Prequel total rewrites...? — Page 4

CWBorne said:

I think you could do something interesting from a narrative standpoint of initially making Skywalker the central protagonist with the first film told from his POV, as he is the one (to quote Kenobi) "making his first step into a larger world". Thus you can have someone to ask the questions the audience would and have the exposition in somewhat natural fashion. 

Then in the second you have both Ben and Anakin serving as dual protagonists, fitting their status as brothers in arms in the Clone Wars, and providing perhaps a fascinating contrast in their tones and points of view for when they are split apart for a portion of the movie. 

Then in the third, its Kenobi who takes over as the lead. This not only subtly foreshadows that Skywalker will act as the antagonist in the conclusion and in a sense creating narrative distance between the teacher/student but also really emotionally connecting with the audience as Ben sees the transformation of his best friend, the destruction of his fellow Jedi, and the final decay of the beloved Republic. 

If done well it would make for a proper introduction to the universe, allow an audience to sense the difference/division between the two most important characters, and creates for a genuinely sad finale with a character who has lost so much. Hence, in the grand scheme, the true tragedy of Star Wars is really one of Ben and Anakin, with the triumph of Luke is that he redeems the sins of the two and avoids the unfortunate fate of either. 

TPM: Neeson
AotC: MacGregor
RotS: Christenson

I think you're falling into a Lucas trap.  To be fair, a lot of the decisions the bearded one made during the development of the prequels were real head scratchers to me.  Things that already seemed to be set up by the back story of the OT were directly contradicted and I had no idea why.  Or other just bizarre decisions that just made you say, "Huh?"  It just didn't make sense.  Then I started to craft my own outlines for the prequels, based on the OT backstory.  And I found myself coming into some of the same problems.

Just as examples: Where did Quigonn come from (storywise)?  Wasn't Obi-Wan as instructor enough?  Why was Anakin 8-9 years old in the first movie?  Trade federations and tax disputes?  The Sith rule of two?

I think these are all terrible decisions. On the surface, they make no sense.  But you can discover their engineering if you attempt the task yourself.

But they're still the wrong decision.

In my humblest of opinions.

(Which is also correct, in this case.)

((From time to time.))

(((Never tell me the odds.)))

CWBorne said:

The difference between my concept and Lucas is that his POV characters seemingly served no purpose. Indeed Episode One didn't seem to have a real protagonist at all, and if Jin was, it was a terrible decision because he couldn't be utilized by the audience as an introduction to the audience like Luke was. 

And I'm not clear at all as to who the main character was in either AOTC or ROTS. Again, its a matter of being clear as opposed to just throwing it out there. 

 Could be.  Still sounds like a trap to me.  I think it bifurcates (trifurcates?) the drive of the narrative to keep changing it like that.