What Are the Ways the Star Wars Prequels Could Be Improved???

Yes, please do! Be sure to submit it to the hierarchy for review, though

 

I'll have at least 20 sources, appropriately cited, as well appropriate illustrations.

I hope to be published before the year is out

 

I understand your frustration.

However, this topic is hardly the only one in this forum which has multiple threads (at different times or even concurrently) devoted to it. I am going to borrow a line from Data ("In Theory"): "There does appear to be a recurring motif."

In any case, you can't beat this particular dead horse enough, imho.

 

A special edition of the prequels, ala the OT? With updated special effects, restored scenes, a bit of tinkering ?

I like the prequels and I'm all for it

 

You missed the point. The comic "The Star Wars" is based on one of George Lucas's earlier rough drafts.

I love alternate takes on beloved stories.

Kor

 

"You see, it's like poetry, it rhymes..."

As to the thread at hand, I have one prescription: More Palpatine!

 

I have a suggestion . . . leave it the hell alone or fix the "problems" of ALL eight movies.

 

^Why not start a thread?

 

Catchy thread title.

 

If we are talking about the films as they were made as oposed to how they should have been made is I would think of a few things but I imagine it would be really expensive.

1 Edit out Jar Jar and replace him with a less anoying version.
2 Edit out the Yipee by young Anakin.
3 Insert some more Darth Maul scenes.
4 Use modern CGI to make some of the sets, look less fake looking.
I think this would make the movie better, but i'm not sure how much better it would make it.

Jason

 

^Doesn't address any of the plot and few of the fundamental characterization issues, unfortunately.

 

Heh. Several years ago I began a fan re-write of the PT in order to improve on it. I wrote two out of the three stories; I don't know if I'll ever get around to the third one but by the end of the second you could see where it was going. Some of the ideas I incorporated AND got rid of:

1. A slightly different take on the Jedi order: the order is much less politicized. They were deliberately headquartered on another world away from Coruscant, and had forsaken much of galactic politics in lieu of their roles and protectors and defenders of the people. Jedi could marry and have families, there were many training enclaves located throughout the galaxy rather than one central temple, and Jedi often served as 'watchmen,' integrated into the law enforcement organs of the various systems and sectors they lived in. Jedi garb was not moisture farmer robes, and they wore full armor (which doubled as an environmental suit) when the situation warranted it. Most importantly, they were assisted in their duties by a cadet organization known as the Antarian Rangers, who teamed with Jedi Knights in groups of one or in small teams to provide transport, technical support, armed backup, etc. They were essentially a force multiplier for individual Jedi; some of them were mildly Force sensitive 'failed Jedi.'

2. Discarded the notion of midi-chlorians and the Jedi 'confiscating' babies at birth. Jedi could simply sense Jedi potential in others, the way Vader says 'The Force is strong with this one!' as he chases Luke down the trench. This said, the Jedi would attempt to recruit padawans at around ages 8-12 (among humans), provided their parents were willing to let them train with the order. Teens older than about 14-15 were considered 'too old' due to having their worldviews too firmly established. Anakin (and later, Luke) were noted exceptions to this general rule. Since the Jedi could lead relatively normal lives as Jedi Knights (marriage, retaining family ties, children, etc), the notion of going off and training to become a Jedi was far less traumatic for families and potential Jedi.

3. In Episode 1, Anakin is found and rescued at age 16 by an Obi-wan Kenobi in his 30's. Anakin's life to this point has been much harder and darker- there is no mother, no immaculate conception, or any of that other stuff from TPM. Anakin has been a slave for as long as he can remember, and his master is both cruel and terrifying. Anakin serves him as a 'money-maker' as a podracer, pilot, and mechanic, having shown a remarkable aptitude for these things. His Trandoshan master has links to organized crime, and uses a choke collar on Anakin to punish him or for mere cruel entertainment. Obi-wan first encounters Anakin when he's choking his master to death with the Force as a self-defense reflex of the choke collar being used on him. (I 'borrowed' this idea out of an article in a 1980 issue of Starlog.) As such, Anakin already has a lot of darkness to overcome if he's going to be trained as a Jedi. This causes division in the Jedi Order over whether he it to be trained, and ultimately Obi-wan is made his teacher.

