How would YOU re-do the prequels? — Page 7

CWBorne said:

My current treatment actually as Mother Skywalker as a bit of a quirky wrench wench engineer type who actually worked with and knew Anakin before he ever met Kenobi. Character wise, you can actually see a bit of their kids personalities in them: Anakin with his daughter's iron determination and son's passion towards being a Jedi, Mother Skywalker with Leia's warmth and Luke's wide eyed farm boy impression of the galaxy (and a shared knack for mechanical work). 

danaan said:

 

CWBorne said:

My current treatment actually as Mother Skywalker as a bit of a quirky wrench wench engineer type who actually worked with and knew Anakin before he ever met Kenobi. Character wise, you can actually see a bit of their kids personalities in them: Anakin with his daughter's iron determination and son's passion towards being a Jedi, Mother Skywalker with Leia's warmth and Luke's wide eyed farm boy impression of the galaxy (and a shared knack for mechanical work). 

That sounds really interesting, actually! Could turn out really well, depending on how it's done, of course ;P

 

Beyond hopefully having an interesting dynamic with Anakin, I'm honestly hoping to have Mother Skywalker acting as a symbol of an element of the Republic itself, specifically of the average, hardworking, common people. In fact all the main characters surrounding Skywalker would ideally do this.

-Prince Bail Organa as the hotheaded embodiment of the Republic military.

-Senator Darelda (future Queen Organa) as the slightly haughty representative of the Senate.

-The laid back Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi acting as the voice of the Jedi. 

-Cynical droid HX-81 eventually evoking the feelings and actions of both the more pessimistic and disgruntled citizens seeing the Mandalorian Coalition as preferable to Republic rule.

If it could be pulled off, having both the viewer see aspects of the Republic through these characters, and how they all affect Anakin's eventual journey, could really be something.  

CWBorne: Interesting approach to crafting "the gang" of main characters, as representatives of broader social and cultural movements that the galaxy is going through. 

I've concentrated the most on characterizing my protagonists, Anakin and his final apprentice, Ben Cortel...

Ben Cortel - the overall protagonist of the series (moreso in Episodes II and III, sharing a lot of screentime with Anakin in Episode I). Ben starts out as the captain of a smuggling freighter, down on his luck because no-one wants to conduct business with the looming threat of a galactic war.

Through a twist of fate, Ben encounters the Jedi Knights, where his latent Force-sensitivity comes to the fore and allows him to perform superhuman feats. Ben initially feels no loyalty to any higher authority, holding the same jaded worldview that Han Solo has in the OT. Later, though, he realizes the worth of the Jedi and the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Ben is tragically cut down in the climactic battle of Episode III. His sacrifice was not in vain, for he provided that all-important first spark of defiance against Imperial rule. Ben's sacrifice led to Obi-Wan Kenobi honoring the Jedi's memory by adopting his name as an alias.

Ben is a half-Chiss, half-Epicanthix male in his late twenties.

McFlabbergasty, you're a braver person than I, focusing the prequels on a relatively unknown character to the audience. Heck I deliberately chose to have Bail and Darelda as a major focus, as theoretically the audience would have some level of emotional investment in them given their eventual relationship with Leia. Thus even if you didn't care about them in the context of the story of the film, you could still be interested in seeing what kind of people they were, and thus in a way where Leia got much of herself from. 

Wholly original character HX-81 I included somewhat out of the sheer novelty of having a droid (particularly a battle one) with a very distinct personality to 3PO and R2.  

That would certainly be interesting to see, where Leia got her spunkiness from. Is Darelda a statesman in your draft, or does she have a different occupation?

I'm actually trying to focus as much as possible on new characters. Currently, the only OT characters we ever see are Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, and Bail Organa. And no Lucas PT-exclusive characters ever appear.

Ben Cortel is simultaneously known and unknown to the audience when we see his exploits in the PT. I am trying to set things up so that his influence can be "felt" upon re-watching the OT.

I think Ben is well-grounded in the reality constructed by the OT because his name was actually uttered several times.

Some of Ben's character traits transfer by osmosis to Obi-Wan, Luke, and Han. He finds a greater destiny to pledge himself to, in a manner similar to Luke in the OT. Ben also addresses my concern with the PT that there was no suave, free-wheeling, lady-killer type of character like Han was in the OT. I consciously avoided casting any wise and venerable older Jedi Knights as a protagonist for fear of falling into the same traps as the Lucas PT.

McFlabbergasty said:

That would certainly be interesting to see, where Leia got her spunkiness from. Is Darelda a statesman in your draft, or does she have a different occupation?

I'm actually trying to focus as much as possible on new characters. Currently, the only OT characters we ever see are Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, and Bail Organa. And no Lucas PT-exclusive characters ever appear.

