TheoOdo

This couldn't really be added into the prequels in the form of a fan-edit, but it's an idea I've had for a while and thought it'd be good to get some feed-back on it.


I personally think that the creation of the Death Star should have had much, much more foreshadowing in the prequel series. If it were up to me, the Republic would be visibly crumbling very early into the series. The first "Death Star" plans would have been made by the Republic itself. Why? As the droid armies are increasing in size, and the Clones (though more intelligent and well-trained) are becoming outnumbered the Republic prepares to create a space station capable of wiping out those worlds on which the droid armies are being made. Concern is swept aside as Palpatine argues that many of the worlds creating the droid armies are in fact mostly unpopulated moons and factory-worlds, their destruction will not mean much he says.

Of course, Obi-Wan is incredulous. He simply cannot believe that things have gone this far. "They'll never do it", he convinces himself. It's only until much later in his life he realizes his grave misjudgment as he recognizes the same space-station that was proposed all those years ago whilst being drawn into it aboard the Millennium Falcon.


Okay, that simply cannot be added using a fan-edit but it's just one of many ideas I have in my head concerning a possible alternate prequel series. I just felt like proposing it somewhere.

That's so true about the radio dramas, seventiesfilmnut. That's what I love about all radio dramas, the way it engages the visual imagination and gives the audience a certain amount of control.

Plus, the dramas tie in nicely to Star Wars' 1930s sci-fi beginnings considering radio dramas is how many of those stories were told.

More of Ralph's art can be found here, though it's not hi-res unfortunately.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heilemann/sets/152728/

John William's score and Ralph McQuarrie's concept art. It's difficult to capture the kind of exotic epic that can be imagined by simply listening to that music and looking at those images. You can truly feel what the young George Lucas was aiming for. I don't know why, but somehow the feelings I get from those two elements feel purer and even better than even my experience of the film(s).

Does anyone agree? Try it. Just put the films out of your head, play a copy of the soundtrack (I'm sure you've all got one) and imagine your own stories for the characters Ralph has rendered or just soak up the atmosphere. Leia's theme is particularly good for this.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Images_by_Ralph_McQuarrie

What does everyone else think?

Scruffy said:

In this scenario, I have abandoned most of the melodramatic plot threads that built up both around the real story and various fan interpretations. Vader does not accidentally kill his wife, they are not passionately in love until the end, Vader's refusal to let his wife go as per a murky prophetic dream does not drive him into the Sith (yecch). He simply accrues more and more power, becomes more important on a galactic scale, and forgets about her. I like this because it's much more gradual, and parallels my idea of how the fall should've been.

Interesting choices, Scruffy. I can see why you'd want to expel melodramatic elements because of how poorly they were done in the prequel series, but I personally feel that melodrama is quite a big part of Star Wars.

If it were up to me, I probably would have done an Othello type scenario with Palpatine gradually (with emphasis on gradually, not just telling him in his office one day that "you're a sith now! Yay!") convincing Vader not only of the evils of the Jedi as dogmatic defenders of the undeserving weak but also of his own wife's treachery, who has been increasingly involved with emerging rebel organisations. His turn would, like with your version, be a rejection of his wife and his humanity and not an attempt to save her.

The final episode would not involve Anakin's turn, instead it would largely concern events after his turn to the dark side and the beginning of martial law. Obi-Wan attempts to flee the now dystopian Coruscant along with Anakin's wife. Vader, however, is intent on finding his pregnant wife not out of any concern for her but in order to turn their child to the dark side. In the end, she successfully escapes and lives in hiding with Bail Organa who adopts Leia, changing her last name to avoid detection. Suspicion is avoided further as Vader was convinced that his child would be male, in typical "evil macho father" fashion. Finally Vader admits his wife and thus the chance for a dark heir has slipped away from him, is physically transformed by a fiery confrontation with Obi-Wan during his attempt to purge the Jedi and begins his new life as servant of the Emperor. It would not be until many years later that the chance for an heir would reemerge.

As for the romance itself, it would have to develop relative to increasing tension in terms of action like with the relationship between Han and Leia instead of being an annoying interval. Hey, perhaps his wife could even be a Jedi herself, and their romance develops while they are on a mission together pursuing a Sith? Or, hey, maybe she's his apprentice and develops an attraction for him based on his authority figure status? Although having her realistically say "Oh Master" may be a little too kinky. ;)

Well, let's get creative here. How would you have done the relationship? Supposing you were completely redoing the prequels with no thought at all for the ones that were actually made, how would you make the relationship between Anakin and Luke's mother (doesn't even need to be called Padmé) work?

