Restoring Balance to the Force: Episode I - The Restructuring of the Plot

Restoring Balance to the Force

Episode I

THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE PLOT

A long time ago, in a blissful naïveté far, far away...

Star Wars fans eagerly awaited the tale of how Obi-Wan Kenobi met Anakin Skywalker, only to fail in preventing his friend and pupil from slipping to the Dark Side.

Instead we received a trio of bloated films that covers 13 years of galactic politics, numberless origin stories, dozens of settings, and a myriad of plot, dialogue, and acting problems that buried that promised story mentioned above. In the end, it was only one plot point of dozens, awkwardly squeezed into the last half of the third movie. What should have been the beating heart of the series was stifled and muddled.

How can this be fixed? I like wonder what the plot would have been like if this was a Shakespearean three-act tragedy and each Episode was an act. How might this look?

Act one: Anakin as hero.

Act two: Anakin tempted by the Dark Side.

Act three: Anakin as villain.

Compare this to the Prequels' actual plot structure:

Episode I: Anakin as annoying kid who accidentally saves the day.

Episode II: Anakin as annoying teenager who is supposedly a hero, but doesn't accomplish all that much really.

Episode III: Anakin as annoying young adult with a terrible haircut who is a hero for half of the movie and then almost out of nowhere just starts killing children.

If you squint your eyes real hard, you can see that George Lucas did try to introduce the idea of Anakin being lured to the Dark Side in Episode II. In fact, Anakin slaughters an entire village of men, women, and children out of rage. How do the other characters handle this disturbing step into darkness? Padme, Anakin's wife-to-be, pretty much just says, "We all get angry sometimes. That's just part of being human!"

So, let's paint a picture of what my trilogy would look like, stripped to its bare bones.

Episode I

Since we need Anakin to be a convincing hero, we must bid adios to 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker. I don't think I'll get a lot of complaints there. But remember, my philosophy is that we don't have to obliterate the entire original plot to make a good trilogy. My goal is to redeem George Lucas, not humiliate him.

So what elements of Episode I can we keep? What should be thrown away?

Let's say Qui-Gon Jin is still around. Maybe he has been training Anakin for years, but Obi-Wan will take over for him after his inevitable death at the end of the movie. Maybe, he pressured Obi-Wan into taking Anakin on as an apprentice. It really doesn't matter all that much. What is important is that the Anakin we meet can already wield a lightsaber and fend for himself.

What about Darth Maul, AKA the greatest missed opportunity in Episode I? For someone who looks so menacing and cool, he really only does one thing in the Episode I, two things if you count dying. The other thing he does is kill Liam Neeson. He can stick around for my movie, but he has to be a more direct antagonist. We have to see him as the source of our protagonists' woes, not Newt Gunray, not even Darth Sidious (at least at first). There is also no reason why he cannot survive until the second movie. He would then become an excellent foil for Obi-Wan.

What about Naboo? Maybe, but serving a vastly different purpose, a purpose that is 100% Jar Jar/Gungan free. Instead of us dropping in on the prelude to a conflict brewing over bureaucratic disagreements about taxing trade routes, the new and improved Episode I will introduce us to our characters in the first battles of what will quickly become a brutal war. It will not be between toy robots and cartoon aliens, but an insurgency of disenfranchised people against an increasingly corrupt government...but we will save that discussion for the philosophy article. Naboo can stay, but only as a battleground for what becomes the Clone Wars.

The important thing is this: we need to see a young adult Anakin be a legitimate hero and develop an earnest kinship with Obi-Wan. We can also begin to see the seeds of why he will turn. As someone who gave himself to an order that seeks to defend "peace and justice," he is more and more frequently sent to kill people in the name of peace. Also, he learns that he is good at it, very good.

Episode II

The war is in full swing now in our new Episode II, which will only take place 1-3 years after Episode I. Maybe it begins with the marriage of Anakin and Padme, or maybe that is how Episode I ends. What is most important is that we can clearly see how years of war and killing have weathered away the Anakin we once knew. He is no longer naive and he now sees the world in moral shades of grey. He still loves Obi-Wan like a brother, but we can see that Obi-Wan is genuinely concerned for his friend and tries to fight to keep him from slipping away.

A lot of the plot of Episode II can be jettisoned because it was unimportant. The plot point that should be retained is the discovery of a clone army that is quickly utilized (I will discuss the moral implications of this in a later post).

