StarkillerAG

Personally, I’m glad Andor isn’t super mainstream. If it had Mando levels of popularity, Disney execs would likely be micromanaging the second season to an absurd degree right now. Andor’s continued obscurity means that the “lightning in a bottle” of the first season might still be recaptured.

Also, was anyone really expecting Andor to be super popular anyways? It’s a show based on the most forgettable character in the most forgettable Star Wars movie, with a very slow pace and almost no action scenes. It was never going to stand a chance against anything with “Boba Fett” or “Obi-Wan Kenobi” in the title, no matter how much praise it got.

A couple months ago, a fanedit.org user named “catferoze” uploaded their own personal edits of the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies. They haven’t received much attention yet, but I think they deserve to be more visible, so I decided to create a thread for them here.

Catferoze’s take on Star Wars is much less radical than most of the edits I’ve seen. Only the absolute worst aspects of the films have been removed, while several deleted scenes have been inserted to flesh out the universe more. It’s not the most pristine, perfectionist cut of the movies, but for those who want an experience that doesn’t stray too far from the original intent, it’s a lifesaver.

If you want the links to any of these edits, please PM me.

Info on the individual edits is below (copy-pasted from IFDB):

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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (by catferoze)

A lighter edit of The Phantom Menace than most, removing only the worst of Jar Jar’s antics and Ani’s acting and trimming the podrace a bit.

Cuts and Additions:

-Neimoidian:“Are you brain dead?”
-Jar Jar:“oh muy muy I love you”,“my forgotten, da bosses…goin back dare”,mute jar jar dive yell,“yousa follow me now okeyday?”
-trim Otah Gunga (“big doodoo…how wude”,“count me outta dis…wutta mesa sayin?”)
-trim planet core (“dis is nutsin” replaced with later shot “the force will guide us”)
-second planet core sequence
-trim Qui-Gon with the battle droid (“where are you taking them? to coruscant”)
-Jar Jar with droids (“how wude”)
-queen thanking R2-D2 by name (“what is it’s number…your highness”)
-Jar Jar stepping in poop (“disen berry bad…icky goo”)
-trim Jar Jar in Watto’s shop (tongue at Qui-Gon, messing with droids…Ani:“hit the nose”,juggling junk)
-trim Jar Jar/Sebulba confrontation (Ani:“your buddy…orange goo”,“mesa haten crunchen…last ting mesa want”)
-trim dinner scene (start scene at padme:“i can’t believe there’s still slavery”)
-Ani’s friends gather round podracer…“gonna be bug squash”
-jar jar’s numb tongue (“if your hand gets caught…I’m stuck”,“my mouth…tongue is fat”,“thank you…go”)
-trim race intro (sebulba blowing kisses…ody mandrell)
-animal farting in Jar Jar’s face & Shmi “be safe” scene
-trim podrace starup sequence (most of the secondary podracer shots)
-“mesa no watchin”,“come on Ani”
-kid yelling “yay yipee”
-vendor in crowd
-Ani’s pods coming uncoupled,annoucer:“spinning outta control”,keep jar jar gasp reaction and crowd cheer,skip to sebulba pod coming up the gorge
-announcer:“I don’t care…that’s gotta hurt”
-“amazing! a quick control…did he crashid?”
-announcer:“crowd going nuts” & little dance
-trim Ani reaction to being free “you mean I get to come with…”
-mute Ani:“yipee”
-after Qui-Gon:“situation much more complicated” wipe to arial shot of taxi arrival
-Jar Jar antics during battle (sling attempt, droid stuck to foot, “dis is nutsin”,“uh oh big boomers”)
-Ani:“it’s on autopilot”,“try to override it”, mute:“that’s where auto pilot taking us”,“R2 get us off autopilot…let’s go left”,“oops”

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Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (by catferoze)

Main changes include the addition of several deleted scenes to expand Padme’s presence, the silly antics of R2 & 3PO are removed from the factory and arena battle, and a few of Ani’s whiniest/creepiest moments are removed (but kept in all the cringe romance).

