RogueLeader

Haha, and maybe you could just call it Star Wars. 😂

To be fair, Revenge of the Sith could basically act as a stand-alone prequel film, with maybe some brief glimpses of events from the Episodes 1 and 2 in Anakin’a dreams.

You know, I didn’t think the idea of combining live-action and animation into a single fan edit, but the idea of also including the 2003 Clone Wars, and cutting back and forth between three different mediums, really clicked for me. Seeing how each of the three mediums reference each other, even though they were made years apart from each other and by different production teams, seems like it would be really satisfying to watch.

If you have trouble altering the color of Anakin’s scar in the 2003 Clone Wars, just let me know and I might be able to help.

I mean, could it be possible George and Gary talked about George’s evolving ideas for Star Wars III during production of Empire, and maybe Kurtz wasn’t thrilled about the direction they were taking, so he contributed that to his departure somewhat, regardless of whether he was fired or if he left voluntarily?

I think the answer lies with Rey’s “Be with me” chant. It seems like Rey tried to connect with the Force on a deeper level than Luke could in the OT, in order to commune with past Jedi she had never even met. Perhaps this connection she is trying to establish can allow for spirits to interfere with the material world, with Rey acting as a conduit.

Rey flies away on the Falcon to go settle a trade dispute.

Yes, but that depends on if the edit is concerned with what is canon or not.

If it is meant to fit within the nine-film canon, then I agree. That very idea was the subject of my very first post on this site. It would require you changing the explosion in ANH, and to make some slight crawl and dialogue changes, at the very least.

But, speaking for myself, I think it would also be cool to make a fan edit of Return of the Jedi that asks the question, “What if there were only three Star Wars ever?” With that in mind, I would just like to try to make interesting changes that gave the trilogy a more somber and bittersweet ending, regardless of canon.

Wow, that’s really impressive. I was curious where that frame came from when you posted the other Star Destroyer shot awhile back.

Honestly, I think one of the time-consuming parts about putting the throne room on Coruscant would be rotoscoping the all the windows in every shot in order to replace the background…

I also think the rain outside the window should be more subtle, or not used at all. I think it makes it feel sort of artificial.

Also, did you render that environment, ships and buildings included?

Someone could check me on this, but I think it wasn’t about her literally becoming a queen. I believe Kurtz said something about her becoming the leader of whatever is left of her people. I suppose that could be interpreted as her becoming Queen to any survivors of Alderaan, but I always interpreted it as her becoming the leader of whatever is left of the Alliance at the end of the movie. Since she is Princess Leia, I figured people misinterpreted that as her becoming Queen.

EDIT: Also, I do see what people are saying about Han dying might not working, especially with his survival being ambiguous at the end of ESB. Like, we would get him back just for him to “die” again. I think it could have worked if Han was given a clear choice between surviving in order to live a long and happy life with Leia, or sacrificing himself for a greater purpose than his own happiness. If Han just died in battle, without having the choice between living or dying, it probably wouldn’t have been as satisfying because it wouldn’t have been character-motivated at all.

Yeah, true, although if we’re removing the Second Death Star from the film, we’re already deviating from canon, since it later appears in TROS.

I think I would only use non-Star Wars footage if this version of Return of the Jedi was meant to be the last Star Wars film. Hell, I have a bit of free time. I don’t think model making isn’t out of the question for me. Maybe using similar techniques that they used to make the bladerunner city footage.

This is exactly what I was thinking about doing as well. I think about how in A New Hope, Luke says, “Well, if there’s a bright center of the universe, you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from.” So it would be fitting if the climax of Luke’s story takes place on what is essentially the bright center of their universe.

Recently I was thinking about what would be the most appropriate way to depict this city planet (whether it be Coruscant, Had Abbadon, etc.)

I think if we were to use shots of Coruscant from the prequels, it would be better to exclusively use shots from The Phantom Menace, since they feel a little more dated than its depiction in Episodes II and III, and probably would feel more appropriate alongside ROTJ’s 80s-era effects.

