Rogue One and Death Star II (Possible Spoilers)

[Silvercrest]

Not quite; Luke has possession of the Kaiburr shard for maybe ten minutes before it's taken from him. He never has it again. The shard doesn't measurably affect his use of the Force. Primarily its plot purpose is to send him on a hunt for the main crystal, which is supposed to be so powerful that you become a Force God when using it.

I heard somewhere that a later novel tweaked the concept to say the Kaiburr isn't that powerful anywhere other than where they found it (spoilers), which is why they didn't win the war ten minutes after the end of the novel. I guess at that point it becomes just one kaiburr / kyber crystal among many.

I did know about the intent for SotME, but never heard about those earlier draft concepts.

Thanks!

 

[Ithekro]

Random brain thought due to being a kid in the 1980s. The Dark Crystal. Was it a kyber crystal?

 

[Reverend]

Random brain thought due to being a kid in the 1980s. The Dark Crystal. Was it a kyber crystal?

Superficial similarities aside: almost certainly not.
Keep in mind that both Henson & Lucas were drawing on some of the same mythical stories, fairy tales and heroes journey type source material. So it's natural a lot of the same tropes are expressed in both worlds, albeit in different ways. That aside, the function of the titular Dark Crystal is very specific in it's function and an intrinsic meaning within the story as it's directly tied to the sundering and reunification of a people. The Kaiburr of the early Star Wars drafts is your more typical magical MacGuffin who's only real function is to propel the plot and give the hero some kind of definitive quest.

So far as I know that movie was all Jim Henson and I've never heard of Lucas being involved with their production, at least where story conception is concerned. I'm not 100% sure about the timing, but I think part of the reason Henson recommended Oz in lieu of doing Yoda himself after Lucas approached him may have been that he was already deep into pre-production at that point. I know it wasn't released until 2 years after tESB, but I'm pretty sure Henson was working on that movie and trying to get it made for more than a few years.

Indeed I've never been able to find it again, but I remember coming across an old vintage publication from the late 70's (may have been an old Marvel era Star Wars comic book) that had a little article about the upcoming "Star Wars 2" that was still in production at the time. What caught my eye was an accompanying B&W photo of Carrie Fisher supposedly on set, posing next to some furry creature which definitely did not end up in Empire. I thought at the time (this would have been some time in the early 90's) I recognised it from Dark Crystal, but didn't have a copy to compare it and confirm. It may just have been something from the Muppet Show for all I know.
Again, it's all about the timing as I know both movies were shot at Elstree, but I'm not sure how early Dark Crystal got started.

 

[Saul]

It could have been fan made or early script draft but I remember reading something years ago about the jedi hiding the Kaiburr crystal on a volcano Planet and Anakin finding it which lead to the dual between him and Obi Wan. Seemed something like a cross between the One Ring in LOTRs and Star Wars.

 

[publiusr]

Right, but until then, they aren't.

The idea of Han's son turning dark--that seemed to bleed through.

If you pay any heed to the Freemaker stuff--I thought the crystals there were of greater power--with more ordinary crystals used for typical lightsabers.

Something else. If a certain robot/human hybrid from the planet Mondas used Cyber crystals--what do you call him?