Trooper, i def agree on the electric...yeah it was cool seeing yoda just be like ok, whatever ill just catch the energy and throw it back/'absorb' it. that did make him look more powerful, but as ive said yoda puts way to much effort forward...lucas kind of removes the awe from yoda by showing him do these things, that while cool dont really meet up to what we've all imagined his power to be after seeing the OT, so im glad your gonna make yoda exert less effort.

Your description of the fight scene kinda matches how i was thinking it would work in the last line of my previous post, so i think that might be along the right lines to get what your going for (obviously it will need to be seen and some adjustments might need to be made)

cauterized, im not sure what pile of blood (though blood normally pools

) you are talking about when Ponda Baba's arm gets cut off. But think about it, the blade was hot enough to melt through a blast door (ok, thats pt so dismiss it if you want) when luke lost his arm there was not blood, Ponda Babas arm wasnt gushing blood (nor was anakins) when it got cut off. yeah there was some blood, but i kinda would expect even with cauterization there would be some blood (especially in amputations). Obi-wans cuts werent really bleeding same with Qui-Gon, or Darth Maul...again there was some blood, but enough for visual effect and what you could attribute to the spray before the veins are cauterized. but cauterized or not, obi-wan had the equivelant of scraps and he was out for the count, couldnt even raise a force lift to save his own life from a falling crane, yet he's gonna be one of the jedi to survive the mass slaying of all the jedi.

Lucas had the opportunity to show us these extremely powerful jedi of old, except he shows us a Jedi master that at 50ish years younger has more trouble lifting a small crane as compared to an x-wing (remember size matters not, so it shouldnt matter either way the size, they should be equally as easy). Plus, i dont even think age matters (i think chaltab mentioned palpatines age vs dooku's in relation to the ease of the force lightning) Wouldnt it be more of a mental strength and a connection with the force that allows you to do force related things easier, not the fact that your physically 50 years younger...if that was the case maybe those kids should have been teaching yoda

With the mention of dooku's ease of using the force lighning compared to palpatine, plus the fact that it ruins the impact for when palpatine uses it in jedi, i say get rid of it, yodas deflection of it isnt worth it, keep us imagining how powerful yoda is, it gives a better impact than you could ever get showing it on screen (also, as an explanation, palpatine might have been putting more energy forth cause his lightning was a lot more powerful than dooku's)

-Darth Simon