If you could change anything about the Star Wars movies, what would you change?

**Valigarmander** · 11-04-2009, 08:36 PM

Hmm, I haven't really posted anything in this forum except Star Wars threads. Oh well.

When I say "would you change anything", I'm not talking about removing the CG edits in the Special Editions, or replacing Hayden Christensen with a competent actor. I mean, is there anything about the story, or the plot, or the characters that you'd change? inb4 get rid of Jar Jar Binks, Han shoots first, etc.

This is something that's always irked me, and if I could, I would've gotten rid of General Grievous entirely. Yeah, he was cool and all, but for the most part he was just a useless character in the movies. Everything that was done with his character could've been done with Count Dooku, and it would've made him less useless. (He was one of the most important characters in Episode II, and in Episode III he's on screen for 2 minutes before he gets killed. WTF?) Also, Christopher Lee is god-tier actor, so more screentime would've been neat.

Would anybody else here want to change something about the films? I didn't include EU (novels, games, TV series, wakka wakka), but if you really wanted to include something from those, go ahead.

***CaptHayfever*** · 11-04-2009, 09:18 PM

Or maybe just explaining better what the deal is with Greivous instead of assuming that everyone had seen the Cartoon Network Clone Wars miniseries..

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

**Valigarmander** · 11-04-2009, 09:20 PM

^ That too. I wondered what it must've been like for everyone who didn't know who he was before seeing the movie.

Glux · 11-04-2009, 10:32 PM

The cheesy cover up of C3PO's memory.

"Have his memory wiped."
Oh, great cover up!
Oh hey look! Wolverine did that same thing!

1-up Salesman · 11-08-2009, 01:42 PM

Princess Leia not being Luke's sister.

Bomby · 11-08-2009, 08:07 PM

All the acting in the prequels, save for maybe Ewan McGregor.

Actually, the prequels in their entirety save for maybe Ewan McGregor's performance.

**Deku Trii** · 11-08-2009, 11:49 PM

^Didn't even like Liam Neeson?

Instead of having Anakin have a crush on Padme for the 10 years between the two days they spent together when he was 9 up until their paths crossed again in Attack of the Clones, I'd have preferred if his feelings came from a more mature place. He wouldn't have weaseled his way into being her bodyguard because of a weirdo crush. He would have been assigned to be her bodyguard, and fallen in love with her along the way.

At first I was going to think of a way to change Anakin's fall to the dark side, but the more I thought of it the more I realized that there's a lot I like about Anakin's path to the dark side, on paper. The execution is pretty piss-poor, but I like a lot of the plot points.

I like the death of his mother driving him into a rage where he slaughters the sand people, and that he recognizes the horribleness of that act, and I like that it's Padme who helps him live with himself afterwards. I like that the Jedi would not have been willing to accept Anakin falling in love. I like that Palpatine plays on Anakin's fear that his dreams have predicted Padme's death like they did his mother's. I like that it drives him to protect Palpatine by attacking Windu to preserve the only hope he thinks he has of preventing that. He recognizes that as unforgivable, leaving Palpatine as his only ally, which is an alliance that necessitates the extermination of the Jedi.
I like to think his extermination of the Jedi is also because their existence reminds him of the monster he's become.

Of course, Padme cannot accept the monster he's become, he mortally wounds her because he thinks she's betrayed him and allied herself with Obi-Wan, the most glaring of those reminders of the noble Jedi he could have been. He's unable to silence that reminder, and the battle leaves him horribly mutilated and in a state too weak to ever challenge the emperor on his own. He's killed Padme, and even though he probably hates the emperor almost as much as he hates himself, he's pretty much all Anakin has left.

When I think of that story without thinking about it's execution in the movie, I really like it. What's more, as good as the redemption in RotJ was already (it's my favorite lightsaber duel), it adds even more depth to it. When I'm watching Luke and Vader talk after Luke's turned himself in on Endor's forest moon, and then again when Vader decides to save Luke, I can't help but love that Luke represents what he could have had with Padme, what he could have been as a Jedi, and, unfathomably, someone who can forgive him.

Zharen · 11-26-2009, 05:05 AM

"Anakin you're breaking my heart!"

Worst line in all of Ep. 3. I would have gladly done away with it.

I also don't like how substantially weaker Padme is in the last installment. In both Episode 1 and 2, she's boldly throwing herself in harm's way, blasting battle droids, fighting Geonosians and telling Nute Gunray what's up. Then she gets preggers and becomes a complete and useless vagina. Makes no sense to me.

