What would have made the Star Wars prequel trilogy better?

[danzibr]

I know there are already like 4 Star Wars threads, but this doesn't seem to fit in any of them. Also, since *I have not seen Episode VII*, please no spoilers.

The past 2 nights my wife and I watched I-III. And... you know, I think they're alright, but they could've been so much better. Some things were quite... not quite sure how to put it, unbelievable? The romance between Anakin and Padme could've used a lot of work. Anakin's actual switch to the dark side, well, him killing Mace Windu was believable, but not the stuff that followed. The ends of many fight scenes weren't good (Darth Maul standing there like a chump when Obi-Wan chops him in two, Anakin standing there like a chump when Dooku chops his arm off, one more that I recall thinking someone was standing there like a chump when they got offed). Oh, and Sifo-Diaz, that seemed super random and it could've been much better.

Thoughts?

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

Three main big things would improve them for me.


1) I want to reverse the way George did something... the something familiar/something new... Tantoinn doesn't appear, Anakin is on a hutt controlled planet we have never seen before, and no introducing a new Naboo, queen/senator Amidala is from Aludrain. (((this can also solve part of the racist things, instead of watto being a jewish flying thing, make him a young hutt and slave owner who we can say huts are all resistant to force mind stuff)))

2) I want eap 1 to be more focused on Obiewan, and not intro Anikin as a child but a teenager. I think that if we spent a little time like a bond film at the end of the 'last mission' with quwigon and Obiewan we could see some cool jedi stuff to open the film.

3) Keep darth maul alive so they can build a crazy Vader like villain. You could even keep the cut in half thing... in the cartoons they brought him back with droid legs... maybe have something worse happen and have him BECOME general grivus... although I would prefer to see the two of them working together.

And a few small little things....

Mostly just small continuity things: Leia remembers her mom, but not well so she shouldn't die till the twins are 2-3 years old not in child birth, Odiwan didn't know about Leia so he shouldn't at the end, Obiwan should have little to no interaction with the droids, and Vader should have to hunt down and kill some jedi.

I think that the seduction scenes need just a bit of punch up... both ANikin and Padme falling for each other, and ANikin falling for the darkside needed just a new screen writer to come in and rework some basic dialog.



side note... Jar Jar. He could work even as annoying as he is, if he was given just slightly less screen time...

[Traab]

I think that episode 1 should have been scrapped. The start should have been padawan anakin and obi wan. Mostly dealing with the seperatists early battles against the droid armies and such. Build up anakins hero cred. Then give him more complex of a reason to fall than having bad dreams about his wife. Say the steady losses during the clone wars starts to wear at him. No matter how many he saves, he cant save them all and its killing him to see that. Have him getting more and more aggressive in his actions in an effort to save more people. Basically, show a slow corruption into anger rage and hate formed from trying to do good. Show the conflicting reactions he gets. the people love him. he is their hero, the man without fear, the guy who fights in every battle to protect them all. Meanwhile the jedi order sees him getting angrier and angrier, and nothing they do seems to work. In fact it seems to backfire badly. So anakin believes he is doing the right thing, the people say so. The jedi are "holding him back" They are trying to keep him from saving everyone. All this can culminate in a real reason to fall. There are so many options out there that could work, but lets stick to the relationship between anakin and padme. That will work just fine, it just needs to be better written and acted than it was in the prequels.

[Pex]

1) NO MIDICHLORIANS!

2) No racist personalities - Jar Jar, Gunray, Watto

3) Anakin has a father

4) Anakin did not build C-3PO

5) Better romance dialogue in Attack of the Clones. Hayden Christiansen is not so bad. It was the words he had to say that were sappy nonsense.

6) No Mary Sue R2-D2

7) More friendship no arguing between Obi-Wan and Anakin in Attack of the Clones. The arguing should have started in Revenge of the Sith as Anakin was being seduced by the Dark Side.

[Tvtyrant]

1. The clone army is the seperatists, no one uses droids. Otherwise we have the endless question of why no one uses them in the future.

2. Palpatine is the voice for militarization, but wants to use a draft. Harps on about the sanctity and heroism of unique organisms. The Jedi refuse to side with either faction, drawing the ire of Republic leaders.

3. Anakin is introduced as a star pilot in his 20s who has the force but does not know it. Ben trains him despite his age. Anakin pushes for involvement in the Clone Wars.

4. Anakin is presented to the Jedi council and rejected as a jedi. While heart broken about it he is approached by Palpatine, who asks him to be his bodyguard.

5. Free from Jedi restrictions, Anakin gets married but is still a good man.

6. The jedi council becomes aware that Palpatine is a Sith, and send a force to arrest him.

7. Anakin kills the "assassins" to protect Palpatine, who plays up the innocent old man routine.

8. Kenobi goes to confront Anakin and distract him while another group of Jedi attack Palpatine.

9. Anakin is convinced by Kenobi and follows him to the trial for Palpatine. Palpatine was captured after a brief fight but Anakins wife is injured accidently during the fight between Palpatine and the Jedi.

10. Anakin is distraught by the news, and discovers that the trial is basically a kangaroo court. The jedi council vote to execute the head of the Republic.

11. Anakin gathers the local Republican forces and storns the Jedi temple, the Jedi flee.

12. Palpatine declares the Jedi terrorists, and declares martial law until they and the clobe army are defeated.

13. Anakins wife is pregnant, realizes Anakin is becoming unstable. Goes into hiding.

14. The remaining Jedi throw in with the clones, are defeated when they attack the capital. Kenobi and Anakin fight once more, Anakin loses but Kenobi cannot kill him. Ben flees, the last surviving Jedi to fight the Empire.

[TheThan]

Here's what I would do to correct Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace.

Star Wars episode I: the phantom menace
1. Give us a clear setup in the opening crawl. So the audience has some ground to stand on when things get rolling.
2. introduce Anakin as a young adult instead of as a child
3. introduce Anakin as already being a Jedi Apprentice instead of a slave on Tatooine
4. Give Anakin a personality and a character trait that makes him ripe for a fall.

A. He’s a prodigy; someone that’s innately talented in the force. He doesn’t have to train hard.

B. because he’s so naturally gifted he lacks diligence and can be a little lazy.

C. He’s arrogant; he’s been told he’s tremendously powerful from the beginning of his training.

D. He’s been able to compare his power to his peers so this isn’t just a false sense of power.

E. He’s unaccustomed to failure because of his natural talent and sheer power.
5. Introduce a foil for Anakin. Someone to drive him to the dark side of the force.

A. Darth Maul is a prime candidate for this character

B. He’s powerful enough to defeat Anakin cleanly; even so much as severing his arm.

C. He taunts Anakin and angers him; causing him to doubt his own power in the light side and be open to drawing on the dark side.
6. Remove Qui-Gon Jin. We already have someone to mentor Anakin that’s Obi-Wan Kenobi
7. Make the plot a murder/mystery involving the assassination of the King of Naboo

A. Make that assassin Darth Maul or whomever Anakins’ foil is going to be.

B. Allow the heroes to find evidence linking the assasin/foil to The Trade Federation or whatever organization is opposing the Republic
8. Make sure to mention that things are going to spiral out of control.

A. Make sure to introduce the political players in this situation. At least Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Palpatine.
9. Anakin’s Foil escapes at the end to continue to push Anakin towards the dark side of the force in the next two movies.
10. End the movie on a downer ending. The villain escapes and Anakin is grievously injured.



I'll get to Episode II and III Later. as i basically have to re-write most of the trilogy here.

[Hyena]

This guy (https://youtu.be/ABcXyZn9xjg?t=1887) may offer some insight. I stand by my statement, however, that prequels should never have been made, because we don't need Vader's backstory.

[Yora]

Skipping all of episode 1 and not doing all those "Hey, it's that thing from the old movies" moments would certainly have been a good start.

They also would have needed a very different script and a different director. George Lucas is certainly good at some things, but apparently he is not actually a director. You can't have a space adventure trilogy that consists mostly of people sitting on couches and walking through hallways.

I am not really seeing very much in the movies that looks like it would be worth salvaging. The one element I really liked is that the mastermind behind the big war is actually the leader of both sides. That was pretty smart, but it was made totally obvious way too early.
One of the moments where the movies accidentally started to sound interesting was when someone was asking if they are really on the good side in that war. Making that a point that gets greatly developed in the second movie and then having the third movie reveal that there isn't any good side could possibly have made a very interesting story.

The idea that the clones of the clone wars were fighting for the Republic and not against it (as I think most of us suspected back in the 90s) was an interesting move. But making the whole war pretty much "squishy battle droids" against "regular battle droids" made it all pretty bland.

And the war would really need to have some stakes. As it is in the movie, the worst thing the Republic had to fear from a defeat was that some planets no longer pay their taxes. Which they already stopped paying anyway.

[Flickerdart]

Let's think about what the prequels needed to do:

Tell the story of how the two Sith rose and turned the Republic into an Empire.
Show Luke and Leia's true origins.
Explain how the great Jedi masters Obi-wan and Yoda ended up where they did.


R2-D2 and C3PO? Unnecessary. Pod racing? Goodbye. Qui-Gonn? Pointless. Droids? No thank you. Really, the prequels could have been a single movie.

Act 1: Obi-wan and his apprentice Anakin ninja-flip around the galaxy doing Jedi stuff. Anakin is too into his family to be an even-handed arbiter like the Jedi are supposed to be.
Act 2: Oh no, Palpatine seduced Anakin away from the Jedi.
Act 3: Obi-wan sort-of kills Anakin, grabs his kids, and ninja-flips away before Palpatine can find him. While Obi-wan and Anakin fight using lightsabers, Yoda and Palpatine duel with the Force. Yoda loses, but buys enough time for Obi-wan and himself to escape.

[Winterwind]

I've always felt like there was a single critical flaw that condemned the prequels, that turned them into something that I cannot consider anything other than awful, and without which almost everything else (Jar-Jar and the midichlorians included) could have been forgiven.

That flaw is that they completely messed up Anakin's turn from good to evil, making it utterly illogical and inconsistent - which is really bad when you consider that ultimately, this is the central core thread the prequels are about, and everything else is, all considered, ultimately background.

What I mean by this is: When we are introduced to Anakin in Episode I, he is an utterly good, kind-hearted and optimistic character. In fact, he is so to a completely unreasonable degree - it is rather inexplicable how somebody growing up in as rough an environment as Mos Eisley, as a slave no less, would actually turn out so kind-hearted and cheerful.

When Episode II starts, he is either an utterly despicable jerk with no social grace whatsoever, or outright evil (it is debatable which - personally, I'd decidedly go with the latter). How did that happen? How did the good-hearted character from Episode I turn into this? It's like Anakin's fall to becoming Darth Vader has already happened, and it did so off-screen, at some point between Episode I and II! The most important event that we absolutely had to see to vindicate the prequels' existence (the way they were set up, that is - it would have been possible to make the prequels without making Anakin's fall basically all they are about, but that is not what they chose to do), the thing the entire plot of the prequels revolves around - and they just skipped it. That pretty much ruins the entire premise of the prequels right there.

Then, in Episode III, it seems they realized this and tried to backpaddle - suddenly, Anakin is a lot more humble and generally kinder than he was in Episode II. Which is good in that this is pretty much what he had to be like for the whole plot to make sense at all (after all, he can't fall if he is already utterly evil) - but it is bad in that, where there was a massive inconsistency in his personality between Episode I and II, now they are introducing a massive inconsistency in his personality between Episode II and III. And with this much inconsistency, the entire thing just falls apart.

All the more since this makes the actual moment when he really falls come utterly out of left-field, and not in the good way. If Anakin had been consistently like he was in Episode II, it would have still sucked, because the actual fall would then just have been a foregone conclusion, no more than a mere formality, but at least it would have made sense. If he'd consistently been a better person, it might have been possible to set it up such that the fall would have actually been shocking - a final test of Anakin's personality, and he fails. But as is, with him just flipping between good and evil with no rhyme or reason, with this character that already has no consistency, with us not having any chance to actually understand him (because there is no logic to him), all it does is becoming yet another moment that has utterly no consistency with anything shown previously. I'd argue the scene where Anakin falls, as written, makes absolutely no sense - to illustrate why, I would posit that his dialogue can be summed up as "Oh gods! What have I done! This is terrible! How will I ever live with myself?! Please, be my master, so I can do it again!". Yes, we are informed throughout the movie that he ultimately falls because he places his loyalty to Padme over his loyalty to the Jedi - but that's just outward reasoning, and in order for it to work, it would require for the inward reasoning - the character's personality - to actually be at least somewhat congruent with that. This is not possible with a character so inconsistent, and it doesn't fit at all with what he is shown to be like throughout Episode III (as opposed to what he was like in Episode II).


