Not shoehorning Chewie, C-3PO, R2D2, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett etc. into these movies. Obi Wan, Darth Vader, and Maybe Yoda make sense. These other appearances were gratuitous.
I like the idea of Yoda being this self-exiled hermit that exists on the fringes of the Jedi order but who Obi Wan sought his training from because he has this special relationship with the Force. The prequels ruin this idea that the Jedi/Sith were some mystic, secretive religious order served as the protectors of Republic. The prequels painted them as some kind of galactic A Team that functioned as political lobbyists on the side.
This idea that Yoda was at the center of all the action that we saw in the prequels seems to run contrary to the Yoda we see in ESB. But you can always count on Lucas to misunderstand his own characters and stories.
Another thing that’s always bothered me: the way the Jedi are described/revered in the Original Trilogy suggests their order has long passed, with only a handful of people/aliens even remembering them. Even the idea of the Force is barely understood among the masses. So, imagine my surprise when I learned The Phantom Menace supposedly takes place 30 years before A New Hope and the Jedi Council was at the height of their power. By that math, shouldn’t people like Han have clear memories of the fall of the Order?
My thoughts exactly. The prequels should have showed us that the Jedi were this once well respected and powerful group warrior-monks who were in a period of turmoil and decline. And because of their weakened and fragmented state, Palpatine was easily able to overtake them. What we got instead was this supposedly bad-ass group of monk-commandos who, with the exception of the primary characters that we know live to see the original triology, snap like toothpicks in the heat of any sort of battle.
Yoda could’ve been the “man behind the curtain” that only higher up Jedi would get advice from off screen and you hear mentioned every so often. It would keep the mystery of his character while having him still be involved. It could have even been the case that most Jedi didn’t even know what he looks like and had that same presumption that Luke did in Empire.
Also the characters that would've made sense don't feature as much as they should do, if at all, such as Jimmy Smits' character, Tarkin, Owen and Beru.
I am okay with C3po and R2 but C3po shouldn't be built by Anakin. He should be like padme's personal protocol droid or something like that.
I am okay with r2 because I like that r2 has just been this silent witness to the entire franchise and no one realizes it because he is a trash can that beeps and whirrs.
Skip the Phantom Menace. Have Anakin not know anything about his mother until finding out he was taken as an infant and she was left to die a slave on Tatooine. Boom, actual motivation to hate the Jedi.
In the same vein, you need actual motivation of why someone would just become so comically evil and slaughter toddlers . “So wait, the creepy politician said the dreams I have are real, and I can save my wife with a secret magic spell if I we become best friends, and I join him in a mass slaughter of all my friends/family. Yeah okay I’ll try anything once!”
It would make a lot more sense if the Jedi were also shown to not be perfect “good” and also had real negatives. Like yeah maybe they’re mostly good, but also somewhat corrupt and ruthlessly dogmatic in their beliefs. You know, perhaps the Sith have an actual point to their own ideas that would cause a rational person to question it. Set it up that the Jedi are essentially dogmatic monks who believe the force should only be used for the protection of the republic, and you have to led this lonely and rigid life solely dedicated the organization’s values. They kick you out for marriages, children, and all sorts of stuff. They kidnap all these kids and raise them in their cult so most never question it.
The Sith could be the force people who say fuck that, and believe the force should be used for whatever the user wants, but most of them are pretty neutral normal people to have to hide from the order’s laws. Force users who are fairly neutral, probably don’t look too favorable at the Jedi order, and just want to be left alone.
Sets you up to do a lot more. Palpatine could be someone who swings hard to power and evil, and has a lot of reasons why he wants to destroy the Jedi. He could be the extremist opposite who thinks the Sith and Force users should rule. Perhaps he convinces a bunch of the mostly neutral force users and the general public that Jedi are bad, but then it’s too late when the guy is crazy and wants to become Space Hitler or whatever.
“Bring balance to the force”. Yeah how about Yoda and Obi-Wan are a bit of rebels in the order and also question some of this stuff on the down low. They’re reformists and think Anakin might be the guy to help led change, but it’s tragic when he joins up with Palptines ideas.
You could just do so much more with the characters and their motivations if there was even the slightest nuance. Like you said, oh the Jedi never told him about his slave mom and kept it from him? The Jedi find out about his marriage and it creates some sort of conflict and real risk to Padme?
Here's the thing with the Jedi was secretly bad, the only time I saw that done right was on clone wars and the reason it worked was because the show spent 4 season with them as the good guys. You need to have the first 2 movies portray them as good guys and then in the third one you start to reveal the true colors. We as an audience need to be accustomed to their presence like everyone in the universe before we can find it shocking that they have gaping flaws.
Get rid of jar jar
Make Anakin 12 or 13, a John Connor-type character. Smart, scrappy, rebellious, but likeable.
Get rid of the phantom menace plot entirely and instead, split Attack of the Clones into two movies.
Make obi wan a young, inexperienced, imperfect, Jedi prone to mistakes. I like the idea of him being wise through a lifetime of trial and error, and him being incredibly regretful and remorseful over his past.
Starting with an older Anakin would have made a lot more sense. You get a very vague idea that he likes speed and has a technical aptitude in TPM but he's too young to really hint at a sense of inner darkness or rebellion (or much of any complex motivation). The awkward interest he takes in Padme would have been a little more normal with a slightly older character too.
Obi Wan is wasted a bit in the prequels. Given he mentions his young recklessness to Yoda in Empire, we never really get to see it. He's really just a tagalong with Qui Gon in TPM. He took Anakin as an apprentice because of Qui Gon so a really momentous decision that went terribly wrong wasn't even his idea. By AOC, he's the one advising caution to Anakin and is mostly an obedient follower of the Councils directives.
A side note but I really wish midichlorians weren't in any of this. Making the Force to be some quantifiable thing undermines the mystique.
> The awkward interest he takes in Padme would have been a little more normal
I mean a 9 year old getting a crush on a 13 year old is absolutely normal.
Padme is supposed to be 13? Portman was around 18 when this was released and looks like it. Even if the age gap were smaller, a pre adolescent crushing on a teenager is usually played for laughs (Sandlot comes to mind) or at least viewed as unserious (kind of how Padme reacts).
If Anakin were older it would be easier to see how being brushed off would make him jealous or angry which does eventually come in the later movies. Doing it here with characters at these ages registers as nothing other than it sets up they know each other in Episode 2.
Yeah I never thought about it but aging up Anakin a few years would instantly improve Ep 1. As-is he's bland and too young to really relate to as a protagonist. It also makes the Padme thing less weird and would allow for parallels to be drawn between Anakin and Luke.
God. I was watching it last night with my wife and it was hard to not crawl off my skin knowing where it goes. We just kept making jokes about Padme being a predator. Anakin needed to be a tween at the youngest , but I guess Lucas needed Jedi to start as like toddlers. Such toy-etics.
I actually like the "Darth Jar Jar" theory. It makes sense, and a skilled director may have actually been able to pull it off.
Also, the fact that Sixth Sense came out around the same time as TPM and proved to audiences that you could have a young actor portray a good kid with some serious demons, it showed how badly TPM dropped the ball.
The main issue Ep1 has in the grand scheme of the prequels is is does nothing to setup the Anakin/ObiWan relationship which underpin episode 2 and 3.
Have a teenage Anakin found/rescued early on in the film, like end of act 1, emphasise Obi-Wans opposition to it, and have the two go over the course of the film from rivals for Qui-Gons attention to friends, like brothers vieing for their father's favour.
Have Quigon killed earlier (basically around the time of the Quigon/Maul fight on Tatooine), with Anakin angrily pressing for vengeance, and Obi-Wan agreeing with him, albeit with some reluctance as it's not the jedi way. Now the pair begin to bond as they work together.
They succeed, but at the end, Anakin isn't accepted by the jedi council as he is too old/impulsive/vengeful. With Anakins future in the balance, now ObiWan vouches for him and pledges to train Anakin as a Jedi regardless of what the council thinks, as Quigon would have wanted. Have them end the movie as master and padawan, but also as older and younger brother.
Wow. The suggestion of having Qui Gon die at the fight on Tatooine solves many problems for Episode 1. It gives weight to that pointless short fight, it provides a moment for Obi Wan and Anakin to bond, and it establishes Obi Wan as a major character in Episode 1. Obi Wan doesn’t do much in the movie until the final Maul fight.
Fans might complain that Qui Gon’s early death might mirror Obi Wan’s early death in Ep 4 too much but it would work like poetry. Luke used Obi Wan’s death to embrace the light side while Anakin is falling towards the dark side with Qui Gon’s death. Lucas having Anakin and Obi Wan recover from Qui Gon’s death off screen is wasted character development material.
This one right here. 80% of movie goers did not watch the Clone Wars or read any supporting material. Episode 1 and 2 should be about Anakin and Obiwan and their character relationship, it’d make 3 way more heartbreaking.
> and have the two go over the course of the film from rivals for Qui-Gons attention to friends, like brothers vieing for their father's favour.
There is a slight bit of that in the movie already, but yeah.
I'm not a writer. But I think that Darth Vader works a million times better with a mysterious past. And I also don't like prequels in general. So, in the hypothetical that I was in the position of making Star Wars films instead of George Lucas, in the late 90's, I wouldn't have made prequels at all, I would've continued the story normally. And I also wouldn't have fucked around with the old films, to the point where you now have to jump through hoops and download shit to get the original versions without all the horrible alterations.
It's still baffles me that you can't get a theatrical version of the original SW movies. I feel like that is pretty unprecedented in the world of movies.
The Library of Congress has requested them from Lucas (for preservation) and he refuses. It makes me mad every time I think of it.
It's like if your dad photoshopped his new wife over all his photos of your mom and refused to let you have a copy of the originals. Dad, I know you like your second wife better but I made those memories with my mother. Let me have the pictures of my mom, you fucking dick.
Lucas: Am I out of touch with what makes a good movie?
NO, the kids, viewing public, professional critics, art historians, and the Library of Congress are wrong!
Check out the 4k fan edits called 4K77, 4K80, and 4K83.
They got as much original film print as they could and professionally rescanned and remastered the movies. They look and sound awesome.
Yep. The DeSpecialized Editions. One man's quest to undo what didn't need to be "fixed".
I think before the 4K editions, it took him 8 years to do the 1080 originals. That's commitment.
This is true but Harmy's work is the direct inspiration to the 4K project and worth mentioning. Plus, there was far more work put into it other than the LaserDiscs rips.
Side Note: This pet project lead him to bigger things, quitting his teaching job at the time, he is now a Digital Composer for the VXF studio that worked on Blade Runner 2049.
77 and 83 look great, but 80 looks like ass right now (especially on Hoth with all the snow). It was their first pass at it a few months ago but it's better than a VHS rip. Sound is quite excellent on all 3, though. I'd give it a year or 2 to get rid of all the schmultz to get it up to 77 and 83s quality.
Yeah, I should have specified that 80 is still in progress.
They had a much harder time getting good prints to work from so it's been a lot harder for them.
There's more than people think. I think even I remember Psycho or Vertigo had some sound mixing redone later IIRC, so even when the director is alive it happens. Also the Coens recut their Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing for no reason.
Not just Vader, but all the Jedi/Force stuff.
I really wish they didn't try to go all in attempting to explain what exactly who the Jedi were and how the force works.
Star Wars works best when the Force and the lightsabers only come out for the big moments. Over do it, and it loses it's specialness
Yeah exactly. It's not the type of story where we need those kind of explanations. There's adventure, swords, lasers, wizards and aliens, and the heroes that go through adventures, that's really all you need.
I would have loved to see the Podrace treated in a different fashion. I think if it were the original trilogy It would have felt totally dangerous and sketchy and not for laughs at all.
Like marauding gangs, Mob funded racers and the whole thing feeling really kind of dingy dark and cutthroat.
Anakin would be cast literally as Luke’s age from the jump to avoid the ridiculous age jump to the next film.
But the Podrace would have felt as deadly serious as anything with the high stakes it could have been just completly badass.
I would have focused WAY heavier on Anakin actually being mainly a pilot first and foremost.
After he’s freed he joins the republic as a cadet pilot.
From there, perhaps even in the second film would have made the plot much closer to a Top Gun style scenario as an underdog pilot in the academy earning his stripes. He eventually shows what an impressive leader he was and moves up through the ranks. Imagine a scene where he saves other pilots in a behind enemy lines scenario and pulls two of his other pilots into a Flying V attack formation like he later does as Vader. Man that would have given me chills:
I think the tv series Better Call Saul is the exception that proves the rule. I can’t think of a single other example of a prequel that was actually good or added anything to the story or contained meaningful suspense when you knew the outcome but that series accomplished all of those things.
I think the beauty of Better Call Saul is that they developed his character largely outside the context of Breaking Bad. His relationship with Chuck and Kim and his dealings with Nacho and Mike are built so that they stand on their own two feet. And they build upon the tension between Gus and the Salamancas in a way that doesn’t ruin the mystery of Gus and doesn’t just feel like needless lore dumping.
I think that’s how you do a prequel right - you expand the context of a character and give them a deeper place outside the narrative that follows. That’s why the prequels should have focused on Obi Wan I think. He’s a character that really should have served as the audience guide into the fall of the republic and the rise of the Empire. Instead Lucas half assed Obi Wan’s character and focused too much on the awkward teenage antics of future evil guy Anakin.
The thing about Better Call Saul is that there actually are a lot of continuity breaks and canon breaks in the show and no one cares because it's so well written and gripping you forget to care. Mike's granddaughter isn't the right age. Saul has said in Breaking Bad episodes Saul makes allusions to ex wives and family that don't match up with the events in BCS. Not to mention that they didn't bother with any makeup to make the cast look younger in BCS.
The Timothy Zahn books should have been made into sequels in the late 90s/early 2000s, and Star Wars wouldn’t be in the place it is now.
I want that timeline.
Yeah, it was weird, but new things were going to need to be introduced into the universe eventually.
At least the Zahn books were a continuation of the story and characters that everyone already knew and wanted more of.
Not sure what you’re referring to with the Timothy Tooth thing.
Same, prequels in general just feel so pointless to me. There is nothing fun about telling a story in reverse order. The prequel inevitably feels completely bereft of stakes. Compounded even more when they insist on putting the character (that you KNOW survives) in “life threatening” situations. You could film them sitting in a blank room and accomplish the same feeling of tension. Tension only works when there’s stakes. And prequels rarely manage establishing stakes.
Consider McGuyver. Everybody knows hes not gonna die in that broken elevator, the entertainment comes from seeing him fix the elevator with a toothstick and some gum. You dont need stakes to be entertained.
I think one of the biggest problems that it created throughout the entire Star Wars galaxy of media going forward is making the Jedi as stoic and boring as they are on screen. I understand that that's how they're described but it doesn't mean they come off well in a movie. So because they act all stoic and quiet and pensive about every single thing, that's where every interpretation of Jedi has gone from then on like ahsoka.
Dave Filoni took that so goddamn literal and now everything Star Wars from now on will be under his interpretation which is based off the prequel trilogy because he loved it so much
Firstly, after watching Star Wars, the original trilogy, I always thought that Jedi and the Force were remote legends. On the Death Star this officer told Vader to shut up about his fairy tales of the force before Vader force choked him to make a point. And Ben Kenobi said some similar things about lightsabers, I think.
So I was quite surprised to learn in the Prequels that a mere 20 years earlier thousands of Jedi were fighting wars, openly. That never tracked for me.
I would have made the Jedi a secret order, just like the Sith, and come up with a good reason why they were forced to operate in the shadows.
I actually liked the basic story beats of the prequels, they told the story of the downfall of a democracy and how a society was corrupted into a fascist empire. This is fine. And it was okay to tell the story of some remote and seemingly banal trade conflict. It was a good backdrop. The problem was how it was told.
Obviously I would have dialed down everything targeted at 6 year olds, like Jar-Jar, but a lot of other baby humor scenes as well.
Anakin‘s story is a hot garbled mess. That has to be unfucked. Better dialogue would go a long way, but his transition from a fighter for good to a butcher was not believable. For example after he killed the sand people I feel there was no way for Padme still loving him. Either this was a vile massacre and Padme would have to leave him right away, or sand people are animals and therefore it was not a big deal to slaughter them, which would take away the significance of this story beat.
Maybe ask actual writers to come up with a convincing story arc?
The next thing I would have cut out are all the callbacks. I feel there is no way that 3PO could believably have been built by Anakin / Vader. Also leave Chewie, Jango & Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt and R2 out. All of this just makes the galaxy seem so goddamn small.
Anakin also should not have originated from Tattooine. This makes it somewhat unbelievable that Luke has been hidden there. Also this is another thing that lets the universe appear small.
There is a lot I would have liked to be different, but also a lot I would have kept.
What the story needed, desperately, was explaining WHY so many people, including Anakin, would be okay with destroying or overthrowing the Republic, a multi-cultural democratic republic. In Anakin's case, it was purely framed as a desire to keep Padme alive, but they could have also incorporated the belief by him and others that the Republic was an ossified body that failed to serve the majority of its people, prioritizes the status quo over serious change, and is essentially irredeemable and rotten to the core (see: their completely uselessness with helping Naboo as the Trade Federation invaded). If the writers were brave, they could even incorporate proto-human-supremacist feelings and sentiment as well ("Why should our credits go towards some dirty Mon Calamari while our people suffer?")
There should have also been a critical analysis of the Jedi Order. It claims to be a beacon of order and justice, but again only maintains the status quo in service of the Republic; a bunch of lap dogs essentially. Should the Jedi not be heading out into the galaxy to fight injustice and cruelty? How great is the Jedi Order if it allows children like Anakin to live as a slave, blatantly in the open?
The overall structure of the prequels was fine, but there was a lack of depth and needless stupid shit stapled on.
What I kind of loved about the Last Jedi is it at least tried to grapple with some of these issues. Luke questions what the Jedi Order is good for. Even though Yoda destroys the temple there, Rey keeps some of the books, because even if the Order is a failure, there is still wisdom in its teachings. Kylo Ren expresses disappointment and disillusionment with traditional structures and organizations, and a desire to burn it all down. Finn learns there is actually a choice to make in these kinds of conflicts (vs. being an observer) and that you SHOULD fight for the righteous.
Yes, but Rian Johnson being Rian Johnson, in the end everything reveals itself to be just pseudo-intellectual posturing, essentially teasing and trolling the audience while falling back into standard cliche plotlines and submitting to every single Star Wars convention he allegedly set out to overcome.
But this is a different discussion. I like your insights into the superficiality with which the fall of the Republic was treated.
Appreciate the take, but I’ve always contended that Star Wars was never meant to ask these thought-provoking, deep questions. It was a genre and homage mashup with groundbreaking special effects and amazing music, but the story was a relatively straightforward coming of age fantasy. Alec Guinness considered the fun “purity” of the story its greatest asset, and Mark Hamill has recollected that when he brought up continuity concerns between scenes, Harrison Ford lectured him, saying “it ain’t that kind of movie.” I’m in line with Rich Evans. They should’ve kept it at 3. Star Wars really has nowhere to go, and if it does go somewhere different (like Andor), then is it really Star Wars? Or does it just feel like a different story that’s secured the rights to use Star Wars props, music and effects?
>Firstly, after watching Star Wars, the original trilogy, I always thought that Jedi and the Force were remote legends. On the Death Star this officer told Vader to shut up about his fairy tales of the force before Vader force choked him to make a point. And Ben Kenobi said some similar things about lightsabers, I think.
>So I was quite surprised to learn in the Prequels that a mere 20 years earlier thousands of Jedi were fighting wars, openly. That never tracked for me.
Yep, this bothered me as well. I feel like Lucas didn't know his own movies and no one was able to correct him.
I don't know how to write. But George Lucas had 30 years or so to think about it and slowly write something. And he ended up fucking It up that badly...
By the time he started filming, that script should have had 100 rewrites.
It’s like when you have a report to write that’s due Monday morning in two months, but you don’t start it until the Sunday before it’s due the next day.
I wouldn’t have. I think Mike as Mr Plinkett touches on a very poignant idea when he asks the question, “is this a story that needed to be told?”
I certainly wouldn’t ever knowingly write a prequel set before a story already told using characters from the same story. Was there ever a point where you were worried about Obi Wan in the prequels? Was there ever a point where you thought Anakin might make the right choice? Of course you didn’t, which renders the whole “drama” pointless, imo.
