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The Last Jedi : a Fan Edit Ideas thread — Page 5

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Ok
. Cut the rose and Finn story line to a minimum

Also cut out that weird call with Maz just take out the whole casino sequence what would you lose just cut to them in the first order you can fill the gaps in your mind

Keep the focus on Rey Luke Kylo Ren snoke and Poe

Only major change but beside that just cut out some bad lines and you got a great Star Wars movie

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HerekittykittyX said:

Ok
. Cut the rose and Finn story line to a minimum

Also cut out that weird call with Maz just take out the whole casino sequence what would you lose just cut to them in the first order you can fill the gaps in your mind

Keep the focus on Rey Luke Kylo Ren snoke and Poe

Only major change but beside that just cut out some bad lines and you got a great Star Wars movie

So your idea is that we see Finn say it’s possible to get the shields down and Poe’s head looks up with an idea. But then the very next time we see them they are with a random character we haven’t been introduced to and they’re on the ship that was seemingly impossible to get on?

Sounds a bit more than just filling the gaps in your mind. Trust me, I want to cut it as much as possible too, but am struggling to think of logical ways to get rid of Canto Bight entirely without consequences on the integrity of the story.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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Putting my Starlight Project Part 2 Ideas here for now:

While the Force Awakens was a flawed film, it only required a modest restructure to improve the story immensely. The Last Jedi, while it ascends to greater heights, has some deeper structural issues. For example, there is absolutely no time-jump between movies, and immediately starts with a ticking clock that leaves no room for intervening character growth.
This edit, while not solving the time-jump issue, will at least allow for a more leisurely pace at the beginning of the story. Here is how it could begin:

The FIRST ORDER reigns.
Having destroyed the
Republic capitol, General
Hux has surrounded
the Resistance base and
awaits the surrender of
Leia Organa.

Leia, now the leader of the
defeated Republic, still hopes
for the return of the Last Jedi,
and is secretly preparing her
forces for a final desperate
attack against the ascendant
First Order.

Meanwhile, in deep space
aboard his massive command
ship, Supreme Leader Snoke
prepares to receive Kylo Ren,
son of the Republic and heir
to Snoke’s dark throne…

We open on Kylo Ren facing the wrath of Snoke, and after he smashes his helmet in frustration we cut to Rey giving Luke the lightsaber. The Ahch-to scenes are brought to the front of the film for the most part, with Rey’s communication with Kylo being the only cross-cutting. Now Rey is on the island for an undetermined amount of time, just like Luke’s training on Dagobah. Near the end of Luke’s lessons, we return to the Resistance plot and Poe’s attack on the Destroyer. From there the story progresses as usual, with some cuts or additions for time. The Canto Bight section is quite problematic however, and there will probably be more substantial changes to that section. The final act is excellent, and should require little to no change.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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My idea to salvage the Canto Bight sequence and cement a real bond between Finn and Rose

When Finn is in his bacta medical suit at the begining of the film we need Finn to have a flashback sequence that runs through his experiences as a character starting from childhood, giving us more details of his background.
In my mind, a dream/flashback would go something like this.
We hear a voice saying “you steal Children?” “we rescue them to serve the 1st order.” ominous music plays while we initially see children playing with Jedi wooden toys, and then we hear a child scream. A woman’s face comes to frame IE Fin’s mother, and then we hear “FN2187” a fast montage of footage from episode 7 plays (Fin’s trooper friend dying, imperial propoganda, etc.) and then the last moments of finn seeing Rey taken away, or his duel injury. He awakes as he does in the movie screaming Rey!!!

If we had this flashback as part of Finn’s introduction, it would tell the audience that he was once just an innocent boy who admired the Jedi, their stories, played with friends, but was kidnapped, and his family was killed before he was brainwashed by Phasma.
This would make Finn’s impulse to run and be afraid initially very understandable. Rose’s story of losing her sister would also now have an emotional effect on finn at the same time. A bond between two unknowns now exists.
Releasing the Fathiers, and seeing the Opulance of Canto Bight, and the suffering of animals would now (in the audience’s mind) have a personal effect on Finn, because of what we have been reminded about his beginings, and what he himself has been reminded of in his coma flashback.

