Tobar said:
I would unrecommend Truce at Bakura. Sure it picks up right after ROTJ but it's so terribly written and from what I can recall nothing in it ever becomes relevant again. There is one poignant scene with Leia but that in no way makes the entire book worth it.
Thanks; I'll skip it then.
I've never really dipped very far into Star Wars books other than as a child. I have fond memories of reading the children's series "Glove of Darth Vader" and a series for kids about Anakin Solo. Also as a child, I read a few novels that closely relate to the films themselves, such as Shadows of the Empire, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and even Rogue Planet. That last one stuck with me enough that I noticed Episode II was "wrong" to show the Geonosians as the designers of the Death Star.
That's the extend of my EU novels background, though I've tried a few times to pick up post-ROTJ stories. I'd like to, at a somewhat leisurely pace, pad out the wait for Episode VII with some of the essential post-ROTJ books in roughly chronological order. I have little time for reading, but manage to cram a ton of podcasts into my life, so I could replace that with (abridged) Star Wars audiobooks in spurts. If a typical abridged audiobook is around 3 hours, I could easily listen to many of them. (If I go with unabridged or sitting down with physical books, this whole endeavor would not be feasible. I would not dream of approaching an abridged copy of Lord of the Rings, but this is Star Wars and there is a lot to get through.)
Here are the books I've gathered as being recommended as essential, or important in regards to ongoing plot. Please affirm the ones that should be read, suggest new ones, or de-suggest poor ones I may have listed. Assuming three hours apiece and two years to go for Episode VII, this could be halfway fun.
Truce at Bakura
The Courtship of Princess Leia
Rogue Squadron (#1)
Wraith Squadron
Tatooine Ghost (This one sounded interesting when it came out, synthesizing the PT and OT)
The Thrawn Trilogy (If I read nothing else, this seems to be the most important)
I, Jedi (Could this book be representative of the Jedi Academy trilogy for efficiency reasons?)
The Crystal Star
Hand of Thrawn Duology
Survivor's Quest
NJO - Vector Prime
NJO - Balance Point
NJO - Star by Star
NJO - Traitor
NJO - Destiny's Way
NJO - The Unifying Force
Betrayal
Crucible
Then I say it's the Taintive IV too. I don't care what some other nerd says about a cartoon.
But someone in a theater in 2005 was supposed to see it as a will-be remodeled Taintive IV? Does anyone have the novelization handy, to reference?
Continuity? Why would showing the Taintive IV in Episode III violate continuity?
Either way, the interior of the ships are obviously supposed to be extremely similar. I don't see a reason why that'd change his idea about matching the colors.
Sounds like a good plan. I might ask for selfish reasons for Windu saber correction as a companion to V1, though.
Helping AOTC and ROTS feel more filmic will help any fan edit.
Mace's saber is the only one that I think "needs" changing, though perhaps the relevant shots could be rendered a handful of times to give fan editors options.
But it's your project, and it is what you deem best.
Or I could edit them like TV's Frink, so the audience roots for them. They're almost like Daleks. "I'm afraid," "I know nothing of any invasion."
It's so tempting to throw in nods to Frink, especially to have Obi-Wan blurt, "You're sweating," to Panaka on Tatooine.
The only way I can imagine incorporating that idea would be in the opening crawl. But none of it would be backed up within the film itself.
You bring up some good ideas, but I don't think I'd be able to pull it off convincingly. These are not interesting villians, so I'm taking a conventional approach by downplaying them. This won't be a radical prequel re-edit by any means. Though it'll be much more thorough than my previous attempt.
Sure it doesn't make sense; nothing makes sense. Hopefully it's more of a mystery rather than something that plainly does not make sense. If the edit suggests focus on the characters, the specifics of the villains' motivation aren't really important.
That'd take some doing, and is outside my intentions for this edit.
The dialogue identifying Boba as a clone will be gone because it comes across as if it were important, when its not. If the film was released without that dialogue, I suspect everyone would still jump the conclusion that Boba was a clone.
Since I posted that, I decided to remove the description of Boba being an unaltered clone. Not so much to help rescue Boba's character, but because it is not necessary. So it'll be a more conventional approach in that regard.
If Bossk ended up becoming the popular bounty hunter character, it'd be an army of Bossks and Papa Bossk.
Cover artwork by user OnlyOneKenobi
This is version 7 of this fan edit. The only substantial difference for this new version is the use of deleted scene footage upscaled by bryantmh using AI for much better integration than in prior versions.
Running time is about 118 minutes.
