Unusual Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 9

Funny that you posted this! I actually have been thinking about this as well. A while back I probably wrote a dozen different versions of these paragraphs, and this is where I’ve landed out.

TFA:

Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the radical FIRST ORDER has taken over the remnants of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.

Convinced that the First Order is secretly preparing for war, General Leia Organa mobilizes a covert Resistance to prove to the New Republic that diplomacy is not an option.

Believing that the Jedi are their key to victory, Leia has sent her best pilot to find her lost brother, Luke, before their dangerous new enemy reaches him first….

The First Order absorbing the other Imperial Remnants could be enough to rationalize their strength, basically that they consolidated resources to help build their new toys.
I think I’m trying to accomplish similar things as you are. “Radical” could be replaced with “mysterious” to further help explain the New Republic’s inaction.

TLJ:

The FIRST ORDER reigns. Having decimated all their leadership, Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the fractured New Republic.

Only General Leia Organa’s band of RESISTANCE fighters can stand against this rising tyranny, certain that the hope Jedi Master Luke Skywalker inspires will reunite the galaxy.

But the Resistance has been exposed. As the First Order speeds toward their vulnerable base, the brave heroes mount a desperate escape….

Possibly switching around certain terms like “Republic”, “galaxy”, or add things like “allies”, “forces”, etc. might give you a better combo, but I tried to keep the crawls concise and to the point.

Two alternatives for the second paragraph:

Only General Leia Organa’s band of RESISTANCE fighters stand together against this rising tyranny, certain that the hope Jedi Master Luke Skywalker inspires can reunite their scattered allies.

Only General Leia Organa’s band of RESISTANCE fighters stand united against this rising tyranny, certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker’s return could restore hope to the galaxy.

I guess I am trying to emphasize the Republic as divided and the Resistance as united, and hope is what makes that difference, and Luke is what is needed to restore hope to the rest of the galaxy and reunite everyone. It should all tie back to the main objective, which is Luke. This idea extends to the TFA crawl. And I personally like the dichotomy of unity and power. When the First Order reunifies the Imperial remnants, they acquire the power needed to topple the Republic, which leaves the Republic in disarray and vulnerable. Now, the Resistance is desperate for the hope Luke inspires in order to reunite the Republic and the galaxy and give them the power they need to defeat the First Order.

I also like that you came around to “Chaos reigns”! Personally I think it fits better with the situation: the decimation of Republic leadership has left their remaining forces and allies in disarray, and that chaos is what allows the First Order to invade the galaxy successfully. Really, the First Order won’t reign until they have control of all the major systems, which Rey says will still take weeks to months.

Very interesting. I like your TFA crawl, but you might be pushing it in terms of how many words you’re cramming in there. The other thing that personally doesn’t work for me is your framing of Leia “proving that diplomacy is not an option.” I get what you mean, but the wording makes it seem like she’s a warmonger or something, when the Resistance is essentially a defensive force.

I like your TLJ crawl as well, but as a small note I think the way you’ve worded the second sentence would make it confusing who “their” refers to in “their leadership.” The idea of invoking a goal of unity is a really interesting one that I like a lot, and would add another layer to the throne room sequence (amongst other things). Personally, however, I still like the “spark of hope” phrase.

As for the “chaos reigns,” I still stand by that there isn’t really a problem with “The FIRST ORDER reigns” (you used it yourself!), but looking back at our conversation, I do like the flavor that “chaos reigns” brings.

The other thing that might be reworkable is I remember RL suggesting phrasing to the effect of the New Republic doesn’t want to start another war. I’m kinda weighing whether I like that or the complacency angle better.

Don’t know who RL is, but not wanting another war is definitely more interesting than complacency, as that would be a retread of how the previous Republic fell.

Anakin Starkiller said:

The other thing that might be reworkable is I remember RL suggesting phrasing to the effect of the New Republic doesn’t want to start another war. I’m kinda weighing whether I like that or the complacency angle better.

