- Post
- #1185822
- Topic
- Dom's Useless Prequel Edits
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1185822/action/topic#1185822
- Time
This is probably bad for my health, but I’m also interested!
This is probably bad for my health, but I’m also interested!
https://ewedit.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/aiw-payoff_1_sheet-lg.jpg
This poster is much better tbh

It was, but I took it down after I decided to update the edit. I don’t think the quality the new version is rendered in is worth putting up on MySpleen right now. I’ll put it out in full HD when I have the time.
I also actually haven’t touched the movie in a month, while I was every day before, even after having some version out. So I’m confident that the one I’ve been sending out since Feb 20th is the final version.
It’s pretty much done. PM me for a link.
The Mentor on Vimeo is pretty good.
I feel like Space Whales worked for me as well as they did because their intro seemed like such a useless episode, that no one would ever let you forget about as an example of the show’s low points. I would have forgotten about the episode had it not been the poster boy for the “too much filler” criticism. To see them play a pivotal part of the story’s conclusion was a lot of fun.
As for the Ezra and Ahsoka being around during the OT; I’m fine with it because Ezra and Thrawn are pretty much M.I.A in a part of the universe literally called the Unknown Regions. They might as well not exist because they’ve essentially been taken out of the known galaxy, uncharted space, and presumably without a way to get back.
Ahsoka is a little harder to get around, but they’ll probably explain it.
How do we feel about this when it comes to fish men?
I am a little disappointed Grinding Nemo won Best Picture and about Baby Driver, but Deakins winning as well as Coco winning makes me alright with how it turned out.
I was thinking about those exact ones lol.
hey man anime can be fucking cool dont hate
edit: Most of it is garbage to be fair. Or I’m just trash enough to enjoy some of it.
If I can explain why I left the scene in for New Canon Cut - that edit’s main goals were to age Anakin up and portray him as an experienced and trusted Jedi general. Leaving in that scene was a decision made towards a more subliminal end rather than plot or pacing end. Seeing him alongside Windu and the other masters just further suggests that he has rank among them. Don’t forget I also cut Anakin saying “yes, master” in response to his orders, so Anakin just coldly looks at Windu before walking off, openly demonstrating that he disapproves. The subsequent scene with Anakin and Palpatine is also then edited to make Anakin the one to take the reigns in the conversation. So even if he doesn’t go to the Chancellor on his own accord, Anakin is still proactive and assertive in guiding his fate. (shameless plug: new version on gdrive hmu for link)
I don’t think it’s something LoE needs though, to be honest.
If you were to use both scenes like I did, I just cut out “I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi” in the first, earlier deleted OB1/MW/Y scene, and then cut after that point in the war room scene. “The dark side of the force surrounds the chancellor” is vague enough for early on in the film, but once all the gears have been working in Palpatine’s favor at this halfway point, I think the more solid “plot to destroy the Jedi” being recognized is fine. It’s almost too late by this point anyway.
Still a rough draft for sure, a lot of it is experimentation.
EDIT: also lol @Owen being Anakin’s biological brother. He’d be like 10. I just thought saying “stepbrother” was a bit too stiff
To be honest, not really. Anakin is too much of a whiny brat towards the start of that one, and I use audio from it towards the end of this cut. (Obi-Wan suggesting Anakin’s knighting)
EDIT: btw making cutlists is such a process and not fun at all but i do need to explain some choices i make because they’re probably unpopular at first glance
I’m re-configuring this thread, because my new edit of AOTC shares plenty of the same ideas and I don’t want to have two AOTC edit threads.
I want to preface this thread by saying: This AOTC edit is so not going to be everyone’s thing.
This was just something I put together over the holidays for my little cousin, who absolutely loves Star Wars, but who I know doesn’t have the attention span for Attack of the Clones. To be frank, I don’t think I do either.