I've thought about it a little, but it's actually pretty tough. With Han, you can see why a woman'd fall for him but with Hayden you'd be more likely to call in a restraining order. I mean, Jesus, crying at the fire saying "love me dammit"? Just plain creepy and creepier that George seems to think that is romance.

I'd personally like it to be about a gang of Jedi during the great purges. They're fleeing Vader and trying to survive in an increasingly hostile universe, while the trappings of their faith fall apart around them. They succumb to temptation, hate, fear and even betray one another in a desperate scramble for survival. Of course, they'd also be a team for much of the series until a dramatic conclusion in which they all must die at the hands of Vader. Think Blake 7.

It might even give those unimportant Jedi that just stood around in the background in the prequels some, y'know, purpose.

C3PX said:

I guess for monolingual people, the idea of two different individuals carrying on a conversation, each in their own native tongue, doesn't seem so odd. But for those of us who know two or more languages, the idea is so awkward, words fail to explain it. Imagine seeing an American and a Mexican having a long indepth conversation with one another, the American speaking in plain and fluent English, and the Mexican speaking in plain and fluent Spanish, but yet they seem to be communicating with each other just fine. ???? As far as I know, this only ever happens in the first Star Wars movie and even more so in fanedits of the other ones.

I have always felt that the scene with Han and Greedo talking was a bit ridiculous, and later the same stupid, bizzare, retarded idea was used again in the Han Jabba conversation. Utterly ridiculous. If Han knows Huttese, why the hell would he just not speak in Huttese, or if Greedo know Engish, why not speak it. Speaking multiple languages myself, it is really hard to speak in one language, then suddenly switch to the other. I cannot even imagine having such a conversation as Han has with Greedo.

This issue was thankfully fixed in Return of the Jedi, where we have Leia speaking to Jabba in Huttese, or with Threepio translating. Fanedits brought the dumb idea back by having Jar Jar speaking in his language, while everyone else spoke to him in English. Makes even less sense, how would so many people know Jar Jar's dumb obscure language? When two aliens are having a conversation in a single language, this subtitle idea works just fine. The idea of having Ackbar explain things in subtitles while everyone else listens and understand him just fine, to me, is creating an even bigger problem than we already had.

Well I'm actually not monolingual but anyway, I've never had a problem with characters speaking different languages to one another. Like MaximRecoil said, it does happen in the real world.

Also, considering that this is a science fantasy, it's always possible that human larynges simply cannot pronounce properly many of these aliens words. What sounds to us like simple chirping from Poggle the Lesser is actually a very relevant feature of his means of communication, it's impossible for a human to imitate but it is possible for them to understand it. Consider, also, the croaking voice of Boushh. I can't picture Jabba altering his own booming voice to imitate Boushh's "accent" successfully. So it's simply easier for all involved to speak their own languages to one another, and wherever that is not possible protocol droids are called in.

At least, that's how I've always thought of it.

That said, while I don't mind Ewoks too terribly, the Wookie idea is really cool. But I think it would be close to impossible to get it to match up with the original footage in any kind of a reasonable way. Convincing Wookies would also be quite a challenge. Also, how would you get shots of Chewie growling mournfully? Or of Chewis having a conversation with his former tribes men?

I have always thought of the Wookies as more of an advanced race than animal skins and spears. Probably I picked this up from the EU books were they are said to be fantastic mechanics and pilots. Even in the Holiday Special they are not depicted as primitive, despite the fact that they live in trees.

A convincing imitation costume of Chewbacca would have to be made. Cosplayers and hobbyists do as much every year, a dedicated team of fans would surely be able to do the same. As for the sound bite, Chewbacca's voice was originally made from sound bites taken from walruses, bears, tigers, camels and even badgers. We could search for some sounds from those animals that sound like a "mournful growl" and then use the imitation mask of Chewbacca to show him growling sadly from the cock-pit of the imperial shuttle. If no new sounds can be found, Chewbacca's growling from Empire Strikes Back could be recycled like much of his growls already are.