-audio from battlefront II with Admiral Hask could be used because he talks with Iden Versio about how children of the galaxy are being “rescued” IE stolen to serve as the 1st order Stormtroopers.
-Footage in episode 8 of the kids playing Jedi adventure can be used to imply that one of those innocent boys was a young Finn. (foreshadowing that he chooses the resistence later in the film.)
-The deleted scene "Finn and the villager"could be used where the villager is implied to be Finn’s mother.

  • The rest of the montage from The Force Awakens.
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NeverarGreat said:

My biggest issue, other than the fragmented storylines, was that the starship chase and Godspeed Maneuver™ made little tactical sense.

Why couldn’t the First Order simply swarm the capital ship with TIE fighters until it went down? Why are all the ships traveling at a fixed speed? Why hasn’t anyone else used the Godspeed Maneuver™ as a weapon? It seems like a hyperdrive would be one of the most deadly weapons in the galaxy if just any ship could do this.

Oh, and I don’t care if Phasma stays or goes.

Absolutely! I was thinking this as well. If going to hyperspace can be done even with a ship in the way then surely the Rebels could have just used this method to destroy either of the Death Stars no? At least the first one as it had no shield generator to protect it.

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ziggyonice said:

  • We need to find some way to kill Leia on-screen. I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but we know that since Carrie Fisher passed away, they’ve already said she won’t be CGI’d into Episode IX. There were opportunities in this film to have her character pass away in line with her qualities as a Resistance leader. She could have died in the explosion, or in recovery, or she could have even been the one to go kamikaze in the end and save the Resistance in the process. No idea how to handle this one.

I totally agree. I was thinking/hoping it was going to be Leia as this would have been a perfect end to her character to go out like that saving the Rebellion that she had devoted her life to.

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Thoughts after seeing it a second time:

First, I’d be doing a “paired” edit of TFA and TLJ, which breaks from what I wanted to do with my personal “saga” edits that I’ve so far refrained from talking about on here. The whole idea with my personal “canon cuts” was to edit each individual film in such a way that it doesn’t egregiously contradict the rest of the overall canon, so someone could pick out just one of my edits and slot it in with the theatrical/SE/whatever version of every other film without breaking anything, or use all of my edits but swap out just one of them with an official cut or a different fan edit, without any problems.

But TFA/TLJ breaks that idea completely, because of how I feel I have to handle the ending of TFA/beginning of TLJ.

So with that preface out of the way, here’s what I’m probably gonna end up doing:

  1. Use TFA Restructured as the basis for my TFA, cutting out some cringe-y humor here and there and some other nips and tucks. But that’s beside the point because this is a TLJ thread. I had to mention TFA, though, because I will…
  2. End TFA with the Falcon leaving the Resistance base, and…
  3. Open TLJ with the Falcon arriving on Ahch-To (from TFA’s ending). So the ending of TFA becomes the opening of TLJ. Continue through Luke and Rey’s meeting and stitch the Ahch-To stuff together so it flows as one scene, until Luke asks “Where’s Han?” Then…
  4. Shortened version of the Kylo/Snoke scene, but everything with Kylo’s helmet is gone. In my edit it will be implied that his helmet was never recovered from Starkiller Base. I paid attention to this scene during my second viewing, and after he takes his helmet off, you really never see it on the ground or anything for the rest of the scene, and no important information is delivered through Kylo’s voice-modulated mask, and any important pre-mask-removal Snoke dialogue can be reshuffled in the scene. This also means Hux is gone from this scene entirely.
  5. No Kylo elevator scene/mask destruction (as the mask was lost with SKB).

A little iffy on the sequence of events from here, but I think, like Neverar, I’d want to push the Resistance escape from D’Qar as far back as I could. Really, in the edit, I’ll be working backwards from the infiltration of Snoke’s ship by both Rey and Finn/Rose and see how it all shakes out from there.

