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Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Redux Ideas thread — Page 13

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DZ-330 said:

Dr. Krogshöj said:

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

The galaxy’s fate hangs in the balance.
Luke Skywalker’s heroic stand on Crait
has inspired countless worlds to stand
up for freedom and push back against
the tyrannical First Order.

To keep the Jedi alive in the wake of
Luke’s sacrifice, young Rey is trying
to contact the spirits of past masters
as she continues her training under
the guidance of General Leia Organa.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
is seeking clues to the mysterious power
of his former master Snoke so he can
turn the tide of war and erase the
echos of the past once and for all…

Here’s my take, a little less wordy but trying to make the same point as yours.

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Luke Skywalker’s heroic
act has inspired countless
worlds to stand up against
the diabolical FIRST ORDER.

REY, under the guidance of
General Leia Organa, continues
her Jedi training, hoping to
find a way to communicate
with Jedi of the past.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader
KYLO REN seeks the mysterious
power of his former master,
determined to end the war and
silence the echos of the past…

A definite improvement, though I think it needs a short opening sentence, typical of all the crawls, save for ROTJ.

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RogueLeader said:

Dr. Krogshöj said:

RogueLeader said:

I think the crawl does not need to mention Palpatine by name at all. Because it makes the reveal not surprising whatsoever. I think it could go something like this:

After Luke’s heroic stand against the First Order, hope began returning to the galaxy and the First Order has expended a lot of resources trying to maintain fear and quell the growing resistance.

Something something about the Resistance.

As the First Order becomes desperate to find a solution to their growing problem, Kylo Ren uses one of Snoke’s old artifacts to find the source of his mysterious power.

I think a crawl in the vein of this could help justify where all of those ships came from at the end.

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

The galaxy’s fate hangs in the balance.
Luke Skywalker’s heroic stand on Crait
has inspired countless worlds to stand
up for freedom and push back against
the tyrannical First Order.

To keep the Jedi alive in the wake of
Luke’s sacrifice, young Rey is trying
to contact the spirits of past masters
as she continues her training under
the guidance of General Leia Organa.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
is seeking clues to the mysterious power
of his former master Snoke so he can
turn the tide of war and erase the
echos of the past once and for all…

This is beautiful! I love it.

Thanks! Have fun with it. This is sort of a firt draft I blurted out because I was angry at JJ for throwing everything The Last Jedi established out of the window. To be fair, Rian did the same to him, but at least he did it because there was something he wanted to tell. JJ just did it to appease.

On balance, I think I might prefer the approach of retro-editing TFA and TLJ that foreshadow Palpatine in a subtle way and without ruining those films, like the concept laid out by Shadester9 in the The Sequel Trilogy: Trilogized thread. And, of corse, erasing Rey Palpatine if at all possible.

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There was a storyline in the pre-shoot version of the film about the Sith fleet, according the the leaker who later proved to be 100% accurate. Apparently, Generals Hux and Pryde were tasked with rounding up children in large numbers to train and staff Palpatine’s armada. Later on Kojimi, we would have seen Palpatine’s orders carried out as children weree being rounded up by soldiers of the First Order.

It’s a shame it got cut for two reasons:

  1. You need hundreds of thousands of people to crew the fleet we see on screen. I was asking myself in the theatre: who mans these ships? The fleet’s existence can be easily explained away (Palpatine hid it away during the height of the Empire, they are all Imperial era Star Destroyers, not First Order ones).

  2. The control tower subplot now makes sense. If the Sith fleet is manned, why exactly cannot they leave Exegol? I never understood that. But if these ships are uncrewed, you would actually need some kind of remote device to manouvre them.

Let’s hope for some pre-reshoot deleted scenes…

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IMHO the Fox fanfare should be added to the ST.

This allows for a potential solution to including Palpatine’s speech. During the searchlight portion, add small sound clips of the probe Droid from TESB. Gradually make them louder, audibly distorting the fanfare sound to correlate with this. Simultaneously, add static to the sound.

As the Lucasfilm logo shows up. Start glitching the screen.
Then pause the fade in/fade out process with regular minimal visual glitches.

During this, play the transmission clip from Fortnite. When it ends, fade to black.

