NeverarGreat

Oh, I'm aware of Galadriel, Arwen, and Eowyn. I was just saying that Tolkien didn't feel compelled to force a female character into the Fellowship itself. And I agree that Star Wars would feel incomplete without such a character. My point is that Leia was part of Star Wars because her presence was organic (ha!).

So to determine whether a character is necessary, we need to figure out what story we're trying to tell. I think everyone here wants to tell an Anakin Skywalker/Obi-wan Kenobi origin story, and have it take place during the final days of the Republic/first days of the Empire. And it is probably supposed to be a tragedy, ending with the "death" of Anakin or the reveal of Anakin as Vader, depending on whether the reveal is saved for the OT or not.

We also agree that a strong female presence is required for a Star Wars trilogy. This means that the story should not be entirely about the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker, but instead by about a small or large group of heroes, with Anakin as merely one of a dynamic group. In my opinion, two Jedi are about one Jedi too many for a small group of professionally diverse heroes.

So if there is to be some sort of ensemble cast, what sort of professions would round out our Jedi-heavy group, regardless of gender?

I don't know that any story needs a strong female presence. The Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings is entirely devoid of a female character, and this is part of what makes the Fellowship unique. If the book was written in modern times, we would have Morgan Freeman, Keira Knightley, and John Cho in the Fellowship, just to be on the safe side. If the story benefits from a female character, by all means include one. I have two female characters in my above synopsis, one of which is a temptress, the other being a more daring warrior who would probably play a large part in Episode 1, though I didn't get around to summarizing it here. The moment that I have to find something for them to do to justify their screen time is the moment that they being to drag down the story.

Don't you mean quitting your family and firing your job?

Wait...

Working on plot ideas for prequels has me watching bits of the originals whenever I shift the point of view from which I understand the movies.

I don't really watch them all the way through anymore except perhaps once a year, and that's only the OT. I just watched parts of the PT recently, and it was so interesting because I haven't watched them in years, and I found that I don't really dislike them anymore. They're still bad, sure, but the feeling is one of morbid fascination now rather than dislike.

Incidentally, the plot of Episode 3 focused on the Republic becoming an Empire, with the Jedi being driven away from the Republic. The Chancellor becomes an Emperor, and the Jedi rally around Anakin, putting their trust in the most powerful and (to their eyes) most pure Jedi Knight. The Emperor recognizes that Anakin is their champion, and invites him to his palace to negotiate a peace between the Jedi and the newly formed Empire. Anakin knows it is a trap, but he knows also that he must take any opportunity to end this destructive conflict without further bloodshed. Obi-wan meets with him before he goes, telling him that it will surely result in his death. He asks Anakin to run away with him into exile, but Anakin knows that he must meet the Emperor, and thinks less of Obi-wan for wanting to run from his problems. He goes and meets the Emperor, and the Emperor begins talking about how poor Obi-wan was as a teacher. He says that Obi-wan once trained a Jedi Knight before he was ready, and that he ran away and left his apprentice, a mere learner, when he needed his master the most. He says that this Jedi became Darth Vader, a servant of the Emperor. Anakin doesn't know what the Emperor is talking about, as he thought that he was Obi-wan's first apprentice, but in the darkened throne room, a place strong with the Dark Side of the Force, he suddenly sees a visage of this fallen apprentice, this Darth Vader, of which the Emperor speaks. He fights with this phantom warrior, but we never see the end of the fight. The Emperor later tells the galaxy that the Jedi's champion has been defeated, and he reveals his secret apprentice, Darth Vader. The Jedi flee to their stronghold, a place known only to them and Anakin, and Obi-wan goes into exile. The Empire has won, and the galaxy falls into dark times, awaiting the arrival of a new hero.

How Anakin's wife fits into the story depends on the motivation of Anakin himself, if the prequels are about him. I think she should have some connection with Alderaan as you have said, but I think that it would be a mistake for her to feature as heavily in the plot as in the Lucas Prequels. I assume, based on ROTJ, that Anakin's wife was somewhat overlooked by him in the prequels. Perhaps the stories of the prequels could be more episodic than the OT, and she factors into only one of the adventures of Anakin.