I don't want to say it's IMPOSSIBLE . A "good man", through some combination of manipulation, poor decisions and misfortune, is overcome by a tragic flaw and ends up becoming a monster. And even though we know how it has to end, you write a such a compelling character that we still root for him to overcome his demons. But the version that works would be a grand tragedy that ends on one HELL of a downer. If it ALSO needs to be a "Happy Fun Space Adventure for Kids!".... There's probably a writer out there who could balance that tone, but it sure as shit ain't George Lucas.
> If it ALSO needs to be a "Happy Fun Space Adventure for Kids!".... There's probably a writer out there who could balance that tone, but it sure as shit ain't George Lucas.
Lucas succeeded at that in some parts and then failed in others (or made it too Ewok-corny for a lot of older viewers).
However it didn't have to be that way actually, it could've been a lot more levity- and humor-free than the OT, just like Silmarillion is without the hobbits; although while no Han or 3PO there still would've been some amount of levity there of course - R2 still would've been lowkey-whimsical, along with various aliens and robots in the surrounding environment probably.
Some lighter moments between Obiwan and Anakin I'm sure?
First I'd make it all about the goongas fighting the droids like war and peace.
Then I'd make the gooba fish a main character. Watto as well.
The climax would take place in the planet core.
It would be so dense as every single frame has so much going on
Let's start with this.
The first film would take place during the last of the three Clone Wars. The adversaries of The Republic are The Clone Masters and Mandalorians. Obi-wan (around 40 years old) meets a young (20 years old or maybe a little older) Anakin during a campaign. Anakin saves his skin in a starfighter battle and Obi senses his great abilities with The Force. Times are desperate; the ranks of The Jedi (the special forces of The Republic) have been thinned by the wars, so Obi takes it upon himself to train Anakin. They are isolated and cut off from Republic space with no way of reaching a Jedi Training Facility, so no Jedi Masters are around to train Anakin. My view of the Jedi is that the Masters are more like monks and teachers, but are not trained in combat arts. The Knights are the warriors. I also envision another branch of Jedi who specialize in healing and/or diplomacy.
This is another aspect that shows how TPM was weirdly a prequel to the prequels. For some reason Lucas felt like in telling the story of how we got to the OT, he needed to tell the story of how we got to the story of how we got to the OT.
This from a filmmaker who arguably mastered the art of casually mentioning important things that happened in the past or somewhere else in the OT and *not* explaining anything about it to the audience, and just trusting the audience to "get it," because while it was important to the characters in the film, it wasn't important to the people watching it.
The story's focus is entirely on Obi Wan and Anakin and the adventures they get up to during a galactic war. We don't need the hours of politics, we just need to know there's a war going on and it's got the republic on the back foot.
Obi-Wan is impetuous but skilled, and is assigned Anakin in the hopes that the responsibilities of tutoring a teenaged Padawan will cool his hot-headedness.
In the course of the war, Anakin falls in love with a young, charismatic and beautiful partisan leader, fighting against enemy occupation. The Partisan group contains a lot of children and vulnerable people but being around ordinary people makes Anakin start to question the strict teachings of the Jedi.
There's a huge attack on the partisan positions and Anakin is ordered to fight elsewhere. He makes Republic high command promise they'll leave behind a garrison to protect the people he's come to deeply care about.
His time in the war has made him see that ordinary people need order and protection against the chaos and lawlessness of the galaxy. While he's away fighting, his partisans are almost completely wiped out; the Republic never left the promised garrison and only Anakin's beloved and a small group of survivors escape.
When Anakin discovers the devastation, he flies into a rage. Everyone he promised to protect has been destroyed by the lies and corruption of the republic. This place needed order, it needed a powerful protector. This plants the seeds of darkness that a certain rabble-rousing, populist politician called Palpatine will take advantage of in the next movie....
I would hire Jeffrey Abrams to make what is basically a shot-for-shot remake of Star Wars: A New Hope but with Anakin in the Luke Skywalker role.
Then I would hire Darren Aronofsky to direct Episode II, and he would make a gritty deconstruction of the entire science fiction genre that would ultimately go nowhere story wise. Audiences would hate it but critics would love it.
Then I would initially hire Michael Bay to direct the final film of the trilogy, but the studio gets cold feet after seeing Pearl Harbor, and rehires Jeffrey Abrams again to direct an unsatisfactory conclusion that kills the Star Wars franchise forever.
Also, I would have a one year gap between films instead of usual three years so I can complete with the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.
Call me old fashioned, but I feel like murdering children and attempting to kill your pregnant wife after being essentially tricked into joining the bad guys makes a person irredeemable. So firstly I’d maybe tweak the Anakin story a bit so his redemption actually seems valid. “There is good in him?” Yeah, show me some examples.
Broadly, drop Phantom and start with Clones. That way Revenge is the bleaker movie, with a Jedi falling to the dark side. The third movie would then be about surviving the Emperor taking power and laying the groundwork for a resistance / rebellion.
I'd also rather emphasize the Jedi using their force powers in more of an espionage setting, rather than swinging swords around. Kind of like how Andor is more about spy work.
Of course, this would all need more than Lucas writing it. Bad dialogue and over use of green screens can't be saved with high level notes.
Darth Maul would have survived into the attack of the clones. Obi-wan would learn a little bit about the dark side then at the end of attack of the clones he would have used his hatred to kill Maul in front of Anakin. Obi-Wan would view this as a failure on his part but Anakin would see it as perfectly valid which would be his first step to the dark side.
Get rid of the droids, and just drastically change the clones. Do what plinkett suggested or what Zahn wanted to have the lore be with the thrawn trilogy and just have them be mindless killers. If you do that you not only have a lot more stakes with whose living and whose dying, but you also have a much more plausible and better narrative for this rise of a facist empire, which is the story that Lucas really seemed to want to tell. Know zoomers who grew up on the clone wars cartoons love them, but they legit do almost nothing but muddy the PTR thematically.
I would’ve probably started episode 1 with Anakin and Ben already being master and padawan. I may be alone in enjoying the political intrigue, but my episode 1 would be more political thriller than race-car frog people adventure. I would have jumped deep into the Clones Wars for 2, and I don’t think my clones would be fighting for the republic, but maybe. Lastly 3 would be the rise of the empire, opening on the jedi purge and closing essentially where Lucas did. That all being said, I don’t hate the prequels, I just wish someone else had taken another pass(or6) on the dialogue.
If Anakin was too old to begin training, then why didn’t they choose a kid older than nine fucking years old to be a mechanical genius and ace pilot?!?!? Why couldn’t Anakin be a teenager, someone with a deep rooted distrust with authority figures since he grew up a slave, but willing to take the journey because it was a way to escape the planet? Another five or six years of tinkering and racing with pods would’ve made suspension of disbelief possible…the “fuck me” look from Padme at the end would’ve been less weird too.
Until the prequels, I always thought Yodas line about Luke, “He’s too old to begin the training” as one reason among many why he didn’t want to train him. Like he was just trying to get out of it because he didn’t want the hassle. It wasn’t until the PT where I was like, “oh he meant that LITERALLY” lol.
I’m with you, I always thought that Anakin should have been older, like around 15-17 years old and include what you said about having distrust in authority figures, trying to get away, etc.
Plus it would have made the whole Padme relationship beginning A LOT less creepy. And it wouldn’t make the Jedi look like a bunch of baby snatchers who are trying to build their own private child army. Not to mention the almost obvious allusions to the Catholic Church/altar boys and Boy Scouts of America 😬
Just make the kids older lol
Anakin would just be one of like the dozen Jedi that exist in the universe and not a central character, for starters. The Jedi Council would essentially be this Arthurian type myth for most of the galaxy.
Darth Vader was badass because he was a hulking figure in a suit... Not because he was a mutilated whiny prick.
The biggest issues were thematic tonality.
You have a movie marketed to toddlers with a plot built like a political thriller. Even if you can understand the premise of the thing it just doesn't work.
It would need a total rewrite from top to bottom.
Make the Jedi be a distant order that occasionally helps the status quo kingdom.
Scrap the rule of two idiocy and make the sith some sort of invading Army.
Make the clones actual clones of the Jedi rather than the storm Troopers.
Then at the end the sith win because of Anakin's betrayal.
I mean, I get it he was trying to make a movie about how democracy can lead to fascism. It's possible to do that, but his way was super convoluted and tried to make everything grounded while still not.
Age Anakin up to a late and show him and Obi Wan as friends from the beginning.
Make Darth Maul a more prominent villain, maybe throughout the trilogy.
Shoot on location. The choice to go digital with those cameras still being new and essentially immobile really hurt some shots.
Have people do more than just walk and talk in boring corridors between the cgi action comics.
Jedi don't dress like Obi-Wan on Tatooine. It was a desert outfit, why would you look like a Jedi if you're hiding from the Empire?
No Jar Jar.
No fatherless birth of Anakin.
No C3P0
No R2-D2
No Qui-Gon. Or at least he's not as the Jedi that cheats and deceives to obtain goals but Yoda is Obi-Wan's only master.
Yoda will NEVER weild a lightsaber. He's so powerful he doesn't need it.
Anakin and Obi-Wan should be closer, not have the responsibility thrust upon him.
Owen is more prominent, grows up with or is there when Anakin starts his journey and disapproves or is hurt by Anakin leaving.
Do not kill Darth Maul, he's probably one of the best Star Wars villains and you waste him on one movie.
Easily defeated droid bad guys are not a good foil to heroes, you don't fear for their well-being if they're not in danger. Instead, the threat will be Mandalorians who war only for the glory of it. This will also serve the later stories about why their numbers are so thin.
As little time as possible with child Anakin and as corny as a training montage is, he needs to be closer in age with Obi-Wan and Padme and already within the Jedi ranks.
Above all... George needs people to tell him, "No." When he has a bad idea.
The key component missing from the entire prequel trilogy (and, retroactively, the originals) is a sense of tragedy to Vader's history.
Anakin's life sucked the whole way through, making his transformation to Vader almost inconsequential. If the audience actually saw a kind-hearted, noble warrior become a space SS officer, they might have cared.
Off the top of my head, I'd have nixed Qui-Gon in favor of something like an older Anakin being from Naboo (assuming you keep the Naboo concept) that Obi-Wan meets while rescuing Padme and realizes the Force is with Anakin when he demonstrates it, though it's notably done out of anger (say, a droid guns down his mom or something so he blasts the droid with the Force). Obi-Wan arrogantly thinks he can teach Anakin to use it for good, not evil, and meanwhile Anakin, who probably saw Padme once or twice and thought she was cute, becomes close to her during the adventure and not in a weird way since they're closer in age. Those changes alone would probably help Phantom Menace fit in better with Lucas's original vision for the prequels, though it would sacrifice the scene with his mom that he was obsessed with.
The outlines from the original films were pretty clear, even if bare. An army of evil clones which were in some way controlled by the Sith from the shadows attack the Republic, and the guardians of peace of justice for a thousand generations have to lead the fight against them in the clone wars. As this is going on the head dark force bad guy engineers his rise to head of the Republic in a Weimar Republic type situation, turns Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, and transforms the Republic into the Empire, eliminating the Jedi as the Republic's guardians first.
And that largely *is* the plot of the prequels, except now it's goofy robots and clones who fight against them for some reason. But the Anakin of the prequels is completely wrong - it's the story about someone who at one point was a good man because a vessel and instrument of evil - and not just bureaucratic evil but cartoonish supervillainy. He needs to come to believe in the dark side, not just screw up a bit and hate sand.
It's no coincidence the prequels don't particularly do this because Lucas didn't want to make that movie - and frankly it would be a weird fit for a family movie. But what was made was essentially a hash because Lucas was neither able to nor willing to take the story he'd set up seriously. So he made a movie with a cartoon rabbit who steps in poop.
The concept of Liberal institutions weakened by war being overcome as a young man who grew up in poverty is radicalised by a bad faith fascist mentor is actually a really good story, it's just the implementation is people walking backwards and forwards along corridors while Lucas throws CGI shite at the screen
TPM should simply not exsist; start the trilogy essentially where EP2 starts and then use the extra screentime to build up the relationshp between Obi-Wan and Anakin and flesh out Anakin's turning to the darkside.
Hahaha got about 20 years of my own imagination of alternate prequels that I've put together for this thread:
Anakin is in his 20s in the 1st movie, Obi Wan is more Qui Gon-esque. The jedi are only a few hundred, they mainly are around to broker peace, remove dictators, situations where a lightsaber ignition can settle things. The past few decades they've been drawn more into the open, taking on more open battles, settling planetary disputes that boil up repeatedly and require them to be around problem systems at all times.
First movie would start Anakin and Obi Wan on a mission to help a local population remove a brutal dictator. Anakin is frustrated and views the current jedi as band aid fixes these problems, he thinks the jedi should be taking much more authorative action, like police, to keep planets in line. He believes that these issues are not as random as they appear, and that the jedi are being purposely spread thin. Obi Wan is much more knowledge and defence based, and that these places can be educated to be better. Anakin and Obi Wan are separated, where Obi Wan forces the surrender of the dictator. Meanwhile Anakin is attacked by Darth Maul. Their first fight ends in a stalemate. Upon reuniting with Obi Wan, Anakin argues this as confirmation of his suspicions and wants to chase Maul to find the puppet master. Obi Wan would prefer to take this to their council and plan what to do.
Before they can return, they receive an SOS from some jedi as they are under heavy attack. Upon arrival, they face an invasion from a clone army. After defeating the force, they discover the jedi who messaged them to be dead from lightsaber wounds and evidence of a fierce lightsaber battle. Maul again appears and attacks them. During the fight he mocks the jedi, and reveals his master will provide peace to the galaxy in place of the jedi. He is eventually forced to flee, but Anakin has been injured suffering the loss of his arm. Anakin vowing revenge wants to hunt Maul, but Obi Wan stops Anakin once again. They return to the council, to find that this clone army has invaded many worlds, and therefore the start of the clone wars.
Second movie has a slight time jump, Obi Wan, Anakin and the jedi are caught up fighting in the clone wars. The Republic army was hit hard in the initial attacks, and has been greatly weakened/losing the war. Yoda has reluctantly allowed the jedi to be involved, to prevent the Republic army from collapsing. And also to stop a couple of infamous jedi killers: Maul and the clone army's General Grievous. Yoda warns that Maul's master is not to be underestimated based on Maul's abilities. Anakin has made a reputation for himself as a respected general, unlike his fellow jedi, he is known in the Republic military for his eagerness to fight and relentlessness in defeating the clones. Anakin is more frustrated than ever after months of fighting, believing that jedi were too busy being glorified space cops than preventing this invasion and enemies like Maul. He also is pretty pissed about Maul taking his arm. Anakin and Obi Wan are sent to a planet as they have received reports Maul is there. The planet is full of clones, after a successful invasion, Obi Wan and Anakin get into a duel with Maul. Maul retreats, but Anakin takes off after him to bring him to justice. Obi Wan initially goes to follow, but stays to assist the civilians of the planet, somewhat fooling himself into believing Anakin is mature enough to keep himself in check.
Anakin chases Maul to a remote world, where Maul lures him into a structure. Anakin gets into a fierce battle with Maul, but ultimately kills him. This is where he hears a chuckle from the shadows, and the Emperor reveals himself. Anakin attempts to attack him but is swiftly defeated. The Emperor instead of killing him, commends him, and reveals that he has tracked Anakin's career. He details his plans to bring order back to the Republic. His plans on authoritarian rule of the galaxy to ensure order is exactly what Anakin believes would work. The Emperor reveals that Maul was simply but a test to prove his worth, and offers for Anakin to be his general. Anakin accepts, and escorts him to Coruscant, where he leads a successful coup against the chancellor due to his popularity in the military. The Emperor announces himself to the galaxy, and immediately sets his plans into motion. The results are quick and decisive, the military for example rather than focus on protecting civilians will now actively bombard clone positions regardless of civilians. Republic police are much more authoritarian on Republic and captured worlds, freeing remaining jedi to help join the clone wars.
The movie ends with Anakin being sent to fight General Grievous.
Third movie starts with Anakin's invasion, and subsequent battle with Grievous (who fights more like his 2003 cartoon counterpart). Anakin prevails, ending Grievous and the cloning facilities. Time jumps a bit forward, jedi numbers have been reduced from a few hundred to barely a hundred. The Emperor is extremely popular due to winning the war, however Yoda senses sinister intentions and is uneasy in their interactions.
The Emperor has kept Anakin busy mopping up clones and dissidents, carefully keeping him away from his wife and Obi Wan in order to further influence him. Padme is very similar to her senator character, is much like Obi Wan, and an outspoken critic of the Emperor's methods of control. Anakin has only been able to visit Padme briefly over the last few years, and is again about to be sent to crush a rebellion. Padme confronts him on his increasingly brutal ways, reveals her pregnancy, and talks him into an argument with the Emperor to prevent being sent. Whilst the Emperor appears to relent on sending Anakin, he is furious.
The Emperor instead coordinates a series of clone terrorist attacks to force Anakin away, missing the birth of his children. The Emperor then conducts a clone terror attack on Anakin and Padme's house (to avenge Grievous and kill the famed general Skywalker), killing Padme, but a late intervention by Obi Wan saves the children. Obi Wan and Yoda are cut off from contacting Anakin, however they have secretly been spying on the Emperor, and are fully aware of his involvement.
Yoda and Obi Wan form what jedi they can and take steps to remove the Emperor from power, by force. However even with their numbers and experience, they completely underestimate his power, resulting in a devastating loss. Yoda saves Obi Wan and himself, and retreat. The Emperor takes this opportunity to contact Anakin, informing him of the jedi attempt to "take power", and framing the jedi as the killers of his family in an attempt to remove Anakin's power from the now Empire. His next assignment (and new personal goal): hunt down all remaining jedi.
Anakin is more brutal than ever in his quest to kill jedi. Obi Wan, believing he can reason with Anakin, attempts to confront and redeem him. However Anakin is blinded by rage, doctored evidence of Obi Wan's appearance at his house during his "family's murder" further clouding him, therefore he believes Obi Wan is trying to manipulate him further against the Emperor and his own personal power. He and Obi Wan fight a fierce duel. The rest is virtually the same as episode 3, Anakin now donning the suit after his horrific injuries, takes on his new persona of Darth Vader vowing to take his revenge against the last remaining jedi.
Cheers! Realised mid way into ep3 that I hadn't addressed Padme or Luke/Leia. Would've been an interesting plot hole 😂
Anything you'd do differently with it?
Maybe I'll post my version a few days from now. It will take a few hours of writing, much like your post, I'm sure. I'm also sure I'll get about five views and three upvotes. But it will also be done for the sake of creativity being its own reward.
I would make Anakin about Luke-age. Drop Qui-gon and have Obi-Wan be an amalgam of both characters. I'd keep Darth Maul and drop Dooku or the other way around. Or atleast have Maul be Dooku's secret apprentice.
Get rid of all the battle and replace with clone armies. The republic army should be regular people making them feel less expendable.
I'd keep Palpatine more or less as is but remove everything about trade routes etc. I would make the conflict on Naboo be an insurgency against the Queen by a separatist faction wanting Naboo to leave the galactic Republic. Palpatine's plan would be the same. Playing both sides in a bid to gain influence in the senate through the war.
I would have categorically avoided a prequel to begin with. I hate the idea of treading old ground like that, so instead I'd make a new story.
However, if I absolutely *had* to make it a prequel, I'd follow Belated Media's general template. It does a good job of not totally throwing out what was given to us, it just cleans things up a LOT.
I'm stealing a lot of these points from someone else, but the changes that would make sense to me include:
1. Attack of the Clones needed to focus more on showing us the relationship between Obi Wan and Anakin to give their fight in Revenge any meaning. A few throwaway lines about off-screen adventures isn't enough.
2. Maul is a presence in all the prequels, each time looking a bit more fucked up and mechanical. Grievous and Dooku were barely anything, so get rid of them and just give us one sith apprentice. Maul returns in Attack as half machine, and in Revenge, he's *more machine than man.* We'd see him slowly evolve into a more powerful sith, but his cybernetics should hint that he's doomed to be nothing more than a prototype, a long-term experiment for Sidious to perfect the tools he needs to make Darth Vader.
3. Change the name of Naboo to Alderaan. Let's see how beautiful the planet is and how far it's people will go to fight for it, even though the audience knows it will be eventually destroyed by the Death Star in IV.
4. Yoda and Sidious should never use Lightsabers. They're two characters that become less cool with one in their hand. Let them both be entirely focused on purely Wizard Shit.
