G&G-Fan

Hey it looks like a movie!

Each of my prequel edits now have their own thread because they’re more complex then when I originally started this project. I’m still keeping this thread around for the whole saga project tho. I’m definitely not creating separate threads for the OT edits.

Peonthegrate said:

Wow I’d love a link to this and your other prequel edits! Sounds great!

I should’ve specified. They’re in-progress.

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 feel more like a younger Vader, like Vader from the 2017 canon comics - understandably more emotional, but more 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.
Anakin does not lie to himself that the Jedi are trying to take over the Republic either. He knows what he’s doing is wrong and selfish, but he does it anyway, because he’s addicted to the dark side. He wants it.
Ideas from Hal9000’s Labyrinth of Evil, NFBisms’ New Canon Cut, and Bobson Dugnutt’s Expanded Edition are labeled as such.

Clips:
Draft of new Opera scene: https://youtu.be/A_h13JYRSBk
Draft of new pre-duel Mustafar scene: https://youtu.be/KV4CaKMZ8I8

New Palpatine lines done by Ryan Golden

Changelist:

• Various minor trims of tiny flubs.
• 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 dark side.
• Anakin doesn’t need to be told by Obi-Wan to “Let them pass between us” or destroy the shields to Grievous’ ship. “He was the best star pilot in the galaxy”. (LOE)
• Lovingly borrowed audio from L8wrtr’s edit in a few spots to remove battle droid voices. (LOE)
• Cut Anakin sensing Count Dooku and Grievous saying Dooku predicted their appearance. Spoils his appearance, and overloads the audience with too much information at once. (LOE)
• Cut everything from the original between General Grievous’ first appearance and the duel with Dooku. The hallway scene with the droidekas and battle droids in the elevator makes it unclear whether they want the Jedi as hostages or killed, and footage from the elevator sequence was needed for later use. The scene with R2 and the droids also incorporates the jet boosters that are an inconsistency with the OT.
• An edited version of the deleted sequence of Anakin and Obi-Wan encountering Grievous as he kills Shaak-Ti and their escape takes their place. Grievous killing Shaak-Ti also does more to legitimize him as a threat (it can be inferred he won a duel with her, a Jedi Master, off-screen). Anakin and Obi-Wan’s coordinated hand signals shows familiarity and precise teamwork. Obi-Wan being proven wrong about Anakin’s plan to hold back the explosion shows Anakin’s growth; they’re equals, now. (EE)
• Readded the deleted scene with Anakin speaking droid, edited to remove mention of Dooku.
• A nice lighthearted scene Anakin and Obi-Wan. With the cutting of the elevator sequence, it feels right. (EE)
• Cut Palpatine’s weird “Get!” after Obi-Wan cuts down the droids that came with Dooku. (LOE)
• Cut away as the railing starts to land on Obi-Wan. The original made it look like his legs were crushed. (LOE)
• Palpatine instructs Anakin to kill Count Dooku, and he immediately does it with no hesitation. “Mercy doesn’t defeat the enemy”. Anakin taking vengeance makes him feel powerful. (LOE)
• Trimmed Palpatine’s justification of Anakin’s actions, with the exception of citing revenge as “natural” and bringing up the sand people. Anakin’s remorse is 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” (which retroactively create some pretty big world-building issues). (LOE)
• Grievous refers to Anakin as “General Skywalker”. (NCC)
• Grievous and Anakin insulting each other’s age and height is still kept. Despite meeting earlier in the movie, this exchange can easily be interpreted as them just being snarky.
• Hal9000’s reedited version of “Try not to upset him” joke for better payoff. (LOE)
• Grievous quips, “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!”. (LOE)
• Replaced Jar Jar’s one line with Organa referring to him as “General Skywalker”. (NCC)
• Political subplot with Anakin, Palpatine, and the Council is moved to before the nightmare. 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 well aware of the Chancellor’s growing power and that Obi-Wan is in on the Council’s plans. (LOE)
• Restored “Adjustments to the Constitution” deleted scene in Palpatine’s office. Anakin says that he agrees with Palpatine’s authoritarian politics as well as his sentiment that the Jedi are holding him back because they know he is powerful and see him as a threat. He may know these are wrong, deep down, but he won’t admit it. He wants to buy Palpatine’s cons.
• Anakin’s appointment to the Council changed. His outburst is trimmed to his initial “What?”, cold looks of scorn, and “How can you be on the council…” (LOE)
• Borrowed audio work from MalàStrana to incorporate an eerie rendition of the Imperial March as Windu denies Anakin the rank of Master. (LOE)
• Rearranged shots so that Anakin sees Obi-Wan shake his head at him for his pride. (LOE)
• Reinserted the three deleted scenes that make up political subplot with Padme to give her more agency, emphasize the political conflict between her and Anakin. The first takes place between Anakin’s appointment to the Council and Obi-Wan telling him to spy on Palpatine. (LOE)
• 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. Works as a payoff to the mystery of his location and allows for a change in pace. (LOE)
• 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 his vision of Padme’s death. Anakin craves the power of immortality for himself. New Palpatine’s lines from a voice actor have been incorporated to change his monologue to be about cheating death rather then keeping loved ones from dying, though he does say that Plagueis could stop both himself and his apprentice from dying.
