The "Vader Edition" Star Wars Saga - Episodes 1-6 Edits (WIP)

This is a thread for my personal fan-edits of episodes 1-6, my Star Wars saga.

My saga is called the Vader Edition because my main goal with the Prequels was to fit better with OT Darth Vader. This subtitle carries over to the OT edits to indicate that they are part of the same continuity.

My edits are admittedly a combination of others ideas and my own. All other editors are credited.

Prequel Trilogy

My own radical re-edits of the Prequels, mostly in service of fitting with my interpretation of OT Darth Vader.

The Phantom Menace (on hold)

This edit is on hold until some other edits which have interesting ideas, and as such, I wish to see the execution of them before attempting a similar thing, if I think it works.

• Faster paced opening that reorients the Jedi’s goal from negotiating with the Federation to saving the Queen.
• Neimodians and Gungans all redubbed in an alien language, characterizations changed.
• More emphasis on Maul hunting the Jedi on Tatooine.
• Anakin is more reserved. He shouldn’t be too happy or joyous, he’s a slave. He has no friends.
• Watto and Anakin alien dialogue resubtitled to imply a more abusive relationship.
• Deleted scene of Anakin beating up Rodian kid readded (he’s not Greedo though).
• Deleted scene of Qui-Gon destroying probe droid readded.
• Restructuring of the final battle from “Cloak of Deception” used.
• A lot more.

Attack of the Clones (on hold)

Primarily focusing on ROTS for now.

• Anakin is more like Darth Vader from the OT. He’s colder, bolder, more calculating and reserved. He represses his remorse for the death of the Tuskins (he doesn’t kill the women and children) and is more convicted to his path to power.
• Anakin and Obi-Wan training scene from Obi-Wan Kenobi added.
• Cut a lot of Anakin and Obi-Wan arguing to make the lighter scenes between them shine more (including the opening training scene).
• Anakin and Padme romance reedited, using deleted scenes and cutting material to appear more realistic and tolerable.
• Deleted scenes with Padme’s family readded.
• Deleted scene of Mace and Obi-Wan used instead of hallway scene with Yoda.
• Cut Jocasta-Nu scene to speed up Obi-Wan’s investigation. Yoda/Youngling scene tells us all we need to know and is more important.
• Hal9000’s version of the droid factory scene.
• Readded deleted scene of Padme and Dooku discussing politics.
• None of the nonsense with the droids in the final act.
• A lot more.

Revenge of the Sith (in-progress)

• Once again, more Darth Vader-like Anakin. He shows less remorse towards the death of Dooku, nor any doubt in his convictions towards Palpatine and against the Jedi.
• Deleted Shaak-Ti/Grievous scene from the opening act readded.
• Took cues from Hal9000 “Labyrinth of Evil” to emphasize Anakin’s political siding with Palpatine. The Palpatine-Council subplot is moved before the nightmare.
• Emphasize Anakin’s general lust for power and feeling that the Jedi are holding him back, once again to make Anakin more in tune with the power-hungry Lord Vader from the OT.
• Anakin wants the power of immortality for himself, not just to save Padme, and this will be Palpatine’s main pitch to Anakin that gets him to turn to the dark side.
• In the end, wanting to save Padme is more the straw that broke the camel’s back. If we’re comparing to Michael Corleone’s arc in The Godfather, it functions less like the assassination attempt on Vito and more like Apollonia’s death.
• Padme political subplot readded.
• No Chewbacca.
• No youngling killing.
• No, “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!”. Vader isn’t making excuses for his actions.
• Padme dies because of Anakin’s force choke.
• More badass suited Vader scene that emphasizes that he’s moved past Padme in his pursuit of the power of the dark side.
• And more.

Original Trilogy

These edits are more minor and entirely aesthetic choices as opposed to the more larger narrative changes of the Prequels. As such, they’ll also be worked on more sporadically.

To make my stance clear: the theatrical cuts of the OT are masterpieces, and my favorite films of all-time.

