My overall goals for the Prequels are:

Make them better movies.
Make them feel like the true precursors to the original trilogy.
Make Anakin consistent with Darth Vader from the original trilogy, and his turn both more fitting for the original character and better on its own.

These edits will be called the Vader edition because while many Prequel edits succeed at improving them as films, not many go out of their way to make Anakin more consistent with Vader.

Darth Vader was a cold, reserved, bold, calculating, terrifying villain who owned every scene he was in. He loved the dark side, even making sadistic jokes about the people he killed. We were told that before he turned to the dark side, he was a great warrior, pilot, and friend to Obi-Wan. The Prequels portray his younger self as too whiny, open and explosive, and he turned because of a lie he should’ve seen right through. Tricked, rather then seduced. His friendship with Obi-Wan was an afterthought.
My edits will change this. Light side Anakin will still be heroic, passionate and caring person. His friendship with Obi-Wan will be emphasized to the best of my ability. Dark side Anakin, however, will feel more like a younger Vader, like Vader from the 2017 canon comics - understandably more emotional, but more cold and reserved like OT Vader.

We will never be able to create the perfect, Walter White-esque turn we really should’ve gotten with what’s available. But this is the next best thing.

Revenge of the Sith marks Anakin’s full embrace of his Vader persona. His personality is consistent with the previous edit, and further edits solidify Anakin’s turn in a more satisfying way then the original by emphasizing Anakin’s general lust for power, including a desire for immortality. Wanting to save Padme is only one of the multiple reasons Anakin turns.
If we’re comparing to Michael Corleone’s arc in The Godfather, the nightmare functions less like the assassination attempt on Vito and more like Apollonia’s death. The final straw rather then the spark.
Anakin does not lie to himself that the Jedi are trying to take over the Republic either. He knows what he’s doing is wrong and selfish, but he does it anyway, because he’s addicted to the dark side. He wants it.
Ideas from Hal9000’s Labyrinth of Evil, NFBisms’ New Canon Cut, and Bobson Dugnutt’s Expanded Edition are labeled as such.

Clips:
Draft of new Opera scene: https://youtu.be/A_h13JYRSBk
Draft of new pre-duel Mustafar scene: https://youtu.be/KV4CaKMZ8I8

Changelist:

