G&G-Fan

When did he bash fan preservations?

Well in this case it’s because it takes the time to show and pull direct quotes from the books being referenced for research

I remember watching that video awhile ago and actually thinking it was cool and informative and it’s used all over the place to try and prove the whole “George Lucas bad” campaign.

Then I came across this video. This really well-researched and thought out video that actually has credible sources and shows them really well… and it basically proves that RocketJump’s video is a bunch of lying, bias nonsense with misdirection and misinformation across the board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqVGz6mOVE - (Mod Edit: a 2 hour video from the Nerdonymous youtube channel, titled ‘How “How Star Wars was saved in the edit” was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really)’).

So uh, yeah… Goerge Lucas didn’t suck and it wasn’t the editors that created Star Wars.

Sorry.

Mod Edit - 15th March: for clarity and a forewarning… the Nerdonymous video states the RocketJump video is “simply an attempt to discredit George Lucas” - and spends 2 hours attempting to discredit the RJ video in an abrupt, mocking and patronising manner - along with showing animals repeatedly defecating in it. The Nerdonymous video is aimed at appealing to pro-George Lucas fans out there, takes aim at OT fan preservations and later claims some fans “they want to burn him (Lucas) to the ground” & “they want to take everything away from him (Lucas)”.

The RocketJump video is… ‘‘A video essay exploring how Star Wars’ editors recut and rearranged Star Wars: A New Hope to create the cinematic classic it became’ and is about the power and effects of film editing in general. The RJ video does feature a few factual errors - though some of Nerdanyomous claims and statements in his video are obviously nothing to do with RocketJump… but his issues with fans he considers not to like George Lucas - or fans seemingly acknowledging or praising others’ contributions to the making of the Original Trilogy.

“I think George’s ‘ace in the hole’ was that he surrounded himself with an incredible team of people to work with, and listening and collaborating with them to help refine his incredible vision.”

^ The RocketJump video in summing up - which not only applies to the editing of the film - but also the overall making of Star Wars itself. (Not forgetting, of course, that near-on all films are ‘made’ / ‘saved’ in the editing process.)
 

The RJ video does NOT claim that ‘George Lucas sucks’ - or anything like, nor that ‘the editors created Star Wars’ - as the OP stated.

rastanz said:

Hello there!

Mocata said:

The Force and the microbes are separate entities. And yet doing a blood test for them is normal, as if the Force power level is measured in Midochlorian XP. Once again the prequels try something vaguely interesting but muddle it so badly that it never works. Mysticism and biology become blurred making the whole thing reductive and stupid.

Now try and re-write this by saying that they are attracted to a Jedi somehow, maybe that would work. Maybe those who train hardest can absorb more of them and gain mysterious wisdom or something. But claiming that they talk to the Jedi and it never gets mentioned again? Just nonsense.

At the end of the day people like feeling as if they can vicariously live out the adventures of Luke etc. But if you say Luke is only strong with the Force thanks to his high M-cell count because of hereditary traits? Big surprise everyone hates it.

Because the more midichlorians someone has, the better they’re connected to the Force, because midichlorians are the bridge that connects things to the Force.

Also Luke literally says “The Force is strong in my family”. In fact there are multiple lines in Return of the Jedi that talk about how the Skywalker bloodline has a hereditary affinity for the Force (I believe Yoda also says this to Luke), so this isn’t a prequel concept.

I never understood how this whole misconception of “mIdIcHlOrIaNs rUiN tHe fOrCe’S mYsTiCiSm” thing started, it honestly really just seems to be that everybody just turned their brain off as soon as Qui-Gon started talking. It directly contradicts what’s said in the movie.

https://youtu.be/rU_wrhQrDh4?t=175

“Without the midichlorians… we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force.”

Clear statement that midichlorians and the Force are separate entities. It couldn’t be more clear. And yet everybody whined for a decade. It’s so stupid. It’d be like if when Darth Vader revealed to Luke that he’s his father, people went “Is really he though?”

Anakin actually turns to the dark side because Palpatine promises to teach him how to return to monke

“He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even return to monke”
“He could actually return to monke?”
“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural”

“I will do whatever you ask”
“Goooooood”
“Just help me return to monke”
“To return to monke is a power only one has achieved but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret”

May I ask how you remove the original music from the audio when you go and add new music?

More like 200% despecialized since you posted this twice

Self explanatory. ESB or ROTJ?

