Biggest one I think that persisted until the prequels maybe even, was this;. Obi-Wan was actually a clone, with the designation of OB-1. Then theories branching from there, of why that would be, and its implications.
I remember this one. One of the OT novelizations stated that Uncle Owen ("ON") was Obi-Wan's brother, not Anakin's, so that was cited as evidence of the "Obi-Wan is a clone" theory. They both had a letter designations starting with the letter O.
Yeah I remember that theory. Because Boba is the only person he made a deal with that he didn’t “alter”
And after TPM, the theory was that Kister was Boba Fett
Or Auorra Sing, lol.
This could actually make sense. Especially in episode 5 where Vader goes “No disintegrations!” He’s speaking like a big brother talking to his little brother.
Not a theory, exactly, but for some reason I always assumed "The Clone Wars" were fought over whether cloning should be allowed/legal in the Galaxy and not *by* clones on one side. And I assumed the anti-cloning forces won because we don't see any characters in the OT that are obviously clones.
That’s a cool concept. I always thought the Clone Wars were about tons of characters you knew being clones, like you didn’t know if someone was or wasn’t.
And actually your semantic reasoning was why I got confused about the term “warrantless wiretap” at first. I thought it meant that the wiretaps were “without warrant/merit.”
I thought, right up until actually *watching* Attack of the Clones, that the clones would be this cheap labor force all over the galaxy that would rebel against the cruel treatment they suffered. I was actually really disappointed that it was just droids vs clones.
The Clone Wars cartoon rehabbed it for me, and now I'm cool with the concept (because a bunch of themes you'd explore in a story like that wound up happening anyway), nut I still think that would've been a cool story.
There were plenty of theories, people would write into the Fan Magazines all of the time. Boba was Luke's father, then he was Luke's mother, Obi-Wan and Owen were brothers (actually true for a time according to the novelizations). Fandom has always been thirsty for theories, whether they made sense or not.
The Decipher card game also made [reference](https://www.swccgstore.com/SWCCG-Owen-Lars-WB-p/12820.htm) to Obi-Wan and Owen being brothers. At the time any of their lore text was considered canon as everything went through Lucasfilm before going to print.
> Obi-Wan and Owen were brothers (actually true for a time according to the novelizations)
This is actually in the shooting script for VI, which the novelization would have been based on.
Anakin’s transformation to Vader. I remember I heard theories/rumors that instead of lava and burning, he would actually fall into a machine that practically shreds and mutilates his body. After the modifications, he essentially only has his head and vital internal organs left while everything else is machine.
>After the modifications, he essentially only has his head and vital internal organs left while everything else is machine.
So they accidentally predicted General Grevious!
Lucas talked about it as early as [an interview in *Rolling Stone* in August 1977](https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/george-lucas-the-wizard-of-star-wars-2-232011/) (back when Vader and Luke's father were still separate characters, at least publicly):
>But Vader kills Luke’s father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being. That’s why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it’s a breathing mask. It’s like a walking iron lung. His face is all horrible inside.
George had a the prequels mostly planned before ANH even hit theaters. The 1976 Star Wars novelization’s intro is pretty much an outline for the entire plot of the prequels.
I mean, saying he had planned the Prequels is a bit much, he had a rough idea of what he wanted to happen in them and what the important story moments were, but that was about it.
I had a Star Wars Enclopidia of some kind that i got before the prequels and it said Vader and Obi-wan fought on the world Mustafar and anakin fell in the lava. I remeber it said Vader and not anakin, because that name wasn't a thing yet. This would have been in 1996-1998 when the Speacial Editon of the Origianl Triolgy releashed.
Anakin did become a thing till they started Episode 1 promo.
Yes and no. Anakin didn’t really exist until ROTJ. Up till that Point Luke’s father was only known as Darth Vader, especially since Darth was originally his first name.
The name Anakin Skywalker would later be retroactively added into ESB in the special editions.
It was mentioned in the original RotJ. The hallway scene when Luke gives himself up and calls Vader "father". Then Vader says something to the effect of "so you acknowledge that I'm your father" and Luke says "I know you were once Anakin Skywalker." Vader says that name no longer has any meaning to him
I was only young, but my mates and I were convinced that Vader was lying to Luke about being his father. He was the bad guy, of course he was lying about that, he actually murdered Luke's father, Obi-Wan said so!! Seemed air tight when I was 9.
From what I recall they weren’t planning on brining back Yoda, but that scenario gave them a chance to give him closure and not have people say “Where’s Yoda?”. Now all they say is “Where’s Force Ghost?”
Honestly I hate that viewpoint (canonically fact really). It’s just a way to take accountability off Anakin since he was such a good guy before. He IS Darth Vader, Darth Vader’s personality didn’t overtake him like bloody Gollum
Yeah but what I’m saying is they’re one and the same. It’s not like split personalities where one suppresses the other (like one of the characters from Total Drama Island iykyk)
Ya I agree even irl when someone has a drug addiction we don't just hand wave their behaviour away. There were choices involved in Anakin's journey and he made them. Was he a victim? Sure. That doesn't absolve him of responsibility, though.
Saying that Anakin and Darth Vader are different people absolves Anakin of the horrendous crimes he commits, like murdering children, and man, do I hate that.
I mean, it makes sense from a parts theory. Vadar is t the dissociative state Anakin exists in for most of the Empire.
Yes, it avoids accountability, but that’s the point. A skin has compartmentalism’s himself to avoid confronting the terrible things he’s done.
