Fixing the Star Wars Prequels

I love the Star Wars Prequels.  They have given me years of fun and

entertainment.  So the following critique is from the standpoint of a fan.

Have re-watched the prequels, I can more accurately point to some flaws

that should have been avoided.  I am not talking about the ones about which most

people complain (e.g. Anakin's acting, Jar Jar's very existence, etc).  I would

like to focus more on the story elements.  I believe that the flaws come from

the fact that George Lucas wrote them years apart.  If he had written all three

at the same time, he could have written a tighter narrative

and create stronger connections between Episodes 1 and 3.  Having said all that,

here are my critiques (in no particular order):

1. Introduce Count Dooku in The Phantom Menace. 

It is revealed that Dooku was Qui-Gon's master when he was a Padawan.  But this

revelation does not come up until the second half of Attack of the Clones.  When

Episode II begins, we are told about Count Dooku and his rebellion from the Jedi,

but since we do not know him we have no reaction. 

Wouldn't it have been great if in The Phantom Menace we saw Dooku on the council

and had a scene where he gives Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan some

advice?  It would establish the relationships between them and establish him as

a friend.  Thus when Padme suggests that Dooku is behind her assassination

attempt, we the audience are reluctant to believe it.  When we do find out about

his betrayal, it would make his fall all the more poignant and foreshadow

Anakin.  It would also have been nice to see Dooku's interaction with Palpatine,

even if it showed great animosity so as to set up a believable separatist

movement.

2. Show Padme falling in love with Anakin. 

This is specific to Episode II, but we begin the movie knowing that he is head

over heals for her.  That doesn't need to be established.  She fights her

feelings, but we need more moments between the beginning of the movie until their first kiss on the

lake that show her falling for him. 

What changed in her heart?  What did she see that made the difference? 

3. Obi-wan should have gone to Mos Espa too.

I can understand not wanting to overload the first movie with too many

characters at once, but Lucas knew that he would be getting rid of Qui-Gon at

the end of The Phantom Menace.  With that in mind, he would be left with 3 main

characters: Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan.  But the three together have no real

bonding experience throughout the movie.  Anakin and Padme's relationship is

established, but Obi-Wan mostly talks about Anakin rather than to him and he only shares one line

of dialogue with Padme. 

In A New Hope, Luke, Han, and Leia all survive the

experience of the trash compactor together.  And while that was a small part of

the narrative, it serves to create the kind of bond that can only be made by

facing death together.  Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship is talked about in

Attack of the Clones.  They tell us of their past adventures instead of showing

it to us.  This also makes the strange transition of relationship where Obi-Wan

goes from father-figure to brother-figure.  If Obi-Wan had gone to Mos Espa too, it could have

established more strongly the father (Qui-Gon), older brother (Obi-Wan), younger

brother (Anakin) dynamic.

  I know that in earlier drafts it was Obi-Wan and not

Qui-Gon who went to Mos Espa and that Padme developed feelings for him, thus

creating a love triangle.  While I think that would have been very interesting,

I understand why Lucas wanted to avoid it.  But in doing so, he removes the

connection between Padme and Obi-Wan.  He is called an old friend in Attack of

the Clones, but that friendship feels forced.  In that awesome scene in Revenge

of the Sith where Obi-Wan needs Padme's help to kill Anakin, there would have

been a lot more dramatic weight if the deep friendship between the Jedi Master

and the former queen was established.

4. Introduce Sypho-Dyas in Episode I

This is a corollary to the point about Dooku.  There were lots of anonymous

people on the Jedi Council.  It would have been nice to establish some of the

important people  and plot points.  There was no reason for Lucas to create a

new Jedi.  For example, Evan Piel is on the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace

but I do not believe he was there in Attack of the Clones.  Why not take someone

who was already there​? Use a few lines of dialogue to establish his friendship

with Dooku, maybe even show Dooku killing him and then we have a set up for the

next movie?

5. Show Qui-Gon in Episodes II and III

We hear his voice in Attack of the Clones and we hear about him in Revenge of

the Sith.  But Qui-Gon is still the model hero of the Star Wars franchise.  Luke

only truly becomes the great hero when he ignores both Palpatine and Obi-Wan and

becomes Qui-Gon Jinn.  This is something that the audience needs to be shown at

key points in the story.  Particularly, it was important to show the development

of Yoda's character and his move from arrogance to humility by becoming

Qui-Gon's apprentice.  Also it would have been emotional and poignant for

Obi-Wan to have a meeting with his long dead master, talking about how he failed

him and let him down and have Qui-Gon give him words of encouragement to endure

what lies ahead. 

6. Introduce General Grievous in Attack of the Clones

You'll notice that a consistent thread is the earlier introduction of

characters.  The longer we stay with a character the greater the satisfaction at

the resolution of that character.  It would have made much more sense to

introduce Grievous leading the droid armies in Attack of the Clones, thus

setting up his skills as a tactician and a warrior.  Revenge of the Sith begins

with the invasion of Courascant.  How much graver would it have been if we saw

the prowess of Grievous in breaking the lines at Genosha.