Then proceed regularly to “A long, long time ago…”

(There following incorporates pieces from DZ-330)

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Terror! In a move meant to inspire hope, legendary Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, long hidden away in solitude, has sacrificed himself in a decisive blow against the FIRST ORDER. With their hero vanquished and government in ruins however, the Galaxy finds itself frozen in fear at the apparent reemergence of Skywalker’s most dangerous adversary.

In response to the mysterious missive, Supreme Leader
KYLO REN seeks to unlock the
power of his former master,
determined to end the war and
silence the echos of the past.

Meanwhile REY, under the guidance of
General Leia Organa, continues
her Jedi training, searching
for a way to commune
with the Jedi of the past. Only through them can she face the secrets of her own past, and in so doing unlock the only remaining hope for the future…

Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000

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nightstalkerpoet said:

IMHO the Fox fanfare should be added to the ST.

This allows for a potential solution to including Palpatine’s speech. During the searchlight portion, add small sound clips of the probe Droid from TESB. Gradually make them louder, audibly distorting the fanfare sound to correlate with this. Simultaneously, add static to the sound.

As the Lucasfilm logo shows up. Start glitching the screen.
Then pause the fade in/fade out process with regular minimal visual glitches.

During this, play the transmission clip from Fortnite. When it ends, fade to black.

Then proceed regularly to “A long, long time ago…”

(There following incorporates pieces from DZ-330)

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Terror! In a move meant to inspire hope, legendary Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, long hidden away in solitude, has sacrificed himself in a decisive blow against the FIRST ORDER. With their hero vanquished and government in ruins however, the Galaxy finds itself frozen in fear at the apparent reemergence of Skywalker’s most dangerous adversary.

In response to the mysterious missive, Supreme Leader
KYLO REN seeks to unlock the
power of his former master,
determined to end the war and
silence the echos of the past.

Meanwhile REY, under the guidance of
General Leia Organa, continues
her Jedi training, searching
for a way to commune
with the Jedi of the past. Only through them can she face the secrets of her own past, and in so doing unlock the only remaining hope for the future…

It’s not bad. A few issues for me are the Luke and Leia portions. Luke didn’t strike a decisive blow against the First Order, He basically killed/sacrifced himself to buy the rebels time to escape. Leia didn’t train Rey as she had turned her back on the force and her own training, established during the young Luke and Leia flashback. I think adding the Emperors transmission for later in the movie is better overall. I think having something along the lines of:

Dark voices from the past call to Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, with a promise of power enough to destroy his adversaries.

Or something like that.

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DZ-330 said:

Here’s my take, a little less wordy but trying to make the same point as yours.

STAR WARS

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Luke Skywalker’s heroic
act has inspired countless
worlds to stand up against
the diabolical FIRST ORDER.

REY, under the guidance of
General Leia Organa, continues
her Jedi training, hoping to
find a way to communicate
with Jedi of the past.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader
KYLO REN seeks the mysterious
power of his former master,
determined to end the war and
silence the echos of the past…

This is probably the most well-written fan crawl I’ve ever read. Well done.

Edit: In regards to Palpatine’s transmission - maybe have it play over the opening scene of Kylo storming Mustafar?

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I wanted to post this here instead of Hal’s new Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant thread because I feel it might be beyond what he is wanting to do, but I wanted to speculate on some ideas regarding this edit thought he has:

Seemed weird to me that once he turns to the Light Side, Kylo doesn’t take advantage of his role as supreme leader. Research of mine indicates that the emperor sensed this and put General Pryde in charge at that point. If a deleted scene is presented to this effect it would be welcome. The existing scene doesn’t make this clear.

I wonder if the ending could be somehow altered to where a part of the First Order fleet actually came to help the Resistance. At the very least a new shot could be generated to where we see First Order ships arrive and start attacking the Final Order (rolls eyes) ships.

A more ambitious idea might be to have the “people’s fleet”, as Hal put it, arrive at the same time as the Resistance fleet. Then, when things are looking dire, the First Order arrives and actually helps the Resistance. The First Order arriving to help the Resistance would also parallel Kylo arriving to help Rey. This would require a lot of changes, but I could see how this would make the final battle feel more epic, and differentiate it from ROTJ more. It also appeals to me because it lends itself to theme of reunification and peace rather than just blatantly “destroying the enemy” like how ROTJ ended.

