Chefelf.com Night Life: What would you do... - Chefelf.com Night Life

Someone else here commented that any one of us here could've written a better Prequel Trilogy than George Lucas did. This got me curious... how would you have the PT go if you had written it?

Personally, I would've started the war in Episode I, instead of going through this political mumbo jumbo. The movie is called Star WARS, not Star Politics. In fact that's basically all I'd do... get the ball rolling in the first episode, follow up on it up until it's logical culmination in the events of Episode IV: A New Hope.

I'd also stop using the word "Padawan" which is my pet peeve with the prequels. Since when were Jedi trainees called "Padawans" anyway? I don't remember Obi-wan calling Luke a "padawan" nor do I remember Yoda using the world Lucas threw this in because he thought it made his story somehow more mystical, but it's so transparent it's stupid.

(Yes, I know, "Padawan" probably comes from the EU novels or something... but still...)

Man I could spend a week on this topic. Since you brought it up, I actually have written a new plot and script for the Star Wars Prequels. Eventually i will try to post it on this site. I will give you this tidbit:

The overall plot structure of Episode 1 is perfect. The problem with it is that the execution of ideas was terribles. The first thing i would do is instead of have Qui-Jon be the Jedi that accompanies Qbi-Wan. How about Obi-Wan's brother Owen Laars accompany him!!! Yes, make Owen Lars a Jedi Knight. you could give him a name like Lars-Ovin Kenobi or something. He could be the straightlace, cantankerous older brother Jedi to Obi-Wan's freewheling Swashbuckling younger brother who is always getting into trouble. There could be great chemistry between the two characters, much better than between Qui-Jon and Obi-Wan. Think about it? The Kenobi bros. fighting clone warriors trying to rescue a beautiful queen. Man that would be cool! Hell you could make a bitching video game out of that! You could have Lars-Ovin lose his Jedi powers in a battle with Darth Maul. This would all explain Obi-Wan and Owen's relationship which is and probably NEVER will be explained in the movie. You could even have Aunt beru show up, and have Owen chastising Obi-Wan about settling down as a Jedi and not rebelling against Yoda and the Jedi Elders. Have a powerful scene where Obi-Wan decides to teach Anakin, even though he is not a Jedi Master. You could no explain the coldness and friction between Yoda-Owen and Obi-Wan that was present in th e OT, but not explained in the new trilogy.

Another thing I would do is have Darth Maul survive at the end. He would survive into the next chapter where he is killed by Anakin. Here is the catch, to defeat Darth Maul, Anakin uses the powers of the dark side to do it. Anakin realizes that he can defeat anyone, as long as he uses anger and the power of the dark side. This would be a hell of a lot better than the bitchfest that Hayden Christianson gives in ATOC

I would also have a love triangle develop between Obi-Wan, Padme and Anakin. The love triangle was great in the OT, it is sorely missing in the new trilogy.

Man I have to post my full trilogy concept at some point, let me know what you think of these ideas.

Please post your full trilogy concept. This is enough to intrigue me so I'd like to know more.

As to what I would do differently I'd also have to refer to Mike Mac's post about "Unnecessary Characters". One of the first things I'd do is ensure that the focal characters were set - Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan & Palpatine and that they were the drivers of the story. The extraneous characters would be used in much the way you described them Mike.

In the PM (probably have a different title set also) I'd also allow a little more time for the development of the Dark Lords Sidious and Maul. It would be nice to know a little more about the forces working against the heroes.

Oh and R2-D2 & C-3PO would not be making appearences, nor Greedo or any other OT character that is not essential to the story. I would even go so far as to consider not including the much anticipated cameo by Chewbacca. Unless someone can let me know for sure that Han is at least 20 years older than Luke then there is also nbo point including Chewbacca as the only reason to do so would be to show his rescue by a young Imperial Officer name Han Solo. Even so, oyu would have to work hard to show the necessity for this as I don't see how it really involves any of the other focal characters or really develops the story. Sure Chewbacca is old enough to be in the Prequels, but really, what would be the point?

Mike, your idea is good, except for one thing:

"You could have Lars-Ovin lose his Jedi powers in a battle with Darth Maul."

This is just wrong. We're talking about the Force here. It's not some comic book superpower that can be turned off by the proper scientific gobbledigook. It's something that we all have, but we have to be trained to recognize and use. As we see in Episodes IV through VI, even when we're dead, we're still part of the Force and the Force is still part of us.

(this is why I detest the idea of things that are immune to the Force... why did Watto have to be repellent against it? He could have simply said he has a strong mind--it's already been revealed that the strong-minded can repel Jedi mind tricks. Saying that there's a race out there that is immune to the Force is like saying there's a human being who doesn't need to breath air).

