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Your ideal Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

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A lot of people seem to be dissatisfied with the direction Disney took with the prequels, myself included. If it were up to you how would you have done it? Would you work with what they established? Would you use Legends material? Would you create your own never before seen threat? Would it even be a trilogy.

I can’t wait to hear your input.

Also I’m new here so hello there!

The Bees Knees 😃

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Welcome to the site! I’m getting into writing and hope to write an alternate sequel trilogy one day - in fact I was just thinking about it yesterday so the timing for this topic is great.

In this alternate trilogy, I think I’d keep a couple of things, some of them even things that a lot of people disliked.

  • Rey is still the protagonist, representative of the new generation to which the torch is passed. She is not a descendant of Palpatine, but from an obscure background as in TLJ and feels unworthy of being the new ‘Skywalker’ figure. In episode IX, I would follow the theme from Colin Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates where Rey learns that she can be the perfect balance of anger, love, and all human emotions, unlike what the old Jedi orders taught.
  • Luke is still as depicted in The Last Jedi - self-exiled after his own fear and impulsive mistake caused the destruction of everything he fought to build. However, force ghost Luke is featured a lot more heavily in IX, which includes haunting Kylo Ren.
  • Palpatine returns as the ‘big bad’ for when Ben Solo turns back to the light, and is how he redeems himself - sacrificing himself while Rey escapes. I like the pulpy way Palpatine returns in Dark Empire, so I’m keeping that part in.

Most major changes would occur in episode 9. Finn, not force-sensitive but trained in lightsaber combat, would lead a stormtrooper revolution. Kylo as supreme leader is unhinged, and Hux - instead of staying a joke character after TLJ - would be so dissatisfied with his leadership that he contacts the Sith Eternal to resurrect Palpatine through a clone body. When this is revealed, the First Order splits into two factions, Hux’s faction being led by Palpatine and the smaller group loyal to Kylo Ren later being mostly inspired by Finn, or dispersing when Kylo abandons his post as supreme leader to fight Palpatine head-on.

I would also have a scene early-on in episode 9 where Anakin’s ghost visits Kylo just before he undertakes a large quest for more power (this would probably be something similar to his quest in DOTF), and warns of the dangers of the path he is taking; Kylo would become angry and tell Anakin that he has finally become stronger than him. Anakin fails to have much of an effect on Kylo, but like in TROS it is Leia reaching out to him that does the trick.

This obviously isn’t comprehensive, it’s just a few ideas.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

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Mine would be probably similar to the existing one in broad strokes. One of the changes I’d definitely do is turn the Resistance into the New Republic to avoid extremely overt OT parallels, and play with the political rivalry that exists between Leia’s militaristic faction and those who don’t believe in the threat of the First Order. They would lose their capital at Hosnian Prime at some point during the second film, this way setting up the “loss of hope” sentiment.

Another important change is that I would spread the events across a time span of five years rather than one (and no films starting right at the aftermath of the previous one). This way character progression is more understandable and less people would have issues with Rey’s power levels.

In my version the First and Final Orders would be merged. I’m split on having Palpatine return in the flesh (maybe I’d have his return revealed as a cliffhanger ending for the first film), though the First Order would be a direct result of his contingency plan after the Battle of Endor, and be very dark side-inspired and be something of a theocracy. At the centre of this hierarchy would be the Knights of Ren, with Snoke or a stand-in for him as the master of their order. Kylo becomes the master of the Knights once he defeats Snoke midway through the second film.

Rey would not be a biological Skywalker, Palpatine, etc. Her power is random like any other Jedi’s, but enhanced through the story because of the Force dyad, that would also be established much earlier.

Finn becoming a Jedi and leading a stormtrooper revolution would be definitely a part of this alternate story.

The galactic underworld would also have a big play to part.

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I think the New EU should have taken more inspiration from the Old EU the same way the MCU “adapts” their comics. Not a direct copy, but taking the best pieces of certain stories and mashing them together.

