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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
 Posted - 06/24/2007 : 4:49:23 PM
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I wouldn't have Vader kill Amidala outright; you'd probably want to find a way to work around that. And it'd be more poignant (to me, anyway), if Amidala died of illness unrelated to the fighting. One could ask, "What might have happened if they caught that heart murmur earlier?"
Other than that, well, it's sketchy, like you said. But I see a storyline there that's a lot better than what Lucas fobbed off on us.
I don't know what the rules for publishing fanfic are. But you might want to work on that storyline and put it out there as an alternative-reality story. I'd be interested in reading it. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2007 : 8:42:10 PM
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But what about Scarecrow's brain? I mean "Lea"?
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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Altair IV
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Japan
110 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2007 : 12:40:56 PM
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I like your treatise, Jack. It certainly is a much stronger story than the one we were given. On the other hand, there are a few things I disagree with (imagine that ;-)).
Actually, the basic structure of Lucas' prequels is not that bad, and indeed follows fairly well the way most people speculated it would: the emperor-to-be instigates a "clone war" that strains the old Republic to the breaking point, at which time he moves in to cement his leadership. That's all fine. The problem was entirely in Lucas' poor execution of it.
And sorry, but I just can't get behind the "Cloan" thing. People did have a good image of what clones were, even back in the late 70's, and that single throwaway line was dynamite. It immediately conjured up images of whole battalions of identical fighters, advancing zombie-like on a few desparate lone defenders. To throw that all away with a similar-sounding-name gimmick would be a torture for the audience almost as bad as Jar Jar Binks.
Besides, the basic idea had already been hashed out in the various Star Wars novels. In the excellent Thrawn Trilogy, they explained the Clone Wars as an invasion by a mysterious race of Clone Masters, one that almost succeeded in taking over the galaxy. With an nearly unlimited supply of soldiers and the ability to create perfect duplicates of individuals, they almost succeeded in destroying the Republic. About their only hindrance was that clones took a long time to grow, as pushing them to maturity too quickly resulted in uncontrollable personality instabilities due to the effects of the Force on their unnatural existence. This war exhausted the Republic, allowing Vader to then destroy the remaining Jedi and Palpatine to take over virtually unimpeded.
I do wholeheartedly agree with you that having two disposable armies fighting each other leaves one not caring about either of them, so I would have simply dumped the droids. They were a real cop-out anyway. Lucas has obviously caught the same avoid-graphic-violence disease Spielberg did, and just wanted an enemy his heroes could destroy with impunity. I remember it being one of the big criticisms of TPM when it came out. Much better would've been just to make the clones the main enemy from the outset, and not have ignored and broken continuity with years of novel-writing.
I thought Lucas' pacing of the whole story arc was a bit off too. I agree that they started Anakin too young. The arc of your treatise follows my original imaginings much more closely. I personally would've had the first movie introduce the clones as the big new threat to the galaxy, the second would show the corruption and downfall of Anakin amid the clone wars, and the third movie would have the final downfall of the Republic and the rise of the Emperor (and his second-in-command), where it's finally revealed that he was behind the whole war all along.
I also had a good idea for how Anakin became Vader. In my version, Anakin would be slowly corrupted by Palpatine until he essentially developed a split personality. On the one side, he'd be the good apprentice, and on the other he'd take up the black suit and hunt down Jedi Knights. The surprise would be that each side had no memory of being the other, allowing the corruption to take place undetected. And under Palpatine's influence, over time the dark side would take more control until he became Vader permanently, bringing about the final betrayal. This would also have the added benefit of gelling with Obi-Wan's explanation of what happened to Luke's father in the original trilogy as well as explaining why Vader didn't initially show any memory of his children or the Skywalker name...because he didn't even know that he WAS Anakin.
And for god's sake yes, leave out all the cameo appearances. One or two well-placed ones, maybe. Yoda, definitely. But not half the original cast. That was just stupid.
