LogFAQs > #942932824

Blightzkrieg posted...

Start at AotC, spread the conspiracy nonsense over 2.5 movies instead of cramming it all into a short jibberish sideplot

I've actually said this for years.

Episode 1 - have the Clone Wars either already started or on the verge of starting when the movie begins (ideally, the Clone Wars becomes the unifying conflict across all three movies - for thematic power, have the first shot fired at the very beginning of Episode I and the last few minutes of Episode III is its ending). Obi-Wan (as a full Jedi, and without any added complications from Qui-Gon, who should never have existed - YODA was Obi-Wan's master) meets Anakin (as a hotshot teenage pilot, who clearly uses his unconscious affinity for the Force to augment his skills - basically, make him the Han Solo of this trilogy), and Obi-Wan senses the Force potential in him. This movie winds up being a relatively straightforward adventure where the two (and possibly some likeable side-characters) save the day (if only for the moment). This would be the perfect time to introduce the Padme character (as an older female character, preferably a heroic role in her own right and not just a love interest) and lean very heavily into the flirty attraction between her and Anakin - if they're not dating by the end of the movie, it should be obvious they soon will be.

We're left with Anakin as main character and Obi-Wan as a slightly older, more staid, but still somewhat reckless himself Straight Man (in some ways, replicate but reverse the Han/Luke dynamic - instead of a world-weary pilot and a young earnest Jedi-in-training you have the young pilot and the Jedi is the one who's been around and seen things). We're also left with a main character we actually LIKE, and thus the impact of the turn will have more pathos. And ideally, we've laid the groundwork for a romance that doesn't feel creepy, awkward, and incredibly shoehorned in later.

Also, as an aside, drop the prophecy thing unless it's a LOT more subtle, and don't have the entire Jedi Council opposed to training Anakin. Ideally, there shouldn't BE a Jedi Council - the Jedi should be a relatively small order of wandering monks who travel from planet to planet, inserting themselves into dangerous situations, and diffusing them before they grow too disruptive. They're like the stereotypical Wild West gunslinger (or the ronin samurai they were literally based on), riding into town, saving the day, and then riding off into the sunset. Jedi should probably be relatively rare (which explains why people think the Force is a myth and the Jedi are obsolete only a few decades later - most people in the galaxy probably never SEE a Jedi once in their entire lives even at the height of their power), and we only occasionally see a few new ones show up during the Prequels (crossing paths with Anakin and Obi-Wan during the war). If we need the prophecy at all, have it be something even most Jedi have never heard of, maybe something only Yoda remembers, which he mentions at some point but which doesn't become the entire driving focus of the plot. Obi-Wan shouldn't feel obligated to train Anakin because Qui-Gon decided he was Space Jesus/THE CHILD OF PROPHECY, Obi-Wan should train Anakin because OBI-WAN saw potential in Anakin.

Also along those lines, there's NO Jedi Academy/classes/etc where dozens of "younglings" are training. That's stupid, lame, and kind of contradicts how Obi-Wan implies things were. Jedi should probably be following a more traditional master/apprentice relationship (the same way the Sith do - thus heightening the similarities between the Jedi and Sith). Anakin's ultimate turn thus winds up being a simple shift from one master to another, with the core difference in philosophies being that the Jedi eventually turn their apprentices loose (and both former master and former apprentice will eventually take on new apprentices of their own), while the Sith don't allow an apprentice to take apprentices of their own until they kill their master (and vice-versa). The Jedi are a branching tree, the Sith are a line.

Episode 2 starts a few years later. We're still in the middle of the Clone Wars. Anakin has been training with Obi-Wan for a while by this point, and is more or less a Jedi. The master/student dynamic is bolstered by the fact that they get along very well - Obi-Wan's nostalgia for Anakin being "a good friend" makes ZERO sense from anything we see in the Prequels as they exist (where Anakin is a shit 90% of the time) - we NEED to see the two of them actually LIKING each other. We NEED to see Anakin as "a good man" before we can appreciate his fall - as is, he just comes across like a broken child who never really matures, who is a bad seed from birth, and who was always destined to fall. That's not tragedy.

Ideally, we continue the Han/Luke parallel. In the original films Luke and Han start out somewhat at odds, but then slowly grow into close friends. For 80% of the trilogy, we fully believe either of them would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. So we reverse that for Anakin/Obi-Wan - they start out close almost immediately, are obviously best friends for 80% of the trilogy, and it's only at the end when Anakin starts to fall that their relationship sours.

To further the overall arc, we see hints of Anakin's recklessness or darker potential (not blatantly murdering dozens of Sand People and then "feeling bad" about it later for about 5 minutes, that's stupid). Best-case scenario, Obi-Wan isn't around for these darker moments, but Padme (or Padme substitute) is. She might worry about them, or perhaps her love for him is stronger than her fear, and she supports him because she knows he's a "good man", and "things aren't always black and white".

(cont)
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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family