Don’t know who RL is, but not wanting another war is definitely more interesting than complacency, as that would be a retread of how the previous Republic fell.

RL is Rogue Leader.

Hadn’t thought of that. But I don’t know if it’s necessarily true, you could argue that the Jedi fell because they were complacent but the Republic willingly became the Empire. Almost the opposite issue really, where they were too worried about the threats of the Jedi and Separatists.

Either way for me what’s important isn’t whether it’s a “retread” or not. Properly setting the NR’s headspace is important because it will also reflect on the headspace of the galaxy at large (and the main characters within it). I lean towards complacency because the struggle for the characters in this film is to move beyond the daily routine they’re comfortable with and do the hard thing which is the right thing - standing to fight.

For what?

Complacent, centrist politics breeds the rise of Fascism?

Mon Mothma’s demilitarization and the New Republics lack of concern for the rise of the First Order directly leads to it’s destruction.

But let’s not discuss politics here.

I think this is the good/bad thing about the political situation in the Sequels.

There are multiple ways we could define and interpret the political situation in general and more specifically within the opening crawls, but according to what we know in the canon, there’s some truth in most of these interpretations.

Let me lay out some of the interpretations:

The New Republic supported the Resistance, but it didn’t support it at the same time.

Seems contradictory, but the truth is that some senators within the Republic (Populists) did support Leia’s Resistance movement, while others (Centrists) did not. So a crawl could say “with the support of the Republic”, or “failing to convince the Republic” and both would be true to a certain extent. Even though Leia didn’t have the Republic’s full support, some Senators did.

I don’t know the source, but I also feel like I read somewhere that some Centrists worlds actually left the Republic and aligned themselves with the First Order a few months before TFA, which seems like a pretty big deal but nothing in the films suggests this, so an editor could either run with that idea or completely ignore it.

That’s what’s funny to me, the theatrical crawl says the Republic supported Leia’s Resistance (openly? secretly?), but in a deleted scene Leia also says, “Not all the senators think I’m insane… or maybe they do… I don’t care!”
This seems to imply the opposite, which lends more to the idea that the Resistance might be more of a rogue movement that doesn’t have the Republic’s official support.

You also wonder what the Resistance technically is. Are they an anti-fascist spy network that is spread across the galaxy, or are they more of an organized militia within First Order space? The latter would make them seem like the French Resistance within Nazi-occupied France during WW2, but the theatrical film seems to imply the former more, so the “Resistance” refers more to their goal of wanting to resist the growing influence of the First Order. But honestly you could probably go with either option and what exists within the film wouldn’t necessarily contradict either interpretation.

As for why Leia formed the Resistance rather than just operating within the New Republic military, you have a few options which all seem to be partially true:

The Republic did not want to start another war (tired of war/preferring diplomacy), and/or they didn’t have enough proof that they were more of a threat than other past Imperial remnants, so Leia took matters into her own hands to prove to the Republic that they needed to take action before it was too late.

The Republic did see a threat, but investigating the First Order for war crimes in an official capacity could be risky (maybe lacking evidence), so the Resistance was meant to be a covert militia to gather enough proof that the Republic to act on (at least some pro-Leia senators had this mindset).

Leia knew there were First Order spies within the Senate feeding information to the FO as well as downplaying their threat to the Senate, so Leia formed an independent covert militia to avoid being spied on, as well as finding another evidence that the First Order was preparing for war against the Republic.

Regarding the First Order, there are multiple ways you could elaborate on them as well. The theatrical crawl just says they have “risen from the ashes of the Empire”, which is pretty vague. Some phrases I have suggested in the past have been that they have “emerged from uncharted space”, more recently “[they] have taken over the remnants of the Empire”.

I think the biggest question regarding the First Order is how did they consolidate power and resources under the nose of the New Republic, and I guess a good crawl would at least hint towards that. Saying that they have emerged from hiding, or have absorbed other Imperial remnants could help explain that. The funny thing is, either interpretation seems to be partially true in canon.

