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The Unofficial Complete REVISITED SAGA Ideas and Random Discussion Thread — Page 57

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I watched the video on youtube from Belated Media on “What if the prequels were good” and it got me thinking… With Obi-wan’s line: “…Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine before he turned to evil… betrayed and murdered your father.” how can the prequels ever be watched before ESB? I can’t think of a way to get around this while still watching the Episodes chronologically… Unless you don’t care about the Vader reveal.

Has anyone commented on this or found a way around it?

Personally, watching them 4-6 and ignoring 1-3 is my favorite way to watch the saga right now…

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obikal said:

Has anyone commented on this or found a way around it?

I can think of two ways:

  1. Let PT be a self-contained story that wraps up some time before Anakin becomes Vader, possibly even before the full Republic/Empire transformation. That way Obi-Wan can be established as a Jedi Knight who trains other Jedi, not just Anakin/Vader. Also, if PT Anakin was written well, Vader’s reveal could still be a shock (a dark twist for a beloved character), yet at the same time quite plausible.

  2. Let PT tell the story of the fall of the Republic, however keep the focus on a different set of characters. Obi-Wan & Anakin could still appear, but the audience doesn’t follow them closely, so that when Vader appears later in the story, there is no reason to suspect he is in fact Anakin.

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 (Edited)

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and this discussion. I apologise for the long reply…if all object then I will just leave the lin to the website where I sourced the quotes…but I am not sure how long that website will be up and I didn’t want to lost these ideas that I have read.

There are a lot of continuity errors with the prequels…I always tell people to watch 4-6 and then 1-3
Below are Mike Ruso Rule’s (which I have pasted) that one must follow when working on the PT based on the Established OT Canon:

Direct Quotes from the Original Trilogy

Episodes 4, 5, & 6 have many direct quotes of exposition that reveal details and provide clues about the events of episodes 1, 2, & 3. To avoid any continuity problems, let’s take inventory of them.

“Some damn fool idealistic crusade” sounds like a quote.

When Obi-Wan talks about Luke’s uncle he says, “he feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on ‘some damn fool idealistic crusade’.” The way he delivers that line and even the words themselves sound like a quote. It sounds very much like Obi-Wan is quoting something Owen said to Luke’s father in front of Obi-Wan, and so this event could be a scene in one of the prequels.

Ben Kenobi stopped going by the name of Obi-Wan before Luke was born

In A New Hope, when Luke first meets Ben Kenobi he asks about Obi-Wan, to which Kenobi soon explains, “I haven’t gone by the name of Obi-Wan since, oh, before you were born.” This is interesting, because it implies Kenobi left the Jedi order before Anakin turned to the dark side.

Owen did not want Luke’s father to fight in the Clone Wars.

Obi-Wan says that Owen wanted Luke’s father to stay at home rather than fight in the wars. “He didn’t hold with your father’s ideals, thought he should stay here and not gotten involved.” There is an awful lot of backstory packed into that simple line. First, Anakin was an idealistic young man, so in the prequels we should see some of that idealism. It implies that Owen and Anakin were living together in the same place they both considered home, rather than virtual strangers who met after Anakin joined the Jedi, as in Lucas’s prequels. Owen and Anakin were also close and probably blood brothers, and Owen loudly protested Anakin leaving him and joining the Jedi. Finally, fighting in the Clone Wars also seemed to have been a choice–so there was no draft.

Obi-Wan never owned a droid.

Obi-Wan explicitly says, “I don’t recall ever owning a droid.” And later speaks directly to R2D2: “Now, let’s see if we can’t figure out what you are my little friend, and where you come from.” Unless we want to imply that Obi-Wan has gone senile, he should not own or have a close relationship with R2D2 or any droid in the prequels.

Darth Vader helped the Empire hunt down the Jedi

We later learn in Empire that part of Obi-Wan’s statement is untrue, but he says specifically that Darth Vader “helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.” This statement is very interesting, because Obi-Wan says, “the Empire,” not the emperor or the Sith, which means the Empire was already established when the Jedi were wiped out, and rather than a simultaneous, single slaughter, the Jedi were hunted down one by one.

Governor Tarkin outranks Vader.

