“Star Wars”: The Prequels Re-Imagined: Premises

Someday, maybe even within my lifetime, the Star Wars franchise might get a reboot. Who knows? I don’t think it will, but Hollywood has rebooted, revisited, revised, or redone other movies no one thought needed it, so it isn’t a total impossibility. It could be like the DC or Marvel Comics, where they have different “ages” with all-new origin stories and character arcs for their superheroes. And anyway, you know that there would be big money made on it, even if everyone hated it. God forbid they touch the Original Trilogy! But the Prequels may very well be fodder for rebooting. Fanboy outrage and Internet group-think are pathetic but powerful forces in the entertainment world…

Whether it happens or not, I’ve been having fun re-imagining Episodes I, II, and III. Call it “fan-reboot-fiction,” maybe? My purpose is to try to make the Prequels line up better with the hints we get about that time in the lives of Anakin and Obi-Wan, inspired by dialogue clues in IV, V, and VI. Specifically, the following (thanks, YouTube!):

“Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, You’re My Only Hope” Scene

• Obi-Wan says that Uncle Owen “didn’t hold with [Anakin’s] ideals, thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved.”
  • Takeaway: Owen and Anakin have to have known each other well enough and spent enough time together “here,” on Tatooine, for Owen to have known what ideals Anakin held.
  • Takeaway: Not gotten involved … in what? The Clone Wars must have already begun before Anakin leaves Tatooine.
• Anakin was the “best star-pilot in the galaxy,” a cunning warrior, and Obi-Wan’s good friend.
• Obi-Wan says, “Your father wanted you to have [his lightsaber] when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn’t allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damned fool idealistic crusade, like your father did.”
  • Takeaway: Obi-Wan and his “damned fool idealistic crusade” are the reason Anakin left Tatooine.
  • Takeaway: Assuming Obi-Wan is on the up-and-up and that telling Luke that Anakin wanted him to have his lightsaber was not part of the “truth from a certain point of view” (lie) of Obi-Wan’s ruse, then this also means that Anakin, though he never knew about Luke or Leia’s births, had to have at one point in time confided in Obi-Wan his wish to pass on his lightsaber to a son…
• Princess Leia’s hologram message says that Obi-Wan served Leia’s “father,” Bail Organa, in the Clone Wars.
  • Takeaway: Obi-Wan and Bail Organa have to have known each other and fought together in the Clone Wars.
  • Takeaway: Bail Organa cannot have been just a senator, but rather a military commander of some kind, (perhaps he becomes a senator after serving in the military), in which time he led Republic forces and Jedi, like Obi-Wan, serving with them.

Darth Vader vs. Obi-Wan, Death Star Fight Scene

• Vader says, “When I left you I was but a learner, now I am the master!”
  • Takeaway: By the end of Episode III, Obi-Wan must not have successfully brought Anakin up fully from apprentice/padawan status into Jedi Knight status.

Obi-Wan’s Ghost on Hoth Scene [At about 3:00]

• Obi-Wan tells Luke to go to Dagobah, saying “There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me.”
  • Takeaway: Obi-Wan must have been Yoda’s apprentice, meaning the two went on missions together.
  • Takeaway: No Qui-Gon Jinn (sorry, Liam Neeson!).

Darth Vader “I Am Your Father” Scene

• Darth Vader reveals his motivations for using the Dark Side: “To end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”
  • Takeaway: Anakin/Vader sees the power of the Dark Side in a utilitarian way.
  • Takeaway: Vader’s ends, his goals, are good – to bring order back and end the war – but his means are evil. This should give us a hint as to how, exactly, Vader was “seduced by the Dark Side of the Force,” as Obi-Wan says.
    • The point is that Anakin’s fall should feel more conflicted than it does in Episode III. It should feel like a very difficult choice. He must come to the point where he thinks using the Dark Side is his only option in order to “end this destructive conflict.”
    • But, the idea of “seduction” should also play a role, not just “this is the fastest way I can win the war.” There has to be something about the Dark Side that seems more attractive than the Light to Anakin.

Obi-Wan’s Revelation Scene

• On Dagobah, Obi-Wan’s Force ghost says, “When I first knew [Anakin], he was already a great pilot, but I was amazed at how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.”
  • Takeaway: Anakin’s prior-to-becoming-a-Jedi pilot skills should be emphasized.
  • Takeaway: Somehow, Obi-Wan’s pride in thinking he was ready to have an apprentice, and that he could be just as good a teacher to Anakin as Yoda would have been, must play a part in why Anakin fell to the Dark Side, and this failure must be more obvious in this re-imagined prequel trilogy than it is in the prequels as they are.
    • It may be, simply, that trying to train Anakin at the same time as they both were compelled to go to war was a bad idea. The concerns of the Clone Wars interfered with training time.
• Obi-Wan says, “To protect you both [Luke and Leia] from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born. The Emperor knew, as I did, that if Anakin were to have any offspring, they would be a threat to him.”
  • Question: How did Obi-Wan know what the Emperor knew?
  • Speculative Takeaway: Maybe Obi-Wan and Chancellor Palpatine were good enough friends with Anakin that they both knew he had, in his pre-Jedi life, fallen in love with Padme, so that children of Anakin were a real possibility. Obi-Wan, talking to Palpatine at one point in time, would have heard Palpatine musing about how powerful any hypothetical offspring of Anakin would be…

Luke and Leia Talk About Leia’s “Real Mother” Scene

• Leia says of her real mother, “She died when I was very young … Just images really. Feelings … She was very beautiful … kind … but sad….”
  • Takeaway: Leia has to have been born and hidden away with Padme for at least 2 years, probably 3, for her to have any kind of memory or impression of her, to make this dialogue make sense.

