When you bumped this thread back up I went back through and looked at some of the different ideas you had.
There’s definitely a few I like, but there were some that were just ideas but didn’t have solid ideas for how to actually implement them yet. Coming back to it with fresh eyes has given me some ideas for at least two of them.
First, you had this idea about making Holdo a surviving New Republic Officer. No real simple method of implementation, but something like this could possibly work:
Poe: That’s Vice Admiral Holdo? The ‘Battle of Chiron Belt’ Admiral Holdo?
Alien Pilot: [subtitled] A Republic hero.
Poe: Not what I expected.
Alien Pilot: Poe…
This could be a simple approach that doesn’t require any set up edits within TFA. Definitely in the vein of how you have subtitles to the alien pirates in your TFA edit!
Another idea you had was to make the reason why the First Order doesn’t find a quick way to destroy the Resistance be primarily because of Snoke. Snoke wants Kylo Ren to complete his training by killing his mother. But once Kylo forms a connection to Rey and brings her before him, Snoke decides killing her instead will be a worthy enough sacrifice in order to complete his training, allowing Hux to destroy the remaining Resistance transports.
Here are some of the changes I thought of that could help imply this idea:
• When Kylo fumes in the elevator after his conversation with Snoke, have Snoke’s line “complete your training” echo in his mind, either right after we cut to the first shot of him in the elevator, or right before he smashes his helmet. Or you could have him hear it in his ship after he senses Leia on the bridge.
• When Hux recalls Kylo back to the Supremacy, change his line to something like, “I have orders from Snoke, we can’t cover you at this distance, return to the fleet.” His line starts during a wide shot of Kylo flying past the Raddus, so you don’t have to worry about Hux’s mouth lining up with the new dialogue if you start it early.
You can take a part of the line from earlier in the film. Hux, “I have orders from Supreme Leader Snoke himself…”
• Cut Hux asking his officer why they can’t destroy the fleet now. Just cut it shorter to something like, “Well, keep up the barrage. Let’s at least remind them we are still here.” Or even shorter to just “They won’t last long burning fuel like this. It’s only a matter of time.” Keeping the barrage line might help show Hux being a little frustrated that Snoke is making them wait.