Now, I'm not a real prequel-hater like some people. I can't really understand why people revile them as much as they do. But I do agree that they are much weaker than they could've, and should've, been. To me the movies were about average on the whole, with some good points and some (well, many) weak points, but still enjoyable in the end. But it certainly is obvious from conversations like this that just about anyone could've whipped up a better prequel trilogy than Lucas did.
BTW, one last question. What does OOT stand for exactly? I can tell from context that it refers to the Original Trilogy, but what's the second 'O'? |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2007 : 09:55:17 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Greenhornet
But what about Scarecrow's brain? I mean "Lea"?
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935
Well, that's because my little revisionist idea doesn't have Leia turn out to be Luke's sister. I had read an [url="http://movies.ign.com/articles/376/376873p4.html"]interview with producer Gary Kurtz[/url] where he gives some tantilizing hints of what was the real "original vision" for Star Wars.
quote:
...At that time, he always said that he had enough material for three earlier films and three later films, to make a total of nine, and there were outlined materials certainly for a later three that culminated with this big clash with the Emperor in Episode IX. So, we'll never see any of those, based on what he's said now...
... The resolution of [Return of the Jedi] was going to be quite bittersweet, with Han Solo being killed, and the princess having to take over as queen of what remained of her people, leaving everybody else. In effect, Luke was left on his own. None of that happened, of course.
...It would have been quite sad, and poignant and upbeat at the same time, because they would have won a battle. But the idea of another attack on another Death Star wasn't there at all ... it was a rehash of Star Wars, with better visual effects. And there were no Ewoks ... it was just entirely different. It was much more adult and straightforward, the story.
So, part of my idea is to redo Return of the Jedi into Revenge of the Jedi to make the better story that was originally planned but scrapped. This won't win me any favors from the fans, of course. However, in spite of all this, I would keep the confrontation with the Emperor.
I then have an even more vague idea for a Sequel Trilogy, involving Luke and his apprentice rebuilding the Jedi Knights in the fledgling New Republic.
I plan on making the Jedi much older than Lucas had planned. I would have a throwaway line in the PT where Mace mentions how the Jedi fought to preserve peace since the days when there blades were made of steel.
Actually, I saw a bit of confrontation between Obi Wan and Mace Windu. Windu was more introspective. He says Obi Wan could have be the greatest Jedi who ever lived, but he was too much of a glory hound, which is a trait unbecoming for a Jedi. (Windu says he tells Obi Wan this because he is worried about him, which is a trait unbecoming for a Jedi) This greatest Jedi who ever live would be a refrain throughout the PT.
(Also, I had an idea that Boba Fett should be present at the final confrontation in the PT and shoots at Obi Wan but hits what is assumed to be Luke and disintigates it. This gives weight to the "No disintigrations" line in Empire)
In any case, the Sequels start with an aging Luke has a young apprentice who is supposed to be the star of the show with Luke as a supporting character this time around. Luke gets separated from his apprentice at some point (This allows us the chance to see a young, unready Jedi rise to the occasion) and he is captured by the Lords of the Sith. It turns out the Sith were not ousted from power many years ago when the Republic was formed, but were actually the architects of the Republic. They had decided that it was better to be the power behind the throne and had been running things in the background all this time. When a Sith named Palpatine decided to seize power and bring back the glory days of the Sith Empire, the Sith sent the Cloan Armada (or Mandalorian Clone Armada?) to stop him. When that failed, the Sith helped form the Rebel Alliance and eventually brought Palpatine down, restored the Republic, and went back to enjoying their position of manipulating things from behind the scenes.
I like this idea because it raises the stakes. In the OT, Palpatine was the face of ultimate evil, but here we learn he was just small potatoes compared to these guys. Especially their leader, Tyrranus (see? reusing names) who insists on calling Luke the Son of Vader, to his chagrin. It also ties all three trilogies together as it turns out the Sith were a present and active force, albeit unseen, in all 9 movies.
