For those who keep complaining about Poe “not being his character in TLJ”. READ THE COMICS! HE IS IN CHARACTER! READ THE COMICS!!!! THEY ARE CANON!!!
The comics are what make Poe seem OOC in TLJ…?
At best, at the most generous, TLJ is a rehash of the comics’ plotline for audiences who don’t “do” Star Wars, which is fine – except that TLJ was executed in a way that retcons the comics’ growth and development of both Poe and Leia, rather than continuing that journey. While that might be satisfying on a superficial level for superficial viewers (leaving out the racism of the entire arc, anyway), it isn’t a meaningful contribution to Poe canon, or Star Wars canon. Undoing and then redoing a character’s growth, only with less interiority and a weaker set of supporting characters, is not good writing.
The guy who already learned the lessons of the comic – “the Resistance is bigger than one person” was the theme of the Gathering Storm and Legend Lost arcs; “careful tactical choices and not behaving rashly to tempt the FO into action” has been Poe’s strength throughout the entire goddamn comics series, ffs – either would not act, or would not be perceived as, the guy in TLJ. Barring the “Poe is acting this way because of PTSD due to TFA” explanation that I’ve seen other Poe fans floating, and it makes sense except that it lets Rian off the hook for writing lazily.
The easiest possible way to write Poe into his script was to make him incompetent and easily swept aside in favor of Rian’s own new character, Holdo, who would have existed in his mind longer than Poe – Rian wrote TLJ before TFA was completed, and the edits from after TFA “to address fan response to new characters” was to add Poe’s role wholesale. Poe wasn’t written as Poe Dameron; he was written as “Resistance pilot,” and could have been played by anyone. His arc wasn’t about him. It was about… frankly, it was about filling time in the movie between Kylo scenes and to “convincingly” separate Finn and Rey.
(And even that was extremely lazy writing, since Holdo was a legitimately terrible leader, was written OOC from LPoA’s setup, and had no significant contribution to shaping the arc of the trilogy [What real change did she impart on the plot? How did she actually make an impact on any other character? Poe already LEARNED about ~not being a hero~ in the lead-up to TFA, in the comics; Leia has already, as she even says in the film, dealt immensely and constantly with personal loss – and lbr, in the face of the coming loss of Luke, who gives a shit about losing Holdo wrt Leia’s personal life – and Holdo’s other interactions are with Resistance members who all are introduced in TLJ and then die in TLJ, rendering their inclusion moot!] other than to kill off most of the Resistance with her bad strategy. For everyone claiming Poe got so many bombadiers killed, where are the posts about how Holdo’s fanatical refusal for transparent leadership killed off almost all of the Resistance’s officer, ground crew, and pathfinders/foot soldiers?)
Honestly, one of the simplest and most superficial ways to address the redundancy in Poe’s TLJ plotline from the comics and how it showed a step backwards for his characterization would have been to utilize the cast of Resistance characters we’ve already met. There was no compelling reason ONLY to bring back Connix and Ematt, of the wider Rebels we’ve met, and to rely on bolstering Leia, Poe, and Holdo’s characterizations all through brand-new characters, most of whom are never named on-screen.
If Poe’s mutiny had been supported by Snap, Jessika, Kare, Brance, Bastian, Ziff, Peet Deretalia… the implication that “these people are mutinying because they support Poe as a leader they trust and who has the skill to lead” would have been a more interesting, and more in-character post-comics, moment of narrative tension than what we got. As it stands in TLJ, until Leia literally shows Crait to Poe and explains Holdo’s plan – which is all Poe was asking for in the first place – the audience is, or should be, squarely on Poe’s side of the conflict, but even that isn’t about /Poe/. It’s about “Resistance pilot.” It’s about “Not Holdo.” Since Poe is a protagonist of the SWST and a great character, it’s really frustrating that the opportunity for a strong characterization moment about Poe’s leadership – which we’ve been watching with confidence and canon support for his judgment and strategy since BtA, canon-materials-in-the-timeline-wise, anyway – being The True Heir Of Leia was wasted. Because we’re not going to get the Poe+Leia IX that we would have, so this movie IS our transition of power from Leia to Poe. Compared to a crew of trusted characters standing at his side during the mutiny, questioning extras looking to Leia for permission to follow Poe into the tunnels is hollow.
