Hal 9000

It’s the most liberal change I make to the prequels, true. Probably the one more than any other that threatens its viability as being a somewhat conservative replacement for the original version. However, while it’s liberal in that sense, it’s out of a conservative pull toward faithfulness to the way the original trilogy described the events. Padme dying in childbirth is probably the single most direct contradiction between the two trilogies. Editing Ep3 to have Padme live involved creativity and license in order to craft something compelling enough to justify seeming to cop out of the movie’s emotional climax. Thus, the whole edit is informed by this change. As one disappointed reviewer put it, I bent over backwards trying to justify that one change.
My prequel edits assume that the viewer is sitting in the theater on release day, familiar with the films that have come before. Going into Episode III, barring spoilers, one would not have expected Padme to die, but rather to go to Alderaan with Leia. When doing these edits, I have to work under the assumption that the audience has not already seen the original source material. This will not be the case, but it’s the conceit of doing any alternate cut of anything. As to the look and feel of the footage itself, from The Other Boleyn Girl, I admit it’s less than perfect. However, thanks to Hundsdorfex, it looks better in V4 than V3.
Here’s a fresh test clip has been rendered and uploaded, so you can have as realistic a look as possible at what it will look like in the final version. https://youtu.be/N5UmTwj6Y18

I understand and sympathize with what you’re saying. Having said that, LOE would be a totally different edit if I hadn’t wanted to use the ending with Padme living. If I were to leave it the same as it is, and only reinstate the original ending (past, say, the point at which the duel is over), the editing choices wouldn’t stack on each other toward that goal. It would still be coherent, but the reasons for how it got there wouldn’t be valid anymore. Luckily, L8wrtr’s and others’ edits of Episode III can be plugged in instead. Putting out an “alternate/original ending” version would be problematic for those reasons, and others such as the necklace seen in the funeral scene being missing from my edit of Episode I.
All things considered, I’d sooner watch an edit of Episode III that never sought to remove Padme’s death in the first place than try to contrive mine into that mold. L8wrtr’s edits are stellar in their own right, and there’s no continuity reasons that would prohibit one from subbing in his Ep3 for mine. I don’t mean that flippantly! His edit did not suffer from having Padme die because he never sought to change that part in the first place, whereas my edit was done from the ground up with that point of climax in mind.

Both of those concerns are expounded upon in Ep2’s commentary, but since it isn’t out yet, let me do so here in brief. The Tusken confession scene is gone primarily because of what it does to Padme’s character. She hears that Anakin commits genocide, killing women and children, and doesn’t care; she goes along with Anakin anyway. (This was especially problematic in AOTC, where at this point they weren’t together!) In Episode III, Padme learns that Anakin once again has killed children, and suddenly her heart is broken and she can’t go along with Anakin like she did when he did the same thing before. Also in Episode III, Palpatine references Anakin’s Tusken slaughter, giving us some characterization of Anakin as being willing to confide his dark secret to Palpatine but not to Padme. Plus, it’s a painfully awkward scene. (Cliegg’s funeral monologue is kept in order for the scene transition from Anakin arriving with Schmi’s body to function better. Seemed abrupt to wipe straight into Anakin walking up to the tombstone. Cliegg’s dialogue establishes the scene.)
The droid factory sequence is garbage IMHO. It was cobbled together in post-production, uses random music tracks from elsewhere in the film (including Yoda’s theme), and feature’s Anakin once again losing the use of his lightsaber. (Not to mention the Threepio antics and R2 flying.) I do not harbor any love for that sequence, so instead we get Anakin going along with Padme as she elects to try a diplomatic approach. It seems like what we get in the deleted scene is pretty much what Padme hoped to try to do before stumbling onto a big action setpiece.
Although, I went ahead and silenced the dialogue as Padme looks out her family’s kitchen window as you suggested; very good idea.

Sorry, it’s too abrupt for me. The last phase of the film is important to get to feel as unlike a fan edit as possible, given how much has been done to it.

The scene where they talk about their ‘first time,’ as it comes across, seems weird to me. It’s not a big deal, though. I’ll think about that one, though, as it might not be a bad idea to put it back in, especially since the lead-in scene transition is the same as AOTC anyway. (We aren’t coming into the scene from a different scene from AOTC, now that I reshuffled the scenes to include the extended arrival on Naboo.)
At any rate, the cow tick scene is in because I believe it functions much better given how the film has progressed up to that point. It’s a nice parallel or foreshadow of Anakin taming the beast in the arena and (sort of) saving Padme as a result. Editing gives the scene a different feel than it had in AOTC, with the solution being to fix the film around it rather than just cut out the “bad parts.”