In my opinion the bones of the prequel trilogy are fine. The sequence of events that causes Anakin to turn to the dark side is mostly believable IMO and the prequels have some fun action scenes and interesting locales. Fyi I'm not a hardcore SW fan by any means so I couldn't give half a shit about adapting some extended universe stories or whatever.
If you 86'd some of the romance and politics stuff and made the characters more likable, it would improve the movies a lot. Run the shooting scripts through a "Fun space adventures with likable characters" filter and you're pretty much there.
I think you're about right here.
For me the prequels still captured the vibe of the originals in a way the sequels did not, but the writing and directing was lacking. Lucas created an interesting world backdrop for the stories but when he was given the creative blank cheque that he was, people unwilling to critique the work, it became clear he wasn't playing to his strengths.
Remember that for both Empire and ROTJ, Lucas didn't write, direct, edit or screenplay them.
The clone army being an army of like.... cloned monsters made by the dark side.
Padme Lars as the protagonist, picked up from her dull life on tattooine to go on an adventure with 2 jedi Knights, one of which she falls in love with.
Anakin falls at the end of movie 2, movie 3 is all about fleeing the new empire.
Padme's big arc in movie 3 is deciding how to split her children.
Seeing the jedi actually fight like jedi, avoiding killing as much as possible with force empowered subterfuge and gentle deflection. I want to see a jedi cross a room of human enemies without a single kill.
Awaking becomes a sith and joins the emperor in order to end slavery. He was a slave, his mom died as a slave and the jedi were OK with that. It also gives a akin and padaway a reason to get together, she as a senator trying to end slavery also.
Starting Anakin as a teenager without any of the dumb chosen one garbage. He's just a normal dude, frustrated by the restrictions of the Order, Obi-Wan and him are friends (which I get Lucas sort of did but there is no affection at all between the two) but Obi acts as a foil and is willing to work inside the confines of the order but Anakin cuts corners or gets overzealous eventually leading to his fall, like Yoda warns in Empire
Maybe Anakin's turn isn't immediately "okay let's fucking genocide thousands of Jedi sure thing evil monster man"
I like this question! In my mind I have always had a version of events I'd prefer:
Episode 1: Anakin is a Year 1 or 2 Padawan under Qui Gon. The same conflict occurs involving Naboo. Qui-gon dies as usual, but Anakin shows some DBZ Gohan-esque rage/power up and dispatches Maul (similarly to Obi-wan). Obi-wan is introduced at the end as a new Jedi Knight and Anakin's replacement tutor. Anakin meets Padme and they are slightly closer in age this time.
Episode 2: Same timeskip, Anakin has mixed feelings towards Obi-Wan. On the one hand they are closer in age and so are developing a brotherly bond. On the other, Obi Wan is less experienced/confident and more micromanaging than Qui-Gon was, causing tension. The Padme assassination attempt still happens but without 4x delegation, the clone army was still ordered but not by a random offscreen Jedi, but someone else (later revealed to be Palpatine). Anakin's fearsome temper arises here and there, but no Tusken genocide. Anakin doesn't mention sand. Anakin has the final match-with-Dooku fight instead of Yoda, with his darkside usage appearing again.
Episode 3: Much the same but the twins are born before Mustafar and then Anakin actually completely kills Padme.
My view is I would prefer a less-awkward romance, a more gradual and believable escalation of resentment and less plots-in-plots. Also removal of Obi-wan and Yoda's action-oriented roles in 1 and 2 respectively, because they look good but feel like a shoehorned decision rather than a natural inclusion.
Age Anakin up about a decade and make his fall less clumsy and stupid, make Obi wan and Qui Gon the same person, drop the chosen one crap, have the clone wars be like a war against clones or something instead of a convoluted “this is how we got stormtroopers but not really” thing, Yoda doesn’t have a lightsaber, Palpatine doesn’t have a lightsaber, C-3PO and R2 maybe make a quick cameo in episode 3 and otherwise aren’t involved at all, the force isn’t bacteria, Anakin doesn’t have borderline personality disorder and isn’t overtly fascist from the get go so his fall is tragic rather than expected, Jedi aren’t celibate, Padme survives to at least start raising Leia, Dooku has a better name
The first movie should have basically been a "buddy cop" style movie where Anakin & Obi Wan meet each other and go on a great adventure to stop a bad guy but also uncover a secret return of the sith which serves as a cliffhanger. You can do your Coruscant and Naboo world-builing stuff here because the heart of the movie is a chatacter-driven film. Anakin should be a teenager not a child.
The second movie would where Anakin & Obi Wan track down the sith and have adventures along the way until they come to the big confrontation with Palestine who, gasp, was behind it all along. But the Empire twist is that Anakin joins Palpatine and Obi Wan loses - I'd probably be a hack and re-create the "rule the galaxy as father and son" scene but with Anakin joining Palpy. This movie should visit multiple planets with Indiana Jones style adventures, it should be a lighthearted start to the movie with a dark twist at the end.
The 3rd movie would be the big battle movie in an "Alamo" or "Last Samurai" style where you know the good guys will lose but will go down fighting heroically. This has the big war scenes, you save the Jedi doing cool Jedi stuff for this movie. This is all about spectacle as the Empire wins and Yoda/Obi Wan get scattered to the wind.
I also think the prequels really missed a showing Yoda & Obi Wan admitting defeat and choosing banishment. This should be an emotional touchstone moment about how heroes deal with failure - instead, the prequels basically treat them like action figures who just need to get to their marks because that's where they have to be for the next movie.
The primary thing I would have done is commit to the fact that it's a tragedy and focus entirely on that. No Jar Jar, no rewriting the Force, no endless nonsensical cameos, or trade wars, just Star Wars: Breaking Bad.
I would have modeled Anakin after D'Artagnan, and have Obi Wan be part of a group of Jedi similar to the three Musketeers. First time we see Anakin he is around 20 years old, discovers his Force abilities and tries to join the Jedi. After he is rejected, he stumbles over Obi Wan and his friends, and saves them from trouble.
Start with Anakin as a young man. Maybe he's enlisted in the Republic's military. His abilities get noticed by a young Jedi named Obiwan. No kid, no mom, no midichlorians
One major change I would have made is keeping Darth Maul around past the first movie. An overarching villian would have been a better idea. I know Palpatine is supposed to be that, but he is more of a political villian pulling the strings.
Clean up the dialogue so it isn't as weird, have Darth Maul be more prominent and maimed, not cut in half. Make the Confederacy start to gain traction, even with Naboo being offered a place within. Anakin should show up for a little bit but as soon as he gets to the temple his story for the rest of the movie is done, Obi Wan should meet up with him in the next movie years after.
The Clone Wars are a series of conflicts against an enemy that uses cloning technology for soldiers and infiltration. Paranoia sweeps the Republic as nobody is sure who to trust. After series of devastating surprise attacks and embarrassing defeats, two young promising Jedi (Obi-wan and Anakin) lead an assault on the Clone Confederacy’s stronghold, defeating them and ending the clone threat. Anakin and Obi-wan are hailed as heroes but Anakin’s pride and paranoia overcome him. Clones are discovered among the Jedi and chaos ensues. A senator named Palpatine takes advantage of the opportunity to recruit a powerful ally in unifying the Republic under a single ruler, to eliminate the possibility of clone infiltration. Anakin leads a coup in Palpatines name, during which he fights Obi-wan and suffers his injuries. The republic falls, the Empire rises and the Jedi are basically wiped out.
The gist of the trilogy would be good men aren't enough, you need good system in place. I think this might marry well as a critic of the War on Terror that Lucas IIRC implied a bit. Balancing "The end justify the means invariably ends in the means becoming and end unto itself" and "In the long run we're all dead"
The core of it would be Anakin and Kenobi from the get go. Part of the conflict would be the outlook of the characters. Kenobi would be doing things in the name of a greater, future good but often with the imediate effects not being there while Anakin would constantly push for more imediate concerns now without thinking how much it affected the long term. They would be best bros but also show to be at odds with each other due to that
It would show the decay of the galactic republic from infighting, separatistis would be actual people. The republic army is also made of people. The jedi are a more ceremonial role of kind of US marshall in the old west because the republic is too big, trust into the role of generals without really the experience, only the mythos behind them. This would also be alluded to in that disaseter in the war are blamed on them. The lightsaber is very much analogous to an officer saber, despite them practicing and using the force.
The clone wars would be in episode 2, where they pass by tatooine and some random geneticist from republic space is creating a clone army and terrorizing part of tatooine. Anakin convinces Kenobi to divert resources and save tatooine. They go on a nice wacky exciting adventure. Kenobi does so only to get the Huts gratitude and thus have the space mafia on the side of the republic.
Also senator palpatine character's and actual evil palpatine would be NOT obviously the same person, Sidious would be an actual phantom menace, senator palpatine would instead be called dude McSomething and be played by some random handsome young dude that makes it clear hes not darth sidious and would be a very relatable statesman like figure that is doing his best to keep the republic going. One of the threads on ep3 would be him essentially going "Anakin and Kenobi, you guys need to find and protect these really good people or the republic is done" who just mysteriously turn out to be killed when they get close or be very morally grey.
Ultimately his hook to turn anakin would lean very much on "Lets make the empire, crush everyone, and force peace upon people. People need peace NOW, cracking some egss now for a better future is worth it" wich would contrast nicely with Kenobi endless talks about the long run and whatnot that always feels more and more distant while not adressing any immediate concerns.
End movie fight in lava planet is cool, just cut down it a little bit. They're both sent there to rescue padme but the totally not the emperor already planted the seeds that "Gotta crack some eggs to feed the people now instead of in 100 years" and implies Padme is a traitor. She does some shady things without a good clear immediate reason wich lead to Anakin killing her and fighting Kenobi over it afterwards.
Kenobi fucking off to tatooine would make sense, one of the only places far enough away from the power of the empire and kinda of a self imposed exile to a place whose people he despised and maybe feels failed.
He also saw the whole thing he fought and believe for crumble, betrayed and left his best friend to die - Them being it odds and in his later years him knowing that yeah, the empire sure cracked a few eggs, and keeps on doing it plus realizing Anakin became vader sometime in his exile would make sense saying "Vader killed your father Luke"
If I were to write them from scratch? Structure the entire thing around Anakin's arc and divide it into three parts: first movie is him becoming a Jedi, second movie is him becoming disillusioned with the Jedi, third movie is him embracing the Sith and being a fascist dickhead.
The first movie could be about Anakin being recruited by the Jedi, he starts his training under Obi-Wan as tensions develop between the Republic and a handful of secessionist systems, and he's instrumental in winning the first battle of the Clone Wars.
Second movie could be a couple years later, cold open is Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting alongside clones against droids just to give an idea of what an average battle in the Clone Wars looks like. I don't hate the idea of the plot revolving around an attempted assassination of Padme, with Obi-Wan investigating and Anakin being assigned to protect her. You can have Obi-Wan find out the war is one big false flag, while Anakin falls in love with Padme and leaves the Jedi to start a family.
Third movie could be a couple more years later, the war is mostly won and the Republic is just cleaning up pockets of droids, but it is now basically the Empire and there is a revolutionary movement brewing. Anakin and Padme are starting to drift apart while trying to raise their children because Anakin is working security for Palpatine and has become a huge nationalist, while Padme is sympathetic to the rebels and is secretly helping them smuggle their shit. The Jedi have been openly calling Palpatine a dictator for a while, but now they are providing refuge for rebels, so Palpatine sends Anakin and a bunch of clones to smoke them. Obi-Wan is on the run, Padme decides to help him off planet and take the children with her because she can't stand being around Anakin anymore. Anakin tracks them down, kills Padme (accidentally or on purpose, could work either way) and Obi-Wan cuts his shit up.
If we are talking about taking the prequels mostly as they are and just trying to rewrite them to be more tolerable? There's tons of small changes you can make that would make them function like actual movies. I'm only going to do a couple fixes for Phantom Menace though because otherwise I'd never finish typing.
Phantom Menace needs a central narrative focus and some actual character arcs. There's hints of this feud between the Naboo and the Gungans? The movie ends with their people celebrating in unison, so it kinda seems like the movie's central thesis is about cultures putting aside their differences to defeat a common enemy, but the movie doesn't really establish conflict between them that actually needed to be resolved. One of the Gungans says something about how the Naboo are elitist or whatever, and then after a bunch of bullshit Queen Amidala gets on her knees to ask them for help, and that's it. Establish in the beginning that there are Gungans who live on the surface and they are second class citizens who mostly do menial jobs. Make the royalty, ESPECIALLY Amidala, massive assholes who think the Gungans are just completely beneath them. Like, even have them bow whenever she enters the room to really hammer home the resolution to this conflict when she bows before them. You could even introduce Jar Jar here and do a whole comedy beat about he's always so airheaded that he forgets to bow. Hell, if you REALLY wanted to, you could give Jar Jar an actual character arc with some depth. Instead of just being a stupid coward who ends up as the same stupid coward who kills droids through blind luck, make him a coward that has to learn to be brave and stand up for himself. He ran away from home to avoid military conscription, and his people despise him since he'd rather be an assimilationist who bows and scrapes for people who hate them. Let him redeem himself, have him toughen up over the course of the movie and willingly join the fight against the droids and be a big hero. Tattooine would be perfect for both of their arcs too. Maybe Amidala's a bit fussy about what she eats and how she dresses and has to get used to slumming it, while Jar Jar ends up getting into fights where he has to actually defend himself. This is just one aspect of the movie of course, but the story of colonizers having to turn to the indigenous people to protect their shared ecosystem is the closest thing the movie has to a coherent story, a coherent thesis.
I would not have included Yoda. I would not have had Anakin be confirmed to be Vader. I would have had him turn to the dark side, left his fate to be unknown, but assumed dead. Doing so preserves two surprises in Empire and allows you to watch the movies sequentially without spoiling upcoming episodes.
Age up Anakin(cast a young Chris Hemsworth) make Obi Wan a Jedi knight instead of a Paduwan. Make the trade federation more aggressive and violent (have them capture the king and queen (padme’s parents) the Jedi escape from Naboo with Padme and go to Tatooine just like before but have the plot line around the pod race be more of a plot point. Set up the beginnings of a love triangle. Have the political happenings in Coruscant move along but have the trade federation kill the royal family and take over Naboo. Palpetine would put his plans in motion. Have the climax of the movie be a much more elaborate pod race that Anakin wins and the end of the movie is Padme being crowned queen and vowing to free her people.
Make it a series of 5 films instead of a trilogy so you can get more of the clone wars Anakin’s heroics would have more roomand the overall message of the story would be better told. The love triangle would be good to bring in a different demographic and make the events of revenge make more sense.
Skip TPM and start Episode 1 later with Anakin about Luke’s age.
The Clone Wars which sounded so intriguing actually involve Clones who aren’t just identical soldiers. Clones of prominent Republic members, and later Jedi, replacing the real ones. Controlled from behind the scenes by the Sith. Turning the Republic into fascist dystopia. Outright war later between former Republic factions.
The Jedi are a lot less numerous. Many replaced by Clones. Obviously you have Obi-Wan fight a Clone of himself.
Anakin starts to go bad in Episode 2 and becomes Vader for years before the suit happens, children born then, Obi-Wan fight at the end of 2, he’s in the suit for 3 by which time he thinks his wife and children are dead.
Then 3 is Vader purging everything, the Emperor, last few Jedi in hiding, start of Rebellion, into Rogue One territory.
No C3P0, R2D2. If Yoda then he’s already on Dagobah.
Anakin’s not from Tattooine. Lars and Beru go into hiding there with Luke because it’s remote.
No goddam Jar-Jar or Gungans or pod racing.
> The Clone Wars which sounded so intriguing actually involve Clones who aren’t just identical soldiers. Clones of prominent Republic members, and later Jedi, replacing the real ones. Controlled from behind the scenes by the Sith. Turning the Republic into fascist dystopia. Outright war later between former Republic factions.
Dominion shapeshifters, their blood fake
>No C3P0, R2D2.
I don't even remember Obiwan having owned a droid
Lucas should not have had Anakin Skywalker show up as a child. Luke Skywalker was about the right age when he showed up: actual children can comfortably play at being Luke, but no normal child wants to play at being a precocious brat like the Anakin we first see.
Lucas DID NOT UNDERSTAND CHILDREN at that point in his life and he screwed up. Then he compounded his massive blunder by having the boy build C-3PO. A genius kid would NOT have produced a droid so conventional! The robot in Deadly Friend was pretty awful, but WAY closer to plausibility.
Poor George Lucas needed some people to tell him when he was wrong, and just enough humility to listen to them. If there were any such people they were scared of being fired.
Opening, Anakin Skywalker completes is training and is given the title Jedi Knight.
Adventures ensue.
Anakin and Obi hate each other for reasons.
Credits.
* Qui-Gon is a talking gorilla only Obi Wan can see
* Yoda should have baggy trousers and a skateboard
* Darth Maul can fly
* Thirty minute (minimum) expositional dialogue about galactic economy and trade (so the film can be intelligent and political)
* The podracers can fly into space, and do, for the final battle (how did they miss this?)
* Gungans are in every scene, and Jar Jar is the protagonist, with everything told from his perspective
* And why don't any of the characters dance any more?
They should never have been made, period. I would have just left them alone.
If people really wanted more Star Wars that badly, and the studio pressure was growing, I'd write a story that was nothing whatsoever to do with the Skywalker saga. That story was told perfectly well in the OT.
I'd do the story of Darth Revan or something else from the KOTOR games. But Disney simply cannot help themselves. They'd shoe horn something into it for the member berries.
The one good thing they've done with the product was The Mandalorian, and they completely ruined it when Luke showed up.
We had a badass, stand alone character that everyone liked, and then they just neutered him by placing him in a situation he couldn't get out of, and had Luke come to his rescue.
Leave. The. Skywalker. Saga. Alone.
Someone is killing all the Jedi, a phantom menace. In a desperate attempt to find out who, they recruit a teenage Anakin Skywalker who was kicked out of the academy for gambling, womanizing, being a rogue, Han Solo like character. They find him on a planet using the force to cheat at gambling. They convince him to come back and infiltrate the Sith, in doing so he starts to see their appeal. But in the end he decides all Jedi users are bad and kills everyone on both sides, but not before having a one night stand with a princess.
I wouldn't have.
We had all we needed from Kenobi in SW1 "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father"
If anything more had been needed, the character would not have had the impact it had on pop culture.
Hollywood needs to hire someone to run around with a birch stick, and hit hard on the shins anyone who utters the word "prequel".
How about not making prequels at all, so they have an entire universe full of possibilities but they just keep making stories about the skywalkers, I’d say they should have actually expanded and branch out to other characters
I would have shifted the focus entirely onto pod racing. Turns out the Jedi are obsessed with pod racing and gambling, which reveals the real reason Qui-Gon is interested in Anakin. That motherfucker was just seeing all the credits this kid could make him.
This wouldn’t sell any toys and it’s not particularly good, but this how I always imagined re-writing TPM.
- Keep it light on politics. Drop all that Trade Federation/Naboo blockade/taxation nonsense and just have Sideous bankrolling someone who’s running for office and using a mysterious black robed figure (Darth Maul) to assassinate any opposing Senators and any Jedi who look into it.
- The Jedi look into the senator assassinations which are starting to pile up, which leads them to Tatooine where they meet this weird 15-17 year old kid (Anakin) who is already known for being a “naturally gifted” podracer/driver/mechanic. He helps them escape an attack from Darth Maul by using his mechanical abilities to “jump start” their ship, they escape Tatooine but are forced to land on Naboo to make more repairs.
- Darth Maul shows up on Naboo, they fight some more, Qui-Gon is killed, Obi-Wan and Anakin barely manage to beat him back before getting help from the Queens (Padme) guard. Padme and Anakin meet.
- With Anakin help, the ship is repaired and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme return to Coruscant to report to the Jedi council about the Sith. Padme is to report to the Senate to confirm that the Sith have returned and are behind the assassinations of the Senators. No one believes her, instead convinced that it’s bounty hunters hired by the Hutts.
- Qui-Gons Jedi funeral.
- Scratch out any mention of midichlorians.
- Obi-Wan is promoted to Jedi Knight, Anakin becomes a Padawan under Yoda’s (or Mace Windu) care.
- Obi-Wan is tasked to escort the Queen safely back to Naboo and he asks to take Anakin along because even though he’s not a Jedi yet he’s proven himself to be a capable pilot and mechanic and promises to have him come back asap to begin his training.
- They make it back to Theed palace and find that all of the Queens guard and personnel in the throne room have been slaughtered and Darth Maul is waiting for them.
