PT Rewriting the Prequels...

The whole film? Then when does Anakin turn? End of Ep2?

Ezon Pin I'm just saying those were some of the expectations of some fans going into these films. We could only draw on what we had seen before so we just assumed some things.

 

My thinking was that ROTS would be Ep2, with Ep1 being a combination of TPM and AOTC. The events that occur on Geonosis in AOTC would instead occur on Tatooine and it's these events that would lead to Anakin getting discovered.

 

Yeah I've imagined a redone prequel where the timeline is moved up a bit and you get on with TCW in I and end it in II so III is all about betrayal and deception and the rise of the Empire. TCW also seemed like they took place longer ago than the Empire when I listened to Obi-Wan and Luke for some reason. It was like they were different subjects. Not the same thing.

 

What I meant to imply was:
Ep1: Start of the Clone Wars
Ep2: End of the Clone Wars and birth of the Empire
Ep3:'Start of the Galactic Civil War

I suppose it's possible that the Empire was still officially the Republic when Anakin turned and started hunting the Jedi. ANH never gave me any impression one way or the other about when the Clone Wars occured. As far as we cared in 1977, the Clone Wars were just a way of establishing that Obi-Wan had military experience.

 

Oh it's not explicit if TCW are pre or during Empire. It was just an impression I had that it seemed almost like a different part of their conversation.

Your timeline is pretty much how I would have done it too. In fact, I always thought that Jappor snippet would figure back into the trilogy in some more blatant way in episode 3. I thought maybe she'd wear it into battle against Vader at some point and he'd be furious and that would be the first battle of the civil war.

 

I'm going to send my Episode III to my editor for my website and get that published and done with.....

After watching TFA, its painfully obvious I NEED to rewrite Episode 7 as therapy for myself.....I have a new found respect for the prequels after watching TFA. At least Lucas tried something new... He didn't succeed, but he TRIED to give us a great movie. JJ Abrams didn't even try.

I am really having trouble getting people to visit my website and check out my stories. Its a lot to ask of someone that doesn't know me. Anyone have suggestions ??

 

Any examples you can recommend?

I think Lucas (being a very well read and educated person) has a much better understanding of the hero's journey (whether upwards or downwards) than most of his critics. Anakin is easily the most complex character in Star Wars - a tragic hero who also becomes a villain, an antiestablishment rebel who becomes an enforcer of the oppressive regime - and weirdly modern - if you were a kid/young adult when the prequels came out there's a good chance you'd identify with some aspects of his personality such as disillusionment with the system and authority figures, having a lot of pressure to be outstanding but not enough emotional support, etc.. Lucas just needed more time to flesh out adult Anakin - either by making him older in TPM or adding another movie in between AOTC and ROTS or even making AOTC and ROTS longer.

Of course, Padme and Obi-Wan are fairly complex and flawed and the societies of GFFA in the prequels are fascinating - very ancien regime and modern at the same time. Lucas manages to convey a lot through hints in dialog, images and sound but I wonder if it's just too subtle for the typical blockbuster audience (irregardless of the quality of dialogue and acting). Maybe one day they'll do a 20-30 hour miniseries to do the story itself full justice.

 

I strongly agree with this. To me what it boils down to is that there simply wasn't enough time to flesh out a couple of crucial elements to the storyline. I feel like the PT was a hugely ambitious project, much more so than the OT, which has a simpler and more straightforward story by far. The PT is a lot more layered, what with the politics and corruption in the senate, the birth of the rebellion, the demise of the Jedi Order, the Prophecy, and so on. The only "mistake" I'd say GL made was wanting to stick to the trilogy format, which was never going to justice to the complex tale he had in mind to begin with.

