Many Of The Truths We Cling To Depend Greatly On Our Ghostwriter

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas, made a movie. It had not been released yet, but he had high hopes for it. When Alan Dean Foster signed on to ghostwrite the novelization, he persuaded him to put pen to paper for a sequel.

Foster wasn’t just any guy Lucas had bumped into waiting for a taxi. He was a highly experienced author with multiple novels under his belt, as well as several Star Trek adaptations. No one knew if Star Wars: A New Hope was going to be a success, so the pair sat down and worked out a plot of a sequel that would be cheap to film should it tank. These two behemoths of the genre discussing the cinematic artform over coffee and lined paper gave birth to the greatest story in space ever told. It should have been an epic of biblical proportions. Instead, we got Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

Luckily for us, Star Wars: A New Hope was a box office smash and made The Empire Strikes Back, and the Expanded Universe ignore the story of Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Confused readers were left to wonder how different Star Wars would have been if this movie had been made.

RELATED:

Featured

Freddie Prinze Jr. Revealed What Almost Made Him Walk Away From ‘Star Wars: Rebels’

It’s Not Wise To Leave Out A Wookie

The premise was that Luke and Leia crash-landed on Mimban, a foggy (dry ice, nice cheap special effect) swampy planet, and went on the hunt for a Kaiburr crystal. The story built up to a fight with Vader and he fell into a deep pit, sound familiar?

However, there are some big differences between Splinter of The Mind’s Eye and The Empire Strikes Back. Some of them might shock you.

Han Solo and Chewbacca were not in the book. Harrison Ford dragged his feet signing a contract for the second and third movies, so he was left out altogether. Imagine how that would have impacted the canon we know today. There would be no Han Solo in carbonite, no "I love you, I know," no Millennium Falcon flying through the asteroid field, no "Laugh it up, fuzzball."

Removing Han Solo from Foster’s book had another knock-on effect. No Han meant no Han and Leia romance storyline. Someone made the decision to give Carrie another love interest instead. Yes, you guessed it. Luke and Leia flirted their way through Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and it was not subtle either.

In our version of the Star Wars Universe, this would require a strong stomach. Foster either wasn’t told about the sibling connection or Lucas changed his mind for The Empire Strikes Back. It was not entirely clear which. The book dropped hints that Leia had a Force connection, and she took a turn with Luke’s lightsaber against Vader, suggesting that Lucas was setting them up to be twins later. But then why would you let Foster continue building sexual tension between the pair? Vader also lost his hand instead of Luke, which makes the setup even more confusing as this was a symbol of the father-son reveal. Did Lucas bin the whole Skywalker family idea, or just kept Foster in the dark to protect the secret?

An Alternative Form Of Princess

Leia was also very different in this book. We are used to Carrie Fisher’s feisty princess who resists torture, plots revolutions, and negs her rescuers as short kings. She is more akin to Lyssa from Krull than Leia from The Empire Strikes Back. Although she did get to pick up a lightsaber, she was generally a damsel in distress all the way through the book. Carrie Fisher made science fiction accessible to a whole generation of women. It was her personality that jumped off the screen. I am not sure how Carrie would have felt about the version of Princess Leia presented in Foster’s book.

There is another big absence from Splinter of the Minds Eye which brings up the possibility of other major changes. Vader is the book’s big bad, but do you know who is not mentioned even once? The Emperor. Ian McDiarmid was not cast until Return of the Jedi. Palpatine was played by Clive Revill (voice) and Marjorie Eton (hologram) in The Empire Strikes Back. The Sith was mentioned briefly by Tarkin in A New Hope, but not seen on screen. It was not until the third movie that we understand the complicated dynamic between Vader and Palpatine. On the other hand, Vader seemed to be operating under his own steam in Foster’s book. Could it be that Lucas was planning to cut Palpatine out completely to reduce the casting budget? There were other clues too. Vader took the big fall down the black pit instead of the Palpatine like in Return of The Jedi. The impact would have been devastating. The prequel trilogy without Palpatine? No Palpatine also meant no Rey. What’s that? You don’t mind that one so much. Oh, be kind, Star Wars fans.

In the book, Luke's command of the Force had improved exponentially without any form of formal training. In a rather cheesy line, "I am Obi-Wan," Luke suggested that he had absorbed the old Jedi's abilities. It was clearly a way of reducing costs by avoiding a training montage and casting another mentor figure. I’m not sure where this would have left the future of the Jedi if the only way Luke knows to pass on knowledge of the Force is to die. As problematic as the timing of his stay on Dagobah was in comparison with the trip to Bespin (come on guys, we all know the plot hole is there), it was better than the alternative: Luke Skywalker sucking up Ben’s force ability like a tea towel left too close to the sink. In the book, he also had some unusual ways of using a lightsaber, like using it as a lockpick and a general multitool. In our version of the Star Wars universe, misusing a lightsaber like that would melt a Sith Lord’s face off.

Only A Snarky Star Wars Fan Deals In Absolutes

Are there positives in the book? Well, the Kaiburr crystal is the precursor to Kyber crystals in the current canon. We also have to thank Foster's novelization of A New Hope and Splinter of the Mind's Eye for Force healing. Mimban was undoubtedly the inspiration for Dagobah and later became canon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story. It is also pleasing to see a menacing Vader at his peak, dark and threatening, a monster in his own right, not just on the end of the Emperor’s leash.

The Empire Strikes Back is one of the best movies in the series. It was the highest-grossing film when it was released and the thirteenth highest-grossing film ever. If Splinter of the Mind’s Eye had been made instead, it may not have reached that high bar, even following the popularity of Star Wars: A New Hope. Don't let that stop you from reading the book and making up your own mind.

Read Next:

Featured