Rewrite: Attack of the Clones [TV&Film]

To end Star Wars Month off in terms of blog posts, I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. Attack of the Clones is my least favoured of all the films. While I don’t harp on about the romance between Anakin and Padme as though it destroyed the entire film, it is the area that’s dragging it down the most. For this Rewrite, I’m going to look at all of the film.

The first thing to note is the opening. Nearly everything about it is fine. There’s just one thing that bugs me. Where is the bomb placed? The explosion makes it look as though it’s in the ship, and if it is – how did someone get access to the ship to place it there? Jango and Zam are professional bounty hunters. They should know the best places to set up sniper positions and wait. A single bolt would be all it takes. After all, they wouldn’t know a decoy had been used until after Padme arrives at the Senate building later. There’s no need to gun the others down, so as soon as the decoy had been shot they quickly shoot off. Padme then appears at the Senate and we get the scene cut from the film where she appears before the Senate and Palpatine expresses his gratitude that she survived. In other words, aside from seeing the ship coming in to land, the first scene is from the perspective of Zam – but we wouldn’t see exactly who she was.

Palpatine discussing the military creation act with the Jedi council and Padme arriving to then get Jedi bodyguards plays out the same, as does the scene within her suite. The Coruscant chase plays out much the same as before. All of that I don’t have any problems with. The nightclub scene and the subsequent ones are those I’m going to put some detail to.

Anakin and Obi-Wan head into the nightclub to chase Zam, but run head-first into a staged meet between her and Jango. Seeing the armoured man takes them by surprise, allowing him to make a quick getaway. Anakin and Obi-Wan quickly decide to go after both, splitting off to go after one each. Jango’s ship takes off, and to make sure the Jedi cannot mistake it for anyone else, Zam is stood on the outside with a sniper and fires off a shot before retreating inside. The ship then takes off. With no way to quickly get back in the chase, Anakin and Obi-Wan head back to the Jedi Temple to report.

The Jedi council decide, as in the film, that Padme needs to go into hiding. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan are in charge of protecting her. Two bounty hunters. Two Jedi. Anakin is to be within the ship while Obi-Wan follows with the starfighter guard. The ship used is the same one she arrived in, and the two Jedi know that it is a risky move, but the best one to succeed. The ship quickly enters space but gets ambushed by two ships. Jango’s and another one that Zam took control of. The guard do all they can to protect the ship, but it gets damaged just as it enters hyperspace. Obi-Wan manages to fire a tracker onto Jango’s ship before it goes into hyperspace. Zam also jumps to hyperspace, leaving the rest of the guard to jump to Naboo. Obi-Wan stays to report to the Jedi council from where he is, then follows Jango.

Following Anakin’s story, the ship breaks down due to losing power, dropping out of hyperspace near Tatooine. However, as they’re heading down through the atmosphere, Zam shows up and starts blasting away at them. The ship crashes onto the ground, with Zam still firing upon them. Anakin uses the Force to bring Zam down, and a quick fight ensues. Anakin disables Zam, and that’s when they realise they are on owned land. Bringing Zam inside the place, the people inside are willing to give them some space to hold their interrogation. Cliegg Lars watches as Anakin uses his mind control powers to little effect. He then starts getting angrier, using more brutal uses of the Force, wanting to find out who hired her and Jango. In his excessive Force use, he kills her, getting even irate. Padme tries calming him down, but then C-3PO arrives inside. The surprise is enough to bring Anakin from his rage. Then the story comes out of Watto selling Shmi to Cliegg, them getting along as a family, and then the reason she isn’t here. Anakin wants to head out to find her, but Cliegg tries to persuade him not to go. Again Anakin’s rage builds within, and nothing is stopping him going. Like in the film, he heads out on a speeder, finds his mom, she dies in his arms and he goes berserk on the Tuskens. When Anakin returns with his mother’s body, he has much the same dealing with his emotions as in the film, though also with regret at going too far with his interrogation.

