TheoOdo said:

I love all the radical ideas in this thread.

The best and most viable, in my opinion, is to include Coruscant (or Had Abbadon or Granicus or whatever other "Imperial home-world" name you want to go with) in Return of the Jedi somehow.

In fact, I think it'd be pretty neat to be able to bill a new edit as including all the features which were eventually removed from the final film - Imperial home-world, Han's death, Leia becoming ruler of her people, Luke metaphorically walking off into the sunset, Wookiees instead of Ewoks etc.

For now, let's stick with Coruscant. Personally, I'd like to see it not under Rebel control just yet. I think the point of it would be to ratchet up the tension further by bringing our heroes into the belly of the beast, the center of Imperial activity and government.

I've done a few very basic mock-ups to show what I mean. If the opening crawl introduces the planet as the Imperial capital, I think seeing the Imperials "at home", not out on the frontier, would help make the stakes seem a lot higher and give a greater sense of tension than the re-introduction of the Death Star.

Incidentally, the blue moon in front of Coruscant could easily be renamed "Endor".

Wow. Is that smaller planet Endor?

What if you combined the Endor matte from the top image with Coruscant from the middle? Then put the DS2 on the right side?

You could even re-edit the dialogue with Vader and Jerjjerrod. They would now be talking on a Coruscant interior landing platform in the Imperial Palace.

Jerjjerky: I assure you lord Vader the station will be operational as planned and the moon cleared for settlement.

Take the emperor arrival footage and make that Vader's arrival instead. He's returning to Coruscant. Then you cut to Vader visiting Palpious in his throne room in a tower high above the palace.

gobalicious, I really like that crawl. Very effective.