What would you change about the Original Trilogy?

Yep that would be good.

 

Thank you for making an interesting thread! Do you mean if we could go to the past and actually "altered" things from the OT?
Hmm, in that case...

- First and foremost the stormtroopers. They looked badass but couldn't hit blast. I would make them a lot more deadly.
Score a few shots on our main heroes, wound them at least.

- Boba Fett would be a lot more efficient in my version and not die from a lucky accident hit to the jetpack, lol.

- I would have changed the Ewoks to Wookies. I'd still keep the location as Kashyyyk and made it their
home world but add more urgency to the final ground battle. (I still enjoy watching it with Ewoks just like I did as a kid but
to an adult the whole thing feels a bit silly now.)

Those would be the most significant changes.

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 28, 2015, Original Post Date: Jul 28, 2015 ---

Great suggestion, I'll take that!!!

 

totally agree. nail on the head, brother.

 

I don't think I'd call Star Wars a "War film". It's much more of a fairytale or fantasy story than a war film. It's a story that has War in it. Not a War story. Opinion!

 

Like most people have mentioned, RotJ is the movie that needs the most fixing...

- Tighten up the plan the rescue Han from Jabba. Also, I'd eliminate some of the cheesier elements of Jabba's muppet palace.
- Luke and Leia are not brother and sister. This ret-con gives the first two movies a creepy incestuous vibe.
- Because of her devotion to the Rebellion, Leia pushes Han away. Let them get back to their delightful bickering for a while.
- Replace the ewoks with wookiees. And the land battle takes place BEFORE the space battle/lightsaber duel.
- Leia and Han get together at the end of the land battle. Luke goes to confront his father with a broken heart, which makes him even more vulnerable.
- Han and Chewie pilot the Falcon for the run on the Death Star.
- The movie ends with Luke and Artoo going off to find the lost Skywalker.

 

Did anyone else feel like they were at a Chuck E. Cheese when the curtain rolled back on Jabba and his posse?

Anyway, to get back on track, I'm not sure if I'm alone on this or not, but I always felt that much more could have been done to reinforce Darth Vader's status as a Sith Lord. Growing up watching the OT films, I knew that DV was the bad guy, but it never really felt to me that he was evil. He was just the bad guy to me. We kept hearing from various characters that DV was a master of evil, etc., however, I wish they had allowed for more exploration into some of the atrocities he had previously committed. For example, I remember feeling sick to my stomach in ROTS when Anakin stormed the Jedi temple and slaughtered all those younglings. That, for me, was a moment when I really felt that DV was truly becoming evil and a villain to be terrified of. I'm not sure what the best way approach to this would be in the OT, but I would liked to see more reference to his past actions, which would have made his turn on Palpatine and subsequent redemption feel even more powerful.

 

First thing that comes to mind: *puts on 'Why yes I am a Feminist, why do you ask?' cap* More women. Did the GFFA go through some kind of Gendercide or something? We see all of like three human women in the OT (not including those from deleted scenes like one of Luke's Tatooine friends from ANH), but no shortage of men. It's just weird, is all *removes cap*.

I also would not have Luke and Leia be siblings. They were (rather obviously) supposed to have some kind of romance set up in ANH, but of course she had more chemistry with Han. I still don't know why Lucas decided to make Leia fill in the role for Luke's sister after scrapping his original plans for the ST. Sure, it might mean 'The Other' would be dropped after just being brought up in ESB, but at least the creepy incest stuff would also be dropped.

Also, alien rebel pilots! I'm glad we're finally seeing at least one in TFA.

 

I can already see the blast storm hit TFA from a mile away, and outcries of some disgruntled fans. I for one, am very excited to have a female lead in a SW universe. I hope she goes through the same hero's journey as Luke did. It will be an interesting take from a woman's perspective.

 

I would change nothing. The only thing I find interesting was the original idea in Return of the Jedi to have Han Solo die and let Luke walk into the sunset in the end Spaghetti western style to find his sister, which wasn't Leia at first, and the Rebels being shattered despite their victory over the Empire. I think that would have been interesting and also more stringent with the character developments and arches in A New Hope and TESB. The Only two characters in Jedi really having a strong development are Lando and to a certain extend Luke. Han and Leia for example fall short- their story has been told in A New Hope and Empire- in those movies you learn everything you need to know about them.

 

I would change nothing, one original look is enough to know they made the story right

 

Well now is your chance to have your say.

 

Yes I agree with all of the above particularly Luke's training. There is no way he could have taken on Darth Vader in the lightsaber duel in TESB and survived. Vader was testing him in true sith fashion - prove your worth boy or die! Luke wouldn't have lasted five seconds in his present condition. Not against vader's years and years of Jedi Lightsaber training. It would have been more believable if we had seen more force training and in particular lightsaber training from Yoda. Didn't complete his training in TESB and in TROFJ he is force choking Gamorrean Guards (what's all that about) and deflecting blaster fire from his lightsaber. Not to mention him finally defeating Vader in a lightsaber duel at the end of TROFJ. Something's screwy here right?

 

Vader was only aware that Luke was on Endor because Vader was starting to care for Luke. The screenplay:


Emperor: Strange, that I have not. I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vader.

Vader knows what is being asked.

Vader: They are clear, my Master.

In other words, when the Emperor says "I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear," he means "Are you sure you aren't beginning to care for Luke?"

Vader: A small Rebel force had penetrated the shield and landed on Endor.

Emperor: Yes, I know.

This conservation shows that the Emperor is aware of the Rebels on Endor.

 

This IS a fun thread, glad it's still going on.

I just finished watching the trilogy again, and I don't think I'd change much, either. But I do have a few problems with ROTJ. It's just not believable that the most feared fighting force in the galaxy could lose that easily to a bunch of teddy bears with stone-age technology.