He loved Rise of Skywalker - which I didn’t - but that inspired me to think about how the prequels, in the context of how disappointing the Sequel Trilogy was to me, had some merit. Kind of. Its problems are obvious and have been talked about for nearly two decades at this point, but no edit has actually made them fun to watch if you weren’t already trying to like them. From the earlier edits to Hal’s edits, the biggest thing in many prequel edits is making them more coherent. Make them make sense, less goofy/cringy, and just less excruciating to watch.
In light of Rise of Skywalker: What if I made Attack of the Clones, just, dumber?
What I mean by that is - the politics and context, what if I just threw it out? TROS and the ST at large didn’t care and the movies were fun! When it wasn’t using pure nostalgia, the ST (save for TLJ) relied on the likeable characters going on a fun galaxy adventure thing. And AOTC has some interesting, if not dated, fun setpieces. The speeder chase through Coruscant, rain brawl, asteroid field dogfight, Geonosis arena, the battle… I remember fastforwarding to those parts on DVD when I was like 10, but I couldn’t sit through all the between. When I say dumb, I mean it in a fun way.
Making this for my cousin was a fun experiment in ST-ing/modern blockbuster-ifying AOTC. Just like in the ST, any set-up for the next movie doesn’t matter. Any context for the galaxy or how things work is only just mentioned. It follows Padme/Anakin/Obi-Wan almost from beginning to end, minimizing any cutaways to Mace, Yoda, or the Senate. There are virtually no scenes in the Jedi Council or Senate Hall.
Now, that sounds easy, but it was more than just excising scenes. My cousin is a smart kid, and it takes more than just cool sci-fi shit to keep him entertained. The story and characters still have to make sense in the broadest of ways, even if the pacing is much quicker and more exciting.
And a big challenge was in how I don’t have access to the charisma TROS was working with to take the audience from beginning to end. Making the characters likeable and seemingly charismatic enough to carry an otherwise empty film was the biggest goal. (This is where my NCC philosophies came into play).
CUTS AND CHANGES:
Oh, and there’s a color grade to make it look less sterile and more filmic, because why not.
So I should have some workprint tomorrow. But I really only wanted to share it because I do have some radical/new ideas in here that I would want to put out there for the community in editing AOTC. They don’t just have to work in the context of an edit aping JJ. Feedback would be appreciated and I’d love to discuss any other ways I could turn AOTC into something actually fun and stupid.
Original Post:
So, for those of you who have kept up with my RotS edit, this is my episode II!
Obviously, I’m partial to the interpretation of Anakin Skywalker as described to us by Ben Kenobi in the OT and presented to us in the 2008 Clone Wars series, so to fill in the blanks between TPM and TCW/RotSNCC, this edit of AotC aims to lighten Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, and make Anakin Skywalker a more genuinely likeable person. While the prequels are incongruous in a lot of ways with the OT, I believe the characterizations and arcs should stay consistent across all canon.
The approach here is a little different than in the New Canon Cut for RotS. Anakin won’t be a decorated general or that mature. In fact, my AotC kind of aims to age Anakin down a bit, a tad closer to the sweet boy Ani we met in TPM. That’s not to say he will be annoying, but what I did here was make Anakin more willing to be a student. Theatrical Anakin is in a hurry to grow up, and thus tries to act like it to the point he sounds whiny, immature, and entitled. Obi-Wan is pretty much done with his shit, and thinks Anakin is a bit of a trouble student. Anakin in my AotC is reframed as more or less a good student with a bit of a playful, rebellious edge; he knows and embraces his place as still just a padawan and Obi-Wan is more seemingly fond of him, trusting him much more.
I think there’s a contrast between that young student and the decorated general in my RotS that just makes the fall in RotS more tragic. The trajectory is now set up where Anakin’s arc is more or less him on his way to growing into being like Luke by the end of ROTJ (maybe even better), but he ultimately fails to grapple with his attachments and passions.