  • This change was inspired by Anakin’s line in ROTJ when he accepts that nothing can stop his death after Luke initially refuses to take his mask off. Now, Anakin/Vader has an entire arc throughout the saga about accepting his own mortality. This ties in with the almost undead nature of Darth Vader in the original trilogy.
  • I find it odd that Anakin, a person familiar with the fact that the Sith are pure evil and care about nobody but themselves, buys this story that a Sith Lord had loved ones. He literally said they think only about themselves a minute ago. The story being about Plagueis using the power on himself and his apprentice is far more believable. Also, the dude might be desperate, but you don’t notice how awfully convenient and on-the-nose this is? A day after you have a vision of your wife dying, a dude suddenly tells you the Sith could save people? Come on, man. Vader in the OT was perceptive.
• Intentionally kept Palpatine reducing the Council told Anakin to spy on him. I like the idea that Palpatine is essentially the only person that Anakin finds relief in. It emphasizes how much of a psychological grip he has on him.
• Remove Chewbacca from all Kashyyyk scenes. (LOE)
• Second Rebellion scene between Battle of Kashyyyk and Anakin and Obi-Wan saying goodbye.
• Intentionally kept Anakin’s apology and goodbye to Obi-Wan. 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.
• Cut Obi-Wan telling him he’s “trained him since he was a small boy”, as if he’s not an independent knight now. (LOE)
• After Obi-Wan leaves Coruscant is the final scene in the Rebellion subplot. This scene reinforces that Anakin wants Palpatine to be the Emperor of the galaxy. (LOE)
• After Obi-Wan arrives at Utapau is a modified Anakin-Padme apartment scene. Anakin does not admit that he feels lost, that the Jedi “don’t trust” him, etc. However, despite Anakin’s humble apology to Obi-Wan, he still craves power (“I want more”).
• The scene ends with Padme saying, “You expect too much of yourself” and Anakin responding “Is that bad?”. (NCC)
• Afterwards is Anakin’s nightmare of Padme’s death, the straw that breaks the camel’s back. 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? (LOE)
• 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. (LOE)
• Palpatine revealing himself to Anakin changed significantly. Palpatine doesn’t know of Anakin’s nightmare of Padme’s death. He pitches the dark side as the key to the power to cheat death, and that together they can learn the secret. Palpatine 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. Palpatine isn’t even actually lying to him, here. Anakin knows that the Sith’s ultimate goal is immortality, and that the dark side is the only 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 and he has known about for years. The execution of Dooku and telling of the legend of Plagueis was what he needed to know it was finally time to pitch it to him.
• Anakin catches onto Palpatine being a Sith quicker. (LOE)
• 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 are also gone, and he doesn’t mention the Jedi as much. 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; Darth Vader knows that he’s a power-hungry bastard, but screw it, he wants it. Just as in the OT.
• 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. (LOE)
• Cut Anakin’s, “What have I done?”. (LOE)
• 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.
• Trimmed excess Kashyyyk battle fat during the Order 66 sequence. (LOE)
• Anakin does not kill the younglings on-screen. (Labyrinth of Evil)
• Cut Yoda saying goodbye to the Wookiees. (LOE)
• Anakin does tell Padme propaganda, but this makes sense. He’s lying to her. That’s it.
• Padme doesn’t hear about a youngling slaughter, nor bring it up to Anakin. (LOE)
• Palpatine does not give Vader propaganda about bringing peace and justice to the galaxy.
• 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 possessive. (LOE)
• 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. (LOE)
• Remove Anakin deflecting anything on Obi-Wan, or trying to justify his actions by saying “his new Empire” has brought “peace, freedom, justice, and security”. Vader isn’t making excuses for his actions. As he says himself in the Canon Vader comics, he knows he’s a monster (this canonically takes place days after ROTS, by the way).
• Cut Padme’s, “You’re breaking my heart!”.
• Move Anakin’s, “Don’t make me kill you”, back to the shot of his back turned after Obi-Wan states his allegiance to the Republic, replacing the really cheesy, “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.”
• Cut Anakin and Obi-Wan, “From my point of view the Jedi are evil" conversation for the same reason I removed all of Anakin’s deflections. The only words exchanged are, “I have failed you Anakin…” and “This is the end for you my Master.”
• Qui-Gon’s voice (from The Clone Wars) added to Yoda’s meditating scene. (LOE)
• 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. (LOE)
• De-softened Darth Vader asking about Padme. He asks about her whereabouts in a very cold manner. He sees her as a possession, as he does in the Canon Vader comics, and his children in the OT.
• Vader’s “Nooooo!” replaced with a haunting, echoed angry scream.
• 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 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 invincible. 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.
Every edit ultimately emphasizes 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.