I had an idea once about Episode 2, where Anakin and Obi-wan idealistically protect the planet of Alderaan against the more rational judgement of the Republic. They are outmatched because their troops retreat on the Republic's orders, and they are shot down over the planet. Obi-wan is separated from Anakin by hundreds of miles, and as the planet has little in the way of technology, Anakin is by himself in attempting to defend the planet against the forces of evil which beset it. He and the princess work together to rally the people of Alderaan and stop the invaders. Anakin is betrothed to a woman he met in Episode 1, but is seduced by the powers of the princess, and her promise of political power as a member of a royal family. The people of Alderaan have no weapons, but some have powers of suggestion and seduction (this is why Obi-wan tells Luke that he must learn the ways of the Force if he is to go to Alderaan). It is established by Obi-wan that seduction by the princess for the power of the throne is very much like seduction to the Dark Side for the easy power it provides. The audience believes that Anakin was not seduced by the princess, but the scene in question was cut vaguely, and it is only assumed that he spurned the princess for his betrothed. He returns to Obi-wan to fight the invaders by themselves, and they win the day. The incident is never mentioned again, and the audience does not know that Anakin turned to Vader. When Luke in ROTJ realizes that Leia is his sister and that he is also part of the royal family of Alderaan, the audience then knows precisely how Anakin was seduced and became Vader.

Just to clarify, I don't think that there's anything wrong with a prequel rewrite being similar to the Lucas Prequels in plot, as much of what is wrong has more to do not with what happens, but how it is portrayed, in my opinion.

One of my favorite movies is Sunshine, which is about a single mission to the Sun. Your story seems to mostly take place on board a single ship like the mission in Sunshine, which I have wanted to see in a Star Wars movie. I think it would be nice to start out nice and slow like this.

I assume that Ben is going to influence the naming of Obi-wan in some way...

One thing that I find strange is that Nellith suspects Ben of being Force sensitive during the trip. I would think that she chose this particular vessel because she sensed Anakin on board, but seeing only Ben, she then concluded that he must be the Force sensitive.

There's a lot of good detail even in this synopsis, but something that I've had trouble with in my own writing is making the universe appear simple enough that the movie isn't heavy with exposition. In Star Wars, there were only Jedi Knights. I guess the point is that we must first understand what a Jedi is before we can appreciate the differences between classes of Jedi.

I'd like to hear more!

A good summary Darth, very similar in plot to the Lucas Prequels episodes 1 and 2, though it seems that if you want to not spoil the reveal, Episode 2 could be split into two movies. Actually I thought at first that Anakin cutting down his own troops and being "murdered" by Vader happened at the end of Episode 2, and that the destruction of the Jedi and Obi-wan's quest happens between 2 and 3, and during Episode 3 as well.

I would caution against making the story too much about Jedi/Sith, as people in the OT (Han) believe that the Jedi are simply a "hokey religion". This argues against the Jedi being the saviors of the Republic in the Clone Wars, or at least they are not seen as such by the public. I consider that the Jedi were just an entrenched power structure in the Old Republic, one of the many vestiges of a time long past which the Empire was quick to eliminate in its march to a standardized and racially pure military.

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

AntcuFaalb said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Until recently I thought Who Watches the Watchers? was the worst TNG episode ever made. When I watched The Chase today, however, I realized that wasn't so.

I don't see what's wrong with either of them.

In regards to Who Watches the Watchers?, as someone who considers himself a protheistic agnostic, I have no love for the preachy, one-dimensional, one-sided, self-righteous way theism and theistic belief is treated in this episode. And anyway - metaphysics aside - I don't like it when writers twist characters to serve as mouthpieces for their own personal ideologies, characterization be damned.

As for The Chase ... to make a long story short, the pseudoscience just kills it for me. I could have used the real-world mechanism of convergent evolution as a ham-fisted explanation for why so many aliens in the ST Universe are basically humans with rubber foreheads; there was no need to throw some bullshit elder race/directed panspermia/pre-programmed evolution crap into the equation.

In fact, I can't think of a single bad TNG episode...

So that's means you're the first person in the world to think Shades of Gray was a decent episode?

 

I've never seen The Chase, but in the original series episode The Paradise Syndrome, a race of "Preservers" are theorized as having seeded the galaxy with humanoids. So this episode may have been referring to the original series.

