Synopsis:

This fanedit improves Return of the Jedi by mercilessly trimming down the Ewoks, streamlining the third act in addition to a reassortment of the scene order, improving Han's character and chopping out all of the goofy/distracting moments of the movie. These changes hope to make for a satisfying end to the Star Wars trilogy.

Intentions:

When it comes to the Star Wars movies, I consider episodes 4 and 5 to be nearly untouchable masterpieces. The prequels were lacking for myself but luckily there is a massive selection of wonderful fan-edits to choose from. Return of the Jedi on the other hand has always stuck out like a sore thumb for me. It was good, but disappointing compared to the cinematic heights reached by the previous two in the original trilogy. Han Solo acted completely different and lost all of his swagger. Strangely enough, he was jealous of Luke. The Ewoks presented an illogical solution to the threat of the Empire and they sucked up a lot of the tension in the third act. And there were just a handful of moments that take the viewer out of the experience. Overall, I felt that Return of the Jedi has not been done justice in the fanediting field. I felt it necessary to provide a streamlined experience which mitigates the Ewoks, improves the character of Han Solo and trims down the more distracting elements of the film. Additionally, the scene structure for the third act has been shuffled around. Originally, affairs on Endor were turning up as Luke and Vader's situation got worse. Now both plot lines are in sync. Only when Luke stands up to the Emperor and Vader turns does the tide of the overall battle begin to look better. This makes for a much more satisfying emotional experience.

Change List:

