Re-editing and reviewing the "prequel" trilogy, I should say the Prelude to the Original Star Wars Trilogy. Because "prequel" isn't a bloody word!
Back to basics then. The three films I suggest line up consecutively in a proper fashion with main emphasis on the clone wars period in the final two films.
The first (title: "Jedi Succession"?) covers the Naboo succession crisis and Palpatine being chosen first as a mediator between the galactic senate and the Jedi and, later, Supreme Chancellor. Both events are connected because one of the contenders (or candidates) for the position of Naboo monarch is a veteran Jedi called Dooku (I really think Dooku should be given a full name. Bob Dooku? Bib Dooku?).
The result of this being that a young woman named Padme Amidala Naberrie is selected as Queen and Dooku gives himself the ancient title of "Count" (could be a Duke though?). The senate also bars the Jedi from forcibly recruiting force-sensitive infants, instead relying on parents voluntarily testing and giving up their children to the Jedi. Previously infants with high midichlorian (say, 8500?) counts had to be admitted to the Order for training.
This is all important later. In fact this part of the story can be seen as a prelude to the main event of Anakin's Jedi training, participation in the Clone Wars and his ultimate fall to the dark side.
The second film is titled "Attack of the Jedi" and occurs eight years later.
It precedes the clone wars proper, and with a greater emphasis on Kenobi locating a secret meeting between Dooku, the Separatist backers, and representatives of the Trade Federation and the Banking Clans. A secession crisis has been on-going since Dooku announced himself as spokesman of the new Separatist movement two years previously, with its roots in the previous film's events. The meeting discusses using the crisis as an excuse to provide the Republic with a standing army, one which has already been produced in secret and funded by the actual corporate backers present (for various reasons**, but mainly to increase profits by basically selling arms to both sides).
Anyway, Kenobi kills Jango Fett on Geonosis; he originally followed him there after the bounty hunter killed Anakin's master, Qui-Gonn Jinn. Anakin decodes Fett's logs leading him and Yoda to the clone army being prepared on Kamino, following a mixed force of Naboo royal guards, Jedi and Senate Guard Commandos being sent to Geonosis on the request of the Jedi Council following Kenobi's locator beacon, believing him either dead or captured.
Kenobi asks Queen Amidala to investigate the possibility the Sith have returned and are now running the senate, as this is the only explanation for the Jedi not sensing the existence of the clone army. She accepts, and nominates herself as the senator from the Chommel sector. This inevitably leads to more contact with the Jedi and a love affair with Anakin resulting in marriage and pregnancy.
"Return of the Sith" covers Anakin's descent to the dark side and begins three years into the clone war.
Although by now a highly accomplished Jedi and general, Anakin doubts Kenobi's version of the meeting he saw in the previous instalment. Anakin now believes that the Jedi secretly ordered the army and ordered Dooku to lead the Separatist movement in order to start the clone wars. Their aim, in his eyes, being to do away with the senate as a legislative body and rule the Republic directly. It also helps Anakin's paranoia that Dooku was once Kenobi's master.
The senate also begins to distrust the Jedi and makes Palpatine head of the proposed Republic Grand Army and Stormtrooper Corps, the latter being recently established as a standing force providing security in Republic bases and securing recaptured planets. They also order Kenobi's own clone soldiers to arrest him for damaging the war effort i.e., for killing the clone template.
Anakin is eventually persuaded that Palpatine is also Darth Sidious, but by confronting the Chancellor he causes the clones to turn on the Jedi. Feeling the deaths of so many Jedi, he assumes that both Kenobi and Amidala are deceased, as his wife went to visit Kenobi in prison to attempt to reason with his captors and, hopefully, as a senator actually order them to release Kenobi.
Anakin actually fights Sidious and nearly gains the upper hand until he senses the results of Order 66. He is already greatly injured by force lightning and, while distracted, Sidious dismembers his legs as well. Being injured by his own force lightning being deflected back at him by Anakin, Sidious at first doesn't sense the entrance of three Jedi Masters but is still able to take two of them by surprise. The third, Yoda, is disarmed by Anakin throwing his lightsaber at him and, after a brief battle with Sidious, he manages to escape carrying Anakin's own lightsaber.
Through the efforts of senator Bail Organa, Yoda is smuggled off Coruscant and reunited with Obi-Wan Kenobi and senator Amidala. They agree that their best course of action is to disappear from the galaxy long enough to convince the Sith they are deceased while Bail observes events from his position in the senate. Palpatine, meanwhile, blames a fault in the clone's programming for Order 66 and insists that the senate re-order the Republic into an Empire with a standing military to replace the defective clones and traitorous Jedi. A holo of the Jedi apparently trying to kill Palpatine is also shown, with the implication that Skywalker died protecting the Chancellor. Effectively framed as the Republic's saviour, Anakin has no choice (in his view) to accept his new position and name as Darth Vader after being rebuilt.