In short, there is no explanation for why Anakin goes from good to evil between Episode I and II, there is no explanation for why he goes from evil to good between Episode II and III, and while there is an explanation for why he goes from good to evil in Episode III, this explanation is presented so extremely poorly that it utterly falls apart. And since the prequels, as they were set up, were Anakin's story, with everything else ultimately being a backdrop to that single central plotline, Anakin's story being an utterly inconsistent, atrociously poorly written mess condemns the whole prequels.

And yes, that does mean that I hold the rather rare view that between the prequels, Episode I is actually far and beyond the best of the three. Yes, it does have midichlorians, Jar-Jar in a prominent role and the final battle being won by a kid that has no idea what he is doing just flying up into the enemy mothership - oh, and also I like its visuals the least of the three (not in that they're bad per se, but in that I feel they are about as far removed from the aesthetic I consider a core part of Star Wars as possible) - but at least it doesn't completely mangle its writing when it comes down to Anakin's story, the way Episodes II and III do.
EDIT: Just to stress it once again, it's not that the prequels could not have been set up in a way where Anakin's story was just one of many, and not the one thing I consider the prequels to ultimately be about. But, in spite of having many side-plots dealing with the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the Sith menace, and other such things, I feel like the way those movies are set up makes all of those things just a backdrop to Anakin's story. This did not have to be the case, and if it had not been, then they could have afforded to mess up Anakin's arc as badly as they did and, while ending up with a story much, much worse for it, it would not have utterly destroyed that story. But they chose differently (for one, I actually agree with that decision - Anakin's story was the thing that indeed should have formed the core of the prequels), and thus, this was the one thing they could afford to mess up the least, while they messed it up the worst.

[Infernally Clay]

What about...

Episode I:
Outer Rim territories, the source of all the secondary and tertiary industries in the Republic, vote to secede due to poor representation within the Senate;
The Republic would suffer without those resources so hostilities escalate into full scale war on Outer Rim worlds like Tatooine;
Count Dooku, one of the three greatest living Jedi, defects from the Jedi Order with thousands of Jedi to support the Outer Rim and relocates to Tatooine to organise the Separatists;
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, two of Dooku's students, travel to Tatooine in secret to convince Dooku to stop the fighting;
They meet a famous 20-something pod racer called Anakin Skywalker, who begs to help the Jedi find Dooku so they can stop the fighting on his home world;
After they find Dooku, negotiations fail and a fight breaks out between Dooku and his two former students;
Dooku draws upon the Dark Side of the Force and kills Qui-Gon, only for Anakin to interfere and save Obi-Wan by showing a Force strength far surpassing even Dooku's;
Obi-Wan and Anakin flee Tatooine with Qui-Gon's body, then inform the Jedi Council of Dooku's fall to the Dark Side and Anakin's own incredible Force strength;


Episode II:
The civil war escalates as the Separatist tactics become more extreme, forcing the Republic to create a clone army capable of fighting back;
Many Jedi are returning to the Order, unaware of just how far Dooku was willing to go;
Anakin is undergoing Jedi training but he's actually getting weaker, although the Council ignores his concerns that they're intentionally holding him back out of jealousy;
The Jedi spread across the galaxy, leading armies of clones to combat the remaining rogue Jedi, the Separatists and their Droid army;
Dooku and his assassin Darth Maul kidnap Chancellor Palpatine and Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to save him;
Obi-Wan fights Maul while Anakin faces off with Dooku;
Anakin is no match for Dooku at all even after being goaded into drawing on the Dark Side and only wins once Obi-Wan joins the battle;
Dooku is arrested and taken to the Jedi Temple for questioning and trial and the Jedi believe they have now defeated the Sith Lord and his student, thus the war will soon end;

Episode III:
As the war finally begins to die down, Dooku is broken out by a mysterious and powerful ally called Darth Sidious who the Jedi are unable to sense;
Dooku finds out about the Galactic Empire plans Palpatine has, realises he and everyone else was being played by Darth Sidious all along and warns the Jedi Council that Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious are one and the same;
Mace Windu and several Jedi Masters follow Dooku to the Chancellor's office to arrest him, but Palpatine is already waiting for them there and attacks, revealing he wanted Dooku to bring them there so he could kill them all personally;
Anakin arrives to save Palpatine and fights Dooku while Palpatine and Windu battle, with Anakin finally killing Dooku as Windu is killed by Palpatine;
Under the guise of fearing a Jedi retaliation, Palpatine begins Order 66 and wipes out almost all the Jedi in the galaxy before tasking Anakin with returning to the Jedi Temple to kill the Masters there, sending clone troopers to kill everyone else there;
Anakin begins questioning his decision to side with Palpatine once he finds out about the clones killing children, but he decides to confront Palpatine about it later on when he has finished off the Separatists on Mustafar;
Obi-Wan, Yoda and several other Jedi survive Order 66 and begin looking for survivors, Obi-Wan particularly worried about Anakin;
Once Obi-Wan finds out Anakin killed all the Jedi Masters at the Temple, he tracks Anakin down to Mustafar where he just killed all the remaining Separatist leaders and effectively ended the war, and Yoda meanwhile finds out the truth about Palpatine and goes to confront him alone;
Obi-Wan defeats a conflicted Anakin but Yoda loses to a far more powerful Darth Sidious;

[Comrade]

I won't go quite as in depth as some have here, but some general things: fewer lame continuity nods, like Boba Fett, badass old bounty hunter in the original trilogy, turning out to be some whiny clone who's in his late twenties/early thirties, or C3PO turning out to have been built by Darth Vader, which was completely random and didn't make much sense. Thoroughly rework the awful romance scenes between Anakin and Amidala, and make Anakin more of the noble warrior seduced by the dark side that Kenobi remembers in the original trilogy rather than a whiny punk who goes completely bonkers out of nowhere and kills a bunch of kids because somehow that's going to save his wife or something. Retain Yoda's presence as a wise figure powerful in the Force rather than a light-saber toting duelist who goes leaping into every fight possible. Make Anakin a little older (not only in the first film but throughout), and make his fall actually make sense (this ties in a bit with him being the figure Kenobi remembered in A New Hope, which I really don't think the prequels portrayed him as).

Alternatively, just don't make them in the first place. I don't think the prequels lent much of worth to the saga. Executed well, maybe, but that'd take a lot of reworking.

[Kyberwulf]

Um.. people not treating the movies like it was the second coming. The original series wasn't as good as people make it out to be. They are good, but they aren't that good. The Original series is mostly nostalgic good.

[Yora]

I think to make a good episode 1 to 3, you really have to go back all the way to where there is just the original movies and a blank page.
So what would the movies have to do and include?

- Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting in the Clone wars. And being good friends.
- The Emperor setting up the Empire. (After all, it's really only completed when the senate is dissolved just before episode 4.)
- Anakin joining the Emperor.
- Obi-Wan severely mutilating Anakin.
- Destruction of the Jedi.
- Luke and Leia being hidden. (Anakin must have had a wife, but being separated from her early in her pregnancy.)

I also think the movies should have a story whose outcome is not an already foregone conclusion. We know that Anakin Skywalker will become Darth Vader, the Emperor will become Emperor, and the Jedi being destroyed. There probably should be some other important questions in the movies than just these.

[Pronounceable]

Do we really, seriously need a backstory for Darth Vader? My answer is no, so the whole idea of a prequel trilogy is on shaky ground far as I care.

BUT! If you're dead set on the idea of making another movie trilogy telling the backstory of Darth Vader, you gotta do it thus:
-Anakin Skywalker starts out as a good guy character audience should like, also an adult or almost-adult. Nobody likes childen on screen, including actual children.
-He needs to be shown as a great pilot and also a good jedi knight.
-An actual seduction by evil/power/evil power must take place at some point. Palpy doesn't need to have any part in this (but he probably would).
-Obi Wan Kenobi has to feature in a very prominent role and be good friends with Anakin.
-Anakin must get a woman pregnant at some point. Actual event probably shouldn't be shown onscreen.
-Clone Wars or Republic's corruption does NOT need to feature at all (but in all likelyhood they will).
-There needs to be a visible and powerful badguy that persists throughout the trilogy. This doesn't have to be Palpy's apprentice that Anakin kills and replaces in the last movie (tho that's probably what's gonna happen in 90% of such fanfictions).
-Darth Vader must eventually appear as he's known and actually do Darth Vader things onscreen. This doesn't have to happen at the very end of trilogy.
-There should NOT be a ****load of winkwinknudgenudges towards original trilogy.


So long as you don't contradict any of this stuff, you can go hogwild.

[foobar1969]

1) NO MIDICHLORIANS!
Agree with everything in Pex's list. No technobabble, meesa binks, virgin birth, etc. Also:

#0: George Lucas convinces Ron Howard to be director.

Phantom:

Anakin is 13ish, not 9ish.
C3PO is introduced on Naboo as an enemy bureaucrat, handling... wait for it... "Human-Cyborg Relations" (duh!). He gets left behind when his masters flee.


Clones:

rewrite the romance scenes.
C3PO is on Naboo, not Tatooine.


Sith:


Amidala goes to the Jedi temple, sees Anakin planning to attack. She tries to stop him, he angrily pushes her away. She is struck by some weapon, suffering a grave injury.
in the final duel, Obi Wan does not want to fight Anakin, but instead tricks him into a jumping attack that lands in the lava. Anakin is defeated by his own arrogance.

[VariSami]

As it happens, I stumbled across this earlier today and I agree wholeheartedly:
http://www.gamesradar.com/george-lucas-nearly-wrote-perfect-prequel-trilogy-he-just-didnt-seem-notice/#st_refDomain=www.facebook.com&st_refQuery=/

Also, Jar Jar actually being the main antagonist would have been great in hindsight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yy3q9f84EA

[Devonix]

As was said earlier, the clones have to be the enemies in the movie. Yes they got characteriztion in the novels and in the show, but in the movie the're faceless minions. And the hero's army should Never be composed of faceless minions.

[TheThan]

Star Wars episode II: Attack of the Clones

1. I’m going political thriller for this one. Political fallout from the events of episode I are happening; systems are threatening to leave the republic and are mustering militaries to make it happen.
2. Palpatine; the chancellor, has declared that he will not allow any system to break away from the republic.
3. The Jedi are split politically. Some side with Palpatine and believe that systems shouldn’t be allowed to break away from the republic. Others believe that systems should have the right to go independent.

A. Anakin and Obi-Wan are split on the subject, Obi-wan believe systems should be able to split away, Anakin believes otherwise.
4. Anakin has recovered from his injury and is equipped with a brand new cybernetic arm.

A. However he’s depressed because of his loss; he’s unable to handle it.
B. Padme has spent time with him in the hospital and the two are falling in love.
5. Obi-Wan and Anakin follow the clue they uncovered in the previous film which leads them to Count Dooku a political agitator working behind the scenes.

A. Count Dooku is driving systems into open rebellion against the republic.
B. He’s a henchman for a bigger power. However he does have access to Darth Maul.
C. He’s manufacturing events in order to persuade systems to break away. The murder of the King of Naboo back in Ep. I was one such event.
6. Anakin and Obi-wan track down and confront Dooku and darth Maul.

A. Anakin and Darth Maul battle to a stand still. However Maul’s goading of Anakin causes him to lose it and attack enraged. He wounds Darth maul but he still manages to get away.
B. Meanwhile Obi-Wan is handling Dooku and eventually defeats him. But spares him as he’s gotta stand trial.
7. The outcome of the trial doesn’t matter.

A. If he’s found guilty; those systems that want to break away will claim it’s a sham trial and rebel anyway. Dooku has done a very good job.
B. If he’s found innocent then the rebellious systems will be outraged that one of their allies was targeted and made an example of.
8. The Jedi are split in two.

A. Half of the Jedi join the separatists which will provoke Jedi on Jedi combat
B. Obi-Wan and Anakin stay on the Republic’s side, but Obi-Wan is torn between his loyalty to the Republic and his belief in the people’s right to choose.
C. The Jedi council unveils a new plan; cloned Jedi made to fill their lost ranks and tip the potential balance of power. Obi-Wan and Anakin are both horrified. It’s the last straw for Obi-Wan and he leaves to go join the separatists. Anakin decides to stay
9.The trial is decided

A. Regardless of what the outcome is; nothing can prevent war.
B. The first battle of the clone wars breaks out; Jedi clones are used for the first time with devastating effect. (even a partially trained Jedi can defeat multiple mundane soldiers).
C. Some of the Jedi council are worried that the clones are unstable, and because they are only partially trained are open to temptation.
10. Palpatine is behind it all along

A. He arranged through Darth maul (sporting his own new prosthetic) for the murder of Count Dooku. Because he no longer needs him. Count Dooku leaves Palpatine vulnerable so he must be taken out.
B. He begins to get close to Anakin; arranging his promotion to general, seeing he has great potential as a Sith Lord.
11. The movie wraps up leaving loose ends hanging for episode III

A. The fate of obi-wan Kenobi
B. The results of the war
C. The budding love interest between Anakin and Padme
D. Anakin’s slow spiral to the dark side
E. The results of the cloned Jedi.