The second of the revamped ‘9000 Series,’ The Approaching Storm delivers a re-crafted perspective on Star Wars Episode II in keeping with the drive of the original trilogy of films. Unnecessary ‘galaxy shrinking’ cameos from classic characters have been cut-down or removed. Anakin and Padme are depicted as realistic adults developing romantic feelings for one another. The political plot is made more straightforward and graspable. Superfluous action is subdued to make the film more story driven.
By stripping away extraneous tangents and bolstering attention to character development, this edit seeks to improve the original film. The original trilogy is regarded as the template toward which the prequels strive. The prequels are made to submit to the continuity and drive of the originals to the degree possible.
The following three goals are held in balance.
Special Thanks to:
Seciors, L8wrtr, TV’s Frink, Hundsdorfex, DominicCobb, Kerr, MrBenja0618, Jackpumpkinhead, Emanswfan, OnlyOneKenobi, Smudger9, DrDre, Schorman, Erik Pancakes, Sir Ridley, and NeverarGreat.
I could not have done this without the prior fan editors who have tackled this film, including Slumberland, L8wrtr, Q2, T528491, JasonN, The Phantom Editor, TM2YC, Seciors, MagnoliaFan, ADigitalMan, Spence, Father Merrin, Sithlord, and Diamond Wan.
Cuts and Additions:
The primary source material is a preservation of the HDTV version by OT.com user Schorman.
New title crawl, courtesy of Sir Ridley.
Camera pans down, rather than up, after the crawl, to maintain continuity with the other five films.
Removed Captain Typho’s lines before the ship blows up. Trimmed Corde’s death.
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.
Trimmed the scene in Palpatine’s office to remove unhelpful dialogue.
Anakin’s inappropriate compliments are trimmed in favor of making it a relatable awkward moment for him. It doesn’t give Padme pause.
In the interest of downplaying Obi-Wan and Anakin’s antagonism, their discussion about their roles in front of Padme is trimmed to get to the point.
Anakin does not talk to Jar Jar.
Removed Jango talking to Zam, to save his reveal for later and remove redundancy.
Removed scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin merely bicker.
Tightened Padme’s reaction to Anakin slicing the poison slugs.
Tightened up the speeder chase to remove overly dumb moments, dialogue, and physics.
Anakin doesn’t lose his lightsaber, and Obi-Wan doesn’t lecture him about it.
Cut Windu’s instructions to Anakin. It’s more effective characterization if Anakin decides to talk to Palpatine himself.
Removed Anakin complaining about Obi-Wan to Padme. Padme consoles him, and they acknowledge that Anakin has grown up. Padme’s only initial barrier to him has been dissolved.
Added two lines of dialogue from the removed scene where Anakin and Padme meet with the Queen to the refugee transport scene
Anakin doesn’t mention attachment being forbidden. This on its own doesn’t change anything drastically, but it’s not necessary to define the universal ‘Jedi Way’ so narrowly.
Added deleted scene where Obi-Wan and Mace talk on the landing platform.
Used extended arrival scene on Naboo.
Added first deleted scene of Padme with her family, replacing conversation with the new Queen.
Removed Kaminoan prime minister listing numbers of clone units. It lessens the power of their reveal in a few scenes.
Boba Fett is not described as being a clone. He probably still is a clone, but the pacing is off when the movie pauses to talk about him when nobody asked.
No fireplace scene. Instead, we have a sunset kiss that is interrupted by a scene transition. Scene has been regraded by NeverarGreat.
Trimmed Obi-Wan and Jango’s dialogue.
When Obi-Wan reports to Yoda and Windu, removed Windu’s perspective-less question about the assassination attempt.
Removed dialogue about the Jedi not being able to use the force due to the dark side clouding everything.
Lightly trimmed the fight in the rain.
Tightened up the chase through the rings of Geonosis. Removed childish Boba moments, and sped up the pacing.
Removed Threepio recognizing Anakin as “the maker.”
Trimmed Cliegg Lars’ dialogue that goes over the top to characterize him as a good guy.
Removed dialogue between Anakin and Padme as he plans to search for his mother
Removed scene where Yoda senses Anakin’s pain.
Removed Separatists’ walking conversation with Dooku, including the reveal that Padme’s assassination attempts stem from Nute Gunray’s pettiness.
Obi-Wan identifies Count Dooku as the mastermind of the assassination attempt, rather than Nute Gunray.
Replaced 3PO’s line about never having flown before, in order to complement a change made in ‘Cloak of Deception’ which gently implies a backstory for his character
Trimmed dialogue as Palpatine and company discuss what to do.