What needs to be added is this: Palpatine will be coercing Anakin to the Dark Side throughout until something happens that causes Anakin to fully slip. It might be his mother's death, or maybe he is trying to save Padme, but that needs to be elaborated upon. If love was his motive, it cannot be true love that turns him into Darth Vader. Maybe, in a variation of Daniel O'Brien's suggestion, Anakin's love is consumed by jealousy and delusion and he begins to think Obi-Wan is making him into a cuckold. Whatever it is, we have to see him become subsumed with hate of everything he used to be. He definitely cannot slaughter a village of men, women, and children without consequence.  

The important point is this: Anakin must slowly but surely ease into darkness and by the end of this movie he should turn to the Dark Side.

Episode III

This gives us a lot of freedom with how we handle Episode III. Though Anakin has become Darth Vader, the Republic has yet to fall. Maybe Obi-Wan doesn't even know that his brother-in-arms has betrayed him. Now we can see Palpatine enact his master plan, which now can be Machiavellian and elaborate, as opposed to a three-minute scene depicting the fall of the entire Jedi Order and Galactic Repblic. Instead, we now have an entire movie where we see the Jedi try to respond to a threat they noticed too late, only to slowly succumb to it, but not before they sow the seeds of what will eventually become the Rebel Alliance.

And in Vader's mad rush to destroy everything he once defended, he tragically and unintentionally kills Padme, but he places the blame on Obi-Wan and the Jedi, further fueling his hatred.

Episode III must accomplish two things: we must see the entirety of Anakin's fall from grace and we must see the small, but hopeful beginnings of the Original Trilogy.

If you stuck with this, bravo to you! I hope I have demonstrated that the Prequels can be rewritten in such a way that the plot can be largely retained and yet still engage the audience.

Next time it is Episode II: Simplicity Strikes Back!

Restoring Balance to the Force: How to Save the Star Wars Prequels

I hope nobody hates me for saying this, but the Star Wars prequels really, really sucked.

Now, for most people, this was just a minor disappointment, but for those of us who were so obsessed with Star Wars that it gave us the attention spans necessary to read 600-page Star Wars novels in the fourth grade, this was devastating. I had done homework assignments about the Special Edition re-releases; I had the premiere date for The Phantom Menace written on my sheet music in my orchestra class so I could count down to it everyday. It felt my entire life had been building up to this moment.

I was so excited for it that I couldn't tell it sucked for probably more than a year. I kept trying to defend it. "Yeah, Jar Jar is terrible, but 'Duel of the Fates' is such a good song!" "Yeah, Anakin is so annoying, but Darth Maul, I guess?" I know I am not alone in this hype and inevitable disappointment. I recommend to anyone who reads this the movie Fanboys, which perfectly captures the obsession of a group of Star Wars nerds in the weeks leading to Episode I's release, to the point where they decide to break into George Lucas' home.

Anyway, all of my hopes were pinned to the belief that Lucas was simply just rusty after decades of not directing anything. Episode II would certainly be better! Spoiler alert: it was, but only in the way that a crusty rash is better than a weeping rash. Sorry for the grotesquerie, but I am a medical student who still feels betrayed. I still believed in Lucas' redemption, however, and, Episode III was watchable. But it definitely was not good, at least not Original Trilogy good.

In resignation I accepted that it was over. It was probably better that way; it just goes to show that some things are better left alone. Yet, part of me was still a believer. I felt I could fix it somehow.

So, in October 2012, when Disney shockingly announced that it had acquired Lucasfilm and would immediately begin work on Star Wars Episode VII, my hope burned bright again. Nevermind Disney's rushed, assembly-like plan to put out yearly Star Wars films (that is a discussion for another time), I now knew for sure: someone, someday was going to remake the Prequels. It was only a matter of time, and I was going to be the one who wrote them.

My entire life since that point has been a careful scheme to ensure that when the right money-obsessed Disney CEO proposes a remake of Episode I, Kathleen Kennedy was going to give me a call. My plan is as follows:

Step 1: Go to medical school, become a doctor, and meanwhile write a blog that my brother might read if he has time.

Step 2: ?

Step 3: Be the writer for one of the largest franchises in human history.

Underpants Gnomes

This is where I got the idea!

So, what I will begin to share with you today are some of my insights to fixing these movies. I have been considering this for some time, and I know that others have shared brilliant ideas on how it can be done, but I just want to make it clear that I have developed my ideas independently! Just ask my brother who sometimes reads this blog (if he has the time)! But I do recommend watching these videos:

What if Episode I Was Good?

What if Episode II Was Good?

The truth is that I share a lot of ideas with that guy and, if I were the actual writer, I would try to get him hired too. But where we differ is I believe that there is a way to remake the Prequels without completely expunging the originals from existence.