Addenda.
It transpires that during the events of Order 66, Kenobi was able to escape the Republic facility he was being held with the help of Amidala. Unfortunately both suffered fatal blaster wounds and could only be kept alive through Kenobi's use of the force. When she revealed she was pregnant, Padme insisted that Kenobi focus his efforts on keeping the twins alive over that of her own.
It is also revealed at some point that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas had a vision of the Republic suffering a civil war as the result of a rebellion. He had discussed these visions with then-senator Palpatine and Jedi Knight Qui-Gonn Jinn, before being killed by Sidious' first apprentice (Maul) during the Naboo succession crisis. Maul himself is apparently killed by Dooku, but does return during the war. This leads some in the Jedi order to suspect he was Dooku's apprentice all along, the reasoning being that Dooku was trying to revive an order which was supposed to be extinct and only of interest to historians of ancient galactic history.
Dooku publicly gives his reason for starting the Separatist movement as his disgust at both the senate and Jedi being led by a Sith Lord. He finds out about the clone army through his apprenticeship with Sidious, who had already been informed of the army's creation as he was ultimately one of it's authors. The viewer assumes Dooku's descent to the dark side began with his rejection as monarch* by the Naboo, which also led him to leave the Jedi Order.
*The killing of the previous monarch by Jango Fett was a test to see if the bounty hunter had the right killer instinct to be the right progenitor for the clone army. It also set Dooku on the path to leaving the Jedi order and becoming a Sith, but Anakin proved to have the greater killer instinct so Dooku was set up to be killed by his eventual replacement.
**Perversely a Republic Grand Army to replace the Jedi would be in the Separatist's interests. The maintenance of the Jedi requires as many recruits from as many planets as possible. An army requires only a reasonable recruitment and funding base. The "Separatist Backers" in ..of the Jedi more or less follow this proposition. More importantly, they are turned against the Jedi by their unwanted intervention in the clone war, causing this group to side with the Separatists past the war's intended duration.
These same military/corporate backers of the clone wars wish to test the effectiveness of organic soldiers against battle droids. Whichever succeeds in an even playing field will make up the proposed Republic Grand Army.
Again, the Jedi getting involved alters the parameters of this deadly experiment. Therefore, said backers have a reason to side with the Separatists.
Back to basics then. The three films I suggest line up consecutively in a proper fashion with main emphasis on the clone wars period in the final two films.
The first (title: "Jedi Succession"?) covers the Naboo succession crisis and Palpatine being chosen first as a mediator between the galactic senate and the Jedi and, later, Supreme Chancellor. Both events are connected because one of the contenders (or candidates) for the position of Naboo monarch is a veteran Jedi called Dooku (I really think Dooku should be given a full name. Bob Dooku? Bib Dooku?).
The result of this being that a young woman named Padme Amidala Naberrie is selected as Queen and Dooku gives himself the ancient title of "Count" (could be a Duke though?). The senate also bars the Jedi from forcibly recruiting force-sensitive infants, instead relying on parents voluntarily testing and giving up their children to the Jedi. Previously infants with high midichlorian (say, 8500?) counts had to be admitted to the Order for training.
This is all important later. In fact this part of the story can be seen as a prelude to the main event of Anakin's Jedi training, participation in the Clone Wars and his ultimate fall to the dark side.
The second film is titled "Attack of the Jedi" and occurs eight years later.
It precedes the clone wars proper, and with a greater emphasis on Kenobi locating a secret meeting between Dooku, the Separatist backers, and representatives of the Trade Federation and the Banking Clans. A secession crisis has been on-going since Dooku announced himself as spokesman of the new Separatist movement two years previously, with its roots in the previous film's events. The meeting discusses using the crisis as an excuse to provide the Republic with a standing army, one which has already been produced in secret and funded by the actual corporate backers present (for various reasons**, but mainly to increase profits by basically selling arms to both sides).
Anyway, Kenobi kills Jango Fett on Geonosis; he originally followed him there after the bounty hunter killed Anakin's master, Qui-Gonn Jinn. Anakin decodes Fett's logs leading him and Yoda to the clone army being prepared on Kamino, following a mixed force of Naboo royal guards, Jedi and Senate Guard Commandos being sent to Geonosis on the request of the Jedi Council following Kenobi's locator beacon, believing him either dead or captured.
Kenobi asks Queen Amidala to investigate the possibility the Sith have returned and are now running the senate, as this is the only explanation for the Jedi not sensing the existence of the clone army. She accepts, and nominates herself as the senator from the Chommel sector. This inevitably leads to more contact with the Jedi and a love affair with Anakin resulting in marriage and pregnancy.
