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STAR WARS: Episode I - Return of the Sith

seciors

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Return to a galaxy not mired by politics, complicated plotting, and unfunny CGI characters. Return of the Sith is as close to the spirit of the Original Trilogy as possible.


ROTS_Seciors_front.jpg



Original film name: STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE
Film studio name: Lucasfilm
Film release date: May 1999
Original runtime: 136 minutes
New runtime: 90 minutes

INTENTIONS:
Simplify the story to make it an exciting and entertaining introduction to Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi at the peak of the Republic. I also plan to keep the identity of the Emperor secret until Episode III, to make the Sith and their presence more mysterious and menacing.

EDIT DETAILS:
To sum up the main features about this edit:
* Jar-Jar is cut to the absolute minimum, even the underwater city visit is completely gone;
* The complicated plot of Lord Sidious controlling the Neimodians as well as the Senate is gone, since Lord Sidious is cut from the edit;
* Politics in general have been greatly reduced; Queen Amidala almost acts on her own accord in causing a vote for a new chancellor, and Palpatine’s role in engineering it is much more subtle;

These choices end up creating a very streamlined, quickly paced Episode I, clocking in at 90 minutes. Other more common edits include:
* No midichlorians, “chosen one,” virgin birth
* Bad acting of Jake Lloyd has been reduced as best as possible;
* Pod race greatly shortened, and only follows Anakin around the track;
* Anakin purposefully flies the ship at the end (though Padme still captures the Viceroy on her own…she deserves to share in the victory)

