Star Wars Rewrite

Lou Bacca · Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:37 pm Post subject:

There's a pretty obvious reason why Lucas made Amidala a Queen. Her daughter is a Princess. He probably wrote Leia as a princess because, well, the hero rescues the princess in these stories. Then, when it came time to work out the details of the prequels, he was stuck with that.

They never say what Leia is princess of, although Alderran is a distinct possibility. I guess that's a way around this mess - Amidala is something else entirely, and she's adopted by the Organas, who are the royal family of Alderran.

But I really don't have a problem with Amidala being a teenage queen. I just think she should be in that position because of hereditary succesion, not voter intent. It just makes too much sense to have her parents killed as part of the attack on Naboo - it leaves Palpatine as the pre-eminent authority figure, and leaves Amidala scared, grieving, and forced to lead her people into a war. All good story material Lucas inexplicably sidestepped. Maybe he thought opening the films with her parents dying was too dark? Screw that - it ends with the hero getting his limbs hacked off and his skin peeling off. If you're going to end that dark, you can't start with adorable moppets and goofball cartoon characters.
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Darth Geoff · Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:37 pm Post subject:

irishlad78 · Youngling Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

LightSaber_Fighter · Nerf Herder Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 18

What is it? Never blame bad luck what you can easily blame on stupidity. I don't remember, but perhaps it was intended as Luke refering to the fact that he never knew his real mother, and through bad acting on the part of the actor it sounded like he was implying that Leia knew their mother. Though it added more story to the fact Luke was asking about his own mother through Leia.

Lou Bacca · Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:37 am Post subject:

Okay, you're both bending over backwards to make that scene in Jedi make sense, when the truth is, it's just inconsistent writing. It's not jarringly inconsistent, just mildly so. So it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of the films either.

But when embarking on a project to rewrite the prequels, one of the first ideas that comes to mind is, "let's get rid of some of the inconsistencies." Also, we all seem to agree that we should treat the older films as fact, and work backwards from there. So part of the challenge of this project is to take something like the "do you remember your real mother" conversation, and work backwards to figure out what a plausible backstory for one twin remembering her birth mother and the other not.

I, for one, am not here to try and figure out what Lucas intended when he wrote what he wrote - only he knows that. I'm just trying to find a way to tell a story that's consistent with the original films, and more satisfying - to me, not neccesarily to every SW fan everywhere - than the prequels Lucas filmed.
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irishlad78 · Youngling Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Yeah, this is a tricky one. I'll agree that of all the things mentioned so far, Lucas doesn't seem to have his bases completely covered on this one.
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SartoriIrvrash · Banta Poodoo Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 1

Hi. Just wanted to suggest an idea that occured to me and seems quite a good one:

Queen Amidala - senator representing Naboo (or wherever). Late fifties.

Padme - courtier of Amidala and later spy for Jedi/Obi-Wan.

I.e Padme and Q. Amidala are not the same person. I have no problem with the queen thing. I think Lucas used this title simply on the basis that Leia was Princess Leia, so Queen Amidala fits! But if Padme is not Amidala then Naboo can be presented as a slightly backward planet, with the queen clinging on to power. Amidala could be more of an ambiguous character with obvious faults. When Padme meets Obi-Wan she expresses her reservations about the queen, but she is still loyal to her.

The advantages of this idea are two fold. First it would help to correct the unacceptable gender imbalance in the PT, and create a strong older female central character. Second it would free up Padme to be more active, a kind of (secret) agent type figure (or whatever). It also gets rid of the strangeness of Naboo having such a young ruler.

Lolkje · Banta Poodoo Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 2

New girl and late to the party. Much becomes less murky in the Mother-Daughter department if one allows for Obi-Wan's entire speech to Luke in early drafts of ROTJ.

"Your insight serves you well. Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit. But they could be made to serve the Emperor.

"When your father left, he didn't know your mother was pregnant. Your mother and I knew he would find out eventually, but we wanted to keep you both as safe as possible, for as long as possible. So I took you to live with my brother Owen on Tatooine... and your mother took Leia to live as the daughter of Senator Organa, on Alderaan.

"The Organa household was high-born and politically quite powerful in that system. Leia became a princess by virtue of lineage... no one knew she'd been adopted, of course. But it was a title without real power, since Alderaan had long been a democracy. Even so, the family continued to be politically powerful, and Leia, following in her foster father's path, became a senator as well. That's not all she became, of course... she became the leader of her cell in the Alliance against the corrupt Empire. And because she had diplomatic immunity, she was a vital link for getting information to the Rebel cause. That's what she was doing when her path crossed yours... for her foster parents had always told her to contact me on Tatooine, if her troubles became desperate."

Nothing here requires Mother to have any political royal oddities. The following scenario would fit neatly:

* Anakin leaves to confront the Emperor and/or his powerful lieutenant.
* Mother learns she is pregnant and Anakin has been killed. (end of Ep II?)
* When the twins are born (beginning of Ep III?), Obi-Wan takes Luke and Mother goes undercover as Leia's "nanny" in the Organa household.
* She occasionally goes on spy missions for the embryonic Rebellion, and dies on one such mission (offscreen between trilogies) fighting for what she believes in.
* Bail reveals the truth to Leia before recruiting her when she is ready.