EddieDean

Definitely eight of the best, very excited about this one.

Fantastic news Smudger9, really looking forward to more of these!

Edit: I have some questions for you, if you have the time:

• A long time ago in this thread (Aug 2015) you suggested that you were going to imply that Sidious kills off Maul after their fight. Presumably, now that Maul returns in rebels, you’re no longer going to do that?
• If you are indeed going to keep Maul, I wonder if you’ll be able to find a more elegant transition from where we leave him in Clone Wars (“I have other plans for you”) to where we find him in Rebels (oh, dumped on Malachor?) I know in the canon comic he was broken out of prison and went on to do more Mandalorian chaos before ultimately getting beaten back down in an every-active-dark-force-user fight, but I think I’m one of the ten people who actually read that.
• In your third movie, Children of the Force, you mention in the changelog that an additional space battle is inserted between Holocron Heist and Cargo of Doom. Which episode is the source of the footage?
• Which episodes do you plan on turning into your Movie 5?
• Which episodes do you plan on turning into your other movies?
• Which episodes do you plan to exclude from any of your edits altogether?

On Phasma’s return, let’s put it this way: The issue is definitely that she does little in TFA, and appears to die, then returns in TLJ to do very little again then appears to die again.

Removing her from TLJ is one way to minimise some of the relative weakness of that plot. Her arc, or rather Finn’s arc, becomes that she’s Finn’s overseer in TFA and ultimately he disposes of her. We don’t see her again.

However, without needing to wait two years between movies (which we can do now that TLJ is out), I think the better arc is as follows:

• She’s Finn’s overseer in TFA
• Finn leaves the First Order
• She doesn’t appear again in TFA - it’s not implied that she died on SKB
• Finn’s a traitor to the FO but struggles to commit to the Resistance in TLJ
• She appears in TLJ the way she currently does, reinforcing that Finn is a traitor to the FO in a scene where, through DJ, we learn one of the key issues of not picking a side.
• Finn kills her for good, shortly before we see him properly commit to the Resistance.

That way, one of the key weaknesses of her character (“die” > return > die) is removed, but she gives Finn the stronger arc and his (one on-screen) killing of her is a part of his journey towards being able to commit to the Resistance. The change this’d require is her removal from the SKB scenes of TFA.

Hal, your 4.2s are my archival versions, and I love everything you’ve suggested for 4.3.

The only thing I’m just not sure about is the Emperor, Vader and Tarkin looking out on a prototype Death Star, especially one with the dish on the equator.

Firstly, a prototype Death Star has exactly the same issue as the real one - that it’s just part of the slideshow where pieces are put into place to line up with the OT.

Secondly, there’s nothing in the films that suggests a prototype was ever created, so I think it adds something new to the world without adding anything new to the plot, or any meaningfulness to our characters.

Thirdly, I think the reveal of the Death Star is really beautifully done in Rogue One (and well set up in Rebels, for those that watch that), and that seeing it early takes away from that.

For these reasons I think either of your initial ideas work (leave it, or replace with Coruscant) - personally favouring Coruscant.

EDIT:
One question though - while you are revisiting your edits, could you please consider releasing identical versions but retaining the original titles of the films in the crawls? I respect your right to put your mark on them, and to recognise them as significantly changed movies - plus I’m not a huge fan of the original titles - but personally I’d like to pretend that yours are the master versions as originally released. (I hope you take that as the compliment it’s intended as.)

Just another voice to back up this ^.

While the PT isn’t as great as the rest of the saga, a lot of us here do consider it canon and part of the full Star Wars story. So even though it’s understandable that some want to ignore it, please at least don’t make any changes that contradict it!

Personally, anything that makes me feel like it’s all one world (rather than prequel world versus original world) such as the addition of a battle droid in the sandcrawler junk, or a K2 droid on a Star Destroyer bridge, are always welcome - but that’s more personal taste.

Bear in mind that one of the main reasons that people are part of this community is because they really want to enjoy the prequels - the first high-profile fan edit was Ep1 and the prequels are the most fanedited movies of all time. So there are a whole lot of people who really, really want to make the prequels part of their saga.

It sounds like you’re taking the balanced approach, and besides, you owe us nothing at all and we’ll be grateful for whatever you create, but I just wanted to throw one more voice in the ring.

^ Love this!

Congratulations on the success of the challenge and meeting key milestones - absolutely well deserved ady and I can’t wait to see what you do with eps 4 and 6.

Here’s a question which I don’t think has been addressed yet: Will the Ghost (from the Rebels TV show) appear in your ROTJ (or indeed ANH)? A little cameo like your inclusion of Chopper at Echo Base would be awesome.

We know from Rogue One that Hera, Chopper and The Ghost are present at the battle of Scarif (so very much active at the time of the destruction of the first Death Star), and we now know from one of the Forces of Destiny shorts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_vQgnVnIM) that Hera, Chopper and The Ghost at the very least are present during the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. Given that, it’s not a huge leap to allow for their presence during the space battle of the Second Death Star - it’d be great to see it at least in the background of the odd shot.

Congratulations on ESB:R Ady and very good luck with ROTJ:R. Your two existing works are absolute masterpieces and I look forward to your last.