Alternatively, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you really wanted it to feel different, I think would be interesting to experiment using shots of the cityscape from Bladerunner. I mean, it came out only a year before ROTJ, so its special effects are more consistent with ROTJ than TPM is. Also, the city from Bladerunner feels distinctly dystopian, whereas the prequel-era Coruscant feels very utopian. I think the dystopian appearance could more fitting for the throne world for the Emperor.

For the Emperor’s palace, you could either use shots of the Jedi Temple if you went with canon Coruscant. Or, if you used Bladerunner footage, the tyrell building could be used for the Emperor’s palace.

I agree, that might look better. I didn’t imagine the shield would work at first but I like it, it reminds me of the rough draft of the Return of the Jedi script.

The Emperor shoots lightning at Luke. Luke raises his hands in defense, but they are deflected by an invisible shield. Images of Ben and Yoda appear at the points of impact. Luke collapses under the strain.

Haha, yeah, could’ve reused the lighter shot from TFA and made it a very tiny saber.

If Jonh is applying the effects on a separate layer from the film clip, he probably could add the purple saber clip as another layer and export two versions without having to redo the effects at all.

Hal, I was thinking more about potential Finn dialogue for his scene with Jannah. A line that we might be able to piece together for it could be, “We belong here.”

We could take We belong from his deleted scene with Rose in TLJ where he says, “Where we belong”.
And in his scene with Jannah, he says, “The Force brought me here.”

I think the tone of both lines are similar, so it might work. If that doesn’t work, maybe we could try “This is where we belong.”
He says “This is” at the beginning of that scene as well.

Anyone think they could try and piece those lines together?

Would some of you care to share aspects of the film that you like and dislike about this film? I wasn’t around when the film came out, but I’m curious if any of you recall what complaints people had about the movie when it released.

In your opinion, do you agree with the common belief that ROTJ is the weakest of the OT films? If so, why?

I had been mapping out some thoughts for a semi-radical ROTJ edit, but I started to wonder if keeping the Second Death Star could contribute to the film rhyming with ANH.

Here are some of the major complaints of Return of the Jedi that I remember:
There being another Death Star.
Going back to Tatooine.
Jealous Han.
Boba Fett’s death.
Ewoks.
I know some people didn’t like Luke and Leia being siblings either.

I would be curious to here some people’s issues with ROTJ. I know this has been discussed pretty thoroughly countless times. I have a feeling as more prequel kids have grown up and are now more active on this site, perhaps there might be more people who like these aspects of ROTJ. But I still think it would be worth playing around with a ROTJ edit that tries to address these major complaints, as if the original trilogy was the only Star Wars that we ever got.

EDIT: Unfortunately, I feel like many of the problems that keeps ROTJ from reaching the heights of the first two films are pretty ingrained in the film. The cinematography is a downgrade to the dynamic and creative choices Kershner and Suschitzky made in Empire. But maybe poor dialogue and goofy moments could be cut, and more interesting visual locales could be created to make Death Valley and the Redwood Forests feel more alien than they currently are.

Ajan Kloss’ environment matches up rather well with the swamps and jungles the Gungan’s hide in towards the climax of The Phantom Menace. With appropriate color grading and ambiance, the idea could be that the Resistance are now using this old hiding place.

Hal 9000 said:

And, RogueLeader, yes! That sounds very plausible to accomplish (easy for me to say), and fills in a much needed gap. In the theater I quipped to my brother that Mace Windu should have grabbed a second lightsaber and ended it right then. As if that was the mistake.

Yeah, it seems that is what many people said after the movie. Destroying Palpatine should involve more than shooting lightning back at his face. We saw him explode in ROTJ, so something else needs to happen when he explodes this time that makes us think that he won’t come back again. Like some “divine intervention”.