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. The Prequels portray his younger self as whiny, too talkative and explosive, and he turned because of a lie he should’ve seen right through. Tricked, rather then seduced.
My edits will change this. Light side Anakin will still be heroic, passionate and caring person. 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-esqe turn we really should’ve gotten with what’s available. But this is the next best thing.

Attack of the Clones gives us a lot more legwork to morph Anakin into a more Vader-like character, and set up his turn. Anakin is drastically altered to be colder, reserved, bolder, and even calculating, while still passionate and heroic with a soft inside. Anakin has a good heart, but also a lust for power.
Ideas from Hal9000’s The Approaching Storm and DsqrD Studio’s Shroud of the Dark Side labeled as such.

Changelist:

• Less confusing opening crawl. Clarifies why the Jedi are “overwhelmed” (they are overwhelmed as ambassadors, trying to negotiate peace between two warring factions).
• Remove Captain Typho’s lines before the ship blows up. Him commenting on how they’re surprised nothing bad happened ruins the surprise. (The Approaching Storm)
• Remove Corde apologizing to Padme right before her death. (The Approaching Storm)
• Added deleted scene where Padme addresses the Senate. This establishes some context for the political content of this film, as well as Padme’s post-Queen character. (The Approaching Storm)
• Added Anakin and Obi-Wan training scene from Obi-Wan Kenobi series. This does wonders to establish their friendship and Anakin’s character. Using Snooker’s edit of the scene.
  • This scene shows Anakin and Obi-Wan being warm and friendly towards each other. They’re both likable and clearly have a deep bond. This gives the audience an infinitely better first impression of these characters.
  • Anakin’s personality in this scene feels like a perfect meld between PT Anakin and OT Vader, which is a big goal. “Mercy doesn’t defeat an enemy” will be a recurring theme throughout the trilogy. Anakin believes in destroying his enemies, even if it requires diving into the dark side.
• Very intentionally kept Yoda saying that seeing Padme alive brings warm feelings to his heart. The Jedi are not the cold emotion repressors the fandom often likes to characterize them as.
• Removed Anakin’s “for a senator, I mean” line, and replaced Padme’s original uncomfortable reaction with a warm smile. Anakin is bold about his advances towards Padme and is rewarded. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Cut Padme’s “Ani, you’ll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine”. (The Approaching Storm)
• Heavily cut down Anakin and Obi-Wan’s argument about pursuing Padme’s assassin. Anakin and Obi-Wan are stable friends in this edit. (The Approaching Storm)
• Padme’s previously uncomfortable looks are replaced by a brief, knowing look from Captain Typho, informing his later line about Padme’s rashness. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Cut Anakin’s conversation with Jar Jar after Padme retires. Anakin is not forward about his feelings to people, except for when he’s trying to woo Padme. Bold, but reserved.
• Removed Anakin’s line, “I don’t think she liked me watching her.” (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Using Padme as bait is Anakin’s idea. It makes him more bold and calculating, like Darth Vader (using one person to lure another is very similar to his plan in ESB).
• Intentionally kept Anakin’s snark at Obi-Wan for telling him his powers “aren’t well attuned”. Reinforces Anakin’s ego.
• Removed “Just being around her again is… intoxicating.” (The Approaching Storm)
• Tighten Padme’s reaction to Anakin slicing the poison worms. (The Approaching Storm)
• Cut Anakin going on and on with his sarcastic comment about finding a speeder. Don’t over explain the joke. (The Approaching Storm)
• Trimmed Anakin landing on Zam’s speeder to make this move more intentional and successful. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Removed Zam firing her blaster at Anakin on the roof of her speeder. Anakin now short circuits Zam’s speeder with his light saber. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Anakin doesn’t lose his lightsaber, and Obi-Wan doesn’t lecture him about it. (The Approaching Storm)
• Intentionally kept, “Jedi business, go back to your drinks.” Subtle moment of authoritativeness for Anakin.
• Cut Anakin’s, “Tell us now!”. Colder Anakin.
• Cut Windu’s instructions to Anakin to tell Palpatine to force Padme to leave. It’s a more effective characterization if Anakin decides to talk to Palpatine himself. (The Approaching Storm)
• Cut scene with Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda in Jedi Temple hallways. A deleted scene taking place later replaces it. (The Approaching Storm)
• Trimmed Jar Jar’s acceptance of his duties to fill in for Padme in the Senate. (The Approaching Storm)
• Packing scenes ends with Padme saying “Anakin, you’ve grown up”, and Padme gazing upon Anakin as he silently plays with the small ball with the Force. Removes Anakin’s whining and characterizes him as more reserved. He doesn’t go on a rant without Padme asking. Also subtle way of showing Padme likes Anakin.
• Jocasta-Nu scene removed. The Obi-Wan subplot needs to speed up a bit, and we learn everything we need to know from the Yoda scene, which is more important.
• Yoda scene establishes that he trains the younglings, thus smoothing the continuity snarl with the OT about who Obi-Wan’s master is. It also shows some of Yoda’s impish sense of humor from the OT.