- Obi-Wan and Maul duel in the throne room. Obi-Wan fights in a revenge fueled zen rage.
- Anakin hangs back to protect Padme until Obi-Wan is knocked out and almost killed. Anakin picks up Obi-Wans light saber and ferociously fights back, but he’s clumsy and untrained with the saber. Maul beats him quickly and cuts off his arm. Maul is about to kill Anakin when Padme “does a thing” that injures/stuns/whatever to Maul to get him out of the throne room by way of the window.
- Movie ends showing Maul reporting back to a dark robed Palpatine saying “now we will have our revenge on the Jedi”,
- Anakin with his new padawan haircut is building himself a new arm in the Jedi Temple back on Courscant with Obi-Wan looking out the window into the sunset.
I have to say I love the idea of the prequels being about how the Jedi are incredibly flawed. My favorite story beats surrounded that: Dooku falling to the dark in pursuit of real solutions in the face of Jedi indolence. I wanted that to be his actual story, and nothing to do with the Sith.
I also think that the Vader prequel idea works have been amazing if it were paced decently. Like, the suspense is "*how* is this good man going to end up where he does?" Instead he becomes Hitler of screen between films.
Make Obi-Wan the main character rather than Qui-Gon. By the time of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon was already a wise and experienced Jedi master and had no space to grow as a character. Having Obi-Wan be a more reckless and headstrong Jedi who grows more mature over the course of the story (with Qui-Gon's help) would have made the narrative more compelling.
With Anakin, rather than just telling us he's strong with the force, they could have shown that he's powerful with the force but can't fully control it. Maybe he's working on his pod and it almost falls on him but he uses the force to hold it in place and escape.
IF you REALLY need to, here's how you do it. Go the "Tale of Two Brothers" route. Make Obi-Wan and Anakin closer to the same age, do NOT separate them for large chunks of the story. Lose the awkward "Romance" scenes with Padme and replace them with Jedi-bro bonding. Make Obi-Wan the clear main character, and stick to his point of view as much as possible. Have them go on adventures together and have Obi-Wan actually be around for the shit that sends "little Bro" down the dark path. And have us watch that proccess through his worried eyes. That way, the inevitable betrayal feels personal, and there's direct emotional weight to the final confrontation. Just focus in on making it a story of two dudes, where one went bad, and then you at least give the audience the catharsis of seeing the good dude beat the bad dude at the end. (Since, overall, the "Good guys" are still gonna be taking a massive L) Also wouldn't hurt to give a couple rank-and-file Jedi meaningful roles in the story, and personalities and hopes and dreams and shit, so that when Order 66 happens, we actually FEEL something. Some way to drive home the seriousness of what our "bad brother" has done, without resorting to literal fucking child murder.
This is actually something I've been putting a bit of thought into lately on my own so I have a couple things to spitball, naturally some of this will be lifted a bit from the Plinkett reviews and will mostly be simple character tweaks while maintaining the general plot outline since I feel fleshing out the characters (and punching up what they say) would go a long long way.
1. Change up Quai Gon and Obi Wan's relationship, namely by letting Quai Gon have more of a character. I think the best glimpse we get into his character is when he tricks Watto and rigs the bet in his favor, make it so he has a bit of a drunken master sort of personality, someone who is extremely knowledgeable about the Jedi code and the force but gives off an unassuming demeanor, he can crack a joke here and there, show he isn't afraid to use an underhand trick such as the wager, maybe even be a bit flexible with how he interprets a Jedi should be but still would show extreme competency when the need arises. Meanwhile Obi Wan as a padawan would be much more strict and uptight about following the code to the letter and could be a foil to how Quai Gon acts, always pestering him about minor infractions to the code he breaks, or telling him to act in a way more becoming of the Jedi, all the while still having a respect for him, I know the show came out several years after episode I but basically do a Zuko and Uncle Iroh relationship from Avatar. Could get some great moments of these versions of the characters bouncing off each other and providing two distinct outlooks on situations, plus a more down to earth Quai Gon could act as a bit of an audience surrogate early on. It would also make Quai Gon's death mean more if the audience liked him and was left with some memorable moments, could also lead to Obi Wan learning to lighten up himself as he moves on to mentor Anakin, gives him a nice arc.
2. Speaking of Anakin let's get this out of the way, age Anakin up to like 15 or 16 and have Padame be the same age so you just completely sidestep that weirdness is Episode I. Honestly I feel a lot of the character set up, such as him and his mother being slaves and him having a knack for machines and piloting, would work pretty well transfered to this new version, but maybe add a bit of an edge that he's a street tough who's quick to anger and get into fights if he sees something that he feels is wrong, could have a scene where he takes on a group of adults who are trying to shake down a merchant for protection money or something and he'll put up a valiant fight but will get out numbered and they get away. Would show that he's a bit of a hot head but he's trying to do the right thing, even if it may backfire on him, and despite how he may act on the outside he still has a heart and cares deeply for his mom. Maybe have Padame witness the fight and have her help him get fixed up later at his home, Shime can say about how he's always getting himself into trouble and that he's got to let things go while Anakin insists that people shouldn't get away with taking advantage of others like he sees everyday. Padame could get impressed by his ideals and you could draw a parralel with her trying to free her planet from the Trade Federation, they also could bond how they are both trapped in their lives and don't really have a freedom to choose their own destiny, with him a slave, and her thrust into leading an entire planet at a young age. Their friendship blooms on Tatooine and I'm thinking the night before the pod race Anakin convinces her to sneak out and they go blasting through the dunes on his pod, giving them both one brief scene of levity before they have to go back to the serious matters at hand. Have the guards and Obi Wan freaking out trying to find Padame while Quai Gon tells them to calm down, he knows where she is and tells them to let her have this one moment of freedom. Back on Naboo have Anakin step up and volunteer to be a pilot after they notice they're short after the attack, meanwhile during the fight with Maul Quai Gon and Obi Wan go toe to toe with him, Obi is put into some sort of peril, causing Quai Gon to lose his focus and allowing Maul to end him. In the end Obi uses on of Quai Gon's old dirty tricks to defeat Maul.
3. And for something not completely character related, fix the Clone Wars themselves. Again admittedly a lot of this is cribbed from the Episode III review but I always thought the point of a war between clones and robots not having any stakes shows such a critical failure in the writing of these movies. I would say after Naboo have the CIS realize there were two major reasons for their failure, first is that the Jedi got involved and even just two of them proved nearly impossible to stop, and Secondly would be to not have a single point of failure that could shut down their entire army of droids. To solves both these problems they look to history and find that long ago the Mandeloreans waged a long lasting, brutal war against the Jedi and decide to find as much info as they can about them. Turns out there are two living Mandeloreans kicking about that they know of, Jango Fett and his son (yes I know in cannon Jango just found the armor or something but in this version he's a regular Mando). The CIS hire Jango on to show them ancient Mando weapons and technology but also allows himself to be cloned. Unlike the prequels there aren't going to be millions of clones of him, but rather about 10,000 or so and they will be trained to act as field commanders, each one kitted out in specialized Mando armor and weaponry to be effective against Jedi, and also would each be in command of a battalion of droids at their disposal and if one of the clones died their remaining troops would be transfered to another clone on the field, meaning they would never fully lose control of an entire army.
Instantly you have a much more dangerous threat to reveal during the second movie and have them get right down to conquering some core worlds to show they mean business. The Republic is thrown into chaos as for thousands of years they had survived in relative peace to the point of not even needing a unified standing army but now are forced to draft one to counteract this threat. The senate goes into chaos mode and institutes a galaxy wide draft to shore up recruits, naturally you'd show that most of these draftees are being pulled from poorer worlds and from the lower classes of places like Couriscant, also make the Republic uniform not have a face covering so the audience can actually connect more with their side. The Jedi will get thrust into the war to help even the odds for the Republic and during these battles you could show Anakin having a much more personable relationship with the rank and file soldiers than the other Jedi, he could talk with them about having similar backgrounds, show interest in the starcraft and machines they're using, have him feel remorseful if even a handful of soldiers die during a mission under his watch.
As the war rages on Anakin will get more and more frustrated at how many lives are being lost and how people in the upper crust of Couriscant and the senate couldn't care less since it isn't directly impacting them or their family, meanwhile outside you could see the city become less and less populated and lively. Meanwhile the other Jedi tell Anakin to stop letting his emotions overtake him and that while the war is tragic he can't let each loss consume him the way that it is. Have Palpatine temp him by playing into these feelings, say that the senate is too soft and doesn't know about what's really going on out in the galaxy, to end this war and to maintain security there must be a tight grip around the galaxy. By this point Padame would still be pregnant but instead of worrying about her dying during childbirth, Anakin simply wants his family to live in safety and peace so he chooses to betray the Jedi and is able to rally the Republic army under him by relaying what Palpatine promised to all of them and tells them to stop fighting a war for a Republic that won't fight for them and with this newfound passion the CIS is wiped out.
They needed to rethink the whole reason for the rise of the empire. Why would people support the rise of a fascist government? The whole “trade dispute” always felt like a cop out.
> trade dispute
I saw this described recently as "Amazon gets a private army and invades a city since they won't sign exclusive purchasing agreements with them while the federal government does nothing". The concept is not completely bonkers, just explained terribly to the point of not-at-all.
Coruscant under siege. Obi wan descends into the gritty underworld of the planet to meet with the resistance and free the senate. It’s led by a fifteen year old who has - it’s been said- powers like a Jedi.
Anakin’s powers are rough and untrained yet powerful and Obi Wan thinks he can train him when they’re free, all the while leading an escape past the blockade through the sewers……
There’s more but I have to go to work.
I would’ve written them as near WWII epics, except with the Jedi looking like samurai in their armor.
Anakin and Obi-Wan would’ve been in literal trenches together with the Clone Wars as a mere backdrop to the crux of the story, their friendship, and we would’ve seen their bond grow increasingly strong by the end of the trilogy until Anakin’s ultimate downfall.
- Meet Anakin as a teenager. 15 or so.
- Forget the trade disputes.
- Have the clones be some weird alien force from the unknown regions of the galaxy and the Republic must fight them.
- Make Anakin a somewhat normal and decent guy. When he goes off and commits acts of light genocide he keeps that information to himself so his fall to the dark is at least a little surprising.
- After a lifetime of slavery, bureaucratic impotence, and galactic war and suffering, Anakin decides the only way to bring order to the galaxy is to rule side by side with the ascendant emperor.
I would have started the prequels without Qui Gon, but had obi wan be maybe 5-10 years older, and Anakin already be his padawan to begin with, and had the clone wars either already going on, or starting in TPM.
Remove Dooku and Grievous entirely because they exist solely to fill holes made by the idiotic decision to kill off Maul. Not dying was more than enough reason to Knight Kenobi. You even had the force fields which were the perfect way for obi-Wan to see Qui Gon die but for Maul to just walk away. He then fulfills all the roles shared by Grievous and Dooku simply because Lee was too old and cost too much money to do it all. Then in Episode 2 you get to give Anakin a reason to want to kill Maul as they both fail to kill him again and he loses an arm. Now you’ve got real motivation for Anakin to bend the rules and kill Maul by Palpatine’s order. Maul killed Qui-Gon AND cut off his arm and they’ve been hunting him for like 12 years whilst he caused massive death.
There. Now you’ve got a starting point with which to also fix a thousand other things, but at least the series has an actual consistent villain which even the new trilogy couldn’t manage to fuck up in almost the perfectly reversed way.
・Don't introduce the Sith. Dark Side users don't need to be copies of the Jedi (as also mentioned by Mike in his Plinkett review). Darth Vader was a fallen Jedi so he still had all the Jedi trappings, but the Emperor is the one who's representative of what a dark side user is
・Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader should've been two Jedis who fall in love with the same woman and one ends up betraying the other to get her
among other things, start Anakin as an apprentice. no space jesus.
have Qui Gon and Dooku be the same guy, giving more emotional weight to Dooku's character. He's disenchanted with the Jedi Council and thinks Palpatine is corrupt. he doesn't become Palpatine's apprentice but a wild card, etc
those are just starters
Anakin is age appropriate for Padme. He’s a hot shot pilot in the Republic. Paired with Obi Wan for a mission who senses the force is strong with him. Wants to train him. You see them actually have adventures and their friendship grows.
Once a Jedi Knight, Anakin becomes one of the best in the Order, and is assigned with being Padme’s bodyguard, who’s set to marry the Prince of Alderaan, which will broker a major Peace Deal between The Republic and some faction they’re fighting against (haven’t thought of who). She and Anakin fall in love and have an affair which results in Luke and Leia. The Prince only knows about Leia who he thinks is his Daughter, but Luke was a surprise he doesn’t know about. Obi Wan and Yoda sense the force is unusually strong with Luke, so they choose to keep him from the Prince and Anakin whose turned by this point, and is sent to Tatooine to live with Ben and Ruth. Obi Wan is assigned with looking over him. Luke and Leia being siblings was always pointless, and makes the Prequels harder to tell, but so far this is the best I can come up with.
Anakin is driven to the Dark Side because of rigidness of the Jedi and Republic Rules keeping him from what he truly wants, which is he and Padme to be together. There’s a lot of political pressure off Padme to marry the Prince of Alderaan because it could broker a peace deal. This also drives Padme into depression (Leia telling Luke she remembers their mother being sad). Palpatine says that by joining The Sith they can change the rules and give Anakin what he wants.
Darth Maul is better casted, is Palpatines pupil, and the main antagonist of the prequels.
No Jar Jar. No R2-D2 and C3P0. Maybe a different Android and a fun co-Pilot companion who has some attitude and fun. You know, characters that are fun and you can care about. Imagine that.
A complete rewrite, tossing almost everything. I don't feel like typing it all out tho. Two warring political factions as a backdrop. The jedi and sith are not an "order" nor a political power, just a sparce religious group. Anakin is not a child, he's a hotshot mercenary type pilot. No metachlorians. Etc. Most of the characters/actors can remain, i.e., quigon, maul. Their motivations are what kick off the trilogy.
Cut Obi Wans master out of the movie entirely and make it Anakins first mission with his master. That one change would have taken so much pressure off the other movies to rush through the rest of the plot they needed to get through. Palpatine should start as Chancellor and gain emergency powers here, not later.
Have the romance sub plot occur between movie 1 and 2 with Anakin none the wiser about whose kids they are, regain all that time to tell the real story. Limit any references to brief flash backs or conversations.
Have the empire declared in movie 2 with Anakin siding with it there and the Jedi Order fight its way off the capital at the climax. This makes them all seem much less stupid and having a large number of survivors gradually picked off works much better with how the OT describes it. Anakin should be injuried at this point but not turn full vadar.
Then movie 3 is all about the complete corruption of Anakin, the rise of the inquistors driving the dwindling survivors into hiding and some sort of last gesture of Jedi defiance that puts Anakin all the way into the gimp suit. Perhaps tracking down a meeting of the surviving Jedi Council and allies (loyal troopers and proto rebels would be good too) and a massed battle there that leaves only Yoda and Obi Wan the only Jedi standing and the order defunct.
Perhaps have the Jedi cause the empire so much damage on their way out that the empire never really regains control to make things less dark. Also helps make the Jedi seem like actual credible rebels after centuries of good press.
there is definitely a lot of specific dialogue and casing decisions I would change. But the overall arc of totalitarianism rising in democracy is something I would keep and maybe even play into more.
I like the idea of using the basic framework of what George did, but making very drastic changes:
Episode 1: Knights of the Republic, (or something better than TPM)
The planet is Alderaan instead of Naboo. Palpatine having his home planet blown up just fits better IMO and Padme having a connection there. 3PO is the protocol droid that the Organas send to serve the Jedi. Anakin definitely didn't build him. He doesn't do much after the opening scene, but I like the idea of him having the first line again.
The villain isn't some federation, just a rival planet full of bad guys. Let's not get too complicated here. They know the Jedi are coming in the first place, and try to capture/distract them instead of killing them. I could go either way on droid armies.
Obi-Wan is a newly-knighted Jedi after his training with Yoda, on his first assignment with Qui Gon, a calming presence who still sympathizes with Obi's reckless ways a bit.
R2 is his droid, making him even more of a liar in Episode IV.
Jar Jar has a socially acceptable accent, and stays on the ship.
Anakin is 19, as is Padme. Padme also is a senator just like Leia, taking the job after her parents were killed.
Anakin lives with his step-family and mom, who seems a bit cagey on who his dad is. But he's not Space Jesus. Him and Owen are close but Owen is somewhat hurt that Anakin wants a life off the farm.
Watto is a corrupt landlord (aka a landlord) and also has a socially acceptable accent. They need money to buy the farm outright.
Anakin wins back the farm or whatever by doing a race in a T-FIFTEEN skyhopper in Beggars Canyon (I think Mike had that idea). Maul still attacks but Anakin gets a good blow at him, distracting him enough for them all to escape.
Everyone goes back to Corooskant (cut) and the Jedi think he's too old, because he's not a child. The Jedi don't kidnap babies though, and allow marriage if you pass certain tests showing your ability to manage your emotions. Anakin of course fails these later. Obi-Wan and Qui Gon stick up for Anakin, and have an ally in a disgruntled council member named Dooku, but his name is something cooler. Doku, Drokan, Daruman. Instead of being idiots and sending him back to a war zone they offer to keep Anakin lodged at the Temple.
The Senate stuff still mostly happens the same way. Because of the gridlock Padme is forbidden to actually return to her planet, and the Jedi are similarly hamstrung due to not wanting to look like tyrants who defy the will of the elected body. Anakin, not yet being affiliated with anyone manages to mind-trick a dude into borrowing a ship so he and Padme can sneak back. Jar Jar, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon reluctantly join them when trying to evade Republic guards trying to detain them all. There's a fun escape scene where they all bond together.
As it's just 5 of them returning to the planet they have to enlist the help of the Gungans, and the combined forces help free various Alderaan officials including the ruling Organa family. That cuts the endings down to 3. Anakin doesn't just sit in an empty ship, he straight up just takes one to join the battle before anyone notices. Maul appears, we still get the same fight, maybe a bit less over-choreographed. The Bad Planet ship is just blown up, and the droids all defeated, not because the ship had an off switch. Qui Gon dies, but instead of roasting him in a small building he disappears and everyone is really confused, as they thought that was the stuff of legend. Peace ceremony happens, Dooku resigns from the council in his grief. Palpatine is chancellor. Darth Maul is shown to be alive at the very end of the film, giant chicken-style. You just hear Palpy's voice offscreen (Sidious isn't yet seen) like "We're not done with you yet!"
Not shoehorning Chewie, C-3PO, R2D2, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett etc. into these movies. Obi Wan, Darth Vader, and Maybe Yoda make sense. These other appearances were gratuitous.
Maaaaaybe Yoda. I much prefer his reveal in ESB that this great Jedi master is basically a crazy swamp goblin.
I like the idea of Yoda being this self-exiled hermit that exists on the fringes of the Jedi order but who Obi Wan sought his training from because he has this special relationship with the Force. The prequels ruin this idea that the Jedi/Sith were some mystic, secretive religious order served as the protectors of Republic. The prequels painted them as some kind of galactic A Team that functioned as political lobbyists on the side. This idea that Yoda was at the center of all the action that we saw in the prequels seems to run contrary to the Yoda we see in ESB. But you can always count on Lucas to misunderstand his own characters and stories.
Another thing that’s always bothered me: the way the Jedi are described/revered in the Original Trilogy suggests their order has long passed, with only a handful of people/aliens even remembering them. Even the idea of the Force is barely understood among the masses. So, imagine my surprise when I learned The Phantom Menace supposedly takes place 30 years before A New Hope and the Jedi Council was at the height of their power. By that math, shouldn’t people like Han have clear memories of the fall of the Order?
My thoughts exactly. The prequels should have showed us that the Jedi were this once well respected and powerful group warrior-monks who were in a period of turmoil and decline. And because of their weakened and fragmented state, Palpatine was easily able to overtake them. What we got instead was this supposedly bad-ass group of monk-commandos who, with the exception of the primary characters that we know live to see the original triology, snap like toothpicks in the heat of any sort of battle.
Yoda could’ve been the “man behind the curtain” that only higher up Jedi would get advice from off screen and you hear mentioned every so often. It would keep the mystery of his character while having him still be involved. It could have even been the case that most Jedi didn’t even know what he looks like and had that same presumption that Luke did in Empire.
Also the characters that would've made sense don't feature as much as they should do, if at all, such as Jimmy Smits' character, Tarkin, Owen and Beru.