This is Anakin’s tragic flaw—he’s unable to really process his trauma (which you can blame of the Jedi, the Sith, or both :) )
Stormtroopers were robots. The design on the back of the action figures appeared to spell out "oil," as in, that is where you add the oil to keep them lubricated.
Cant remember what it was,. I thought it was "How I Met Your Mother" but now im not sure
There was a character that thought "Wait a minute i thought Stormtroopers were robots. So when they blew up the death star, they killed Thousands of people"
and then was horrified that it was over a million, questioning if the Rebels were really good guys for that.
Stormtroopers are robots was strong in Italy, too, as a theory. And people were wondering why do they need rifles? Why don't they have them as part of their bodies?
It makes them more versatile. The same droid could use a rifle, a bazooka, throw grenades, etc. So you don’t need to manufacture droids for every single use case, just a general purpose one with an arsenal of weapons they can choose from depending on the situation.
I always thought that too. But there are some benefits to not building the weapons in.
They can use any weapon you want for different missions. Just hand them an existing weapon with no need to make changes to the body. It’s also one less thing to do maintenance on. And you can upgrade weapons by just handing them a new one, you don’t need to spend time changing over your droids
I am surprised this theory persisted after the scene in ANH when Luke and Han disguise themselves in Stormtrooper armour. To me even as a 5 year old this said that stormtroopers were humans wearing full armour.
I remember talking about that, but it made the scene with Han and Luke in the armor tough to explain unless you're Homer and don't realize robots have stuff inside them.
That idea about Obi Wan defeating Vader on a lava planet was around since the 80's when I was a kid. IDK if it was in a novel or leaked information or what.
It came from an interview Lucas did with Rolling Stone magazine in 77.
https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/george-lucas-the-wizard-of-star-wars-2-232011/
"Lucas tells Rolling Stone in 1977, "Vader kills Luke's father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being.""
It was surely mentioned in the d6 RPG by West End Games, and WEG worked closely with Lucasfilm, on that game, and lots of production sketches and notes ended up becoming "lore", back then.
He does have a lot of weird attachments and devices inside him. It wouldn't surprise me if he has little robot arm that has a dildo on the end and injects sperm....
I don’t recall too many theories, but despite what Lucas had relatively recently claimed, he did say in interviews that he planned a prequel and sequel trilogy, and that Vader and Obi-Wan fought on the volcanic world and that’s why Vader is in the outfit (I recall reading that before ESB and learning he was Luke’s father).
There was a lot of discussion that Lucas knew Vader was Luke’s dad when making episode 3 based on later viewings and seeing how Obi-Wan reacted to Luke’s asking about his father.
I remember something about the Clone Wars would have been sorta like Invasion of the Body Snachers. The clones replacing alot of the military would of caused a massive war at the end the Empire would be created to rise up and take control .
>It was written before we even knew Luke and Leia were siblings.
I mean, nobody knew. George didn't know.
I think it's funny how often you'll get new characters in books or comics set during the OT who are there so Luke or Leia have someone else to have romantic entanglements with.
The only one I remember was one crazy kid claiming that Obi-wan killed Luke's dad.
According to Mark Hamill, it was actually used as a fake line, so almost?
Oh, for sure there were. A lot of them involved clones. I remember late-90s rumors and early internet message board ‘leaks’ that Boba was an Anakin clone. And then, after TPM, there were folks online who were just sure Senator Palpatine was actually a clone of the man that’d eventually be Emperor.
In the RotJ novelization, the Emperor pulls Yoda’s name from Luke’s mind, and basically says “Who?”. That sparked some fun conversations.
My favorite was the idea Jedi lived much longer lifespans than their non-Jedi counterparts. That the Clone Wars were a century or two ago.
God, does anyone else remember ‘Supershadow’? That shit was so dumb, but so fun!
My buddy and I loved the Supershadow Website. We would read through it diligently. There were all sorts of rumours about the Supershadow guy as well, that he was secretly a lawyer, etc
The only theory, I remember was that , there were 9 books, and George Lucas, was following them precisely and everything was planned, source me and my friends in primary school, around the time of return of the jedi
I remember reading in a magazine the whole plot of Empire before it came out. It was so wrong and nothing liked that happened.
It was pretty much ROTJ though.
I'd heard that too, but replace Ewoks with Wookies. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to revolve around the enslavement of Kashyyk or a similar Wookie planet. Lucas decided that since he didn't know if the studio was going to let him make any more than his first movie, he'd put a wookie in it
That's something Lucas was on record for. At least as early as about 1984 when "From Star Wars to Jedi: the Making of a Saga" came out where he talked about that, but then how Chewie was too advanced so he went with the teddy bears.
Even as a kid who loved the ewoks, I knew that would've been cooler.
Han had latent Force powers because he used a lightsaber (notably the only non-force user in the OT to do so) but didn’t believe in the Force enough to explore it.
I’m a newer fan as well but I heard about the Bigger Luke Theory that was popular before the prequels. Essentially, the theory goes that for one reason or another there exists a slightly larger Luke Skywalker known as Bigger Luke. Apparently, as people would rewatch the originals they would notice Luke appeared slightly larger in certain scenes. You need to check out this masterpiece: http://biggerluke.wikidot.com
The Clone Wars were the Jedi against an army of Boba Fetts. It was even referenced that way on an early write up on the Boba Fett action figure box.
I guess this kinda end up being true but that’s not what they meant.
We had some. One was that the twins would be born on Dagobah, to explain Luke's line "There's something familiar about this place".
