fishmanlee said:
well, she WAS trying to hide it.
I wasn't talking about the rest of the movie where she was obviously trying to hide it. I was talking about the scene in question where she's on the hospital bed as in the image presented.
@MrInsaneA
Yeah, and like the chairs in the hangar bay control room.
http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/dscontrolroomback.jpg
That picture shows the chairs rather nicely.
@DF Shadow
Don't worry, I will most definitely be making her look more pregnant in that scene.
Y'know, I had an idea a while back on how to deal with Padme's fate.
When we go to Pollis Massa and talk to this dude,
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w56/STWRSChronicals/Droids/GH-7MedicalDroid.jpg
The robot's lines are re-dubbed, so that Padme has begun to feel the symptoms of a rare disease that will leave her dead within a matter of years. This does two things. Firstly, it explains why she's sick, as opposed to her being "really sad." Secondly, it allows Leia time to grow up with her, so the line where she remembers her mother is logical.
So here's how I see the dialogue taking place:
Med Droid: She appears to be experiencing the first symptoms of (insert disease name here.) Very rare, and untreatable. Given the progression of the disease, I'd say she has little more then a few more years left.
CUT TO Obi-Wan, Bail, and Yoda looking distraught.
Med Droid: Luckily, the disease will not transmit to the babies.
Bail: Babies?
Med Droid: The twins she's carrying. We'll have to operate quickly though, if they have any chance of surviving.
END SCENE
So the twins are born, and everything happens as it did in the original. Skip a few scenes to Bail's ship arriving on Allderaan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adxvS_vjOTo
Padme is still alive, albeit not for long. She cries and cradles Leia, knowing she'll never be able to watch her children grow up.
So what do you think? Tragic and clever, or contrived and stupid?
I would say contrived and clever ;)
But that's a simply genius idea nonetheless! I've always been a fan of motifs like this, actually. The hopeless fate/destiny kind of thing.
It only raises a few problems, though.
-Why would she go to Alderaan? There would need to be new dialogue added to explain why they choose Alderaan, especially if Bail isn't adopting Leia.
-I'm not a fan of the look of the shot that The Cutter used.
-Disease would seem random coming from nowhere. It would need to be hinted at earlier.
aalenfae said:
I would say contrived and clever ;)
But that's a simply genius idea nonetheless! I've always been a fan of motifs like this, actually. The hopeless fate/destiny kind of thing.
It only raises a few problems, though.-Why would she go to Alderaan? There would need to be new dialogue added to explain why they choose Alderaan, especially if Bail isn't adopting Leia.
-I'm not a fan of the look of the shot that The Cutter used.
-Disease would seem random coming from nowhere. It would need to be hinted at earlier.
1. Where else is she gonna go? Bail is willing to hide Leia, and he's a friend of Padmes. If Vader found out she was alive, it might lead him to the twins. Therefore, she hides with the Organas until her death.
2. What exactly aren't you a fan of? Can't you change it with your digital doohickeys?
3. Yeah, I agree. I have no ideas on how to do that though....
I think the idea has merit, and potential though. Give it some thought.
Yeah, I think it has a lot of potential. A near-flawless idea to preserve continuity AND make her death more believable.
1. Good point. It'd be nice to hear this in the dialogue. Maybe I can mess with Bail's lines a little bit (or find somebody who can do a good imitation)
2. I think it's just the costume design, and the pillow she's against. It just seems... out of place, I guess. Maybe too medieval. Some background replacement would do a great deal of good for it, but that costume is just a tad too frilly.
3. Perhaps her injuries at the hands of Anakin could have something to do with it. Might explain things a little.
Another thing to consider is Anakin's dream. He says she would die in childbirth. Granted, his dream doesn't need to be literal. As Yoda says, "Always in motion is the future." But I like the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe the dream could be altered to show a death somehow due to illness. Maybe this could set up the idea of Padme falling ill without coming out of nowhere at the end of the film. This could possibly involve changing Anakin's dialog when he informs Padme of the dream.
3. Perhaps her injuries at the hands of Anakin could have something to do with it. Might explain things a little.
Yes, that would be most desirable. Serious brain injury can result from a choking, as happened to this reporter who was strangled by a vet suffering PTSD. However, this wasn't a terminal illness. Perhaps the medical droid could say something along these lines:
Medical Droid: The strangulation appears to have cut off blood flow to the brain, damaging it permanently, and destroying the ability of the body to repair itself. Unfortunately, it is too risky to perform surgery. We estimate the odds of survival beyond one year to be 1:10. Given the odds, we recommend delivering the babies as soon as possible.
edit: Another idea is to have the brain injury destroy the regulation of the heart, weakening it day by day. This plays into the metaphorical "death of a broken heart" Lucas went after.
what about intercutting Vaders birth and have the droid say "its almost as though life is being Drained from her body" cut to scene of Vader taking in a rasping breath keeping himself alive... etc
Bingowings said: Do you want to see the project finished as a playable film or a flick book?
