Years ago I attempted an edit of TPM. I never finished it, but I remember doing a very simple edit in the beginning that seemed to work quite well. It was the scene following the ship blowing up in the hangar and the Jedi reacting to it. Gas is pumped into the room and the Jedi hold their breath. Cut to “Sir… they’ve gone up the ventilation shaft.” This would omit the inane line “They must be dead by now, destroy what’s left of them”, chopping through droids like butter, Qui-Gon trying to burn a hole through the blast doors, and the lightning fast down the hall move when evading the destroyer droids which is never used again. They emerge in the main hangar bay and Qui-Gon says “Battle droids.”, as if confirming a suspicion out loud rather than seeming surprised at seeing lots of battle droids even though they just fought a dozen or so of them a minute earlier with the scene intact. The Jedi kicking ass is then saved for a later scene when they’re trying to free the Queen from the droid escort on Naboo.
This is brilliant, great short cut. Though I don’t know how well this would play into the amidala=Death Star plans angle.
But regardless of that I really like this idea.
Yeah, Darth Gary, I think that’s really clean. Segues nicely from a threat to an opportunity that the Jedi exploit, to trim what feels extraneous when all that needs to happen for the Jedi on the separatist ship is for them to realise it won’t be a negotiation because the Trade Federation are fully hostile.
And Peter Pan, there’s no specific output we’re aiming to achieve here, so my Padmé-as-Death-Star-plans idea is only one idea amongst many! My ideas don’t hold any extra weight just because I made the thread! ☺️ We should explore as much as possible.