Ha!

Just got a chance to watch this.

Overall, this definitely improves the experience of watching The Phantom Menace. The pace is brisk without feeling rushed (usually), and the performances are often improved through the omission of certain cringey dialogue.

The specifics (in order of appearance):

Naboo Part 1
-The new crawl is an improvement, if slightly too wordy.
-Obi-wan and Qui-gon’s conversation is a fairly good omission.
-Neimoidian cuts are often good, though subtitling them as well would be better.
-I would have liked to hear Sidious’s ‘make it legal’ line.
-I feel the absence of the Neimoidians discussing the Jedi via hologram. A single line retained from that would have been nice.
-The omission of the Gungan city is well done.
-The first 17 minutes feel slightly rushed, re-adding in a few of these lines would make it flow better.

Tatooine
-Jar Jar’s antics in the shop were a welcome surprise. The sequence of him examining a ‘folded’ pit droid to hitting the nose of a (presumably different) pit droid implies he deduced the functioning of the droid from his cursory examination. If there were a few more moments of intelligence from Jar Jar in this film it would go a long way to redeeming the character. This action, small as it is, makes me appreciate him.
-The Jar Jar and Sebulba scene is much improved, and the subtitles throughout are on point.
-Anakin’s line about the sandstorm feels strange.
-3PO is much improved.
-Some part of the balcony scene should have stayed.
-Podrace scene still feels too long. I remember the theatrical version having less of a startup sequence, so that would be the go-to version for me. Similarly, the final part of the race feels somewhat lacking without the commentators. Even the audio overlaid on the pods would be fine.
-‘pathetic life form’ line omission is a welcome choice.
-‘keep the suns from setting’ and the farewell to Shmi should have been retained.
-Probe droid destruction feels strange, since the same droid presumably informs Maul in the next scene. Either the Maul at his spaceship scene should be cut, or at least the part where the droid speaks to him.
-‘Tell them to take off’ didn’t need to go, since Anakin could have told them offscreen.

Coruscant
-‘One big city’ line is gold, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
-The Jedi council scene is definitely improved, the only thing I’d change is to retain one of Anakin’s statements near the end of the questioning.

Naboo Part 2
-New Gungan scene makes me forget that there ever was a Gungan city. This is not a bad thing.
-Anakin’s rush to help his friends needs some vocalization, perhaps ‘we’ve gotta do something, R2’, except as he is running up the steps to the fighter.
-There are some jarring moments during the restructured 4-way battle. ‘Everything’s overheated’ could have stayed.
-There are 3 scenes establishing that Anakin is to be trained as a Jedi. One of these could probably be cut without much trouble. It would be interesting if Qui-gon was dead before Obi-wan got to him after the battle, so that Obi-wan could have taken it upon himself to train Anakin.
-Love the reordered final shots of the film.

Hal 9000 said:

Octorox said:

I’ve made an alternate version of this that also includes Hal9000’s revised ending from his Labyrinth of Evil edit in which Padme survives, plugging an infamous plot hole.

Ha, it’s the inverse of what people usually ask me for: ‘Labyrinth Of Evil’ but with the original ‘Padme dies’ ending. 😃

Just goes to show that you can never ever please everyone.

The whole thread is one big inside joke.

Baby Driver was very good, but the main character didn’t feel quite fleshed out enough and there was some repetitive action in the third act.

Nevertheless, full recommendation from this guy as well 😃

ArmpitWings
Also UncleBensRice.

(internal screaming)

NeverarGreat said:

We are supposed to believe that Obi-wan ages from 35 to 75 in the span of 19 years.

I just realized that this is evidence that the OB-1 theory was right all along!

Of course, extrapolating that back in time, it would mean that OB-1 was just being cloned in Episode 1.

Hmm, I just got a really terrible but batshit crazy idea for the Kenobi standalone movie.

Story Mode activated!

Palpatine was on the lookout for new apprentices after Maul bit it, but since he didn’t know if he could turn Anakin, he would also clone the Jedi who defeated his previous apprentice as a backup plan. So he put in the order for one Force Sensitive at the time he began the clone army, and trained this clone in secret, feeding him not only information about the real Obi-wan’s life, but about the forbidden Jedi teachings of Qui-gon mixed with subtle teachings of the Sith. By the time of ROTS, Anakin had become Palpatine’s favored pupil and so the clone escaped the cloning facility and struck out on his own. Lacking any identity but the one he had learned in captivity, he became obsessed with Obi-wan’s legacy. He tracked down Obi-wan on Tatooine and killed him, taking his place as the guardian of Luke.

