Nice work with the edit, RogueLeader.
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.
I’ve had that on my change list for a while.
Ah excellent, do you have any thoughts on how to execute this idea to dub and subtitle the Gungans? My view on this is that the easiest way would be to use audio from something else in the Star Wars universe. I’d go for the Knights of the Old Republic games, as they have several different alien languages. The Rakata language might be appropriate as they don’t appear in the films, and given their appearance the Gungans could possibly have evolved from Rakatans, or be a subspecies. Lip sync could be a problem, but it’d be worth a try. Would have to change the pitch for Jar Jar though, as his voice is far too high. The Rakata language can be heard in this video: https://youtu.be/kGp5NJK-FyI?list=PLMpTBRgc57RSNbXpIs9PIQDi2Wmjl46l9&t=848
My take on Dooku is that the public don’t really know the difference between the Jedi and the Sith. I guess some would, but the Sith are not obviously evil to most people in the star wars universe. That said, I don’t have a problem with changing Dooku’s lightsaber colour if people are keen to work on that addition.
The deception plot with Obi-Wan is fine with me, I think if we trim the odd bit or inconsistency, like not knowing R2 and the “point of view” bit then it should be okay. Manipulating Luke to kill his father is a bit extreme, but the stakes are high, and I think Yoda and Obi-Wan would’ve told Luke eventually, if he hadn’t run off in ep5 before his training was complete. Also, R2 is deceiving Luke as well, in ep4 to get him to save Leia (by leading him to his old pal Obi-Wan), and in ep5 by not telling Luke about Vader. There’s also a moment in ep5 (when Luke goes into the cave on Dagobah) where R2 and Yoda could’ve had a long chat without Luke around, I like to think they did anyway. This fits with 3PO (and not R2) being given a memory wipe at the end of ep3, but I’m not sure if that’s what Lucas intended. Basically the PT makes things super convoluted, but I think we can make it make sense with a few additional cuts.
“Come here, my little friend.” / If the change can be made as you suggest then it would be an improvement, but the theatrical line is fine as is.
“I haven’t gone by the name Obi-Wan since, oh, before you were born.” / Changing this to “I haven’t gone by the name Obi-Wan since you were born” sounds like a good idea to me.
I’d cut “I never seem to remember owning a droid.” Should be simple enough to do.
“He [Owen] feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade, like your father did.” / Would be a good idea to cut “like your father did”, as this isn’t really what happened. Maybe if we’d had a few extra scenes between Owen and Anakin in ep2 it might have made sense, but as things are I find it to be a confusing inconsistency.
“Now, let’s see if we can figure out what you are, my little friend, and where you come from” / One option could be to remove the words “what you are” if possible, as this is the problematic part of the line (the cut should work for the image, but the audio may be a problem).
One option to make the final dialogue between Luke and Obi-Wan in ep6 more meaningful is to cut Yoda telling Luke he has a sister, and leave that for Obi-Wan. So then it’s more like he’s coming clean about the last part of the deception, rather than being prompted by Luke.
I’ve made a few cuts of these and some other ideas, I should have time to organise and upload them over the weekend.