• Cut Anakin’s, “Attachments are forbidden.” The line delivery is awkward, and Lucas not explaining in the movies that he’s referring to the Buddhist definition (refusing to let go of things) and not the English one (emotional connections) has forever tainted the Prequel Jedi’s reputation in a way he didn’t intend. (The Approaching Storm)
• Cut Anakin’s, “You’re exactly the way I remember you in my dreams.” (The Approaching Storm)
• Deleted scene with Obi-Wan and Mace Windu readded. (The Approaching Storm)
• Intentionally added Windu’s line from the version of this scene with Yoda, “The boy has exceptional skills.”
• Trimmed version of deleted extended arrival on Naboo added. Padme opens up about her past to Anakin. (The Approaching Storm)
• Intentionally retained only one annoying Anakin moment where he gets mad at Padme for not recognizing that he’s in charge of security in the Naboo throne room. Reinforces Anakin’s ego. He loves being “the man”, and Padme undermines him, so he gets upset. All other unlikable Anakin moments are gone, so I think the audience will give him some grace here.
• Trim Kaminoan prime minister listing numbers of clone units. It lessens the power of their reveal in a few scenes. (The Approaching Storm)
• The scene in which Anakin and Padme first kiss is moved to later. The deleted scene with Padme and her family (The Approaching Storm) and the scene in her old bedroom (my idea) replaces its current place.
• Picnic scene comes before first kiss scene. Very intentionally kept Anakin’s authoritarianism.
• Cut Anakin, “I don’t like sand…”.
• Padme does not move away from Anakin’s kiss. She initially embraces it, but as we’ll see later in the film, backpedals.
• Cut Anakin’s line, “If Master Obi-Wan caught me doing this he’d be very grumpy.” during the dinner scene.
• All the overly flowery poetic talk during the fireplace scene is cut. It starts with, Padme’s, “We can’t, it’s just not possible”.
• Cut Anakin saying he can’t be rational.
• New Anakin nightmare that shows him facing a figure that represents his “Vader side” and losing. Heavily inspired by ESB cave scene.
• Trimmed Anakin begging Padme to go with him.
• A lot of young Boba Fett’s dialogue is cut. He’s quieter in this version. (The Approaching Storm)
• Trimmed Owen’s line “I guess you’re my step-brother.” (The Approaching Storm)
• Intentionally kept Yoda sensing Anakin’s pain. Shows once again that the Jedi do not repress their emotions, and they did care about Anakin.
• Anakin shows no remorse towards killing the Tuskins. He’s almost entirely cold about the ordeal. Any guilt is buried by the Vader persona. Anakin is too prideful to let people see his sensitive emotions. Anakin sees indulging in his anger and vengeance as strength, as it gives him the illusion of control.
• “I killed them all” scene heavily trimmed. Anakin is very reserved and stoic until he’s pushed by Padme enough to go on a short rant about his lust for power. He does not admit to being a mass murderer (therefore whether he killed “the women and the children too” or not is completely up to the audience).
• Very intentionally cut “I will even learn to stop people from dying” and left it on, “I will be the most powerful Jedi ever.” Puts more emphasis on power. Attachment is a part of a greater whole, not the center. We already understand he wants power partially to save others from dying.
• Cut Anakin’s, “…so much” during the funeral. The line delivery here is bad, and leaving it at “I miss you” is far more effective. (The Approaching Storm)
• Trimmed Padme incredulous reaction to R2. (The Approaching Storm)
• Changed the subtitles in Palpatine’s office to suggest that at least some senators knew that Syfo-Dias ordered the clone army, and that now it’s time for the entire senate to know. This also helps to confirm that Syfo-Dias did indeed order the army before Darth Tyranus took over the project following the Jedi’s death. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Cuts straight to Jar Jar after Mas Ameda says “He can then approve the creation of an army.” (The Approaching Storm)
• Jar Jar doesn’t fumble his words when proposing to give Palpatine emergency powers. He appears more confident. (The Approaching Storm)
• Edited version of the droid factory sequence which removes the droids and has Anakin save Padme rather than R2-D2. (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• This scene needs to be kept as otherwise the movie gets boring and it’s one of the few times we see Anakin’s Jedi skills.
• Insert deleted scene in which Padme and Anakin confront Dooku to release Obi-Wan. Dooku gives much more exposition about his political motivations, while Padme’s line highlights his hypocrisy and that his seemingly altruistic motivations are just a façade. (The Approaching Storm)
• Trim “Love Pledge” scene.
• Moved Anakin’s “I have a bad feeling about this” to before the monsters are released. (The Approaching Storm)
• The droid’s involvement in the Battle of Geonosis is removed. (The Approaching Storm)
• Rearranged the order of the Jedi reveal. When Mace says, “this party’s over,” we cut back to a reaction shot of Dooku. The Jedi reveal now comes after Dooku replies, “You’re impossible outnumbered” and Mace counters with, “I don’t think so.” (Shroud of the Dark Side)
• Trim Anakin and Obi-Wan’s argument after Padme falls out of the gunship. (The Approaching Storm)
• Cut Anakin just standing still and letting Dooku cut his arm off.
• Rearranged Dooku’s escape to be like the theatrical cut in which he leaves before we see Anakin and Yoda’s reactions. This makes it so it doesn’t seem like Dooku just sits around and waits to leave. (The Approaching Storm)
• Added Darth Vader breathing to end credits.

