver of illusions, shown in corporeal form -- helping to set the stage for his story, as much as Anakin's, in the PT. Then you have everything else that ROTJ is doing -- not to mention the "how" of its doing. This was a primary element of its makeup I tried to put across in my opening post with the following quote:


Well, the other night, in the process of drafting up another reply in another thread, I read back through GL's interview with Rolling Stone in 1983, and came upon the following remark:


Further down in the same interview, Lucas adds:


He even looks forward -- a bit too optimistically, as it turned out -- to making the prequels back-to-back:


Talk about hurrying your PhD! That "cheaper way" Lucas anticipated existing was, ultimately, to lean heavily into the nascent world of digital filmmaking, which enabled him to realise things that, in his own words in another interview, would have been "literally impossible" without digital technology. 

ROTJ wasn't just the final piece of the OT puzzle. It set the stage for the prequels: a much deeper puzzle. And the experience of making it allowed Lucas to refine his artistic expression and complete his original Star Wars screenplay/outline (echoing Lucas' general evocation of "that dumb screenplay" in the same interview).

Perhaps it was getting to the finish line with his original concept for Star Wars that, after the initial burnout went away, created a hunger in him to return to the world he had created with the films we know as the prequels. He had done the impossible once and he was poised to do it again. The engrossing, deep-dish backstory was finally ready to be told.

Joe, in all honesty, this has nothing to do with my thread. 

But you're speculating based on an offshoot Disney series. My thread is mainly designed to elucidate how ROTJ served as a blueprint for the PT; and yes, even the ST films. In other words, I am interested -- and trying to make others interested -- in how much of ROTJ is baked into the DNA of the Saga entries. How it, in effect, made the Saga into, well: a saga.

I saw ANH and TESB in theaters when the SEs came out, but never made it to Return of the Jedi. It was my fault too. I saw TESB a second time instead of ROTJ, cuz my friend had never seen TESB before and I didn't want the Vader reveal to be spoiled. Well, he didn't care anyway, and slept through half the movie. Oh well, one day they'll put it back in theaters.

Weird. I was 11 at the time and saw both ANH and TESB on the first weekends of their SE release. However, I would see ROTJ weeks after it debuted in theaters. There was definitely muted fanfare and excitement among the company I was with for the final installment. And to add insult to injury, my ROTJ screening took place in one of the smaller auditoriums of the cineplex we saw it at. Short-changed!

This lapse may have had something to do with a last-minute change to the SE release schedule, IIRC. I believe ROTJ was pushed back to give ANH and TESB more breathing room given their wildly successful roll-outs.

I have to be honest. My enthusiasm for seeing ROTJ in theaters at the time was primarily hinged upon an expectation of seeing a CG Rancor inserted into the film.