logo Sign In

Most pointless Special Edition change?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I’m not talking about the worst, most offensive, or most childish change. I’m talking about the changes so baffling that it boggles the mind that anyone ever even thought of them and you can’t even begin to understand the line of reasoning going through Lucas’s head when he made them. When it comes to something like Greedo shooting or Hayden Christensen ghost, you may think Lucas’s reasoning for the change is idiotic, but you can usually at least understand why he did it and see what he was going for, no matter how strongly you disagree with the result.

But for me, the essence of just how pointless the SE is comes in two unfathomable dialogue changes that just make no sense. My least favorite dialogue change is the loss of “bring my shuttle,” but you can at least see why he did that since he was adding footage of Vader walking to his shuttle at that moment, so the line no longer made sense in context. But there are two that I just don’t understand why they were done at all:

  1. “You were lucky to get out of there” replacing “You were lucky you don’t taste very good”
  2. “It’s alright, I can see a lot better” replacing “It’s alright, trust me”

I’m convinced that the only reason these lines were changed is because Lucas initially recorded two takes and just decided to go with the alternate take when doing the SE for shits and giggles. It was just lying around, so why not? Otherwise I just can’t understand why he did it. It’s not something that makes or breaks the films, but in both cases they are made just ever so slightly worse because the humor and humanity in those lines that was probably the reason the younger Lucas chose them in the first place is gone, replaced by cold and sterile lines that were overly literal and overexplanatory. And for nothing. I just don’t get it.

Author
Time

Wow. I thought I knew them all now, but wow. Lucas, you bastard, you continue to amaze me.

Author
Time

That was probably a coloring error more than anything else.

The Person in Question

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Yep, Frank beat me to it. What was the point?
I could kinda see if they just changed say the outside guys shirt to green so that the two appear to be different characters, but to change both? WHY?

moviefreakedmind said:

That was probably a coloring error more than anything else.

Nah, it’s a change. That guy appears in the bar a few times, each time with the red shirt and latter he’s outside and again the green is changed to red. No other color changes in those scenes.
If I remember right, it’s the last thing Harmy had to go in and change for SW-DeEd 2.7

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

Author
Time

Showing Vader return to his Star Destroyer in ESB. Not only does it replace a perfect line of dialogue (‘Bring my shuttle’), the sequence just feels out of place with everything else that’s happening. The timing in the original was just fine.

Author
Time

The rock added in front of R2 for the ANH Blu-ray when he was hiding from the Sand People. That made no sense.

I also didn’t like the rearranging of 2 scenes in the AOTC Blu-ray.

Author
Time

Density said:

  1. “You were lucky to get out of there” replacing “You were lucky you don’t taste very good”

Did he seriously do that? Holy shit. Thanks, Density, for giving me some random-ass reason to be outraged first thing in the morning. W!T!F!

  1. “It’s alright, I can see a lot better” replacing “It’s alright, trust me”

Who says this/what context?

Author
Time

TV’s Frink said:

Han in ROTJ during the Sail Barge battle.

In response to Lando-in-tentacle???
OMG R U SRSLY?!?!??!?!?!
I B ALL LIKE FUCK GEORGE, YO!!!

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Yep. Both of those were awful. Why would you purposely make things worse?

I know, welcome to the SE…

Author
Time

TV’s Frink said:

Yep. Both of those were awful. Why would you purposely make things worse?

I know, welcome to the SE…

It shows George seriously doesn’t get jokes as a categorical rule. Anything with even a whiff of humor, or humanity as Density put it, just makes him feel all uneasy and queasy and he must STAMP IT OUT and replace it with mechanical blandness.

Author
Time

TV’s Frink said:

[REDACTED]/Lucas sock confirmed.

No, that one doesn’t characterize people as “white slavers” anywhere near enough…

Author
Time

It’s the little stuff like that that convince me that George is crazy.

Author
Time

I didn’t get a few changes that George decided to change, for instance…

o The Ben Kenobi scream - First it sounded like an elephant, but it sounded more scarier, then in 1997 SE, it was like a whistle, lol. Then they changed it yet again in the dvd release in 2004.

o The Luke falling down the shaft scream or no scream? It’s clear he didn’t want to add that in the first place, but maybe he ran out of money and just said screw it, but in 1997, he added the Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Which sounded a bit ridiculous, but then in the 2004 dvd release, it disappeared.

This leads me to believe his employees must have said this doesn’t look or sound right, do you want to change this George? Yeah, just come up with something.

o I wish he would have made the Ewoks more ferocious and started chewing on the stormtroopers and made it more scarier. The stormtroopers would be running in horror and scared. They look harmless, but make them mad and you have a Wolverine/Tasmanian Devil on your hands.

With just about everyone wearing a helmet, a mask, or a suit, you can always go and change those things that you dislike about the film. You can add scenes to make the film better. As long as it doesn’t contain any scenes with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford.

One of those scenes I would reshoot is the Wampa breaking in scene on Hoth. I understand why it was cut, it was a horrible suit to begin with, but also, the pace of the film. I still would like to see it reshot.

I’m not a purist, but I think some things should be changed, NOT everything, just a few things, and keep some of the older scenes of the Original film. I know if it’s not broken don’t mess with it, but I prefer to make the changes.

Author
Time

There is evidence scenes were originally shot of Ewoks using captured Imperial blasters. Fragments of this footage turn up in the second Ewok movie.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I still think TFA has the most beautiful lightsabers in the saga.

TFA Lightsabers

Way better than that crap on the BluRay.