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Guardian of the Force (an Obi-Wan movie edit)

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This is my first Star Wars edit for a long time. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve watched several different Obi-Wan movie edits and have found lots of great things in them all… but none of them 100% hit the mark for me.

The main issue IMO was they still felt “TV-ish”, episodic in structure. Specifically the A-plot being:

Leia is kidnapped
Obi-Wan goes on an adventure and rescues her
Obi-Wan and Vader have a fight
Leia is kidnapped again
Obi-Wan goes on an adventure and rescues her again
Obi-Wan and Vader have a fight again

This makes no sense as a movie structure, and surely this would never have happened if they’d made it into a movie in the first place. The whole thing feels padded out to make it into six episodes. If it had been a movie then I think Leia would have been kidnapped, then Obi-Wan would have rescued her and then the fight with Vader would have come as the 3rd act climax.

So I changed a load of things around to make it into that movie. I completely cut the first fight with Vader and I cut Leia getting kidnapped a second time and taken to the underwater base. That whole section I felt dragged anyway, so it was nice to ditch it entirely.

My initial idea was to use the Spence V3 edit as a basis for my own version which I would just keep and not share with anyone. I thought his was the best of the edits I’ve seen.

But I think it’s turned out better than I was expecting so I thought I might want to share it, maybe some of you would like it as well. I have asked Spence for his permission to share this edit, and he has kindly consented.

I’ve also borrowed and outright stolen ideas and whole chunks from the other 3 edits I’ve seen recently. Those edits are by:

Kai Patterson
FaMe
Pentex Productions

I’ve always viewed fan editing as a collaborative endeavour. We build on what others have done in the hopes that others will build on what we have done. So I wish to thank all four editors for their excellent work, and I’d advise you all to check out their edits, which are pretty easy to find online.

If you want to view a copy please be aware that the version I’ll share is HEVC/X265 codec. Please make sure you can view MP4 files with this codec. I won’t be doing an AVC/X264 version.

It’s a pretty small file, around 4gb, I may upload a larger one to MySpleen eventually.

PM me if you want a copy - or better yet, if you have access, get it from MySpleen where it’ll be uploaded in the next few hours - but please don’t reply to this thread and fill it up with requests.

Thanks,
Dan.

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Just checked this out, very cool. I think it flows nicely at the shorter runtime.

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Just checked this out, very cool. I think it flows nicely at the shorter runtime.

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Glad that you liked it. 😃 Being able to cut the underwater base scenes/the second Leia rescue plot really helps the pacing of the movie IMO.

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Could I get a link please? Maybe that could be my favorite Kenobi Edit 🙂

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daneditor said:

Glad that you liked it. 😃 Being able to cut the underwater base scenes/the second Leia rescue plot really helps the pacing of the movie IMO.

Found you Dan, 😁
The removal of the problematic inquisitor base antics was the main appeal for me and edited in a cleaver way keeping the story going plus the no second Leia rescue plot is a bonus. By piecing the best bits from the now many Kenobi fanedit movies this is my go to for watching Kenobi now 😃👍.

“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)

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Having never seen the show or its other edits before, I just watched this and liked it a lot!

I had only read bad things about the show, but if that’s the case then you did a great job with the source material. It feels like a movie and the pace is just right. Proficiently put together as well.

I did think the audio was a bit muffled, specially at the beginning, and the image is quite soft (I watched the ~7GB upscaled file).

Other than some nitpicking, my main gripes with the cut itself would be:

  • The musical score is VERY lacking. Not completely throughout, but in most dramatic and tenseful moments it screams “generic youtube channel epic trailer music”. I wonder how much work would be to rescore the cut with some varied SW music, it’d certainly improve it;
  • The Grand Inquisitor, what a cringe worthy fellow. Looks like a Power Rangers crossover or something. Couldn’t he remain dead for the rest of the film? Or is he vital to some continuity? I hope not;
  • Some videogamey moments that I think the cut would be better off without (Vader suiting-up, Vader force-pulling the ship);
  • The final showdown between Vader and Obi-Wan could be even more streamlined, perhaps? Specifically when Vader buries Obi-Wan and later when Obi force-push rocks at Vader, also look very videogamey and could be cut from the fight with it being resumed seamlessly - with the only downside of Vader being inexplicably weakened to the point of defeat.

What do you think?

Thanks again for sharing and the work you put into it.

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theprion said:

Having never seen the show or its other edits before, I just watched this and liked it a lot!

I had only read bad things about the show, but if that’s the case then you did a great job with the source material. It feels like a movie and the pace is just right. Proficiently put together as well.

I did think the audio was a bit muffled, specially at the beginning, and the image is quite soft (I watched the ~7GB upscaled file).