Changes that make Anakin more like Vader: as stated several times, Anakin is more reserved, colder, bolder, more calculating. Whininess is gone, replaced by an assertive ego. By removing things like, “It’s unfair!” it allows scenes like his reunion with Watto, which screams Vader, to shine more. This Anakin’s personality come across exactly what you’d expect from a younger Vader. The Vader persona was there all along, his turn is about embracing it rather then making the right choice and staying a good person.
Subplot with Anakin’s mother used to emphasis more of the powerlessness in Anakin’s life that culminates in his need for control, and thus his need to keep reinforcing his ego rather then overcoming it. He likes using the dark side, even if he knows it’s wrong.

I know I already made a thread for my saga, but I decided each one of my prequel edits would be worthy of a thread.

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. The Prequels portray his younger self as whiny, and too talkative and explosive, and he turned because of a lie he should’ve seen right through. Tricked, rather then seduced.
My edits will change this. Light side Anakin will still be heroic, passionate and caring person. 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-esqe turn we really should’ve gotten with what’s available. But this is the next best thing.

First, The Phantom Menace. While not as relevant when it comes to Anakin/Vader, there will still be changes that serve a purpose to his overall story.
Ideas from Hal9000’s Cloak of Deception labeled as such.

Changelist:

• New opening crawl that better hooks the audience. Dumbs down the jargon and specifically introduces the concept of The Force to first time audiences (since it isn’t done elsewhere in the entire trilogy).
• Cut Nute Gunray and Dofine finding out the ambassadors are Jedi and the scene of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan sipping tea. We cut straight from the Jedi’s arrival to Sidious’ introduction.
• Gunray consistently characterized as more confident (tho this is mostly a façade) to create a slightly more interesting dynamic between him and Rune. (Somewhat derived from Cloak of Deception)
• Trimmed unnecessary dialogue during throne room scene. (Cloak of Deception)
• Jar Jar throughout is portrayed as more of an everyman than a clown. (Cloak of Deception)
• (Some) underwater scenes moved to later, rest are cut.
• Cut Qui-Gon dismissing the battle droids as unimportant. (Cloak of Deception)
• Cut Qui-Gon having to repeat that he’s taking the people to Coruscant. (Cloak of Deception)
• Removed Jar Jar’s antics in the droid bay. (Cloak of Deception)
• Cut Neimoidians, “This is getting out of hand…”, “We should not have made this bargain”.
• Cut the where the Queen thanks R2-D2 and is told stuff we already know.
• Cut scene where Padme cleans up R2 and talks to Jar Jar.
• Cut Jar Jar stepping in poop. (Cloak of Deception)
• Watto’s subtitled conversations with Anakin in Huttese changed to make Watto more verbally abusive and alludes to off-screen mistreatment.
• Anakin throughout carefully characterized as more reserved. He doesn’t open up as easily.
• “I’m Padme” added to Anakin-Padme conversation because both other times Padme’s name is introduced were cut.
• Cut Padme, “You’re a funny little boy”.
• Drastically reduced Jar Jar’s antics in Watto’s shop. (Cloak of Deception)
• Removed Watto’s line that implies he was immune to the Jedi mind trick merely because of his species. (Cloak of Deception)
