McFlabbergasty

If Kate Beckinsale isn't in this, I will put my keyboard through this computer monitor. She is a goddess.

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?

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.

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.

danaan, I'm at the first scene of The Old Order; there's a nice Star Warsy, swashbuckling feel to it. 

Episode II is proving to be a real pain to write. It's the most complex of my three film ideas; as of now it contains Anakin's conversion, the rise of the Empire, the endgame of the Clone Wars, and some big character revelations that cast the OT in a different light.

I'm trying to mold Episode II in a manner similar to ESB: love story at the center of the plot, big reveal at the climax, the audience learns some new things about the Force, the protagonist desperately limps towards a cliffhanger ending...and the Empire plays Tom to the Alliance's Jerry.

Also: tonally speaking, the feeling for the end of the trilogy that I am going for can be aptly summarized by the section of the ESB finale track that runs from 00:59 to 02:23. In fact, it would be a dream come true if I could include that track in the final cut of the film!

So Palpatine's pre-Vader apprentice has a personality of his/her own? It sounds better than Lucas' tripe already.

My draft has the leader of the clones revealed to be a Jedi who turned against the order two years before the events of Episode I. On her way out, she fought Anakin and his apprentice. The two Jedi battled her with tenacity but ultimately the traitor bested them both by killing the apprentice and slicing off Anakin's hand.

Anakin's drive for vengeance is a key factor in his dark side conversion process. This dark Jedi becomes Anakin's white whale. But in killing his white whale, Anakin becomes the monster he tried to destroy. 

danaan said:

 

Vader with some scars, and some machine-augmentations...

 

Has someone been playing Deus Ex lately? 
I certainly have.

But in all seriousness: that's a rather neat approach to the politics-centered transformation. It's starting to feel a bit more like a real social system. Not "oh look Ian MacDiarmid is suddenly more powerful than anybody in the Republic, what are we gonna do now".

Having Bail Organa play an important role makes it feel more like the Empire was a malevolent tumor that sprang forth when the conditions were just right for it to come into being, not a neatly baked cake with a nice, straightforward recipe courtesy of the Order of Sith Lords.

In my draft, I try to cut to the chase as quickly as possible. 

You want to see the end of the Old Republic? *kaboom* It's gone in Episode I.
You want clones? Episode I.
Palpatine and the Empire? Episode II.
Last-ditch effort to rescue the mother of the twins? That's the majority of Episode III's plot.

One of the main differences between this draft and all of my others is that the "Old Republic Era" hardly overlaps with the Clone Wars time period. Technically the Republic existed during the Clone Wars, but that was for literally one battle at the start of the war. After the clones destroyed the seat of government on Coruscant, the Republic, as one contiguous entity, was history.

@danaan:

I envision the Battle of Coruscant as taking place near the beginning of Episode I. 

For a time after its first appearance in Episode II, the Empire works with the Alliance to defeat the clone menace.

There is a loose parallel to the cooperation between the Western Europeans and Americans with the Soviets in the fight against the Third Reich. Two ideologically contrasting entities in a temporary alliance against a more pressing threat (IRL the Nazis, in this series the clones)

In Episode III, the Clone Wars are over, but the Alliance has become a Rebel Alliance, due to the Empire having turned on its previous agreement and overtaken many of the Alliance's star systems.

Episode I is about surviving to fight the clones another day and taking the first steps towards being a Jedi Knight.

Episode II is about finding out who the real enemy is. I'm thinking of titling it in reference to a line delivered by McGuiness in ANH...Star Wars Episode II: The Dark Times Begin.

Episode III can be summarized perfectly by, "If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

I'm aiming for a bittersweet ending, because the protagonist, Anakin's apprentice Ben, has to die for a cause that won't see victory for another twenty years. But the twins are safe and sound...

Out of remembrance, Obi-Wan adopts Ben's name as an alias during his exile on Tattooine.

After the debacle that was the Battle of Coruscant, the remnants of the Republic's military and citizenry separated themselves into two distinct groups: the "Alliance to Restore the Republic" and the "Galactic Empire".

Yes. The Rebels are in all six films. The Empire isn't seen until Episode II, though. It was formed some time between when the first film and the second film take place (25 BBY and 21 BBY, respectively).

For four fiery years these factions worked together to crush the clone menace, even while holding starkly-differing views on what the post-War galaxy should look like.

The Alliance wanted a constitutional, representative government composed of equal parts all known sentient species. The Empire demanded Human supremacy and loyalty to its supreme leader, Palpatine, above all else. 