I also agree with others that Han's role was too weak, but I particularly disliked the whole hibernation-sickness bit. We could have see a glimpse of the swashbuckling Han we all know and love if he'd been fighting it out alongside Lando, Luke and Leia at the Sarlacc pit. That would have been an easy change to make. In fact, he could have recovered his sight earlier, not let on, faked blindness a little while longer and then pulled a couple of fast moves on the barge. All of that would have been completely in line with his personality. Whimpering and stumbling about was just not.

And while in retrospect the OT didn't have enough female characters, at the time Princess Leia just blew people's minds. One just had to be a young girl (as I was) in 1977 to really understand what an impact she had. There had NEVER been a female lead like her, she's the "mother" of every scifi heroine starting with Ripley in Alien on down. So actually, I wouldn't change that. It was just too iconic a role.

 

I love ewoks and would not change their role! I don't get all the "replace ewoks with wookies" fanfare. Wookies are awesome but I agree with the above and never saw the ewoks as defeating the empire, just playing their small role in a major victory. Wookies are almost too cool. They are strong, brutal, tech savvy, smart, AND connected to the "civilized" galaxy. Imperials vs. an army of free, angry, wookies PLUS rebels? Where is the challenge in that? I would already be more worried for the imperials. The OT needed to end with a challenge, not the addition of eager reinforcements who are stronger and smarter than stormtroopers.

I like the ewoks and their role (decoys). The unlikely circumstance of rebels joining forces with a primitive, isolated, and nature-based alien was more of a challenge to the rebels and made the victory more satisfying in the end.

And I like yub nub. Yub nub forever.

 

The 3 following additions to scenes... so when Yoda says "there is another" he is referring to Ahsoka

But that's just me
xD

 

There are two things that I think would benefit the OT greatly. The first is including more alien races that only apeared in the prequels. It makes no sense that of the TONS of alien races that were introduced in th PT, not one can be seen in the OT and yes I do know they stuck a Dug in Jabba's palace in the blue ray. The prequels have tons of aliens that we all know and love from the OT but it seems very illogical that so many alien races from the PT are simple non existant in the OT. Doing this would make there be less of a gap between the movies and the same thing can be said about the other thing I'd change. My second change would be giving the different Imperial troopers a way to show their rank in the same way that the clones did in the prequels. Apart from the Sand Troopers, who the heck can distinguish a commander in squads of Stormtroopers, Snow Trooper, Biker Scouts or Tie Fighter Pilots? Who was in charge of a squad and how could you adress him? Whoever is in charge here tell us what to do? Who do you even look at for guidance and instructions when everyone in your squad is dressed exactly the same as everybody else and your commanding officers don't even have a few simple rank markings on their helmets? Maybe that's why Imperial troopers looked like they had Greedo DNA inside them and couldn't hit anything! Everyone would be shouting orders and running around without no focus since there was no aparent leading figure. This may sound silly but take a look at the Imperial troopers that had the benefit of a commander and you will see the difference in most situations. Stormtroopers commanded by Vader aboard the Tantive IV killed a bunch of rebel troopers, Ben told Luke that the blast marks on the Sandcrawler were too precise for Sand People and those blasts had been made by Sand Troopers who also have rank markings to distinguish them, and finally look at those fricking AT AT Drivers killing rebels! You must be have mad skills to hit little running men from a huge lumbering machine at such a distance and once again the AT AT Drivers had the benefit of having General Veers leading them. Other than that Imperial troopers were horrible shots and practically laser, rock and arrow fodder.

 

This question reminds me of those peer editing sessions from high school ...when you get stuck with the class writer. The kid you don't want to be your partner because their work is already so well written it's hard for you to come up with something to change or fix.

I love the trilogy as it is and wouldn't change a thing. If I had to think of something to change, could always go with more aliens, more extras, more stormtroopers (NOT CGI). I like some of the cut scenes and wouldn't mind seeing ....

*Luke's friends scene in ANH (I think it's in the special edition?)
*Biggs scene in ANH (We get a better sense of the empire, the rebellion, and why Luke feels the way he does)
*There was some extra Han and Leia dialogue that was cut in ESB that I like (the extra Luke/Leia scenes in ESB are somewhat horrifying and I am glad they were cut)
*I like the sandstorm scene in ROTJ. It shows the group meeting up before they leave Tatooine, and I enjoy the exchange between Han and Lando. It explains how everyone leaves the planet and shows Han and Lando have really resolved the past.
*EDIT: Concerning the lack of main female characters, instead of adding more female characters I would have just made use of the other (great!) female characters they already had or add some more females to established alien species/ extras (more female ewoks, imperials, etc.). I think the awesomeness of Leia makes up for the lack of women (for its time) but the truth is there were female characters, they were just cut or underutilized. I always thought Mon Mothma was cool and I would have loved to see more of her. I'm unsure about the fate of Jocasta Nu, but if she survived somehow, she might have been a great addition as a female elder. I always loved her presence in the prequels. ANH could have benefited from the cut scenes (Luke's friends) and the other other movies could have retained the female pilots that were cut from the OT. Also, Kabe...the adorable bat-faced creature drinking at the cantina in ANH is female! Kabe could have been the Keenser of Star Wars. Love her design and backstory, she could have played a neat role in ROTJ...maybe caught trying to steal something on the falcon and is transported by mistake.

 

I too, would have loved more of Mon Mothma, considering she was the leader of the Rebellion it would have worked really well without having to make up a reason for screen time. The actress had a great screen presence. Her prequel actress was really believable as a younger Mon Mothma, too, but I believe she didn't have any speaking parts.