[StarWarsIsUs]

JAWF, that was an interesting, detailed list. Thanks for your entry.

[Bohrok Awakener]

1. Make Anakin and Padme around the same age (Padme looked about ten years older than him - 14 years old my @$$, Lucas!), and both in their teens.

2. Make Padme just a Senatorial reperesentative for Palpatine, or a princess. The Naboo would not let a teen rule over them and decide their political status.

3. Please, bring in some better bad guys. The Trade Federation idea is okay, I suppose, but no Nute Gunray. I'd rather that the whole Seperatist movement start up in The Phantom Menace, as it would get the story started quicker.

4. Either get rid of Jar Jar, or make him less irritating. I think Watto made a more interesting semi-comedic alien. Maybe Jar Jar should have been more like him, but more friendly towards the heroes.

5. Leave Jar Jar on Naboo while Qui-Gon and co. go to Coruscant. There was absolutely NO reason for him to come along.

6. Have C-3PO being a droid aboard the queen's ship, or a servent for Jabba. Saying that a nine year-old kid built him is stupid.

7. Dispose of all the 'subtle' forshadowings, like the "We shall watch your career with great interest," line from Palpatine. That doesn't even make sense from a story point of view. Palpatine's just met this little kid. Why does he automatically assume "In 23 years time, I will make him my Sith Apprentice, and I will create a Galactic Empire!".

8. Change the Naboo battle. The lightsaber fight was cool, but the space battle was little more than Anakin being dumb "Let's try spinning - that's a good trick!" and the Naboo plains battle... I think enough has been said of that one.

There are lots of other things Lucas should change, but most of them are too minor to take note of.

[StarWarsIsUs]

""1. Make Anakin and Padme around the same age (Padme looked about ten years older than him - 14 years old my @$$, Lucas!), and both in their teens.""

I fully agree. Thanks, Bohrok.

[Devout Catalyst]

- Pick someone, anyone, other than Jake Lloyd. I had heard that Haley Joel Osment had been considered for the role. Certainly would have been better than the Lloyd kid.

- Anakin wasn't a "virgin birth." One or both of his parents are dead, however. That would lend some pathos without interjecting new and unnecessary plot devices. Luke never asks anything about his grandparents, anyway, so anything would work better than parthenogenesis.

- Have Anakin grow up on some other world, not Tatooine. Eliminate most of the "small world" type coincidental meetings right there.

- Anakin isn't a slave, but has a troubled life for other reasons.

- Have Anakin be a thoughtful, precocious, somewhat introverted kid, a little world-weary for his age. None of this "yippee!" shit.

- Only have pre-adolescent Anakin in part of the movie, just to establish backstory. Then cut to an older Anakin.

- C-3P0 and R2 should have met already. We should see them serving some other master, before Captain Antilles. It should be assumed that their story stretches back much further than the prequels. They make a brief appearance in Episode I but aren't integral to the plot. There. You've made a nod to the OT. Now get back on track.

- New aliens should be secondary, seen in glimpses, in background shots or cutaways. We don't know all of their names or significant backstories. They're just there, the way they were in the Cantina in ANH before the expanded universe made all of them interconnected somehow. It's a big galaxy.

- Older, junkier technology. Droids should look like precursors of familiar types seen in OT. Ships should be less sleek, less shiny.

- Far fewer new characters in general. Stop this precedent of introducing dozens of bit players without the time to develop them. Major players should be Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Padmé. Nods to Yoda and Jabba the Hutt would be acceptable, since presumably they would be powerful players already known (indirectly) to many across the galaxy. Whole story should be artfully insular, without resorting to cheap ploys like every major character already knowing every minor character.

- Much more time devoted to Obi-Wan's story. He should be seen training with Yoda. There should be a real rapport between him and Anakin.

- Much more time devoted to Palpatine's story. Again, without so many bit players. Also, everyone suspects he's a crooked politician. And none of this stupid "Is Palpatine really Sidious?" crap that no one was ever fooled by.

- More satisfactory exposition on the Sith.

- Padmé is involved in politics somehow but is not an "elected queen." No stupid costume changes every fifteen seconds.

- Darker tone from the beginning. The humor should be snide and oblique without being overbearing.

- CGI should be employed mainly to ensure consistency with the OT.

[Be The Reds!]

Delete all scenes with Darth Sidious.

Delete most scenes with Jar Jar.

Don't let maul die fighting a trainee.

[Harvey Globetrotter]

Here's my idea;

1. Get Lucas' prequel scripts, and every idea he had for the prequel trilogy that doesn't have to be in there to ensure continuity.

2. Start a fire.

3. Burn them.

4. Write a COMPLETELY NEW prequel trilogy using COMPLETELY NEW ideas etc.

My recommendations for a new PT would be;

-Don't make the plot political in any way, or so much as mention the word democracy. The OT was better because it was about the good Rebellion's fight against the evil Empire, rather than about trade disputes and politcal intrigue. I watch Star Wars to be entertained, not to receive a civics lesson.

-Make Luke and Leia's mother a female Jedi that falls in love with Anakin, and make the crux of Anakin's turn to the dark side a result of them being expelled from the Jedi order, feeling betrayed etc. Maybe she can be killed because the Jedi separate them from each other because of their ban on attatchment, then she gets killed, Anakin blames the Jedi from preventing him from protecting her. He wants revenge, and up pops Palps offering him a way to get it.

-No prophecy. No midichlorians. No dialogue that is alternately grindingly formal and moronically childlike. Make the Jedi cool and interesting again - give them attitude!

-I'd have the three movies encompass the history of the Clone War, making it really long, so it feels more like the Galaxy shattering conflict it should be. The way I'd do this is that I'd have the last remaining Sith Lords, Palps and his apprentice (one that stays alive until movie three this time, and is well-rounded and interesting) lead an enormous army of clones from the Sith world of Korriban in a dark crusade against the Galactic Republic. It seems that the Republic is about to defeat the incursion, but then Anakin's betrayal under the above circumstances swings the course of the war against the Republic or something.

-Make the galaxy look more like it did in OT and not all synthetic-feeling like it does in the current PT.

Anyway, I'm just spitballing here, but I think this sort of storyline would have worked better than Lucas' crappy one. I think that the circumstances of the discovery of Anakin aren't really that important, and can be covered in the first 1/2 hour of the first movie. Also, I'd like to make a plausible reason for Tatooine to be a viable hiding place for Luke, ie have Anakin, oh I don't know, NOT BE BORN THERE!!! Maybe Obi-Wan convinces Owen and Beru to move to Tatooine from wherever they lived and raise Luke, explaining Owen's bitterness towards Obi-Wan. Anyway, these are just ideas, and I might one day convert them into a full storyline, but meh. Tell me what you think if you like!