[Dienekes]

Bring some folk that are useful but not Jedi in the main cast. Han Solo served a very important part of the original series in showing how a badass normal guy can deal on the level of these titans, plus a healthy bit of skepticism.

In fact you can straight up replace the useless non-force using character (Jar-Jar) with this guy.

So, going through the original trilogy here's what we know about Anakin:
He was impatient
He was a good friend to Obi-wan
He was angry
He was like Luke in that he was reckless, craved excitement, and always had his head in visions of the future, not what he was doing.

So, we need to either have an event in his past to make him an angry young man, or have events in the movies for why he becomes angry.

A war is plenty reason for why someone could have a trauma to become angry.

This anger must turn him away from the path of the Republic toward working with a single controlling power. A civil war among the Republic is actually ripe for this. He realizes how the eternal bickering of the Republic has lead to the destruction of someone he cares about and that it all needs to be corrected.

One thing I think Lucas got right is the inclusion of politics into the prequels. In concept, seeing how the galaxy was run before the empire and the voice it all had. Unfortunately, the first movies presentation of politics was a strange thing about trade negotiations that is never really explained. Possibly the most boring aspect of politics to focus on.

So if I was going to do it, I would have the first movie establish the basic relationship of the characters. Obi-wan is Anakin's teacher. And we see the start of the clone wars. Show how the rebelling systems have a legitimate reason for their aggression. I guess, set up Anakin's romance partner. Create one powerful villain with dark side powers, that seems to be leading the rebels. None of this one movie of Maul, one movie of Dooku, and one movie of Grievous stuff. Create one figure we can see as a worthy enemy of Obi-wan.

Movie two, the clone wars are in full swing. I would suggest here we shall see the start of Anakin's fall. This is the great tragedy that pushes him closer to the Emperor's side. In this, we see that Palpatine make his bid for centralizing power, and his argument to Anakin that all of this chaos occurred and he suffered his loss because the Republic is not lead by a strong central authority and allowing the rebels to make wars within their borders. I'd probably make the movie end with the rebels winning a great victory against the Republic nearly scattering the jedi forces. I'd also pull out the stops on the whole cloning thing. If we make the bad guys use the clones then we can see just how screwed up you can get when you mess with genetics. I'm thinking humanoid monstrosities that can fight a jedi on their own terms. But, this may be the old horror lover in me talking.

Movie three would see the rise of Vader. After the great defeat of the last movie we see Palpatine centralizing his authority as more systems start drifting over to the rebels. It becomes clear that their is a traitor somewhere in the ranks of the Republic. The jedi are telling Anakin it's someone close to Palpatine, Palpatine is telling Anakin it's someone close to the Jedi Council. Meanwhile, Obi-wan is off on his own mission dealing with the evil figure leading the rebels, I will call him Maulkuvous. It seems that the sith's forces are splintering and as Obi-wan confronts the opponent it is revealed that he has always just been a pawn working for Palpatine who was betrayed now that Palpatine can officially make his bid for empire. Palpatine tricks Anakin into thinking the true Sith Lord is really some powerful Jedi Master and as Anakin attempts to arrest him it causes the destruction of the Jedi Order. We can have Palpatine scarred in the process, of making him trick Anakin. Palpatine declares himself the emperor, and Obi-wan returns to see the destruction and confronts and fights Anakin. Obi-wan present Anakin with the truth, but Anakin refuses to believe it, as it would make what he had just done to the Jedi Order impossible to rationalize. He accuses Obi of being another conspirator. They fight, Anakin loses, Obi flees with the kids. And we end with Anakin being put into the suit, and Palpatine revealing just how corrupted Vader has become how evil everything he had done was. Maybe Vader in his rage attacks Palpatine, in a desperate attempt to save his soul. Only for Palpatine to easily subdue him with his lightning, Palpatine announces that Vader is his servant. And the only chance he would have for revenge would be to patiently be his willing student and slave.

Of course mixed up in there would be a romance. However, I am somewhat uniquely unequipped to write one so just assume it has better dialogue and chemistry than anakin complaining about sand.

[Rogar Demonblud]

For starters, you have to fix the Jedi problem. In the OT, allegedly just a generation after the PT, people have completely forgotten about the Jedi existence, even though they used to have temples everywhere and snatch up every child testing as Force sensitive to raise in their own gated compound on Coruscant. Or so Lucas would have you believe. Personally, I don't think the 75% of the galactic population that was alive at the time of the Jedi Order would have forgotten that quickly.

So the Jedi Order is one of those organizations that has a long colorful history, but people aren't really aware that they still exist (similar to the Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, aka the Knights of Malta).

Episode One starts as the Clone Wars are winding down. While there's some dispute about exactly when the war started, it's been running long enough to essentially fizzle out due to exhaustion rather than victory. It also ran long enough that volunteers stopped being plentiful enough to man the military forces, and so (after some ill-fated attempts using droids), everyone eventually turned to flash-grown clones to use as cannon fodder.

The opening scenes are set on one of the final battlefields, where Obi-Wan Kenobi, youngest general on either side due to his skill at deducing enemy maneuvers and luck at surviving decapitation strikes, is trying to finish his war by crushing the opposition one more time. This is a good point to show off his penchant for telling half-truths and manipulative phrasing (it was the truth, from a certain point of view). While getting his troops killed for no good reason, he is greeted by an emissary of the Jedi, who've determined that he's Force sensitive and are offering to train him as one of the first Knights of their attempt to start to rebuild their numbers to relevancy again. After dithering a little, Kenobi accepts, at least in part because he's not sure what else to do after the war.

Here we have a travelogue, showing the extent of the devastation visited on the Galaxy. Definitely need to take visual cues from the damage inflicted on Europe after WWI and WWII. Stagnant economies, cities reduced to rubble, etc. Kenobi proves adept in training, partly because he's used to a life of discipline. Others...are not.

We meet Anakin Skywalker the same place you usually find a hot shot pilot slash charming scoundrel. In a bar. He's pretty much Han Solo, with out the hairy conscience trying to steer him onto the straight path. Where Kenobi is clean-cut and increasingly the company man, Skywalker is a devil-may-care rogue with at least one girl in every port, insufficient scruples and, as gradually becomes clear, a heart not of gold but of tarnished brass. But he's Force sensitive, so Kenobi tries to train him when the heads of the Order decide he's a problem waiting to arise.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Trying to break up the wall of text here. Also, i might as well take the time to admit I haven't broken this out into specific movies.

The main action moves into Coruscant's political arena, where several planets, led by Alderaan, are trying to get some disarmament treaties worked out. The new Jedi Knights get sent along to offer counsel and serve as go-betweens to try and facilitate this peace effort. Getting rid of droid armies is pretty easy, since no one likes them (or at least they won't admit to it). This is fostered by the fact that battle droids are finicky, difficult to maintain is adverse environments, subject to deactivation or destruction when hit by ion cannons or EMP bombs, and have a serious problem with defaulting to meatbag=target when confused by intra-species battles. This can be used for a show-don't-tell short battle scene to punch up the action. (Some of the language associated with the anti-landmine campaign would be useful here).

The discussions on clone troops are more acrimonious, mainly because money is becoming an issue. (cue chattering chimps in real world making comparisons to Versailles reparations). The deadlock here is mirrored elsewhere, as people either can't come to agreements or can't get agreements enforced. The government is increasingly relying on emergency decrees as a stop-gap solution, and is also appointing various 'Moffs' with broad, ill-defined powers (cue references to *czars by aforementioned chattering chimps).

During all of this, Kenobi meets a senior official named Palpatine. He also shows as Force sensitive, but refuses training since he doesn't want to give up his post (and the power that comes with it). Skywalker, meanwhile, is romancing a woman from the Alderaanian delegation who's engaged to another member of the delagation. After they break up, she sends a note to Skywalker, which Kenobi uses to prank his by-now friend by using his gilded tongue to almost convince him that she's expecting triplets. Another facet of Anakin's personality comes out--the fact that he considers consequences are for other people.*

Anyway, the things I don't have much of a grasp on is how we get the Jedi to Tatooine, so Anakin can seduce a girl there (surprise, he's a ladies-man because he's misusing the Force), who we introduce as the strong female to oppose these lunkheads, how many secondary characters we create, etc. There will be no C-3PO or R2-D2, we will instead have a different droid who works for Anakin (among other things, it's the keeper of his little black book); during the final confrontation on Mustafar, Anakin Force crushes the droid and tosses it into the magma as the space-equivalent of kicking a puppy. I also have no clue how to work Yoda into all of this. But we should have a good set of films with more of a film noir quality.



*Yes, this does imply Obi-Wan lied through his teeth when he told Luke he had a twin sister. More importantly, when we get around to the start of the Sequel Trilogy in 2015, it also implies that Anakin potentially has a lot of grandchildren about.

[NovenFromTheSun]

I agree that the war needs bigger stakes for the Republic. Also, there should be some decently important clone soldier characters to humanize the army. With that, here's the broad strokes of my idea:

We meet Obiwan and Anikin as teacher and student. Anikin's is about in his mid-late teens, old enough to have some skills but not yet to go on missions. The war is heating up; more and more planets are turning against the Republic and others have fighting in the streets. The clone army is in its planning stage

Then there's an attack on the Jedi, who had previously taken a non-intervention stance. The Jedi are individually able to take on multiple attackers, but the numbers begin to overwhelm them, and a few of their enemies seem suspiciously well equipped and trained to fight force users.

Eventually Obiwan is ordered to lead some apprentices to safety, naturally Anikin goes with him. During their escape that learn that the attack was lead by two Sith, Maul and Count Dooku. Because of this, Obiwan and the apprentices are chased down and their ship damaged, making them crash land on a planet torn apart by the war.

Both the characters and the audience see the effects of the war first hand. As the Sith's hunt continues many apprentices are killed and, after much hard fighting, Obiwan is injured. Anikin is left alone in a trial-by-fire, where after nearly dying to Darth Maul, he has to do something amoral to kill the superior opponent and save his master. I admit I don have much of an idea what this action is.

Once he kills him, the suvivors are able to return to the Jedi's backup meeting site and warn them about the Sith.

Anikin either meets or already knows Padme, but I'm not to focused on that. This took up some space so I'll post my ideas for the other two movies at a later time.

[Starwulf]

holy huge novel batman!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Anakin a teenager in the 2nd movie? If so, that's your answer. It doesn't matter how kind, how sweet and nice you are as a child, 9 times out of 10 once you become a teenager you become a douche-bag. Perhaps becoming a jedi and having so much pressure piled on top of him made it even worse then usual, that would be my guess. But yeah, to me it's a very simple reason and quite apparent: Teenager. Teenage rebellion magnified by having some form of super-powers, and realizing that you went through a ton of crap when you were younger.

[Grytorm]

I don't know enough to make broad plot changes, but I have a few ideas for Anakin's plot.

First age him up a little in the first film, make him early teens, like 13. Second for the first film remove Qui Gon, age up Obi Wan to around 30. Give him another apprentice and kill the apprentice. Now Obi Wan has lost a figurative son and sees Anakin as a replacement. The Jedi Council doesn't like this.

Second film should happen a while later, as it did. More generic plot, maybe change the war somewhat. But what is important is that Anakin is troubled and eventually a big fight would occur with Obi Wan. Not violent, but anger. Partially driven by the Jedi Council mistrusting Anakin. Palpatine is gaining power in the background.

Palpatine convinces the Jedi to assign Anakin as a bodyguard and moves him around a few times on missions. This gradually leads to his corruption and downfall. Jedi try and arrest Palpatine. Anakin turns against the Jedi and leads a number of attacks in retaliation and establishment of martial law.

[nyjastul69]

Remove Jar Jar Binks. That's about it IMO.

[Dragonexx]

In my opinion, a lot of the ideas behind the prequels were good, it's just that george lucas is more of an idea guy than an actual scipt writer or director (hence why V was so good). The core ideas are good (mostly, not really seeing much need for child anikin, or if so, then at least have a time skip half way through ep 1.). Other things are to change Naboo into Alderann. That way you actually get to see the planet and it's people, and get to like them over the course of the movie, making it all the more sad because you know the Death Star them all up. (Heck, Darths and Droids did that, sorta. They made Alderann into Naboo because they started with the prequels.) Also, less talking, or at least use the opening exposition for that.

