Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens - The Rewrite

by Bad0Wolf

My take on a rewritten story improving The Force Awakens. Thirty years after the Battle of Endor, the Empire's remnants have formed into a new hardline faction known as the First Order, which intends to reclaim the galaxy from the hands of a weakened New Republic. However, shadowy factions are biding their time until they can make their move on a fractured galaxy...

1. Author's Note and introduction

Author's note and update :

Hi to all. Welcome to my new story focusing on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Before I start telling you more about this new fanfic, to all who read my other story (A Hunt with Wolves) the next chapter will be online before the end of the week after a two-year dry spell. Thanks to all those who have waited that long for your patience with my slow writing and I hope you'll enjoy this new story as well.

Now, back to Star Wars. I have been planning on writing this fanfiction for a very, very long time. Since December 16th 2015 in fact, the day after I first saw The Force Awakens. It's safe to say that I have rarely struggled with a film as much as I did with this one, and it was only last December, when I saw Rogue One, that I finally came to terms with it. The long and short of it is: I like The Force Awakens. It's a fun film, a great setup and I take great pleasure in watching it again and again like any other Star Wars film. But it's not the film I expected or wanted to see. I struggled for a long time to figure out just what was bugging me with it, and I started to rewrite it countless times in my head.

And now, finally, I have a rewritten story in mind which I like, which I think we should have gotten, and which is worthy to be presented as a fanfiction. It will rely a lot less on A New Hope, and it won't shy away from including elements from the prequels (like it or not, they exist). But it will keep a lot of the basis of the story and most of the characters will be the same. However, I will be changing a few backstories to fit better with what I have in mind.

I will be using elements from recent Star Wars works, such as the novels Bloodline and Aftermath: Empire's End, namely to explain the political situation in the galaxy. I may also use some of the content that was revealed recently about The Last Jedi, though this will be looser for obvious reasons. My main inspiration comes from re-reading the Legacy comic books. You won't find any of the characters or organizations from those comics, but they helped a lot.

I hope that you all enjoy this rewrite as much as I have enjoyed writing it. It is, after all, the product of almost two years of reflections on The Force Awakens.

May the Force be with you all

Bad0Wolf

SPOILERS Post Script:
I can't resist throwing in this spoiler because it is the biggest problem I had with the film: there will be no planet-destroying weapon in this fanfiction.