ST The ST: What Would You Change/Revise?

What would I change? Everything. I'd have either gone with what Lucas came up with, for better or worse, or not made these films at all.

 

And ..... fade to black - THE END

 

It's not that easy. Star Wars is heavily based off of movies of the old(around the 1930's to1960's) with the ST, you'd have to at least stick to this ideal. As we can see with Walt-Lucasfilms and directors of today like Abrams, Rian and so fourth. They don't understand the intentional underlying nature of what made these films timeless. Lucas pulled and used the past to create an intricate and unknowable future.

The script is a large part of why things "work" but the visual communication, stylized dialogue and a childhood essence is what makes it tick.

I think for the ST, the technical works will have to change as much as the more intricate ones like the script.

A change that is small but effective for me, would be for Rey to have a distinguishable personality like how she was going to be originally(or perhaps more). A hot head, technical geek and a passionate person who does have a sense of warmth underneath some of that anger.

And a Skywalker. The reason I say this is because the 3rd trilogy needs to be about the daughter/motherhood. So far, this chance has been missed.

 

The underwater dark side cave could have been a much better scene. Imagine Rey walking toward the mirror. She hears someone whispering as she gets closer, "Good. Good. Let the hate flow through you." As she reaches the mirror, a cloaked figure dressed in black appears. It is Darth Sidious. Suddenly, Rey is attacked by his Sith lightning. She falls to the ground and is in agonizing pain. Rey calls out for help.

Darth Sidious continues to electrocute her when all of a sudden a blue lightsaber strikes him through his chest. Darth Sidious disappears and a hand reaches down to help Rey. She looks up and sees Ben Solo. Rey takes his hand. Then cut to her in the hut Force talking with Kylo. This would at least somewhat explain why Rey suddenly thinks there is light still left in Kylo.

 

Why did it need to be about this?

 

I would change EVERYTHING.
Starting with a new timeline backstory. After the losses from Endor, the Empire goes through an Imperial Civil War and tears itself apart. Because Palpatine designed the Empire to be dependent on him for leadership and legitimacy and designed the Empire system to be full of "survival of the fittest", both to produce useful assets and keep them too busy to overthrow him. Many Imperials defect to the New Republic. Many Moffs, Admirals, and Imperial governors become rogue warlords and fight each other for who gets to be the new Empire as much as fight the Rebels/New Republic. Meanwhile, the Rebels liberate Coruscant and declare themselves the New Republic, and they also participate in the Imperial Civil War, taking in defectors and trying to steer the civil war in their favor. Eventually a few years, a good Imperial (lets call him Gilad Pallaeon) emerges as the "winner" of the Imperial Civil War and establishes a peace with the New Republic, and moves his Empire to the Outer Rim or Unknown Regions or something like that. There may be other smaller Imperial Remnants run by warlords who don't recognize Pallaeon's authority and reside far from the rims.

Mon Mothma becomes Supreme Chancellor and rules well and wisely. The New Republic does not go the way of the Sequels as corrupt and weak. Leia establishes a New Alderaan and becomes a Senator. I'm not sure if I want her to become Chancellor in the next two movies. Han becomes a semi-retired military officer who will probably get reinstated at some point.
Luke goes on to rebuild and reform the Jedi Order successfully. Personally I have him take everything of value from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and move the headquarters to somewhere else. Maybe a space station or New Alderaan or Chandrila or Ossus or Ruusan. Personally I prefer a Academy/Temple/Enclave on Ruusan. Because he feels that the old order was too close to the politics and bureaucracy and corruption of the Republic and Senate, and at the same time, too far away from the common people and too cloistered in temples meditating all day until they get called upon. And enclaves like KOTOR Dantooine get established and spread around the galaxy, decentralizing the Jedi so they won't be so vulnerable like the Old. One way or another, he gets the support he needs for the Jedi to be independent and reliable. His new type of Jedi are more down-to-earth: they reserve robes for formal occasions and instead wear normal practical clothes and are farmers, pilots, doctors, engineers and soldiers who simply happen to be Jedi. They can marry and have families, train multiple apprentices. They go out into the galaxy to gain experience instead of cloistering themselves in a temple and meditating all day.

