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The Last Jedi : a Fan Edit Ideas thread — Page 14

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After thinking about it, there are some bigger issues that come up when you axe the opening space battle. As much as I would like to be able to cut even more of the runtime down, I don’t think that is a feasible option for multiple reasons.

First, you lose the logical and emotional introduction to Rose as a character. I don’t see how you can introduce her crying over her medallion if we have no idea why, and then we are somewhat confused as to what her past is and what the Resistance means to her. We don’t have sufficient motivation for any of her actions.

Second, you now have more issues when introducing the character of DJ. Under the idea of removing Canto Bight entirely, we first see him on the way back to the Resistance. His introduction would then be him asking for a price and then Rose giving the medallion. Sadly, you’d have to lose the stuff afterwards of him stealing the ship and talking to Finn since they refer to it as a stolen Canto Bight ship, whereas with the changes, we would assume it as a Resistance ship.

But if you cut out the foundation for the importance of the Medallion, then none of it really makes that much sense when you see Rose hand over the Medallion and then her getting it back. As an audience member, you have no idea what it means to her as a character.

And Lastly, you lose the initial setup for Poe’s character arc. This one doesn’t mean nearly as much to me, cause you can still have his arc begin when he defies the power of Holdo. So this is more of a nitpick, but it would still be worth losing it ultimately to give more focus to the A-plot of Luke, Rey, and Kylo.

But the the first two issues seem like pretty big obstacles to actually removing the opening space battle and starting on Ach-To.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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Why would you want to cut the opening space battle anyway?

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darthrush said:

DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the opening space battle anyway?

I would say that it being cut would help the pacing of the film and make the movie feel more focused upon Rey, Luke, and Kylo, which is the strongest element of the film in my opinion but at the end of the day I think you lose too much to make it logically work in a fanedit.

Agree but just cut some elements down not the whole thing or just add it to the crawl

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HerekittykittyX said:

darthrush said:

DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the opening space battle anyway?

I would say that it being cut would help the pacing of the film and make the movie feel more focused upon Rey, Luke, and Kylo, which is the strongest element of the film in my opinion but at the end of the day I think you lose too much to make it logically work in a fanedit.

Agree but just cut some elements down not the whole thing or just add it to the crawl

All you would need in a new crawl is that the Resistance is searching for a new base.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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This would be my ideal outline for a last Jedi edit, which keeps most of the thematically interesting material of the film but tightens and restructures the plot to remove the bloat and baggage, and weird decisions like making the casino plot a side quest in the middle of another plot, which then consequently drags on for way too long. This is accomplished essentially by moving canto Bight to the opening as the 'prologue’action beat, then slowing down somewhat for rey and Luke on ach-to, and the character development with Kylo, then building into a tighter paced third act where the flight from the resistance base, the aborted mutiny, the confrontation with snoke, the godspeed maneuver, and the final showdown on crait all happen in quick succession. The only concern I have with this restructuring is Rose, and her introduction as a character, and the relationship with her sister, who wouldn’t die until the beginning of the third act in this edit. I’ll be looking to see if I can get around this problem on the next viewing. Would be interested in getting feedback on the idea so far though.

Episode VIII
The Last Jedi

The capital of the republic has been destroyed. Able to track the last members of the resistance through Hyperspace, The evil First Order now pursues them to their hidden base.

As they prepare to evacuate the planet their last chance for escape may lie with a mysterious code breaker who will allow them to slip through the shields of the First Order command ship and disable the tracker.

Yet as Finn leads a small team to find the code breaker it may be too late even for the return of Jedi master Luke Skywalker to save the resistance…

Resistance fighters led by General Leia Organa begin preparations for the evacuation.

Finn, Rose and BB-8 acquire the help of the hacker DJ at the Canto Bight casino, who says he can help them disable the tracking device. They run in with the authorities and the mercenary arms dealing clientele of the casino, and narrowly escape on a stolen ship with the help of the child slaves at the casino racecourse, after leading a fathier chase through the streets of the old city.

