re: Star Wars: The Phantom Meancd Rewatch Tonight, 6PM Eastern, 5 Central

I agree, what upsets me is, if you take the outline of the story you have the potential for a great trilogy, maybe up with the original.


-- Young troubled kid with more force powers than anyone before.

-- tensions in the galactic government with one of their own secretly plotting to take over

--the Sith are gaining more power due to Darth Siddious' growing strength and influence.

--Jedi stretched thin, and not revered as before.

IMO the "clones" should have been the bad guys and they should have fought to take over the Republic, and then when it looks like they are winning, Siddious outs himself, and uses his role as chancellor to name himself emperor.

Anakin should have started off being brought to train at the temple and just skipped most of the first films plot. Then develop a story about love and anger causing Anakin to slowly turn bad.

Instead we get two movies with almost no story advancement and then a fifteen minute sequence in which Anakin becomes Darth Vader.

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For me that's a point in Episode I's favor. I can completely ignore it. Episode II, not so much. It's the entire context for Anakin's character and the relationship between him, Obi Wan, and Padme, as well as the context behind the Empire's formation and the Clone Wars. Episode III tries to make up for these things, but it's too little too late. In order for us to buy Anakin being a good person, he doesn't mass murder people on a whim. Episode II should have been Episode I (severely changed of course), the second one should be the absolute low point in the war where we actually see how the Galaxy is affected by the Clone Wars, and Episode III being its end and Palpatine getting complete control while the rest of the Galaxy despairs. It just really feels as if a movie is missing in the prequels and it's because Episode I adds nothing to the story.

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Agree with all of this except that AOTC is worse than TPM simply because TPM can be ignored.

I agree that II should have been that absolute low point of series with the Republic suffering devastating losses to the Separatists. I also think it should have ended with Anakin turning to the dark side (which would be publically revealed about halfway through III.)

It's just a shame because Lucas felt like he had to show us everything except for the things that actually mattered (Anakin/Obi Wan's relationship, Anakin's power, etc.)

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I agree that II should have been that absolute low point of series with the Republic suffering devastating losses to the Separatists. I also think it should have ended with Anakin turning to the dark side (which would be publically revealed about halfway through III.)

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Yeah, I've had an outline on what I think would be a good Episode II, and it would be Courusant and the Jedi Homeworld being completely devastated by the Clones, with only a few dozen Jedi alive at the end of it when there were tens of thousands of them at the start of the film. Then have Anakin thrust out of the Jedi Order for Windu discovering his affair with Padme, and then the Chancellor taking him to "put his talents to good use to restore order to the Republic". Anakin will despise everyone in the Jedi Order at the end of the film (save Obi Wan) and the final shot is him addressing the Emperor in full red Vader Garb (save the mask). Basically Anakin will be Palpatine's direct enforcer but ignorant on him being a Sith Lord. Anakin won't know he's become a Sith until he wakes up in his breathing suit. Just set up all the pieces in Episode II and the end of the First Act of Episode III is when Anakin goes to the point of no return.

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Just start with Anakin as a young Jedi whose power is unfathomable.

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Y'all are overthinking this - Lucas could not sell toys, video games and lunchboxes to kids without the kid and Jar Jar. Pod racing, while irrelevant to us, was EXTREMELY important to the bottom line.

Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor > Episodes I & II

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Anakin going from Jedi to sith in five seconds.

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This was probably the biggest downfall of that movie (though other parts were still pretty bad). In all of the little scenes between Palpatine and Anakin, they could have easily had Palpatine train him in some new force abilities instead of just talking about the force. The senator could be trying to help him, really be another mentor in try to save Padme. Then, obviously the hate and anger required to attain some of his new abilities, brings him to the edge of going to the Dark side. Would not have been difficult to do

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Episode I is a special kind of horrible. It has no protagonist and it is completely irrelevant to the plot of the other five films.

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At least we got Darth Maul. It's a shame he was done after 1 movie. Even though the audience knows who the real Sith is, it would have been an interesting story line to explore if the Jedi spent the first 3 movies trying to figure out if Maul was the Sith or not.

I love complex stuff but this scroll at the beginning is an epitome of what's wrong with these movies. It's needlessly complicated and it's not in a right frame of reference.

That ship is cool though.

Battle hardened? Their fricking droids.

There literally was no worse decision in the prequels than having the main war be between incompetent droids and clones.

I mean who the hell are you supposed to care about.

At least Jar Jar in the end of Phantom Menace could die and we would actually care (in a good way)