Rewriting the OT-What would you do?

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. . . . 😉

This is a topic I’ve been pondering for several months now, and I’ve some ideas for an OT rewrite firmly developed in my mind.

GENERAL CHANGES

• My OT would be semi-hard science fiction, with a few fantastical elements, rather than outright science fantasy. Things like 3D space travel would be featured, but people walking around inside giant space slugs without spacesuits in Earth-normal gravity would be out of the question.
• My OT would take place in the Milky Way Galaxy, in “the 33rd century A.E.”, hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Humans and near-humans would be the only sapient life inhabiting the galaxy; there’d be no genuine aliens.
• Projectile weapons such as coilguns and smart missiles would be featured, with energy weapons taking lesser precedence.
• The lightsaber would be somewhat different. It’d be a weapon only trained Force-users can activate and wield. It’d possess a monomolecular blade of “energized particles” which can cut through most anything but doesn’t generate any actual heat. Jedi lightsabers would be red while Sith lightsabers blue.
• No manned fighters. All fighters would either be outfitted with AIs (Empire) or remote controlled (Rebel).
• There’d be no light/dark dichotomy to the Force.
• No Force ghosts.

STAR WARS

• Luke would be changed into a female character named “Leia Skywalker”.
• Leia would become Princess Zara Antilles.
• The Death Star would not make a physical appearance. Zara would be imprisoned on Vader’s Star Destroyer and all scenes pertaining to her rescue would take place there.
• Ben would survive his duel with Vader.
• The film would end with our heroes escaping for Hoth.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

• My version of TESB would open a couple weeks after the events of SW. The damages to the Falcon would’ve been those sustained during our heroes’ escape from Vader’s ship; Leia would be furthering her training under Ben; etc.
• Dodonna would take Rieekan’s place.
• The Leia/Han/Zara love triangle would be a bisexual one.
• The walkers would be replaced with tanks.
• Ben would be slain by Vader while helping our heroes escape Hoth.
• In contrast to Ben, Yoda would be quite the PT-era Jedi. He would teach Leia that Jedi are forbidden from forming attachments, including romantic ones.
• Bespin wouldn’t have a breathable atmosphere.
• Six months would explicitly pass between the Battle of Hoth and the duel on Cloud City.
• I’m on the fence as to whether Vader would be Leia’s father or not.
• Leia would join Vader.

RETURN REVENGE OF THE JEDI

• Three years would’ve passed since TESB. Leia would’ve spent that time receiving Sith training from Vader.
• The one and only Death Star would finally make its debut.
• Motti would take Jerjerrod’s place.
• Emperor Palpatine would be reimagined as Espaa Valorum, the beautiful, androgynous, ageless Dark Lord of the Sith.
• Under his helmet, Vader would be revealed as a handsome, middle-aged man without any injuries or disfigurements.
• No Ewoks, no Endor. The Rebel fleet would attack the Death Star above Had Abbadon, and we’d get a trench run much like the one from A New Hope. No muss, no fuss.
• Valorum would zap Leia with his lightning; Vader would skewer him on his lightsaber; then Leia and Vader would have their climactic duel.
• Leia would slay Vader a la Dooku. Vader would die in his sins, unredeemed.
• The film would end on a bittersweet note, with the Death Star destroyed, Han and Zara together, and Leia assuming command of the Executor and going off on her own, intent on building a First Order free of Jedi/Sith dogma.

Since the OT is the source material of Star Wars, I’m assuming you mean a complete Star Wars reboot, and not something in the same vein as prequel rewrites where I’d have to keep them in line with some existing material.

I’ve always liked the idea of a 1800s or pre-WWI 1900s Star Wars with some anachronism. It’s set on one planet, with boats instead of spaceships, real sabers instead of light sabers, Vader is a full-on samurai. Technology and culture haven’t evolved in the same way on this planet as our own, so naval warfare technology is advanced, with WWII-era planes (to keep that dogfighting babey), but other areas of technology are lagging. The Death Star would be the first nuclear weapon this world has seen.

Cybernetics is a bit of a stretch, though, so Vader can’t be a cyborg, and Luke can’t lose a hand. Vader is probably horribly disfigured from self-mutilation, maybe to bring himself more in line with the Dark Side of the Force, maybe that’s just something he does. He wears a mask to cover this up, not to help breathe.

The plot would be like how I, someone who has never read a Marvel comic, think the MCU treats the comics: Some ideas and themes, and maybe the premises of each story are taken, but they’re not super faithful. General arcs of most characters and their characterization would remain the same: Vader is still a bad guy who turns good because of his son, Luke still starts out as a Jedi’s son who wants to be more like his father, only to find out his father is a monster, but then finds out he isn’t and tries to redeem him. Han is still a scumbag who turns good, etc. Maybe some premises would draw inspiration from the actual OT movies, but no story identical to any of them would exist.

