All right, having thought about it a bit more, here’s what I imagine for the ‘alternate’ set of edits as companions to my main edits.
Original film titles, same crawls otherwise as main edits (ideally, if possible)
Not sure whether to reinstate midichlorians! Current canon projects have seemed to dodge explicit mention of them, and even if one needed them for its story they would be probably be introduced there just fine
TPM:
Reinstate the trip underwater to Otah Gungah and a few scenes that come with it which were only removed due to depending on it
Reinstate Anakin being stated to be too old to be trained
AOTC:
- Reinstate Yoda with a lightsaber
ROTS:
Existing alternate stuff about having Padme die would be part of this
Reinstate youngling murder scene and a few references to it
Reinstate Yoda vs Sidious and the explicit plan of Yoda and Obi-Wan to assassinate the two Sith (using the AI ‘Your mother once thought as you do’ line in ROTJ will help here)
In order to avoid having THREE versions of Episode III on offer (current/main version, alternate version, alternate stuff described above but Padme still lives on Alderaan), I could simply reinstate the youngling stuff into the main version as an update and have the fully alternate version in which Padme dies and Yoda fights Sidious.
Or, we could really just legitimately offer three cuts of Episode III to fit with anyone’s taste on these points:
- Padme lives, Yoda does not fight Sidious
- Padme dies, Yoda fights Sidious
- Padme lives, Yoda fights Sidious
All three would feature youngling murder, for the reason that a major canon project closely tied to the Skywalker Saga (The Kenobi show) makes central use of this story point.
Thoughts? Outrage?
What are your thoughts on reinstating Padme helping start the Rebellion into ROTS? I know her scenes can be pacing killers but I think adding back the deleted scenes help sew the seeds of the plot lines that are expanded on in Andor and also makes her feel less like a fridged woman and more like her proactive Clone Wars counterpart.