Revenge of the Sith - Vader Edition (WIP)

My overall goals for the Prequels are:

• Make them better movies.
• Make them feel like the true precursors to the original trilogy.
• Make Anakin consistent with Darth Vader from the original trilogy, and his turn both more fitting for the original character and better on its own.

These edits will be called the Vader edition because while many Prequel edits succeed at improving them as films, not many go out of their way to make Anakin more consistent with Vader.

Darth Vader was a cold, reserved, bold, calculating, terrifying villain who owned every scene he was in. He loved the dark side, even making sadistic jokes about the people he killed. We were told that before he turned to the dark side, he was a great warrior, pilot, and friend to Obi-Wan. The Prequels portray his younger self as too whiny, open and explosive, and he turned because of a lie he should’ve seen right through. Tricked, rather then seduced. His friendship with Obi-Wan was an afterthought.
My edits will change this. Light side Anakin will still be heroic, passionate and caring person. His friendship with Obi-Wan will be emphasized to the best of my ability. Dark side Anakin, however, will truly feel like a younger Vader, like Vader from the 2017 canon comics - understandably a bit more emotional, but still mostly cold and reserved like OT Vader.

We will never be able to create the perfect, Walter White-esque turn we really should’ve gotten with what’s available. But this is the next best thing.

Revenge of the Sith marks Anakin’s full embrace of his Vader persona. His personality is consistent with the previous edit, and further edits solidify Anakin’s turn in a more satisfying way then the original by emphasizing Anakin’s general lust for power, including a desire for immortality. Wanting to save Padme is only one of the multiple reasons Anakin turns.
If we’re comparing to Michael Corleone’s arc in The Godfather, the nightmare functions less like the assassination attempt on Vito and more like Apollonia’s death. The final straw rather then the spark.
Ideas from Hal9000’s Labyrinth of Evil labeled as such.

Changelist:

