AHC: Star Wars Prequels Are Made Into An Animated Series in the 1980's

Instead of having three live action prequel films made in the 1990's by George Lucas, the story of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this era is told through an animated television series of the time.
 
Instead of having three live action prequel films made in the 1990's by George Lucas, the story of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this era is told through an animated television series of the time.
You can bet that Carrie Fisher would return as writer and Mark Hamill as a voice actor. There are many roles he could fill. :D:D:D

Harrison Ford of course will judge the whole thing from afar. But who needs that sourpuss anyways!
 
With "... In the 1980's", I assume it would be after the release of "Return of the Jedi" (1983) so somewhere between 1985 and 1989, at a time when there still was a Soviet Union, a cold war and a World Trade Center with two towers.

First remark: I don't know how much each of the prequel movies was influenced by the its time, but "Revenge of the Sith" (2005) seems to draw as much inspiration from the war in Iraq and the passing of the Patriot Act as if did from the previous movies. I have on occasion heard it described as the "Post 9-11 Star Wars". According to insiders, George Lucas had a general idea of the whole six Star Wars episodes from the beginning on, but many parts of the timeline still needed to be fleshed out by the time each movie was written. So an episode III written in 1988 would for a good part still play in the cold war and might well feature a power struggle between Reagan conservatives and Perestroika reformers.... Likewise "Attack of the Clones" would be less of a romantic action movie and more politically laden... The clones more clearly a stand-in for old school soviet communists for instance.

Second remark: Animation in the 1980's was still mostly children's fare with titles like "He-man, master of the universe". So either George Lukas would willingly admit that the Star Wars saga was destined for children from the outset, thereby practically killing off all fandom. Or he would have to make a more mature Anime-style series with more fleshed-out and 'grown-up" stories as well as animation. In order to keep his fan base he would have to come up with something Mijasaki's Studio Ghibli would have done in 2000... In 1987. The butterflies for Mijasaki himself and anime in general would be enormous.
 
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jahenders

Banned
That would definitely be better. Then, we could simply disavow them altogether if they were as bad as the movies turned out (kind of the like the Star Trek cartoon or the Star Wars Holiday Special) and we could have the sequels without the bad taste the prequels left in many mouths

Instead of having three live action prequel films made in the 1990's by George Lucas, the story of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this era is told through an animated television series of the time.
 
Second remark: Animation in the 1980's was still mostly children's fare with titles like "He-man, master of the universe". So either George Lukas would willingly admit that the Star Wars saga was destined for children from the outset, thereby practically killing off all fandom. Or he would have to make a more mature Anime-style series with more fleshed-out and 'grown-up" stories as well as animation. In order to keep his fan base he would have to come up with something Mijasaki's Studio Ghibli would have done in 2000... In 1987. The butterflies for Mijasaki himself and anime in general would be enormous.

Since the original Star Wars film was filmed in the UK, maybe Lucas would have a look at animation that was being produced in Britain. In 1982 there was The Snowman and in 1986 there was When the Wind Blows. Jimmy Murakami was involved in both of those projects, so he might be a good choice as director of an animated Star Wars series.

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
With "... In the 1980's", I assume it would be after the release of "Return of the Jedi" (1983) so somewhere between 1985 and 1989, at a time when there still was a Soviet Union, a cold war and a World Trade Center with two towers.

.

SW 1 came out in 1999 when the Towers still stood
 
I know I would mostly change the background of how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. Instead of him giving to save his wife from death in some vague fashion because of a vision he had, it reminds me of Clayface from Batman. Because Star Wars was in part inspired by the horrors of the Vietnam War, this is relative to Anakin and how individuals came back from war in terrible shape. The Clone Wars should be no different to create something like Darth Vader. Vader is a metaphor for any soldier twisted and mangled by war how easily can be shaped through conflict to such a dark place.

The conflict of the Clone Wars is an invasion by a maddened army of rogue clones which have turned on the Republic. All of the Republic is under martial law and an army of what becomes stormtroopers has been conscripted by the Senate to fight back. A new president named Palpatine has been elected in the wake of the invasion. Anakin grows up on the moisture farm where he looks up to his heroic father, Nathan Skywalker, who is not Force sensitive. Nathan is drafted to fight in the Clone Wars, but killed in a brutal way. This leaves Anakin behind, who eventually learns he has special powers through the Force to want to get a way for revenge. He eventually runs away and joins the Republic army himself despite lying about his age. Anakin eventually becomes a skilled pilot because of the Force and comes into the service of General Obi-Wan Kenobi. After learning both share a common use of the Force, Obi-Wan makes Anakin his Jedi apprentice after seeing his skills in combat. They fight on many missions together.

Eventually the tide of Anakin's path turns when Anakin's lush home world, which is not Tatooine originally, but a prosperous and beautiful world is completely razed and destroyed by the clone forces. Everyone he knows there except his brother Owen is killed. This causes Anakin to become disenfranchised with the Republic and the Jedi, to the extent he thinks they are a burden to peace and victory in the Clone Wars. Hearing from a dark sorcerer or vision, he is told about a Dark relic kept secret to the Jedi which may help end the war if it is used in the right hands. It is an object which can in legend make a Jedi invulnerable in battle. Anakin seeks this out on a volcanic world where it is hidden. The sorcerer has of course lied to Anakin about it's powers and it really is just a Dark object which can take over his mind and make him a mental slave. Obi-Wan knows of this secret object from Yoda and rushes to stop an irrational and vengeful Anakin from using it, even by Force. This violent confrontation causes Obi-Wan to accidentally destroy the relic, which Anakin thinks could've saved the galaxy. Enraged, he attacks Obi-Wan and they duel over this volcanic world. Obi-Wan accidentally knocks Anakin into a molten pit and scars him.