How the Empire won, at least until the events of the OT, is one of the major stories I am trying to tell in my prequels.

Thanks, danaan. Pretty big oversight on my part. When Leia was talking about her father, was she referring to Bail Organa? It doesn't seem like she knew her father was Vader at that point.

danaan said:

 

 I feel that the theme of "the path from democracy to dictatorship" is a very appealing one, and telling the story of how Palpatine went from Senator to Dictator is one that fits the fall of Anakin Skywalker very well, as a parallell. It's one I'd like to see told. So, my problem with the official version was the execution, rather than the theme.

I think the key to doing this is to take care and build a plausible political setting, which Lucas did not do. In other words, the Republic and the Senate need to function in a convincing fashion.

 

I think the main problem with Lucas' execution of the Republic's political unraveling was two-fold: 1) We never see how Palpatine's rule affected the common man on the street and 2) There was too much kriffing C-SPAN going on.

I tried to derive my version of pre-Empire events from interpreting what certain characters in the OT said about the time period. These are some assertions I gathered from all OT exposition of pre-Empire times...

1) Before "the dark times", Jedi Knights acted as galactic justice-keepers. It is never made clear how many Jedi Knights existed, but it is assumed to be more than the three Jedi seen in the OT (two if you don't bother to count Yoda). A traitorous apprentice of Kenobi's named Darth Vader helped the Empire eliminate all known Jedi Knights.

2) There is no mention of anything called a "Sith". I intend to keep it that way for my prequel re-write.

3) Lightsabers were weapons used by Jedi Knights in "more civilized times". They are, however, not the only weapon used by Jedi. Yoda and Vader are both shown to be gifted in telekinesis, and Palpatine can generate an arc lightning attack. 

4) Obi-Wan fought in the Clone Wars in the capacity of a Jedi Knight, alongside Luke's father. No-one in the trilogy ever says the Jedi held military leadership positions in the Clone Wars.

5) Owen did not hold to Luke's father's ideals, and believed he "should not have gotten involved". The exact meaning of this statement is rather murky, which means it's perfect material for exploration in a PT remake.

6) At no point in the OT is it said that the fall of the Republic coincided with the rise of the Empire.

7) Anakin was a gifted pilot and warrior. 

8) At an early point in her life, Leia saw her mother as "beautiful, but sad".

9) The Jedi named Anakin Skywalker gained a hatred for the Knights and resolved to hunt them down and kill all of them. Three more connected events happened in an unspecified order: 1) He fathered Luke and Leia, 2) The Empire was created, and 3) Anakin/Vader was burn and wounded to the point of relying on a bio-mechanical life-support suit; at least one of his arms is synthetic.

With all these assumptions being made, I devised a few constraints for a PT remake...

1) At the beginning of the Clone Wars, evil alien clones attack Coruscant and decapitate the Republic's leadership. This leads to a splintering effect that leaves the Republic in shambles and the clones in a position of supremacy across the galaxy. The war goes for four years before Palpatine reunites the factions and destroys the clones, but creating the Empire in the process.

2) The Jedi are far fewer in number than they were in Lucas' PT. I am thinking six or seven individuals at most. And not all of them use lightsabers.

3) Much of Episodes I and II is spent in the clone-dominated period  between the Republic's end and the Empire's beginning. Memories of this time is what leads to a xenophobic, militaristic mindset that allows the creation of an evil Empire.

4) Vader's red saber from the OT is used by a villain in this remake trilogy. The blade has a long and infamous history by the time it is vaporized in the second Death Star's explosion.

I've always felt that ROTS's changing of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire always felt too much like flipping a light switch. Sure there was political build-up, but on the whole I thought the events felt too forced and sudden.

Personally, my prequel re-write has the Republic dissolve several years before the formation of the Empire. After a clone fleet surprises Coruscant by bombarding the seat of government with orbital fire, the Republic fractures into my disorganized warlord factions.

Ostensibly the Republic remnant factions are allied with each other, but they have little trust for each other. For much of the Clone Wars, the clones rule the galaxy. It is only when the strong-man political leader and military officer Admiral Palpatine steps into the forefront that this rabble of fleets and armies is united into a galaxy-spanning Empire.

After re-installing this RTS gem I noticed that something about the Naboo faction still irked me. Maybe it's the annoying sounds their Troopers make when they die. Maybe it's their lack of a truly unique Unique Unit, or perhaps that their Air Cruiser unit looks like it has a clown nose.