Cuts and Additions:

-Captain Typho before ship explodes “we made it”,“guess i was wrong…after all”
-Add Padme addresses the Senate deleted scene*
-Trim Obi and Ani arguing (“we will not go through this…our mandate”,“you will learn your place”)
-creepy Ani:“I’ve thought about her…parted”, “I don’t think she liked me watching her”)
-muffled the lines “what is she thinking?..is an intruder” and placed over shot of sleeping padme
-Aliens yell at Obi “Jedi poodoo”
-Flying through power couplings (cut from just before fire plumes to bounty hunter entering tunnel)
-Obi “This weapon is your life.”
-Ani whining to Padme (moved “I’m ready for the trials” to after “but he feels i’m too…move on”,cut “That must be frustrating…not fair!”)
-Ani being creepy again (“Anakin, don’t try to grow up…Sorry M’lady.”)
-Trim beginning of Dex’s Diner scene (cut from exterior shot to sitting down at booth)
-Use extended arrival on Naboo*
-Add deleted Obi/Mace hangar scene after Ani:“i’m glad you chose to serve”*
-Add first deleted scene of Padme with her family after palace meeting*
-techno union and banking clan aliens at Dooku meeting
-trim psycho killer Ani:“and not just the men…children too”
-3PO and R2 leaving ship (“for a mechanic…know where you’re going”, appearance in hallway bug attack)
-Trim factory level (all R2/3PO shots, Ani fighting mechanical arms, insert Padme bowl falling after Ani force push shot, join first Ani arm trapped segment with last cutting everything in between)
-Add Padme/Dooku deleted scene after factory capture/establishing shot transition*
-trim battle to remove R2/3PO (“my legs aren’t…maintenance”,“what’s all this…destruction”,battle droid head shot off 3PO body,“die jedi…i say?”,“oh dear…can’t get up”,“R2 what are…drag”,“quite beside myself”,“R2 please…head on straight”,“i’ve had…dream”)
-yoda rescue line (“around the survivors…create”)
*deleted scene upscales c/o Hal9000

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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (by catferoze)

Added several deleted scenes (upscaled thanks to Hal9000), removed some R2 slapstick and the Vader “Noooo!” scene.

Cuts and Additions:

-mute droid dialogue on elevator
-mute droids “those are jedi fighters”
-elevator stuck & R2 v droids (Obi:“did you press stop”…R2 lighting droids on fire)
-“my powers have doubled…twice the fall”
-droid:“don’t move” and kicking R2
-droid:“excuse me”,“you’re welcome”
-alien and jar jar “watch it”,“scuse me”
-Add deleted scene “plot to destroy the jedi” after Obi to Ani:“making me uneasy”*
-Add deleted scene in Bail Organa’s apartment after Ani appointed to council/not master*
-mute droid “charge”
-wookie tarzan yell
-Add deleted scene in Padme’s apartment after Wookiee v droids*
-Add deleted scene in palp’s office after Ani/Padme nightmare convo*
-mute droid “uh oh”
-redundant war room dialogue (Mace:“plot to destroy jedi…surround chancellor”, Yoda:“to a dark…we must take”)
-vader/palp dialogue after his operation (Palpy:“Lord Vader, can you hear”… Vader:“noooooo!”)
-Add deleted scene Yoda on Dagobah after death star scene*
*deleted scene upscales c/o Hal9000

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Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (by catferoze)

A lighter edit of the film primarily removing a large portion of the rathtar sequence with a few trims to “humorous” lines and one vfx replacement shot.

Cuts and Additions:

-Finn overly surprised at Rey fighting
-Finn:“cute boyfriend”
-Rey & Finn encounter rathtars
-trim Maz on table “Solo what…not good”
-replace exploding Hosnian system in sky with star destroyers (vfx SirRidley & NeverarGreat c/o Hal9000)

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Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (by catferoze)

A light edit of The Last Jedi removing a few quips, adding a couple deleted scenes, and shortening Finn & Rose’s codebreaker mission.

Cuts and Additions:

-trim ‘prank call’ to tone it down a bit
-add Luke has moment deleted scene
-add Poe’s jacket deleted scene
-trim Canto Bight (belch on bb8, shorter fathier chase)
-ironing clothes
-Finn vs Phasma duel
-Finn:“they hate that ship”
-Rose:“dummy…saving what we love”

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Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (by catferoze)

A lighter edit of The Rise of Skywalker removing a few quips, poorly thought out narrative elements (lightspeed skipping, knife compass), while adding a few extended shots to slow the frenetic pacing of the film a bit.

