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Star Wars: Abridged II - The Rebellion — A 3.5 hour 3-in-1 of the original trilogy (Released)

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Put the finishing touches on my second Star Wars Abridged film! This covers all of the original trilogy, condensing it to around 3 hours and 35 minutes (minus credits). I also have Abridged I: The Republic available which truncates the prequels to 2.5 hours.

There’s a ton of changes to the OT 3-in-1 but here’s the broad strokes:

  • Cold open which truncates the battle of Scarif
  • New scroll text to say “Abridged II: The Rebellion”
  • Inserted the scene from Rogue One between Krenic and Tarkin overseeing construction of the Death Star and tried to keep all of it from being visible because…
  • There’s only 1 Death Star and that’s the uncompleted one from RotJ. It’s still being built throughout this edit. Consequently…
  • Alderaan isn’t destroyed. Tarkin, in command of a Super Star Destroyer, bombards the planet from orbit
  • Scene 38, 'nuff said
  • The rebel base is located on Hoth, not Yavin, which is where we transition into ESB
  • The Wampa sequence is removed entirely
  • The Battle of Hoth has been completely changed. Luke is no longer a part of the snowspeeder battle (which still takes place) but, rather, part of a space battle happening in orbit around Hoth. This new space battle was created using footage from the battle of Yavin, battle of Scarif, and a small bit from battle of Endor
  • Luke hears Obi Wan telling him to go to Dagobah while in the cockpit
  • At the same time, Vader feels the force in him from the bridge of a Star Destroyer (the force is strong with this one)
  • The asteroid chase sequence has been removed (more about why later)
  • Bespin has been re-edited so that Han escapes with Leia and the rest
  • No Jabba side story
  • Footage from Luke healing from his Wampa adventure is now a post Vader duel scene set on a starship at the Sollust system rendezvous with the fleet
  • The Han/Leia kiss happens here instead as they’re repairing the Falcon in Home One’s hangerbay
  • Luke leaves the fleet to go back to Dagobah
  • The battle plan for taking out the Death Star don’t include the ground battle
  • Han pilots the Falcon in the final battle at Endor and takes out the Death Star. The footage from the asteroid chase has been repurposed here
  • A new ending has been put together using footage from Rise of Skywalker

The changes to Star Wars: Abridged I - The Republic aren’t as drastic:

  • The Phantom Menace has been almost completely cut out except…
  • Anakin leaving Tatooine as a kid has been reworked into a prologue with a Jedi recruiter (played in a cameo role by Liam Neeson)
  • The clones and chosen one prophecy have been eliminated
  • Geonosis is now called Kamino
  • Anakin has never before met Padme, they have more of a meet-cute… Anakin is pretty quiet throughout
  • Padme’s family deleted scene has been reinserted
  • Anakin and Padme sleep together on Naboo
  • The Geonosis battle has been removed and this footage has been repurposed into a montage which brings us to Revenge of the Sith
  • General Grievous has been completely exorcised
  • Revenge of the Sith plays out more or less the same with a bunch of trims here and there.

I’ve completed an assembly cut of a third 3-in-1 film of the sequels which runs just under 2 hours. Still need to finish it off but it’s a radical departure set 50 years after Endor and Rey has been turned into Rey Solo, granddaughter of Han and Leia. Kylo Ren now has no relation to the Solos. I’ll probably finish this off in the next week or two but it’s gotten some great response as a rewrite to the sequels.

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I’m intrigued, both Abridged I and II sound interesting, could I have a link please.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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Peter Pan sent you a PM with both fan edits! Let me know what you think.

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May I have a link to both of them? Thanks!

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

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While your prequel edit was a great little 3-in-1 that tackled the baseline of that trilogy, this was where the meat of your overall saga starts to tenderise…and boy was it worth the heartache and hard work. This was such a great film to watch from start to finish.

I was bowled over by how darn COMPLETE it was, you left breathing space for all of the pay offs, the themes all make sense, Luke’s growth over a span of hours feels just as rewarding as spending three films with him going through this, his Jedi training and his youthful naivety is far more logically structured when they’re paced back to back rather than months and months later like in the gap between A New Hope and Empire.

It also makes perfect sense for the Death Star to be in a continuous state of construction and not resemble it’s trademark ‘whole’ self, it lends itself well to scenes from A New Hope where they’re discussing the Death Star’s vulnerabilities.

Han and Leia’s blossoming love story is a real highlight, no longer feeling like we missed any information at the beginning of Empire, the romance is founded in the first act, goes through some teething in the second, and blossoms in the third.

I kicked myself recognising beats from Empire, and then seeing so many swerves with the narrative. It was just an epic sort of editing, really taking a creative approach, Han escaping his carbonite fate entirely has rarely been a concept utilised by other editors, with yours being amongst the first, and perhaps even the best at it so far unless I’m missing any.

The bridging of Luke heading to Dagobah and the battle over Hoth was smartly crafted, I like the idea of Luke involved in an X-Wing dogfight that doesn’t require the Death Star trench, there’s so little of them besides A New Hope.

I found no hard cuts, no quick cuts, no extra frames, nothing, the editing was of a very consistent and professional standard.

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So just finished your prequel edit and wanted to share my thoughts.
First things first I liked the title cards to the planets, helped tie everything together.
Now on to the AOTC part, in my opinion it’s a little to fast paced, in particular the romance could use another scene before the kiss by the lake. And you could add a glimps of the Anakin-Dooku fight to the Clone Wars montage for continuities sake. Apart from that I would shorten the speeder chase. (In my opinion it goes on for too long, but that’s a problem of the theatrical)

Now on to ROTS, I basically liked it all. Only the shift into the movie sticks out a little, but there is not much to do about that. Maybe you could add the deleted “plot against the Jedi” scene to the AOTC part if you crop Obi-Wan out or use bits of the dialogue for the hallway scene in AOTC. (the one that most editors cut lol)
Another option might be to add padmé’s side plot, lines like “we cannot let this turn into another war” fit her stance on the army in AOTC almost perfectly.
These are just some quick thoughts, but a side plot, that continues through to ROTS would tie the narrative a bit more together.

That’s basically all I got to say, I sincerely enjoyed your first entry and am looking forward to the second.

EDIT:
I watched Abridged II and I liked it better than your prequel edit, especially the shifts between the movies felt more natural than with them. Nice work.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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I just made an account here specifically to ask about this, which is something I’ve hoped for a long time that someone might do. Any chance you can link me as well?

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Am I able to get a link please? May the 4th has me diving deep into Star Wars again and I’d love this! Awesome!

If possible can I get both 😃

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both edits sound great - would love to get a link to check these out (and looking forward to the sequel edit as well!).

Thanks!

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May I have the download link to this! Very interested

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Could I get a link please

“You can’t polish a turd. But you can shape it to look like candy.”

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Could I get a copy of these two and the sequel as well. I’m a huge Reylo, so a bit heartbroken how that ends, but honestly, how you’ve done this sounds amazing. Esp. the parallel of Qui-Gon and a young (non)Anakin beginning the PT and Rey and broom boy ending the ST. It gave me chills. I really want to watch this.

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I dont know how to download part 2, could you guide me how to transfer the files into a video or send a alternative link