Meanwhile, Rey has arrived on remote Ahch-To with Chewbacca and R2-D2 aboard the Millennium Falcon to recruit Luke Skywalker to the Resistance. Disillusioned by the failures of the Jedi and under self-imposed exile from the Force, Luke refuses, even after he learns from Rey of Han Solo’s death. Unknown to Luke, Rey and Kylo begin communicating through telepathic visions. Prompted by R2-D2, Luke agrees to teach Rey the ways of the Force. Luke and Kylo give Rey differing accounts of the incident that turned Kylo to the dark side; Luke confesses that he momentarily contemplated killing Kylo upon sensing that Supreme Leader Snoke had corrupted him, causing Kylo to destroy Luke’s emergent Jedi Order in retaliation. Convinced that Kylo can be redeemed, Rey leaves Ahch-To to confront Kylo without Luke.

a First Order fleet arrives at the resistance base. Following an effective but costly counterattack led by Poe Dameron, Resistance fighters manage to destroy a First Order dreadnought, before the Resistance vessels jump into hyperspace to escape, but the First Order pursues them using the tracking device. Kylo Ren destroys the Resistance support fighters, but hesitates to fire at the lead Resistance ship, after sensing his mother’s presence. However, TIE fighters destroy the bridge of the ship, incapacitating Leia, who only survives by using the Force. Command falls to Vice Admiral Holdo. Holdo reveals her plan to discreetly evacuate the remaining Resistance members using small transports. Believing her actions cowardly and risky, Poe instigates a mutiny.

Finn’s party returns to the fleet and infiltrates Snoke’s ship, but is captured by Captain Phasma. The mutiny is aborted when Leia recovers and stuns Poe, allowing the evacuation to begin. Holdo remains on the ship to mislead Snoke’s fleet as the others flee to a nearby old Rebel Alliance base on Crait.

Meanwhile, Rey lands on the command ship, and Kylo brings her to Snoke, who reveals that he controlled the mental connection between her and Kylo as part of a plan to destroy Luke. Ordered to kill Rey, Kylo instead kills Snoke and works together with Rey to kill Snoke’s elite guards. Kylo invites Rey to rule the galaxy with him, but Rey refuses. Using the Force, they struggle for possession of Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, which splits in two.

DJ reveals the Resistance’s plan to the First Order, and the evacuation transports are targeted with heavy losses; Holdo sacrifices herself by ramming Snoke’s fleet at lightspeed to stop the barrage, inflicting massive casualties on the First Order. Rey escapes in the chaos, while Kylo declares himself Supreme Leader.

Finn, Rose and BB-8 pilot a stolen imperial shuttle to join the survivors of the evacuation on Crait. When the First Order arrives, Poe, Finn, and Rose lead a charge with old speeders. Rey draws the TIE fighters away with the Falcon, while Rose saves Finn from a suicide run against the main enemy cannon, which blasts a hole in the Resistance fortress.

As all seems lost, Luke appears and confronts the First Order so the surviving Resistance fighters can escape. Kylo orders the First Order forces to fire on Luke to no effect, then engages Luke in battle. Kylo strikes Luke with his lightsaber, but it passes through him. Luke tells Kylo he will not be the last Jedi, while Rey uses the Force to help the Resistance fighters escape on the Falcon. His journey complete, Luke vanishes into the Force.

Leia reassures everyone that the rebellion has all it needs to rise again. On Canto Bight, one of the children that helped Finn and Rose escape grabs a broom with the Force and gazes into space.

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LordPlagueis said:

  • Restructure the opening fight sequence to eliminate the explosives falling onto the dreadnought. There is no gravity in space.

Then how do you explain the TIE Bombers in The Empire Strikes Back, then?

https://youtu.be/phGlo_TNDp0

The bombs falling onto the Dreadnaught is fine.

“The Ziggy Edit” — A Conceptual Fanedit of Return of the Jedi

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-The-Ziggy-Edit/id/17844

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Re-reading all of these posts, some of you people are WAY too nitpicky. Like with the humor — you DON’T need to cut all of it. Maybe just trim it a little.

The opening dialogue between Hux and Poe was too drawn out, but if it were just one line, it’d still be humorous and fun, without being silly. The same with Chewie eating the Porgs — keep the first part of that scene, but cut out the “sad eyes.”

And so on… a little humor is fine in Star Wars, people.

“The Ziggy Edit” — A Conceptual Fanedit of Return of the Jedi

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-The-Ziggy-Edit/id/17844

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ziggyonice said:

LordPlagueis said:

  • Restructure the opening fight sequence to eliminate the explosives falling onto the dreadnought. There is no gravity in space.

Then how do you explain the TIE Bombers in The Empire Strikes Back, then?

https://youtu.be/phGlo_TNDp0

The bombs falling onto the Dreadnaught is fine.