Leia’s Superman bit will probably be cut, too, even though I didn’t have a massively huge issue with it myself. It’s easy to cut, though.

As for Canto Bight, a lot of it will be cut. I’ll definitely be going from the prison cell scene directly to the trio in hyperspace, with no CGI horse riding or any of that.

That’s all I’ve got for the moment beyond obvious little nips and tucks here and there.

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darthrush said:

HerekittykittyX said:

Ok
. Cut the rose and Finn story line to a minimum

Also cut out that weird call with Maz just take out the whole casino sequence what would you lose just cut to them in the first order you can fill the gaps in your mind

Keep the focus on Rey Luke Kylo Ren snoke and Poe

Only major change but beside that just cut out some bad lines and you got a great Star Wars movie

So your idea is that we see Finn say it’s possible to get the shields down and Poe’s head looks up with an idea. But then the very next time we see them they are with a random character we haven’t been introduced to and they’re on the ship that was seemingly impossible to get on?

Sounds a bit more than just filling the gaps in your mind. Trust me, I want to cut it as much as possible too, but am struggling to think of logical ways to get rid of Canto Bight entirely without consequences on the integrity of the story.

How about you Cut the casino part but leave the ship scene in where they are talking to Poe about how they found a code breaker they just explained what happened to them to Poe and the audience that scene catches everyone up

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Why would you want to cut the bit with Kylo’s mask?

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DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the bit with Kylo’s mask?

Because pick a scene - for every scene, there’s someone who didn’t like it.

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I need to watch again but as a few have alluded to, I think I’d like to lose the canto stuff by not having Finn wake up until much later in the movie. Tie his eventual wanting to get in the escape pod with Poe’s mutiny (which wouldn’t be a timewaster but actually focused concern instead).

That way Rose is introduced and Finn and her make it to Crait as necessary. It seems to work in my head but, yes, I need to see again!

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TV’s Frink said:

DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the bit with Kylo’s mask?

Because pick a scene - for every scene, there’s someone who didn’t like it.

this sums up why super-fandom can get tiring.

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DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the bit with Kylo’s mask?

Mostly because I thought it made sense thematically for him to lose the mask when he kills his father. (And it’s never shown being recovered from the catwalk.)

I was willing to let that go when I found out he’d have the mask again for TLJ, but then it turned out he only had it…so that he could get rid of it in his first scene.

I understand the thematic purpose behind this, but think the same message is gotten across with Snoke’s dialogue, and I think getting rid of the mask in TLJ altogether won’t be all that much work, and the important dialogue can be preserved.

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I think I’m just going to reshoot the whole film for my edit. Anyone willing to help out?

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ChainsawAsh said:

DominicCobb said:

Why would you want to cut the bit with Kylo’s mask?

Mostly because I thought it made sense thematically for him to lose the mask when he kills his father. (And it’s never shown being recovered from the catwalk.)

I was willing to let that go when I found out he’d have the mask again for TLJ, but then it turned out he only had it…so that he could get rid of it in his first scene.

I understand the thematic purpose behind this, but think the same message is gotten across with Snoke’s dialogue, and I think getting rid of the mask in TLJ altogether won’t be all that much work, and the important dialogue can be preserved.

The mask was more for his reverence to Darth Vader, who he wanted to be. So I don’t think after killing his father changes that. Plus, as other had said, it adds more to the scene with Snoke calling Kylo out on it.

Granted I agree the assumption for the audience is he didn’t pick up the helmet … unless he made more than one? Has a few spares in case he breaks one from a tantrum of his? 😉

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Yes, Kylo coming into his own is Kylo putting the past behind him. His father is just one part of that, his grandfather is the other. At the end of TFA (and the beginning of TLJ) he is conflicted. As Snoke points out, killing his father didn’t resolve him.

Considering how there was much speculation that he’d become Vader v2 in this, this scene is incredibly important to establish that he’s forging his own path.

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Well, these are just my thoughts right now, none of it is set in stone.