Various minor trims of tiny flubs.
Added film grain and new color grade to make the film look more in tune with the OT (inspired by DominicCobb’s ROTS edit).
New opening crawl to fix misspellings and make it slightly more grim.
Intentionally kept lighthearted, heroic Anakin moments in the opening act. He’s still a likable hero, even if he has a dark side.
Anakin doesn’t need to be told by Obi-Wan to “Let them pass between us” or destroy the shields to Grievous’ ship. “He was the best star pilot in the galaxy”. (LOE)
Lovingly borrowed audio from L8wrtr’s edit in a few spots to remove battle droid voices. (LOE)
Cut Anakin sensing Count Dooku and Grievous saying Dooku predicted their appearance. Spoils his appearance, and overloads the audience with too much information at once. (LOE)
Cut everything from the original between General Grievous’ first appearance and the duel with Dooku. The hallway scene with the droidekas and battle droids in the elevator makes it unclear whether they want the Jedi as hostages or killed, and footage from the elevator sequence was needed for later use. The scene with R2 and the droids also incorporates the jet boosters that are an inconsistency with the OT.
An edited version of the deleted sequence of Anakin and Obi-Wan encountering Grievous as he kills Shaak-Ti and their escape takes their place. Grievous killing Shaak-Ti also does more to legitimize him as a threat (it can be inferred he won a duel with her, a Jedi Master, off-screen). Anakin and Obi-Wan’s coordinated hand signals shows familiarity and precise teamwork. Obi-Wan being proven wrong about Anakin’s plan to hold back the explosion shows Anakin’s growth; they’re equals, now. (EE)
Readded the deleted scene with Anakin speaking droid, edited to remove mention of Dooku.
A nice lighthearted scene Anakin and Obi-Wan. With the cutting of the elevator sequence, it feels right. (EE)
Cut Palpatine’s weird “Get!” after Obi-Wan cuts down the droids that came with Dooku. (LOE)
Cut away as the railing starts to land on Obi-Wan. The original made it look like his legs were crushed. (LOE)
Palpatine instructs Anakin to kill Count Dooku, and he immediately does it with no hesitation. “Mercy doesn’t defeat the enemy”. Anakin taking vengeance makes him feel powerful. (LOE)
Trimmed Palpatine’s justification of Anakin’s actions, with the exception of citing revenge as “natural” and bringing up the sand people. Anakin’s remorse is only seen through his facial expressions.
Used Hal9000’s brilliantly reedited version of Anakin and Obi-Wan getting captured in the elevator shaft instead of by “ray shields” (which retroactively create some pretty big world-building issues). (LOE)
Grievous refers to Anakin as “General Skywalker”. (NCC)
Grievous and Anakin insulting each other’s age and height is still kept. Despite meeting earlier in the movie, this exchange can easily be interpreted as them just being snarky.
Hal9000’s reedited version of “Try not to upset him” joke for better payoff. (LOE)
Grievous quips, “Time to abandon ship” as he breaks the hull and escapes. His line in the escape pod is replaced with one from The Clone Wars series, “Goodbye Jedi!”. (LOE)
Replaced Jar Jar’s one line with Organa referring to him as “General Skywalker”. (NCC)
Political subplot with Anakin, Palpatine, and the Council is moved to before the nightmare. This emphasizes Anakin’s conflict with the Council and political allegiance to Palpatine before his conflict about Padme’s impending death. After Anakin and Padme reunite is the deleted scene, “Plot to Destroy the Jedi”. We see the Jedi are well aware of the Chancellor’s growing power and that Obi-Wan is in on the Council’s plans. (LOE)
Restored “Adjustments to the Constitution” deleted scene in Palpatine’s office. Anakin says that he agrees with Palpatine’s authoritarian politics as well as his sentiment that the Jedi are holding him back because they know he is powerful and see him as a threat. He may know these are wrong, deep down, but he won’t admit it. He wants to buy Palpatine’s cons.
Anakin’s appointment to the Council changed. His outburst is trimmed to his initial “What?”, cold looks of scorn, and “How can you be on the council…” (LOE)
Borrowed audio work from MalàStrana to incorporate an eerie rendition of the Imperial March as Windu denies Anakin the rank of Master. (LOE)
Rearranged shots so that Anakin sees Obi-Wan shake his head at him for his pride. (LOE)
Reinserted the three deleted scenes that make up political subplot with Padme to give her more agency, emphasize the political conflict between her and Anakin. The first takes place between Anakin’s appointment to the Council and Obi-Wan telling him to spy on Palpatine. (LOE)
Trim Mace Windu, “I don’t think the boy can handle it”.
Grievous arriving at Utapau moved to after Anakin and Padme’s political discussion. Works as a payoff to the mystery of his location and allows for a change in pace. (LOE)