They also explain that the bombs are self propelled. Complaints are meaningless for this stuff. And even if we didn’t know they were self propelled, who cares? I really don’t see something worth fixing unless it directly involves character or story, the stuff that makes movies work for a viewer.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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ziggyonice said:

Re-reading all of these posts, some of you people are WAY too nitpicky. Like with the humor — you DON’T need to cut all of it. Maybe just trim it a little.

The opening dialogue between Hux and Poe was too drawn out, but if it were just one line, it’d still be humorous and fun, without being silly. The same with Chewie eating the Porgs — keep the first part of that scene, but cut out the “sad eyes.”

And so on… a little humor is fine in Star Wars, people.

This 100%.

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DominicCobb said:
I’m really hoping someone can work magic and make C-3PO’s arm red throughout the trilogy (apparently JJ made it gold again because Anthony Daniels hated it).

I hadn’t heard of that particular J.J./Anthony Daniels nugget before. If true, then I’m with Daniels on that…but I was kinda hoping that C3PO’s red arm ‘backstory’ would be brought up briefly in TLJ, to allow a poignant moment for him…and so that everyone who didn’t happen to know what the comicbook ‘EU explanation’ for it was, would finally know what the hell that was all about in TFA, since he reverted back to a gold arm when the Falcon took off!

Oh well, maybe it’ll be brought up in J.J.'s next instalment instead…but I wouldn’t be surprised if C3PO has it on again with no explanation once more! 😉


As far as THE LAST JEDI goes, it turned out to be a mixed bag for me. It certainly entertained me in a lot of ways, but there were plenty of moments that frustrated me too.

I notice from reading some of the various threads here, that there seems to be some consensus on certain things to alter or remove from those that are planning to edit this…but there’s a particular thing that I’d REALLY like to re-edit for myself in future…and it concerns how the whole controversial ‘Luke/Kylo backstory’ was handled in the first place.

Like a lot of others, I had reservations about this plotline involving Luke and Kylo’s past (along with some of the footage and dialogue that it involved)…and seeing the movie for a 2nd time just confirmed that view for me. I can see how it’s ‘unexpected’ portrayal of Luke can work for some, but it just wasn’t what I personally wished to see for this character after waiting all that time for him to return after TFA ended!

But luckily, I realised after my 2nd viewing of TLJ that there seems to be a way which would GREATLY improve Luke’s storyline for me…and there’s even a couple of alternative ways to re-cut it to do so, I reckon. I can’t go into specific shots for now, as I’ll need to wait on an actual copy to double-check if it’s as feasible as I think it is, but here’s the gist of what I have in mind -

…things are currently structured so that Luke tells Rey a ‘shortened version’ of what happened initially…which is eventually followed by Kylo telling Rey a ‘fuller’ version of what happened from his point-of view…which is then eventually followed by Luke admitting to Rey that he’d momentarily thought about doing away with Kylo, but quickly snapped out of it…

…but INSTEAD…I would prefer if this backstory was re-structured so that Luke tells Rey the truth RIGHT FROM THE START! 😃

As I say, I reckon the footage is there to make this notion work pretty easily, and there was a couple of different ways to do it, depending on my preference.

What this does, is makes Luke’s admission much more in keeping with the way I would have liked to see his character tell it, so that the truth didn’t have to be dragged out of him by Rey…and so that Kylo doesn’t get to make out to Rey that Luke has not been truthful with her.

Not only that, but it would allow me to totally remove a couple of other scenes which I’ve no wish to see again in this movie - namely, the shot of Luke looking like a ‘totally crazed loon’ about to strike Kylo (when told from Kylo’s perspective)…as well as the whole ‘shirtless’ interaction scene with Rey…as well as the whole Rey battling Luke scene which ends in him being beaten by her, and being made to admit the truth. Gah!

I’m especially pleased that this means Kylo doesn’t get a scene where we’re meant to feel sorry for him…especially since he’s unforgivable in my eyes for killing off his dad Han in the FIRST sequel movie! 😉

But the biggest improvement this makes for me, is the fact that it simplifies things so that Luke is seen to be a troubled guy over what happened…WITHOUT coming off as being evasive to Rey about it all.