Cuts and Additions:

-add Mustafar establishing shots
-lightspeed skipping
-add emperor speech to intel meeting, cut 16h deadline
-“they fly now”
-add extended Rey v Kylo tie in desert
-add extended squeaky wheel
-“southern shore” from sith blade
-sith blade compass
-Finn:“REY!” (just 1 of them)
-add extended Kylo & Han establishing shot
-“every cannon…world saved” replaced with extended ships shot
-use alternative “Rey Skywalker” line
*special thanks to Hal9000 for a variety of resources from Rise of Skywalker Ascendant project

jacensolo27 said:

Hello, I’ve read some replies but just in case I misunderstood: Is there an audio track available with Temuera Morrison’s voice instead of the original?

Not yet. Once Adywan releases the full Blu-ray edition of the edit, Temuera’s voice will be added in an alternate audio track, but that will only be released after the trilogy is done.

EddieDean said:

Just looking at work commitments for the next short while, it looks like I won’t have the time to create an Episode 2 focus thread in the short term. If anyone wants to put something together please be my guest!

I volunteer as tribute! I’ve become almost obsessed with creating an ideal AOTC edit recently, so this would be a perfect way to lay out my personal goals with the movie.

Channel72 said:

NeverarGreat said:

And all this is ignoring the argument for historical preservation and simple decency in preserving the work of those who originally made the films, such as the craftspeople who did the matte paintings and model work that has been simply erased.

Just out of curiosity, do you recall off hand what matte paintings or model work was erased? I thought I was pretty familiar with the Special Edition changes, but I can’t recall off hand any actual models or matte paintings that were erased. I thought the Special Editions mostly just added things, like adding additional frames (e.g. arrival at Mos Eisley) or inserting things into existing frames. I know they removed some frames of Stormtroopers getting shot, which sucks, along with various other tweaks ranging from irrelevant to dramatically harmful, but IIRC most (or all?) of the original matte paintings are still there (like the Death Star hangar bay, Yavin IV temples, etc.)

Actually, both of the examples you mentioned were replaced for the SE. The new mattes do look better from an objective point of view, but the original work has still been erased.

Also, several model shots were replaced with CGI, especially during the climactic Death Star battle. Again, most of the new shots look better, but that doesn’t change the fact that real people worked their asses off to achieve those shots, and it’s just gone now. Of course, if the original versions were officially available, this wouldn’t be a problem.

BedeHistory731 said:

It’s ludicrous that the AP Stylebook doesn’t allow Oxford Commas.

Are you serious?! I always thought Oxford commas were the CORRECT way to do it! God, that’s dumb.

The dead speak! 😉

It’s great to see you back, Faraday! To be honest, I had completely forgotten about this edit, but rereading the cutlist made me remember how promising it was. I can’t wait until you finally find the time to finish it.

Yeah, what he said. That’s honestly one of the main reasons why I’ve come to prefer Star Wars over Star Trek as I grow older (it was the other way around as a kid).

Star Wars never had any pretentions of being accurate in the slightest, it was always a Tolkein-esque epic fantasy story in space. Star Trek, on the other hand, is clearly supposed to be more “realistic” and “grounded”, but somehow manages to mangle science even worse than Star Wars ever did.

Is that your art, Nev? Because if it is, I really dig it! Reminds me of the educational adventure books I used to read as a kid.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

This whole edit reminds me of how the original Star Wars was saved in the editing room. As I’m sure many of you are aware, originally the Death Star was just gonna be at some random point in space. Post production made it so that they were targeting Yavin.

I see this restructuring the same way.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve gotten Marcia Lucas vibes from TLJ Rekindled and TROS Ascendant too. My favorite type of fanedit is when the editor goes at it from the perspective of a Hollywood studio: treating the original movie as a “rough cut” that the “test audience” (AKA the Internet) is unsatisfied with, and expending whatever resources are necessary to fix the movie’s issues while still feeling seamless and professional.

Superweapon VII said:

At least 99% of all modern mainstream musicians with any acclaim are overrated, IMO. Genuinely great modern music isn’t the stuff you’re likely to hear on the radio.

I definitely agree, especially in the last few years.

I saw a very interesting video, arguing that the rise of TikTok is what killed pop music. Ever since Old Town Road became a massive hit due to its popularity on the platform, record labels have been demanding that pretty much every song needs to be “danceable on TikTok”; with a trap beat, gimmicky lyrics, and a general feeling of generic-ness. Indie music is the only genre where you can escape producers demanding that artists pander to ADHD-addled teenagers.

