Hmm, it’s been a while since the last update. I wish I had more to report, but not much has gotten done on the edit recently save some minor tweaks and sound fixes. The final act of the film is shaping up nicely, which is good because it’s the most involved. There is still a lot of work left to do in Acts 1 and 2, but most of those edits are non-essential.
…a potential upside is that the crawl might not need to be quite as plot heavy.
I don’t mind having some plot elements mentioned in the crawl. This does take place ~30 years after Return of the Jedi, so I feel like at least a few major elements are going to need to be mentioned in it.
Speaking of which, I’d like to discuss the crawl again and some of the content of it… whenever you’re ready to have that discussion. 😃
You can of course discuss anything at any time, I’m all ears 😉
Speaking of the crawl, I had a somewhat weird idea for a more substantial change to the galactic table setting, so it would be something to do after v1 is released (if at all):
Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, a sinister new power has routed the New Republic.
Using a weapon of devastating power, the IMPERIAL FIRST ORDER has destroyed the Republic’s capital world of Hosnia, scattering their mighty fleet and sending the surviving senators into hiding.
As a last act of defiance, the remaining senators have mobilized a covert Resistance to find the missing Jedi and repel the shadow now spreading across the stars…
Having the remaining senators in hiding with a portion of the fleet makes sense of why they are such a small part of the story - they have been beaten before the story begins, and this establishes the threat of the weapon right from the beginning as well.
Poe’s full line ‘He’s familiar with the weapon that destroyed the Hosnian system.’ would be reinstated here, so the planet where the senators are hiding is never named on screen.
The tricky change would be to communicate that the First Order has discovered which world is harboring the Senators. Hux’s first speech to Snoke about the Republic would be cut, and some of it repurposed in the second Snoke scene.
‘…they may have the map already.’
‘GENERAL! Our strategy must must now change. The Resistance must be stopped before they reach Skywalker.’
‘We shall destroy the government that supports the Resistance.’
Snoke looks at Hux.
‘We have their location. We tracked their ship to the Republic. Without their friends to protect them the Resistance will be vulnerable, and we will stop them before they reach Skywalker.’
‘Then we will crush them once and for all. Prepare the weapon.’
This would imply that Kor Sella has inadvertently and unknowingly started a ticking clock for the Republic. Since I’m planning on re-dubbing the line from the Resistance briefing as well, it could be changed to this:
Leia: ‘The First Order. They’re charging the weapon again.’
Off-screen officer: ‘Do we know the target?’
Leia: ‘No.’
C-3PO: ‘Oh my, this is a catastrophe!’
This would also fix the weird issue from Restructured where Leia doesn’t warn the Republic of the impending Starkiller attack, since in this case the most reasonable explanation for the activation is for the First Order to target a random system in order to force the Resistance to respond and divert resources away from finding Luke. Also, the fact that she doesn’t know the First Order’s plan until the Republic is destroyed really turns the knife by giving her some direct responsibility for this horror.