In A New Hope, when Vader is choking the non-believer who berates him, Governor Tarkin orders, “Vader, release him,” and Vader complies, which means that Tarkin outranks Vader. Leia even quips that Tarkin holds Vader’s leash. And after sensing Obi-Wan’s presence on the Death Star, Vader reports this information to Tarkin before taking any other action. If Vader is the Emperor’s right-hand-man, as I assume, then Tarkin must be an incredibly powerful imperial official, in addition to the fact that he commands the Death Star. As a result, I think we can infer that Tarkin played an integral role in the toppling of the Republic and the formation of the Empire. Therefor he should play a role in the prequels.

Obi-Wan served Leia’s father as a general during the Clone Wars.

“You served my father in the Clone Wars.” Leia’s message in A New Hope implies that Obi-Wan served in the armed forces of Alderaan, commanded by Leia’s father, who would logically be the king. This implies that despite a unified republic, individual planets each had their own military during the wars, before consolidation under imperial rule into a single military. Also, the Jedi do not have military ranks, which means Obi-Wan either volunteered or was conscripted into this military.

Vader knows he has a son, and knows Obi-Wan was with him

Throughout Empire Strikes Back, Vader is tearing the galaxy apart trying to find his son, and then when he reveals to Luke that he is Luke’s father, he says, “Obi-Wan never told you…” How did he know that Obi-Wan had ever met Luke? When Vader and Obi-Wan fought on the Death Star, neither said anything about Luke. And in Return of the Jedi, Vader says things like “Obi-Wan has taught you well.” How does he know Luke was learning from Obi-Wan, (which is only partially true since Yoda did most of the training)? The only way Vader could have known these things is if he knew his son, knew his name was Luke, and sometime after Luke’s birth Obi-Wan kidnapped Luke and hid him away, which logically would have enraged Anakin.

Vader knew he had a son, but not a daughter

In Return of the Jedi, Vader reads Luke’s mind and discovers Luke has a twin sister. His response is: “Obi-Wan was wise to keep her from me.” That means Vader knew about Luke, but somehow Obi-Wan (or somebody, see below) kept him ignorant of Leia. That’s gonna be tough, from a writing standpoint, to make believable, but it has to be in the prequels.

Obi-Wan does not know about Leia?

When Luke flies away from Dagoba in Empire, Obi-Wan says to Yoda: “That boy is our only hope.” Yoda replies, “No, there is another.” It’s possible that Yoda is simply reminding Obi-Wan that Luke has a sister, but it could imply that Obi-Wan never knew about Leia, that even he was kept in the dark about her in order to protect her from Vader.

Leia knew her mother

In Jedi, Luke asks Leia about her mother and she tells him that she doesn’t remember much except feelings because she died when she was “very young,” which is quite different from “when I was a newborn infant.” That fact that she has memories of her mother at all implies her mother lives at least a few years after her birth.

Vader has a catchphrase

After Vader gets Luke to fall into the carbonite freezing chamber, he says, “All too easy.” He says this to himself, which is odd and it implies this is something he says to himself all the time. In the prequels Anakin could use this expression.

The discredited Jedi are called “sorcerers” and “wizards.”

An imperial officer says, “Don’t try to frighten us with your sorcerer’s ways, Lord Vader,” and Uncle Owen, referring to Obi-Wan says, “That wizard’s just a crazy old man.” Han Solo dismisses “hokey weapons and ancient religions.” Despite being guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy for a thousand generations, it seems the Jedi have been culturally discredited throughout the empire. If the Jedi were simply slaughtered like in Lucas’s prequels, that would have made them martyrs – their status in the culture would be exulted. So instead, the prequels need to show how the majority of common people in the Republic lose faith in the Jedi and in the Force. Perhaps having them lose battles against the clones while a secular army wins might do it.

Obi-Wan knows Vader has become a machine

In Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan says that Vader “is more machine than man now, twisted and evil.” But in Lucas’s prequels, Obi-Wan leaves Anakin for dead before Anakin transforms into a machine. So how did he know about Anakin’s transformation? Did he read about it in the news? More logically, he must have been present for Anakin’s step-by-step conversion – he saw it happen. It would have been like watching a slow moving train coming at you while tied to the tracks.

