I like the intent behind this project. However, I think there are some problems with this idea:

1. If these edits are supposed to fit within the Legends timeline, then where the Thrawn Trilogy is supposed to take place? I mean, your edits take place after Return of the Jedi, and you even said that Jacen and Jaina are already born in them. So, where the Thrawn Trilogy is placed in this new timeline? It can’t happen before your Duology, because Jacen and Jaina are born precisely in the Thrawn Trilogy. If Ben Solo is the first son of Han and Leia and was born before Jacen and Jaina, then he should have been born before the Thrawn Trilogy. But there’s no mention of him in the trilogy, therefore he can’t be born before Jacen and Jaina. Also, the Thrawn Trilogy can’t happen after your Duology either, because Luke, Leia, and Han look way older in your edits than in the Thrawn Trilogy. So the Thrawn Trilogy can’t happen neither before or after your Sequel Duology. If it happens before, then everything doesn’t line up as far as Ben, Jacen and Jaina’s births are concerned. And if it happens after, then the appearance of the characters doesn’t align with what’s described in the Thrawn Trilogy itself.
   Maybe you could reply by saying: “Well, I could just say that the Thrawn Trilogy simply never happened, and is entirely replaced by my edits.” But unfortunately you can’t do this either, for the following reasons: 1) the events of the Thrawn Trilogy are often mentioned in the New Jedi Order series, so it must have happened at some point; 2) if you rule it out you don’t have anything depicting Jacen and Jaina’s birth, and if their existence isn’t even mentioned in your Duology, then everything would become very convoluted and wouldn’t make much sense.
2. The Dark Empire Trilogy has the same problems as the Thrawn Trilogy in regards to your edits. Anakin Solo is one of the main characters in the New Jedi Order series, therefore if you want to leave the series intact, you must include Anakin Solo’s backstory. But he was born precisely in the Dark Empire Trilogy, so if you rule it out you don’t have anything depicting his birth, and it wouldn’t make sense to leave it out considering that the events of the Dark Empire Trilogy are often mentioned in subsequent works, especially when Anakin Solo is involved as the main character of a certain story. Besides, just like the Thrawn Trilogy, you can’t place Dark Empire neither after or before your Duology. If you place it before, then again, Ben, Jacen and Jaina’s births would become messy. And if you place it after, the appearance of the characters wouldn’t make any sense, as they look way much younger in the comics than in your Duology.
3. Mara Jade and Luke were already married when the Yuuzhan Vong invasion started. If your edits are supposed to happen before the Vong invasion, where’s Mara Jade then? Why she allowed Luke to leave her and go around the Galaxy alone after Ben’s rebellion? It wouldn’t make sense if they are together already, because she would have never left Luke alone.
4. Since Ben doesn’t appear in the NJO, he should die before the Vong invasion. However, you didn’t seem to have planned any death for him in your edits. How do you want to solve this problem?

If you have solutions for these problems, then I’d like to hear them, and see how you want to solve them within the context of your edits.

Anjohan said:

AotC Inclusion Clip

The clip with more finetuned foley:

https://streamable.com/nf9lw0 (No Obi-Wan deepfake here)

Deepfake

And since so many dislike Obi-Wan’s “aged” appearance (although I don’t mind, since AotC aged Ewan McGregor up with prosthetics and makeup), here’s the Obi-Wan deepfake:

https://streamable.com/3oslfa

Bear in mind that Ewan McGregor did some prosthetics work to appear older in the Prequels, so he has different appearance of his eyebrows. I think I struck a balance here tho, merging the deepfake and the original part. The deepfake alone made his face significantly different from his original, more aged appearance.

Only did the 3-4 first shots of Obi-Wan since it’s so time consuming. If it’s good enough, I can probably do the whole schtick. At least the necessary shots. Many of the dueling close-ups with blue glow are definitely not necessary and will be a nightmare anyway.

Mmhh… I think Hayden’s voice at the beginning (not throughout the entire duel, just at the beginning, before they start duelling) could be replaced with an AI generated voice. Eleven Labs can reproduce Anakin’s voice from the Prequels almost perfectly, to the point that it’s even in distinguishable from the original voice. So, it could be used to match his younger tone of voice from the rest of the movie. Also, I don’t know if it’s me, but I see that the video is a bit jarring. Anyway, overall it’s pretty fine, although I would cut off the background noise of the speeders going around the city at the beginning (it doesn’t make much sense to hear it since we don’t see any speeders going around), and replace it with Anakin’s theme, like others did in their edits of the scene.

