I am very impressed by a lot of the changes you are making here. The new visuals look excellent, and I have a lot of respect for you because of that.
One of my only problems though is that I hate how this edit will try to hide that Anakin becomes Vader in Revenge of the Sith. The whole crux of the prequel trilogy is that it explains how Anakin became Vader. It’s the very reason audiences are invested, the reason the movies exist. Sure, there’s also the fall of the Republic and the Jedi and Palpatine’s rise to power, but let’s be honest, everybody was most invested in the birth of Vader. There’s so much forshadowing all over the place. Besides, everybody and their grandma knows the twist, so trying to preserve it is pointless work. It’d be like if in the new Planet of the Apes trilogy they tried to hide the fact that it’s on Earth to preserve the twist at the end of the original film that everybody already knows and is essential to know to understand why those movies are being made and the story they are telling (in that case, to show how the apes took over Earth). Anakin’s transformation into Vader are some of my favorite parts of the whole film, I don’t want that erased. Knowing Anakin is Vader and his backstory adds so many layers to the OT as well that weren’t there before, and I’d hate to see that gone too. It’s ridiculous to legit destroy Revenge of the Sith to preserve a “surprise” that every human being on the planet who has ever laid their eyes on a motion picture has known since 1980.
And without it it doesn’t make any sense. Obi-Wan says in ANH, “Vader betrayed and murdered your father”, but what we see in Revenge of the Sith is that Anakin betrayed and killed a ton of the Jedi and then was left to burn… and then Darth Vader shows up. Right there everybody will know that Anakin is Vader. According to Obi-Wan’s lie, Anakin remained good and was a victim of Vader’s betrayal. So seeing Anakin betray the Jedi and do evil things only makes sense knowing he’s Vader. We also know that Vader was NOT Obi-Wan’s apprentice, Anakin was; there was no “young Jedi named Darth Vader”, so the lie also falls apart there. With the information that Anakin is Vader we already know Obi-Wan is lying, but it’d be really weird to try to change the films so we won’t know he’s lying when it’s obvious we would. If you’re that desperate to preserve the mystery for your future kids or whatever, just show them the originals first.
I also disagree with removing Yoda. It just seems so… weird, that he wouldn’t be there. He’s just rotting away on Dagobah the whole time, letting the whole world crumble? How did he supposedly train Obi-Wan? And I love Yoda in the prequels.
I apologize if I sound like an ass. I am really thankful that you will be making purist versions in this case (and that I’m making my own fan-edits), 😛 as I absolutely love what you’re doing with the visuals and a lot of your ideas (like Dooku in TPM? Genius!), but as I said I disagree with the things above.