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Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Another Happy Sanding. (Released) — Page 3

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Octorox said:

Huh, I actually really like this idea in theory, but without any scenes of Padme and Obi-Wan interacting, I don’t think the implication that she’s talking about Obi-Wan and not Anakin will be as a strong as needed to sell the idea. I’ll think on it.

The crazy thing is, there actually is a deleted scene of Obi-Wan and Padme interacting. And guess what outfit she is wearing?

It’s the exact same one from the other deleted scene, where she talks about wanting to speak with a Jedi she trusts. I used to think she clearly was referring to Anakin in that scene, but based off the fact she is wearing the same costume, she must have really been talking about Obi-Wan. The music in the scene sort of hints at it as well, since the Force theme is more closely associated with Obi-Wan.

Here is this scene in the script:

93 EXT. CORUSCANT-PADME’S APARTMENT-EARLY MORNING
Padme’s apartment building is surrounded by the smog-shrouded city of Coruscant.

94 INT. CORUSCANT-PADME’S APARTMENT-LIVING ROOM-EARLY MORNING
PADME and OBI-WAN sit on one of the couches.

OBI-WAN: Has Anakin been to see you?

PADME: Several times . . . I was so happy to hear he was accepted on the Jedi Council.

OBI-WAN: I know … he deserves it. He is impatient, strong willed, very opinionated, but truly gifted.

They laugh.

PADME: You’re not just here to say hello. Something is wrong, isn’t it?

OBI-WAN: You should be a Jedi, Padme.

PADME: You’re not very good at hiding your feelings.

OBI-WAN: It’s Anakin . . . He’s becoming moody and detached. He’s been put in a difficult position as the Chancellor’s representative . . . but I think it’s more than that. I was hoping he may have talked to you.

PADME: Why would he talk to me about his work?

OBI-WAN studies her.

OBI-WAN: Neither of you is very good at hiding your feelings either.

PADME: Don’t give me that look.

OBI-WAN: I know how he feels about you.

PADME: (nervous) What did he say?

OBI-WAN: Nothing. He didn’t have to.

PADME is a little flustered. She stands and Obi-Wan follows. She walks to the balcony.

PADME: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

OBI-WAN: I know you both too well. I can see you two are in love. Padme, I’m worried about him.

PADME looks down and doesn’t answer.

OBI-WAN: (continuing) I fear your relationship has confused him. He’s changed considerably since we returned . . .

They stand on the balcony and look off at the early morning city. OBI-WAN starts to leave. PADME stays looking off into the distant city.

OBI-WAN: (continuing) Padme, I’m not telling the Council about any of this. I … I hope I didn’t upset you. We’re all friends, I care about both of you . . .

PADME: Thank you, Obi-Wan.

OBI-WAN: Please do what you can to help him.

The fact that scene starts on the couch could help imply we’re jumping in mid-conversation. The sad thing is we may never get this scene, but a part of me hopes that if a Saga movie set comes out next year, maybe they will include some never-before-seen deleted scenes. This seems like it would be a great deleted scene to include, I guess we’ll see though.

A part of me still thinks the movie can work well without the scene, and perhaps even be a strength, but I guess it might be one of those things where you would need to show a first-time viewer and see if they would understand what it is implying. Padme says she wants to speak to a Jedi she trusts, and the next time we see her, she tells Anakin, “[Obi-Wan] came by this morning.”

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I love your idea Rogue Leader, it certainly helps reduce the feeling that the Rebellion deleted scenes just peter out into nothing. And that Obi Wan/Padme scene is like my personal holy grail of footage left completely on the cutting room floor - from what I know most of the rest is inconsequential things like Anakin killing Wat Tambor, Mace Windu having a desk etc. (though apparently there was once a super long cut of TPM - what was cut?).

Still though - and maybe it’s just because I think of Clone Wars Anakin as “Anakin” and try to justify his actions in ROTS with my understanding of that character, rather than the weirdo Lucas wrote - it’s hard for me to imagine Anakin siding with Palpatine over Padme even if he did find out she’d been secretly plotting against him, because of Palpatine being a Sith Lord. Absolutely it would be a huge source of tension before that revelation, but I just can’t see Anakin siding with Palpatine rather than the Jedi just for political reasons AFTER discovering his true identity, or choking his wife to death because she didn’t tell him about the fact she was entirely justifiably plotting against him. Dom’s suggestion would work well in just the context of the film, but personally one of my main goals with this film is to make it fit the vastly superior TCW, and that Anakin would probably be more likely to kill Palpatine on the spot.

