They came so close, but landed so, so, far away...
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00:00 The Star Wars sequels are some of the most divisive things in the entire film industry.
00:04 Whether you hate them or love them though, for what it's worth, I really do like them.
00:08 I think we can all agree that they didn't quite live up to their potential.
00:12 There are great elements in there, but a few things just didn't quite hit the mark.
00:16 So with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and these are 10 simple fixes
00:20 that would have saved the Star Wars sequels.
00:23 Number 10, have a plan from the beginning.
00:25 Now, I'm usually critical of planning too far in advance.
00:30 The beauty of filmmaking is collaboration and course correction in my opinion, as you
00:35 often don't know what works until an audience actually sees it and responds.
00:40 Some of the greatest media ever, from Breaking Bad to the Dark Knight trilogy, had no grand
00:46 plan from the beginning.
00:48 And neither did the original Star Wars trilogy incidentally.
00:51 So much of those movies were just made up on the fly, from huge twists to wholesale
00:56 characters and people loved it.
00:58 But if there's another side to this coin, it's a series that signifies what it's
01:02 like when there's no plan in place and worse, when the creatives aren't on the same page
01:07 and sadly, it's the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
01:11 Things might have shaken out better had we gotten three distinct filmmakers continuing
01:15 the story and putting their own spin on things.
01:18 But to have JJ Abrams start the series, then have Rian Johnson put his own take on it,
01:23 only to then go back to JJ, makes for a total incoherent mess.
01:28 And worse, it led to retcons that attempted to hobble together some kind of sense for
01:32 a unified vision, but which only made everything worse and resulted in so much of the story
01:37 looking like a weird detour.
01:40 The Rise of Skywalker retcons The Last Jedi, which retcons in turn The Force Awakens, and
01:45 while not every beat should have been planned from the start, there should have at least
01:49 been a general roadmap that was subject to change.
01:52 9.
01:53 Tease The Emperor at the End of Episode 8
01:55 One of the major complaints of The Rise of Skywalker is that good old Emperor Sheev Palpatine
02:00 returned in the franchise's last movie with no better explanation than poor Dameron's
02:05 exasperating "somehow, Palpatine has returned".
02:09 Like yeah, thanks for clearing that one up, JJ.
02:12 While the Star Wars Story Team has since cleared up details of Palpatine's resurrection in
02:16 other media, audiences shouldn't have to read books to enjoy a series which predominantly
02:21 exists as a movie franchise.
02:24 The Emperor's shadow has always hung over Star Wars, and his return wasn't a bad idea
02:29 in and of itself, but Sheev would have been better utilised in a more minor role, maybe
02:33 taking the form of a pre-recorded hologram as present in Colin Trevorrow's rejected
02:38 Episode 9 script.
02:40 The most exciting thing to come out of The Last Jedi was Kylo Ren's status as the new
02:43 leader of the First Order, and unfortunately, Palpatine's resurrection meant that we never
02:48 got to see Supreme Leader Ren unleash his wrath.
02:52 This decision led to Kylo following more or less the same story arc as Vader in the original
02:57 trilogy, ensuring The Rise of Skywalker became such a carbon copy of Return of the Jedi as
03:02 The Force Awakens was of a new hope.
03:05 So to make this surprise appearance less disorientating, Disney really should have teased Palpatine's
03:10 return at the end of Episode 8, and no, his brief mention by Luke doesn't count.
03:15 At the very least, Palpatine's return could have been revealed on screen, rather than
03:18 being casually mentioned in the worst opening crawl of the entire franchise.
03:23 Yes, even worse than "The taxation of trade routes is in dispute".
03:28 8.
03:29 Make Kylo Ren's motivations clear
03:31 Kylo Ren is the most interesting character of the sequel trilogy hands down, a fully
03:35 fledged realisation of what Anakin could have been in the prequel trilogy in the hands of
03:39 a better writer than George Lucas.
03:42 Throughout the trilogy, Kylo struggles with the light side of the force in a clear inversion
03:46 of the temptation towards the dark side that our protagonists felt in the first six movies.
03:51 While Kylo isn't sure about his place in the wider Star Wars mythos, the one thing
03:55 that is clear is that he resents Snoke, who is holding him back from his true purpose.
04:00 And unfortunately, audiences never get to see what this true purpose is.
04:05 Kylo establishes that he wants to let the past die, but he never indicates what he will
04:09 replace it with.
04:11 He asks Rey to take his hand, but he never tells her to what end.
04:15 In The Force Awakens, the genocidal murderer formerly known as Ben Solo promised his grandfather's
04:20 molten helmet that he would "finish what you started", but we were never told what
04:25 that meant.
04:26 A redeemed Ben certainly helps Rey bring down the Emperor once and for all in the most minor
04:31 way, but this can't be what he meant.
04:33 Kylo didn't know the Emperor was even alive until Episode 9.
04:37 Maybe he wanted to kill the remaining Jedi, but why?
04:40 He resented the Sith as much as he did the Jedi in the first place.
04:44 So while perhaps Kylo felt that Luke's Jedi Order was repeating the same mistakes it had
04:48 during the prequels, it's up in the air.