In that vein, Anakin is much more mellow and less cold in this edit. Specifically in the scenes where he’s interrogating, Anakin doesn’t become intense or irate. He’s patient with Watto, softer with Zam, and I’ve removed his coldness towards his step-family.
I’ve tried to make Anakin and Padme’s romance a lot less creepy and weird. Anakin not being obssessed with her from the jump was a good place to start with that. Anakin here has a little crush, sure, but he doesn’t talk to Obi-Wan about dreaming about her, flirt awkwardly, promise to find her assassins obsessively, or anxiously jump to conclusions about her forgetting him completely. The scene where he talks about his dreams about his mother with Obi-Wan ends with Anakin nodding in agreement to “dreams pass in time” instead of him shifting the conversation to dreaming about Padme and defending her even if he hasn’t seen her in 10 years. It feels more like Anakin is here to do his job for an old friend, rather than primarily try to score some points towards getting laid. His crush is tertiary to his duty as a Jedi, and as a friend.
Padme falling for Anakin is more straightforward and streamlined. They don’t bicker, and there are no real barriers to hurdle in terms of her being comfortable with how she knew him then and now. Anakin is just more boyishly charming in my cut. He confidently chuckles as she does instead of doing his “grown more beautiful for a senator” thing, and I’ve moved up the “if you’ll excuse me” to replace him imperatively telling her to “stay here” after Obi-Wan jumps out the window. The traces of creepy are all replaced with an Anakin straddling the line between boy next door and charming rebel.
I used Octorox’s and Hal’s edits as my base. PM for first version, and I’ll add a full cutlist later. Feedback would be cool. There’s a lot more to the edit than what I described.
There’s a higher quality, better edited version sitting un rendered for right now, I just don’t have time for anything anymore man…
The few tweaks include audio level fixes for two or three of the added audio bits, timing fix with “There’s no time…” earlier on in the film, and just three more different cuts in the beginning, middle, and end:
Then I think I can finally put this project to bed. I just need to find time to finalize it. I’ve been jumping a little too eagerly to do that the past 7 times and people have been left with less than perfect versions. This time, I won’t put it out unless I’m sure this is it, even if the changes this time are minimal.
That’s probably when I’ll even bother with FE.org, reddit, cover art, and blu ray stuff. By then, I want to have a “New Canon Cut” Trilogy done. I haven’t made a thread for it yet, but I’ve been working my way through AotC whenever I can. It’ll be in the same spirit as this edit.
No one is real anyway. We’re all in a simulation.
Still talking about Luke, I’ll try to clear things up a little bit. I don’t really have a problem with Luke not living up to be the legend he was made out to be. I just don’t understand, for example, how did the legend originate. Like I said in a previous post, his victories were mostly personal and (should be) unknown to the rest of the galaxy, except for destroying the first Death Star. But I can see how a myth or some mystery feeling would grow around him, given that most people probably thought that the mysterious nature of his activities and his sad devotion to an ancient religion were suspicious and weird. And mysterious and wizardry. Anyway.
I don’t get why the tales of his bravery wouldn’t spread and balloon. And he had more victories than we saw in the films.
What tales of bravery? How he led the defense of Echo Base in Hoth and failed miserably? Or how he disappeared only to show up without a hand? Granted, Han Solo’s rescue is a big deal and was probably one of the greatest displays of Luke being a hero, but so what? The clone wars is full of badass moments and missions. Moreso than Han’s rescue. Then Luke basically defected in Endor, and I think the other rebels that didn’t know of his whereabouts were quite suspicious. And then he suddenly comes back! He’d eventually tell Han and Leia what happened, sure, but how the events in the Death Star II eventually led up to a legend is beyond me.
What clone wars moments? There’s only the battle of Geonosis, Coruscant and Utapau.