"Return of the Sith" covers Anakin's descent to the dark side and begins three years into the clone war.
Although by now a highly accomplished Jedi and general, Anakin doubts Kenobi's version of the meeting he saw in the previous instalment. Anakin now believes that the Jedi secretly ordered the army and ordered Dooku to lead the Separatist movement in order to start the clone wars. Their aim, in his eyes, being to do away with the senate as a legislative body and rule the Republic directly. It also helps Anakin's paranoia that Dooku was once Kenobi's master.
The senate also begins to distrust the Jedi and makes Palpatine head of the proposed Republic Grand Army and Stormtrooper Corps, the latter being recently established as a standing force providing security in Republic bases and securing recaptured planets. They also order Kenobi's own clone soldiers to arrest him for damaging the war effort i.e., for killing the clone template.
Anakin is eventually persuaded that Palpatine is also Darth Sidious, but by confronting the Chancellor he causes the clones to turn on the Jedi. Feeling the deaths of so many Jedi, he assumes that both Kenobi and Amidala are deceased, as his wife went to visit Kenobi in prison to attempt to reason with his captors and, hopefully, as a senator actually order them to release Kenobi.
Anakin actually fights Sidious and nearly gains the upper hand until he senses the results of Order 66. He is already greatly injured by force lightning and, while distracted, Sidious dismembers his legs as well. Being injured by his own force lightning being deflected back at him by Anakin, Sidious at first doesn't sense the entrance of three Jedi Masters but is still able to take two of them by surprise. The third, Yoda, is disarmed by Anakin throwing his lightsaber at him and, after a brief battle with Sidious, he manages to escape carrying Anakin's own lightsaber.
Through the efforts of senator Bail Organa, Yoda is smuggled off Coruscant and reunited with Obi-Wan Kenobi and senator Amidala. They agree that their best course of action is to disappear from the galaxy long enough to convince the Sith they are deceased while Bail observes events from his position in the senate. Palpatine, meanwhile, blames a fault in the clone's programming for Order 66 and insists that the senate re-order the Republic into an Empire with a standing military to replace the defective clones and traitorous Jedi. A holo of the Jedi apparently trying to kill Palpatine is also shown, with the implication that Skywalker died protecting the Chancellor. Effectively framed as the Republic's saviour, Anakin has no choice (in his view) to accept his new position and name as Darth Vader after being rebuilt.
Addenda.
It transpires that during the events of Order 66, Kenobi was able to escape the Republic facility he was being held with the help of Amidala. Unfortunately both suffered fatal blaster wounds and could only be kept alive through Kenobi's use of the force. When she revealed she was pregnant, Padme insisted that Kenobi focus his efforts on keeping the twins alive over that of her own.
It is also revealed at some point that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas had a vision of the Republic suffering a civil war as the result of a rebellion. He had discussed these visions with then-senator Palpatine and Jedi Knight Qui-Gonn Jinn, before being killed by Sidious' first apprentice (Maul) during the Naboo succession crisis. Maul himself is apparently killed by Dooku, but does return during the war. This leads some in the Jedi order to suspect he was Dooku's apprentice all along, the reasoning being that Dooku was trying to revive an order which was supposed to be extinct and only of interest to historians of ancient galactic history.
Dooku publicly gives his reason for starting the Separatist movement as his disgust at both the senate and Jedi being led by a Sith Lord. He finds out about the clone army through his apprenticeship with Sidious, who had already been informed of the army's creation as he was ultimately one of it's authors. The viewer assumes Dooku's descent to the dark side began with his rejection as monarch* by the Naboo, which also led him to leave the Jedi Order.
*The killing of the previous monarch by Jango Fett was a test to see if the bounty hunter had the right killer instinct to be the right progenitor for the clone army. It also set Dooku on the path to leaving the Jedi order and becoming a Sith, but Anakin proved to have the greater killer instinct so Dooku was set up to be killed by his eventual replacement.
**Perversely a Republic Grand Army to replace the Jedi would be in the Separatist's interests. The maintenance of the Jedi requires as many recruits from as many planets as possible. An army requires only a reasonable recruitment and funding base. The "Separatist Backers" in ..of the Jedi more or less follow this proposition. More importantly, they are turned against the Jedi by their unwanted intervention in the clone war, causing this group to side with the Separatists past the war's intended duration.
These same military/corporate backers of the clone wars wish to test the effectiveness of organic soldiers against battle droids. Whichever succeeds in an even playing field will make up the proposed Republic Grand Army.
Again, the Jedi getting involved alters the parameters of this deadly experiment. Therefore, said backers have a reason to side with the Separatists.
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