  • I love the idea of an extra-galactic “invading force” being the antagonists, so I’d take the main conflict of the New Jedi Order books, though perhaps instead of the Vong it could be the Sith Race from SWTOR or an entirely new species.

  • I would make Ben Solo a Jedi to begin the trilogy, and have his turn mirror Jacen Solo’s somewhat. He first turns because he believes the Sith are a necessary evil to combat the Vong. He’s put off by Luke and the other Jedi’s defensive-minded tactics and thinks they need to go on the offensive. Later, he learns that Darth Vader was aware of the Vong’s existence and the Empire was planning to use their fleet to attack the Vong in their home. This convinces Ben that his grandfather was braver than his uncle and that the Sith and Empire are the only way to save the galaxy.

  • Of course, over the course of the trilogy Ben realizes his wrongs, and that while Vader, the Sith, and the Empire might be efficient at war, this doesn’t justify the atrocities they commit and their overall corruption towards power. They never were altruistic and by the trilogy’s end, Rey convinces Ben to turn back to the light.

  • Thrawn leads the Imperial Remnant. As the situation becomes worse the New Republic and former Empire team-up, with Thrawn being a suspicious ally for most of the trilogy. However, after the final battle, Thrawn and Imperial High Command would try to betray the Republic, only for the Stormtroopers, inspired by Finn, to refuse and arrest them.

  • Rey is a nobody. The Jedi Order is alive but spread across the galaxy. However, Luke has still disappeared to Ach-To, where he blames himself for failing Ben and has a similar plot arc as TLJ.

  • After Luke’s death, Luke tells Rey to complete her training on Mandalore (inspired by Jaina and Boba). She meets with the now-isolationist Mandalorians, tired of so much war, but their leader (could be Bo-Katan, Din, or Boba, but tbh I’d prefer an OC) nonetheless relent. Rey tries to get them to fight but they refuse, at the final battle when all is lost they swoop in and save the day.

  • I don’t care much about keeping the OT Trio alive. They had their time, now let’s let the new characters lead. Han dies either in the first scene or before the movie starts, and this is what motivates Ben to hate the Vong in the first place. Leia sacrifices herself when the Vong conquer Coruscant.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Move beyond the simple good and evil dynamic.

Follow the quality writing of, for example, GRR Martin’s Thrones books and have complex motivations for all characters. Actually do “There are heroes on both sides.”

Use shades of grey for characters.

The idea OF the Vong is good. An antagonist that does not care about the black and white dichotomy of Sith and Jedi. It doesn’t mean they stop being philosophical opposites, it just means that complex solutions may require complex answers and not just stabbing people.

If I had to specifically work with Disney’s sequel resources…
Rey = Grey Jedi who doesn’t embrace either side. Start off Jedi, move to Sith to counter the aggressive antagonists, end up as grey.
Finn = Instigates Stormtrooper rebellion, showing the troopers are people underneath the helmets. Start as a bit of a coward, become a leader of freedom.
Kylo = Unstable but powerful, a required compromise for the protagonists to work with against the bigger threat. Forced to curb his own destructive impulses for the greater good. Perhaps ending with a seeming death but instead in exile, left alone by the heroes just in case his expertise is ever needed for another threat 40 years later.

The point is to have character development where they end up learning and becoming different from their experiences. The war itself is, in a way, the less-important background for the characters to grow in this medium.

A three way love triangle between them would also work, as it would be character conflict and motivation. Viewers would empathize with, say, Finn having to clench his teeth and work alongside Kylo, who he hates both for political reasons AND for personal reasons with his jealousy over Rey. It would also be a good thematic mirror for the lowkey love triangle of Han/Luke/Leia (sister retcon notwithstanding) that gave Han and Luke’s friendship some depth in Empire.

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I find it a lot harder to start completely from scratch with a sequel trilogy compared to with a prequel trilogy. Even harder to build it into a coherent story. This is more of a “Plot points, aspects, and ideas I’d think about were I making a sequel to the Star Wars trilogy”.