As for the conversation between Chewie and his fellow tribes-folk, the imitation Chewbacca costume would come into play again here. As seven foot men like Peter Mayhew are hard to come by, stilts could be fitted into the costume to give the stand-in Chewie some needed height. If that's not possible, it's likely that the scenes involving Chewie and the tribal leader would not feature any human characters and as such the audience would have no means of comparison from which to discern that Chewbacca is not quite the same height. And if this doesn't work, then the hypothetical fan-crew could simply resort to close-ups of Chewie and the chief.

As for technological advancement, yes, the Wookies would still be fairly advanced. But, deprived of weapons, technology and resources by their slave-driving imperial masters, I think the "big-guy vs. little-guy" theme would still be retained (even if the wookies are technically taller than the imperials).

lordjedi said:

TheoOdo said:

Speaking of volunteers, whole new scenes could be easily created with the assistance of the 501st Legion and their rebel equivalent. Costuming Stormtroopers and Rebels wouldn't be a problem, probably wouldn't even cost a penny. Locations would naturally be any forest that's available but preferably one of the Redwood National and State Parks. The only difficulty here would be gaining permission to shoot, but this is, again, possible.

Good luck getting the 501st or Rebel Legion involved. If it even smells like it's going to make Lucas mad, they won't even discuss it. You'd have much better luck getting a bunch of random costumers together. You'd basically be asking them to reshoot entire portions of Jedi so you can make a fan edit that has Wookiees instead of Ewoks. They don't usually look to kindly on things like that.

If anybody from the 501st or RL did participate, they'd be risking any kind of reputation they've built up with those organizations and LFL. If something went bad, they'd either be excluded from future events for some time to come or they'd be kicked out entirely.

They may be a bunch of elitists (personal opinion), but they have very good standing with LFL and they aren't going to do anything to jeopardize that.

 

My, you make them out like a bunch of Lucas-gushing toadies. Are they really? It dampens my scheme anyway.

I suppose I could write a fanfilm that just so happens to include all the extra footage I'd need to edit Jedi, make it and then edit it into Jedi and simply go "oops, ain't that a coincidence?" to all the unknowing involved...but that'd make me feel like such a dishonest scoundrel. :(

A missed opportunity. Like I said in another post, it was a chance to give my generation a Star Wars of their very own. They did not succeed at all.

The best they did was present a junk pile of poorly related effects shots and undeveloped characters. No sympathetic main cast, no nefarious villain just a series of characters, droids and aliens bundled onto the screen so that Lucas would be able to make action figures of these nothing personalities and...wait, we're not supposed to flame so I'll cut myself off here.

I'll never view the prequels as being related, at all with the original series because there's too many plot holes. There's, first of all, the "do you remember your mother", "yes", "but she dies in childbirth", "oh, well, i dunno lol" blunder.

Then of course there's the "he thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved", "what? and remain a slave? gee, uncle owen sure is a dick!" blunder which is also connected to the "how can he make judgements about him leaving tatooine? he never knew him until he came back!" problem.

Then there's the "wait, nothing at all happened to my throat or lungs, why do I need a breathing mask again?" problem. Then there's the "I was trained by yoda...well, actually, i was trained by liam neeson but whatevs lol" and just the overall irreparable fail of the series. No central, identifiable sympathetic main cast and no nasty antagonist. I was ready to accept Darth Maul in that role but that didn't really work out, did it?

I have to disagree, rcb, I feel wookies would fit right in. Perhaps a subtitled Admiral Ackbar or newly voiced Ackbar could be used to explain that the planet the Death Star II is orbiting is in fact Kashyyk and not Endor.

The enslavement of the wookies can be explained visually, if as the imperial cruiser in which Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie are riding arrives it flies over a clearing in the woods in which wookie slaves are toiling in a quarry, surrounded by stormtroopers. Chewbacca looks out on them on growls mournfully.

Everything else can be explained via subtitles (Chewbacca, on principal, would not be subtitled) and using the occasional grab from the radio series to fill in gaps of dialogue from 3P0 and Luke. A simple *growl* subtitled as something along the lines of "You should not have come back, exile" or something to that effect could be used to explain Chewbacca's relationship with this particular group of wookies. Luke pleads with the wookies claiming he is a Jedi and that if they do not free him he will use his powers (snippets taken from the radio series could be used here) and 3P0 protests, ultimately does as he is told and says this to the wookies. They don't believe him ("the Jedi are extinct, we cannot hope for help from them now"), but Luke's display convinces them and in a short subtitled conversation between Chewie and the chieftain he explains that with the Jedi there is now hope to free themselves from the imperials.