I disagree with getting rid of Grievous. While I think there should have been some sort of reference to him in Ep 2, I think the prequels needed a villain that was half machine, and half biological. As Lucas described the Grievous character, he wanted an alpha version of Darth Vader, hence why he was given the persistent cough. Count Dooku was never that interesting of a villain to me and I was surprised he never died in Ep 2, but seeing Anakin mercilessly kill him was a nice, chilling touch of things to come. Another push into the dark side that started with him slaughtering the Sand People. I do feel like one final push could have been added before Anakin swears his loyalty with Palpatine and truly falls from grace. I always felt that his sudden turncoat was a little rushed. I just don't know what.

If there's anything I've come to enjoy recently, it's the scene with Palpatine crying out for help to Anakin as he's fighting Windu. It makes me further appreciate the scene in RotJ when it's Luke who's crying out for help as Palpatine is electrocuting him. I wonder what ran in Vader's mind as he saw this very scene played out again, almost as if he was given a 2nd chance to make right the decision he made 20+ years ago.

The Spark · 11-26-2009, 01:05 PM

Ooh! Oooh! How about how pus*y-like Anakin was throughout most of the movies where he was older. He was so whiny and everything... It kinda pissed me off and made me like his character a lot less than I probably should have.

**Valigarmander** · 11-26-2009, 07:34 PM

Yeah, I wish Anakin was less of a bitch in Episodes 2 & 3. Although half of it all could probably just be chalked up to Hayden Christensen's bad acting.

Metal Man · 11-26-2009, 08:35 PM

Have the guy who played Agent Smith play Anakin, and skip all the 'kid' crud. Remove the midichlorians and say instead that he was strong in the force. Leave in stuff about him being ruthless, though perhaps instead of the boring romance thing, have him be in love with her, use her to help get over his mother's death, then in a dark mockery of the Jedi "You can't love people" thing, hurl her into the cold when she says the fateful things (also rewritten) that make Anakin go paranoid.

Furthermore, it should go more like this:
Episode 1: Human (good) Anakin, as a younger adult, but not particularly old.
Episode 2: Anakin becomes injured ala Luke, has hand replaced. Becomes half-cybernetic, perhaps make some iconic costume which suggests his conflicted nature. Perhaps have Jedi council both bash him for loving Padme AND for 'losing his strength' to all the cybernetics. Have him basically flip them off in the end, and basically Episode 3's ending would be here. He'd be made fully cybernetic, not by laying next to the lava but being splashed by it after trying to kill Obi Wan (who would not be on the higher ground, but rather, even at Anakin's mercy--however, his bloodthirsty nature would make him try to kill Obi Wan rather than leave him there, defeated.)

Episode 3: Early days of Darth Vader. Move Order 66 up to here and have Darth personally executing people. Also, save the Samuel Jackson character... what's his face... for here, where Anakin ultimately proves himself as the Darth Vader that is known and feared by eventually coming down and barely defeating (and killing) Samuel Jackson or whatever his name's character is in the end.

For bonus mindscrewery, have the entire movie look like Samuel L. Jackson man will destroy Anakin, and even have Anakin himself be unsure whether it's possible; have Samuel L. Jackson destroy Greivous and, with Obi Wan at his side, make Qui Gon look like a wimp.

In the end, Obi Wan would again be knocked aside, but Samuel Jackson's character would valiantly fight to the death so that Obi Wan can eventually recover and run away.

However, with this episode, the fear you see in Episode 4 would be established, as Darth's destruction of one of the strongest Jedi the council had to offer would show that the Jedi were hopeless--especially since his destruction would show their raw power was useless against the Sith.

Oh, and Leia wouldn't be related to Luke, and Padme would actually live and die of old age--having actually defected to Obi Wan not because of what Anakin thought, but actually how Anakin's psychotic throwing away of her went.

11-04-2009, 08:36 PM	#1
Valigarmander The Bee's Knees Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The land of rain and trees (Oregon) Gender: Posts: 29,755 Thanks: 1,649 Thanked 5,701 Times in 2,581 Posts Blog Entries: 20	If you could change anything about the Star Wars movies, what would you change? Hmm, I haven't really posted anything in this forum except Star Wars threads. Oh well. When I say "would you change anything", I'm not talking about removing the CG edits in the Special Editions, or replacing Hayden Christensen with a competent actor. I mean, is there anything about the story, or the plot, or the characters that you'd change? inb4 get rid of Jar Jar Binks, Han shoots first, etc. This is something that's always irked me, and if I could, I would've gotten rid of General Grievous entirely. Yeah, he was cool and all, but for the most part he was just a useless character in the movies. Everything that was done with his character could've been done with Count Dooku, and it would've made him less useless. (He was one of the most important characters in Episode II, and in Episode III he's on screen for 2 minutes before he gets killed. WTF?) Also, Christopher Lee is god-tier actor, so more screentime would've been neat. Would anybody else here want to change something about the films? I didn't include EU (novels, games, TV series, wakka wakka), but if you really wanted to include something from those, go ahead.