- Use retro fox fanfare - removed 3PO’s captain obvious moment where he says “Oh look, it’s Captain Solo, and he’s still frozen in carbonite.” - remove droid screams in droid torture scene. (Lovingly borrowed audio from Ziggy's edit here) - cut out disintegration of the past protocol droid. - Both Jedi Rocks and Lapti Nek are very bad, so neither of those survives my edit, but I did retain the nice little musical piece that the harmonica-playing turtle was doing. This also means that Jabba’s servant doesn’t fall down the pit. This makes it more of a surprise when Luke falls into the Rancor pit himself. - Rescored Chewie’s getting taking away with “Bounty for a Wookie”. (This idea is borrowed from the Dan Edit) - removed Boba Fett’s nod at Boush. - We no longer see Lando pull his mask down. - cut out the frog burping outside of Jabba’s palace - added force choke sfx when Luke approaches the two Gamorrean guards. (Lovingly borrowed audio from Ziggy's Edit here) - Trim Luke and Han’s dialogue scene on the skiff so it ends on Han saying “you’re going to die here, you know” - added music to the scene between Luke and Obi-Wan on Dagobah for improved emotional effect. - cut Han and Lando's conversation before rebel briefing starts. - took out Han’s line of “good luck, your gonna need it.” - took out 3PO’s line of “exciting is hardly the word I would choose.” - took out the entire scene of Lando and Han talking in the hangar - removed the beat of Han worrying about the falcon - cut out Han's "Keep your distance Chewy. But don't make it look like your trying to keep your distance. I don't know, fly casual" during shuttle sequence. - cut out the useless exposition scene in the throne room where the Emperor tells Vader to go on the executor. It slows down the plot and is not needed. - remove Leia and Wicket scene - took out Han saying “I hope she’s all right”. It's far too on the nose. - cut out Han grabbing Ewok’s spear and his “proper” line. This helps make the Ewok's seem more scary. Han easily manhandling the spear of an ewok greatly reduces any tension that might even be present. - cut out cutesy shots of Ewoks when 3PO is being floated in the air on his chair - cut out R2 electrocuting the Ewok. - Threepios storytelling cuts off at “I was just getting to that”. We cut to Luke outside from there. That god awful laughably delivered line from threepio saying “we are now part of the tribe” and the following celebrations is just so damn SILLY! Watch that part again and you will giggle whether it be on the inside or the outside. - cut out Han talking to Leia after Luke leaves. This cuts out Han acting jealous of Luke. -New scene structure for the third act. Originally, affairs on Endor were turning up as Luke and Vader's situation got worse. Now both are in congruence. Only when Luke stands up to the Emperor and Vader turns does the tide of the battle begin to turn. This makes for a much more satisfying emotional experience. - I cut out ATON of the ewoks in the battle. They arrive as an early distraction, then when you see them the rest of the time, they are usually getting there asses handed to them by the Empire. - Take out Chewie’s tarzan yell - remove the cringeworthy “I love you—I know you” callback. - have Vader’s head fade away when he dies. This now is consistent with Obi Wan and Yoda dissapearing when they died. - Han and Leia’s conversation after the death star explodes, is as follows: Han- "I’m sure Luke wasn’t on that thing when it blew." / Leia- "He wasn’t…I can feel it." / Han gives a very confused look / Leia- “He’s my brother”. The scene flows REALLY well now, and is a huge improvement over the original. In my edit, there is absolutely no trace of jealousy in Han. - Thanks to Q2, the ending scene has the SE music (“Victory Celebration”) and it has Sebastian Shaw as Anakin. Also, the "wesa free" line has been removed. I think the SE music is more grand and emotional, I despise the “wesa free” line in the Naboo shot, and I hate hayden’s ghost, so this ending works PERFECTLY for me! VERSION 3, ADDITIONAL CHANGES: (Cutting out the Extra Rubbish) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -cut out all of salicious crumb laughing -cut out the laughing of Jabba’s creatures when Han and Leia are captured -cut out scene of Han and Chewie reuniting -cut down rancor scene to avoid some of the poor special effects and get the story along since the scene doesn’t serve much purpose besides “hey, look at this cool monster fight”. -cut out Jabba pulling Leia back from sail barge window and talking to her -cut out C3PO asking why R2 is serving drinks -cut out 3PO asking them if they want to plea and Han’s cheesy response. Now 3PO just says Jabba hopes they will die honorably and then Luke warns Jabba it is his last chance. -cut out Boba Fett completely from sail barge fight -remove Salicious pulling out 3PO’s eyes and R2 zapping him -remove more shots of ewoks after Han, Luke, Chewie, R2, and 3PO cut themselves out of the booby trap. -remove more cutesy shots of ewoks during feast (Make Vader more independent and his turn more believable) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -remove Vader saying “I must obey my master”. Now he just says “You don’t know the power of the dark side”. Vader should be confident in what he believes is right like in ESB, rather than doing it just cause of the Emperor. For goodness sakes, he was plotting to take over before this film. -remove Vader saying “It is too late for me son.” Way too obvious of foreshadowing, cheapens his eventual turn, and makes Vader seem like he already knows that what he believes in is wrong and misguided. This moment of self revelation for our characters is meant to happen at the END of the arc. -remove the Emperor saying “You must know by now your father can never be turned from the dark side.” This just sounds plain stupid and makes the Emperor think of Vader as some prize that he has fooled. Vader should feel like a respected ally and learner of the Emperor. -remove Vader saying “It is useless to resist.” What is this, some sort of shiny object called the Dark side being dangled in front of Luke. This makes the dark side feel less complex. -remove the Emperor saying “You, like your father, are now mine”. Again, my point stands. Why is the Emperor talking about Vader like some fool he tricked and has under his leash right in front of Vader? There should be more respect between such two powerful and ambitious men who have similar goals. -cut out the Emperor telling Luke that if he picks up his saber that his journey towards the dark side will be complete. This just makes Luke look like an idiot. Instead the Emperor basically just tells Luke his friends and the alliance will die and that there is no hope. This actually now makes more sense as to why Luke would fall into the temptation of attacking the Emperor. (Restructuring the third act) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I always felt it was odd that the Endor/Space battles are basically about to be won by the time we see Luke and Vader have their heroic triumphs in the throne room. Those triumphs should be followed by things looking better in Endor and Space so the new scene order reflects that.

Additional Notes:

This will all be using the Theatrical version of Star Wars. No Special Edition elements are retained except for the SE music/city celebrations and Vader’s eyebrow-less face.

Other Sources:

- Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).

Special Thanks:

DominicCobb, ironman23, Moe_Syzlak, ssj, DigiModification, cubbyguy1, towne32, Scott109, MalaStrana, YodaFan67, Palindromic Gas, KumoNin, Depheros, RogueLeader and HKseriesDroid.