Pretty much, though I think it was more a case of the robes had better stats specifically for Jedi.
KoTOR 2 had slightly more armoured looking robes IIRC.
How did you picture the prequel era/story before the prequels?
- Thread starter Venardhi
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KoTOR 2 had slightly more armoured looking robes IIRC.
I realize this thread went silent over a month ago, but I finally saw Rogue One(today!). To my surprise, It popped up on Netflix this week, and so I felt like talking Star Wars.
I love the Jedi costumes in all the movies, and I brought some pictures.
It was hard to find a good picture of Luke in his Jedi garb on tatooine. I only have the film on VHS so there was no way to get a screenshot on my own. In the picture of him "walking the plank," he no longer has his belt, as Jabba's men must've taken it, but he is still wearing his "obi" which most Jedi seem to wear. You can see that Luke's robes are nearly identical to young Obi-Wan's. It's also very similar to Anakin's outfit, but little Ani seems to like leather. Old Obi-Wan's robes are similar, but full length. You can see that he still has the Japanese obi under his belt. Also, his tunic is layered.
I love his look in ANH. It very much reminds me of Yojimbo, one of my all-time favorite movies, and the first samurai movie I ever owned. And I've heard that Yojimbo may have had some influence on Star Wars, like the cantina scene. And Obi Wan himself is very "Ronin" like.
If you look at what uncle Owen is wearing, it appears to be a basic tunic, and a dirty a** bathrobe over it. It looks like they just went out and bought a bathrobe.
Here's ol' Ben again:
Young Obi-Wan's robes are a little more ornate, and I'm sure old Obi Wan misses his fancy boots, but it looks like he's found his comfort clothes.
I love the Jedi costumes in all the movies, and I brought some pictures.
It was hard to find a good picture of Luke in his Jedi garb on tatooine. I only have the film on VHS so there was no way to get a screenshot on my own. In the picture of him "walking the plank," he no longer has his belt, as Jabba's men must've taken it, but he is still wearing his "obi" which most Jedi seem to wear. You can see that Luke's robes are nearly identical to young Obi-Wan's. It's also very similar to Anakin's outfit, but little Ani seems to like leather. Old Obi-Wan's robes are similar, but full length. You can see that he still has the Japanese obi under his belt. Also, his tunic is layered.
I love his look in ANH. It very much reminds me of Yojimbo, one of my all-time favorite movies, and the first samurai movie I ever owned. And I've heard that Yojimbo may have had some influence on Star Wars, like the cantina scene. And Obi Wan himself is very "Ronin" like.
If you look at what uncle Owen is wearing, it appears to be a basic tunic, and a dirty a** bathrobe over it. It looks like they just went out and bought a bathrobe.
Here's ol' Ben again:
Young Obi-Wan's robes are a little more ornate, and I'm sure old Obi Wan misses his fancy boots, but it looks like he's found his comfort clothes.
It's not a coincidence. In some of the very first notes Lucas made before writing the initial synopsis is the name "Yoshiro", which is an alternate form of Toshiso. Indeed, his early notes contain a lot of references to Mifune and Kurosawa.
Plus there's this snippet from Rinzler's 'Making of Star Wars' book: -
So yeah, I think it's safe to say this was somewhere in the back of his mind.
Also of interest are these early Ralph McQuarrie character studies of what would become Luke and Ben (the names changed a lot in the various drafts.)
ETA: I just not noticed that the first sketch has the same vertical pieces and shoulder guards that are similar in style to Vader's armor. So the notion that Vader's look was similar to that of a Jedi seems to have appeared fairly early on.
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I don't have issues with Jedi robes when they are walking around the streets, visiting diners, etc. Where it falls short is when General Kenobi is wearing robes while flying a fighter and fighting a battle in interstellar space, attempting to board an enemy starship. I remember cringing seeing those buzz droids all over his ship at the start of ROTS. One hole in the canopy- dead. Try to eject? Dead. Systems malfunction resulting in loss of pressurization? Dead. At this point, a flight suit (at a minimum) isn't too much of a stretch, and an armored flight suit would have been even better. Just sayin'
On-screen Rebel Alliance pilots don't seem too keen on the air-sealed flightsuits either
As to what I imagined for the PT, I cannot remember for sure that far back - I only know that the PT surprised me in two ways. First, that Anakin became Darth Vader before the suit, and secondly that those who became the Stormtroopers were actually the good guys (for a while anyways).