Kinda of a toss up for me. I think the actual dueling itself (the choreography and looking at it from an entertainment standpoint) in ESB is better, and plus it has the iconic “I am your father” reveal which is awesome and never gets old. But I think in terms of the story and context, ROTJ’s is better. The ROTJ duel is a battle for Anakin’s soul. It makes sense for the duel to not be as long as Luke doesn’t actually want to fight his father, and deep down, Vader doesn’t want to actually kill his son. The character stuff between Vader, Luke, and Sidious is excellent, A Jedi’s Fury is an amazing piece of music, Luke rejecting the dark side is great (I love how ROTS mirrored this battle with Anakin and Dooku), and Vader’s Redemption is my favorite scene in all of Star Wars. Scratch that, in all of cinema.

What are you guys’ thoughts?

I really love the moment when Vader telepathically contacts Luke and Luke immediately and instinctively replies with “Father?”. It shows that he really did know the truth deep inside.

Tbh I think every ROTJ edit ever has removed it. It’s pretty much universally agreed that it’s awful.

Servonian said:

Just watched the edit - really enjoyed the changes, especially the major changes at the end (Kylo, Rey is nobody etc). Thanks for the hard work!

Wrong thread

Wanting to improve the films shows care for them. If they didn’t care about them they wouldn’t bother putting in the time, money, and effort to do things like re-matte an entire sequence to make it look better. When you don’t care about something you don’t put any effort into it, you just ignore it. Pretty sure adywan does his edits out of love for the movies.

crissrudd4554 said:

Ohhhhhh I don’t even know where to begin with this…

I’m assuming you’re going to bring up a lot of the other flaws or mistakes that they didn’t fix, and while I agree it’s annoying that they didn’t fix those, they still did a lot. They literally redid the mattes for the entire Battle of Hoth.

I love it! I actually love the new music, especially the integration of the Imperial March at the end, that was perfect. In fact I honestly think that same music should play through that whole scene starting with Vader and Leia.

I read your article on WIRED and since I’m not sure where else to post this I thought I may as well do this here.

Most of your article is actually good and informative. However, one thing from it honestly rubs me the wrong way: “Then, when the film does return to Jedi’s main heroes and their celebration, their scenes together are cut to ribbons, shifting focus to the main characters of the prequels: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Shots of the protagonists of this trilogy hugging and smiling at one another are gone, replaced by ghosts from other movies.”

What?

Which version of the special edition did you watch? Certainly not one that actually exists. I’m curious to see whatever alternate universe version of the end of Return of the Jedi you watched. None of the main characters of the original trilogy had their scenes cut in the ending. A couple shots were shortened by a couple seconds to fit with the new music and nothing more. It’s not even noticeable at all. They literally ADDED a shot with Wedge, an original trilogy character, so there is no way you can actually say they tried to remove the original trilogy characters from the ending. They were not “cut to ribbons” at all. And what do you mean “shifting the focus to the prequel characters” and “replaced by the ghosts”? The ghosts literally had more screen time in the original version of the movie then in the special edition. You’re acting like they gave the force ghosts a ton of new screen time when they didn’t. They still only appear for a grand total of three shots. What you’re saying would be like if they cut the shot of Luke and Leia reuniting and replaced it with one of Anakin and Obi-Wan reconciling, which didn’t actually happen. Most of the scene still focuses on the original trilogy characters. I seriously don’t understand how you got this impression. Your point was already very well made, you didn’t need to exaggerate anything to support it even more.

Also it seems that you don’t ever acknowledge that the changes could have multiple purposes. You say everything was just for the sole purpose of practice for the prequels while not realizing that maybe it was killing two birds with one stone: making changes George wanted to make while also allowing to test new techniques. If they actually didn’t care about the original films at all, why would they fix up some of the garbage mattes, redo the wipes, revamp the sound mix, and do every other change that objectively improved the films?

I honestly would still like to see what Adywan had planned for Boba’s new death.

Interesting. I’m glad to see there’s a version that reinserts Hayden Christensen.

I would also definitely recommend using the special edition version of the Rancor scene and the scene in which the Emperor sends Vader to the command ship to get rid of terrible black lines around the Rancor in the entirety of its scene and Vader in one of the shots.

Not sure if this would really be considered radical or not, but maybe add some ads visible on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith advertising Anakin as “The Hero With No Fear” just like in the lore, showing how Anakin has become celebrated as a war hero, showcasing some of the propaganda Palpatine has been pushing to further his agenda, and also adding a bit of irony considering fear is the exact thing he gives into in the film.

I’m honestly interested in seeing your versions, especially Revenge of the Sith. I don’t have a problem with the way his turn was done in the movie but I’m interested in seeing a different take.

BedeHistory731 said:

Better yet - photoshop in a 2001 Honda Civic next to Yoda’s hut.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Was thinking of doing that in my ANH and ESB edits actually.

Damn you outright dissing on hedgesmfg’s edit

Though I’m not sure if I can help (partially because I’ve never used saber and also because I don’t entirely understand what you mean) it looks fantastic so far!