However, for the sake of connecting them to my version of the larger saga, both my edits of the Prequels and the Canon Vader comics (which are canon to my edits), I’m making alternate versions, but not in an irritating SE way. It will also make adjustments that, while don’t make or break the movies, tickle my fancy a bit more.

However, my intent is that any additions must fit the aesthetic of the theatrical cuts; I refrain including effects obviously from decades later. Any additions with new special effects are ones that I want to look like they reasonably could’ve been done when the film was made.

The bases are oohteedee’s D+77, D+80, and D+83.

Change ideas in italics are things that could happen, but could also not, either due to me changing my mind, or it being beyond my capabilities.

A New Hope (in-progress)

• Use Hal9000’s version of the SE opening crawl that adds “Episode IV: A New Hope”, but edited to match the theatrical timing and match with the score.
• Integrate “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” as Darth Vader’s character theme, in keeping with the rest of the saga. I mostly rely on alternate, unused versions to prevent repetition. ANH Imperial theme kept as the theme for the Empire in general, primarily the stormtroopers.
• Use SE version of Vader’s voice with the electronic flange effect, more in line with ESB and ROTJ.
• Perhaps deepen Vader’s voice slightly to also make it a bit more in-line with ESB and ROTJ.
• Perhaps Vader’s stormtrooper battalion is marked red or black.
• Trim Vader’s conversation with the Imperial commander to give him the same authoritative control over the conversation he has in ESB in ROTJ; he’s not questioned so much.
• Integrate “The Droids” musical motif.
• Use SE Tatooine sunset matte as R2-D2 explores.
• Use SE mattes of the Sandcrawler at night.
• Use SE Sandcrawler daytime shot, but trimmed down to the same length as the original.
• Add SE C-3PO line, “We’ve stopped.”
• Use SE version of Beru’s line, “Tell your Uncle”.
• Fix reused shot of R2 next to R5 when the latter is supposed to have already been bought.
• Cut Luke calling Leia beautiful when seeing part of her message.
• Use SE version of Beru’s line, “He has too much of his father in him”, that sounds concerned.
• Use SE version of Binary Sunset without the mountain (consistent with the wide shot).
• Use SE version of Obi-Wan’s hut matte.
• Altered Kenobi’s line to Luke introducing the lightsaber. “I wanted you to have this when you were old enough,” rather then, "Your father wanted you…”. (Hal9000)
• Reshuffling of shots used to make the Imperial officers more visibly frightened by Darth Vader, as in ESB and ROTJ.
• Vader chokes Motti sooner. He doesn’t tolerate being insulted so long.
• Tarkin does not command Vader to release Motti. Tarkin doesn’t have command over Vader; they’re equals who respect one another.
• Perhaps add alien Imperials throughout the film.
• Perhaps replace the guards throughout the film with royal guards, Vader’s own unique guards, or Death Troopers.
• Perhaps Darth Vader actually kills Motti. Would require removing him from the rest of the film, which could prove difficult. Alternatively, have the officer that Vader chokes and kills be an alien.
• Perhaps integrate Mustafar and Vader’s fortress at some point in the film.
• Perhaps have the Death Star orbiting Coruscant, using McQuarrie concept art of Had Abaddon planet view.
• Perhaps add brief shots of Coruscant to the film, but wholly new shots to replicate the Gothic look of McQuarrie’s concept art for Had Abaddon.
• The Cantina band can be heard softly outside as they enter. (Hal9000)
• Redesign orbital view of Alderaan so it doesn’t look so Earth-like.
• Leia doesn’t say Tarkin “holds Vader’s leash”.
• As in the shooting script, Tarkin gives the order to “fire when ready”, but Vader gives the order to “commence primary ignition” to destroy Alderaan, rather then a random officer.
• Perhaps change the Death Star’s green laser to crimson.
• New hyperspace visual when the Millennium Falcon arrives at Alderaan.
• Changed green Death Star schematics on the monitor to red; consistent with the Empire’s overall aesthetic, as seen in similar computer schematics in ESB.
• Use SE Aurebesh text on the Death Star tractor beam display.
• Very carefully integrated a heavily re-edited FXItInPost SC 38 Reimagined’s Darth Vader vs. Ben Kenobi duel. Alternate version will retain the original duel, but reedited with more “spice”.
  ** The audio is completely redone. The unused Vader vs. Luke theme from ESB is used instead of ROTS music, and OT sound effects are used.
  ** Intercut with original scene to remove bad Obi-Wan face compositing and create greater coherency.
  ** Dimmed the lightning and regraded the entire scene to both make the CG backgrounds less noticeable and make the scene scarier.
  ** Remove modern visual flare (lens flares, glowing wall lights, etc.).
• Perhaps integrate Vader saying, “Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him” during his duel with Kenobi.
• Use SE shot of Vader with his lightsaber correctly colored red as the doors close in front of him (included with D+77).
• Falcon interior accurately depicts our heroes going through hyperspace after Death Star escape.
• Perhaps lightly integrate some notes of “Han Solo and the Princess” musical motif during their conversation.
• Luke and Han’s conversation about Leia in the Falcon recut to remove Luke’s crush on Leia, but keeping the humorous exchange, “Princess and a guy like me?..” “No.”
• Added scene between Vader and Sidious after he kills Obi-Wan.
• Perhaps redesign Yavin IV (moon) with new mattes to be less Earth-like.
• Perhaps make Yavin (gas giant) a different color for the sake of an idea I have for ROTJ.
• Use SE Rebel base matte.
• Perhaps add alien Rebels throughout the film.
• Like the schematics on the Death Star, the plans during the briefing are recolored red.
• Add SE Biggs and Luke reunion scene.
• Attempt some compositing clean-up for shots from the theatrical Battle of Yavin.
• Luke’s, “Blast it, Biggs, where are you,” changed to, “Blast it, Wedge…". (Hal9000)
• Fix Vader’s helmet in some shots of him in is cockpit during the Battle of Yavin.
• Audio from radio drama and different shot of Luke to give him a more appropriate reaction to Biggs’ death.
• Use SE Death Star explosion.
• Use SE throne room with blue-screened actors instead of painted ones.
• Use SE credit to James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader (included with D+77).