What I really have a problem with is how he died and ultimately failed his goal, failed his whole purpose in the original trilogy, which was to rebuild the Jedi Order. That makes him a failure imo. Not only that but the movie also makes him betray his character arc in the scene with Kylo with unconvincing explanation as to why, and also present him as some sort of fool for making the exact same mistake that his mentors did years before, mistakes that he was aware were made. And what pisses me off is that all of this happened just so that Rey could have the exact same journey as Luke, specially now that we have the exact same scenario we had in the original movies.
Luke didn’t fail, though. His goal was to become a Jedi (check) and to pass on what he learned (check). He will not be the last Jedi, and Rey won’t be a Jedi like him.
He did fail. Yes, becoming a Jedi was one of his goals, and he achieved that, but at the moment Darth Vader destroyed his beliefs, expectations, values, ideas of his purpose and the reason why he was fighting, his purpose and he himself became much bigger than just becoming a Jedi because his dad was one.
Do you think he passed on what he learned? Not to Rey, I don’t think. She has the books, but that’s about it. He taught her nothing, and the movie made that very clear. She might become a Jedi still, but not from or because of Luke.
Not only did he not teach her nothing, I don’t think he’s done teaching her. And yes, she is going to be a Jedi because of Luke, not just because of the few lessons he taught her, but because he inspired her (and the rest of the galaxy).
Anyway, after RotJ he built a Jedi Order that lasted for probably some 3-5 years, only for it to be destroyed. Another failure. And then he died. His death scene was pretty badass and beautiful, I’ll give you that, and it showed how awesome Luke Skywalker can be. But he still failed. I’m making it sound like that’s the problem - that he failed - but no. The problem is that he died a failure. It served no purpose, it just pissed on his character. Everything he tried to accomplish, accomplished and built was either destroyed or killed, including Luke himself.
He could have just… survived. Been able to go on, to teach a new generation, to learn from his failures rather than to die as one. But that was not allowed.
Did we even watch the same movie? The idea that Luke died a failure… clearly that was not what happened.
Mmm, let me see. Luke was instrumental in bringing peace and justice back to the galaxy. He wanted to train a new generation of Jedi. He made a mistake, and ended up failing his students, and by running away rather than fix that mistake, he allowed a second darkness to take over the galaxy. He is partly responsible for that. Luke’s legacy is one of failure. While he has provided hope for a future generation, it is now up to the next generation to fix his mess. Luke is like a guy with huge debts, who after refusing to pay them, dies just after providing his heirs the hope of paying off those debts in time. That is not a legacy of success in any shape or form.
If you choose to interpret it that (wrong) way that’s your prerogative. But the film (and it’s ending especially) is explicitly about the success of Luke’s legacy, and how that has inspired the galaxy.
No, the film is explicit in the success of Luke’s effort to inspire hope in a terrible situation he was party responsible for. This does not create a legacy of success, it creates a glimmer of hope in a legacy of failure.
If a police force sit on their behinds, and allow a group of criminals to go on a killing spree, they have failed in their duties, even if they belatedly see the error of their ways, and attempt to bring them to justice, or more accurately inspire others to do it for them.
I don’t really think it’s fair to blame the rise of the First Order on Luke.
And the films don’t even really suggest that. The point is that the dark side always comes back. You can’t always stop it from rearing it’s ugly head, what’s important is that there’s hope you can defeat it once again.
The majority of the responsibility isn’t on Luke. However, it is the responsibility of a Jedi to guard peace and justice. The dark side can always come back, but it is a Jedi´s responsibility to prevent that from happening, or if it manages to rise again, do everything in his or her power to defeat it. Luke didn´t live up to that responsibility.
I thought it was to use the Force for knowledge and defense never for attack…
Besides, Jedi or not, I think it would be out of character for Luke post-ROTJ to wage a war just because of visions. That’s what screwed him over in ESB and in the fleeting moments he saw what Ben could become. His arc in the OT was to become less about looking to the future (horizon) and “rushing into battle.”
Once I get around to finishing my new desktop, I’ll upload a much better version.