In my eternally WIP edit, I’m leaning in hard on the desperate to save Padme angle, going as far as to mostly reduce the inconsistent tension between Anakin and Padme and Obi Wan. (Mace and the council are absolutely fair game for being vilified to help justify Anakin’s actions against Windu, of course.) I’m going to try to imply that Anakin is motivated entirely by his inability to let go of Padme since I feel that’s the only believable reason he would betray the Jedi, with it spiralling out of control from there as he has to become more and more delusional to justify his actions - Palpatine urges him to strike the Temple because otherwise the Jedi will kill the pair for what they’ve done to Windu, and Anakin is already so deep that he feels he has no other choice. Basically, a reluctant Vader, acting out of fear of having to face the consequences for what he has done, only forced to face reality when Padme rejects his suggestion that everything will be okay and leaves him instead. He killed all those Jedi while thinking to himself “I’m doing what I have to do for Padme”, right? He’s doesn’t even consider that she wouldn’t be grateful for it, and that she might even leave him over it. And when she does, he’s forced to confront that he has committed all these terrible acts and destroyed the entire life he had built with the Jedi Order for essentially no reason. Faced with the choice between collapsing into despair and accepting the death he deserves (we see him consider this in Charles Soule’s Vader comic) or doubling down and lashing out in anger, he goes for the latter (because of the dark side, perhaps) and chokes out Padme and attempts to destroy Obi Wan. I think most people have irrationally lashed out at loved ones in times of great stress when they really should’ve admitted they were wrong, though hopefully not at quite the same level of severity, so I see that as being a more relatable way for things to go. As always with fanediting, the hard part is bending the footage to my will.

Sorry, I typed all that and just remembered the thread we’re in - I’ll make my own thread for my edit in the future rather than going off in Octorox’s!

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I’ve mentioned the ROTS novelization in another thread, but I think its material on this topic is also relevant. The Jedi that Padme trusts is indeed Obi-Wan in the novelization, and she does meet with him in her apartment just like the script excerpt RogueLeader shared, which leads Anakin to sense that he has been there and confront her about it. The idea of Padme hiding something from him is much more prevalent throughout the novel.

On the topic of Anakin not tracking throughout ROTS and having different motivations at different times, perhaps dialogue from the ROTS video game could be used to supplement certain scenes? In the game, it’s the opposite of the novel; Padme is not in the game at all. Anakin’s fall is entirely based on the hypocrisy of the Jedi. For example, the game has a full-on fight with Mace and they have quite a bit of dialogue that is not in the movie. They argue about Anakin drifting to the dark side and Mace/the Jedi betraying their values. During the fight with Obi-Wan, Obi has extra dialogue trying to turn Anakin back to the light, with Anakin refusing the Jedi’s way of doing things. Perhaps some of this could be spliced in to supplement Anakin’s fall.

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So, since I updated my extended edition of ROTS, I’ve been working on this again. I’m trying to rework the “Plot to Destroy the Jedi” deleted scene into something that isn’t redundant with the war table scene (The reference in The Clone Wars kind of convinced me to keep it). Here’s what I have right now: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lhItqeRBSgVbRQnN3Jc_wfIzPvP0hg4D/view?usp=sharing

Unfortunately in the surround mix you can hear some whispers of Yoda’s original dialogue in the other audio channels. Does anyone happen to know where I can find the music that was originally used in this scene? Was it something from Episode II?

EDIT: Sorry, just fixed the permissions on the link.

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The other edit I’ve been trying to accomplish is getting Padme to name-drop Obi-Wan in the second “Seeds of Rebellion” scene but I haven’t been able to find suitable audio. I tried poaching her saying “Master Kenobi” from Attack of the Clones but it had too much background music and not the right inflection.

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Octorox said:

So, since I updated my extended edition of ROTS, I’ve been working on this again. I’m trying to rework the “Plot to Destroy the Jedi” deleted scene into something that isn’t redundant with the war table scene (The reference in The Clone Wars kind of convinced me to keep it). Here’s what I have right now: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lhItqeRBSgVbRQnN3Jc_wfIzPvP0hg4D/view?usp=sharing

Unfortunately in the surround mix you can hear some whispers of Yoda’s original dialogue in the other audio channels. Does anyone happen to know where I can find the music that was originally used in this scene? Was it something from Episode II?

EDIT: Sorry, just fixed the permissions on the link.

It’s cool, maybe a little bit too quick on the scene cut to the Council meeting.

(if I may, this addition would also be great as part of your extended cut, since you would be adding material)

So long 🙌

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MalaStrana#2 said:

Octorox said:

So, since I updated my extended edition of ROTS, I’ve been working on this again. I’m trying to rework the “Plot to Destroy the Jedi” deleted scene into something that isn’t redundant with the war table scene (The reference in The Clone Wars kind of convinced me to keep it). Here’s what I have right now: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lhItqeRBSgVbRQnN3Jc_wfIzPvP0hg4D/view?usp=sharing

Unfortunately in the surround mix you can hear some whispers of Yoda’s original dialogue in the other audio channels. Does anyone happen to know where I can find the music that was originally used in this scene? Was it something from Episode II?

EDIT: Sorry, just fixed the permissions on the link.

It’s cool, maybe a little bit too quick on the scene cut to the Council meeting.

(if I may, this addition would also be great as part of your extended cut, since you would be adding material)

Agreed. those wipe transitions sometimes can feel a little rushed to me when the dialogue starts before the wipe finishes. I think it’s a good placement for the scene though I’m wondering why you didn’t use the entire deleted scene?

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Octorox said:

So, since I updated my extended edition of ROTS, I’ve been working on this again. I’m trying to rework the “Plot to Destroy the Jedi” deleted scene into something that isn’t redundant with the war table scene (The reference in The Clone Wars kind of convinced me to keep it). Here’s what I have right now: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lhItqeRBSgVbRQnN3Jc_wfIzPvP0hg4D/view?usp=sharing

Unfortunately in the surround mix you can hear some whispers of Yoda’s original dialogue in the other audio channels. Does anyone happen to know where I can find the music that was originally used in this scene? Was it something from Episode II?

EDIT: Sorry, just fixed the permissions on the link.

If you can complete this work, this edited scene would be awesome in your extended cut of the movie IMO. ( I’m still looking for a way to download the latest version of it, if a kind soul could help me on that ^^)

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So I’ve more or less finished this cut, but I need some assistance. Initabsolute graciously helped me create custom credits for Episode I and II that matched the theatrical credits, but he’s no longer available to work on Episode III. Would anyone with some graphics expertise be able to help me out? I can try it out myself but I’m not sure how well I’d be able to match it to the originals.

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EddieDean’s credits in his TCW project are pretty phenomenal. Perhaps reach out to him?

Also, I’m really hype for this project to be finished!

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I’m excited to hear you have been working on this and are almost done. I think your AotC edit is fantastic, so I am looking forward to this.

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It’s been almost a decade since I first dabbled with editing the prequels, and I think I finally have a trilogy I’m fairly happy with. Obviously I could keep making tweaks forever, but frankly I think I’m ready to put these projects behind me. “Another Happy Sanding” is ready for release and uploading as we speak. Please PM for a link, I’ll try to send some out tomorrow.

My overall philosophy with this particular edit was to focus on making a lot of small changes that add up to something greater, rather than radically altering the structure or flow of the film. Like always, Hal9000’s edit was a big influence and a primary source for this edit, but “Another Happy Sanding” diverges from “Labyrinth of Evil” in that it attempts to preserve the original structure of the movie. Like in the original film, Anakin’s fears of Padme’s demise serve as the primary impetus for his fall.

While I’ve made some cuts of my own, I’ve also restored some fan-favorite lines and moments of camp, like most of Yoda & Palpatine’s duel. It’s silly, but it’s fun & inventive and I miss its presence in other edits. I hope this edit strikes a good balance for most people.

Like the theatrical film, Padme dies at the end of this edit. I went with this ending partially in order to preserve canon, and partially because I feel like it’s the natural conclusion the movie is leading up to. I’m honestly pretty divided on this particular question though, so I may at some point upload an “alternate ending” version that concludes like “Labyrinth of Evil”, with Padme living on Alderaan. Chime in if that’s something you’d like to see.