Also keep darth maul around, he's way too cool of a villain to die so early. The Clone Wars tried to fix that, but it was too little too late.

Also, get someone who actually knows how to write romance.

In short, apart from some changes to the execution of the ideas, and fixing the romance, not much else needs changes.

[pendell]

Answering the OP: If GL were to hire me to make suggestions to improve the prequels, here is what I would recommend:

1) Ep. 1: Advance young Anakin to at least fifteen and get a solid actor to portray him. Jake Lloyd at age 9 just didn't have the physical gravitas required for the role.

2)With regard to the political angle, either explain in logically consistent detail or cut it altogether. As it is, it just confuses the audience.

3) Jar-Jar didn't work as a comic relief figure. Especially if GL intended to use him seriously down the road. He needed a more serious side to counter the goofy antics.

Or, better yet, simply cut him and replace him with Christopher Lee as Count Dooku through all three movies.

4) In fact ... that is what I would like best of all. Consolidate the parts of Maul, Dooku, and grievous into Dooku. Give Christopher Lee serious acting role and make him a serious darth vader-scale villain. Make him the antagonist for two of the three films before killing him at the same spot he is now killed at in Ep. III. Allow Anakin to become the very thing he's fought against.

5) Throughout all three episodes, NIX THE GREEN SCREEN. First, make the story with ordinary actors and ordinary props. Make it so you can sell it as a stage play. THEN add in all the colorful animals and so forth to the finished product. Star Wars is first and foremost a play about people, not about the scenery or strange creatures. They should add to the human drama, not interfere with it.

6) Hire a really good author to sell the Anakin-Padme romance , write them good lines, and find a couple who had chemistry together and could really sell love for each other. I don't know why Christiansen-Portman didn't work, but it didn't.

This goes back to suggestion #1: Introduce Anakin as somewhere in his late teens and Padme as a young woman in her early 20s. Not only is that more reasonable for a planetary chief executive, it also makes for potential romantic chemistry in the first episode, which you just can't do with a nine-year-old.

7) For all these lines, rewrite for a mature, adult storyline. The prequels as written were a cartoon with flashes of senate, fall of the republic, romance, tragedy, etc. I would rewrite it with the serious human relationships as the core and foundation of the story, then add in funny characters, backdrops, and explosions / action scenes to entertain the littles. I understand that modern moviemakers believe that modern adolescents have no attention span and no patience, but I believe they under-rate their audience.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[NovenFromTheSun]

So, the second one:

The clones have been completed, but the separatists have made their own batch. The "clone wars", as it is now called, rages on and the galaxy decends further into chaos.

After the attack on the Jedi and revelation of the Sith, the Jedi have joined the Republic's side; and Anikin, now twenty, is one of the voices for militance. Not having told Obiwan or the Jedi about his action in the first movie (does anyone have suggestions, I think sacrificing another apprentice is going a bit to far for now but my other ideas don't go far enough) and silently questions whether he could have saved more apprentices if he had done it sooner.

This is were we meet the sympathetic clones, who will serve with Anikin. We also meet Seeve Palpetine, but under a different name, because I'd try to hide his identity as the Emperor and make it look Dooku will become such. Palpy is playing both sides though, as will be revealed in the third.

Anikin hears that the fighting had spread to Tatooine, and demands to go there. Obiwan cautions against it, but relents. This is where we find out that Anikin was a slave on Tatooine, and desires to find his parents. Padme also goes as a diplomat.

Anakin and Padme's romance would have had to have started in the first movie of it would feel really rushed, for reasons you'll see later. However, it should be remembered that Anakin is part of an order that looks down on such things, and Padme <stuff about Padme that doesn't really work, see my next post> The interactions between them should seem a little unusual.

I need to get ready for my day, episode 2 part the second coming soon!

[Lethologica]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Anakin a teenager in the 2nd movie? If so, that's your answer. It doesn't matter how kind, how sweet and nice you are as a child, 9 times out of 10 once you become a teenager you become a douche-bag. Perhaps becoming a jedi and having so much pressure piled on top of him made it even worse then usual, that would be my guess. But yeah, to me it's a very simple reason and quite apparent: Teenager. Teenage rebellion magnified by having some form of super-powers, and realizing that you went through a ton of crap when you were younger.
Yes, and then the basic problem becomes that teen angst is an awful backstory for Darth Vader and they should have done anything else.

[NovenFromTheSun]

On second though (<.< >.>), at first I wanted to downplay Padme's royalty/nobility, but I actually think it can be put to use. Both sheltered and yet expected to have the answer to complex national problems, she'd propay grow up with some quirks that would make the weirdness of her and Anakin's romance not be all on his part.

[Gnoman]

Honestly, the overall plot of the prequels was fine. It was the execution that was bungled.

The fatal flaw in the first movie, which is directly responsible for the primary flaws in the second, is a lack of focus. Star Wars means different things to everybody, and Lucas tried to cram all those things into one film. Grandmaster political maneuvering? Action-packed piloting sequence? Flashy lightsaber duels? Philosophical musing on the nature of the Force? Check, check, check, check. None of the elements were handled well, and drastically scaling back or eliminating even one element to allow the others more breathing room would have made the film a lot better.

Push Palpatine's scheming more into the background and make it a simple assassination attempt by Darth Maul so you can focus on the Sith angle. Cut Maul out completely and leave the lightsabers for one or two brief scenes (much like the original movie - the lightsabers are powered on more in the prologue of TPM than the entirety of ANH), focusing on Palpatine's grand plan and Anakin's supernatural piloting skills. Eliminate the podrace and the fighter sequence completely, have Qui-Gon just buy Anakin in the first place so you can focus on the politicking and the Jedi-ing. ANy of those choices would have made a better film and allowed Episode II to be built on a stable foundation instead of the shifty sands that they had to work with.

[Peelee]

An emotional connection to the characters.

Any of them.

[Dark Knight Renee]

What would have made the Star Wars prequel trilogy better?

TPM: My main complaints are "Jar Jar", "midi-chlorians", and "Neimoidians" (mostly because they set a precedent for utterly stupid villains throughout later prequel media; if they'd been a one-off, I don't think I'd care). Otherwise I actually loved this movie, and have no specific ideas for improvement.

AotC: Ugh. Lets see... a complete rework or removal of all things C3PO, better writing for Anakin and Padmé's dialog, and toning down the colorful special effects would vastly improve this movie in my eyes, while actually changing very little. That said... the movie had a lot more wrong with it, much of which was probably at least partially to blame for the utter crap that infested the Clone Wars media that followed. In fact, the only good thing I can say about AotC is that it's the only Star Wars movie so far with a novelization that's actually true to the movie.

RotS: While this seems to be regarded as the best of the prequel trilogy by many, there's a lot I don't like about it - and those things I hate with a passion. Grievous' goofy portrayal was an atrocity, Anakin being praised for wisdom was an atrocity, NOBODY noticing that Anakin was falling to the dark side was an atrocity, Padmé being an utterly weak character was an atrocity, Padmé dying of "a broken heart" was an atrocity. I do not have solutions for any of this, having done a whole heck of a lot of not thinking about it. But aside from all of those things, I would have preferred a movie whose entire plot didn't require obliviousness and stupidity on the part of ALL of the major characters.

The Clone Wars cartoon: RIP Star Wars. I'll stop ranting now.

[Emperor Ing]

Step One: Create emotional and well-rounded characters we can sympathize with, or despise if needed. Even Jar-Jar would've worked if he was a three-dimensional character. Other than that, don't be afraid to say less is more. We don't need to know C-3PO or R2-D2's origins or even see them if they don't add anything.

Step Two: "There are heroes on both sides." Part of the exposition crawl in Episode 3...well, they outright lied to us. Nobody wasn't in the Confederacy that wasn't either frothing-at-the-mouths evil, carried a red lightsaber, or some combination of the two. In my opinion, this would've been very cool if the Confederacy and the Republic were both good guys, make the Clone Wars a White vs White conflict with even the Jedi torn on who to support. The Republic fights for justice and equality and the Confederacy fights for freedom and liberty.

Although the two were in conflict for good enough reasons, they may find new trade or tax laws to be unfair and draconian, so what began as protests and boycotts escalated into open conflict as all attempts of diplomacy were sabotaged by the Sith.

Step Three: Writing. The prequel trilogy was...quite poorly written. It's as if nobody except ol' Georgie ever read, edited, or proofread the script until shooting started. With good writing, even the political or romantic parts of the movies could have been good. Gripping and intense political thrillers and heartwarming love stories have all been written before.

Step Four: Midi-chlorians. They actually COULD work, but only as a way to quantify the force-sensitivity of people. The idea that midi-chlorians cause the Force or that Jedi can be neutralized by antibiotics is just silly.

Step Five: Fewer Lightsabers. Jedi are supposed to be peaceful, only pulling out their lightsabers as a last resort. None of the Jedi in the prequels hesitated to pull out their lightsabers, and when Obi-Wan expressed to Anakin that his lightsaber is his life, that's...pretty much exactly the opposite of what Yoda told us about the force and Jedi in episode 5. In the original trilogy, the lightsaber only came out when things became serious.

Also, Yoda never uses a lightsaber. It goes against everything he is as a character. If he MUST get into a fight-scene, well, the pilot episode of the Clone Wars animated series (the second, not-as-good one) was very good in demonstrating how to do it. Similarly, Sidious shouldn't have a lightsaber either. You know, how about some Jedi Gunmen? Those are a blast (no pun intended) to play as in KotOR 2.

Just some thoughts I had.

[brionl]

Two simple things. Have somebody other than Lucas do the script, and somebody other than Lucas direct. Just like The Empire Strikes Back.

[Legato Endless]

A sense of mystery and the unknown.

One of the reasons why the world of Star Wars is so iconic is because it's set a universe that has the right mixture of being detailed and vague when it needs to be. It also knows how to allude greater events or ideas, while not spoiling them.

The prequels could have been about nigh anything, and told us some interesting story about the Republic of old. The key though, is if you answer anything to the audience, you set up something else mysterious to haunt at the periphery for the audience to imagine and question themselves. The Prequels don't. There's no mystery here. Nothing mystical or ancient or weird.

We get some prophecy hinting, but nothing at the level of all the various lore the OT throws at the screen. Worse, the prequels do nothing but explain, and frequently these explanations are unnecessary not because the mystery was best preserved, but because the question was too trivial for any but the most ardent fan to actively wonder at. From telling us who build C3PO to the Emperor's silly lightning scarring. Lucas' galaxy 40 years before ANH is too known, too safe, too simple, too stagnant.

Once of the reasons KOTOR is so well loved beyond the plot twist and cast is it delves headfirst into discovering and not completely answering a question about the foundation of the galaxy. Similarly, the Clone Wars did a great job of throwing occasionally episodes that pushed into uncharted territory, but never completely lifted the curtain on them.


And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are.

-JRR Tolkien

[Emmerlaus]

They shouldnt have put the focus on Anakin, first off. I know he is the main character even in the original, as he is the one everyone wanted to see the most but it would have being better to switch the focus of the story on Obiwan Kenoby. And who bring a little kid in a war zone anyway?

Also, They got rid of Darth Maul way too fast. He should have come back with robotic legs at least.

This guy ideas are very good, I suggest you see it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgICnbC2-_Y

[danzibr]

I watched a semi-serious video about Jar Jar Binks being foreshadowed as some master Sith dude or something. I think that would've been a great improvement, like an anti-Yoda.

[Legato Endless]

I dunno. Jar Jar is like the Trade Federation. The racial implications are problematic enough he ought to be ejected and never brought up again even if he weren't hideously annoying.

[McStabbington]

Well, the big things would basically require a complete overhaul of the plot of TPM and AotC. I don't really want to completely rewrite the plot of two movies here, so instead I'll focus on little things that I think could have really improved the prequels. Not all of these are mine; I'll do my best to note them as such when I mention them.

1) The Jedi are not a Monolith.

One of the things I really like about the OT that I think is subtle and kind of missed is that despite the fact that both Ben Kenobi and Yoda are wise old mentors, they are nevertheless completely different in character and bounce off one another constantly. Ben is optimistic and trusts Luke to be the success he never had with Anakin, which fits completely with his brashness and casual confidence. Whenever Yoda raises an objection (Luke lacks patience! Luke is too adventurous!), it's almost always Ben who simply says "Well, so was I. What's your point?" By contrast, Yoda is wise and thoughtful, yes, but he's also a stickler, with a fussy and crusty preference for sticking to the conservative mold. Ben: "Stretch out with your feelings!" Yoda: "If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will!"