After Palpatine tells Grievous, “Soon, I will have a new apprentice…”, we transition to the opera scene. By placing this scene before the nightmare, it establishes that Anakin is intrigued by the power to cheat death before his vision of Padme’s death. Anakin craves the power of immortality for himself. New Palpatine’s lines from a voice actor have been incorporated to change his monologue to be about cheating death rather then keeping loved ones from dying, though he does say that Plagueis could stop both himself and his apprentice from dying.
- This change was inspired by Anakin’s line in ROTJ when he accepts that nothing can stop his death after Luke initially refuses to take his mask off. Now, Anakin/Vader has an entire arc throughout the saga about accepting his own mortality. This ties in with the almost undead nature of Darth Vader in the original trilogy.
- I find it odd that Anakin, a person familiar with the fact that the Sith are pure evil and care about nobody but themselves, buys this story that a Sith Lord had loved ones. He literally said they think only about themselves a minute ago. The story being about Plagueis using the power on himself and his apprentice is far more believable. Also, the dude might be desperate, but you don’t notice how awfully convenient and on-the-nose this is? A day after you have a vision of your wife dying, a dude suddenly tells you the Sith could save people? Come on, man. Vader in the OT was perceptive.
Intentionally kept Palpatine reducing the Council told Anakin to spy on him. I like the idea that Palpatine is essentially the only person that Anakin finds relief in. It emphasizes how much of a psychological grip he has on him.
Remove Chewbacca from all Kashyyyk scenes. (LOE)
Second Rebellion scene between Battle of Kashyyyk and Anakin and Obi-Wan saying goodbye.
Intentionally kept Anakin’s apology and goodbye to Obi-Wan. Anakin is still a good person at this point. He’s self-aware of his flaws and is still capable of making the right choice.
Cut Obi-Wan telling him he’s “trained him since he was a small boy”, as if he’s not an independent knight now. (LOE)
After Obi-Wan leaves Coruscant is the final scene in the Rebellion subplot. This scene reinforces that Anakin wants Palpatine to be the Emperor of the galaxy. (LOE)
After Obi-Wan arrives at Utapau is a modified Anakin-Padme apartment scene. Anakin does not admit that he feels lost, that the Jedi “don’t trust” him, etc. However, despite Anakin’s humble apology to Obi-Wan, he still craves power (“I want more”).
The scene ends with Padme saying, “You expect too much of yourself” and Anakin responding “Is that bad?”. (NCC)
Afterwards is Anakin’s nightmare of Padme’s death, the straw that breaks the camel’s back. He doesn’t tell Padme about it.
Removed the first half of Grievous’ line, “It is a volcanic planet. You will be safe there.” Volcanic equals safe? (LOE)
Centered the extreme close-up of Obi-Wan as he says, “Oh I don’t think so”. This always bugged me.
Removed the now redundant war room scene about the plot to destroy the Jedi. (LOE)
Palpatine revealing himself to Anakin changed significantly. Palpatine doesn’t know of Anakin’s nightmare of Padme’s death. He pitches the dark side as the key to the power to cheat death, and that together they can learn the secret. Palpatine states that he knows of Anakin’s desire for the power of immortality just as much as he does, and he also promises that if he becomes his apprentice, he will be second in-command of his Empire, that they will rule the galaxy together forever.
- It makes far more sense for Anakin to believe Palpatine here. Palpatine isn’t even actually lying to him, here. Anakin knows that the Sith’s ultimate goal is immortality, and that the dark side is the only path to it, as the light side is all about respecting the natural course of life. Palpatine craves the power of immortality as much as he does, and Anakin has great reason to believe Palpatine would actually make this offer to him, even for purely selfish reasons. Palpatine wants an all-powerful immortal being to enforce his empire. Originally, Anakin has no reason to believe Palpatine would actually have any investment in saving Padme and isn’t just lying. If anything, he’d want her to be out of the picture.
- This also gives Palpatine a more solid plan. In the original version, it’s absolute happenstance that Anakin had the nightmare about Padme when it’s convenient for Palpatine. But here, Palpatine is preying on a desire Anakin has had and he has known about for years. The execution of Dooku and telling of the legend of Plagueis was what he needed to know it was finally time to pitch it to him.
Anakin catches onto Palpatine being a Sith quicker. (LOE)
Anakin does not want to kill Palpatine. He only ignites his lightsaber because he knows what the right thing to do is, which conflicts with his selfish desires.
