I know I already made a thread for my saga, but I decided each one of my prequel edits would be worthy of a thread.
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. The Prequels portray his younger self as whiny, and too talkative and explosive, and he turned because of a lie he should’ve seen right through. Tricked, rather then seduced.
My edits will change this. Light side Anakin will still be heroic, passionate and caring person. Dark side Anakin, however, will truly feel like a younger Vader, like Vader from the 2017 canon comics - understandably a bit more emotional, but still mostly cold and reserved like OT Vader.
We will never be able to create the perfect, Walter White-esqe turn we really should’ve gotten with what’s available. But this is the next best thing.
First, The Phantom Menace. While not as relevant when it comes to Anakin/Vader, there will still be changes that serve a purpose to his overall story.
Ideas from Hal9000’s Cloak of Deception labeled as such.
Changelist:
- New opening crawl that better hooks the audience. Dumbs down the jargon and specifically introduces the concept of The Force to first time audiences (since it isn’t done elsewhere in the entire trilogy).
- Cut Nute Gunray and Dofine finding out the ambassadors are Jedi and the scene of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan sipping tea. We cut straight from the Jedi’s arrival to Sidious’ introduction.
- Gunray consistently characterized as more confident (tho this is mostly a façade) to create a slightly more interesting dynamic between him and Rune. (Somewhat derived from Cloak of Deception)
- Trimmed unnecessary dialogue during throne room scene. (Cloak of Deception)
- Jar Jar throughout is portrayed as more of an everyman than a clown. (Cloak of Deception)
- (Some) underwater scenes moved to later, rest are cut.
- Cut Qui-Gon dismissing the battle droids as unimportant. (Cloak of Deception)
- Cut Qui-Gon having to repeat that he’s taking the people to Coruscant. (Cloak of Deception)
- Removed Jar Jar’s antics in the droid bay. (Cloak of Deception)
- Cut Neimoidians, “This is getting out of hand…”, “We should not have made this bargain”.
- Cut the where the Queen thanks R2-D2 and is told stuff we already know.
- Cut scene where Padme cleans up R2 and talks to Jar Jar.
- Cut Jar Jar stepping in poop. (Cloak of Deception)
- Watto’s subtitled conversations with Anakin in Huttese changed to make Watto more verbally abusive and alludes to off-screen mistreatment.
- Anakin throughout carefully characterized as more reserved. He doesn’t open up as easily.
- “I’m Padme” added to Anakin-Padme conversation because both other times Padme’s name is introduced were cut.
- Cut Padme, “You’re a funny little boy”.
- Drastically reduced Jar Jar’s antics in Watto’s shop. (Cloak of Deception)
- Removed Watto’s line that implies he was immune to the Jedi mind trick merely because of his species. (Cloak of Deception)
- Removed several instances of the line, “Yipee” throughout the film by various children. (Cloak of Deception)
- Trimmed Jar Jar and Anakin during the introduction scene for Sebulba. (Cloak of Deception)
- Anakin’s subtitled conversation with Sebulba changed to make Anakin more assertive and prideful.
- Trim introduction to C-3PO.
- Cut Shmi, “He knows nothing of greed”.
- Cut scene with Anakin and his friends and him turning on the podracer. Anakin has no friends. He has nobody except for his mother.
- Intentionally kept midichlorians (they’re not the Force itself, they’re the bridge between the Force and living beings; the Force is still entirely supernatural). Also the scene at night with Anakin and Qui-Gon is one of the best scenes in the film.
- Maul and Sidious on Coruscant and arriving on Tatooine moved to earlier. Adds more tension on the Tatooine scenes.
- Removed Jar Jar’s grin after Qui-Gon tosses the chance cube. (Cloak of Deception)
- Cut conversation about Anakin never having won a race. (Cloak of Deception)
- Trimmed introduction to the racers to focus on Sebulba and Anakin. (Cloak of Deception)
- Remove Jar Jar fart joke. (Cloak of Deception)
- Altered Sebulba and Anakin’s subtitled conversation to be less juvenile. (Cloak of Deception)
- Reinstated a deleted scene snippet where Sebulba attempts to flash Anakin with his vents. (Cloak of Deception)
- Reinstate deleted scene of Anakin beating up Rodian kid.
- Trimmed bad child acting during scene where Anakin discovers he has been freed. (Cloak of Deception)
- Added deleted probe droid scene to explain why Qui-Gon and Anakin are running to the ship. (Cloak of Deception)
- Lessened Jar Jar’s presence in the scene between Anakin and Padme en route to Coruscant. (Cloak of Deception)
- Removed Padme calling for Anakin on the landing platform. (Cloak of Deception)
- Mace Windu line changed to, “The Sith could’ve returned without us knowing” (removing the “I do not believe…” part).
- Removed Anakin’s unassured statement about hopefully starting his training. (Cloak of Deception)
- Removed scene where Obi-Wan apologizes to Qui-Gon and Jar Jar emerges from the swamp. (Cloak of Deception)
- Scene of our heroes evading underwater monsters moved to after the arrival back on Naboo. Serves as the protagonists searching for Otah Gunga as to recruit the Gungans to their battle. This makes the sequence feel more relevant to the plot, and therefore more tense and exciting.
- References to Jar Jar being banished removed.
- Trimmed meeting between the Naboo and Boss Nass, including Jar Jar’s hesitancy and cowering. (Cloak of Deception)
- Trimmed the battle planning scene, making Padme less verbose. (Cloak of Deception)
- Reduced Jar Jar’s antics throughout the battle. (Cloak of Deception)
- Anakin gets into a cockpit and leaps into action in order to help the Queen, and intentionally flies up into the space battle. (Cloak of Deception)
- Battle sequences restructured slightly to allow for Anakin to save the day rather than Padme. Originally, Anakin’s actions were redundant after Padme captured the Viceroy. (Cloak of Deception)
- Qui-Gon’s last words are trimmed to remove heavy-handed request for Obi-Wan to train Anakin, allowing Obi-Wan to “take it upon [him]self to train [Anakin] as a Jedi.” (Cloak of Deception)
- Trimmed Obi-Wan’s conversation with Yoda to imply that Obi-Wan wants to train Anakin himself, rather than to fulfill a promise to Qui-Gon. (Cloak of Deception)
Changes that add to Anakin being more like Vader: making Watto more verbally abusive to Anakin (implying way worse things have happened to him off-screen), his lack of friends, and beating up the Rodian kid. Emphasizes the powerlessness of his youth, which has manifested in aggression and need to assert himself over others (also shown in his conversations with Sebulba), and eventually, in the later two films, a lust for power.
Anakin’s lack of friends puts more emphasis on his connection with his mother and Qui-Gon.
Anakin is more reserved in this edit, thus making him more like you’d expect from a younger Vader. He’s naturally an introvert.
Intentionally cut Shmi saying, “He knows nothing of greed” to make him less innocent. Anakin’s entire reason for turning will be power, and the idea is that this lust for power begins here.