Ben Cortel is simultaneously known and unknown to the audience when we see his exploits in the PT. I am trying to set things up so that his influence can be "felt" upon re-watching the OT.

I think Ben is well-grounded in the reality constructed by the OT because his name was actually uttered several times.

Some of Ben's character traits transfer by osmosis to Obi-Wan, Luke, and Han. He finds a greater destiny to pledge himself to, in a manner similar to Luke in the OT. Ben also addresses my concern with the PT that there was no suave, free-wheeling, lady-killer type of character like Han was in the OT. I consciously avoided casting any wise and venerable older Jedi Knights as a protagonist for fear of falling into the same traps as the Lucas PT.

Featuring other Jedi is a tricky game because you need to build audience interest and care regarding all the other knights and masters, but you don't want to diminish the nature of Kenobi or Skywalker by having a bunch of other people do what they do. My compromise is to have various others appear and play their parts, but many of them are not as involved directly with the armed forces like Ben and Anakin.

You have Jedi medics, pilots, builders, engineers, the works. Prior to the war starting there's references to Jedi creating music, art, writing, all kinds of things. Make it clear that being in touch with the Force went beyond just defensive and offensive moves in combat, and that something genuinely beautiful was lost when they were wiped out. Put Luke's journey in the original films as just beginning to regain the extent of what being a Jedi with the Force really meant. 

I've also been debating whether or not to hint at their mythology and lore, with Ben telling Anakin of the legend about Darth Vader, the earliest known Jedi to have turned to the dark side (which he did in order to supposedly save his fellow knights from extinction), with Skywalker later taking the name in the third prequel as a personal act of defiance against Kenobi. 

CWBorne said:

Featuring other Jedi is a tricky game because you need to build audience interest and care regarding all the other knights and masters, but you don't want to diminish the nature of Kenobi or Skywalker by having a bunch of other people do what they do. My compromise is to have various others appear and play their parts, but many of them are not as involved directly with the armed forces like Ben and Anakin.

You have Jedi medics, pilots, builders, engineers, the works. Prior to the war starting there's references to Jedi creating music, art, writing, all kinds of things. Make it clear that being in touch with the Force went beyond just defensive and offensive moves in combat, and that something genuinely beautiful was lost when they were wiped out. Put Luke's journey in the original films as just beginning to regain the extent of what being a Jedi with the Force really meant. 

I've also been debating whether or not to hint at their mythology and lore, with Ben telling Anakin of the legend about Darth Vader, the earliest known Jedi to have turned to the dark side (which he did in order to supposedly save his fellow knights from extinction), with Skywalker later taking the name in the third prequel as a personal act of defiance against Kenobi. 

I'm in the process of thinking of Force-related things for my Jedi to do. One idea is to have them aid in recovery efforts through the use of their healing powers, off-setting a shortage of bacta. Or using TK powers to help free civilians from structures damaged by clone fleet bombardments. The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice, right?

As for non-war stuff, I'm considering having the Jedi use their TK to craft awe-inspiring monuments to fallen heroes of yore. They could also use their mental abilities to sooth the minds of others, the lighter side of the Jedi mind trick, which could potentially mediate disputes between belligerent parties.

Since the Empire doesn't show up in Episode I: In the Age of Jedi, there's plenty of opportunity to devote screen-time to showing what was lost when Palpatine and Vader enacted their dark crusade. Then it's time to show how the Jedi are brought to their knees in Episode II: The Dark Times Begin....then finally capping things off with a desperate chase towards the last glimmer of hope left in the galaxy, in Episode III: War of the Skywalkers.

Edit: Still unclear whether I ought to title Episode I In the Age of Jedi or In the Age of the Jedi. Any suggestions, folks?

McFlabbergasty said:

I'm in the process of thinking of Force-related things for my Jedi to do. One idea is to have them aid in recovery efforts through the use of their healing powers, off-setting a shortage of bacta. Or using TK powers to help free civilians from structures damaged by clone fleet bombardments. The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice, right?

As for non-war stuff, I'm considering having the Jedi use their TK to craft awe-inspiring monuments to fallen heroes of yore. They could also use their mental abilities to sooth the minds of others, the lighter side of the Jedi mind trick, which could potentially mediate disputes between belligerent parties.

Since the Empire doesn't show up in Episode I: In the Age of Jedi, there's plenty of opportunity to devote screen-time to showing what was lost when Palpatine and Vader enacted their dark crusade. Then it's time to show how the Jedi are brought to their knees in Episode II: The Dark Times Begin....then finally capping things off with a desperate chase towards the last glimmer of hope left in the galaxy, in Episode III: War of the Skywalkers.

