Discussion Potential Threats/Antagonists For New Films

The B'ommarr Monks have taken it to extreme level protection.

 

Sometimes fans wonder why so many in the GFFA wear a mask.

Now we know the Earth's future aesthetic.

 

Actually a galactic plague would be new territory to explore as a threat, one that hurts both dark and light siders.

Set during the Old Republice era.

Preferably either in the hundred year darkness or the fall of the Old Republic period. What if a plague influenced the fall of that government,

A biological weapon created by dark Jedi/Sith using the dark side, to help in their fight against the Jedi, but it backfires and many on their own side also get infected.

 

I wish I could take back my pestilence post from Dec, 22nd

 

Yeah, I don't think LFL will be doing any disease films anytime soon.

Not really in love with the concept for SW anyway.

 

It doesn’t have to be in a film, but it does make sense context wise.

The Sith have used various weapons to fight the Jedi/Republic over time. They are also known to do experiments. With ancient Sith not having a backstabbing clone army to deal with the Jedi nor (hopefully) planet destroying laser weapons, it’s extremely likely that at least once in their thousands of years fighting the Jedi they resorted to biological weapons.

I agree it’s not going to happen soon with Covid being a current event and also the future focus on the High Republic, but it should still happen someday if the Old Republic is explored.

After all, Star Wars has created story’s using inspiration from previous real world terrible events before. WW2 being one of them.

So getting a ancient galactic war between Republic/Sith and a plague mixed in isn’t in the realm of impossibility. Perhaps taking some inspiration from the Great War/Spanish Flu.

 

But what would a 3 hour movie on it actually be about? Like, what would happen? Would it be a medical drama for a military doctor?

 

Star Wars usually tries to sanitize its depiction of war as much as possible. Anything too traumatic is either not represented or suggested or merely spoken about. Disease as a weapon is one of the most traumatic things I can imagine, so if it were the plot of a film, it would be likely limited to dialogue or a brief shot or two of the victims.

I want to emphasize that Star Wars is fundamentally supposed to be fun. And disease isn't fun.

 

In some ways, but other cases the complete opposite.

It sure wasn’t fun seeing the Republic fall, Jedi murdered, implication of child slaughter. Plenty of other not so fun depictions, etc.

Star Wars can give us light hearted moments while on the other hand showing us the horrors of world wars.

A film of just a series of books about a Galactic pandemic doesn’t have to be just one big downer. We see the Jedi rise to the top, using their gifts to help the Republic, fight the Sith and the disease. Seeing some people rally together against a common foe.

The story doesn’t have to be about the beginning of the outbreak like so many other disease stories, but merely exist in a setting where a disease, whether man made or natural has already for years been infecting many people. Their could already be a cure for it when the tale begins, but still the challenge to cure everyone who got infected. Starting the story on a hopeful note.

 

I want Indiana Jones meets Star Wars for the next series. There is so much we don't know and I think it be a great way to build up the lore.

 

But again... I struggle to see what the 2-3 hours of filmtime would be about (times 3 if a trilogy). Literally, what would be the hero's journey, who would be the villains, what would be the fundamental conflict, which scenes would exist, etc. with a focus on a pandemic? Unless you're making a hospital drama in the GFFA setting?

 

Dr.Aphra?

 

Your not thinking of the big picture.

Similar to how you can have a WW1 film that has a plague in it, while still focusing on the Allies vs Central Powers conflict.

A disease should never be the main threat/focus of a Star Wars film or trilogy. But it can be window dressing within a Jedi vs Mandalorian war or Jedi vs Sith.

So like other trilogies, our hero’s are fighting evil and trying to end the war and save innocent lives. But unlike other trilogies, their is an invisible enemy also threatening them.

Therefore I’m not advocating for Star Wars Jedi n Hospitals vs Disease, but an Old Republic era Jedi vs Sith galactic war with a disease that began during the war, causing trouble on both sides.

 

I've not read it. But if it's close to the idea in my head of being at least a thousand or so years in the future and finding Jedi and Sith artifacts that in turn awaken something evil. I'm here for it.

 

Here are some ideas:

-Someone who figures out how to use Jedi Mind trick but amplified to a planet/galaxy-wide scale. Mass indoctrination.

-A being (perhaps a droid) who wants to bring eternal balance to the Force by eliminating sentient life.

-The Prime Jedi, who aims for galactic peace, but is willing to use dark methods to do so.

-A non-Force sensitive who's obsessed with understanding the Force so that he can use it. He's willing to kill and dissect Jedi to do so.

-A Jedi is on the run for a crime, trying to prove his innocence. His fellow Jedi and/or bounty hunters, are chasing him through the galaxy.

-Jedi struggling to deal internal planetary affairs. ie. A planet decides to outlaw using the Force. Force-sensitives, younglings included, are sentenced to death, lest they become a threat to society later on.

