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The Prequels as Mando style episodes; PM for Links

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*** NOTE: TPM has minimal changes/cuts and is a relatively straight forward ‘film to episode’ adaptation while AOTC is a dramatically different experience with many never before seen edits and changes. ROTS is somewhere in between. Enjoy!***

ABOUT THIS EDIT:

While I appreciate the characters and story of the prequels, the movies never worked for me for many reasons, especially Attack of the Clones. Even the fanedits out there are unable to ease the pain of AOTC as most of them feel edited and many of the problems still remain.

Inspired by The Mandalorian and EddieDean’s Clone Wars edits, I decided to see if the Prequel movies would work better as a TV Show. EddieDean also encouraged me to start a thread and share these. One of the biggest benefits of the episodic format is that it allows scenes and characters to breathe without feeling rushed (coughRevenge of the Sithcough)

While I have rough edits of each, I have just started to create clean and polished versions. I started with theatrical, color corrected, versions of each film and AI upscales of the deleted scenes. Many of the cuts and trims made, are personal decisions and choices that allow ME to enjoy the content more. Surprisingly, JarJar doesn’t annoy me like he used to and I didn’t cut as much of him as I thought I would, but more specifics will be mentioned below. Also I left in things that many other editors remove, such as Midichlorians, so these episodes will fit with canon material.

For me personally, watching my episodic rough cuts of AOTC was the first time I ever truly enjoyed this content. These edits won’t be for everyone, but perhaps some will enjoy this format as much as I do, thus the reason I decided to share them.

And without further ado, I present…The Prequel Series

Episode 01 (29:54) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Phantom Menace: Invasion
Episode 02 (40:37) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Phantom Menace: Meeting Anakin
Episode 03 (29:53) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Phantom Menace: Anakin Goes to Coruscant
Episode 04 (34:26) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Phantom Menace: Return to Naboo
Episode 05 (35:18) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Attack of the Clones: Assassination Attempt
Episode 06 (30:00) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Attack of the Clones: Clones and Seperatists
Episode 07 (36:10) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Attack of the Clones: Rescue Mission
Episode 08 (21:27) FINISHED (Version 0.9) Attack of the Clones: The Clone Wars Begin
Episode 09 ( – : – ) On Hold Revenge of the Sith: Saving Palpatine
Episode 10 ( – : – ) On Hold Revenge of the Sith: Spying on the Chancellor
Episode 11 ( – : – ) On Hold Revenge of the Sith: Fateful Decisions
Episode 12 ( – : – ) On Hold Revenge of the Sith: Battle of Heroes Part 1
Episode 13 ( – : – ) On Hold Revenge of the Sith: Battle of Heroes Part 2

PM me if you wish to see these. Run times include the credits. Specific changes, credits, and thanks will be listed below. Let me know if you see any rough transitions, sync problems, or other significant issues. I’m leaving room for one more round of revisions prior to finalizing.

This project has currently been put on hold in favor my movie edits due to a lack of interest. Most of the innovative edits used in these episodic episodes, have been recycled for my movie edit. You can find that here:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prelude-to-War-TPM-AOTC-Combined-NOW-AVAILABLE-WP-1-1/id/95150

If demand is there, perhaps I may finish the Revenge of the Sith episodes, but that movie is enjoyable in its present form. My issues were primarily with TPM and AOTC and I have created content that finally allows me to enjoy those films. Thank you to the forums for encouraging me to try something different.

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Special thanks to:

EddieDean for inspiring me and encouraging me to do this, Hal9000 whose Prequel Edits have been my go to for years now, Bryantmh for his AI upscales of the deleted scenes, and KK650 whose color corrected theatrical cuts served as my starting point. Both the Title cards and credit music I found on Youtube. Title cards created by Valox, and music by Samual Kim.

Larger edits are listed below, but does necessarily include all the small trims and cuts:

Episode 1 - Phantom Menace: Invasion (Minimal Changes)

  • Jar Jar’s yell is gone when he dives into the water.
  • Ric Olei’s face is gone when he says the shield generator has been hit. His delivery/expression always irritated me.
  • The scene of Maul and Palps on the Coruscant balcony didn’t fit my episodic flow, but I didn’t want to leave it out entirely. This is now an end credit scene.