CUT LIST:
• new opening crawl
• initial dialog asking permission to board. Now the first line by a human is “I have a bad feeling about this.”
• The Trade Federation is now just “The Federation”
• Lord Sidious does not appear in the movie. The Federation has apparently acted on their own accord in trying to take over Naboo.
• Neimodian dialog trimmed down to make them more threatening and less dumb/scared.
• Battle droids do not talk.
• Trimmed throne room scene to get to the point that this is an invasion
• Jar-Jar’s lines and antics are extremely cut down throughout the movie. Basically, if it could be cut without affecting the plot or damaging the visual/audio, it has been cut.
• Trip to the underwater Gungan City is completely cut. There is only one plot-point for thi scene, and it is to have a reason why Jar-Jar sticks around for the rest of the movie. I have tried to accomplish this using Jar-Jar’s declaration of being Qui-Gon’s servant, as well as keeping a trimmed down version of the Padme-cleaning-R2 scene where she point blank asks him what are you doing here?
• Palace Stair scene is cut (how will you explain this invasion to the senate?)
• Dialog outside the hangar no longer includes boring talk of treaties, legalized invasions, and the senate.
• No scene where R2 gets commended by the “queen” and then orders the real queen to clean him up. (nice.) This also gets rid of the redundant dialog of declaring they are going to tatooine.
• Landing on tatooine happens in the early evening instead of broad daylight because…
• Darth Maul lands on tatooine directly after the Jedi do, which is also at night.
• “No more commands from Her Highness today” cut. I don’t recall any commands, so I find the line nonsensical.
• No Jar-Jar antics in Watto’s shop.
• No ‘yipee’s from Anakin.
• Reinstated the Anakin Fights Greedo deleted scene, but placed it after Qui-Gon talks to Obi-Wan over the transmitter regarding what assets they have left. The scene replaces the whole Jar-Jar trying to eat the chicken sequence.
• “He’s a protocol droid to help Mom.” Help Mom do what, exactly? Deleted.
• Trimmed dinner scene at Anakin’s home. Beyond removing Jar-Jar antics, I’ve made the discussion about Anakin entering the pod race just between him and his mother, without interjections from padme and Qui-Gon.
• Removed Watto saying Qui-Gon’s ship is a Nubian, since he already said that the first time they met (a few hours before?)
• No Chosen One / Virgin Birth / Midichlorians
• Removed the group of kids, and Jar-Jar antics from the starting-up-the-pod scene.
• “This is so wizard, Ani!”
• Pod Race announcers are not shown onscreen. Some commentary can still be heard, where appropriate, to maintain the “we-are-watching-a-sports-TV-event” feeling.
• Sebulba doesn’t sabotage Anakin’s pod, and their pre-race meeting is cut.
• Pod race is significantly shortened. No introductions, and no Anakin “spinning out of control” sequence. The action only follows Anakin and not the other racers.
• No quadinaros stalling/exploding, and no ody mandrell making a pit stop
• No alien selling animals to the crowd
• When Anakin has engine trouble, some shots of Anakin looking goofy are cut
• No final shot of Sebulba sliding to a stop
• No awkward high five by Kitster and Wald
• Anakin saying “You mean I get to come with you in your starship???”
• Qui-Gon saying “Will you be all right?” Like, what is she going to say to that?
• Anakin saying to 3P0 “and I’m goin’ away in a starship” as well as “You’ve been a grrrreat pal!”
• When saying goodbye to his mother, he doesn’t say “I can’t do it, Mom. I just can’t do it.” He also doesn’t say he will come back to free his Mom. The scene is much stronger without these lines.
• Reinstated the Goodbye to Jira / Probe Droid scene, which leads directly to them running to the ship. So the Probe Droid talking to Darth Maul scene is cut.
• “Qui-Gon, sir, wait! I’m tired!” So he runs all that way and within 50 feet of the ship he decides to ask to take a break? Cut.
• “Tell them to take off!” – Anakin doesn’t do it, and Obi-Wan tells them to take off as if he thought of it himself, so why keep it.
• “My guess is it was after the queen.” Cut this to help keep the focus on Maul/Sith vs the Jedi.
• Trimmed scene where Anakin gives Padme the necklace; removed some of Jar-Jar’s muttering, as well as some of the political talk of the senate. Also removed “japor snippet” as if the audience would actually understand that. Finally, removed Ani’s “I care for you too, only I…” and Padme’s response. Now the scene ends on Padme telling Anakin her caring for him will remain.
• Palpatine’s line about “there is a question of procedure” – too political (e.g., boring info)
• Jar Jar calling a 14 year old “pitty hot” (creepy George, creepy)
• Trimmed Queen/Palpatine scene to tone down the politics, and also tone down Palpatine’s obvious push for the Queen to oust the Chancellor.
• Removed scene where Anakin looks for Padme to say goodbye before “his training.” The scene serves no purpose and slows things down.
• In the senate, removed as much of the political jargon/dialog as possible. Palpatine simply introduces the Queen, and the Queen is quickly interrupted. We do not see Palpatine talking to the Queen; instead we only see the Queen until the Chancellor asks her to defer. Now it is the Queen by herself that reacts and decides to call for the no confidence vote. Finally, we don’t see Palpatine after that, talking of a new Chancellor to be elected. This all makes the scene much more focused on the Queen and makes her stronger, I think.
• Cut mention that Anakin is too old. Luke wasn’t, so Anakin isn’t either.
• Cut Qui-Gon saying to Obi “You still have much to learn” seeing as moments later he says Obi is ready for the trials, and even later tells him he is much wiser then Qui-gon.
• Trimmed scene where we find out Palpatine has been nominated; the Queen does not ask who else has been nominated but goes right to telling Palpatine she has decided to return to Naboo.
• Removed the hint of a smile by Palpatine during the transition to the Jedi Temple.
• Removed line about the Federation will arrest the Queen and force her to sign the treaty.
• Removed line about the Jedi not being able to use their power to help. What does that mean, of course they use their powers all the time. I guess they can’t if it interferes with George’s scripting.
• Jar Jar doesn’t come out of the lake. So we never really know where the Gungan city is.
• Removed Boss Nass bringing up that the Naboo think they are better than the Gungans.
• The planning scene is trimmed; Boss Nass doesn’t make Jar-Jar a General.
• When the battle begins, we see the Federation approach before the Gungans stop and put up their shield.
• We don’t see the droids activated from the space ship, they just become activated.
• No “ouch time” line.
• All Jar-Jar silliness is excised from the battle.
• “My guess is the Viceroy’s in the throne room” – already said during planning.
• Anakin silently decides to activate his ship, shoot the destroyers, and take off into space. There’s also no autopilot.
• No ascension guns.
• The battle sequence is rearranged to not jump around the three locations as much.
• Once everyone is captured, the sequence is simplified so that we first see the Queen capture the Viceroy, then we see Anakin enter/destroy the droid command ship, and finally we see the rest of the Jedi battle with Maul, starting with the first time they are trapped in the force field.
• Obi-Wan’s killing of Maul is faster, so it doesn’t appear like Maul just waits to be killed.
• Qui-Gon doesn’t speak to Obi at the end…he is already dead.
• After all the battles, we don’t have the discussion with the Viceroy about explaining things to the Senate, and kissing their trade franchise goodbye.
• During the funeral, Yoda doesn’t say “no more, no less” about the number of Sith.
• The ending celebration is greatly trimmed down; we don’t see Jar-Jar doing any of the silly activities, nor do we see the Gungans waving to the crowd, either from the animals or walking up the steps. Boss Nass doesn’t yell out nor does Jar-Jar.