Empire Strikes Back (in-progress)

• Perhaps edit the title crawl to refer to Darth Vader as “the evil Sith lord” as opposed to “the evil lord”.
• Use SE Wampa scene.
• Obi-Wan refers to Yoda as “a Jedi Master who instructed me” instead of “the Jedi Master…” (Hal9000’s Custom SE).
• Add SE Luke line, “Thanks 3PO”.
• Cut Leia kissing Luke to make Han jealous, but retain the humor of the original scene as best as possible.
• Perhaps add alien Imperials and Rebels throughout the film.
• Perhaps Vader’s stormtrooper battalion is marked red or black.
• Perhaps replace the guards throughout the film with royal guards, Vader’s own unique guards, or Death Troopers.
• Perhaps integrate Mustafar and Vader’s fortress at some point in the film.
• Replace instances of non-Vader Imperial March usage with the Imperial motif from ANH. The Imperial March will be Darth Vader’s character theme.
• Add SE Luke line, “This is it!”.
• Add SE C-3PO line, “There’s nowhere to go.”
• Adywan Revisited version of wide shot of Dagobah with added white spider creature (from Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art).
• AR version of the Emperor’s hologram that uses the ROTJ look and recreation of theatrical dialogue.
• AR version of the reptile creatures in the dark side cave, made to look more alien.
• Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett (Hal9000’s improved versions that use lines from Battlefront). Alternate version keeps Jason Wingreen’s original lines.
• Final Cut version of Darth Vader, “I am your father” shot, which addresses the way the shot is clearly reversed at the end, giving it a sort of “bobble”.
• Darth Vader says, “Luke, we can destroy the Emperor”, rather then “you”.
• Cut Leia briefly kissing Luke on the lips in the back of the Falcon.
• AR version of Vader on the Executor during the escape from Bespin, addressing continuity issues.
• Use SE credit to James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader (included with D+80).
• Credit Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor.