Point is, I think the faction needs to be replaced with something varied and interesting. I'm no expert at modding with the Genie engine, but I have come up with the faction's identity and bonuses. 

It is essentially an Outer Rim faction composed of various slavers, traders, bounty hunters, assassins, mercenaries, smugglers, and pirates who are not affiliated with any of the major polities. 

piestrider said:

 

All that being said, there are still lots of elements which are excellent additions to the Universe - Mace Windu, the Jedi Temple, Padme Amidala, and Darth Maul to name a few. 

I agree with pretty much all of your points except this one.

Please enlighten us as to what personality Padme had beyond "Important Senator", what personality Maul had beyond "Silent Assassin", and what personality Windu had beyond "Stoic Jedi".

All of these examples remind of me of people who claim that the player character from Doom had a personality beyond "Gruff Space Marine". A job title or story role does not suffice as a personality, IMO. 

It would have been nice to know what the above three characters were like as people. Even one quick gesture, scene, or throwaway line would have spiced these people up just a little bit. 

Maul, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Padme, how is your life as a Senator different from your life as a Queen? Mace, what made you decide on a purple blade?

And before anyone tells me to read the EU, I would like to point out that the movies should stand on their own, with the books serving to expand on an already coherent story. That's why it is called the Expanded Universe.

Prologue:

The year is 25 BBY. The galaxy teeters on the brink of all-out war.

Many alien worlds have seceded from the Republic to create "the League". The League believes Humans are a scourge that must be cleansed from the universe. Their coalition is a loosely-connected one at best, militias of a hundred worlds and a few frigates here and there. What the League lacks in brute strength it makes up for with guerrilla flexibility and the element of surprise. Rumors abound that the Empress of the League is a Force-sensitive.

In response to reports of the League using clone technology to bolster their numbers, Chancellor Antior of the Republic inaugurates the all-Human "Stormtrooper Corps". These white-clad men are stoic defenders tasked with stamping out the clones wherever they rear their heads.

Meanwhile, on an isolated tundra planet, the Jedi Knights, Force-sensitive guardians of peace, have lost one of their number, a half-Zygerrian named Ceres, to the Dark Side. Anakin Skywalker has taken it upon himself to track down Ceres and kill her, even though he has told the other Jedi that he intends to re-convert her to the Jedi way. Two years ago, when Ceres left the Jedi, Anakin and his apprentice at the time tried to contain her. In the process, Ceres killed the apprentice and cut off Anakin's right hand. Anakin seeks vengeance on her for this.

But even Jedi Knights like Anakin cannot foresee what is to come. His arrival at Coruscant will set off a storm of events that will change the course of galactic history, and decide the fate of the Jedi once and for all...

Edit: One more thing must be made clear; there are five Jedi Knights in existence at the time of this prologue. That includes Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Instead of posting detailed chapters of the movie, I'll start with posting a broad overall summary of the film, divided into a handful of chunks. There is less detail in these chunks, but I think they will serve well in summarizing the movie in a succinct manner.

Rise of the Witch

The year is 24 BBY. War is imminent.

Many alien races have joined the League, a militant movement that seeks to overthrow the Republic. They want to do this because they think Humans wield too much control over the Republic, and by extension the galaxy. While there has been no open warfare yet, tensions are at an all-time high. Commerce in many sectors is at a standstill.

It is rumored that the League has been bolstering its numbers with clones of the best warriors of so many races. Cloning has been outlawed in the Republic. That is why Supreme Chancellor Antior has created a conscription system. A legion of millions, stoic guardians against the bloodthirsty alien hordes.

It is also said that the leader of the League is a corrupted Jedi Knight. Where once the Jedi Knights were merely heresay and folk tales, this revelation confirms that these mystical warriors are real. The galaxy grows suspicious of their sorceror's ways.