The rest of the story you know. OB-1 doesn’t recognize the R2 or C-3PO, suggests a history between Anakin and Owen that didn’t exist, uses the suspicious language of an alter ego ‘betraying and murdering’ an original person, disregards the Jedi doctrines to train a teenager, praises the accuracy of Stormtroopers (since the training facility of the clones was all he knew), and understands the Geonosian Death Star layout from a glance. After his death, he continues to misremember basic facts about his relationship with Anakin and Yoda.

This brings us to the matter of immortality. It is practically a prerequisite that a Jedi gaining immortality takes his body with him into the Force, and this is presumably the basis of a Force Ghost. It could be argued that Anakin’s biological body dematerialized upon death, and only his extensive robotic parts remained (it could be that much of his upper body was eventually replaced with mechanical parts). This means that Qui-gon was unable to become a Force Ghost, and presumably didn’t achieve immortality at the time of his death. However, Obi-wan’s clone has learned from Qui-gon, Plagueis, and Palpatine. His synthesis of Sith and Jedi knowledge has allowed him to summon Qui-gon from the netherworld of the Force, and communes with him to complete the path to immortality.

So the story is that a clone of Obi-wan trained by Palpatine gets loose after the Clone Wars and stakes out Tatooine in search of his progenitor. He learns how Obi Prime has abandoned his legacy and decided not to train Luke because of his past failure. The clone feels like he can and must take on this responsibility for the sake of the galaxy, for he is wiser in the ways of the Force than Prime. Disguised as a Sand Person, he follows Obi Prime and learns his ways as Obi Prime acts as a Star Wars Yojimbo. Finally he makes himself known, and in a duel he kills Obi Prime and takes his place.

The End.

That was fun 😃

Hardcore Legend said:

Is the musical cue for Binary Twin Sunset derived from some other piece or was it a 100% unique creation? Because, still, to this day it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard.

I assume you’re talking about the Force theme and not William’s first attempt at the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYXLmHmTrzU

I don’t know if the Force theme had its inspiration in an earlier piece, that would be interesting to learn.

Hal 9000 said:

I’m kinda getting sick of all this Star Wars shit.

I haven’t had a desire to watch anything Star Wars related for months now. Not to sound like some of the more curmudgeonly members of this board but I genuinely believe that it is because there is no longer an overarching vision (however flawed) which governs this universe. The movies are filled with things that the filmmakers (who are Star Wars fans) want to see, or believe that the other Star Wars fans in the audience want to see. The corporate impulse, which has always hovered over the franchise, has become the soul of the franchise. I doubt that even The Last Jedi can return the franchise to its previous state, since Rian Johnson is not the architect of the ST. The best thing to do is either ignore the new films or view them merely as enjoyable products rather than artistic statements, something that most of the moviegoing public has no problem with anyway.

With that bit of cynicism out of the way, my honest opinion is that I’d rather live in a universe with TFA and RO than one without them, since TFA gave us the big three again alongside some good new characters and another great John Williams score. Who knows how many more of those we will get, with Williams in his 80’s. This past year has shown us that we shouldn’t take time for granted, so I’m even okay with moving fast on the rest of the ST. I’d appreciate if they held the spinoffs for after the ST, since I think that dilutes interest in the ongoing story, but if that’s the price of an ST with Williams and Hamill and Ridley et all, then so be it. Besides, if they fall short of our high expectations there is always the potential to fanedit 😉

^Those are very good points. I hadn’t considered new users not even seeing the Topics page. In that case, have you considered adding a page between the ‘register’ button and the sign-up form that gives some helpful info? Something as simple as this would be nice:

Welcome to our community! Before we get started, did you know:

If you’re completely new to the forums, the General Star Wars Discussion is a great place to start.

If you’re interested in a particular project, some of the most popular are available on public torrent sites, no registration required. Many smaller projects are hosted on Myspleen.org, and you can ask for an invite here after you’ve registered.

(‘Yes, I’ve got it!’ button)

Warbler said:

They should have just stuck with the Tobey Maguire version and connected that to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those movies were pretty good(with exception of the 3rd).

MovieBob had the same idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tJ6FlVq054&t=524s

One idea could be that when new users sign up they are either directed to the New Users thread or some of these points are provided on the screen when the account is created.

