PT The Prequels We Got or the Original Plan for the Prequels

Way back in the early days of Star Wars (I'm talking 70's and early 80s) the plan for the prequels was something like this:

# EPISODE 1: Was to focus on the origins of the Jedi Knights and how they are initiated and trained
# EPISODE 2: Introduction and development of Obi-Wan Kenobi
# EPISODE 3: Introduction and life of Vader

Would you have preferred this approach or the approach we got? Basically in the original prequels Anakin/Vader wouldn't even be introduced until Episode 3 most likely.

You could go a number of directions with the basic outline of the "old" prequels.

Episode 1 could have been hundreds of years before ANH with a young Yoda and the rise of the jedi. Or it could have been the rise of a jedi like Qui-Gon or Mace in more recent times.

Episode 2 would be about Obi-Wan as an apprentice and becoming a jedi. He could have been Qui-Gon's padawan or even Yoda's padawan as was the idea in TESB.

Episode 3 might have to be a 3 hour movie covering the rise and fall of Anakin / Vader.

 

Pretty much a mix of the two. Waiting until midway through Episode 2 (or not even until Episode 3) to have Anakin doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
The Disney-era films (stories and episodes) may rely a lot on flashbacks, but they have purpose. I don't think it was a good idea to have 9-year-old Anakin for a whole film. He could've been 9 or even 12 when Obi-Wan discovered him and then have a time jump in the same movie.

 

I am fine with what we got...

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Shortening Anakin's introduction and fall to the confines of a single movie sounds pretty bad. Not saying it couldn't be done, but it would likely result in rushed character development leading to a much shallower character overall.

There's also the point that this style of storytelling doesn't fit the episodic nature of the Star Wars series. Setting the movies so far apart from one another would just make the series feel awkward and disjointed. The origins of the jedi would be better explored in its own spinoff movie or tv series.

 

eh I dunno, worked for this guy



his arc was better than

I shouldn't it's not right...


fulfill your destiny you schmuck

alright, who do I kill?

 

Anakin's fall was weak enough with three movies. Confining it to one would have been worse unless a different writer / director took over. Obviously there are examples of well written characters who become corrupted in a single movie.

 

I could see it working if Anakin was a flawed / damaged character to begin with instead of the happy go lucky kid we got in Episode 1.

Ya major time jumps aren't a Star Wars thing so probably better to go with my 2nd idea: "Or it could have been the rise of a jedi like Qui-Gon or Mace in more recent times."

 

Harvey's arc was basically that he found himself in stressful situations and then was scarred and his fiance murdered, and then he seemed to have gone crazy. Which, I think, works for his character. Not the case, to me, for Vader.

Anakin starts off with wanting to help people. But it's suggested his fear of losing his mom is present with him. And I think suggested that even as a child he has a chip on his shoulder in his desire to assert that he has an identity, in his stating that he's a person, when Padme questions that he's a slave.

In the second movie, he's more temperamental and stressed out, due to him not controlling his emotions when it comes to Padme and his dreams about his mom. He can be impetuous and, maybe even thrillseeking. His relationship with Obi-Wan is a older-younger brother type of dynamic (imo). Obi-Wan seeks to teach him, but he can get annoyed with Anakin, and Anakin can be rebellious and defiant, in arrogance. In connection to that arrogance, Palpatine feeds into it and tells him things he wants to hear. Anakin continues to allow his emotions to get the better of him, and he pursues his romance with Padme. Padme refuses to give in to her emotions the way Anakin is, though she can lean into it and does go on to reciprocate. In this Anakin expresses a perception that the best way for the system to work is if people are forced to agree (imo this is connected to Anakin's experiences as a slave and how the system didn't prevent that and a perception that if the galaxy had a dictatorship, people could be forced to agree). Anakin seeks out his mom. He finds that she's been tortured to near death and she dies in his arms. He allows his impetuousness and allowance of his emotions to get the better of him lead him to taking his anger and grief (and I think guilt for not preventing it) out on those he sees as responsible, taking revenge. He places more of this blame onto being held back, onto Obi-Wan (imo also onto the jedi), and promises that he will be so powerful that he can prevent people from dying. There's more, like, I think, imo, Anakin focusing his emotions in his fight with Dooku, but that's basically it.