BarBar Jinkx said:
what about intercutting Vaders birth and have the droid say "its almost as though life is being Drained from her body" cut to scene of Vader taking in a rasping breath keeping himself alive... etc
Hmmm...but would it be intentional on Vader's part? Or not? This idea also has potential....
But Aalenfae...consider the other things Amidala has worn throughout these movies. I think she passed right by ridiculousness the moment she wore this thing.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk8r76UD5Y1qf9zb0o1_400.jpg
Also, the outfit seems rather Alderaan-ish to me. It's white, and it's as you said, rather frilly. For a chilly Switzerland-ish environment, it makes sense.
MrInsaneA said:
BarBar Jinkx said:
what about intercutting Vaders birth and have the droid say "its almost as though life is being Drained from her body" cut to scene of Vader taking in a rasping breath keeping himself alive... etc
Hmmm...but would it be intentional on Vader's part? Or not? This idea also has potential....
But Aalenfae...consider the other things Amidala has worn throughout these movies. I think she passed right by ridiculousness the moment she wore this thing.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk8r76UD5Y1qf9zb0o1_400.jpg
Also, the outfit seems rather Alderaan-ish to me. It's white, and it's as you said, rather frilly. For a chilly Switzerland-ish environment, it makes sense.
"she,....no longer has any meaning for me!"
Bingowings said: Do you want to see the project finished as a playable film or a flick book?
BarBar Jinkx said:
MrInsaneA said:
BarBar Jinkx said:
what about intercutting Vaders birth and have the droid say "its almost as though life is being Drained from her body" cut to scene of Vader taking in a rasping breath keeping himself alive... etc
Hmmm...but would it be intentional on Vader's part? Or not? This idea also has potential....
But Aalenfae...consider the other things Amidala has worn throughout these movies. I think she passed right by ridiculousness the moment she wore this thing.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk8r76UD5Y1qf9zb0o1_400.jpg
Also, the outfit seems rather Alderaan-ish to me. It's white, and it's as you said, rather frilly. For a chilly Switzerland-ish environment, it makes sense.
"she,....no longer has any meaning for me!"
Yeah, but would Anakin REALLY kill his wife intentionally like that? Would he even know how to?
I think it would be more tragic if he and her had some sort of implied bond through the Force. So the pain he was going through, SHE was going through. He was able to survive it, but she wasn't. It would indirectly make him responsible for her death.
But that would be hard to convey, and it would just be implied, never explicitly stated. Therefore, I think disease works better. But who knows.
The way I currently have it edited, I make her die from injuries inflicted by Anakin.
I think the best way to do it would be to think of a long-term condition that's brought about by Anakin's attacking her.
^Also, remember it's Star Wars, so science doesn't really need to make sense here.
Yeah, it could be some magical dark side disease.
Vladius said:
Yeah, it could be some magical dark side disease.
I know just what to call it.....
Midi-Chlorian's Disease.
It would be a nice jab at the whole "microscopic Force cells" B.S.
Over on the Radical Redux thread I toyed with the idea that Palpatine used some sort of parasitic Sith 'spell' or power up to save Vader at the expense of the one thing he loved most.
Upon reflection I think it's a bit silly and almost impossible to convey on screen without some sort of expositional dialogue.
Though I can't help but imagine with that brand of cruelty you can only get away with inflicting on fictional characters that Padme burning while Anakin partially regenerates would be visually interesting at least.
How's this?
Pardon the extreme slapdash nature of this mock-up. I didn't feel like spending forever on it.
I think this is great, and makes Padme's death more believable. I don't think she should have died immediately for several dramatic reasons within the film itself, not to mention the obvious Leia memory.
But to make sense of the rest of the film, Anakin's visions would have to be of her death by whatever other means, such as the idea of the disease or whatever. Though not my favorite story choice, Anakin's pursuit of dark power is motivated by his premonition that she would die.
I also wish there were some way to emphasize that Anakin did succeed in "keeping [someone] from dying." It'd be cool to show that his survival was entirely due to his use of the Dark Side, but even then he suffered a fate in many ways worse than death. This would emphasize the selfishness and futility of the Dark Side as well as its powerful capacity.
As far as we know (there are a quite a few fibs being kicked around with these films) originally the main motivation for Anakin's fall was a growing distrust and loss of faith in the Jedi (helped along by Palpatine of course) but the Padme dying dream angle was wiggled into view in later cuts and some of the scenes of Anakin becoming more of a satellite of the Chancellor were dropped in favour of pushing that angle forward.
The main thing is Anakin is afraid of losing Padme and when you look into the murky vapours of the future things like, the details of loss, become blurred.
It may serve Palpatine's future plans to have both of the Skywalker twins appear to the remaining Jedi to be safe and to keep them away from Vader.
Vader will not live forever and the children will eventually be his replacements and Palpatine's insurance policy against the ambitions of his apprentice.