Now I'm rambling with ideas, but I'm basically trying to reiterate the point I've already made. It's possible.

Okay, this is something people have fantasised about for about twenty years or so but I think it's becoming an increasing possibility. Though it would require the shooting of whole new scenes, this is possible. How you ask?

Consider the millions of Star Wars fans busy creating fan films right now. Consider all the work and devotion fan editors across the world put into making the prequels tolerable and toying with the trilogy. Imagine all that talent, passion and devotion instead directed toward the single mission of putting Wookies into Jedi. Here's how it could be done.

First of all, funding. Before a project like this could get off the ground you'd need considerable funding, not so much for actors but for costuming the Wookies in a believable way. You'd want something to the quality of those Wookies that appear in Revenge of the Sith. You certainly wouldn't want an army of packaged-Halloween-costume Chewbaccas running around. Therefore the majority of the budget would have to go towards costuming the Wookies.

Now, understand that this wouldn't be the first big-budget Star Wars fan project. After all, fan film "Star Wars: Revelations" had a budget of $20,000 dollars which the creators managed to gather themselves. You're not only looking at something that is possible, but something that even has precedence. Consider also how many more fans would be willing to donate and volunteer for this project and the whole notion becomes much more reasonable.

Speaking of volunteers, whole new scenes could be easily created with the assistance of the 501st Legion and their rebel equivalent. Costuming Stormtroopers and Rebels wouldn't be a problem, probably wouldn't even cost a penny. Locations would naturally be any forest that's available but preferably one of the Redwood National and State Parks. The only difficulty here would be gaining permission to shoot, but this is, again, possible.

For all other scenes and sequences blue-screen work could be used. Ewoks would have to be removed using rotoscoping from such sequences as when they're fleeing a walker that is opening fire upon them, and replaced by wookies on blue-screen. Also necessary would be the alteration of the "dinner" Ewok sequence. A whole new Wookie-like set would probably have to be built and the sequence shot as normal, with Han and Luke digitally placed into the scene or represented by look-alikes and stand-ins for all non-close-up shots. The story would probably have to be altered somewhat. I haven't listened to them in quite a while, but perhaps some talk by 3P0 could be taken from the radio drama to fill in the gaps and perhaps subtitles could be used for the wookie growls to explain the situation.

Essentially, I would snatch the plot from "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" in which the wookies have been enslaved (to assist in mining materials needed for the Death Star II) and sold-out by a corrupt chieftain in return for his own freedom. A subplot concerning an exile of Chewbacca could be worked into it (giving him some much needed back story) and his return is what sparks the sell-out wookies to capture them and attempt to cook 'em, not 3P0. The wookies are not prepared to assist the rebels and let them on their way, fearing the Empire would punish them. However, Luke insists that he is a Jedi and that their victory is thus at hand, they do not believe him until he demonstrates his power by using the force to extinguish the torches of the camp with a mysterious breeze, sets a gentle rumble through the air and levitates the corrupt chieftain on his thrown. The wookies then recognise his power and set him and his companions free. In a newly created scene Chewbacca makes an appeal to the chieftain to use his warriors to assist the rebels in the approaching conflict. An all out wookie uprising essentially takes place, and the planet of Kashyyk is freed.

To deal with anyone using the name "Endor" simply replace it with "forest moon", a term which most use. For example Ackbar: "You can see here the forest moon of Endor", "You can see here the forest moon".

Anyway, there's the idea. I don't know that this will ever happen, or if Lucas would be too happy about it but it's possible. With so much talent floating around, I'm almost surprised nobody has done this already.

In the mean time enjoy some images of Wookies and dream of what could be:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:WookieeWarriors.jpg

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Wookieeacting.jpg

doubleofive said:

TheoOdo said:

Interesting choice, but I think the mysterious feel of the opening sequence is spoiled somewhat by the immediate introduction of Luke. To leave the audience hanging, if only for a moment, works I think.