What James said.

Your point is good regarding "losing Jedi powers"! I kind of used the term loosely. I actually have a better explanation of this in my complete trilogy redux. I can tell you it has to do with a concept i created in which Jedis have a force energy inside them that can fade over time or get used up. My explanation does not involve that ridiculous midichlorian explanation that Lucas uses. When i post it I will explain. There are probably other ways to explain why Owen Lars, doesn't show his powers in A New Hope. You could say maybe he did have powers and didn't reveal them to Luke so that Luke wouldn't follow Obi-Wan on some 'damned fool crusade". I appreciate the thoughts.

Seeing as how Anikan had all the midichlorians in his blood and body, and how he'd become "more machine than man", wouldn't Darth have LOST a good bit of his force abilities? a moot point to those who know better, but it's like that brady bunch episode: "those were your exact words, Greg..."

I couldn't agree more. Not only is this sound pretty darn good, it'll also tie in the 'leave Luke with Owen on Tatooine' thing.

In Episode II, Owen and Beru were there for no good reason, they had almost no lines and didn't do anything at all. To top it all, I don't think Obi-Wan and Owen even had an acquantince (misspelt) before. This would be pretty bad for the plot since there has to be some kind of motivation for Owen to take in Luke in Episode III and want to raise him to stay away from any 'adventures' that Anakin had. Owen might have been in Episode IV for only a short while before being killed by Storm troopers looking for R2 and 3P0, but he definately gave a pretty convincing display for his concern to keep Luke out of trouble.

In short, yes, Owen should be there and he should have a strong relationship with Obi-Wan. Anything less wouldn't be proper.

I posted a solution somewhere to fix the trilogy, but i can't remember the name of the thread, if someone else doese please post it here!!!

as for the PT from scratch, maybey ripping off LOTR again wouldn't go astray as it worked last time!!!
(as i have already proved)

i think i've found my haven. and here i thought i was the only one completely disappointed by the star wars prequels... with the exception of the special effects of course, which were marvellous as usual.

just thought i'd add a comment... the "X reasons to hate episode whatever" lists were HILARIOUS... where is the one for rotj?

all these fantasies about what the prequels SHOULD have been like... it makes me wonder, surely george lucas has suffered enough embarrassment that he could be talked into re-making them... someone should write him a letter.

As a kid I think I may have read too much into the whole "more civilized day" crack Ben made to Luke in STAR WARS. I always figured that in Ben's hey-day, they didn't use blasters.

In my PT, the Jedi would have been all the rage. There would have been good Jedi and bad Jedi. There would have been dishonoured Jedi who travelled around the galaxy doing jobs for people. There wouldn't have been a Jedi council, and the whole Jedi structure would not have seemed top-heavy and ridiculous. But there would have been masters and students, schools and disciplines, and, of course, the religion. In short, my PT would have resembled the Samurai films Lucas was ripping off when he made STAR WARS. I would have had no blasters until the third story, few droids, and an unambiguous power struggle between rival heroes who would later become enemies. There are many such films in the Samurai and kung-fu traditions that I would have gleefully ripped off. I would have given the ideas to William Goldman to write and to someone competent but not too individualistic to direct.

Probably I would have resurrected the artifact myth Lucas dropped when he made STAR WARS, the notion that there was some sort of magical device (a crystal) that helped one to focus the Force. This could be discovered by some power-hungry King or Lord, and he could make a play for galactic dominion with his own army of Dark Jedi whom we'd learn to cll the Sith. I certainly wouldn't have made the claim that this organization had always existed, and that they had always rivalled the Good Jedi for lie thousands of years or something. That's stupid. I think I would have allowed the Jedi to be defeated because they were NOT centralized. There's something nice about Ben's efforts to talk about the Force even with Han Solo, and I would have made Jedi like that, rather than the "six years is too old" curmudgeons of Lucas's PT.

At some point in the trilogy, I would probably have introduced a love triangle. I would probably have had Ben rescue Anikin's love from him, to her relief and Anikin's wrath. Anikin would side with the Sith to spite Ben, but Ben would beloieve that his heart was not really in it, and he would go to rescue him. Ben would have been very upset to have to kill Anikin, and would stay his hand at the last moment. Anikin would appear to die by falling from a height, cliche or no cliche.