11-04-2009, 09:18 PM	#2
*CaptHayfever* Smash SuperMod Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: (n) - the place where I am Gender: Posts: 27,661 Thanks: 1,991 Thanked 2,486 Times in 1,513 Posts	Or maybe just explaining better what the deal is with Greivous instead of assuming that everyone had seen the Cartoon Network Clone Wars miniseries.. And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

11-04-2009, 09:20 PM	#3
Valigarmander The Bee's Knees Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The land of rain and trees (Oregon) Gender: Posts: 29,755 Thanks: 1,649 Thanked 5,701 Times in 2,581 Posts Blog Entries: 20	^ That too. I wondered what it must've been like for everyone who didn't know who he was before seeing the movie.

11-04-2009, 10:32 PM	#4
Glux Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Home Gender: Posts: 7,122 Thanks: 647 Thanked 360 Times in 236 Posts Blog Entries: 3	The cheesy cover up of C3PO's memory. "Have his memory wiped." Oh, great cover up! Oh hey look! Wolverine did that same thing!

11-08-2009, 01:42 PM	#5
1-up Salesman Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Letting you guys know that I'm planning on continuing Attack of the Spammers soon. Gender: Posts: 4,095 Thanks: 2,162 Thanked 250 Times in 194 Posts Blog Entries: 9	Princess Leia not being Luke's sister.

11-08-2009, 08:07 PM	#6
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	All the acting in the prequels, save for maybe Ewan McGregor. Actually, the prequels in their entirety save for maybe Ewan McGregor's performance.

11-08-2009, 11:49 PM	#7
Deku Trii PP&R Mod Current Events Mod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Texas Gender: Posts: 9,031 Thanks: 521 Thanked 1,099 Times in 583 Posts	^Didn't even like Liam Neeson? Instead of having Anakin have a crush on Padme for the 10 years between the two days they spent together when he was 9 up until their paths crossed again in Attack of the Clones, I'd have preferred if his feelings came from a more mature place. He wouldn't have weaseled his way into being her bodyguard because of a weirdo crush. He would have been assigned to be her bodyguard, and fallen in love with her along the way. At first I was going to think of a way to change Anakin's fall to the dark side, but the more I thought of it the more I realized that there's a lot I like about Anakin's path to the dark side, on paper. The execution is pretty piss-poor, but I like a lot of the plot points. I like the death of his mother driving him into a rage where he slaughters the sand people, and that he recognizes the horribleness of that act, and I like that it's Padme who helps him live with himself afterwards. I like that the Jedi would not have been willing to accept Anakin falling in love. I like that Palpatine plays on Anakin's fear that his dreams have predicted Padme's death like they did his mother's. I like that it drives him to protect Palpatine by attacking Windu to preserve the only hope he thinks he has of preventing that. He recognizes that as unforgivable, leaving Palpatine as his only ally, which is an alliance that necessitates the extermination of the Jedi. I like to think his extermination of the Jedi is also because their existence reminds him of the monster he's become. Of course, Padme cannot accept the monster he's become, he mortally wounds her because he thinks she's betrayed him and allied herself with Obi-Wan, the most glaring of those reminders of the noble Jedi he could have been. He's unable to silence that reminder, and the battle leaves him horribly mutilated and in a state too weak to ever challenge the emperor on his own. He's killed Padme, and even though he probably hates the emperor almost as much as he hates himself, he's pretty much all Anakin has left. When I think of that story without thinking about it's execution in the movie, I really like it. What's more, as good as the redemption in RotJ was already (it's my favorite lightsaber duel), it adds even more depth to it. When I'm watching Luke and Vader talk after Luke's turned himself in on Endor's forest moon, and then again when Vader decides to save Luke, I can't help but love that Luke represents what he could have had with Padme, what he could have been as a Jedi, and, unfathomably, someone who can forgive him.