Also, here's something I brought up a while ago. C-3P0 chattering away during the carbonite scene. It's always bothered me. First of all, he's chastising poor old Chewbacca excessively whilst far more important things are happening around him and he then (rather redundantly, considering we've been told as much by Boba, Vader and Lando) explains that Han will be well protected if he survived the freezing process. His chirpiness is in-character and humorous in other scenes, but here it's just distracting. I'd much rather soak up the emotional severity of this moment than have it ineffectually narrated by 3P0.

That's just about the only thing I'd personally change in Empire apart from some visual alterations.

That's the thing, if 3PO is on and in a scene, its out of character for him not to talk, which is why they shut him down for important scenes that he is in, so he's not jabbering during Obi-Wan's speech to Luke in his hut and commenting on Bespin as a refuge choice. Unless we add something that makes it obvious that he is off, he needs to be talking or it will be out of character.

Well, personally I think the good of that particular scene overrides the need to be to-the-number on the resident protocol droid.

In any case, it's not like 3P0 is exactly as chatty when they discover the crashed speeder in ROTJ. In fact, all he says is "Oh, master Luke...", pauses and only speaks again to inform them that R2 cannot detect Leia. So it's not like 3P0 can't recognise a distressing moment when it's starring him in the face, even if he's not exactly tactful. But, hey, I can definitely see your point...

Interesting choice, but I think the mysterious feel of the opening sequence is spoiled somewhat by the immediate introduction of Luke. To leave the audience hanging, if only for a moment, works I think.


Also, here's something I brought up a while ago. C-3P0 chattering away during the carbonite scene. It's always bothered me. First of all, he's chastising poor old Chewbacca excessively whilst far more important things are happening around him and he then (rather redundantly, considering we've been told as much by Boba, Vader and Lando) explains that Han will be well protected if he survived the freezing process. His chirpiness is in-character and humorous in other scenes, but here it's just distracting. I'd much rather soak up the emotional severity of this moment than have it ineffectually narrated by 3P0.

That's just about the only thing I'd personally change in Empire apart from some visual alterations.

Guess what guys? I grew up with the Special Editions. That's right, I grew up with those things. Y'know what else? I grew up with the prequels too. I was 10 when The Phantom Menace came out.

I used to spend Saturday mornings watching my VHS of Special Edition Star Wars over and over, then go play around with my action figures and then watch it again. But, of course, I knew I was missing out on something. What I was watching wasn't Star Wars as everyone else knew it. I knew, even then, that the big pink-tinted entrance into Mos Eisley wasn't supposed to be there. I knew the occasional ugly Dewback crawling about was out of place. But I accepted it. I still do, in many ways, accept certain additions made in the special edition because for better or worse I grew up with them.

But it's the prequels that really get me. At 10 years old you're hardly interested in trade disputes or senate meetings no matter how visually impressive and galactic they may be. But I accepted that, and when I think back to my experience of The Phantom Menace in movie theatres it's mostly the image of battle-droids climbing out of their tanks that I recall along with that kid, who was annoying even when I was a kid. Jar Jar, strangely, doesn't much fit into my memory of things. Lucky, I suppose. I remember enjoying it.

Then came Attack of the Clones. I had grown up enough to realise how awful The Phantom Menace truly was by the time this movie came out, so when I went in to see Attack of the Clones I wasn't expecting much. When you're twelve, stupid romances don't bother you as much because they're only as bad as all on-screen romances when you're that age. They can be ignored until we get on with the pew-pew-pew. So there was a big mars-like planet, the farm was nice to revisit and Jar Jar thankfully wasn't there (who I'd watched on VHS recently and realized just how terrible he was). Overall, I felt okay about it. It was tolerable in comparison to how horrible I'd come to think of The Phantom Menace as.

So time went by again. As I grew up some more and became more critical in my viewing of Attack of the Clones I again had a revelation; this is awful! Putting my low-expectations aside I was again confronted with the bare reality that Attack of the Clones was an uncompelling and cringe-worthy pile compared to those films I used to watch every Saturday. So then Revenge of the Sith came out. I was through. I knew it'd be a stinker. I knew I'd hate every minute of it. Then I saw the trailer...

