A little something on my mind. Rewatching the edit so far, we hardly get a taste of the might of the Federation until the final act. I’m wanting to add a scene earlier of the film showing the droid army ravaging the streets of Theed, but there’s one issue: There’s not really much usable footage of their occupation (most have Padme or her entourage in it, which wouldn’t make sense as they’re with the Jedi).
Is there perhaps some footage from some sort of commercial, series, or whatever of Battle Droids roaming the streets of a city that could pass for Theed, blasting people? The closest thing I can think of is The Mandalorian, but those are Super Battle Droids.
The inferiority of the federation has always been a tough one for us faneditors, including myself. I ended up keeping the scene where Nute Gunray threatens the governor in my fanedit. It’s not because it was a good scene, but because it was one of the few scenes that showed the sinister side of Gunray. My logic being that anything that shows this side of Gunray is necessary to understand why the federation is a threat to the Naboo.
One of the biggest and most unavoidable downsides of Episode I is the fact that there is no footage of the actual conflict on Naboo. I ended up having to find ways to work around that problem, and I still have no idea if I succeeded on that front. Just the reality that I tried.
Bottom line, don’t beat yourself up too much over it. It’s always been a tough issue for every fan edit.