The First Order:
-has been hiding in the Unknown Regions rebuilding their military in secret.
-has absorbed the manpower/resources of most of the remaining Imperial remnants.
-has wealthy benefactors within the Republic supporting them (like pro-Imperials or war-profiteers).
-has spies and sympathizers within the Senate helping downplay their scale and overall threat to the New Republic.
-were being led by a mysterious Force-user powerful in the dark side that helped them navigate the Unknown Regions and used its secrets to help them rebuild.

All of these factor into the First Order’s backstory in canon, as far as I know.

While all of these interpretations of the political situation between the New Republic, the Resistance and the First Order does bring up a lot of interesting ideas and nuance, because none of these things are really defined well in the films, the whole situation seems vague and confusing. While it is good for us that we can find our own interpretations, I think it is a weakness of these films that they don’t just pick one of these interpretations and go with it.

So what we’re stuck with is trying to decide on which direction to go in (and these are only the canon-friendly interpretations, an editor could pick even more). Obviously each editor is going to have their own preference, but it would be nice to determine which interpretations fit best within the story and themes of the Saga and Sequel Trilogy. I guess they all have pros and cons, but maybe it is a matter of finding one that has more pros than cons, if that makes sense.

I think it’s pretty safe to assume that there was a lot developed about the political situation in TFA that was probably culled a bit when it came time to write the screenplay, and then finally effectively cut out entirely during editing. In JJ’s quest for fast-paced simplicity he basically just made it so people who weren’t paying attention could go “oh right rebels vs. empire,” without being confused or bored by the political specifics (ala TPM). With Rian, we’ll never known what he would’ve done without the set up, but as with everything he just followed JJ’s lead and kept the details of political situation to a minimum.

Now when it comes to rewriting the crawl, there’s certainly room to expand upon JJ’s uber-simplified version. But I think we should keep in mind not adding information that isn’t really relevant to the film (just to satisfy personal desire for lore).

Which explanations do you think would be more lore-driven than theme-driven? I suppose reference to Imperial remnants might be lore-driven, but I’d also argue that it could work thematically as well.

If the death of the Emperor, their undisputed figurehead, was kept the Imperial remnants from reuniting, the idea that Kylo Ren, the heir apparent to Darth Vader, could have been used as a new symbol to reunite them is an interesting idea that ties into the theme of unity and power that I mentioned previously, and it could make Kylo Ren the symbolic antithesis to what Luke represents for the Resistance/Republic.

To me, I think it is about finding a nice explanation that feels satisfying and is a believable progression of the story from ROTJ.

It seems like the two biggest questions regarding the political situation are:

How did the First Order get the resources to build a new military without the New Republic doing anything about it?

What is the purpose of the Resistance, and why isn’t the Republic doing anything about the First Order?

These two things, without proper explanation, is what makes a lot of people feel we are back at Rebels vs Empire again. At face value, the bad guys just have new ships, a new army, and a new super weapon, and the good guys are still scrappy underdogs.

Like you were saying, maybe a good idea would be to rewatch The Force Awakens (theatrical or Restructured) and completely ignore the opening crawl, then based off the facts the film itself gives, try to determine what the most accurate explanation would be based off what we are given within the film.

It’s not so much specific explanations I’m against, it’s more the trying to cram as much in as possible. But also then yes, once you’ve gotten down to a couple different phrasings you can use, ultimately what should make the decision is which is most relevant to the film at hand. For instance, I like the idea of framing the FO as having a spy network (connects nicely to ANH), but if the spies are only relevant to the New Republic side of things (which is a very small aspect of the movie), does it make sense to talk about them and how they’re spreading misinformation or whatever? You know what I mean? It’s cool lore but it doesn’t really apply to the movie. Same would go for a crawl that tries to explain potential war crime investigations, wealthy benefactors, etc. There are certainly areas though where a little could suggest a lot. It’s not worth taking up space explaining how some NR members are loyal to the FO (in my opinion), but you could potential suggest something like that with phrasing as simple as “the fractured New Republic” or “the divided New Republic.”