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Influence from Classic Literature

My studies in classical literature have greatly informed my imagination on this fan-fiction-reboot, I admit: I’m going to suggest we make Anakin more like Achilles, and Obi-Wan more like Odysseus, and to my delight I find that this character comparison already seems to fit. Plus, their names begin with the same letters, so…

In the Iliad a major motif is the Rage of Achilles; in the Prequels as they already are, the Wrath of Anakin is prevalent, with the slaying of the Tusken Raiders and his anger leading to hatred and his fall to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan says Anakin was “a cunning warrior.” Furthermore, Anakin only ever uses the Force for destructive, attacking purposes (as far as I can remember), even before falling to the Dark Side, but primarily seen after his fall, in choking innocents like Padme and manipulating the environment when in battle.

Obi-Wan, on the other hand, is very like Odysseus in his use of the Force. Odysseus is wily and uses trickery if he can: The Trojan Horse was his idea, and it was also his tricks that allowed him and his men to escape the Cyclops; Obi-Wan most prominently uses mind tricks in the movies, yes? On the death-stick dealer in the bar in Episode II, on the Stormtroopers in IV? It fits!

In the beginning of the story of the Trojan War (not the beginning of the Iliad, this story is recorded elsewhere), we first see Achilles disguised as a woman, hiding in a market, trying to get out of having to go to war for Agamemnon and Menalaus just to win Helen back. Odysseus is the only one clever enough to find Achilles and convince him to join the fight.

Let us take that scenario as a starting point, but with the difference being that Anakin was not hiding from the war. He was in fact turned out of the Jedi Order.

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Initial Premises for the Reboot

Right then. Given the clips above and their hints, and also my Anakin-Achilles, Obi-Wan-Odysseus influence, here’s my suggested re-imagined premises for a Rebooted Prequel Trilogy:

1. Let us say that the Clone Wars are already being fought by the time we see the opening scrawl of Episode I, so the first movie will be radically different in pacing, urgency of action, and tone. Better to start the whole story (that is, the entire episodic story played out over the three movie/story chunks) already with that huge conflict underway. How the Clone Wars began will be a major point of revelation for the main characters later on.
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2. Let us also say that the title “Clone Wars” more greatly signifies what it implies: There are many armies made up of quickly-produced clone soldiers fighting across multiple theaters of war. That is to say, it really is “Wars,” plural, many wars simultaneously fought between multiple governments across the galaxy, instead of one massive conflict between two large factions, at least in the beginning. The Republic has been relying on the Jedi to try to mediate peace in the conflicts, like they have for Obi-Wan’s “over a thousand generations” when the Jedi were guardians of peace and justice. But as diplomacy becomes more impossible in the wars (let us hint that this is due to the workings of the Sith behind the scenes), the Jedi are forced to fight. However, as there are not enough Jedi Knights and Masters to serve as an army unto themselves, the Republic is forced to create a clone army of its own at last resort (that is much the same as Episode II as it is. Not all aspects of the Prequels need re-imagining).
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3. Instead of a 9-year-old kid, let us say Anakin is a teenager, still a young prodigy, around 14 maybe, the first time we meet him. I don’t think seeing his preteen childhood was necessary to the story. The rationale might have been, “kids need a child hero with whom to identify.” But I was younger than 10 when I first saw Episode IV, and I don’t remember not being able to identify with Luke Skywalker just because he was a lot older than me.
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4. Let us say that while Anakin was born on Tatooine, he actually grew up on Coruscant, taken there by the Jedi when they detected him to be massively Force-sensitive. So, before we first meet him, he has already had the initial Jedi upbringing and childhood training at the Temple as a padawan, but for mysterious reasons did not pass the final Trials to become a Knight’s or Master’s Apprentice. This is a huge plot point. He was instead sent back to Tatooine to help the impoverished moisture farmers and live with and care for his mother Shmi and step-brother Owen.
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5. Anakin’s birth is still a mystery, and he has never known his father. (One of my main concerns in reworking the Trilogy is Anakin’s character, to make him a more tragic character than Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of him. Anakin was meant to be a tragic character in the movies as they are, but it just didn’t work. You end up hating him too much for all the wrong reasons.)
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6. No Qui-gon Jinn (again, sorry Liam), as per Obi-Wan’s statement in one of the clips above. Obi-wan was Yoda’s latest Apprentice. When we first meet him on screen he is perhaps in his early or mid-20s and has only just been made a full Jedi Knight, expedient for representing the Republic and mediating among the warring factions of the Clone Wars, and also for training new Jedi to help in the conflict.

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My next posts will be bare-bones, rough-draft plot synopses for the re-imagined trilogy:

Episode I

Episode II

Episode III