Those first two ideas are both interesting. I talked elsewhere of combining ESB and ROTJ into one film by taking most of ESB and welding the finale of ROTJ onto the end, accomplished by having Luke be taken prisoner by Vader in Cloud city, being healed in an Imperial facility via bacta tank scene, and being taken to the new Death Star. I’d be interested in hearing your ideas though!
I remember reading that in the OT Redux thread; I’ve got some notes for what I’d do myself, and I picked and chose some bits and pieces from a bunch of different suggestions there for combining ESB and ROTJ. I’d also love to implement the “Luke and Vader swap lightsabers” idea, but I don’t think anyone ever actually made the footage for it beyond that one proof-of-concept gif.
A clarified TLJ is also a good idea. You hit the nail on the head with how the film overexplains everything.
Thank you! It’s my biggest criticism of it. I like Hal’s edit and it’s my current go-to to watch, but he largely leaves individual conversations intact - which is consistent with the edit’s intent, but which I really want to hack down considerably.