A pretty fun idea I had seeing the "rewriting the prequels" thread active again, but I figured I'd take it a few steps further. Let's rewrite almost everything! If we keep ANH as it is and we're still doing a nine episode saga, where do things come from, and where do they go? What kind of saga would you liked to have seen based on that?
Actually, "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker" would have been a pretty great premise for the saga. ANH would have to be Episode I, of course. ...but if we're going with ANH as Episode IV, well, I'd have to meditate on it. Good idea, by the way!
It WAS the premise for the saga. The SW 1977 shooting script was literally titled "The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, Saga I: The Star Wars". And the novelization was similar: "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker". Even the change of the first film's title to "Episode IV" in a later theatrical reissue didn't erase the fact that Luke Skywalker was the series' main character. But once the PT came around, Lucas started insisting that the series was "always" the "Tragedy of Darth Vader", which was just nonsense.
I know it was the premise for the saga. That's why I mentioned it. You don't think I accidentally came up with the same title that George once used, do you? Let's not highjack this thread with Lucas bashing nonsense, by the way.
Pointing out that Lucas changed his entire conception of what the saga was, several decades after beginning it, while claiming that that new conception was his idea all along, is not "Lucas bashing nonsense". I can still enjoy Star Wars while pointing out that Lucas changed his mind frequently, even as he was denying doing so. Heck, he even as much as admitted that he fabricated many of those statements about what he'd "always intended" for the sake of public consumption: "Congratulations on pulling off an amazing show. Don't tell anyone ... but when 'Star Wars' first came out, I didn't know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories--let's call them homages--and you've got a series." - George Lucas to LOST producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, 2010
I love the OT so much I can only come up with a few things I would change... For comparison - I would literally change everything about 1,2,3 & 7,8,9.
I'd love to hear your ideas! Whether you write novels or bullet points, it's always fun to hear that kinda thing!
If we are going to rewrite the entire Saga from scratch by using A New Hope as the basis, then I think that I would avoid having so many changes and retcons. I can still imagine Darth Vader being Luke's father, but apart from that, I think that no other big retcon should exist in the movies. Therefore, I would keep The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as they are, but I would not make Leia to be Luke's sister. Also, I would replace the Ewoks with the Wookies in Return of the Jedi. So, the Original Trilogy would be almost identical, but with some minor changes. After the completion of the Original Trilogy, the next big trilogy would be a mixture between various ideas from the EU we already got. The Imperial Remnant would try to reorganize and take over the Galaxy once again, but the New Republic and Luke's New Order of Jedi Knights would save the day, and a small faction of the Imperial Remnant itself would overthrow the leadership of the main Imperial Remnant, to establish a peace with the New Republic. And the final trilogy would be a trilogy that features a completely new enemy, like the Yuuzhan Vong, and with the original characters passing the torch to the new generation. This new generation would probably be the children of the original characters themselves. A New Hope would be Episode I, and the Prequel era would be developed through books and comics. Darth Vader's backstory and the Clone Wars would not be depicted on screen, and the entirety of the Prequel era would be developed in the EU. I'm not one of those people who think that the Clone Wars and Anakin's backstory should remain mysterious. They should have been depicted regardless, in my opinion. But Anakin's backstory, his fault to the Dark Side, and the Clone Wars in general are too complex to be portrayed on screen in a way that can feel 100% satisfying, because everyone loves Darth Vader to death, and for this reason, it would be impossible to satisfy everyone if the Prequels were created as a trilogy of movies. Therefore, developing these stories in the EU would allow the authors to explain everything more in depth, without worrying about screen time. As for the rest of the EU, and the lore of the Saga in general, I think that I would keep most of the lore as it was portrayed in the pre-1999 EU. The Jedi would be free to have romantic relationships and families, there would be no Chosen One Prophecy, and the Old Republic era would be portrayed more similarly to how it was portrayed in the Tales of the Jedi comics.
Not sure about it, but I'm thinking about the possibility of using a lot more elements than George ultimately did for the PT from early OT drafts for alternate Prequels. Like Jedi Bendu as the official name of the order, a character called the Skywalker as the historical or mythological founder and calling both sides of the force Ashla and Bogan. And a ancient looking ecumenopolis called Had Abbadon as the capital of the republic instead of modern Coruscant. Gesendet von meinem Nokia G22 mit Tapatalk
1000 percent agreed. Leia being Luke's sister is still such an awkward retcon, and one that I would gladly ditch. Also yes to more Wookiees - but I suppose Lucas was still thinking about the nightmare of the Star Wars Holiday Special. (Not to mention the marketability of Ewoks.) Agreed. The Chosen One prophecy deserves to be yeeted as well. And it's a good idea to let Jedi have romantic relationships, especially if you're starting with the OT where Luke is the child of a Jedi. On the other hand, I can also imagine a storyline where the Old Jedi Order forbade romantic relationships, as in the PT we know - with the caveat that it needs to be made very clear that this is an unhealthy and unnatural state of affairs, resulting from a fundamentalist interpretation of the "no attachments" doctrine, and that the new Jedi Order as re-founded by Luke rejects such an extremist interpretation. And of course, the best possible way to do that would be to give Luke himself a romantic partner.
One idea could be to use the very early idea where ANH was ep VI. Ep I was a prologue, likely to set up the Jedi and the Old Republic. Ep II-IV was the PT. Ep V was an in-between film. Likely to show how the galaxy had changed. Ep VI-VIII was to be the OT. Ep IX would be another in-between film. If the empire fell after ep VIII, then that could show how the NR was trying to get working and the set backs. Lastly there was Ep X-XII, the ST. These in-between films could be tricky, but maybe if R1 was one such in-between film. Other idea, have what ANH suggested and the loss of the DS is a major blow to the Empire. That in the next film, they are facing uprisings on many systems and the rebellion is stronger. The Empire is still the most powerful military but the rebels are trying to organize the various systems into a cohesive fighting force. The emperor could just be what the ANH novelization suggested, a figurehead with little real power. But there could be a Sith Master behind Vader. So the empire is in trouble and if we keep Vader as Lukes' father, then Luke is more than just a neat thing to have for Vader and the Empire. If they can turn Luke and use him to destroy the rebels, that could be their way to win this. So a lot more is riding on this for Vader. The third film could have the Empire trying something big to win this, not another DS but end with the empire splintering into smaller groups, with various Moffs trying to carve out their own small kingdoms. Bye for now. Blackboard Monitor
For other movies based just on the first, I probably would have gone with a Luke/Leia romance relationship and with Han maybe facing controversy for his past dubious deeds and/or being more proactive in paying his debts, also show more details on how the Rebellion was able to expand/diversify, end the finale with the conflict going to the capital. Main different with the prequels would be not having the romance with Anakin and Padme be forbidden.