So to sum up - the scene would be put together so that Luke explains his failure with Kylo straightforwardly, and Rey goes on to say that SHE won’t fail him, and we then go straight to her taking off in the Falcon as she leaves the island to continue her adventure…

(…and I’m still mulling over whether I want to remove the whole following ‘gumsy Yoda & Luke’ scene…or whether I just want to remove certain shots and dialogue during it) 😉

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ImperialFighter, I really like this idea. The backstory of Luke and Kylo Ren really took me out of the story completely. I could not suspend disbelief.

Its just so uncharacteristic of Luke as to be unbelievable. If Luke told the truth right out of the gate, it would be much more fitting, mitigating Rian’s "creative choice"of making Luke into a dick.

Also, how poetic that a simple misunderstanding would create Kylo Ren? The way its currently edited makes it feel as though Luke is just a big Asshole who really did go Lunatic on his nephew. If truth came out right away, even if you kept Kylo’s telling, you would know that its Ben’s warped perception of things.

You could also re purpose the small fight between Rey and Luke that you want to cut out into a training montage of sorts with new music. Just a thought.

I almost wish it were possible to see Luke training some Padawans in a flashback, and then maybe Kylo kills one of the Padawans “accidentally” during his exercises.

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One thing I don’t understand is how people think that Rey beat Luke. Luke was barely exerting any effort and easily bested her. It ended when he grabbed her weapon right out of her hand. Then she just used a cheap move and grabbed the saber. If Luke hadn’t chosen already to not use his old saber or have it on him, then she would have never been able to get the upper ground. I thought the film made it clear that Luke is clearly the vast superior to Rey and that she simply took advantage of Luke’s self imposed disconnection from everything involving the Jedi, including his saber.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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One thing that bothered me about the prequels, and is in the Last Jedi, is that they all use the same recording of the opening theme. TLJ uses the same recording as TFA. I’d change that.

On that same note, other than the Yoda scene, not a fan of them reusing old music. I’d also edit that out, where possible.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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SparkySywer said:

One thing that bothered me about the prequels, and is in the Last Jedi, is that they all use the same recording of the opening theme. TLJ uses the same recording as TFA. I’d change that.

On that same note, other than the Yoda scene, not a fan of them reusing old music. I’d also edit that out, where possible.

Which opening theme version would you suggest?

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Collipso said:

SparkySywer said:

One thing that bothered me about the prequels, and is in the Last Jedi, is that they all use the same recording of the opening theme. TLJ uses the same recording as TFA. I’d change that.

On that same note, other than the Yoda scene, not a fan of them reusing old music. I’d also edit that out, where possible.

Which opening theme version would you suggest?

Not sure, because I’m not sure what you’d be able to get legally (because I don’t think anyone here wants to hire an orchestra just for a fanedit. However if you contacted someone who’s already got a recording, you could get one.

Edit: For example, I used this in my own personal fanedit of TPM. I wouldn’t recommend doing this in a released fanedit, though, because just ripping off their recording and releasing it without credit or permission is legally and morally questionable.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Yeah at least on the soundtrack the TLJ opening is the same as TFA, which is really frustrating (although I’m still holding out hope that it’s a new recording in the film itself, as Rian has said they recorded a new version).

As for substitutes, there are plenty of orchestral albums out there with recordings of the SW main title.

Also, as far as I can tell this film doesn’t reuse any old music (unlike, say, Rey grabbing the lightsaber in TFA), although there are many moments with similar arrangements of old themes, but they’re all new recordings.

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Ultimately, I think fan edits of Episode VIII should be postponed until Episode IX comes out.

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Had a thought for a slight change to TLJ. When Luke is “thinking” fleetingly about ending Ben Solo’s life, we should use Audio of Snoke saying something like “kill him!” If Snoke was the impetus for Luke’s actions, that would be much better than Luke himself thinking of doing it.

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LordPlagueis said:

Ultimately, I think fan edits of Episode VIII should be postponed until Episode IX comes out.

No TFA fanedit contradicts anything in TLJ. Removing the fat in TLJ is likely to have no consequence on IX.

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Gimpy said:

Had a thought for a slight change to TLJ. When Luke is “thinking” fleetingly about ending Ben Solo’s life, we should use Audio of Snoke saying something like “kill him!” If Snoke was the impetus for Luke’s actions, that would be much better than Luke himself thinking of doing it.

That would undermine it being Luke’s failure, though. xP

“Oh it was just Snoke!” is a cop-out to Luke having actually fucked up, and then just makes him look a little dumb for holding himself 100% accountable for something that wasn’t even really his fault.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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I guess it would be in line with how dumb the prequel Jedi were though!