SPOILER TFA is not a Remake of ANH its a Patchwork

I have been wanting to write about this for awhile now but I have not put it on screen yet. Further I struggled as to where to put these ideas because they touch on some other threads like if Lucas' ideas are really at play or not. This is mostly my thoughts and speculation. I still stuck Spoiler on the thread cause I wanted to be safe posting everything I think I know about things.

I think they are not attempting to remake ANH I think they are borrowing heavily from the source ideas and ideas that were edited out when they went another way. This is why they have tried to go back to old concept art for many things. Why certain roles appear to be included and so on. They are trying to really mine the ground of ideas from the beginning of the SW phenomenon. This might to some make it appear to be a rehash of ANH but they are seeking to really peal back all that has been added over the decades to SW and really focus on the kernel of ideas. Look at how Rebels has borrowed so heavily from ANH concept art. This is why they pushed the EU out partly because they ran down paths that for some people were no longer tied to the core idea, look and feel of SW.

I and others have pointed out that Han serves as the old fighter who brings the kids toward "a much larger world" similar to Obi-Wan in ANH. The reason I think this beyond the similarity in the role as we have seen but in drafts of ANH Han Solo and Obi-Wan were one character.

Lately I have been thinking about the film Willow. Willow was written by Lucas after ROTJ and was directed by Ron Howard. I always liked it. One of the things that came out in interviews and news was that while Willow was a traditional fantasy Lucas borrowed heavily from ideas he did not use for, you guessed it, SW. The films have a similar sensibility to them a farmer takes up a quest, meets a scoundrel, rescues an elderly renowned sorceress, they face off with a villainous scary black knight, storm the evil queen's fortress and save the day. If you follow all the urban legends about the many drafts of SW and so on Zek Starkiller one of the many incarnations of Luke was supposed to be a little person.

The more I reflect on the story of Willow the more I think that they are looking at the same draft of ANH as a framework for TFA of course they are adding elements and of course it might be that Lucas would have done it differently but its sort of odd that things are lining up this amazingly.

If you have never watched Willow go watch it its great 80's fantasy fare the effects ground breaking at the time have aged but they are solid.

Great now that you have seen the film you an read on.

While I don't think the TFA follows Willow beat for beat I think a number of things line up;

Willow Ufgood (clearly Lucas has a thing with obvious names) is a farmer who lives in a forest who dreams of becoming a wizard. Willow (Rey or Finn?) discovers a baby the sacred princess Elora Dannon (BB8 or Rey?) floating down river in a basket. They attempt to return the baby to humans and take the baby to the first human they find a scoundrel warrior named Mad Martigan (Han Solo or Poe). Martigan agrees to care for the baby if Willow will set him free from his crows cage where he has been left to die. The baby is stolen from Martigan by brownies Willow rushes to save the baby only to be tasked by the fairy queen of the forest (Maz) to take the baby to the Castle Tir Asleen. Additionally the fairy queen gives Willow the wand (Light Sabre) of the famous good sorceress Finn Razel (Luke Skywalker) who if they can find will help them. Willow and Martigan are reunited and forced to work together they rescue the elderly sorceress Finn Razel who was banished and turned into a marmot.

They are of course pursued by the evil queen Bavmorda's (Snoke) daughter Sorsha (Phasma) and General Kael (Kylo Ren). Mad Martigan falls in love with Sorsha who defects they escape and make it to Tir Asleen to find it in ruins. They lose the baby to General Kael and they meet up with a rag tag army fighting the evil queen (Resistance) and try to storm the Evil Queen's fortress and save the baby.

Sure there are problems like TFA has more heroes than Willow had but it seems to follow the same track that I see from TFA. Possibly coming from the same source.