This is where the struggle for me is between ‘don’t want to start another war’ and ‘complacency,’ which I think are the best options. If you’re watching the episodes in order, you definitely do need an explanation for why the NR has allowed the FO to rise. But the film ultimately is not about the NR, so whatever you say about them needs some relevance beyond the background table setting. I like ‘not wanting to start another war’ because it is easily understandable and you can also intuitively map that kind of thinking on to, say, Han Solo. But the phrasing also feels very generationally specific. Rey and Finn and co. never fought a war, so ‘learning when you need to start another war’ seems like a weird thing for them to overcome. On the other hand ‘complacency’ is the kind of pervasive struggle that is relevant to all. You could track of the theme of recognizing and overcoming complacency is relevant to a lot of the characters in the film.

What I really want to accomplish is a crawl that pairs well with Maz’s monologue in the middle of her film. In my mind that’s kind of the thesis statement for the necessity of the trilogy. To paraphrase, through the ages there have always been threats like the FO, and there always will be, and the only thing you can do is not to ignore it but to fight it. A lot of people complain that TFA ‘reverses the victory’ of ROTJ, but I think there’s a pretty mature message here that no victory is forever, and you can’t forget that and let it get you down. Since the crawl is explaining why the Empire is back in the expositional sense, in my mind it should also explain why it’s back in the emotional/thematic sense as well (if it can). I don’t know if the crawl I have right now is the best way to do it. I think at one point I even had the phrase “failing to convince the New Republic that their time of peace has inevitably ended…” But anyway just trying to explain where I’m coming from, for me I think the best TFA crawl would accomplish more than just expositional filling in the blanks.

Semi-related, do you have a crawl for ROTJ?

Paralleling the ANH crawl with Rebel spies/First Order spies was one thing I liked. I think another reason I had for using it was that if First Order spies were in the Republic/Senate, it helped explain why Leia needed to make a separate, independent organization that could operate without the threat of information leaking.

In the film itself, Finn is worried about being seen by “First Order sympathizers” on Takodana. In Maz’s castle, we do see both a First Order spy and a Resistance spy, so the idea is sort of supported by what’s already in the movie.

Not in the film, but in the “Jakku Message” deleted scene, Snap asks Leia if they should contact the Republic, and she says, “No, we have to be smarter than that.” Which could imply that Leia she was worried about spies.

I think the deleted scene reinserted in Restructured (“Not all the senators think I’m insane”) could work with that angle, or with the “not wanting to star a war” or complacency angle.

I think some criticisms I’ve heard regarding those angles (even spies compromising the Republic angle), is that it makes the New Republic, the government the OT heroes fought to establish, seem like a failure even before the First Order destroys it. But that might be the point, since Luke also failed with his new Jedi Order. Victory wasn’t as final as our heroes might’ve thought.

I do agree that a big theme of the Sequel Trilogy is the cycle of darkness and light, good and evil, war and peace. I guess, like you said, it might be beneficial to try and help make that clearer. Because I think for a lot of people, the transition between what feels like victory in ROTJ, to going back to the same situation by the end of TFA does not feel properly set up or “earned”, I guess.

The idea to add the “inevitably” statement into the crawl is a good idea, although at the moment I’m not sure I have many ideas how to build off of that concept. But I’ll try to think of some more ideas too.

I’m probably going on too much of a tangent as well, but this is sort of why I would like to add a new shot at the end of ROTJ of some Star Destroyers escaping after the Death Star explodes. Knowing my luck, IX probably won’t go in the direction I’m expecting, but I think a part of the issue as to why ROTJ wasn’t the ultimate victory is because they didn’t really solve the Empire problem. The New Republic seems to have failed at trying to reintegrate former Imperials back into society (although in their defense, I guess they didn’t realize a fragment of the Empire went into hiding to bide their time).

