Note: I’ve heard parts of these ideas before from other people on social media.

In my opinion, the original Star Wars movies are better than the prequels, but the prequels still have a lot of good stuff. No hate.

But with some tweaking and rewriting, they could be much better.

To me the biggest weak point of the prequels is Anakin and Padme’s relationship. Trade Federation, Jar Jar, etc either aren’t that big of an issue to me. I actually like the heavy politics stuff and Jar Jar was enjoyable when I was a little kid aka the intended audience for these movies.

But I didn’t enjoy the relationship between Padme and Anakin when I was a kid and definitely didn’t enjoy it rewatching the films as an adult. The hardest part of the series to watch is their time together in Attack of the Clones. So, in broad strokes, I’ll explain how I would change the movies and the beneficial impacts the changes would have.

My goal is not to radically change the prequels. You could go crazy and take them in all sorts of directions, but overall they’re solid and I suppose George Lucas should be allowed to have a say in his movies. So, out of respect for George, the changes I would like are limited and meant to focus on the relationship between Obi-Wan, Padme, and Anakin.

Note that I have not watched the animated Clone Wars series. I know it’s cannon. I know it has a different love interest for Obi-Wan. But, nothing in the series to my knowledge impacted Revenge of the Sith (where these characters end up) and doesn’t fundamentally change anything about the rest of the series.

And spoilers for Star Wars, I guess?

Phantom Menace

In Phantom Menace, Anakin still falls in love with Padme, but Padme falls in love with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan doesn’t notice, but he gets along with her well. Imagine the Queen being forced from her planet with only a couple Jedi for protection and one of them is more interested in a young boy than helping her. The other one is closer to her age, kind, understanding, brave, and most of all reassuring that her people will be saved. Besides, who doesn’t crush on Ewan McGregor?

Attack of the Clones

In Attack of the Clones, Anakin chases Padme while she pursues Obi-Wan and she agrees to spend time with Anakin as a way of getting closer to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan and Padme bond, but when she confesses her feelings, he stays true to the Jedi code and turns her down. Emotioanl attachments supposedly cause you to make selfish decisions.

When Anakin then confesses his love to Padme, she accepts as a way to move past Obi-Wan/replace him with someone similar/still be close to him. When rejected by someone, I feel everyone is more open to accepting love from anyone.

Padme and Obi-Wan have natural interests in politics, helping the public, and getting to the bottom of why someone would want to assassinate her. Anakin is distracted by emotions from his mother and his own need for constant reassurance/comfort/praise. He puts Padme on a pedestal as his angel and replacement for his mother. His greatest happiness in life has come from his mother and he believes emotional attachment is part of having a fulfilling life. How is it good to deny love? But his love is selfish.

Instead of ending in marriage, we end with Padme enjoying time with Anakin and the attention he gives her, but having nagging doubts/feelings for Obi-Wan.

Revenge of the Sith

In Revenge of the Sith, all 3 of them are struggling with the war and the hidden stresses being put on them by the Sith. Anakin is becoming more angry and crazy. The war constantly forces him to fight and sees continued destruction that could be halted by a strong power destroying the Separatists. Letting Count Doku live prolongs the suffering of the war, so Anakin gives into his hatred and kills him.

Obi-Wan is struggling to defeat Grievous and is worn down by years of watching his soldiers die in a war he can’t stop.

Padme constantly seeks a political solution, but always sees it fail because Palpatine’s work behind the scenes.

Worried about Anakin becoming more enraged and bloodthirsty, Padme and Obi-Wan meet to talk about him and in a moment of emotional need sleep together. Both immediately have regrets. They have gone against their duties and against the love they have for Anakin. The shame and guilt is immense.

Because movies run on drama, Padme becomes pregnant, but doesn’t tell Anakin. Anakin as he falls to the dark side knows she’s hiding something from him, but assumes she’s betraying him to the Jedi Council as he sides more and more with Palpatine and schemes to eliminate the council.

He lashes out and almost kills her. He can’t handle his angel not wanting the same things he wants and lying to him. But he then realizes she’s pregnant and assumes the child is his. He keeps her alive and she begins to come to term, but as the story progresses, she calls in Obi-Wan to stop him after he kills the younglings. Obi-Wan, full of regret, defeats Anakin while Padme goes into labor. Anakin, burned and dying after his fight with Obi-Wan, focuses all his rage on the person he feels most betrayed by: Padme.

She has finished giving birth to the twins, but Anakin force chokes her across the galaxy(a power he is shown to have in the original movies). She dies and he is finally Darth Vader. He has completely given into pain and lashing out even at the person he loves most in the universe (we’ll come back to this later). All of his attachment to others is severed and he acts purely on selfishness, obeying Palpatine purely because of the power dynamics.

