Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

That would have been a good way to keep Star Wars going if only it were to be done as a proper serial instead of pointlessly bringing back the episodic saga, which has a very clear beginning with TPM and a very clear ending with RotJ.

 

Genesis of the Daleks has a very clear beginning and a very clear end, too. Doesn't mean that Revenge of the Cybermen shouldn't have happened afterwards. *shrug*

I'll admit that I'd have much preferred a scenario where the current Episodes I-VI got overtitled with "Serial I" (or "Serial IV", or whatever) with the next film being Episode I (or IV) of a new serial in the... but, hey, whatever. I can appreciate why "EPISODE VII" and bringing back some of the original cast is important from a marketing POV.

 

The danger with that, I feel, is that it's always a big risk when you meddle with audience's expectations. The minute you label it "Episode 10" you're putting huge, huge, huge pressure on the film to be another watershed moment that revives the brand and kickstarts another generation's interest all over again... but if you do that without the promise of a trilogy from the get-go? We're into Star Wars In Name Only territory, and they're immediately up against a wall of nostalgia criticism even before opening night.

 

George Lucas seems to have chosen to kill his original plan of making at least 12 Star Wars movies sometime during the 80s. First he wrapped up RotJ by having Palpatine killed and the Empire defeated, and then he went and structured the prequels in a way that made a circle to be completed by the OT. He may have been lying when he said that the Star Wars films were always planned to be about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, but it's true that the "From the Further Adventures of Luke Skywalker" model hasn't been viable for at least 20 years now.

I can't really imagine any way, apart from bringing Palpatine back and saying the Chosen One prophecy included a footnote, that they can justify the decision to continue the episodic saga. I hope that people's expectations hurt those films instead of helping them, because I'm sure Disney had already blindly decided to make an Episode 7 before they had even sat down to talk about the buyout.

 

Same here. In fact, it's what expected prior to the Disney sale. GL may have said no to an episode vii, but that doesn't mean no to another serial set in the same universe.

 

Could kinda do both. Luke walks off into the sunset and fades away.

The ST turning out to be a glorified copy/paste of the OT is a worry (and that AT-ATs on Tatooine!! story isn't helping) but I'd be surprised if by story's end the galaxy's outlook is anywhere near as cynical as the post-NJO EU.

 

Episode VII is going to end with Luke walking off into the binary sunset and then in Episode IX there'll be a preacher or prophet or something on Tatooine. And Leia, Empress of the New Galactic Empire (she's possessed by Palpatine), will have him assassinated for fomenting dissent.

 

Plagueis returns as Extragalactic Emperor to feast on Skywalker midichlorians.

 

I dunno if you were keeping with the motif of my joke, but if you were I'm confused.

 

"From the Skywalker Adventures"/"Tales of the Skywalker Epoch"

Done.

 

There'll always be kids who aren't.

Still, ideally we get VII-VIII-IX, and then rewrites/makes of I-II-III.

D-Canon > G-Canon.

 

ur prequel remake is wreckin my eu

 

My rewrites/makes wouldn't be very EU friendly. Darth would be a first name (although a false one in Vader's case) and Palpatine would have fought Yoda in ancient times.

 

I thought up of something similar and posted on here quite a while ago about how they could keep on making movies without getting into episode 20 and such things. I said they could separate it into time periods and each time period have three separate trilogies or something similar. Several people gave a pretty valid reason though as to why that might not be such a good idea and that was because it would be too confusing for everyone but the most hardcore fans (people who feel the need to post about star wars on forums like this).

And that is true. There probably would end up being quite a few people pay money to see a movie and be completely lost because they never followed the timeline of the universe.

 

Yeah, I remember (when I was playing about with some rewrites of my own) that I went for a nameless dark side cult, whose members all took totally unique names (Palpatine was, for instance, "Had Abbadon") and that Vader was "Dark Lord of the Sith" by virtue of having pulled a Riddick/Conan as Anakin Skywalker, killing the Sith (a species akin to the Celtic aes sídhe ) King Akira Valor in Episode II and usurping his throne.

The love of his life was of this species, too, but she died. Luke and Leia's mum was fairly unimportant to him. Basically the Elaine to his Lancelot.

