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Revenge of the Sith (The New Canon Cut) [ON HOLD INDEFINITELY] — Page 12

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Keep the hope man and do what makes you feel happy. That and maybe you deserve the nap whenever ROTS plays.

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NFBisms don’t give up I believe in the plan you have for rots.

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Everyone always says that ROTS is way better than the other two prequels, but it’s always weirded me out the same way the other two do. Most editors just cut out some cheesy lines, but the film still comes off as strange to me. This edit somehow fixes everything I’ve wanted to be fixed, even things I didn’t realize I wanted changed. This is my favourite Revenge Of The Sith fan edit I’ve ever seen so far, I think. Thank you for your work!!

Save the Sebastian Shaw Ghost! Save the dream…!

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NFBisms please continue working on your edit of the prequels dont’t give up.

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Hi NFBisms,
Just wondering if youve seen Stankpacs Revenge of the Sith Special Edition edit as it shares alot of the same ideas your mentioned, a wiser Anakin, less slap stick humour ect. it might give you more ideas to work with. 😁👍

“We Are What They Grow Beyond” - Yoda


My Prefered Saga Viewing Preference:
Ep. III - Revenge of the Sith Special Edition (StankPac Edit) * Rogue One - A Star Wars Story (Hal 9000 Edit)
Ep. IV - A New Hope D+77 (OohTeeDee Edit) * Ep. V - Empire Strikes Back D+80 (OohTeeDee Edit)
Ep. VI - Return of The Jedi OTD83 (OohTeeDee Edit) * Ep. VII - The Force Awakens Restructured (Hal 9000 Edit)
Ep. VIII - The Last Jedi Legendary (Hal 9000 Edit) * Ep. IX - The Rise of Skywalker Ascendant (Hal 9000 Edit)

💡 Save confusion & express your comments with Markdown Emojis here 💡

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^I have looked at it, as well as many other edits when making this. The thing with my edit that’s different is that it isn’t just about cutting things out. I was adding to the film things that weren’t already there. I wanted Anakin and Obi-Wan to feel like three-dimensional, likable characters. Not just remove instances that make them inconsistent or a little dumb. That meant adding new/changing dialogue, rearranging the flow of conversations, etc.

Turning Anakin “wise” means more than just removing an “I sense Count Dooku” or cutting extraneous questions to Palpatine. I had to find ways to make him more assertive and suspicious, give him agency when the film itself - even with cuts - doesn’t do that.

I mean, I’ve had something finished for a while, so if anyone wants to watch my edit in a super compressed 720, they’ve just had to PM.

When I say I’ve given up, I just mean I don’t have time to export the edit in higher quality, and work out the extra kinks that are in it. All the source files are very, very disorganized spread across an old external drive and the hard drive of an older laptop. I think I’m even missing extensions I used on the Vegas I had installed on that laptop. Full disclosure, I was barely 19 when I started this project, so that might explain the organization as well as why I don’t have time now. Maybe I’ll get back to it one day.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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Can you please send me a pm of this edit ?

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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In light of the new trailer for season 7 of TCW, I’ve revisited this and have a new version coming out soon!

I’ve honestly re-added a lot of stuff back in but the structure remains largely the same as before. Inspired by Hal’s in that Anakin’s political motivations come before any nightmares he has of Padme. That said, in this new version I diverge halfway through to make those nightmares his primary motivations towards the end.

Rewatching my old cut I made Anakin almost too sympathetic and likeable in the first half, that the political motives honestly came off as a weaker excuse for his turn. The original “deal with the devil” is emphasized a bit more now. Anakin’s politics are still his politics but I’ve made him more remorseful and aware. It’s impressive what removing/rearranging shots can do in reconfiguring his state of mind.

Anakin is conflicted between Palpatine and the Jedi of course, but in the theatrical ROTS it never feels like he’s actually on the Jedi’s side after he has that nightmare of Padme. In Hal’s, it just feels like he’s on Palpatine’s side the entire time. Caught in the middle, but he has no love for the Jedi outside of maybe Obi-Wan. My cut was different in that it placed Anakin dominantly in the Jedi camp, and it never really seemed like Palpatine had successfully turned him against the council. While Hal’s makes his “fall” track better from beginning to end, using his version of the plot coming together just makes my take on Anakin’s turn almost nonsensical. I think I just coasted on the idea that the prequels were bad and Hal already edited it this way, so I couldn’t get any better than that for my version - but I’ve found that I can. (better for what I’m going for)

In the theatrical version, in his conflicted power hungry state, he becomes lost and blind to the truth to the point he makes the wrong decision. In my edit, Anakin actually gains clarity. Rather than Anakin being blinded by his anger at the council and clouded by his fears for Padme - he becomes fully cognizant of everything in play but makes his decision in spite of that. He chooses Padme over what he knows is right, not that he thinks it’s right to do.