4. There is no Jedi 'prophecy', nor is Anakin tagged as 'The Chosen One.'

5. No Jar Jar, or in fact Gungans at all.

6. Darth Maul isn't a throwaway, but rather an extremely evil, extremely dangerous, and extremely talented 3- episode villain; basically the Vader of the PT. Count Dooku is a dupe, used by the two Sith Lords to start the Clone Wars. A large thread of the prequel storyline is the tension between Sidious and Maul- the latter is becoming more powerful, while Sidious has discovered Anakin and wants a human rather than non-human apprentice to succeed him before Maul can depose him as the Dark Lord. In true Sith fashion and true to his nature as a master schemer, Sidious clues Maul to Skywalker's existence. If Skywalker is true Sith material, he will have to survive (and eventually defeat) Maul.

7. The Sith have some abilities the Jedi do not. Foremost among them (and one of their most closely held secrets) is their ability to mask themselves in the Force. This is why Sidious/Palps can stand in a room full of Jedi and the latter don't suspect a thing, or sense the Dark Side about him. It also gives the Sith a tremendous advantage when ambushing their Jedi opponents.

8. There is no droid army. The Clone Wars are clones against clones. The Separatists have them first, and through various plot machinations, the Republic ends up with their own clone army as well. Boba Fett is a separate character (young and hungry, as it happens), and has nothing to do with being a template for either clone army.

9. Anakin does not create Threepio. He stumbles sideways into the story, having been the property of another Senator who comes in a roundabout way into the possession of Anakin's future wife. Artoo is the property of a funny, curmudgeonly Antarian Ranger who is a sidekick of Obi-wan's for part of the story. The ranger's upgrades of Artoo and deliberate failures to memory wipe him give the droid many of his special hacking talents and plucky personality. Over time and through various plot machinations, the droid winds up linked with Anakin, then later his estranged wife. Artoo cannot fly, but he does often 'save the day' in the same manner he does in the canon SW ethos.

10. Episode 1 ends with the beginning of the Clone Wars at Geonosis, and with Anakin being accepted for training by the Jedi. Episode 2 begins four years later, with Anakin finishing up his 'formal training' and being declared ready for the field, at the same time Bail Organa recruits Obi-wan to accept a commission in the Army of the Republic for a campaign centered around destroying Darth Maul. Needless to say this second act goes awry early, gets dark fast, and sets Anakin firmly on the path to the dark side. The bottom line is that he wasn't emotionally ready or mature enough to be thrust into a full scale interstellar war, and Sidious/Palpatine plays on this to begin his corruption. In this version, Anakin's turn to evil is driven partially by 'the road to hell being paved with good intentions,' but it's also a very conscious choice. He very clearly chooses his path.

Anyway, those were some of my ideas for improving the PT. Another weird thing I did was split Padme into two characters: a mother and daughter, the queen/princess of Naboo. The mother is something of a love interest of Bail Organa's, providing a link between Alderaan and Naboo, while her daughter is Anakin's love interest and the eventual mother of Luke and Leia. The whole Trade Federation/ Naboo blockade deal is something I relegate to ten years in the past, with Bail Organa coming to the rescue of the queen and casting the citizens of Naboo in the present as a much more hardened, weapons-savvy people with a 'never again' mentality.

 

A couple other tidbits: I tried to 'McQuarrie-ize' some of the milieu. In addition to blasters and lightsabers, there were commercially produced 'energy blades' (yellow in color) that officers and NCO's commonly carried, a play on some of the concept art in which you see stormtroopers carrying lightsabers. Energy blades could also be added to weapons as 'bayonets' of sorts for close quarters combat. Antarian rangers often carried Jedi-crafted 'saber knives,' which were small energy blades made by a Jedi Force-aligning a commercially produced focusing crystal. There is a scene (intended to be humorous) when Obi-wan and his Antarian Ranger sidekick have to escape a swarm of assassin droids, and all Obi-wan has as a weapon at the time is a pathetically short saber-knife lent to him by his friend instead of his regular lightsaber.