• Removed several instances of the line, “Yipee” throughout the film by various children. (Cloak of Deception)
• Trimmed Jar Jar and Anakin during the introduction scene for Sebulba. (Cloak of Deception)
• Anakin’s subtitled conversation with Sebulba changed to make Anakin more assertive and prideful.
• Trim introduction to C-3PO.
• Cut Shmi, “He knows nothing of greed”.
• Cut scene with Anakin and his friends and him turning on the podracer. Anakin has no friends. He has nobody except for his mother.
• Intentionally kept midichlorians (they’re not the Force itself, they’re the bridge between the Force and living beings; the Force is still entirely supernatural). Also the scene at night with Anakin and Qui-Gon is one of the best scenes in the film.
• Maul and Sidious on Coruscant and arriving on Tatooine moved to earlier. Adds more tension on the Tatooine scenes.
• Removed Jar Jar’s grin after Qui-Gon tosses the chance cube. (Cloak of Deception)
• Cut conversation about Anakin never having won a race. (Cloak of Deception)
• Trimmed introduction to the racers to focus on Sebulba and Anakin. (Cloak of Deception)
• Remove Jar Jar fart joke. (Cloak of Deception)
• Altered Sebulba and Anakin’s subtitled conversation to be less juvenile. (Cloak of Deception)
• Reinstated a deleted scene snippet where Sebulba attempts to flash Anakin with his vents. (Cloak of Deception)
• Reinstate deleted scene of Anakin beating up Rodian kid.
• Trimmed bad child acting during scene where Anakin discovers he has been freed. (Cloak of Deception)
• Added deleted probe droid scene to explain why Qui-Gon and Anakin are running to the ship. (Cloak of Deception)
• Lessened Jar Jar’s presence in the scene between Anakin and Padme en route to Coruscant. (Cloak of Deception)
• Removed Padme calling for Anakin on the landing platform. (Cloak of Deception)
• Mace Windu line changed to, “The Sith could’ve returned without us knowing” (removing the “I do not believe…” part).
• Removed Anakin’s unassured statement about hopefully starting his training. (Cloak of Deception)
• Removed scene where Obi-Wan apologizes to Qui-Gon and Jar Jar emerges from the swamp. (Cloak of Deception)
• Scene of our heroes evading underwater monsters moved to after the arrival back on Naboo. Serves as the protagonists searching for Otah Gunga as to recruit the Gungans to their battle. This makes the sequence feel more relevant to the plot, and therefore more tense and exciting.
• References to Jar Jar being banished removed.
• Trimmed meeting between the Naboo and Boss Nass, including Jar Jar’s hesitancy and cowering. (Cloak of Deception)
• Trimmed the battle planning scene, making Padme less verbose. (Cloak of Deception)
• Reduced Jar Jar’s antics throughout the battle. (Cloak of Deception)
• Anakin gets into a cockpit and leaps into action in order to help the Queen, and intentionally flies up into the space battle. (Cloak of Deception)
• Battle sequences restructured slightly to allow for Anakin to save the day rather than Padme. Originally, Anakin’s actions were redundant after Padme captured the Viceroy. (Cloak of Deception)
• Qui-Gon’s last words are trimmed to remove heavy-handed request for Obi-Wan to train Anakin, allowing Obi-Wan to “take it upon [him]self to train [Anakin] as a Jedi.” (Cloak of Deception)
• Trimmed Obi-Wan’s conversation with Yoda to imply that Obi-Wan wants to train Anakin himself, rather than to fulfill a promise to Qui-Gon. (Cloak of Deception)

