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Episode VI: Return of the Jedi — The 'Ziggy' Edit (Released) — Page 2

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Last time Ziggy was online was in August so...

If anyone has a link to his edit please share, by that I mean say you have it and I'll PM you and I'm sure others who are waiting would do the same and also appreciate it, thank you.

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SkywalkerFan01 said:

Last time Ziggy was online was in August so...

If anyone has a link to his edit please share, by that I mean say you have it and I'll PM you and I'm sure others who are waiting would do the same and also appreciate it, thank you.

 i second that. please PM me if you have a link to this edit, as i've also been waiting on a link for this for a while.

in the meantime, feel free to check out my ROTJ edit (shameless plug) and provide feedback. I executed some similar ideas:

https://vimeo.com/129015352

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I'll take a link also......

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 (Edited)

Same here please 😃 . I really like these ideas and would like to see how they were implemented.

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I’d like to take a look as well if someone has a link.

It would be too bad if he put all this work into it and doesn’t get a chance to finish it. But maybe others can use some of his ideas.

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I’m back!

Yes, here we are one month before the release of Episode VII, and I wanted to get this project done before the movie comes out. So allow me to give to you my final list of changes for my fanedit of Return of the Jedi:

  1. Removed 20th Century Fox logo, and replaced with new Lucasfilm opening. If you’ve had a chance to view the newly released digital Star Wars collection, the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare has been removed from all Star Wars films with the exception of A New Hope. I’ve replaced the intro with the updated version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FNiyvy31ew)
  2. New title crawl. Borrowing extensively from the Spence Edit here. I really liked the idea of Luke already being on Dagobah at the beginning of the film to complete his training, so I’ve updated that information in the crawl. I’ve also indicated that Lando, Chewie, and Leia have travelled to Tatooine to rescue Han. Finally mention in there that a new Death Star is under construction.
  3. Moved Luke’s return to Degobah to the 2nd scene in the film. One of my gripes with ROTJ is how long it takes to reconnect with Luke. Following the initial scene with Vader and Jerjerrod (“The Emperor is coming here?” / “That is correct commander…”), now instead of a wipe to C-3PO and R2-D2 — it wipes to a shot of Degobah, and we pick up with Luke and Yoda in his hut.
  4. Added Yoda’s deleted line, “Obi-Wan would have told you long ago, had I let him.” I first learned about this line with the release of the long-lost Laserdisc footage that was recently recovered (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz56q4t6fek). It answers the question as to why Obi-Wan seemingly lied to Luke in A New Hope, and it gets rid of the stupid stuff about “from a certain point of view.” Speaking of which…
  5. Removed Obi-Wan’s line, “…from a certain point of view.” Man, I hate that line. I hate that whole conversation. It’s just a poorly thought out excuse to cover up why Obi-Wan lied to Luke, so now it’s gone. I keep the rest of the scene though, including “Anakin was a good friend,” etc.
    Removed the line, “Leia… Leia’s my sister!” Didn’t like this either. Wanted it to be a little more of a mystery (especially now that I’ve moved this scene so early into the film). Now the scene ends with Obi-Wan saying, “That is the reason why your sister remains safety anonymous.”
  6. Added brief scene of Luke leaving Dagobah and flying to Tatooine. I pulled a few of the shots of Luke’s X-Wing flying off of the planet from The Empire Strikes Back, flipped them so they look new, and have him take off. During the scene, I included a line from the end of the ESB “Radio Dramatization.” (https://youtu.be/qJo7sapYB0c?t=22m14s) (Note: This is really great resource for Star Wars fan edits— half of the original cast does the voice work, including Mark Hamill.) Anyway, Luke calls from his X-Wing, “Skywalker to Millennium Falcon…” Lando responds over the comlink saying, “We’ll see you on Tatooine, Luke.” I think the line is a good addition, and helps guide the transition from Luke leaving Degobah and flying to Tatooine.
  7. The deleted scene of Luke building his new lightsaber has been added(https://youtu.be/y1qyXxLIXLw?t=1m25s). I like this scene, but wasn’t entirely sold on it until I was able to add it with the “leaving Degobah” scene I described above. It actually now flows very nicely and I really like having it in there. I cut out Vader trying to communicate with Luke because it didn’t flow well from the previous scene. That said, I really which it was higher quality, because it doesn’t look that great with all the film grain and scratches. I wish I knew how to restore film, because it could definitely use it.
  8. Restored the original Jabba’s Palace door. The new front door in the Blu-ray version just looked ridiculously huge, so I restored the shot of the original.