During the 30+ years after ROTJ, the Republic and Jedi are strong and the Imperial Remnant(s) is also there. And a Dark Side faction shows up too. This faction is made up of Sith who originate from the Dark Side Adepts serving Palpatine in secret as operatives and not exactly apprentices like Vader. After Palpatine's defeat, they gather all their possible Dark Side assets and allies and hide and infiltrate among the various Imperial Remnants including Pellaeon's Empire. Over the decades, they had bide their time and slowly built up an army. They managed to find Korriban/Moraband and gained Dark Side knowledge and power. And/Or they found a Star Forge in the Unknown Regions and used it to built up their secret army and fleet and battle droids. Yes I know I'm ripping off KOTOR and its not terribly impressive since its basically a factory, but this will provide a reason for a war and a revitalized Imperial enemy and Sith that can threaten the galaxy, I think. The Sith discovered it in the Unknown Regions and use it to build their new Sith Empire.

Pallaeon's Imperial Remnant had re-consolidated itself and its been ruled by a Moff Council and a Supreme Sovereign, since the title Emperor died with Palpatine. But the 30-year peace ends because the 30+ year peaceloving leader of Pallaeon's Empire who had maintained peace with the Republic gets overthrown or assassinated by the Imperial warmonger faction who wants war with the Republic. Or there are warmongers in the Republic who want a war with Pellaeon's Empire to destroy it as a threat.
And if the Republic is the one who "throws the first punch", maybe Luke and his New Jedi Order will be conflicted because Jedi are supposed to use their powers for defense and not for attack.
And maybe the peaceloving Pellaeon's Empire faction leader survived his overthrow/assassination and allies with the New Republic to regain control and the peace and we get to see Imperials and Republicans working together soldier-by-soldier and ship-by-ship.
Perhaps the new Sith faction is behind the warmongerer Remnant/Republic/ starting this war so they can gain power and destroy the Republic and Jedi. Perhaps they use the Star Forge to bolster the warmonger faction or conduct a false flag operation to start a war. And thats when Luke's Jedi really take off the robes and we get diverse lightsaber fights between multiple new Jedi and new Sith. And maybe some Republic head of state/admiral wants to take the Star Forge for the Republic, and/or some of Luke's Jedi (expies of Rey or Ben or the Solo Children or Skywalker children or whoever) wants to naively take it for the Jedi and the Light Side but get corrupted.

Meanwhile, Luke devoted his decades to building and leading the New Jedi Order and never married any Mara Jade or had children. Rey may be a prominent student of his. She will be taking some inspiration from Echani Jedi Raskta Lsu. You see, she is Force-Sensitive and she excels at lightsaber combat and all its forms, including saber types. But when it comes to Force abilities, she's quite impotent. She's unable to shield herself from Force mental attacks or attacks like a Force Push. She cannot telekinesis objects like floating rocks. For all her combat skills, a Sith assassin could mask his/her presence and stab her in the back. Rey feels pressured because she knows she is weak when it comes to the Force, in front of her peers. This gnaws at her ego and she trains hard in melee to compensate. But eventually in future movie, she may succeed at grabbing the Force in a moment of despair and desperation (like trying to stop a Sith killing blow on Master Luke), but it will be through the Dark Side.....picture Force Chokes and Lightning and red eyes.

Kylo Ren, I will turn him into simply Ben Solo. I don't plan for him to be Kylo Ren. He becomes a student of Luke and does well in the Force and some in lightsabers. Rey is rather envious of his Force talent and may suspect nepotism on Luke's part. I don't know if that envy will lead to something. But for the time being the two of them play rather well together, each of them compensating for the other's weakness. Rey's lightsaber skill and Ben's skillful use of the Force like a Consular, which includes Battle Meditation.

Now that I've set up the background, here's the idea for the story. Leia and Han visit Luke. Leia as Senator wants to appeal to him and the Jedi to...do something because she senses the Republic is kinda vulnerable and that something is gonna go wrong with Pellaeon's Empire/ Warlords. Luke is apprehensive because he wants the Jedi to not be mired in galactic politics and corruption. That he moved the New Jedi Order away from Coruscant to begin anew. And fears that a war will affect the Jedi negatively. Leia than brings up the Sith may have returned and be behind the Empire / Warlords being up to something. Luke is more receptive now. Rey and Ben will eventually be involved in this war and the Dark Side will tempt them. Maybe Rey will go to the Dark Side to become better than that darn Ben Solo. Maybe Ben will go through a BSOD from the revelation of his grandpa.