The quality of this one honestly kind of sucks because of the limited resources. I just put it out as closure for the time being (at least for the rest of the year). I didn’t want the only version of the edit out there to be one I didn’t stand by anymore. Putting something out - even if it isn’t amazing quality - I felt was a good way to put it behind me for now, otherwise I wouldn’t stop thinking about it.
I’m going to be so busy working/interning/studying for quite a bit going forward - and working on/rendering it takes up a good chunk of my time and headspace. I won’t lie, this project has kind of been a distraction lol.
Yeah, Obi-Wan and Yoda didn’t think there was still good in Vader. Luke did. And Luke was right.
I think proving his mentors wrong in ROTJ is the seed for where we find Luke in TLJ. Not the prequels.
Aside from a reference to Sidious, the prequel dogma is barely touched on in TLJ. The root of Luke’s disillusionment isn’t in celibacy, and the repression of emotion, humanity, or attachment. Nor in anything political. It’s in the idea that it’s “too late” for anyone. That’s straight out of ROTJ for me. It just wasn’t explored until this one.
Ok, it’s up on Google Drive now.
I think the quality just isn’t good enough for how long the torrent has been seeding to be worth it.
I’m working on getting it on Google Drive. It’s only on MySpleen for now.
Hey so, should I upload this to the MySpleen now? It’s not quite full 1080p, but I really have to close the book on this. I think just having it out there is conclusive enough for me. I’ll get it on Drive soon, too, and then put the link to it on the Fanedits subreddit. Otherwise, I have to move on… A lot of people have seen a version of it, but this is it I think.
I can’t say the technical quality is that amazing, and tbh, I think I hate this movie now (I’ve been falling asleep editing it for the past two months LOL), but it’s my ideal version of RotS. I hope other CW fans find it works with the show, or that anyone looking for a sympathetic, un-crazy, and mature Anakin/Vader will like it.
edit: ok done
This probably doesn’t mean anything but a lot of my friends were excited about the Asian representation lol.
I liked Rose, and what she brought to the story, but that’s about it. I don’t think every new character has to become a scene stealer or favorite to have their existence justified. She was fine. I don’t think there was anything offensive or bad about her, but there wasn’t anything too special either.
^That sounds like it’ll actually work better. Thanks!
wow i wish i was home rn
First Kill and the Revenge of the Sith video game. xP
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mCG0B5R7v5DuJw_g68X3vLsp55JY5R7v/view?usp=sharing
I think the First Kill audio (“You weren’t there, alright? I did what I had to do!”) is a bit jarring to people who know RotS really well, but my sister and friend who don’t have it kind of memorized didn’t notice so idk. For me, what was off was Hayden’s voice in the clip isn’t in the same attitude as the lines that were originally there (“Don’t lecture me Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi…”). So I was iffy about even including this change.
At the end of the day, though, Hayden’s voice “attitude” erratically shifts a bunch in the original as well. Going from “YoU wiLL nOt tAKe heR fRoM me!!” to the calmer “Don’t lecture me…”, etc, pretty quickly. And the content of those lines are all over the place in terms of what they’re saying about Anakin’s motivations, too. Is this about Padme, is it about how powerful you are, about the lies of the Jedi, or about bringing peace and order to the galaxy?
The new lines are more consistent to the idea that Anakin believes in the ends he has killed and slaughtered towards, and makes the confrontation dialogue between Anakin and Obi-Wan actually mean something to both the characters. In the original, the dialogue is really just filler before they have to fight. Obi-Wan is just yelling at Anakin for being evil now, and Anakin is rattling off about like four different things - both just taunting each other with no real conversation about what’s happening between the two of them. There’s no point in building up their relationship in the rest of the movie if the only pay off is that they stop being friends. It should be challenging for the two of them.
So there’s some actual drama going on now, but I think it does ask a bit of suspension of disbelief in the audio. If that proves to be an issue, I’ll get rid of it…