Sorry for the late reply. That's not my understanding of it. For one, the "Old Ben" character didn't come into the script until later on, and at first he appeared to be a beggar, so no Jedi robe there. After he becomes a main part of the story, there's no mention of what he's wearing in the script. McQuarrie did some sketches as shown above. But when production started, the main direction John Mollo had was that the robes be old, shabby and heavily repaired. They were similar to those worn by Uncle Owen as shown above. "Fixer" from the deleted scenes had a very similar under-layer, with a racing-style jacket over it. In Mollo's sketches for the cantina costumes, he labels the long robes as "farmers." The tall "head full of eyes" alien that buys the speeder is dressed very similar to Ben, except for color shades.
From Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy by Brandon Alinger:
"As the first Jedi established in the Star Wars saga, Kenobi's outfit became the basis for the many Jedi characters who would follow. Mollo designed the costume to be the robes of a hermit rather than a Jedi warrior, but the look stuck. 'His outfit seems to have turned into this sort of costume of the Jedi Knights, really,' says Mollo."
If it was always intended to be the "uniform" of the Jedi, it would raise the question: If the Empire is hunting down and exterminating Jedi knights, why would Ben -- or anyone else -- go around dressed that way?
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Although the Jedi seem to have a fetish for browns, there is a bit of variety. Here's some from Episode 1.
The guy in the middle looks like a woodsmen, and the other two have elaborate robes, like clergy/monks/judges all mixed together.
Here in Episode 2, they get much more elaborate, and quite ornate.
This 3rd set shows some of the concept art for Obi-Wan when developing Episode 1. He went through various stages. He was going to be the solo Jedi, another concept had him as the master, and Qui-Gonn the apprentice; and another had Anakin older, etc.
These are quite different. I like them, but not so much the black. I'm not sure how well these would have translated to an on screen physical costume, but they are cool. The 3rd sketch looks a lot like Ralph Fiennes. Hmmm...
The guy in the middle looks like a woodsmen, and the other two have elaborate robes, like clergy/monks/judges all mixed together.
Here in Episode 2, they get much more elaborate, and quite ornate.
This 3rd set shows some of the concept art for Obi-Wan when developing Episode 1. He went through various stages. He was going to be the solo Jedi, another concept had him as the master, and Qui-Gonn the apprentice; and another had Anakin older, etc.
These are quite different. I like them, but not so much the black. I'm not sure how well these would have translated to an on screen physical costume, but they are cool. The 3rd sketch looks a lot like Ralph Fiennes. Hmmm...
That indeed was the point, at least as I recall from the TPM Visual Dictionary.
Not the best quality, but in the lower right corner has the statement I was thinking of
I imagined (especially after Episode II) that Padme would die in a situation that could be blamed on the Jedi.... or that she would *appear* to die. She always maintained that she did not need protection, and she was often put in dangerous situations. I imagined that he would freak out in a rage over her "death" and slaughter some innocents, or kill some Jedi, or something disgusting that he can't take back....leading to Padme's total disgust in him when its revealed that she isn't actually dead, and making his turn to the Dark Side complete.
You bring up a very good point about Padme's frequent declarations about not needing "protection." This did seem to foreshadow that she was going to be murdered, rather than die of what might be termed as "natural causes." Lucas was shooting for a TITANIC vibe, where Padme's tragic end was concerned and totally missed the mark, because it was so forced. What's so frustrating with Lucas' direction with ALL of the prequels is the brilliance he demonstrated with his writing and directing of A NEW HOPE. He did such great work, before, he was so jazzed about making movies, then ... and he lost his edge, as it were. He'd lost his stuff ...
So if that's the case, there is no distinctive Jedi clothing; "Jedi robes" are just "robes."
