So, I've been doing some thinking as far as how to approach the sequel trilogy had I been in charge of making it. The main obvious difference would be that I would have made a plan that encompassed all three as far as points they all had to hit in order to all fit together as one cohesive story. Beyond that, there are two main directions I would have gone.
1) First and foremost would have been to attempt an adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, perhaps with some elements of the Hand of Thrawn Duology. This would be a bit more complicated because it took place so soon after The Return of the Jedi, but I think it could have been reworked as a competent commander taking charge of an imperial remnant that was either quite large already, or gathering other factions to himself, and then largely played out as in the books.
2) The more I think of it, the more I think I could have worked with the basic elements of The Force Awakens but done more/better than what the actual movie and its sequels did. For example, I would have expanded on Rey, Finn, Poe, and Ren much more in the beginning than what was actually done. Also, I would not have done the stormtroopers as they were described, but rather had them as conscripts to better explain why Finn turned. I would have had Rey raised by a mentor figure who either died or had gone missing a short while before the movie to explain many of her skills, such as her ability to fix things and to fly at more than just a baseline competence. Or, I might have put her piloting skills as very basic and had her work to get better. I would have also done that with her fighting skills, to show that while she might be able to best some basic thug, she'd be outclassed by stormtroopers and Ren and have to train and work at getting better to face him. So basically the upshot here is that I could go either way as far as how I would have approached the sequels.
Which of those two ideas do you like better? Is there another direction you would have gone had you been in charge?
1) First and foremost would have been to attempt an adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, perhaps with some elements of the Hand of Thrawn Duology. This would be a bit more complicated because it took place so soon after The Return of the Jedi, but I think it could have been reworked as a competent commander taking charge of an imperial remnant that was either quite large already, or gathering other factions to himself, and then largely played out as in the books.
2) The more I think of it, the more I think I could have worked with the basic elements of The Force Awakens but done more/better than what the actual movie and its sequels did. For example, I would have expanded on Rey, Finn, Poe, and Ren much more in the beginning than what was actually done. Also, I would not have done the stormtroopers as they were described, but rather had them as conscripts to better explain why Finn turned. I would have had Rey raised by a mentor figure who either died or had gone missing a short while before the movie to explain many of her skills, such as her ability to fix things and to fly at more than just a baseline competence. Or, I might have put her piloting skills as very basic and had her work to get better. I would have also done that with her fighting skills, to show that while she might be able to best some basic thug, she'd be outclassed by stormtroopers and Ren and have to train and work at getting better to face him. So basically the upshot here is that I could go either way as far as how I would have approached the sequels.
Which of those two ideas do you like better? Is there another direction you would have gone had you been in charge?