well it occurred to me to try to override the prepare interceptor to bypass the save() method similar to how the validator interceptor is setup to bypass the input() method....but then i found that will not solve the issue for another reason.
if the validation fails it does not redirect the action back to action_input even though the action_input
jsp page is called. the current action is still action_save for failed validation so if i did overwrite the prepare interceptor the form would not get repopulated since the prepare would be skipped.
looks like i need a new approach somehow...