Changes that add to Anakin being more like Vader: making Watto more verbally abusive to Anakin (implying way worse things have happened to him off-screen), his lack of friends, and beating up the Rodian kid. Emphasizes the powerlessness of his youth, which has manifested in aggression and need to assert himself over others (also shown in his conversations with Sebulba), and eventually, in the later two films, a lust for power.
Anakin’s lack of friends puts more emphasis on his connection with his mother and Qui-Gon.
Anakin is more reserved in this edit, thus making him more like you’d expect from a younger Vader. He’s naturally an introvert.
Intentionally cut Shmi saying, “He knows nothing of greed” to make him less innocent. Anakin’s entire reason for turning will be power, and the idea is that this lust for power begins here.

The scene in which Palpatine and Anakin meet in TPM, and the scene with Anakin and Palpatine in his office in AOTC, were both reshoots.

We almost got a version of the trilogy where Darth Vader and the Emperor do not have a scene together until the third movie.

What a mess.

All I did was lament Worley’s video, comment about how Worley has the ego of Ego the Living Planet (‘cause he does), and sarcastically restate one of his defenses. Most Prequel fans don’t take the position of, “The Prequels are good because they quote better movies”.

For example, Worley brings up parallels between Anakin’s fall, Frankenstein 1931, Bride of Frankenstein, and Metropolis. I love Frankenstein and Bride (haven’t seen Metropolis yet) and I think it’s cool that Lucas thematically tied elements to the movies, it doesn’t answer the criticisms of Anakin’s fall. Everyone knows that Anakin turned because he wanted to cheat death and became a monster because of it. That’s a great concept actually (IMO). Nobody was criticizing that, but rather the writing of Anakin’s path to choosing that.

Also for some reason Worley thinks that just because you quote a shot from another movie it means you’re implementing the themes from that movie into yours. Like when he acts like the droid factory scene is now about “the dehumanization of factory workers” because some shots are similar to “Modern Times”. Sorry, no, you actually have to implement that theme into the film on it’s own, without leaning on another film.

Channel72 said:

The Prequels are awesome because they’re stylistically designed to be that way.

The Prequels are good because they quote shots from better movies.