Other edits that influenced this one are Kerr’s “Dark Force Rising”, L8wrtr’s “Dawn of the Empire”, NFBism’s “New Canon Cut”, and SiliconMaster482’s “Rebalanced” edit. I also borrowed a snippet of video from Bobson Dugnutt’s “expanded edition”, which originally borrowed from my “extended edition”. The circle is now complete, as Anakin would say.

Sade1212 provided a visual effects shot that was originally created for Hal’s edit but never used. Keep an eye out for it.

Last but not least, here is the mostly complete, but not exhaustive, cut-list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2NmJYOkNHSzvguMgKMvTYaCcPSQqwOKI6nQNjMoxQM/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you enjoy and may the Force be with you!

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I like that the Yoda/Palpatine duel and some other camp bits are still intact. This sounds great!

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Just finished watching. I think it is a very fine edit. However, while it’s of course just subjective preference, I suppose I wish you had taken more cues from L8wrtr’s edit and fewer from Hal9000’s. Hal deserves a lot of credit, to be sure. I think the best thing Hal9000 did for RotS is take out the part where Anakin draws his lightsaber on a youngling. That always seemed a bit too much to me for a Star Wars movie. And Hal’s contributions to the fanediting community, including TRoS:Ascendent, cannot be overstated. However, I have always had a slight preference for L8wrtr’s RotS edit. I find it more nuanced and understated than the theatrical cut and other fanedits, and it depicts Palpatine as more devious and clever, his manipulations more subtle. For example, in your edit (and Hal’s), I find that Palpatine reveals too much of his evil side to Anakin at the beginning, gleefully urging Anakin to kill a defenseless Dooku (I like it better when Anakin simply kills Dooku in the moment, and then Palpatine reassures him). Then, moments later, he twice insists Anakin leave Obi-Wan behind, which Anakin-who is still a hero at this point-would never do. It’s careless and seems to run contrary to what Palpatine is trying to accomplish.

As for the end, I think Vader’s “Nooooooo”, even if it’s the Russian dub, is still massively cringe. L8wrtr once again handled this part with more subtlety and grace. And on that note, thank you for letting Padme die. I think the goal of preserving canon should be secondary to keeping intact the message and theme of the film. Anakin is afraid of loss, and of course, the irony is that he loses Padme by the very act of trying to prevent it. To that point, I will add that Padme essentially dying of a broken heart is unnecessary and, frankly, a little sexist. Sure, her husband turned bad, but she has two beautiful new babies to give her all the reason she needs to hold on. In my headcanon, Anakin dramatically weakened her when he force choked her, and that, in addition to the labor, are what killed her. This is what L8wrtr’s edit does, and it really just makes the most sense.

A couple of other points that are just nitpicks:
-While I wholeheartedly agree with your desire to retain some of the camp and humor, Anakin and Hayden making fun of the droids for saying “Roger” at 8:25 seems a little out of place and almost like improv. It’s funny, but it doesn’t seem Star Wars funny.
-I know this is alluded to again at 1:05:00, but I don’t like Mace Windu saying outright at 36:30 that he doesn’t trust Anakin. Given all they’ve been through in The Clone Wars, it just seems like a huge dickslap in the face. At least when he tells Anakin later “…you will have earned my trust”, it can be taken as ambiguous, i.e., possibly referencing Anakin’s incredible assertion that Palpatine is a Sith Lord.
-Near the end, while I love to see Yoda get back at Palpatine for catching him off guard with force lightning, throwing him him over the chair just looks ridiculous. It is a humiliating moment for Palpatine when by that point we should be terrified.

This last point illustrates the overall major problem with RotS in my opinion. It’s tone is all over the place. As the viewer, you feel like you’re being jostled around by certain parts that are very dark, and others that are very silly. You’re not always sure how you’re supposed to feel. It’s confusing, irritating (worse than sand). Conversely, I think L8wrtr’s edit really succeeds at being tonally consistent throughout the movie.