Anakin wanted his son to become a Jedi, maybe

When Obi-Wan gives Luke his father’s lightsaber he says, “Your father wanted you to have this, when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn’t allow it.” Let’s take that statement at face value. That implies Anakin wanted his son to become a Jedi like him before turning to the dark side. Perhaps he quit the Jedi but nevertheless wanted Luke to join, and gave the weapon to Obi-Wan. Maybe he just said offhand one day while wielding it, “This will be my son’s one day.”

No One Knows the Emperor uses the Force

Governor Tarkin to Vader in New Hope, “You are all that’s left of their [the Jedi’s] religion,” so he seems not to know that the Emperor himself is a Sith, despite the fact that he is the ultimate insider—he outranks Vader. That means no one knows, possibly not even Obi-Wan and Yoda, who never warn Luke that the emperor knows the Force, or that his rise to power and defeat of the Jedi is because of his strength with the Force, ability to see the future, et cetera.

The Force is supernatural

This should almost go without saying, but the Force is “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”

http://www.mikeruso.com/blog/alternative-star-wars-prequels-the-ground-rules/

“A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.” - George Lucas

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Why does everyone asume that it is absolutely key to keep Vader’s identity a secret? Doing it will not take us 30 years back in history, and will not make us stand in awe as we did when we were kids watching the movie. There’s no point in insisting that Bespin is “the” defining moment of the saga. Infact, it all started with ANH, which did very well without any reveal at all.

Honestly, not only I do not think there is a way to pull it out, but I suspect there can’t be a strong reason to make that titanic effort as well. Of course it is a point given by Adywan that he will adress this. Furthermore he even gave us hints at how would he adress this, so I’m not questioning his decissions, but more of writing this in this thread which in a lot of ways behaves as a pool of collective thinking for more than just Ady’s edit.

Even if you manage to avoid any reference or scene featuring Anakin’s falli to the dark side in the PT, there’s still that line in ANH from Vader to Tarkin: “my old master is here” which is most problematic to the proposed scheme.

In any case, even if the PT was tweaked to have ObiWan have two apprentices, that would only reduce the chance of Vader being Anakin to a 50%.

If you show Anakin’s death in ROTS by ObiWan’s hands, then that would make a liar of ObiWan and make the whole tale he gives Luke be suspicious anyway (let alone the fact that cutting mustafar out of the movie would significantly create plot holes and drastically reduce the runtime).

If you don’t show Anakin’s death at all, then by ANH there’s the obvious question where is Anakin and why does ObiWan reference something we didn’t see.

And all of these are “grand scheme” problems. If instead we started to analyse the issues in a smaller scale there would be problems within the structure of each movie (who kills Windu, why does Padmè go to Mustafar, what happened to all the battledroids, etc)

If the saga as a whole is a project, then forcing more (considering some parts of ANH would be problematic as well) than three movies to fit one moment is as wrong as it would be to force the distribution of a house around the desire of its owner to have a certain kind of lamp. IMO it might be better to move on from that and try to make the saga a better and more complex work.

Short of having new material or being willing to edit both the PT and the OT, you can’t make Vader a plot twist. Instead, however, you can make Bespin be a very tragic moment with the material available, and always watch the saga 4|5|6|1|2|3 if you wanted to preserve the “reveal”.

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Mithrandir said:

In any case, even if the PT was tweaked to have ObiWan have two apprentices, that would only reduce the chance of Vader being Anakin to a 50%.

But what if Obi-Wan was

Wexter said:
established as a Jedi Knight who trains other Jedi, not just Anakin/Vader

? The guy trained under the legendary Yoda, you know. He could spread that wisdom around some more. Anakin doesn’t even need to be declared an apprentice of his, just a guy that is around and catches on pretty quick.

Mithrandir said:
If you don’t show Anakin’s death at all, then by ANH there’s the obvious question where is Anakin and why does ObiWan reference something we didn’t see.

Not if the PT was a

Wexter said:
self-contained story that wraps up some time before Anakin becomes Vader, possibly even before the full Republic/Empire transformation.

In OT you don’t really ask where is Mas Amedda or Jar Jar, in TFA you don’t need to know where did Lando and Wedge go, general Dodonna is nowhere to be seen in TESB.

Of course the above suggestions would require a complete rewrite of the prequels, not just an ambitious fanedit. But I really think there is so much wrong with the PT that no edit could possibly make it really good. I think we need a proper PT reboot 😃

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Oh but I wasn’t answering to you with my post! Infact, You posted your text while I was writing mine.

