Anakin Skywalker, powerful warrior was he
The first Select image

[22nd July, 2000 - posted by Nat Reed]

Welcome to the Virtual Edition ! Below is a sharpened detail of the Episode II Select image showing, we believe, Hayden Christensen in full Padawan Battle-Dress. I don't think that that is a Padawan pony-tail at his head, rather a highlight on the shoulder mantle. Clearly it harks to both Luke's tunic in ROTJ, as well as the early TPM costume concepts for the Jedi. The question, of course, is where, and when, this is taking place, and who or what is around him. Is that a black-robed Sith Lord just behind him, holding two red 'sabre props ?? Or is the focal aperture of the camera quite narrow, and all we are seeing are stagehands ? Has the Sith Lord just suddenly materialised, a battle trick that was rumoured a few weeks ago ? Similarly, the Jedi are supposed to be able to 'shimmer' and re-appear .... as was hinted at in TPM when the two Jedi run from the Droidekas.

It's rumoured that Obi-Wan is to wear the black version of this tunic to indicate his Knight / Master status. There is now a suggestion of Anakin's Master wading through fields of StormTrooper 'hatchlings' wielding his lightsabre, and clearly this implies cloning. However, my co-editor Jom stands by his conviction that 'cloning' is too 'Sci-Fi' for Star Wars .... unless it isn't drowned out in 'technobabble' or personalised to characters we know, like Anakin or a Sith Lord. Remember the very first official sketch we saw for Episode II ? Roderick thought that was a huge cloning factory. Perhaps he was right ......

Prequel Watch's editorial is suggesting we have already seen the Sith Temple, it's design based on the older Jedi Temple of Coruscant : the Emperor's Tower at the north pole of the Second Death Star ! They have convincing comparative pictures.

They confirm the original McCallum quote that the origins of the Sith and the Dark Side will be explored further. And today, there is official reference to the original Sith and the rogue Dark Jedi who enslaved them, the history to be detailed in a new book to be released in the autumn : now this is definately 'Expanded Universe' material, but it is interesting that the official site is promoting this at such length, along with reference to Darth Bane, at a time of great fan interest in Christopher Lee's character. But the Sith Temple : do we see Darth Sidious train his new Apprentice ? Ten years have passed. Is this Apprentice even ready ? Do we see the Master asking for guidance from a previous Sith Lord ...?

Interestingly, they say Anakin and Amidala's wedding will be under 'unusual circumstances' : is this because of an arranged political marriage proposal ? Is it because the Wedding of a Queen and a Jedi Knight is carried out under the setting suns of Tatoo One and Two ?? I suggest this because of today's NEW Episode II Select picture !

As argued by theforce.net, it certainly suggests Padme as sitting on the catwalk just outside the subterranean garage of the Lars Farmstead. Her jawline is too strong, perhaps, for it to be Bonnie Piesse. She looks a little sad to me, forlorn or perhaps just deep in thought. Then again she could just be waiting for those stage hands to finish their rigging !! But does this mean that the Lars are already on the desert planet ? Or will they soon move in to one of these rock dwellings ?

Nat and Jom

We are indebted to your bravery, Roderick Vonhogen
News and thoughts

[July 19th July - posted by Nat]

Whilst Rod is away on holiday for 3 weeks, he asked myself and Jom, two long-term members of the Virtual Edition, to care-take it. If he is ever able to go online .... I hope he won't be too disappointed by what he sees ! The Virtual Edition is primarily a storyboarded version of what we think we will be seeing in Episode II, official, unofficial and created images collated together based on what are the current news releases and speculative rumours. Of course, the other life blood of the site is the lively Discussion Forum [follow the link to the left], where a lot of Rod's images begin their genesis. Feel free to read the threads ... and join in !

The explosion in official information over the last few weeks has got everyone thinking hard ! Lots of Bounty Hunters, groups of children, ambitious Senators, even a waitress and a Proprietor ! As a crazy old hermit once said, "We must be cautious" : who are these people, and, more importantly, how big are their roles ?? We could have had a significant official splash about the fruit and 'frog' sellers of Tatooine, or the Royal Advisors to Queen Amidala on Naboo, and be mistaken for thinking these were pivotal to The Phantom Menace. Much of the thought in the VE Forum is split down the middle about the children : if we return to the early drafts in the 1970s, we could be seeing the introduction of a valiant tribe, perhaps on Tatooine, perhaps brave slaves ; at least one of these may be sensed by Anakin as having great potential in the Force, and he may try to bring these hopeful padawans back to Coruscant for training. However, they may simply be one of the many 'cells' of Padawans in the Jedi Temple who we will see in passing, as Anakin struggles to learn the Jedi Code. The official Episode II picture suggests Anakin in a tunic reminiscent of Luke in ROTJ : we must remember that Lucas always modelled the Jedi on the Samurai of Feudal Japan, and it is highly likely that what we are seeing, like the many ceremonial kimonos of the Samurai, is the 'Formal Battle Dress' of the Jedi in war. Luke's tunic, then, both represents his Dark heritage, but also his actions in a time of rebellious civil war. And we are probably now hearing about Mr Fett (Temeura Morrison), his living quarters, that ship, and his son .....

Nat

I'm going on vacation...
But the Virtual Edition will go on!

[July 18, 2000 - posted by Roderick]

From July 18 until August 10, I'll be on vacation in France. I don't know if I'll have internet access over there, so I've asked some people to update the Virtual Edition while I'm gone.

During the last couple of weeks we've been getting some exciting glimpses of the production of Episode II, but now things seem to go in Prequel Overdrive! We've seen the first official picture of Anakin running towards the camera (in the blurred background you can see some people, as well as what I believe to be C-3PO's head in the left bottom corner), 'spy' pictures of the SFX magazine (with a piece of the senate set and a ship that looks like an early version of a star destroyer, with two engines instead of three). And of course, there's all this casting information that also gives us hints about the plot of this next installment of the Prequel Saga. It's a great time for Star Wars fans!

In case I can't get online during my vacation, I wish you all some great summerweeks, and I'll see you again in three weeks!

Roderick.

Virtual Edition Episode I
Part of an illustrated screenplay on-line!

[July 18, 2000 - posted by Roderick]

Over the years, I've made hundreds of pictures for the Virtual Edition. I'm going to post them on this website in the form of an illustrated screenplay. I've taken the text of the screenplay of The Phantom Menace, and illustrated it with pictures I made for the Virtual Edition. Most of those pictures were made long before the movie came out. If you click on Virtual Edition Ep. 1 on the left, you'll be able to see the first part of this illustrated screenplay. There are pictures in the sections opening - the escape.

I'll add more pictures in the future. Enjoy!

Roderick

Starwars.com about Episode II characters
more pieces of the puzzle!!

[Tuesday, July 11, 2000]

To give us food for thought and speculation, I've gathered most of the recent character information released on the official SW website (I'll hope to find some time soon to add some comments, as well as elaborating on Owen Lars' character). With all this new information (not to mention the 'spy' reports on several fansites), we've got lots of pieces of the puzzle already, so it's slowly getting time to start working on a first draft of the Episode II plotline. It'll be quite a task to integrate all the elements we have now into one coherent (and plausible) storyline, but hey: that's what makes working on this site fun! As soon as I've written a first draft of the plotline, I'll post it in the Episode II section of this website!

Oh, before I forget: like some of you have already noticed, there's now a ranking system for the local users of the discussion board (just for fun). Based on the number of posts, you'll go from candidate to padawan to Jedi knight and higher....