04:51 The introduction of Palpatine in Episode 9 and consequent re-establishment of Kylo as
04:55 a minor henchman baddie means that fans will never find out, nor will they see Ren's
05:00 vision for a balanced order come to life.
05:03 Kylo Ren's conflicting motivations might make him more compelling of a character, but
05:07 the fact that audiences are never told what he wanted is indicative of poor character
05:11 design and lack of a fully-fledged blueprint for the trilogy.
05:15 7.
05:16 Don't waste cool supporting characters
05:18 The Force Awakens introduced a ton of cool concepts and character designs neglected in
05:23 future sequel films.
05:25 Captain Phasma and the Knights of Renly are two most obvious examples of underused ideas,
05:30 with their distinctive visual appearances and comparative lack of screen time indicating
05:34 that they were only ever created to shift action figures.
05:38 However, Maz Kanata was the most underused of the bunch.
05:42 Introduced in The Force Awakens, Maz hints that she is a Force user despite never aligning
05:46 herself to the Jedi or the Sith, making her the first neutral Force-sensitive character
05:51 in the Skywalker saga.
05:52 Unfortunately for Maz, whose Force scenes were cut from Episode 7's theatrical release,
05:57 she was relegated to a minor contract-fulfilling cameo in The Last Jedi, and returned as nothing
06:02 more than a minor supporting character in Episode 9.
06:05 So not only do audiences never find out about Kitana's relationship to the original trilogy's
06:09 rebellion, or just how she got her hands on Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, poor Maz was
06:14 reduced to the most overtly fanservice moment of the entire sequel trilogy.
06:19 That being handing Chewbacca the medal he never received at the end of A New Hope.
06:24 6.
06:25 Swap Hosnian Prime For Coruscant
06:27 One of the most emotive shots of The Force Awakens is Starkiller Base's destruction
06:31 of several planets that we learn, in a passing throwaway line, to be the Hosnian system.
06:36 This line is easy to miss, so fans would be forgiven for thinking that the only planet
06:40 that we see being destroyed up close was Coruscant, capital of the Republic in the original trilogy.
06:46 After all, the telltale signs are there - monumental skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, senators
06:51 looking startled from a balcony, the fact that this planet was given particular emphasis
06:56 as opposed to the anonymised destruction of the others in the system, it all just kind
07:00 of added up.
07:01 But it turns out that the planet was not the same one that we had formed an attachment
07:05 to in Episodes 1 through 3, but rather a new, almost identical location that we'd never
07:11 heard of before.
07:12 Coruscant's destruction would have elicited more of an emotional reaction from the audience,
07:16 as fans would watch a pivotal planet which had survived the Empire suddenly crumble under
07:21 a new regime before their very eyes.
07:23 The destruction of Coruscant would have helped cement the themes of letting the past die
07:28 that the entire sequel trilogy worked towards.
07:31 5.
07:32 Actually show us Anakin's Force Ghost instead of using a voice
07:35 Not only did the sequel trilogy fail to acknowledge the original Skywalker's pre-Darth Vader
07:40 persona - I mean, seriously, there's no way that Kylo Ren would have been unaware
07:44 of his grandfather's redemption - it also gave Anakin's disembodied Force Ghost the
07:48 worst line in the film.
07:50 The first six movies in the Skywalker saga were all about Anakin, so it makes absolutely
07:55 no sense that he didn't make a significant appearance in the sequel trilogy.
07:59 Return of the Jedi established that Anakin could appear as a Force Ghost, so his absence
08:04 in the sequel movies is startling, especially when you'd think that he'd probably want
08:08 to put a few things right after all the damage he caused.
08:12 Obviously he would have seen that Luke's Jedi Order was repeating the mistakes that
08:15 the Jedi made in the prequel trilogy, and warned him to change his ways.
08:21 Episode 9 made clear that Force users need to open themselves up to communication to
08:25 Force Ghosts, but you'd think that Kylo Ren would have longed to speak to the grandfather
08:29 that he idolised, and listening to his lessons about why following the dark side of the Force
08:34 might not be the best decision that someone can make.
08:38 Concept art for The Force Awakens showcased an Anakin Skywalker Force Ghost as well that
08:42 was still corrupt with the dark side of the Force, that was half human and half machine.
08:47 And this would have been super sick.
08:50 4.
08:51 Change Anakin's Force Ghost Line
08:53 Okay so yeah, this one's a double whammy.
08:55 Despite being a comparatively minor change, this would have had the biggest implications
08:59 not just for the sequel trilogy, but for the Skywalker saga as a whole.
09:03 Amongst the voices of disembodied Jedi at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Hayden Christensen's
09:08 Anakin Skywalker can be heard saying "Bring balance to the Force, as I did".
09:13 This line was clearly included by the filmmakers to easily explain away any argument about
09:18 Anakin's role in the first six movies being undermined, effectively telling fans that
09:22 the so-called "Chosen One" did "bring balance to the Force", whatever that means,
09:27 but the Force simply fell out of balance again less than 30 years after his death.
09:32 It's short enough to be disregarded, but this throwaway line only serves to highlight
09:36 just how meaningless Anakin's sacrifice was at the end of Return of the Jedi.
