I posted this over at Hal’s thread and I only feel it’s fair to give both upcoming ROTJ edits the same ideas.
May I suggest you cut all of the Emperor’s scenes before the confrontation? Neither of the scenes add anything besides the Enperor bossing Vader around (which sort of diminishes his character). With constant allusions to the Emperor (Moff being scared, Yoda’s warning) there would be a lot more tension when Luke meets him if we haven’t either. It would let the audience build him up throughout the movie.
While I totally disagree that the Emperor diminishes Vader in any way, I do think this is an idea worth exploring.
I love the idea that we’d meet the Emperor at the same time Luke does.
As far as Vader being bossed around diminishing his character, Nah man. The Emperor is THE Big Boss. Vader is his guard dog. Even Tarkin outranked him and bossed him around. Vader just doesn’t hold the rank many fans think he should.