 

Because George Lucas has said they were about the grandkids before they tossed out his storylines and we know Rey probably was probably intended as a Solo-Skywalker kid.

 

That's not what I was questioning. Read what I quoted. I was asking about daughter/motherhood.

 

I would change this. tell how Snoke got to Kylo early and started manipulating him. Luke's "wife" sensed it and told him about it. Luke is a good guy and doesn't want to believe it. Wife gets upset and leaves with Luke's family.. Snoke senses this through Kylo and plans the attack, Mom dies, Rey is abandoned on Jakku. Luke goes into a spiral, neglecting his students further.. which is why a "handful" left with Kylo after the massacre. He started to sense it during Kylo's training after all. Luke gives up because Kylo brought "destruction, pain and death and the end of everything I loved" and Yoda is "force lightning" stuff from the FG realm so when Rey and Luke reunite hug.. you believe it..

 

This is more a statement of a dynamic you think would been good.

I was responding to a post that suggested the ST needed to have that dynamic. It's a valid idea. But why did it need to happen?

 

In my opinion, I thought The Force Awakens was Star Wars-lite while The Last Jedi was Star Wars-heavy. I feel like The Force Awakens didn't set up the perimeter well and was like a prologue. This was why Rian's first cut of TLJ was 3 hours plus and many important deleted scenes needed to be cut out.

The Force Awakens should have started it off better and not mess around as being the 'best of Star Wars' kind of movie. If possible. make TLJ deleted scenes canon and possibly we could get a different cut? I will not deny that RJ's writing was beautiful as from hearing from what the deleted scenes contained, it would have opened up the galaxy a lot bigger.

I loved TFA and TLJ for what they are but if they had planned it out better, it would be really great. But, who knows, maybe they got it under control and Episode IX will really tie it up all together really well! Good luck to JJ and co, hope they give us a really satisfying and deserving conclusion to the Skywalker saga.

p.s. I just hope they don't worry about the runtime. We want a great movie, that's all!

 

1. Prioritise character development over set piece SFX sequences. Look at Luke v Vader on Bespin - it is perfect Star Wars, emotionally charged, gripping and fuelled by two characters who we've followed intimately. The sequel trilogy can only dream of creating scenes like that. Really get in to the mindset and concentrate on dialogue and motivation. The Emperor's conversation with Vader in TESB was simple on the face of it, but when you look closer, it's a game of chess between two people who loathe each other.

2. The First Order cannot be as powerful as it is depicted in TLJ, because it undermines the story of Episodes 1-6. They would've been better as the underdog, a terrorist organisation that wants to create chaos in the New Republic to create the conditions for a return of an Empire-style government.

3. Make the villains genuinely intimidating. Snoke was one-dimensional, he had nothing we haven't seen before. They should've added another aspect to his character, like being a strategic genius that allowed the First Order to punch above their weight and making him a genuine military threat to the Republic. Kylo Ren doesn't work at all for me - he's a naive man child who gets beaten by a novice and trolled by Luke. If we're going down the Ben Solo route, make him a competent villain. If we should be sympathetic to him, make him earn it rather than telling us we should be sympathetic.

4. Change up the design! If you want to use X-Wings, do more than changing the paint job - throw some innovation in to them. Stormtroopers? Seriously? The First Order is just the Empire. I'd change the design of the First Order drastically. They'd be more informal and rag-tag, like Saw's rebels in Rogue One. Some of them could use old imperial helmets to give them that flavour, but show some originality!

5. Treat the OT characters with some sensitivity. Luke especially was trashed in TLJ. I would have preferred a cameo from an in-character Luke that could respectfully pass the torch to the new heroes in a satisfying way. They mishandled Luke in the ST because they thought he was too big a character that took the spotlight off Rey. They should've altered their approach entirely if they couldn't think of a better way to handle him.

6. No Starkiller Base/Death Stars. It's lazy writing.

7. Replace 'The Resistance' with the Republic military. The only reason for the distinction was so Lucasfilm could recreate Empire v Rebels where the good guys are the underdogs. That's weak and just borders on plagiarism.

 

Well it depends what you mean by revisions. I have two trains of thought. One would be to keep the general structure/conflict of the trilogy, while making changes here and there. One would be a more substantial overhaul.