 

I was writing EPISODE VII guys. Writing prequel trilogy is so 90s.

 

i hope your right about that

 

"Star Wars Episode XVIII" is gonna look really silly on a crawl / poster. Of course, by that point, the whole series will have probably just degenerated to being officially licensed Disney-owned imagur memes.

 

As nine years of Darth Vader and the Dark Times material have proved, there's no story in Darth Vader hunting down the Jedi. There's just nothing there. The story is done. He's evil, the good guys have been defeated, and now he's consolidating power, which just isn't that interesting. I understand the fanboy desire for a whole movie of Darth Vader stabbing Jedi, but once you get past the surface appeal of the concept, you realize it would be a terrible movie. What is it supposed to be, just two hours of storyless lightsaber duels? There's just no narrative there. There's nothing to see. It's suited for what it is currently, which is endless reiterations of the same Vader-stabs-a-Jedi concept for the purpose of throwaway adventures, but there just isn't the narrative there for a saga entry. A movie dedicated to suited Vader purging Jedi would be a terrible waste of a prequel and it's one of the few good decisions Lucas made to avoid producing one.

 

What I would have liked for the prequels if they renumbered the originals is for IV, V, and VI to be VII, VIII, and IX. TPM is I and stays mostly as is. II and III are new stories that build Anakin into a big hero - basically what the OT was for Luke. AOTC stays mostly as is but is renumbered IV. ROTS is split in two - probably right after Order 66. V deals with Anakin falling to the dark side and make the fateful decision at the end to side with Palpatine over Mace. VI deals with him questioning his decisions and ends with the death of Padme and Anakin seeming to be lost forever. We get a trilogy of trilogies about the Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Anakin Skywalker. I-III are about his rise from slave to Jedi, IV-VI are about his fall to the dark side, and VII-IX are about his redemption by his son.

 

It would be nice to see the contrasts of the ST galaxy vs the EU galaxy. I mean, on the latter, we have a galaxy and a group of heroes that have been in trouble ever since the fall of the Emperor. And on the former I expect the contrary: a period reigned by peace, a restored Jedi Order, maybe a minor crisis here and there... But I expect them to have something in common as well. I like one thing about the lstest EU serires: that the focus is back on Luke and his offspring. I really like the idea of Luke&son fighting together. It´s something I have not seen on the movies and that would be fantastic to see in the ST.

But we can deny that all the enemies, and the battles of the EU have helped the editors to sell books. And for the ST, in order to make the events of the new movies relevant, the period between trilogies must be peaceful, or the events of the ST will be just another galactic crisis for the heroes to solve.

 

In fact, I'd say the EU galaxy would have been better off with Palpatine than with what came after him.

 

I agree.
If they do re-boot the prequels they should simply have them as what was originally concieved in the OT so it links. Have Anakin Skywalker as the great and powerful Jedi whose fall is tragic, rather than as a creepy pyscho who slaps on a helmet. Also actually have his great friendship with Obi-wan shown, so when they finally duel over Lava its tragic and sad and show how "Obi-wan once thought as you do".
There was so much pointless stuff that was not needed in the PT that could easily be thrown out ie Qui-gon discovering Anakin and Anakin being 9yrs old. Killing off Darth Maul way too soon. Battle Droids as the main troops etc.

I always found it ironic that there was actually room for greater story potential within the PT but actually less was told (in favour of CGI showcasing instead) and told badly to boot

 

I agree. It's a classic case of how sometimes it's better the less we know about a villain. They're creepier that way.

I do, though, think something like TFU might have worked, where you saw Darth Vader during his Jedi hunting days, but with him still the movie's villain, and so only one screen periodically like he was during the OT. Basically, a film about the start of the Rebellion, maybe a Jedi survivor that died, anything vaguely along those lines, could possibly have worked. That's why I feel Dark Times has worked much better than the Darth Vader and the... comics, since Dark Times is about Jennir, with Vader just the lurking spectre in the background. A film like that could have worked.

But yeah, STAR WARS: DARTH VADER as a movie...? Meh, amusing first time maybe, but... doubt it'd have much rewatch value the second time.

Now... STAR WARS: MOTHER &*%$ING WINDU that is a single-character movie that I could see working.