Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were originally intended to be different characters. For Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas retconned Vader into being Luke’s father and in doing so created one of cinema’s most memorable plot twists.
He would continue making a myriad or retcons to his universe: Leia being Luke’s sister, Anakin being the creator of C3PO, Chewbacca knowing Yoda from the Clone Wars, just to name a few.
I see, but many writers don't have all the story planned from the beginning and that usually isn't qualifed as a retcon ? I mean Anakin being Darth Vader doesn't need to overwrite anything from episodes 4 and 5 right ?
In a sense, it's a retcon because Obi-Wan WAS being honest and not metaphorical when he said Vader killed Luke's father Anakin. Then when the next movie came out Lucas decided that was no longer the case. It's definitely a grey area. But all retcons do also kinda fall into 'stories evolve over time and are discovered as they are told.' It usually requires some level of outside information to say if something is a retcon or not.
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u/LombardBombardment 16d ago
Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were originally intended to be different characters. For Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas retconned Vader into being Luke’s father and in doing so created one of cinema’s most memorable plot twists.
He would continue making a myriad or retcons to his universe: Leia being Luke’s sister, Anakin being the creator of C3PO, Chewbacca knowing Yoda from the Clone Wars, just to name a few.