There was one that Obi-Wan might be a clone, since his name sounds like O B 1, which sounds like a series number.
back in the 70s and 80s we dint have the Internet, so these theories generally didn't leave the confines of the mother's basements from which they originated
We didn't have the internet as we know it today, but nerds were on the BBS, and theories still flew around.
I knew about the "OB-1 is a clone" theory, and I'm from southern Italy.
I friend in my class said that Chewbacca was Bigfoot that had been captured. We really didn’t have a source that would let us share theories. Maybe Starlog magazine. It was a lot easier to be a fanboy/girl/ person before the internet made everyone an expert.
That's from a comic book series called Star Wars Tales. The series is a collection of what was classed as Infinities - what-ifs, non-canon, silly stories, and some that could have been canon if anyone tried to fit them into the main continuity.
The story you refer to is called ~~The Great Beyond~~ *Into The Great Unknown* (thanks to /u/ecntv) and the synopsis is that Han and Chewie escape from an Imperial ambush, and due to a damaged hyperdrive, they crash on 19th century Earth in the Pacific Northwest. Han is mortally wounded by the locals while exploring, and Chewie puts him back in his pilot's chair to die. 100 years later, Dr Indiana Jones and Short Round McFly are investigating sightings of Bigfoot (who is Chewie) and discover the wreck of the Falcon.
Close! It is actually called "Into the Great Unknown"
[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Into\_the\_Great\_Unknown](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Into_the_Great_Unknown)
This made me wonder how much of the star wars world was written during the original trilogy? And stuff like the old Republic, prequel, side characters... Etc when were they written?
He had some very very basic plot points but they were constantly changing. I don't think Lucas had anything on the Old Republic, atleast nothing I've ever seen him speak of
I saw someone recently narrate the original Phantom Menace script on youtube which was pretty interesting
Back in the day, [theforce.net](http://theforce.net) had all sorts of interesting ideas and theories kicking around. I distinctly remember a page about "the injuries of Darth Vader", which is actually still up today: [https://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html](https://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html)
At the bottom of the page, it says first posted in 1995, and last edited in 2005.
I saw the storyline about how Vader was burned by falling into a lava pit on the back of some sort of Vader toy at K-Mart before TPM came out, hell even before the prequels were announced. That's pretty much all I remember.
I remember looking at the back of the TPM menace cd case in a Meijer and seeing track 12 or 13 called “Qui Gon’s Noble End.” Like, thank for spoiling that whoever wrote the track list 😂
Dude no way 😂 thats terrible
Edit: actually reminds me of how the ROTS video game came out before the movie, but still had actual movie scenes in it. The game spoiled most of the movie, including the ending, weeks before it came out but it didn’t matter much to little me thankfully.
There was definitely a lot of wild theories about what the clone wars were, amongst us kids. As far as other things people have mentioned yeah I had a kids book thing red cover about the villains of Star Wars and it mentions Vader in relation to a volcano scarring him and this would have been like... the first book era where they had pics from the Special Editions in them so '97 or early '98.
I still have the first issue of “Starburst” magazine from 1978 & in it they discuss Star Wars 2. In that article George Lucas states Vader fell into a volcano after fighting Obi-Wan.
You can read through old forum threads where they debated whether or not senator Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious. Remember that the emperor being named Palpatine was only in EU content at this point. And other shenanigans were possible.
https://boards.theforce.net/threads/palpatine-sidious-its-so-obvious.245896/
https://boards.theforce.net/threads/is-darth-sidious-palpatine.7700171/
http://www.theforce.net/episode1/story/ian_mcdiarmid_palpatine_and_darth_sidious_81973.asp
You’ll also notice how everyone is basically an implicit fan and there aren’t separate factions being nasty to each other.
I like how the 8th post in the first link, Dagobah stuff aside, ended up more or less predicting the general concept of Dooku (albeit with the master and apprentice roles swapped between him and Sidious).
I always thought as a child that the clone wars were Jedi fight against clones of themselves. That ob1 was the designation of the original. No idea where I got this from.
I've said it before on here, but I always assumed Luke and Leia were born on Dagobah. And they should have been! It would make Luke's lines about Dagobah looking familiar make sense. Polis Massa was completely unnecessary as a location, why not just do it on Dagobah? That way you get to keep the scene of Yoda arriving there.
I don't have any crazy theories, but I can say that the lightsaber battle at the end of RoTS is something that we knew had happened as kids. The story was that Obi Wan and Vader fought on the edge of a volcano (or something) and Vader fell in.
Sidious was a clone of Palpatine
Jodie Foster or Jet Li was going to play Boba Fett in the prequels. Alternately, Kitster was Boba
Naboo/Kamino 'becoming' Dagobah and Hoth
The theory that Owen was Obi-Wans brother. Very random, but it was in a New Hope novelization if I recall correctly.
Second would be that Boba Fetts' real name was Jaster Mareel and that he wasn't a clone.
The craziest one I remembered was Boba Fett surviving the sarlacc. Seems like something impossible to do. Surely Lucasfilm wouldn't retcon that, would they?
I remember the dark jedi clothes for Luke for ROTJ on the promo material and we assumed he was going dark side on that final film.
Another one I recall was that Papa Palpatine was gonna take over Luke and transfer his powers and spirt to his body. Shit was wild.
I remember someone telling me that a Wookie Jedi played a significant role in TPM and that the Clones showed up in TPM too and that they were Clones of different people, so there was two of some people and one was a clone and they had to fight and stuff.. Mind you, this was after the movie had been in the cinema, but I was too young to go see it and was waiting for a home video release..so not so much theories as playground lies from kids who lied about having seen the movie in the cinema 😂
One of my favorites star wars genres is OT theories. things like jedis fighting against clones, more factions of equal power to the empire, how the empire rose to power, etc were just awesome and some of them still are today, with prequels and sequels and all the in between.