-When a sequel trilogy takes place has a huge impact on its story. If it kicks up a few days after RotJ, it’ll obviously be very different from if it kicks up 3 decades after RotJ, or if it takes place long after the OT trio are dead. I’ll put it 10-30 years after RotJ for the sake of this though, mostly because it just gives the ST more room to breathe.

-Feel free to ditch the trilogy format if necessary. If the plot makes more sense with only an Episode 7 and 8, go with it. If the plot needs 4 or 5 movies to tell, go with it.

-I don’t like ripping off the sequel or prequel trilogy we got, but Kylo Ren’s character is great and the meta-story is kind of something you could only really ever do in a sequel to the Star Wars trilogy. Too big an opportunity to pass up. I’d keep the villain being something like that: Starting the trilogy as being someone who idolizes Vader and wants to become him. If depicted sympathetically, he can grow out of it like Kylo does, but if not, maybe he doesn’t. I’d rather that he do, though, because that’s not a schtick that stays interesting past like, one movie. Maybe two.

-I don’t like the NJO Legends stories and I don’t like sequel rewrites that are similar to it. I don’t like the idea of Luke being at the head of a formal institution, and that being how the Jedi are brought back to the galaxy. Maybe Luke has an Academy, sort of like Plato’s academy. Maybe Luke’s first students have a sort of disciple-like relationship with him. After scouring the galaxy on as much information about the history of the Jedi, he takes on a small handful of apprentices to be the next generation of Jedi.

-Luke will also be willing to teach literally anyone about literally anything - Despite Leia, Lando, and Han being unable or unwilling to make the huge commitment to become a Jedi, they’ll have learned a lot about being more Jedi-like from Luke. They’ll be more spiritual in this trilogy. This is what I imagine from Yoda telling him to pass on what he’s learned. Taking on apprentices sure, but also spreading Jedi wisdom to the whole galaxy. All of it.

-The conflict should have roots in Episodes 1-6. An idea I like is if the Rebellion in the OT was made up of two factions: One being the wealthy, influential Senators, businessmen, etc, who just so happened to not be in Palpatine’s in-group, and the second being the common people, especially from the Outer Rim, who suffered hard under the Republic and the Empire. Once the Empire falls, the common enemy these two groups have, they’ll turn against each other.

If this sequel trilogy has to coexist with Lucas’s prequel trilogy, it could also retroactively add some depth to Palpatine’s rise to power: The flaws of the Republic made the Empire inevitable, and this ST could get into those flaws. The Rebellion was NOT an Alliance to Restore the Republic, at least not to the second group.

Making the other group more and more like the Empire also adds depth to Palpatine and the Empire.

-The main characters of the OT should fade into the background over the course of the sequels, passing the torch onto the younger main characters. At least one of these characters should be a child of the OT trio, with at least one Skywalker. But they shouldn’t dominate the story in the way that they sort of do in Legends. I think the Skywalker grandchild should turn to the dark side, being the heir to the Skywalker legacy should do that to you. Maybe there are two of Anakin’s grandchildren, though, and one could be light and one dark. But keeping the conflict entirely in the family isn’t something I’d be a fan of.

Honestly, dealing with the Skywalker grandkids is probably the hardest part, because on the one hand, a Skywalker grandkid being irrelevant to the story would be really weird and jarring, on the other, having too many Skywalker grandkids in the story would be really overpowering (If you thought the canon movies being turned into the Skywalker saga was dumb, imaging an ST with four Skywalker grandkid protagonists), and on your third hand, you have two Skywalkers who’ll potentially have kids.

Maybe Leia and Luke have one kid each, and one kid is the villain and the other is a sort of deuteragonist.

-Luke doesn’t die a virgin. Not a fan. I’d also like him to have a daughter, but I’m not committed to it. If he ever had a wife, though, she’s dead by the time of Episode 7. I don’t want to set up a Luke/whoever romance and starting the movie with him just kinda having a wife would be weird. I’m down with him being gay also, but then he doesn’t get a daughter, because I don’t want him to adopt or use weird space tech to get a man pregnant in between movies. If either of those happen, it’s happening on screen, god damn it.

