What was your image of Anakin Skywalker before the prequels were made? His arc, look, relationships

[WyoWilliam]

Everything I IMAGINED actually comes from the OT - it was almost spelled out.

Anakin was close(er) to Obi wan in age. He was an actual PILOT, not a "podracer". R2- might have been his co-pilot and is why he knows his way around Tatooine while Threepio was off translating for the Queen. (Duh) He had some sort of close relationship with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (She remembers him fondly, Owen not so much.) He probably started his Jedi training kind-of late and it's why Yoda tells Luke he's too old to begin training. Obi-wan, not Qui-Gon, really believed in him, or felt sorry for him and is why HE trained him, but Anakin was probably always kind of a hot-head and overly cocky. (Would have been fun to see that kind of Han-Solo charisma in the lead, and made his fall all that more painful. As it was, when he finally turns in that ridiculous scene with Windu I almost laughed. "OK, Guess I'm evil now - time to slaughter some kids!!") He looses his wife and children (Maybe the Jedi trick him into believing they're dead, which is why he turns to the Dark Side, and is why he doesn't go looking for them, but not before Anakin gives Obi-Wan his lightsaber to give to Luke. Padme lives long enough for Leia to remember her and dies of damned-near anything other than sadness.)

Lucas could have done the entire series (with a capable writer doing the heavy lifting) around the exposition in the first three films, not made Obi-Wan a pathological liar, created a bunch of weird plot-holes, and not disappointed thousands of fans.

I realize they are better in many ways that what has followed since, but they are a long, long way from good.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I always knew that sand would be revealed to be the ultimate antagonist for The Prequel Trilogy.

 

[batguy]

Yeah I always pictured Anakin having Big Han Solo Energy. He's lovable and cool . . . until he's not.

Obi-Wan was the (mature ROTJ-era) Luke Skywalker of the pair. That half of it was there in the PT. But Anakin wasn't cool enough in the PT.

 

[Joek3rr]

I wonder if Owen as Obi-Wan's brother would have stuck around? I know it's not in the movie. But I believe it's novelization for Episode VI.

 

[janglesworthy]

using new advanced AI I compiled everyone's comments, fed it to the AI and had this advance AI image generated. According to the internet opinions Anakin should have looked like this.

Spoiler

 

[publiusr]

Just my head-canon, mind you.

When I think of Vader under the mask--I envision Colm Feore as the Lord Marshall in CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK...a man who never looked young---who became scarred in middle age.

 

[Laspector]

I always imagined him with bell bottoms.

 

[ZeroSum]

I always imagined him with bell bottoms.

Don't ask why he looks like Josh Brolin. You get what you pay for

 

[Solo4114]

I always remembered reading bits of what Anakin was supposed to be, before the prequels came out. If I were to compare my image of him to an actor, I'd say he would be more like Michael Fassbender as he portrayed Magneto in the X-Men: First Class films, a character that has redeeming qualities but is motivated by revenge and a willingness to kill for what he desires.

Here's some research I did a while back that I had sitting in a notepad on my phone, pulled from various sources online. It's all descriptions of what the Star Wars backstory was originally conceived to be or was expanded on in the EU novels, including Anakin/Vader before Star Wars (or Ep IV, A New Hope to you younglings):

I think I saw a video that suggested Atha Prime was part of a post-ROTJ toyline planned by Kenner that never really got off the ground back around 1986.

 

[Solo4114]

View attachment 1758377

Don't ask why he looks like Josh Brolin. You get what you pay for

Dear God I HATE AI art...

 

[batguy]

 

[bwayne64]

View attachment 1758534

The Star Wars/ Stayin Alive crossover we always wanted, ; )

 

[publiusr]

Shh…Wes Anderson will hear you…

 

[FastballSpecial]

I liked what Brian Ashmore did in the early 90's.

Of course the child centric direction George took Anakin with TPM made even less sense after promising art like this.

 

[Greenie]

I always thought of Anakin as being about the same age as OWK and Owen Lars, and friends with the latter. He lived on Tatooine and was romantically involved with the future mother of his children. Who was not a queen or senator but the sister of Beru, making her and Owen Luke’s actual Aunt and Uncle.
He put his unrealised force abilities to use as a navigator on a spice freighter, which lead to a chance meeting with Kenobi when his skills help to rescue him from some clone wars related escapade.
After learning of his potential, decides to join OWK for a more adventurous life, taking his girlfriend with him. Which leads to a bit of an unrequited love triangle as jealousy begins to fuel his slow but gradual turn towards the dark side.
The Jedi are just lone warriors scattered around the galaxy, with a few masters here and there that put the force sensitive to the test as a right of passage.

 

[ZeroSum]

I always thought of Anakin as being about the same age as OWK and Owen Lars, and friends with the latter. He lived on Tatooine and was romantically involved with the future mother of his children. Who was not a queen or senator but the sister of Beru, making her and Owen Luke’s actual Aunt and Uncle.
He put his unrealised force abilities to use as a navigator on a spice freighter, which lead to a chance meeting with Kenobi when his skills help to rescue him from some clone wars related escapade.
After learning of his potential, decides to join OWK for a more adventurous life, taking his girlfriend with him. Which leads to a bit of an unrequited love triangle as jealousy begins to fuel his slow but gradual turn towards the dark side.
The Jedi are just lone warriors scattered around the galaxy, with a few masters here and there that put the force sensitive to the test as a right of passage.

Some good ideas in there. I never liked Anakin's origin being Tatooine. It never made much sense that his son would be hidden on the same planet Anakin came from. Sure Anakin hated sand and all and would've been happy to never go back. But I like that idea that Tatooine is a pimple on the outreaches of the galaxy's arse. Pardon me - if there's a bright center to the universe, then Tatooine is the planet that it's farthest from.

I also like the idea of Jedi being lone warriors scattered throughout the galaxy. I didn't like the prequel version of the Jedi, where they're this massive organisation living in palaces and so-on. Maybe it was intended to be an allegory for organised religion, one that had become too overblown and top-heavy for it's own good, it's hubris leading to its demise. But then we lose the whole "warrior monk" angle.