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@ A Town Called Malus

Good points.

Does that mean then that when they're introduced, Padme and Anakin should already be an item? To save out on all that nonsense?

 Future War Cultist wrote:
@ A Town Called Malus

Good points.

Does that mean then that when they're introduced, Padme and Anakin should already be an item? To save out on all that nonsense?

Not necessarily. The problem isn't showing them fall in love on screen, it is how badly it was done, which is a bit of a running theme with the prequels (some good ideas but executed poorly).

Just some rough ideas, mostly revolving around Anakins character and his arc:

- Have them meeting when they are already late teens/early 20s. Anakin is training to be a Jedi, Padme is a senator/queen/princess of Naboo (or maybe a senators aide, to account for her age). This should happen in the first film of the trilogy and their adult friendship should start to build in this film, rather than the child/older woman thing that they had going on in TPM. Then in the second film, it becomes a romantic relationship and culminates in the third film with the birth of Luke and Leia and the death of Padme.

- Give Anakin an already darker, aggressive personality from the beginning. Do not have him be a whiny, petulant teenager but rather a troubled young man, scarred by his experiences as a slave on Tatooine. Show that he is unable to form friendships with his fellow Jedi, with the exception of Obi-Wan who he trusts completely for rescuing him from slavery, which often leaves him feeling isolated and alone. His differences with the Jedi council are due to his upbringing as a slave, making him resentful of the master/apprentice relationship and often causing him to lose his temper when they give him orders which he disagrees with. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, treats him as a friend and equal, able to bring out his better qualities such as his loyalty.

- Have the Emperor kill Padme with an assassin during childbirth. Obi-Wan manages to save Luke and Leia (who neither he nor the Emperor expected), however in doing so he leaves evidence that he was there behind, hands Leia over to Organa to protect. This event serves as the tipping point which pushes Anakin over to the dark side after the Emperor shows Anakin that Obi-Wan was there and leads Anakin to believe that Obi-Wan killed Padme on the orders of the Jedi council and has stolen his child. Cue Anakin killing Jedi council members, the scattering and isolation of Jedi across the galaxy and him tracking down Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan has heard of what Anakin did to the council through Yoda and resolves that he cannot let Anakin have his children as he is too unstable. Cue duel in which Obi-Wan tries to make Anakin stand down and listen to him but Anakin is too enraged. Anakin loses limbs and gets burned (out of reach of Obi-Wan who is distraught that he can do nothing to help his friend), Emperor arrives, forcing Obi-Wan to flee. Obi-Wan escapes and fakes his and Lukes deaths before placing him in the care of Owen.

In general the first film should set up the Clone Wars, show the growing discontent with the republic in planets with separatist leanings. This culminates in the official start of the war.

The second film should be set several years after the beginning of the war. It is devastating whole planets and crippling the traditional economy of the Republic which begins its slide into handing more power to the Chancellor. However the chancellor should not be Palpatine yet. He is biding his time and getting power solidified in the top position before taking it himself in order to deflect suspicion away from himself. Second film culminates in a huge separatist attack on Coruscant which kills the chancellor and all of his government except for Palpatine before it is repelled by the republic forces. As Sidious, Palpatine plotted with Senators to facilitate the attack, plots which Palpatine then exposes. In light of the Senate being infiltrated by the separatists, supreme power is handed over to the newly formed Supreme Chancellor position for the duration of the war, which Palpatine is then elected to due to his experience in the previous government and for his role in exposing the treason within the Senate.

Yes, all that please. That's a far better idea than what we got. This is why I think this needs to be done. There's so much potential here, see?

I think anakin would work best as an overzealous vigilante type. He generally wants to protect the little people and uphold order, but his rage means that he goes berserk when dealing with the raiders of the Galaxy. Jedi are supposed to try and reason with the enemy and only defend themselves but anakin would think nothing of hacking pirates etc. to bits because 'they deserve it'. Him and Tarkin should be like two peas in a pod. Both wanted order and peace in the galaxy but go to extremes to get it. And the emperor is a tyrant who just wants the power for the sake of it, and is very good at manipulation.