In my PT there would be monsters and fantastic planets, there would be at least one movie where Anikin appeared completely to be a hero, and at least one where he didn't appear at all (the third, where we'd be introduced to Darth Vader, a villain about whom Obi-Wan could betray some misgivings). When Obi-Wan first met Darth Vader, I would show that Obi-Wan was the better warrior, so that the "pupil/master" comment in Ep IV wouldn't be out of place. Darth could mention that he'd finished the job that Ben had started, of killing Anikin. Ben would fail to kill Vader due to some complication, probably involving having to escape from hundreds of bloodthirsty stormtroopers or to get some other important task done. In my PT it would never be overtly stated that Darth = Anikin, since I'd like the hypothetical chronological viewer to enjoy the surprise in Episode V. For the same reason, in my PT none would ever even say the word "Yoda."

The Jedi would be killed by armies of armoured soldiers with blasters, too well-equipped and numerous even for prominent masters of the force to defeat. These wouldn't be clones; they'd be uncivilized guys with guns. I'd have no clones in my PT; like the forgotten midichlorians, I'd just let that "Clone Wars" reference slip altogether.

We would never see Anikin's children, or even his pregnant refugee bride. We'd never visit Tatooine. We'd never see Boba Fett, but we would have R2 and 3P0 somewhere in every movie.

That's off the top of my head.

I don't think that's exactly true. I mean, it's a little hard to believe that they didn't have blasters when Obi-Wan was younger. A galactic civilization that is spread to over 1 million planets (and millions more unsettled and unexplored) would have to have guns or blasters as primary weapons. Think about it, you have a technology capability to build massive moon-sized battle stations and you expect them not to hve guns?

This post has been edited by Paladin: 24 February 2004 - 11:43 AM

I would have bought it. I mean, think about it: you have a society based on a religion of peace and mental balance, whose warriors fight with energy swords. It's a frikkin' space-age samurai film; the only way to make it work is to go with it all the way! If I was willing to buy Luke having a grapping hook on his belt, you gotta believe I'd have gone along with anything, so long as it was consistent and well-plotted.

If you need the technology to be there, of course, that's fine. They have blasters, but noone uses them in war. Maybe because thw average Jedi is immune to them, or maybe because it's just wrong. They're for hunting, or some such thing. It's the Sith's use of the blaster, en masse, that upsets the balance of the civilization, and there you have the very plot of a samurai epic.

You guys are doing something that George Lucas has done. You are taking small bits of dialogue from the Original Trilogy and taking it as the gospel of Star Wars. Ex. "He is too old too begin the training" A line from Yoda regarding why he won't train Luke. It's a line that only someone who has watched ESB 300 times would remember. (Like most of us on this site ) George Lucas has taken this line too mean that Jedi's can't be taught if they over 5 years old. This is a ridiculous concept when you think about. Is it wise to teach young kids powers that could eventually misuse those powers? It's like teaching a kid to drive a car at age 10 because you are afraid he will have developed bad habitsand lack of discipline if you teach him at age 17. You guys are doing the same with the "civilized world" crack by Obi-Wan. In the end it may just be a non-sequitor. Don't look too much into the quote. Because Obi-Wan says the remark doesn't mean that it should be extrapolated into a mantra regarding the Star Wars universe. Eventually i will post something detailing the many instances were Lucas takes essentially meaningless quotes from the Original Trilogy and spins it into a rule of the Star Wars Universe.

You guys are doing something that George Lucas has done. You are taking small bits of dialogue from the Original Trilogy and taking it as the gospel of Star Wars. Ex. "He is too old too begin the training"

Then what DOES Yoda mean by the line. Why say it at all? The OT's use dialogue far more effectively than what the PT's do. All dialogue points in a direction in those earlier films, while the PT's only prove to confuse and be completely useless.

It's like teaching a kid to drive a car at age 10 because you are afraid he will have developed bad habitsand lack of discipline if you teach him at age 17.

Good analogy.

On a sidenote, I have to disagree with Lucas' thoughts about taking the Jedi Children away from their parents. This has always bothered me. It's like saying they're taking these kids away from the parents because they might instill bad habits, bad behavior, bad influences upon the child. Who's to say that what the Jedi are doing is any better? Who's to say that this method is actually the bad influence? Ripping them away from their loved ones so they don't have any "attachments." This, sadly, goes with too many political/socialistic beliefs that are rampant today--okay, NOT trying to turn this into a political discussion, but the Jedi are being predominantly arogant. The image I had of the Jedi has changed since the prequels. It should be more like what Anakin in TPM invisions it--He WANTS to join the Jedi, and the parents ought to be pleased and excited. And to reward Anakin for his enthusiasm--they refuse him!

Unless this is truly what Lucas is so clumsily trying to say in morality message.

This post has been edited by CowboyCurtis: 25 February 2004 - 02:25 PM