Concurrent to all of this is Obi-Wan following Jango to Kamino, where he gets introduced to the Kaminoans and the story of the clone army for the Republic comes out. The meeting with Jango takes place, but instead of the incriminating evidence being Jango’s armour not being hidden, Obi-Wan makes a judgement from the battle of words the two exchange. He reports on the clone army to Yoda and Mace, with the two asking if the bounty hunter who he was tracking and Jango Fett are one and the same. Obi-Wan says he isn’t one hundred percent, but plans on taking a closer look at the ship. Upon doing so, he gets involved in battle with Jango on the landing field of the ship. Jango manages to force Obi-Wan back enough to jump onto his ship that Boba is piloting, and it takes off. Obi-Wan returns to his own ship to find the tracker still active, and sets off to follow. The space battle follows the same as the film, with Jango leading Obi-Wan to Dooku.

You might wonder where all the Anakin and Padme romance talk fits in with little in the way of a pause. All of that has been reduced greatly. The scene that takes place on the transport in the film happens the same as before, so Anakin’s dream of his mother happens and his talk of being encouraged to love takes place. Padme is hiding her own feelings, but she at least recognises them and those of Anakin. On Tatooine there’s little time for such discussion, but once Anakin returns with his mother and has laid his feeling bare, Padme wants to help him, but knows that what he needs she cannot give. The third part of the bonding before Geonosis is during the repair of Zam’s ship takes place so they can leave. This part is where the two talk about Anakin’s feelings in more depth, with Anakin admitting he feels lost without love. He admits that the only two people who have shown him any friendship is Palpatine and Obi-Wan. Padme says that she has too, but Anakin says it isn’t the same – they hadn’t seen each other for ten years. Padme says that their friendship does matter, and shows him the japor snippet he had given her. She admits that she couldn’t help but wonder what he had been up to during the ten years, and had always kept the carving on her for good fortune. Anakin starts asking about commitment, but that is when she starts backing away again. He cannot go too far with that line of thought, as R2-D2 comes along saying that the transmitter on their broken ship was still working, and news was coming in from Coruscant.

The Jedi council, Palpatine, and certain Senators are within the Chancellor’s office to receive the news of Obi-Wan being captured, having previously gathered to hear the news that Padme hadn’t arrived on Naboo. Now they listened to Dooku saying that the Chancellor is to disband the Senate and hand over control of the Republic to him otherwise he would send droids to all Republic systems and create chaos across the galaxy. The discussion of needing the clone army starts up, but then Anakin appears to ask what news they had, reporting that Padme was fine. The group decides that the clone army is indeed needed, with events following the same as the film. Yes, Jar Jar is the fall guy here as well. Palpatine accepts emergency powers that Jar Jar proposes, Yoda heads to Kamino to collect the clones, with Mace organising a Jedi strike. Anakin and Padme head to Geonosis in Zam’s ship, with Padme hoping to settle the conflict peacefully.

Upon arrival, the two are captured. Jango was waiting, expecting Zam to return, but instead finds Anakin and Padme. Instead of taking a pot shot, he uses his jetpack to escape, leading the two to Dooku as well. Padme tries her best to reason with Dooku, but he reveals that Viceroy Gunray wouldn’t be joining him unless she was dealt with, and having Anakin along for the execution would put two Jedi out of action as well. The arena happens here, with Padme finally admitting all her feelings to Anakin. The two agree that no matter what happens, they have each other, and will forever. The three battle against the creatures. The droidekas roll in and surround them, then Mace and the Jedi arrive and the battle between Jedi and droids begins. Instead of Mace vs Jango, Obi-Wan gets to deal with him instead, proving to be a short but not insulting fight. The Jedi are eventually surrounded, the clones come in and the war starts. The CIS begins its retreat, trying its best to get away while their remaining forces continue the battle.

I’m kind of forced to include the final battle here due my rules with this series [keeping with the basic template of the events that happen], so Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme head off in a gunship to follow Dooku hoping to capture him and end the war before it gets out of this system. Padme doesn’t get knocked out of the ship and follows them in. Anakin rushes in for the attack same as the film and gets knocked aside. Obi-Wan takes a more measured approach but is still taken out. Padme again tries reasoning with Dooku, but he again says he cannot keep her alive. Just as he is about to strike, Anakin gives a wild Force push and forces Dooku away. He leaps into action but fares little better, getting his arm sliced away and pushed over to Obi-Wan. Yoda then comes in and with only a small battle of the Force Dooku realises he cannot win. He quickly creates a distraction and leaves.