Other than some nitpicking, my main gripes with the cut itself would be:

  • The musical score is VERY lacking. Not completely throughout, but in most dramatic and tenseful moments it screams “generic youtube channel epic trailer music”. I wonder how much work would be to rescore the cut with some varied SW music, it’d certainly improve it;

Thanks again for sharing and the work you put into it.

Integration of SW music has rally shown as making the series better.

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 (Edited)

theprion said:

Having never seen the show or its other edits before, I just watched this and liked it a lot!

I had only read bad things about the show, but if that’s the case then you did a great job with the source material. It feels like a movie and the pace is just right. Proficiently put together as well.

I did think the audio was a bit muffled, specially at the beginning, and the image is quite soft (I watched the ~7GB upscaled file).

Other than some nitpicking, my main gripes with the cut itself would be:

  • The musical score is VERY lacking. Not completely throughout, but in most dramatic and tenseful moments it screams “generic youtube channel epic trailer music”. I wonder how much work would be to rescore the cut with some varied SW music, it’d certainly improve it;
  • The Grand Inquisitor, what a cringe worthy fellow. Looks like a Power Rangers crossover or something. Couldn’t he remain dead for the rest of the film? Or is he vital to some continuity? I hope not;
  • Some videogamey moments that I think the cut would be better off without (Vader suiting-up, Vader force-pulling the ship);
  • The final showdown between Vader and Obi-Wan could be even more streamlined, perhaps? Specifically when Vader buries Obi-Wan and later when Obi force-push rocks at Vader, also look very videogamey and could be cut from the fight with it being resumed seamlessly - with the only downside of Vader being inexplicably weakened to the point of defeat.

What do you think?

Thanks again for sharing and the work you put into it.

Thanks for the review, I appreciate it. And I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Rescoring Star Wars movies is a nightmare. I tried rescoring TPM a long time ago and it basically meant redoing most of the sound effects in those scenes. It also tends to result in the new score having to be too loud - I’ve heard this in other edits as well, because you have to drown out the remnants of the original score. So it’s just not worth doing in most cases. But I agree that the score is pretty mediocre, like it has been for other recent Disney Star Wars stuff.

If you think the Grand Inquisitor is bad here you definitely don’t want to watch the full series. I cut nearly all of his and Reva’s scenes. If he remained dead then Reva would have no arc at all, as presumably it would mean cutting the scene where she and Vader fight. I’ve cut it back to the bone as is, but without that final scene I don’t think it makes sense to even have Reva in the movie. And without her in the movie the plot falls apart… because who kidnapped Leia and who planted the tracking etc.

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 (Edited)

daneditor said:
Rescoring tends to result in the new score having to be too loud - I’ve heard this in other edits as well, because you have to drown out the remnants of the original score. So it’s just not worth doing in most cases. But I agree that the score is pretty mediocre, like it has been for other recent Disney Star Wars stuff.

Agree

daneditor said:
If you think the Grand Inquisitor is bad here you definitely don’t want to watch the full series.

Very true 😂
show

daneditor said:
I cut nearly all of his and Reva’s scenes. If he remained dead then Reva would have no arc at all, as presumably it would mean cutting the scene where she and Vader fight.

Your’ve got the right amount of screentime for the characters down to tell the story but it might benefit to remove that scene of the grand Inquisitor lying lifeless on the ground after Reva uses her saber on him as it just confuses things more later when hes back alive.

“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)

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OT member Phase3 had a wonderful suggestion for altering the final duel in the Kenobi series so that we don’t end on Obi-Wan’s baffling choice to let Vader live. The basic idea is to move the burying obi-wan in rocks to the very end of the duel so that after Kenobi walks away from Vader with a sliced helmet, he screams out “Obi-Wan” then cracks the ground with the force, proceeding to bury Obi-Wan, walk away from the fight the victor. Then Obi-Wan climbs out and the fight is over.

If we can make this work, I think it would make the duel even more amazing than it already is (I quite enjoyed the fight outside of the nonsensical ending where Obi-Wan lets Vader live).

I created a mock-up of this idea. The changes so far:

-Reversing the flow of Kenobi retreating so it links smoothly to the later part of the duel.
-Flip shot of ground breaking for visual continuity.
-Removed Vader’s line “And that is why you will always lose” as he breaks the ground, rough sfx replaced (can be polished later)
-Cropped out vader of wide shot of ground breaking for visual continuity.
-Removed vader’s line “Did you really think you could defeat me?” after he buries him.
-Rearranged shots of Vader walking away for better flow

The one key change remaining to tie this whole idea together is somehow changing the final shots of the rock burying so that Vader’s helmet is still sliced in half. I don’t know who would have the special effects skills to do this but perhaps a community effort would achieve this.

Mock-up of the rearranged duel: https://streamable.com/myzuo3

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