-The main protagonist and POV character is not a Skywalker grandchild. Not interesting. Something I like is if they’re trained by the/a Skywalker grandchild, though.

-I like the idea of Luke being out of the picture in Episode 7, because I agree he’d be way too overpowering if he was right there from the start. He didn’t go missing, though, that’s way too close to ripping off TFA. Maybe the story begins with the/a Skywalker grandkid finding the main character, and toward the middle or end of TFA is when Luke shows up? There should also be conflict between the POV character and Luke over the trilogy, and any good-guy Skywalker grandkid(s). Luke immediately getting along with them and never having any conflict is just boring.

-The main conflict has been going on for a bit before Episode 7. If it’s between those two Rebel groups like I said before, the civil war has been going on for a few months or years already. If there’s a powerful Imperial remnant, they’ve already been the biggest issue in the galaxy for years by now. If it’s something entirely new, that war has been going on for a little while now. A lot of ST rewrites spend half of Episode 7 showing us what the new society they’ve set up (New Republic, New Jedi Order, the works), and the villains don’t really even exist until the middle of the movie. Not interesting.

-The conflict of the entire Star Wars saga ends here. There can more sagas, other sagas, but this saga ends here. And with good finality. We should trust at the end of Episode 9 (or whatever if we ditch the trilogy format) that none of this can happen again. If we’re going with the Republic vs Rebels thing I mentioned, the Rebels win and set up an entirely new system, one without the flaws that the Republic had that led to the Empire, or the suffering of the people even in the Republic. Maybe with its own new flaws, but the flaws that led to the Empire, and the conflicts in Episodes 1-3 and 7+, are gone.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I got my ideal sequel trilogy. All I wanted was for Star Wars to get away from the look and style of the prequels and something more like the originals with modern methods. What we got did that and actually made me less critical of the prequels.

As far as story goes, my thoughts would probably have been boring. It wouldn’t have been a good idea to feature the original cast at their ages. They aren’t a spry as they used to be. Maybe if the sequels were made earlier, instead of the prequels, we could have gotten something more like what we saw in the finale of The Mandalorian. Best to have them as mentors to the next generation, and that’s what they did.

I’m happy with the sequels. They’re not perfect, but nothing ever is, and I’ve yet to read or hear a better idea.

Bring on X, XI and XII !

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ideal would’ve been a faithful Dark Empire adaptation (trilogy)

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A faithful adaptation of the Thrawn trilogy, with a few minor changes of course to fit with TFA’s time period.

“Star Wars has, and will always be a restaurant.”

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I would just go with adopting the Star Wars: Jedi Knight video game series. It has a great story, good new characters, nice atmosphere, and it explores new things while at the same time treats characters and concepts introduced in OT with respect.

真実

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ThatPixarGuy said:

A faithful adaptation of the Thrawn trilogy, with a few minor changes of course to fit with TFA’s time period.

I agree. Indeed, Disney only cares about money - so why worry about having a canon universe/continuity? Just make The Thrawn Trilogy as part of an alternative timeline. Instead of striving for a shared universe like Marvel and DC, just let various series and movies be independent of each other. Way easier really.

I mean with Lucas out of the picture, does anyone really care what the “true” canon is anymore?

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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theprequelsrule said:

ThatPixarGuy said:

I mean with Lucas out of the picture, does anyone really care what the “true” canon is anymore?

In fairness, Pablo did say JJ contacted him regularly to check certain plot points. JJ is a shallow and poor writer, but he did at least seem to try. Even if he did muck up Rise in the end with his random rushed ideas, though part of that was the studio pressure.