To me, it’s not about purging the Shadow, but integrating with it. Assimilation. That’s why I’m hoping IX ends with reunification on some level.

I think another thing is how the Sith have been tied to the idea of ultimate victory. There was a millennia of peace when they thought the Sith were gone, but since they survived in secret, it was only temporary. The whole thing with the prophecy emphasized that once the Sith were destroyed, balance would be brought to the Force (supposedly). Since the Sith were seemingly destroyed in ROTJ, I think people have questions regarding the ST that don’t have answers yet.

I think the cyclical theme you mentioned is definitely true, and suggesting that idea in the crawl might help. Though people might wonder if “inevitably” refers to the cycle of war and peace, or that the New Republic was fundamentally flawed.

I guess after all of this talk, the simplest thing you could do is, like you said, at least give a reason why the Resistance is dealing with the First Order instead of the New Republic. I personally like that “Not wanting to start another war” is at least an understandable reason for their inaction, whereas “complacency” paints them in a more negative light. Out of everything, they are probably the most effective options without changing a lot.

With the New Republic not wanting to start another war, General Leia Organa mobilizes a covert Resistance to counter the rise of this Imperial remnant.

Hoping to avoid another war, the New Republic has secretly mobilized a covert RESISTANCE, under the command of General Leia Organa, to counter the rise of this Imperial remnant.

With the New Republic not wanting to start another war, General Leia Organa mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE to discover if the First Order is secretly preparing for invasion.

Then again, I do see what you’re saying about complacency.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about fascism, and how complacency can play a part in its rise. To me, the First Order represents fascism, and this in particular reminds me of Finn’s story, and how he learns that if he runs away from the problem, or is just a bystander like DJ, then he is actually a part of the problem.

If we went with the complacency angle, I do think a con of that would be how the New Republic apparently suffered the same fate as the Old Republic. And I think people would want to know why that happened again. And like I said, it might add to that feeling of all of the OT heroes’ victories going down the drain. We all hoped they would make things different, but it turns out they suffered the same fate as their predecessors. But maybe that tragedy is a part of the story, and that is just hard for fans to accept.
I mean if you think about it, Leia never grew up in a democracy, so starting one would be new to her (and her superiors like Mon Mothma might’ve unintentionally brought over problems with the old government), and I can just see Leia seeing the New Republic becoming complacent in peacetime and not being able to do anything about it (especially after her true parentage was exposed). This is another reason I’m hoping Leia survives IX so she can spend her remaining years helping the galaxy finally get on the right track.

So maybe the best options would be something along those lines, or even “failing to convince the New Republic” like Restructured has it. “Unwilling to start another war”, “not wanting to start another war”, something like those. Though if we go with the complacency angle, I could imagine an argument along the lines of, “If the New Republic was complacent or dysfunctional, why should we feel bad when it is destroyed?”

Sorry for this long post. It honestly has just been a stream of consciousness as I’ve thought about this and what you said, and you can probably see how my opinion has changed from the beginning of this post to the end. But maybe my thoughts will give others something to think about too.

I do have a crawl for ROTJ that’s still in-progress.

The Alliance is doomed. After suffering terrible losses, spies loyal to the Rebellion have reported that the Empire nears completion of a new dreaded Death Star.

As the rebels prepare their next move, Luke Skywalker sets in motion a desperate plan to rescue his friend Han Solo from the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.

Little does Luke know that Darth Vader, under the commands of his cruel Emperor, hastens their own sinister plans that will bring about their ultimate victory once and for all…

I was flipping through the Art of The Force Awakens tonight and I was trying to think of other ways to make TFA and the ST more visually distinct.

There was this pretty cool concept art piece of red Star Destroyers. This probably would be impractical and time consuming, but it would be cool if Kylo/Hux’s Star Destroyer, the Finalizer, was painted red.

