.Mac.

Hard to believe how much time has already flown by… So much has happened since originally posting this list (keep in mind this was posted after Rogue One but before TLJ) and so we have the completed sequel trilogy, a Solo film, various TV shows, multiple games and books.

We also have a handful of useful tools at our disposal now, such as deepfake (I remember someone by the name of Shamook who did spectacular work at improving (or even perfecting?) the CGI faces of Luke from Mando and Tarkin/Leia from RO, all from the comfort of his own home [I was happy to hear he was hired by Lucasfilm later]) and, yes, even with the rising popularity of AI. So either individually or together, these can absolutely be used to aid with recreating people/faces and voices where necessary (which is only getting better), something someone with enough time and talent from home can certainly accomplish if they wanted. And then I’ve heard of tools for significantly helping clean up most old and grainy footage, so possibly certain deleted scenes could be recovered and somehow implemented, such as the gunners aboard the MF? Drones are certainly the norm nowadays, so pretty much anyone can go filming in, say, a large forest for some scenic and professional-quality shots, too!

So, with all that in mind, I actually gave this wishlist a reread and see how it holds up for even me and, overall, yeah I still stand by the ideas I’ve outlined (maybe 95% of it). I realize it’s not in everyone’s taste to change too much about a classic (even if flawed), but, at least the way I humbly see it, since we already do have projects like ‘4K77’ (which aim at preserving the original film as best as possible), I’m completely fine with anyone willing to attempt a slightly more radical approach for improving this film (while still respecting and maintaining the original story, of course)… So that may include cutting away unnecessary fat from the meat and then sprinkling on extra good flavors, if that’s what it takes 😄

So about the ~5% of ideas I have listed which I’m no longer in favor of, the main ones are:

• I would no longer want to have a new actor portray General Crix Madine - Even if the intent was to film new shots/scenes with him and thus give more weight to the epic battle, I always felt that swapping out an original actor would hit too close to home for many (including myself, but was willing to suggest it anyway), but now with both AI and the ability to clean up old footage, I’d much rather keep the original actor, if at all possible.

• I was also in favor of removing the Ewok celebration at the end for a more bittersweet and somewhat poignant ending, but, having a change of heart over the years, now I do prefer to keep most of it, especially for seeing our main heroes all together again and happy. Still, would absolutely love to see Adywan or someone try to attempt some kind of a new ‘liberation of Coruscant’ sequence, as to further raise the stakes of this climatic battle and to give more of a closure to the Empire and this trilogy as a whole (a potential idea already outlined in OP)!

• Still wish we can see a stronger portrayal of Vader in ROTJ, including minor edits throughout the final duel, that way (over all) his character is slightly less pitiful (imho) and slightly more of the badass like we witnessed before. I still stand by that. So, I have this idea listed where we could see him once again doing what he does best, Force choking (the idea is/was he must Force choke the Emperor’s Royal Guards, who are preventing him from passing, so he can get past and speak with the Emperor), but it was never as well-thought-out as I would’ve liked and so, as it is, it feels shoe-horned in, so either the idea must be improved or the idea must be axed. Perhaps someone has an idea for how to improve that idea or a better idea altogether! 😃

Btw, to make it easier on people, I wish there was a way to somehow denote which bullet points are for continuity errors and which are for other ideas/suggestions. Would even be nice to have the ability to change the color of texts (eg: red text for glaring continuity issues, black for all else).

For anyone else who wishes to take on the challenge of reading the massive OP, discuss as much of it as you like - what ideas you like and don’t like - I love talking Star Wars! But I only ask that we keep it nice and civil please 😉

Hey thanks so much, FVDnz, I truly appreciate it and glad you liked it! And I haven’t heard of the fellow-nerd Dave Cullen before so I’ll be sure to check him out after this. Hope you’re all caught up with your sleep again! 😄

Jedit: Oh yeah I’ve seen some of Dave Cullen and his vids before! I just didn’t remember his name.

adywan said:

It’s scary just how fast this AI Video generation is progressing.