If we don’t count the Sequels and spin-offs, then C3PO is the most annoying character. Yes, he’s even more annoying than Jar Jar in my opinion.

Personally, I’d like to incorporate the duel in my edit of Attack of the Clones, by putting it in between of the deleted scene with Padmé addressing the Senate and Padmé’s private meeting with Palpatine. However, I’m still waiting for the perfect cut of the duel to be realized. We need a cut that fits perfectly with the colour and tone of the rest of the movie, with a credible voice change for Anakin (his voice is too deep in the original duel), with a less aggressive behavior from Anakin’s part, and with a perfect de-aged appearance of the characters. Also, the brightness of the lightsabers must be turned down dramatically, because in the rest of the movie the lightsabers aren’t as bright as in the original duel. None of this stuff has yet been accomplished satisfactorily in my opinion, so I’m still waiting.

Channel72 said:

Spartacus01 said:

I can’t imagine Vader saying “Liar!! You’re with him! You brought him here to kill me!”

No, he just said: “You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! Take her away!”

Prequel Anakin would have said something like “Traitor!! You’re with the Rebels! You’ve turned against us!! I will not let you get away with this!” or whatever.

He’d also pace back and forth while saying it. Then an Imperial officer would inform him that an escape pod with no lifeforms crashed on the surface of Tatooine. After realizing what planet they were orbiting, Anakin would tell his crew to initiate an orbital bombardment to kill all Sandpeople and also destroy all sand, after suspecting Leia was here as part of some nefarious sand-related plot to overthrow the Empire. He would then yell out to nobody in particular, saying “I now see through their lies! I will make them pay for their coarse, rough and irritating plotting against my Empire!!!1! It’s all Obi Wan’s fault!!”

This looks like more a parody of an argument based on internet memes than a real argument.

I can’t imagine Vader saying “Liar!! You’re with him! You brought him here to kill me!”

No, he just said: “You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! Take her away!”

When I hear about the story of Lucifer’s rebellion against God and his fall to Hell, for some reason, I always imagine Lucifer with the appearance of young Hayden Christensen from Revenge of the Sith. In my opinion, from a purely aesthetic point of view, Hayden has all the cards on the table to interpret Lucifer in a hypothetical movie about the fall of Lucifer from Heaven. You can argue as much as you want about Hayden’s acting skills, but you can’t deny that watching a movie like that would be like watching Dark Anakin from Revenge of the Sith for two consecutive hours, and that would be epic

When Vader is angry, he’s definitely colder than when young Anakin was angry. When he was angry, young Anakin showed his emotions more openly, unlike Vader who showed his anger much more coldly. However, in my opinion they are not different characters, but simply two different behaviors of the same character. After all, when Vader was already a servant of the Emperor, he had nothing left. I think his cold and calculating behavior is due to the fact that he was completely lonely and had nothing left to lose, he no longer had anything that made him feel really connected to anything, he had nothing that made him feel that his emotions were really worth expressing . Only when he realized that Luke was his son he did begin to express his emotions more openly, which is why in Return of the Jedi we see him acting a bit more like Hayden from the Prequels. There’s no contradiction between the two attitudes. When a person loses everything and has nothing to care about, it often happens that this person becomes much colder and more reserved, and that he shows his anger less emotionally than when he still had something that mattered to him. This is something that often happens in many movies and with many characters, and it’s not a contradiction.

Spam alert!

Can someone delete this thread and ban this guy?

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Get-Expert-Help-with-American-Airlines-Customer-Service/id/103775

You know, this is one of those times in which I regret not being a native English speaker. I would love to discuss these things, but I manage to consistently express my thoughts on these complex issues only in my first language. Ugh… It’s so annoying!

G&G-Fan said:

Bro really just hated on Buddhism, that’s kinda racist

Also if you actually took the time to learn the Buddhist principle of non-attachment you’d learn it’s basic common sense.

“The Buddhist concept of non-attachment is a constructive way to approach relationships. Here, attachment refers to an attempt to control things that you can’t control. When you try to grasp or control something outside of yourself, this causes suffering for yourself and the other person.”