09:40 The idea that the Force had been balanced so soon before needing balancing again raises
09:45 questions of its own.
09:46 Does the Force periodically get thrown out of balance every few decades, needing a new
09:50 Chosen One to come around and set it straight again?
09:53 Throughout the entire saga, we are never told really what "balance to the Force" actually
09:58 means, and this line does nothing to clarify this concept.
10:02 Instead of telling Rey to "bring balance to the Force as I did", Anakin's Force
10:05 Ghost should've said something like "finish what I started" and "bring balance to
10:09 the Force".
10:10 But probably snappier, I mean I'm not Screenwriter.
10:12 As well as maintaining the meaningfulness of Anakin's legacy - he weakened the Emperor
10:16 so that Rey could destroy him - this line would've recalled Kylo's promise to his
10:20 grandfather that he would finish what he started.
10:23 3.
10:24 Show Off Vader's Castle
10:25 Turns out that the anonymous-looking red planet Kylo Ren made a very brief trip to at the
10:29 start of The Rise of Skywalker was actually Mustafar of Revenge of the Sith fame.
10:34 Not that you'd notice it if you hadn't read the film's visual dictionary.
10:38 You would be forgiven for not realising of course, as Mustafar looked nothing like it
10:42 did in the last Skywalker saga appearance.
10:45 Lava fields have been replaced by dark trees thrown against an ominous red mist, and there's
10:50 none of the symbolic "more machine than man metal" structures which helped make
10:53 Obi-Wan and Anakin's final fight so visually compelling.
10:57 This isn't the first time Disney's Star Wars has smuggled in this planet though, without
11:01 actually acknowledging its existence.
11:03 The planet last appeared in 2017's Rogue One, a movie which made a big deal of labelling
11:07 the names of its planets on screen.
11:10 The staggeringly short shot of Mustafar however didn't get the same treatment.
11:14 Regardless though, it turns out that Kylo Ren was looking for a Sith wayfinder amongst
11:18 the ruins of Vader's Castle, which had somehow become a forest overrun by trees in the space
11:24 of around 30 years.
11:26 Seeing Vader's Castle in all of its sinister glory would've not only made it obvious
11:29 that this opening planet actually had a connection to the other movies in the franchise, but
11:33 it also would've been a pretty cool backdrop to an action-packed scene.
11:36 2.
11:37 More Exciting Planets
11:38 Say what you like about the prequels, but at least George Lucas' ill-fated second
11:43 trilogy introduced interesting planets to the mix, rather than delivering the same mono-environmental
11:48 locations featured in the first three movies.
11:52 And put simply, Anakin would've absolutely hated the sequel trilogy, because it introduces
11:57 not one, but two all-new sand planets.
12:01 Compare the sequel trilogy's dull locations to vibrant planets like Naboo, which treated
12:06 us to cities coexisting with a symbiotic underwater kingdom, and Coruscant, a planet-sprawling
12:11 metropolis with its buzzing criminal underworld, and even Kamino, with its startling white
12:16 clone factory and dramatic seascape.
12:19 Act 2 was pretty nice visually, but there still wasn't much there, and the most exciting
12:24 planet introduced in the entire sequel trilogy was Kanto Blight, which was wasted at best.
12:30 1.
12:31 More Original Start To The Trilogy
12:33 Being essentially a soft reboot after the disappointment that was the prequel trilogy,
12:37 it was inevitable that Disney's punt at a trio of Skywalker stories would lean heavily
12:41 on what made the original trilogy such a lovable cash cow in the first place.
12:46 Namely props and sets that imitated a lived-in world rather than shoddy CGI, character-centric
12:51 stories and a compelling mythos which left no room for midichlorians.
12:56 Butchager Abrams and crew might have taken their exercise in nostalgia a step too far,
13:01 rather than just imitating the filmmaking techniques and principles that cemented the
13:04 1977 Star Wars as a classic, they copied the whole story altogether.
13:09 Of course, some things are different, but the similarities between The Force Awakens
13:13 and A New Hope are too obvious to overlook.
13:16 There's the old mentor figure, the evil military regime, the hero from a desert planet,
13:22 the list stretches on and on for so long that it probably warrants its own article of its
13:26 own.
13:27 While The Force Awakens served as the perfect franchise reset after the sour taste of the
13:31 prequels, in hindsight a lot of its story decisions are just a little bit uninteresting.
13:35 What's more, Episode 7's decision to retell the story of A New Hope only makes the original
13:40 trilogy redundant.
13:41 All of the resistance and sacrifices are rendered null given that the galaxy reverted back to
13:46 the exact same state they had founded in, which… never got resolved really did that.
13:51 Look, we get that Star Wars is about, well, wars.
13:54 But maybe this could have involved a different threat rather than a third galactic civil
13:59 war.
14:00 But hey, that's a conversation for the next three movies.
14:04 So that's our list, I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
14:06 What do you think about the sequel trilogy and what changes would you have made?
14:10 While you're down there as well could you please give us a like, share, subscribe and
14:12 head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
14:17 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching and I'll see