It really is. Not all are great, of course, but I’ve seen some other very convincing AI work out there in the right hands. Who knows, if done right, sparingly and when necessary, perhaps it could be a useful tool and open new doors for some edit ideas you might have for ROTJ:R, which might’ve been thought impossible merely a year ago?

Well for what it’s worth…

My favorite part about the SE version is that it opens up the Death Star more (similar to adding windows for Cloud City), especially when comparing it to the original “dead-end” hallway version, which pretty much does show the limitations at the time as Telion already nicely put it.

As for the garrison of 100+ troopers standing around in formation, I never had a problem with seeing them as some might. I view it as the same reason why a real-life military base would have this also - for inspection, etc. And prior to this scene, didn’t we just hear a Stormtrooper mention that they do drills (“Maybe it’s another drill”)? So for me anyway, I just assume they do frequent drills and this is just a glimpse of what that they have to go through at times.

As for the ROTJ helmets, in all honesty, I hadn’t noticed that before and even now that I am aware of it, it still doesn’t really bother me as there are several bodies/heads moving around in a brief shot and so, to me at least, it’s not that easy to focus on a relatively minor detail like that… and I often like to think I’m someone with a sharp eye XD Furthermore, who’s to say they aren’t currently trying to phase in the new armor type (hence the inspection)? 😉 But, I get it, consistency is nice too so I do understand why Ady or anyone could be irritated by that; truly, they should’ve just had the proper ANH helmets in the first place. If this were to be re-reinstated, though, maybe a quick digital touch-up on the more obvious ones?

As for the compositing of that shot, while not perfect as Ady had stated, I felt it was vastly improved by just the simple color-correction. It’s great to fix as much of the egregious errors as possible, but if we’re being real and honest, I think it’s perfectly acceptable, at least in certain instances where only so much can realistically be done, to accept a shot/scene at 95-99.9% perfection - though Ady will always strive for 100% perfection and that’s what we love about him!

And I understand, Braltika, what you were trying to say in regards to Han’s reaction to seeing all of the additional soldiers - it does further justify the sheer and utter panic on his face like “oh I f*cked up!”. That’s what I always thought too and also why I like the SE version. I will admit, though, I did like what you said, DZ-330, about the charm of the original, where the Stormtroopers have realized “Hey… we out number him! Why are we running?” That is indeed funny too and a fair point.

But, with all things considered, I do think I overall prefer the SE version between the two. Unless, if there could be some kind of compromise, like if Ady could replace the current “dead-end” background with something better of his own? Even if it is just more hallway (similar to the moc image DZ-330 quickly put together). I’m sure getting the reflections on the floor will be a task, but Ady seemed to do a miraculous job for the wide-shot during the Obi-Wan vs Vader duel. Just an idea, but I think it could be neat have a (closed) blast door instead of the dead-end, and when Han gets there, the door has already mostly opened up to reveal maybe a 2x6 grid of marching troopers accompanied by a K2 droid (just a fun nod to RO - which I truly hope Ady may have been able to sneak one in a hallway somewhere here and/or there, seamlessly and not in-your-face). Maybe? Something like that would be a good middle-ground.

Anyway that’s all of my two cents, but obviously Ady you have the final say in all this and we’ll be super happy with the end result! 😄

Just wanted to chime in and bring up something that I hope might worthwhile? So we have an intern at work who is a computer guy and a big SW fan and yet, to my surprise, had never even heard of this project. So I talked about the goals of the edit, its history, and where things are now, and just to further convince him of the level of work being put into this, I went back in here to show off some of the more recent comparisons which Ady posted. Needless to say he was of course very impressed and so going forward I do hope he will watch Ady’s career with great interest, but (now getting to the point) he did make a good suggestion, to which I agree, about a particular detail concerning two of the shots on the Death Star during the final battle.