There was a lot of speculation about Anakin's father.
He was a Jedi. A Sith. A Gray Jedi. A Bounty Hunter...
One I remember was that Darth Maul was Anakin's dad. He wasn't a zabrak, but a human and he fell to the dark side after murdering someone and fleeing into hiding.
Instead, George Lucas just decided to borrow Anakin's birth from some guy named Jesus Christ, SMH.
One theory was that Han was lying about making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Adding credence to this theory was one of scripts themselves noting that Han actually was lying to make himself more impressive, but the script also used standard time units instead of parsec (which is a measure of distance) which would make more sense if he was bragging about his Craft's speed. Later entries in the original series would make it clear that Han did make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, but the finer details of what it actually was wouldn't be hammered out till later.
I remember one older book actually said Han actually beat his own record after someone else tried, but after watching Solo I don't see why anyone would willingly attempt that a second time.
I was born right before ROTJ came out so I was never old enough to see the originals in the theater. My parents saw Star Wars when they were first married in 1976 on a random trip and didn't know what they were getting into. I remember my mom told me she thought that Vader had been injured by the Emperor turning him to the dark side and that's what was going to happen to Luke too if Vader hadn't stepped in. It makes sense when you think about it a little but not too much.
The character who ended up being Padme was originally named “Lady Arcadia Skywalker.” Also at some point a young Wedge would appear in the prequels. These plot points, among other things, were from a prequel “script” that made the rounds at conventions in the early to mid-90s. It was called “The Fall of the Republic” IIRC.
Back in the early 80s one of our only sources of information was “Banthas Tracks”, the official SW club newsletter. It occasionally dropped some good nuggets.
I saw Ricky Schroeder on Mike Douglas or Joan Rivers claiming he was cast as Luke and Leia's son in the next Star Wars but that may even have been before ROtJ.
Biggest one I think that persisted until the prequels maybe even, was this;. Obi-Wan was actually a clone, with the designation of OB-1. Then theories branching from there, of why that would be, and its implications.
I remember this one. One of the OT novelizations stated that Uncle Owen ("ON") was Obi-Wan's brother, not Anakin's, so that was cited as evidence of the "Obi-Wan is a clone" theory. They both had a letter designations starting with the letter O.
Boba Fett as Darth Vader’s brother.
I remember that one! I was wondering where I heard it, was it just like usenet messaging boards or where?
Yeah I remember that theory. Because Boba is the only person he made a deal with that he didn’t “alter” And after TPM, the theory was that Kister was Boba Fett Or Auorra Sing, lol.
I heard it on the playground
I could swear I also saw a theory that Boba was Luke’s MOM in disguise.
You did. It's out there.
I could be wrong but I think that was actually one of George's early ideas
This could actually make sense. Especially in episode 5 where Vader goes “No disintegrations!” He’s speaking like a big brother talking to his little brother.
I know, right?
Maybe all the midichlorian jive is just that and Shmi hooked up with Jango Fett, so it’s actually the case.
I’m just a simple man, trying to fuck my way across the galaxy.
That’s a Kirk line
Obi-Wan was Obi-1. A Clone from the Clone Wars.
OB-1, specifically.
Wasn't Ewan McGregor's brother a pilot with the armed forces and has the call-sign OB-2?
Yes, he's a pilot for the RAF and has that call sign.
*was *had
Yes.
Seems like an awfully specific thing to forget.
That... Sounds very cool.
That would've been crazy
Not a theory, exactly, but for some reason I always assumed "The Clone Wars" were fought over whether cloning should be allowed/legal in the Galaxy and not *by* clones on one side. And I assumed the anti-cloning forces won because we don't see any characters in the OT that are obviously clones.
That’s a cool concept. I always thought the Clone Wars were about tons of characters you knew being clones, like you didn’t know if someone was or wasn’t. And actually your semantic reasoning was why I got confused about the term “warrantless wiretap” at first. I thought it meant that the wiretaps were “without warrant/merit.”
Ooooooo, like a marvel secret wars type deal
Well you weren't entirely wrong
I thought, right up until actually *watching* Attack of the Clones, that the clones would be this cheap labor force all over the galaxy that would rebel against the cruel treatment they suffered. I was actually really disappointed that it was just droids vs clones. The Clone Wars cartoon rehabbed it for me, and now I'm cool with the concept (because a bunch of themes you'd explore in a story like that wound up happening anyway), nut I still think that would've been a cool story.
I had heard that everyone had been cloned and the clone wars were people fighting clones of themselves lol.
Like Blade Runner on a massive scale in the Star Wars universe.
I always thought the Clone Wars were Jedi fighting clones of themselves and other warriors
Lando was originally written to be a clone, and Leia was a big time clone-racist.
My first thought was clones were all around like slaves. Then they revolted and were wiped out and people decided not to make a new batch.
I had always thought "Clone" was a shortened version of "Colonial", and "The Clone Wars" were the Star Wars equivalent of the American Revolution.
There were plenty of theories, people would write into the Fan Magazines all of the time. Boba was Luke's father, then he was Luke's mother, Obi-Wan and Owen were brothers (actually true for a time according to the novelizations). Fandom has always been thirsty for theories, whether they made sense or not.
The Decipher card game also made [reference](https://www.swccgstore.com/SWCCG-Owen-Lars-WB-p/12820.htm) to Obi-Wan and Owen being brothers. At the time any of their lore text was considered canon as everything went through Lucasfilm before going to print.
