A Better Version of Star Wars (Ep III)

I saw Star Wars - Return of the Jedi on Spike TV tonight, and I realized that I actually prefer the new trilogy to the old one (blasphemy!). Especially Ep III.

Why is that, I wonder? Maybe it's because Lucas semi-successfully managed to shoehorn the whole fall of Vader into one two-hour movie, since he failed to advance the plot very much in the first two movies. He had so much ground to cover in Ep III, that I consider it a triumph that he managed to get it (mostly) all in there.

Not that there's not room for improvement, of course. What's that you say? Prove it? Okay. Here's my personal treatment of Star Wars Ep III - Revenge of the Sith:

First change - the movie picks up 5 years later than Lucas's version. Anakin is 30 years old, a full Jedi Master, and ambitious. He and Obi-Wan are still close friends, but Anakin feels like he's left Obi-Wan in his wake, force-power wise, and is a little bit condescending towards him. Anakin has become the hero of the Clone Wars in the meantime, and has established a home on the planetoid Mustafar, a volcanic world. Padme lives on Coruscant, and they secretly see each other whenever he can get there and stay for awhile, which isn't often.

Act I, Scene I - The Jedi Council Chamber. Anakin is informed he's lost another bid to join the Jedi Council. Anakin takes it calmly, but stiffly inquires of Windu and Yoda why they refuse to let him join the council. Windu bluntly tells him that they know he is the most powerful of the Jedi, but they are aware of his tendencies toward attachment and love of power, and they don't completely trust him to follow the "Jedi way". Anakin says his record of accomplishments in his short time as a Jedi should be sufficient cause for their trust and that he "finds their lack of faith disturbing". (Anakin has gotten over his whiny teenage ways, and speaks slowly with a deep voice).

Act I, Scene II - The hallway outside the chamber. Anakin and Obi-Wan walk and talk. Obi-Wan warns Anakin that the council suspects of his marriage to Padme and that it could be the reason they will not let him on the council. Anakin says that if the council wishes, he'd be happy to leave the Jedi order, because he's fed up with their philosophy and stupid rules forbidding love and expansion of knowledge of the force. Obi-Wan quickly backs off and changes the subject. An alam goes off - there is an attack on the Coruscant - the Chancellor has been kidnapped by General Grevious. Kenobi and Anakin rush to their Jedi fighters to join the persuit.

Act I, Scene III - in orbit of Coruscant. This stays the same. The Jedi fight their way to Grevious's ship.

Act I, Scene IV - the lightsaber duel with Dooku. Almost the same as actually shot, but less encouragement by the "chancellor" is required to cause Anakin to kill Dooku. After beheading the count, Palpatine congratulates Anakin and remarks that he simply can't believe the Jedi are treating him so poorly after all the things he's done to win the war for the Republic. Anakin shows little or no remorse for slaughtering Dooku, or for tapping into the dark side to beat him.

Act I, Scene V - Kenobi and Anakin fight General Grevious. I'm expanding this scene to an epic battle where Grevious intentionally disables his ship and sets it to ram and self-destruct on top of the Republic Senate chambers. Obi-Wan convinces Anakin to take the controls and prevent the crash, while R2-D2 stops the self destruct. Meanwhile, Kenobi kills Grevious.

Act II, Scene I - Republic Senate. Palpatine honors and gives medals to Kenobi and Anakin. He declares Anakin to be the Chancellor's Protector, a new title which gives him a seat on the Jedi Council. Yoda and Windu look shocked and abruptly leave the podium. They whisper that the Chancellor has no such power to name council members among the Jedi and wonder whether they should refuse Anakin his seat. Windu wonders whether they should go further and intervene and force Palpatine from power, since the war is all but over and he hasn't given up his emergency powers. Yoda convinces Windu to allow it, but not to give him voting rights. Windu says maybe this is the time to confront Anakin with their knowledge of his illicit marriage and use that as their basis for refusal.

cut scene to the Seperatists being arrested and hauled in for trial.

Act II, Scene II - Padme's apartment. Big 'ol love scene here. Padme shows Anakin that she's preggers (and barely able to hide it at this stage). They discuss what happens when the Jedi find out, because there will be no hiding the fact that she's pregnant with twins soon. Anakin says if they press the issue, he'll just resign from the Jedi and they can be a real family. Awwww. Later that night, Anakin has his dream about Padme dying. He wakes up abruptly and several of Padme's breakables in the room shatter as he wakes.

Act II, Scene III - Palpatine's office. Palpatine discusses Anakin's new job with him. More sweet talk about how Anakin is being abused by the Jedi council and how ungrateful they are for all he has done to advance the order's prestige across the galaxy. Palpatine tells the story of Darth Plagueis to Anakin and how he was able to prevent death by use of the dark side.

Act II, Scene IV - Confrontation in the Jedi Temple. Windu and the rest of the council deny Anakin a full seat on the council and reveal they know about his marriage. Anakin gets angry (eyes glow red a little) and raises his hand towards Windu. Lightsabers ignite amongst the council members. Anakin resigns from the Jedi order and tells them what he thinks about their philosophy and rules. As he storms out, in the hallway, Kenobi attempts to talk him out of it, warning him that this is what Dooku did. Anakin walks away, saying that maybe Dooku had the right idea all along.

