jedi kung-fu movie ideas

so I’ve finally got some decent names for the Jedi characters from ‘In the Name of the Force’, but now I’m having troubles with the plot. I need to work out more thoroughly what each characters life outlook and view of the force is, since that’s what’s going to fuel all the dialogue, debating between various views of the Force and the galaxy…

That, and one of the Jedi still believes in god and the rest think he’s a bit odd. not a ‘one true god’ type person, or even a pantheistic theory, but less of ‘the will of the force’ as opposed to ‘the powers that be’.

confused? essentially, the universe Lucas proclaimed is all science and no mysticism. The only Jedi that ‘move on’ to the next plane, IE, the only beings who retain their individuality rather than dispersing into the ether, are the super badass Jedi who know the trick. as far as I can tell, that’s just the council, and the only reason Obi Wan could do it is Yoda taught him. Since there were just the two of them while the Empire was in power, if something had happened to Ben, he needed to stick around to train Luke. (thus, quiggy didn’t ghost because he wasn’t superbad enough to be on the council)

especially now that Lucas has added the midichlorian bunk, this whole system posits the Force as just some cosmic energy field with no voice, and the Jedi are simply people who can tap into this cosmic power. they’re mutants like the x-men. they might as well simply be tapping into the magnetic fields created by solid matter.

I don’t quite like that. I much preferred the Force when it was more of a taoist ‘higher power’ thing, subtly affecting the Jedi’s actions and the way the universe worked. It wasn’t a ‘the one true god’ type thing, but it did have a will of it’s own and it did influence things. (to show how messed up E1 is, Quiggy even talks like this throughout the movie, then there’s the whole immaculate conception crap with Anakin’s mom…)

so what am I getting at? Essentially, some of the characters will view the Force as simply a mechanical thing to be used at will: there is no ‘after’, there is simply now, so we should use the power as we see fit: light, dark, it’s all a matter of opinion.

others will see the Force as the closest thing to God that there is in this universe: an omnipotent power that gives them strength for their devotion and dedication. They are duty bound to both use their powers to protect the weak, and to prevent the corruption and misuse of the holy Force(IE dark jedi are abomination)

then there’s the main guy, who sees the Force as yet another ‘otherworld’ thing. He’s the only jedi who believes in heaven/hell, or reincarnation, or ghosts, or a spirit world, or much of anything beyond what the senses perceive. He sees the Force as one of many ways in which the ‘powers that be’ influence life on earth(or wherever…)

depending on thier own views on the subject, the other Jedi will either view him as a hopeless romantic or something of a heretic.

their reactions to him, and his reactions to them, will spark the discussions on the story, which give the thing some depth in between kickass fight scenes, which is what the story is really about. ;)

I’m beginning to rethink setting my story way before E1, in the glory days of the Old Republic. I don’t want the Jedi order to be strict and unyielding, I’d rather there be more flexibility and such. Part of that is just disatisfaction with the way the Jedi are being fleshed out.

so my options for this story:

1 - retool the whole thing, cut all the Star Wars references, and make a generic space story. it’d end up more like farscape with ‘laser swords’ and space samurai than Star Wars at that point. this is a bad option as I want this to be the Jedi and not a cheap imitation.

2 - alternate universe. make it an ‘elseworlds’ story, in a version of the Star Wars universe where the Jedi aren’t so strict. this holds little appeal to me, mainly because at that point I might as well cut the Star Wars aspect entirely for all the good it does me.

so, the third option just came to me the other day, and it’s sorely tempting: tweak what I’ve got so far, and instead of being something like 700 years before the Empire, set it 700 years later, once the New Republic has built itself back up and the Jedi are big and grand again. then I can not only build off of all the Star Wars stories, the movies and the books and the novels and all that, but I can take or pick what I like and don’t: the stuff I don’t mention happened, it was just long enough ago that most people don’t remember it. (or, if it was pre-empire, those records were lost… ;)

this takes care of having to acknowledge Star Wars spinoffs that I think are crap. I can pretty much stick with the Thrawn trilogy, Dark Empire, and the movies, and ignore the old republic(missing records) and the stupid alien invasion crap that’s being done in all the spinoffs right now.

(side rant: there’s something like ten thousand years of Old Republic history to fill up, but all the spinoff writers can manage to do is a few comic series about the origins of the Sith, and then detailing every single day of Luke/Leia/Han/etc’s lives, both before, between, and after the movies. There’s some potential with Luke and Mara Jade, being that they’re rebuilding the Jedi, and everything in the Thrawn trilogy is gold, but why do I care about the lives of Han and Leia’s kids? Just because they’re named Solo doesn’t make them cool.)

ah, but I’m arguing with Star Wars geeks. These are the fans excited about the alternate astromech droid toys coming out. (IE black R2 units, yellow R2 units, etc: I swear, a newsitem on one newspage about an upcoming droid was ‘I’d have preferred an R5, but hey, you can never have too many astromechs!’ and they call trekkies hardcore…)

er, and anyways. In the Name of the Force is about obsession and morality. while debating thusly, the group of jedi track down a dark jedi sect and take them out.

the sequel is all about love, baybee. they may piss off the Hutts, or better yet, some other organized crime syndicate. There will many fights, but little lightsaber vs lightsaber, that gets boring after too much of it. the Jedi are badass enough to be able to fight other weapons.

part three is still just suggesting itself, but the series is lending itself to film archetypes. The third one wants to be somewhat of a Jedi noir, or maybe more of an Indiana Jones type movie. It’ll be about the search for the Black Lightsaber, which isn’t as cheesy at it sounds. (well, maybe…) I don’t want to talk too much about the second and third stories as they build off bits from the first story that I don’t want to give away just yet.