Back on Coruscant, Obi-Wan and Yoda talk over events, with Obi-Wan finding it funny that a bounty hunter would be involved in both sides of the army that is now set against each other. Both fail to realise the ulterior motive – that Jango was just the catalyst intended to bring both sides together, as orchestrated by the Sith. Anakin and Padme finally arrive on Naboo, holding a secret ceremony to prove their commitment to each other through marriage.

There are three things I set out to do with this Rewrite. The first was to handle the romance between Anakin and Padme better than what the film provided. While I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether this version succeeds in that, I felt it would be better to be more subtle about it. It’s less in your face, and while Anakin’s feelings for her are still present, I tried to make it have more meaning than just Anakin trying to force his feelings onto Padme. The second point of this was to allow Zam to better prove her skills, as I felt she was an underused character, and it’s clear her and Jango have a history of being partners – and I’m not just saying that because of the Bounty Hunter game. In the little they interact, there’s definitely a feel of shared experience between them, such the same as Obi-Wan and Anakin have. And the third was the plan of the Sith to start the war not so reliant on luck.

Rewrite Series

Sonic Forces / Star Wars – Attack of the Clones

Rewrite: Sonic Forces [Gaming]

This is a bit of a surprise, one not announced in the Monthly Update. This series of posts is called Rewrite, where I take a story and – while keeping within what it set up – rewrite it to make it flow better, or to at least make better sense of certain points. For the first one, I thought a recent game would work best, and so I tackle Sonic Forces.

The story of Forces felt as though it just played out as a reason for the levels to be played. However, it tried to go beyond the usual platformer type story for something an action-adventure game might have instead. But it failed for a reason. In trying to be big, it didn’t understand how to do so in the right way. As such, the whole conquered world story just feels like a sub-plot that… really doesn’t seem to go anywhere, at least until the scenes of ‘the bad guy is defeated so everything is back to normal despite nothing having really changed’ ending that Sonic games seem to have favoured recently. And that’s not counting throwing characters into the story despite having little relevance or bearing on the plot itself. And to start with, the character who regressed the most.

Tails has been said to have given up after Sonic’s capture and ‘death’. Why then, was he shown for the first time as not even fighting at all? I can understand what they were going with – best friend is taken out of the picture and you feel bad for that happening – but something appears to be missing. Think of that scene this way. If Tails was fighting and had called in to Sonic for help, Sonic gives that help, but then the threat of Infinite comes. Sonic and Tails fight together, and when it looks as if Sonic is losing the fight, Tails tries to get him away. Infinite knocks him back, and takes Sonic away. Tails tries again to rescue Sonic, but is again knocked back. With Sonic gone, Tails feels he has failed Sonic, and that in turn closes him off from helping others in case he fails them too.

The whole idea of the Phantom Ruby and Infinite I felt needed a bit more of an explanation. Yes, cartoons get away with loads of stuff – such as virtual reality where you can move across entire cities despite not actually leaving the room – but it isn’t that what I have a problem with. The powers of the Ruby seem to be made up on a whim of the writers. It can create illusions of others. Then it somehow allows gravity to change. It has actual attack properties. It can create giant balls of fire to drop down from the sky. There doesn’t seem to be any rules to it. So, the Phantom Ruby allows illusions to be created that can attack but can’t be touched by others. However, these illusions can only be used within a certain distance of the Ruby. Such a simple rule that has many applications. And with Infinite, it’s a case of just being a robot specifically created to protect the Ruby with self-preservation properties. When Eggman uses it to attack others, he doesn’t expect it to get damaged. But when Sonic, Avatar, and Classic get in on some action, it’s self-preservation properties come into effect and it runs from the fight.

Which then brings us to the Avatar. The idea I have for him is borrowing a bit from Infinite’s actual backstory, in the fact that this Avatar is part of a squad who Infinite is attacking. With only Avatar left, Infinite taunts the Avatar into attacking, which misses. Infinite knocks Avatar out with an attack, again seeing him the same he did with Tails in this version of the story. Beaten and broken, and no longer a threat. However, unlike Tails, Avatar wakes up in the resistance base’s infirmary wanting to get back into the fight. And get back to the fight Avatar does.

All other characters are pretty much fine. Silver comes from the future to stop the latest threat from turning the world to ruin. Knuckles heads down to the surface to offer his help, having seen the power play at hand. The Chaotix are hired to go undercover and find out about Eggman’s plans, and where his attacks are going to be. And Sonic is the same as ever, just a guy willing to stop Eggman from his latest evil plans. Amy I feel only goes for the adventure when she has a personal stake in it. Adventure had her helping a bird being attacked, and Heroes she was in it for her friends, same as Adventure 2. Since there’s a lot more help here, I feel she’d take a different approach in helping. So while the story doesn’t use her, she’d still be around the base.

In terms of gameplay, several elements of that are also changed slightly. All bosses except the final one are against Infinite, using one of the four villain illusions for his attacks. The final boss itself is changed to resemble an actual level, and the main addition is Tails and Classic are teamed up in more than just story. See, the reason Classic is even here is to get Tails fighting again. Happy to see a Sonic, Tails then travels with Classic for most of the time. To make the ending hit just that bit more, have the two teamed up in gameplay, making the final farewell that bit sweeter.

For the plot itself, after Avatar wakes in the infirmary, the city they are in needs defending, with Vector calling in to say they’ve seen a whole lot of robots marching to the city. At this point, it has only been a month after that first scene instead of six. The idea being that Eggman hasn’t conquered the world, but is in the process of doing so. Having first captured the capital and lesser defended areas, his plan is to take the last piece of the region – the city where the resistance is located.

Meanwhile, Tails is out in the jungle, having found Omega. The reasoning for moving Omega out to the jungle is to highlight the differences between the main resistance and Team Dark. Episode Shadow would be different, in that Team Dark have an operation in place to storm Eggman’s fortress. Omega had gone on ahead, with Shadow as the rear guard. However, Omega was found within the base and reprogrammed to attack Shadow. With Omega deactivated, Shadow captures a vehicle to escape from the base. The vehicle gets shot down in the jungle – where Team Dark’s base is – but Shadow has to leave Omega behind and run for it, as Infinite uses a Shadow illusion to attack the real Shadow. Since Tails had left the resistance, he had met up with Shadow, where he had offered to find Omega after hearing this story. Team Dark operates as a single entity, with no contact with the resistance at all. They make quick, hard strikes against Eggman, and return to the shadows so they can’t be found. Tails is working on Omega when he gets attacked by water, with Infinite appearing and confronting Tails. Tails tries to fight, but Chaos manages to hold him down. Tails closes his eyes, wishing Sonic would save him just as he should have done Sonic. When he opens them again, Classic is stood looking at Tails and Chaos is gone. This opens the first boss battle, with Chaos reappearing to help in the fight. Infinite’s self-preservation coding makes him run, and Classic helps Tails with Omega.

The resistance has put a group together to test the defences at Green Hill, and after seeing data that Omega had started to download, Team Dark plan another mission to get into Eggman’s fortress. As that plan is executed, Avatar’s team gets sent to the Chemical Plant to shut it down. However, they find that a new Death Egg has been constructed up in space, and a mass production of Death Egg Robots is happening. That leads to an attack on the Death Egg itself.

Sonic reenters the picture during the Death Egg attack, when the energy field holding him glitches out. Released, he runs away looking for an escape, but Infinite catches up to him, and a Zavok illusion appears to attack. Sonic attacks Infinite enough for Zavok to disappear, and when Infinite goes to attack Sonic himself, Avatar appears. Sonic radios to the resistance from Avatar’s communicator, and the plan is laid out to Sonic. The Death Egg Robots are about to be sent out, with Sonic and Avatar being nearest to the weapon controls. All but three of the robots are destroyed, and Knuckles says that those robots are more important at the moment.

Tails and Classic have downloaded the data that Omega had started on, and the information about the Phantom Ruby is revealed. Shadow intends to use the data for his own purposes. Rouge has information about an attack happening by the resistance at Green Hill. With Tails saying that maybe he should return to them. But to do so he needs to prove he is willing to help them again.