Wait til you hear that I also want to cut the end scene with the kid and the broom. 😉

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AndersonCouncil said:

NeverarGreat said:

My biggest issue, other than the fragmented storylines, was that the starship chase and Godspeed Maneuver™ made little tactical sense.

Why couldn’t the First Order simply swarm the capital ship with TIE fighters until it went down? Why are all the ships traveling at a fixed speed? Why hasn’t anyone else used the Godspeed Maneuver™ as a weapon? It seems like a hyperdrive would be one of the most deadly weapons in the galaxy if just any ship could do this.

Oh, and I don’t care if Phasma stays or goes.

Absolutely! I was thinking this as well. If going to hyperspace can be done even with a ship in the way then surely the Rebels could have just used this method to destroy either of the Death Stars no? At least the first one as it had no shield generator to protect it.

Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense. The only thing I can think of is that this Republic ship is even larger than any ship the Rebellion ever had, and if Hyperdrives get exponentially more dangerous the more mass is moving through Hyperspace, it might only become a danger with very large capital ships. And at that point, the waste of such a ship would be widely considered too great a cost for a suicide maneuver.

As for the issue of why the First Order is slowly running them down rather than destroying them with TIEs, perhaps the reason could be that Snoke wanted Leia alive so she could personally surrender to him, and he would also suspect that she would be the most likely person to have the location of Luke. This could be easily communicated in the crawl, and that way the First Order would just blockade the Resistance base until after most of the island scenes and when Leia decides to launch her attack.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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ChainsawAsh said:

Well, these are just my thoughts right now, none of it is set in stone.

Wait til you hear that I also want to cut the end scene with the kid and the broom. 😉

Ah yes, the ultimate culmination of Luke’s story (and the Canto Bight subplot and the theme of hope in general).

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As for the issue of why the First Order is slowly running them down rather than destroying them with TIEs, perhaps the reason could be that Snoke wanted Leia alive so she could personally surrender to him, and he would also suspect that she would be the most likely person to have the location of Luke. This could be easily communicated in the crawl, and that way the First Order would just blockade the Resistance base until after most of the island scenes and when Leia decides to launch her attack.

The dreadnaught was about to destroy the cruiser before it got bombed, so keeping them alive was not a priority.

A edit can convey that, but it would need to remove some scenes or hopefully change dialogue to relay the thought of disabling the cruiser. But again, a handful of TIE’s could also disable the cruiser by shooting out the engines at the back.

On a movie standpoint they were adding suspense with a survival time limit, but the logic behind it was silly on a logic standpoint.

But to be fair, star wars battle logic hasn’t really been there starting from the first movie. So we could let that slide…

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Re: launching TIEs to catch and kill the fleet, isn’t it well established that fighters are generally useless against capital ships?

With that said, two of them blew a hole in the ship to dump Leia in space, so…???

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Usually I’d let this stuff slide, but it’s hard to ignore since this movie goes into so much more detail about the fuel calculations and the strategy of the whole thing. Like, give me ships going ‘pew pew’ at each other with space fairy tale logic or give me Timothy Zahn-style military sci-fi with a consistent set of rules, but don’t give me the military sci-fi with fairy tale logic.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I didn’t feel like they went into anymore detail than was needed to set up the scenario. The fuel calculation updates just reminded me of the Death Star countdown (why didn’t the Death Star pop out of hyperspace on the other side of the planet?).

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DominicCobb said:

I didn’t feel like they went into anymore detail than was needed to set up the scenario. The fuel calculation updates just reminded me of the Death Star countdown (why didn’t the Death Star pop out of hyperspace on the other side of the planet?).

I like to think of Hyperspace Routes as “roads”, and that at all points in the Galaxy there are several roads passing through that exact point. So there was no way for the Death Star to go from point A (Alderaan) to point B (Yavin 4) without having to go around the planet. The Millennium Falcon had to do that too, and both the Falcon and the Death Star left from the same point A, which leads me to believe the whole “road” thing.
So in TLJ the First Order basically would know which road the Resistance took and follow them, and that’s how they fracked them.
Just an idea though, pretty off topic too, sorry about that.