In the following two gifs, the camera is stationary and fixed on the Death Star, and we also know that the Death Star is currently moving while orbiting around Yavin, so what he pointed out was shouldn’t we see a subtle movement of the stars in the background in shots like these?:

https://i.postimg.cc/j2WMdn1d/2.gif
https://i.postimg.cc/BbGCs72N/5.gif

I know the above shots are quick, and someone could also try arguing that the Death Star is moving in a direction that is just away from the stars so they would only appear still in space, etc., but I have to still very much agree that seeing a subtle star movement could be a nice touch and in line with other fixes made. I do think, though, for any of the shots where the camera is moving n’ rolling all around, the eyes won’t really pick up on whether or not the stars are shifting, just only whenever the camera is static. I’m sure Ady is likely nearing the homestretch for the edit and probably even getting anxious for it to be finished (especially with the recent health conditions that have come up [which I was very shocked and sorry to recently read about, but especially relieved to hear it seems to have subsided!]), so no worries at all if not, but just thought this idea was, at the very least, worth a mention and consideration if, Ady, you agree and only if it was easy to implement 😄

Enthusiastically raises hand
I noticed and that too is one of my favorite fixes 😉 Other great mentions are seeing the correct number of X-Wings in a shot as well as proper backgrounds behind pilots, especially, as little as it might be, the trench now appearing behind Red Leader as he says “This is it”. And I love the choice to have Vader make all the kill shots in the trench - it just makes sense.

As always, thank you Ady for sharing this update with us! Hoping you had a great Christmas and now soon to be New Years 😄

I noticed something and just curious if was intended or not:

The green and blue flashy lights on the left-hand side of Red Leader’s dash, at 51sec and 1min2sec, appear normal for the edit. But then, at 1min15sec and 1min22sec, those same lights are suddenly devoid of color. The red and yellow lights appear untouched, though. Anyone else see this too? If intentional, I must be missing the reason why 😄

Perfection! I was hopeful that could be the end result, eliminating the droid entirely. You did that so quickly like all it took was just the snap of your fingers 😃

Thank you for sharing the comparison reel, Ady, and as always it looks incredible! Watched it several times now and even once with your original ANH:R playing for comparison also. It’s fun to see how your talents have grown over the years and I can’t imagine it looking even better than this, so now, truly, “your skills are complete” 😃

Loved seeing all the various fixes and enhancements in the clip but one of my favorites (and I’m surprised nobody else mentioned it) is the occasional glow effect you’re implementing with some of the laser bolts, especially noticeable during the trench run; I think a small but substantial detail like that goes a long way for making them look even more real and therefore further immerses you in the action!

Well we didn’t see a K2 security droid walking by during that elevator scene but my fingers are still crossed that we still might get a surprise for either the full version of the scene or in a hallway elsewhere on the Death Star 😉 Ooh, or maybe (also) a couple/few K2 droids at the end of the hallway during the “Han chasing storm troopers scene” (no idea if you’re planning to keep the SE edit or revert it to be simpler and more like the original).

oh_riginal said:

…The only thing that still bothers me is when the rebels are flying away after the Death Star explodes, the Falcon always looked like it was flying crooked, like it’s not facing completely forward. I don’t know if I’m explaining it well enough, but the trajectory and the ship’s angle don’t seem to match…

NeverarGreat said:

You know, something that’s always bugged me about ANH and its Special Edition is that in the final shot of the ships headed back to Yavin after the Death Star’s destruction, the Falcon model enters frame from the left but then moves into the center of the frame without substantially changing orientation. https://youtu.be/tYZuOSZj2wg?t=483

The Falcon model clearly starts turning left as it enters frame, as expected, but then it stops turning and just continues almost straight forward with its nose pointed well to the right of Yavin and its engines firing to the left. It’s a really bizarre movement that I would have thought Lucas would have changed in the SE like he did in so many other weird model shots.

Of course, I imagine it would be difficult for Ady to fix this issue since it would require rigging and filming a whole new model (practically or digitally) to put in that shot.

Yeah you guys aren’t alone about this. What helped me all these years, justifying the MF’s semi-awkward movement, is thinking that it is simply doing a little space drifting right there, lol. If Ady decides to do a touch-up on it after all, that’d be awesome, but if not, I’ll continue my space drift theory 😄

As for the “red Artoo” talk, I wasn’t bothered by the color change but understand the comments about it and agree maybe there could be another better way. Very curious now to see the alternate idea you’re already exploring for improving that shot, Ady. I’m supposing it’ll be easier to replace it with something new than removing the “red artoo” entirely.