"Minor" Revisions
TFA
No Starkiller Base
Phasma is the stormtrooper Finn fights on Takodana. She beats him, but flees when Han and Chewie show up.
No Rathtars
Rey and Kylo reach an impasse in their duel
Leia and Chewie comfort each other after Han's death
Maz goes with the Resistance back to D'Qar
TLJ
Luke drops the lightsaber at his feet, instead of chucking it over his shoulder
More lessons from Luke
No milk drinking scene
Ackbar does the hyperspace sacrifice
Holdo survives the film
Poe doesn't commit mutiny
Finn, Rose, and Maz go to find First Order codes, and then use them to break into the Supremacy
Some kind of traditional lightsaber duel

Overhaul (Major Revision): Just some basic ideas, far more to come in my mind.
The conflict is between the New Republic and Droid Communal (droids who want the same rights as sentients)
Finn is a gladiator that fights for the droid's entertainment
Kylo Ren is female (Kyla Ren?), even more mechanical than Vader.
Kyla and Rey don't fight until VIII
Snoke is basically just a gutsac and brain in some kind of suit.
Poe and Rey meet and find the map to Skywalker
Luke is found midway through VII, there is a 3 year time jump between VII and VIII.
R2-D2, C-3PO, and BB-8 infiltrate the Droid Communal

 

What would I change???
Hmmm

If I were in charge of Disney I would've thrown more money at Harrison ford and told him he would have an epic death on episode IX. I would've had all 3 actors share a scene -- one scene at least in episode VIII before carrie's passing.

And honestly -- was TLJ a story that was needed? Now I absolutely adore the film -- ADORE and Love it especially with the way it gave Leia such a beautiful story and Carrie a well written final performance -- but -- could the last Jedi haveworked better as an interim novel or comic? With episode Viii taking place years later with Luke and Leia reunited? And Rey having completed her training?

I guess what I'm saying is -- did it have to take place right after the ending of TFA. Could episode VIII have been ok with a time jump? Im guessing not since fans everywhere wanted to hear what Luke would say to Rey and anticipated it would be about Rey. And when he tossed his lightsaber, their hearts hopes and dreams went with it

 

I would change the whole trilogy and start from the beginning

 

Honestly, I love TLJ more than TFA, and most of my changes would be in TFA, to remove the mystery boxes. Finn's journey in TFA I'd mostly leave alone, but I think Rey's would see some changing. Basically I think I'd imply that she's spent the last few years being raised by Luke, taught about the force but not trained as a Jedi. The idea is that Luke's not sure the Jedi should continue, and has instead chosen to make amends by raising an orphan child he found (after Kylo Ren slaughtered his students.) So she has a grasp of the force and how to use it, but hasn't been trained to be a jedi. Rey's mistaken Luke's reluctance for a lack of confidence in her abilities and steals his X-Wing to find his Old Lightsaber (a contact informed them during a chance meeting that the Saber had been recovered), and prove she's worthy of training. We still don't see Luke till the end of the first film.

THis time Kylo Ren is mostly pursing knowledge about the Force and lost relics associated with the Sith and Jedi. This leads to him and the First Order slaughtering a village where Poe's getting information from Lor Sentaka which flows into Finn's defection, and Rey running into BB-8. This time Rey's X-Wing is blown up and the pair Run into Han and Chewie on planet, as they'd shown up at General Leia's request to find out what happened to Poe. Leia stopped being a Senator and became a Republic General due to the rising threat of the First Order.

Han still goes to Maz's to try and pass along Poe's intel since he figures they're being tracked. This proves true and the Castle is attacked in a similar fashion to what we've seen in TFA. This time, during Ren's scan of Rey he discovers she literally knows where Skywalker is and drags her off for interrogation as before. Like before Han, Chewie and Finn go on a mission to save Rey, only this time Finn uses the Lightsaber more often, disarming a few troopers and scaring off some others by making them think he's a Jedi...before using the blade to take out the Shield generator, keeping the bombs secure for the rescue of Rey.

Rey still surprises Kylo Ren, and escapes, running into her rescuers and the movie mostly goes as before.

That's all for now. I have a few other tweaks here and there like Luke and Rey's disagreement taking on more of a father/daughter element since Luke has literally been raising her for six years and really doesn't want to see her get dragged into his family/force business, Finn seeing just how ugly this war is getting with even the good guys growing increasingly willing to use unsavory means to win. Likely keep Luke's ending, but switch things around so that Finn's story arc is more about pushing himself and others to BE better than their enemies (Admittedly I'm borrowing a Bit from Captain American Winter Soldier here...but that really was a good message, and to have an Ex-Storm Trooper telling the Republic "Hey...you're going to far to win" just works in my mind.)