  9. Several brief cuts between C-3PO and Jabba. Removed a few unnecessary lines to keep up the pace. Removed a line or two between the droid and Bib Fortuna. There’s a lot that happens in the Jabba sequence, so I don’t want it to at any point become “boring.” (Which, in my opinion, the original was.)
  10. Adjusted the droid “torture” scene. To be honest, I never have understood why people have such a problem with the scene, but whatever. I’ve made some adjustments to the scene, but I keep it in place to progress the story as to the reason why C-3PO becomes a translator, etc. I remove the “No, no, no, nooo!” from whatever droid it is getting their feet sizzled. Now it just looks like it’s maintenance or whatever. Disintegrated protocol droid is still there, however.
  11. Removed “Jedi Rocks” and replaced it with the brief song featuring the harmonica-playing turtle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jzZOgLH4KU). I hate “Jedi Rocks,” but I also hate the original 1980s song. Both look terrible. That said, I do actually enjoy the very brief cut of the harmonica-playing, turtle-like thing. It looks and sounds good, so I kept it.
  12. Had Leia agree to 25,000 credits for Chewbacca. I just wanted to get this scene over with and get to un-freezing Han. I can sort of understand why it’s there, but it’s really not important on the whole. And in my opinion, it probably actually helps the story, by blowing Leia’s cover. Only an amateur would agree to 25,000 credits up-front, which is the reason why she was caught upon un-freezing Han.
  13. Replaced few Huttese subtitles. Not a whole lot, but little things to escalate the tension between Jabba, Leia, Luke, etc. Most of the subtitles are the same.
  14. Removed the reunion scene between Han and Chewie. I had a tough time making the decision on this one. While its valuable in that it shows these two characters reconnecting for the first time since ESB, it really slows things down. So it’s gone, and I don’t think anyone would really notice (or care).
  15. Added the “Force choke” sound effect when Luke attacks Jabba’s guards. Something simple, but it just makes Luke seem more threatening, more willing to turn to the Dark Side, etc.
  16. Removed the Rancor scene. This was a controversial decision that I got a lot of flak for. I still do not have it in here. I have considered making another version that does still have it, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. My reasoning for it is that it has always looked bad, and just takes up time. I edited it so that, when Jabba presses the button for the trapdoor beneath Luke’s feet, Luke falls into a jail cell. He is then escorted up for sentencing (with Han and Chewie).
  17. Took out the Bantha herd. The five second scene where a bunch of Banthas are walking through the desert. Didn’t really sit well with me. It was a five second shot that didn’t really need to happen.
  18. Removed the “beak” from the sarlacc. I just used Harmy’s “Despecialized Editions” for this, placing the original sarlacc shots in its place. It just looks better, in my opinion, but I could be swayed either way.
  19. Added line to Han Solo; calls Jabba a “son of a bitch.” Haha, this change might sound funny at first, but it makes Han sound so much grittier, and I love it. I’ve always thought that, in the original, Han sounded childish calling Jabba a “slimy piece of worm-ridden filth.” So I took it out and replaced it with something more adult. I mean, we’re talking about a guy that is supposed to be suave and daring. He killed Greedo in plain daylight. And what, when Greedo’s boss himself is about to kill Han, he’s just going to go out calling Jabba “slimy?” No! This is Han Solo. The only ‘curse words’ in all of Star Wars (that I remember) were in A New Hope, so I’ve added one here and made Han step up his game. I got the audio from this comedy bit on Jimmy Fallon Live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWTtMdXAazs).
  20. Removed petty dialog throughout (esp. Han Solo). Lots of little, rather dumb one-liners that just don’t sound good. A lot of these come from Han, including during the Rebel fleet briefing and on Endor. They’re gone, and it makes him seem more competent and less of a jerk (and less jealous of Luke, which I couldn’t stand). Took out Chewie’s “Tarzan” howl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm1OaKO_fzw), most of Han’s ending conversation with Leia about “I won’t get in the way [when Luke comes back],” and other just cheesy lines.
  21. Moved a couple lines to eliminate the bad matte painting of the Millennium Falcon during the Lando/Han scene. I managed to get it so that the scene still takes place (which I think is important) while still cutting out the bad background image.
  22. Improved upon Luke/Vader sensing each other in Shuttle Tydirium scene. Just took out a line from Han, added a shot of Vader looking out the window (shot is flipped from The Empire Strikes Back).
  23. Cut out the Leia meeting Wicket scene. Let’s try to cut out the importance of the Ewoks as much as possible here, okay? In this edit, Luke and Han happen to find Leia at the Ewok base. That’s the end of it.
  24. Tried to remove anything that make the Ewoks appear “cute.” I wish I could do more here, but I can only work within my means. Literally any shot that someone could say, “Aww, they’re so cute,” has been cut out. I know that George Lucas was trying to implement them as a major role in the ROTJ story; I am trying to lessen their impact. All of the crazy contraptions and methods they use to attack the Imperial armies on Endor have been stripped out.
  25. Fixed Leia’s line about her mother; removed “I know” when learns Luke is her brother. When asked by Luke about her mother, Leia describes, “Just images really, feelings.” She no longer goes into detail about Padme, seeing as she didn’t actually know her for more than 30 seconds. Also took out her line, “I know. Somehow, I’ve always known,” when Luke reveals he’s her brother. I like that she just has this short of shock on her face. A lot more realistic, in my opinion.
  26. Cut out Han’s line, “Could you tell Luke, is that who you could tell?!” That scene was lame, as was all of Han’s jealous issues. They’re all gone in this edit.
  27. Added a few small sound effects, musical cues throughout. Nothing major. Added a music cue of the “Force theme” when Vader prepares Luke for the Emperor. It makes it more obvious that Vader is affected by Luke’s words to “Come with me [back to the good side].” Also made the Death Star firing sound a little more powerful. Used alternate take of Darth Vader funeral pyre score (more info in #34 below).
  28. Reinserted the “Jerjerrod’s Conflict” deleted scene.(https://youtu.be/y1qyXxLIXLw?t=7m36s) I had to cut the scene into three parts to have it flow properly: (1) The Emperor calls Moff Jerjerrod from the Throne Room and tells him that if the shield generator is destroyed to destroy Endor. (2) A fellow officer tells him the shield generator has been destroyed. And (3), finally making the decision to blow up the moon. It’s neat to see the thought process behind Jerjerrod making the decision to destroy his own troops, but I can understand why they took it out to begin with. I have always really liked this scene and would love to keep it, but I can understand why Lucas removed it in the first place, as it may hurt the pacing. So if it needs to go, I’ll take it out, but want to get feedback on it first. That said, again I wish I knew how to restore footage, because there are many scratches and hairs on the film that make it look out of place when compared to the pristine Blu-ray footage just a scene beforehand. Note: the audio in the deleted scene just had some guy off-camera reading the Emperor’s lines; I was about to scrap it because of that, but I found that there is actually a recording of Ian McDiarmid saying the lines! (https://youtu.be/a4Po3q_ljq8) I found a higher quality version and incorporated that into the edit.
  29. Removed “I love you; I know” re-hash. Yeah, it’s a cool line that everyone knows, but it just is kind of cheesy being re-used in ROTJ, so I’ve dropped it.
  30. Added Anakin’s body disappearing upon his death. This is something I think should have been done a long time ago. It is officially Star Wars canon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Funeral_of_Anakin_Skywalker) that Anakin did, in fact, become one with the Force following his death — and that, in the funeral pyre scene, it is only Vader’s armor that Luke burns. I’ve rigged it up so that, following Anakin’s last words, his body (just his head is visible) fades away, leaving only the armor. Luke looks down and weeps.
  31. Cut most of the lines in the Leia/Han ending scene. I laugh everytime Han says, “Alright… when Luke gets back, I won’t get in the way.” I suppose it’s supposed to be humorous (?), but it just takes away from the excitement of the ending. Now, Leia just reveals to Han that Luke is her brother. They kiss. Yay.
  32. Replaced the Darth Vader funeral pyre music. Yes, yes — I love that music, as does everyone. But you know what I love even more? The alternate take of that music. Just listen to how awesome this is (https://youtu.be/UL4J9wQx6N8?t=1m18s) — it is the classic “Force” theme, played more grand and beautiful than ever played in the entire saga. I just had to get it in there.
  33. Replaced “celebration” music with the ending of the “Luke and Leia” theme. (https://youtu.be/9HXwju2UXio?t=3m3s) I actually really like the new celebration music included with the Special Edition, but based on how I wanted to change the final shot of the film, it didn’t really work. So instead I stripped out the celebration music, and replaced it with more John Williams. I used the “Luke and Leia” theme here, which is a generally happy song, with a few melancholy tones. I replaced all the sound effects (fireworks, cheering, etc.) to try and keep most of it in place. I’ve left the actual Rebel reunion scene in silence however, which I think is actually a little more powerful.
  34. Replaced Hayden Christensen with Sebastian Shaw. No comment needed.
  35. Changed final shot of film to a view of the stars. This turned out pretty neat. I didn’t really like the “family photo” feel for the final shot of ROTJ, so I replaced it. I took the pan up from the Vader funeral pyre scene, and Photoshopped it to remove the fireworks and blend the sky with the stars found in the end credits. This way, the film (and saga) concludes with just a view of everyone dancing, followed by having the camera slowly pan up and into the trees… above the trees, the view looks up at the stars, for which the credits then roll over those same stars. The music that accompanies it (https://youtu.be/9HXwju2UXio?t=4m15s) serves as a beautiful close to the series.

Phew. Those are the major changes. There are probably some others I missed, but those are the big ones. I edited it in FCPX in 1080p. Let me know what you think.

“The Ziggy Edit” — A Conceptual Fanedit of Return of the Jedi

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-The-Ziggy-Edit/id/17844

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Great to have you back!

Didn’t quite compare it to the previous list, but it looks pretty similar. I believe you toyed with the idea of reinstating ‘I know’ in addition to Rancor. Just chiming in to say I would be a fan of such a version. The ‘I know’ is certainly no deal breaker, but would really prefer the Rancor in.

Visually, I think the scene holds up well in its SE state.

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If the Rancor is coming back, do you think there will be any way to incorporate Oola attacking Jabba and falling through the trap door? I imagine it is difficult with the song as brief as it is, but it really helps establish the threat of the Rancor (and Jabba himself).

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I’m very excited for your take on this film, I’ve seen every version of it available on fanedit-dot-info and I’d love to see yours if you can share a link. I’m fascinated by all the ways one can enrich the ROTJ story, with some very impressive technical tweaks.
It sounds brilliant.

Thinking the unthinkable indeed.

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As far as Anakin’s body dematerializing, I like that we don’t see it happen because it leaves it open to interpretation. Perhaps it dematerialized a few seconds after the end of the shot, and you can believe that if you want to. However, there is the fact that Anakin doesn’t just have a cyber suit, it is that much of his body has become mechanical. Would all of his robotic limbs and implants just be rattling around in an empty suit like in the Left Behind series? Seems silly to me.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Can someone please PM me the Link for the HD version? Thanks!

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CommandBen said:

Can someone please PM me the Link for the HD version? Thanks!

Requesting the same, as well. Thanks. It’s unclear reading this thread if the edit has been released or not. It sounds promising

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NeverarGreat said:

As far as Anakin’s body dematerializing, I like that we don’t see it happen because it leaves it open to interpretation. Perhaps it dematerialized a few seconds after the end of the shot, and you can believe that if you want to. However, there is the fact that Anakin doesn’t just have a cyber suit, it is that much of his body has become mechanical. Would all of his robotic limbs and implants just be rattling around in an empty suit like in the Left Behind series? Seems silly to me.

Perhaps they ARE the suit… But yeah, hope Anakin’s (re)unification with the force doesn’t result in any of those shenanigans. Now let’s not mention, nor even think about, Left Behind again. Ever.
(WHY NICK CAGE, WHYYYY!)

Thinking the unthinkable indeed.

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Any ETA on the release? If its already out someone please link the torrent. Also please keep the Jerjerrod’s Conflict scene in.

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Am I too late for a link?
I’ve been looking for a fan-edit of ROTJ for a long time, to satisfy my cravings for a version of the film that isn’t so…disappointing.

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I tried to download the 1080p version and initially I tried to download it all in one zip folder and the download suddenly stopped at 48% and after 2 consecutive attempts I opted to download it piece by piece.

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Watched it and liked some of the changes while I didn’t like others. But when the “No…NOOOOOOO” thing happened I had to shut it off. Sorry man.