Judge

So Adywan hasn't confirmed any changes? That's fair enough, I guess.

I know this is a little bit off topic, but does Adywan have a plan for things he'd like to cut/change in Jedi? I'm not asking for a definitive change list or anything, but have their any hints or rough lists yet?

Signed the petition as soon as I arrived. Hopefully it'll work.

Not a bad idea. It would be difficult to work in though, wouldn't it?

Ah, yes. I thought that was a bit odd. :P

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Agreed. Much uber.

I think (and this is a gripe that most people have with the PT) it needed a main villain. Maul, Dooku and Grievous were all throwaways - nowhere near as threatening as Vader was in the OT. Sure, you had Sidious constantly in the background plotting away, but he doesn't really do anything. A main villain that is only defeated in Episode III would be a nice addition. Of course, to avoid this villain from being an exact copy of Vader, a certain degree of moral ambiguity could be added to the equation - perhaps develop the idea that was partially explored with Dooku, in that the villain believes that their actions are a necessary evil to save the Republic. Ambiguous, but not afraid to get the job done. The main characters need a constant, menacing, dangerous adversary.

That brings me neatly on to the next issue; the main characters. I felt that, considering Ewan MacGregor's excellent acting talents, Obi-Wan Kenobi should have been the main character in the PT. His personality jumps around a lot in the PT as we know it, from a stiff young learner to a renegade Jedi Knight and finally to a Jedi Master that languishes somewhere in-between. Instead, Obi-Wan should start as an over-confident and sometimes arrogant Jedi Knight, who believes himself more than capable of training Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi when he is not. This sets him up to fail his instruction of Anakin and go into exile.

Anakin Skywalker's seduction, in my opinion, was handled extremely badly. All of ten minutes of RoTS is dedicated to Anakin's fall, and as a result it feels extremely rushed. Episodes I & II should have established the Clone War, and the slow decay of the Republic, with Episode III almost exclusively dealing with Anakin's demise and his hunt for the remaining Jedi. To retain the shock felt at that pivotal moment in Episode V, the characters of Anakin and Vader should be kept separate - in Episode III, Palpatine has begun to circulate rumours around the galaxy that a powerful Jedi has emerged from the shadows; one evil more powerful than the aforementioned main villain. Anakin, now shrouded in a cloak that hides his true identity, has begun to hunt down the Jedi order. Information surrounding this should be kept to a bare minimum. Only Obi-Wan and Yoda know the truth of Anakin Skywalker's fall, and they keep quiet about it - they go into exile at the end of Episode III, which leaves all of the major reveals for the next three episodes.

One idea that I do agree with from the PT is the idea that a Jedi must not know love - thus, most of the love story can remain relatively unchanged. The thing I would like to see altered would be how this plays into Anakin's downfall. It would be interesting to see Palpatine plant the idea that Padmé is also having a love affair with Obi-Wan in Anakin's head. This would once again strengthen Anakin's hatred for Obi-Wan, which could be fulfilled in Episode IV.

I know I've left out a number of things, but this is the bare minimum of elements that I would change to make the prequels into much more of an OT-ish experience.

Yoda and Palpatine never use lightsabers. Ever.

Back in the late '90s my mother gave me a copy of the Star Wars Trilogy boxset for Christmas - the 1997 Special Edition versions on VHS, with the black and white colour scheme.

Up until now I thought they'd been thrown away when we moved house, but I find it hard to believe that I (an avid Star Wars fan without a DVD player) would have lost or gotten rid of the VHS tapes just because the family was moving house. I'm convinced they're still lurking around in the attic somewhere, and I'm eager to find them.

Do you guys think it's worth transferring the VHSes to DVD or hard-drive if I find them? I'd like to retain them as they hold some sentimental value for me, but do you think I'd be better off just finding a good quality LaserDisc rip of the 1997 SE? Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Just realised it must have been the early '00s, not the late '90s.

Holograms look awesome.

That clip does as well, TheOdo.

That's a good point.