Episode 2 - Phantom Menace: Meeting Anakin (Substantial Changes)

  • The dinner table scene has been edited quite a bit. Most of the dialogue is awful and I didn’t like how Shmi was so against Anakin podracing, “I don’t want you to race, It’s awful. I die every time you do it.” and then suddenly “There is no other way, he was meant to help you.”
  • All references to Anakin building 3PO are gone. Now he is just an acquired droid that Anakin messes around with.
  • Blood test remains and Midichlorians remain for Canon purposes although the scene was trimmed a bit to remove reference to other jedi.
  • virgin birth is gone.
  • pod race is unchanged.

Episode 3 - Phantom Menace: Anakin Goes to Coruscant (Moderate Changes)

  • Incorporated 2 deleted scenes, Anakin fights Greedo and Goodbye to Jira.
  • Qui-Gon and Council edited to remove references to Virgin birth.

Episode 4 - Phantom Menace: Return to Naboo (Moderate Changes)

  • Gone is the Maul blood splatter when Obi-Wan slices him. Edited a few frames to speed up Obi-Wan’s leap over Maul. Small adjustment, big impact in my opinion.
  • Anakin in space battle, the usual cuts and some new cuts. Left in some of the common cuts, and cut out some other pilot commentary. Altered Anakin’s triumphant escape and “Woos!” from the exploding federation ship. Just one “Woo” now.
  • Cut the celebration

Episode 5 - Attack of the Clones: Assassination Attempt (MASSIVE changes)

I am REALLY proud of this edit. These edits are 10 years in the making back when I first started messing around with AOTC. I believe the biggest problem with AOTC, and the prequels in general, is that we MUST believe that Anakin and Padme are in love if SHE is the reason he falls to the darkside, but after we meet teenage Anakin for the first time, WE have trouble liking him because of bad dialogue and his introduction. There is no possible way to believe that Padme would fall in love with him.

Biggest Changes:

  • New Intro to Anakin, Jedi in action as opposed to being lectured by Obi-Wan on the couch
  • Only one assassination attempt on the landing platform. Gone is the poisonous space slugs and speeder chase through the sky which was too long with bad dialogue/development.
  • Deleted scenes added include Padme addresses the senate, Obi-Wan dart Analysis, and most of Anakin and Padme on Naboo.
  • New edit implies that Anakin and Padme have seen each other on various occasions and have been friends since Phantom Menace, leading us to believe that their romantic feelings developed over time instead of just in this one movie.
  • Almost every scene has been moved, removed, or altered to improve the dialogue, character development, and flow. Was able to get Anakin and Padme off Coruscant in less than 15 minutes.

If you are quite familiar with AOTC, many of these changes may be jarring on first viewing, but FOR ME, this works better than I could have imagined and I hope it works for all of you as well. Give it a 2nd or 3rd watch if the rearranged scenes take you out of it on the 1st viewing. Your mileage may vary…

Episode 6 - Attack of the Clones: Clones and Seperatists (Minimal Changes)

  • Primary edits and trims are during transitions as Obi-Wan scenes now flow one after the other, with no cutting away to Anakin and Padme.
  • Most creative edits in this episode revolve around Obi-wan’s message to Anakin on Tatooine and the Jedi Council on Coruscant. Anakin and Padme have been removed from this message. They will see a replay of the message with instructions from Mace in the next episode.
  • R2-D2 receives the above message and immediately transmits it to Coruscant.

Episode 7 - Attack of the Clones: Rescue Mission (Substantial changes)

  • Episode covers Padme and Anakin on Tatooine and Geonosis. Episode ends after Arena battle with Boba holding his father’s head.
  • Tatooine edits were done to lessen whiney Anakin. Gone is his rant about killing Tusken women and children, but kept Padme comforting him.
  • Mace Windu contacts and updates Anakin on the Obi-Wan situation. No Palps office included in this. We stay on Tatooine with Anakin and Padme’s perspective. Also eliminated Padme’s double magic button press which seems to work everything on the ship. The button is now only used to Track Obi-Wan’s ship.
  • Included Deleted scene with Anakin and Padme face to face with Dooku on Geonosis.
  • Geonosis droid factory and arena battle heavily edited to remove 3PO and R2. Also trimmed a LOT of shots to eliminate bad CGI and pacing issues. Rearranged a few of the battle sequences for what I believe to be a better flow.
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Oh hell yes! I’m really pleased to see this here! If you can share your links please, I’d love to watch these and feed back as you release them.

