Monroville said:
guitarfan01 said:

end of 128 INT. CORUSCANT-CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE-EARLY EVENING

*MACE WINDU is defenestrated by Palpy's lightning*

ANAKIN sits down heavily, in shock at the turn of events he has precipitated.

PALPATINE: You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the dark side of the Force.

ANAKIN: I will do whatever you ask. Just help me save Padme's life.

ANAKIN kneels before Palpatine.

PALPATINE: Good, good.

And that is where the problem begins: to have Windu killed right in front of you and then the guy who you protected essentially turns around and says, "Yup, he was right; I AM the bad guy" and then Anakin goes "Okay!"... well, that is about the most WTF moment I can think of.

I like someone else's idea of Anakin charging at Palps and having it cut away as Palps fires his lightning; the idea being that you could essentially "kill" Anakin right there and from that point on show Darth Vader (in costume or just darken/alter Anakin's face for the rest of the movie) or add a scene or two of Anakin being "conditioned" by Palps (with or without said Kaiber Crystal that was used to torture him per my earlier suggestion) - this would make Anakin even more tragic in that he never really fell to the DSOF so much as was brainwashed into it.

- something else I just thought of too: when Luke is getting zapped by Palps, regardless of Ady or anyone putting audio or video "flashbacks" when Vader is looking on, to have the corollary to Anakin being zapped when Windu is killed (which led to his torture, confession and conversion), it would make the torture of Han in EMPIRE as well as his inflection on seeing Palps do to his son the beginning of the same process of what was done to him would add to Vader's character ie. that Vader understands the power of torture in that it was mental and force-powered torture that converted him to the point of being a willing believer and thus when doing it to Han or Leia - be it ANH or EMPIRE- he almost relishes it. Yet when it happens to Luke, with the added implication of what is to come AFTERWARDS (for the Prequel edits, maybe take scenes from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and replace Malcolm McD with Hayden) and THAT is why Vader kills Palpatine.

Then again, Palps was intending to just straight-up kill Luke, but you get the idea. Maybe a corollary could be made between the Windu scene and Luke - have Windu not thrown out the window quite as suddenly but have him tortured a bit before being sent to his death, with Anakin watching helplessly (maybe being paralyzed with a lightning blast before Windu gets it, so while Ani is sitting upright, paralyzed but conscious, he has to watch what happens).

Oh, right. I meant to chop that "dark side" line. Whoops.

The whole thing with Palpy here is that he's trying to portray the Sith as basically an alternate religion of the force, focussing on the use of the Force as a power source instead of as a guide or way of life. He's claiming that he gathers power through the Sith teachings in order to make things better. That's what I tried to convey through that edit of the scene. Obviously, I kind of failed.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:
guitarfan01 said:
ben_danger said:
omg, david lynch turned down rotj??? i dont blame him, but it could have been SO much better!!

i have been thinking of an ESB style dream sequences. i love how the original clone wars series showed a dream of anakin and qui gon at the tree, and especially thought that anakins prophetic dream was really well delivered.

in regards to the alternative timing for the jedi purge as suggested by guitarfan, i have two ideas (one more radical than the other)

1 (less radical)

we build up mace windus character as a bit of a paranoid ass. he is constantly putting down anakin and palpatine, his suspicions have turned this once great master to a a bit of a loose cannon. during ROTS, he builds up suspicions that palpatine is the dark lord, an idea that is too dreadful or extreme to even be considered by the council.

at the crunch point of the film, mace decides to take matters into his own hands "i sence a plot to destroy the jedi", "if the chancellor does not relinquish his powers then he should be removed from office." mace does this (from a certain point of view) he (possibly alone) confronts the chancellor, declaring his intention to save democracy and the jedi order, palpatine coldly replies "you're too late".

we now cut to a montage of the jedi being slaughtered as windu and palpatine battle. it makes the jedi's battle seem futile and tragic, that even if windu is victorious in slaying palpatine, hehas still failed to stop the massacre. anakin rushes in and saves the chancellor from the obviously delusional jedi.

this idea would fit in well if we try and direct it more from anakins point of view. mace obviously isnt a paranoid ass, but if we force the viewer to only see 60% of the real story, then he may appear to be, so we are betrayed into thinking the obvious bad guy is the good guy.