Servii said:

I was expecting it to be the Plinkett reviews. Nope, it’s the opposite lol

it’s the Ego the Living Planet of Prequel defenders

thxlogofan17 said:

it’s hard for me to explain, so this video explains it for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqnjzVX8EKA

uh oh…

An idea I’m using for my edit that I’d be honored if you stole: Anakin using Padme as bait is his idea. Makes him more bold and calculating like Vader, and using someone to lure someone else is basically also his plan in ESB, which makes him feel even more like a younger Vader.

Link doesn’t work.

Replace Vader “I am your father” reveal with Vader saying, “Luke, we need to cook”.

Me too.

Any ideas for how you’re gonna execute Anakin’s character and his turn?

For my edits I’m putting a lot of effort into making Anakin colder during his dark side moments and generally more reserved to match Vader’s personality from the OT.

I’m interested in seeing your unique take.

honestabe said:

Is there a reason why more edits do not place Luke on Dagobah at the beginning of the movie? The opening crawl would need to be changed to indicate Luke was training along with cutting out his line about coming back to complete the training.

It seems illogical that Luke’s skills as a Jedi would improve without any additional training. I also found it hard to believe that Yoda would completely flip flop on his insistence of Luke to complete his training to all of sudden going with, “never mind everything I previously told you.”

I also find it stupefying that Luke would decide to take off while the rebel alliance is on the verge of their final battle.

I was originally gonna do it, but I’ve changed my mind.

It messes with the pacing. Having two very talky scenes right after the Vader scene doesn’t work. Luke’s mysterious introduction is far better.

Luke is likely self-taught at this point. It’s not ridiculous at this point after his lightsaber skills established in ESB for him to get better with it, and raw force power is not reliant on training.

Isolated from the prequels there’s nothing that establishes that Jedi training takes any longer then it does for Luke in the OT. And even taking the prequels into consideration, Lucas seems to mostly attribute starting from a young age to learning the Buddhist practice of non-attachment early then anything else.

Yoda “flip-flopped” because Luke had overcome the personal flaws that prevented him from being ready in ESB. Luke’s flaws mostly came from within. He couldn’t lift the X-wing not because he wasn’t powerful enough, but because of his lack of belief in himself.

RogueLeader said:

Yes, I would love that Nev!

And G&G-Fan, the cool thing about this Boba idea is that there are a lot of little ideas I wanted to sprinkle throughout Act 1, but it is very modular, so other editors can pick and choose which things they’d want to take or leave for their own edits. They all would work on their own, but also will work great together. I’ll definitely share all of the assets once I get to that point.

What else would you do with your edit?

NeverarGreat said:

RJ, I’m still happy to try a ROTJ style Vader meditation chamber matte!

Ooooooooo I want one too!

I’d happily add the “Vader wants Boba Fett to capture Luke” subplot to my edit.

I would rather cut the Jocasta-Nu scene then the Dex one. The former is just flat and dull, the latter is dumb in a charming way. But that’s what my in-progress edit’s for I guess.

It’s funny because out of the three scenes, Dex, Jocasta-Nu, and Yoda, most people cut either Dex or Yoda when I prefer those scenes to Jocasta. At least those scenes have some personality in the dialogue.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

I’m attempting something like this, only Anakin would be knighted at the end of the film.

This is a very different concept tho, the idea here is that he’d end up being a knight for most of the movie.

This is to sort of minimize the issue of Anakin being too young through most of the trilogy.

Anakin is knighted in the middle of AOTC when the Jedi give him the assignment to look over Padme.

This gives Anakin a more mature, independent role through more of the trilogy, so you don’t have to wait until episode 3 for him to not be such an underling anymore. It might also make Obi-Wan’s concerns that Anakin isn’t ready more sympathetic. I think a major problem with AOTC is that you don’t really emotionally connect to either Anakin or Obi-Wan, our two protagonists, and by doing this is makes the audience feel like Obi-Wan has more of a point.

The only issue is it’d require removing the padawan braid from a lot of shots which would be extremely tedious and painful.

TBOBF was originally gonna be a subplot in Mando season 3 but then became it’s own show. That’s why everything so disorganized and messy.

What extended Jango shots?

What extended Jango shots?