It’s the most liberal change I make to the prequels, true. Probably the one more than any other that threatens its viability as being a somewhat conservative replacement for the original version. However, while it’s liberal in that sense, it’s out of a conservative pull toward faithfulness to the way the original trilogy described the events. Padme dying in childbirth is probably the single most direct contradiction between the two trilogies. Editing Ep3 to have Padme live involved creativity and license in order to craft something compelling enough to justify seeming to cop out of the movie’s emotional climax. Thus, the whole edit is informed by this change. As one disappointed reviewer put it, I bent over backwards trying to justify that one change.
My prequel edits assume that the viewer is sitting in the theater on release day, familiar with the films that have come before. Going into Episode III, barring spoilers, one would not have expected Padme to die, but rather to go to Alderaan with Leia. When doing these edits, I have to work under the assumption that the audience has not already seen the original source material. This will not be the case, but it’s the conceit of doing any alternate cut of anything. As to the look and feel of the footage itself, from The Other Boleyn Girl, I admit it’s less than perfect. However, thanks to Hundsdorfex, it looks better in V4 than V3.
Here’s a fresh test clip has been rendered and uploaded, so you can have as realistic a look as possible at what it will look like in the final version. https://youtu.be/N5UmTwj6Y18