logo Sign In

Return of the Jedi: Vader and Luke - (Return of the Jedi edited into a short film)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

A week or so ago I thought it might be cool to edit RotJ into a short film, focused solely on Luke, Vader, and his redemption. The movie’s 17 minutes and 26 seconds long.

There are no real transitions, except before and after the scene where Vader dies. Everything’s one big long thing, with the scenes flowing into the next as best I could.

Scenes
Luke’s Arrival at the Throne Room
Chunks of the Battle of Endor (By Jeebus’s Suggestion)
Luke attacks the Emperor, beginning of Luke v Vader
Luke v Vader (use your aggressive feelings, boy)
Luke hiding from Vader and Jedi Fury
Luke is zapped, the Emperor dies
Vader dies
Funeral pyre

Other notes:
-I used Harmy Despecialized 2.7 as the basis of the fanedit.
-Vader’s death scene is flipped horizontally to make the transition to the Funeral pyre scene better.

This was mostly just an experiment to see if this was possible. Don’t be expecting a masterpiece orgasmic movie, unfortunately, but I think it still came out decently.

This can not be found in the usual places because I don’t know how to put it there. PM me for a download.

Length: 15m23
File Size: 640 MB

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Very well done. I really only put up with the rest of the movie to see Luke fight Vader, so this edit’s a blessing. I only have two problems, and one of them it seems you’re aware of. It may technically break the philosophy of this edit, but perhaps inserting a very small clip of the space battle, between the two scenes where Luke jumps to the window, would work.

“I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.”

Cut to battle outside, just enough to make it clear that things are not going well and that the deflector shields are still up.

Cut back to the throneroom.

“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed…”


My other minor complaint is that when Luke first grabs his saber, it seems like he goes directly for Vader. I tried something similar to this edit once, it didn’t pan out, but I do remember that I had Luke go for the Emperor’s neck with Vader blocking, just as it happens in the unedited movie. Directly following that was a backwards clip of the same clip. So it played out like this; Luke tried to kill the Emperor, Vader blocks, they lock blades for a bit, then they lift them away to begin fighting.

I tried remaking it to help illustrate my idea.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Jeebus said:

Very well done. I really only put up with the rest of the movie to see Luke fight Vader, so this edit’s a blessing. I only have two problems, and one of them it seems you’re aware of. It may technically break the philosophy of this edit, but perhaps inserting a very small clip of the space battle, between the two scenes where Luke jumps to the window, would work.

“I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.”

Cut to battle outside, just enough to make it clear that things are not going well and that the deflector shields are still up.

Cut back to the throneroom.

“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed…”

I like it. I’ll make a second version with that.

Edit: Not sure exactly what to put there. Additionally I don’t wanna focus too much on Han, Leia, etc, because they havent’ been introduced in this movie, but there’s a lot of that. I just kinda added a few bits of Ewoks.

Jeebus said:

My other minor complaint is that when Luke first grabs his saber, it seems like he goes directly for Vader. I tried something similar to this edit once, it didn’t pan out, but I do remember that I had Luke go for the Emperor’s neck with Vader blocking, just as it happens in the unedited movie. Directly following that was a backwards clip of the same clip. So it played out like this; Luke tried to kill the Emperor, Vader blocks, they lock blades for a bit, then they lift them away to begin fighting.

I tried remaking it to help illustrate my idea.

I tried doing that originally but couldn’t get it to look right. I’ll redo it like that, though.

Edit: If you don’t mind me doing that.

Edit again: Should I add an opening crawl or leave it as is?

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I don’t know if a crawl is necessary if the actual edit is as short as it currently is. All the context you need is right there in the scene (Luke trying to turn his father around and whatnot).

Author
Time

Alright. No crawl will be added.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time

SparkySywer said:

Jeebus said:

Very well done. I really only put up with the rest of the movie to see Luke fight Vader, so this edit’s a blessing. I only have two problems, and one of them it seems you’re aware of. It may technically break the philosophy of this edit, but perhaps inserting a very small clip of the space battle, between the two scenes where Luke jumps to the window, would work.

“I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.”

Cut to battle outside, just enough to make it clear that things are not going well and that the deflector shields are still up.

Cut back to the throneroom.

“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed…”

I like it. I’ll make a second version with that.

Edit: Not sure exactly what to put there. Additionally I don’t wanna focus too much on Han, Leia, etc, because they havent’ been introduced in this movie, but there’s a lot of that. I just kinda added a few bits of Ewoks.

This is what I had in mind

Jeebus said:

My other minor complaint is that when Luke first grabs his saber, it seems like he goes directly for Vader. I tried something similar to this edit once, it didn’t pan out, but I do remember that I had Luke go for the Emperor’s neck with Vader blocking, just as it happens in the unedited movie. Directly following that was a backwards clip of the same clip. So it played out like this; Luke tried to kill the Emperor, Vader blocks, they lock blades for a bit, then they lift them away to begin fighting.