Palpatine trying to manipulate Anakin into thinking the Jedi are taking over are also gone, and he doesn’t mention the Jedi as much. Palpatine gave up on that idea in the opera scene, and he now outright states his intentions to rule as Emperor with Anakin as his enforcer. He is strictly seducing Anakin with the promise of power. This removes any idea that Anakin is even lying to himself that the Jedi are evil; Darth Vader knows that he’s a power-hungry bastard, but screw it, he wants it. Just as in the OT.
Added music from the soundtrack to the General Grievous chase.
Removed Palpatine’s voiceover as Anakin waits in the Council room, talking about Padme again. (LOE)
Cut Anakin’s, “What have I done?”. (LOE)
Other then Palpatine mentioning Plagueis’ ability to cheat death, saving Padme isn’t referenced during the knighting of Vader scene. Saving Padme’s life is the spark that ignites a myriad of other factors for Anakin’s turn toward evil, most prominently his desire for immortality. (Labyrinth of Evil)
Dialogue cut in Palpatine’s office to remove them feigning belief of a Jedi plot, that they’ll kill the Senate, referring to them as “relentless”, etc. Vader and Sidious are on the same page: they know they’re power-hungry monsters, they don’t need to speak in propaganda. Palpatine refers to the Jedi as a threat to “our new Empire”, not to the Republic.
Trimmed excess Kashyyyk battle fat during the Order 66 sequence. (LOE)
Anakin does not kill the younglings on-screen. (Labyrinth of Evil)
Cut Yoda saying goodbye to the Wookiees. (LOE)
Anakin does tell Padme propaganda, but this makes sense. He’s lying to her. That’s it.
Padme doesn’t hear about a youngling slaughter, nor bring it up to Anakin. (LOE)
Palpatine does not give Vader propaganda about bringing peace and justice to the galaxy.
Anakin and Padme’s conversation on Mustafar edited and rearranged to emphasis the clash between love and power. We reinforce that Anakin’s turn into Darth Vader is brought about by his lust for power, not love. Even the desire to save Padme is possessive. (LOE)
No discussion about Anakin trying to save Padme; she never knew about Anakin’s fears about that. Anakin doesn’t seem focused on it himself anymore. (LOE)
Remove Anakin deflecting anything on Obi-Wan, or trying to justify his actions by saying “his new Empire” has brought “peace, freedom, justice, and security”. Vader isn’t making excuses for his actions. As he says himself in the Canon Vader comics, he knows he’s a monster (this canonically takes place days after ROTS, by the way).
Cut Padme’s, “You’re breaking my heart!”.
Move Anakin’s, “Don’t make me kill you”, back to the shot of his back turned after Obi-Wan states his allegiance to the Republic, replacing the really cheesy, “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.”
Cut Anakin and Obi-Wan, “From my point of view the Jedi are evil" conversation for the same reason I removed all of Anakin’s deflections. The only words exchanged are, “I have failed you Anakin…” and “This is the end for you my Master.”
Qui-Gon’s voice (from The Clone Wars) added to Yoda’s meditating scene. (LOE)
Padme dies because of Vader’s force choke. No “losing the will to live”.
Thanks to Snooker and Sir Ridley, removed R2 and 3PO from the birth of the twins. Eases continuity issues regarding R2 knowing Yoda. (LOE)
De-softened Darth Vader asking about Padme. He asks about her whereabouts in a very cold manner. He sees her as a possession, as he does in the Canon Vader comics, and his children in the OT.
Vader’s “Nooooo!” replaced with a haunting, echoed angry scream.
Imperial March added to the credits.

Changes that make Anakin more like Vader: Anakin’s personality is once again more like Vader’s. You get it by now.
Moving the political plot with Palpatine and the Jedi Council fighting for Anakin’s allegiance and Anakin’s tension with the Jedi Council earlier, feeling like he’s not being afforded enough respect or power, allows the nightmare to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Attachment is part of a greater whole.
The Jedi hurting his ego by not giving him a rank he doesn’t deserve reinforces to Anakin that “there are things about the Force they’re not telling me”. This is, of course, not true, but his ego prevents him from admitting the truth.
Vader boasts about the power of the dark side so much in the OT because he loves feeling invincible. He doesn’t feel like he’s being held back like he felt like he was by the Jedi. Even just having power for power’s sake is appealing to him.
Anakin also wants the power of immortality for himself, emphasizing that his turn is more about himself then Padme. Even him trying to save Padme isn’t about selfless love, it’s about not wanting to go through the pain of losing her, to keep her as if she’s a possession, at whatever cost.
Every edit ultimately emphasizes the truth of Vader: his cold, dominant persona is a mask for his soft inside that was powerless, scared, and in pain, and he spends the rest of his life until his redemption feeding his ego by boasting his power through being the Empire’s enforcer.