I think the Force ghosts briefly possessing or energizing Rey is a clever way to parallel Palpatine being this Sith collective-consciousness. Plus, tons of the dialogue hints towards this kind of climax. “Be with me”, “A thousand generations live in you now”, “And I… I am all the Jedi.” I think this kind of climax would actually make this final line better, too. And this way, Anakin can participate in destroying Palpatine, which could alleviate any issues people had with his status as Chosen One being potentially contradicted. So, all of this Force ghost stuff we have seen throughout the films, that all started with Qui-Gon’s death in Episode I, all had a purpose that lead up to this moment.

As far as practicality goes, I think a lot of techniques Jonh has used could be used for the brief glimpses of faces we get. I guess beyond that, we could create a mask around Rey that can be used to make a Force ghost glow around her, and then see that energy fly from Rey and consume Palpatine.

I would say it is better not to expect anything from this like you’re thinking. Petro just posted some tests of certain shots he was working on remastering. This isn’t a remaster of the whole movie. And I think he has moved onto other projects right now. He may come back to this, maybe not. But that’s just a guess! He might come back on here and contradict me.

People have already suggested this, but after seeing Jonh’s Force ghost tests so far, I definitely think it would be cool to see the ghosts help Rey further. What I’m thinking, is after Rey starts deflecting with both sabers, we start seeing a Force ghost aura around her. And the first time she pushes forward, we get a very quick glimpse of Luke’s face over hers. The second push, we briefly see Leia’s face. The third push, Anakin’s (it could even be quick flashes of multiple Jedi). And in the shot of Rey pushing the final blast of lightning back at Palpatine, we could see that blue aura around Rey fly away from her, through the lightsabers and lightning, and into Palpatine. This is when Palpatine explodes. Basically, the Force ghosts of the Jedi use their energy to purge the spirit of the last Sith, once and for all.

This way, Palpatine doesn’t die just because Rey deflected lightning in his face, but because of something more metaphysical, that feels like a culmination to this battle between the Jedi and the Sith. Palpatine has been a vessel for all the Sith, and for this brief moment, Rey becomes an avatar for all the Jedi.

Hal 9000 said:

RogueLeader said:

The shitty thing is that no matter what we can change or alter with this film, there’s no way we can really give Rose more of a presence, without any deleted scenes. Rose goes from a prominent character with her own theme in the last film, to a background extra in the last film.

But… this conversation did give me an idea for one small change. For awhile I’ve had this idea of altering the scene between Finn and Jannah, and replace a part of Finn’s schpiel about the Force to something about joining the fight. Basically, we want to get the idea across that Finn is recruiting Jannah to join the cause by sharing how he had his own change of heart in the last two films. It would be nice if we could rescore the last half of that scene, and replace the overused Force motif with Rose’s theme, instead. So the conversation would go something like:

Finn: The Force. The Force brought me here. Brought me to Rey and Poe. We need to stop the First Order. I wasn’t sure then, but I am now.

Maybe you could change it some more, but if you can change the context of the scene to make it seem like Finn is convincing Jannah to stop hiding on Endor and join the fight, with Rose’s theme playing over it, we can feel Rose’s presence and impact on the story more, even if she doesn’t have much screen time herself.

Here is that scene for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jRscLcf3bA

Is there dialogue already of Finn saying “We need to stop the First Order” that you have in mind?

No, not exactly. I know he says, “We need to fight” in TLJ, but it might not be clean audio, since I think Poe begins to interrupt him. I’ll have to go back through and see what else there is to work with. Does anyone else have ideas for this?

Well those tall figures obscured in robes, messing with the technology around the Snoke cloning pods, look like they could fit the description of Kaminoans.

Whoa, that is pretty cool jonh!

Hal, I just typed it “anakin aged” with a space in between and it worked for me.

Hayden’s chin/jaw area seems to get bigger between the two versions, but that might have more to do with the two different angles of the image. I don’t think that’s bad, though. It’s more noticeable when you compare the two versions, but I don’t think you would notice it as much by itself.