I’ll definitely be watching this from the perspective of the episode 1 and 2 content being ‘Clone Wars season zero’, to see how well that works.

Question: How are you cutting the end of ROTS? Would the Siege of Mandalore arc naturally interlace with it?

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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EddieDean said:

Question: How are you cutting the end of ROTS? Would the Siege of Mandalore arc naturally interlace with it?

I had not thought about that, but I most definitely will when I polish those episodes. Will be a challenge for sure as Episode 10, the 2nd episode of ROTS, was a struggle to get 25-30 minutes of footage even with the deleted scenes. I had forgotten how ROTS just dragged after rescuing the chancellor until we get to Palpatine revealing himself as the Sith Lord. I had to rearrange quite a bit to make the episode work with some actual substance. Here is my rough episode guide for ROTS.

Episode 9 - Ends with Padme comforting Anakin after the bad dream
Episode 10 - Starts with Yoda and Anakin working through his issues; Middle of episode Obi-Wan leaves for Utapau; Ends with Grevious’s death and Anakin at the Opera.
Episode 11 - Starts with Palpatine revealing himself to Anakin; Ends with Order 66

I like the idea of coordinating our efforts for a seamless watching experience. I may now even consider adding some of the Siege of Mandalore footage to the live action footage, specifically Order 66 stuff. Let’s chat more in PMs.

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Obi-Wan here, Obi-Wan there, and Obi-Wan everywhere. Now available, Episode 6 which is all Obi-Wan. PM for links.

Episode 7 will be posted this week. It is finished, but I have some transitions I need to clean up.

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I like your idea, but I don’t like all the changes you’ve made to TPM and AOTC (I’m ok with most of the films). So I don’t think I’m very interested. Anyway, I respect your work, because I realize it’s very challenging. Good job! 😊

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

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Episode 7 is finished and gets us up to the beginning of the Clone Wars. Episode ends with the Arena battle. I may skip the next episode which is essentially just the first battle of the clone wars, and jump straight to Revenge of the Sith. Will be traveling all next week, so no more updates until April.

I think episodes 1-7 really attempt to rework the worst parts of the prequels in my opinion, The final battle in AOTC and Revenge of the Sith don’t need much work to make them watchable for me personally. But will still edit them into the episode format to keep consistent with the rest of my preferred way to watch the prequels.

PM for links.

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Hi! Pm sent

I always get worried about disrupting continuity. I seem to get blamed for that a lot.
Dave Filoni

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May I have a link please?

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This sounds cool, could I have a link maybe?

#TROSFAN

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Links sent. Final Attack of the Clones episode is “finished” will be uploading this week.

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Well done jrs81, watch Episode 1 - Phantom Menace: Invasion so far and have to say the prequals lend themselves well to the episodic TV show format alot better then its original movie viewing. Might be worth doing what Anjohan did with his edit of TPM here by dubbing and subbing Gunray and kin with an alien voice then can change up the poor dialogue in the film via subs.

“We Are What They Grow Beyond” - Yoda


My Prefered Saga Viewing Preference:
Ep. III - Revenge of the Sith Special Edition (StankPac Edit) * Rogue One - A Star Wars Story (Hal 9000 Edit)
Ep. IV - A New Hope D+77 (OohTeeDee Edit) * Ep. V - Empire Strikes Back D+80 (OohTeeDee Edit)
Ep. VI - Return of The Jedi OTD83 (OohTeeDee Edit) * Ep. VII - The Force Awakens Restructured (Hal 9000 Edit)
Ep. VIII - The Last Jedi Legendary (Hal 9000 Edit) * Ep. IX - The Rise of Skywalker Ascendant (Hal 9000 Edit)

💡 Save confusion & express your comments with Markdown Emojis here 💡

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Episode 8, the final AOTC episode, has been completed and is now available.

This project has currently been put on hold in favor my movie edits due to a lack of interest. Most of the innovative edits used in these episodic episodes, have been recycled for my movie edit. You can find that here:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prelude-to-War-TPM-AOTC-Combined-NOW-AVAILABLE-WP-1-1/id/95150

If demand is there, perhaps I may finish the Revenge of the Sith episodes, but that movie is quite enjoyable in its present form. My issues were primarily with TPM and AOTC and I have now created content that finally allows me to enjoy those films. Thank you to the forums for encouraging me to try something different.