It all looks great in that clip, Ady! Had a big smile noticing R2 is getting some extra “happy feet” in (as well as it being a continuity fix). Always looking forward to seeing more and hoping everything is proceeding as you have foreseen so far!

And just thinking aloud here: Not sure if you’ll showcase some beforehand or keep them a surprise until the release, either way, very intrigued to see what you might have up your sleeve for any drastic changes/editing.

Always looking forward to and excited to seeing all of your updates, Ady! Excellent work in the recent video!

There is something I am hoping to bring up, though, and it’s regarding that first shot with Tarkin. I love how in the original it is an artistic shot with a clear view of Alderaan - it’s aesthetically pleasing even if inaccurate. Now, with the changes that were made here - which I do understand is for continuity - the unfortunate matter is (in my humble opinion) too much of Alderaan is obscured by control panels which, visually, isn’t nearly as striking of a shot as the original. So an idea to help this could be: How about shifting the right-side technician and his panels slightly over to the right? Just enough so the audience can always see Alderaan in its entirety. Or, would it be easier and better to make Alderaan appear larger (as large as the original and make it consistent from there) so that way it’ll still stand out even if some panels partially get in the way? Or both ideas? If this panel shift were to be made, it should be pointed out there is a similar shot later during the battle of Yavin when Tarkin says “You may fire when ready”, however, I don’t think a change to the panels there has to be necessary (even for continuity - but can be anyway if wanted). I don’t know if I’m the only one who thinks this, but just wanted to share anyway 😃

As I speak, in line and just about to see TLJ a second time, and will be seeing it yet again tomorrow. This movie, just as the case was for TFA, definitely requires more than one viewing to put my thoughts together and make up my mind how I feel about it overall.

For anyone curious about my first impression, though, I did have mixed-feelings all around - a great many things I really liked, but also a great many things I didn’t. A few examples: I enjoyed the talk between Yoda and Luke, but man, I couldn’t believe how wrong Yoda’s face looked in the first couple shots (it was too ‘pudgy’ with other off-looking facial features - almost as bad as the TPM creepy puppet, honestly), but as the scene carried on, he did somehow start to look better to me; I was fine with how Snoke died, but I’m not yet sure I liked how so suddenly he was taken out without learning a single new, interesting thing about him, so to me he was a wasted opportunity and just a one-dimensional baddy; I liked that Finn got the chance to have a proper face-off with Phasma, but hated how once again her character was treated; if only their fight and her (definite) death were in VII instead - that would’ve been far better for both characters (Now I just hope she died for good because it’s been embarrassing how her character has been treated in both films); I liked that they attempted to give Leia some strength with the Force, but the execution of it was so cheesy to me (when she was ‘flying’ in space back to safety with that ‘Peter Pan pose’); I absolutely loved the Rey and Kylo dynamic, but I wish I cared more for the Finn/Rose; I liked certain aspects about Luke, but certain other things did feel disjointed from how we knew him in the OT (I was really hoping for a better reason reason for his self-imposed exile while the First Order and Snoke rose to power, instead of just feeling guilty about Ben). Those are just some of my initial likes and dislikes that come mind, but sometime after my third viewing, I’ll give a proper review and cover more.

doubleofive said:

Collipso said:

Adywan, do you plan on changing the font used on “RETURN OF THE JEDI” in the title crawl to the font used for The Empire a Strikes Back and A New Hope’s crawls? Sorry for asking again if you have already answered this.

He already fixed the crawls!

https://youtu.be/F51kdD6raUc

And for those who were wondering, that clip does also confirm Ady added a fourth period to the ROTJ ellipsis. As minuscule as it may be, I’m actually glad he felt the same about it 😃

By the way, does anyone know what happened to the user, muddyknees? He used to be an avid contributor to this site during ESB:R and I appreciated his thoughts. Has he just moved on in life? I hope he’s okay.