Act II, Scene V - Padme's apartment. Anakin and Padme deal with the aftermath. Padme won't leave the Senate to go with Anakin to Mustafar. They argue a little. Anakin packs his things and prepares to leave, telling Padme to come to him whenever she can. At that moment, a messenger from the Chancellor arrives and tells Anakin that the Chancellor needs to see him urgently.

Act III, Scene I - Palpatine's office. Palpatine lets Anakin into the office. He begs Anakin to stay on Coruscant and remain his protector. He suspects a plot to overthrow the Senate from the Jedi. He shows Anakin a tape of Yoda and Windu talking about removing Palpatine from office (Act II, Scene I). Anakin isn't convinced.

-cut scene to Padme's apartment. A masked assassin breaks in and takes a swing at Padme with a lightsaber. Padme gets away, although wounded across the belly, and sets off an alarm and the assailant flees.

-cut scenes around Coruscant showing several other senators being murdered by assailants with lightsabers.

- cut scene to a hospital room. Anakin sees Padme fighting for her life. The medical droid tells them that she will live, but the babies lives are in danger.

Act III, Scene II - Palpatine's office. Palpatine tells Anakin about the assassin and the fact that he had a lightsaber. Anakin loses his cool completely. Eyes glow red. Palpatine calms him down a little and reveals his true identity as Darth Sidious (shows his real face, which he disguises with Sith science). He tells Anakin that with Sith training and study, he could learn Darth Plagueis's secret to preserving life.

-cut scene to the Sith apprenticeship ritual and naming of Darth Vader. This will be so damn cool that geeks will show this scene over and over again for years to come. Vader will wear a black suit and cape and cowl reminiscent of the one we'll see him in later on, but not full armor.

Act II, Scene III - Anakin and an army of clone troopers march on the Jedi temple.
-cut scene with Palpatine addressing the Senate and showing them evidence of the Jedi treachery. Massive outrage in the senate.
-cut scene with Anakin mowing down Jedi in the temple. This includes padawans, apprentice, and full Jedi Knights. He cuts them down like tall grass, interdispersed with some pithy comments like we've come to expect from Vader.
-cut scene to Palpatine declaring the first Galactic Empire amid massive acclaim and applause.
-cut scene to clone troopers setting fire to the Jedi Temple.
-cut scene to Padme's hospital room, where Yoda and Kenobi witness Padme's unexpected death, and the babies are delivered by cesarian section. At that moment, they feel the disturbance in the force, and rush to the temple in a speeder.
-cut scene to Vader and Windu fighting in the burning, collapsing temple. Lots of angry words exchanged here during the fight. Windu starts to get the better of Vader and manages to disarm him and cut off his mechanical arm. As he prepares the final blow, Vader gets madder than we've ever seen him before, and blasts the holy heck out of Windu with force lightning of such power that the roof comes off of the temple, the walls collapse outwards, and we're left with a shot of Vader standing in a clearing with a charred corpse at his feet. Exhausted, Vader collapses. Yoda and Kenobi arrive to see the total destruction of the temple, get shot at by the clonetroopers and decide to head off-planet.

Act III, scene IV - Bail Organa's ship. Yoda and Kenobi flee on Organa's ship. They have the two babies. Yoda gives Leia to Organa to raise as his own. He tells Kenobi to take Luke to Tatooine and give him to Owen Lars and to wait until an opportunity arises to train Luke as a Jedi to fight the Empire. Organa drops off Yoda on Dagobah. He prepares to fly to Tatooine, but Obi-Wan tells him to go to Mustafar instead, as he has unfinished business with Vader.

Act III, scene V - The confrontation on Mustafar between Vader and Kenobi. First, we see Vader getting a new arm. Then an alarm sounds as Kenobi's ship lands. The confrontation begins and the duel starts. This will run pretty much as originally shot, but when Kenobi gets the higher ground at the end, Vader will blast him with force lightning, which Kenobi will deflect with his lightsaber. The robot platform Vader is standing on will lose power and plunge into the lava, leaving Vader knee deep in molten metal, clothes on fire. He manages two steps toward Kenobi, who reaches and grabs his hand (the mechanical one). Vader suckers him and swings his lightsaber with the other (meat) hand and Kenobi deflects it and cuts off the arm, causing the saber to go flying. Vader ends up lying on the hot sand, on fire, legless and armless except for his mechanical arm. Kenobi says his piece about the chosen one, etc etc, and leaves him for dead, picking up Vader's lightsaber as he leaves.

Act III, scene VI - The emperor arrives and saves Vader's life.
-cut scene to the rebuilding of Vader, pretty much as Lucas did it. The Emperor tells Vader that Padme is dead and so are the babies at the hands of the Jedi. Vader swears to exterminate the Jedi.
-cut scene showing Kenobi going into exile on Tatooine.

Roll credits.


So, what I have done is start the conflict between Anakin and the Jedi earlier, and have a lot of it occur before the movie starts. Then, I've made Padme's pregnancy further along at the beginning, avoiding the conundrum that she gives birth before getting a baby bump. I got rid of Grievous early on, and I've answered the fanboy cries to see Vader at full power, which Lucas didn't give us. I gave the audience one more chance to see Windu fighting and kicking butt. I've also deliberately blurred the line between good and evil, making it easier to sympathize with Vader and casting aspersions on the Jedi and their motivations. I've reduced the role of the Emperor to being a schemer rather than a fighter, making that consistent with the original trilogy. Most importantly, I've gotten rid of the ridiculous "one swing, three limbs" end to the battle between Kenobi and Vader, and made Anakin/Vader less whiny and full of teenage angst.