-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
The first draft of The Phantom Menace was damned decent, WHAT HAPPENED?
- Thread starter El Bombastico
- Start date
lol I knew that sketch looked familiar
That Anakin is young William Wallace in Braveheart.
Anakin and Padme age disparity alone destroyed that entire arc.
Making obi Wan and qui gon a buddy cop duo breaks the obi Wan mythology.
Even without the absolutely insane stuff like midichlorians and extreme accidental racism, Lucas just kept pushing bad things into it because he had no structure to keep him in check.
I'm forever grateful for the universe he created but anyone who's read about his first wife's impact through editing knows why it worked.
Making obi Wan and qui gon a buddy cop duo breaks the obi Wan mythology.
Even without the absolutely insane stuff like midichlorians and extreme accidental racism, Lucas just kept pushing bad things into it because he had no structure to keep him in check.
I'm forever grateful for the universe he created but anyone who's read about his first wife's impact through editing knows why it worked.
I just watched it two days ago... and you're right. It's actually a pretty good film. Very flawed but a solid C+ that veers into B-. I know the hardcore fans hate it because of what it added to the series but and least it ADDS. It's wildly creative and a massive breathe of fresh air after watching the retread garbage of Awakens.
Also, I totally think Jar Jar was planned to be a Sith Lord. The movie plays so much with the idea of "hidden in plain sight".
There's 3 people putting on an act here.
If TPM had:
1. Made Padme the main character (and given her some actual personality)
2. Got a love triangle going between her Anakin and Obi-Wan
3. Made them all a similar age
We could have got stuck into the meat of the story straight away and actually had time to set up a proper romance between them, a proper friendship and a proper reason for that friendship to fall apart. Instead George wasted a movie on nothing and ran out of time to tell the story properly.
OP
OP
I agree with 1 and 3 but please, God, no more love triangles. Its so fucking overdone.
It's an easy and realistic way to create drama, it would have worked fine. It doesn't need to be overdone but there should have been a rivalry between them for Padme's affections that eventually turns sour as Anakin descends into darkness and Obi-Wan tries to protect her from him. It's pretty obvious that George had this in mind throughout because it's strongly hinted at during the final act of ROTS but as with every other aspect of the story, he didn't have time to do it properly after wasting a film with an 8 year old Anakin.
Not my ideal script, but this could have worked. Although, no love triangles. The drama could plausibly work, but they make me personally roll my eyes. Having Padme be the main character would have been a dating and brave choice for the late 90s, but I can't help but think the controversy would be worse than Ray in the late 2010s.
Pretty much this. I'm tired of love stories in general.
Maul should have killed qui gon and remained the villain for a three films. Hell you could make Dookus story be his e.g he was an ex Jedi, trainer by yoga, made the clone army in secret to destroy the Jedi in the future etc
Lord no
The clone wars nailed it really. Anakins relationship with the Jedi council is what causes him to turn, and his anger at obi wan is just out of random and blind hatred by the dark side. There suppose to be friends, it should be sole crushing to see them fight each other. It should be about how the Jedi have there own major faults.
No more ducking love stories, there's so many more interesting themes that could be explored
It was mentioned recently here:
I'm dying from that Jar Jar pic. Sorry OP. I'm sure this thread was going to be something else when you thought of it.
But LOOK AT THAT JAR JAR!
But LOOK AT THAT JAR JAR!
Oh that would have been so damn cool, especially in hindsight of what happens in Rebels where Obi-Wan does literally the exact same thing to Maul on Tatooine.
Could you imagine that? Maul, the guy that admits he never learns because he doesn't think he needs to, is taken down in the same way twice almost forty years apart.
Damn.
I find it weird that the acting is pretty good in this one but it becomes Flat for episode 2&3 except for the last 40mins in episode 3 which is honestly the one of the best acting In the series.
I wonder if Liam neeson had an effect at the cast and kinda ignore Lucas direction on how to deliver the lines???
I wonder if Liam neeson had an effect at the cast and kinda ignore Lucas direction on how to deliver the lines???
OP
OP
More like the cast was SO DAMN EXCITED to just be in a Star Wars films. Watch the BTS, poor Ewan and Liam are grinning like kids as they're getting outfitted for costumes and looking at their lightsabers.