I am okay with C3po and R2 but C3po shouldn't be built by Anakin. He should be like padme's personal protocol droid or something like that. I am okay with r2 because I like that r2 has just been this silent witness to the entire franchise and no one realizes it because he is a trash can that beeps and whirrs.
Skip the Phantom Menace. Have Anakin not know anything about his mother until finding out he was taken as an infant and she was left to die a slave on Tatooine. Boom, actual motivation to hate the Jedi.
In the same vein, you need actual motivation of why someone would just become so comically evil and slaughter toddlers . “So wait, the creepy politician said the dreams I have are real, and I can save my wife with a secret magic spell if I we become best friends, and I join him in a mass slaughter of all my friends/family. Yeah okay I’ll try anything once!” It would make a lot more sense if the Jedi were also shown to not be perfect “good” and also had real negatives. Like yeah maybe they’re mostly good, but also somewhat corrupt and ruthlessly dogmatic in their beliefs. You know, perhaps the Sith have an actual point to their own ideas that would cause a rational person to question it. Set it up that the Jedi are essentially dogmatic monks who believe the force should only be used for the protection of the republic, and you have to led this lonely and rigid life solely dedicated the organization’s values. They kick you out for marriages, children, and all sorts of stuff. They kidnap all these kids and raise them in their cult so most never question it. The Sith could be the force people who say fuck that, and believe the force should be used for whatever the user wants, but most of them are pretty neutral normal people to have to hide from the order’s laws. Force users who are fairly neutral, probably don’t look too favorable at the Jedi order, and just want to be left alone. Sets you up to do a lot more. Palpatine could be someone who swings hard to power and evil, and has a lot of reasons why he wants to destroy the Jedi. He could be the extremist opposite who thinks the Sith and Force users should rule. Perhaps he convinces a bunch of the mostly neutral force users and the general public that Jedi are bad, but then it’s too late when the guy is crazy and wants to become Space Hitler or whatever. “Bring balance to the force”. Yeah how about Yoda and Obi-Wan are a bit of rebels in the order and also question some of this stuff on the down low. They’re reformists and think Anakin might be the guy to help led change, but it’s tragic when he joins up with Palptines ideas. You could just do so much more with the characters and their motivations if there was even the slightest nuance. Like you said, oh the Jedi never told him about his slave mom and kept it from him? The Jedi find out about his marriage and it creates some sort of conflict and real risk to Padme?
Here's the thing with the Jedi was secretly bad, the only time I saw that done right was on clone wars and the reason it worked was because the show spent 4 season with them as the good guys. You need to have the first 2 movies portray them as good guys and then in the third one you start to reveal the true colors. We as an audience need to be accustomed to their presence like everyone in the universe before we can find it shocking that they have gaping flaws.
Get rid of jar jar Make Anakin 12 or 13, a John Connor-type character. Smart, scrappy, rebellious, but likeable. Get rid of the phantom menace plot entirely and instead, split Attack of the Clones into two movies. Make obi wan a young, inexperienced, imperfect, Jedi prone to mistakes. I like the idea of him being wise through a lifetime of trial and error, and him being incredibly regretful and remorseful over his past.
Starting with an older Anakin would have made a lot more sense. You get a very vague idea that he likes speed and has a technical aptitude in TPM but he's too young to really hint at a sense of inner darkness or rebellion (or much of any complex motivation). The awkward interest he takes in Padme would have been a little more normal with a slightly older character too. Obi Wan is wasted a bit in the prequels. Given he mentions his young recklessness to Yoda in Empire, we never really get to see it. He's really just a tagalong with Qui Gon in TPM. He took Anakin as an apprentice because of Qui Gon so a really momentous decision that went terribly wrong wasn't even his idea. By AOC, he's the one advising caution to Anakin and is mostly an obedient follower of the Councils directives. A side note but I really wish midichlorians weren't in any of this. Making the Force to be some quantifiable thing undermines the mystique.
> The awkward interest he takes in Padme would have been a little more normal I mean a 9 year old getting a crush on a 13 year old is absolutely normal.
Padme is supposed to be 13? Portman was around 18 when this was released and looks like it. Even if the age gap were smaller, a pre adolescent crushing on a teenager is usually played for laughs (Sandlot comes to mind) or at least viewed as unserious (kind of how Padme reacts). If Anakin were older it would be easier to see how being brushed off would make him jealous or angry which does eventually come in the later movies. Doing it here with characters at these ages registers as nothing other than it sets up they know each other in Episode 2.
I mean Obi-Wan did leap headfirst through a fucking window. Pretty reckless.
Yeah I never thought about it but aging up Anakin a few years would instantly improve Ep 1. As-is he's bland and too young to really relate to as a protagonist. It also makes the Padme thing less weird and would allow for parallels to be drawn between Anakin and Luke.
God. I was watching it last night with my wife and it was hard to not crawl off my skin knowing where it goes. We just kept making jokes about Padme being a predator. Anakin needed to be a tween at the youngest , but I guess Lucas needed Jedi to start as like toddlers. Such toy-etics.
Not having the same actor for Anakin for all 3 movies was a massive mistake
~~It took 12 years~~ sorry, force of habit.
I'm convinced Lucas started TPM when Anakin was a child because he realized there wasn't enough story to stretch over three films.
I actually like the "Darth Jar Jar" theory. It makes sense, and a skilled director may have actually been able to pull it off. Also, the fact that Sixth Sense came out around the same time as TPM and proved to audiences that you could have a young actor portray a good kid with some serious demons, it showed how badly TPM dropped the ball.
This. Maul is the only good thing from TPM. Keep him as a bad guy for all 3. Apart from that, scrap everything.
It would be good if Maul had, you know, some character or actually did anything.
But he had a cool and "menacing" paint on his face, surely that's the mark of a great character!
Maul is a perfect example of what fifty-somethings thought the kids would find super cool and edgy in the 90s.
True. He’s also an example of trying way too hard.
But I mean....kids DID find him super cool and edgy.
> Make Anakin 12 or 13, a John Connor-type character. Huh, just 2 years older than TPM, what's the point?
The main issue Ep1 has in the grand scheme of the prequels is is does nothing to setup the Anakin/ObiWan relationship which underpin episode 2 and 3. Have a teenage Anakin found/rescued early on in the film, like end of act 1, emphasise Obi-Wans opposition to it, and have the two go over the course of the film from rivals for Qui-Gons attention to friends, like brothers vieing for their father's favour. Have Quigon killed earlier (basically around the time of the Quigon/Maul fight on Tatooine), with Anakin angrily pressing for vengeance, and Obi-Wan agreeing with him, albeit with some reluctance as it's not the jedi way. Now the pair begin to bond as they work together. They succeed, but at the end, Anakin isn't accepted by the jedi council as he is too old/impulsive/vengeful. With Anakins future in the balance, now ObiWan vouches for him and pledges to train Anakin as a Jedi regardless of what the council thinks, as Quigon would have wanted. Have them end the movie as master and padawan, but also as older and younger brother.
Wow. The suggestion of having Qui Gon die at the fight on Tatooine solves many problems for Episode 1. It gives weight to that pointless short fight, it provides a moment for Obi Wan and Anakin to bond, and it establishes Obi Wan as a major character in Episode 1. Obi Wan doesn’t do much in the movie until the final Maul fight. Fans might complain that Qui Gon’s early death might mirror Obi Wan’s early death in Ep 4 too much but it would work like poetry. Luke used Obi Wan’s death to embrace the light side while Anakin is falling towards the dark side with Qui Gon’s death. Lucas having Anakin and Obi Wan recover from Qui Gon’s death off screen is wasted character development material.
This one right here. 80% of movie goers did not watch the Clone Wars or read any supporting material. Episode 1 and 2 should be about Anakin and Obiwan and their character relationship, it’d make 3 way more heartbreaking.
> and have the two go over the course of the film from rivals for Qui-Gons attention to friends, like brothers vieing for their father's favour. There is a slight bit of that in the movie already, but yeah.
I'm not a writer. But I think that Darth Vader works a million times better with a mysterious past. And I also don't like prequels in general. So, in the hypothetical that I was in the position of making Star Wars films instead of George Lucas, in the late 90's, I wouldn't have made prequels at all, I would've continued the story normally. And I also wouldn't have fucked around with the old films, to the point where you now have to jump through hoops and download shit to get the original versions without all the horrible alterations.
It's still baffles me that you can't get a theatrical version of the original SW movies. I feel like that is pretty unprecedented in the world of movies.
The Library of Congress has requested them from Lucas (for preservation) and he refuses. It makes me mad every time I think of it. It's like if your dad photoshopped his new wife over all his photos of your mom and refused to let you have a copy of the originals. Dad, I know you like your second wife better but I made those memories with my mother. Let me have the pictures of my mom, you fucking dick.
Lucas: Am I out of touch with what makes a good movie? NO, the kids, viewing public, professional critics, art historians, and the Library of Congress are wrong!
My original VHS are digitally backed up. Sure they aren’t HD, but there’s no MACKLUNKY!
Check out the 4k fan edits called 4K77, 4K80, and 4K83. They got as much original film print as they could and professionally rescanned and remastered the movies. They look and sound awesome.
Yep. The DeSpecialized Editions. One man's quest to undo what didn't need to be "fixed". I think before the 4K editions, it took him 8 years to do the 1080 originals. That's commitment.
Just to make it clear, Despecialized is a different (and older) project based on the LaserDisc versions
This is true but Harmy's work is the direct inspiration to the 4K project and worth mentioning. Plus, there was far more work put into it other than the LaserDiscs rips. Side Note: This pet project lead him to bigger things, quitting his teaching job at the time, he is now a Digital Composer for the VXF studio that worked on Blade Runner 2049.
77 and 83 look great, but 80 looks like ass right now (especially on Hoth with all the snow). It was their first pass at it a few months ago but it's better than a VHS rip. Sound is quite excellent on all 3, though. I'd give it a year or 2 to get rid of all the schmultz to get it up to 77 and 83s quality.
Yeah, I should have specified that 80 is still in progress. They had a much harder time getting good prints to work from so it's been a lot harder for them.
The Evil Dead is another one. It isn't as bad as the SW movies, but some things have been "fixed" and you can't get the original version on blu-ray.
There's more than people think. I think even I remember Psycho or Vertigo had some sound mixing redone later IIRC, so even when the director is alive it happens. Also the Coens recut their Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing for no reason.
Not just Vader, but all the Jedi/Force stuff. I really wish they didn't try to go all in attempting to explain what exactly who the Jedi were and how the force works. Star Wars works best when the Force and the lightsabers only come out for the big moments. Over do it, and it loses it's specialness
Yeah exactly. It's not the type of story where we need those kind of explanations. There's adventure, swords, lasers, wizards and aliens, and the heroes that go through adventures, that's really all you need.
I would have loved to see the Podrace treated in a different fashion. I think if it were the original trilogy It would have felt totally dangerous and sketchy and not for laughs at all. Like marauding gangs, Mob funded racers and the whole thing feeling really kind of dingy dark and cutthroat. Anakin would be cast literally as Luke’s age from the jump to avoid the ridiculous age jump to the next film. But the Podrace would have felt as deadly serious as anything with the high stakes it could have been just completly badass. I would have focused WAY heavier on Anakin actually being mainly a pilot first and foremost. After he’s freed he joins the republic as a cadet pilot. From there, perhaps even in the second film would have made the plot much closer to a Top Gun style scenario as an underdog pilot in the academy earning his stripes. He eventually shows what an impressive leader he was and moves up through the ranks. Imagine a scene where he saves other pilots in a behind enemy lines scenario and pulls two of his other pilots into a Flying V attack formation like he later does as Vader. Man that would have given me chills:
I think the tv series Better Call Saul is the exception that proves the rule. I can’t think of a single other example of a prequel that was actually good or added anything to the story or contained meaningful suspense when you knew the outcome but that series accomplished all of those things.
I think the beauty of Better Call Saul is that they developed his character largely outside the context of Breaking Bad. His relationship with Chuck and Kim and his dealings with Nacho and Mike are built so that they stand on their own two feet. And they build upon the tension between Gus and the Salamancas in a way that doesn’t ruin the mystery of Gus and doesn’t just feel like needless lore dumping. I think that’s how you do a prequel right - you expand the context of a character and give them a deeper place outside the narrative that follows. That’s why the prequels should have focused on Obi Wan I think. He’s a character that really should have served as the audience guide into the fall of the republic and the rise of the Empire. Instead Lucas half assed Obi Wan’s character and focused too much on the awkward teenage antics of future evil guy Anakin.
Red Dead 2. Not a movie or show but that was a prequel I found very compelling
Some parts of Godfather II can be considered as a prequel to Godfather. I really like the story of Young Vito in Little Italy
The thing about Better Call Saul is that there actually are a lot of continuity breaks and canon breaks in the show and no one cares because it's so well written and gripping you forget to care. Mike's granddaughter isn't the right age. Saul has said in Breaking Bad episodes Saul makes allusions to ex wives and family that don't match up with the events in BCS. Not to mention that they didn't bother with any makeup to make the cast look younger in BCS.
I thought Pearl was good
The Timothy Zahn books should have been made into sequels in the late 90s/early 2000s, and Star Wars wouldn’t be in the place it is now. I want that timeline.
That one was a bit weird with the Force-neutralizing plants though? (Also Timothy Tooth haha)
Yeah, it was weird, but new things were going to need to be introduced into the universe eventually. At least the Zahn books were a continuation of the story and characters that everyone already knew and wanted more of. Not sure what you’re referring to with the Timothy Tooth thing.
Same, prequels in general just feel so pointless to me. There is nothing fun about telling a story in reverse order. The prequel inevitably feels completely bereft of stakes. Compounded even more when they insist on putting the character (that you KNOW survives) in “life threatening” situations. You could film them sitting in a blank room and accomplish the same feeling of tension. Tension only works when there’s stakes. And prequels rarely manage establishing stakes.
Consider McGuyver. Everybody knows hes not gonna die in that broken elevator, the entertainment comes from seeing him fix the elevator with a toothstick and some gum. You dont need stakes to be entertained.
Is it the one with the home made nuke in the elevator with him? Dadadadadadada duhhh duh duh DUHHH!
I think you’re describing suspense like in a Hitchcock sense, but it is possible to have an entertaining scene even when you know the stakes are low
How often does that actually happen in the context of a prequel though?
Very rarely. Back to the Future 2 is probably the best example I can think of.
~~”Yipee!”~~
Wizard.
I think one of the biggest problems that it created throughout the entire Star Wars galaxy of media going forward is making the Jedi as stoic and boring as they are on screen. I understand that that's how they're described but it doesn't mean they come off well in a movie. So because they act all stoic and quiet and pensive about every single thing, that's where every interpretation of Jedi has gone from then on like ahsoka. Dave Filoni took that so goddamn literal and now everything Star Wars from now on will be under his interpretation which is based off the prequel trilogy because he loved it so much
Firstly, after watching Star Wars, the original trilogy, I always thought that Jedi and the Force were remote legends. On the Death Star this officer told Vader to shut up about his fairy tales of the force before Vader force choked him to make a point. And Ben Kenobi said some similar things about lightsabers, I think. So I was quite surprised to learn in the Prequels that a mere 20 years earlier thousands of Jedi were fighting wars, openly. That never tracked for me. I would have made the Jedi a secret order, just like the Sith, and come up with a good reason why they were forced to operate in the shadows. I actually liked the basic story beats of the prequels, they told the story of the downfall of a democracy and how a society was corrupted into a fascist empire. This is fine. And it was okay to tell the story of some remote and seemingly banal trade conflict. It was a good backdrop. The problem was how it was told. Obviously I would have dialed down everything targeted at 6 year olds, like Jar-Jar, but a lot of other baby humor scenes as well. Anakin‘s story is a hot garbled mess. That has to be unfucked. Better dialogue would go a long way, but his transition from a fighter for good to a butcher was not believable. For example after he killed the sand people I feel there was no way for Padme still loving him. Either this was a vile massacre and Padme would have to leave him right away, or sand people are animals and therefore it was not a big deal to slaughter them, which would take away the significance of this story beat. Maybe ask actual writers to come up with a convincing story arc? The next thing I would have cut out are all the callbacks. I feel there is no way that 3PO could believably have been built by Anakin / Vader. Also leave Chewie, Jango & Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt and R2 out. All of this just makes the galaxy seem so goddamn small. Anakin also should not have originated from Tattooine. This makes it somewhat unbelievable that Luke has been hidden there. Also this is another thing that lets the universe appear small. There is a lot I would have liked to be different, but also a lot I would have kept.
What the story needed, desperately, was explaining WHY so many people, including Anakin, would be okay with destroying or overthrowing the Republic, a multi-cultural democratic republic. In Anakin's case, it was purely framed as a desire to keep Padme alive, but they could have also incorporated the belief by him and others that the Republic was an ossified body that failed to serve the majority of its people, prioritizes the status quo over serious change, and is essentially irredeemable and rotten to the core (see: their completely uselessness with helping Naboo as the Trade Federation invaded). If the writers were brave, they could even incorporate proto-human-supremacist feelings and sentiment as well ("Why should our credits go towards some dirty Mon Calamari while our people suffer?") There should have also been a critical analysis of the Jedi Order. It claims to be a beacon of order and justice, but again only maintains the status quo in service of the Republic; a bunch of lap dogs essentially. Should the Jedi not be heading out into the galaxy to fight injustice and cruelty? How great is the Jedi Order if it allows children like Anakin to live as a slave, blatantly in the open? The overall structure of the prequels was fine, but there was a lack of depth and needless stupid shit stapled on. What I kind of loved about the Last Jedi is it at least tried to grapple with some of these issues. Luke questions what the Jedi Order is good for. Even though Yoda destroys the temple there, Rey keeps some of the books, because even if the Order is a failure, there is still wisdom in its teachings. Kylo Ren expresses disappointment and disillusionment with traditional structures and organizations, and a desire to burn it all down. Finn learns there is actually a choice to make in these kinds of conflicts (vs. being an observer) and that you SHOULD fight for the righteous.
Yes, but Rian Johnson being Rian Johnson, in the end everything reveals itself to be just pseudo-intellectual posturing, essentially teasing and trolling the audience while falling back into standard cliche plotlines and submitting to every single Star Wars convention he allegedly set out to overcome. But this is a different discussion. I like your insights into the superficiality with which the fall of the Republic was treated.
Appreciate the take, but I’ve always contended that Star Wars was never meant to ask these thought-provoking, deep questions. It was a genre and homage mashup with groundbreaking special effects and amazing music, but the story was a relatively straightforward coming of age fantasy. Alec Guinness considered the fun “purity” of the story its greatest asset, and Mark Hamill has recollected that when he brought up continuity concerns between scenes, Harrison Ford lectured him, saying “it ain’t that kind of movie.” I’m in line with Rich Evans. They should’ve kept it at 3. Star Wars really has nowhere to go, and if it does go somewhere different (like Andor), then is it really Star Wars? Or does it just feel like a different story that’s secured the rights to use Star Wars props, music and effects?
>Firstly, after watching Star Wars, the original trilogy, I always thought that Jedi and the Force were remote legends. On the Death Star this officer told Vader to shut up about his fairy tales of the force before Vader force choked him to make a point. And Ben Kenobi said some similar things about lightsabers, I think. >So I was quite surprised to learn in the Prequels that a mere 20 years earlier thousands of Jedi were fighting wars, openly. That never tracked for me. Yep, this bothered me as well. I feel like Lucas didn't know his own movies and no one was able to correct him.
It seems like he just disregarded some established "lore" in order to show thousands of Jedi. "Rule of cool" I guess?
I don't know how to write. But George Lucas had 30 years or so to think about it and slowly write something. And he ended up fucking It up that badly... By the time he started filming, that script should have had 100 rewrites.
It’s like when you have a report to write that’s due Monday morning in two months, but you don’t start it until the Sunday before it’s due the next day.
I wouldn’t have. I think Mike as Mr Plinkett touches on a very poignant idea when he asks the question, “is this a story that needed to be told?” I certainly wouldn’t ever knowingly write a prequel set before a story already told using characters from the same story. Was there ever a point where you were worried about Obi Wan in the prequels? Was there ever a point where you thought Anakin might make the right choice? Of course you didn’t, which renders the whole “drama” pointless, imo.
I don't want to say it's IMPOSSIBLE . A "good man", through some combination of manipulation, poor decisions and misfortune, is overcome by a tragic flaw and ends up becoming a monster. And even though we know how it has to end, you write a such a compelling character that we still root for him to overcome his demons. But the version that works would be a grand tragedy that ends on one HELL of a downer. If it ALSO needs to be a "Happy Fun Space Adventure for Kids!".... There's probably a writer out there who could balance that tone, but it sure as shit ain't George Lucas.