2 (more radical)

obi wan defeats grevious, ending the clone war. a message is sent to the jedi to return to coruscant to celebrate the event. the streets of the capital are flooded with people chanting palpatines name. anakin looks happy with padme, and it feels like the film is going to end with this wonderful feeling of victory (like the end of TPM, but bigger and less gay).

anakin goes to visit palpatine, who is surrounded by senators, who are waiting for him to go the senate hall for the resigning ceremony. the senators leave. at this point palpatine reveals to anakin that he is the sith lord.

the film continues as usual or alternatively the 'less radical' paranoid mace windu can be intertwined with this.

enstead of the jedi being killed in the field of battle, they are enstead massacred in the temple, hundreds of thousands of troops charge, overwhelming them completley. yoda and obi wan are the only two who escape, who then follow through to their respective battles. anakin believes palpatine's lies etc.

i would like to see this idea, as it would be a complete emotional flip. as we near 2/3 into the film, we think we are about to get to a happy ending, for everything to go horribly wrong in the final act. it would be great for the celebration to be in daylight to contrast the burning jedi temple in the evening.

let me know if you even read all of this.;) idea 2 needs a bit more work.

has anyone ever wanted to see an edit of ROTS where there is a happy ending? my GF hates watching it because it upsets her too much.:P

WOW WOW WOW! That is head and shoulders above what I was working on! I love those ideas, especially Mace Windu being a paranoid, and intercutting the Mace/Palpatine duel with the Great Jedi Purge. I also love the idea of a false "happy ending" just before the rug is pulled out from under the first time viewer. The trick would be to build up Grievous into the major villian of the movie so that the viewer would believe that killing him would end the film, and to push the whole "sith lord" thing into the back of the viewers' minds. Perhaps a complete lack of Sidious in the entire PT except for a holographic conversation with Nute Gunray in the first movie? What appears to be a throwaway character turns out to be the orchestrator of everything? I'm not sure.

I myself was basing my ideas more on what others (esp JasonN and GoodMusician) have done in their edits. As I said before, I always thought that Anakin's sudden wild swing into the depths of the Dark Side was rather unbelievable.

OK, how is this for a radical idea: instead of killing off Dooku at the beginning thus having to have general grievous be the new leader of the droid army...why not switch it all up? At the beginning of the movie have grievous be some other villian for some other purpose (maybe he information...maybe he knows where Palpatine/Dooku is...?), Obiwan kills him, Obi and Anakin meet up, space battle, find Palps, kill Dooku, END WAR. From AOTC we already associate Dooku with being in control of the droid army. Remember what Obi said to Anakin in AOTC: "If we catch him we could end this war right now!". With this structure, it's easier for the audience to follow...Why did Lucas add grievous to ROTS?

I by no means haven't figured out the specifics so I don't know if it will work...but that makes more sense IMHO.

I LOVE IT! I really really love it! Start out with Kenobi fighting Grievous, make that the opening battle sequence, then go to the intrigue scenes on Coruscant with the senators and Anakin being (less of) a whiny b*astard about not being granted Mastership, etc, then the Separatist fleet jumps into Coruscant orbit and grabs Palpatine while Kenobi and Skywalker are off somewhere else. Then Palpatine announces the end of the war, doesn't abdicate the emergency powers, and Mace & co. go to try to arrest him, and things proceed from there. The more intrigue we can include from the deleted scenes, the better, I think. The question is how to get good continutity and throughlines for each character. What is Yoda doing? Is he on Kashyyyk at the beginning? On Coruscant? (I think Kashyyyk at the time of the Chancellor's "abduction" at least) Why isn't he taken through Order 66? (would be awesome if he had been there to lead the defense of the Jedi Temple and had been responsible for saving a group of students or something. There's really not enough noble self-sacrifice in ROTS) How does Yoda end up on the Tantive IV? Does he?

brash_stryker said:
Bingowings said:
I wish there was a way to show the Palpatine transformation in a more subtle way (he has almost two decades of evil to turn into the pale prune face we see inROTJ).

It would be more acceptable to me if the lightning accident doesn't happen at all but he slowing becomes consumed by the dark forces he is using.

Totally agree. This is just another example of George's "explain EVERYTHING" attitude with the prequels. I personally like the idea of a first time viewer reaching Empire, and thinking "wow, the dark side really has done a number on him"

Completely agreed here, too.