Plot help needed for big story--plot and characters.

What's up!

Thanks for coming in, I'm having a bit of trouble in coming up with some plot points in this story I'm going to be writing very soon. Here's the basic plot that explains it.

Twenty-two years after the final battle with the evil alien-invaders, the Republic and Jedi Order face anew foe that threatens to spark war. With an ambitious and powerful Confederation led by a political master-mind teetering on a war with the Republic, a Senator's Apartment Complex falls victim to a mass explosion that results in the death of several very important supporters of the Republic.

Ben Skywalker has grown into adulthood, and one year removed from passing the Jedi Trials he has become the well-respected and most powerful Jedi Knight in all the galaxy. And when the Republic calls for the aide of the Jedi Order, Ben and his former mentor, an older Jacen Solo, are sent to Coruscant to investigate the assassination.

And deep in the shadows, his presence cloaked by his power in the Force, a patient Sith Lord's plot to bring about anew Sith Empire are going acording to plan, and his time to strike into the heart of the Jedi Order nears.

This story will include action/adventure, romance, epic lightsaber duels, angst and some humor, the sort you have seen in the Star Wars Prequels, as well as epic space-duels, the sort we are hoping to see in Episode III.

Below I have listed several crucial plot points that I need help in, and I would very much appreciate it if anyone who is interested to help me. Thank you.

.A romance between Ben Skywalker and the new Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

.A Sith Lord whose waited in the shadows for five-thousand years, kept alive only because he is so skilled in the use of the dark side.

.A relation between Ben Skywalker and Jace Durron that begins to fall apart and leads to them hating one another.

.Plot movement and scenes.

.The Jedi Order being divided and put against itself, thus forming a Sith Empire under the ruling of this powerful Sith Lord.

.Jace Durron's fall to the dark side and his acts towards the Jedi Order that help in dividing it into two, the Jedi loyal to the will of the Force and the Jedi whose emotions govern them.

.Space-battles and lightsaber duels.

.And help with the political scenes and plots dealing with the Senate and the Republic against the Conferation is desperately needed.

Anyone who is interested, please post your replies concerning your ideas and your thoughts about the story itself. Thanks a lot.

 

.Jace Durron's fall to the dark side and his acts towards the Jedi Order that help in dividing it into two, the Jedi loyal to the will of the Force and the Jedi whose emotions govern them.

Jace. . .

*cough*

Anyway, assuming this is indeed Kyp's son, I would love to see how that would affect him, his own son falling to the dark side. Hm...

Actually, this looks like it could be a pretty cool story. *reads through the other plot points again*


.A romance between Ben Skywalker and the new Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

First, I think you mean Chief of State... you're obviously more of a prequels fan than EU/NJO, hm? But this could be interesting. I don't have any particular ideas with this, though... But, interesting.


.A Sith Lord whose waited in the shadows for five-thousand years, kept alive only because he is so skilled in the use of the dark side.

I have to say, this isn't something I like much. Partly because I'm just generally not a fan of Sith Lords and Force powers and long-dead Jedi being resurrected (though it can sometimes be done well, so maybe you can do that alright), but also cause it reminds me Lord Nyax. Which was also the only thing I didn't like about the Enemy Lines duo.

Still, could be done. Though 'twould be hard with a human, or indeed many of the species we're familiar with. Only so much anti-aging effect the Force can have, ne?


.A relation between Ben Skywalker and Jace Durron that begins to fall apart and leads to them hating one another.

I assume you mean as best friends, or something. You could have some kind of debate, emulating Anakin and Jacen's during the first half of the NJO? Maybe, tied in with Kyp and Luke... Ben and Jace maybe both resentful of their heritage, which draws them together, but then later on causes a rift between them?


.Plot movement and scenes.

Little vague.


.The Jedi Order being divided and put against itself, thus forming a Sith Empire under the ruling of this powerful Sith Lord.

This would be very interesting to do post-NJO, too. Perhaps tie it in with Sekot's view of the Potentium, and the whole Unifying Force idea... some Jedi taking these things to the extreme, thinking, "I can do this, cause there's no dark side anymore, it's all the same."