Here's a few things I hope for too:

1. Don't show yoda. At all. Mention him for sure but don't show him. Imagine someone in the future was watching this series from start to finish for the first time. By keeping yoda a secret it makes him more significant when we do eventually see him in episode V. Say that anakin has passed all that part of his training and now it's in the field training.

2. Don't have R2 or 3PO in it either. They raise far too many questions if they're in it.

3. Again, try to match the atheistics of the originals more. Chunky looking ships with lots of 'bits' and blasters that look like real guns.

One last thing; you see how Lucas made obi-wan's robes the 'Jedi uniform'? Don't do that. Give them better gear than that.

One of the things I think the prequels did wrong was they showed Anakin becoming Darth Vader.

Wait, wait... let me finish...

Remember when you first saw ESB? Remember how your jaw hit the floor when Vader said "I am your father" to Luke?

Well, if you reveal Anakin's transformation into Vader in Ep 1-3, you destroy the strongest, most memorable moment of the OT. You rob younger generations who have not seen ESB of that moment of surprise when they learn that Vader is Anakin.

So why show Anakin's fall at all? It isn't needed for the PT. Just make the PT about the rise of the Emperor and the fall of the Republic. Have Obi-Wan in it, but as a secondary character, like Wedge. Have Anakin exist only as a character other people talk about, but who never makes an appearance on screen. End the third movie with the Emperor in charge and the Jedi weakened, but still around. They don't all have to die in a montage in Ep3. Have them still around, still nominally a part of the government, but starting to pull away, as they dislike the idea of the Empire. Leave the actual Jedi purges for the space between Ep 3 and 4. We don't need to see the purges, since Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader hunted down and destroyed the Jedi in Ep 4.

Keep the sense of wonder and surprise in the OT, which we all experienced as kids. Don't destroy that surprise for your kids by showing them Anakin's fall.

It has always been a bit funny that no matter which order you watch the films (original then prequels or prequels then original), they will get spoiled.

Watch the prequels first, ESB big reveal is ruined. Watch the originals first and Anakins fall is ruined.

Bit of a catch 22

'Course the correct order is originals first as the twist in ESB is much better, not to mention the quality of the films.

@ squidhills

Damn that's a good point.

Maybe the trick is to scrap the idea of episodes 1-3...rename episode IV back to episode 1 (and shift all the others back) and tell the story of Anakin through one of these spin off movies they're using? Skywalker: a Star Wars story? That way, anyone watching them can watch the main episodes first them watch the spin offs later to get the story without it being spoiled. It's drastic but it might be the only way to fix this.

squidhills wrote:

Remember when you first saw ESB? Remember how your jaw hit the floor when Vader said "I am your father" to Luke?

Well, if you reveal Anakin's transformation into Vader in Ep 1-3, you destroy the strongest, most memorable moment of the OT. You rob younger generations who have not seen ESB of that moment of surprise when they learn that Vader is Anakin.

That's why, as Malus said, you watch the OT first.

The 'reveals' in the Prequels are less of a big deal, really, as most of them are things we already knew about by that point (although a surprising number of people got all the way to Episode 3 before accepting that Palpatine and Sidious were the same person...).


Having said that, I would have preferred to skip Padme's lame 'Oh look, she just died because reasons' ending... Have her die from the injuries Anakin inflicted on her, but with Obi Wan spiriting her body away to a med facility where the babies are saved but not named at that point. Finish with Obi Wan taking the babies off into the sunset to undisclosed destinations.



The frustration for me is that there are a lot of good threads in a prequels, they're just played out badly. Particularly, Anakin and Padme's romance is never really believable in the same way as Han and Leia's was, and the movies focus too much on Petulant Apprentice Anakin and not enough on Anakin the 'good friend'... so you never really care enough when he suddenly decides to be a bad guy.