SL DVD
 

TV's Frink

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Editor name is missing again :p
 

L8wrtr

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It's in the title:) (and if the forum were working correctly, the post would look like it's written by Seciors. As soon as Thunder fixes it, this will become Secior's thread.

Mr. Smartypants
 

seciors

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Thanks for putting this up! Anyone who wants a link to the SL DVD (~4.3GB) or the MP4 (~1GB) hosted on MU just PM me.

I've triple-checked every single edit and this release should be very clean from a technical perspective. If you've got any questions about the edit, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope someone out there enjoys it!
 

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seciors said:
Thanks for putting this up! Anyone who wants a link to the SL DVD (~4.3GB) or the MP4 (~1GB) hosted on MU just PM me.

The DVD is also on .info in the unapproved section, although the title appears to be "Return of the Sit." :lol:

L8wrtr said:
It's in the title:) (and if the forum were working correctly, the post would look like it's written by Seciors. As soon as Thunder fixes it, this will become Secior's thread.

Mr. Smartypants

That's MR. Smartypants to you---

Oh.
 

seciors

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TV's Frink said:
The DVD is also on .info in the unapproved section, although the title appears to be "Return of the Sit." :lol:

:-? I guess it could be worse...like if that missing 'h' ended up somewhere else...

Can I get a link to the mp4 on .info as well? I just need to know who to send it to.
 

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I think you can send it to L8wrtr.
 

L8wrtr

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Sit happens.

MR. Smartypants.
 

Q2

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That's Mr. Smartypants to alls you. Fixed.
 

Dwight Fry

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seciors said:
:-? I guess it could be worse...like if that missing 'h' ended up somewhere else...
It did end up in the theatrical versions. :p
 

L8wrtr

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MP4 has been added to .info.
 

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Why hasn't this been approved yet? It is absolutely awesome. (easily one of the greatest prequel edits imo)
 

white43

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Well, put simply, because no-one(appropriate) has reviewed and approved it yet.

TBH with so many prequel edits in existence now, people aren't inclined to watch yet another. Especially The Phantom Menace.
 

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white43 said:
Well, put simply, because no-one(appropriate) has reviewed and approved it yet.

TBH with so many prequel edits in existence now, people aren't inclined to watch yet another. Especially The Phantom Menace.

That is definitely unfortunate. :-(
 

seciors

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stretch009 said:
Why hasn't this been approved yet? It is absolutely awesome. (easily one of the greatest prequel edits imo)

Hey, thanks for the compliments!

white43 said:
TBH with so many prequel edits in existence now, people aren't inclined to watch yet another. Especially The Phantom Menace.

...which is why I learned the hard way that editing the prequels is a terrible way to introduce yourself into this community. Not complaining; just the reality of the situation.
 

g1orkatsos

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Sure those star wars prequels have been fan edited to death, but there are still new experiences that can be made with them. That Ridiculous Menace fan edit for example looks quite different than all the rest of the star wars fan edits out there. i am not saying that your fan edit is not good. it might be the best ep1 fan edit out there. but it is still an episode 1 fan edit again.....
 

seciors

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What's the point of saying that my fan edit "is still an episode 1 fan edit again..."?

I get it already that no one "appropriate" will watch and approve this.
 

seciors

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Oh, by the way, I'd say my edit does have something no one else has done before: complete removal of Lord Sideous.
 

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seciors said:
What's the point of saying that my fan edit "is still an episode 1 fan edit again..."?

I get it already that no one "appropriate" will watch and approve this.
I'm burned out on prequels so I can't help you anyway. But I do have to say that even if I wasn't burned out, I'd be a bit turned off by your attitude in that post there. Not saying I don't understand your frustration, but getting annoyed won't help any.
 

g1orkatsos

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seciors said:
What's the point of saying that my fan edit "is still an episode 1 fan edit again..."?

I get it already that no one "appropriate" will watch and approve this.

i mean by that, that you are not gonna get much of attention for that reason. i didn't judge your fan edit. if you see my previous post i said it might be the best ep1 fan edit out there. just saying my opinion. didn't mean to offend you...
 
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