It’s become a somewhat radical edit as no scene has been untampered with to the point that most conversations have a different context or meaning than originally intended.

New changelist coming soon.

Here’s something I was playing around with the other day:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbmKrj39mpGemzRYCdkpZHvQHDUgeteg/view?usp=sharing

I’ve shifted the motivations of everyone involved in that scene. Anakin isn’t crazed and proudly evil, nor is he excited about his prospects as a galaxy-ruler. He’s remorseful but also trying to justify his actions to Padme and Obi-Wan. He’s frustrated that she doesn’t want to accept that he’s doing it for her.

Theatrical!Padme is done dirty in this movie and the re-insertion of the deleted scenes only mitigates that section of the film. By the end she still doesn’t have a role to play but tragic wife almost stupidly in love with Anakin. Here - and this works to the benefit of both Anakin and Padme - she actually provokes Anakin into choking her. He doesn’t just do it out of paranoia. It’s not quite the same as the supposed original idea where she stabs him, but it’s close enough with what we have. Basically “Yes! I did bring him here to kill you!” Obi-Wan then takes on the role of asking Anakin to come back to the light.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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I missed kenobi saying for DEMOCRACY

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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I love what you’ve done with that scene and I can’t wait to see the final product!

Oh my GOD that Padme moment is soooo good what the heck!!

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Your previous New Canon Cut was so full of great ideas, I can’t wait to see what you’ve done this time.

Edit:
I checked out your clip. I love your idea to have Padme admit she willingly brought Obi Wan to kill Anakin; that line works really well in its new context. As well as giving Padme some agency back, I think it’s just the thing to really tie back in the earlier (semi deleted) plot thread about Palpatine convincing Anakin that Padme is hiding things from him, and it makes Anakin’s reaction to Kenobi’s arrival seem more believable. It’s hard to buy Anakin as legitimately feeling betrayed in the original film (unless you justify it as the dark side messing with his head) which to me has always made his anger seem more amusing, like that of a confused child, rather than intimidating, but this goes some way to fixing that.

Your dialogue tweaks are as innovative as ever (though my overfamiliarity with this scene/movie causes my brain to finish off lines you’ve cut short) and though the added lines will never be seamless, I enjoy how you’ve used them.

I personally hate the “my new powers” line because every time I hear it I just imagine him unlocking all the dark side force powers on the KOTOR level up screen or something (and though I enjoy the idea of moving lines like 'I want more…" around, placing it there compounds my amusing mental image and causes me to imagine he’s complaining about how he wants to unlock more force powers but can’t because already used all the levelups he earned from the temple massacre and the separatists). A little clip of the audio to “my new power” might be a nice idea, but maybe it’s just me who gets hung up on that line.

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I’m absolutely on board with that small detail of adding the Clone Wars sound effect when Anakin chokes Padmé.

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NFBisms said:

In light of the new trailer for season 7 of TCW, I’ve revisited this and have a new version coming out soon!

I’ve honestly re-added a lot of stuff back in but the structure remains largely the same as before. Inspired by Hal’s in that Anakin’s political motivations come before any nightmares he has of Padme. That said, in this new version I diverge halfway through to make those nightmares his primary motivations towards the end.

Rewatching my old cut I made Anakin almost too sympathetic and likeable in the first half, that the political motives honestly came off as a weaker excuse for his turn. The original “deal with the devil” is emphasized a bit more now. Anakin’s politics are still his politics but I’ve made him more remorseful and aware. It’s impressive what removing/rearranging shots can do in reconfiguring his state of mind.