I don’t love everything about L8wrtr’s edit of course. Again, it retains Anakin killing the youngling. I also disagree with cutting out or even truncating Yoda’s lightsaber fight with Palpatine. I like your idea that Yoda should only pull out his saber in significant instances, but he is a Jedi after all, and the lightsaber is the Jedi’s weapon. Some people think it looks silly, but to this day I still think Yoda looks totally badass moving around like that. L8wrtr’s edit is far from perfect, but I would invite you to take yet another look at it, and consider it’s strengths, including the ways it may be superior to Hal’s edit.

I will add that I really like your placement of the deleted scenes. I feel like your TPM and AotC edits are landmark fanedits because they take the best of what has come before to balance, refine, and improve these films even further. Furthermore, as attitudes towards the prequel films have softened over time, your edits represent a more modern take that reflect current fans’ inclination to esteem these films more highly. Once again, this is a very fine edit, but I believe if you gave more weight to L8wrtr’s edit, your RotS edit would also be a landmark fanedit.

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Thanks for your feedback. I want to address some of your points specifically:

On Anakin’s decapitation of Dooku:
I considered having him decapitate Dooku immediately as in L8wrtr’s edit, but there’s a moment I really like where Dooku locks eyes with Palpatine as he orders Anakin to kill, and realizes he’s been played. I find this to be a fitting end to his story, especially considering the machinations we get with Ventress and Savage Opress in The Clone Wars, where Dooku is essentially forced to give up his own ambitions as a Sith in order to prove his loyalty to Palpatine. If Anakin cuts his head off immediately, we don’t get that element.

On Palpatine urging Anakin to leave Obi-Wan behind:
I take your point that Palpatine’s attempts to manipulate Anakin here are pretty obvious, but I thought it was important to show that at this point, Anakin’s bond with Obi-Wan is still strong and not so easily broken. I think it’s doubly important to emphasize this since I cut out Anakin’s “I’m not leaving without you Master” moment earlier in the film.

On Anakin and Obi-Wan saying “Roger”:
Why you dislike this bit is kind of why I liked it. So much of the “humor” in the prequels feels really forced and stagey to me, and I liked that this moment had an off-the-cuff, naturalistic feel. It seemed like two friends joking around, which is kind of what I wanted more of from Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship.

Padme dying of a broken heart:
I agree, which is why I cut out the “she lost the will to live” line. What else would you suggest I do here? I’ll have to look at l8wrtr’s edit again to see how he approached it.

Vader’s tantrum:
I like how l8wrtr’s edit approaches this in theory but I do think it’s kind of important to show Vader’s regret here. The scene sucks, but the alternative is just to have Vader resigned to his fate, which is where he arrives in later movies. Here I feel his emotions would be more raw. Do you have any suggestions as to how I might tackle this?

Mace not trusting Anakin:
This is a fair point, and I’ll consider making these cuts. It is a little weird since in my cut of Attack of the Clones, his advice to Obi-Wan is “you should trust him to choose the right path.”

Yoda throwing Palpatine over the chair:
I couldn’t find a seamless way to cut this without slashing the entire lightning sequence as L8wrtr did. I’ll take another look.

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Already made the following changes based on feedback:

-Palpatine no longer explicitly instructs Anakin to kill Dooku. He merely implies it. Slowed down a shot of Palpatine so that he still exchanges a knowing glance with Dooku before the decapitation.
-Anakin shoots down Palpatine’s advice to leave Obi-Wan behind the first time, rather than having to be pushed twice.
-Mace no longer expresses distrust of Anakin when conversing with Obi-Wan and Yoda on the LAAT
-Trimmed a few shots where Yoda uses a Force push on Palpatine to make it seem a little less hokey.
-As in L8wrtr’s edit, the medical droid no longer expresses that Padme is “perfectly healthy” or is confused over why she is dying.
-The Vader scene fades to black after he replies “Yes, Master” like in l8wrtr’s edit

I will be holding off on download requests until I upload the next version.

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I just want to start by saying that I think one of your greatest strengths as a editor is that you have fantastic sensibilities. Your cuts are neither too conservative, nor too liberal, but are always just right. I’m just a guy who loves fanedits, and I really believe you have the best TPM and AotC edits, period. Anybody who hasn’t seen them should check them out.

