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The Prequel Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 311

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Well that’s a waste of resources. They have all these perfectly good maps sitting there ready to be used.

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I knew from the moment the EA deal was announced that nothing good could come of it. It’s basically shaking hands with the Devil.

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Another Revenge of the Sith idea.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ve seen versions of this idea on blogs that try to “rewrite” the movie, so it isn’t new.
But what if Anakin executing Dooku played a part in Anakin not being made a master?

Just an idea, but what if in the dolly in shot of Anakin standing before the council, we were to add a hologram of Anakin standing over Dooku’s body, basically a security hologram from the Separatist ship. Then after the hologram fades, Windu tells Anakin is on the council, but will not be granted the rank of master.

The idea being that Anakin executes Dooku am immediately recognizes that it wasn’t the Jedi way. The Jedi then reprimand Anakin for this action by not making him a master. Then later, when Windu is about to execute Palpatine and says the same thing Palpatine did, that “He’s too dangerous to be kept alive”, it makes Anakin see the Jedi as hypocritical, and not any better than the Sith. That Windu is trying to do the same thing that Anakin was punished for.

The reason I even suggest this is that the only reason Mace and the other Jedi seem so weary of Anakin is because of his close relationship with Palpatine, but their attitude towards Anakin feels pretty hostile even from the beginning. They’ve known Anakin since he was a boy, so is his relationship with Palpatine enough to justify their distrust and coldness toward Anakin?

So, I wonder if Anakin did something at the beginning of the film that held a consequence, it would help explain the Jedi’s lack of trust in him. He is a powerful Jedi, but the death of Dooku would be proof that Anakin teeters toward the dark side. I also think Anakin’s actions carrying that consequence would be a little more compelling story-wise, as well.

Maybe someone could articulate the pros and cons of this idea better than I could. Would love to gets some thoughts on this.

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RogueLeader said:

Another Revenge of the Sith idea.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ve seen versions of this idea on blogs that try to “rewrite” the movie, so it isn’t new.
But what if Anakin executing Dooku played a part in Anakin not being made a master?

Just an idea, but what if in the dolly in shot of Anakin standing before the council, we were to add a hologram of Anakin standing over Dooku’s body, basically a security hologram from the Separatist ship. Then after the hologram fades, Windu tells Anakin is on the council, but will not be granted the rank of master.

The idea being that Anakin executes Dooku am immediately recognizes that it wasn’t the Jedi way. The Jedi then reprimand Anakin for this action by not making him a master. Then later, when Windu is about to execute Palpatine and says the same thing Palpatine did, that “He’s too dangerous to be kept alive”, it makes Anakin see the Jedi as hypocritical, and not any better than the Sith. That Windu is trying to do the same thing that Anakin was punished for.

The reason I even suggest this is that the only reason Mace and the other Jedi seem so weary of Anakin is because of his close relationship with Palpatine, but their attitude towards Anakin feels pretty hostile even from the beginning. They’ve known Anakin since he was a boy, so is his relationship with Palpatine enough to justify their distrust and coldness toward Anakin?

So, I wonder if Anakin did something at the beginning of the film that held a consequence, it would help explain the Jedi’s lack of trust in him. He is a powerful Jedi, but the death of Dooku would be proof that Anakin teeters toward the dark side. I also think Anakin’s actions carrying that consequence would be a little more compelling story-wise, as well.

Maybe someone could articulate the pros and cons of this idea better than I could. Would love to gets some thoughts on this.

I like it, you could also make hologram footage of anakin talking to palpy about being a sith lord, mace watches the footage and says ‘it’s a plot to destroy the jedi’ and goes to hunt down palpatine, this would eliminate the awful middle moment where anakin tells mace about palpatine being a sith lord and I think the tension would actually be elevated quite a bit.

Prequel Fan-Edit thread: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Yet-another-series-of-prequel-edits/id/17329

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Thanks! And yeah, the hologram option gives you a lot of options that you could play with. I actually believe Anakin going to Windu was something that was added in reshoots. I believe the Secret History of Star Wars book goes over that. It might be worth going back and seeing why they decided to go back and add that, too.

Okay, jumping around again but here is another big idea.

Awhile back and I stumbled upon this guy’s YouTube channel called Write Engage Grow. He doesn’t have a lot of Star Wars videos, but he has one video for each of the prequel films. I especially like his video for Revenge of the Sith, and I plan on eventually implementing that idea to an edit, but he has an interesting, radical idea regarding The Phantom Menace that could fit here. I’ll share the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfewoflX7E

I’ll try to summarize it. Basically, he makes an argument for how Palpatine is one of the stronger characters of the Prequels, and since his identity isn’t much of a secret, it was a missed opportunity not to develop his story more. So, his suggestion (more from a rewriting perspective) was to cut the Gungan plot and instead use that time to have a few brief scenes with Palpatine and his master, Darth Plagueis. The Legends book, Plagueis, by James Luceno covers this relationship and actually reveals that Plagueis was around during the events of The Phantom Menace, and it was during this time that Palpatine killed him, which he recounts in Revenge of the Sith.

