If Lucasfilm hired YOU to write Star Wars Episodes VII-IX

The only thing that really has to come up in this movie (in my opinion) is a journey into the Unknown Regions. As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this thread The Quest is a perfect archetypal story that we haven't seen yet in the main Star Wars movies (yes, I know, there are tons of quests in the EU—but the EU isn't the point), but it would work perfectly with the Star Wars universe's mythic sensibilities. The Unknown Regions would be a perfect setting for a quest, possibly tied to the history of the Jedi. And I think that would be a logical direction for the series, since the first six movies are essentially one long war story; now that (relative) peace has been achieved, it's a good time for soul-searching.

Also: following on the direction that Zahn took the series in the Thrawn Trilogy, I think there should be more influence on spying and espionage, which would reflect the climate of post-9/11 America. Instead of a Darth Vader Clone as the main villain, I'd have a shady Knowledge Broker—like Talon Karrde in the EU, or Littlefinger in Game of Thrones—wreaking havoc behind the scenes, hiding behind a mask of civility.

edited 23rd Mar '14 6:42:07 PM by TheMightyHeptagon

Or perhaps, assuming Palpatine is a stand-in for Hitler (which he pretty clearly is), and the overall mess a stand-in for World War Two, reflecting the cloak and dagger nature of the Cold War?

Damn, I didn't think of that... You're right, the Cold War in the Star Wars verse would be about ten shades of awesome.

How is Palpatine a Hitler stand-in? In the original trilogy, the Empire's only connection with the Nazis was aesthetic, from the use of Stormtroopers to the design of the Imperial officer uniforms. In terms of theme, they were less Nazi and more just generic Evil Overlord type stuff. His portrayal in the prequels, meanwhile, was that of Julius Caesar (well, Palpatine and Anakin/Vader embodied different parts of Caesar: Vader was the charismatic war hero, Palpatine the over-beloved politician).

There is no real analogue in human history for the situation during the original trilogy, where the evil power rules everything and the brave resistance has to fight on the very fringes. Sure one could make a loose analogy to La Résistance of World War II, but we forget that those guys often had copious amounts of help from London, Washington, and Moscow. The Rebel Alliance had no such favors and there was no huge conventional war to distract the Empire from the task of rooting out partisans, as the Axis were so distracted.

Add the Nazi symbolism (the clothing, the naming, the overall dictatorial workings of the Empire) and combine with Palpatine being a highly charismatic, ambitiuous, genocidal, ruthless, manipulative, two-faced Chancellor (same rank as Hitler) who stages conflicts and empowers himself by using a ethnic minority as a scapegoat, using their supposed threat as an excuse to give himself supreme power, and then proceeds to commit a ruthless genocide on that minority.

Both also inhabit a corrupt and fragile republic.

Granted the analogy is not 100%, and Palpatine has been claimed to be a stand-in to anything from Hitler to George W. Bush ("Not Making This Up" Disclaimer), but I feel a strong hint of Hitler in him, specially since out all comparatives Hitler is the closest one to Palps in terms of actual character (I.e Satan in human form).

Lucas also claimed that the OT was supposed to be analogous to the Vietnam War, with The Empire standing for The USA.

I don't have the attention span to go into detail episode by episode, but generally speaking . . .

The Empire has broken up a la the Diodachi of Alexander the Great's empire. Different Grand Moffs have claimed their chunks of the Galaxy, with the New Republic holding onto Coruscant and the rest of the Core. A brutal stalemate has lasted for decades and settled into a Cold War.

One of the stronger Successor Emperors has created a mixed army of human soldiers and updated Droid troopers with far better tactics than the CIS had (read my discussion of tactics in the General Star Wars thread for an idea of it.)

But instead of using it to crush his opposing Emperors, he accepts the stalemate and hires his own soldiers out as mercenaries in their wars, in exchange for isolated star systems in their nations that he can use as military bases.

The New Republic is alive and well, but way too small to outright attack any of the mini-Empires by itself. Politically, they've had to compromise and join sides with the more moderate of the empires to keep anyone else from attacking them.

The New Jedi Order flourishes within the boundaries of the Republic and splits its resources between helping the common folks and performing espionage missions in the Imperial sectors. It's fragmented because of this dual mission, with the Spies having to accept a shade of gray in their dealings with non-Users.

The main characters would be a group of these spies, and we'd follow them as they performed important missions against the mercenary empire.

The last one would involve supporting a hit squad tasked with assassinating the mercenary Emperor. None of them would actually perform the hit (I won't go that dark) but they'll eagerly deal with any dark-side users the Emperor has in his employ.

Here's a thought:

Since the prequel trilogy was essentially Lucas' best shot at doing a Greek tragedy in the Star Wars universe, and the original trilogy was basically a classic medieval chivalric romance in space, wouldn't the logical next step be a Shakespearean drama IN SPACE?

I have no idea how that would work, but it makes me curious.

No, because that would mean the entire cast would have to die.

So... Thor? Then again, Thor was more of a "Henriad in space". So, Julius Caesar in space? Twelfth Night in Space? Midsummer Night's Dream in space?

Not if it's modeled on a Shakespearean history.

Space!Richard II might actually be kind of interesting.

edited 28th Jun '14 10:02:14 PM by CrimsonZephyr

"A Speeder! My Kingdom for a speeder!"

That's Richard III.

Richard II is a Grey-and-Gray Morality play about a buffoonish Sheltered Aristocrat whose capricious leadership leads to a civil war. Richard III is about how a cartoon villain became King England for the sole purpose of being as evil as possible.

edited 29th Jun '14 12:45:08 PM by CrimsonZephyr

Oh, I swear I saw a III there. Happens to the best of us.

Richard II is obscure enough that I too was tempted to ask if you meant Richard III, but I decided to assume the best.

Besides, we've already had "Richard III in space". That was the prequel trilogy with Palpatine's rise to Emperor.

I think that those saying the Imperial Remnant would be the most accessible villains are correct. There's a reason the EU ran with them, after all. I also think that adapting some of the better EU material isn't a bad idea. There were some terrible EU books (hi Karen Traviss), but there were some very good ones as well. Lifting some characters or character concepts would not be a terrible idea, and the people watching wouldn't have to be that familiar with the EU, despite what some have said. I mean how much explanation does Thrawn, for instance, need. He's the best tactician the Empire has left. Say that, demonstrate it, and move on; the audience will accept it.

Something I'd like to see? More non-human characters. If you take a look at the OT and PT alike, there are lots of aliens running around, but the core cast is always human. In the OT Luke, Leia, Han, Obi-Wan, The Emperor, Vader, and Lando are all human. In the PT, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme, Palpatine, hell even Dooku and Jango, are all human. The only exceptions to this rule are Chewbacca and Jar-Jar among the protagonists, and Maul, Jabba, and Grievous for the villains (and neither Jabba nor Grievous was the main villain of a film). Let's have an alien as one of the new protagonists. They don't have to be a Lovecraftian being, or even a Wookie or Trandoshan, they can be a near-human alien like the Twileks or Zabraks, but let's have a non-human.

Heck let's have some non-human villains too. With modern CGI they could really go all out on that front. Let's have a non-human Big Bad.

I addressed that in the little treatment i wrote for this thread: more aliens and more women (mostly in the form of more woman aliens...). The main jedi protagonists are two, a human male and Cathar female, helping to dodge the question of sexual tension between them (plus a woman who serves the same role in the plot as Han does, though she's more of a con artist than a straight-up smuggler, to serve as the target of sexual tension). The main villain is a Sith (by species) woman.