About Anakin dying in the lava waterfall, I think this is a good solution continuity-wise, and removes a lot of awkward moments later in the duel. But because of a few drawbacks, it just doesn't work for me:
- emotional impact: without any discussion between Anakin and Obi-Wan, the scene feels a little empty. Anakin is the main character of the PT (like it or not), and we deserve a little emotional payoff for his supposed death. Losing him over the falls feels abrupt.
- that pesky lightsaber: yes, this bothers me. Since a big deal is made out of the scene in ANH where Luke gets his father's saber, we should at least see how Obi Wan gets it. At least the immolation scene gives us that.
For my imaginary own edit of ROTS, here's what I would do:
The duel goes pretty much as normal (editing out the outrageous parts, of course, like GoodMusician did) until Anakin catches on fire. Obi Wan looks away as Anakin burns. He then turns around and picks up Anakin's saber. He then ignites the saber (hello rotoscoping) and looks like he will take a step toward Anakin, as if to finish him off. Just then, the sound of the Emperor's shuttle is heard, as its shadow flies across the ground. Obi Wan then turns off the saber and walks off. We then see the trailer shot of Padme's ship flying toward the camera, and this is followed by a shot (hello Adywan
) of the ship going into hyperspace. Then Obi Wan talks to Padme, and walks toward the cockpit. The scene where the emperor comes to get Anakin can go here. Then we cut back to the ship, where Obi Wan sits in the cockpit with 3PO, with a rotoscoped hyperspace field in the window.