The Clone Wars are nigh.
-----
At a seedy bar in the lower levels of Coruscant, Ben (a half-Chiss spice smuggler captain) plays cards with a Duros thug. The gamble is risky. Ben has three thousand credits on the table and the thug has several kilos of spice. Ben unknowingly uses the Force to foretell his opponent's move and counters it with such precision that the thug calls cheating.
-----

The thug takes the money and spice off the table, draws a blaster, and slowly backs away from Ben. Just as Ben is about to pull out his own weapon, the Duros' weapon is telekinetically pulled out of his hand by a nearby Jedi Knight.
-----

The Knight, tall and with piercing dark-eyes, influences the thug's mind. "You will leave this place and never return." The frightened one obliges.
-----

Ben rushes over to the Knight, now beleaguered by the loss of his only bargaining chip, and asks him who he thinks he is letting the criminal run away with his money. The Knight introduces himself as Anakin Skywalker and tells Ben that he knows about his powers.
-----

Anakin tells Ben that he is destined to be more than a smuggler. His abilities have put him on the path to becoming a Jedi. Anakin explains what the Jedi and the Force are. He says that the Jedi live and train in a temple called the Sanctum, in a remote part of the galaxy.
-----

Ben won't hear it. He understands that Anakin wants him to train at the Sanctum. But he can't afford the trip. There are no smuggling jobs anymore. No-one wants to be caught in the crossfire of a star war against the Republic.
-----

Anakin replies that he can compensate Ben very generously. Ben finally acquiesces and agrees to go to the Sanctum, but only because Anakin is footing the bill.
-----

The two start towards a hangar bay where both of their ships are docked.
-----
Meanwhile, in high orbit above Coruscant, a League battlegroup jumps in from hyperspace.
On the bridge of the flagship, Fire of Exodus , we see Ceres, the half-Zygerrian dark Jedi. She is the leader of the League. A red-bladed lightsaber is strapped to her hip.

A Trandoshan bridge officer, Commander Hossk, tells her that all ships and clone gunships are in position for the operation. Ceres orders, "They may fire when ready."
-----
At the hangar bay, Ben introduces Anakin to his crew: Jeni Lars (Human female, co-captain and navigator), Orannu (Mon Calamari male, first mate), and Zero (droid, engineer; he communicates in a series of electronic-sounding tones rather than the Basic language). Anakin and Jeni make fast friends (for now, it will evolve into something more later).
-----
Suddenly the city is under attack by a fleet of League starships. The Republic navy sends its own frigates to defend against the barrage. Turbolaser bolts rain down from above, collapsing buildings and frying innocent victims in an instant. A group of Republic warships takes off from the planet’s surface.
-----
In the hangar, Anakin hands Ben fifteen thousand credits and a holocard containing the coordinates of the Sanctum. He sprints towards his own Jedi fighter after instructing Ben and his crew to make way for the Sanctum as quickly as they can. Anakin says the Force will be with them both.
-----
Both ships take off and weave their way past the Republic Navy patrols ordering all civil traffic to stay grounded. Jeni flies Ben’s ship along the side trench of a League cruiser, avoiding the majority of the fleet’s laser fire and fighter escorts. On its way to the edge of Coruscant’s gravity well, the freighter sustains a hit. Orannu and Zero go to the engine room and manage to fix it just in time to make a hasty jump into hyperspace.
-----
Anakin’s fighter confronts a squad of League interceptors and gunships. His attunement to the Force allows him to make short work of many enemy fighters singlehandedly. With a few precisely-timed bolts, Anakin destroys a missile ship that was about to launch a volley of projectiles at the capitol building.
-----

Republic destroyers target the Fire of Exodus. On the bridge of the Fire, Hossk receives word from a gunship captain that “the clones have made the extraction”. On hearing of this success, Hossk orders an immediate retreat of all ships into hyperspace. The Battle of Coruscant ends, but the Clone Wars have only just begun.

-----

Still in the cockpit of his fighter, Anakin is hailed via commlink by Stormtrooper officer Captain Kro. Kro tells Anakin that Admiral Palpatine requests his audience at the capitol. We cut to a scene of Anakin entering the Chancellor's quarters. Politicians and high-ranking military commanders are seated as Anakin makes his way in.
-----

Kro stands guard next to Palpatine. Palpatine tells the group that Supreme Chancellor Antior was captured by the League during the battle. Palpatine's position in the line of succession enables him to step up as Acting Supreme Chancellor of the Republic for the duration of the war. He promises to fight back against the League by any means necessary and recapture Antior alive. In the meantime, all non-Human members of the Republic will be placed under increased security. Conscription rates for the Fleet and Stormtrooper Corps will be increased. Palpatine confirms rumors that the League uses clone soldiers and that they are led by a Jedi named Ceres.
-----

All audience members are dismissed except for Anakin. Palpatine addresses him and notes that it is an honor to finally meet a Jedi Knight in the flesh. He says he needs Anakin to enlist the help of any other Jedi to help in the fight against the League. Anakin refuses, saying that the Jedi are an independent group of peacekeepers, not soldiers. He cannot guarantee their cooperation.