Town32 suggested to make sure to select “Do not change SEI and VUI data” in tsmuxer. There was one other person who had trouble playing it on a PS4, though that was before we found out checking that box solved a great deal of people’s problems.

That was certainly a surprise! (There being another trailer at all, I mean.) It is a very nice companion to trailer 3, giving us a bit more.

Eh, the characters on screen aren’t phased by it, so having them address it plainly at least solidifies it as a thing on their planet. I like hearing them touch on it rather than letting us scratch our heads. But even so, the scene strengthens their growing bond. Now to shuffle the commentary track around and supplement it.

Well, spending a little time this evening experimenting on this yielded a good scene ordering that includes both the extended arrival on Naboo and the Naberrie family without demanding crap scene transitions. I believe it was the same scene ordering I tried quite a while back, but it seems like a fresh attempt make it work.
The order of scenes for this chunk of the movie will be as follows: Landing platform with Mace and Obi-Wan, extended arrival on Naboo, arrival on Kamino, Naberrie family, touring the cloning facility, picnic, Fett’s quarters, sunset dinner and nighttime kiss, and Obi-Wan reporting to Mace and Yoda.
Many of those scene transitions are original to the film itself, so I think it’s a net gain anyhow. The longer the v4 source materials are delayed, the better things can potentially get, but v4 will be the end of the road.

It’s really too bad they wear different outfits or one scene could lead directly into the other.
Some time ago, I crammed both into the movie as a test, but it really did an unpleasant number on the scene transitions during the body of the movie, from what I remember. I certainly won’t decide right now, and I value your input.

I appreciate your input, and I think I’m right there with you. Please note, however, that I would not be including the bits with Anakin talking with the father outside; that was edited into that youtube video from the BluRay.
I have both versions of the edit in timelines right now, so it’s not like I have to do any additional work at this point other than deciding. Though, I am leaning slightly toward breaking from V1-V3 and most prior fan edits by using the walk 'n talk.

Here’s the extended walk and talk scene: https://youtu.be/LDPmS7a1UYo?t=5m15s
And here’s the alternative, the family scene: https://youtu.be/LDPmS7a1UYo?t=9m3s

Looking at it again, the extended walk 'n talk does provide a nice segue in the process of their developing relationship. It really would make a great deal of sense to include it in my trilogy, given what I said above. However, it would be another walking and talking scene, rather than seeing Padme demonstrate repressed feelings for Anakin. I’m torn on this, and using the extended scene would be a “road less travelled by” in fan editing AOTC.

Let me address the family deleted scene a little more. Based on how I’ve structured the film, we could have either the family deleted scene or the extended arrival on Naboo. The meat of the family scene is Padme denying her feelings for Anakin in an unconvincing way. However, the scene does have some ramifications because in my edits we never see or hear about these people before or since, raising questions about her roles as queen and senator that are under-addressed due to the loss of the arrival walking scene and scene with the new queen. If I were to include the extended arrival scene instead, we get sufficient exposition regarding this, but it’s more telling than showing. I do like the line that Padme wanted a family of her own.
I appreciate the value of both scenes, but I think the power of showing Padme’s feelings is greater than just telling them. If I held the axiom that the original film is a valid thing to defer to, which no one should, I’d probably have decided on the extended arrival because it’s less drastic of a change.
What do you all think? It’s not to late to change it, since including the family scene makes less sense than it does in some other edits with different considerations.

I’ll revisit it and see if I can’t contrive something. 😃

EDIT: https://vimeo.com/144450369
Thanks for the suggestion; it was super easy!

I tried that during my first pass at the movie, but it was impossible due to the bleedthrough from ROTS and ROTJ both.

I’m surprised at the enthusiasm over the Japanese version over the Russian. The Japanese doesn’t feel like a good match to me, and doesn’t seem any less cheesey, sounding like Vader’s new stomach is having indigestion. The Russian sounds like a Hayden/JEJ hybrid yelling a non-word. But the safest bet will be to just leave it alone. I could do alternate audio tracks, but it seems a little silly over one small thing.