> Obi-Wan and Owen were brothers (actually true for a time according to the novelizations) This is actually in the shooting script for VI, which the novelization would have been based on.
Anakin’s transformation to Vader. I remember I heard theories/rumors that instead of lava and burning, he would actually fall into a machine that practically shreds and mutilates his body. After the modifications, he essentially only has his head and vital internal organs left while everything else is machine.
>After the modifications, he essentially only has his head and vital internal organs left while everything else is machine. So they accidentally predicted General Grevious!
Or Robocop.
I'd buy that for a dollar
It makes me think of Shredder for some reason.
Iirc the book shadows of the empire actually mentioned the lava thing before the prequel trilogy came out
Lucas talked about it as early as [an interview in *Rolling Stone* in August 1977](https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/george-lucas-the-wizard-of-star-wars-2-232011/) (back when Vader and Luke's father were still separate characters, at least publicly): >But Vader kills Luke’s father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being. That’s why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it’s a breathing mask. It’s like a walking iron lung. His face is all horrible inside.
George had a the prequels mostly planned before ANH even hit theaters. The 1976 Star Wars novelization’s intro is pretty much an outline for the entire plot of the prequels.
Wasn’t the whole thing titled like The Adventures Of Luke Starkiller As Told By The Whills, or something like that?
I mean, saying he had planned the Prequels is a bit much, he had a rough idea of what he wanted to happen in them and what the important story moments were, but that was about it.
lol
I remember several mentions of him falling into a "molten pool" in Legends.
I had a Star Wars Enclopidia of some kind that i got before the prequels and it said Vader and Obi-wan fought on the world Mustafar and anakin fell in the lava. I remeber it said Vader and not anakin, because that name wasn't a thing yet. This would have been in 1996-1998 when the Speacial Editon of the Origianl Triolgy releashed. Anakin did become a thing till they started Episode 1 promo.
But wasn't Anakin mentioned by name in ESB and ROTJ?
Oh shit your right. Nevermind lol. I do know it said it was a lava planet.
Yes and no. Anakin didn’t really exist until ROTJ. Up till that Point Luke’s father was only known as Darth Vader, especially since Darth was originally his first name. The name Anakin Skywalker would later be retroactively added into ESB in the special editions.
It was mentioned in the original RotJ. The hallway scene when Luke gives himself up and calls Vader "father". Then Vader says something to the effect of "so you acknowledge that I'm your father" and Luke says "I know you were once Anakin Skywalker." Vader says that name no longer has any meaning to him
I know… I literally said that Anakin’s name didn’t exist until ROTJ.
Yes sorry just going through it in my head. I think the hallway scene was the only time in the originally released trilogy his name is mentioned.
Oh, I didn't know that was added after the fact
The lava thing and Anakin both existed at least in the late 80s/early 90s.
It was in the return of the Jedi novel I believe. That’s where I heard about it. I remember telling my friends and they thought I was making stuff up
Lava has been part of it since the drafts.
I was only young, but my mates and I were convinced that Vader was lying to Luke about being his father. He was the bad guy, of course he was lying about that, he actually murdered Luke's father, Obi-Wan said so!! Seemed air tight when I was 9.
This is why they had Yoda confirm it in ROTJ, a child psychologist told Lucas that kids wouldn’t believe it from a bad guy
From what I recall they weren’t planning on brining back Yoda, but that scenario gave them a chance to give him closure and not have people say “Where’s Yoda?”. Now all they say is “Where’s Force Ghost?”
Vader did murder Anakin, from a certain point of view.
Honestly I hate that viewpoint (canonically fact really). It’s just a way to take accountability off Anakin since he was such a good guy before. He IS Darth Vader, Darth Vader’s personality didn’t overtake him like bloody Gollum
The dark side does amplify negative emotions that fuel power. For Vader it was Rage. He still made the initial choices but it’s like he was drugged.
Yeah but what I’m saying is they’re one and the same. It’s not like split personalities where one suppresses the other (like one of the characters from Total Drama Island iykyk)
Ya I agree even irl when someone has a drug addiction we don't just hand wave their behaviour away. There were choices involved in Anakin's journey and he made them. Was he a victim? Sure. That doesn't absolve him of responsibility, though.
That’s kind of explained in the Obi Wan series that Vader did kinda kill Anakin.
It’s certainly shown but not explained. I just don’t like nor agree with it
Agreed. A really lazy way of handwaving a retcon. Lucas should had Obi-Wan just cop to the lie.
Saying that Anakin and Darth Vader are different people absolves Anakin of the horrendous crimes he commits, like murdering children, and man, do I hate that.
I mean, it makes sense from a parts theory. Vadar is t the dissociative state Anakin exists in for most of the Empire. Yes, it avoids accountability, but that’s the point. A skin has compartmentalism’s himself to avoid confronting the terrible things he’s done. This is Anakin’s tragic flaw—he’s unable to really process his trauma (which you can blame of the Jedi, the Sith, or both :) )
> from a certain point of view. From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.
It would seem like something to mess with Luke
Boba Fett was "The other" that Yoda spoke of. The OB1 Clone thing I can't think of any others.
“Just then Vader realized that when Boba Fett was saying, ‘As you wish,’ what he meant was, ‘I love you.‘“
Oh my sweet Boba! What have I done!? Gah ow! Oo! Ouch! ^Ugh!
Why **Boba**??
He wore a helmet and was a badass
Stormtroopers were robots. The design on the back of the action figures appeared to spell out "oil," as in, that is where you add the oil to keep them lubricated.
