C3PX said:
The whole "secret" of Sidious' identity was more of a nudge wink sort of thing. The guy never intended for the PT to have any surprises. Lucas obviously never considered the possibility that not every body in the world who was going to see TPM had already seen the OT. If he had approached the PT without the idea that everybody knows what is going to happen anyway, then no doubt it would have been a lot better.
The whole "secret" of Sidious' identity was more of a nudge wink sort of thing. The guy never intended for the PT to have any surprises. Lucas obviously never considered the possibility that not every body in the world who was going to see TPM had already seen the OT. If he had approached the PT without the idea that everybody knows what is going to happen anyway, then no doubt it would have been a lot better.
How so? Even if there were people going to see it that hadn't yet seen the originals, there's still things he couldn't really do. He couldn't put Yoda or Obi-Wan in any real danger. Anakin, at some point, had to become Darth Vader. About the only surprise I think he could have pulled would be to either have Padme survive or have her die at Vader's hand. Either one of those would have been preferable to the crapfest we got. But aside from that, I don't think he could've really done a whole lot.
I actually think it would've been a lot better if he had used more material from the OT while making the PT, especially ROTS. At least then they'd have an accurate Tantive IV and they probably wouldn't have had to do pick up shoots to show Obi-Wan retrieving Vader's lightsaber (seriously, HOW did they miss that).