Hey Spence, I finished viewing your edit today and am very very pleased with the result. 😃 Overall the pacing was just enormously better, the movie felt more dynamic and action packed. For me it was just the right amount and mixture of faster scences and a little breathing room in between. Definitely my go to viewing experience for now, if I want to see the story of Obi-Wan again! Great work!

The highlights:

Your work on the first duel of Vader and Obi-Wan did wonders! No more awkwardly standing around and running away – just a scary chasing situation. It felt much better introducing Vader with the over voice and Obi-Wan frantically looking back and forth. Also the ending of the fight felt a lot more tightly knit, with Tala only firing once, blowing everything up and rescuing Obi-Wan directly, without having this awkward lying around in arm’s length distance to Vader (at least it felt like that for me in the series).
The worst offenders of the Empire acting too slow or outright dumb are gone. This includes the above mentioned rescue of Obi-Wan from Mapuzo, but even more so the fortress infiltration from Obi-Wan and Tala. Just cutting the scene how Tala somehow convinced the imperial guard to let her in, did wonders on that regard. Now it can just be assumed that she somehow cleverly got entrance and not that some imperial just wasn’t that good at his job. I’m still no fan of Obi-Wan hiding Leia under his trenchcoat, but without having to see the Empire fail a few more times before that, it didn’t feel as bad as in the series.
Not showing Anakin’s face until the final battle felt great! The bacta scene was a nice little build up, but not having Anakin show up once and again gave the broken helmet scene more oomph in my opinion. In the series they probably felt like they have to give the fans something on the way to the finale, but within a 2 hour movie it felt alright to only reveal Anakin’s face once.
In the same vein I felt that Reva’s character arc improved massively from not showing the youngling scenes as early as in the series. Her ‚twist‘ really felt underwhelming in the series, since it was so obvious from the beginning, that she was one of the shown younglings – you fixed it quite elegantly. I didn’t mind her final scenes with Luke on Tatooine in the series, but I never felt like they were needed in your edit to complete Reva’s arc.
Somehow: the soundtrack! I know you said there were only a few additions throughout your edit, but maybe it needed only those few additional music pieces that elevated my feeling for the soundtrack altogether. Or it was the much improved pacing and cutting of the more unremarkable scenes – with maybe more unremarkable music – that made me feel like: wow, this movie has a great soundtrack! After being disappointed with the soundtrack in the series, your edit gave me a whole new listening perspective!
Last but not least everything was pulled off totally flawless from a technical standpoint. Not once did it feel like a fanedit to me – really great work there!

The things I stumbled upon:

Since you cutted the rooftop chase sequence and the bounty on Obi-Wan on Daiyu, it felt a little sudden and unexplained, that Haja knew Obi-Wan’s name and that he was a Jedi. I understand that having Haja seeing Obi-Wan using the force in rescuing Leia would be too much, since it would basically mean to reinstate the whole rooftop sequence. But maybe Reva’s overvoice of the bounty scene could be used to make it more clearer, that Haja learned about Obi-Wan from the news? She says: ‘I want every low life and criminal on the planet to know Kenobi is here.’ Since Haja is said low life or criminal, it would seem like a perfectly fine explanation to me.
When Obi-Wan and Leia ride with Freck, it felt a little off when Leia accused Obi-Wan of keeping secrets ‘the whole time I’ve known you’. Because we don’t see the conversation with the stormtroopers before, it’s not clear where she’s coming from and also ‘the whole time’ feels not very long at that point, due to the tighter pacing of the movie. I wouldn’t necessarily vote for reinstating the stormtrooper sequence, since it paints the empire as kind of dumb again, but something felt missing for me in the build up of the ‘are you my father’ talk.
The one time the movie did feel a little bit rushed for me was the transition from Vader’s last ‘Obi-Wan’ scream after their duel to the happy family gathering on Alderaan. For me it would have needed just a few more seconds to linger on after the duel, to give it a little more breathing room.
Cutting the whole Reva/Luke sequence on Tatooine felt great in terms of pacing and her story arc. But without this sequence the conversation between Obi-Wan and Owen felt a little bit out of context. Obi-Wan makes the point, that Owen and Beru can obviously take care of Luke, but for me this felt like a reference to them defending Luke against Reva. You could make a point, that after his experience with Leia, it might make sense for Obi-Wan to come to the conclusion, that Luke and Leia are really best hidden in their new families and him wanting to train Luke would contradict that. Still, it felt weird after this whole kidnapping story, that without further proof he would just trust Owen and Beru more now. And for Owen it felt equally weird, that he offers Obi-Wan to meet Luke. The last time we saw him was at the beginning of the movie, for him nothing really changed. Maybe he has a moment of appreciation, that Obi-Wan trusts him now (although that trust is not really earned on screen), but I don’t know. Wouldn’t he want to wait, if Obi-Wan really stays true to his words? Maybe it’s just in my head and for other it makes total sensee, that those two have a moment of appreciation for each other. I just stumbled upon it when watching.

If there’s ever a version 2 I would be happy to watch it again, but even now it’s just a fun ride overall watching your edit. Thanks for the hard work, much appreciated! 😃