Cant remember what it was,. I thought it was "How I Met Your Mother" but now im not sure There was a character that thought "Wait a minute i thought Stormtroopers were robots. So when they blew up the death star, they killed Thousands of people" and then was horrified that it was over a million, questioning if the Rebels were really good guys for that.
Yes, it was Lily from HIMYM. They had this conversation on the episode where the rest of the gang tries to break Barney and Robin up.
Stormtroopers are robots was strong in Italy, too, as a theory. And people were wondering why do they need rifles? Why don't they have them as part of their bodies?
I've heard that about the prequels as well.
Well, the battle droids having to use rifles does make little sense, honestly...
I just assumed they had a surplus of rifles and made droids that could use them, then specialized droids with inbuilt weapons
It makes them more versatile. The same droid could use a rifle, a bazooka, throw grenades, etc. So you don’t need to manufacture droids for every single use case, just a general purpose one with an arsenal of weapons they can choose from depending on the situation.
I always thought that too. But there are some benefits to not building the weapons in. They can use any weapon you want for different missions. Just hand them an existing weapon with no need to make changes to the body. It’s also one less thing to do maintenance on. And you can upgrade weapons by just handing them a new one, you don’t need to spend time changing over your droids
I am surprised this theory persisted after the scene in ANH when Luke and Han disguise themselves in Stormtrooper armour. To me even as a 5 year old this said that stormtroopers were humans wearing full armour.
I remember talking about that, but it made the scene with Han and Luke in the armor tough to explain unless you're Homer and don't realize robots have stuff inside them.
I remember talking with my uncle and the Obi Wan and Anakin fight over, around, near lava. This was even before the prequel trilogy was announced
That idea about Obi Wan defeating Vader on a lava planet was around since the 80's when I was a kid. IDK if it was in a novel or leaked information or what.
It came from an interview Lucas did with Rolling Stone magazine in 77. https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/george-lucas-the-wizard-of-star-wars-2-232011/ "Lucas tells Rolling Stone in 1977, "Vader kills Luke's father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being.""
Thanks. Good to know.
It was surely mentioned in the d6 RPG by West End Games, and WEG worked closely with Lucasfilm, on that game, and lots of production sketches and notes ended up becoming "lore", back then.
Such an awesome game. I'm gonna be running an adventure in it for a con this coming winter.
Did you two discuss the importance of having the higher ground?
And you'll think I'm joking.... ... Boba Fett was Luke's mother.
Didn’t Mark Hamill start that as a joke?
That does sound like something he'd do.
Lol never heard that one, but if it was a voice changer being used, not impossible
Almost as bad as "R2-D2 is Luke's father"
He does have a lot of weird attachments and devices inside him. It wouldn't surprise me if he has little robot arm that has a dildo on the end and injects sperm....
He isn't?
Wat
So like… Vader and boba were gay lovers? I kinda dig that.
Not a theory but before Lucas rewrote history (pretending it was unchanged all along), Owen was Ben's brother.
I don’t recall too many theories, but despite what Lucas had relatively recently claimed, he did say in interviews that he planned a prequel and sequel trilogy, and that Vader and Obi-Wan fought on the volcanic world and that’s why Vader is in the outfit (I recall reading that before ESB and learning he was Luke’s father). There was a lot of discussion that Lucas knew Vader was Luke’s dad when making episode 3 based on later viewings and seeing how Obi-Wan reacted to Luke’s asking about his father.
Well, of course he knew, he’s him
I remember Mark Hamill talked alot about that in the 80's I want to say after Return of The Jedi.
Well, by episode 3, everyone knew it, it was the last film Lucas made ;)
I remember something about the Clone Wars would have been sorta like Invasion of the Body Snachers. The clones replacing alot of the military would of caused a massive war at the end the Empire would be created to rise up and take control .
I thought something similar, that there’d be a ton of clones of different people and you wouldn’t know who was who.
You should definitely read Splinter of the Minds Eye. It was written before we even knew Luke and Leia were siblings.
That book is a trip for sure! It goes in such a different direction then we got. Feels like a completely different universe. Def worth a read
>It was written before we even knew Luke and Leia were siblings. I mean, nobody knew. George didn't know. I think it's funny how often you'll get new characters in books or comics set during the OT who are there so Luke or Leia have someone else to have romantic entanglements with.
The only one I remember was one crazy kid claiming that Obi-wan killed Luke's dad. According to Mark Hamill, it was actually used as a fake line, so almost?
I mean, he wasn't too far off...
He had the high ground
Iirc there was something floating around that the Snowtroopers were the 7 wives of Darth Vader No fuckin idea where my friend had gotten that
Oh, for sure there were. A lot of them involved clones. I remember late-90s rumors and early internet message board ‘leaks’ that Boba was an Anakin clone. And then, after TPM, there were folks online who were just sure Senator Palpatine was actually a clone of the man that’d eventually be Emperor. In the RotJ novelization, the Emperor pulls Yoda’s name from Luke’s mind, and basically says “Who?”. That sparked some fun conversations. My favorite was the idea Jedi lived much longer lifespans than their non-Jedi counterparts. That the Clone Wars were a century or two ago. God, does anyone else remember ‘Supershadow’? That shit was so dumb, but so fun!
My buddy and I loved the Supershadow Website. We would read through it diligently. There were all sorts of rumours about the Supershadow guy as well, that he was secretly a lawyer, etc
Senator Palpatine being a clone of the Emperor kind of lines up with Dark Empire, right? Probably where they extrapolated from.
