If *you* had written the Star Wars prequels

I like the idea of Naboo having inhabitants other than the humans, and the Gungan civilization explains where an army that can stand up to the Trade Federation could suddenly come from.

And Palpatine being an ambassador between the Senate and the Jedi actually cuts back on the politics because everything that happens in the senate, we can just hear from him.

One of the problems I had with the prequels, especially Phantom Menace, is that there was so much political discussions, and in the end, it was all meaningless.

The poltics was easily the worst part of the series, most of watched the moive ot see some action as opposed to endless political discussions. If we wanted politics we would watch CSPAN...

The politics didn't bother me too much. I definitely didn't find them to be worse than the romance, fart jokes, comic relief droids and Haydon Christensen's acting. (But then, I was a fan of the EU novels at the time, so that's where I was coming from.)

One thing I liked about the videos on the past page was that it took the politics and simplifies them down to two points:

1) "An army of clones? We don't need an army of clones!" "Sorry, too late. We have an army of clones."

2) "Wait, guys, maybe there's a third faction manipulating us into figh-?" EXPLOSIONS.

Here is something that is really bugging me. Someone said a while back that Star Wars was three trillogies, a political trillogy, a war trillogy and then finally a spiritual trillogy. Does this concern anyone about the last trilogy that Disney is making?

Given that Disney is clearly trying to recreate the original trilogy (given Harrison Ford said he'd been approached), I doubt that will have any bearing. That question is kind of off-topic though.

My biggest complaint about the prequel trilogy was that it spent too much time trying to explain irrelevant details from the original three. We don't need to know why the Jedi trained Anakin, we don't need to know how Anakin met the mother of his children, we don't need to know the origin of the stormtroopers, and so on. All we need to know is how Anakin became Vader, how Luke, Leia, and Obi-Wan ended up where they were, and how the Republic became an Empire.

You streamline it into that, and it becomes a lot better. I'll gladly post an outline of how I would have done it, if anyone's interested. (Since I did the same thing for my ideas for Episode VII in another thread, it makes sense.)

edited 16th Nov '13 4:53:37 PM by TotemicHero

I'd have made Palpatine's "seduction" of Anakin more nuanced and intelligent. For one thing, it'd be nice if there were genuine, two-way affection between the two, a father/son dynamic that each character is shown to need. For another, Palpatine gets at the young Jedi subtly, and by saying certain true things about the Jedi Order and its problems. Picture him praising Anakin for his submission to apparently capricious superiors, and sympathizing with the limits he suffers under: "It must be so hard ... never to hate, thank goodness, and yet never to love. Never to know rage, but never bliss either. Never to know loss, but mostly through having nothing of your own. Never to sink too low ... but never to rise too high."

And in fact, in this treatment the Jedi order is messed up: it's held so much evil in check for so long ... but partly by cutting itself off from those passions without which genuine good is finally impossible. The Sith, though villainous, aren't mere straw villains: on some levels, Palpatine frankly considers himself to be on a more human path than the Jedi This has to seem persuasive to Anakin, and somewhat to us. Without totally deconstructing the Star Wars cosmology in favor of the Sith, the prequels needed to make the Dark Side seem something more than merely seductive; from certain angles, it needs to credibly look like the lesser of two evils at times.

One of the problems with Anakin joining the Dark Side in ROTS was he wasn't "seduced" by the DS as much as tricked into joining.

If I had written them I'd have started by shooting both the actors that Lucas hired to play Annakin Skywalker.

Not with a camera, either.

There is no room for talentless sprogs or pouty emo teens in Star Wars, dammit.

Apart from that:

1. The Clone Wars would already have been under way for many years.
2. Both sides would be using clones due to massive attrition.
3. Skywalker would be a fighter pilot with some battle experience when Kenobi first meets him.
4. Early on he would fall straight into the trap that his son narrowly avoids on the second Death Star: 'you know, we can win this battle if you just use these scary powers...' and have to struggle with what he had done before finally committing some act so vile that there could be no going back, rather than suddenly going 'Oh, okay, I'll be a Sith now!'.
5. Tatooine wouldn't be in any of the films except the last one.
6. Those two droids would be absent.
7. No Gungans. Ugh.
8. No boingy-twirly-flubbery lightsaber duels.
9. Generally be less 'kid-friendly'. Even kids don't like 'kid-friendly' films.

edited 18th Nov '13 5:01:31 AM by InverurieJones

There is nothing that necessitates the change, though. He's a Senator from Naboo. Bam. That explains why he provides exposition right there. The less time we spend explaining the roles of the character, the less time we spend on said exposition.

I'd argue that, at the very least, learning that Anakin was The Chosen One and his relationship with Padme could have been handled better with a better script and with more focus on how Badass Anakin was supposed to be.

I remember when Anakin says "My powers have doubled since last we met, Count", I was thinking "Since fucking when?!" And yes, I watched the Clone Wars shorts. But the point is, the MOVIES should be showing his growth. That was such a blatant violation of Show, Don't Tell, it gave me a migraine.

