#so if all my theories are kyboshed there too bad

[misscrawfords]

So I'm on S02 of Fringe now and I'm having some thoughts about JJ Abrams. I know that JJ Abrams has done a lot so I'm not trying to come to any full hypothesis about him or probably say anything new about him because I know people have written a lot about him and his love of mystery boxes and ability to set up mysteries and not follow through on them. I'm no expert. And I along with many others feel real betrayal and frustration at him over The Rise of Skywalker. But the thing is, I absolutely love Fringe and Alias. They are two of my favourite shows ever and I'm currently finding rewatching Fringe massively comforting in ways I'm just starting to unpick. (I think it's something to with the fact that it's very much pre-social media, pre-conspiracy theories actually impacting real world politics to the extent they do now. It feels like a more innocent time.)

Alias and Fringe are really similar in many ways and it makes me wonder what the SW sequel trilogy might have looked like if JJ Abrams could have produced it as a TV show instead of a movie trilogy. I'm willing to bet it would have worked a lot better.

Things Alias and Fringe have in common:

Genuinely strong, well-developed, fun, intelligent, three-dimensional heroine who carries the story - Sydney Bristow and Olivia Dunham are really awesome protagonists and I struggle to name more modern heroines in TV who are a more successful blend of interesting, human and aspirational (they're both way more special and exciting and skinny and conventionally attractive than me!). They're descendants of Buffy Summers and genuinely such good characters. It's so refreshing to have sci-fi and mystery and spy thriller series with female protagonists, even now.

Said female protagonist is Special. Yes, they're good at their job but over the course of the series it becomes increasingly clear that they have actual supernatural special powers and their very existence is linked to the overarching mystery. They really are chosen ones.

Father figures are essential and the father/child relationship is arguably the central relationship in the show. Jack Bristow as Sydney's father, Arvin Sloane as her pseudo-father/mentor in Alias, Walter Bishop as Peter's father being the very centre of the plot in Fringe and his quasi-paternal relationship to Olivia as well.

Speaking of fathers, these shows really are about one specific very weird and messed up family creating problems for everyone else. The Bristows really punch above their weight in the Alias universe and the Bishop family, specially Walter's love for his son and his consequent actions, are responsible for the literal plot of Fringe. The number of people working with family members or investigating them when really these are all kinds of an HR nightmare seem to be normal in JJ Abrams' world. Nothing is random but all connected and family and blood is everything.

He seems to really like a plot involving shape-shifers where someone kills the heroine's loved one and steals their face as a way of infiltrating their organisation. Francie in Alias, Charlie in Fringe.

Secret organisations with fanatical beliefs and people with too much power and knowledge committing to them in a way that is understandable but also horrifying and leads to terrible, terroristic consequences are the central villains.

Against the odds, the heroines have happy endings with their long-time love interest and a child.

Judging from the above, JJ Abrams should have been perfect to take on Star Wars, a dysfunctional family saga about fathers and sons in which the adherents to a strange set of mystical beliefs cause insurmountable problems, especially one where the heroine is a skinny plucky girl who develops super powers.

I wonder how JJ Abrams' SW show might have gone if he could have developed all his ideas in slow burn over 5 seasons with 20 episodes each, and the racist, misogynist, backward looking fandom weren't a thing. I'm not trying to excuse the mess that was TROS at all, but I just think he has a history of executing these kinds of stories so much better!

For example, of course JJ Abrams would make Rey a Palpatine. This is giving her a heritage and making family and blood the central theme just as it is in both of the above shows. But instead of the ludicrous "Somehow Palpatine returned", this is the sort of plot that could have been built up and revealed so much more effectively over a season of a TV show. It could in fact have worked really well, as could Rey's reaction and sense of betrayal. Something this massive is really hard to pull off in one movie. And if that had been the plan all along then it should have been sign-posted clearly from TFA. A TV show would also allow more scope to flesh out Rey and Ben's dyad in the Force thing and develop their special abilities.

I wonder whether in the context of a longer running TV show that could have developed Ben's redemption further he would have given Rey and Ben a happy ending. To have her alone without her love interest and without a child is the anomaly here. The ending many Reylos actually wanted where Rey and Ben were free of the war and living in some kind of peaceful exile with their family actually would fit Abrams' MO more based off these two shows.

I'm curious to know how he'd do the shape-shifting and betrayal thing. Maybe the other way round with Finn returning to the First Order as a Stormtrooper to lead a rebellion? Or would one of the Rebellion be proved to be working for Palpatine? Who knows.

Would Snoke and Palpatine be given more time to flesh out their motivations? While I love that Snoke was ultimately not that important and Palpatine was ridiculous, it could have been interesting to give one of the old-man-villains the treatment of an Arvin Sloane who is such a completely fascinating and compelling villain. Arvin Sloane in space playing Snoke's role and showing more of his relationship with Ben/Kylo would be really fascinating. Ditto Ben's relationships with Luke and Han. (SO MANY FATHER FIGURES!) And Rey's relationships to both of them too.

Anyway, this is all just meandering thoughts and speculation based off a tiny amount of JJ Abrams' work but I find it interesting and a little sad to imagine what the ST could have been like with more time to breathe and none of the Culture Wars.