Not yet. I’ve been really busy at work and now I’m sick. I ran myself to the ground. All work and no play make frakkintalos a very sick bunny.
Once I finish…or move further into the story…I’ll comment here and perhaps on the original trilogy forum as well.
Eh, its no rush, just my antsy nature about feedback coming into play. Finish it whenever you’re comfortable.
These are far from complete, basically just outlines of what I would do if given the opportunity to do Infinities comics for the three prequels. I wrote these years ago around the time the original Infinities comics were released by Dark Horse. For the uninitiated, Dark Horse did a series of comics that told the stories of Episodes IV, V and VI if a single moment had been different in a similar vein to a Marvel “What if…” story. If I thought they were worth finishing, I’d probably do so but as it stands, this is all I have. Anything in blue is an addition or minor alteration I’ve made since originally writing these synopses. Remember that each story would play out over the course of 4 issues of a comic book and the narrative extends all the way to the end of Episode VI. This can be confusing so remember each “Infinity” plays out from the beginning of that film only, so for the Episode II and Episode III synopses assume that the previous movies were unchanged.
[i][b]Star Wars Infinities
Episode I
[/b]Qui-Gon’s Force manipulation of the chance cube is disturbed by the wind and he loses the bet to Watto and must take Shmi instead. He and Shmi fall in love, Qui-Gon leaves the Jedi order, and together they have a son while Anakin is taken by Sidious and trained as a Sith. Anakin, who still dreams of Padme, pines for her and still has a vision of her death during childbirth. Anakin attempts to warn her of this. Padme, who sees what Anakin has become is conflicted. She wants to love him because she sees his potential but she‘s scared of him because he is clearly under the influence of Sidious. Qui-Gon’s son and Obi-Wan, who are assigned as Padme’s bodyguards, are there when Anakin shows up to give her his warning. Believing that these two want to take Padme away from him, he returns to Sidious with desires of more power to defeat them and save Padme. In the end, Qui-Gon’s son who is nearly as strong as Anakin face off in the presence of Padme whose love for Anakin returns him to the light side. Sometime later [h]e and Padme have Luke and Leia who are destined to be the most powerful Jedi ever and will one day track down Sidious who without Vader, never became Emperor.
Episode II
Jango Fett successfully kills Obi-Wan on Kamino. As a result of this, the Jedi Council and the Senate are never informed of the clone army forcing Palpatine/Sidious to consider other plans. Sensing Obi-Wan’s death draws Anakin away from Naboo earlier but while Tatooine is on the way, he and Padme still stop there first to investigate the vision of his mother. They arrive in time to save Shmi. This results in no downward spiral toward the dark side. Having saved his mother, Anakin and Padme continue to Kamino where they find Obi-Wan’s body near his ship. Anakin fights Jango but Jango still escapes in Slave I. Anakin & Padme chase him to Geonosis where Anakin is caught. Padme manages to fire off a message to the Jedi Council about Obi-Wan’s death before she is also caught. The Jedi arrive during the arena battle but this time Anakin seeks out Jango while Mace Windu fights Dooku. Anakin does not touch the dark side here because his love for Obi-Wan keeps him on the light side and Windu kills Dooku. The Jedi Council investigates Obi-Wan’s death and learns of the clone army, Palpatine is informed and the Clone Wars begin as before, but without Dooku as a general he is forced to speed up plans to turn Anakin. He still dreams of Padme’s death during childbirth which Sidious still uses as temptation, proof of what Sith are capable. After he becomes Vader, before he returns to the temple to kill the Jedi, he goes to see Shmi and tell her how he’s finally become the all-powerful Force-wielder he always said he would be. When she sees what he’s become she cries. At this moment he realizes that no power is worth losing the love of his mother which brings him back from the dark side. But in an attempt to trap Sidious, he secretly evacuates the temple and continues to play the part of a a vengeful Sith. Yoda manages to survive on Kashyyyk and returns to Coruscant. When he fights Sidious, Anakin then appears to help him Sidious is killed unable to fight them both, together. Padme never dies in childbirth and Luke and Leia are born. For showing tremendous leadership in initiating the vote to give Palpatine emergency power, Palpatine’s double-life as Darth Sidious kept a secret for history’s sake, Jar-Jar is elected Supreme Chancellor and the galaxy experiences it’s greatest time of peace and prosperity thanks to Padme and Anakin running his chancellorship from behind the scenes.
Episode III
Padme never informs Anakin of her pregnancy, therefore Anakin believes the vision of her death during childbirth is as a result of the ongoing war instead. This gives Sidious less sway over Anakin because he believes that by ending the war Padme will be safe. Now that Dooku is dead and he is less fearful of Padme’s death, he is calmer when informed by the council that he is not yet ready to be a Master. His measured and mature response give the council enough trust him in that he is sent instead of Obi-Wan to find Grievous. Palpatine uses his absence to pay Padme a visit where he intends to murder her, but Obi-Wan is already there to ask about Anakin’s state and learns of their marriage and her pregnancy. While there he senses Palpatine’s intent but gives away nothing. He informs the Council of this and accompanies Windu to arrest Palpatine. Anakin succeeds in defeating Grievous sooner than Obi-Wan would have and returns in time to intervene during the attack on Palpatine. He is still unwilling to believe what Obi-Wan and Windu tell him about Palpatine and convinces the Masters not to kill him, but without anger and fear he doesn’t come to Palpatine’s aid and sides with Jedi, agreeing that he should be investigated and tried if found guilty. Together all three attempt to subdue him together but he simply jumps from the now broken window. Having redeemed himself to Windu, Anakin reveals his illicit marriage to Padme. Because the war is still raging and it is more important to the galaxy that it is finished quickly, it is decided that Anakin will lead a mission to find and stop Sidious and his Separatist army, and upon its completion he will leave the Jedi Order amicably. Sidious is found and imprisoned shortly and Luke and Leia are born safely. At the appropriate age they are inducted into the Jedi Academy where they are soon found to be the most powerful students that Master Yoda has ever trained and together they herald in a new era for the galaxy and the Jedi Order.[/i]
It’s not much but they were certainly fun. The hardest thing to do was to find a single moment from each film that would have massive repercussions if the outcome were different. Episode III was definitely the most difficult. Episode I was the one I actually like the least because of the character of Qui-Gon and Shmi’s son. I couldn’t think of any other way to go and today I’m so blocked I cannot write any other workaround that would be better.