In the prequels, however, there's basically Yoda, there's Mace, and there's a collection of not-quite-ready-for-speaking role extras, and nary a degree of disagreement between the lot of them. Even in those moments where there ostensibly is some disagreement, like accepting Anakin into the Jedi Order, it's Yoda who does all the speaking. Which basically tends to convey that whatever Yoda says, the Order falls in line. There's an occasional misfit, like what Qui Gon was supposed to be, but we never actually see disagreement between Qui Gon and Yoda, or see the stakes of that disagreement. It's always tell, not show about this point that the Jedi Order is anything but a monolith.

So one of the things I would suggest is, for lack of a better term, humanizing some of the factions within the Order, and otherwise giving characters, ya know, actual conflict based on their character. Mace should be the most aggressive and militaristic. A healer should be his counterbalance on the Council. There should be an experimenter or tinkerer with the Force who might or might not be on the Council, but is sometimes sought out by adventurous or bold padawans like Ben.

2) Make Qui Gon (and other Jedi) female. The consensus view is that Qui Gon doesn't add anything to the prequels and could be safely deleted. I think that's almost true; he certainly doesn't add anything to the prequels as written (he became the first force ghost. Offscreen. Hooray, George), but I certainly do think that the character could have added some much-needed variety to how Jedi are portrayed. Which would be helped immensely by making the prequels significantly less of a sausage fest.

This one isn't my idea originally, but once it was pointed out to me, I couldn't help but get gobsmacked once I noticed: the Jedi Order is overwhelmingly, ridiculously, stupendously male dominated. There's the one Twi-lek who doesn't speak. There's maybe a few younglings here and there. There's Asoka off in the corner until getting stabbed in Ep. III. And maybe I'm discounting some of the ambiguously-gendered aliens. But otherwise? Jedis are entirely male. I do not remember a single woman on the Council. And look, I get that Lucas is drawing from Kurosawa samurai films, and samurai were men. But realistically, aside from getting young boys to play with toys, there is absolutely no good reason for the Jedi Order to be as male dominated as they are; Anakin and Ben are technically the only people that must be male.

This matters. Representation and having people see people like them doing cool heroic stuff? It really matters, even more so now that I'm hitting parenting age and having to actually plan out how I'm going to introduce my children to media, and can't count on said children just all being male. So let's fix that. Lots more lady Jedi. Most prominently: Qui Gon, you're now a she.

And guess what, I have a perfect actor for you. No seriously, this idea isn't mine, but when it was suggested, the genius of it just blew my mind. Neeson is a perfectly fine actor, and I'm sure he worked really hard at the swordplay, but dude, that just isn't him. So the actress we need? Michelle Yeoh.

No let that sink in for a moment, because I promise the more you think about it, the better it gets. She's bar none the best physical actor for the position, she's got charisma for days, and just imagine how much more crackle those scenes would have had even with Lucas directing if we had Yeoh playing wise mystic with just a dash of flirtatiousness to brash newbie Ewen MacGregor. Like I said, it's not my idea, but by golly, it is just a genius move.

3) Start using the Jedi the way they are meant to be used.

For all that Lucas was drawing from the Westerns and samurai films that inspired him, he sure was bad at taking inspiration in terms of motivation. Quite simply: the analog for Jedi in Westerns are not diplomats. There are no diplomats in Westerns. The analog for Jedi in Westerns are Texas Rangers: the guys who are skilled and disciplined enough to go out into the wilderness, face down Injuns and bears and cold and storms, and bring back the outlaw to stand for his crimes. The analog for Jedi in samurai films are not diplomats. There are no diplomats in samurai films. The analog for Jedi in samurai films are samurai, sometimes ronin, sometimes not.

To put it another way, a full-fledged Jedi really should not be the guy who negotiates a trade agreement, or who serves as general in an army. They're more like 00 Agents from the Bond franchise, that can single-handedly alter the balance of power by attacking laterally and coming at you from unexpected angles rather than just being a boring invincible one man army. The Jedi are what you send in when all normal means of resolving the situation have failed; they might negotiate a peace, but above all, they solve problems and deal with situations that no one else in the Republic can solve.

This doesn't exactly change any one thing about the prequels, but it does radically change how the plot works. The idea that Jedi would be sent to negotiate an end to the blockade by the Trade Federation of Naboo? That makes absolutely no sense: why would you send a warrior monk to negotiate that when what you need is someone who understands the intricacies of the interests and stakes involved in that fight? No, if they went, it should have been as unobtrusive parts of the retinue of a diplomat's entourage, and they would have gone only because something fishy happened, like maybe the noble family of Naboo was recently assassinated with the conspicuous exception of the lone, easily manipulated 14-year old Queen who most certainly was never elected stopdoingthatGeorgemonarchiesdontworklikethatyoudo of. Understanding what the Jedi are is part and parcel of understanding what tools actually exist in your plot tool box. And I think recognizing what Jedi can and cannot be put to good use is a small way to really sharpen and shape your plot, because that one change alone obviates most of the confusion about such things as "Why exactly does the Trade Federation want to . . . do the opposite of trade?" or "What exactly does the Trade Federation get out of siding with Sidious, when most of Sidious' goals seem flatly counterproductive to, really anyone's aims if they get their money through trading?"

Like I said, small changes rather than big plot overhauls. But they have significant implications that I think would significantly improve whatever big changes and overhauls you ultimately come up with, and give the script doctor a lot better arrows in his quiver than whatever Lucas had.

[Clertar]

Lucas turned the cold and disciplined (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DeI3ohVbY) Dark Side that we see in Darth Vader in the OT into ridiculous feeding from rambling anger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUlqDMcS_RE).

And he turned "an ancient religion" into Hogwarts (http://starwars1999.tumblr.com/post/61534887062/midi-chlorians-and-the-harry-pottering-of-star).

This alone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm4JEZudf0c) was better than all three prequel films.

[randyortan39]

ok i agree with you

[Closet_Skeleton]

This thread just reminds me of this article
https://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/hulk-essay-your-ass-tangible-details-and-the-nature-of-criticism/

[Legato Endless]

This thread just reminds me of this article
https://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/hulk-essay-your-ass-tangible-details-and-the-nature-of-criticism/

Is there a too broken, didn't read version of that? Or the rest of Film Critic Hulk's oeuvre?

[Alent]

I think I would rebuild it around the Prophecy, Anakin's father, and a multi-movie war for Naboo.

Scrap the whole "Anakin was conceived by chlorine metafiles" stuff. Anakin's father, I'll just call him Skywalker, was a Jedi gifted in foresight, from another order like the grey jedi. He was tasked with the "prophecy of balance", and spent most of his time meditating on it until he asked to be sent to Tatooine as a liason to the Hutts, citing the world to be the best place to continue his meditations. On Tatooine he sought and married Shmi, and later raised Anakin as both son and apprentice.

The conflict with Naboo comes not due to the trade federation, because that makes no sense, but rather a question of tradition. Naboo recently joined the republic, before that they were in an alliance with the Hutts. When they left that alliance a few years after Skywalker left for Tatooine, the Hutts assassinated most of the monarchy, leaving the infant princess as the only valid heir to the throne. A Regency Council was established to safeguard Naboo's interests, holding it's transition into the republic's prescribed form of representative democracy in limbo until the Crown princess was old enough to become Queen.

With the princess's 11th birthday, the growing separatist movement sends Count Dooku to Naboo in an effort to add Naboo to their ranks by appealing to the regents who wish to maintain their traditional monarchy. In a counter, a group of Jedi diplomats with their padawans are sent to encourage them to hold the course. During the meeting, Head Regent Palpatine provokes Dooku for bringing armed guards, deliberately striking Dooku's "Bodyguard" Darth Maul for emphasis. Maul overreacts in a defensive way, causing one of the Jedi Padawans to intervene against him, starting a fight.

During the fight, they discover most of the guards are Clones, and Dooku orders them to go secure the Princess. Qui-gon grabs Obi-wan and charges off to beat them to the punch. They eventually are forced to retreat, escaping by skimmer to Mos Gungas, an old Hutt port near the capitol in the swampland, where they smuggle themselves and Amidala aboard a freighter bound for Tatooine. (Piloted by a less offensive incarnation of Jar jar)

On Tatooine they meet up with Skywalker to seek council and sanctuary while they wait for the republic. Dooku beats the republic to the chase and Skywalker and Qui-gon leave the princess with Shmi, Anakin, and Obi-wan to go confront them. Maul goes separate of Dooku, resulting in two fights: Skywalker and Qui-gon vs Dooku, and Maul vs Anakin and Obi-wan. The Older Jedi are able to defend against Dooku until the republic arrives, but Maul kills Shmi and severs Anakin's hand before Obi-wan is able to drive off Maul.

In the aftermath, the Jedi head to Coruscant together, with the rim worlds all uniting under the separatist banner because the Jedi "kidnapped" Naboo's Princess. To clear up the confusion, Palpatine heads to Coruscant, where he becomes her legal guardian and becomes Naboo's senator set against the scene of Anakin showing Padme his cool new robot arm. During this rolldown, The republic also orders a clone army to rival the separatists' clone army,

The Clone wars would be instigated by Padme's coming of age ceremony, with the people of Naboo demanding the return of their Queen. Anakin would be on the side of good and devoted to his love, Padme, but clearly suffering anger from his losses that she can't help him with. While the wars rage, Palpatine ascends through the ranks of the senate, finally achieving the highest seat of power by framing the high chancellor and Qui-gon for the intentional kidnapping of Amidala. Much to Palpatine's surprise, Anakin's father helps him prove this and Qui-gon confesses to the crime. Palpatine slowly realizes that Anakin's father is directly affecting his own future visions, but feels that he has concealed the true future from Skywalker such that the Jedi are helping his plans. The episode would end with a temporary peace and Anakin marrying Padme.

Revenge of the Sith would show the breakdown of the final effort of peace. Naboo- at Palpatine's urging- joins the separatists, resulting in Anakin, now Padme's husband and king consort, forced to fight a war he doesn't even believe in against the republic lead by the very man who has mentored him in his duties as royalty. Insult on top of injury, he finds himself fighting alongside Dooku and Maul. (who he still wants to kill) As he fights and kills former friends and allies he slowly falls to the dark side, only to be brutally maimed and disfigured in a final battle against his father. Both skywalkers are retrieved by their allies, and Anakin's father would die happy, ranting to Obi-wan that he's changed destiny itself, that Anakin will be saved.

There's still some work to be done on the idea, but I like the thematic ideas of "Dueling father figures" and Anakin's fall ultimately boiling down to the meddling of both fathers. Skywalker has intentionally worked to create this future from the moment he saw Shmi in a vision, having seen past Palpatine's vision of ruling a galactic empire, to the resolution of Luke leading his father back to the light side in the final battle against Palpatine in RotJ.

Skywalker really should be disheveled by the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, a consequence of how little sleep he's getting as he looks through bad futures where Anakin is lost to the Dark Side forever despite the restoration of balance, leading to his seemingly mad exclamation of pure joy before he dies and his body vanishes to become a force ghost.

There's probably a better way to tell it, but that seems like a solid starting point for fixing the story.

[NovenFromTheSun]

I've lost a lot of momentum for posting these, but I'll finish it.

Episode two ends with Anakin's parents killed, and he goes on a vengeful rampage of conquest throughout Tatooine. Obiwan (who's here now) says he can't support him in this and pulls back his forces. Anakin and his forces end up in a fight where he is terribly injured and needs a life support suit to survive. Near the last scene, we find out that Padme has become pregnant with twins before said battle.

[Bulldog Psion]

Disclaimer: all of this is IMO, and may not be very carefully thought out at that.

1. Cast someone other than Hayden Christiansen (sp.) as Anakin. Guy's probably great in other roles; here, a disaster.

2. Start out Anakin as a young guy rather than a kid. Kids very, very rarely work in movies; the one in TPM sure didn't.

3. Drop Jar Jar and the whole amphibian clan. If they're included anyway, don't play an entire species for supposed comedy.

4. No Midichlorians. Not only is the idea dumb, but the name is a painfully stupid botch of "mitochondrion" to anyone who's ever picked up a biology textbook. Leave the Force as it is. Sure, it makes no scientific sense, but then, neither do "middle chlorine things" or however you'd translate that moronic name.

5. Establish Anakin as a real "dark force user" combat monster, destined to become Darth Vader, by having him WIN the fight that maims him. Have him go berserk with dark power and go through the Jedi Temple slaughtering all the Jedi in battle, but getting wounded over and over and over again in doing so. Have him kill like a hundred of them, but reduced to a chopped-up, roasted husk in the process. It would establish him as a real menace at the same time explaining why he's in such lousy shape.