Return of the Jedi (in-progress)

• Redesign orbital view of Endor moon to make it look less Earth-like. (inspired by previous version of IlFanEditore’s edit)
• Perhaps incorporate Death Star musical motif from ANH, or a variation of it.
• Perhaps have Darth Vader’s shuttle depart from The Executor as opposed to a normal Star Destroyer.
• Perhaps give Vader’s shuttle a more individualized appearance.
• Perhaps add alien Imperials and Rebels throughout the film.
• Fix close-up shots of Darth Vader out of focus.
• Add SE Oola falling into the Rancor pit.
• Perhaps integrate a subplot in which Vader hires Boba to capture Luke.
• Perhaps integrate Mustafar and Vader’s fortress at some point in the film.
• Perhaps add brief shots of Coruscant to the film, but wholly new mattes to replicate the Gothic look of McQuarrie’s concept art for Had Abaddon.
• Cut Boba Fett comically missing his shot at Luke by a mile in the Sail Barge scene.
• Perhaps Boba is knocked into the Sarlacc by Luke (inspired by Possessed’s edit).
• Add SE rope around Han’s feet when he’s reaching for Lando.
• Perhaps Boba escapes the Sarlacc, but he’s killed by Vader for his failure (closing the subplot).
• Replace instances of non-Vader Imperial March usage with the Imperial motif from ANH. The Imperial March will be Darth Vader’s character theme. The Emperor’s theme will also be reserved for Palpatine.
• Perhaps give the Emperor’s shuttle a more individualized appearance.
• Perhaps make some of the Emperor’s advisors into aliens.
• Perhaps give Shuttle Tydirium a different design that looks more appropriate for holding cargo.
• Vader sensing Luke now has a crossfade, like their telepathy scene at the end of ESB.
• Perhaps make Endor moon appear more alien with new flora and/or bioluminescence, but still retaining most of the original filmmaking. (inspired by previous version of IlFanEditore’s edit)
• Perhaps Endor is the moon of a red gas giant like the original Yavin. As such, a red tint is added to scenes with the villains on the DSII, primarily the climax.
• Add a re-edited deleted scene; Vader force chokes and kills Jerjerrod when he tries to stop him from seeing the Emperor. He sardonically responds to “It is the Emperor’s command”, with “My apologies” (from Rogue One), before snapping his neck. This adds more tension between Vader and the Emperor.
• Perhaps replace Jerjerrod in the above scene with an alien officer so as to not create continuity issues, as Jerjerrod is later seen ordering the DSII to fire.
• Perhaps have Vader say, “Your mother once thought as you do” rather then Obi-Wan.
• Trim Vader’s, “I must obey my master”, to emphasize his own addiction to the dark side and scheme to turn Luke and kill the Emperor. Yes, the latter was intended, as confirmed in “The Making of ROTJ”, it’s just not as explicit as ESB.
• Perhaps the Emperor’s legion of his best troopers on Endor are marked purple, red, or black.
• Trim Ewoks slapstick during the Battle of Endor, but don’t cut all of it; comic relief is cool.
• Perhaps replace Jerjerrod when he orders the DSII to fire with an alien officer, if he’s not replaced when Vader forces his way into the Emperor’s throne room.
• Use SE version of the matte of the Emperor falling to his death.
• Use SE version of Anakin’s death with no eyebrows.
• Use SE version of Death Star II explosion.
• Add SE Planets Victory Celebration montage, but no Tatooine or “Wesa free!” from the Gungans. Tatooine’s inclusion was always weird to me; this is a hive of scum and villainy on the outskirts of the galaxy.
• Victory Celebration on Endor is a mix of the theatrical and SE. Mostly theatrical, using extended shots of Luke and his friends, as well as Luke winking at the Force ghosts. However, some SE additions are included.
• Final Cut version of Anakin’s force ghost which ages up Christensen to his 40s (his age at death), an ideal compromise between the two versions.