Obi-Wan decides to watch over Luke in case Vader ever realizes a child was born of Padme and comes after him while hiding Leia with the Senator in the knowledge that Padme would be happy with the potentially continuing her political legacy and that separating them increases the chances of one of them always being safe.

The big twist of the prequels is that Anakin is not actually Luke’s father (or Leia’s).

Does that mess with the original trilogy and ruin it in anyway?

No!

Obi-Wan’s shame and guilt over Luke being his son and not Anakin keeps him from telling the truth. Obi-Wan has died and Ben Kenobi is the man in front of him. By lying to Luke, he gives Darth Vader the opportunity to sense the same being he sensed in Padme’s womb and assume Luke is his own son (plus he’s named Skywalker). Darth Vader being interested in Luke gives Vader his chance to reconnect with someone, to forge an emotional bond again, and free himself from his selfishness.

Obi-Wan’s lie plants a seed of empathy in Vader which leads to him caring about Luke. The love he has for Luke frees him from the dark side and returns him to being Anakin. Anakin falls to darkness by killing Padme and returns by saving her son.

The change also gets rid of the Skywalker bloodline as being the most powerful and essential. In the new trilogy, it doesn’t matter who Rey’s parents are because being a Skywalker isn’t important to saving the world. Kylo Ren is obsessed with someone now who isn’t even related to him making Kylo an even sadder character.

We can get away from the obsession with bloodline and midichlorians as ever actually being important. Obi-Wan, Luke, and Anakin/Darth Vader become more complex, interesting characters. Win all around.

“But Obi-Wan would never spend a night with Padme!” I hear you scream across the interwebs. “He’s perfect and would never commit such a breach of the Jedi Code like Anakin does!”

What if the Jedi Code was wrong? 

In the most recent film, Return of the Jedi, we see Luke and Yoda reflecting on the flaws in the Jedi ways that no longer meet the needs of a new generation.

The new relationship between Obi-Wan, Padme, and Anakin illustrates how the part of the code relating to emotional attachments is wrong.

Yoda says attachment leads to fear which leads to hate which leads to the dark side.

But love and attachment are two different things. Love is kind and selfless like the Light Side of the Force. Attachment is selfish like the Dark Side. Obi-Wan loves Anakin and so can’t tell him about Luke and Leia being Obi-Wan’s children and he loves Luke, so he lets Luke have a normal life with his Aunt and Uncle in safety. Anakin is attached to his mother and Padme and becomes violent when he can no longer have access to them.

By trying to keep Jedi from loving others as a way of keeping them from forming relationships, the Jedi isolate themselves and keep themselves emotionally locked away from the rest of the galaxy.

If the Jedi had partners who were not Jedi, maybe they would have had a better understanding of the rest of the galaxy and not miss Palpatine sneaking up on them. Maybe.

The new relationship dynamic now improves not only the plot of the prequels, but the characters of both other trilogies and the themes across all main films. 

Side Lore Deep Dive

Not relevant to the main point of this essay(?), but a fun question I would answer based on my love of Star Wars comics lore: if love, marriage, and children aren’t actually bad for the Jedi, why were such things banned?

Well, if we bring in the old republic comics (which I have read and love unlike Clone Wars which I know little about), we can find potential answer (as well as a potential new film idea for all you Disney executives reading this to hire me for).

When the Republic and the Sith Empire first encounter each other, there’s a war and things get a little crazy.

In the centuries following the war, Jedis naturally drawn to the Dark Side of the force begin to encounter Sith artifacts. A pattern is established of Jedi seeking more power turning to the Dark Side, labeling themselves as Sith, and trying to take over the Republic. Note that during this era Jedi are allowed to be married and have children.

In the fear of future Jedi turning to Sith and destroying the Repblic, some Jedi become highly fearful and reactive which leads to them creating worse problems.

After one Jedi became a Sith lord after falling in love with another Sith lord and issues with Jedi with immense family wealth, the Jedi and the Republic could easily have decided that something needed to change.

I would insert possible story beat here where the Republic wanting more control over the Jedi and the Jedi wanting to reduce the chances of future Jedi becoming Sith make a decision. Jedi can no longer have families, marriage partners or children.

Connections with non-Jedi have caused Jedi to make serious mistakes in recent years. The Republic would also like to be able to cap and control the number of Jedi. Since Jedi are no longer going to have their own families, if they are going to bring in new Jedi to the order they’ll have to rely on the Republic allowing Jedi to test and take children from across the galaxy.

Now the Jedi need the Republic to maintain their ranks and the Republic knows how many Jedi there are and that they are disconnected from other sources of wealth.

The Jedi have made a law based on political maneuvering and fear. A law that would lead to the tragic relationship of Obi-Wan, Padme, and Anakin, the rise of Darth Vader, and the fall of the Jedi Order.