Wait! Gritty looking droids walking across a volcanic planet? Good old Ben doing the voice-over? Maybe this will be okay! Maybe he's finally going to get it right! Aside from the occasional cringe-worthy moment, the annoying purple-lightsaber, CG Yoda being back in action, CG everything back in action, the annoying loud-riding creature, the flaccid villain of Grievous who'd been so over-hyped and the unsatisfying transition to Darth Vader... I remember saying that it was "at least better than the others". But then, I sat down to watch it again. All those things that had been minor annoyances originally were now standing out sharply, and I simply couldn't watch it anymore.

Then I sat down to watch my old Star Wars VHS. Y'know what? I loved them just as much as I'd loved them as a kid. They were just as powerful, exotic and fun as I remembered them. But I just can't watch the prequels, and it disappoints me. It disappoints me because those movies should have been for my generation. They should have been as great as those movies I watched on VHS all those years ago. They should have been something I could enjoy, something I could be proud to say "I was there" about. But I can't. I can't because not only were they not good when I first saw them, but every year that I mature they actually get worse. The original trilogy remains as good as ever, but the prequels actually degrade every year. Lucas failed me and my generation. We deserved better.

That's the modern experience of Star Wars ... it's a sad picture, isn't it? :(

Rhikter said:

The great flipper debate? What was that about? R2's arm on the Tantive IV?

I think it was about that aquala who had a flipper thing instead of a hand in that close-up of his severed arm, after Obi-Wan dealt with him.

Anymore news or updates, Darknikos?

Monroville said:

adywan sai

You know, that actually looks pretty good!

I agree. I really like the look of that, except for the orange lights at the end.

Rhikter said:

Originally posted by TheoOdo:

"...here's two examples of gray colored battle droids which (I believe, anyway) look more mechanical an thus embody the nature-technology conflict..."

I'm going to get lynched by the "green laser" people ... but I actually like this idea. Primarily because there's a well thought out, artistic reason behind it, and it's not being proposed just because someone doesn't like the original color. ...However, I'm having trouble picturing them against the lush backdrop of Naboo and not looking bad.

I don't like the idea of all the Jedi having blue lightsabers. It seems too tyrannical and uninclusive which is not what the Republic is about.

Well, I hadn't ever thought of it like that. What I really wanted was to show that Luke's new green lightsaber of ROTJ was a whole new age for Jedi, a symbol of the new republic and something that had never existed before.

It's not really supposed to be about uniformity but rather to give Luke's green saber that much more significance.

I posted about it earlier, but here's two examples of gray colored battle droids which (I believe, anyway) look more mechanical an thus embody the nature-technology conflict that's present in a lot of Star Wars and could go some way to making them a little more intimidating...

,

Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I personally like the idea of all Old Republic Jedi using blue sabers.

Okay, now I'm just having fun but here's Maul-Grievous. It'd certainly give Maul more purpose, but might be damn difficult to actually get in there.

TMBTM said:

TheoOdo said:

Naboo is retitled "Alderaan"

In this case Adywan will need to cut the extra OT SE Naboo shoots in his ROTJ revisited.

I think it's a good idea, but it could cause many editing troubles for a result that, perhaps, don't really worth it.

Well, that's an '04 addition and after all Adywan's edit was originally started to fix the problems with the '04 edit.

I honestly don't think it'll be missed. I was certainly unhappy to see it there for the first time, but maybe that's just me.

Molly said:

Aramaic's still alive...

I honestly haven't seen the Passion, so I wasn't really sure what language it was they spoke in it. I knew it was either an endangered or extinct language. In any case, Wikipedia has just revealed that native Aramaic speakers found the use of Aramaic in the passion to be "stunted and unfamiliar" meaning it's usage as an alien rather than terrestrial language is slightly more justified.

Any similarities can simply be explained away as being merely similar, like the way Ewokese is sometimes similar to Tagalog and Swedish.

sgdelta1771 said:

I really like this. The difference in color always bothered me, so this just looks so much better to me.

Okay, here's a whole big truck load of ideas I've had as well as some ideas I've seen floating around elsewhere, the creators of which I can't really remember.


* First of all, much can be done with a altered opening crawl. So many details can be changed and the whole style of the film can be completely altered. Let me give you some examples on how this can be done with an example of an altered opening crawl for The Phantom Menace:


It is an age of tension in the GALACTIC REPUBLIC.

The nefarious GALACTIC FEDERATION, an alliance of

power-hungry war lords, has mysteriously appeared

and spreads it's influence across the galaxy. Once shielded

by the brave JEDI KNIGHTS the old republic now crumbles from

within and without.