Anakin is conflicted between Palpatine and the Jedi of course, but in the theatrical ROTS it never feels like he’s actually on the Jedi’s side after he has that nightmare of Padme. In Hal’s, it just feels like he’s on Palpatine’s side the entire time. Caught in the middle, but he has no love for the Jedi outside of maybe Obi-Wan. My cut was different in that it placed Anakin dominantly in the Jedi camp, and it never really seemed like Palpatine had successfully turned him against the council. While Hal’s makes his “fall” track better from beginning to end, using his version of the plot coming together just makes my take on Anakin’s turn almost nonsensical. I think I just coasted on the idea that the prequels were bad and Hal already edited it this way, so I couldn’t get any better than that for my version - but I’ve found that I can. (better for what I’m going for)

In the theatrical version, in his conflicted power hungry state, he becomes lost and blind to the truth to the point he makes the wrong decision. In my edit, Anakin actually gains clarity. Rather than Anakin being blinded by his anger at the council and clouded by his fears for Padme - he becomes fully cognizant of everything in play but makes his decision in spite of that. He chooses Padme over what he knows is right, not that he thinks it’s right to do.

It’s become a somewhat radical edit as no scene has been untampered with to the point that most conversations have a different context or meaning than originally intended.

New changelist coming soon.

Here’s something I was playing around with the other day:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbmKrj39mpGemzRYCdkpZHvQHDUgeteg/view?usp=sharing

I’ve shifted the motivations of everyone involved in that scene. Anakin isn’t crazed and proudly evil, nor is he excited about his prospects as a galaxy-ruler. He’s remorseful but also trying to justify his actions to Padme and Obi-Wan. He’s frustrated that she doesn’t want to accept that he’s doing it for her.

Theatrical!Padme is done dirty in this movie and the re-insertion of the deleted scenes only mitigates that section of the film. By the end she still doesn’t have a role to play but tragic wife almost stupidly in love with Anakin. Here - and this works to the benefit of both Anakin and Padme - she actually provokes Anakin into choking her. He doesn’t just do it out of paranoia. It’s not quite the same as the supposed original idea where she stabs him, but it’s close enough with what we have. Basically “Yes! I did bring him here to kill you!” Obi-Wan then takes on the role of asking Anakin to come back to the light.

OMG I can’t wait to see this!!

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Glad to see you back on this! I really like your rationalize for your changes with Anakin.

I think that is an interesting way to play the scene. So would end Padmé and Obi-Wan’s conversation early so we don’t know if Padmé agrees to take Obi-Wan to Anakin or not?

There are a lot of cool ideas here, and obviously it is just a rough concept of what you’re playing with, but the blocking ends up all over the place because of rearranging the dialogue so much. I think this can be remedied a lot with some more cutting, though.

Some thoughts on your specific changes:

I would try and have Anakin cut Padmé off and see if it helps with the flow.
Padmé: Obi-Wan told me terrible things. That you turned to the dark side, that you-
Anakin: Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me.

I think you should cut Anakin saying “I want more”, and just have the last line, “Only my new powers can do that” should play over the shot of Padmé backing up. I think it benefits continuity as well as the lines not meshing well.

I think to make the moment work of Padmé saying, “Because of what you’ve done, what you plan to do”, someone would need to rotoscope Padmé and change the background to match where is now standing, since she isn’t in front of the ramp anymore. I also think something has to be done to make the score changing feel more natural, since you can still hear a piece of the music repeat in order to make Padme’s extra dialogue fit.

Also, the “You weren’t there!” line doesn’t really work I don’t think. Neither does “It’s too late.” But I do think “Please, face up to what you’ve done.” line from Obi could actually work. I wonder if the line could be pitch shifted at all to try and match Ewan’s voice more. Maybe have Anakin reply with, “If you’re not with me…”

I think the “Us?” line could actually be cut too. I don’t think Anakin haste say anything to read what is on his face. We a volcano erupt the moment he realizes Obi-Wan knows their secret, then Padme confirms it.

I hope you don’t mind me digging into this scene a little bit. I think the idea of Padme standing up against Anakin is pretty brilliant, so I want to think of what would be the best way to approach it.
This is still an early thought, but I’m not sure if Anakin’s dialogue being more focused on his drive to save Padmé, and Padmé admitting to Anakin that he brought Obi-Wan to potentially kill him, meshes well together. I think Padmé, being more politically focused, would be more willing to stop Anakin if he were directly threatening the Republic rather than stating his desire for ambiguous power.

But the way it is now, he mentions overthrowing the Emperor, but for the purpose of protecting them. Anakin is clearly more focused on getting power in order to save Padmé, and Anakin saying he wants more power comes off as pretty vague. I think Padmé would see that Anakin has gone too far, but would be more sympathetic if she felt his intentions were to save her. In that case her reaction in the film would seem a bit more understandable.

