Hal 9000 said:
Okay, here’s where I am with the set of alternate edits for the PT. These are pitched as just a little less drastic in order to preserve maximal continuity with other works, with the main prequel edits continuing to be available and recommended. (Case in point: the Kenobi series making a major story point about Anakin killing younglings in the Temple, something I’d carefully omitted.)
For all three, Ridley is able to provide crawls with the original titles (and remove the title reference in my COD crawl).
I’ll also do away with the opening fan edit logos and add them to the end credits, like my ST edits do.
TPM:
- Not because I love it, but add back the trip underwater to Otah Gunga, trimming away the second section of the planet core sequence and the Sidious scene in between. This is half of the symbiosis theme of the movie, and so if midichlorians are in, this feels mandatory to include alongside.
- Add back a few scenes due to Otah Gunga being back: the submarine resurfacing, the talk of the treaty on the stairs, and a battle droid reporting searching for underwater villages. (I’ll continue to omit the scene in which Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan make amends on Naboo.)
- Add back a few mentions of Anakin explicitly being too old for Jedi training
- Add midichlorians back, including the blood test scene and exposition about them. This is the other symbiosis element to make up the theme.
AOTC:
- Add back Anakin’s line about attachment being forbidden.
- Add back two instances of the name Darth Tyrannus.
- Show Yoda and the younglings, ditch the landing platform deleted scene.
- Add back Yoda using a lightsaber against Dooku.
ROTS:
- Add back the youngling murder scenes, and a few references to it.
- Add back Yoda insisting on destroying the Sith, though Obi-Wan doesn’t essentially tell Padme he intends to kill him. (The line replacement for ROTJ, “Your mother once thought as you do” will come in handy, but there’s still a little more room than the theatrical to read hope into Obi-Wan’s actions here.)
- Add back the Yoda vs. Sidious duel.
Things that would be nice to have:
- New line for 3PO as he and Padme depart for Mustafar (Perhaps “I must say, flying feels much safer in a peaceful galaxy.”)
- AI line for Jake Lloyd, “I’m fixing a droid, you wanna see?”
- VFX to seamlessly trim away Qui-Gon’s very final words of, “train him.” (That way, Obi-Wan can truly take it upon himself to train Anakin.)
As someone who definitely does love Otah Gunga, this has me hyped! Actually, I just watched your PT yesterday and this list basically reads like my own notes of what I wish I could change, so all of this sounds awesome, including the midichlorians. Maybe I’m the only one, but I actually appreciate the concept, and don’t mind the name.
I will say that I personally never had an issue with the original “building a droid” line, since kids “build” legos and “build” models, and craftsmen of all kinds refer to customized versions of existing things as “builds,” but that doesn’t mean they designed, engineered and manufactured every component or anything. They just put it together, and maybe tweaked some things. Honestly feel like your current solution works great as well, so not sure how necessary the AI line is there, but I wouldn’t dislike it either.
Also, I get the concern with Qui-Gon saying “train him” but I was actually just thinking about this after watching TPM yesterday, and Obi-Wan still didn’t have to take Anakin on at all. In that scene he’s extremely emotional and just nodding sympathetically as he weeps with his master dying in his arms. Once he got back he could have easily just not pushed the issue with the council, but he chose to do so. So even though Qui-Gon did say “train him” he still took it upon himself, from a certain point of view. Again though, wouldn’t hurt anything to cut the line if it’s smooth.
Anyway, just my two cents. Thanks for all you do. Very happy to hop on after my most recent marathon and see this project alive and well! Cannot wait for these new versions.