Maybe the tractor beam didn't stop the Millenium Falcon from going into hyperspace because the Empire expected the hyperdrive to be deactivated? Perhaps they only had the generators on a low setting, or something. The Empire aren't really known for their thriftiness, though. 

Well, the Death Star was likely fitted with interdictor field generators anyway. Just because Han didn't mention them doesn't mean they weren't there.

I like that idea, but I think it makes the staffs look a tad bland. Perhaps add red stripes or something to the handles to spice them up a bit? That would take a lot of work on film, I suppose.

Nicholas J. Michalak said:

Well, the Tantive IV was caught in the SD's tractor beam in ANH.  That's how the Empire commandeered and boarded the ship.  And I would think that if you tried to engage your hyperdrive while in a tractor beam, your ship would likely get ripped to pieces.  Either that, or it would be like slamming on the accellerator while your wheels are locked - you're just gonna burn out the engine.

I know Adywan is ignoring the EU for the purposes of this edit, but the only thing that can stop a ship from going into hyperspace is an interdictor field - tractor beams are comparatively weak. Just a thought.

zeppelinrox said:

I'm  not sure what that error means.

Better google it and find people with similar problems.

So you got the error while playing back the VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive, right?

It's real odd that it would be okay with MPC but not VLC.

No, I got the error while playing the DVD from my DVD drive. It doesn't matter, I'll try the PAL DL version.

Hmm. That's odd, I hadn't checked it in VLC before, but when I did I got the following:

Your input can't be opened:

 

VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd://D:\'. Check the log for details.

But then, when I tried it in Media Player Classic, it worked fine. Any ideas? It'd be nice to avoid downloading the whole DVD again.

Really? I already tried burning the NTSC version to a DVD+R and it didn't work in my DVD player, PS3 or even my PS2. Is it just the type of DVD I'm using?

Sadly, the only ways to retain the surprise would be to cut all mention of Darth Vader from the PT or do what TV's Frink said. Unless you fancy making three new movies that can serve as the PT for hardcore fans.

But yeah. As far as I'm concerned the OT is a contained story and as such I don't think the PT is really necessary. Just my thoughts.

zeppelinrox said:

Judge said:

I very much enjoyed the NTSC versions of both Building Empire and Returning to Jedi.

Unfortunately I have a problem; I live in the UK, and as such I require the PAL versions of the films if I want to watch them on my DVD player. Does anyone know what the significance of the 'IFOFIX' is?

 

If you're talking about the merged DVD that I put together, I mentioned in the readme text (in my first post) the purpose of the ifofix. It merely removes non existent chapters from appearing in the DVD navigation menu.

Without the fix, the DVD will still use the same chapter points that are on the original Miami DL PAL disc so it really isn't necessary to use the fix.

Of course this merged Miami DVD is in PAL format and the fix applys to this disc and only this disc.

It's of no use to any other PAL or NTSC version.

I think that you should just download the PAL versions anyway. As a bonus, the video quality is much better.

I see. Thank you.

I very much enjoyed the NTSC versions of both Building Empire and Returning to Jedi.

Unfortunately I have a problem; I live in the UK, and as such I require the PAL versions of the films if I want to watch them on my DVD player. Does anyone know what the significance of the 'IFOFIX' is?

Star Wars fans are quick to point out the shortcomings of the prequel trilogy, which are admittedly quite easy to spot.

Ever since the Star Wars trilogy was completed in 1983 people have wondered a great many things - what were the 'clone wars'? What was the galaxy like before 'the dark times'? What happened to Darth Vader before Star Wars? What was Obi-Wan Kenobi like as a young man? The prequel trilogy tried to address all of these questions, as well as tie up almost every loose plot thread the original trilogy had to offer, with varying degrees of success. While some would argue that the downfall of Anakin Skywalker was handled satisfactorily, many fans of the original trilogy undoubtedly imagined the galaxy under the Old Republic to be a very different place and were disappointed (to say the least) by Lucas' vision.

So the question is - how would you have done it? Would you have left the situations as they were and removed all the crummy plot elements, or would you have stuck close to the ideas and themes established in the original trilogy? Enlighten me.