The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Special Editions. New fan edits with a different approach — Page 2

aGreatHumanBeing said:

Wow! I’ve never seen the deleted scenes look this good. They have always stuck out like a sore thumb because of the low(er) quality, but here they look flawless. Never seen the bedroom scene before and now I wonder why no one else include it.

Now all that is missing is fixing the annoying laugh of the children.

Thank originaltrilogy.com forum member Phase3 who upscaled the deleted scenes!

Also, thank you to everyone for the feedback on the audio flashback. I was hesitant to do a full video flashback because as others have pointed out, it’s not really a Star Wars convention, but I may try adding two: one before Anakin’s conversation with Obi-Wan about his dreams “Will I ever see you again? What does your heart tell you?”, and another to replace the current voice only flashback in the bedroom deleted scene “Are you all right? It’s very cold.”

I don’t think the other deleted scene where Anakin is having a nightmare on the transport is really salvageable, but I’ll take another look at it.

The one thing I’m really missing in the Padme’s bedroom deleted scene is a good close-up reaction shot of Anakin in that moment, but I’ll try to make it work.

I’ll upload a test clip, hopefully sometime this week.

The prequels have a precedence for a brief audio flashback. When Palpatine mentions what Anakin did to the sand people there’s a brief echo of their yell.

The sequels especially relied on a lot of audio flashbacks and visions. So personally I feel that any “special edition” or modernization of the prequels should feel free to adapt what techniques modern Star Wars movies have been using.

Octorox said:

Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.

I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.

That’s fair; I think the intent back then was probably more to portray the Tuskens as wild animals more than intelligent beings, but I won’t argue if it still reads weird regardless.
Ultimately though, the specific scene isn’t as important as the wider point I was trying to make, which is that for even the most seemingly-inarguable thing you’re gonna have differing perspectives. That’s why I’m hoping for an AotC fanedit that wouldn’t be trying to alter the text of the film at all. I feel we have enough fanedits trying to, effectively, rewrite the prequels by trimming or cutting scenes. Effectively, I want a version of “what would AotC look like if Lucasfilm had gotten an extra couple months to do another editing pass”. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever really attempted that.

All I really want out of an AotC edit is one that portrays the film’s contents as they already are, but adjusts the pacing and exposition, so that it isn’t expecting the viewer to juggle tons of info for multiple plotlines throughout the entire 2hr+ runtime lol. Again, that’s something I really like Caleb Gamman’s edit for, it really streamlined the experience; I just disliked when it started cutting things that fell into subjectivity, or diluted the George Lucas-y personality of the action scenes. He uploaded a few short videos on YT detailing his editing process, which I recommend also giving a look for sure!

So my understanding of Octo’s edit here is to create a version of this movie to reflect what Lucasfilm ended up doing in canon up to this modern date. So things like Sifo Dias remain because that ended up being used in the Clone Wars.

But then you have something like Anakin confessing to Padme that he killed women and children, and that’s just like… never brought up ever again by her. Even when it would have been really relevant, like Obi-Wan telling Padme that Anakin has killed younglings.

Instead, she legitimately acts like that’s such an unthinkable thing for him to have done based on everything she knows about him. Even when she confronts him about it it’s: “I don’t know you anymore” and not “Love blinded me to who you really are”.

DWN-016 said:

Octorox said:

Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.

I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.

That’s fair; I think the intent back then was probably more to portray the Tuskens as wild animals more than intelligent beings, but I won’t argue if it still reads weird regardless.
Ultimately though, the specific scene isn’t as important as the wider point I was trying to make, which is that for even the most seemingly-inarguable thing you’re gonna have differing perspectives. That’s why I’m hoping for an AotC fanedit that wouldn’t be trying to alter the text of the film at all. I feel we have enough fanedits trying to, effectively, rewrite the prequels by trimming or cutting scenes. Effectively, I want a version of “what would AotC look like if Lucasfilm had gotten an extra couple months to do another editing pass”. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever really attempted that.

All I really want out of an AotC edit is one that portrays the film’s contents as they already are, but adjusts the pacing and exposition, so that it isn’t expecting the viewer to juggle tons of info for multiple plotlines throughout the entire 2hr+ runtime lol. Again, that’s something I really like Caleb Gamman’s edit for, it really streamlined the experience; I just disliked when it started cutting things that fell into subjectivity, or diluted the George Lucas-y personality of the action scenes. He uploaded a few short videos on YT detailing his editing process, which I recommend also giving a look for sure!

I get what your saying, but I think there will always be some amount of subjectivity to a fan edit. We can apply certain principles to our decision making, but they will always be filtered through how we interpret those principles. In this case, I feel like the way Anakin emphasizes killing “not just the men, but the women and children too” is clearly intended to communicate that he’s crossed a line, and Padme’s reaction feels less like an intentional choice by the filmmakers, and more that the hadn’t considered her interiority as a character outside of how she supports Anakin’s story. You might disagree and that’s also a subjective interpretation. Ultimately, the official cut is George Lucas’s cut. I don’t really get a sense that he was rushed or didn’t get to fully execute on his ideas. This fan edit attempts to preserve more of the spirit of George Lucas than most, but it’s still ultimately filtered through my feelings on how to best communicate the narrative he was trying to tell. It’s okay if ends up not being for you, but I appreciate your feedback.