I still don’t understand what reason would be strong enough to completely rewrite of half the saga to keep one moment safe.

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Mithrandir said:

I still don’t understand what reason would be strong enough to completely rewrite of half the saga to keep one moment safe.

It is not about one particular moment. It is about keeping the quality of the saga as a whole. I think only a rewrite could do away with stuff that really bug me about the PT: the way Jedi were handled, what the Clone wars was really about, Yoda’s character, the visuals, the costumes, etc.

For example, I think the Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon was really pretty good. Sadly, I cannot fit it into my “personnal cannon”, because it obviously needed to tie in closely with the world of the prequels.

Of course, if you actually enjoy some elements of the prequels (not that there’s anything wrong with that), rewriting it from a scratch to fix some minor elements may feel really unnecessary. 😃

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Mithrandir said:

Oh but I wasn’t answering to you with my post! Infact, You posted your text while I was writing mine.

I still don’t understand what reason would be strong enough to completely rewrite of half the saga to keep one moment safe.

I think the PT does need to be completely rewritten… because they suck.

Personally, I don’t think we need to keep any secrets hidden for reveals in the OT.

I asked the original question because some people (even someone major in my Star Wars movie watching life, Adywan) want to have the viewing order 1-6 but still keep the Vader/father reveal for ESB; but it’s ruined in ANH, and I don’t see a way around it. I would like the PT re-written, but not trying to keep any secrets hidden.

I think it would make a worse story if you’re trying to fulfill both goals at the same time. Just make the prequels a good story that you watch after the OT, and you’re golden.

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obikal said:

Mithrandir said:

Oh but I wasn’t answering to you with my post! Infact, You posted your text while I was writing mine.

I still don’t understand what reason would be strong enough to completely rewrite of half the saga to keep one moment safe.

I think the PT does need to be completely rewritten… because they suck.

Personally, I don’t think we need to keep any secrets hidden for reveals in the OT.

I asked the original question because some people (even someone major in my Star Wars movie watching life, Adywan) want to have the viewing order 1-6 but still keep the Vader/father reveal for ESB; but it’s ruined in ANH, and I don’t see a way around it. I would like the PT re-written, but not trying to keep any secrets hidden.

I think it would make a worse story if you’re trying to fulfill both goals at the same time. Just make the prequels a good story that you watch after the OT, and you’re golden.

This is exactly what I’m trying to say. One thing is to make them good, which seems hard enough. Other thing is to make them fit that moment in ESB. And one thing doesn’t necessarily guarantee the other.

The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.

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Mithrandir said:

The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.

I think we can all agree on that. If the prequels were three exciting films, nobody would care if it spoiled Vader’s reveal. On the other hand when speculating on an alternate universe versions of the prequels, why not consider keeping some secrets for the OT, such as Vader’s reveal, the Skywalker siblings, or the fact that the a great Jedi master is in fact a space leprechaun. 😃

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Wexter said:

Mithrandir said:

The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.

I think we can all agree on that.

Raises hand

Um, I disagree on that. The fact that some are even saying that an alternate prequel trilogy should keep that reveal is proof of its power. The worst thing about the prequels as they stand now is that they actively undermine the OT, for a myriad of reasons, one of which is the ruining of the reveal. However, the biggest fault in them is Anakin himself.

“There is still good in him” is the fact on which Luke’s spiritual quest ultimately hangs, and it is the proof of this goodness which vindicates Luke’s entire journey through the trilogy. To reveal in the prequels that Anakin was apparently never a good and noble Jedi Knight stabs the OT in the heart.

Getting back to the ESB reveal, what makes it so traumatizing to Luke (and, by extension, to the audience) is the impossible idea that the great Anakin Skywalker could fall to the Dark Side. The current prequels dispel this impossible notion, saying in the strongest possible terms that Anakin was a bad apple from even before he became a Jedi, totally different in character than Luke. This is emotional death for Luke’s character arc, since ESB takes pains to explain that Luke is similar to Anakin at this stage of his training, eg, a good intentioned, yet impatient and reckless young man. However, in AOTC, Anakin is the galaxy’s biggest creep, not only impatient and reckless but downright ungrateful and even hateful. After he murders a tribe of Sand People, there is no mystery about who Anakin will become. Luke, on the other hand, is driven by the bonds of friendship and compassion above all else.