His video outlines some benefits of having a subplot like this. Anyway, most rewrite ideas are sort of useless fanediting-wise because of the infeasibility, but I actually don’t think this idea is totally out of the realm of possibility.
The idea would require shooting new scenes, but at the least it could be just two scenes, maybe three, basically equal to the amount of scenes Sidious and Maul get together. The scenes could either be shot on small, one-room sets or green screen, and you would only need two (or even just one) actor(s) in black robes that conceal their identity.

The first, and/or second, scene(s) would be reminiscent to the Vader/Emperor scene in Empire Strikes Back. Palpatine, in his black robe (we can’t see his face) enters a room and a hologram of Plagueis appears, giving some brief dialogue about the Sith or the Chosen One that could be pulled from the Plagueis novel. Most of the dialogue would be a new voice actor for Plagueis, with brief interjections from Palpatine where clean dialogue can be pulled from. For Palpatine’s shots we could use the close-up of him during his breif scene with Maul, and have his mouth move/not move when necessay to fit the dialogue.

The last scene would be of Palpatine, in all black, entering Plagueis’ bedroom to kill him. We wouldn’t have to see Plagueis, just the shape of a body in bed. The figure in black walks up to the bed, a quick shot of Palpatine’s face could be inserted somewhere (possibly the same one as before) and have him kill him someway, stabbing him with a lightsaber, Force lightning, etc.

Just to take this a step further, I’m not saying I would necessarily do this myself, but for those who like this certain theory, it could be an opportunity to set up the idea that Darth Plagueis’ alter ego is Snoke.
For the shots of Plagueis’ face, you could use these photoshopped images of Snoke without the facial deformities and scarring. 1) https://i.redd.it/bpnydo7c3vk01.jpg 2) https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/4a/ba/f24aba15a31f5f132cd80fc953168bb1.jpg
Then, you could use the same technique Adywan used for his Emperor in ESB:R to make him feel like he is talking. And you can find some pretty decent Snoke impersonators on YouTube, and probably here on this site too.

Whatever Palpatine does to “kill” him could be the reason for his scars, and you could have Palpatine kill him in a more ambiguous way. I can imagine a shot where Palpatine knocks over a candle in his room as he leaves, and then we see his ship flying away from the building as his apartment is on fire. Or, he blows up his apartment from a distance. A lot of options. The only downside is we wouldn’t get an explanation of how he survived, beyond Palpatine saying he knew how to “create life” and “cheat death”. And, of course, how Plagueis’ survival could undermine Palpatine’s own intelligence and authority as the big bad of the OT.

Anyway, this is a bigger edit idea then my usual stuff, but it definitely fits under that “Radical Idea” criteria, but I don’t think it is totally impossible either. Just would require some actual costumes and production work.

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Thanks! I’m sure we’ll find out more about Snoke in the future (maybe even in Episode IX) but I’ve been trying to think of ways to kind of hint at Snoke’s backstory. This is just one option, and this way you technically don’t have to change anything related to him in the ST. As soon as we see him we would know who he is, and although the movie wouldn’t tell us how he survived, Palpatine would have hinted at his abilities to “cheat death”, so we can assume he somehow managed.

Whenever we get more info on him, I’ll probably think of ways to hint at that backstory more in the films, but this is one option at least. Another I was thinking of would be to insert a very brief cameo in Return of the Jedi. For example, in the scene where Vader goes to tell Palpatine that Luke is on Endor, Palpatine has his chair turned away from the door. Maybe here, you could insert a hologram of a less-scarred Snoke in front of Palpatine, as if they were having a conversation that Vader interrupted, and the hologram quickly fades as the Emperor turns to face Vader.

This idea would be implying that Snoke may have been an advisor to the Emperor, and it wouldn’t necessarily be out of place because there is another scene in ROTJ where the Emperor is with his advisors. With this idea, Snoke was an advisor, maybe a dark side acolyte, who was already located in the Unknown Regions, and came to power once the Empire fled there. Maybe Snoke, after Sidious’ death, was trying to learn the ways of the dark side to resurrect the Sith. It would be an interesting inverse of Luke. This idea would be a lot easier to implement than the Snoke/Plagueis one, and you could make the hologram very brief so as it really wouldn’t hurt the sanctity of ROTJ, but still be enough to foreshadow his character for the ST.

Also, Kylo Ren’s line, “It’s time to let old things die. Snoke, Skywalker, the Jedi, the Sith, the rebels, let it all die.” This line seems to imply that the Sith weren’t totally dead, which leads credence to both ideas. With Snoke=Plagueis, even though Snoke may not have identified as a Sith anymore, he still had that knowledge and power. With Snoke as Advisor, it would also imply that Snoke was trying to keep the Sith traditions alive.