• Added film grain and new color grade to make the film look more in tune with the OT (inspired by DominicCobb’s ROTS edit).
• New opening crawl to fix misspellings and make it slightly more grim.
• Intentionally kept lighthearted, heroic Anakin moments in the opening act. He’s still a likable hero, even if he has a literal dark side.
• Anakin mostly calls Obi-Wan by his name rather than, “Master”. Better characterizes them as friends, and Anakin doesn’t like calling anyone “Master” that he doesn’t have to.
• Anakin is called “General Skywalker” a few times during the Battle of Coruscant.
• Anakin doesn’t need to be told by Obi-Wan to “Let them pass between us” or destroy the shield’s to Grievous’ ship. “He was the best star pilot in the galaxy”. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Lovingly borrowed audio from Hal9000 & L8wrtr’s edit in a few spots to remove battle droid voices. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut Anakin sensing Count Dooku. Spoils his appearance. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut everything in the original between General Grievous’ first appearance and the duel with Dooku. The scene with the droidekas and battle droids in the elevator makes it unclear whether they want the Jedi as hostages or killed.
• Instead, the deleted sequence of Anakin and Obi-Wan encountering Grievous in the hallway, Grievous killing Shaak-Ti, and them escaping is brought back. Anakin and Obi-Wan’s coordinated hand signals do more to show just how good of a team they are then arguably anything in the actual film. I also love the part where Obi-Wan is proven wrong when Anakin’s plan to hold back the explosion works, which shows how much on the same level they are. Grievous killing Shaak-Ti also does more to legitimize him as a threat (it can be inferred he won a duel with her off-screen).
• Cut Palpatine’s weird “Get!” after Obi-Wan cuts down the droids that came with Dooku. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut away as the railing starts to land on Obi-Wan. The original made it look like his legs were crushed. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Anakin kills Count Dooku unprompted. “Mercy doesn’t defeat the enemy”. Anakin taking vengeance makes him feel powerful. Anakin’s remorse is also downplayed, being only seen through his facial expressions.
• Used Hal9000’s brilliantly reedited version of Anakin and Obi-Wan getting captured in the elevator shaft instead of by “ray shields” (the main reason for the removal of the elevator sequence). (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Grievous and Anakin insulting each other’s age and height is still kept. Despite them clearly meeting earlier in the movie, this exchange can easily be interpreted as them just being snarky and insulting each other.
• Grievous says, “Time to abandon ship” as he breaks the hull and escapes. His line in the escape pod is replaced with one from The Clone Wars series, “Goodbye Jedi!”. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Remove Jar Jar’s one line. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Political subplot with Anakin, Palpatine, and the Council is moved to before his dream. This emphasizes Anakin’s conflict with the Council and political allegiance to Palpatine before his conflict about Padme’s impending death. After Anakin and Padme reunite is the deleted scene, “Plot to Destroy the Jedi”. We see the Jedi are aware of the Chancellor’s growing power and that Obi-Wan is in on the Council’s plans. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Anakin doesn’t question whether the Chancellor receiving more emergency powers is bad. He shows no doubt in his convictions to Palpatine and his authoritarian politics. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Restored “Adjustments to the Constitution” deleted scene in Palpatine’s office. Anakin outwardly agrees not only with Palpatine’s politics but his sentiment that the Jedi are holding him back because they know he is powerful and see him as a threat.
• Anakin’s appointment to the Council changed dramatically. Anakin doesn’t say, “I understand" when Yoda describes Palpatine’s move as “disturbing”. His outburst is trimmed to his initial “What?” and a new line where he coldly states, “I am more powerful then any of you” (demonstrating an instinctual belief that power in the Force should determine authority, a fundamental aspect of Sith ideology). He doesn’t ask for forgiveness.
• Borrowed audio work from MalàStrana to incorporate an eerie rendition of the Imperial March as Windu denies Anakin the rank of Master. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Reinserted the three deleted scenes that make up political subplot with Padme to give her more agency, create political conflict between her and Anakin, and reinforce that Anakin agrees with Palpatine being Emperor of the galaxy. The first takes place between Anakin’s appointment to the Council and Obi-Wan telling him to spy on Palpatine.
• Trim Mace Windu, “I don’t think the boy can handle it”.
• Grievous arriving at Utapau moved to after Anakin and Padme’s political discussion. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• After Palpatine tells Grievous, “Soon, I will have a new apprentice…”, we transition to the opera scene. By placing this scene before the nightmare, it establishes that Anakin is intrigued by the power to cheat death before he has any reason to believe Padme will die. Anakin craves the power of immortality for himself. New Palpatine’s lines from a voice actor has been incorporated to change his monologue to be about cheating death rather then saving people, though he does say that Plagueis could stop both himself and his apprentice from dying.
  • This change was inspired by Vader’s line in ROTJ when he accepts that nothing can stop his death after Luke initially refuses to take his mask off. Now, Vader has an entire arc throughout the saga about accepting his own mortality.
• Remove Chewbacca from all Kashyyyk scenes. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Second Rebellion scene between battle of Kashyyyk and Anakin and Obi-Wan saying goodbye.
• Intentionally kept Anakin’s apology and goodbye to Obi-Wan in it’s original form. Anakin is still a good person at this point. He’s self-aware of his flaws and is still capable of making the right choice.
  • This is also one of the two times in this movie Anakin calls Obi-Wan, “Master”.
• After Obi-Wan leaves Coruscant is the final scene in the Rebellion subplot.
• Then is the Anakin and Padme apartment scene, which has no dialogue about a nightmare (still hasn’t happened yet). This scene reinforces that despite Anakin’s humble apology to Obi-Wan, he still craves power. The scene ends with Padme saying, “You expect too much of yourself” and Anakin responding “Is that bad?”.
• After this scene is Anakin’s nightmare about Padme dying. He doesn’t tell Padme about it.
• Removed the first half of Grievous’ line, “It is a volcanic planet. You will be safe there.” Volcanic equals safe? (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Centered the extreme close-up of Obi-Wan as he says, “Oh I don’t think so”. This always bugged me.
• Removed the now redundant war room scene about the plot to destroy the Jedi. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Palpatine revealing himself to Anakin changed significantly. Palpatine doesn’t even know of Anakin’s nightmare of Padme’s death. He instead pitches the dark side as the key to the power to cheat death, and that together they can learn the secret. Palpatine outright states that he knows of Anakin’s desire for the power of immortality just as much as he does, and he also promises that if he becomes his apprentice, he will be second in-command of his Empire, that they will rule the galaxy together forever.
  • It makes far more sense for Anakin to believe Palpatine here. Anakin knows that the Sith’s ultimate goal is immortality, and that the dark side is the only potential path to it, as the light side is all about respecting the natural course of life. Palpatine craves the power of immortality as much as he does, and Anakin has great reason to believe Palpatine would actually make this offer to him, even for purely selfish reasons. Palpatine wants an all-powerful immortal being to enforce his empire. Originally, Anakin has no reason to believe Palpatine would actually have any investment in saving Padme and isn’t just lying. If anything, he’d want her to be out of the picture.
  • This also gives Palpatine a more solid plan. In the original version, it’s absolute happenstance that Anakin had the nightmare about Padme when it’s convenient for Palpatine. But here, Palpatine is preying on a desire Anakin has had since he was a helpless slave and has known about for years. His execution of Dooku was what he needed to know it was finally time to pitch it to him.
• Anakin catches onto Palpatine being a Sith quicker. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Anakin does not want to kill Palpatine. He only ignites his lightsaber because he knows what the right thing to do is, which conflicts with his selfish desires.
• Palpatine trying to manipulate Anakin into thinking the Jedi are taking over is also gone from this scene. Palpatine gave up on that idea in the opera scene, and he now outright states his intentions to rule as Emperor with Anakin as his enforcer. He is strictly seducing Anakin with the promise of power. This removes any idea that Anakin is even lying to himself that the Jedi are evil.
• Added music from the soundtrack to the General Grievous chase.
• Removed Palpatine’s voiceover as Anakin waits in the Council room, talking about Padme again. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Removed Palpatine trying to convince Anakin the Jedi are taking over.
• Cut Palpatine’s, “I have the power to save the one you love”. Not only does he not know about the nightmare, this contradicts him saying soon afterwards that only Plagueis could cheat death. Palpatine may be a liar, but Anakin shouldn’t be this stupid.
• Cut Anakin’s, “What have I done?”. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Other then Palpatine mentioning Plagueis’ ability to cheat death, saving Padme isn’t referenced during the knighting of Vader scene. Saving Padme’s life is the spark that ignites a myriad of other factors for Anakin’s turn toward evil, most prominently his desire for immortality. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Dialogue cut in Palpatine’s office to remove them feigning belief of a Jedi plot, that they’ll kill the Senate, referring to them as “relentless”, etc. Vader and Sidious are on the same page: they know they’re power-hungry monsters, they don’t need to speak in propaganda. Palpatine refers to the Jedi as a threat to “our new Empire”, not to the Republic.
• Anakin does not kill the younglings, and Padme doesn’t hear about it nor bring it up to Anakin. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut Yoda saying goodbye to the Wookiees. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Palpatine does not give Vader propaganda about bringing peace and justice to the galaxy. Again, they’re on the same page, they don’t need to speak in propaganda.
• Anakin and Padme’s conversation on Mustafar edited and rearranged to emphasis the clash between love and power. We reinforce that Anakin’s turn into Darth Vader is brought about by his lust for power, not love. Even the desire to save Padme is simply possessive. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• No discussion about Anakin trying to save Padme; she never knew about Anakin’s fears about that. Anakin doesn’t seem focused on it himself anymore. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Remove Anakin listing “freedom” among the things “his new Empire” has brought. He has no illusions of this. His goal is to bring “order” to the galaxy, which contradicts “freedom”. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut Anakin and Obi-Wan, “From my point of view the Jedi are evil” conversation. The only words exchanged are, “I have failed you Anakin…” and “This is the end for you my Master.” Vader isn’t making excuses for his actions. As he says himself in the Canon Vader comics, he knows he’s a monster.
• Qui-Gon’s voice (from The Clone Wars) added to Yoda’s meditating scene. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Padme dies because of Vader’s force choke. No “losing the will to live”.
• Thanks to Snooker and Sir Ridley, removed R2 and 3PO from the birth of the twins. Eases continuity issues regarding R2 knowing Yoda. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• After Vader is told Padme died, he (dishonestly) declares that Padme “means nothing” (audio from Obi-Wan Kenobi) as he now knows the power of the dark side. Represents the final transformation into the cold Vader persona and that power is all that matters to him (or at least, that’s what he convinces himself).
• Imperial March added to the credits.