My friends and I had this whole idea that because Obi Wan trained Vader, he’d never met Yoda.
The only theory, I remember was that , there were 9 books, and George Lucas, was following them precisely and everything was planned, source me and my friends in primary school, around the time of return of the jedi
I heard twelve but same story.
To be fair, he really steered into that myth with his "I always intended to..." statements over the years.
This rumor persisted until my elementary school days in 2012
I remember reading in a magazine the whole plot of Empire before it came out. It was so wrong and nothing liked that happened. It was pretty much ROTJ though.
I'd heard that too, but replace Ewoks with Wookies. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to revolve around the enslavement of Kashyyk or a similar Wookie planet. Lucas decided that since he didn't know if the studio was going to let him make any more than his first movie, he'd put a wookie in it
That's something Lucas was on record for. At least as early as about 1984 when "From Star Wars to Jedi: the Making of a Saga" came out where he talked about that, but then how Chewie was too advanced so he went with the teddy bears. Even as a kid who loved the ewoks, I knew that would've been cooler.
Han had latent Force powers because he used a lightsaber (notably the only non-force user in the OT to do so) but didn’t believe in the Force enough to explore it.
Oh yeah, I remember the debates about who could actually activate a lightsabre.
I remember that discussion but based on his exceptional piloting skills and things just kind of working out for him.
I’m a newer fan as well but I heard about the Bigger Luke Theory that was popular before the prequels. Essentially, the theory goes that for one reason or another there exists a slightly larger Luke Skywalker known as Bigger Luke. Apparently, as people would rewatch the originals they would notice Luke appeared slightly larger in certain scenes. You need to check out this masterpiece: http://biggerluke.wikidot.com
I love that one, it’s so bonkers
The is almost as wacky as Luuke.
The Clone Wars were the Jedi against an army of Boba Fetts. It was even referenced that way on an early write up on the Boba Fett action figure box. I guess this kinda end up being true but that’s not what they meant.
We had some. One was that the twins would be born on Dagobah, to explain Luke's line "There's something familiar about this place". There was one that Obi-Wan might be a clone, since his name sounds like O B 1, which sounds like a series number.
I heard "Original Ben 1", back when the rumor started, back in the 80s
back in the 70s and 80s we dint have the Internet, so these theories generally didn't leave the confines of the mother's basements from which they originated
We didn't have the internet as we know it today, but nerds were on the BBS, and theories still flew around. I knew about the "OB-1 is a clone" theory, and I'm from southern Italy.
I did see a link a while ago (I think in this sub) to a Usenet discussion forum of Return of the Jedi right after it came out.
Hold up! We didn’t have the internet in the 70s and 80s?!???????? The things you say!
I friend in my class said that Chewbacca was Bigfoot that had been captured. We really didn’t have a source that would let us share theories. Maybe Starlog magazine. It was a lot easier to be a fanboy/girl/ person before the internet made everyone an expert.
That's from a comic book series called Star Wars Tales. The series is a collection of what was classed as Infinities - what-ifs, non-canon, silly stories, and some that could have been canon if anyone tried to fit them into the main continuity. The story you refer to is called ~~The Great Beyond~~ *Into The Great Unknown* (thanks to /u/ecntv) and the synopsis is that Han and Chewie escape from an Imperial ambush, and due to a damaged hyperdrive, they crash on 19th century Earth in the Pacific Northwest. Han is mortally wounded by the locals while exploring, and Chewie puts him back in his pilot's chair to die. 100 years later, Dr Indiana Jones and Short Round McFly are investigating sightings of Bigfoot (who is Chewie) and discover the wreck of the Falcon.
Close! It is actually called "Into the Great Unknown" [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Into\_the\_Great\_Unknown](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Into_the_Great_Unknown)
My friend told me his theory in 1981. That was published in 2004.
Yoda is a human who lived an extraordinarily long time due to his connection to the force. And he looked like that because he was 900+ years old.
Never heard that one before
This made me wonder how much of the star wars world was written during the original trilogy? And stuff like the old Republic, prequel, side characters... Etc when were they written?
He had some very very basic plot points but they were constantly changing. I don't think Lucas had anything on the Old Republic, atleast nothing I've ever seen him speak of I saw someone recently narrate the original Phantom Menace script on youtube which was pretty interesting
Lots of names get reused. Names like "Mace" and "Chancellor Valorum" show up in early drafts.
Back in the day, [theforce.net](http://theforce.net) had all sorts of interesting ideas and theories kicking around. I distinctly remember a page about "the injuries of Darth Vader", which is actually still up today: [https://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html](https://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html) At the bottom of the page, it says first posted in 1995, and last edited in 2005.
ITT: Boba Fett
I saw the storyline about how Vader was burned by falling into a lava pit on the back of some sort of Vader toy at K-Mart before TPM came out, hell even before the prequels were announced. That's pretty much all I remember.
I remember looking at the back of the TPM menace cd case in a Meijer and seeing track 12 or 13 called “Qui Gon’s Noble End.” Like, thank for spoiling that whoever wrote the track list 😂
Dude no way 😂 thats terrible Edit: actually reminds me of how the ROTS video game came out before the movie, but still had actual movie scenes in it. The game spoiled most of the movie, including the ending, weeks before it came out but it didn’t matter much to little me thankfully.
There was definitely a lot of wild theories about what the clone wars were, amongst us kids. As far as other things people have mentioned yeah I had a kids book thing red cover about the villains of Star Wars and it mentions Vader in relation to a volcano scarring him and this would have been like... the first book era where they had pics from the Special Editions in them so '97 or early '98.