That seems like a lot of posts for the mods to deal with. Perhaps 5-10, or even 3-7 would be more reasonable, and would catch the ask-and-run folks by default.

What do the mods think? Is this an onerous responsibility?

The trouble with the line is that it is shouted in an echo-y room.

With regards to the music, if changing it around like has been suggested doesn’t work, we could put the Ackbar line back in its original location. Then cut immediately to the fighter battle as usual. The only issue would be the ‘revenge’ angle but it’s minor enough that it may be worth it.

yhwx said:

You’d get lonely pretty quick.

I like that they didn’t even try to give a reason for the fire placement.

yhwx said:

TV’s Frink said:

Good idea, but good luck getting people to read it.

This is the crux of the issue. If new users won’t do what regulars want them to do, we shouldn’t fight it, in fact, we should embrace it.

So should we just accept a constant flow of requests in project threads? I know that there’s always going to be a certain percentage who will never get the message, but surely there’s a way to work on the margins to make it as easy as possible for people to follow the rules.

The ‘Requesting Invites’ topic clearly doesn’t work well enough for newcomers to this forum. Perhaps something like this, with the title very large:

Want to get a project? Read this first!

Welcome to the OT forums! In the interest of promoting good human-cyborg relations, there are some simple points of etiquette and protocol that you would be wise to follow here:

1. If you are interested in a popular project such as the Star Wars Despecialized editions and don’t wish to contribute to this community, such projects are often available to download on public torrent sites.

2. If your project of choice is unavailable publicly, create an account on these forums (Check this for some username ideas). Don’t ask for an invite or link in a project thread! See below for proper request technique.

3. Consider reading and commenting in some threads which interest you before asking for any links or invites, so that you can get a feel for what’s happening. It is not necessary for getting links for a project or an invite, but it often helps.

4. Most projects on this site are available from Myspleen.org. To get an invite for this, read the fist post of this thread, and post your request there. Remember to edit your post after you have an invite.

And that’s it! Be courteous and considerate and the Force will be with you.
Always.

Adapted from this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18psv7/quadriplegic_jokes_ive_gathered_from_over_the/

Actual quote from the Matrix Reloaded:
“The first Matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being.”

I can’t totally hate a movie that straight-up admits that the first Matrix was an exception.

“Hey Anakin, what do you call a quadriplegic in a volcano?”

…

“Cole.”

But with the original, Lucas was never replaced and he stuck to his very specific tone.

Just when I think I’ve heard everything about remixing the prequels, someone comes along with a brilliant idea.

The Mace angle would be very cool to see in action. I doubt it could be pulled off in the films, but one thing that could change is that Mace would have a red lightsaber (or very close to red) which differentiates him from the other Jedi. After all, there’s nothing in the films that states that only Sith must wield red. This makes his association with Darth Vader even stronger.

I am imagining the Saturday Morning Episode III except that we don’t see Mace’s defenestration. Palpatine shouts ‘UNLIMITED POWERRRR’ and then cut to the next scene. The implication upon watching ANH is that Mace was so suborned by Palpatines’s power that he had no choice but to serve the Emperor.

The problem with this interpretation is that Mace is clearly older than Obi-wan, and Obi-wan said that Vader was a young Jedi and his pupil. So either Mace would have to be dramatically de-aged (possible, but it undercuts his authority in the council and is less believable in the OT) or Obi-wan must be quite a bit older. I think both things would have to happen. Mace would have to be in his 30’s, and Obi-wan would need to be in his 50’s. This actually makes more sense than the continuity of the prequels, since we are supposed to believe that Obi-wan ages from 35 to 75 in the span of 19 years. If Obi-wan was aged appropriately, he could genuinely be a father figure to Anakin.

So I tried the ‘all groups’ approach:
https://vimeo.com/223226894
Password: groups

Center Channel audio:
https://mega.nz/#!KFVgnaKD!iKfRqU5IwSOdR8t5jj6QNk4_X-fkVbntWxTItliE81c
Final audio:
https://mega.nz/#!SAsxgRRQ!zB-HmMR9odtIccBmJPjqwDqZWyhIw1HnPPgZCcedg4g

It is more understandable, but there’s a lot of engine noise in the background that I wasn’t able to filter out completely.

The combination of ‘all’ and ‘fighters’ doesn’t work at all.