Alright, now with the deleted scenes problem solved, I think it’s time to discuss some more changes.

Flying away…

So, the next Jar Jar moment I have deleted is on the ship. Obi-Wan tells Jar Jar to stay out of trouble where all the repair droids are. He says hello to R2 and pals and… That’s it. I see no reason keeping this, and I’m willing to bet everyone else feels the same. So now, the first scene inside the ship is Qui-Gon entering the cockpit.

R2’s “hero” moment

This is one scene where I’m making a dramatic departure from the other fan edits. All three fan edits that I’ve taken inspiration from have R2 saving the ship from it’s “shield generator” problem, and our heroes escape from the blockade thanks to everyone’s favorite droid. The HAL9000 edit has this. The l8wrtr edit has this. Even the famed Phantom edit has this. I do not have this.

Here’s my issue. As I mentioned in my background, I’m following two rules that I learned from Aristotle’s Poetics. To make everything necessary, and to make everything probable. R2 saving the ship is in violation of that first rule because at the end of the day, it affects nothing. All that happens is that the ship gets damaged anyway, and everyone has to go to Tattooine for parts. So, R2’s contribution ends up being unnecessary.

On top of that, it also ruins the tension. (How many times have I said this?) Having R2 save the ship makes everything easier for our heroes to escape, but if you take it out, everything becomes much harder. Now, in my edit, not only does the shield generator get hit, not only are the shields down, but they don’t have enough power to get to Coruscant because the hyperdrive is leaking. In the theatrical version, the ship gets away from the blockade because it was saved by a droid. In my version, the ship gets away from the blockade out of sheer luck.

Bottom line: It’s unnecessary. Doesn’t contribute anything to the plot. Let’s give the ship a beating.

Hey, here’s that planet you remember from Star Wars!

I’ve made no changes to the discussion on whether the crew goes to Tattooine or not. Mainly because it’s one of the few moments in the film where the logic makes sense. Tattooine isn’t controlled by the federation, but it is controlled by the Hutts. The Hutts aren’t looking for Amidala, so even though it’s far from ideal, it’s better than landing on a federation planet. Can’t argue with Qui-Gon’s logic in this scene.