Going into the final confrontation with the Emperor, many people on these forums have stated that there was no doubt in their minds that Luke would not turn to the dark side because of his inherent goodness. However, this could be seen as a weakness of ROTJ because the stakes then don’t include a Dark Side Luke. He will either turn his father to the good side or die trying. So what change to the prequels could have made the stakes as high as this? What change could not only retain the ESB reveal, but make it more powerful?

Anakin.

Change the story so that we see his character make the same decisions as Luke. Make him motivated by friendship and compassion, as Luke is, not the lust for power. Make him a good person, and then DON’T show his fall to the Dark Side. As I have written elsewhere, simply show him fighting a final battle with a hooded figure whom he is told is Obi-wan’s other apprentice, a battle that for once, Anakin cannot win. The final scene set some time later reveals a hooded figure, implying that Anakin lost his life in a noble battle against a real flesh and blood adversary and secret student of Obi-wan, when really he lost to an apparition of his own fears, like Luke did in the cave. The inescapable conclusion is that ANYONE could become twisted and evil, since everyone has that darkness within themselves. Then the prequels would add to the mythology of the OT, rather than detract from it.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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 (Edited)

obikal said:

I watched the video on youtube from Belated Media on “What if the prequels were good” and it got me thinking… With Obi-wan’s line: “…Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine before he turned to evil… betrayed and murdered your father.” how can the prequels ever be watched before ESB? I can’t think of a way to get around this while still watching the Episodes chronologically… Unless you don’t care about the Vader reveal.

Has anyone commented on this or found a way around it?

Personally, watching them 4-6 and ignoring 1-3 is my favorite way to watch the saga right now…

How about this discrepancy

“Owen did not want Luke’s father to fight in the Clone Wars.”

“Obi-Wan says that Owen wanted Luke’s father to stay at home rather than fight in the wars. “He didn’t hold with your father’s ideals, thought he should stay here and not gotten involved.” There is an awful lot of backstory packed into that simple line. First, Anakin was an idealistic young man, so in the prequels we should see some of that idealism. It implies that Owen and Anakin were living together in the same place they both considered home, rather than virtual strangers who met after Anakin joined the Jedi, as in Lucas’s prequels. Owen and Anakin were also close and probably blood brothers, and Owen loudly protested Anakin leaving him and joining the Jedi. Finally, fighting in the Clone Wars also seemed to have been a choice–so there was no draft.”

“A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.” - George Lucas

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NeverarGreat said:

Wexter said:

Mithrandir said:

The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.

I think we can all agree on that.

Raises hand

Um, I disagree on that. The fact that some are even saying that an alternate prequel trilogy should keep that reveal is proof of its power.

What I meant was that if the prequels were actually entertaining, I wouldn’t mind them spoiling the Vader reveal. On the other hand, if it were up to me, I would much prefer the reveal being kept a secret. George missed a chance to show everyone that he is capable of some clever writing. Instead, he has proven to be a lazy hack.

NeverarGreat said:
Anakin

Change the story so that we see his character make the same decisions as Luke. Make him motivated by friendship and compassion, as Luke is, not the lust for power. Make him a good person, and then DON’T show his fall to the Dark Side. As I have written elsewhere, simply show him fighting a final battle with a hooded figure whom he is told is Obi-wan’s other apprentice, a battle that for once, Anakin cannot win. The final scene set some time later reveals a hooded figure, implying that Anakin lost his life in a noble battle against a real flesh and blood adversary and secret student of Obi-wan, when really he lost to an apparition of his own fears, like Luke did in the cave.

I am very sceptical this could be pulled out convincingly. The audience would be left with the notion, that Anakin probably perished, but they wouldn’t know for certain and the uncertainty would probably tip them off, that something is not as the filmmaker wants them to believe. I propose ending the story long before Anakin’s transformation. Anakin could be noble and powerful, but also a bit reckless and hot headed. His character could be a mix of sorts between Luke and Han. He could be shown to be a mild supporter of Palpatine, while Obi-Wan would be more suspicious of the chancellor. If this was written well, once Vader reveals himself to be Anakin, the audience would be in shock to realize the tragic fall of the prequel hero, while at the same time kind of seeing this turn of events as plausible.