 

I don't see your ideas as an improvement. I don't see the need to make Anakin 16 years old in the first PT movie. Nor do I see the need for this;

Your changes seemed to make the Jedi seem more ideal - at least to me. I had ceased to view the Jedi as ideal or near ideal when Luke had discovered that Obi-Wan lied to him regarding Vader's identity in "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK". And for me, that ideal image eroded even further in "RETURN OF THE JEDI".

This sounds more like an attempt at building up the trilogy's "cool factor", because a good deal of the fandom are more impressed by the superficially exciting Darth Maul than the more experienced and dangerous Count Dooku.

Again, I disagree. This sounds like an attempt to erase some of the Jedi's failure to sense the Sith among them - especially in Palpatine. By giving the Sith the ability "mask themselves", you seem to be attempting to erase some of the Jedi's flaws - especially the idea that the Order was mired in its own complacency and arrogance. I cannot sense any drama in your scenario. It almost seems as if you do not want the Jedi to be partially responsible for their own downfall.

And I found both #8 and #9 suggestions irrelevant. Why is it so important that there is no droid army? And why is it so important that Anakin does not create Threepio? Why? I don't see the point in such changes.

And then there is the Clone Wars. Why is it so important that the Clone Wars be depicted in such details in the second and third films? The only importance I saw in the Clone Wars was how Palpatine manipulated everyone into starting it and how he used the Wars to finally gain supreme power. This is why I never really bothered with the TV series, "THE CLONE WARS" in the first place.

 

Generally speaking, I like these concepts, except for Anakin's backstory. I don't mind slavery being a rough life (perish the thought-slavery=bad?!) but there should be some identifiable elements for the audience to latch on to. The age could be a little bit younger, but I don't mind the early teens.

Overall, some interesting ideas that I'll be rereading and commenting on, if necessary.

 

I made Anakin older in part so that he could be an active participant in events on a more believable level than the canon prequels, and also much darker. His background and upbringing in my version (he actually lives under the threat of being eaten at times) gives him a character which is deeply psychologically scarred right from the start- one outgrowth of which is that when he comes into his own power, he has a deep, psychological need to be in control of things in order to make a 'safe' environment for himself or those he cares about, and to 'dispense justice' on those who deserve it. This is a significant part of what leads to his fall. Also, an older Anakin age-wise is an immediate match for the princess with regards to that element of the story.

 

Fair enough.

 

It was actually a plot thread centered around Sidious' character and, on a broader scale, the fate of the Sith. In my version, Sidious is faced with a bit of a conundrum: he has a powerful apprentice that he needs to foment the war and destroy the Jedi and the Republic, but once the task is done he wants to rule for far longer than Maul is going to let him, and in this version Maul is much more capable than a mere Kung-fu Sith Lord. Sidious is also a first-class racist, and the appearance of young Anakin presents him a golden opportunity: to replace Maul with a human over whom he will be able to exert control for decades to come (which is what eventually happens in the OT, as we find later). However, even more than a human apprentice, Sidious wants the power of the Sith to be undiluted. So he sets Maul and Anakin after one another after a fashion, on the premise that the fittest will survive and eventually succeed him as Dark Lord.

Dooku as a character remains an estranged Jedi Master, but in this case he is merely a chess-piece for Sidious, a blind alley for the Jedi and the Republic to chase, and ultimately the catalyst to begin the war. He has his own motivations and plans that run counter to Sidious', but in the end he is neither as clever nor crafty as he thinks he is, which leads to his downfall.

 

My version of Episode III has Sifo-dias (or however it's spelled) as a major character.

Kor

 

If I have one major complaint about the Prequel Trilogy, it centers around Sifo-Dyas. I did not care for how his character was handled.