But Anakin vows to do everything in his power to track down Ceres and deal with her himself. Anakin has a personal score to settle with the Witch.
-----

to be continued...

Post edited.

So just to clear up a few questions I have seen in previous posts...

- Ceres is quite beautiful. Not so young, though. She's slightly older than Anakin, who is his early thirties. You can say that Ceres has aged very well.

- I'm sticking to green, red, and blue for the lightsabers in this trilogy. Ceres has the red one that Vader uses in the OT. Obi-Wan has a blue one that he uses to fight Vader in ANH. For 2/3rds of the trilogy, Anakin uses the blue one that gets passed on to Luke. Ben makes a green one as a rite of passage at the Sanctum.

- The infertility of the Jedi is another trait that separates them from general society and makes them all the more special and otherworldly. And before anyone asks, you cannot create Force-sensitive clones (in this fanon). Force-users are a very rare and precious commodity, especially when they work in tandem. That's why it is such big news that Jeni and Anakin have created viable offspring in Episode II. 

At Frink's request, I will continue posting updates in the following topic:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Rise-of-the-Witch-The-Dark-Times-Begin-and-A-New-Order/topic/13501/

Hello folks, I'm new here. 

For the better part of a year I've been hashing out the details of  radical prequel rewrite. It would be impossible to edit the existing PT films enough to fit the story that I want to tell, so it is my intention to one day make independent films of my own through whatever means necessary. 

I began the process by looking over other fans' prequel rewrites. I quickly realized that I didn't like any of them because they tried to stay too close to the Lucas PT. 

By that I mean these other rewrites had planets like Naboo, Geonosis, and Utapau. They also retained characters like Jango Fett, Jar Jar, and General Grievous. None of these names or locations are *needed* to tell the story that the prequels demand. 

I sense that after so many years of having to put up with Lucas' PT we've been led to assume that an alternate treatment of the story would have to include the same story elements, plot lines, characters, and locations, but ever so slightly re-arranged.

From my point of view, we do not *need* to see a teenage Anakin being trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi. In fact, we don't need any kids or teenagers at all. We don't 

With all that being said, here is a list of Lucas PT elements that I have done my absolute best to avoid. This list is not comprehensive...

- Any names of characters or planets that were in the PT but not the OT. The lone exception is Coruscant.
- A very large number of Jedi running around the galaxy. 
- Throw-away antagonists who are killed within one movie of their first appearance and are not given any character depth, history of interactions with other main characters, or clear motivation.
- An over-abundance of lightsabers.
- R2D2 and C-3PO.
- The term "Sith". They are not Sith, they are "followers of the dark side" or "dark Jedi".

And here is what I am going to include in my PT rewrite that will spice the story up and help connect it to the OT more firmly than Lucas did...

- A very small Jedi Order. Their numbers in this trilogy never go past seven members. Also Yoda is technically a Jedi but he is not part of the Order. He stays on Dagobah the whole trilogy and does not romp around the galaxy having adventures like the other characters. He is seen in ONE scene at the beginning of Episode III. 
- A female villain. And no, her name does not begin with "Darth". However, Vader does eventually claim her lightsaber for use in the OT. Also, she is not conspiring with Palpatine.
- There are only four lightsaber users in this trilogy. It's not much of a stretch from the OT's three; and it's far less indulgent than the Lucas PT's 1000+. 
 - An interesting cast of new characters. The central protagonist of the series is not Anakin Skywalker, but his apprentice Ben. Through a long series of events, Obi-Wan will eventually respect young Ben enough to adopt his name as a disguise when he has to go into hiding on Tatooine. I'll get deeper into that later.
- Anakin's love interest AKA Ben's former love interest AKA Luke and Leia's mother, who I have named Jeni, is a much more action-oriented character than Padme. She is part of a spice freighter crew captained by Ben, the up-and-coming Jedi. 
- Jedi are infertile. And this fact is believed to hold fast and true for all of them until it is revealed in Episode II that Jeni is carrying Anakin's children. I will not explain this scientifically because that would lead us into midi-chlorian territory. Just chalk it up to the mysterious workings of the Force.
- The Clone Wars are fought not for economic reasons between the Republic and a Confederacy, but for racial reasons between the Republic and what I call the League.  