I remember some time long ago when I was watching ROTJ with a girlfriend and when she saw Salacious Crumb (just like in the gif that Duracell posted), she asked me, “Is that thing some kind of goiter with a head? They look attached.” I just smiled and said, “Nope, it’s worse than that.” I am relieved it sounds like we may be seeing Crumb (and his laughing) less often 😉

Glad to also hear that about the gonk droid; indeed the torture had an uncomfortably childish vibe about it. I had thought it could’ve been improved if just the cartoonish yells were replaced with better, more-robotic sounds, and the mechanisms corrected to actually touch his feet, but I am also all for Ady removing it… would something else have to be inserted in it’s place, though?

And just another random but related story: As a youngster, I used to think that droid was shooting air out from the bottom of its feet, as a defense mechanism, which blew away and prevented the hot plate from touching him 😃

I really like the idea of having Vader say, “Your mother once thought as you do.” This change makes sense, and not coming from a PT standpoint either. It’ll help his character be more dynamic; Vader would originally bring up Obi-Wan too often (“Obi-Wan has taught you well”, “Obi-Wan this”, “Obi-Wan that”), so for the audience to see that he actually remembers someone else in his past life makes him even more compelling. Hopefully it can be done 😃

Relieved to see that the challenge is legit! Donated a couple times last month and was planning to do so again this month and next, so I’m game for this 😄

Thank you so much for your generosity, “1,000 Challenge”!

Well said, Val! Each did contribute a great point, one way or the other.

nhoj3 said:

Can we all please stop discussing future instalments in an OT thread?

With all due respect I don’t come here for spolilers or mild speculation that could turn out to be spoilers.

With respect, it was merely brought up in regards to how Luke’s missing/reappearing hilt in ROTJ might be handled for Revisited. Tried to be careful not going too far, but if I did, I apologize 😃 Not another peep from me about it.

ray_afraid said:

.Mac. said:

About Luke’s saber, though, after he tosses it away in front of the Emperor, we don’t see the hilt attached at his side while he’s pulling Vader to the shuttle (as you’d expect, since he did toss it away), but then it suddenly reappears at the end celebration. So which is it?

I’d rather not see it again after he throws it. It’s such a symbolic moment and it’s ruined if we see that he ran back to rummage around and find it again.

Totally, I’m with you there.

Probably better not to have any tidbits about VIII mentioned in here, ZeeverFett, no matter how small.

About Luke’s saber, though, after he tosses it away in front of the Emperor, we don’t see the hilt attached at his side while he’s pulling Vader to the shuttle (as you’d expect, since he did toss it away), but then it suddenly reappears at the end celebration. So which is it?

All I will say about VIII here is, hopefully his missing/reappearing hilt can be corrected in ROTJ:R based on whether or not we see it again in VIII.

ChainsawAsh said:

Octorox said:

I just want to know why a whole hangar full of troops is just waiting in the wings there. What were they doing?

Yeah, that’s basically my only issue with the change.

I always thought of it as a weekly inspection of sorts, or, “Maybe it’s another drill.”

ray_afraid said:

I don’t think these flipped shots were being pointed out as needing to be flipped back, but that certain elements in the shots can be corrected.

Exactly, that’s how I interpreted it also.

jarbear said:

If Addy was to keep the flipped shots, I assume he would correct all those errors. The birth mark would be easy enough, some of the other ones though would take some more time and precision.

Yep, I agree. It’s clear with ESB:R that he is wanting to fix any of these kinds of inconsistencies where possible, no matter how large or small 😃

@Tantive, Good work! I think these are definitely worthwhile for this thread, and Ady can sort out which ones can or cannot be corrected. You already brought something up that I didn’t notice before 😉

Okay then, things apparently got a bit out of hand up there…

To bring this back on topic, I guess now is as good as any to throw in my 2 cents about the camo/white armor debate from earlier.

I was initially in favor of the idea with some kind of camouflage armor for (most of) the Imperials on the moon of Endor. This is the concept art that got me completely on board with it:

For camo, I thought the above image displays it quite subtly. It’s not in your face with several, vibrant, earthy colors, but it’s enough to serve its purpose. It makes sense, after all, that they’d have something to help hide themselves in the forest. It also goes along with the Empire having multiple armor designs for designated roles/locations, including the shoretroopers (I know, I noticed there are some differing opinions about them, but I liked them just fine).