“Rick [Carter, TFA Production Designer] is the guy who started saying, ‘Put a red ship in there. Put a red ship in there.’ I think J.J. has asked for a red Star Destroyer at one point, just to see, on a whim, what that looks like.” - Ryan Church, Concept Art

Love long winded posts like that RL, gives me a lot to chew on and think about. I’ll say, no matter what, the people who think the victories of ROTJ were shat on will think that no matter how you frame the crawl. You’re either okay with there being more after the happy ending, or not. I really like the idea of star destroyers jumping away in ROTJ and I’d love to see that. When it comes to IX, I’m not sure how it’ll go, and I like your thought. I’ll say personally I’ll be pretty annoyed if it’s an ROTJ happy ending redux “but we really mean it this time” sort of thing. If they’re properly concluding the story they’ve been telling thus far in the ST, there’ll be a big victory, but it’ll be understood that the war in the general sense (if not the specific sense) will never be truly over, but that’s okay because they have what it takes to keep fighting.

I like your ROTJ crawl a lot. I personally have a crazy notion to state the Luke is trying to bring balance to the force. But I don’t know if I can fit it.

As for the red star destroyer, you could probably just add a couple red stripes a la the FO special forces tie fighters, which would be a lot easier to accomplish.

Is it possible to remove the ‘superweapon’ element to Starkiller Base? What if it’s just a snow planet with a First Order base on it? Of course VFX would be needed, but what are the plot ramifications of this?

How could you properly convey that the Republic is out of the picture? Maybe this whole First Order-Resistance conflict is much smaller, galactically, and the complacent Republic still exists out there somewhere? Maybe the First Order is only a problem in the Outer Rim, so they don’t care?

Starkiller being a super-weapon is really my only problem with Force Awakens.

I guess that is true, and I think that ties in to my own predictions that not many people will care as much for edits that don’t try to fundamentally change the story, because a lot of people are set on their reasons for not liking the new movies.

Like I think if I eventually do an edit for The Last Jedi, I will try to address some of the issues people had with the film, but I’m not going to fundamentally change the story or the characters to do it. And so what I do still might not be enough for people because they still have the bad taste in their mouths, sort of speak.

Despite that, I don’t think it will stop me for trying to make changes that try to address the issues I feel are reasonable. And I do personally feel the political situation could use a little more detail. So the idea of the Imperial remnants reuniting under a single banner, or briefly hinting at a Cold War between the Republic and the First Order filled with espionage would be cool, maybe something regarding complacency or the Republic being “war weary” might fit the theme better. And maybe you could emphasize that the First Order has been in hiding, consolidating power until the time was right.

I agree with you about the ending of IX, I think it’ll generally be a happy ending, but the fact the Jedi will live on makes me think that the ending will in some way make a point about how evil will never go away, and that there will always been a need for people to fight for good.

This actually fits into the Jungian idea of integrating one’s Shadow, “acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one’s life”. It isn’t just about acknowledging it once and never having to again, it is a relationship that must be maintained. This also parallels Luke, and how just because he acknowledged his shadow at the end of ROTJ, didn’t mean he would never have to again, like he did when he confronted Ben.

Yeah, that’s a good idea too! Sort of like the Venators in the Clone Wars.
The Art of book has given me a lot of ideas for different approaches for visual edits, since it gives you some insight into what the filmmakers were trying to achieve.

Like at one point they mention how “destroying Jedi relics” was a visual theme they kept coming back to. There was concept art of a giant statue outside of Maz’s castle, which was similar to an earlier idea I had about placing Jedi statues in wide shots near the castle to emphasize it as an old Jedi temple.

Both the Art of TFA and TLJ mention the Wizard of Oz quite a few times, and it makes me want Nev, or someone else, to continue that idea of making Jakku look more desaturated and like a purgatory. They wanted Jakku to feel like this miserable place Rey had to live in and I think that would help, plus it give Rey this ‘Dorothy in Kansas’ parallel. But I guess these are more radical ideas, but it seems like most people would have been okay with a little more visual distinctiveness in the new films. It seems to be thing that George Lucas liked about TFA the least.