That being said, apart from some of the dialogue (die, fireplace scene in AotC, DIE!), and a fewer number of "super villains" (did we really need AND Maul, AND Dooku, AND Grievous? Maul could have been featured more prominently and Dooku and Grievous could have been merged into one character), I wouldn't change much. For instance:

A lot of people seem to think the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan wasn't done very well, but I disagree; I think it was done perfectly, actually. Obi-Wan's often critical and sometimes downright cold treatment of Anakin is one of the main reasons Anakin starts to confide in Palpatine, because he sees in him the father figure Obi-Wan fails to be. While Anakin says Obi-Wan is "like his father", I don't think he really feels that way. In TPM he probably comes to see Qui-Gon as his mentor/the father figure he's always longed for but never had, and when Qui-Gon dies he tries to project this role onto Obi-Wan, who at that point in the story is far too young and conflicted to live up to that hope. Obi-Wan goes from being a padawan to training one, doesn't know the first thing about instructing kids/young teenagers in general, and he has trouble empathizing with Anakin simply because he is young and inexperienced and because they come from such different backgrounds, Obi-Wan having been raised in the comfort of the Jedi temple and Anakin having been a slave and living under harsh conditions his whole life. When Obi-Wan fails to take up the role of the missing father, Anakin turns to Palpatine, who does succeed in taking up that role. Anakin never sees Obi-Wan as a true father figure, though he wishes he could, and Obi-Wan, being the reserved, stick-up-his-good-looking-arse Jedi he is, fails to give Anakin the warmth he desperately craves, instead always taking up the role of mentor and instructor because he truly believes he's doing it in Anakin's best interest. Anakin thus becomes to loathe Obi-Wan's overly critical attitude towards him. This is the situation in AotC. After Anakin in knighted and during the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan no longer feels the need to make everything into a lesson and to take up the role of instructor, and his relationship with Anakin becomes more like a brotherly bond ("But Anakin... he is like my brother. I cannot do it." "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.")
Obi-Wan truly does come to think of Anakin as a brother, and speaks fondly of him to Luke in ANH, but Anakin on his part is like the younger sibling who never quite gets over being bullied by his older brother as a child and still carries some latent resentment for him.

With regard to this, I agree that Anakin's character is often hugely underestimated and simplified. He is truly one of the most complex characters I've ever come across - I could easily dedicate a full PhD dissertation to him - but a lot of his internal workings have to be inferred, which is somewhat hindered by everything else that's going on.

So, umm... I didn't mean for this to become a glorification of the dynamic between two characters, but... yay Anakin and Obi-Wan? And yay GL for portraying their complex relationship most expertly.

 

In Ep1 I would show Anakin constructing the lightsaber that Luke uses in ANH and ESB. That way Luke receiving it in ANH would be more meaningful. ANH implies that Anakin used it for his entire Jedi career.

 

http://starwars1999.tumblr.com/

First of all, I don't want this to turn out to be a crapstorm because of the topic. I just wanted to bring up an interesting blog to create interesting discussions.

That said anyways, Star Wars 99 is about rewriting the prequels in someone else's own vision. While I do dislike the PT rewrites because of the intent behind it, they do come up with great ideas.

However, this one is the most..."interesting" I've seen. The author sounds so biased on the OT and even states
"Lucas’s prequels flesh out details, but offer little in the way of original content."

On the bolded aspect, this is just ignorant to me and is just too funny. This is a perfect example on what the meaning of "bias" is.

Then you have this "There will be more than one woman and more than two black people"

I just can't even anymore. If you focus on gender aspects more than character aspects, your gonna have a hard time getting me to feel for "your" "characters"

So yeah what do you guys think about this?

I for one, hate this types of rewrite intents. Acting as if "I'm better than the creator" kinda things. I don't mind rewrites at all. In fact, I've seen some OT rewrites. But the intent and reasoning like this is what gets me. Especially rewrites claiming that "they can do better"

 

There were more than a few examples on this very board years ago. But I don't know if we lost them or they ever made the move when we switched boards.

One rewrite all they did was change 3PO into that Trade federation droid. There were others that were more extensive but not by much. Maybe a scene or two added or deleted. It ran the gamut from minute changes to substantial rewrites.

 

After rewriting and refining and revising....the striking thing to me about the prequels is how oh so close they were to being masterpieces. And so so far away. All my .02 of course.


I really want to offer my re-writes at some point. I'm sure no one even reads this thread. It'd just be therapeutic...like self medicating a problem just for its own sake. They would just be short summaries of each film but it would feel good I think.