The Dark sorcerer who really is the future Emperor rescues him and dubs him Darth Vader. Vader embraces the Dark Side as a means of regaining his powers from his new master and uses it to do his bidding including to start to hunt down Jedi and kill them. In revenge for the destruction of his home world and scarring, Anakin has no problem after awhile of helping those plotting to destroy the Jedi to launch a massive surprise attack which kills most of the order. It is instead blamed on the clone army as a devastating tragedy. This act causes Palpatine to declare himself Emperor and fuse his office with the power that the Jedi once had over the Republic and to create a new order of Force users to take their place. Darth Vader is head of this new force. Vader secretly hunts down any remaining Jedi for himself including an attempt on Obi-Wan.

This type of backstory explains why Anakin felt the need to destroy an entire galactic order and to build up the Empire. It also shows why he is willing to destroy an entire planet like Alderaan in order to maintain the peace for the Empire as well. All of it goes back to Anakin's need to maintain security in the wake of what the Clone Wars did to the galaxy. Anakin obeys the Emperor in order to keep the peace. This backstory could also definitely parallel 9/11 and the Iraq War as well.
 
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you could probably consider alot of voice actors from OTL productions of the time and shortly after that for who could be cast--the voice actors from the English dubs of various anime come to mind for who could be chosen as well as Western cartoons, such as Charlie Adler (known for several roles in Transformers, G.I.Joe, and My Little Pony in the relevant period, but alot of us probably know him better for roles in the 1990s like Mad Dog in TaleSpin, several characters in Tiny Toons, major roles in Swat Kats, and--for me--most importantly as Ed Bighead and several other characters in Rocko's Modern Life and as four of the five main characters from Cow & Chicken, the other going to Worf from Star Trek as I. M. Weasel, with i think his most iconic of those four being the Red Guy, all of this together meaning that he has a pretty good vocal range)
 
The 80s? That's a time when many US cartoons are continuity-lite (an age pre-wikis and when not everyone has a video recorder) and syndication is the main business model. The prequels would have a specific end point and be expected to meet it, so you've already got a cartoon to kickstart a more serialised, continuity-heavy age of toons.
 
The 80s? That's a time when many US cartoons are continuity-lite (an age pre-wikis and when not everyone has a video recorder) and syndication is the main business model. The prequels would have a specific end point and be expected to meet it, so you've already got a cartoon to kickstart a more serialised, continuity-heavy age of toons.

Robotech, Thundersub and Transformers are examples from the 80ths that had continuity
 
Looking at the original story, we could even go with what George Lucas even used for Episode II as an arch for his backstory

Anakin is already the apprentice of Obi-Wan and has become frustrated at how much slower his training has been compared to other Jedi. The Separatist crisis is beginning still which leads to the Clone Wars ultimately. Anakin also has visions of his mother being tortured and dying on Tatooine. He still goes to rescue her, reunites with her only for her to die in his arms and seeks revenge against the Sand people.

The Battle of Geonosis will probably already occur as this is taking place. However, this is what happens when things change. Anakin decides to leave the Jedi over this issue as he blames the Jedi in part for not protecting his mother and his decision to become a knight. Senator Amidala who has lost faith in the Republic due to the Separatist crisis and calls for an army for defense also leaves her responsibilities behind. Both becoming wondering spirits across the galaxy and live out their love lives together. Obi-Wan fights in the Clone Wars as a general, Anakin essentially becomes a bounty hunter for the Republic for a time, but plays both sides simply for profit. He becomes a worn down mercenary wielding a lightsaber instead of a Jedi after a time.

Eventually, Padme leaves him after finding out she is pregnant and leaves to a place where it is safer and not the bounty hunter lifestyle Anakin has chosen. Order 66 eventually goes down without Anakin being directly involved, and is hired by the new Empire to hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights that remain simply for profit and power. He eventually comes across Obi-Wan at a point and tries to kill him. He still meets the molten bath on Mustafar. The Emperor becomes so impressed with his power, he makes him his apprentice, which at this point Anakin embraces simply for the power and sake of survival now under the control of the Empire.
 
Robotech, Thundersub and Transformers are examples from the 80ths that had continuity

Robotech, true, and I don't know about Thundersub but that's the outlier - for Robotech, that's because it was an anime dub and Japan made their cartoons differently. Transformers started to have some in S3 but up until then, continuity was pretty threadbare. We're expecting Star Wars here to be more like Robotech than anything American and before Robotech does it first. That's a ballsy move.
 
Robotech, true, and I don't know about Thundersub but that's the outlier - for Robotech, that's because it was an anime dub and Japan made their cartoons differently. Transformers started to have some in S3 but up until then, continuity was pretty threadbare. We're expecting Star Wars here to be more like Robotech than anything American and before Robotech does it first. That's a ballsy move.

actually, i'd believe that: Lucas already based a fair bit of Star Wars on Japanese films (Jedi are basically space samurai when you get right down to it) so he may decide to look at Japanese media to get a story across.

if not that, then i'd guess it would have a continuity structure similar to The Smurfs
 
I think Lucas would look into it, I'm just not sure he'd be able to do it.

Then again, he's at his height here - and Indiana Jones is coming along too - so if he makes LucasToon and says "we're gonna do this" to a network (syndicates will be out), who will say "no" to Star Wars cash? Make 52 episodes and you've got a year-long serial that can be repeated every so often.

Then it's just about how much of the prequels would fit into a cartoon. Narrative wise, starting with Anakin as a small child probably won't work. Maybe he starts as a teenager - like Luke! - and then you can keep the same voice actor.
 
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