OutboundFlight said:

I don’t think there are many plot ramifications if a First Order fleet still attacks the Republic capital. Possibly a fleet of first order dreadnoughts, so the opening of TLJ does not feel out of nowhere.

I was about to suggest the same thing. Possibly impossible to execute though.

NeverarGreat said:

Just need to figure out a way to desaturate the planet while keeping the color of the explosions.

Maybe someone could tweak those explosion shots enough to find a good in-between to maintain the explosions color but still be desaturated enough to not make a huge difference from the rest of the shots?

If not, you might have to rotoscope around the explosions to maintain their color. I think it would be worth trying, but I don’t think you’d have to go with the blue star angle, Jakku could just have a different atmosphere or something, like Mars.

I think this, and the potentially more challenging idea of adding MORE wreckage to Jakku are the best methods of differentiating Jakku that are somewhat feasible.

NeverarGreat said:

This would effectively establish Starkiller Base and its range and accuracy using a Rogue One style ‘single reactor’ attack. It would be dramatic enough to substantially raise the stakes, but still modest enough when used on this remote pirate base to justify the Republic’s continued inaction.

This is a cool new idea! Coming full circle. It could fit into the idea of Maz’s Castle being like a safe zone, neutral ground, except instead of just the castle it is the planet. Maybe you could use the subtitled aliens with Finn to provide some additional context for the defense platform as well!

But yeah, it would definitely require some new vfx for sure. I’m not sure how you would do that. And the platform would have to appear significant enough that it would require something as drastic as using a giant laser and exposing Starkiller rather than just attacking it with a Star Destroyer. Like, one Star Destroyer wouldn’t be strong enough to take it out. But they would have to use it in order to get the map.

I do think the important thing would be to make this idea as simple as possible, because if it is too complicated it might be confusing for the audience. So however it works, I would go with whatever is the easiest to understand visually.

EDIT: Establishing Takodana even more as a Switzerland-like neutral planet with some sort of defense would also help explain why Han felt comfortable with waltzing into the castle, since he would think they were safe there.

I’ve been saying to replace Starkiller Base’s superlaser with a ship-fired superlaser since before the dreadnoughts were even a thing. Now that they are, I’ve simply locked into that position.

Yeah, that is a simple change!

How would you reorganize the Snoke scenes again? I feel like I remember you saying at one point you would try to not have Kylo Ren go back to Starkiller until after he gets Rey. So would you drop that idea, or make it to where it is only Hux in that scene?

I’ve been thinking about how you could pull off this idea some more since yesterday too.

Maybe you’ve had a better idea for what this defense system could be, but I’ve been thinking a moon with a large, planetary shield generator would be a good idea. It would basically be the same tech used on Endor to protect the DSII, but a larger scale.

In the first shot of the Falcon jumping out of hyperspace, you could add the moon to the shot of Takodana. Maybe you could generate a new shot of the Falcon flying by it so the audience can get a new look at it, and a new Falcon cockpit interior as they’re approaching the planet. And maybe during the Falcon interior shots, you could add some off-screen comm dialogue like, “You are clear for landing, lowering planetary shield in Sector 49.” Or something like that. Maybe we could see a massive satellite dish on the planet surface. Not sure.

Obviously it needs to be something that isn’t too complicated visually. At with that idea, we’ve seen something like it before on a smaller scale. And again, I’m not sure where you could get the design from besides making it from scratch.

It could just be a giant satellite in space, or a giant gun, sphere, space station floating in orbit, but I think it has to be something that is obviously too big for one Star Destroyer to handle itself, which is why I think making it a moon is a good idea. And it raises the stakes more than if it just destroyed a space station.

So is there any way of giving the Knights of Ren lightsabers in that one shot they’ve appeared in so far?