Don’t worry guys, I was never going to quit, and I didn’t think no one was interested. I just (for some reason) felt pressured to finish sooner than later before. I guess once I made the thread, I felt like I couldn’t come out with nothing for a while, because I started when I wasn’t as busy as the current school/work crunchtime I’m in.
On the grading: As I’ve recently gotten into the editing with the schorman HDTV source of RoTS, I’ve gotten kind of used to how it looks, and I don’t mind it as much as the blu rays. Changing the colors just started feeling like one of those unnecessary changes Hal warned me about. Not to mention that it’s a lot of work. There’s probably going to be some subtle changes in the reds of their faces (white balance), saturation, and a few shadows in the CGI to actor relationships, but nothing noticeable. The general color scheme and the shade/lighting of lightsaber colors are going to stay the same. Sorry to people looking forward to that.
Sounds like a great philosophy of Vader; I really do look forward to what you end up producing along these lines.
Since you asked, my idea with LOE for Anakin was that he becomes involved in growing tensions between his loyalties to the Jedi Order, Palpatine, and Padme. He’s tossed around for a while, then Palpatine springs this nightmare on him as a manipulation. From that point on, he leans toward Palpatine and has to make the final decision when pressed during the ‘assassination attempt.’ All along, he never appears paranoid (a byproduct of changing his storyline in reshoots IMHO) until we see him talk with Padme on Mustafar, after he has steeped himself in the darkness. It’s really not that different from what ROTS was going for with Anakin, just restructured to have it make more sense, arguably reaching closer to what the pre-reshoot version might have been. In my version, as in the original, Anakin still carries that ‘slave’ mindset, seeming to crave someone being a master over him. Your version will be quite different, in subtle ways.
Right, so it’s pretty similar, mine differs in how I’m leaning more heavily on being able to see Anakin possibly go either way (jedi or sith) and it would make sense; really harping on how his turn to the dark side was a choice. Not saying that that might not have been what you were going for with LoE, but I think having Anakin be much more resistant to Palpatine throughout and affirm to Padme that he’s with her - despite Palpatine trying to turn him against her - makes that more clear. Where you kind of downplayed Padme’s role in his turn, I tried to keep her just as, if not moreso, of a reason for his turn as his allegiances.
And of course, our depictions of Anakin after the christening of Vader are where the most diverging happens.
Also, and this might just be down to interpretation again, but I’m always a bit iffy about a “slave mindset” Anakin subconsciously still looking for a “master.” I’m really going for the angle that the dark side being freedom is what gets him there. Anakin would personally prioritize the military (his prestige as “general” being his public renown), his future with Padme, as well as his loyalty to/belief in Palpatine, over the Jedi code and responsibility to the council’s interests. He’s a slave to the jedi in the sense that he has to repress his humanity (Padme), and do things for them he does not politically or ideologically believe in (treason). I think showing Anakin actually presenting the council’s interests to Palpatine, despite having just established that he personally disagrees, is one extra way to show that he really was trying to be “a good jedi” (by the council’s standards). But - not to talk so lightly about slavery - that he gets no recognition or trust for that loyalty, (as well as from his accomplishments and skill), show a dynamic with Anakin and the council that is more “slave-ish”, than the liberation to feel what he wants and to do what he believes in, that Palpatine offers.
Where I make a decision not to be a “slave” hard for Anakin is in how I depict him having an understanding of why the council thinks Palpatine and the dark side are wrong, as well as having this grounding force that is his friendship with Obi Wan. He doesn’t call Obi Wan “master” and their relationship is personally equal; in that way, he can’t actually feel like a slave - they’re genuinely friends. So that’s how I’m thinking about it, and how I’m making it look like Anakin could possibly do one or other before he actually makes a decision.