 

I read a great rewrite somewhere, about a young Anakin traveling to the big city (Coruscant) to try and find a job, and eventually ends up working as a mechanic for Obi-Wan at the Jedi Temple. Coruscant later gets attacked (and the Clone Wars start), and Anakin has to pilot him and Obi out of there.

 

You mean C3PO instead of that silver droid? That might have been fun. But I kind of like that he's evolving throughout the prequels: from uncovered, to metal plate, to finally his golden self in ROTS. Was Anakin building him too much? Perhaps, but then again, the droids were supposed to be witnesses to everything anyway so who built him doesn't really matter.

 

The Clone Wars ideas are all the same. Plus if the GCW was going on since 3, you're telling me an Empire was fighting a rebellion for at least 18 years or longer. Guess ya have to establish the Empire's incompetence from the beginning...eh

 

Let me know if you find it. I'm intrigued.

 

Yes, it was too much. Just my opinion. Shrank a galaxy to about a neighborhood. I can see him connected to Anakin or the heroes in some way but yeah, Anakin building his mom an AI capable droid was a stretch.

 

Sorry to disappoint, but that was more or less it. Wasn't a full rewrite, just the general outline.

 

Hit me up. I'm the one of the biggest fans of the prequels but I enjoy alternative takes. If you ever want to release them, I'll gladly read them with an open eye.

 

Deliveranze

Thank you! I will....I need to sit down and organize it in a way that's concise and readable in this format.

 

The one thing I'll say before posting my own version is that re-writing the prequels made me appreciate the PT more and more. And so many of the re-writes I see are basically alterations of GL's PT story....everything from his mom to dreams to villains and on and on. Again...when I sat down and did it, I realized how oh so close GL was to achieving true masterpieces.

I'll work on formatting this so mine can get sliced up too.

 

Take your time friend. IMO the PT is the my favorite trilogy of all time. Of course, different opinion and all. My father is 60 and saw the OT back in the day. We reached the saga recently and he enjoys the PT more than the OT these days. I'm glad you found a new respect for them but it's nice to see a different version. Once again, whenever you're ready.

 

One of the criticisms of the prequels by Red Letter Media was that there was no central character in the prequels. Luke was the central character of the original trilogy. The prequels should be all about Anakin's story. I also think we really didn't need the 'kid' Anakin. Let's discover Anakin at about the same age Luke was in ANH. I hate to say it but let's scrap Qui Gon's character with that being the case with Obi Wan taking Qui Gon's role and Anakin taking Obi Wan's role in Episode I. I'm also scrapping Count Dooku.

Each prequel movie got progressively darker between TPM, AOTC, and ROTS.

I think a better formula would be the opposite of the original triology (which was light dark light). I'd go dark, light, dark.

Episode I: The movie opens in the darkness with Anakin in chains after another brutal beating by his master, an 8 foot tall alien who's viciously cruel. He is discovered by Obi Wan who was sent on an assignment to Tatooine. Obi Wan happens to be watching the pod race when he can sense Anakin's force abilities as he piloted his pod. Obi Wan ends up helping Anakin escape his master and trains Anakin without consulting with the jedi council (this goes along with Obi Wan's story in the original trilogy when he said "I thought I could train him..."). In the middle of the movie Anakin picks up on Obi Wan's training a lot and by the end of the movie he's a fairly formidable padawan. They confront Darth Maul at the end of the movie and it ends similar to the Dooku fight in Episode II where Maul defeats Obi Wan leaving Anakin to go one on one vs Darth Maul. Maul slices off Anakin's arm. As he's about to finish off Anakin the jedi council shows up and Maul flees. Yoda reprimands Obi Wan for training Anakin without his knowledge but in the end they agree to complete his training. Anakin is a dark and quiet character after the horrible abuse he has suffered growing up. At the end of the movie you feel sorry for him but have hope that the jedi can 'fix' him.