I never quite understood the final confrontation between Emperor, Vader, and Luke. How exactly was the Emperor hoping to turn Luke to the side of the Empire by turning him to the Dark Side? I think this is an important question, as Anakin, who was on his side of the war, and Luke, an avowed rebel, are rather different characters. So what if the Emperor's thinking was this:

1. The Dark Side consists of anger and fear.

2. Anger and fear weaken the mind.

3. The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.

This second point is never explicitly stated during the OT, so if the connection is made in the prequels, the Emperor's attempt to turn Anakin would not need to differ from his attempt to turn Luke in any meaningful way, as turning someone to the Dark Side naturally makes them easy prey for someone to control their mind. It's also very Dune: "Fear is the mind-killer".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/star-wars-prequels-return-of-the-jedi_n_3313793.html

Here Lucas explains before Return of the Jedi how Yoda isn't a "real" Jedi. Yoda was never supposed to fight, instead he was a guru. Making Jedi Knights only one aspect of the Order is a good idea in my opinion. However, it would seem we need a new designation for the Jedi religion, if the Jedi are only the militarized crusaders. Perhaps Disciples of the Force, or something. I don't know. Order of the Force? Perhaps it doesn't need a name. I guess Jedi is a good name, as Yoda was referred to by Obi-wan as a Jedi Master. I just want the Jedi Order to not be all in one building on Coruscant. Yoda should always have lived on Dagobah, and be one of the less well known of the Jedi. That way he is simply never found in the Jedi Purge, for Obi-wan never told Anakin where to find him. It could be that Obi-wan trained Anakin without Yoda's approval, and so he didn't want Anakin ever seeking out Yoda and blowing his cover.

One other point: Jedi should be rare, even in the Prequels. I think that the assumption in the prequels should be that only humans use the Force, so that Luke (and the audience) would not expect a little alien dude to be a Jedi Master, like it was originally intended.

Anyway, back to the topic, I just saw Starcrash, the most entertaining Star Wars ripoff ever.

Just keep an eye out near the end for the tape dispenser glued to the bottom of the spaceship. Perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvweDgcWISI

BOIL JAPAN!

...Wait, wut?

I've been getting those warnings for three days now. AVG just blocks them, and I figure it is being resolved somewhere.

Thank you for your support, I'm glad you like it.

However, I just don't have the technical know-how to make a DVD release of this project, and my computer can't even handle Blu-rays (although ideally this project would be in Blu-ray quality). This was always intended as an experiment to find out if this movie could be color corrected to an acceptable degree, not a complete DVD or Blu-ray release.

I've been through thousands of combinations of settings in search of something that will work for the entire film, so I hope someone with the technical knowledge will make use of this resource to make a DVD or Blu-ray release.

The above are my final channel mixer settings. However, I was playing around in Premiere and found these lighting settings brightened the entire movie while keeping the highlights intact:

Adjustments:

Color: Saturation -20

Lighting: Brightness -10, Contrast 60, Exposure 90

Gamma 8

Effects: Image Control: Brightness -5, Saturation 100

No link to an album as of yet, but as the color has not substantially changed, the images are basically unchanged except for a slight increase in brightness.

I'm afraid not. The scale is all wrong. It looks more like a Jedi Starfighter:

I'm not using Obi-wan in my version, but I'd expect from the OT that he fought in the clone wars because he was an idealist who genuinely believed that he was making a difference, which is why he became a Jedi, and also a general. He became a highly decorated war veteran, but was reckless in his "crusade" for justice. He discovered Anakin Skywalker, and realized that here was a chance to convert a truly powerful individual to his cause, and so he rushed Anakin's training in an attempt to bring him quickly to his full power. This fails, and when Anakin turns to the Dark Side, Obi-wan learns to take things slower, and gains patience. He goes to Tatooine to watch over Luke, and decides not to interfere in his life the way he did with Anakin. However, events force him to go back to his old methods of teaching, where he gets results at the expense of the student's understanding. He teaches Luke a great deal in the short time available, but realizes that he isn't the best teacher for him, and sacrifices himself to give Luke time to escape the Death Star. That's his story in a nutshell, at least from my point of view!

This bickering is pointless.

Enough of this.

Even with the absence of the Jedi, Star Wars is a very different beast than Firefly. Star Wars is about wars. Firefly is what happens afterwards. Besides, Firefly has its magical elements as well.

So I guess everyone is headed back to Tatooine. If we're going back there in a live action movie, is this going to turn into a trip to Tunisia?