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Wexter said:
I am very sceptical this could be pulled out convincingly. The audience would be left with the notion, that Anakin probably perished, but they wouldn’t know for certain and the uncertainty would probably tip them off, that something is not as the filmmaker wants them to believe. I propose ending the story long before Anakin’s transformation. Anakin could be noble and powerful, but also a bit reckless and hot headed. His character could be a mix of sorts between Luke and Han. He could be shown to be a mild supporter of Palpatine, while Obi-Wan would be more suspicious of the chancellor. If this was written well, once Vader reveals himself to be Anakin, the audience would be in shock to realize the tragic fall of the prequel hero, while at the same time kind of seeing this turn of events as plausible.

I agree that it would be tricky to pull off. Perhaps ending the fight with Anakin being backed into a corner, clearly bested, and the apparition slashing towards the camera as it is from Anakin’s point of view. Hell, we could even see the apparition stab Anakin through the chest, since it’s incorporeal. Then we can see Obi-wan react in pain in a different location like Leia in TFA. I feel like the fall should be stated as clearly as possible from this ‘certain point of view’, because in this way Obi-wan is taking the side of the audience when he lies to Luke, for indeed, it should FEEL like the death of a hero.

Of course, I would have gladly taken an ‘adventures of Anakin Skywalker’ prequel trilogy as you say over what we got.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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 (Edited)

Hey guys, this may surprise you but we have an entire forum dedicated to rewrite ideas!

All smart-assness aside, I love these kinds of discussions and I’ll create a thread in the rewrite forum so we all can continue this “Alternative Prequel” discussion without cluttering up the Revisited Ideas thread any more.

Will post a link to that thread once it’s made.

JEDIT: Just realized how douchey I’m coming off here. Sorry guys, I only mean it’s best to move the discussion of ideas which can’t possibly be achieved via mere fanedits, even those as extreme as Ady’s, to more appropriate locations.

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I guess my question regarding how Adywan (or anyone) plans to keep Vader’s reveal a secret with that one line in ANH (and as others have brought up, a lot more is there) is what started this.

I think a better story can be told if you’re not dancing around keeping things hidden for a reveal later. However whatever Adywan decides, I wish him the best - he’s already given me more with the OT than I ever could have expected… It’ll be near impossible for him to make the prequels worse, so I’m not too worried… 😉

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 (Edited)

Even if I don’t like the Prelogy (or PT), let’s be fair about the difficulty to make something logical out of the background stories contained in the OT:

  • Anakin forgot he had a son and has no clue he even had twins (really ?)
  • Leia’s mother has never tried to pay her son Luke a visit (?)
  • the Empire is ruled by an old man with skin issues and a cartoon laugh
  • Owen Lars is named Lars, not Skywalker, so only Beru is a Skywalker, moreover Anakin’s sister: is she Force sensitive ?
  • etc.

In fact, the PT went wrong the day Gary Kurtz left REVENGE OF THE JEDI pre-production, leaving Lucas on his own to finish the 4 new sequels in only one mediocre movie (Luke’s sister being Leia is the worst damage of the project getting shrinked) and the 3 prequels into this awkward and lazy trilogy (which can be fun from a certain point of view). Every Star Wars movie released since the marvellous EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is not worthy of the first two installments of the saga. THE FORCE AWAKENS looks OT but has a PT essence. So, when a 7 (soon 9) parts saga has 5 (soon 7) bad/mediocre movies, it’s hard to bring consistency in it.

That being said, I agree with those who think that the PT should have been set a very long time before A NEW HOPE, like 1000 years before. No Anakin, no Ben, no Palpatine, no Yoda, no Jar Jar. The PT could have even been set such a long time ago that Jedi and Sith didn’t exist the way they now do, with the Force as a living and surpernatural energy not completely released yet. To clarify my view, here are 3 examples of what the PT could have been like:

  • DARK CRYSTAL (yep, Gary Kurtz involved, hardly a surprise)

  • THE LEGEND OF KORRA Season 2 (the flash back episode with the first avatar)

  • SAMURAI JACK (the “birth of pure evil” episodes)

Star Wars went wrong when this incredible universe got resized to family business, and sadly THE FORCE AWAKENS keeps on this stupid idea. I hope ROGUE ONE does not contain references to any Skywalker family issues so it could at least stand as a proper EPISODE III (TPM can still be a “good” prequel film - especially in a fan edit form like A CLOAK OF DECEPTION - because it does not damage too much the OT*, and it could become the “real” EPISODE II if Disney were to produce a KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC movie that would nicely be the “real” EPISODE I).