He could just tell him Padme is dead, she is certainly lost to him and maybe his dream was of a future time.
We could also see the bridge between the two trilogies in a decades passing sequence.
This would explain why the Death Star is seen under construction (years have passed) and Padme's eventual funeral.
Her niece (seen only in a few deleted scenes) could be a toddler Leia.
I liked the idea of Leia seeing Padme as a ghost (as in Curse Of The Cat People).
For all we know that power may come from the observer rather than the observed.
If Leia has latent Force abilities she could see her mother as a ghost but lose the knack as she got older and just put it down to a dream or a silent imaginary friend.
I would do anything for the lost scenes that were filmed, but ultimately cut.
I've heard rumors that the first cut of RotS was something like 4 hours long. All that lost potential.
But I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting here.
If I understand, it sounds like a montage of passing years, which I'd normally agree too if it weren't Star Wars - where something like that is unprecedented. RotS already suffers from a style that's too far removed from the originals.
If I may make a suggestion; if the medical droids are re-dubbed could you not do something akin to Bingowings suggestion; have the medical droids say something like;
"As you are aware she is force sensitive, something or someone is slowly draining the force from her. Because of this she is very weak and needs to give birth as soon as possible. This draining effect means she won't heal from the injuries she has sustained; it is predicted she only has a few years to left to live."
I don't think we need all the exposition, especially if cut to Vader, I think the above is enough to make a connection between Anakin living and Padme dying. I would vote against Padme dying in the film given what Leia says in Jedi; could Organa's dialogue be slightly tweaked so he says "We will take Padme to Alderaan she'll be safe there" or whatever it is he exactly says?
"Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation." - Rabindranath Tagore
"Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth." - Kahlil Gibran
aalenfae said:
I would do anything for the lost scenes that were filmed, but ultimately cut.
I've heard rumors that the first cut of RotS was something like 4 hours long. All that lost potential.
But I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting here.
If I understand, it sounds like a montage of passing years, which I'd normally agree too if it weren't Star Wars - where something like that is unprecedented. RotS already suffers from a style that's too far removed from the originals.
The only way I can read the celebration scenes at the end of ROTJ:SE is in the form of a sequence of flash forwards.
Inter-stella communications may be instantaneous in the Star Wars universe but what is the news that is communicated?
The Emperor is dead, Vader is dead, a handful of Imperial ships were destroyed but that still leaves the bulk of the Imperial fleet intact and almost all of it's armed forces.
To show the 'Coruscant Spring' scene would require a leap forward in time and doing the same in a ROTS:SE would bookend that sequence.
So I have a contribution to the flash forward storytelling idea. Anakin's first Jedi massacre of course is at the Jedi Temple. Obi-wan learns the truth about him and goes to face him on Mustafar as he loses/becomes the version of Vader we all know and love. Ben thinks he's dead, they split up the kids, and so forth). But unknown to most, Vader survived, and then goes on his rampage killing Jedi. He could be shown as the one giving Order 66 in place of the Emperor. He could shoot down the Jedi Master in the starfighter and on the speeder bike. Some new footage would be necessary, but perhaps he could even be shown dueling some random Jedi. It would require decent costumes and makeup, but people make lightsaber duel videos all the time. Then in the end we'd see Vader and the Emperor on the bridge of a Star Destroyer overlooking the construction of the Death Star. This has the advantage of not appearing so abrupt an ending and therefore allowing for a better transition from democratic Republic to despotic Empire.
It might even be doable to have some of the Jedi purge stuff moved into a flash forward and add the costumed Vader into the scene so Vader is actually doing what Ben later says he does and what generations of Star Wars fans imagined.
That way killing off the other Jedi takes years (maybe even more than a decade) instead of days (or is it minutes?).
Exactly! I'd like that a lot better. I wouldn't mind seeing Padme living and going to Alderaan with all this. It seems fitting to me. It wouldn't have to be long or distract from the climax of the Mustafar duel too much. It would lead into the Death Star ending better, which shouldn't have taken 20 years to complete with the Empire's resources, regardless of strikes and holidays and whatever excuses certain persons make for it.
darth_ender said:
Exactly! I'd like that a lot better. I wouldn't mind seeing Padme living and going to Alderaan with all this. It seems fitting to me. It wouldn't have to be long or distract from the climax of the Mustafar duel too much. It would lead into the Death Star ending better, which shouldn't have taken 20 years to complete with the Empire's resources, regardless of strikes and holidays and whatever excuses certain persons make for it.
A little unorthodox though....I like the idea a LOT, but I'm worried it would detract from the final Mustafar duel. There needs to be a lot of emotion in that fight, which I feel would only come from Vader previously killing jedi.
Why not edit it so that Anakin's going around the galaxy killing jedi BEFORE the Mustafar duel? Like you said, make him the one to shoot down Plo Koon instead of some clone, add other scenes, stuff like that. It would imply a longer stretch of time, and would really rack up the anticipation for the final battle between Kenobi and Anakin.