Episode II: Anakin is now a powerful jedi. Padme and Anakin have met in Episode I but as Anakin has been assigned to protect Padme they get to know each other more. Padme sees the darkness and abuse that Anakin has suffered and feels sorry for him and begins to fall for him. The movie is mostly triumphant with Anakin being a hero of the Clone Wars. The audience starts to believe that maybe the jedi and Padme has succeeded in 'fixing' Anakin and that he can embrace the light side. Anakin is less dark, happier, and more peaceful in spirit. In the end Anakin confronts Darth Maul and in an epic battle defeats and kills Darth Maul. At the end of the movie the audience sees Anakin as a hero and one of the best jedi ever. The sky is the limit for him.

Episode III: Palpatine secretly promotes Anakin's former slave master to the senate (and makes it look like the jedi did it) that pushes Anakin back into darkness, a darkness even worse than we've ever seen in Episode I. This new senator (Anakin's former slave master) sees Anakin and grins and taunts Anakin. Anakin tries to kill his former slave master but the jedi won't let him as they are sworn to protect senators and diplomats. Wanting revenge, Anakin eventually gives into Palpatine and embraces the Sith way. Anakin (now Vader) goes to confront his former slave master and kills a couple of jedi council jedi (Ki Adi Mundi and Plo Koon) who were trying to protect the former slave master senator. After killing 2 jedi masters Vader cuts down his former slave master with Palpatine's encouragement. After the 2 jedi masters are slain, Mace Windu feels a disturbance in the force and assembles the 4 jedi team from ROTS to investigate. When he finds that Anakin killed 2 jedi, Mace and the others ignite their light sabers and take on Anakin. Sidious then realizes that Anakin is over-matched and in a surprise to all, ignites his own light saber and quickly takes out the 2 jedi we see in the movie by surprise. Sidious engages Mace while Anakin/Vader takes on Kit Fisto. Fisto eventually falls to Anakin/Vader and when Anakin/Vader joins the fight with Sidious Mace is overcome and killed. Later as the movie, Yoda is to confront Sidious and Obi Wan is assigned to stop Vader and they meet on Mustafar. We've been following and rooting for Anakin for the first 2 movies so the audience gets taken on a ride into his darkness. We understand his pain, we understand how and why he could be pushed back into darkness by Palpatine and his manipulations using Anakin's former slave master. The fact that we have been rooting for Anakin makes the fight against Obi Wan is emotional and painful for the audience. At the end of the movie we again feel sorry for Anakin and what could have been. From then on we see Darth Vader as a tragic character who's had a very tough life. But especially in Episode II we see what Luke saw in ROTJ, "the good in him, the conflict".

Mustafar Duel Ending: Instead of the dumb azz "I have the high ground" it goes something like this. Arguably in my version of Episode II, Anakin is as powerful as his master Obi Wan and as we see when he defeats Darth Maul even more powerful at the end of Episode II and in Episode III as a Sith he's even more powerful. Anakin/Vader thoroughly defeats Obi Wan on Mustafar. Vader lands a crushing blow that knocks the light saber out of Obi-Wan's hands. But as he's about to go for the killing strike, Anakin has mercy on his former master (the good in him, the conflict) and stops his attack. Not realizing that Anakin was showing mercy, Obi Wan force pulls his saber and strikes and hacks off Anakin's limbs and he slides down the hill and burns (much like ROTS). It's only after the strike that Obi Wan realizes that Anakin was showing him mercy but as Anakin burns so does his hatred for Obi Wan and the jedi. Obi Wan walks away from Anakin/Vader in anguish and from that point, the darkness has thoroughly consumed Vader and his journey towards the dark side is complete.

 

Mods will lock this thread - there is already a prequel rewrite thread.

And this is the same thing as every re-write. Still have Darth Maul, Padme, Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, pod race. Every prequel rewrite tends to use the same horrible characters from the prequels which still gives it a lucas prequel flavor. People didn't like these things in the real films. They won't like it in any rewrites.

 

Oh where is the prequel re-write thread?

And regarding your comments, there were plenty of good things about the prequels. The main problems are some of the dialogue, the lack of a central character, TPM being a kiddie movie, and the reason for Anakin's turn. This re-write fixes those things (besides dialogue since I didn't write a screenplay).