Edit: Still unclear whether I ought to title Episode I In the Age of Jedi or In the Age of the Jedi. Any suggestions, folks?

danaan said:

I'm honestly not sure that building monuments would be the Jedi's thing. I mean, their focus is distinctly beyond the physical, "luminous beings are we", and all that, and such ultimately worldly edifices seem too material for them to really be too concerned with. 

 

I see your point, danaan. The Jedi always were champions of the metaphysical. Showing Yoda to be a little guy illustrates that, and having the Jedi build monuments would piss all over that message.

As for other things...I'm not keen on showing the precise origins of certain elements found in the OT. My prequels don't show the inceptions of the Empire, the Stormtroopers, or the Skywalker twins. Having those things committed to film feels more like wanky wish-fulfillment than anything else.

I show the early actions of the Empire and Stormtroopers, but not the exact moment Palpatine pondered, "Hey, you know what? Imagine how fun it would be to rule the galaxy as a fascist dictator."

And while one of the trilogy's other villains can arguably be called "the first Stormtrooper", we do not see the origin of the corps as a whole.

Likewise, the births of Luke and Leia are never seen because the preceding events are far more suitable as the climax of a space opera trilogy. Same for the Vader suit. The last we see of Anakin in Episode III is a bloodied, screaming embodiment of rage, barely clinging to life after suffering horrific burns.

McFlabbergasty said:

danaan said:


I'm honestly not sure that building monuments would be the Jedi's thing. I mean, their focus is distinctly beyond the physical, "luminous beings are we", and all that, and such ultimately worldly edifices seem too material for them to really be too concerned with. 

 

 

I see your point, danaan. The Jedi always were champions of the metaphysical. Showing Yoda to be a little guy illustrates that, and having the Jedi build monuments would piss all over that message.

As for other things...I'm not keen on showing the precise origins of certain elements found in the OT. My prequels don't show the inceptions of the Empire, the Stormtroopers, or the Skywalker twins. Having those things committed to film feels more like wanky wish-fulfillment than anything else.

I show the early actions of the Empire and Stormtroopers, but not the exact moment Palpatine pondered, "Hey, you know what? Imagine how fun it would be to rule the galaxy as a fascist dictator."

And while one of the trilogy's other villains can arguably be called "the first Stormtrooper", we do not see the origin of the corps as a whole.

Likewise, the births of Luke and Leia are never seen because the preceding events are far more suitable as the climax of a space opera trilogy. Same for the Vader suit. The last we see of Anakin in Episode III is a bloodied, screaming embodiment of rage, barely clinging to life after suffering horrific burns.

 

Finally starting getting some real work done on a treatment for the first film (Episode I: Son of the Suns). Initial draft will probably be around 20-25 pages as I'm 5 pages in and the first act still hasn't finished. Still gonna be some time before I start getting to an actual screenplay and work on (Episode II: Galaxy in Flames and Episode III: Broken Forces). Still debating on whether to post the work I've done so far. 

Been heavily debating whether to include a particular plot point in episode II.

Insane cloned Jedi created by the enemy seems like an intriguing concept and could lead to a ton of great battles, though I wouldn't necessarily make them Dark Jedi, just crazy. So much so that the use of them is a disaster and severely weakens the Mandalorian coalition (along with another major act in the film). More or less I don't really want any true users of the dark side of the Force except for eventually Palpatine and Vader. I can easily fit it into the plot, but I'm still unsure about it at the moment. 

Basically, one of the things that bothered me in Lucas' films was that there were a bit too many Sith everywhere, hence the Jedi look foolish for not finding Palpatine sooner and Vader is diminished as a character by being just another apprentice of a dark lord. 

The key conception of my prequels is that there weren't all that many Dark Jedi (possibly none) running around, and that the Jedi had become so wrapped up in the Clone Wars and the battle with the Mandalorians that Palpatine's seduction of Anakin as well as the subsequent betrayal completely took them by surprise. Partially because Palpatine's behavior (patient, subtle, reserved) also completely went against their own recollections of what a dark side user was like.

Its why in my internal drafts I had avoided having any Dark Jedi show up because that would naturally have the Jedi much more on the guard about sensing disturbances in the Force, especially those of the Dark Side. 

The insane clone concept seems attractive because its a loophole, allowing the Jedi to battle their own without it being those who've technically fallen to the Dark Side. If there is a resemblance its that both are in a sense corruptions; of the mind with the clones and of the soul with Dark Jedi, but its a plot point that would allow such a conflict without logically demanding the Jedi to naturally sense a powerful Dark Sider deep within the Republic. 

(Its worth noting that clones are already introduced at the end of episode one and are being utilized all throughout my prequel trilogy, as the Mandalorian shocktroopers are working with crime lord Draezin Kwade who uses the clones of various criminals and pirates in his employ. Episode Two would specifically be Kwade trying to clone Jedi on his own in order to have more leverage and less dependency on his Mandalorian allies, which as I said goes disastrously.) 

