Not sure how much help I’ll be in keeping my suggestions limited hahah D: so it’s good that others are on point to do that. RogueLeader, your reference of the Phantom Editor makes an excellent point. It’s super important to keep in mind what’s possible in editing, and to work within the films that we have for a project like this. I do think that certain ideas, like changing PT lightsaber colours, fall under the TFA Restructured principle of “improving the function of something within the story”. Improving narrative function goes a bit beyond resolving inconsistencies, but if it’s a simple and effective change then I’m fine with that.
Here’s my view on the proposed changes (for the suggestions that I’ve left out I’m either not sure how to fix them or don’t see them as being a problem):
As Jar Jar has been brought up a bit, one way to add some nuance to the Gungans (without removing Jar Jar as I agree that this can’t be done, it would break the plot of both ep1 and ep2) could be to dub them with a fake alien language with subtitles when two Gunguns are talking to each other, like in the swamp scene or the final battle of ep1. This would imply that their poor use of English/Basic is because it’s a second language for them.
Why is Mace Windu the only Jedi with a purple lightsaber? / Apparently it’s because Samuel L. Jackson really likes purple, and Lucas caved with no aesthetic or lore reason at all. So I’d prefer to change the colour and make it something more meaningful. As well as Windu, there are definitely some possibilities with all the background Jedi in the ep2 final battle, also with some of the other Jedi with Windu when they confront Palpatine, and possibly Ki-Adi-Mundi as his Order 66 death scene could be an option. I also dislike having only blue and green lightsabers in the PT as it seems like weak worldbuilding, so I’d prefer adding extra colours. Really enjoyed how this was done in the Knights of the Old Republic video games, with colours indicating different classes of Jedi. So I’d be interested in adding either some yellow sabers if we just want to keep it simple with green, blue, and yellow. Or we could go full rainbow and add some purple, yellow, and orange sabers, as this could be great as well.
Why was it never explained why Jedi Master “Sifo-Dyas” ordered the clone army? / Although this subplot is really convoluted, the President of Kamino does tell Obi-Wan that the army is for the Republic, so we could assume that Sifo-Dyas was basically a rogue Jedi who ordered a clone army on the side. I don’t think this is exactly a continuity error, but we could think about how to make the plot a bit more clear here.
Why does Count Dooku just tell Obi-Wan the Sith’s strategy for undermining the Senate? / This is likely too radical for this project, but we could cut Dooku being Sidious’ apprentice. However, for this to work we’d likely need to cut Sidious being in control of the Separatists in both ep2 and ep3.
Why does Yoda run away from his fight with Palpatine? / My preference is to cut the fight, as in Hal’s ep3 edit. However, that’s likely not appropriate for this project, so perhaps we should leave it as it is.
Why does the Death Star take so long to build?/ One option could be to use the shot in Hal’s V3 ep3 edit, where Coruscant replaces the Death Star.
What’s up with Anakin’s yellow Sith eyes? Why does Anakin momentarily get them but we don’t see Dooku, Luke when he almost killed Vader, or Kylo Ren ever have them? / Would be great to remove Anakin’s Sith eyes if possible.
Why does 3PO mention the princess on board Tantive IV, then doesn’t know about the princess when he is with Luke? / Adywan’s solution could be the way to go on this. Though, following the PT, wouldn’t it be fair for the audience to assume that 3PO is now Leia’s butler (and this seems to be the case in ep5)?
On the problem of having two Death Stars, although it does bother me it’s probably best to leave it alone, as I’m not sure how this could be easily fixed.
Why doesn’t Obi-Wan remember R2 or 3PO? / As he’s trying to deceive Luke about Vader. Could cut Obi-Wan’s line “I don’t seem to remember ever owning a droid” to alleviate this.
“Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough…”/ Either cut the line or change it to “I wanted you to have this…” if possible.
Are stormtroopers clones? / I’d prefer to keep them as clones throughout the saga, and assume that they use different templates (for Jango, Finn, Phasma, etc). As droids are important throughout the saga, and the droids vs. clones theme of the PT helps to set this up. This would require two cuts in ep7: scene on the star destroyer bridge, cut part of Kylo’s line “perhaps Leader Snoke should consider using a clone army” to Hux; scene in Maz’s bar, cut part of Finn’s line “taken from a family I’ll never know, and” to Rey, so his line reads as “like all of them I was | raised to do one thing”. This could also be supported by adding part of the ep8 extended megadestroyer infiltration deleted scene, as some lines could imply that Finn is a clone. It’s not an obvious continuity error, just removing a retcon I’d prefer wasn’t in the films.
What was Luke’s plan to save Han? / No idea what Luke had in mind, but making a sensible plan would likely require substantially restructuring the first act of ep6, which may be beyond the scope of this project.
How can Leia remember her mother, when Padme died in childbirth? / Cut Padme’s death in ep3, probably as in Hal’s ep3 edit.
Leia is Luke’s sister? Incest vibes? / Basically this would mean making some simple cuts throughout the OT, which should be easy enough. Not sure if this qualifies as a continuity error, though maybe if they’d known from the beginning that Luke and Leia would be siblings then it would’ve been left out.
- ep4: when R2 shows Luke the hologram of Leia, remove Luke’s line “she’s beautiful”; in the Falcon cockpit, after the heroes have escaped the Death Star, cut the rest of the conversation after Han’s line “I’m trying not to kid”, to remove Han making fun of Luke for being attracted to Leia.
- ep5: cut Luke and Leia’s kiss on Hoth (the cut can be covered with a reaction shot of Luke from earlier in the scene).
- ep6: scene where Luke leaves to confront Vader, cut from Han’s line “Hey, what’s going on?” to Leia’s line “Hold me”, to remove Leia being a bit hysterical and Han being suspicious; kiss between Han and Leia after the Death Star is destroyed, cut from Han’s line “You love him, don’t you?” to Leia’s line “It’s not like that at all, he’s my brother”. Not totally necessary to remove this part of the conversation, but it’s a weird exchange.
Not all of these cuts may be necessary, but they’re all the scenes that could be considered related to the incest subplot.
“Obi-Wan once thought as you do…” / Adding “your mother” to the “Obi-Wan once thought as you do” line would be a great solution, if an appropriate source could be found.
How can two trees destroy an armored battle vehicle like an AT-ST? / Cut this shot, I’d also cut the Ewoks trying to trip up an AT-ST with a rope and shoot it with a catapult, as it makes them look ridiculous.
How did Anakin know how to become a force ghost? / My preference here is to cut the shot of the force ghosts. I don’t think Anakin should have this power as part of his redemption is accepting his own death, but this change is likely beyond the scope of this project.
Why isn’t hyper speed ramming more of a thing? / One solution could be to cut the majority of the silent part of this scene, so we only see the destruction of the megadestroyer and not the annihilation of most of the First Order fleet. Then the hyperspace kamikaze move would be more like a standard fire ship tactic, but this is likely too radical.