I really dig this alternate universe idea. Although, anything you change could potentially negate the events in IV, V, VI. For example, in all three of your changes Anakin doesn’t turn. But I guess that’s the point.
My favorite theory, while the Prequels were still in the making, was that Palpatine created Anakin. Injected the fetus with midichlorians and used the Force to erase Shmi’s memory. Since Anakin was an aberration, it was unclear how he would react to the overdose of midichlorians. As a result, he couldn’t control what was happening to his body went insane and was powerless against Palpy’s influence. IMO, this simple change to Episode III and all would have been forgiven.
That would be my What If…
You are correct, none of the three miniserieses are direct sequels to the one previous but in all of them the events after the minor change are all completely different. For example in the Episode IV what if, the change was that even though Luke still made the shot on the Death Star, the missile was a dud and the Death Star survived, the Rebel base is attacked and Leia is captured. Vader then begins training her as a Sith while Luke goes to train with Yoda.
In Episode V, Luke dies on Hoth and tells Han to go to Dagobah to train to be a Jedi in his place so he, Leia, Chewie and the droids go there instead of Cloud City. Yoda recognizes Leia (Han is jealous that he now doesn’t get to be a Jedi) and trains her to defeat Vader instead.
In Episode VI, C-3P0 breaks when Jabba smacks him, so there is no one there to translate between the undercover Leia and Jabba. She is forced to reveal her true identity. When Boba Fett sees her he flees with Han’s carbonite block and Luke goes after him instead of back to Dagobah and Yoda dies before Luke can see him again.
In each one they still succeed, Episode VI even gets a sort of “mega-happy ending” but the circumstances are all completely different. It kind of plays into the idea, which I think is a genius plot device, that the Force will always find a way to keep it self balanced and there are no true coincidences. I’d really love to play around with continuing the story from where my alternate Episode III ends since Han only entered the narrative because he met Luke and Obi-Wan on Tatooine. If Palpatine was defeated before he could even create the Empire, where does Han even start? Even in the expanded universe, Han’s orphaned upbringing was a direct result of the Empire. At this point he’s basically become an Ultimate Universe version of himself, Han in name only while everything else about him is different, and of course every character tied to him would have a completely different existence as well. I could definitely have some fun playing in that universe.
For those interested, I just finished my first draft of Episode One, and the last part is posted at the Original Trilogy forum. If anyone prefers for me to either post it here or PM them a copy, feel free to let me know. As always feedback is appreciated.
Not that I expect my little old prequel re-writes are going to get much attention given that we’re getting new SW movies now, but bumping this just in case there was still an interest. Ever finish the draft frakkintalos?
Still working on it. I’ve had a ton of professional reading to do. It’s bland but educational. I’m hoping to tackle your draft during some down time.
Ok. I just finished reading your Episode I prequel over on originaltrilogy. As was mentioned there, as prose it is difficult to follow. That being said, I could see it all occur in my mind’s eye.
It captures the feel and theme of the films and EU. I liked that Beru is Anakin’s sister. I liked the Darelda storyline and character. I liked the Mandolorian threat as the driving force of the plot and leading to what I believe will be the Clone Wars.
Carima needed to be hashed out some more. I didn’t feel threatened by Kwade at all. He and his co-horts felt like a weak amalgam of Talon Karrde’s and Thrawn’s clans.
You kept the mystery of the Force and I liked that there are only a few Jedi. They have already faded into myth. I didn’t get why Obi-wan had a problem choosing whether to train Anakin or not. Did Ben think he wasn’t up for the task? I’m not clear.
Overall, I liked it. Well done. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the feedback! Been struggling with the plot of Episode II: A Galaxy’s Fury, so this was definitely appreciated.
Yeah, Kwade definitely needs some work. Initially I wanted the character as the darker, immoral version of Kardde; decadent but without being grotesque like Jabba. I had his personality clashing with Phakerem because I wanted the antagonists to be in some ways a patchwork alliance of dangerous distrusting enemies in contrast to the Empire’s uniformity. Personality and/or power wise he definitely needs something to put him on better footing with the Mandalorians.
My initial focus was on just getting the interplay and relationship between Carima and Anakin right. In general her motivations and goals (especially in the first act) need fleshed out.
Yeah Ben’s issue is that he’s not certain if he’s the ideal person to train Anakin. I’ve been going back and forth on whether Kenobi’s fatal mistake is plain pride (concluding that of course he can train him) or just plain overt emotion (so worried about the war and Skywalker’s future that he feels he must be the one to teach him). I’d love to be able to have something that a casual audience could interpret as a positive arc, with fans of the OT knowing seeing it much differently because they know what’s coming.
I’m searching the Original Trilogy forums in another window as I type this for your draft. It sounds interesting, I look forward to reading it.
I do believe that’s the sound of a long quiet thread being bumped, because guess who finally posted an update: