How I Would Fix the Prequel Star Wars Trilogy

Welcome to the first installment of "How I would Fix" in which I and all of my Hubris take works of fiction that are less than critically acclaimed and try to make them better.

Have you ever heard of this thing called The Machete Order? The idea was to create an order in which one can view all of the Star Wars movies without pesky spoilers for first time viewers.  By watching A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones (Phantom Menace is apparently skippable) Revenge of the Sith, and lastly, Return of the Jedi, one experiences the whole story, but all of the twists in Empire Strikes Back are left intact.

Which got me thinking.  Why didn't George Lucas just make the prequels in-between 'Empire' and 'Return'?  My idea is this: After the climactic battle with Darth Vader, Luke returns to Dagobah to finish his training, build a new lightsabre, and get some answers from Obi Wan Kenobi, before retuning to Tatooine to rescue Han.  After the whole 'You told me Darth Vader murdered my Father.' 'What I said was the truth...from a certain point of view.' bit from Return of the Jedi, Obi Wan launches into the story of what really happened.  The entire Prequel series is now a frame story, narrated by Obi Wan  Kenobi, and if possible all squished into one movie.

Because, lets face it.  How much of the Prequel series is really important?  The relationship between Obi Wan and Anakin.  Friends turned enemies.  Anakin's relationship with the Emperor.  The rise of the Empire.  And finally, the 'love story' between Anakin and Padme, which is only important to show that Anakin had kids.

If the story is told from Obi Wan's point of view, two of these four elements can be pushed to the back burner.  The love story can be in the background.  Hey, Anakin and Padme could potentially be married and the beginning of the story.  They could already have kids between the ages of 1 and 3.  The Emperor's rise to power can also be downplayed.  We know about the Empire from the original movies.  Do we really need to see the details?  We do need to see how the Emperor manipulates Anakin, but that's about it.  I think these elements could easily fit into one story.

The best part of all this is it fixes some of the problems with 'Return of the Jedi'.  That minor reveal about Luke and Leia?  After the BIG reveal about Darth Vader in 'Empire Strikes Back' it feels lazy, anti-climatic and tacked-on.  Now that would be revealed in back-flash form in this third movie, rather that at the last minute.

So.  That's my solution.  Rather then two trilogies, we have the Star Wars Quartet.

As for a title for this third movie, I would pitch: 'Star Wars: Rise of the Sith,' or 'Star Wars: Fall of Skywalker,' or possibly 'Star Wars: Legend of Vader.'

Let me know how you would fix the prequel Star Wars movies in the comments.