Rian, who is a somewhat better writer, seemed to think his version of canon was BETTER than what those other nerds thought, so he just made up his own thing, regardless of whether it actually fit. See: Hyperspace ramming, which now changes the entire war now that one person can take out 30 ships. Why bother with weapons anymore? Just Holdo over and over until it works, it’s easier than actually shooting.

And then at the top, Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy don’t care either. Both have shown they are creatively bankrupt and don’t remotely care about the characterizations or plot. Bob even admitted his “1 movie a year” approach damaged the brand, and KK clearly had some sort of self-insert fantasy that Rian gave to her with Holdo.

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theprequelsrule said:

ThatPixarGuy said:

A faithful adaptation of the Thrawn trilogy, with a few minor changes of course to fit with TFA’s time period.

I agree. Indeed, Disney only cares about money - so why worry about having a canon universe/continuity? Just make The Thrawn Trilogy as part of an alternative timeline. Instead of striving for a shared universe like Marvel and DC, just let various series and movies be independent of each other. Way easier really.

I mean with Lucas out of the picture, does anyone really care what the “true” canon is anymore?

I would really hate it if Star Wars became a continuity mess like Fox’s X-Men movie saga.

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The relationship between Lucasfilm and Disney is sort of like Disney being Lucasfilm’s sugar daddy. Lucasfilm does whatever it wants and pulls from Disney’s essentially infinitely deep pockets to do it. Obviously Disney still owns Lucasfilm and can change that relationship whenever it wants, so Lucasfilm isn’t as free as people say. But Disney isn’t calling the shots.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I’m glad we got something new instead of adapting the old EU. If they had done that, I think there would have been more complaints regarding lack of creativity and imagination.

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George’s original unaltered treatments.

I hate the Disney Channel Live Action Universe

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Basically what we got. Except Rey would be Luke’s daughter. And Luke would have confronted Kylo on Crait.

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Episode VII:

https://h1.makermoon.com/view/video/6025789fe82a286f1812e3c3/

I have an overall story arc for it and the Sequel Trilogy in general but I’m not sure where to begin with explaining. Perhaps another time.

Edited: Improved for more details and grammar errors.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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I would have liked something that took the best from Rise of Skywalker and the second version of Duel of the Fates instead of what we got, but otherwise I’d keep the sequels the same.

If we were to go beyond the sequels, into another trilogy, I’d really like something set far in the future of the series, where everything we know about the old AND new republics are far back into legend.

When “The Rise of Skywalker” was revealed to be the title of episode IX, I foolishly assumed that taking the Skywalker name would be something along the lines of a new wave of Force users, something decentralized that takes the best of Jedi philosophy to heart and leaves out the problems that created Vader. It’s not an group or an order, more like a movement. As in, you are a Skywalker if you say you are. I think that’s a unique direction to take the force, and would line up way better with the “Force does not belong to anyone” sentiment.

As for what the villainous force would be, it’s too tempting to do another version of the sith or the empire, but I don’t want that. The true antagonist of a post-empire Star Wars (be it the actual empire or the first order) should be something cultural, something systemic. So, not the government, but the things that whatever government replacing the new republic failed to protect against. My idea? A rampant commercialized society of business and industry, that has some way of literally boxing up the force and selling it to people (it would be a crappier version, though). Maybe that’s a workable reconciliation of midi-chlorians being able to co-exist with “anyone can be a jedi” within one canon.

It’s both a commentary on consumerism, a continuation of that thing from TLJ that we just decided to ignore, and taking a shot at Lucasfilm for the last 30 years for being corporate psychos obsessed with merchandise and consumption. You could even work storm troopers in there! It’s just now they’re not soldiers, they’re “Policy Enforcement Officers”. You may laugh at that, but Coca-Cola funds Columbian death squads, so imagine what something on the level of Amazon could do in a series where people can blow up planets. The only reason the empire fell is because it never managed to brainwash citizens into thinking they were supporting it consensually.