I’ve thought of a possible way I can do the Sidious draining Padme’s life force scene at the end of my ROTS. However I’ll need someone who could do a voice over for a couple medical droids (one that talks to Sidious about Vader and one that talks to Obi-Wan and Yoda about Padme) and someone who can do a really good Yoda and Palpatine impression.

Knight of Kalee said:

Your ideas surprised me for the best. For me it’s always been hard to choose prequel edits because while they get rid of the cringe, most also trim scenes I genuinely like (Yoda using a lightsaber comes to mind) or try too hard to make them match the OT. Your intended edits to Empire and ROTJ are the exact same ones I had thought of making to Adywan’s Revisited edition and IlFanEditore’s color-corrected ROTJ. So far your changes list strikes a good balance for me, so I’m looking forward to see them finished!

Thanks! And yeah I agree here, I never thought it was a problem for Yoda or Sidious to have lightsabers at all. The first two answers here explain better then I can:
https://www.quora.com/Did-people-hate-Yoda-having-a-lightsaber-in-the-Star-Wars-prequels

Just curious, what do you think of V1 of the ANH Vader and Sidious scene I linked that I made?

Knight of Kalee said:

Your Vader vs Obi-Wan idea is alright for me, if the rest of the movie is suitably improved to look more like the redone scene.

I see, do you have suggestions for how I may be able to do that?

ExpandedUniverses said:

This sounds incredible! It sounds like an excellent edit of the Saga that bridges everything together. I’ll be very excited to see the finished products. : )

Thank you very much! Imma be honest, I was a little worried I would get bad reactions for some of my more radical changes or using Adywan’s edit as a base but you’ve made me feel much better now lol

You know what? If you’d like I wouldn’t mind volunteering to dub over another medical droid. Lol

Hal 9000 said:

You know what? If you’d like I wouldn’t mind volunteering to dub over another medical droid. Lol

Wow, thank you! I’m working on a little mini-script for the scene right now, I’ll let you know when it’s done.

Just a little bit of an update, I’ve been spending the last two days working a lot on my edits for TPM and AOTC. They’re not done but I can say for certain they will be next week. My ROTS edit is done except for Padme’s new death. Hal has generously given me lines for one of the droids but I need someone to do another droid (though I may just do this one myself), Yoda and Palpatine (each only has one new line). I will be uploading previews of this new scene as I’m working on it.

As you can probably tell the prequel edits will be available before the OT ones.

I’ve just found this fandub of Jar Jar that I actually quite enjoy. I think I may include it in my fan-edit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58yrGVFDHc8

Knight of Kalee said:

Very interesting concept! It gives Vader more of a personal agenda, rather than being Tarkin’s lackey as the film itself suggests. If Palpatine’s hologram and lip-syncing can be done in a convincing way, I support it 😄

Oh yeah, I actually didn’t have that in mind but it’s another great reason! Maybe I’ll also trim Leia’s line “I should’ve expected to find you holding Vader’s leash” as another way of making him seem like less of a lackey.

Knight of Kalee said:

I came across that edit a couple months ago and I liked it, as the new voice and specially the redone dialogue paint him as a completely different character, more like an everyman. How do you plan to implement it? because there’s not many of those new Jar Jar scenes that have been released.

He actually posted a Google drive link to his whole edit in the comments section of the last Jar Jar clip he posted on YouTube in a reply to someone who said “This is great! I can’t wait for the final edit!” I’m going to use his dub for Jar Jar and all of the Gungans.

I have finished editing my TPM edit, complete with that fandub of Jar Jar and the Gungans I linked earlier. I just need to export it.