I admit that I tend to be a very truthful person, and that I sometimes tend to throw completely unmotivated hatred at random. However, I actually don’t disagree with all the principles of Buddhist philosophy, I just think that a literal interpretation of them is not good, because I’m a very passionate person who thinks that the end justifies the means, to a certain extent. In any case, racism has nothing to do with my partial distaste towards Buddhism, because Buddhism is not a race, Buddhism is just a philosophy. Just as I don’t like Positivism, I don’t like Buddhism either. This has nothing to do with the racial affiliation of those who created these philosophies. Positivism was created by Westerners, Buddhism was created in India, and regardless of the racial affiliation of their creators, I don’t like both philosophies very much.

If you want, we can start a discussion about the validity of the Buddhist philosophy, but since it’s off topic in regards to the Prequel Trilogy, I don’t think this is the best place to do that. So maybe we can open a thread in the real life section of the forum. I just wanted to make it clear that racism has nothing to do with this.

Servii said:
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the whole idea of Jedi compassion where they “love everybody in a non-attached way” isn’t that great. It goes against human nature. If you try to love everybody in the world equally, you end up with a very shallow form of love.

This, this! Very much this!

G&G-Fan said:
The worshipping of Ahsoka and Qui-Gon, the hate on the Jedi like Obi-Wan, Yoda and Mace Windu, and how it’s warped the fanbase into believing that the prequels are actually a super brilliant critique on the Jedi Order.

The worshipping of Ahsoka is bad, I don’t like it either. Everything else is good, and should have been the actual interpretation of the Prequels (maybe it could have been if Lucas wasn’t obsessed with pseudo-Eastern bulshit).

Look, I actually criticize Filoni very much, but this is one of those times in which I prefer his interpretation over Lucas’, not only because it’s much more compelling, but also because it works better with what’s shown on screen in the actual Prequel Trilogy.

We were told Vader was seduced to the dark side, not that he was a poor baby victim of bad Jedi teachings.

One thing doesn’t exclude the other. It can be both things at the same time, like 50/50. As I’ve said multiple times, the blame for Anakin’s fall shouldn’t be traced to just one person or a single group of people, but it can also be attributed to everyone at the same time, for different reasons. Everyone played a role.

We were also told the Jedi were in their prime before the Empire.

What Obi-Wan told to Luke could also be seen as a highly romanticized version of the events. I mean, of course Obi-Wan had to keep Luke fascinated and intrigued, so that he could eventually feel motivated enough as to embrace the Jedi path. In my opinion, to criticize stuff based on a literal interpretation of the Original Trilogy dialogue leads you nowhere. If everyone thought like this, then every Star Wars movie would suck except for Star Wars '77, because all the other movies more or less contradict some piece of dialogue from the original movie.

Mocata said:

If only George had relinquished control and given directorial duties to others like with the OT it might have worked out better. But by that stage he believed his own legend so having another film like ESB with the likes of Kurtz and Kersh having creative input was impossible.

No, that’s not true. Lucas actually didn’t want to direct the Prequel Trilogy. He asked three different directors to direct the Prequels, including Steven Spielberg. But all these directors rejected his offer and said that he should do that himself, since they all trusted him and were convinced that he would do a great job. So, it’s not that George was arrogant, complacent or excessively self-confident, it’s just that he was forced to do it himself because everybody rejected his proposals. Also, what you’ve described is exactly what happened with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In that movie George was the man of the ideas, while Spielberg was the director. Guess what, everybody hated that movie anyway. So George having more control over the movies is not the real problem here, because people got what they wanted and still complained about it. In my opinion, the real problem is that people had too high expectations back when the Prequels were coming out, so it was virtually impossible to satisfy everyone. Of course the Prequels have some problems, and I’ve listed some of these problems in one of my previous posts. But I still think they’re not the disastrous movies everybody here like to depict them as.

I want to give my full opinion on the subject, because it almost may seem that I’m a Prequel apologist, when it’s not true.

In my opinion the Original Trilogy is better executed than the Prequels in terms of story and pacing. Yes, I don’t have many problems with most of the acting or the dialogue, but I think that some plot points were executed poorly. However, with some adjustments, edits and with the insertion of some deleted scenes, I think the Prequels can become as good as the Original Trilogy. That’s why I started creating my personal Prequel fan edits, because I think the movies are not as bad as everybody says, but they would be even better if they were fixed and trimmed in some parts.