In the third movie, Anakin still has emotions on his sleeve, and is pushed by Dooku to use them in battle. I think he seems to use them to win, maybe. Palpatine prods him further and Anakin listens, takes revenge on Dooku, but feels like he shouldn't have, Palpatine justifies it to Anakin as him being too dangerous to be kept alive. Anakin begins having dreams about what he thinks is Padme's death, that he compares to the dreams about his mom. Anakin's ego is still present among himself in these situations, his desire for more than he has, him showing his lack of emotional control when denied a master rank. Palpatine continuing to feed into it, as well, I think. Anakin feels betrayed by the jedi council when they ask him to spy on Palpatine, saying it's treason, and Obi-Wan saying that they're at war, Anakin saying after that it's against the jedi code. Anakin refuses to acknowledge his actual issues and admit his situation to anyone about Padme. He goes to Yoda, with a seemingly vague description of this, and states that he won't let this happen. Yoda tells him to let go. Anakin doesn't listen.

Palpatine presents him with the option of the dark side being able to prevent death. Along with softening the differences between the jedi and the sith, suggesting a classic villain perspective of moral relativism, and a take over by the jedi. Palpatine lays, some of, his cards on the table. Anakin is still trying to control himself and doesn't murder him like he wants to. Anakin, I think is suggested, to want to have Palpatine arrested, so he can use this to gain information he wants on how to use the dark side to prevent Padme's death, kinda trying to straddle the fence, I think. Mace tells Anakin to stay behind. Anakin is emotionally driven by the idea that Mace could kill Palpatine and the way to prevent Padme's death may be lost with him. He goes and comes to Mace going to murder Palpatine, justifying it as him being too dangerous to be left alive. Anakin states that it's not the jedi way. Mace swings, Anakin in an emotional impetuous action swings in defense of Palpatine, after stating that he needs Palpatine. Palpatine seems to murder Mace.

IMO, Anakin, guilt ridden at what he's done, has now betrayed the jedi, and is left with nothing but Padme, telling Palpatine that he'll do whatever he asks, if he helps him save Padme's life, as he can't live without her, and Palpatine spins a tale of justification to Anakin for his action, that the jedi are bad and that it's necessary to kill them all or the jedi will kill them and the senators, it's a tale Anakin accepts, a tale of moral relativism (one that he justifies with the notion that Mace and Palpatine have shown him that they're the same, dismissing the jedi code in the interest of murdering someone they say is too dangerous to live), to justify what he's done and what he will do, including the murder/killing of younglings, all in the name of rescuing Padme, he justifies it, that's his morally relative perspective. Palpatine tells him to show no mercy and do what must be done only then will he be strong enough to save Padme. Anakin obeys.

And, I think, the more he corrupts himself, doing whatever is deemed necessary to prevent Padme's death, the less he accepts that he's wrong, the more he blames others, the more power is within his grasp, the more he lets his ego fuel himself, the more power grasps for, the more he thinks he's not beholden to morality, that he and Padme can take over, make things be however they want them to be, that the morality is relative, something they can decide, his attachment to Padme turns to greed, possessiveness and controlling, but Padme refuses him and he tries to control her, to force her to stay, he's too afraid to lose her you see (him allowing his original emotions about his mom that once drove him to be twisted into something toxic and hurtful), and when faced with his harsh reality, that he's done terrible things, that he's hurt the woman he claimed this was for, he refuses to accept responsibility, and blames Obi-Wan. He's a villain now.

 

I think he was damage, in some way.

 

While I agree that some of the PT story could have been executed better, I am fine with & love the story that we got.

 

What we got.

 

Trying to make a film about the whole Jedi starting out seems a really bad idea, much better to leave that amount of the past to the imagination, and so really does not having Anakin until III, better to have a trilogy just, like the OT, with and about our heroes. That whole original plan is the original plan according to Kurtz and the idea (along with stretching out the battle with the Emperor all the way to part IX rather than VI) sounds way too inconsistent with what we got and worked in IV and V.