I’d think maybe the best format is a series show like Game of Thrones. A normal TV show I feel wouldn’t have enough weight, but it’s sacrilege to make a Star Wars cinematic reboot. Each season should have a defining thing about the plot, Season 1 might be the Death Star season, Season 2 might be the season with XYZ, Season 3 is the ZYX season, etc.

The Death Star would be a looming presence for a significant chunk of the show, if not the whole show, and there would only be one Death Star.

Vader being Luke’s father couldn’t be a twist, so maybe we can exploit that and put subplots of Vader finding out who Luke is in earlier seasons.

The show would be entirely OT-based. There could definitely be flashback or flash forward episodes, but the bulk of the show is with the OT cast of characters. In these flashbacks, the contrast between Anakin and Vader should be as much as possible, and Anakin should be as similar to Luke as possible. Where Vader is a horribly mutilated, disfigured creature, Anakin is a stunningly handsome specimen of a man. He’s uncannily similar to Luke in personality. Any dark side stuff that’s started yet is hidden well. No rage-filled outbursts. He’s also just an all-around cool guy. Someone you’d hate to see fall.

I wouldn’t have Luke and Leia be siblings. Luke could have a sister, maybe named Nellith like what she was in older drafts of Empire and Jedi.

I’m referring to the original films as well as the re-releases:

1. The name Obi Wan uses to hide. Who would not know that old Ben Kenobi is Obi-Wan Kenobi?
2. Take out A LOT of the new things that were added with CGI in Tatooine.
3. Obviously Han (and only him) shoots first.
4. I’ll be the odd one here, but I didn’t mind the Jabba scene in ANH. Just take out greedo.
5. Can Obi-Wan and Vader’s fight be more like scene 38 reimagined please?
6. Time being counted again after the battle of Yavin, I would have it restart after the battle of Endor.
7. Boba Fett keeps his voice.
8. I’m fine with Leia having the force, but why is she conviniently Luke’s sister? And also, twin? The kiss between them remains,
9. I think that more time should have passed between ESB and ROTJ, so Luke can train more.
10. Jabba living conviniently on Tatooine for no reason, I would just use another desert-like planet.
11. Something needs to be done regarding jedi rocks.
12. The Sarlacc remais as it was originally.
13. I know the troopers would miss a blue whale stuck in the beach 10 feet ahead, but can we have something else than just the ewoks to beat them up in the forest? It seemed too much for me.
14. Luke is more brutal towards Vader in their second duel, fighting more aggressively and damaging him more.
15. Goodbye to Vader’s NOOO. It was fine before.
16. Cast David Prowse as Vader without the mask and as a ghost (not replaced with Hayden Christensen either).

So I’ve been reflecting on my ideas for an OT rewrite, and I’ve changed my mind on several details.

DuracellEnergizer said:

• My OT would be semi-hard science fiction, with a few fantastical elements, rather than outright science fantasy. Things like 3D space travel would be featured, but people walking around inside giant space slugs without spacesuits in Earth-normal gravity would be out of the question.

Keeping this.

• My OT would take place in the Milky Way Galaxy, in “the 33rd century A.E.”, hundreds of thousands of years into the future.

Ambivalent on this. I still like the idea, but there’s the purist in me who wants to keep to “the galaxy far, far away”.

Humans and near-humans would be the only sapient life inhabiting the galaxy; there’d be no genuine aliens.

Amending this. There would be non-human sapients co-existing with humanity, but there’d be fewer than there are in SW canon, and they’d tend towards self-segregation.

• Projectile weapons such as coilguns and smart missiles would be featured, with energy weapons taking lesser precedence.

Ditching this.

• The lightsaber would be somewhat different. It’d be a weapon only trained Force-users can activate and wield. It’d possess a monomolecular blade of “energized particles” which can cut through most anything but doesn’t generate any actual heat. Jedi lightsabers would be red while Sith lightsabers blue.

Keeping these.

• No manned fighters. All fighters would either be outfitted with AIs (Empire) or remote controlled (Rebel).

Ditching this.

• There’d be no light/dark dichotomy to the Force.

Amending this. There’d be light and dark, but with gray between.

• No Force ghosts.

Ditching this.

• Luke would be changed into a female character named “Leia Skywalker”.
• Leia would become Princess Zara Antilles.

Ditching these.

• The Death Star would not make a physical appearance. [Leia] would be imprisoned on Vader’s Star Destroyer and all scenes pertaining to her rescue would take place there.

Keeping this.