11-26-2009, 05:05 AM	#8
Zharen Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Modesto, CA U.S. Gender: Posts: 7,085 Thanks: 21 Thanked 71 Times in 35 Posts	"Anakin you're breaking my heart!" Worst line in all of Ep. 3. I would have gladly done away with it. I also don't like how substantially weaker Padme is in the last installment. In both Episode 1 and 2, she's boldly throwing herself in harm's way, blasting battle droids, fighting Geonosians and telling Nute Gunray what's up. Then she gets preggers and becomes a complete and useless vagina. Makes no sense to me. I disagree with getting rid of Grievous. While I think there should have been some sort of reference to him in Ep 2, I think the prequels needed a villain that was half machine, and half biological. As Lucas described the Grievous character, he wanted an alpha version of Darth Vader, hence why he was given the persistent cough. Count Dooku was never that interesting of a villain to me and I was surprised he never died in Ep 2, but seeing Anakin mercilessly kill him was a nice, chilling touch of things to come. Another push into the dark side that started with him slaughtering the Sand People. I do feel like one final push could have been added before Anakin swears his loyalty with Palpatine and truly falls from grace. I always felt that his sudden turncoat was a little rushed. I just don't know what. If there's anything I've come to enjoy recently, it's the scene with Palpatine crying out for help to Anakin as he's fighting Windu. It makes me further appreciate the scene in RotJ when it's Luke who's crying out for help as Palpatine is electrocuting him. I wonder what ran in Vader's mind as he saw this very scene played out again, almost as if he was given a 2nd chance to make right the decision he made 20+ years ago.

11-26-2009, 01:05 PM	#9
The Spark Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: At the bottom of the shipping address list Gender: Posts: 1,743 Thanks: 156 Thanked 74 Times in 54 Posts	Ooh! Oooh! How about how pus*y-like Anakin was throughout most of the movies where he was older. He was so whiny and everything... It kinda pissed me off and made me like his character a lot less than I probably should have.

11-26-2009, 07:34 PM	#10
Valigarmander The Bee's Knees Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The land of rain and trees (Oregon) Gender: Posts: 29,755 Thanks: 1,649 Thanked 5,701 Times in 2,581 Posts Blog Entries: 20	Yeah, I wish Anakin was less of a bitch in Episodes 2 & 3. Although half of it all could probably just be chalked up to Hayden Christensen's bad acting.

11-26-2009, 08:35 PM	#11
Metal Man Fairy-Slaying Maniac Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: 1592 Miles Away From Here Gender: Posts: 18,062 Thanks: 148 Thanked 683 Times in 482 Posts	Have the guy who played Agent Smith play Anakin, and skip all the 'kid' crud. Remove the midichlorians and say instead that he was strong in the force. Leave in stuff about him being ruthless, though perhaps instead of the boring romance thing, have him be in love with her, use her to help get over his mother's death, then in a dark mockery of the Jedi "You can't love people" thing, hurl her into the cold when she says the fateful things (also rewritten) that make Anakin go paranoid. Furthermore, it should go more like this: Episode 1: Human (good) Anakin, as a younger adult, but not particularly old. Episode 2: Anakin becomes injured ala Luke, has hand replaced. Becomes half-cybernetic, perhaps make some iconic costume which suggests his conflicted nature. Perhaps have Jedi council both bash him for loving Padme AND for 'losing his strength' to all the cybernetics. Have him basically flip them off in the end, and basically Episode 3's ending would be here. He'd be made fully cybernetic, not by laying next to the lava but being splashed by it after trying to kill Obi Wan (who would not be on the higher ground, but rather, even at Anakin's mercy--however, his bloodthirsty nature would make him try to kill Obi Wan rather than leave him there, defeated.) Episode 3: Early days of Darth Vader. Move Order 66 up to here and have Darth personally executing people. Also, save the Samuel Jackson character... what's his face... for here, where Anakin ultimately proves himself as the Darth Vader that is known and feared by eventually coming down and barely defeating (and killing) Samuel Jackson or whatever his name's character is in the end. For bonus mindscrewery, have the entire movie look like Samuel L. Jackson man will destroy Anakin, and even have Anakin himself be unsure whether it's possible; have Samuel L. Jackson destroy Greivous and, with Obi Wan at his side, make Qui Gon look like a wimp. In the end, Obi Wan would again be knocked aside, but Samuel Jackson's character would valiantly fight to the death so that Obi Wan can eventually recover and run away. However, with this episode, the fear you see in Episode 4 would be established, as Darth's destruction of one of the strongest Jedi the council had to offer would show that the Jedi were hopeless--especially since his destruction would show their raw power was useless against the Sith. Oh, and Leia wouldn't be related to Luke, and Padme would actually live and die of old age--having actually defected to Obi Wan not because of what Anakin thought, but actually how Anakin's psychotic throwing away of her went.