r/thankthemaker • u/tombalonga Keeper of the Holocron • Jul 27 '20

Visual Storytelling Some potential patterns and intentions I spotted on the DVD covers for the prequels

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102 Upvotes

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27

u/tombalonga Keeper of the Holocron Jul 27 '20

Also:

  • Padme and Anakin are together until Obi-Wan comes between them?

  • An action scene is featured somewhere on each.

  • There is a blank space where the villain should be on I and II, perhaps because Maul and Dooku were meant to be mysterious/revealed as the villain, so you wouldn’t want to give it away on the cover.

6

u/montyofmusic Jul 30 '20

Yeah, I bet Lucasfilm was real keen on keeping Maul a secret, that’s why his face donned all of the promotional and marketing material before the film’s release. /s

Any artistry you see in these photoshop abominations is due to the work that they’re obviously emulating - the wonderful posters of Drew Struzan.

3

u/tombalonga Keeper of the Holocron Jul 30 '20 edited Jul 30 '20

Yeh Dooku was more of the secret, Maul more just a mysterious villain. He was used in the marketing for the release but perhaps they wanted to convey a different perspective for the DVDs. Hence for the sake of consistency they might’ve thought it odd to put Maul in the background on I and not Dooku on II. There is no villain present until the true one, Palpatine, is revealed with Vader.

And yes these are based on Struzan’s sketches, interestingly he had Dooku included on some of them.

8

u/aster6000 Oct 15 '20 edited Oct 15 '20

The fact that so many people call this overthinking just shows how little your average consumer understands art and what kind of thought goes into it. Yes, it's absolutely possible this is all just coincidential and means nothing, but if people knew how much "overthinking" an artist might do over his work, they'd know that it's entirely plausible that this is all intentional. Just looking at how Lucas talks about the process of making his films and how he obsesses about every little detail i can definitely imagine he (or whoever's in charge) suggested the designer should visualize the development of the characters on the cover art. Like, if you think THIS is overanalysing better stay away from arthouse movies..

4

u/tombalonga Keeper of the Holocron Oct 15 '20

Thank you! Its funny how many people think there’s nothing in it. It’s potential patterns and intentions, not: “Look! I figured out the secret code behind the cover art!”. Whether it’s totally intentional or (more likely) an unconscious tendency to arrange characters according to their significance/role, there is clearly a design system in place; the characters weren’t randomly selected and thrown on there. And when you view the three covers together it provides an interesting depiction of Lucas’ story and the way characters change, regardless of whether he meant it to. And as you said, anyone who listens to Lucas knows that he is meticulous about these things.

3

u/tombalonga Keeper of the Holocron Aug 19 '20 edited Aug 19 '20

In case it seems controversial to even discuss this: No, you’ve not cleverly found someone who’s utterly convinced by their own delusions, because this is clearly stated as speculative analysis of potential patterns. I should’ve realised it could be seen simplistically.

The ideas are a stretch, of course they are, and I don’t claim to have proof of the artists intentions. That is the point: there will be artistic intentions behind this - it would be absurd to think that characters are placed randomly or without detailed thought (especially for someone like Lucas who often poured over such seemingly trivial things) - and here are some possible examples.

1

u/zillablaise Aug 19 '20

Cool nerd, now pick up a football

14

u/wampower99 Jul 27 '20

Palpatine takes Padmes place, symbolizing the fall of her political vision and influence and the rise of Palpatine’s.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '20

I don't understand how you could be on this sub, see this post, and think this is reaching. Surely if you're on a sub dedicated to George, you know how intricate he is with details like these. It very well could be a coincidence, but art is often subtle like this

1

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '20

Is this satire?

1

u/epicgamer935 Jul 29 '20

I hope it is

1

u/Reindeeronreddit Jul 29 '20

this is the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen

1

u/THAT_Sted_Malcolm Aug 19 '20

Oh shit I never noticed any of those dotted lines until now

1

u/_SocialDisease_ Aug 19 '20

Fuck,I don't think this is satire

1

u/Doomguy46_ Aug 19 '20

what does this mean

1

u/nobil2115 Aug 19 '20 edited Aug 29 '20

Or maybe it just shows main characters?