I am also a big fan of Daniel O'Brien's take at Cracked.com. But while I will discuss changing or elaborating on certain plot points, these series of posts will be more focused on repairing the structure and message of the movies. They are as follows:

Restoring Balance to the Force 

Episode I: The Restructuring of the Plot

Episode II: Simplicity Strikes Back

Episode III: Return of Philosophy

So without further ado, here is Episode I!

Why You Are Wrong About LOST

It was June 26, 2009, and I had only just met the woman I was going to marry a few days earlier. We were at the Tower of London for one of our class' first field trips into London. It was early enough into this term we'd be spending abroad that no one had really settled into separate cliques of students yet. As I explored the tower, I spent moments with different girls from the group, here and there, looking around, but I recall walking off by myself repeatedly.

A few of us had started to form a group, but within a week some of its members would have left to join cliques and have been replaced by other girls (there were a lot more girls than guys on this trip), but among this handful of potential friends was Abby. Near the end of our exploration of the tower, her eyes went wide and she began to shout, "That's Sun! That's SUN!"

Sun was a character on what Abby knew was my favorite TV show, LOST. She knew this because it was probably one of the first things I mentioned about myself. In fact, when I introduced myself to the other medical students I will spend the next four years getting to know, I made sure they knew that I "was one of those people that still cares about LOST."

Abby was, however, excitedly pointing at a man, who didn't see us and was walking away. Sun is a woman. I asked Abby if she thought she saw Jin, Sun's husband on the show, played by the excellent Daniel Dae Kim (now on Hawaii Five-Oh). Embarrassed by the mix-up, she corrected herself and said we should try and meet him. I was hesitant for the briefest of moments, but I never could have resisted.

As you can see, we met him and he was kind enough to be photographed with us, even though we could tell he was with family. But the lasting part of this story, and why I am including it in this post is this: this moment was probably the very beginning of the bond between Abby and I that would turn into an amazing friendship, then love, and then marriage, and then Abby and Addison with a baby carriage. The fact that it was Abby that recognized Mr. Kim there that day speaks scores as to why we are right for each other; I knew then that we had shared interests and that she understood my nerdiness. In fact, we celebrated our wedding on what we thought was one year to the day from this encounter. It was only last year did I revisit my journals to find we were off by one day.

I am now going to explain why LOST should be regarded as a being excellent, and at the same time I will analyze why opinion of the show has seemingly soured substantially since it went off the air. But in so doing, I am laying my cards on the table: as my introductory story attests, LOST holds a sentimental place in my heart. I am very, very biased.

Also, I am an uber-nerd when it comes to LOST. I own these:

Left:LOST (The Complete Series)/Right: The Dharma Initiative Labcoat

Yes, they were both gifts (expensive gifts), but actual human people who were not me spent their own money to make sure I owned them. You don't just do that for any passive television fan.

So, without further ado, here is WHY YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT LOST!

For months now, I have been asking people about their opinions of the show, how long they watched it, what they thought of it. If they quit early or disliked it I tried to find out why. Here are the major reasons that came up.

1. It was weird/awkward/too confusing!

More than once, I've been told "Yeah, I watched LOST for a while, but then I quit when that polar bear showed up!"

Uh, I can only reply, that was the very first episode.

So, I can answer that one by means of a video. Please enjoy:

If you are viewing from a mobile device, the video is HERE.

You're welcome for that. Also, the main message is "If it's not for you, it's not for you!"

If it's not your thing, it is not your thing! For example, you will never be able to make me excited about the NFL draft. Never! But I will also never try to depreciate it to someone who is excited by that sort of thing. I can never claim that LOST is a show for everyone, and the fact that it hemorrhaged viewers as it embraced its weird side more completely reflects that. This is also the reason shows like Community and 30 Rock struggle.

That being said, the convoluted nature of the plot was one of my favorite things about the show. I loved the slow, confusing reveals. Spoiler alert: For example, at the end of Season 3, there is a flash-forward that reveals someone has died, as Jack (the main character) is reading an obituary. It isn't until the Season 4 finale that the identity of that person is revealed. In the middle of Season 5, that character mysteriously returns to life (hey, it is a magic island), only for it to be revealed in the Season 5 finale that yes, in fact, that character actually was dead all along.

The heart of this show was its mystery and a mystery is only a mystery if it keeps you wondering. Had the producers been quicker with this storyline, it would have lost its weight. Which brings us to number two.

2. They never answered any of the questions! or The answers to the questions sucked!

I love when I get this complaint, because then I get to put my nerd hat on and ask, "Which question did they not answer?" In fact, I issue you this as a challenge now. What question did you feel was left unanswered? If it was a major one, it was answered; the problem is, most of them were answered in the sixth and final season. True, some of the answers were more contrived than others (I was never 100% happy with their explanation for the numbers or the "Heart of the Island"), but for the most part the answers that were given actually did serve to paint a more coherent picture of the Island and advance the plot.