.Jace Durron's fall to the dark side and his acts towards the Jedi Order that help in dividing it into two, the Jedi loyal to the will of the Force and the Jedi whose emotions govern them.

Like I said, I want to see Kyp's reaction with all this. Maybe that could be part of Jace's fall - he's trying so hard to make people ignore his name (not noticing that they're not thinking about Carida anyway, but about the YV war - i.e., good/decent stuff), and doesn't notice that he's slipping at the same time. Then does - and likes the power that raw emotion can give him?


.Space-battles and lightsaber duels.

Can't help much with these... Well, maybe I could, I don't know. Can't think of anything just now, anyway.


And help with the political scenes and plots dealing with the Senate and the Republic against the Conferation is desperately needed.

Not the Republic anymore, remember - Galactic Alliance.

Hm, I'm not sure I can think of any help with this; I'd start to copy AotC too much.


Wow. I just realised how much of this story is similar to my own original Ben idea, and the Ali story, except that it's set ten years earlier. Heh. I could steal plot points from my own story (which is only in my head; not written) to help you.

Hm, yes, I think this all sounds pretty interesting... I'd love to help out with this, if you want. ^_^ It could be pretty cool.

Of course, I might just be saying that because Jace is saying to me, "OMG KYP'S SON HAS MY NAME." Jace Durron = coolest name ever.

 

Tales from the New Republic has an interesting story about Kyp Durron, his feelings and reactions after the disaster during the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

 

.A romance between Ben Skywalker and the new Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

I'm a huge Ben Skywalker fan and like to see the different avenues his life might take. But I think you mean the Chief of State, though the title may have change when it became the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. So the Sumpreme Chancellor could still be doable. As for their romance. Jacen always seemed to be more of diplomat, then a warrior. He might have been called as an advisor on many occassions and of course as the mentor of Ben, the younger Jedi would have come along. Perhaps before she became Chancellor she was in a lower position, such as a Vice President and she and Ben had exhibited an attraction/friendship but never persued it. Now with the assassination, Ben re4turns and the feelings return sort of thing.


.A Sith Lord whose waited in the shadows for five-thousand years, kept alive only because he is so skilled in the use of the dark side.

I'm a little unclear here. If he had lived for so long, he surely would have tried to usurp Palpatine once he succeeded or confronted Vader. Perhaps he existed during the Sith Wars and instead of participating in the Siths self-destruction he went into a sort of hibernation, meaning to wake at certain time, when he was sure the war between the Jedi had been finished. Something like that, which would explain his long absence.

.A relation between Ben Skywalker and Jace Durron that begins to fall apart and leads to them hating one another.

I don't know how many books or stories this is going to amount to, but if the realtionship breaks off in one book, you really have to show right away that they are good friends. Prehaps Jace (though I would change his name, it's too close to Jacen) is younger and has always looked up to Ben, secretly jealous of the power he holds. Something like that.

.Plot movement and scenes.

.The Jedi Order being divided and put against itself, thus forming a Sith Empire under the ruling of this powerful Sith Lord.

I see this happening only if Luke is out of the picture. If he were alive I don't think it would happen. Something large would have to be the dividing wedge. Perhaps the Sith creating division between them. Showing up at wherever the Council's headquarters are and masking himself as a benevolent old man while poisoning the minds of alot of the younger Jedi, which could also aid in the Ben and Jace.


.Jace Durron's fall to the dark side and his acts towards the Jedi Order that help in dividing it into two, the Jedi loyal to the will of the Force and the Jedi whose emotions govern them.

Again, Jace could be quite taken by this Sith Lord's abilities, in his estimates, Darth Whoeveritsgoingtobe makes him stronger and Ben just doesn't understand.

.Space-battles and lightsaber duels.

I would love to see a huge duel of many Jedi against Jedi. But I think that would be to soon in a one book saga. Again it depends on how long you're planning on fleshing it out. Space battles seem a more galaxy wide trouble result so that would have to deal with the Confederation. I would like to see that seperate from the Sith's plans. He may use it to his advantage, but his plans are to deal with the mastermind behind the Confederation later. The Confederation should make some strikes against the Empire, part of the Federation and the outlying star systems; Tatooine and such.