Those are just broadstrokes, though. I think if I were to try and craft a story, I’d look at other elements from the first 3 trilogies we can either preserve or alter. Like, for example, all three protags of the Skywalker Saga grow up on desert planets until events conspire to take them away. If we wanted to change that, we would need an active, character-driven story where the main character sets their own goal. You don’t even have to murder anyone’s parents if the protagonist hunts for action themselves. You could have the threat be something other than big evil men with scary weapons (since that’s all Disney seems to understand fascists to be), rather a way that this tech industry empire is exploiting or harming people. Maybe the boxed force-kits have some sort of debilitating late-stage side effects in people? It’s something that should have a complex solution, not just one really big thing to blow up.

I guess most of my problem is that Star Wars is a series inspried by a lot of real-world ideologies and events, and it needs to do way more to have characters believe in something specific other than “the obviously evil guys are evil”. Maybe you think my ideas lean a little hard on the anarchism, but I still think we need something. It’s not like there’s anything to lose, “keep your politics out of my movies” bros are never gonna change their tune.

Lastly, I think there needs to be a radical upheaval of the iconography and design sense. Even in the sequels, there’s so many little “hey, this is the ship you remember” moments, or even little stuff with outfits. Heck, even just changing something about lightsabers might be nice. The monster designs in Evangelion are really cool, but I always looked at Sachiel’s weird retracting arm beam things and thought “that would kick ass in Star Wars”.

Or hey, you could just go full-on wacky and have people flying around with the force and having big dumb Dragon Ball Z sword battles in the sky. I’m honestly surprised Star Wars never really went that far and moved back toward the more intimate struggles in the sequels. Put in mech suits! Brains in jars walking on robot tentacles! Sonic references! A lightsaber so big and heavy that it’s Guts’s Dragon Slayer sword from Berserk. Wacky scriptwriter self-insert characters! Anything for the main series to start cribbing from other media than itself.

(I’m aware everything I just referenced but one was a Japanese cartoon, and the one that wasn’t was Homestuck. Don’t judge me.)

Watch Adventure Time

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I would have liked to have seen the main characters of the original trilogy not lead such miserable lives after Return of the Jedi. I wrote a whole long thing here, then realized it wasn’t much better than what Disney did and backspaced it.

Maybe we just didn’t need more movies in the Skywalker Saga. But no matter what I did, there would have been a plan. You can deviate from the plan a bit if you want, but there needs to be one. You can’t go from movie to movie not knowing what’s coming next or you wind up with Episode IX. That was how they really failed.

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DisneyRetconnedMeOut said:

Maybe we just didn’t need more movies in the Skywalker Saga. But no matter what I did, there would have been a plan. You can deviate from the plan a bit if you want, but there needs to be one. You can’t go from movie to movie not knowing what’s coming next or you wind up with Episode IX. That was how they really failed.

Agreed. Although a good trilogy or franchise isn’t totally dependent on pre-planning - the original trilogy, for example - I think it really helps. I know this is more important for TV shows, but hell, take Star Wars Rebels: by the time you reach the end of season 4, it’s obvious that things have been set up from the start of the series. The OT worked better partly because it had George Lucas as a guiding force, whereas JJ Abrams’ mindset when making TFA must have been “ok, how do I make this one movie really really good and make sure there’s stuff for the next director to follow on with”.

A friend of mine told me recently that he thinks sequels to “finished stories” are always a bad idea. Sometimes they work out, but more often they simply damage the ending of the originals. Having Luke, Han and Leia as failures, broken and separated from each other was the best way to make a ‘passing of the torch’ story compelling - and that’s the problem. I might enjoy TFA as a film, but I can never watch the ending of ROTJ the same way again.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

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jedi_bendu, I sort of agree. I do think having Luke, Leia, and Han as failures definitely works on some level but it was never wrapped up in a satisfying way to give them an arc where they overcame their failures to pass the torch to the next generation in a way that still respects them. I think this is one way George’s treatments work better as they face adversity and failure, and yet presumably the grandchildren and new generation characters would face the more direct threats. Sort of like how Obi-Wan goes from the padawan to a more directly involved major player and mentor while Luke, Leia, and Han have the story passed on to them. He then serves more the function of torch passer. I could see Luke serving that kind of role. He’d be involved but not in a way that takes away from the accomplishments of the grandchildren or next generation. I think they were so worried Luke would overshadow the new generation.

