Okie Doke. Here’s a link to my opening of RotJ up to the point where Luke walks in through Jabba’s front door: //drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EleIyLvBBrk-D8zN9zy23NJhEeg6FMcs?usp=sharing
Interesting resequencing.
I chopped the entire Obi-Wan scene, there’s just too much reiteration and nothing really new said…except who the other Skywalker is.
I did some selective cutting when Luke and Leia are talking on Endor to stay in step with this.
Now, just like in TESB where Vader reveals his paternity to Luke, it’s Vader and the Force sleuthing out that Luke has a sister during their duel, he threatens to turn Luke’s sister and that puts him over the edge.
Leia now announces to the audience the brother/sister thing as the she and the Force open up to one another and she connects the dots.
I cut Leia’s reveal out of RotS, so that Ben scene is now the reveal, like it was originally. For the bit where Vader finds out about Leia. . . Hear me out. . . The ideal spot for that is actually during the scene where Luke turns himself in to Vader, specifically the shot where Vader silently stares off into space holding Luke’s lightsaber after Luke has just been put in the AT-AT. If you cut that scene like Vader is talking to himself as he turns away, “So you have a twin sister, your feelings have now betrayed her too.”, it plays exactly like the scene in IV where Vader senses Ben’s presence on the Death Star. The reason I think that works is that Luke just said goodbye to Leia (so she’s obviously on his mind), and Ghost Ben had warned Luke to be careful of his feelings about his sister, because they might betray him. The twin (pun intended) benefit of moving up Vader’s knowledge of Leia is that you can now recut the Throne Room Duel as a single extended sequence with no breaks (Bespin Style), brought on by the Emperor murdering Luke’s buddies with the Death Star laser, and Darth Vader’s final line to Luke, “Tell your sister, you were right.” hits with WAY more punch, because it means Vader was thinking about Leia this whole time, and Luke is just now finding out that his dad knew about his sister.