But then it seems they read the script.
And really, after 2 movies of this brain-dead shit, can you really blame any of the actors for Phoning-it-in for III?
Ian is the exception, but then, Sheev is the only one in the PT that is NOT a blundering idiot, or a racist stereotype, or a creep, or all of the above.
It's not a coincidence. Rebels got the inspiration from this old draft.
No scrapped idea's ever really gone.
I'm sorry but that Jar Jar derailed me and I can't stop thinking about it when I try to read the rest of the OP.
The first draft is fine because structurally the prequel trilogy is fine.
Two jedi find a miracle boy whose force potential leads the older of the two to wish for his training, The other jedi are concerned about his age and the younger of the two has reservations but is forced into adopting the role as the boys mentor when the older jedi requests it as a dying wish. The reluctant teacher isn't really cut out for the role and in the background the sith are playing both sides of a galactic conflict in order to seize power. The boy grows up somewhat ostracized by the jedi through the knowledge he was not wanted and as a young man learns of his mothers brutal death at the hands of slavers, he flies into a rage and kills them all. As war breaks out he finds his anger often in conflict with his jedi teachings and the sith position themselves to take advantage of his confusion. The Jedi remain distrustful of him despite his great success as a leader during the war and the sith, having now politiced himself into a position of ultimate authority presents himself as a trustworthy father figure. Eventually Anakin starts dreaming of his wifes death, the Jedi are less than useful, the sith present the tantalizing hint of a possibility where his wife could be saved and when confronted with the Jedi on one hand and the loss of his quasi-father figure sith lord and ultimately Padme on the other, Anakin finally snaps and all his pent up anger boils him over to the dark side. blah, blah, blah Obi wan has the high ground.
Thats a perfectly serviceable story. It's just Lucas fucking sucked at filling it out.
Two jedi find a miracle boy whose force potential leads the older of the two to wish for his training, The other jedi are concerned about his age and the younger of the two has reservations but is forced into adopting the role as the boys mentor when the older jedi requests it as a dying wish. The reluctant teacher isn't really cut out for the role and in the background the sith are playing both sides of a galactic conflict in order to seize power. The boy grows up somewhat ostracized by the jedi through the knowledge he was not wanted and as a young man learns of his mothers brutal death at the hands of slavers, he flies into a rage and kills them all. As war breaks out he finds his anger often in conflict with his jedi teachings and the sith position themselves to take advantage of his confusion. The Jedi remain distrustful of him despite his great success as a leader during the war and the sith, having now politiced himself into a position of ultimate authority presents himself as a trustworthy father figure. Eventually Anakin starts dreaming of his wifes death, the Jedi are less than useful, the sith present the tantalizing hint of a possibility where his wife could be saved and when confronted with the Jedi on one hand and the loss of his quasi-father figure sith lord and ultimately Padme on the other, Anakin finally snaps and all his pent up anger boils him over to the dark side. blah, blah, blah Obi wan has the high ground.
Thats a perfectly serviceable story. It's just Lucas fucking sucked at filling it out.
OP
OP
I would have to disagree with the overarching plot of Anakin being Space Jesus and thereby making him (and by extention, the entire Skywalker Clan) the lynchpinch of the entire saga. That's just terrible and so limiting. Watching the OT, you never get the impression that Anakin was so chosen one fallen messiah. He was important, yes, but still just a cog in the Emperor's larger scheme. Hell, in A New Hope, it was Tarkin who the true enemy and Vader was more like his dark and snarky underling. Vader was just one story in the bigger story of the struggle between good and evil.
On the contrary, Anakin's story being what it is actually makes it so interesting - Space Jesus is tempted by the Devil and gives in to that temptation, dooming the galaxy to decades of suffering.
He fails not because the bad guy was too strong or too clever but because he ultimately puts his own desires before the needs of the galaxy he was born to save and his only reward for that is a prison of self-loathing and pain that he will literally die in.
You could even argue the Jedi ideal - a people who love unconditionally, forsake violence for peace and seek wisdom over power - is who we should strive to be, just as the Jedi themselves tried and failed to yet Luke ultimately succeeded in becoming. After all, it was those three things that allowed Luke to overcome the Devil and save his father.
If the original trilogy is a fairy tale, the prequel trilogy is an allegory.