I just rewatched the Prequels as a part of my annual Star Wars marathon, so they’re now fresh in my mind. I’m making changes to my plans for my edits (and what I’ve done so far), taking into account my latest experience watching the films. TPM is especially gonna change dramatically (I liked it the least of the 3), but I’m still figuring out how (so it hasn’t changed much).
I’ve updated the changelist, but I’ll summarize the most important things here.
Anakin having a vision of himself burning on Mustafar isn’t happening anymore. I was trying to add an element of Vader craving immortality, but all it does is make it seem like he’s turning to the dark side out of basic self-preservation, which makes Vader too much of a victim, the opposite of my intent. Instead, I plan on adding this element through AI dialogue, mostly through Anakin’s scenes with Palpatine, as well as smart editing, emphasizing “the power to cheat death” over “saving Padme”. How exactly I will do it and what the exact dialogue will be, I don’t know. But it’s too important that I’m willing to resort to AI to accomplish it. The symmetry with his death in ROTJ is just too good of an idea. I’m also gonna use AI dialogue to have Palpatine outright promise him second in-command of his new Empire, thus further highlighting Anakin’s general lust for power.
I’m gonna attempt to keep Anakin’s scene with Yoda about his dream while keeping the Anakin/Palpatine/Council political subplot before the dream by moving Yoda going to Kashyyyk to later in the movie. It’s just such an impactful scene. It could mess up the pacing badly, but it’s worth an attempt.
I really appreciated the tight pacing around Anakin on rewatch, and am considering only keeping the third of the three Padme political scenes, or maybe just cutting the second one (it really doesn’t add anything). I think the third scene stands fine on it’s own, and if additional info is needed, the first is enough. Not final though, so I haven’t added it to the changelist.
Other then that, besides a couple minor things, the changelist remains mostly the same.