Well essentially you’re doing a similar thing in your rewrite to what I’m suggesting in this thread. Your rewrite of TPM (which was a fun read - thank you) strengthens the ties between Anakin and Owen, strengthens the relationship between Padme and Anakin (particularly by simply adjusting Anakin’s age which is a huge help), strengthens the narrative with Bail Organa etc etc. We’re basically coming from the same place as fans in terms of wanting more out of the PT than it’s delivering - we just diverge on the details. And the Kenobi show was trying to do the same - strengthen the relationships and attempt to make the retcons in the OT cohere more effectively.
I did get a little lost in the politics of your version - which echoes how folks tend to feel about TPM generally, but of course that would eventually come down to how that aspect is presented in an actual movie. Star Wars '77 was politics-heavy too - as a kid I had no idea about consular ships or regional governors with dwindling bureaucracies etc etc - but the ‘good guys/bad guys fun adventure’ side was so well placed in the fore that it never mattered. TPM suffered from a lack of that balance I think, so it would come down to how it’s all articulated in the final product. But that said I really enjoyed your take.
I mean, I have no issue personally here in saying that I think similarly that all prequels have flaws, those flaws can range from things that I think are more structure and interaction based or more specific full scenes. But where we seem to diverge I think is in the details, but, to me, the details are the structure of my disagreement, where I don’t necessarily agree how it fails for the most part. Like you moreso brought up the Obi and Owen thing at least at first, if I understood it correctly, and issues with the Obi lie to Luke and such. My issue with the Kenobi show is that I don’t think the OT offers much connection to what the Kenobi show is doing. Just gives a kinda conflict with Owen and Obi in a scene. Which I engage with the scene, but that’s mostly it to me, and while I think it does show the idea of Owen’s distrust of Obi, I’m not sure how much it adds as a whole. Leia never meets Obi in the OT and she’s never developed to know him. I don’t necessarily think the interactions between Obi and Vader do anything that I think PT didn’t do really for the most part, and Bail is only mentioned as Leia’s dad in the OT.
Like I always see people say that Anakin should be a teenager and I simply don’t agree with as a whole. Personally, I think the only effect this works against is his relationship with Padme, whereas I think it benefits all the others. I think Anakin being introduced as a child is apart of the contrast of what he will become as Vader, so I think it’s apart of the story and character journey, as well as him being a child, in connection to his relationship to Qui-Gon who carries the potential of a dad figure that Anakin never gets to have, that Obi takes on responsibility for, and Palpatine ultimately usurps.
And I think taking out him being a child in TPM strips a complete weight framework of a narrative that travels from the PT into the OT, as, to me, it shows Vader being the personal dad he never had in choosing to die to rescue his son, and not only overthrow his longest oppressor in Palpatine, but also reject fully the emotionally manipulative dad figure (his basically abusive dad in this case) that he’d been living with his whole life. The whole story for Luke is in connecting with his dad basically in the OT. By doing what’s done in the PT, I think this adds to that idea, but I do think it could use refining, hence this.
So, for this, I think it works to only age up Anakin a little bit, and to close the gap more for him and Padme, age her down only by about a year or so. Close enough to have a buyable romantic crush setup and peer dynamic.
As well as Anakin being a bit more proactive in the defeat of trade federation droid control ship. As well as seeding his relationship with Palpatine more, and his dynamic with Obi-Wan, and the Owen connection.
I get what you’re saying (I think) but I guess I’ll just never be convinced by the lie and its resolution in RoTJ. If the OT had been written with Luke’s parentage intact from the get-go, there’s no way Obi Wan would have done the ‘betrayed and murdered’ thing (nor would Leia be making out with Luke!). Like I said earlier, it’s actually crueler (towards Luke) than the truth (“your father joined the Empire”). My ‘vow to Padme’ thing doesn’t negate Obi’s ‘point of view’. I’m just suggesting that he share this notion with Luke’s mother and that a combination of their shared belief and Padme’s determination that Luke and Leia never hear the truth be the motivator for the overtness of Kenobi’s lie. Yes, it’s making Obi Wan appear more noble, but why not? He still takes responsibility in RoTJ (just as he takes responsibility for training Anakin despite the Qui Gon connection) but the whole thing becomes deeper and more complex (IMO).
In fact, as I write this reply, it occurs to me that maybe the ‘certain point of view’ would be even better as Padme’s expressed viewpoint alone. Having a dramatic death scene where she makes Obi Wan swear to the ‘Vader killed Anakin’ narrative for the sake of the children (without him necessarily agreeing with her perspective overtly in that moment) could be really cool. That way he’s merely honouring her wishes and any agreement he has with her perspective is implied in RoTJ without him throwing Padme under the bus.
I think I simply think of this as trying to let Obi off the hook for his approach in the OT. Like, “We’ve gotta justify it,” instead of letting his issue be and showing that he’s a traumatized guy who tried to put his trauma behind him, to me. And personally, I don’t see that type of character as necessarily viewing it that way. And personally, I think it kinda takes away from the weight that Padme has in being connected to Luke, who disagrees that his dad is gone. I think it’s kinda sadly poetic that Luke who doesn’t remember his mother still has a similar view.
For a variation of this, I posted a Kenobi series outline redo here as well, I’d also like to read your thoughts on, but it’s more of a read, so I’d understand if you wouldn’t wanna go through it:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Obi-Wan-Kenobi-Series-Fix/id/137114
Thanks, I’ll free up some time!
I’d be interested in reading your thoughts if you want to.