ben_danger said:
the biggest problem with the vader identity for me is the mustafar duel, as its obvious its anakin who is vader, because even if all references to 'vader' by name were removed, it just doesnt add up in obi wans speech in ANH.
BIG RADICAL IDEAS - (if you cannot repel ideas of this magnitude, please look away now)
i like SSWR idea of WINDU taking over the JEDI COUNCIL form yoda. he is constantly distrustful of anakin, and as we should see things from anakins POV, a bit of a dodgy character. we should make it clear that WINDU is percieved to be inadiquate for leadership, and that he is a bit insecure because of this.
these ideas can be chopped and changed, they will requre heavy reconstruction to work (i have included 'a' ideas and 'b' ideas that can work in coherence)
SSWR, if you can make this, i will....well...be very pleased!;)
PART 1
1a - anakin and windu being the only council members remaining on coruscant, go to relieve palpatine of his chancellorship together.
1b - windu goes to to relieve palpatine alone (not arrest, basically what anakin is supposed to do)
PART 2
senators depart his office and everything is very polite. very similar ot other scenes in AOTC.
PART 3 - Palpatines Revelation
a - palpatine reveals he is the sith lord to both anakin and windu. he reveals to anakin that he has the power to save padme, and to windu that 'only through me can you become more powerful than any jedi', bargaining with both of them. windu's line and look from AOTC 'I DONT THINK SO' could be appropriate as a responce.
b - the same as A, but without anakin, so he is only bargaining with windu.
PART 4 - Dealing with Palpatine
a - some other dialogue, leading to the the Jedi and Palpatine fighting.
b - the jedi leave, windu seems shaken and insistent that the must contact yoda, anakin seems more sensible 'no we have to take him NOW' they argue, palpatine smiles from the other side of the door, when they re-enter he will undermine them by saying 'i see you have decided what to do with me' in a kindly patronising tone.
c - if windu is alone, he leaves, contacting anakin via holoprojecotor that he needs assistance to arrest Palpatine. This way windu could seem a bit shifty, as if its a trap.
PART 5 - DUEL I
the fight between the jedi and palpatine continue, until we get to the part where the window is smashed and palpatine is on the floor, he bargains with both the Jedi, who are both pointing their sabers at his throat. he does his force lightening thing, seperating the two out. the lightening stops, and palpatine will say something that changes the expression on windus face. the next part is complicated. the two jedi begin fighting, but it has to be unclear who is attacking and who is defending. in truth it is anakin attacking like in ROTS, just windu this time has a chance to fight back, but to the viewer it is him being the bad guy. we dont see much of the fight, perhaps just shadows on the wall, but palpatine will laugh like in ROTJ at the spectacle. we dont see who wins, in fact, we never see anakin or windu ever again.
-the knighting scene could go ahead still. perhaps if anakin gets electrocted he could lose his hair, so a bald jedi silhouette is seen. it would be good if this new 'vader' is just a bald guy who wheezes due to the lightening?-
PART 6 - VADER KNIGHTED
now much later on, on when obi wan and yoda are in the temple, the see the security recordings as usual, and observe as palpatine knights vader. they look horrified, but not in a sence to give away who vader is, it would be better for yoda to look upset, as the windu-yoda relationship could be like the anakin-obiwan? within the recording, the emperor orders vader to mustafar.
PART 7 - Padme's involvement
a - obiwan requests padmes help to get offworld to mustafar - seems only logical way to get her there?
b - (alternatve is later on, see 9) padme never goes to mustafar, she is away with bail organa on tantive IV, and doesnt die. perhaps obi wan informs her that anakin was killed in a similar way to how he informs luke? we can assume she passes away between III-IV, or maybe on alderaan?
PART 8 - DUEL II
obi wan goes to confront DARTH VADER on mustafar. he is waiting for him on the landing platform as a silhouted form with a red saber. no hair, and he wheezes thus masking his voice. perhaps he says something poignant like 'my Jedi self is dead, I am DARTH VADER now'. they ignite sabers, then the scene fades to something else, thus the duel is cut short, enhancing the mystery but marginalising the significance. we could clips of it within a montage of other actions, as if obi wan is remembering whilst flying away, bu the ultimate part would be VADER's mutilated corpse burning by the lava as obi wan walks away, the screams could bleed into other scenes haunting him.
we dont see what happens to VADER afterwards, so no suiting up. but a daring escape manoever (like ESB) from obi wan in grevious' hotrod from some star destroyers over mustafar would be interesting. the emperor could be stood by the glass and mutter something like 'i sense Lord Vader needs our help' or 'he is still alive'.
PART 9 - Birth of the twin (yes twin not twins...i know that doesnt make sense)
i like the idea of obi wan informing padme of anakins death in the same way he tells luke, but slightly less elaborate or tactful, so when we hear it in 4, we think, "hang on, but in 3 he said this" just so we have an incling that he knows more than he says.
padme is with bail organa on the Tantive IV where obi wan told her to wait safely much earlier in the film
a - padme gives birth to just one baby, but we hear another crying
b - padme gives birth to twins, but the gender and name of baby 2 is kept secret, so we always know luke has a sibling, but not who. i know it sounds daft, but we could have people suspect that han or biggs is an (older looking) twin brother perhaps?:P
- padme shouldnt die in childbirth, i really insist on this, she should just be allowed to fade out of the films. definitly have the birth on dagoba, with yoda waiting behind, and still have the closing scene on tatooine.
- as the closing scene is of obi wan passing baby luke to Lars on tatooine, another scene could have bail organa on alderaan carrying the baby 'number 2' with padme standing alone in the shadows as if she has passed her on.
NOTES
reduced mustafar duel footage could allow for anakin duelling with palpatine footage to be reused.
VADERS voice is obviously from someone who is black, windu is also black
ending should be like ESB i think, with an open ended 'licking our wounds with optimism' feel, not closing loose ends like it was originally.
please read these, its taken me AGES to write them!:S i will try and make some mockup stills to illustrate them.
Interesting ideas. I can definitely see how some of them would help the story.