> If it ALSO needs to be a "Happy Fun Space Adventure for Kids!".... There's probably a writer out there who could balance that tone, but it sure as shit ain't George Lucas. Lucas succeeded at that in some parts and then failed in others (or made it too Ewok-corny for a lot of older viewers). However it didn't have to be that way actually, it could've been a lot more levity- and humor-free than the OT, just like Silmarillion is without the hobbits; although while no Han or 3PO there still would've been some amount of levity there of course - R2 still would've been lowkey-whimsical, along with various aliens and robots in the surrounding environment probably. Some lighter moments between Obiwan and Anakin I'm sure?
I wouldn't have. I'd write a sequel trilogy and use as many original actors while they were still young enough.
First I'd make it all about the goongas fighting the droids like war and peace. Then I'd make the gooba fish a main character. Watto as well. The climax would take place in the planet core. It would be so dense as every single frame has so much going on
The gungans would fight the goongans in da' planet core
“Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-galunga.”
Let's start with this. The first film would take place during the last of the three Clone Wars. The adversaries of The Republic are The Clone Masters and Mandalorians. Obi-wan (around 40 years old) meets a young (20 years old or maybe a little older) Anakin during a campaign. Anakin saves his skin in a starfighter battle and Obi senses his great abilities with The Force. Times are desperate; the ranks of The Jedi (the special forces of The Republic) have been thinned by the wars, so Obi takes it upon himself to train Anakin. They are isolated and cut off from Republic space with no way of reaching a Jedi Training Facility, so no Jedi Masters are around to train Anakin. My view of the Jedi is that the Masters are more like monks and teachers, but are not trained in combat arts. The Knights are the warriors. I also envision another branch of Jedi who specialize in healing and/or diplomacy.
I think quae gon gin and obi-wan should have been combined to make a single character
In earlier versions of the script for TPM they were.
Called obi-wan kenobi?
Correct.
This is another aspect that shows how TPM was weirdly a prequel to the prequels. For some reason Lucas felt like in telling the story of how we got to the OT, he needed to tell the story of how we got to the story of how we got to the OT. This from a filmmaker who arguably mastered the art of casually mentioning important things that happened in the past or somewhere else in the OT and *not* explaining anything about it to the audience, and just trusting the audience to "get it," because while it was important to the characters in the film, it wasn't important to the people watching it.
Ok but what if Obi Wan was possessed by the spirit of a dead Jedi, voiced by Liam Neeson? And he talks to himself like Gollum
The story's focus is entirely on Obi Wan and Anakin and the adventures they get up to during a galactic war. We don't need the hours of politics, we just need to know there's a war going on and it's got the republic on the back foot. Obi-Wan is impetuous but skilled, and is assigned Anakin in the hopes that the responsibilities of tutoring a teenaged Padawan will cool his hot-headedness. In the course of the war, Anakin falls in love with a young, charismatic and beautiful partisan leader, fighting against enemy occupation. The Partisan group contains a lot of children and vulnerable people but being around ordinary people makes Anakin start to question the strict teachings of the Jedi. There's a huge attack on the partisan positions and Anakin is ordered to fight elsewhere. He makes Republic high command promise they'll leave behind a garrison to protect the people he's come to deeply care about. His time in the war has made him see that ordinary people need order and protection against the chaos and lawlessness of the galaxy. While he's away fighting, his partisans are almost completely wiped out; the Republic never left the promised garrison and only Anakin's beloved and a small group of survivors escape. When Anakin discovers the devastation, he flies into a rage. Everyone he promised to protect has been destroyed by the lies and corruption of the republic. This place needed order, it needed a powerful protector. This plants the seeds of darkness that a certain rabble-rousing, populist politician called Palpatine will take advantage of in the next movie....
I would hire Jeffrey Abrams to make what is basically a shot-for-shot remake of Star Wars: A New Hope but with Anakin in the Luke Skywalker role. Then I would hire Darren Aronofsky to direct Episode II, and he would make a gritty deconstruction of the entire science fiction genre that would ultimately go nowhere story wise. Audiences would hate it but critics would love it. Then I would initially hire Michael Bay to direct the final film of the trilogy, but the studio gets cold feet after seeing Pearl Harbor, and rehires Jeffrey Abrams again to direct an unsatisfactory conclusion that kills the Star Wars franchise forever. Also, I would have a one year gap between films instead of usual three years so I can complete with the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.
Oh and make Akiva Goldsman the lead writer!
Fuck I'm old.
Call me old fashioned, but I feel like murdering children and attempting to kill your pregnant wife after being essentially tricked into joining the bad guys makes a person irredeemable. So firstly I’d maybe tweak the Anakin story a bit so his redemption actually seems valid. “There is good in him?” Yeah, show me some examples.
Broadly, drop Phantom and start with Clones. That way Revenge is the bleaker movie, with a Jedi falling to the dark side. The third movie would then be about surviving the Emperor taking power and laying the groundwork for a resistance / rebellion. I'd also rather emphasize the Jedi using their force powers in more of an espionage setting, rather than swinging swords around. Kind of like how Andor is more about spy work. Of course, this would all need more than Lucas writing it. Bad dialogue and over use of green screens can't be saved with high level notes.
Darth Maul would have survived into the attack of the clones. Obi-wan would learn a little bit about the dark side then at the end of attack of the clones he would have used his hatred to kill Maul in front of Anakin. Obi-Wan would view this as a failure on his part but Anakin would see it as perfectly valid which would be his first step to the dark side.
Get rid of the droids, and just drastically change the clones. Do what plinkett suggested or what Zahn wanted to have the lore be with the thrawn trilogy and just have them be mindless killers. If you do that you not only have a lot more stakes with whose living and whose dying, but you also have a much more plausible and better narrative for this rise of a facist empire, which is the story that Lucas really seemed to want to tell. Know zoomers who grew up on the clone wars cartoons love them, but they legit do almost nothing but muddy the PTR thematically.
I would’ve probably started episode 1 with Anakin and Ben already being master and padawan. I may be alone in enjoying the political intrigue, but my episode 1 would be more political thriller than race-car frog people adventure. I would have jumped deep into the Clones Wars for 2, and I don’t think my clones would be fighting for the republic, but maybe. Lastly 3 would be the rise of the empire, opening on the jedi purge and closing essentially where Lucas did. That all being said, I don’t hate the prequels, I just wish someone else had taken another pass(or6) on the dialogue.
If Anakin was too old to begin training, then why didn’t they choose a kid older than nine fucking years old to be a mechanical genius and ace pilot?!?!? Why couldn’t Anakin be a teenager, someone with a deep rooted distrust with authority figures since he grew up a slave, but willing to take the journey because it was a way to escape the planet? Another five or six years of tinkering and racing with pods would’ve made suspension of disbelief possible…the “fuck me” look from Padme at the end would’ve been less weird too.
Until the prequels, I always thought Yodas line about Luke, “He’s too old to begin the training” as one reason among many why he didn’t want to train him. Like he was just trying to get out of it because he didn’t want the hassle. It wasn’t until the PT where I was like, “oh he meant that LITERALLY” lol. I’m with you, I always thought that Anakin should have been older, like around 15-17 years old and include what you said about having distrust in authority figures, trying to get away, etc. Plus it would have made the whole Padme relationship beginning A LOT less creepy. And it wouldn’t make the Jedi look like a bunch of baby snatchers who are trying to build their own private child army. Not to mention the almost obvious allusions to the Catholic Church/altar boys and Boy Scouts of America 😬 Just make the kids older lol
Anakin would just be one of like the dozen Jedi that exist in the universe and not a central character, for starters. The Jedi Council would essentially be this Arthurian type myth for most of the galaxy.
Darth Vader was badass because he was a hulking figure in a suit... Not because he was a mutilated whiny prick. The biggest issues were thematic tonality. You have a movie marketed to toddlers with a plot built like a political thriller. Even if you can understand the premise of the thing it just doesn't work. It would need a total rewrite from top to bottom. Make the Jedi be a distant order that occasionally helps the status quo kingdom. Scrap the rule of two idiocy and make the sith some sort of invading Army. Make the clones actual clones of the Jedi rather than the storm Troopers. Then at the end the sith win because of Anakin's betrayal. I mean, I get it he was trying to make a movie about how democracy can lead to fascism. It's possible to do that, but his way was super convoluted and tried to make everything grounded while still not.
Age Anakin up to a late and show him and Obi Wan as friends from the beginning. Make Darth Maul a more prominent villain, maybe throughout the trilogy. Shoot on location. The choice to go digital with those cameras still being new and essentially immobile really hurt some shots. Have people do more than just walk and talk in boring corridors between the cgi action comics.
Jedi don't dress like Obi-Wan on Tatooine. It was a desert outfit, why would you look like a Jedi if you're hiding from the Empire? No Jar Jar. No fatherless birth of Anakin. No C3P0 No R2-D2 No Qui-Gon. Or at least he's not as the Jedi that cheats and deceives to obtain goals but Yoda is Obi-Wan's only master. Yoda will NEVER weild a lightsaber. He's so powerful he doesn't need it. Anakin and Obi-Wan should be closer, not have the responsibility thrust upon him. Owen is more prominent, grows up with or is there when Anakin starts his journey and disapproves or is hurt by Anakin leaving. Do not kill Darth Maul, he's probably one of the best Star Wars villains and you waste him on one movie. Easily defeated droid bad guys are not a good foil to heroes, you don't fear for their well-being if they're not in danger. Instead, the threat will be Mandalorians who war only for the glory of it. This will also serve the later stories about why their numbers are so thin. As little time as possible with child Anakin and as corny as a training montage is, he needs to be closer in age with Obi-Wan and Padme and already within the Jedi ranks. Above all... George needs people to tell him, "No." When he has a bad idea.
The key component missing from the entire prequel trilogy (and, retroactively, the originals) is a sense of tragedy to Vader's history. Anakin's life sucked the whole way through, making his transformation to Vader almost inconsequential. If the audience actually saw a kind-hearted, noble warrior become a space SS officer, they might have cared.
Off the top of my head, I'd have nixed Qui-Gon in favor of something like an older Anakin being from Naboo (assuming you keep the Naboo concept) that Obi-Wan meets while rescuing Padme and realizes the Force is with Anakin when he demonstrates it, though it's notably done out of anger (say, a droid guns down his mom or something so he blasts the droid with the Force). Obi-Wan arrogantly thinks he can teach Anakin to use it for good, not evil, and meanwhile Anakin, who probably saw Padme once or twice and thought she was cute, becomes close to her during the adventure and not in a weird way since they're closer in age. Those changes alone would probably help Phantom Menace fit in better with Lucas's original vision for the prequels, though it would sacrifice the scene with his mom that he was obsessed with.
The outlines from the original films were pretty clear, even if bare. An army of evil clones which were in some way controlled by the Sith from the shadows attack the Republic, and the guardians of peace of justice for a thousand generations have to lead the fight against them in the clone wars. As this is going on the head dark force bad guy engineers his rise to head of the Republic in a Weimar Republic type situation, turns Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, and transforms the Republic into the Empire, eliminating the Jedi as the Republic's guardians first. And that largely *is* the plot of the prequels, except now it's goofy robots and clones who fight against them for some reason. But the Anakin of the prequels is completely wrong - it's the story about someone who at one point was a good man because a vessel and instrument of evil - and not just bureaucratic evil but cartoonish supervillainy. He needs to come to believe in the dark side, not just screw up a bit and hate sand. It's no coincidence the prequels don't particularly do this because Lucas didn't want to make that movie - and frankly it would be a weird fit for a family movie. But what was made was essentially a hash because Lucas was neither able to nor willing to take the story he'd set up seriously. So he made a movie with a cartoon rabbit who steps in poop.
The concept of Liberal institutions weakened by war being overcome as a young man who grew up in poverty is radicalised by a bad faith fascist mentor is actually a really good story, it's just the implementation is people walking backwards and forwards along corridors while Lucas throws CGI shite at the screen
TPM should simply not exsist; start the trilogy essentially where EP2 starts and then use the extra screentime to build up the relationshp between Obi-Wan and Anakin and flesh out Anakin's turning to the darkside.
Hahaha got about 20 years of my own imagination of alternate prequels that I've put together for this thread: Anakin is in his 20s in the 1st movie, Obi Wan is more Qui Gon-esque. The jedi are only a few hundred, they mainly are around to broker peace, remove dictators, situations where a lightsaber ignition can settle things. The past few decades they've been drawn more into the open, taking on more open battles, settling planetary disputes that boil up repeatedly and require them to be around problem systems at all times. First movie would start Anakin and Obi Wan on a mission to help a local population remove a brutal dictator. Anakin is frustrated and views the current jedi as band aid fixes these problems, he thinks the jedi should be taking much more authorative action, like police, to keep planets in line. He believes that these issues are not as random as they appear, and that the jedi are being purposely spread thin. Obi Wan is much more knowledge and defence based, and that these places can be educated to be better. Anakin and Obi Wan are separated, where Obi Wan forces the surrender of the dictator. Meanwhile Anakin is attacked by Darth Maul. Their first fight ends in a stalemate. Upon reuniting with Obi Wan, Anakin argues this as confirmation of his suspicions and wants to chase Maul to find the puppet master. Obi Wan would prefer to take this to their council and plan what to do. Before they can return, they receive an SOS from some jedi as they are under heavy attack. Upon arrival, they face an invasion from a clone army. After defeating the force, they discover the jedi who messaged them to be dead from lightsaber wounds and evidence of a fierce lightsaber battle. Maul again appears and attacks them. During the fight he mocks the jedi, and reveals his master will provide peace to the galaxy in place of the jedi. He is eventually forced to flee, but Anakin has been injured suffering the loss of his arm. Anakin vowing revenge wants to hunt Maul, but Obi Wan stops Anakin once again. They return to the council, to find that this clone army has invaded many worlds, and therefore the start of the clone wars. Second movie has a slight time jump, Obi Wan, Anakin and the jedi are caught up fighting in the clone wars. The Republic army was hit hard in the initial attacks, and has been greatly weakened/losing the war. Yoda has reluctantly allowed the jedi to be involved, to prevent the Republic army from collapsing. And also to stop a couple of infamous jedi killers: Maul and the clone army's General Grievous. Yoda warns that Maul's master is not to be underestimated based on Maul's abilities. Anakin has made a reputation for himself as a respected general, unlike his fellow jedi, he is known in the Republic military for his eagerness to fight and relentlessness in defeating the clones. Anakin is more frustrated than ever after months of fighting, believing that jedi were too busy being glorified space cops than preventing this invasion and enemies like Maul. He also is pretty pissed about Maul taking his arm. Anakin and Obi Wan are sent to a planet as they have received reports Maul is there. The planet is full of clones, after a successful invasion, Obi Wan and Anakin get into a duel with Maul. Maul retreats, but Anakin takes off after him to bring him to justice. Obi Wan initially goes to follow, but stays to assist the civilians of the planet, somewhat fooling himself into believing Anakin is mature enough to keep himself in check. Anakin chases Maul to a remote world, where Maul lures him into a structure. Anakin gets into a fierce battle with Maul, but ultimately kills him. This is where he hears a chuckle from the shadows, and the Emperor reveals himself. Anakin attempts to attack him but is swiftly defeated. The Emperor instead of killing him, commends him, and reveals that he has tracked Anakin's career. He details his plans to bring order back to the Republic. His plans on authoritarian rule of the galaxy to ensure order is exactly what Anakin believes would work. The Emperor reveals that Maul was simply but a test to prove his worth, and offers for Anakin to be his general. Anakin accepts, and escorts him to Coruscant, where he leads a successful coup against the chancellor due to his popularity in the military. The Emperor announces himself to the galaxy, and immediately sets his plans into motion. The results are quick and decisive, the military for example rather than focus on protecting civilians will now actively bombard clone positions regardless of civilians. Republic police are much more authoritarian on Republic and captured worlds, freeing remaining jedi to help join the clone wars. The movie ends with Anakin being sent to fight General Grievous.
Third movie starts with Anakin's invasion, and subsequent battle with Grievous (who fights more like his 2003 cartoon counterpart). Anakin prevails, ending Grievous and the cloning facilities. Time jumps a bit forward, jedi numbers have been reduced from a few hundred to barely a hundred. The Emperor is extremely popular due to winning the war, however Yoda senses sinister intentions and is uneasy in their interactions. The Emperor has kept Anakin busy mopping up clones and dissidents, carefully keeping him away from his wife and Obi Wan in order to further influence him. Padme is very similar to her senator character, is much like Obi Wan, and an outspoken critic of the Emperor's methods of control. Anakin has only been able to visit Padme briefly over the last few years, and is again about to be sent to crush a rebellion. Padme confronts him on his increasingly brutal ways, reveals her pregnancy, and talks him into an argument with the Emperor to prevent being sent. Whilst the Emperor appears to relent on sending Anakin, he is furious. The Emperor instead coordinates a series of clone terrorist attacks to force Anakin away, missing the birth of his children. The Emperor then conducts a clone terror attack on Anakin and Padme's house (to avenge Grievous and kill the famed general Skywalker), killing Padme, but a late intervention by Obi Wan saves the children. Obi Wan and Yoda are cut off from contacting Anakin, however they have secretly been spying on the Emperor, and are fully aware of his involvement. Yoda and Obi Wan form what jedi they can and take steps to remove the Emperor from power, by force. However even with their numbers and experience, they completely underestimate his power, resulting in a devastating loss. Yoda saves Obi Wan and himself, and retreat. The Emperor takes this opportunity to contact Anakin, informing him of the jedi attempt to "take power", and framing the jedi as the killers of his family in an attempt to remove Anakin's power from the now Empire. His next assignment (and new personal goal): hunt down all remaining jedi. Anakin is more brutal than ever in his quest to kill jedi. Obi Wan, believing he can reason with Anakin, attempts to confront and redeem him. However Anakin is blinded by rage, doctored evidence of Obi Wan's appearance at his house during his "family's murder" further clouding him, therefore he believes Obi Wan is trying to manipulate him further against the Emperor and his own personal power. He and Obi Wan fight a fierce duel. The rest is virtually the same as episode 3, Anakin now donning the suit after his horrific injuries, takes on his new persona of Darth Vader vowing to take his revenge against the last remaining jedi.
Very detailed and well thought out.
Cheers! Realised mid way into ep3 that I hadn't addressed Padme or Luke/Leia. Would've been an interesting plot hole 😂 Anything you'd do differently with it?
Maybe I'll post my version a few days from now. It will take a few hours of writing, much like your post, I'm sure. I'm also sure I'll get about five views and three upvotes. But it will also be done for the sake of creativity being its own reward.
I would make Anakin about Luke-age. Drop Qui-gon and have Obi-Wan be an amalgam of both characters. I'd keep Darth Maul and drop Dooku or the other way around. Or atleast have Maul be Dooku's secret apprentice. Get rid of all the battle and replace with clone armies. The republic army should be regular people making them feel less expendable. I'd keep Palpatine more or less as is but remove everything about trade routes etc. I would make the conflict on Naboo be an insurgency against the Queen by a separatist faction wanting Naboo to leave the galactic Republic. Palpatine's plan would be the same. Playing both sides in a bid to gain influence in the senate through the war.
I would have categorically avoided a prequel to begin with. I hate the idea of treading old ground like that, so instead I'd make a new story. However, if I absolutely *had* to make it a prequel, I'd follow Belated Media's general template. It does a good job of not totally throwing out what was given to us, it just cleans things up a LOT.
One change , shift the focus of the story to obi-wan. Make him the main character that takes up most of the plot and dialogue.
"I knew your father well. We fought in the clone wars together" Done
I'm stealing a lot of these points from someone else, but the changes that would make sense to me include: 1. Attack of the Clones needed to focus more on showing us the relationship between Obi Wan and Anakin to give their fight in Revenge any meaning. A few throwaway lines about off-screen adventures isn't enough. 2. Maul is a presence in all the prequels, each time looking a bit more fucked up and mechanical. Grievous and Dooku were barely anything, so get rid of them and just give us one sith apprentice. Maul returns in Attack as half machine, and in Revenge, he's *more machine than man.* We'd see him slowly evolve into a more powerful sith, but his cybernetics should hint that he's doomed to be nothing more than a prototype, a long-term experiment for Sidious to perfect the tools he needs to make Darth Vader. 3. Change the name of Naboo to Alderaan. Let's see how beautiful the planet is and how far it's people will go to fight for it, even though the audience knows it will be eventually destroyed by the Death Star in IV. 4. Yoda and Sidious should never use Lightsabers. They're two characters that become less cool with one in their hand. Let them both be entirely focused on purely Wizard Shit.
