Lightsabers aren't just for Jedi

As a quick reminder, back during the concept art phase and the older draft phase of the original Star Wars, lightsabers weren't just Jedi weapons.  Here's the MacQuarrie picture that had stormtroopers with lightsabers... and shields, even! Facing an older General Skywalker along with Chewie and two other characters one of whom is I think Leia, and one of whom may be Annikin.  Keep in mind that at this stage of the drafts, Luke was more like Kenobi, and Annikin was more in the role of Luke.

If you haven't ever, I recommend you get a copy of this and read it.  I got it from my local public library. (In fact, I'll go right now and request it again.  I really should buy my own copy, but it's not super cheap.)

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CF7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535544936&sr=8-1&keywords=the+star+wars+dark+horse

And here's the MacQuarrie pic of the whole band.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; as much as I (of course) love the older Star Wars material, I actually liked a lot of it before it was actually finalized.  While the plot needed some polishing—which it got—the setting and tone was better during the drafts than what actually came out.  I actually like the promise of what the Star Wars franchise almost became more than what it actually did become.

If you can get your hands on it still, I strongly recommend reading A Secret History of Star Wars, which covers a lot of this material quite thoroughly.

Here's a few of my own thoughts from last year on that book.

https://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-secret-history-of-star-wars.html

https://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2017/05/another-gem-from-secret-history.html

https://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2017/05/another-secret-history-quote.html

Reading some of that, it's interesting that The Clone Wars TV show achieved, finally, much of what the original Star Wars vision was to be.  But only after the franchise had accreted all kinds of weird ideas and concepts and characters that it had to live with.  And, of course, after it had swallowed a much bigger helping of SJW nonsense than the 70s or 80s would ever have allowed.  Maybe that's part of the reason that I like that show so much compared to much of the rest of the franchise's output.  It's much more of what the original vision of Star Wars was intended to be in many ways.