Here's what I would do.  Firstly, this series would be much darker in contrast to the actual PT that we got.  In fact it might even be a little bit darker than the OT.  My edits might have flaws but I never said I was perfect.  Since these are going to be kind of long I'm going to do one episode at a time so grab some Cheetos and enjoy.  Here goes:

Episode I:  The way I see it, Coruscant (not sure if I spelled that correctly or not) should not have the only Jedi Temple in existence.  Think about it.  The Jedi are known as the peacekeepers of the entire galaxy and there's just one temple they are trained in?  Granted it's in the largest planet in the SW universe but still, it would get pretty crowded if this is where EVERY Jedi from EVERY planet trains.  That's like having only one police station in America, but on a grander scale.  So what I propose is why not have small Jedi Temples in all of the planets but the one on Coruscant is the main temple because that's where the most famous Jedi, Yoda and Mace Windu teach.  Anyway, Yoda learns that the Jedi from the temple in Tatooine has been corrupted and sends his two Jedi, Qui Gon Jinn and his padawan Obi Wan Kenobi (yeah skip over that confusing Naboo stuff and get right to Tatooine).  When they go to investigate, they get a less than hospital welcome from Jedi Knight Nute Gunray (yes you read that right) and Obi Wan and Qui Gon find themselves outnumbered by attacking Jedi.  While on the run they meet up with Anakin, not a boy but a man approximately 18 years of age who does not ask questions but rather says "come with me."  He then rushes into a cave and uses the force to barricade the entrance and the Jedi run right past them (because they have been corrupted, their powers in the Force are not as strong so they cannot sense where they are).  Qui-Gon whispers to Obi, "the force is strong with this one."  While in the cave it is established that Anakin lives alone with his mother and that he wishes to battle against the Jedi who have bullied the common people.  OWK and QGJ tell Anakin that is not the way of the real Jedi and the convince him to come with them to train to be a real Jedi (that's right no age restrictions in my version and there really shouldn't be if Yoda can train a 20 something Luke to be a Jedi in fact in my version it's just the opposite, if a Jedi sees a force potential recruit they try to sign him up like a military recruiter).  So they go back to the Coruscant Jedi Temple and give a report to Yoda, and they decide to travel to Naboo to meet up with Senator Padme to see if she knows something.  On the way there they are attacked by a enemy spacecraft bearing markings of Sith, a cult thought to be long-dead.  After a lengthy battle they meet up with Padme and come to the conclusion that some Jedi have been corrupted by the Sith and have separated from the original Jedi order, and are now known as Separatists Jedis.  OWK and QGJ decide to try to locate the Sith.  They eventually meet up with Darth Maul... same fate as in the original PT.  QGJ is now dead (only he doesn't say anything about Annakin being the chosen one).  Meanwhile, Anakin and Padme start to have an immediate attraction and it is developed over the course of the movie as well as him having premonitions about his mother.  After OWK returns and tells Anakin QGJ's fate, Anakin shows almost no remorse and instead insists that he must go back to Tattoine.  OWK says no but after much stalling decides to relent and eventually goes back only to find that Shmi (Anakin's mom) has died.  Anakin silently blames OWK and confesses all this to Padme breaking down and Padme consoles her and it is then established that Padme has feelings for Anakin as well however Jedi are not permitted to marry so they must keep their love for each other a secret.  That just about wraps up the rough draft I have for the revised episode one.  What do you guys think?

Hi. Im new here.

If I could state my opinion, it would be that the prequels should have been made with the technology looking the same as it did in the originals.

The first time I saw The Phantom Menace was when it came out in theaters. Even though I was only ten, I could tell it sucked. I really wanted all the little computers and gadgets and gizmos to look "outdated." You know what I mean? In the original trilogy, the computers would have all the "old-fashioned" bells and whistles and big flashing lights. (True story: When I was seven or eight, my uncle, who was living in LA at the time, told me about how they were casting for Anakin Skywalker. He joked that I should try it, and even though I wanted to, but my mother wouldn't let me. When I actually saw the movie in theaters and saw how utterly bad of an actor the kid portraying Anakin was. . . well, it didn;t seem that the bar was set too high)

I really wish that they would have kept it looking that way for the prequels. That internal cosmetic consistency would have greatly improved the quality of the prequels, in my opinion. (Even if it had that late 70/early 80s outdated tech look.)

When Episode 3 came out, and they show the scene near the end with the newly suited Darth Vader walking down the length of the pathway to stand by the Emperor, the computers all had that old-fashioned look. I thought it was so cool.

It was neat to see that in a modern Star Wars movie!!

You could go with another Jorus clone.