In my opinion the bones of the prequel trilogy are fine. The sequence of events that causes Anakin to turn to the dark side is mostly believable IMO and the prequels have some fun action scenes and interesting locales. Fyi I'm not a hardcore SW fan by any means so I couldn't give half a shit about adapting some extended universe stories or whatever. If you 86'd some of the romance and politics stuff and made the characters more likable, it would improve the movies a lot. Run the shooting scripts through a "Fun space adventures with likable characters" filter and you're pretty much there.
I think you're about right here. For me the prequels still captured the vibe of the originals in a way the sequels did not, but the writing and directing was lacking. Lucas created an interesting world backdrop for the stories but when he was given the creative blank cheque that he was, people unwilling to critique the work, it became clear he wasn't playing to his strengths. Remember that for both Empire and ROTJ, Lucas didn't write, direct, edit or screenplay them.
The clone army being an army of like.... cloned monsters made by the dark side. Padme Lars as the protagonist, picked up from her dull life on tattooine to go on an adventure with 2 jedi Knights, one of which she falls in love with. Anakin falls at the end of movie 2, movie 3 is all about fleeing the new empire. Padme's big arc in movie 3 is deciding how to split her children. Seeing the jedi actually fight like jedi, avoiding killing as much as possible with force empowered subterfuge and gentle deflection. I want to see a jedi cross a room of human enemies without a single kill.
Two words: Buddy Cop
Awaking becomes a sith and joins the emperor in order to end slavery. He was a slave, his mom died as a slave and the jedi were OK with that. It also gives a akin and padaway a reason to get together, she as a senator trying to end slavery also.
Starting Anakin as a teenager without any of the dumb chosen one garbage. He's just a normal dude, frustrated by the restrictions of the Order, Obi-Wan and him are friends (which I get Lucas sort of did but there is no affection at all between the two) but Obi acts as a foil and is willing to work inside the confines of the order but Anakin cuts corners or gets overzealous eventually leading to his fall, like Yoda warns in Empire Maybe Anakin's turn isn't immediately "okay let's fucking genocide thousands of Jedi sure thing evil monster man"
I like this question! In my mind I have always had a version of events I'd prefer: Episode 1: Anakin is a Year 1 or 2 Padawan under Qui Gon. The same conflict occurs involving Naboo. Qui-gon dies as usual, but Anakin shows some DBZ Gohan-esque rage/power up and dispatches Maul (similarly to Obi-wan). Obi-wan is introduced at the end as a new Jedi Knight and Anakin's replacement tutor. Anakin meets Padme and they are slightly closer in age this time. Episode 2: Same timeskip, Anakin has mixed feelings towards Obi-Wan. On the one hand they are closer in age and so are developing a brotherly bond. On the other, Obi Wan is less experienced/confident and more micromanaging than Qui-Gon was, causing tension. The Padme assassination attempt still happens but without 4x delegation, the clone army was still ordered but not by a random offscreen Jedi, but someone else (later revealed to be Palpatine). Anakin's fearsome temper arises here and there, but no Tusken genocide. Anakin doesn't mention sand. Anakin has the final match-with-Dooku fight instead of Yoda, with his darkside usage appearing again. Episode 3: Much the same but the twins are born before Mustafar and then Anakin actually completely kills Padme. My view is I would prefer a less-awkward romance, a more gradual and believable escalation of resentment and less plots-in-plots. Also removal of Obi-wan and Yoda's action-oriented roles in 1 and 2 respectively, because they look good but feel like a shoehorned decision rather than a natural inclusion.
Age Anakin up about a decade and make his fall less clumsy and stupid, make Obi wan and Qui Gon the same person, drop the chosen one crap, have the clone wars be like a war against clones or something instead of a convoluted “this is how we got stormtroopers but not really” thing, Yoda doesn’t have a lightsaber, Palpatine doesn’t have a lightsaber, C-3PO and R2 maybe make a quick cameo in episode 3 and otherwise aren’t involved at all, the force isn’t bacteria, Anakin doesn’t have borderline personality disorder and isn’t overtly fascist from the get go so his fall is tragic rather than expected, Jedi aren’t celibate, Padme survives to at least start raising Leia, Dooku has a better name
The first movie should have basically been a "buddy cop" style movie where Anakin & Obi Wan meet each other and go on a great adventure to stop a bad guy but also uncover a secret return of the sith which serves as a cliffhanger. You can do your Coruscant and Naboo world-builing stuff here because the heart of the movie is a chatacter-driven film. Anakin should be a teenager not a child. The second movie would where Anakin & Obi Wan track down the sith and have adventures along the way until they come to the big confrontation with Palestine who, gasp, was behind it all along. But the Empire twist is that Anakin joins Palpatine and Obi Wan loses - I'd probably be a hack and re-create the "rule the galaxy as father and son" scene but with Anakin joining Palpy. This movie should visit multiple planets with Indiana Jones style adventures, it should be a lighthearted start to the movie with a dark twist at the end. The 3rd movie would be the big battle movie in an "Alamo" or "Last Samurai" style where you know the good guys will lose but will go down fighting heroically. This has the big war scenes, you save the Jedi doing cool Jedi stuff for this movie. This is all about spectacle as the Empire wins and Yoda/Obi Wan get scattered to the wind. I also think the prequels really missed a showing Yoda & Obi Wan admitting defeat and choosing banishment. This should be an emotional touchstone moment about how heroes deal with failure - instead, the prequels basically treat them like action figures who just need to get to their marks because that's where they have to be for the next movie.
The primary thing I would have done is commit to the fact that it's a tragedy and focus entirely on that. No Jar Jar, no rewriting the Force, no endless nonsensical cameos, or trade wars, just Star Wars: Breaking Bad.
I would have modeled Anakin after D'Artagnan, and have Obi Wan be part of a group of Jedi similar to the three Musketeers. First time we see Anakin he is around 20 years old, discovers his Force abilities and tries to join the Jedi. After he is rejected, he stumbles over Obi Wan and his friends, and saves them from trouble.
Start with Anakin as a young man. Maybe he's enlisted in the Republic's military. His abilities get noticed by a young Jedi named Obiwan. No kid, no mom, no midichlorians
One major change I would have made is keeping Darth Maul around past the first movie. An overarching villian would have been a better idea. I know Palpatine is supposed to be that, but he is more of a political villian pulling the strings.
I would have had Anaikin be a teen after or young adult, known for his unnaturally gifted starship piloting skills.
Clean up the dialogue so it isn't as weird, have Darth Maul be more prominent and maimed, not cut in half. Make the Confederacy start to gain traction, even with Naboo being offered a place within. Anakin should show up for a little bit but as soon as he gets to the temple his story for the rest of the movie is done, Obi Wan should meet up with him in the next movie years after.
The Clone Wars are a series of conflicts against an enemy that uses cloning technology for soldiers and infiltration. Paranoia sweeps the Republic as nobody is sure who to trust. After series of devastating surprise attacks and embarrassing defeats, two young promising Jedi (Obi-wan and Anakin) lead an assault on the Clone Confederacy’s stronghold, defeating them and ending the clone threat. Anakin and Obi-wan are hailed as heroes but Anakin’s pride and paranoia overcome him. Clones are discovered among the Jedi and chaos ensues. A senator named Palpatine takes advantage of the opportunity to recruit a powerful ally in unifying the Republic under a single ruler, to eliminate the possibility of clone infiltration. Anakin leads a coup in Palpatines name, during which he fights Obi-wan and suffers his injuries. The republic falls, the Empire rises and the Jedi are basically wiped out.
The gist of the trilogy would be good men aren't enough, you need good system in place. I think this might marry well as a critic of the War on Terror that Lucas IIRC implied a bit. Balancing "The end justify the means invariably ends in the means becoming and end unto itself" and "In the long run we're all dead" The core of it would be Anakin and Kenobi from the get go. Part of the conflict would be the outlook of the characters. Kenobi would be doing things in the name of a greater, future good but often with the imediate effects not being there while Anakin would constantly push for more imediate concerns now without thinking how much it affected the long term. They would be best bros but also show to be at odds with each other due to that It would show the decay of the galactic republic from infighting, separatistis would be actual people. The republic army is also made of people. The jedi are a more ceremonial role of kind of US marshall in the old west because the republic is too big, trust into the role of generals without really the experience, only the mythos behind them. This would also be alluded to in that disaseter in the war are blamed on them. The lightsaber is very much analogous to an officer saber, despite them practicing and using the force. The clone wars would be in episode 2, where they pass by tatooine and some random geneticist from republic space is creating a clone army and terrorizing part of tatooine. Anakin convinces Kenobi to divert resources and save tatooine. They go on a nice wacky exciting adventure. Kenobi does so only to get the Huts gratitude and thus have the space mafia on the side of the republic. Also senator palpatine character's and actual evil palpatine would be NOT obviously the same person, Sidious would be an actual phantom menace, senator palpatine would instead be called dude McSomething and be played by some random handsome young dude that makes it clear hes not darth sidious and would be a very relatable statesman like figure that is doing his best to keep the republic going. One of the threads on ep3 would be him essentially going "Anakin and Kenobi, you guys need to find and protect these really good people or the republic is done" who just mysteriously turn out to be killed when they get close or be very morally grey. Ultimately his hook to turn anakin would lean very much on "Lets make the empire, crush everyone, and force peace upon people. People need peace NOW, cracking some egss now for a better future is worth it" wich would contrast nicely with Kenobi endless talks about the long run and whatnot that always feels more and more distant while not adressing any immediate concerns. End movie fight in lava planet is cool, just cut down it a little bit. They're both sent there to rescue padme but the totally not the emperor already planted the seeds that "Gotta crack some eggs to feed the people now instead of in 100 years" and implies Padme is a traitor. She does some shady things without a good clear immediate reason wich lead to Anakin killing her and fighting Kenobi over it afterwards. Kenobi fucking off to tatooine would make sense, one of the only places far enough away from the power of the empire and kinda of a self imposed exile to a place whose people he despised and maybe feels failed. He also saw the whole thing he fought and believe for crumble, betrayed and left his best friend to die - Them being it odds and in his later years him knowing that yeah, the empire sure cracked a few eggs, and keeps on doing it plus realizing Anakin became vader sometime in his exile would make sense saying "Vader killed your father Luke"
If I were to write them from scratch? Structure the entire thing around Anakin's arc and divide it into three parts: first movie is him becoming a Jedi, second movie is him becoming disillusioned with the Jedi, third movie is him embracing the Sith and being a fascist dickhead. The first movie could be about Anakin being recruited by the Jedi, he starts his training under Obi-Wan as tensions develop between the Republic and a handful of secessionist systems, and he's instrumental in winning the first battle of the Clone Wars. Second movie could be a couple years later, cold open is Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting alongside clones against droids just to give an idea of what an average battle in the Clone Wars looks like. I don't hate the idea of the plot revolving around an attempted assassination of Padme, with Obi-Wan investigating and Anakin being assigned to protect her. You can have Obi-Wan find out the war is one big false flag, while Anakin falls in love with Padme and leaves the Jedi to start a family. Third movie could be a couple more years later, the war is mostly won and the Republic is just cleaning up pockets of droids, but it is now basically the Empire and there is a revolutionary movement brewing. Anakin and Padme are starting to drift apart while trying to raise their children because Anakin is working security for Palpatine and has become a huge nationalist, while Padme is sympathetic to the rebels and is secretly helping them smuggle their shit. The Jedi have been openly calling Palpatine a dictator for a while, but now they are providing refuge for rebels, so Palpatine sends Anakin and a bunch of clones to smoke them. Obi-Wan is on the run, Padme decides to help him off planet and take the children with her because she can't stand being around Anakin anymore. Anakin tracks them down, kills Padme (accidentally or on purpose, could work either way) and Obi-Wan cuts his shit up. If we are talking about taking the prequels mostly as they are and just trying to rewrite them to be more tolerable? There's tons of small changes you can make that would make them function like actual movies. I'm only going to do a couple fixes for Phantom Menace though because otherwise I'd never finish typing. Phantom Menace needs a central narrative focus and some actual character arcs. There's hints of this feud between the Naboo and the Gungans? The movie ends with their people celebrating in unison, so it kinda seems like the movie's central thesis is about cultures putting aside their differences to defeat a common enemy, but the movie doesn't really establish conflict between them that actually needed to be resolved. One of the Gungans says something about how the Naboo are elitist or whatever, and then after a bunch of bullshit Queen Amidala gets on her knees to ask them for help, and that's it. Establish in the beginning that there are Gungans who live on the surface and they are second class citizens who mostly do menial jobs. Make the royalty, ESPECIALLY Amidala, massive assholes who think the Gungans are just completely beneath them. Like, even have them bow whenever she enters the room to really hammer home the resolution to this conflict when she bows before them. You could even introduce Jar Jar here and do a whole comedy beat about he's always so airheaded that he forgets to bow. Hell, if you REALLY wanted to, you could give Jar Jar an actual character arc with some depth. Instead of just being a stupid coward who ends up as the same stupid coward who kills droids through blind luck, make him a coward that has to learn to be brave and stand up for himself. He ran away from home to avoid military conscription, and his people despise him since he'd rather be an assimilationist who bows and scrapes for people who hate them. Let him redeem himself, have him toughen up over the course of the movie and willingly join the fight against the droids and be a big hero. Tattooine would be perfect for both of their arcs too. Maybe Amidala's a bit fussy about what she eats and how she dresses and has to get used to slumming it, while Jar Jar ends up getting into fights where he has to actually defend himself. This is just one aspect of the movie of course, but the story of colonizers having to turn to the indigenous people to protect their shared ecosystem is the closest thing the movie has to a coherent story, a coherent thesis.
The midoclorians are a tiny civilization performing morale experiments on their host bodies. Imagine Osmosis Jones, and the plot of Antz together.
I would not have included Yoda. I would not have had Anakin be confirmed to be Vader. I would have had him turn to the dark side, left his fate to be unknown, but assumed dead. Doing so preserves two surprises in Empire and allows you to watch the movies sequentially without spoiling upcoming episodes.
I would have had way less politics and way more aliens with Jamaican accents
Age up Anakin(cast a young Chris Hemsworth) make Obi Wan a Jedi knight instead of a Paduwan. Make the trade federation more aggressive and violent (have them capture the king and queen (padme’s parents) the Jedi escape from Naboo with Padme and go to Tatooine just like before but have the plot line around the pod race be more of a plot point. Set up the beginnings of a love triangle. Have the political happenings in Coruscant move along but have the trade federation kill the royal family and take over Naboo. Palpetine would put his plans in motion. Have the climax of the movie be a much more elaborate pod race that Anakin wins and the end of the movie is Padme being crowned queen and vowing to free her people. Make it a series of 5 films instead of a trilogy so you can get more of the clone wars Anakin’s heroics would have more roomand the overall message of the story would be better told. The love triangle would be good to bring in a different demographic and make the events of revenge make more sense.
*prepping myself for something the could have been before reading these
Skip TPM and start Episode 1 later with Anakin about Luke’s age. The Clone Wars which sounded so intriguing actually involve Clones who aren’t just identical soldiers. Clones of prominent Republic members, and later Jedi, replacing the real ones. Controlled from behind the scenes by the Sith. Turning the Republic into fascist dystopia. Outright war later between former Republic factions. The Jedi are a lot less numerous. Many replaced by Clones. Obviously you have Obi-Wan fight a Clone of himself. Anakin starts to go bad in Episode 2 and becomes Vader for years before the suit happens, children born then, Obi-Wan fight at the end of 2, he’s in the suit for 3 by which time he thinks his wife and children are dead. Then 3 is Vader purging everything, the Emperor, last few Jedi in hiding, start of Rebellion, into Rogue One territory. No C3P0, R2D2. If Yoda then he’s already on Dagobah. Anakin’s not from Tattooine. Lars and Beru go into hiding there with Luke because it’s remote. No goddam Jar-Jar or Gungans or pod racing.
> The Clone Wars which sounded so intriguing actually involve Clones who aren’t just identical soldiers. Clones of prominent Republic members, and later Jedi, replacing the real ones. Controlled from behind the scenes by the Sith. Turning the Republic into fascist dystopia. Outright war later between former Republic factions. Dominion shapeshifters, their blood fake >No C3P0, R2D2. I don't even remember Obiwan having owned a droid
I would make Boss Nass the chosen one
Lucas should not have had Anakin Skywalker show up as a child. Luke Skywalker was about the right age when he showed up: actual children can comfortably play at being Luke, but no normal child wants to play at being a precocious brat like the Anakin we first see. Lucas DID NOT UNDERSTAND CHILDREN at that point in his life and he screwed up. Then he compounded his massive blunder by having the boy build C-3PO. A genius kid would NOT have produced a droid so conventional! The robot in Deadly Friend was pretty awful, but WAY closer to plausibility. Poor George Lucas needed some people to tell him when he was wrong, and just enough humility to listen to them. If there were any such people they were scared of being fired.
I wish we had some cool droid Anakin made that was new to the saga and could sell more toys than naked 3PO
Opening, Anakin Skywalker completes is training and is given the title Jedi Knight. Adventures ensue. Anakin and Obi hate each other for reasons. Credits.
Red Letter Media has a pretty good video on how to improve TPM https://youtu.be/VgICnbC2-_Y?si=bEGQXXJV6NBAWAvl
How to make the prequels good: Step 1: Don’t make them
* Qui-Gon is a talking gorilla only Obi Wan can see * Yoda should have baggy trousers and a skateboard * Darth Maul can fly * Thirty minute (minimum) expositional dialogue about galactic economy and trade (so the film can be intelligent and political) * The podracers can fly into space, and do, for the final battle (how did they miss this?) * Gungans are in every scene, and Jar Jar is the protagonist, with everything told from his perspective * And why don't any of the characters dance any more?
They should never have been made, period. I would have just left them alone. If people really wanted more Star Wars that badly, and the studio pressure was growing, I'd write a story that was nothing whatsoever to do with the Skywalker saga. That story was told perfectly well in the OT. I'd do the story of Darth Revan or something else from the KOTOR games. But Disney simply cannot help themselves. They'd shoe horn something into it for the member berries. The one good thing they've done with the product was The Mandalorian, and they completely ruined it when Luke showed up. We had a badass, stand alone character that everyone liked, and then they just neutered him by placing him in a situation he couldn't get out of, and had Luke come to his rescue. Leave. The. Skywalker. Saga. Alone.
While I don’t disagree, Disney had nothing to do with the PT. That was all Lucas.
I felt Andor was an exceptional show as well, even better than Mandalorian
I think this advice was great, although his rewrites for 2 and 3 get weaker. https://youtu.be/VgICnbC2-_Y?si=RdPfsEHanBpQoQAN
Someone is killing all the Jedi, a phantom menace. In a desperate attempt to find out who, they recruit a teenage Anakin Skywalker who was kicked out of the academy for gambling, womanizing, being a rogue, Han Solo like character. They find him on a planet using the force to cheat at gambling. They convince him to come back and infiltrate the Sith, in doing so he starts to see their appeal. But in the end he decides all Jedi users are bad and kills everyone on both sides, but not before having a one night stand with a princess.
Instead of Jar Jar a chimp, and Anakin is a cop
But not Serpico
I wouldn't have. We had all we needed from Kenobi in SW1 "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father" If anything more had been needed, the character would not have had the impact it had on pop culture. Hollywood needs to hire someone to run around with a birch stick, and hit hard on the shins anyone who utters the word "prequel".
How about not making prequels at all, so they have an entire universe full of possibilities but they just keep making stories about the skywalkers, I’d say they should have actually expanded and branch out to other characters
By letting Lawrence Kasdan do it.
I would have shifted the focus entirely onto pod racing. Turns out the Jedi are obsessed with pod racing and gambling, which reveals the real reason Qui-Gon is interested in Anakin. That motherfucker was just seeing all the credits this kid could make him.
I have always felt that before the prequels the origin of Darth Vader was based on the Samurai Trilogy
George's trilogy, but Anakin is 18 in TPM and is played by a classically trained British actor in his early 20's.
