DWN-016

Octorox said:

Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.

I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.

That’s fair; I think the intent back then was probably more to portray the Tuskens as wild animals more than intelligent beings, but I won’t argue if it still reads weird regardless.
Ultimately though, the specific scene isn’t as important as the wider point I was trying to make, which is that for even the most seemingly-inarguable thing you’re gonna have differing perspectives. That’s why I’m hoping for an AotC fanedit that wouldn’t be trying to alter the text of the film at all. I feel we have enough fanedits trying to, effectively, rewrite the prequels by trimming or cutting scenes. Effectively, I want a version of “what would AotC look like if Lucasfilm had gotten an extra couple months to do another editing pass”. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever really attempted that.

All I really want out of an AotC edit is one that portrays the film’s contents as they already are, but adjusts the pacing and exposition, so that it isn’t expecting the viewer to juggle tons of info for multiple plotlines throughout the entire 2hr+ runtime lol. Again, that’s something I really like Caleb Gamman’s edit for, it really streamlined the experience; I just disliked when it started cutting things that fell into subjectivity, or diluted the George Lucas-y personality of the action scenes. He uploaded a few short videos on YT detailing his editing process, which I recommend also giving a look for sure!

So, speaking as someone who is fond of the PT and their quirks and would like to preserve as much of them as possible, the only one of the films I would like a fanedit of would indeed be AotC; my only issues with it are the editing and heavy exposition, that diminish the impact of the scenes that are there, or make plot points harder to follow. I think it’s a good story, told well in the novelization especially, but the intent of many scenes gets kinda smothered by the film’s editing.
So for example, I appreciate Caleb Gamman’s edit of AotC for its approach regarding the pacing, and reframing certain bits of dialogue (the way he did Anakin and Obi-Wan’s dialogue right before Padme’s assassination attempt was great and subtle, for example). But, his edit loses me once it starts cutting stuff, as I think it leans too far into his personal tastes (disliking the humor, cutting the romance scenes’ dialogue, altering the action scenes in any way, etc). I’d rather preserve George’s creative decisions as much as possible, warts and all, just have it be presented in a less jumbled manner.

In your edit above, I honestly think trimming Anakin’s dialogue here is unnecessary. Gamman’s edit did a similar cutting of this dialogue, and it was pretty well done technically; but out of all the scenes in the film, I think this is the one where Anakin’s fully allowed to be quote-on-quote “whiny”. He’s having an emotional breakdown and beating himself up from his own overbearing guilt, that’s the point - and Padme has only ever been told how the Tuskens were vicious brutal monsters prior to this, so I never felt that this would’ve been “relationship ruining”. She knows he just lost his mother under incredibly cruel circumstances, so while she’s shocked, she’s still trying to support him through his grief.

Personally, the only thing I’d change about how Anakin and Padme’s relationship is presented by the film would simply be adding back the “meeting Padme’s family” deleted scene, and maybe reordering the picnic scene to happen before the “first kiss- but no, we shouldn’t” scene, to give the latter a bit more buildup. Maybe trimming a little bit of Anakin’s complaining to her about Obi-Wan; not entirely, but make it less overbearing.
I highly recommend giving the AotC novelization a read if you haven’t already, and I’d also recommend giving the YT video “The Romance of the Prequels is Good, Actually” (by 66 seconds) a watch, as it does a great job highlighting the intent behind many of the scenes. I don’t necessarily agree that they’re all executed perfectly, but I think they all have purpose behind them, which I’d prefer not get entirely cut.
(For example, there’s this one scene which the video also points out, where Anakin says something awkward and then bites his lip in regret - which is great, but my problem is that it barely registers, because the scene’s almost immediately fading to Obi-Wan anyway. Obviously I don’t expect a fanedit to suddenly be able to add extra seconds to that shot lol, but I’d rather it be kept in the film instead of the interaction being cut entirely, you know? That’s the philosophy I’d like to see a fanedit tackle the film with).