Weird probably impossible idea, could C-3PO replace both TC-14 and JarJar in the Phantom Menace?
3PO belongs to the trade federation and greets Qui-Gon and Obi on the ship in the beginning (re colored and redubbed with an Anthony Daniels soundalike or Daniels’ voice clips from cartoons/radio dramas etc.)
Then he somehow accidentally stumbles onto one of the federation drop ships and winds up on the surface, saved by Qui-Gon instead of JarJar (would have to rotoscope out JarJar frame by frame and composite in new footage of an actor in 3PO costume). He accompanies them from then on, and his meet cute with R2 is moved earlier to the scene when Padme is cleaning R2 (3PO again replacing JarJar)
I like it, but how do you get them from the forest to Theed? Either you skip Otoh Gunga, in which case there’s no way of introducing the Gungans for the film’s finale, or you need to make up some way that a protocol droid goes with them to an underwater city they might not even know about.