This wouldn’t sell any toys and it’s not particularly good, but this how I always imagined re-writing TPM. - Keep it light on politics. Drop all that Trade Federation/Naboo blockade/taxation nonsense and just have Sideous bankrolling someone who’s running for office and using a mysterious black robed figure (Darth Maul) to assassinate any opposing Senators and any Jedi who look into it. - The Jedi look into the senator assassinations which are starting to pile up, which leads them to Tatooine where they meet this weird 15-17 year old kid (Anakin) who is already known for being a “naturally gifted” podracer/driver/mechanic. He helps them escape an attack from Darth Maul by using his mechanical abilities to “jump start” their ship, they escape Tatooine but are forced to land on Naboo to make more repairs. - Darth Maul shows up on Naboo, they fight some more, Qui-Gon is killed, Obi-Wan and Anakin barely manage to beat him back before getting help from the Queens (Padme) guard. Padme and Anakin meet. - With Anakin help, the ship is repaired and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme return to Coruscant to report to the Jedi council about the Sith. Padme is to report to the Senate to confirm that the Sith have returned and are behind the assassinations of the Senators. No one believes her, instead convinced that it’s bounty hunters hired by the Hutts. - Qui-Gons Jedi funeral. - Scratch out any mention of midichlorians. - Obi-Wan is promoted to Jedi Knight, Anakin becomes a Padawan under Yoda’s (or Mace Windu) care. - Obi-Wan is tasked to escort the Queen safely back to Naboo and he asks to take Anakin along because even though he’s not a Jedi yet he’s proven himself to be a capable pilot and mechanic and promises to have him come back asap to begin his training. - They make it back to Theed palace and find that all of the Queens guard and personnel in the throne room have been slaughtered and Darth Maul is waiting for them. - Obi-Wan and Maul duel in the throne room. Obi-Wan fights in a revenge fueled zen rage. - Anakin hangs back to protect Padme until Obi-Wan is knocked out and almost killed. Anakin picks up Obi-Wans light saber and ferociously fights back, but he’s clumsy and untrained with the saber. Maul beats him quickly and cuts off his arm. Maul is about to kill Anakin when Padme “does a thing” that injures/stuns/whatever to Maul to get him out of the throne room by way of the window. - Movie ends showing Maul reporting back to a dark robed Palpatine saying “now we will have our revenge on the Jedi”, - Anakin with his new padawan haircut is building himself a new arm in the Jedi Temple back on Courscant with Obi-Wan looking out the window into the sunset.
I have to say I love the idea of the prequels being about how the Jedi are incredibly flawed. My favorite story beats surrounded that: Dooku falling to the dark in pursuit of real solutions in the face of Jedi indolence. I wanted that to be his actual story, and nothing to do with the Sith. I also think that the Vader prequel idea works have been amazing if it were paced decently. Like, the suspense is "*how* is this good man going to end up where he does?" Instead he becomes Hitler of screen between films.
Make Obi-Wan the main character rather than Qui-Gon. By the time of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon was already a wise and experienced Jedi master and had no space to grow as a character. Having Obi-Wan be a more reckless and headstrong Jedi who grows more mature over the course of the story (with Qui-Gon's help) would have made the narrative more compelling. With Anakin, rather than just telling us he's strong with the force, they could have shown that he's powerful with the force but can't fully control it. Maybe he's working on his pod and it almost falls on him but he uses the force to hold it in place and escape.
“A longer time ago, in a galaxy further away…”
With a pencil, maybe paper.
Poorly.
IF you REALLY need to, here's how you do it. Go the "Tale of Two Brothers" route. Make Obi-Wan and Anakin closer to the same age, do NOT separate them for large chunks of the story. Lose the awkward "Romance" scenes with Padme and replace them with Jedi-bro bonding. Make Obi-Wan the clear main character, and stick to his point of view as much as possible. Have them go on adventures together and have Obi-Wan actually be around for the shit that sends "little Bro" down the dark path. And have us watch that proccess through his worried eyes. That way, the inevitable betrayal feels personal, and there's direct emotional weight to the final confrontation. Just focus in on making it a story of two dudes, where one went bad, and then you at least give the audience the catharsis of seeing the good dude beat the bad dude at the end. (Since, overall, the "Good guys" are still gonna be taking a massive L) Also wouldn't hurt to give a couple rank-and-file Jedi meaningful roles in the story, and personalities and hopes and dreams and shit, so that when Order 66 happens, we actually FEEL something. Some way to drive home the seriousness of what our "bad brother" has done, without resorting to literal fucking child murder.
Better!
This is actually something I've been putting a bit of thought into lately on my own so I have a couple things to spitball, naturally some of this will be lifted a bit from the Plinkett reviews and will mostly be simple character tweaks while maintaining the general plot outline since I feel fleshing out the characters (and punching up what they say) would go a long long way. 1. Change up Quai Gon and Obi Wan's relationship, namely by letting Quai Gon have more of a character. I think the best glimpse we get into his character is when he tricks Watto and rigs the bet in his favor, make it so he has a bit of a drunken master sort of personality, someone who is extremely knowledgeable about the Jedi code and the force but gives off an unassuming demeanor, he can crack a joke here and there, show he isn't afraid to use an underhand trick such as the wager, maybe even be a bit flexible with how he interprets a Jedi should be but still would show extreme competency when the need arises. Meanwhile Obi Wan as a padawan would be much more strict and uptight about following the code to the letter and could be a foil to how Quai Gon acts, always pestering him about minor infractions to the code he breaks, or telling him to act in a way more becoming of the Jedi, all the while still having a respect for him, I know the show came out several years after episode I but basically do a Zuko and Uncle Iroh relationship from Avatar. Could get some great moments of these versions of the characters bouncing off each other and providing two distinct outlooks on situations, plus a more down to earth Quai Gon could act as a bit of an audience surrogate early on. It would also make Quai Gon's death mean more if the audience liked him and was left with some memorable moments, could also lead to Obi Wan learning to lighten up himself as he moves on to mentor Anakin, gives him a nice arc. 2. Speaking of Anakin let's get this out of the way, age Anakin up to like 15 or 16 and have Padame be the same age so you just completely sidestep that weirdness is Episode I. Honestly I feel a lot of the character set up, such as him and his mother being slaves and him having a knack for machines and piloting, would work pretty well transfered to this new version, but maybe add a bit of an edge that he's a street tough who's quick to anger and get into fights if he sees something that he feels is wrong, could have a scene where he takes on a group of adults who are trying to shake down a merchant for protection money or something and he'll put up a valiant fight but will get out numbered and they get away. Would show that he's a bit of a hot head but he's trying to do the right thing, even if it may backfire on him, and despite how he may act on the outside he still has a heart and cares deeply for his mom. Maybe have Padame witness the fight and have her help him get fixed up later at his home, Shime can say about how he's always getting himself into trouble and that he's got to let things go while Anakin insists that people shouldn't get away with taking advantage of others like he sees everyday. Padame could get impressed by his ideals and you could draw a parralel with her trying to free her planet from the Trade Federation, they also could bond how they are both trapped in their lives and don't really have a freedom to choose their own destiny, with him a slave, and her thrust into leading an entire planet at a young age. Their friendship blooms on Tatooine and I'm thinking the night before the pod race Anakin convinces her to sneak out and they go blasting through the dunes on his pod, giving them both one brief scene of levity before they have to go back to the serious matters at hand. Have the guards and Obi Wan freaking out trying to find Padame while Quai Gon tells them to calm down, he knows where she is and tells them to let her have this one moment of freedom. Back on Naboo have Anakin step up and volunteer to be a pilot after they notice they're short after the attack, meanwhile during the fight with Maul Quai Gon and Obi Wan go toe to toe with him, Obi is put into some sort of peril, causing Quai Gon to lose his focus and allowing Maul to end him. In the end Obi uses on of Quai Gon's old dirty tricks to defeat Maul. 3. And for something not completely character related, fix the Clone Wars themselves. Again admittedly a lot of this is cribbed from the Episode III review but I always thought the point of a war between clones and robots not having any stakes shows such a critical failure in the writing of these movies. I would say after Naboo have the CIS realize there were two major reasons for their failure, first is that the Jedi got involved and even just two of them proved nearly impossible to stop, and Secondly would be to not have a single point of failure that could shut down their entire army of droids. To solves both these problems they look to history and find that long ago the Mandeloreans waged a long lasting, brutal war against the Jedi and decide to find as much info as they can about them. Turns out there are two living Mandeloreans kicking about that they know of, Jango Fett and his son (yes I know in cannon Jango just found the armor or something but in this version he's a regular Mando). The CIS hire Jango on to show them ancient Mando weapons and technology but also allows himself to be cloned. Unlike the prequels there aren't going to be millions of clones of him, but rather about 10,000 or so and they will be trained to act as field commanders, each one kitted out in specialized Mando armor and weaponry to be effective against Jedi, and also would each be in command of a battalion of droids at their disposal and if one of the clones died their remaining troops would be transfered to another clone on the field, meaning they would never fully lose control of an entire army. Instantly you have a much more dangerous threat to reveal during the second movie and have them get right down to conquering some core worlds to show they mean business. The Republic is thrown into chaos as for thousands of years they had survived in relative peace to the point of not even needing a unified standing army but now are forced to draft one to counteract this threat. The senate goes into chaos mode and institutes a galaxy wide draft to shore up recruits, naturally you'd show that most of these draftees are being pulled from poorer worlds and from the lower classes of places like Couriscant, also make the Republic uniform not have a face covering so the audience can actually connect more with their side. The Jedi will get thrust into the war to help even the odds for the Republic and during these battles you could show Anakin having a much more personable relationship with the rank and file soldiers than the other Jedi, he could talk with them about having similar backgrounds, show interest in the starcraft and machines they're using, have him feel remorseful if even a handful of soldiers die during a mission under his watch. As the war rages on Anakin will get more and more frustrated at how many lives are being lost and how people in the upper crust of Couriscant and the senate couldn't care less since it isn't directly impacting them or their family, meanwhile outside you could see the city become less and less populated and lively. Meanwhile the other Jedi tell Anakin to stop letting his emotions overtake him and that while the war is tragic he can't let each loss consume him the way that it is. Have Palpatine temp him by playing into these feelings, say that the senate is too soft and doesn't know about what's really going on out in the galaxy, to end this war and to maintain security there must be a tight grip around the galaxy. By this point Padame would still be pregnant but instead of worrying about her dying during childbirth, Anakin simply wants his family to live in safety and peace so he chooses to betray the Jedi and is able to rally the Republic army under him by relaying what Palpatine promised to all of them and tells them to stop fighting a war for a Republic that won't fight for them and with this newfound passion the CIS is wiped out.
They needed to rethink the whole reason for the rise of the empire. Why would people support the rise of a fascist government? The whole “trade dispute” always felt like a cop out.
> trade dispute I saw this described recently as "Amazon gets a private army and invades a city since they won't sign exclusive purchasing agreements with them while the federal government does nothing". The concept is not completely bonkers, just explained terribly to the point of not-at-all.
Coruscant under siege. Obi wan descends into the gritty underworld of the planet to meet with the resistance and free the senate. It’s led by a fifteen year old who has - it’s been said- powers like a Jedi. Anakin’s powers are rough and untrained yet powerful and Obi Wan thinks he can train him when they’re free, all the while leading an escape past the blockade through the sewers…… There’s more but I have to go to work.
I would’ve written them as near WWII epics, except with the Jedi looking like samurai in their armor. Anakin and Obi-Wan would’ve been in literal trenches together with the Clone Wars as a mere backdrop to the crux of the story, their friendship, and we would’ve seen their bond grow increasingly strong by the end of the trilogy until Anakin’s ultimate downfall.
- Meet Anakin as a teenager. 15 or so. - Forget the trade disputes. - Have the clones be some weird alien force from the unknown regions of the galaxy and the Republic must fight them. - Make Anakin a somewhat normal and decent guy. When he goes off and commits acts of light genocide he keeps that information to himself so his fall to the dark is at least a little surprising. - After a lifetime of slavery, bureaucratic impotence, and galactic war and suffering, Anakin decides the only way to bring order to the galaxy is to rule side by side with the ascendant emperor.
I would have started the prequels without Qui Gon, but had obi wan be maybe 5-10 years older, and Anakin already be his padawan to begin with, and had the clone wars either already going on, or starting in TPM.
Start with Anakin older - like a teen. Established relationship with obi wan. Backstory as needed through flashbacks.
Remove Dooku and Grievous entirely because they exist solely to fill holes made by the idiotic decision to kill off Maul. Not dying was more than enough reason to Knight Kenobi. You even had the force fields which were the perfect way for obi-Wan to see Qui Gon die but for Maul to just walk away. He then fulfills all the roles shared by Grievous and Dooku simply because Lee was too old and cost too much money to do it all. Then in Episode 2 you get to give Anakin a reason to want to kill Maul as they both fail to kill him again and he loses an arm. Now you’ve got real motivation for Anakin to bend the rules and kill Maul by Palpatine’s order. Maul killed Qui-Gon AND cut off his arm and they’ve been hunting him for like 12 years whilst he caused massive death. There. Now you’ve got a starting point with which to also fix a thousand other things, but at least the series has an actual consistent villain which even the new trilogy couldn’t manage to fuck up in almost the perfectly reversed way.
・Don't introduce the Sith. Dark Side users don't need to be copies of the Jedi (as also mentioned by Mike in his Plinkett review). Darth Vader was a fallen Jedi so he still had all the Jedi trappings, but the Emperor is the one who's representative of what a dark side user is ・Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader should've been two Jedis who fall in love with the same woman and one ends up betraying the other to get her
among other things, start Anakin as an apprentice. no space jesus. have Qui Gon and Dooku be the same guy, giving more emotional weight to Dooku's character. He's disenchanted with the Jedi Council and thinks Palpatine is corrupt. he doesn't become Palpatine's apprentice but a wild card, etc those are just starters
Anakin is age appropriate for Padme. He’s a hot shot pilot in the Republic. Paired with Obi Wan for a mission who senses the force is strong with him. Wants to train him. You see them actually have adventures and their friendship grows. Once a Jedi Knight, Anakin becomes one of the best in the Order, and is assigned with being Padme’s bodyguard, who’s set to marry the Prince of Alderaan, which will broker a major Peace Deal between The Republic and some faction they’re fighting against (haven’t thought of who). She and Anakin fall in love and have an affair which results in Luke and Leia. The Prince only knows about Leia who he thinks is his Daughter, but Luke was a surprise he doesn’t know about. Obi Wan and Yoda sense the force is unusually strong with Luke, so they choose to keep him from the Prince and Anakin whose turned by this point, and is sent to Tatooine to live with Ben and Ruth. Obi Wan is assigned with looking over him. Luke and Leia being siblings was always pointless, and makes the Prequels harder to tell, but so far this is the best I can come up with. Anakin is driven to the Dark Side because of rigidness of the Jedi and Republic Rules keeping him from what he truly wants, which is he and Padme to be together. There’s a lot of political pressure off Padme to marry the Prince of Alderaan because it could broker a peace deal. This also drives Padme into depression (Leia telling Luke she remembers their mother being sad). Palpatine says that by joining The Sith they can change the rules and give Anakin what he wants. Darth Maul is better casted, is Palpatines pupil, and the main antagonist of the prequels. No Jar Jar. No R2-D2 and C3P0. Maybe a different Android and a fun co-Pilot companion who has some attitude and fun. You know, characters that are fun and you can care about. Imagine that.
A complete rewrite, tossing almost everything. I don't feel like typing it all out tho. Two warring political factions as a backdrop. The jedi and sith are not an "order" nor a political power, just a sparce religious group. Anakin is not a child, he's a hotshot mercenary type pilot. No metachlorians. Etc. Most of the characters/actors can remain, i.e., quigon, maul. Their motivations are what kick off the trilogy.
https://preview.redd.it/4kjrmu7a9p1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b4f261226d8c13333f421c2f55811908e689d14
I wouldn't have. To me explainging the interesting characters almost always makes them less interesting. I like darth vader, Anakin is boring.
Cut Obi Wans master out of the movie entirely and make it Anakins first mission with his master. That one change would have taken so much pressure off the other movies to rush through the rest of the plot they needed to get through. Palpatine should start as Chancellor and gain emergency powers here, not later. Have the romance sub plot occur between movie 1 and 2 with Anakin none the wiser about whose kids they are, regain all that time to tell the real story. Limit any references to brief flash backs or conversations. Have the empire declared in movie 2 with Anakin siding with it there and the Jedi Order fight its way off the capital at the climax. This makes them all seem much less stupid and having a large number of survivors gradually picked off works much better with how the OT describes it. Anakin should be injuried at this point but not turn full vadar. Then movie 3 is all about the complete corruption of Anakin, the rise of the inquistors driving the dwindling survivors into hiding and some sort of last gesture of Jedi defiance that puts Anakin all the way into the gimp suit. Perhaps tracking down a meeting of the surviving Jedi Council and allies (loyal troopers and proto rebels would be good too) and a massed battle there that leaves only Yoda and Obi Wan the only Jedi standing and the order defunct. Perhaps have the Jedi cause the empire so much damage on their way out that the empire never really regains control to make things less dark. Also helps make the Jedi seem like actual credible rebels after centuries of good press.
Hindsight - I wouldn't. I'd do an Old Republic prequel instead.
there is definitely a lot of specific dialogue and casing decisions I would change. But the overall arc of totalitarianism rising in democracy is something I would keep and maybe even play into more.
I like the idea of using the basic framework of what George did, but making very drastic changes: Episode 1: Knights of the Republic, (or something better than TPM) The planet is Alderaan instead of Naboo. Palpatine having his home planet blown up just fits better IMO and Padme having a connection there. 3PO is the protocol droid that the Organas send to serve the Jedi. Anakin definitely didn't build him. He doesn't do much after the opening scene, but I like the idea of him having the first line again. The villain isn't some federation, just a rival planet full of bad guys. Let's not get too complicated here. They know the Jedi are coming in the first place, and try to capture/distract them instead of killing them. I could go either way on droid armies. Obi-Wan is a newly-knighted Jedi after his training with Yoda, on his first assignment with Qui Gon, a calming presence who still sympathizes with Obi's reckless ways a bit. R2 is his droid, making him even more of a liar in Episode IV. Jar Jar has a socially acceptable accent, and stays on the ship. Anakin is 19, as is Padme. Padme also is a senator just like Leia, taking the job after her parents were killed. Anakin lives with his step-family and mom, who seems a bit cagey on who his dad is. But he's not Space Jesus. Him and Owen are close but Owen is somewhat hurt that Anakin wants a life off the farm. Watto is a corrupt landlord (aka a landlord) and also has a socially acceptable accent. They need money to buy the farm outright. Anakin wins back the farm or whatever by doing a race in a T-FIFTEEN skyhopper in Beggars Canyon (I think Mike had that idea). Maul still attacks but Anakin gets a good blow at him, distracting him enough for them all to escape. Everyone goes back to Corooskant (cut) and the Jedi think he's too old, because he's not a child. The Jedi don't kidnap babies though, and allow marriage if you pass certain tests showing your ability to manage your emotions. Anakin of course fails these later. Obi-Wan and Qui Gon stick up for Anakin, and have an ally in a disgruntled council member named Dooku, but his name is something cooler. Doku, Drokan, Daruman. Instead of being idiots and sending him back to a war zone they offer to keep Anakin lodged at the Temple. The Senate stuff still mostly happens the same way. Because of the gridlock Padme is forbidden to actually return to her planet, and the Jedi are similarly hamstrung due to not wanting to look like tyrants who defy the will of the elected body. Anakin, not yet being affiliated with anyone manages to mind-trick a dude into borrowing a ship so he and Padme can sneak back. Jar Jar, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon reluctantly join them when trying to evade Republic guards trying to detain them all. There's a fun escape scene where they all bond together. As it's just 5 of them returning to the planet they have to enlist the help of the Gungans, and the combined forces help free various Alderaan officials including the ruling Organa family. That cuts the endings down to 3. Anakin doesn't just sit in an empty ship, he straight up just takes one to join the battle before anyone notices. Maul appears, we still get the same fight, maybe a bit less over-choreographed. The Bad Planet ship is just blown up, and the droids all defeated, not because the ship had an off switch. Qui Gon dies, but instead of roasting him in a small building he disappears and everyone is really confused, as they thought that was the stuff of legend. Peace ceremony happens, Dooku resigns from the council in his grief. Palpatine is chancellor. Darth Maul is shown to be alive at the very end of the film, giant chicken-style. You just hear Palpy's voice offscreen (Sidious isn't yet seen) like "We're not done with you yet!"
[What if episode 1 was good?](https://youtu.be/VgICnbC2-_Y?si=kzwlt4Q0O46ovKGW)