- The Republic is an ostensibly tolerant entity that has gained deeply-rooted Human supremacist tendencies as of late. Many non-Humans of the galaxy have been feeling increasingly marginalized and form the League, not a true government per se but more of an organized resistance movement a la the Rebels from the OT. Near the beginning of Episode I they strike the first blow against the Republic by capturing the Chancellor. 
- It is called The Clone Wars because the League often uses large masses of warriors cloned from the finest combatants of various species within the League. The Republic uses massive numbers of conscripts, with volunteer legions forming the Stormtroopers. Clone soldiers are not used by the Republic for two reasons...(1) Cloning is outlawed in the Republic and (2) Some species, such as Humans, are far more difficult to clone than others. 

I'll start posting an outline of Episode I: Rise of the Witch if there's any interest. 

peace 

Hello folks, I'm new here. 

For the better part of a year I've been hashing out the details of  radical prequel rewrite. It would be impossible to edit the existing PT films enough to fit the story that I want to tell, so it is my intention to one day make independent films of my own through whatever means necessary. 

I began the process by looking over other fans' prequel rewrites. I quickly realized that I didn't like any of them because they tried to stay too close to the Lucas PT. 

By that I mean these other rewrites had planets like Naboo, Geonosis, and Utapau. They also retained characters like Jango Fett, Jar Jar, and General Grievous. None of these names or locations are *needed* to tell the story that the prequels demand. 

I sense that after so many years of having to put up with Lucas' PT we've been led to assume that an alternate treatment of the story would have to include the same story elements, plot lines, characters, and locations, but ever so slightly re-arranged.

From my point of view, we do not *need* to see a teenage Anakin being trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi. In fact, we don't need any kids or teenagers at all. We don't 

With all that being said, here is a list of Lucas PT elements that I have done my absolute best to avoid. This list is not comprehensive...

- Any names of characters or planets that were in the PT but not the OT. The lone exception is Coruscant.
- A very large number of Jedi running around the galaxy. 
- Throw-away antagonists who are killed within one movie of their first appearance and are not given any character depth, history of interactions with other main characters, or clear motivation.
- An over-abundance of lightsabers.
- R2D2 and C-3PO.
- The term "Sith". They are not Sith, they are "followers of the dark side" or "dark Jedi".

And here is what I am going to include in my PT rewrite that will spice the story up and help connect it to the OT more firmly than Lucas did...

- A very small Jedi Order. Their numbers in this trilogy never go past seven members. Also Yoda is technically a Jedi but he is not part of the Order. He stays on Dagobah the whole trilogy and does not romp around the galaxy having adventures like the other characters. He is seen in ONE scene at the beginning of Episode III. 
- A female villain. And no, her name does not begin with "Darth". However, Vader does eventually claim her lightsaber for use in the OT. Also, she is not conspiring with Palpatine.
- There are only four lightsaber users in this trilogy. It's not much of a stretch from the OT's three; and it's far less indulgent than the Lucas PT's 1000+. 
 - An interesting cast of new characters. The central protagonist of the series is not Anakin Skywalker, but his apprentice Ben. Through a long series of events, Obi-Wan will eventually respect young Ben enough to adopt his name as a disguise when he has to go into hiding on Tatooine. I'll get deeper into that later.
- Anakin's love interest AKA Ben's former love interest AKA Luke and Leia's mother, who I have named Jeni, is a much more action-oriented character than Padme. She is part of a spice freighter crew captained by Ben, the up-and-coming Jedi. 
- Jedi are infertile. And this fact is believed to hold fast and true for all of them until it is revealed in Episode II that Jeni is carrying Anakin's children. I will not explain this scientifically because that would lead us into midi-chlorian territory. Just chalk it up to the mysterious workings of the Force.
- The Clone Wars are fought not for economic reasons between the Republic and a Confederacy, but for racial reasons between the Republic and what I call the League.  

- The Republic is an ostensibly tolerant entity that has gained deeply-rooted Human supremacist tendencies as of late. Many non-Humans of the galaxy have been feeling increasingly marginalized and form the League, not a true government per se but more of an organized resistance movement a la the Rebels from the OT. Near the beginning of Episode I they strike the first blow against the Republic by capturing the Chancellor. 
- It is called The Clone Wars because the League often uses large masses of warriors cloned from the finest combatants of various species within the League. The Republic uses massive numbers of conscripts, with volunteer legions forming the Stormtroopers. Clone soldiers are not used by the Republic for two reasons...(1) Cloning is outlawed in the Republic and (2) Some species, such as Humans, are far more difficult to clone than others. 

I'll start posting an outline of Episode I: Rise of the Witch if there's any interest.

peace