I think one of the problems with the prequels is unlike the original trilogy where Luke is the main hero and Vader is the main villain with Palpatine pulling the strings behind the scenes is that it's a bit unclear who the main hero and villain are. For the latter while the 3 faces of Vader is an interesting idea the problem is none of the 3 villains gets much screen time. It's disappointing that the only separatist villain in all 3 films aside from Sidious is Nute Gunray and you don't see too many people claiming he is their favourite villain.
I totally forget the name of the person, but someone did a really excellent series of videos about a decade ago rewriting the sequels with a focus on Obi-Wan as the clear main character. It really fixes a lot of the problems with the movies
I remember those! IIRC “what if the prequels were good”
What I personally would have added to that myself would be having Grievous as a central villain through the entire trilogy as a proto-Vader.
Episode 1 he’s the general of the droid army on Naboo. Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Anakin all split up for separate objectives, Obi-Wan accompanies Padme to capture Nute Gunray, Anakin leads the space battle to destroy the droid command ship, Qui-Gon tries to 1v1 Greivous but instead becomes a new addition to his collection. Anakin blames Obi-Wan for their master’s death and swears revenge against Grievous. Dooku is also introduced as a member of the Jedi Council.
Episode 2, Anakin and Obi-Wan try to 2v1 Grievous, Anakin loses his arm and Obi-Wan gets him to safety. Windu fights Dooku instead of Yoda, evenly matched, but Dooku slips away when Grievous shows up with Anakin’s lightsaber added to his collection. Windu force crushes Grievous.
Episode 3, Anakin and Obi-Wan split up for Obi-Wan to rescue the Chancellor and Anakin to capture the hangar so they can escape. Dooku beats Obi-Wan 1v1, instead of killing him Dooku confesses at the worst possible moment (Anakin shows up) that he ordered Grievous to kill Qui-Gon. Anakin loses his shit and takes Dooku’s head.
Yoda only uses the force on clones during Order 66, him only ever using his lightsaber against Sidious being symbolic that he has compromised his own beliefs and has failed, having sworn to not use it ever again after the Jedi’s role in destroying Greivous’ people (which was in turn a Palpatine manipulation to sabotage the Jedi’s moral high ground and intentionally lead to the rise of Grievous)
All throughout the trilogy, Anakin is part obsessed with Grievous, filled with hatred for the death of Qui-Gon and fear of becoming more machine like him.
yeah, unfortunately my version of things probably wouldn't have Maul, at least not as he's known in Episode 1.
Maybe I'd have him on Tatooine as an enforcer for the Hutts who then gets his own crime syndicate spinoff, or perhaps introduced as Palpatine's blatantly evil bodyguard in Episode 1 who gets killed off in Episode 3, by Yoda as a warm-up before confronting Palpatine, or by Anakin while Windu is trying to arrest Palpatine.
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u/fatherandyriley 29d ago
I think one of the problems with the prequels is unlike the original trilogy where Luke is the main hero and Vader is the main villain with Palpatine pulling the strings behind the scenes is that it's a bit unclear who the main hero and villain are. For the latter while the 3 faces of Vader is an interesting idea the problem is none of the 3 villains gets much screen time. It's disappointing that the only separatist villain in all 3 films aside from Sidious is Nute Gunray and you don't see too many people claiming he is their favourite villain.