Luke's apprentice, meanwhile, gets involved in his (her?) own adventures and meets up with a man who calls himself Qui Gon Jin. This Qui Gon turns out to be like Don Quiote. That is, he's completely nuts and thinks he's a Jedi Knight. Qui Gon is followed by an alien whose life Qui Gon had saved and now the alien owes him a life debt and basically has to keep chasing Qui gon around to keep him out of trouble. And that alien's name is... wait for it... Jar Jar Binks.
Yes, I actually would use Jar Jar. Call me crazy. But, keep in mind, this is not the same Jar Jar we all know and loathe. The actual jar jar was supposed to be comedy relief but he did little besides bumbling around and he got to add farting to the Star Wars cannon. This Jar Jar gets his humor from the interplay with the insane Qui Gon, which I think is more befitting Star Wars and likely to just be funny for a change. But then, if anyone could make Jar Jar Bink likable in any way, it would be a miracle.
The last idea I have may not fit the ST and may be better for a TV series or something. Basically, the galaxy gets invaded by aliens from Outside. As in outside this dimension. As in they are not part of the Force. Although, come to think of it, this may have been done by an EU book, but I don't think I actually read it. In either case, I would see these being as like Lovecraftian Horror type stuff.
What happens is the apprentice, we'll call him Iro Oro to save typing, has his adventures fighting these things along side the crazy dude. He turns out to have all of the best traits of character before him. Such as, he has an insight that the Force does nothing is outside of the will of the force. Qui Gon is insane because he lacks the talent to be a true Jedi. His madness makes it possible for him to be numbered amoung the Jedi. In fact, when he is eventually killed, Iro calls him the bravest Jedi who ever lived. While fighting the Lovecraftian things, he realizes they are not outside the Force, either. They actually extensions of the souls of beings in this world that have been cut off from the Force and as such have been starving, so they came to this world and feed. Once he realizes this, he finds he can defeat them and thus grows in understanding and power.
Meanwhile, Luke has thrown in with the Sith to fight the creatures, although he is also looking for ways to overthrow them as well. He butts heads with a young Sith named Maul, natch. This whole thing eventually boils over in the Sith fortress which is above the galaxy with a huge transparent floor, so it looks like they are literally fighting over the galaxy. Just before the battle engages, Iro steps in and tells Master Skywalker to extinguish his lightsabre as he will not need it. Luke exits and Iro takes on the whole Sith, but without a sabre. Mostly dodging although landing a blow here and there. The fight becomes something personal between Iro and Maul. Maul eventual saying something to the effect of "stop jumping around." Iro shrugs and agree. Maul swings his sabre at Iro and Iro catches it, holding the sabre by the blade. All of them are understandable stunned because no Jedi or Sith is that powerful. Yet, there he is. Iro invites them all to stop give up their ways and follow him. Maul refuses and commits suicide. The others do. Yes, that sounds too easy. It depends on how I sell it. Long story short, the get rid of the invading monstrosities and restore peace to the galaxy.
There is a denoument where the characters gather at a Jedi Temple and Iro is asked to give a sermon. He holds up a single flower (I understand the Buddah did this, hence where I got the idea). Many are puzzled, but some understand and laugh. (Out of the Tao Te Ching: He who does not laugh does not learn.) A little girl comes up to Iro and hold out her hand and he gives her the flower. A voice-over narrator states "With that simple sermon, generations of struggle are shown to have come to fruition. Iro Oro, the greatest Jedi who ever lived."
Obviously, the whole spiritual message will be tough to pull off in an action story. However, many of the pieces are in place to do so and it neatly ties the whole series together. All of this happened so that Iro Oro could be who he became. If I can make him more than just yet another Mary Sue. That's always the problem with such characters, isn't it?
I don't know if I'll do any more work on all this, though. I have original ideas that take precedent and I'm not working on them much, either. Oh, well. |
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