Having said that, I still enjoy the prequels... I never had any particularly high expectations from them other than spaceships, explosions and laser sword fights with the occasional amusing one-liner, and on that front at least they deliver.

 insaniak wrote:

The frustration for me is that there are a lot of good threads in a prequels, they're just played out badly. Particularly, Anakin and Padme's romance is never really believable in the same way as Han and Leia's was, and the movies focus too much on Petulant Apprentice Anakin and not enough on Anakin the 'good friend'... so you never really care enough when he suddenly decides to be a bad guy.

Didn't most people find the Anakin and Padme romance creepy as hell? Who the hell falls for someone they knew as a little kid when they were significantly older?

I agree with the point on Anakin there. Should've been less friction between Anakin and Obi-wan early on. Also, the sudden change is ludicrous. Why did they even have him kill all the Jedi younglings (stupid word to use as well!)? It makes so sense that he'd go that swiftly. I stopped a Jedi from executed someone. Well, better kill a bunch of kids. It's not as if clone troopers wouldn't have been able to handle it either. Or hell, frame the Jedi for it so you don't have the awkwardness of explaining why you killed a load of kids.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

Didn't most people find the Anakin and Padme romance creepy as hell? Who the hell falls for someone they knew as a little kid when they were significantly older?

She wasn't really 'significantly older' though. He was 9, and she was 14. Bit of a gap when they met, but nothing at all significant when they re-encountered each other as adults.


What made it creepy was just grown-up Anakin being distinctly unsettling when he went into full-on stalker mode.

I agree with the point on Anakin there. Should've been less friction between Anakin and Obi-wan early on. Also, the sudden change is ludicrous. Why did they even have him kill all the Jedi younglings (stupid word to use as well!)? It makes so sense that he'd go that swiftly. I stopped a Jedi from executed someone. Well, better kill a bunch of kids. It's not as if clone troopers wouldn't have been able to handle it either. Or hell, frame the Jedi for it so you don't have the awkwardness of explaining why you killed a load of kids.

Exactly. There should have been a longer period where he was starting to do Palpatine's dirty work and where you would get occasional glimpses of the anger and insecurity lurking inside an otherwise seemingly normal Jedi... and then have him forced to take sides when Order 66 kicks in.

Instead, his morals melted as quickly as Palpatine's face, and it was all just a bit jarring.

 insaniak wrote:

Exactly. There should have been a longer period where he was starting to do Palpatine's dirty work and where you would get occasional glimpses of the anger and insecurity lurking inside an otherwise seemingly normal Jedi... and then have him forced to take sides when Order 66 kicks in.

Instead, his morals melted as quickly as Palpatine's face, and it was all just a bit jarring.

This. He could have been used as Palpatines assassin, taking out separatist leaders without trial or chance to surrender throughout the films. He is still contributing to the war, which would allow for him to think he was doing good, and it allows Palpatine to start dripping his views on power and the weakness of the senate when it comes to doing what needs to be done into Anakins head.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
Also, the sudden change is ludicrous. Why did they even have him kill all the Jedi younglings (stupid word to use as well!)? It makes so sense that he'd go that swiftly. I stopped a Jedi from executed someone. Well, better kill a bunch of kids. It's not as if clone troopers wouldn't have been able to handle it either. Or hell, frame the Jedi for it so you don't have the awkwardness of explaining why you killed a load of kids.

If they had to include the Jedi kids getting killed at all, it should have been once Anakin had become Vader. Anakin should have been unstable and dangerous, but not a ruthless psycho. He was still dangerous, and Obi Wan still had to defeat him.

But it is only when he is reborn as Vader that he becomes a ruthless slaughterer.

I whole heartily with everything you're all saying. And if we can stop that whinny 'I should be the greatest Jedi' bollocks then all the better.

Should a future actor playing anakin try to match Vader's speech and manners more? Because I can't believe that that guy we see in the prequels becomes Vader.