That’s also sort of how I see The Last Jedi. I really like it for the most part but I also don’t think it connects to the previous six films in a satisfying way. I find watching the ending of Return of the Jedi now is filled with joy yet sadness for what could’ve been with George’s story. Thankfully learning to let go has made me slowly get better at separating and seeing things as two different Star Wars franchises.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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Much of the broad strokes would be the same but the execution would be far more…indulgent in my style.

There’d be no nostalgic iconography everywhere. The First Order would likely use the Guavian design for its troopers. Hell, Sidon Ithano could be Phasma. The Resistance also gain a more iconic trooper design, and would also ditch the orange jumpsuits for pilots. X-wings and TIE fighters are nowhere to be seen. Jakku is Tatooine, while other planets are given more iconic designs. Some might even be swapped out with worlds from other material like Christophsis, Lothal, Scarif, or Teth. The only planet left exactly as is is Crait. The music could use some work too. More original themes and less Binary Sunset over and over again.

There’d be no Snoke. Just use Palpatine, or if we need someone else then Darth Krayt. The last film would end with the Battle of Coruscant and Ben and Rey fighting zombie mecha Palpatine in the Sith Temple deep below Coruscant’s Jedi Temple. To me Palpatine being the villain is non-negotiable as he’s what ties the Saga together. People can say that ruins the originals but to me it’s seeing the bigger picture. I don’t care about altering earlier installments if it means the cohesion of the whole of the story. The finality of RotJ doesn’t make sense in my nine film paradigm. It’s a trilogy of trilogies, so we need the villain alive 'til the end.

Probably the biggest change would be the number of Force users. The insistence on sticking to only two lightsaber wielders to mimic the OT is insulting. Rather than a Second Jedi Purge, there is a sort of Jedi civil war. On one side are Luke’s light side loyalists and on the other the Knights of Ren. Thus we end up with about a dozen different lightsaber users. It’s a small enough amount for us to become somewhat familiar with them without making them all important characters. They’d have roles akin to the Dwarves in The Hobbit. Darth Talon would be one of the Knights of Ren. There’d be a big battle between the two groups on Ach-To during the second film.

The politics would be clarified within the first film. The Republic is in a proxy war between the Resistance and the First Order. Poe never fake dies in TFA. He’s on Jakku with Finn and Rey. The last film is far more mystical and esoteric. It deals with stuff like the Whills and Mortis. Oh and stormtrooper rebellion, Starkiller Base is swapped out for a dreadnought and Rey Nobody. That goes without saying.

The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker have the same titles, but The Last Jedi is swapped out for something that doesn’t reuse a non-negligible word from a previous title. It should be something that “rhymes” with Attack of the Clones and The Empire Strikes Back. I guess March of the First Order or something but idk, that sounds kinda weak. I’m sure there’s a better alternative.

Kylo as supreme leader is unhinged, and Hux - instead of staying a joke character after TLJ - would be so dissatisfied with his leadership that he contacts the Sith Eternal to resurrect Palpatine through a clone body. When this is revealed, the First Order splits into two factions, Hux’s faction being led by Palpatine and the smaller group loyal to Kylo Ren

Lol, this is the spitting image of my TRoS rewrite pitch.

-Feel free to ditch the trilogy format if necessary. If the plot makes more sense with only an Episode 7 and 8, go with it. If the plot needs 4 or 5 movies to tell, go with it.

-The conflict of the entire Star Wars saga ends here. There can more sagas, other sagas, but this saga ends here. And with good finality.

Those to me are contradictory.

Instead of striving for a shared universe like Marvel and DC, just let various series and movies be independent of each other.

That pretty much is what DC’s doing now.