LogFAQs > #942934799

(cont)

By Episode 3, both Anakin and Obi-Wan (and the Republic as a whole) are worn down by constant war. It should be established that the war has taken a toll on most planets (and people), and not just being some stupid thing most people can ignore as if it wasn't even happening. It's that fatigue and fear that will allow Palpatine to take over (if anything, the Palpatine parts of the Prequels are about the only elements I'd mostly keep intact - they're a fairly strong arc, and having him slowly manipulate his way into power works well. But it almost works better if he's NOT playing both sides of the war, but merely taking advantage of a war that would have happened regardless). Obi-Wan is well on his way to the more tired, sardonic self he is in Episode IV, but Anakin is going down a darker route. Frustration, bitterness. A desire to see the war end (especially since part of him just wants to settle down and live a normal life with his girlfriend/wife, raise a family, etc). THIS is what ultimately drives him to darker measures - a desire to end war, to bring order to a chaotic galaxy. In his mind he's doing it for his love and his family, but he's starting to go to greater extremes, and this in turn is what drives his love away (and thus giving birth in secret).

Padme doesn't die in childbirth (that's lame, and contradicts Episode VI). Anakin doesn't turn to save her, only to kill her (that's ironic, but also lame). What happens is that she leaves him - and he lets her go, because he loves her. She's not a possession to be kept, or a prisoner to be held against her will (again, we need to LIKE Anakin, not have him be a shit). She leaves, he lets her go - and afterwards she finds out she's pregnant. THAT'S why Anakin never realizes he has children. And that's the weakness that never allows him to truly embrace the Dark Side - even until the end, he preserves his love for her in his heart, and on some level believes that everything he does makes the galaxy a better place.

He never attempts to find her, or reclaim her, or even see her again, because after he's burned and fully becomes "Vader", he no longer considers himself worthy of her. "No one could love the half-man that I have become." He makes himself cold, and callous, and pretends that he no longer loves her, to PROTECT himself. But that pain is always there. That love is always there. Buried deep. And that's what Luke calls up in the end. That's what redeems him.

And no, "Anakin" and "Vader" aren't magically two different people, because that's stupid. Vader IS Anakin - just a hurt, broken, bitter Anakin who spends decades trying to hide from himself inside a mask and a shadow. The sort of man who would probably go "No, that man is dead" if someone ever called him Anakin. Because he's lying to himself.

This also explains why he never hunts down Obi-Wan, in spite of Obi-Wan barely bothering to really disguise his identity in hiding. On some level, Vader doesn't really want to face Obi-Wan again, because he lost the first time. If anything, the reason he lost the first time might be tied to why he doesn't seek him out again - at some level, buried deep, he still has some fleeting fondness for his old master, and the times they spent together. That fondness isn't enough to prevent him from killing him when they meet again, but it's enough to keep him from actively searching the entire galaxy for him to seek him out.

So Episode III is where we finally see Anakin turn to the Dark Side, betray the Jedi, and join the Emperor. The Clone Wars end, and maybe we get to see Anakin/Vader kill/hunt down a Jedi or two himself, or maybe we just imply that's in the future, taking place in the time between the two trilogies. Episode III is also where Obi-Wan realizes (too late) that Anakin is falling, spending most of the film trying to redeem him before finally facing him at the end. We probably also get a scene between Obi-Wan and Yoda, where Obi-Wan admits that he wasn't as good a teacher as Yoda, while Yoda tells his former apprentice that all things happen for a reason (perhaps this is where the prophecy is finally hammered home, and we realize that the "Balance" Anakin is bringing to the Force is a galaxy where there aren't dozens of Jedi and only two Sith, but two and two. Or perhaps both the Sith AND the Jedi are disruptive in their own way, and the true balance is a galaxy where they're both gone).

(The prophecy is mostly there just to further the Anakin-as-Space-Jesus allegory, though, and I find that incredibly stupid, because it greatly diminishes Luke's role in the story as well as feeling kind of cheesy, so we could do away with the prophecy entirely and I'd be fine with that.)

For bonus points, if we've managed to establish a couple other cool and likeable characters in the previous two movies as side-kicks and friends to Anakin and Obi-Wan, Episode III is where we kill them off. If it happens earlier enough we can have Anakin rage over the loss (thus furthering his fall), or if it happens later on, he can remain cold and callous (thus highlighting how far he's already fallen). If we have enough likeable side-characters, we can do both.

My other main points of contention for the overarching story are the Clone War itself and the droids. We should probably make the Clone Wars something where the clones are the enemy, not a lame plot twist to try and sterilize the war by having it be between robots and clones (supported by the fact that in real life, we usually tend to name wars after the people we're fighting, not ourselves - the Punic Wars were named that because the Romans won, and then wrote about their victories against the Punic Empire of Carthage). Make the clones alien monsters, and emphasize that good men and women (actual people) are dying fighting them (thus turning the people against the Republic). Make them evil enough that we don't start asking moral questions about the Republic killing them all, or leave us feeling guilty about them all getting wiped out to end the war. The Empire should be seen as a thing to praise (at first), a powerful unified government that was finally able to end the threat for good. The Empire calls it the Clone Wars because they fought and defeated clones. The end.

As for the droids, no, I don't care if people like 3PO and R2, they shouldn't be in the Prequels. We see their story begin in A New Hope, and retconning them back into everything else is contrived as fuck. If we need new droid characters, we can come up with cool ones (like the one everyone liked from Rogue One, not the one everyone hated from Solo).

Basically, what Lucas should have done is sat down, actually watched his own fucking movies, and parsed out what Obi-Wan said, and tried to make the Prequels feel more like the universe was actually implied to be, rather than deciding to go off an entirely different path that feels like it barely fits in the same franchise, and then half-ass the character turn that is supposed to be the entire point of the Prequels in the first place.