It just makes more sense that as soon as Anakin starts talking about taking over the galaxy and destroying the democracy Padme fought so hard for, that would be Padmé’s moment of realization that Anakin has to be stopped. The way the scene plays out in the theatrical film already goes this direction. At the beginning when Anakin is trying to reason with her that his actions are necessary in order to save her, Padme tries to bargain with him. But once Anakin has had a taste of the dark side, you see that deeper desires are coming to the surface. Maybe Anakin never had a desire to rule the galaxy, but maybe he thinks Padme would want that. Regardless, there is a clear escalation in the conversation from power over life to power over all life. When Padme realizes his ambitions are growing beyond just cheating death, that is when she realizes he has changed.

As she slowly backs away from Anakin once he starts talking about ruling the galaxy, you can see it in her face. She sees that Anakin really did help Palpatine overthrow the Jedi and turn the Republic into the Empire. And he wants to rule it. By stating this, Anakin has directly threatened democracy and the Republic. So for Padme, it becomes a choice between Anakin or the Republic, which is compelling because those are her two primary motivations throughout these films. But in the end, she stands by her convictions and chooses the Republic, and Anakin kills her for it. This would be a more fitting way to end her character, I think. Standing in the face of tyranny, even when it is the man you love.

But, if Anakin is still cognizant of what he’s doing, rationalizing his dark quest for power as a way to pay for Padme’s life, I think Padmé would see this and be more reluctant to kill him, thinking she can still talk him out of this. But I think this version feels more like this, which makes Padme admitting to bringing Obi-Wan to kill him feel rather drastic.

I’ve always felt that once Anakin starts feeding off the dark side by murdering the Jedi and the Seperatist leaders, it starts changing him. It’s like a drug, he gets a taste and wants more power. “This makes me feel so powerful. Why stop at saving Padmé? I can fix the galaxy…”
So all the changes you make leading up to this, and even during his “dark baptism”, make total sense. That is still Anakin. The more dark deeds he does, I feel like it is logical that he becomes more like Darth Vader. So by the time we get to this scene, we should see what the effect the dark side is having on him.

Sorry for going on this tangent, but I think this is a really cool idea and I would love to see it implemented, but I’m just trying to pick it apart and see if this is the most effective way to change the scene. Putting it briefly, my argument is that I think there are two routes this scene could take.

  1. The conversation is more in-line with the theatrical, but ends with Padme standing up to Anakin.
  2. The conversation sticks with your version, but Padme tries to reason with Anakin until the end.

I would love to hear your thoughts if you disagree, or if others do. This is just the way I’ve seen it, and having watched this film so many times might be biasing me.

I have some additional thoughts on how Padmé role could be improved throughout, and some little ways the film could tie in with The Clone Wars more, but I could share those later if you’re interested. I also think I know how the scene with Obi-Wan and Padme can be changed to fit this new direction for Padme’s character, but I can mention that later.

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Last night I worked on a sample video that tests out reordering/trimming Padmé’s deleted scenes to give her a clearer involvement with the early Alliance. In the films it just builds up to the Petition of 2000 scene, which goes nowhere, but if you put that scene first, and then have the senators react to Palpatine ignoring their request to make no further constitutional amendments, I think it adds more importance to those scenes. Also, for both Anakin and Padmé it sows seeds of doubt in each other’s loyalty earlier on in the film and adds hints of doubt and deception in their following scenes together.

I think these changes could really fit well with having Padmé stand up to Anakin at the end of the film like in your test clip. I think the first two deleted scenes could actually be trimmed a little more, but this is the minimal of what needs to be trimmed to make the restructure work. I put title cards to show what scenes should go before and after them, based off the theatrical order of scenes. There’s also a little Easter egg in the last scene in the clip…

https://vimeo.com/386705732

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I really like this, RogueLeader! And I really like implication that Obi-Wan is who Padme trusted!

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snooker said:

I really like this, RogueLeader! And I really like implication that Obi-Wan is who Padme trusted!

It’s interesting because that was actually the intention of the scene (we’re just missing the scene that would overtly imply this, where Padme meets with Obi-wan). I like the rearrangement, it definitely seems to establish that rift with Padme early on.

And I also really like the reordered Mustafar talk, though the video game lines nag at me, as does the continuity of where Padme’s standing in her last line.

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Glad you guys like it! I had talked about it before but NFB inspired me to go ahead and make a proof-of-concept.

Luckily I think continuity of that last shot of Padmé could be fixed if you just rotoscope a different background behind her. I think it would work.