Before Episode VII came out, I goofed around with my own version of it. After Episodes VII and VIII, I wrote my own replacement Episode VIII and Episode IX, which I still think would have been better.
And then a couple months ago, I got thinking of how to do an Episode X-XII trilogy. It wouldn't really ignore VII-IX, but it would sort of minimize that and move on.
First thing I had to think of: who's the bad guys? This is incidentally what they should have thought about before Episode VII instead of just slapping something together with sorta imitation Empire guys. Anyway, I got thinking that in the "Legends" books the Yuuzan Vong were pretty stupid, but I liked the concept of some outside force attacking the galaxy.
And then I got thinking that we want something relevant to today. We could have cut-rate fascists, but you know what else is relevant? AI. So what if instead of the fairly silly droid army of "clankers" from Episode I-III you had a highly-evolved AI that created an army of robots that didn't suck? Sort of like the Terminator franchise with SkyNet.
The other thinking on this was that it would be good if we have a bad guy where we really need Force-sensitive type people. Against highly advanced robots and computers, having the Force with those honed reflexes, instincts, and abilities would really be helpful.
So that's my starting point. How I imagine it starting is in the title crawl we already have the invasion underway and say that they've swept through the Core Systems and are moving on to clean up the Outer Rim. Then we go to a nice, foresty planet where a fleet of bad guys show up, chasing an X-wing fighter.
The X-Wing should be piloted by someone in the sequel series (probably not Poe but maybe Snap Wexley or someone like that) who's under attack by the bad guys. Their fighters are just too fast and maneuverable for him to escape and eventually he crashes on the planet.
A roughly 18-ish black girl is going about some farm chores when she sees the X-Wing go down. She goes to investigate and the dying pilot tells her to get his droid (probably like a BB-8 model) to someone named Rey. (Or Ahsoka or whoever.)
The bad guys land nearby and the girl and the droid have to elude them to go back to the farm. She tells her parents what happened and is surprised when they actually know who Rey is. They have a ship hidden on the farm but as they're getting it ready, the bad guys show up. The girl's parents buy her time while she and the droid escape.
The girl gets away from the planet, but her ship soon breaks down. She's rescued by a New Republic freighter with some guy on board. She tells the guy what happened and he says he's delivering supplies to what's left of the New Republic forces. The droid gets his attention and then plays his message for Rey and so they eventually agree to go look for her.
They come under attack by the bad guys until an old X-Wing scares them away. And so the girl and guy meet Rey. She's been honing her abilities and working to end slavery and such on Outer Rim planets like Jakku. She's reluctant to help until she realizes the girl is the daughter of Finn and Jannah and is sensitive to the Force.
Then they fix up the freighter and put the X-Wing inside and go to recruit a few other people who are all Force sensitive. They go to some hidden base and then start training a bit with the Force. Before they're really ready to do anything, though, the bad guys find them (maybe a traitor among them, either flesh or droid) and Rey dies to buy them some time to escape.
The main girl rallies everyone else and they use their skills to blow up the bad guy ships and deal them a blow. Then they head to wherever the remnants of the New Republic Navy are, where Poe invites her and the others to help keep the fight going.
At the end, the evil AI studies the footage of the battle and decides it needs a weapon to fight the Force sensitive people with. So it unthaws a clone of a young Mace Windu (or Vader or Maul or Palpatine or whoever) with some cybernetic implants to make it docile and loyal. Cue the Imperial March...
(At first I thought a Palpatine clone because we've seen that, but then I thought a Mace Windu clone would be cool because A) It's Mace Windu and B) there could be a romantic plot without people freaking out.)
[The next two are less detailed because a lot depends on what happens in the first one. This is what Disney didn't seem to understand and why you shouldn't have 3 creative teams trying to make all 3 parts of a trilogy at pretty much the same time.]
Then in the next episode, the main girl is getting strong with the Force, as are the other recruits. Probably her and the freighter guy are also getting close. They score a victory or two while the Mace clone is zeroing in on them. He sets a trap, by claiming to be in distress. The girl goes to rescue him and they fight. During the fight, the Mace clone's implants are damaged, freeing him from the AI control. He tells the girl that somewhere is the source of the AI, though he's not sure exactly where. Then he leaves, though he's taken captive by the AI and the implants fixed. But when it searches his memories, he's managed to suppress what he told the girl.
The girl goes back and tells the New Republic what the Mace clone said. And so there's hope to end this thing..
Which of course is the next (and final) episode! The girl and her friends go on a hunt to find where the AI's source is. Eventually it all leads to a big battle over and on some planet. The girl has to fight the Mace clone again and puts him out of his misery. Then she finds the AI's source and manages to destroy it. The bad guys all shut down and the day is saved! There's a victory celebration though probably some indication that at least part of the AI is hidden away somewhere...
There you go, I winged that off in like a half-hour and it's still a better story than the last sequel trilogy. There's a lot of familiar elements to a Star Wars trilogy without it just being a carbon copy. At least I think so. Of course it will never happen, but I can dream, right?
3 comments:
I noticed you have no Luke, Leah or Han in your sequel. I prefer that over the dismal lives they had in the sequels. However, I remember a lot of fans really wanting to see them, so you might have to squeeze them in somewhere. Also don't forget the droids.
This is an Episode X-XII idea so all those people are still dead. Since Anthony Daniels is retired you couldn't really have 3PO either.
Oh....I missed that somehow.
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