But even outside of that, the structure of the conflict lacks resonance because of the underuse of existing canon material. If Holdo’s chief mouthpiece and supporter were an officer we know, and who we know generally trusts Poe’s judgment, like Statura or fucking Ematt who was right there apparently, instead of the unnamed-on-screen-and-ultimately-irrelevant D’Acy, it would have added the weight of expectation that maybe Poe really is wrong. The conflict between Poe and Holdo would have gained tension, and the mutiny would have felt like it had real stakes. But as it stands? The audience has no connection to D’Acy or Holdo. I know my dad, who doesn’t “do” Star Wars, expected for one or bot of them to be an FO spy and viewed Poe has the good guy, which… makes more sense than trying to make him some kind of Kylo Ren Lite throwing tantruums on the bridge because he, as a Latinx man, needs a white lady to smack in the face and teach him how to be a Real Man or whatever.
The divisiveness about whether Poe, and Leia, were “in character” in TLJ pretty much answers its own question: they weren’t, because if they were, it wouldn’t BE up for debate.
The thing about Star Wars is that, inevitably, I just get sad that the Prequels are so bad.
There are good movies hiding in there. But there’s just so much crap surrounding them.
There just a few fundamentally poor writing choices that caused a massive cascade of really really bad writing and story structure and its SO SAD. -sigh-
In fact, I’m going to say that there are 4 fundamental problems that cause every other major issue.
Fundamental problem 1: Lucas refuses to use flashbacks and/or significant time skips within a single movie. Which is closely related to Fundamental problem 2: He decided he needed to have baby Anakin’s backstory explicitly shown.
Baby Anakin’s backstory is not enough to fill an entire movie, and since we can’t have flashbacks, we can’t just start with already-a-Padawan Anakin. Thus, Episode 1 is full of useless fluff filler. We are stuck watching Qui Gon, instead of the far more interesting Obi Won for nearly all of the movie. Padme’s presence is confusing, because her being around at that point in Anakin’s life doesn’t really make sense.
Fundamental problem 3: Lucas basically forgot to include character arcs for anyone other than Anakin.
This is the most egregious with Obi (who SHOULD have spent the trilogy dealing with his need for revenge against Maul AND desire to protect Anakin from Maul. Instead, Maul is killed off way too soon and Obi gets put on ~mystery detective duty~ for the whole 2nd movie.) It’s also apparent with Padme (who, tragically has NO arc, and dies for absurd reasons. I’m sorry, you have faster than light travel but no ultrasounds? Give the woman an arc. Totally rework her character. She and Anakin meet as young teens, she isn’t a princess, and she has real motivations. She is a rising senator with her own ambitions. Hell, let her survive childbirth. She doesnt NEED TO DIE for the movie to still work. She sees what Anakin is becoming and she leaves- she takes their children and leaves him.) Hell, even Palpatine SHOULD have an arc, and we SHOULD get to see it. Him rising to surpass his own master. The whole trilogy is supposed to be about the Fall of the Republic and the rise of The emperor and Vader. We should PROBABLY GET TO SEE ALL OF THAT. Buuuut we don’t.
Fundamental problem 4: Useless characters
I don’t need a whole movie with Qui Gon. I definitely don’t need C3P0 to be Anakin’s personal droid (I mean, he could be Padme’s? But why would Anakin build his enslaved mother a DIPLOMACY ROBOT.) Obviously, Jar Jar.
Ok, so given these flaws, how to we fix the series? Now, this won’t be a scene by scene screenplay, but just a general idea for how to address some of these bigger problems into a trilogy that is more thematically and narratively sound. Our big goals are:
-Give the major characters an arc
– Make sure each movie builds off the last
– Avoid anything too obviously absurd.
Side notes: Use original trilogy characters sparingly. Add more female characters in wherever possible.
SO, the Phantom Menace. This is arguably the worst movie of the bunch, so it needs the most significant reworks. We need to establish the major character relationships, set up the basic conflicts for the whole trilogy, and in general, make people likable. Here’s the basic plan-
Act 1 is all about baby Anakin. So we open on Obi and Qui Gon. First change- Obi is not a padawan here. This is important. He’s already had his trials, already a Jedi Knight in his own right. Qui Gon WAS his master, but now they are on more equal footing. They are off doing….some Jedi business. Not government business, because the Jedi being a government agency is silly. Just Jedi stuff. I dunno, maybe hunting Maul or the Sith or looking for a fancy McGuffin. Doesn’t matter.
They end up on Tatooine (Or like, another shit planet. Anakin being from Tatooine is kinda silly. Why would you hide Luke from his Dad in his Dad’s hometown?) for whatever reason. They need parts or supplies or whatever.
They see baby Ani using force powers. This catches their attention. They talk to him- find out he’s a slave kid. We can basically go ahead and use a lot of the Phantom Menace Tatooine stuff here. (Except C3P0. That’s absurd. Why would you build your enslaved mother a diplomacy robot, Anakin? No. If we MUST have C3P0, he can belong to Padme or something.) Hell, we can even keep the Pod Racing. It’s fine.
The important thing is that while Anakin doesn’t want to leave his mother- he does want to be free, not a slave at whatever cost, and he wants to change the galaxy.
Important to note: Do not have Anakin fly a freakin star ship or whatever. No Padme here. We’re just focusing on getting Anakin to being a Padawan.
The point is that at the end of ACT 1, Anakin is now Qui Gon’s apprentice. QUI GON’S APPRENTICE.
Ok, now skip to Act 2. Major time jump. Anakin is now like, 14.
He’s doing pretty well as Qui Gon’s apprentice. Obi and he have a good kind of Big Brother/Little brother rapport going on. We see them doing some minor Jedi stuff. Helping people. Doing their thing. We need to see that both Anakin and Obi really care about Qui Gon AND each other. Get some cool jedi fights in here.
So now is a good time to introduce Padme. Same age as Anakin. Maybe they don’t get along right away, maybe they do. Doesn’t matter. We start to get a sense that they have a connection. Also, Padme is EITHER a Princess OR she will be a senator. Both are fine, let’s just pick one. Doesn’t matter.
Ok, so now we need to get major plot points rolling. We see Palpatine for the first time (Ah, introduce Palpatine and Padme in the same act, you see. The two people who represent the conflict in Anakin’s future.)
This act is all about really setting up relationships.
Act 3: Ok, here is where we need to put all the pieces in place for the rest off the movies.
The big thing here is we need to see Palpatine already gain some power through dubious methods.
Darth Maul kills Qui Gon- and gets away. This is vital. Big lightsaber fight. Anakin is there. Tries to help, fucks it up. Maybe Qui Gon dies because he’s trying to save Anakin.
The point is- Obi takes Anakin in as his own apprentice now.
Obi now has a fierce need for revenge against Maul/Protect Anakin from him (This will be his major arc in the second film.)
Anakin ALSO has a stake in killing Maul (To prove himself, to get revenge, maybe even to protect Obi)
Ok, so that’s the first movie in a nutshell. We still end in the same place more or less, but with a lot less Jar Jar and over a longer span of time.
The Attack of the Clones needs to do a few things- show the cracks in the Republic and show the cracks in the characters.
Here are the basics:
Anakin and Padme have their romance and are married at the end of Act 2. Hopefully with better dialogue this time. Like, make this fun. Spread it out throughout Padme’s arc.
Padme has a big character arc about her rising to power at the same time Palpatine is gathering more and more power. We can see a contrast between the two of them.
Palpatine coming into contact with Anakin.
This in general would be a good time to look at Palpatine a lot. See his relationship with Plagueis (How is it similar to Anakin and Obi? How is it different?) Even see him kill his master at this point.
Obi’s quest for revenge against Maul and how it threatens to corrupt him.
We can tweek a lot of the actual Clone stuff, pulling from Clone Wars if we want. But instead of Obi running around like a robed Sherlock, let Padme do a lot of the investigating so Obi can focus on Maul.
The big thing here at the end is a big fight with Maul. Obi wants, needs revenge. Justifies it as needing to protect Anakin. But, last minute, he knows he can’t- killing for Revenge would corrupt his soul. He hesitates, he pauses. And BAM- Anakin comes in from behind and kills Maul with no hesitation and no warning.
This is the first real time we see a deeper darkness in Anakin, a willingness to kill without regret. He does it for ~the right reasons~ but it worries Obi.
Plus, now Palpatine, free of his own master but lacking an apprentice, REALLY needs to replace Maul, and Anakin is the perfect candidate.
Revenge of the Sith has a very simple job: Make all this shit fall apart completely. Destroy the Jedi, destroy AnakinxPadme, destroy Anakin as a person.
I kind of like the idea of starting this movie with Anakin passing his trials. Changing up his dynamic with Obi some- no longer master and Padawan, but just friends. How is this dynamic similar and different from how it was back when Qui Gon was around? How is it similar and different from Qui Gon and Obi’s old relationship? Just some happiness before we blow it all up, ya know?