I tried remaking it to help illustrate my idea.

I tried doing that originally but couldn’t get it to look right. I’ll redo it like that, though.

Edit: If you don’t mind me doing that.

Sure, go right ahead. If it’s easier, you can just squeeze my clip in there rather than editing yours to match mine.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

What you had in mind is better than what I put in there, I’ll use your idea.

Squeezing in the clip wouldn’t work, though. I’m using Harmy as a base and I believe you used the 2004 DVD as a base.

Edit: Done! It’s got some shots of the battle, and also fixes the continuity error. Also removed “Now Witness the Firepower”.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time

SparkySywer said:

What you had in mind is better than what I put in there, I’ll use your idea.

Squeezing in the clip wouldn’t work, though. I’m using Harmy as a base and I believe you used the 2004 DVD as a base.

I actually used DarthRush’ RotJ Remastered, and he says that he used Despecialized for about 95% of the edit. So it should work, unless the 5% that isn’t Despecialized just happens to be the clips I used, or he did some color correction of his own.

Author
Time

SparkySywer said:

Edit: Done! It’s got some shots of the battle, and also fixes the continuity error. Also removed “Now Witness the Firepower”.

Very well done! I like your version a lot more than mine.

Author
Time

Jeebus said:

SparkySywer said:

What you had in mind is better than what I put in there, I’ll use your idea.

Squeezing in the clip wouldn’t work, though. I’m using Harmy as a base and I believe you used the 2004 DVD as a base.

I actually used DarthRush’ RotJ Remastered, and he says that he used Despecialized for about 95% of the edit. So it should work, unless the 5% that isn’t Despecialized just happens to be the clips I used, or he did some color correction of his own.

Just checked. It is Harmys.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Jeebus said:

SparkySywer said:

What you had in mind is better than what I put in there, I’ll use your idea.

Squeezing in the clip wouldn’t work, though. I’m using Harmy as a base and I believe you used the 2004 DVD as a base.

I actually used DarthRush’ RotJ Remastered, and he says that he used Despecialized for about 95% of the edit. So it should work, unless the 5% that isn’t Despecialized just happens to be the clips I used, or he did some color correction of his own.

darthrush said:

Jeebus said:

SparkySywer said:

What you had in mind is better than what I put in there, I’ll use your idea.

Squeezing in the clip wouldn’t work, though. I’m using Harmy as a base and I believe you used the 2004 DVD as a base.

I actually used DarthRush’ RotJ Remastered, and he says that he used Despecialized for about 95% of the edit. So it should work, unless the 5% that isn’t Despecialized just happens to be the clips I used, or he did some color correction of his own.

Just checked. It is Harmys.

My bad. It just looked like the 2004 DVD for some reason to me I guess.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time

I really don’t feel comfortable having Lando in this. When I make and watch fanedits, I try to think of them as if the original work didn’t exist. It would be really weird seeing Lando in the attack without having seen the beginning of Return of the Jedi, after how he left Han to die in Empire. I’m making another version without Lando. The parts outside the Death Star, which previously had Lando, will just show the Rebel fleet being decimated.

The old version will still be up if you want it.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Just watched this. Great job!
I’d definitely use the Luke/Vader scene on Endor as the opening scene. It sets everything up and explains what’s going on quickly.
I’d also cut the celebration stuff. It has nothing to do with what we’ve been watching. I’d fade out as the camera pans up from the pyre. You loose the ghosts, but it’s already clear that Vader has redeemed himself. The story seems over at the pyre.
Just suggestions. Thanks for sharing this!

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

Author
Time

I considered both cutting the celebration, and using the Endor scene, and an early version did both, but the Endor scene really doesn’t feel like an intro, it feels like it’s in the middle of a movie. And the celebration, I’m still a little on the fence. I like the scene and feel like it wraps stuff up, but it also feels like extra stuff.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

Author
Time

SparkySywer said:

I considered both cutting the celebration, and using the Endor scene, and an early version did both, but the Endor scene really doesn’t feel like an intro, it feels like it’s in the middle of a movie. And the celebration, I’m still a little on the fence. I like the scene and feel like it wraps stuff up, but it also feels like extra stuff.

Maybe just shorten the celebration like Spence did. Just have one shot panning down from the fireworks, then cut to Vader’s funeral

Author
Time

By the way, This is great idea for a fanedit! Can’t wait to see it!

Author
Time

It’s already finished, although after rewatching it recently I’m not super satisfied. I think I’m gonna make some changes, and cut out the celebration after all.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories