Boy do I love losing the Yoda/Sidious fight, and having his thwarted clone ambush be the one time you see him light up. Qui-Gon dialogue excellent. Padme surviving is clever… but I can’t quite hand-wave the decision to split the twins up. In some ways I’d like to see the actual births and namings dropped, Luke delivered, with an attempt to maintain the sister reveal down the road perhaps… not sure how that would work though.

I also have little to no problem with Palpatine’s disfigurement in the theatrical cut, and the ‘reveal’ strategy sort of jarring, but it just goes to show that you Can’t Please Everyone. I do love seeing all the different takes on things, and the way an Actual Movie starts to emerge when you boil it down.

I can’t believe they chopped the Seeds of Rebellion plotline in favor of some of the other shit GL kept in originally. It drives a further wedge between the leads, and I’d argue some of Portman’s best acting is in deleted scenes, namely the second SoR meeting and AotC scene where her sister is ribbing her over Anakin’s obvious affections, as for once (or twice) Padme has something to hide, as opposed to her usual modes of exposition or strained love dialogue.