And like I said, the new canon might eventually come up with another backstory for him, but it would be cool to try to plant some hints to whatever it is in the films themselves. And if IX gives us backstory for him, then I’d just go with that. But until then, these might be two options to consider.

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For Return of the Jedi, I’m referring to this scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85EEB_-fkQw

This ILM VFX Reel has a cool 180 pan around Snoke that could possible be used to have his hologram at the right angle in front of Palpatine, although a part of his head is cut off, so it would either need to be added back on or covered up with a hood or something
https://youtu.be/69Ld3phO1V0?t=26

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I think the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise loses its magic if we see it happen.

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That is what I had thought about too. I think the ambiguity of it is what makes it so interesting. It is definitely implied that Plagueis was Palpatine’s Master, but just within the context of the film, that is a part of the mystery.

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I always thought a missed opportunity was to have Maul appear in SOLO. That could’ve been a younger Snoke, thereby explaining the huge plothole of his lack of influence during the OT. He was a crimelord in the shadows, profiting off the war and thus funding the First Order when he saw the vacuum.

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I hadn’t even thought of that. That would’ve brilliant. I’m fine with Snoke as is, but answers would be nice, especially compared to Maul whose presence here simply raises more questions.

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That would have been genius. I imagine it would be easy to edit, considering we have no idea what species Snoke is or what he looked like before scaring. You just need an actor (or animation).

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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I’m toying with an idea, perhaps for a 2 in 1 edit of Clones and Sith. What if the Opera scene with Anakin and Palpatine takes place before Dooku kidnaps Palpatine. The order of events would be;

  • Opera Scene, story of Darth Plaigues.
  • Nightmare (new nightmare scene)
  • Anakin wakes up to the sound of alarms (maybe Artoo going off/ or the voice of Obi-Wan coming over a com-link)
  • Anakin climbs into his starfighter (from leaving for Mustafar), use Artoo and Threepio to establish that the Chancellor has been kidnapped.
  • Padme standing, looking at the burning Senate building (replace Jedi temple). Maybe add flashes of space battle to sky.
  • Obi-Wan and Anakin entering the space battle.
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He’s got short hair, no now he’s got long hair, oh wait it’s short again, oh and now it’s back to long. And it’s just the hair that changes.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

He’s got short hair, no now he’s got long hair, oh wait it’s short again, oh and now it’s back to long. And it’s just the hair that changes.

Everyshot/ scene I mentioned is from Revenge of the Sith, I just intend to use this idea in a Clones/ Sith hybrid.

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I also had an idea for a nonlinear edit, which begins with Anakin and Obi-Wan dueling, and the audience later learns that Vader is Anakin. In a way, it’s the reverse of the story Obi-Wan tells Luke.

WIP. Incomplete audio.

https://vimeo.com/321404471

Password: FANEDIT

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That’s cool. Where did you get that opening shot from?

Here’s another random idea. I’ve tried to think of ways to make it clearer that Sidious’ “deformed” face is really his true face that has been corrupted by his powerful connection to the dark side. His “Palpatine” face merely being a mask he wears using Sith alchemy or whatever.

His apparent face melting with lightning in ROTS makes this confusing, and some edits alleviate this with the “flickering lights” method. But another idea I had, which may or may not work, would be to mask Palpatine/Sidious in his brief scenes with Maul and Dooku in TPM and AOTC respectively, and then desaturate his skin tone to where it it is almost completely colorless. While he won’t look as shriveled up, it might help sell that idea that wears/removes that “mask” when he switches between personas, to help further hide his own identity. And the masking process wouldn’t be too difficult, considering he is silhouetted by his black robes and hood.

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RogueLeader said:

That’s cool. Where did you get that opening shot from?

Here’s another random idea. I’ve tried to think of ways to make it clearer that Sidious’ “deformed” face is really his true face that has been corrupted by his powerful connection to the dark side. His “Palpatine” face merely being a mask he wears using Sith alchemy or whatever.

Cheers. The opening shot is from the fan edit Battle of Scarrif, I believe.

I agree there needs to be an indication that Palpatines true face is his ancient face, I was thinking it might be easier to give him yellow eyes during the “ironic isnt it” close up during the opera scene.

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So… I reduced that 'wide lens’ effect in TPM. Like what Snooker did a while ago.


It is also color corrected.

“Get over violence, madness and death? What else is there?”

Also known as Mr. Liquid Jungle.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

That color correction is just…groan.

Constructive as always.

It does seem like you went a little overboard removing the blue, Paja. Much like Ady did with the Death Star walls in ANH:R. Makes it look less visually interesting - too many whites and beiges and grays.