The romance in Attack of the Clones is a clear example of this. I like the idea of Anakin being a socially and romantically illiterate teenager with a very awkward behaviour, but sometimes the execution was a bit over the top, so I just trimmed out some lines to make Anakin’s awkwardness to be more believable. Also, I never liked the scene where Anakin and Padmé kissed on the balcony near the Naboo lake, because I think their kiss on Geonosis, on the verge of death, should be their first kiss. Therefore, I’ve cut off that scene and replaced it with the deleted scene where the two of them have dinner with Padmé’s parents, then I removed every mention of the kiss from the fireplace scene, and I’ve also trimmed out some of Anakin’s monologue from that scene, to make it feel more consistent with the rest of his speeches throughout the movie. This way, the romance turns out to be more gradual and has a believable amount of awkwardness, but at the same time 90% of the original dialogue is still preserved. The romance is 80% believable in my opinion, but I’ve trimmed it out enough as to make it 100% believable (at least for me).

The Phantom Menace is another clear example of this. I have no problems with most of the plot, most of the acting, most of the dialogue, etc, but I think Jar Jar’s behavior is over the top in some parts. Jar Jar is a character whose clumsy and stupid behavior is supposed to counterbalance the serious behavior of the Jedi and Padmé, but at times his clumsiness is exaggerated beyond belief. Therefore, my intention is to cut some of his over the top behavior, thus leaving only the parts in which is clumsiness is believable, and can serve as a fresh and wholesome counterbalance to the Jedi’s and Padmé’s serious and stoic behaviour. Also, I don’t have a problem with most of the little Ani stuff, but I think the movie would benefit a lot from a simple change: instead of being accidental, I think it would be better if the destruction of the Trade Federation’s mothership was intentional on Anakin’s part. So, my intention is to basically adjust everything to make Anakin’s takeoff from the platform, his going into space and his destruction of the mothership as intentional on his part, to reinforce the image of the “best star-pilot in the Galaxy” of which Obi-Wan talks about in A New Hope.

What am I trying to say with this speech? Well, it’s simple: are the Prequels perfect? No, but it’s nothing so serious that it can’t be fixed by a simple fan edit, at least in my opinion.

StarkillerAG said:

Well, no matter how old you are, I really hope you’re lying, because basing your entire personality on a fictional child murderer is… questionable.

I’m sorry, but who said I base my personality on Anakin’s? I simply said that my way of talking in real life is similar to the way people talk in the Prequel Trilogy, and so it doesn’t bother me. That’s all. It seems to me that you’re all teaming up against me just because I’m not shitting on the Prequels.

Fan_edit_fan said:

Spartacus01 said:

StarkillerAG said:

Spartacus01 said:

a movie so poorly written as AOTC.

Yeah… No.

“Just being around her again is… intoxicating.”
“Attachments… FORbidden.”
“I’m haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that that kiss will not become a scar.”
“Don’t leave. Your presence is soothing.”
And of course, the ultimate example:
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything’s soft… and smooth.”

I’m sorry, but if you can’t see how crappy half the dialogue in AOTC is (especially whenever Anakin’s on screen), you’re delusional. And the extremely subpar directing doesn’t do it any favors either.

Yeah, that’s basically the way I talk to people every day, and everyone loves me for that. So no, of course I don’t hate it.

Dude how old are you? Hahah. Let it go.

I’m 22. What does my age have to do with this discussion?

StarkillerAG said:

Spartacus01 said:

a movie so poorly written as AOTC.

Yeah… No.

“Just being around her again is… intoxicating.”
“Attachments… FORbidden.”
“I’m haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that that kiss will not become a scar.”
“Don’t leave. Your presence is soothing.”
And of course, the ultimate example:
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything’s soft… and smooth.”

I’m sorry, but if you can’t see how crappy half the dialogue in AOTC is (especially whenever Anakin’s on screen), you’re delusional. And the extremely subpar directing doesn’t do it any favors either.

Yeah, that’s basically the way I talk to people every day, and everyone loves me for that. So no, of course I don’t hate it.

a movie so poorly written as AOTC.

Yeah… No.

I would love to be able to answer and have a discussion about this subject, but I’m afraid we’re going off topic, so I don’t think this is the right place to talk about it.