I love how like 100 hours or more of media entertainment spawned from Obi Wan’s quick throwaway line about the clone wars.
I still have the first issue of “Starburst” magazine from 1978 & in it they discuss Star Wars 2. In that article George Lucas states Vader fell into a volcano after fighting Obi-Wan.
You can read through old forum threads where they debated whether or not senator Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious. Remember that the emperor being named Palpatine was only in EU content at this point. And other shenanigans were possible. https://boards.theforce.net/threads/palpatine-sidious-its-so-obvious.245896/ https://boards.theforce.net/threads/is-darth-sidious-palpatine.7700171/ http://www.theforce.net/episode1/story/ian_mcdiarmid_palpatine_and_darth_sidious_81973.asp You’ll also notice how everyone is basically an implicit fan and there aren’t separate factions being nasty to each other.
I like how the 8th post in the first link, Dagobah stuff aside, ended up more or less predicting the general concept of Dooku (albeit with the master and apprentice roles swapped between him and Sidious).
I always thought as a child that the clone wars were Jedi fight against clones of themselves. That ob1 was the designation of the original. No idea where I got this from.
I've said it before on here, but I always assumed Luke and Leia were born on Dagobah. And they should have been! It would make Luke's lines about Dagobah looking familiar make sense. Polis Massa was completely unnecessary as a location, why not just do it on Dagobah? That way you get to keep the scene of Yoda arriving there.
I don't have any crazy theories, but I can say that the lightsaber battle at the end of RoTS is something that we knew had happened as kids. The story was that Obi Wan and Vader fought on the edge of a volcano (or something) and Vader fell in.
Yep I remember this.
Sidious was a clone of Palpatine Jodie Foster or Jet Li was going to play Boba Fett in the prequels. Alternately, Kitster was Boba Naboo/Kamino 'becoming' Dagobah and Hoth
I remember one that was like "A test of the Death Star turns Naboo into a barren lava planet"
That’s actually kinda sick
Yep I remember “Kister=Boba”
The theory that Owen was Obi-Wans brother. Very random, but it was in a New Hope novelization if I recall correctly. Second would be that Boba Fetts' real name was Jaster Mareel and that he wasn't a clone.
Boba Fett was an imperial soldier that murdered an officer.
The craziest one I remembered was Boba Fett surviving the sarlacc. Seems like something impossible to do. Surely Lucasfilm wouldn't retcon that, would they?
My brother swore up and down before ROTJ that Boba Fett was going to be Luke's father.
I remember the dark jedi clothes for Luke for ROTJ on the promo material and we assumed he was going dark side on that final film. Another one I recall was that Papa Palpatine was gonna take over Luke and transfer his powers and spirt to his body. Shit was wild.
I remember someone telling me that a Wookie Jedi played a significant role in TPM and that the Clones showed up in TPM too and that they were Clones of different people, so there was two of some people and one was a clone and they had to fight and stuff.. Mind you, this was after the movie had been in the cinema, but I was too young to go see it and was waiting for a home video release..so not so much theories as playground lies from kids who lied about having seen the movie in the cinema 😂
I read here on Reddit once that some people thought R2D2 was Luke’s father because any time something with the force happened R2 was there
One of my favorites star wars genres is OT theories. things like jedis fighting against clones, more factions of equal power to the empire, how the empire rose to power, etc were just awesome and some of them still are today, with prequels and sequels and all the in between.
Mon Mothma was Like and Leia's mother is one I remember.
There was a lot of speculation about Anakin's father. He was a Jedi. A Sith. A Gray Jedi. A Bounty Hunter... One I remember was that Darth Maul was Anakin's dad. He wasn't a zabrak, but a human and he fell to the dark side after murdering someone and fleeing into hiding. Instead, George Lucas just decided to borrow Anakin's birth from some guy named Jesus Christ, SMH.
One theory was that Han was lying about making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Adding credence to this theory was one of scripts themselves noting that Han actually was lying to make himself more impressive, but the script also used standard time units instead of parsec (which is a measure of distance) which would make more sense if he was bragging about his Craft's speed. Later entries in the original series would make it clear that Han did make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, but the finer details of what it actually was wouldn't be hammered out till later. I remember one older book actually said Han actually beat his own record after someone else tried, but after watching Solo I don't see why anyone would willingly attempt that a second time.
I was born right before ROTJ came out so I was never old enough to see the originals in the theater. My parents saw Star Wars when they were first married in 1976 on a random trip and didn't know what they were getting into. I remember my mom told me she thought that Vader had been injured by the Emperor turning him to the dark side and that's what was going to happen to Luke too if Vader hadn't stepped in. It makes sense when you think about it a little but not too much.
The character who ended up being Padme was originally named “Lady Arcadia Skywalker.” Also at some point a young Wedge would appear in the prequels. These plot points, among other things, were from a prequel “script” that made the rounds at conventions in the early to mid-90s. It was called “The Fall of the Republic” IIRC.
Mon Mothma was Luke and Leia's mother 'Mon' means 'my' in French, and 'Mothma' is similar to 'mother' - My Mother
I don’t remember any. There was no internet really so unless your friends were throwing around theories you never really heard any.
Back in the early 80s one of our only sources of information was “Banthas Tracks”, the official SW club newsletter. It occasionally dropped some good nuggets.
Leia wore underwear
I saw Ricky Schroeder on Mike Douglas or Joan Rivers claiming he was cast as Luke and Leia's son in the next Star Wars but that may even have been before ROtJ.
Why are sith light sabers red? The list of theories and even canon explainations areto longto list.