Time for me to comment, and thank Hal once again for a mind-blowing job on these edits ! 😄 I think we don’t emphasize enough how much time and effort is put into all this. “Labour of love” may be an understatement.

I have also read some of the first pages of this thread, and I would like to comment especially on the Padme’s surviving topic, as it may be the most debatable point of the whole experience.

I’m among people like Malastrana and others who believe that Padme should remain dead (well, not dying because of the ridiculous “losing the will to live” droid line which should definitely be replaced, lol, but for other reasons).

I also understand Hal’s reasons and his impossibility to revert that change even if he wanted to, because he basically built this whole episode (maybe even his whole trilogy) about the idea of Padme surviving. It was a bold choice for sure. But in the end it’s a choice that I wouldn’t have made personally.

Here’s a couple of reasons why I think Padme should remain dead :

Like some mentioned, a very minor inconsistency towards future episodes isn’t enough IMHO to justify deleting one of the most beautiful/powerful/emotional scenes in the whole movie : the funeral, and also the fact that Padme holds the Japor Snippet that Anakin gave her. I’m a sucker for those romantic details, sorry.
After the end of the Mustafar duel and Vader (well, Anakin, lol) barely surviving, the whole movie is coming to a dramatic climax, and EVERY scene contributing to that climax must be kept : Vader’s “NOOOO” scene, Padme’s funeral, and of course the Tatooine final scene which has wet my eyes more than once (unless it was Tatooine’s dust ? ;p ).

Of course it’s very tempting to go towards the ideal of consistency between trilogies. But here it’s done at a great expense, so in the end I think the losses overcome the benefits. There is no perfect solution : either Padme dies (which creates a minor inconsistency), or she lives (and then there is no funeral). But Padme dying may be the lesser evil.

I’m very grateful that Hal did such a great edit anyway, and of course if we don’t like some of his choices we are always free to watch other edits. I guess the perfect Ep.3 edit doesn’t exist yet. Hal mentioned L8wtr’s edit, but even if it was still available, it would be DVD resolution, and in 2020 I would generally not watch anything below 1080p, especially for Star Wars movies ! 😃