Current Events > Here is what the Star Wars prequels should have been

(+) Yeah! (+)

The prequels suck ass, and it's almost entirely the fault of Lucas telling a terrible story. Generally speaking, learning the back story of a villain is a fool's errand to start with, but Lucas fucked it up in every way possible.

There were far better stories to tell here, ones that don't retcon the original trilogy. Lucas' problem (I believe) was that he wasn't interested in blurring the lines between good and evil (more on this in a moment).

There were very few things that needed to be set up for epIV:

• Darth Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker
• Vader turned to the dark side after some sort of falling out with Obi-Wan
• Obi-Wan feels so guilty about this that he has exiled himself in order to watch over Luke

That's basically it. So the question you have to answer is "what happened between Anakin and Obi-Wan that would set Anakin on the dark path?"

This is where Lucas fucked up. He decided that Obi-Wan would be a true Jedi, virtuous and obedient, while Anakin would be weak and full of doubts. He decided that Padme would be the tipping point for Anakin to turn his back on the Jedi order.

Here is what I think would have been FAR more interesting:

Show the Jedi order as zealots. They claim they want to bring "balance" to the force, but what they really want is to wipe out the Sith. They only believe in the light side. Anakin (who we're not going to discover via Midiclorians or whatever) is a young Padawan who strongly believes in this zealotry. Obi-Wan, however, play fast and loose with the dogma of the Jedis, ultimately always doing the "right thing", but not always by the letter of the law. Anakin is resentful of Obi-Wan's lack of total devotion.

Enter Padme, who Anakin is smitten with, but knows he will never be with due to the rules of the Jedi. Obi-Wan, however, starts a romance with Padme, which fosters a jealousy in Anakin that eventually consumes him.

Enter Palpatine, who gets into Anakin's ear about how the Jedi rules are limiting his power and his life, and how the Sith can give him everything he wants. Anakin is torn apart between his devotion to the Jedi and the temptations of the Sith.

In the meantime, Obi-Wan's affair with Padme blinds him to Anakin's turning to the dark side.

The ultimate deal breaker is not just Padme dying, but her dying BECAUSE OF OBI-WAN's actions. THIS is what pushes Obi-Wan to exile, and his guilt causes him to try to redeem Luke.

Fin

Then... Luke is a Kenobi instead of a Skywalker?

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Your vision of Obi Wan was basically Qui Gon.

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16-BITTER posted...

If Anakin is an incel how are Luke and Leia born

Good question. Star Wars wouldn't venture into "Anakin rapes Padme" territory (nor should it)

I'll have to ponder that

I mean....all you really have to do is consolidate the Clone Wars cartoon into 3 movies, while sprinkling in key events from the prequel movies

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One of my personal ones is as follows:

Yoda should never have been an "active on the Council, fighting in the Clone Wars" Jedi Master, or at least not the time of the prequels. Have him be the crazy hermit who doesn't want to get involved, like Jolee Bindo but more light-focused. He still believes in the Jedi, but doesn't agree with what they currently are. At that point, the fall of the Jedi is entirely on the hubris of an arrogant Council and Yoda doesn't come off as a complete failure for being on the Council for hundreds of years and letting it all fall apart around him by virtue of just not being there at the time and not seeing it coming.

Also, don't have Masters use lightsabers. I believe Masters (on both sides) should be beyond lightsabers, instead (if they must) be dueling in greater and more mysterious workings of the Force. Knights use lightsabers and give them up upon becoming a Master.

Like I feel a Master of the Force should be beyond things like "Lightsaber Proficiency Rank 7" and "Telekinesis Rank 7". Sidious used Lightning and it was like a "oh my god what is that I didn't even know the Force could do that" moment. The prequels didn't even introduce or allude to new aspects of the Force, just made the ones we knew about more powerful, or pulled from Star Wars games (like Absorb) things that would apply more to a video game.

Well there was the "prevent people from dying" thing given by Sidious, but ultimately (without allusion in other works) that could just have easily been a manipulative lie.

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CyricZ posted...

One of my personal ones is as follows:

Yoda should never have been an "active on the Council, fighting in the Clone Wars" Jedi Master, or at least not the time of the prequels. Have him be the crazy hermit who doesn't want to get involved, like Jolee Bindo but more light-focused. He still believes in the Jedi, but doesn't agree with what they currently are. At that point, the fall of the Jedi is entirely on the hubris of an arrogant Council and Yoda doesn't come off as a complete failure for being on the Council for hundreds of years and letting it all fall apart around him by virtue of just not being there at the time and not seeing it coming.

Also, don't have Masters use lightsabers. I believe Masters (on both sides) should be beyond lightsabers, instead (if they must) be dueling in greater and more mysterious workings of the Force. Knights use lightsabers and give them up upon becoming a Master.

Like I feel a Master of the Force should be beyond things like "Lightsaber Proficiency Rank 7" and "Telekinesis Rank 7". Sidious used Lightning and it was like a "oh my god what is that I didn't even know the Force could do that" moment. The prequels didn't even introduce or allude to new aspects of the Force, just made the ones we knew about more powerful, or pulled from Star Wars games (like Absorb) things that would apply more to a video game.

Well there was the "prevent people from dying" thing given by Sidious, but ultimately (without allusion in other works) that could just have easily been a manipulative lie.

All good ideas. Not necessarily linked to the prequels, but I've been thinking that in the sequels, the "new jedi" should have done away with lightsabers, or at least focus less on combat. It's no wonder so many jedi end up going to the dark side when they're taught as warriors first and peace monks second.

I saw someone posit that the prequels should have focused less on Anakin, because we know that he becomes Vader. It obviously needs to be part of the story, but the entire trilogy being a setup for just that makes it all a little less interesting because it's only ever in service of that one goal. There's less plot threads and deviances and independent interesting problems because it all has to be linked to making Anakin into Vader.

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Prequels > OT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sequels

Fight me.

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the prequels and ESB are the only star wars movies worth a fuck, all the rest suck ass. the only good star wars stories came from the EU, but even those were few and far between.

SW is a top tier setting with a shit tier canon

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