Hal 9000 said:
The other thing is to attempt to reinstate Anakin's line, "I will do whatever you ask," as Palpatine has him kneel. This may not be technically possible, and for all I know I may have tried to do just this in the first place. If it's possible, I think it'd be helpful to allow Anakin some transition between, "What have I done?" to, "Yeah, let's be evil." It would demonstrate resignation to his loyalty to Palpatine at the cost of all else, which in turn requires him to obey his orders. It's a subtle step removed from immediately joining the dark side.
Hi Hal 9000,
First off let me say that I absolutely love your edits. They have become my official prequel trilogy.
If I may make a suggestion for the scene you reference in the above quote... I think perhaps less is more, here. Have you ever considered trimming down Anakin's dialogue even more? I believe he says so much with his expressions alone in this scene. I think the scene is actually harmed a bit by Anakin's forced dialogue. I have always wondered how it would look if Anakin was mostly silent during this scene. Bowing down, clearly conflicted, but submitting with his body language. Then at the end, a simple "Yes, my Master"... I would love to hear your thoughts.
Edit: you know what, I watched the scene again, and it actually contained less dialogue than I remember. I guess I just hated the line "I pledge myself to your teachings"... it just seemed so forced. But it seems like taking it out would ruin the flow of the scene. So you can probably disregard what I said here.
However, to answer your question, I think you should leave it as is. I think adding more dialogue would weaken the impact. "I will do whatever you ask" is unecessary dialogue if you ask me. I think it is already obvious to the viewer that Anakin will do whatever Sidious wants at that point.
Also, a total sidenote here: Would you ever consider releasing a version that re-instates the original titles of the films? I think you have very cool titles in your edits, but it bugs the hell out of my OCD.. Especially when I am trying to forget that I am watching a fan edit and pretend this is the real story. Hope you understand my request comes from a place of respect... I think your edits are FAR superior to the original films and for that reason I would like to convince my brain that they ARE the real thing. I understand if it is not worth the effort to re-encode and all that jazz.
Thanks again for the great viewing experience!