I’ve found another interesting fan-edited scene on YouTube and it’s made me wonder if I should include something like it in my ANH edit. What do you guys think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPa2p50MuQ4

Knight of Kalee said:

Pretty nice idea, the voice acting for that trooper was very well done.
though how would the order of the scenes go?

I don’t know if Vader talking to Piett is necessary though, mostly to keep continuity with ESB.

Yeah I definitely agree. I’d probably edit it so he tells the thing about closing the space ports to the same trooper.

I have decided to implement a new idea into my Return of the Jedi fan-edit. Basically there’s going to be a new opening crawl that states that after his defeat to Darth Vader in ESB, Luke returns to Dagobah to train with Yoda, and his allies have formulated a plan to free Han Solo from Jabba (including the droids). My idea is that the film will be edited to make it appear as if Luke had been training with Yoda in the time period between ESB and this film, which explains how Luke became a better, more powerful Jedi in-between. It also helps the plan to free Han Solo make more sense, as now the efforts by the others can be seen as them attempting to free Han without Luke during his absence on Dagobah. However, since their plan doesn’t work, Luke has to go to Tatooine to save their asses. The scenes on Dagobah will be moved to the beginning and intercut with the Jabba’s palace scenes.

Btw, my The Phantom Menace edit has been exported and is now available. It’s more of a combination of others edits so I know mine isn’t exactly revolutionary or anything, but if you find my version appeals to you based on the list of edits on the document linked in the first post then I’d be happy to share it with anyone. Don’t hesitate to DM if interested 😃

Next is Attack of the Clones, which I anticipate will be available soon.

Knight of Kalee said:

I think the only con to moving the Dagobah scenes to the opening act would be that the film would lose some of that ambiguity regarding Luke’s allegance at the beginning. The moment Luke arrives to Jabba’s palace kind of plays with the possibility of him having turned to the dark (being arrogant, Force-choking the guards, wearing black and a sinister-looking cloak, etc.).

But otherwise, the arrangement would explain why the Rebels went with such a hasty plan, it would make Luke’s power upgrade more believable and his intervention more badass in hindsight. Anyway, regardless of how you restructure your edt, the important thing is that the film should adequatly convey Luke’s conflict with the dark side.

Yeah, I think the positives of this change would outweigh the negatives. And I think there’s still plenty there to show he’s tipping a little towards the dark side. In fact, what if the reason he’s somewhat angry, violent, and arrogant is because he’s internally frustrated with Obi-Wan and Yoda that they’re forcing him to kill his father, which he doesn’t want to do. So his more aggressive behavior is him venting some of that frustration.

Knight of Kalee said:

And I would be totally interested to have your Phantom Menace version!

Thanks man, a DM is on the way (I just gotta wait for the file to finish uploading to Google Drive, kinda forgot about that part lol, shouldn’t be too long tho).

Because the Return of the Jedi opening crawl now has 4 paragraphs, I have decided to do a new opening crawl for every single film so they all follow the same format. I have updated the document with the information about the new openings and I will update my Phantom Menace edit to have the new crawl.

Knight of Kalee said:

Is there gonna be an explanation for Luke showing up late to the Rebel briefing? 😄

You know what that’s actually a great question XD

IDK… maybe he’s just… late.

I’m debating whether I should keep or remove the Leia and Wicket scene. What do you guys think?

I’d like some advice on something.

What’s the best way to change the color of a lightsaber without affecting the rest of the movie’s color? For example, making Darth Vader’s lightsaber more of a crimson red.

My AOTC fan-edit is now done, and will be available tomorrow.

As I’ve said the ROTS edit is pretty much finished except for Padme’s new death, so that will be the next thing I’ll be working on. I’ll post videos of my progress (as I speculate the reason why this hasn’t gotten much attention is because of the lack of videos, but I’ll correct this).

Since nobody has volunteered I’m going to do the Yoda and Palpatine lines. Time to put my impression skills to the test 😎