Now, the mercenary Federation has blockaded the peaceful

world of Alderaan seeking to place the helpless world under

their domination. With war looming ever closer, the Chancellor

of the republic has sent two Jedi Knights to negotiate with the

Federation in the hopes that peace can be maintained...


* Okay, so there's a few things to note about that opening. First of all, the federation is no longer involved with trade. They're simply the claw of Palpatine, an organisation of mysterious origin seeking to conquer the galaxy. The old republic is already crumbling, so it's final downfall is already being orchestrated. This gives the series a certain darkness that is generally absent from the prequels, or at least the first two. Naboo is retitled "Alderaan", giving the planet some sense of relevance next to the original series. You could argue that Naboo doesn't look like Alderaan, but you have to realise that this fan edit would constitute and alternate canon. The more high-tech cities of Alderaan undoubtedly exist, but away from the magnificent and historical palace of it's royalty featured here.

* Also, some creative voice editing can be used to make reference appear to Alderaan actually in the film. For example Panaka mentions later that a senator from Alderaan is being considered for the position of chancellor. Use this sound bite earlier in the film and Panaka could in fact say "Alderaan has no army!" as opposed to "We have no army!". I think this works even better, because we know this to be true from the original series as well.

* Next of all, alien languages. The Neimodians are not the least bit intimidating. Some solutions have been suggested for this, but one of the best and most interesting I've seen is to take dialogue from the likes of Passion of Christ and Apocalypto which both feature obscure and (I think, not 100% certain) dead languages. This is a great improvement and gives the editor a lot of freedom when rewriting the dialogue of the Neimodians.

* Next, droids. Rather than speak any recognisable language, they should perhaps speak a garbled techno-babble like the probe droid of Empire Strikes Back. It might make them slightly more intimidating. Another positive change, I think, would be to recolor the droids to gray and their tanks from brown to black. Star Wars has consistently used conflict between nature and technology as a theme, but the naturalistic browns and beige colors don't exactly help emphasise that. If changed they could not only look more intimidating but also help reflect that theme, as they would stick out as very robotic and alien whilst crunching around the forests of "Alderaan".

* Here's a little detail I think could help improve the prequels connection to the original series. It's a just a little one, but instead of the Trade Federation ship using that odd aqua-like and rather gratuatious bubble thing to communicate with Amidala, they could instead use a screen like that used by Vader in Empire Strikes Back. Y'know, that scene where he chokes the admiral using the force. A flash of static, the familiar activation noise and then the reveal of Amidala; it would add a little bit of a familiar ambiance to the scene, I think.

* Jar Jar completely rotoscoped out. Yep. GONE. Along with the Gungans in general. No more.

* I may seem to be hitting the same button again, but I also believe that Naboo starfighters should be changed to gray or a more mechanical color. As it is, they look rather like toys more than tangible star fighters as in the original series. A color alteration could help with that.

* The young Anakin Skywalker is actually a very quiet boy. A very quiet boy. In fact, he's so quiet and introverted and thoughtful most of his lines are no longer appropriate. He's tuning into the force, or something. Any reason at all. Anything to justify removing a bunch of his lines.

* Perhaps Wato should be given the Neimodian treatment too? Except his lips may be too articulate, unlike the Neimodians...Hmm. It would certainly work, as he could make more references to the treatment of slaves in order to increase the sense of villainy. Maybe.

* All lightsabers, excluding Sith lightsabers, should be changed blue. Why? Because then Luke's new lightsaber in Return of the Jedi has some meaning. It's the beginning of a new dawn for the Jedi. Whereas in the old republic they used blue sabers, in the new republic they will use green just as the founder Luke did. I think that would be neat.

That's all I can think of for The Phantom Menace. I was thinking that maybe Dooku could be introduced via Holograms to give his character greater purpose, but somehow I just don't feel there's space for that if the narrative of the first film is to remain uncluttered. Also, I quite like the idea of Grievous being the remains of Darth Maul. Perhaps he could even have Maul-like symbols pasted onto his body? Maybe? I just feel that Maul needed better treatment. I was expecting (and I think fans and the public were expecting it too) that Maul would be the primary antagonist of the prequel series, before he was cut-down in his youth rather like poor, poor Fett.

Anyway, there's my ideas....