6. Work at getting a freewheeling sense of fun and adventure and possibilities. Less heavy-jowled procedure and politicking, more ... adventure.

7. Make likable characters and write dialog you can listen to without withering inwardly.

EDIT: and is there any way to ditch the name "Anakin" entirely? It's pretty hard to take some guy whose name is a portmanteau of "Anna" and "Munchkin" seriously.

[Dienekes]

Is there a too broken, didn't read version of that? Or the rest of Film Critic Hulk's oeuvre?

Mostly it's just saying that people get too distracted on the tangible when criticizing film, picking at the obvious parts instead of the underlying problems. One of his examples being Spiderman 3, which everyone recognized was bad, though he says the audience points at the wrong thing. They complain about the dancing douche-bag Peter Parker scene, since it was poorly acted or whatever. However, taken by itself that scene is humorous and actually has an energy to it and MacGuire's comedic timing is pitch perfect. The real problem was that the scene didn't fit the rest of the movie which was solemn, had no energy, and had a disjointed storyline of characters whose motivations didn't drive the plot forward. People however have difficulty explaining these sort of non-tangible but vital parts of storytelling and instead focus on specific things like the appearance of a character or a jarring scene as reasons for why a movie sucked.

Which is interesting criticism to lay on the thread, since a lot of the posts I've seen have said variations of "there was no energy in the romance" and "the acting seemed stilted throughout" which would be in line with the writer's focus on the non-tangible problems of movie-making. While there are also a few things that universally are called upon as being problematic (such as Jar-Jar or midichlorians) that would be considered more tangible criticisms. However, he doesn't deny that sometimes these tangible criticism can be accurate, personally, I would still view the two I listed as being problematic since midichlorians jar with the perception of the Force that was laid out in previous movies taking us out of the space fantasy that the movies are into, instead, pretty bad sci-fi explanations. Meanwhile, Jar-Jar is still bad. Not because he isn't funny, or anything. But because he doesn't fit the rest of the movie, he isn't useful, he has no reason to be in his scenes most of the time, and he constantly detracts from the weight of a sequence, interrupting the pacing to bring some slapstick. And, also, he isn't funny.

[Reddish Mage]

An emotional connection to the characters.

Any of them.

Really, this was the main ingredient. You don't need an elaborate change of the story. You don't need to retread "A New Hope."

Let's start with Jedi being something other than "emotionless celibate monks." Make Padme and Anakin two characters that have actual chemistry (with...you know...anyone...doesn't even have to be each other). Any other characters with...any appealing traits....would be a bonus.

[Murk]

I'm going to disagree with a lot of you here, to keep things fresh, and because I actually thought a lot of the prequels was pretty good.
So, there's that. However, I do agree they have sins and had a wonky execution, so I think some things could improve.

Mostly, it's explanation. For most of the prequels' faults (or viewer complaints), a simple, short explanation would help a lot. They tried to go subtle, and it failed, so, heck, have someone say it out loud, if necessary:

"Falling to the dark side is not a sliding scale. It's called falling for a reason. You can slide towards an edge (which happened to Anaking), but once you fall off, it's not subtle or slow. It's boom - suddenly evil. No going back." Would explain so much. Why don't we accept jedi's who haven't been trained to keep their emotion in check since childhood? Why don't we feel it happening to Anakin? Why are we always overly cautious? That's why!"

"The jedi order is decaying. We used to be diplomats and politicians, and there used to be a lot of us. Now, there's only a few, and against our will we keep on being dragged into wars. We need Anakin. Not because of some silly prophecy, but because we need an enormously strong jedi that can turn things around. It might be a risk (see: falling), but without it the jedi are doomed."

"Force sensitivity was always inheritable. (Psst, we've seen this in the Original trilogy). This means there's something inside your body that helps in feeling the force."


Also, some things could be added, some things could be ditched. It don't particularly dislike Jar Jar - he filled the same no-use, goofy slapstick function C3PO (and, to lesser extent, Chewbacca) did in the Original trilogy. Too much is too much, though. Ditch Jar Jar or ditch the droids. The effect would be the same.
Lastly, I'm not quite sure what Naboo was for. It would seem logical to me to make Padmé be an Alderaanian noble. They have lots of "noble houses", Leia ends up there, it's very important in Republic politics... It would make more sense, I think.
But hey, that's nitpicking.

[danzibr]

EDIT: and is there any way to ditch the name "Anakin" entirely? It's pretty hard to take some guy whose name is a portmanteau of "Anna" and "Munchkin" seriously.
Not really. Anakin is mentioned in the OT.

[Pronounceable]

Anakin is mentioned in the OT.
Speaking of, what things were actually mentioned in old trilogy? I certainly don't remember any silly Force prophecy or Emperor rising up from the senate or a giant ass jedi temple being right in the middle of galactic capital or jedi not being allowed to be people. These sorts of things are important if you're going for fanfiction like this thread is doing. You can ditch all that crap, not just Jarjar or midichlorians.

What I'm saying is, don't think small when fanficcing it up (aka don't get hung up on retconning Jarjar). You'll come up with much better ideas.

[Alent]

Speaking of, what things were actually mentioned in old trilogy? I certainly don't remember any silly Force prophecy or Emperor rising up from the senate or a giant ass jedi temple being right in the middle of galactic capital or jedi not being allowed to be people. These sorts of things are important if you're going for fanfiction like this thread is doing. You can ditch all that crap, not just Jarjar or midichlorians.

What I'm saying is, don't think small when fanficcing it up (aka don't get hung up on retconning Jarjar). You'll come up with much better ideas.

On this note, when were the Sith mentioned? I don't remember them in the OT at all. I see no reason aside from the now not-canon extended universe for them to maintain their old impossible-to-maintain system of treachery and hate and Singleton classes of master and apprentice.

[hamishspence]

On this note, when were the Sith mentioned? I don't remember them in the OT at all.

OT novelizations called Vader a Sith several times. And Illustrated Storybook versions of the movies had "cast pages" that labelled Chewie "Wookiee. He is 200 years old" and Vader "Dark Lord of the Sith".

[The Glyphstone]

EDIT: and is there any way to ditch the name "Anakin" entirely? It's pretty hard to take some guy whose name is a portmanteau of "Anna" and "Munchkin" seriously.

The name makes me think of 'anakim' first, personally. Doubt there's any significance, intentional or otherwise, but I don't think of Anna+Munchkin when I see the name.

[Velaryon]

They shouldnt have put the focus on Anakin, first off. I know he is the main character even in the original, as he is the one everyone wanted to see the most but it would have being better to switch the focus of the story on Obiwan Kenoby. And who bring a little kid in a war zone anyway?

Also, They got rid of Darth Maul way too fast. He should have come back with robotic legs at least.

This guy ideas are very good, I suggest you see it:


I agree with a lot of the ideas in that video, but not all. The main one I dispute is how he wants to get rid of the space battle. Space battle are an important part of Star Wars films, and without that one, we don't have a good one in TPM at all. Instead of having the battle we had though, make them fight their way through the blockade to land on Naboo as a prelude to the battles on the ground. That will scratch the space combat itch while removing the nonsense with young Anakin singlehandedly ending the invasion by accident.


2) Make Qui Gon (and other Jedi) female. The consensus view is that Qui Gon doesn't add anything to the prequels and could be safely deleted. I think that's almost true; he certainly doesn't add anything to the prequels as written (he became the first force ghost. Offscreen. Hooray, George), but I certainly do think that the character could have added some much-needed variety to how Jedi are portrayed. Which would be helped immensely by making the prequels significantly less of a sausage fest.

This one isn't my idea originally, but once it was pointed out to me, I couldn't help but get gobsmacked once I noticed: the Jedi Order is overwhelmingly, ridiculously, stupendously male dominated. There's the one Twi-lek who doesn't speak. There's maybe a few younglings here and there. There's Asoka off in the corner until getting stabbed in Ep. III. And maybe I'm discounting some of the ambiguously-gendered aliens. But otherwise? Jedis are entirely male. I do not remember a single woman on the Council. And look, I get that Lucas is drawing from Kurosawa samurai films, and samurai were men. But realistically, aside from getting young boys to play with toys, there is absolutely no good reason for the Jedi Order to be as male dominated as they are; Anakin and Ben are technically the only people that must be male.

This matters. Representation and having people see people like them doing cool heroic stuff? It really matters, even more so now that I'm hitting parenting age and having to actually plan out how I'm going to introduce my children to media, and can't count on said children just all being male. So let's fix that. Lots more lady Jedi. Most prominently: Qui Gon, you're now a she.

And guess what, I have a perfect actor for you. No seriously, this idea isn't mine, but when it was suggested, the genius of it just blew my mind. Neeson is a perfectly fine actor, and I'm sure he worked really hard at the swordplay, but dude, that just isn't him. So the actress we need? Michelle Yeoh.

No let that sink in for a moment, because I promise the more you think about it, the better it gets. She's bar none the best physical actor for the position, she's got charisma for days, and just imagine how much more crackle those scenes would have had even with Lucas directing if we had Yeoh playing wise mystic with just a dash of flirtatiousness to brash newbie Ewen MacGregor. Like I said, it's not my idea, but by golly, it is just a genius move.

This is an interesting idea, but I don't know if I can get fully behind it. I am absolutely in love with the idea of Michelle Yeoh being a Jedi Master, because that would be eleven kinds of awesome. The mere thought of her and Ray Park lightsaber dueling is enough to make me almost jump on board with this... except that I really loved Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon. Say what you will about the character being unnecessary, but he was the coolest Jedi in the entire prequel trilogy and IMO gave the best acting performance in Episode I. I'd hate to lose that.

What if instead we took Qui-Gon Jinn and made him Yoda's right-hand man on the Jedi Council instead of Mace Windu? Then Michelle Yeoh can be Obi-Wan's master, Samuel L. Jackson can be Mace Windu as the pure badass he should have been instead of the one we got, and we don't have to lose Qui-Gon.



Speaking of, what things were actually mentioned in old trilogy? I certainly don't remember any silly Force prophecy or Emperor rising up from the senate or a giant ass jedi temple being right in the middle of galactic capital or jedi not being allowed to be people. These sorts of things are important if you're going for fanfiction like this thread is doing. You can ditch all that crap, not just Jarjar or midichlorians.

What I'm saying is, don't think small when fanficcing it up (aka don't get hung up on retconning Jarjar). You'll come up with much better ideas.

Palpatine wheeling-and-dealing his way up the ranks while being underestimated by all the other corrupt force in the Republic was part of the plan way back. I don't think it was mentioned in the films themselves, but it was either in the novelization or some very early EU material because it was established very early on. Maybe it was one of those details that was just known, like how the center of the Empire was a planet covered by one giant city. Similarly, Vader being maimed during a fight with Obi-Wan on a volcanic planet was part of the lore going way back, although it wasn't explicitly referenced in the original films.

As far as I know though, the first mention of any prophecy was in The Phantom Menace, and I have no idea when/where the Jedi Temple was first established to be on Coruscant.

[NovenFromTheSun]

Episode the third:

A year after the last movie, Anakin and Padme are adjusting to family life. Luke and Leia are a couple months old, and show signs of force sensitivity. Anakin's actions have put him at odds with the Jedi, some are calling for his expulsion, Obiwan is abstaining from comment. But they recognize his children, and think they should be the ones to train them when they're old enough.

Palpetine, calling Anakin a "loyal supporter", starts telling him about the Sith viewpoint; and Anakin starts struggling with thoughts that this may be what the Galaxy needs to keep order after so much conflict. The Clone Wars rages on, and both sides are reeling. Much longer and the Republic may not be able to function. Anakin wonders if it needs an iron fist to direct it.

(To be continued.)

[Legato Endless]

Which is interesting criticism to lay on the thread, since a lot of the posts I've seen have said variations of "their was no energy in the romance" and "the acting seemed stilted throughout" which would be in line with the writer's focus on the non-tangible problems of movie-making. While there are also a few things that universally are called upon as being problematic (such as Jar-Jar or midichlorians) that would be considered more tangible criticisms. However, he doesn't deny that sometimes these tangible criticism can be accurate, personally, I would still view the two I listed as being problematic since midichlorians jar with the perception of the Force that was laid out in previous movies taking us out of the space fantasy that the movies are into, instead, pretty bad sci-fi explanations.

Thank you kindly for the explanation. And yes, I'd agree. The midichlorians is the most egregious example of what I earlier criticized about how Lucas didn't understand the power of implication versus dumping everywhere in the film. I'd argue that's a perfectly valid structural and thematic critique. Whether that counts as tangible I don't know.