 

This is the main point. TFA and TLJ simply aren't part of the same trilogy as it stands. One needed to be aligned with the other. Either way would at least make this trilogy it's own entity (regardless that neither version really lines up with I-VI).

 

I can see that, both movies work, and tell an interesting story, though I feel TlJ's story is better and pushes things in a new direction that will be needed for Star Wars going forward. To be fair the original trilogy wasn't as fully plotted out as Lucas has suggested in the past. It's also worth admitting that real life sometimes throws curve balls people simply can not plan for. That said, after watching SFDebris series on the 'Prequel Trilogy' I think 'Time' is the greatest enemy of these films. A lot of GL's....less popular decisions came about because he simply didn't have the time to really dig in and get everything in the plot working as he originally envisioned. He had people building and creating things as he's scripting his movies...so that's money out the door every single day he doesn't have a complete script. TFA's scripting process was quick....and it kind of had to be considering everything that was riding on that first movie.

With Hindsight I feel that it might've been better for all the directors to sit down and flesh out a general outline for this, as that would've smoothed out some of the rougher edges while still giving each director the creative freedom that has inspired them to pour such wonderful energy and life into these films. Something to keep in mind as we go forward.

 

I would have completely changed Luke's motivation for being in exile. In fact, he wouldn't be in exile, he'd be on a retreat, deepening his knowledge of the Force to come back stronger to overcome Kylo and Snoke, and to reform the Jedi Order. Personality-wise, he would be a natural progression from ROTJ, calm, confident and with decades more wisdom, to the extent that he is much more enigmatic & spiritual, and a lot less black and white.

Once Rey finds him, Luke's deeper knowledge of the Force would manifest itself in the screenplay by having him train Rey extremely hard, and have him be a very harsh tutor, much like Pai Mei in Kill Bil Vol 2. This would be a new side to Luke that massively tests Rey to breaking point, until she eventually comes through Luke's trials, impressing him and earning his respect.

I'd love to see a deeper depiction of Jedi training, showing how Luke's understanding has progressed from the training we saw in the PT and his own training with Yoda. It would also give a better impression of how great an opponent Kylo Ren would be, and the threat that Snoke poses.

 

It's funny, there's a time I would've agreed with JDN21...but TLJ really inspired me to consider other viable directions. I really like the idea of Luke questioning the methods and goals of the Jedi order, (especially after seeing the Prequel series) and him finding a non-violent way to save the day. That ending shot of Luke walking through the fire...the contrast of his calm defense vs Kylo Ren's raging offense and how Luke won without ever even swinging his lightsaber resonates with me more than any other lightsaber duel throughout the entire saga. That was, in every single sense...a master schooling an upstart.

It also helps that Luke's character design in that last duel, fits what I'd always imagined a Jedi should look like. Not the robes of the old order, but something that feels like a mix of Monk and Samurai.

 

I would change the ST to be whatever Lucas intended it to be.

 

I think you can only change parts of what we have seen rather that go back to square one - personally though I would have rather seen GL version from what I've heard - Luke training Kira ( Rey ) in EP7 rather than 8 & it was suppose to be about the grandchildren not a grandchild ( Kylo ) as in EP1-3 was about the parents EP4-7 was about the children & EP7-9 was about the grandchildren.....

So changing parts of EP7 & 8 from what we have seen :

TFA :
Flash back scene with the Big 3
No Starkiller base it was a massive dreadnaught with a planet killing weapon
No Rathtars for sure
Leia comforts Chewie after Hans Death

TLJ :
Luke doesn't toss the Light sabre at all
No Canto Bight scene at all - Finn & Rose get straight onto Snokes ship more time there but get caught all the same ( cuts 10min out of the film )
Luke not so aggressive at the start but still off
Ackbar sacrifices himself - I mean they killed him off anyway ! no brainer
Luke was not force projected at the end & has a epic light sabre duel with Kylo & Luke holds off Kylo long enough to escape on the Falcon & survives .

 

PICK ONE: Either make VII-IX about Luke, Leia and Han with new supporting characters

-OR-

Skip ahead 100 years after ROTJ and move on with new characters, with ghost Luke in a small role and the droids.

Don’t try to be both things; pick one and do it well rather than having one foot in two eras.