I keep thinking about Watto and the chance cube, and how to keep it in a “Qui-Gon frees Shmi” edit. As I figure it, there’s only two moments of dialogue that need to be altered.
When Watto says “red, the boy - blue, his mother,” change it to “red, them both - blue, neither.”
This follows on from “no pod is worth two slaves” and his lecherous “we’ll let fate decide,” and strengthens the following “your friend had better be careful or I’ll end up owning him too,” since (from Watto’s perspective) Qui-Gon now gambled on a whim with very disadvantageous odds.
I wonder if there’s anything in AOTC that might be usable?
Maybe like something like this could work:
W:„No pod is worth two slaves. Not by a long shot.“
Q: „It‘s the fastest ever built“
(Watto thinks)
W: „We‘ll let fate decide. Red, No, blue, yes.“He says Yes when Qui-Gon shows him the ship („Yes, Yes, Nubien…). I don’t know from the top of my head whether Watto ever says No, but maybe it could be taken from „Not by a long shot“.
The only issue I forsee is that Watto reacts angrily to the results of the dice roll, so he has to think that he’s going to pull one over on Qui-Gon. If it’s just “yes” or “no,” Watto has nothing to gain by using the dice. (If it’s “both” or “neither,” he obviously stands to gain a lot if the result is “neither.”)