Why were there polar bears? What were the whispers? What is the smoke monster? What was the Dharma Initiative? Why did that bird say Hurley's name? WAAAAAAAAAAALT?

http://musguita.tumblr.com/post/398617319/waaalt

Yes, all of those questions were answered.

As for those answers sucking, I have a theory on that. As I said, I actually enjoyed most of them, but at least half of the fun of watching LOST with people was debating its mysteries. Almost everyone had their own pet theory about just what-in-the-name-of-Jacob was going on. It was fun to find evidence for your ideas and predict where they might take the show. As the show progressed though, it had to reveal those mysteries. If they did not match your ideas, there could be disappointment or confusion; in fact, the entire show could feel differently for you. Since the mystery was the heart of the show, the show lost its savor with many once it was dispelled.

If that's not the case and you simply think the answers sucked, I have another video answer for you!

If the video doesn't show, go HERE.

If it's not for you, it's not for you.

3. The producers didn't have every detail set in place from the beginning! They made stuff up as they went along!

One of the enjoyable things about the mysteries in LOST was the comfort in believing that everything had a set-in-stone answer to it. Viewers believed there was a show "Bible" that contained the rules about where all of the plot points had to converge. But as time went on, it became evident that some elements of the show were newer creations and other components of the plot, though focused on earlier in the series, were now deemphasized. Moments, like the several episodes where two characters spent time locked in polar bear cages in Season 3, proved that some of the show was being made up on the spot, as opposed to being part of some grand, unfolding plan.

I mention the polar bear cages because they represent a turning point for the show's focus. LOST was ABC's most talked about, unmitigated hit, and ABC wanted to make that last forever. However, in order for LOST's producers to be able to actually resolve the show's mysteries without stretching them out indefinitely or bogging them down, that required a set endpoint. The fact that the producers were able to get ABC to agree during the third season to end LOST after Season 6 with abbreviated seasons was a victory for the storytelling. Weird as they were, the following seasons had their own individually-set rise-and-fall of a plot that each dealt with a specific theme. This is why Season 3 is often regarded as the show's worst as well: the stories had to be stretched out with nonsense because the writers did not know how long they'd have to keep it going.

So, it's because of the fact that there is no magic, time-traveling island in the real world, unfortunately, that some of the plot had to be changed on the fly. This is why WAAAALT! never returned to the show (the actor grew up too quick). This is why Mr. Eko died just when he was becoming cool (the actor quit). But just because some elements were changed/added with time, does not mean everything was.

Anyone who has written anything knows that the story changes as you write it. New insights come to you, the story evolves, the characters change. Had LOST's producers rebuked any form of change to their original plans, the show would have lacked perhaps its most popular character. Michael Emerson had originally been cast for a temporary role, but he was so excellent that he was written into one of LOST's most important characters: Ben Linus, a part that had not existed originally. Few would argue that this was to the show's detriment.

http://app.cheezburger.com/TemplateView.aspx?ciid=3165658

And, for the last complaint (spoilers)

4. What's was up with that ending?! They were dead along along?!

Nope. That didn't happen. Rewatch the episode and then we can talk.

So why do you still care about LOST, Addison?

Thank you for asking. I've already told you that I loved the plot; I love its crazy complicatedness. I loved the mystery and the unabashed individuality of the show. But I think the show still matters because of what it did for the world of scripted television. LOST did a lot to prove that scripted programming could still thrive in the face of the ever-encroaching "Reality TV" plague. It became part of the "Third Golden Age of Television" and helped pave the way for other shows that benefitted from complex core mythologies (Fringe, Battlestar Galactica), enormous main casts (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), and abbreviated seasons and set finales (Breaking Bad).

Yes, it also did usher in an era of attempted copycats who attempted to mimic its flashy, high-cost pilot with a supernatural mystery at its core (The Event, Flash-Forward, Revolution, etc.). Yes, it also become so complex that casual viewing became almost impossible (also see Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad). It, along with 24, may be one of the first shows to commence and thrive off of the "binge-viewing" age.

But for me, it is nice to know that from 2004 to 2010, network executives could believe that there was a large enough audience that would enjoy a sci-fi/fantasy-drama about dozens of people trapped on a magical, time-traveling tropical island inhabited by polar bears and smoke monsters, to justify its existence and expense.

When I look at much of what is on the major networks today, I wish they would believe in us again.

Next time on LOST I, Culture Nerd: I fix the Star Wars prequels, bit-by-broken-bit!