[Reddish Mage]

I'm going to disagree with a lot of you here, to keep things fresh, and because I actually thought a lot of the prequels was pretty good.
So, there's that. However, I do agree they have sins and had a wonky execution, so I think some things could improve.

Mostly, it's explanation. For most of the prequels' faults (or viewer complaints), a simple, short explanation would help a lot. They tried to go subtle, and it failed, so, heck, have someone say it out loud, if necessary:

"Falling to the dark side is not a sliding scale. It's called falling for a reason. You can slide towards an edge (which happened to Anaking), but once you fall off, it's not subtle or slow. It's boom - suddenly evil. No going back." Would explain so much. Why don't we accept jedi's who haven't been trained to keep their emotion in check since childhood? Why don't we feel it happening to Anakin? Why are we always overly cautious? That's why!"

"The jedi order is decaying. We used to be diplomats and politicians, and there used to be a lot of us. Now, there's only a few, and against our will we keep on being dragged into wars. We need Anakin. Not because of some silly prophecy, but because we need an enormously strong jedi that can turn things around. It might be a risk (see: falling), but without it the jedi are doomed."

"Force sensitivity was always inheritable. (Psst, we've seen this in the Original trilogy). This means there's something inside your body that helps in feeling the force."

Those explanations, stated or unstated, don't do anything for me. What is needed is not more wordy explanations but stories that actually tie the prequels to the OT.

The bit about Anakin being the practical savior of the decaying Jedi Order is inconsistent with the movies as well. The Jedi being concerned about their own order falling into decay wouldn't be just an explanation but a plot point.

If you start fiddling with plot points and not just some additional dialogue, however, you start to get into the same rewriting territory the rest of us are in.



Also, some things could be added, some things could be ditched. It don't particularly dislike Jar Jar - he filled the same no-use, goofy slapstick function C3PO (and, to lesser extent, Chewbacca) did in the Original trilogy. Too much is too much, though. Ditch Jar Jar or ditch the droids. The effect would be the same.
Lastly, I'm not quite sure what Naboo was for. It would seem logical to me to make Padmé be an Alderaanian noble. They have lots of "noble houses", Leia ends up there, it's very important in Republic politics... It would make more sense, I think.
But hey, that's nitpicking.

First, let me welcome you to the club. Second, Jar Jar and "the droids" served substantial roles in the plot and reducing or removing their banter changes the movies for good or ill (mostly for the better in Jar Jar's case). Jar Jar Binks is the first character we are introduced to in Episode 1 and is the only character that doesn't have a stiff, dour demeanor the entire first half of the introduction. He doesn't just serve as audience relief, but he's also taking the audience perspective once we get going, giving the outsider perspective of what's going on, that audience don't connect with Jar Jar is a missed opportunity that another Naboo-pedestrian caught up in the movie could have provided to drawing us in to a world filled with strange Jedi and wonderous nobility which the OT only hints at.

Finally, "Naboo is Alderaan" thing is the sort of fan substitution that been around since Episode 1 was released to polite coughs and louder jeers. However, criticizing Lucas for introducing a new planet we had no previous connection to isn't so much a nit as it is a symptom of his greater problem. The prequels do not tie in with the OT: the universe doesn't feel the same, nor do the characters fit, nor do all these explanations tie in with the OT's explanations for the same events and phenoms.

Naboo is a totally unnecessary new element in prequels, which, by their nature of being prequels, is meant to tie to the OT. It's place in the prequels, as both the first planet we are introduced to and the flashpoint of conflict, means it is precisely the place where the connection from past to future could have been made and an emotional connection made right off the bat.

This could have been the story of the doomed planet of Alderaan and how the nobility of this planet shaped the galaxy for good and ill. A story of intrigue, espionage, and large-scale conflicts that filled the lives of a generation fated to be the last of the Republic. Instead, we get a planet that, like Binks, no one really misses after it fades to the background in Episodes 2 and 3.

To add insult to injury, the prequels constantly bring us back to Tatooine, which we know of as a backwater planet that has no place in the Republic or the Empire, and is ultimately interchangeable with any other planet in ways Alderaan is not.

[Gwynfrid]

What could have been done better is this: Don't do the prequel trilogy at all.

The original sin of the prequels goes beyond its severely botched execution. The problem is this: We know the end already. Not only do we know it's about Anakin turning into Vader, but we also know the Empire will rise as a result, and we know exactly who is going to survive: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Luke, and Leia. In that context, it's extremely hard to take any interest in the new characters - we already know they aren't going to make it, and they aren't going to be able to alter the outcome. It's also impossible to get engaged in Anakin's inner struggle, for the same reason. None of the ups and downs of episodes I and II matter, since we know they're just a build-up to the inevitable disaster in episode III.

In other words - the whole original trilogy is a complete spoiler for the prequels. So, surprise, they're spoiled, irredeemably. Lucas could have hired the world's best scriptwriters and actors, ditched all the horrible dialog, removed pointless characters, avoided the worst plot holes and bad world building... The prequels would still have failed.

A possible way to skirt the fundamental problem is to follow the Titanic example: Everybody knows the ships sinks at the end. So, the movie takes something else - the characters' struggle for survival and their love story - and makes it the main plot. The ship is just the backdrop to that story. In the prequels, it could have been possible to do something similar: The catastrophe of the Empire's rise is the backdrop, and something else is the actual story. The difficulty, of course, is how that story and its characters fail to impact the original trilogy's storyline. Actual story writers might be able to pull that off, but I'm not one of them. So, I'll stick to my conclusion: Just ditch the prequels, do something else (more sequels?) instead.

[Rogar Demonblud]

"Falling to the dark side is not a sliding scale. It's called falling for a reason. You can slide towards an edge (which happened to Anakin), but once you fall off, it's not subtle or slow. It's boom - suddenly evil. No going back."

Good point. Actually, probably the best 'going Dark Side' scene I've watched was the one with Mila Kunis' character in Oz the Great and Powerful.

[Legato Endless]

The original sin of the prequels goes beyond its severely botched execution. The problem is this: We know the end already. Not only do we know it's about Anakin turning into Vader, but we also know the Empire will rise as a result, and we know exactly who is going to survive: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Luke, and Leia. In that context, it's extremely hard to take any interest in the new characters - we already know they aren't going to make it, and they aren't going to be able to alter the outcome. It's also impossible to get engaged in Anakin's inner struggle, for the same reason.

Everyone knows what's going to happen in Romeo and Juliet. The opening dialogue spells it out for the audience. That hasn't stopped people from being invested in the story. Knowing what happens isn't really the investment killer you're making it out to be. A lot of tragedies effectively take the route of exploring a known end and still maintain interest in how we got there. Yes, some more timorous viewers shy away, but that isn't the only general reaction.

There's a lot more to drama than being surprised by an outcome.


None of the ups and downs of episodes I and II matter, since we know they're just a build-up to the inevitable disaster in episode III.

That's a structural issue with the narrative. Not an inherent failing of the premise.

[McStabbington]

This is an interesting idea, but I don't know if I can get fully behind it. I am absolutely in love with the idea of Michelle Yeoh being a Jedi Master, because that would be eleven kinds of awesome. The mere thought of her and Ray Park lightsaber dueling is enough to make me almost jump on board with this... except that I really loved Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon. Say what you will about the character being unnecessary, but he was the coolest Jedi in the entire prequel trilogy and IMO gave the best acting performance in Episode I. I'd hate to lose that.

What if instead we took Qui-Gon Jinn and made him Yoda's right-hand man on the Jedi Council instead of Mace Windu? Then Michelle Yeoh can be Obi-Wan's master, Samuel L. Jackson can be Mace Windu as the pure badass he should have been instead of the one we got, and we don't have to lose Qui-Gon.



Fair enough, and I like the idea of giving him the role of acolyte to Yoda's professor emeritus. Not only does it play into the idea of giving the Jedi factions and depth, but it gives us the chance to have Neeson and Jackson bounce off each other rather than having Jackson bounce off a tennis ball while an extra reads lines offscreen. And it allows us to build up tensions and relationships down the road: rather than Yoda, it's Qui-Gon that comes in and saves Obi-Wan and Anakin from Dooku/Tyrannus.

[lurkmeister]

The original trilogy was, ultimately, a story about redemption -- the redemption of Darth Vader.

Then if the OT was about his redemption then the prequels must necessarily be about his fall. This unites one vast saga with Anakin > Vader as the central arc. But that said, there are a couple of meta elements the prequels would also have to satisfy to a, well, satisfying extension of the OT:

1) In the OT, Vader is an important character but never the protagonist. At a certain level, the way you can interpret what the storytelling ought to be is: Vader is the myth arc that is best seen in his interactions with others (who are the viewpoint characters).

2) The prequels must satisfy all the information about the Clone Wars given in the OT. That amounts to:

-Leia's (adoptive) father fought with Kenobi during the Clone Wars
-Kenobi had the rank of General
-Kenobi knew Anakin as a hotshot pilot
-Anakin was a Jedi (this is not outright stated but is heavily implied, seeing as Kenobi has Anakin's lightsaber)
-Anakin was a father
-Yoda was an important member of the old Jedi Order
-etc.

Failing to do so leads to internal inconsistencies or contradictions.

3) The prequels also need to tie up A New Hope's loose strings:

-How did Luke end up in Owen and Beru's custody, anyway? What's the backstory there?
-How did Leia end up on Alderaan?
-Why does Leia have the styling "princess"?
-What were the Clone Wars and how did they bring about the downfall of the Jedi Order and rise of the Empire?
-How did Palpatine become Emperor?
-How did the Sith come to control everything?

Based on this information, we can already begin to populate the prequel tale with five main characters:

(1) Obi-Wan Kenobi
(2) Anakin Skywalker
(3) Owen Lars
(4) Prince (Bail) Organa
(5) Anakin's love interest

We can also determine that:

-Anakin must be the Lancer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLancer) (this satisfies his having an important role but keeps the protagonist spotlight elsewhere)
-Anakin's love interest and Bail must be close in some way for Leia to end up in his care. This can perhaps be as siblings or perhaps be as a secondary love interest, thereby setting up a love triangle and the instability that comes with that
-Owen was actively involved in the Clone Wars (this explains his reticence to let Luke leave -- he's a shell-shocked veteran)
-Obi-Wan and Bail both had leadership roles (implied by Leia's communiqué -- in a register as if from one leader to another)

Based on this, I would populate like so:

Obi-Wan is the Leader and therefore the prequel's natural protagonist
Anakin is the Lancer, his best friend and foil
Bail is the Smart Guy and the group's ultimate intellectual mastermind
Owen is the Big Guy
Love Interest is the Chick; Anakin and Bail both have eyes for her

Hmm now that we have an idea of who we're supposed to be follow, what is the setting's structure? What are the machinations? What worlds do we need to establish a connection to?

[Wardog]

the lone, easily manipulated 14-year old Queen who most certainly was never elected stopdoingthatGeorgemonarchiesdontworklikethatyoudo of.

That bugged me when I first saw the movie (and as someone else somewhere said: you get child monarchs, and you get elected monarchs, but you don't get elected child monarchs).

But I have just realised one way it could happen:

Elected monarchs aren't democratically elected - they're ellected by the nobles. And in relatively a peaceful, civilized society, they tend to elect a monarch that they think will either be easy to manipulate, or will be too weak to stop them doing their own thing. (In more "barbaric" and warlike societies, the nobles would elect the monarch they think would make the best war leader to repel invaders/bring in more plunder).

So we could have a setup where Naboo is riven with political intreague and rival noble factions (presumably with the republic, Separatists, and Sith all trying to involve themselves). The queen would have been elected under the assumption she would just smile and wave and rubber-stamp the decisions of the nobles - but she turns out not to be the passive figurehead they wanted and is trying to involve herself in politics, and ultimately drags the Jedi into the mix.

The only problem with that, though, is I don't see any reason for either Anakin or his love interest to start the film as children. (I must have been about 5 when I first saw Star Wars, and there were lots of other childrens/family films and stories I watched as a kid that didn't have child protagonists. Characters don't need to be children to appeal to children).

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

What could have been done better is this: Don't do the prequel trilogy at all.

The original sin of the prequels goes beyond its severely botched execution. The problem is this: We know the end already. Not only do we know it's about Anakin turning into Vader, but we also know the Empire will rise as a result, and we know exactly who is going to survive: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Luke, and Leia. In that context, it's extremely hard to take any interest in the new characters - we already know they aren't going to make it, and they aren't going to be able to alter the outcome. It's also impossible to get engaged in Anakin's inner struggle, for the same reason. None of the ups and downs of episodes I and II matter, since we know they're just a build-up to the inevitable disaster in episode III.