One important thing: There are a lot of passionate fans of yours here and elsewhere, and because of that passion you’ll be under a lot of pressure regarding certain change requests, the prequels you’re now not doing, etc. Please never let that pressure feel stronger than the support this community has for you. These are your edits, not ours - and while everyone’s passionately eager for different things, you have the absolute trust and support of this community. We are certain you will produce something incredible, and everyone will be utterly grateful for the final result, whatever form it takes.

Edit: I’ll be contributing cash early next month.

NeverarGreat said:

Watching ESB again last night, I had the thought that perhaps the second Wampa was supposed to be a female, and that the male which attacked Luke was elsewhere in that scene. I wonder if that was supposed to be the implication all along, since they had filmed several Wampas attacking Echo base.

Nah it’s not that. There’re interviews out there where they discuss that they filmed the Wampa originally on location, but that the original model got damaged in transit back before they did pickups back in the UK, so they had to rebuild it. It’s intended to be the same Wampa.

Ady’s problem is that if he were to try to imitate the Wampa it’d still be inconsistent with either of the existing ones, so he’s replacing both with one consistent model.

Possessed said:

So you’ll make Episode III: Less Grievances edit then? =)

Fewer Grievances! 😃

Sounds fantastic. This’ll probably become my archival version. I don’t think TFA needs much changed at all - I totally agree with HAL9000’s reshaping of the Starkiller firing, and NeverarGreat’s R2 database scan. Other than that some gentle trims to the humour make sense, but beyond that it’s just the Rathtar sequence which I never enjoyed.

You’ve said you’ll cut down the Rathtars - is this the version that I think appeared in HAL9000’s thread where they effectively release the Rathtars then just escape from Han’s ship, with none of the running around in corridors?

I put some thought into this back before The Last Jedi’s title was announced, and ended up suggesting it for a couple of the earlier films. I wanted to keep the titles as Original-Trilogy-Star-Warsy as possible without spoiling any plots.

1. RETURN OF THE SITH. Sith already a scary word, this implies an old threat coming back.
2. Clone Wars only really start at the end. But nothing really happens in this one. So could swing towards the relationship between ObiWan and Anakin (MASTER AND APPRENTICE, emphasising the training and that each have their own arcs in this film), or even something force-y, like DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE, as enemy plans increase and Anakin gets tempted. Maybe LURE OF THE DARK SIDE. Or DARK FORCE RISING.
3. TWILIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC: Implies the Clone Wars come to a major end, a falling, the start of a new chapter, but without giving away the plot like ‘Rise of the Empire’ might
   3.5) Rogue One is OK.
4. A New Hope is pretty good, but maybe The Last Hope, or even THE LAST JEDI, to show off how far hope has fallen and how dire things are. Or even REBEL STRIKE, though the action comes fairly late. Not convinced.
5. The Empire doesn’t even strike back in this film. Other than attacking a single rebel base. But it’s not really a retaliation. What happens? They flee Hoth, Luke trains in Dagobah, Vader captures them at Cloud City, Dad fight. So, no idea. LURE OF THE DARK SIDE could work here.
6. THE LAST JEDI could also work here, since Obi Wan is dead, Yoda dies/is in hiding, and it emphasises the odds against Luke. Though you have been told ‘there is another’ in Empire.
7. The force does awaken in a couple of people. But I like SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE because it shows the resurgent threat, and reminds you that the First Order is just the Empire reborn.

I’m sure there’ll be a re-release of IV when V comes out, but for now, is there a 1080p version of IV still available? As far as I remember the only version of IV that there was had a dodgy aspect ratio.

TV’s Frink said:

This collection of files is not updated anymore (it’s been a few years so it doesn’t include recent edits) but for a long time I did exhaustive tracking of every single change made to every edit I was able to get my hands on. If you go to fanedit.info and search “frink” you can find it in “The Prequel Cut List.”

Frink, I couldn’t find it there, and while I did find an older post of yours with all of the cutlists and the master spreadsheets by googling ‘Frink Prequel Cut List’, the megaupload links to the master spreadsheets weren’t available. Care to reupload?

Hal 9000 said:
That’s… a very not bad idea. Good call with the cut shot of Leia. I’ll hunt around for dialogue for Leia, if people would like to send clips of themselves yelling out, “Will the Republic send the fleet to help?” Or something like that.

Are any of these at all serviceable?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0hILHy8eM9s

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1hDxbdLhSkB

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0mLDkUABO0D

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1GLz7a60puE (There’s two in this one)

Recorded on my phone, but if there’s anything I can do with that to make it better quality or a more suitable tone, let me know.

DominicCobb said:

One last suggestion:

Episode VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire.

Failing to convince the New Republic of this emerging threat, General Leia Organa mobilizes a brave RESISTANCE as the First Order prepares a secret weapon that will secure their return to power.

Desperate for her brother’s help, Leia has sent her most trusted pilot on a daring mission to Jakku, where a clue has been discovered to Luke’s whereabouts…

Best one yet. I’d replace ‘prepares a secret weapon’ with ‘completes a secret weapon’, implying that (1) its threat looms over the plot, and (2) that it’s only recently been completed, so unlikely to be known yet.