StarkillerAG said:

What makes the romance feel unbelievable for me, though, is the idea that Padme would ever fall in love with someone like that. Almost every time she and Anakin are on screen, there’s very little genuine attraction shown: It’s just Anakin obsessively ranting about his wet dreams, while Padme seems to be looking for the nearest exit at every possible moment. Them falling in love would be a lot more believable if one of them didn’t look physically repulsed by the other.

Let me tell you something: women are weird. They’re adept at hiding their true emotions and pretending they feel one way, when in reality they feel the exact opposite. I can assure you, I’ve witnessed women telling a man that they feel deeply bothered by their behavior, only to end up in a relationship with that same man. It happens in a lot of movies and TV shows as well. Women are fucking masterminds, they almost never say what they really want and what they really think. Men are the ones who directly say what they want, but women are not like that. They go around things, create hyperbolic speeches and often lie about their emotional state, because they want men to understand what they think, but without telling them directly. So, I don’t think there’s something weird or unbelievable about Padmé telling Anakin something but actually meaning something else. Besides, apart from the “It makes me feel uncomfortable” scene, I honestly don’t recall any other scene in which she seems repulsed by Anakin’s behaviour.

G&G-Fan said:

Also socially awkward nervous teenagers don’t speak in weird Shakespearean poetry.

The only scene where Anakin talks in a Shakespearean and refined way is the monologue scene in front of the fireplace. I totally agree about that specific case, and in fact I slightly trimmed the scene in my personal Attack of the Clones fan edit, to align it more with the rest of Anakin’s speeches through the rest of the movie. But other than that circumstance, I don’t remember Anakin talking in a Shakespearean way in any other scene.

The reason Episode II is the weakest prequel for me is that the love story between Anakin and Padme is supposed to be half of the focus of that movie and yet it’s almost completely unbelievable. The actors are TRYING their hardest to make the characters sound as good as possible but that damn Lucas directing just renders it impossible, resulting in some very cringe and even creepy scenes. Half the time, Anakin looks like an obsessive stalker rather than a lovestruck yet charming young man.

I honestly doubt that a virgin teenager, which is romantically illiterate and who’s filled with a lot of repressed sexual desires would act like a charming young man, it’s totally unrealistic. And I know that, because I had to deal with the same problems a lot of times during my teenage years. Lately I’ve been trying to improve myself and seem more self-confident, but believe me, it’s not easy when you don’t have experience. Also, sure, most women only find men who are self-confident attractive, but even if it’s hard to believe, there’s a small percentage of women who think insecure and awkward men are cute. Probably Padmé falls into this small category, so there’s nothing weird with that. Therefore, no, in my opinion there’s nothing unbelievable about the love story in Attack of the Clones, and I don’t think Anakin’s behavior is unbearable, because I’ve been in his place a lot of times. I know what it’s like to be in that kind of situation, I know what it’s like to be in love with someone and be incredibly awkward, so I’m able to put myself in Anakin’s shoes and to see the world with his eyes. I’m able to identify myself with him, therefore I don’t have a problem with the love story.

Servii said:

*They also tended to be diehard PT/SE apologists, which also fanned the flames of contempt.

This has kind of flipped around now. Fans who are the most ardent defenders of “George’s vision” usually hold disdain for the EU.

So I’m not the only one who noticed this…

fmalover said:

Servii said:

I don’t like Qui-Gon. My problem isn’t so much with the character himself. Just the fact that he steals away character traits and importance that should have been given to Obi-Wan. Also, I think a lot of fans “oversell” him nowadays as being “the wisest Jedi.”

As I’ve posted a few times before, my biggest problem with Qui-Gon is that he acts the way a young eager Padawan would act, whilst Obi-Wan is very by-the-book and conservative despite being a novice. It’s like Lucas got the roles mixed up and went with it anyway.

To be honest, I actually like the idea of the master being more open-minded then the apprentice. It happened is some other movies as well, it’s not just a Star Wars thing. Besides, this makes things more compelling when it comes to Anakin’s fate.

Servii said:

Everyone has some degree of consciousness within the Force after death. The special Jedi training just gives them the added ability to manifest in the physical world. But basically everyone still exists in the netherworld, except for people who were completely consumed by the Dark Side (not even necessarily Dark Side users, but also people who were just consumed by selfish, negative emotions, like Tarkin or Jabba).

I think this is actually Canon. In fact, George Lucas said multiple times that Padmé and Anakin met again after death, so Padmé is of course still part of the Force.