.And help with the political scenes and plots dealing with the Senate and the Republic against the Conferation is desperately needed.

Force political scenes I would show many of the officials from th e planets voicing their concerns about the Jedi's ability to protect the individual star systems from the Confederate movement. The Confederacy may be a group of systems, both Imperial and Republic in origin, who have grown tired of the way the Federation has been run. Along with Ben and Jacen's investigation this might be a good place to have them give the Jedi's assurance that they will not l

 

Sorry, I haven't read any of the NJO books after Star by Star, so I'm a little foggy when it comes to the Galactic Alliance and stuff.

Well the Sith Lord I'm talking about is a very interesting character(or at least I think so) The basic story behind this villian is that he is five-thousand years old and is kept alive only because of his power of the Force, in other words he is fighting off death itself. The Sith Lord is pure evil, and his greatest weapons are his words and his vial genius when it comes to manipulating others.

And yes, Jace is Kyp's son, and I was sort of thinking that their relation is a very rocky one, with Kyp being a well-respected Jedi on the Council, and his son Jace being a young Jedi Knight who has a very defiant outlook on the entire Jedi Order and how it has been constructed.

Ben and Jace, at the beginning of the story, are the best of the friends and have fought side-by-side in many dire situations and know each other and respect one another.

In secret, Jace is angered by Ben because he is known throughout the galaxy as the most powerful of all the Jedi and also happens to be a Skywalker.

Throughout the story I want to make the relationship between Ben and Jace something that plays a very vital part in everything.

I was thinking about Ben and Jace both being in love with the Chief of State, and a neat little scene I have thought of is Ben and the Chief of State on a balcony finally giving into their love and sharing a very passionate kiss, while Jace watches from another balcony in the shadows, and that is the spark that takes them from being friends having a rough time with one another to enemies that duke it out near the end.

When it comes to the Jedi Order being divided, I was thinking something like the Jedi that have a desire to be powerful leaving the Order while the Jedi that are truly loyal to the Light Side staying where they know they belong.

Jace Durron is going to be a very interesting and heavily discussed and read about character, second only to Ben of course.

When the Jedi Order is dispanded, there is going to be a big battle that puts the forces of the Jedi Order against that of the forming Sith Empire that is constructed much later in the story.

The length of the first episode will be something like a hundred pages or so, and will show how the Galactic Alliance and Confederation wage war while in the shadows of it all this old Sith Lord is carefully and cleverly breaking the Jedi Order into two, and those of the Jedi Order that leave will join his Sith Empire in the end.

The romance between Ben and this political-oriented character is going to be vital to the story and dealt with in a very serious way.

The key to this story is going to be Ben Skywalker as the main character, and his dealing with all that is happening around him and eventually leading to the point where he chooses the path that he will follow to the very end of it all.

The other characters will play vital roles as well, such as Jacen and Jaina, other orginal characters and Luke will be seen on the Jedi Council.

Ultimately with Ben and Jace, I'm trying to recreate the basic foundation of the two good friends being turned against one another and being forced to battle each other, but to do in far different ways then we will see in Episode III with Anakin and Obi-Wan when their relationship breaks.

Anyone who has any idea or any sort of comment towards the story or the characters, I would absolutly appreciate it if you would post a reply and tell me what you have in mind.

I'm open to just about anything.

And also, I need help with names, the one great weak point in my writing is that I can't ever come up with good orginal names...except for Jace Durron of course.

Thanks a lot.

P.S. Anyone interested in seeing what my writing style and stuff is like, please check out the Beyond the Saga forum on page 3, the story titled Ben Skywalker Story is mine, done by Briman, please check it out if your interested.

Thanks again.

 

Or should Ben have a romatic relationship between another Jedi, would that make things better and more complex then if he was in love with somone that is heavily into the political scene?

What do ya think?

 

I'm going to start writing the Prologue on monday, so this is everyone's last chance to have a big impact on the plot and characters.

Seriously, I need ideas and comments from anyone who is at all interested and I would really appreciate it if you posted a reply.

Thanks.