At the end of the day, if I really have a vision for how a Star Wars fanedit should be, I should just do it myself. Chances are you know these movies better than me, and that you’ve thought about how to improve them more than I have. Therefore, I will try to be brief in addressing your points:

Regarding the decapitation scene, you make a very good point. Palpatine has betrayed Dooku and it is worthwhile to see the look on Dooku’s face when he realizes it. It is, however, Anakin’s story, after all, and I think it serves Anakin’s character better to kill Dooku impulsively and then regret it immediately afterwards. Palpatine is also a master manipulator. The fact that he could set up events so that Anakin would kill Dooku without even being told is good foreshadowing for what will come later (i.e., manipulating the Senate in very subtle, covert ways to “kill” the Republic) as well as a good indicator from the outset of where Palpatine and Anakin’s relationship currently stands. Palpatine is a puppeteer pulling the strings long before Anakin full-on pledges his allegiance to him.

On leaving Obi Wan behind, I agree (as per your subsequent edit) that once is enough, i.e., Palpatine says leave him behind, Anakin says no, and they move on.

On the “Roger” bit, I’m mostly agnostic. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. I really like camp and humor in films. My issue here, however, is more that it seems like the actors goofing off, rather than the characters. It comes across to me as bloopers or outtakes. That may not be the case at all, it’s just how it comes across to me personally.

On Padme dying of a broken heart. Yes, for me it was the issue of the droid saying there was nothing wrong with her medically, which still implies she has lost the will to live. I get that Lucas was trying to model this after a Shakespearean tragedy of sorts, but people don’t literally die of broken hearts (and it’s a betrayal of her character).

On Vaders tantrum. Maybe we’ve just gotten used to hearing it, but I remember being in the theatre and hearing Vader’s “Nooooooo” for the first time. I remember the laughter and groans it elicited from the audience. I will admit L8wrtr’s solution isn’t perfect, but for me, I don’t necessarily need to see Anakin’s reaction to Padme’s death. Rather, knowing that he is going to find out soon and have to live with that for the rest of his life is still satisfying to me as a viewer. L8’s edit is weighty and sad without overstating things.

On Mace saying he doesn’t trust Anakin. Yes, I agree, and I really like that scene you’ve included of Obi Wan and Mace from AotC.

In the sequel trilogy, I see the First Order as incompetent, man-baby wannabes. However, this is not how I see the Empire, which is what the First Order is trying to emulate. To me, the Empire is actually pretty terrifying, including its Emperor. So seeing Palpatine get hilariously thrown over that chair just doesn’t fly with me (no pun intended). If it was General Hux, I might in fact love it, but not when it’s Darth Sidious.

My only intent in writing this post and my prior one was to say that L8wrtr’s edit of RotS is pretty damn good. Hal 9000 is true professional, and I appreciate his work. I just wanted to point out that there may be instances where L8wrtr has made the stronger, more competent cut.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my feedback. It is easy to criticize after all, whereas you have actually gone through the time and effort of making these great fanedits. Again, thank you and well done.

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GLogus said:

I just want to start by saying that I think one of your greatest strengths as a editor is that you have fantastic sensibilities. Your cuts are neither too conservative, nor too liberal, but are always just right. I’m just a guy who loves fanedits, and I really believe you have the best TPM and AotC edits, period. Anybody who hasn’t seen them should check them out.

At the end of the day, if I really have a vision for how a Star Wars fanedit should be, I should just do it myself. Chances are you know these movies better than me, and that you’ve thought about how to improve them more than I have. Therefore, I will try to be brief in addressing your points:

Regarding the decapitation scene, you make a very good point. Palpatine has betrayed Dooku and it is worthwhile to see the look on Dooku’s face when he realizes it. It is, however, Anakin’s story, after all, and I think it serves Anakin’s character better to kill Dooku impulsively and then regret it immediately afterwards. Palpatine is also a master manipulator. The fact that he could set up events so that Anakin would kill Dooku without even being told is good foreshadowing for what will come later (i.e., manipulating the Senate in very subtle, covert ways to “kill” the Republic) as well as a good indicator from the outset of where Palpatine and Anakin’s relationship currently stands. Palpatine is a puppeteer pulling the strings long before Anakin full-on pledges his allegiance to him.

On leaving Obi Wan behind, I agree (as per your subsequent edit) that once is enough, i.e., Palpatine says leave him behind, Anakin says no, and they move on.