If I had helmed the prequels:

• Ask some good sci-fi and fantasy writers to develop a treatment. George RR Martin, some of the expanded universe authors etc. Pick the best ones.

• Acknowledge that toys and The Merch makes the money, but make sure good characters come first. People dress up as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker for a reason.

• Mirror the original trilogy: the first one should be dark, Skywalker Made a Slave. Drop the "conceived by the force" and midiclorians crap.
  • The middle movie a nice summer block buster: action up the butt and fanservice with the ending showing Palpitine being voted into office and the clone army. No Death Star plans, Iron Liz has a point there.
  • ~70% of the story should stand alone. Drop bits here, but most fans already know the trilogy by heart. Either consult some promoted fans or don't do it at all. Half-assed attempts and Arc Welding are teh sux.

• Yes, I get that the style echoes the serials of the 30's and 40's. But the tropes Have a Gay Old Time, Values Dissonance and Society Marches On bit Lucas in the ass. Jar-Jar is the most egregious example. He should have been dropped. Or have spoken normally.

My version of the prequels would have been quite different. Even though I loved the prequels as a kid.

Episode I

• Like many others have already mentioned: Replace Naboo with Alderaan. Makes its destruction have more weight.
• No Jar Jar; no Gungans
• Yoda was Obi-Wans master, like he said and Obi-Wan is a full Jedi already.
• Padmé is not the queen or princess. She's also a Jedi and is the apprentice of Qui-Gon who,
• Qui-Gon, Padmé and Obi-Wan are sent to Alderaan to deal with the Trade Federation
• Queen Amidalas role is filled by Bail Organa. R 2 D 2 is his droid. (R2 has to be there, I like him)
• Maul, Qui-Gon and several minor characters are female; I like my movies to be a bit more gender egalitarian.
• Anakin is already an adult when we meet him, so is Padmé.
• Anakin is not fathered by the force either but a regular human.
• His parents are both dead but he has a brother; Owen
• Both get freed from Watto. Owen stays on Tattoine while Anakin becomes Obi-Wans apprentice
• Ditch the prophecy and the chosen one bit. I loathe those tropes.
• No midichlorians either. They’re unnecessary.
• The fight for Alderaan is an assault on the blockade to disable the droids and capture Gunray. No ground fighting.
• Anakin and Obi-Wan participate in the space fight and bond over it.
• Qui-Gon and Padmé fight Maul on Gunrays ship. Qui-Gon dies at the hands of Maul but she needs to flee after Padmé cuts her hand off. Padmé captures Gunray and the fight ends.
• Padmé becomes a full Jedi instead of Obi-Wan who already is one.
• The assault on the Trade Federation begets the formation of the seperatist movement.
• To confront the seperatists, the senat publicly orders the installment of the clone army.

From there things have to go a bit differently, with no ten year gap between episode one and two. The clone wars will be in full swing as of episode II. Yoda, disappointed with the participation of the Jedi in the war goes into exile because of it. Padmé, Anakin and Obi-Wan will form a Power Trio, with the friendship actually shown on screen and giving the romance a way to develop naturally from there. Palpatine seduces both, Anakin and Padmé by being supportive of their relationship and pointing out the ridiculousness of suppressing your feelings. Giving him an actual point over the Jedis. They initially don’t fall to the dark side however. Only after the Jedi want to take their children away will they turn against the Jedi. Obi-Wan is forced to kill Padmé in a fight and this brings Anakin finally to the dark side.

edited 22nd Nov '13 12:46:26 PM by Antiteilchen

What the new trilogy was lacking was a "boots on the ground" perspective of day to day life on Coruscant, the war, and politics of the Republic.

That's what make Luke's story so great, and Anakin's story detached and clammy. All we saw were cloistered senate and war meetings high above the actual fray. And many of these great statesmen had their hands tied, either by economics or Sith mind tricks, so it's not as though they are essential to the SW universe.

In fact, Anakin's story is so dull, I would have shifted to focus to someone else. Anakin works best as the Big Man on Campus, an Ace Pilot and hero whom everyone assumes has a great career ahead of him, then breaks down into a Lucifer figure in pursuit of personal glory. That, to me, is scarier than someone being 'driven' to evil because he had no alternatives.

How about Obi-Wan, or Bail Organa, or perhaps a patriarch of the Darklighter family. Someone familiar, but without enough gaps in their history to do something cool. That would be my protagonist.

edited 22nd Nov '13 12:36:36 PM by johnnyfog

No,Obi-Wan being Qui Gonn's apprentice was the right idea,but that should've been in the past.

Also,the Force fathering Anakin was great if you take the idea that Palgueis made Anakin to spite his apprentice.

Obi-Wan as Qui-Gons apprentice works as well. He would be a full Jedi anyway so the impact on the story would be nil. It would give him an emotional incentive to fight Darth Maul. So yeah, I guess you're right.