The attack on the pyramid of Green Hill takes place, with Classic and Tails watching it happen. Sonic gets called to the Chemical Plant after the attack to finally shut it down, while Avatar is to return to the base for a meeting about a big attack. Thus commences the shutting down of the Death Egg Robots that attack the region. The first is being used as a guard against attack in the capital. Avatar destroys it but gets caught in a fight against Infinite, who has summoned Metal Sonic for attack. Infinite is beaten back again, and Avatar gets tasked to the jungle to attack the second robot. Avatar isn’t able to beat it, so Sonic gets tasked to fight it. Tails overhears Sonic at the Chemical Plant, and struggles to believe it as real. He also feels that failing a friend who still lives is worse than knowing they’ve been killed. With the second robot defeated, the third is at the city, heading to destroy the place the resistance are. Sonic and Avatar beat it, and as Tails and Classic head through the city the two groups meet. Tails struggles to say it, but he confesses he failed Sonic. Sonic says that by continuing the fight, he hadn’t failed at all.

The final push includes a fight against Infinite again, but this time with a Shadow illusion. Sonic at first believes this to be the real one, but when the real one emerges to attack Infinite, the story comes out. Then, the final attack on Eggman’s fortress comes into play. To make sure no surprises are waiting, Classic and Tails are sent to the Death Egg to destroy it. Once it is, numerous teams enter the capital, and Avatar has a new squad. When he sees Infinite, Avatar follows, instructing the others to carry on without him. Both he and Sonic are then trapped in Null Space. Null Space in this version being an illusion of red covering the whole city, where taking a step forward will get you attacked. Deciding their speed will help them avoid the attacks, the two rush through the capital and catch up to Infinite. A single attack returns the world to normal, and it is clear Infinite had been using the full power of itself to maintain that illusion as it is unable to call another one to attack. Forgetting about it’s self-preservation coding, it attacks the two but is defeated.

The Ruby pops out from its casing, and Avatar is about to destroy it when Eggman swoops in and claims it. The two head through the Fortress’ tower to the top, where Eggman has installed the Ruby into the base itself. The dome breaks free from the tower, and it turns into a walking robot. Both Sonic and Avatar chase after it and charge into the robot to topple it. The Ruby is now fully powered into the base, and creates an illusion that merges a Death Egg Robot to the base. A shuttle crashes into it, causing a glitch, allowing Sonic and Avatar to jump inside. The first part of the boss fight involves running up through the red inside of the robot and up to the base itself, avoiding attacks. The second part is within the base itself, and Sonic, Avatar, and Classic – who charged in from the top with Tails during the first part – all hit the Ruby which had moved with the first two strikes. The Ruby starts to show signs of strain, and the Death Egg Robot illusion disappears. Eggman, sensing defeat, controls the base robot to run away. However, the four catch up and land the final blow to shatter the Ruby. Eggman uses his Egg Pod to try and make a quick getaway, but Avatar uses his grappling wire to hit the engines, which overloads them and sends Eggman flying away out of control.

Classic starts to fade, and Tails realises that his wish must have been granted by the Ruby, which means now that it has been destroyed, Classic can no longer stay. The ending is roughly the same, but with it taking place fully at the capital instead of moving back to the resistance base. Sonic and Tails head out to another adventure – which is fixing something I found strange about the original. Tails felt bad about Sonic being captured. Surely after Sonic is back and the day is won, he’ll want to be hanging with Sonic again? Unless he still feels a bit awkward about the whole thing, but the story doesn’t seem to even suggest that. Avatar, along with his new squad, are heading out to tackle the last of the robots still around.

This version gives the Death Egg Robots a plot related reason to exist, where they were just spectacle originally. As explained, it also gives some rules to the Ruby’s powers, and a better reason for Infinite’s defeats. It removes the idea that Eggman’s plan needs three days to execute, as well as the fact that plan was nothing but having the Ruby generate a boiling mass of light. Plans can change, but if the Ruby was charging that and constantly being used at the same time, then that’s some overpowered Ruby. I admit by changing the rules of the Ruby it spoils the idea that Mania is a prequel to Classic’s involvement in Forces, but the focus of this rewrite isn’t on Mania. However, as a footnote for Mania, the story of that game can still stand. It just means Eggman knew about the Ruby from a long time ago, but was unable to recreate it perfectly for future use.

Rewrite Series

Sonic Forces / Star Wars – Attack of the Clones