When did I find out Anakin Skywalker fell in a volcano?

April 11, 2009 7:46 AM

When did I find out Anakin Skywalker fell in a volcano? This would have been sometime between 1977 and 1983.

I was 14 when the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV) came out. Sometime between 1977 and 1983 (Return of the Jedi) my friends and I somehow knew Darth Vader got the way he was from "falling into a volcano." How in the heck did we know that? While I really liked the Star Wars movies, I never got into the spin-off books or comics. We read things like Famous Monsters of Filmland and Cinefantastique.

Does anyone know how and when this information first got out? It's been bugging me.

posted by marxchivist to media & arts (19 comments total)

I learned it in an interview with Lucas published in "Dynamite" magazine, some time in the early 80's. It was published by Scholastic-- the company that sold children's books and magazines through flyers that your teacher passed out.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:52 AM on April 11

Seconding the 'Dynamite' reference.

"He fell into a volcano" sounds just like the style of completely ridiculous storytelling that Lucas would shoot off the cuff to a magazine for 10-year-olds.
posted by wfrgms at 8:07 AM on April 11 [1 favorite]

A thought popped into my head as I was walking away that I think the specific issue had Gary Coleman on the cover (I can remember sitting at the counter of my grandparents kitchen in a tall chair, reading the article). Then I looked at the Wikipedia article about Dynamite and according to that, Gary Coleman was the feature story in February of 1981.

If I remember correctly, Lucas said that Vader's costume was like "a walking iron lung" and that Obi Wan had "pushed him into a volcanic eruption." Those are probably not exact quotes, but I have a very good memory so I'm confident that they're close. They were a real revelation at the time-- I would have been seven if I got the date right, and completely obsessed with Star Wars.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:12 AM on April 11 [1 favorite]

I remember seeing a novelization of episodes 4-6. It was large, had a black binding, and I'm pretty sure it had Lucas's name on it. A good friend (who was also a huge Star Wars fan, I've never met a huger one) was reading it and said the volcano scene was in it. Or at least, it was referenced.

We had also heard rumors prior to the book's availability about a volcano.
posted by bryanjbusch at 8:12 AM on April 11

Oh my god, I've been wondering this same thing. Someone told me, somewhere, years before Episode I came out, all about the final battle in a volcano. I've been wondering how/where they heard it for years.
posted by InsanePenguin at 8:19 AM on April 11

Check out this discussion of Lucas's 1977 Rolling Stone interview, where he says:

"It's about Ben and Luke's father and Vader when they are young Jedi knights. But Vader kills Luke's father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being. That's why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it's a breathing mask. It's like a walking iron lung. His face is all horrible inside. I was going to shoot a close-up of Vader where you could see the inside of his face, but then we said, no, no, it would destroy the mystique of the whole thing."

A commenter in the LJ thread mentions reading about it in Dynamite as well.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:47 AM on April 11 [2 favorites]

Do you think it could have been in "Splinter in the Mind's Eye"?
posted by Kirklander at 9:09 AM on April 11

Based on further Googling, it looks like the issue of Dynamite in question is from August 1979, with the coverline "Special Science Fiction Issue! First Preview of Star Wars II!" This partial picture was the best I could find.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:10 AM on April 11

Thanks everyone! The most likely place I would've ran across would have been the 1977 Rolling Stone or the 1979 Dynamite. I don't think I was reading Dynamite in 1981.

I'm glad I'm not the only person that wondered about this. If anyone thinks of anything else let us know.
posted by marxchivist at 9:47 AM on April 11

I think the novelization of the first book mentioned the volcano in the opening. I noticed this after Episode I came out.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:01 PM on April 11

There was an unofficial script of the third episode floating around the BBS circuit back in the 80s that had the whole volcano storyline in it. I'll see if I can dig it up from my old floppy collection.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:46 PM on April 11

Aaah, here it is: The Fall of the Republic -- apparently it's a piece of SW fan-fiction dating back to 1983 (one of the first, actually) written by John L. Flynn. Due to the accuracy of several plot-lines & story characters, it is speculated that Mr. Flynn somehow obtained early drafts of the Lucas scripts to formulate the story. More background info.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:13 PM on April 11

"It's about Ben and Luke's father and Vader when they are young Jedi knights.

It's funny that Lucas in 1977 - after the first movie was enough of a success to get it on the cover of Rolling Stone - still wasn't thinking of Vader as Luke's father.

/post-solution derail
posted by mediareport at 3:40 PM on April 11

Seconding Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
posted by SPrintF at 3:56 PM on April 11

It's funny that Lucas in 1977 - after the first movie was enough of a success to get it on the cover of Rolling Stone - still wasn't thinking of Vader as Luke's father.

Or just sticking with the "party line" for now, so the Episode 5/6 surprise would be all the better?
posted by drmarcj at 7:49 PM on April 11

Also in 1977, Lucas was concerned about preserving the mystique of at least one part of his creation. I wonder when that changed?
posted by wobh at 8:40 PM on April 11

Just as a toss-aside, I remember that the Kenner action figures had info on the back about their characters ... wonder if the volcano thing was on Vader's?
posted by WCityMike at 9:18 PM on April 12

it would destroy the mystique of the whole thing.

*cough*Midi-chlorians*cough*
posted by Tenuki at 2:58 PM on April 14

I also have very vague memories of a dramatization of the 'volcano battle' in some NES-ish era videogame. I have no idea what it was, and no reason to be sure it was even an NES game, but I had the same shock as you, the "I know he fell in a volcano, but jesus, how do I know that??".
posted by frankdrebin at 8:16 AM on April 20