• Ben would survive his duel with Vader.

Ditching this.

• The film would end with our heroes escaping for Hoth.

Keeping this.

• My version of TESB would open a couple weeks after the events of SW. The damages to the Falcon would’ve been those sustained during our heroes’ escape from Vader’s ship

Keeping these.

• Dodonna would take Rieekan’s place.

Keeping this.

• The [Luke]/Han/[Leia] love triangle would be a bisexual one.

Ditching this.

• The walkers would be replaced with tanks.

Keeping this.

• In contrast to Ben, Yoda would be quite the PT-era Jedi. He would teach [Luke] that Jedi are forbidden from forming attachments, including romantic ones.

Ambivalent on this. Part of me wants to ditch the PT baggage wholly and make the Jedi less dogmatic, another wants me to keep the Jedi as the “too cold” to the Sith’s “too hot” so Luke can forge his own middle path which is “just right”.

• Bespin wouldn’t have a breathable atmosphere.
• Six months would explicitly pass between the Battle of Hoth and the duel on Cloud City.

Keeping these.

• I’m on the fence as to whether Vader would be [Luke’s] father or not.

Not anymore. His father he is.

• [Luke] would join Vader.

Ambivalent on this.

• Three years would’ve passed since TESB.

Keeping this.

[Luke] would’ve spent that time receiving Sith training from Vader.

Amending this to “or Jedi training from Yoda”.

• The one and only Death Star would finally make its debut.
• Motti would take Jerjerrod’s place.

Keeping these.

• Emperor Palpatine would be reimagined as Espaa Valorum, the beautiful, androgynous, ageless Dark Lord of the Sith.

Amending this. I think I’ll return to the Palpatine name, but the beautiful androgyny remains in place.

• Under his helmet, Vader would be revealed as a handsome, middle-aged man without any injuries or disfigurements.

Ambivalent on this. It all depends on how tragic/sympathetic I’d decide to make the character.

• No Ewoks, no Endor. The Rebel fleet would attack the Death Star above Had Abbadon, and we’d get a trench run much like the one from A New Hope. No muss, no fuss.

Keeping this.

• [Palpatine] would zap [Luke] with his lightning; Vader would skewer him on his lightsaber; then [Luke] and Vader would have their climactic duel.

Amending this. Luke would take up his lightsaber and slay Palpatine, then he and Vader would fight.

• [Luke] would slay Vader a la Dooku. Vader would die in his sins, unredeemed.

Amending this(?) I don’t know about beheading, but Luke would kill an unredeemed Vader.

• The film would end on a bittersweet note, with the Death Star destroyed, Han and [Leia] together, and [Luke] assuming command of the Executor and going off on [his] own, intent on building a First Order free of Jedi/Sith dogma.

Amending this. I think I’d have Han die in the attack on the Death Star.

Some further changes I’d make:

• The stormtroopers would wear effective armour and be more formidable in battle.
• Luke would be “Luke Lars” prior to learning his true name from Ben.
• Owen would be written more sympathetically.
• I’d include elements from the radio drama in my version of ANH.
• I’d include elements from the Leigh Brackett screenplay in my version of TESB.
• Yoda wouldn’t be the master who trained Ben. This is the one concession I’d make to the prequel lore.

The Empire is a lot more competent. Palpatine knows how to stay in power.
The Death Star is an impenetrable fortress without exhaust port, tight security makes sabotage almost impossible. Yavin 4 is blown up and the rebels scatter in all directions. Imperials have more versatile fleets to combat the Rebel insurgency, mostly fighters and frigates while the capital ships get point-defense systems. Stormtroopers are now professionals and deadly, no more making fun of their bad aim and clunky armor. They are the elite corps of the Imperial Army, made up of veterans of the Clone Wars. Their armor absorbs energy weapons and they have camouflage (no more white in deserts and forests). Ground vehicles are more like those in the Prequels(more functional) and armored divisions always advance with infantry support. Every time rebels fight imperials in the open, they get obliterated. That’s why they have to use more guerilla tactics, no more decisive battles.

The Empire can’t finish of the Rebellion, because they have to deal with an Outside threat which ties up most of their resources. (The only thing that makes sense)

Lightsaber combat is the noble way of combat by the Sith lords and Jedi knights, its martial arts choreography is inspired by historical swordfighting. It’s intense, but not over the top.

ideas:
-Not all the Jedis have been purged and there are more Siths(maybe an aristocratic class?)
-Are the Jedi a new religion which threatens the Empire? Maybe there are several sects of force-users.
-The Old Republic didn’t last thousands of years/generations and Imperial rule was longlasting
-Luke becomes the new Emperor after beating Palpatine