And to add to what Jar Jar Bricks said: Yes, consistency with current canon is also a goal of this edit, and everything we know about Padme from other sources (and even other parts of this film) kind of conflicts with her reaction here. Notably, I’m not actually changing the intent or outcome of the scene, just softening it a bit so her reaction feels a bit less out of character. If I really wanted to change things, I’d copy the Hal9000 approach of cutting the scene entirely, but I do think it has value for Anakin’s character development.

This sounds like a great project, seems like a perfect balance for someone like me who’s sick of rewatching the originals, and is happy with current fan edits but would love to show them to my kids so they have an entry point for getting into the bigger Star Wars landscape, flips and all

And agreed on the deleted scenes, they look gorgeous now

Takuat said:

This sounds like a great project, seems like a perfect balance for someone like me who’s sick of rewatching the originals, and is happy with current fan edits but would love to show them to my kids so they have an entry point for getting into the bigger Star Wars landscape, flips and all

And agreed on the deleted scenes, they look gorgeous now

Thanks, I do plan to return to this at some point when I have the time.

Octorox said:

DWN-016 said:

Octorox said:

Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.

I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.

That’s fair; I think the intent back then was probably more to portray the Tuskens as wild animals more than intelligent beings, but I won’t argue if it still reads weird regardless.
Ultimately though, the specific scene isn’t as important as the wider point I was trying to make, which is that for even the most seemingly-inarguable thing you’re gonna have differing perspectives. That’s why I’m hoping for an AotC fanedit that wouldn’t be trying to alter the text of the film at all. I feel we have enough fanedits trying to, effectively, rewrite the prequels by trimming or cutting scenes. Effectively, I want a version of “what would AotC look like if Lucasfilm had gotten an extra couple months to do another editing pass”. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever really attempted that.

All I really want out of an AotC edit is one that portrays the film’s contents as they already are, but adjusts the pacing and exposition, so that it isn’t expecting the viewer to juggle tons of info for multiple plotlines throughout the entire 2hr+ runtime lol. Again, that’s something I really like Caleb Gamman’s edit for, it really streamlined the experience; I just disliked when it started cutting things that fell into subjectivity, or diluted the George Lucas-y personality of the action scenes. He uploaded a few short videos on YT detailing his editing process, which I recommend also giving a look for sure!

I get what your saying, but I think there will always be some amount of subjectivity to a fan edit. We can apply certain principles to our decision making, but they will always be filtered through how we interpret those principles. In this case, I feel like the way Anakin emphasizes killing “not just the men, but the women and children too” is clearly intended to communicate that he’s crossed a line, and Padme’s reaction feels less like an intentional choice by the filmmakers, and more that the hadn’t considered her interiority as a character outside of how she supports Anakin’s story. You might disagree and that’s also a subjective interpretation. Ultimately, the official cut is George Lucas’s cut. I don’t really get a sense that he was rushed or didn’t get to fully execute on his ideas. This fan edit attempts to preserve more of the spirit of George Lucas than most, but it’s still ultimately filtered through my feelings on how to best communicate the narrative he was trying to tell. It’s okay if ends up not being for you, but I appreciate your feedback.

And to add to what Jar Jar Bricks said: Yes, consistency with current canon is also a goal of this edit, and everything we know about Padme from other sources (and even other parts of this film) kind of conflicts with her reaction here. Notably, I’m not actually changing the intent or outcome of the scene, just softening it a bit so her reaction feels a bit less out of character. If I really wanted to change things, I’d copy the Hal9000 approach of cutting the scene entirely, but I do think it has value for Anakin’s character development.

I think there might actually be a way to keep the scene without having to explain why Padmé doesn’t react more strongly or seem frightened by Anakin’s behavior: replacing Padmé with Palpatine.

if you could use AI to create a convincing hologram of Palpatine, you could rework the scene so that Anakin contacts him and, when Palpatine’s hologram appears, Anakin starts delivering the lines we already know: “Life is simpler when you can fix things. I’m good at fixing things, always was,” and so on.

In their current form, the Prequels make it seem almost like all the grooming happened in Revenge of the Sith. But we know that’s not the case. We know Palpatine started manipulating and grooming Anakin when he was a child. And Attack of the Clones has always needed precisely that: a few more moments of Palpatine grooming Anakin and encouraging his darker tendencies. Replacing Padmé with Palpatine would give the movie exactly what it needs. It would also tie directly into what Palpatine says to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith: “Do you remember what you told me about your mother and the sand people?”

The only problem is that you’d obviously need some pretty convincing AI work to pull this off.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ahpO36vht0

Someone made what you are requesting regarding Anakin unloading his feelings to Palatine instead of Padme. It is a bit clunky, but it does work better from a narrative standpoint.

I watched the scenes posted on YT they looked amazing, stocked for the completed edit cant wait XD