(nevertheless I still want to see v4 of THE APPROACHING STORM and v2 of DAWN OF THE EMPIRE !)

(* by the way, I wonder if the “ultimate machete” order way to watch the main saga could be the following:
1 - 4 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 6)

(but still the best way to watch the 6 movies is: 4 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - and a digest of 6).

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Wexter said:

NeverarGreat said:

Wexter said:

Mithrandir said:

The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.

I think we can all agree on that.

Raises hand

Um, I disagree on that. The fact that some are even saying that an alternate prequel trilogy should keep that reveal is proof of its power.

What I meant was that if the prequels were actually entertaining, I wouldn’t mind them spoiling the Vader reveal.

I would! The PT should be the first three chapters to the story. If you’re reading a book and it spoils the entire rest story in chapter 3, the rest of the book is ruined.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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It hardly spoils the entire rest of the story. Star Wars is not about “what ever happened to Luke’s father”. If I had to pick between the prequels pretty much as they are, only with the Vader part cleverly edited out, and a genuinely good set of films that “spoil” the fact that Vader is in fact Anakin, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. If I could have the best of both worlds, then it is also an easy choice. The reveal is still a major moment for Luke, therefore the audience still cares, even if it doesn’t leave quite the same impact on them as it used to in 1980.

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 (Edited)

About the famous reveal at the end of TESB: Darth Vader is Luke’s father, but it doesn’t imply necessarily that Vader is Anakin Skywalker. Besides, if you remove the part where Leia becomes Luke’s sister (it’s so obvious that Rey in TFA is what remains of the initial project concerning Luke’s real sister), it then becomes a lot easier to make prequels to the trilogy. Really, everything went wrong with RETURN OF THE JEDI (on every level: narrative, aesthetic, kids oriented tale, etc.). So, if you want desperately to have a 6 parts saga that does work with reveals untouched, you also need to make small changes to RETURN OF THE JEDI in order to erase the two problematic reveals (Leia and Vader = Anakin). Good luck with that…

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So you are proposing that the backstory should have gone something like this: Vader conceives two children, but they are both taken away before he learns about their existence – the boy is placed with someone named Skywalker, who wants to raise him as his own, but is soon murdered by Vader. I like it a lot, but it would really strengthen Luke’s motivation to go bad: not only did they blatantly lie to him, they even kidnapped him from his real family.

This would make it a very different story from what we know as Star Wars today. Even though I wouldn’t have gone this route, I fully agree, that ROTJ was the first film that really messed up the whole backstory. If only they had it planned more precisely from the start and didn’t deviate from the plans.

I would like the sequel trilogy (in the form of a good fanedit) to be compatible with the OT, in which case Leia would have to remain Luke’s sister. I still have no idea, why they needed to make them siblings in ROTJ. If they decided to trim the initial plans, they should have just dropped the sister element altogether and it wouldn’t make the slightest of difference for the overall plot.

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Wexter said:

So you are proposing that the backstory should have gone something like this: Vader conceives two children, but they are both taken away before he learns about their existence – the boy is placed with someone named Skywalker, who wants to raise him as his own, but is soon murdered by Vader. I like it a lot, but it would really strengthen Luke’s motivation to go bad: not only did they blatantly lie to him, they even kidnapped him from his real family.

Well, again the twin plot and the abduction at birth is only contained in ROTJ. It doesn’t change anything to Luke, he still has been kidnapped from his real family (in Lucas canon, Owen and Beru are not bloodrelated to Luke).

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Gotcha. I was going to argue that with his parents dead (or presumed dead), the Larses would be the closest thing to a family to Luke anyway, but then I remembered that Padmé’s parents would fit that description much better. 😃 Of course their existence in Lucas cannon is questionable, since they only appear in a deleted scene.

Ugh. Now we need an edit that would make Owen or Beru blood-related to Anakin. 😛