Yeah, but the Plagueis thing was more of a retcon anyway and I don't like the 'special birth' thing much. I like protagonists who start as regular humans and become special because of who they are, not what they are.

This is true. But Bail Organa would still be to much into politics, no? In this light, my favourite protagonist would probably be Padmé (or whoever the mother of the twins shall be). Not as a princess, politician or a Jedi but as a simple woman who gets caught up in the big picture. For silly trilogy connections you could make her the owner of the Millenium Falcon.

I guess I'd right out the midchlorians, make the treatment of the droids more consistent, make Anakin less stupid, and make the morality more gray, to make the Sith less evil and stop with the Passion Is Evil nonsense.

edited 22nd Nov '13 1:02:54 PM by peryton

You're right, it didn't even occur to me to have a female protagonist. Silly.

I think this guy did a great job

http://jkenny.hubpages.com/hub/Star-Wars-The-Alternate-Prequel-Trilogy-Episode-One

http://jkenny.hubpages.com/hub/Star-Wars-The-Alternate-Prequel-Trilogy-Episode-Three

http://jkenny.hubpages.com/hub/Star-Wars-The-Alternate-Prequel-Trilogy-Episode-3

A few ideas I've been having. (Not a huge fan of the general franchise, myself, but I love the original trilogy and KOTOR games)

As has been pointed out: the politics were horrible. One needs to recreate the feeling of the original trilogy which was a tale of a personal hero, someone one can relate to and about his challenges, growth (and in this case) and ultimate failure. There was simply no main protagonist in the prequel trilogy as is and this shift from a standard hero story to this ambiguous political mystery tragedy is very jarring from a narrative standpoint.

And the great irony is that that shift was totally unnecessary. What was needed was a classical tragedy story. That was pretty much a given: we knew that it was going to end badly. Well, if any uncertainty in the outcome is already not a possibility, then the journey there is what is important: the fall, the failure. And this had all the makings of a classical Greek tragedy. The hero with the best intentions ends up falling to the literal dark side. Largely thanks to his own virtues. And one cannot help but feel sympathy as they watch his inevitable fall. This requires the hero to be sympathetic and virtuous (which Anakin in the prequels was not) and it be his failing that ushers the bad ending (which it was not, the ending was purely the result of Palpatines plans, he was the only active character in the trilogy). The details are unimportant.

While SOME elements of this they did try to create (Anakin falling because of his fear of loss over Padme etc) they ultimately failed completely. The story was not about character as it should have been. And stories about characters and their personal philosophies in life is what makes the idea of Star Wars, jedis and the force appealing to me. Essentially the fate of the world (and their own fates and powers) rely on the philosophies of the force users since that directly translates into how they interact with their powers.

Mysticism works better in this universe than politics, I feel.

edited 2nd Jan '14 3:36:01 AM by Yachar

That is exactly what most of the other reviewers have been saying. The politics was out of place in this series. Star Wars is an adventure series with a mixture of jidai geki epics and mysticism, it didn't all that politics and it could had just focused on Anakin's descent into darkness.

I would have aged Anakin up to be at least 30-40 by the end of the trilogy and have Episode 1 start with him as an average,(skilled) pilot hailing from the Dull Farming planet of Tatooine. in the Clone Wars until a Middle-aged master named Obi-Wan who has not taken an apprentice in some time sees something in this young man he has not seen in many years.

Young Anakin eagerly agrees to be the apprentice and follows him loyally. Until a fallen Jedi named Darth Maul, (who only Yoda has beaten before) enters and manages to win a fight against him and nearly kills a fellow soldier he has fallen in love with named Padme. On his own initiative Anakin learns Darkside techniques managing to hide it from his master only by virtue of him being strong with the force.

He manages to kill Darth Maul using the techniques he has learned in secret and Paplatine makes a note to keep an eye on him. But as the Clone Wars continue to drag on for almost another decade Anakin thinks it isn't enough and gets more and more powerful in an attempt to bring the bloody and never ending war to it's final conclusion. In his darkest moment Palpatine tells him the partial truth that he was "Once" a dark Jedi like Anakin and he shall help him learn all the techniques his master has forbidden from him. Yoda sensing danger tells his former Padiwan to turn over Anakin to him but Obi-Wan arrogantly assumes he can help Anakin as well as Yoda.

Finally by the time Palpatine reveals he was the puppet master Anakin is too far gone and obsessed with Power to care why he took up learning the Darkside techniques. Anakin and Padme both confront him the same as they do in the real movies and Obi-Wan barely wins out in the end. Getting severely injured to the point he can barely move.

Before finding out he is Darth Vader Obi-Wan declares Anakin a casualty and agrees to hide his twins. Only keeping Luke's name because Vader and Palpatine wouldn't care about a Backwater planet ruled mostly by Hutts and even if they would Obi would agree to hide amongst them to prevent an Empire raid and to gauge Luke's potential. The Lars family feels uncomfortable going into the war at all so they try to push him away.

I don't know. I'd hope that is a little better.