Speaking of Dragon Ball Z, recut the entire saga into 20-minute anime-style episodes, with the opening crawls replaced by a Tom Kane impersonator narrating over the DBZ recap theme. Insert enough deleted material (whether actual deleted scenes or recreated bits from the novelizations) to make the movies twice their original length, in order to properly capture the DBZ “10 minutes of filler per episode” storytelling method.

vranir said:

What role does that leave for the Gungans in the entire film though? I agree that their help isn’t great, but it is kind of the “let’s all work together” message, which would be lost if their battle were removed.

You’re right, of course. But in my opinion, a half-assed message that allows for a cool final battle is better than a message that’s conveyed through lame slapstick on a Windows XP background.

Also, I’m not advocating for cutting the battle completely: just leaving most of it offscreen. That way, you can imagine that the Gungans’ not-so-great help was a little bit more competent.

Well, now that restructuring the final battle is a major goal again, I figure I might as well throw in my two cents on how the climax should play out.

I remember suggesting, way back when this thread was new, that I would like to cut out the Gungan portion of the final battle completely. That idea was almost immediately shot down, though, because the entire battle hinges on them using the Gungan diversion to sneak into the palace with minimal resistance. However, I still really dislike the Gungan battle, and would prefer to have as much of it cut out as possible. So, here’s my suggestion: have the majority of the battle take place offscreen.

I know that doesn’t sound like a good idea at first, but I think it could potentially work. We don’t really need to see any of the Gungan subplot between the droids advancing into the shields and the defeated Gungans surrendering. It’s clearly shown that the Gungan forces are woefully unprepared for the power of the droid army, so is it really essential to see them defeated on-screen in order for the audience to accept that they lost? That way, we get to focus on the plotlines that are actually pretty cool (Space battle, Duel of the Fates, palace infiltration), as well as bypass cutting around Jar-Jar’s obnoxiousness almost entirely.

That’s unironically better than the original movie. The prequels really needed to take more inspiration from epic fantasy.

GuardianoftheWhills said:

The cartoony feel of the show suggests the growing influence of Filoni in the Mandoverse. I’d rather they’d kept the animated tales entirely separate from this. Not least because I find elements to be absurd - space whales - or corny.

Yeah, I’ve been getting that feeling too. Except for Andor, pretty much all post-TROS Star Wars gives me “live-action anime adaptation” vibes, and not just because of all the live-action versions of cartoon characters walking around. Filoni is truly a successor to Lucas: a great ideas man, but hopelessly corny when he actually tries to write something.

I just watched Donnie Darko for the first time last night, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that feels like it before. It perfectly captures how it feels to be alienated from the world around you, while at the same time including surrealist, almost spiritual elements that honestly blew my mind while watching it. I was expecting it to just be okay, but it ended up being possibly one of my favorite movies of all time.

Just one little issue, though: the version that I watched was the Director’s Cut. I didn’t realize it until the movie was already done, but after looking it up, it seems like the hardcore Donnie Darko fans absolutely hate that version of the movie. I personally like most of the changes that were made, and I don’t think my enjoyment of the movie has been impacted at all, but I’m still worried that I accidentally got an inferior experience. Should I watch the original version of the movie, or am I worried over nothing?

Well, I finally watched the episode. And unfortunately, I’m not impressed, which is a feat considering how low my expectations were.

The main problem with Mando as a whole has already been identified by several people: the universe doesn’t feel “lived in”. The characters don’t have any nuance, no life beyond what’s on screen, they’re just machines designed to spew lame one-liners and repetitive exposition. I didn’t used to be bothered by this, but after Andor showed how convincingly “real” a Star Wars story can be, Mando just feels like a vaudeville show by comparison.

But even disregarding the lack of believability, this episode just felt… bland. Not a single moment in the entire episode really stood out to me. Every scene just felt like I’ve seen it before, and that’s because I have: almost every moment in this episode was an imitation of a much more memorable moment from the previous seasons. The Mando writers have begun to eat their own tail, so to speak, and the new season just feels forgettable as a result.

I hope this episode was just a fluke, and the next few episodes will be able to pull their act together: the critical reactions to an advance preview of Chapter 18 sound very promising. But if the new season doesn’t turn out good by at least episode 3, I’m done with Mando forever.

I wish I could be part of a religion, but my conscience just won’t allow me to. My rationalist mode of thinking means that I find it almost impossible to accept something on blind faith. Why would you believe in one religion without evidence, when there are hundreds of other religions that have just as much of a basis in fact?

