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.