Changes that make Anakin more like Vader: Anakin’s personality is once again more like Vader’s. You get it by now.
Moving the political plot with Palpatine and the Jedi Council fighting for Anakin’s allegiance and Anakin’s tension with the Jedi Council earlier, feeling like he’s not being afforded enough respect or power, allows the nightmare to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Attachment is part of a greater whole.
The Jedi’s hurting his ego by not giving him a rank he doesn’t deserve reinforces to Anakin that “there are things about the Force they’re not telling me”. This is, of course, not true, but his ego prevents him from admitting the truth.
Vader boasts about the power of the dark side so much in the OT because he loves feeling in control. He doesn’t feel like he’s being held back like he felt like he was by the Jedi. Even just having power for power’s sake is appealing to him.
Anakin also wants the power of immortality for himself, emphasizing that his turn is more about himself then Padme. Even him trying to save Padme isn’t about selfless love, it’s about not wanting to go through the pain of losing her, to keep her as if she’s a possession, at whatever cost.
His first scene in the iconic suit shows the truth of Vader: his cold, dominant persona is a mask for his soft inside that was powerless, scared, and in pain, and he spends the rest of his life until his redemption feeding his ego by boasting his power through being the Empire’s enforcer.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect your way to interpret the movies and the way you want to make Anakin/Vader’s character look like, and I obviously don’t want to say that your intentions for the movies and the character are wrong, because everyone is free to do whatever he thinks it’s right for these movies. But your Revenge of the Sith edit (and also your other two edits) is one of the examples of why I ultimately don’t like the Canon Vader and prefer his Legends counterpart. I prefer Vader being a week, pathetic man who intentionally makes excuses for his actions, even though he knows deep down that what he did and what he’s doing is wrong. I don’t like Vader being a cool badass that kills everyone and is deeply convinced that he’s doing good for the Galaxy.