However, Obi hasn’t been able to stop thinking about how Anakin killed Maul with no remorse. He confronts Anakin. Everything comes out- how Obi is worried about Anakin’s ease with killing, Anakin’s secret marriage to Padme, Padme being pregnant, how he doesn’t like that Anakin has been hanging around Palpatine. Anakin thinks Obi is jealous, paranoid, and he doesn’t get a say because Obi isn’t his master anymore.
This fractures Obi and Anakin’s friendship badly.
Anakin is growing increasing isolated now. He’s really getting drawn in by Palpatine. Palpatine can tell him all kinds of stuff- about how the Jedi will never accept him and Padme, about how the Jedi are a fading old order, how if he REALLY wants to change the galaxy, he needs all kinds of power. All this. Anakin is changing.
Then, we need to destroy the Jedi. Order 66 is absurd, for the record. And if the Jedi are just like, an independent religious group, and NOT a paramilitary government agency, it’s a lot easier to deal with them. There aren’t as many of them.
All Palpatine needs to do really is send in enough clone soldiers and wipe them out. Have big action piece or whatever. Maybe even have the Jedi WIN, so the whole planet gets nuked from space and explode.
Now, only the Jedi who are off world at the time- like Yoda, Obi, and Anakin, (Ashoka?) are left.
Palpatine needs to take total control of the senate. Maybe he uses the explosion of Jedi planet as a justification of this- blames it on rebels or terrorists or traitors. Padme really doesn’t like this.
Obi suspects Palpatine. Maybe he and Padme even talk about it, AND how Anakin is changing. It scares them both.
Now SHE confronts Anakin. Anakin is in a bad way- he’s lost a lot this movie already, ya know. Palpatine is basically the only person who he feels is supporting him. This is a bad fight. Padme leaves. Like, dumps his ass, because I am NOT killing Padme off.
Ok, so we’re in the final run now. I vote we keep the big Obi vs Anakin fight on the lava. Because it’s really fucking good.
I have mixed feelings about seeing the actual Darth Vader suit. The point is, we see Anakin at his lowest point, once again, kneeling before a master.
Padme goes into hiding because she doesn’t want Anakin to find her. She knows that keeping the twins together will make them too easy for Anakin to find with the force, so she makes the heart breaking choice to flee with Leia and entrust Luke to loyal friends on Tatooine until she can come back for him.
End movie.
The one thing that I’d change, if we keep Obi vs Anakin final showdown…
Instead of having Padme just leaving Anakin…
The rumor that Padme was originally supposed to be the one who takes him down? Should’ve happened.
Like, visualize it. Obi and Anakin fight, Anakin gets the upper hand, Obi is disarmed and on the ground…and last moment, Padme sees Anakin about to kill him and fires her blaster at him. She still can’t bring herself to kill the man she loved so she fires at his hand instead of his head, takes his arm (and lightsaber) clear off. He’s stunned by the unexpected blast and falls, becoming burned by the lava. Padme, of course, is devastated, seeing Anakin in so much pain. She’s the one who gives the last speech about how Anakin could’ve saved the galaxy, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way…why have you done this…” etc.
But she still can’t bring herself to finish him off, so instead she helps the injured Obi-Wan back to the ship, leaving Anakin to die in the lava.
You could also have something where Anakin learns through force prophecy or whatever that he’s going to lose the one he loves most forever and ASSUME she’s going to die because his mother died after a similar prophecy, when in actuality the prophecy becomes self fulfilling—Padme can’t love the person he becomes in his efforts to prevent her from dying, so he loses her forever because he loses himself to the Dark Side.
That’s just what I’d add from my own “personal rewrite” of the Prequels. I too hate that you can see the potential for SO MUCH MORE in the Prequels that’s just never realized.
At some point in my life I read Star Wars meta that essentially said “Han says ‘I know’ in Empire Strikes Back because he told Leia he loved her FIRST, and she needed a bit more time to come to terms with her feelings.” and honestly it changed my life I live for hardened smuggler Han Solo being head over heels for strong headed princess/general Leia Organa, and telling her in so many words and then being patient to hear them back it’s one of my favourite headcanons for anything
Look, whether you like the prequels or not, you have to admit that our lives are enriched by the classic memes they have given us. What would the world be without Anakin’s sand rant? Obi-Wan having the high ground? Darth Vader’s epic ‘no’? That’s not a world I’d want to live in.
failed2be-chill 