It seems like there’s not really a strong consensus among you all here at OT.com, commenters at FE.org, and the friends of differing levels of interest in Star Wars I reached out to. Some prefer the Japanese audio, others the Russian. Someone whose opinion I value as a film guy who isn’t into Star Wars voiced a strong preference for the English version, appreciate it’s operatic cheesiness.
Here’s where I’m at with this. I already declined the Japanese audio once, and I do feel like it’d be a long-term misstep to use it for this final version. It seems iffy at best to me. The Russian audio isn’t bad, but only if one’s brain is willing to believe Hayden Christensen is still under the mask screaming out in his own voice. It’s not a seamless match, though it seems to fit better than the Japanese audio, recalling the prior scene with Hayden screaming in a similar way. (The Russian audio track uses the groaning of JEJ, and a very similar voice was used for Vader’s dialogue, implying that the people behind the dub thought the scream blended in well with what was already there.) However, staying with the English version is the more conservative choice, and has the least likelihood of causing me a twinge of regret when viewing this years down the road. It never really bothered me that much; it’s not much sillier than the rest of the movie, and fits the Frankenstein hobble and sentimental dialogue from Vader in the scene.
So, I’m going to strike out the Japanese audio. What do you all think about the Russian alternative? Does it fit in well enough to merit breaking away from the default English version without taking a newcomer out of the movie? Clearly, I’m a bit leery of making a big change all of a sudden for the final release. I hope you all know I value your input, regardless.

I don’t know any way to do it without lowering the pitch of the whole thing, music and all.

Just to be clear, I’m still leaning toward the safer choice of leaving the English version alone, and the other options are officially on trial status.

Here’s another mockup from CommanderBen, this time using Russian audio track. Again, ignore audio and video weirdness; the yelling is the only thing in question.
https://youtu.be/It0Ird3zFeY

If it doesn’t have any hilarious comment at the bottom of the screen during the 20th Century Fox logo, it’s the most recent version. V4 also has the “short negotiations” line. Also, you can check the enclosed readme file.
As far as viewing order, I have no recommendation. My edits weren’t done with any intent on making the prequels more suitable to be seen first, or in any order. I’d advise making such a decision the same way you would with the actual films. (Personally, I lean toward release order, with machete order as a fun alternative.)
FE.org user OnlyOneKenobi did the cover artwork, and he’s been missing for quite a while. So I don’t have anything else other than what he provided. It’s very nice, though could use an expansion.

Hopefully you haven’t spoken too soon, but thanks very much.

Good grief. I’m glad my PT edits have a hardcoded WARNING message at the beginning, but Harmy’s can’t really do that. I’m rally-able; what should we do?

Thanks for the interest! Subtitles have been discussed in the past, but it would be a very large project that I don’t care to invest in. If there were a way to take the existing subtitle files, edit one of them to be correct, then be able to apply those changes to the other language tracks automatically, I’d probably do it. But it would take so much work and it’d only result in an English track. Not so special. And I haven’t heard of any fan edits with full subtitles tracks that aren’t in another language to begin with.
V4 will be the final iteration of this project. Episode I has been released in V4, through the torrents and Mega links found at FanEdit.info. Episodes II and III are awaiting the completion of Schorman’s HDTV preservation project in order to use it as the primary video source and bypass the BluRay transfer’s oddities. I don’t have a definite date, though Episode III shouldn’t be much longer, as it sounds like he’s about done with that one. However, don’t hesitate to download and enjoy V3 for II and III in the meantime; there’s nothing wrong with them or anything.
I don’t know how old your kids are, but I’d be interested in how they perceive all six films, but particularly anything related to changes made to the prequels. When my niece watched the films with us, she was challenged at school to a Star Wars trivia game, and she only missed one question. The question involved the circumstances of Padme’s death, which she insisted she was right about. Oops! Probably should have explained some of the differences to her afterward, though she did know she was watching a fan edit. Part of the benefit is being able to not think about the originals and enjoy them as their own thing.

Yeah, CommanderBen put the clip together, but the only thing in question is the Vader yell. I won’t be modifying the video from Schorman’s source. And I’d remix the audio anyway. Thanks for chiming in; a preliminary consensus seems to slightly prefer the Japanese yell, though it too is a little weird.