On the “Roger” bit, I’m mostly agnostic. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. I really like camp and humor in films. My issue here, however, is more that it seems like the actors goofing off, rather than the characters. It comes across to me as bloopers or outtakes. That may not be the case at all, it’s just how it comes across to me personally.

On Padme dying of a broken heart. Yes, for me it was the issue of the droid saying there was nothing wrong with her medically, which still implies she has lost the will to live. I get that Lucas was trying to model this after a Shakespearean tragedy of sorts, but people don’t literally die of broken hearts (and it’s a betrayal of her character).

On Vaders tantrum. Maybe we’ve just gotten used to hearing it, but I remember being in the theatre and hearing Vader’s “Nooooooo” for the first time. I remember the laughter and groans it elicited from the audience. I will admit L8wrtr’s solution isn’t perfect, but for me, I don’t necessarily need to see Anakin’s reaction to Padme’s death. Rather, knowing that he is going to find out soon and have to live with that for the rest of his life is still satisfying to me as a viewer. L8’s edit is weighty and sad without overstating things.

On Mace saying he doesn’t trust Anakin. Yes, I agree, and I really like that scene you’ve included of Obi Wan and Mace from AotC.

In the sequel trilogy, I see the First Order as incompetent, man-baby wannabes. However, this is not how I see the Empire, which is what the First Order is trying to emulate. To me, the Empire is actually pretty terrifying, including its Emperor. So seeing Palpatine get hilariously thrown over that chair just doesn’t fly with me (no pun intended). If it was General Hux, I might in fact love it, but not when it’s Darth Sidious.

My only intent in writing this post and my prior one was to say that L8wrtr’s edit of RotS is pretty damn good. Hal 9000 is true professional, and I appreciate his work. I just wanted to point out that there may be instances where L8wrtr has made the stronger, more competent cut.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my feedback. It is easy to criticize after all, whereas you have actually gone through the time and effort of making these great fanedits. Again, thank you and well done.

No worries, thanks again for your comments! The revised version of the edit with a few of your suggested tweaks is now available.

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Love it. I especially think this is a good edit for people who have watched and enjoyed The Clone Wars. Outstanding work. I hope many others will give this fanedit a try.

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This was an edit I was much looking forward to. Overall, this is a fantastic edit that I think has become the new definitive way to watch ROTS.

The only feedback/suggestion I have would be: adding the alternate audio from MalaStrana in LoE. I think the added instance of clones using “General Skywalker” are notable as well as the changed music instance.

The only change I personally didn’t like was the “from my point of view” dialogue. I think the original actually flows more naturally.

Excellent edit! Any plans to add this on FE.org at some point?

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I noticed that my previous upload included AAC audio, which made the edit not burnable to a Blu-Ray Disc. I’ve fixed this by replacing the audio with ac3. This edit is also now up on FE.org!

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I’ll say again that it is an exceptional edit that combines the best from past edits. Your prequel trilogy really is the “goldilocks” best of all worlds approach. It is “just right”, neither being too conservative, nor too heavy-handed. More people need to check this out.

I’ve watched your latest edit twice now, and I have only a few comments. Something that seems inconsistent with your prior edits is the droids. They are nearly silent in your edits of TPM and AotC, but a lot of their hapless, slapstick dialogue is included in RotS. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the droid humor and have really come to embrace it (The Village Bride had it, and it made me happy), but again, I wonder if it reflects an inconsistency.

On the decapitation of Dooku, I think you’ve got the right idea, but I wonder if I can’t be tightened up a bit. Anakin holds the lightsabers to Dooku’s neck for I think about seven seconds, and you’re left wondering what the hold up is. It just seems a little drawn out.

I agree with all the cuts, generally speaking. I would say, however, that some of the audio might need a little finessing in places to make it truly seamless. I’ll add that I’m noticing this mostly with your most recent cuts. Sometimes the music doesn’t sound right, or one line of dialogue doesn’t transition well to the next (sometimes it’s the volume, and sometimes it’s the timing). There also seems to be a small audio glitch when C3P0 is reacting to Bail Organa saying to wipe his memory.

These are all very minor. Just some observations while watching the last couple of times.

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll look over the audio cuts again. I didn’t notice anything while watching. Are there any others that stood out to you?

EDIT: I fixed the audio glitch when C3PO is given off to Antilles. If there are any other moments that stood out to you, I’d appreciate timestamps.