re: Watching Empire Strikes Back last night

I seriously assumed this was common knowledge years ago, that Lucas didn't have Empire written before SW, and the Luke/Leia kiss (luckily, not intentionally presented in a very ambiguous context) was evidence of this...and the title change kinda gave it away, too.

Hell, Lucas's sketchy first draft/idea for EpV was more along the lines of "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" although the author of the book worked from very vague Lucas notes and embellished the rest on his own: like a scene where Luke and Leia are laying in a bed together with some pretty strong post-coital imagery...No way Lucas lets that get published in 1978, with the twins reveal pending in Ep VI.

I think at one point Lucas flat-out lied and said it was all planned from jump, but it was a long time ago..and the truth was obvious, given the novel set post-Yavin had almost nothing to do with ESB.

Sure, George. You had something planned after the Death Star is destroyed involving Kyber crystals. It just took 40 years to even mention them in a movie.