In other words - the whole original trilogy is a complete spoiler for the prequels. So, surprise, they're spoiled, irredeemably. Lucas could have hired the world's best scriptwriters and actors, ditched all the horrible dialog, removed pointless characters, avoided the worst plot holes and bad world building... The prequels would still have failed.

A possible way to skirt the fundamental problem is to follow the Titanic example: Everybody knows the ships sinks at the end. So, the movie takes something else - the characters' struggle for survival and their love story - and makes it the main plot. The ship is just the backdrop to that story. In the prequels, it could have been possible to do something similar: The catastrophe of the Empire's rise is the backdrop, and something else is the actual story. The difficulty, of course, is how that story and its characters fail to impact the original trilogy's storyline. Actual story writers might be able to pull that off, but I'm not one of them. So, I'll stick to my conclusion: Just ditch the prequels, do something else (more sequels?) instead.

We need there to be a mystery and characters to care about...

so going back to 'see more jedi' and have more woman... how about we not be sure at the end of ep I who luke and laia's mom is...

intro a mostly human slightly alien jedi who is a contemporary of obiwan and just made knight a few weeks ago (remember obiwan makes it at the end of 1), she is a flirtashis thing, and jokes about how there is no rule against having relationship, as long as you don't take them seriuesly... and she and TEENAGED anikin hit it off.

intro the queen/senator

intro that diner of dex's early, maybe have Obiwan, and his friends including the woman above, meet and have food there like once a month... the waitress is a cute slightly force sensitive but never trained woman who flirts with anikin.

then in ep 2 you double down on this and intro a very young girl who he saves early in the movie and becomes obsessed with him...

[Pronounceable]

How I Met Your Mother in SPACE
As amusing as it sounds, I doubt it's a good idea for a prequel trilogy. Of course, that'd have been a lot better than what we actually got.

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

As amusing as it sounds, I doubt it's a good idea for a prequel trilogy. Of course, that'd have been a lot better than what we actually got.

well I'm not a screen writer... I'm a night security guard and sometimes bartender... so I'm sure any idea I pitch would need to be gone over by real writters. However unlike HIMyM I would say my idea would only serve to introduce characters that we care about and expand the moment of Anikin's fall... as I said above giving Obiwan contemporaries that then die (some do to order 66, and some at vader's hand) would make the fall seem more real to us...

[Legato Endless]

That bugged me when I first saw the movie (and as someone else somewhere said: you get child monarchs, and you get elected monarchs, but you don't get elected child monarchs).

I think what makes it so unpalatable is the tonal dissonance of the portrayal makes it snark bait. An adolescent freely elected autocrat is politically weird and kind of absurd. There are stranger political models in history, but they happened in complex circumstances within a different cultural context. But Star Wars is based on being immediately recognizable to a modern person. So the Queen doesn't fit the simplistic princesses and knights and FREEDOM! political narrative we expect in Star Wars.

You can play this a few ways. Own that this is weird like giant worms that make their home in asteroids and eat ships. Then everyone nods this is Star Wars so it has a princess just go with it. Or, like you previously mentioned, deconstruct what the hell this means. This let's us understand why this happened and it actually gives Amidala an arc in Episode 1.

But Lucas doesn'tbother. He wants you to take this seriously and not have to explain it. You're just supposed to accept that the Naboo is great and handing vast executive power to a 12 year old is great and not part of the problems plaguing galactic government. It's the point where Star Wars starts looking like a parody of Star Trek.

There's no sense of play or fun with it. It's treated deadly earnest. So much so, Amidala gets long speeches that sound like something Captain Picard would say in a crappy episode of early TNG. And the audience cam sense it. They know on some level the writer intends his political tract to be more than the grist to get on with the fun stuff.

But his grim tract starts with an oxymoronic spokesperson. And if you don't walk people through that, of course they'll laugh at your presumption.

[Talakeal]

Qui-gon's ghost hanging around for episodes two and three and Natalie Portman in a golden bikini :smallbiggrin:

[Wardog]

But Lucas doesn'tbother. He wants you to take this seriously and not have to explain it. You're just supposed to accept that the Naboo is great and handing vast executive power to a 12 year old is great and not part of the problems plaguing galactic government. It's the point where Star Wars starts looking like a parody of Star Trek.


Speaking of which - one of the other problems with the Prequals (a setting problem, rather than specifically a film problem, although it contributed to making them bad films) was that Lucas didn't seem to realise what actually was wrong with the Republic.

"The Republic being flawed and failing" has been part of the background ever since the original A New Hope Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker novelization. But based on the way it is presented in the films, it seems that Lucas thinks the only thing wrong with it was that some bad guys (the Separatists) didn't play along, and a Sith was undermining it. (And that the Jedi were fine, apart from Anakin not following the rules, and being manipulated by a Sith).

When what the films actually show is that the entire way the Republic and the Jedi are organised and the principles on which they run are fundamentally flawed, and contributed to their downfalls. Which makes all the political discussion (Padme: We have to save the Republic! It's wonderful! Anakin: Well, I think a dictatorship would be better") just seem naiive. (Although the attricious dialogue didn't help either).

[Yora]

There is one moment where she wonders if they are really on the right side of the war. But I think it lasts for only 5 seconds and is then never mentioned again.

[zimmerwald1915]

-Anakin was a Jedi (this is not outright stated but is heavily implied, seeing as Kenobi has Anakin's lightsaber)
Hmm? Obi-Wan has a line in A New Hope that goes "I was once a Jedi knight the same as your father." Seems pretty outright stated.

[Peelee]

Hmm? Obi-Wan has a line in A New Hope that goes "I was once a Jedi knight the same as your father." Seems pretty outright stated.

Also, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." Luke seems to know for sure.

[Bulldog Psion]

Yes, the "12 year old elected queen" bit is really an oddity, and as noted above, the seriousness it's treated with just makes it stand out as even more bizarre.

There are two ways they could have gone with that, IMO, off the top of my head, that would have worked out a lot better:

She is a hereditary autocrat and the fact that she's 12 years old but still wields an unfortunately large amount of power is part of the reason Naboo goes down. Then, having seen the suffering caused by tyranny, she becomes a fanatical Republic fan/freedom fighter, retaining the title simply to maintain Naboo loyalties.

She's the member of a former ruling aristocracy that still has titles and some influence, but is now part of a planetary republic. So she starts off her political life as Senator Princess Amidala, not Queen Amidala.

[Ashen Lilies]

Replace the plot of the prequels with the rough plot of Darths and Droids.

...

What?

[Wardog]

There were a lot of problems with TPM (and the other prequals) that I didn't notice or work out until some time after watching.

But there was one thing that was pretty obvious even as I was watching it, and driven home when I was watching TFA a few hours ago:


The battles in TPM really don't feels significant. There is little sense of real peril. No significant destruction. No menace (ironically enough).

Just a couple of minutes into ANH, we see soldiers, nervously preparing to face an obviously superior enemy. And then getting slaughtered. There, and later when Luke's home is attacked, and in other cases, we see dead bodies. We see the dirt and destruction and consequences of war. We see why people would be genuinely afraid of the enemy.

TPM instead opens with two boringly invincible heroes battling though useless robots. Everything is always incredibly clean and tidy. Naboo is conquered (and then liberated) with no apparent damage, and only a handful of casulties (who all die cleanly and unmourned). (Ok, we are told by one of the Naboo politicians, in a message to Coruscant, that there were loads of casulties, but there was no evidence for this, and I'm still not sure if this was meant to be true, or just propaganda).

Compare these images:
The aftermath of a Stormtrooper attack on Luke's home:
http://www.orangenomad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/sw-torched-homestead.png
http://images-cdn.moviepilot.com/image/upload/c_fill,h_341,w_800/t_mp_quality/89a974435b8d4c029dfb79f8cca67f80-star-wars-canon-everything-we-know-about-luke-skywalker-jpeg-195091.jpg

The aftermath of the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo:
http://s1.dmcdn.net/ICemN/x360-ehg.jpg

First Order Stormtroopers attack a settlement near the start of TFA:
http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/92877/_1446826032.jpg

The first and last examples clearly show that:
a) the bad guys are really dangerous, and really nasty, and
b) the characters in the film know this.

The middle image, well, out of context, it could just as well be the Naboo Veterans' Day parade. And for all the worrying and appeals to the Senate and Jedi for aid, there was little indication that anyone really, vicerally, cared about what was going on.

[Cpt.Maikaptin]

Phantom Menace:
1: Jar Jar, use the original concept. A bounty hunter that ends up betraying Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
2 Remove the immaculate conception. Have Anakins father be long dead instead if you want Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon as a surrogate father figure.
3: How long have Gungans and Humans lived side by side as the only seperate governments on an individual planet? How about they don't automatically hate each other.
4: Make Anakin older, like 16 or 18, and have him as having won freedom for himself and his mother, if you REALLY need the slavery backstory.
5: Any other reason for the pod race. I liked the scene but no way would a Jedi gamble somebodys freedom no matter the odds.
6: A trade embargo? Thats the driving force *snicker* behind the plot? How about someone kidnaps the queens sister or friend or third cousin twice removed, and theres evidence of a connection to not only the Sith but an extremist faction that wants to "get rid of the evils of republic bureaucracy."
7: C3PO and R2-D2 should not be in this trilogy at all so ignore their existence at least till the third film.
8: Midichorians are not the force, but a microorganism that has a symbiotic relationship with force sensitive being.
7: Have Anakin start training as soon as it is realised that the force is strong in him, without dealing with the Jedi Council.
8: Introduce cloned individuals and have the Republic discuss the possibility of, if not start, using them to build an interplanetary police force and army.

Attack of the Clones:
1: Shorten the gap between the two films to three years at most.
2: Have Padme haveing a public relationship with Anakin rather than it being secret and stressful.
3: The extremist I mentioned earlier, lets call them the First Order for now, manage ti annex a core planet as well as several outer rim planets sparking an all out war
4: Chancellor Palpatine, have him protest the involvement of the Jedi Order in the war, on the grounds that they will make it a religious war.
5: Qui-Gon is killed by Count Dooku in this one.
6: Show that the cloning process is far from perfect.
7: Anakins fall starts after seeing one of the Jedi Knights that showed him purpose killed by a man they once thought of as an ally and friend.
9: Make the droids a true hive mind, with som live people in control rooms monitoring them. This would eliminate those annoying voices make them at least slightly threatening.
10:The movie ends with Anakin officially becoming a Jedi Knight and/or the wedding of him and Padme.
11: Jango Fett dies SAVING Anakin from Count Dooku after the former losses his hand, and Qui-Gon is killed.
12: Boba Fett at the age of 12 or around there sees his father die by the hand of someone he thought was a Jedi Knight.

Revenge of the Sith:
1: Padme and Anakin are happily publicly married and planning on starting a family as soon as the war ends.
2: The war has been going on for a few years and by now Anakin has regular nightmares about the friends he's seen die right before his eyes.
3: The First Order is preparing a final assault and Padme and Anakin decide to go ahead and have a family now, as they may not get the chance later.
4: Anakin and Obi-Wan have become advisors to Palpatine by now, but Palpatine only trust Anakin truly.
5: Bounty hunter Jar Jar dies fighting Obi-Wan
6: Count Dooku " kidnaps" Palpatine halfway through the film and is killed by Anakin accidentally rather then on purpose.
7: Padme discovers she is pregnant and has (an equalivlent of) cancer, she keeps the second bit of info from her loving husband.
8: Palpatine uses the death of Dooku and Padmes pregnancy to manipulate Anakin into accepting a darker path to peace.
9: Anakin discovers that Padme is keeping her terminal illness from her and injures her by accident in the fight.
10: The First Order " dissolves" after secretly allying with Palpatine.
11: Anakin is tricked into thinking that the Jedi Order was behind the entire Clone Wars in order to gain political power.
12: Anakin kills the Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters at the temple but leaves the children and Padawans alive.
13: Palpatine tells Anakin that Padme is dead but the child managed to survive before he fights Obi-Wan.
14: Anakin does not speak during his fight with Obi-Wan and fights noticeably more aggressively then the rest of the film.
15: Mace Windu dies saving Yoda from Palpatine.

[Bulldog Psion]

Qui-gon's ghost hanging around for episodes two and three and Natalie Portman in a golden bikini :smallbiggrin:

Not sure how I missed this the first time through, but I like your thinking. :smallbiggrin:

[Yora]

Replace the plot of the prequels with the rough plot of Darths and Droids.

...

What?

It would have been better.

[danzibr]

Qui-gon's ghost hanging around for episodes two and three and Natalie Portman in a golden bikini :smallbiggrin:

Not sure how I missed this the first time through, but I like your thinking. :smallbiggrin:
I think that certainly would be an improvement.