Some time back, I wrote a series of articles outlining an alternative version of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. I wanted to see if it would be possible to create a ‘No Spoiler’ version of the prequels that a new fan could watch before the Original Trilogy, without spoiling any of its twists or reveals. I think I did a fairly good job. It’s not perfect, by any means. But it’s a good starting point. Now I want to do the same for Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.

Part 1 of this series is largely a preamble. There are a few points about the scope, pacing and backstory (what’s been happening since Episode 1) that need to be briefly covered. The outline proper will start in part 2.

In some ways, creating a ‘No Spoiler’ version of Episode 2 is more difficult than Episode 1. I love the Star Wars Prequels, I grew up watching them, but they are deeply flawed films. As part of this series, I’ve been trying to correct some of their issues, as I see them. I’m trying to make the politics a little clearer as well. Out of all the prequels, Episode 2 is probably the weakest, so there’s a lot that needs to be done here. Though, as a kid, it was also my favourite, I think because of the battle scenes.

The Scope

Part of the problem, I think, is that Episode 2 is covering a lot of ground. It has to explain the Separatist Crisis, the military creation bill, the discovery of the Clone Army, the formation of the droid army, and the outbreak of the war. That’s just the politics.

The film also has to depict Anakin and Padme’s love story, advance Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side and introduce Owen Lars/Anakin’s brother. Plus, there’s an assassination plot line that ultimately isn’t that important, and a barely mentioned B-story about the Jedi growing weaker. That’s far too much for one film. The scope needs to be reduced.

I’ve already made some effort to do that during the Phantom Menace.

In my episode 1 outline, I introduced Owen Lars as Anakin’s protective older brother and had their mother, Shmi, die during a slave uprising. This eliminates the need to visit Tatooine during Episode 2, saving valuable screen time. I also had a ‘reverse Uncle Ben scene’ around Shmi’s death.

During the uprising, Anakin has a chance to kill an abusive slave owner but decides not to, because that’s not the Jedi way. The slave owner then kills his mother. Anakin concludes that protecting people requires ruthlessness, beginning his fall to the Dark Side. This can be built on it fairly easily during Episode 2 by having Anakin support a pre-emptive attack on the Separatists.

I also tried to sow the seeds of the Separatist crisis. During the Naboo celebrations, some disgruntled militia captains, whom I created for the outline, begin discussing secession. They argued that Naboo’s victory proves they don’t need the Republic to protect them. This will, hopefully, make the episode 2 politics clearer and reduce the need for exposition.

I introduced Count Dooku during Episode 1 as well, casting him as a disgruntled Jedi Knight desperately trying to save Naboo in spite of Republic restrictions. Again, this was to make the politics clearer. In Episode 2, Dooku doesn’t appear until quite late in the story. There’s a ton of exposition about him instead. It will help, I think, for the audience to have already met him.

Dooku’s Episode 1 scenes further included a young Bail Organa, who will feature prominently in this film (far more than he did in the actual film) and will work closely with Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is to both streamline the story, as will be seen, and to explain the Episode 4 dialogue about Obi-Wan serving Bail Organa during the Clone Wars.

On top of that, there are scenes and concepts within Episode 2 that aren’t particularly important and, I think, hurt the pacing. They can be slimmed down or scrapped. I’ll cover these more thoroughly as I work through the film. Right off the bat, however, I think the war should have already started when the film begins. It will still be a relatively low-intensity conflict that both sides are hopeful of resolving. But this way, we can skip some of the political exposition and have some action sequences nearer the start. We don’t need to see the political wrangling that preceded the war.

Rules

As a final bit of housekeeping, I previously wrote a series of rules and ideas on how to remake the prequel trilogy, which I’m going to continue using here. First, the remake should conform as far as possible to the actual George Lucas versions, though some deviation can’t be helped. It should also abide by the established canon of the Original Trilogy and, for an extra challenge, the Clone Wars TV show.

It should conceal the Original Trilogy’s reveals, as noted, so that the saga can be watched in chronological order, by a new viewer, without any of the reveals being spoiled. This means that it can’t depict Yoda (he’ll be talked about but never seen), show Luke and Leia as siblings or even reveal that Anakin is Darth Vader. The last two will be difficult to pull off, but are more of an issue for Episode 3. For this film, the only relevant point is Yoda.

Finally, the main character of the prequels should be Obi-Wan. Anakin is the focus of the overall saga, but each trilogy should have its respective star: Luke in the originals and Obi-Wan in the prequels.

End of Part 1

That’s the preamble over. Part 2 will begin outlining the film. It will feature a peace summit on Alderaan and the assassination attempt on Padme.

-Dexter