However, people here not wanting them to have camo armor have made several good points, and for sure I’d agree with most of those points I’ve read. In addition, I’d also add another con with having camo for Imperials: There must be a distinguishable difference between the Rebels (who already do have camo) from the Imperials, otherwise I can see it getting confusing in certain instances for the audience.

But, here’s an alternative idea I haven’t seen brought up here yet: what about introducing the shadow troopers?

These guys have armor like your standard stormtroopers, so no alterations to the armor is needed, except they are black (or I’ve sometimes seen very dark gray). Could be relatively easy, too, to adjust the hue of the originally white armor in an editor (for sure easier than adding camo frame-by-frame). Then for shooting extra scenes during the battle, most of the extra Imperial troopers could possibly already be wearing this type of armor; I’m sure there are many good ones out there created by fans.

I just love the idea of there being a visual difference from the standard stormtroopers and the Emperor’s “best troops” (assuming his dialogue is left as is, and not condensed to be "An entire legion* of troops awaits them). If Krennic has his death troopers, I believe the Emperor would have certainly hand-picked a selection of “best” soldiers to have custom armor too.

So with this idea for having shadow troopers, A) the black (or very dark gray) will hide them a lot better in a forest environment than white (which was the reason for suggesting camo to start with), B) keeps true with the Empire having primarily white/black armor (which goes along with those who made points against camo armor), and C) of course it would add that extra element of ‘badass’ during the battle.

With that in mind, I believe there should still be some regular white scout/stormtroopers on the moon. Could actually be very interesting to see ordinary stormtroopers being overshadowed (pun not intended) by the prowess and aggressiveness of the Emperor’s “shadow troopers”.

(*) This has been brought up before long ago, but should the Emperor say “legion”? Instead should it be just “garrison” perhaps? Legion sounds overly large, unless of course he was purposefully exaggerating to Luke in hopes of getting him riled up any way possible - If so, I’d buy that for a dollar. So I guess I could go either way about this.

SilverWook said:

Much to my surprise there is a Palpatine shuttle paint job already in existence.

Ooh, nice find. I’d like that over the standard white, but maybe if it had some royal red trim?

Although, I think my first vote would go to a shuttle different from the Lambda-class altogether, like what Palpatine had in ROTS, only with some subtle design/color changes. I know, people often don’t want anything from the PT to be injected in the OT (it’s something George would do, etc.) 😉 but with an open-mind, I thought his ROTS shuttle was one of those things that were actually just fine, and it makes sense the Emperor would have something that’s more unique in design and his own.

And if the Emperor did have something different, what if Vader then had that black Lambda shuttle up above? Something that is clearly marked differently from the other commanders’ shuttles? Or is that taking it too far?

In retrospect, I would’ve really liked it for Krennic to have had a standard white lambda shuttle and Vader to have Krennic’s shuttle 😃

Thank you so much for your kind and supportive words, nhoj3 😄 I’m happy you managed to find time to read it! Right away I could tell you were another person here whose ideas and thought process I’d greatly value, and that’s why I was hopeful you might see what you thought about this 😃

You and others are right, there are ideas in there I admit would be over-reaching and very, very difficult to accomplish (borderline impossible), on top of being controversial too, such as inserting a brand new actor as Madine and shooting whole new shots with him at the helm of his own cruiser, etc… but then there’s always smarter people than I who come along and say, “Well, there is no way that can work exactly in that way, but how about this alternative?” 😃 That’s what I’m hoping for, for this to be helpful and inspirational to Ady or anyone who reads it, and my mind would be blown by the sheer genius if they manage to pull much of these off. Like you said, I didn’t want to hold back with ideas, because no matter how difficult or controversial they may be, there’s no way of knowing for sure what can or cannot be done or what other ideas it might influence 😉

Regarding the lookalikes and voice impersonators, if the interest was there, that actually might not be so difficult. I think that’s how Ady initially found a Darth Vader for ESB:R, was through Facebook? I’m pretty sure he still has a fellow with an authentic 3PO costume too (and a great voice). Putting out a call for certain parts on social media could always be a good idea 😃