 

I like this one

 

There's lots of Sith/Jedi artifact hunting, but set in pre-ANH time. Lots of evil awakenings and weirdness. Some of it OTT (which I didn't like) but if this was played down it would make a good TV show/animated series. It's a comic series that I don't think is for everyone but it has its moments.

One of the things I really like about it is a couple of bounty hunters they threw in. Interesting dynamic.

 

No galactic plague please LOL.

 

A Force-using monarchy/aristocracy or Force-sensitive supremacists that the Jedi and Sith split off from in ancient times.

 

As long as its not dudes in white and black armor for the third time, I'm pretty much game for anything.

 

That just sounds like the Sith.

 

The Sith are more pseudo-Darwinistic and hyper-individualistic. But otherwise... Yeah.

 

When deciding for a future antagonist, I think doing some solid worldbuilding is the first step.

Who are the most likely villains we'd see in these different "state of the galaxy" settings?




OPTION #1:
If some form of a Galactic Republic is restored...

I wonder how the post-ST will approach how to balance the power of the executive and the strength/presence of the fleet between:
1. being too powerful - like Palpatine and the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars
versus
2. being too weak - like the situation of the New Republic during the events of the novel Bloodline, and how it was portrayed before quickly being destroyed in TFA

as well as the problems of:
* the galaxy's military-industrial complex
* corruption in the Senate


Perhaps the options below could cancel-out any increase in power of the executive and the military
-create either a population-based house of representatives as a second chamber, or democratic referendums
-create an investigative branch to investigate corruption and keeps the arms dealers and military corporations in check
-eliminate all remaining titles of nobility

Another way to balance a stronger executive could be to
-make it a triumvirate
-have a separately-elected executive, like a president
-have the executive assigned the equivalent of Legacy's Imperial Knights (if the Chancellor goes dark, the Knights automatically remove the person from office, dead or alive).


It should definitely keep these reforms the New Republic already made:
* direct democratic elections for every Senator (no more appointments)
* worlds being temporarily elected as the capital of the Republic (no longer Coruscant-centric)
* allowing separatist worlds to peacefully secede
* not trying to force worlds into joining



OPTION #2:
Perhaps a galactic Republic is NOT restored.

It would definitely make sense why systems and worlds would choose not to form another galactic government, after the failures of the Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems, Galactic Empire, New Republic, and First Order. Especially since TROS shows it wasn't an organized military alliance that ended the First Order, but "people, just people."

This could lead to a galaxy where there are dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, or independent governments. Republics, Kingdoms, and many more.

I'm not sure if the galaxy would actually be better because of this - there would very likely be more regional conflicts. But it does make sense for the galaxy to resist galactic government of any form again, at least for a while.

And it would also be great for storytelling while it lasted.

It would also force Rey and the new Jedi trained under her (if they're still called Jedi) to be very different from how the Jedi were in the time of the Prequels. Not affiliated with any galactic government (or individuals who are associated with several). More difficult to be one centralized organization, or if it is, to have lots of well-meaning rogues as wandering do-gooders. Jedi who aren't just "knights" or "monks" but occupy a variety of professions: educators, healers, archaeologists, archivists, scientists, engineers, and more. Perhaps entities like the "Church of the Force" for non-sensitives becoming more common too. Perhaps an end to the no marriage/family rules too. Or at least different Jedi branches for every combination of all of the above and more. Which would happen under a new galactic government too, but decentralized Jedi are probably more likely to coincide with a similarly-decentralized political state of the galaxy.



OPTION #3:
What would other options for the galaxy be?

I'm really not sure what else would be likely, from both an in-universe perspective and an out-of-universe perspective, but I'd like to hear if anybody thinks another option is likely to happen.




Possible antagonists for option 1:
-Flawed, centralized, detached, bureaucratic Jedi following the orders of a flawed, apathetic, systematic Republic serving as the gray antagonists (especially if the new Republic isn't as ideal as I'm describing).
-Sympathetic liberator/freedom-fighter antagonist who focuses on the ends justifying the means, no matter how bloody, especially if the Republic falls short again. Think of a mix of the Red Lotus in Legend of Korra with Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. Perhaps a more genuine version of the Separatists, if they were free from corporate influence and Sith influence.
-Perhaps both of the above as the protagonists navigate a visibly gray conflict and try to find a better way when both sides are so flawed. But hopefully without becoming the next one...

Possible antagonist for option 2:
-Sympathetic authoritarian government that's not as plain evil as Palpatine/Snoke/Tarkin/etc., to have a conflict that shows why authoritarian government even when not cackling evil is still bad. How even a supposedly "benevolent dictatorship" is bad even if the dictator is a genuine person sincerely wanting to do good, who still values life and liberty, and opposed to the Sith and the dark side.

 

I like that last option. Appropriately timely too, as people around the world make the mistake of pining for so-called benevolent dictatorships. Which can’t exist.