But more importantly, I find that the vast majority of religious teachings conflict drastically with my own moral and political views. This especially applies to matters of human sexuality. I’m a firm believer in the right to free sexual expression, including masturbation and pre-marital sex. But most religions, especially the Abrahamic ones, teach people to keep their natural urges bottled up inside. That’s an incredibly unhealthy mindset, in my opinion. And don’t get me started on how the Bible talks about homosexuality: let’s just say that, as a bisexual person, I do not like being referred to as an “abomination”.

I haven’t seen the new episode yet, but my expectations for the latest season are at rock bottom right now. If you count Book of Boba as part of the series, the trajectory of Mando seems to be a constant downward slope. It’s a shame, because season 1 was awesome, but the title of “greatest Star Wars show” has been fully transferred over to Andor for me.

This might be a dumb question, but will V1.1 include fixed sound mixing? I love pretty much all of the edits here in theory, but all the added music and effects being in mono is super distracting.

Spartacus01 said:

StarkillerAG said:

Aside from the previously mentioned removal of the first two prequels, I also removed everything between Episode III and Andor (because none of it matters and most of it sucks), as well as the sequel trilogy (because they seem to be preparing for a “clean slate” in a new galaxy that will allow them to ignore the sequels, and because the sequels suck).

Call me stupid, but I honestly prefer to watch two movies that last for two hours instead of watching an entire TV show. Not only because I don’t like TCW and like the first two Prequels, but also for a matter of time. I don’t know, maybe I’m the lazy one? But I honestly don’t want to spend days watching a TV show when I can just watch the entire Prequel Trilogy in six hours.

Well, this order is really more intended for long-term viewing over the course of a few weeks, rather than a conventional marathon. If you really want the full “Star Wars experience”, a marathon is getting harder and harder to do. The edit that I listed trims Clone Wars significantly, so it’s not like I have to go through 120 episodes of inconsistent-quality kid’s television like I would with the original.

Also, you’re free to prefer Lucas’s interpretation of the prequel characters to Filoni’s, but I personally find Clone Wars much more enjoyable than the first two prequels could ever be. When viewed as a whole, Clone Wars is wildly inconsistent with the prequels (which is another reason why I’m cutting the first two), but if you take Clone Wars on its own terms, it’s an incredibly moving portrayal of how the Republic became an Empire.

There was some interesting discussion in EddieDean’s Clone Wars thread, where an intriguing point was raised regarding viewing orders for Star Wars: you don’t really need to watch the first two prequels. If you watch the Dooku origin story from Tales of the Jedi, followed by the Clone Wars TV show, you basically have all the context you need to watch the rest of the franchise in chronological order. Feeling a bit inspired, I decided to take that idea and run with it; creating the most compelling viewing order for Star Wars material that doesn’t involve Episodes I and II.

So, without further ado, here is StarkillerAG’s Ultimate Definitive End-All Be-All Way to Watch Star Wars (until I come up with something even better):

• Tales of the Jedi (Dooku episodes only)
• Clone Wars 3D (EddieDean’s Refocused edit, including prologue)
• Revenge of the Sith (Siliconmaster482’s Rebalanced edit)
• Andor (might use a fanedit, but I’m not sure)
• Rebels (g00b’s Recut edit)
• Rogue One (Hal 9000’s Half-Assed edit)
• A New Hope (oohteedee’s D+77 preservation)
• The Empire Strikes Back (either oohteedee’s D+80 preservation or Adywan’s Revisited edit)
• Return of the Jedi (Stotchy’s Destiny Edition preservation)
• The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett (Acbagel’s Way of Mandalore edit)

Aside from the previously mentioned removal of the first two prequels, I also removed everything between Episode III and Andor (because none of it matters and most of it sucks), as well as the sequel trilogy (because they seem to be preparing for a “clean slate” in a new galaxy that will allow them to ignore the sequels, and because the sequels suck).

Yeah, that does sound like a pretty neat way to watch the prequel material. Part of me wishes that the OT was labeled as “Episodes 1-3”, with no need for the prequels to be awkwardly forced into a trilogy format. Instead, we would get a full fledged live-action prequel TV series, structured pretty much exactly like how you suggest.

In order to fix the severe under-representation of Qui-Gon in the OT, deepfake all scenes of Obi-Wan in the OT to be Qui-Gon’s force ghost. The opening crawl of ANH will establish that Obi-Wan was brutally murdered by Tuskens just after the events of the Kenobi show.