I have been sitting on this for far too long, and it is time now that I finally speak out. With what is coming in the next several months, I simply cannot sit by and not say anything.
Episode I:
Anakin should have been 15 or so, Padme 17 or so. I get that Anakin as a little kid pulled at people's heart strings, thinking of him as Vader, but seriously we didn't need to see that. Make him about Luke's age when he stared with the Force, and make Padme closer to his age.
Episode II:
There was no reason for Anakin's and Padme's love to be forbidden. Nothing pointed to celibacy for Jedi in the previous movies, and having their relationship be forbidden did nothing for the plot or character development...it simply added a mundane and uncomfortable side plot. Also, make Anakin less whiny and a bit more adept with a light saber. Duku can win and all, but the dual saber part of the fight was too short and lame.
Episode III:
Ok, here we go. Anakin and Obi Wan should have fought Duku together the whole time and defeated him together (making the final fight scene between Obi Wan and Vader plausible...not to mention making Obi Wan a lot cooler). Then, once Duku was handless and defeated, Anakin should have killed him with Obi Wan protesting and Palpatine cheering him on.
Then, when they return to Coruscant, Anakin would be in trouble with the Jedi Council, them sensing his rage taking over, executing Duku out of vengeance. Anakin is now demoted back to training, and he doesn't take to that very well.
He leaves and spends the rest of the movie by himself, with Palpatine as his only companion via Anakin's ships' coms and then later via Jedi telepathy. Anakin fights the baddies with Palpatine cheering him on, teaching him about the Dark Side like he did in the movie. Palpatine tells Anakin that he is indeed a Sith Lord, but that he is really a good guy and that Duku had gone against him, making the separatists. Anakin grows stronger and stronger, relying more and more on his anger.
Notice I haven't mentioned Padme yet.
Anakin doesn't see her in the beginning and doesn't know she is pregnant. With him in exile, she doesn't tell him, afraid of him.
Eventually, the Jedi council finally figures out that Palpatine is the Sith Lord (they knew he was surrounded by the dark side of the force, and he wouldn't give up power once Grievous was killed). He recalls Anakin, knowing what is coming. The council confronts him like in the movie, and Anakin intervenes, like in the movie.
Then, when Mace Windu tells Anakin that Palpatine has to be killed, Anakin gets really angry, saying, "so now it's ok, but for me it was exile?" He then kills Windu out of anger and hatred...Padme has nothing to do with it.
The rest of the movie goes basically like the real one, except that Padme doesn't die. She goes to Alderan with Leia and dies several years later when Leia is young, but old enough to have "images" and "feelings" of her mom who died when she was very young.
This makes Anakin's betrayal of the Jedi more plausible, and ties in better with the first three movies.
You're welcome, world.
2 comments:
Yes please!! I can rewrite the second movie. It's supposed to be a love story, but it sucked. I can write love stories! I don't even mind the forbidden love thing...as long as it makes sense and is done right, not two wooden characters having the same argument over and over again with zero chemistry between them. Agree that Anakin should've been older in Phantom Menace. Agree completely that he needed to be less whiny throughout. But I would add less angry and more heroic in general. Seriously, Darth Vader was so much more rational than Anankin ever was; it was like embracing his hatred and going evil gave him inner calm. (Yeah, Vader did some unnecessary force choking, but Anankin was ridiculously hotheaded. If Vader had been that hotheaded, Tarkin never would've been able to hold his leash, as Leia said.) Anyway, it was clear from minute 1 of Ep II that Anakin wasn't Jedi material. Overall, Anankin needed a major rewrite. He has the main character arc of the entire series, and he lacked nuance making him mostly just annoying. He's a way better character in The Clone Wars animated series.
Also yes on the Padme can't friggin' die like that or Leia remembering her makes no sense. *sigh* I get that continuity is hard when you've got a series as beloved and memorized as Star Wars, but that's pretty egregious. SOMEBODY working on the film should've been able to point that out.
Okay. You're rewriting Ep III, because your rewrite is awesome. I'm rewriting Ep II. Who's up for Ep I? Shall we take a vote on ixnaying the midi-chlorians, or has that ship sailed and we have to deal with them? And can we please get Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson back? Everybody else (who was new; keep Ian McDiarmid and anyone else who came back from the originals) I can take or leave. (Often leave being the preferred option.)
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you Jax. I'll get on it. Yes, writing Anakin like in the Clone Wars would be good - heck, get the voice actor to play him (maybe). Midi-chlorians - gone. It's the Force, not biology.
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