A few things I thought would have been there and or could have been (or I guess will hopefully be
) improved upon are:- Anakin's age in the films should parallel those of Luke in the OT. We do not need to know about his childhood in order to understand his struggle. I never even imagined that the prequels would deal with him as a child. His journey should also parallel Luke's, but the key moment being his choice to follow the dark path. I think it might even be interesting to have another parallel where Anakin leaves his training to help his friends and ends up causing their deaths or being helpless to stop those deaths, and that moment (rather than some awful shit about his mother) being key to his doubting the light side of the force/the jedi way.
- Darth Maul, or another primary villian other than Palpatine/the Emperor/etc, should have been left to exist for AT LEAST two of the films, if not all three. Maul had 2 speaking lines, no background, no real character AT ALL. I'm imagining something running parallel to Vader in the original trilogy, someone that Anakin could ultimately destroy and open the space at Palpatine's side for him. The only thing about this is that I also like the idea of several "sith" believing themselves to be the apprentice and vying for Palpatine's favor. That, however, could get a bit too complicated and difficult to follow, as it was in the actual prequels. Anakin has no true foil in the prequels, although I guess we are supposed to believe that Obi Wan should represent that. There should be a character that Anakin is aware of, that he fights against becoming similar to, and that he ultimately finds appealing via Palpatine's persuasion. In other words - combine the characters of Dooku and Maul, and perhaps even Grevious. There were obviously things that worked in the OT and those should be the reference points for the prequels, though it wouldn't hurt to throw new elements into the mix if they are well-executed (the prequels WERE NOT).
- GOOD MINOR EVIL CHARACTERS! Boba Fett's lineage be damned... that was such a weak way to include some minor characters and connect unnecessary dots between the PT/OT. What about the Tarkins, Jabba the Hutt, etc? Wattoo? The Trade Federation? Jango Fett? There is nothing about any of those characters that was interesting, much because the dillydallying that occurred throughout the three films... they were obvious filler, and I can't think of one example of those characters improving the story.
- Palpatine as rising political star/sith lord. While I think this idea was good, there needed to be more subtlety. How could the Trade Federation not have known that Palpatine was the guy on the hologram, or nobody else would realize this? I think it could have been written better to emphasize that he was both but making a point of the importance of the disconnect between the two characters... perhaps an execution of a key character who discovers the secret?
- This one is probably going to be controversial, but either little or no Yoda. The entirety of Luke's training in the OT shows a lightsaber once - when Yoda tells him that he does not need his weapon. Why then would you show a 'badass' Yoda in the prequels with a pen light duking it out with Dooku and Palpatine? Yoda's presence in the OT, that of the 'mysterious stranger', whose origins and going-ons remain a mystery but whose wisdom changes the course of events, is something that I think is incredibly compelling and strong. I always imagined Yoda as living on Dagobah and promising Jedi going there to learn with him. Or maybe he shouldn't even have that background - just remain a mystery that is relegated to the OT, or perhaps only referenced by Obi Wan, or shown only interacting with Obi Wan. His whole presence in those action sequences, in the Jedi Council, and as a major speaking character diminished his presence in the 6 films a great deal. It was almost laughable, especially with the completely different look across 3 movies.
- Beyond Yoda, there was no real reason to include C3P0 or R2D2, and it just contributed to fucking up the continuity between the trilogies.
- I'll never buy the justifications for the technology in the prequels looking newer than the OT. They should either look similar or predate the OT.
- Humor. The prequels were a humor vacuum of poor dialogue and slapstick b.s. Is there anything from the prequels that was actually humorous and not a cheap gag or poorly written one-liner?
- Believable love story. IT ISN'T THAT HARD TO DO! Han and Leia was almost accidental in its simplicity and believability, so why would it be so difficult to write something that would show a conflict for Anakin? Keeping the whole thing hidden from the other Jedi seems key, and perhaps even Anakin's love interest keeping her pregnancy secret from Anakin as he begins to go down a dark path should be key.
- More development of other Jedi... not necessarily a Qui Gon, but we don't learn ANYTHING about the other Jedi Council members, and yet we're expected to care when they are brutally murdered. I thought that sequence could have been very powerful had it involved characters whose names I could even recall.
- The Clone Wars. I'm not really sure how this could have been approached... I thought it was really haphazardly integrated into the already shoddy plot that Lucas had built up, so this needs to be treated differently. I like the idea of not making it the main conflict and arch, but what better way to show a republic turning into an empire than war. I don't like what the clones ended up being and their origins AT ALL, so some serious rethinking on this topic would be good. I always kind of liked Zahn's crazy fucking jedi clone from that otherwise blah book trilogy, so perhaps something along those lines?
- Obi Wan. Obi Wan. Obi Wan. In my mind, I almost feel like Obi Wan should have been THE main character of the prequels... with his course as a senior Jedi paralleling Anakin but ultimately choosing good over evil (with plenty of tension and conflict, of course). We should feel his anguish when he realizes that Anakin has turned.
- The Turn. The turn should not have happened in a 2 minute scene. Yeah yeah, Lucas tried to plant the seeds of that in the other films and in the beginning of the third episode... It wasn't believable AT ALL. There was no resistance on Anakin's part, no real tension or conflict...
I'm skipping a lot of details on the last couple (I should probably do my actual work), but you probably get most of the points...