I agree with what Squeaky Water Wheel said.

Spartacus01 said:

I don’t like Vader being a cool badass that kills everyone and is deeply convinced that he’s doing good for the Galaxy.

Canon Vader isn’t deeply convinced that he’s doing good for the galaxy. On his first mission to steal a kyber crystal from a Jedi, he literally outright admits that he’s monster before bursting a dam with the Force, drowning an entire city.

Canon Vader sees himself the way all Sith see themselves. “I’m evil, but that doesn’t matter. I’m more powerful then everyone else, I can do and take whatever I want.”

As I think about it more, I’m debating the change of Anakin’s vision foreshadowing his burning on Mustafar, as I think it almost victimizes him a bit too much. Vader being born partially from what’s pretty much self-preservation, while still making him look selfish, might border a bit too much on him being a victim rather then a power hungry monster. The only thing is, short of AI dialogue, I can’t really think of another way to add the “Anakin wants to be immortal” angle, which is important to my version.

I just rewatched the Prequels as a part of my annual Star Wars marathon, so they’re now fresh in my mind. I’m making changes to my plans for my edits (and what I’ve done so far), taking into account my latest experience watching the films. TPM is especially gonna change dramatically (I liked it the least of the 3), but I’m still figuring out how (so it hasn’t changed much).

I’ve updated the changelist, but I’ll summarize the most important things here.

Anakin having a vision of himself burning on Mustafar isn’t happening anymore. I was trying to add an element of Vader craving immortality, but all it does is make it seem like he’s turning to the dark side out of basic self-preservation, which makes Vader too much of a victim, the opposite of my intent. Instead, I plan on adding this element through AI dialogue, mostly through Anakin’s scenes with Palpatine, as well as smart editing, emphasizing “the power to cheat death” over “saving Padme”. How exactly I will do it and what the exact dialogue will be, I don’t know. But it’s too important that I’m willing to resort to AI to accomplish it. The symmetry with his death in ROTJ is just too good of an idea. I’m also gonna use AI dialogue to have Palpatine outright promise him second in-command of his new Empire, thus further highlighting Anakin’s general lust for power.

I’m gonna attempt to keep Anakin’s scene with Yoda about his dream while keeping the Anakin/Palpatine/Council political subplot before the dream by moving Yoda going to Kashyyyk to later in the movie. It’s just such an impactful scene. It could mess up the pacing badly, but it’s worth an attempt.

I really appreciated the tight pacing around Anakin on rewatch, and am considering only keeping the third of the three Padme political scenes, or maybe just cutting the second one (it really doesn’t add anything). I think the third scene stands fine on it’s own, and if additional info is needed, the first is enough. Not final though, so I haven’t added it to the changelist.

Other then that, besides a couple minor things, the changelist remains mostly the same.

New idea: what if the Darth Plagueis scene takes place before Anakin’s nightmare?

What this would do is show that Anakin has an interest in the power to cheat death before he even has any idea that Padme is going to die. Anakin is immediately intrigued by the prospect of cheating death and asks how to learn it. This would make Palpatine stating in their scene together later that he knows Anakin has always wanted immortality come less out of nowhere, and it also would do more to show that Padme’s death is the final straw rather then the sole reason.

Thankfully, I will not have to resort to AI, at least for Palpatine’s new dialogue. Someone has reached out to me who can voice act Palpatine.

Here are the new lines I’m planning:
“He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep himself and his apprentice from dying.”
“Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep before he could heal himself.”
“Learn to know the dark side of the Force, and you will be able to unlock Plagueis’ secret to cheat death.”
“I know you’ve always craved the power of eternal life, to deny death, just as much as I do. It is only natural. We must conquer the Jedi Temple, take back the Sith holocrons they have kept from us. Use what we can. With our powers combined, I know we can unlock Plagueis’ secret. If he could discover the secret, certainly the son of the Force itself could.”
“Together we will rule the galaxy forever. Me as Emperor, and you as my invincible enforcer. You will answer to no one but me, son.”
“Know the power of the dark side. The power of eternal life.”
“Every single Jedi, including your friend Obi-Wan Kenobi, are now enemies of our new Empire.”
“Only then will you be strong enough with the dark side to cheat death.”
“Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy… forever.”

I’ve got the new lines from the Palpatine voice actor. And guys, these lines sound amazing. I actually got chills hearing them. I can’t wait to edit them into the movie

Updated the changelist.

It now reflects everything I have come up with to successfully implement the idea that Anakin turns because he wants the power of immortality. I’m also including some deleted scenes in the opening act.

Unlike what I initially planned, a rough draft of this edit is likely coming out before the other two. Partially because I’m more enthusiastic about this one.