Jar Jar doesn’t fumble his words as he proposes giving Palpatine emergency powers. He also doesn’t seem caught by surprise when his colleagues applaud him. He appears more competent.
Threepio and Artoo stay on the ship and do not make their way into the battle.
Truncated the droid factory sequence, and used the deleted scene where Padme speaks with Dooku (FX of Anakin deactivating his now non-broken lightsaber courtesy of Sir Ridley)
Trimmed love confession scene to remove Anakin’s surprised reaction, because they had not decided not to get together.
Trimmed Nute Gunray’s dialogue during the Gladiator sequence.
Removed Threepio and Artoo from the battle, as well as trimming it up slightly.
Removed Geonosian war room sequences in order to remove the unnecessary Death Star cameo.
Lessened Obi-Wan and Anakin’s antagonism after Padme falls out of the transport.
Removed the Jedi giving the clones military advice; this helps establish the clones as competent soldiers and the Jedi as being dependent upon them.
Trimmed the duel with Dooku.
Removed an odd two-second shot of Anakin in pain prior to seeing Padme laying in the sand
Yoda does not take out a lightsaber. I borrowed one brief shot from L8wrtr’s edit.
When AOTC first came out, I read somewhere that reversing the audio of Dooku’s pilot droid sounds like, “Use the Force, idiot.”
Sidious does not address Dooku as ‘Tyrannus,’ and that title has been removed from the film.
Added credits for myself, workprint viewers, contributors, and acknowledgments of all other AOTC “FanFix” fan edits to date.
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I also offer an alternate version, intended to back off of some of the changes and fit in a little more easily with the wider Star Wars continuity. This version retains some bits and pieces of content as well as lore that some may prefer to have in their ideal viewing experience.
Here are the changes made, starting from the main Hal9000 fan edit:
This version features subtitles, though does not feature a commentary track.
Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The scene where Padme talks with Jar Jar while she cleans R2 was kept in order to avoid coming across as a fan edit. If Jar Jar is in the film, I can't cut him to the point that the audience suspects something is going on. So that scene helps address Jar Jar's presence. Hopefully Jar Jar's character arc in my edit will be to go from an innocent bystander who got caught up in things outside his control to a general who fights bravely and goes on to serve in politics.
I admit I was not sure whether to keep or cut the scene where Anakin goes to visit Padme while on Coruscant. I kept an eye on the runtime, and kept a few things like this that were not strictly necessary. I think it's a nice scene, and plays with the decoy subplot a bit.
I'm waiting on ewanswfan to provide updated sources for the deleted scenes, but everything else is pretty much done. There are a few continuity issues I'm going to tweak for the podrace, but other than that I'm pretty much done. If anyone is skilled and willing, I could use some help making cover art for this project.
Someone should do a mashup.
As stated at FE.org, this will NOT require an email address. I can send you a direct link via PM only.
I'm nearly ready to export a workprint release. It'll be distributed in a shared Dropbox folder. Anybody interested should PM me their email address. I'll get the folder set up, and the workprint should appear there either tomorrow or Thursday.
I'm particularly looking for people who can test the audio on a proper surround setup. Mine is sort of crap, and I need to buy some more blank discs to test it myself. Things like audio transitions, sound levels, music volume during the podrace, etc. And any other input is welcome.
Yellow sabers; whatever. Mace Windu with a blue saber; improvement. Glad you're having fun with things as you're putting in this work.
Eh, I just think its silly that Jackson has the only non-blue or green saber because he asked for it.
Sounds awesome! I'd recommend avoiding changing Qui-Gon's saber, since its somewhat iconic (and not silly). Dooku might be moot, but I personally wouldn't mind. It would help with editors who don't want him to be a Sith, and probably wouldn't hinder the opposite.
I wonder if you've thought about coloring Mace Windu's light saber blue. This project might be a good opportunity to fix a minor bone of contention some of us more conservative fans have with the prequels: Sam Jackson's silly purple saber.
Personally, I doubt anyone's fan edit would be detracted from by doing so. Just a thought.
That it was!
I was just being... [Plinkett_Voice] LAZY! [/Plinkett_Voice]
D'oh! It's "fanedit."
Hey, thanks. I'm always open to ideas. Would you be interested in viewing a workprint once one is ready?
And finally, here is a clip. It's my version, at present, of the podrace.
https://vimeo.com/69629597
Picture quality is poor, but the final result won't be. The deleted scene bits are temporary and will be replaced with a better source later.
Could he be made to look like he goes back to sleep?
And damn everything if that song isn't trapped in my mind now; curses and gnashing.