7. Give Tarkin a larger role.

The prequels show Tarkin once at the end of Revenge of the Sith.  We only

recognize him because of his connection to A New Hope.  How much more sense

would it have made to show him as the Emperor's chief advisor.  Why create the

new character, Mas Ameda, to stand constantly by Palpatine's side when you have

a built in character, Tarkin, who will take on a command role in A New

Hope.  Plus if you establish Tarkin's importance to Palpatine, his loss on the

first Death Star can be seen as a true blow to the Emperor’s power.

8. Anakin should swear off Tatooine.

Why does Vader never set foot on Tatooine to look for the droids?  It was his

home planet, why not search.  It would have felt better if when Shmi died,

Anakin swore never to return to the planet that enslaved and killed his mother.

9. Give another reason for Padme's death.

Losing the will to live may be very romantic in a Romeo and Juliet sort of way,

but it does not hold well in the world of Star Wars, nor does this jibe well

knowing that she is giving up on her two children.  Padme, in this sense, is

ultimately a quitter.  How could this be fixed? 

Try this possible scenario: 

Anakin believes that Padme will die.  In doing his research at the

Jedi temple, he finds that he can bond his life to hers, thinking that as long

as he is alive, she will live too. But when he falls, he ceases to be Anakin

Skywalker and becomes Darth Vader, thus as Obi-Wan said “The good man who was

[Anakin] was destroyed.”  When that happens, Padme's life flickers out and

dies.  I'm not saying this scenario is perfect, but it uses the elements of the

force and the impetus of Anakin's fall to the dark side as the cause of her

death, not “losing the will to live.”

10. Kill Jar Jar.

This is not a statement of anger at the character.  I happen to enjoy Jar Jar at

times.  But somewhere in Revenge of the Sith, Jar Jar should have been

killed.  Here's why:  The Phantom Menace is a children's movie with child-like

characters, especially Anakin and Jar Jar.  Both are simply and innocent.  But

Anakin's fall in Revenge of the Sith destroys that innocence, which would be

wonderfully encapsulated by his killing of Jar Jar. Now, a good friend of mine, let's call him Joebu, once told me that Jar Jar is so beloved by little kids that this would have been too much for them to take. I respect that, but if he had a send off like Dobby in Harry Potter, it could work.

11. Explain the “high ground” in the first act of Revenge of the Sith.

“It's over Anakin.  I have the high ground.”  With these words, Obi-Wan tries to

dissuade Anakin from an attack he cannot hope to win.  But in his hubris, Anakin

leaps to his doom.  But why can't he overcome this disadvantage?  He is a Jedi after all  This

moment carries with it some kind of emotional and thematic weight.  But it is lost

because we have no idea what Obi-Wan is talking about.  In the first act, Anakin

should have talked about attacking someone from below, but Obi-Wan should have

explained that if the enemy has the high ground, a frontal attack would be

useless.  In the end, if Anakin attacks anyway, it shows that he is drunk with

power and wisdom trumps power in this instance.

12. Bring back Boba in Revenge of the Sith.

The only reason Boba Fett was introduced in Attack of the Clones was because he

is a popular character in the Star Wars universe and fans wanted to know his

origin.  But after the death of Jango, he plays no role in the events that

unfold.  He would have only been 16 in Revenge of the Sith, but he could have

played a small part.  Perhaps he was the one who kidnapped Palpatine for General

Grievous, thus foreshadowing his hunt for Solo in the next trilogy.

13. Explain the Prophecy.

“You refer to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the

force.”  What prophecy?  Who prophesied it?  Why does Qui-Gon believe it?  What

does it mean to bring balance to the force? What signs point to Anakin?  What

does it mean that Anakin is the chosen one?  I know that many of these questions

are answered in the books, but it would be incredibly helpful to the audience of

the movie to get a handle on these key pieces of information.  You don't have to

explain every part.  You can leave things ambiguous (like Anakin's possible

creation by Palpatine).  But this critical issue is what sets Anakin apart from

all the other Jedi.  Why him?

14. Get rid of 3 lines.
    There are 3 lines that need to be erased from the prequels:
    a. “To be angry is to be human.” This is what Padme says to Anakin after he confesses to slaughter Tusken women and children. This is hardly the moral gut check that he needs at that moment and it led to a lengthy email debate between my friends and I about whether or not Padme is evil (and when I say lengthy, the correspondence between us is around 36 single-spaced pages)
    b. “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” Obi-Wan says this to intone how Anakin has gone over to the dark side. But this saying is nonsense unless the Jedi are espousing moral relativism. There is good and there is evil. There have to be some absolutes or Palpatine was right when he said “Good is a point of view.”
    c. “They must be dead by now, destroy what's left of them.” As Red Letter Media pointed out, this line is just dumb

15. Show the beginnings of the Rebellion in Revenge of the Sith

I know that this was filmed and later cut, but that is a mistake. For one thing, it gave Padme something to do other than pine after Anakin. Also it sets up some characters for later in the movie like Mon Mothma and Ackbar.

Thoughts?