Yeah, this would require a lot of new visual effects shots and other alterations, but just imagine this kind of ending… the children of the Old Republic coming together to defeat the man who brought it down.

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Yeah, I think I would just remove them from the ending. Especially since it repeats the ending montage of ROTJ.

EDIT: I also think it’d be beneficial if Ben Solo lived in this edit, because what becomes of the First Order after his death might leave the film with too many questions.

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Saw it twice. It redeems the sequel trilogy some.

I do like the idea of making tfa go mostly as a single movie and then have a break and then move in to tros. Star killer base can be minimized as a new more powerful death star and basically make it a base. Also, foreshadow the heck out of the sith. Perhaps the tfa scroll can include a reference. Perhaps this is what Leia is “resisting” and the rest of the new republic does not believe her. Use the image of the exogal base as a foreshadow when snoke is talking. Make snoke and Palatine more in on it. Snoke is palps new apprentice perhaps.

Also palps created Anakin and Rey is Anakin 2.0. this is the best. Perhaps the two people were not his parents and palps son perhaps they were the caretakers. Palps created the Skywalker line. Palps created Rey too hence she is a Skywalker.

Some of the minor things like chewie medal could be put in tfa.

Stuff to save from tlj, all force Skype and Rey training. I am sure there will be other critical areas too.

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There’s a lot of noise on Twitter about how the Sequel Trilogy basically tells the story of Han and Leia failing their manipulated son and then replacing him with Rey, who he gives his life to save. This is especially sad when you take into account the auxiliary materials which delve into Ben’s arguably neglectful childhood and how he never actually killed anyone at the Temple. I can understand why movie-only fans would have little sympathy for Ben, since there’s no indication whatsoever in the movies themselves that he didn’t actually kill all of Luke’s other Padawans, etc. but there’s whole bits in books about him being attacked by nurse droids, and being unable to sleep as a baby because of the nightmares Palpatine inflicted upon him, and so on. I don’t know if this was individual authors trying to make him a more sympathetic character or if it was a deliberate story group effort or what, but it’s there and it’s canon.

Han and Leia failing their son is hardly focused on as a plot point or character development or anything, it’s just kind of an awkward background thing. And there’s lots of little things which compound the sense that he was completely given up on by everyone except Rey. The Jedi never communicate with Ben. Han speaking to him occurs entirely within his own head. TROS does have Leia reaching out to him, but because it’s assembled with unused footage/audio, you don’t really get much of a sense of Leia’s intentions or emotional state in those moments. I’ve seen people read it as Leia deliberately distracting Ben so Rey can stab him (!), which I don’t imagine is what JJ and Terrio intended but is still kind of what happens.

He doesn’t get a funeral or anything, and the next time we see his family they are smiling at their adopted daughter, Rey Skywalker (only alive because of Ben, of course). We don’t even get a shot of Rey crying for him - this is the same Rey who cries for a very-much-alive Finn in TFA and also all the time in TLJ. Imagine if ROTJ didn’t have Luke’s emotional final conversation with his father, or the funeral pyre scene, or Anakin’s ghost. It would feel far hollower. And Vader was magnitudes more evil than Kylo, for a much longer time, and wasn’t sympathetic whatsoever in the OT until Luke suddenly mentions the ‘good in him’ when he visits Dagobah in ROTJ.

Basically I’m asking: what can we do to help lessen the sense of no one caring about Ben? Having him survive solves a lot of these problems since there’s no need for anyone to mourn and the happy ending scene can feel less uncomfortable. It’s a bigger deviation from canon than I usually like to have in the edits I watch though. If I had made the film, I’d’ve had him perform his self-sacrifice since it rhymes with Anakin’s attempts to save Padme, but then have him be revived by Leia and the other force ghosts. We can’t do that easily though since there’s no footage of him getting back up so it’d be awkward to cut around and imply.

I thought about having the force ghosts speak to him. Luke and Leia obviously have “Ben” lines; SLJ, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor have large enough filmographies that we can probably dig up a fitting ‘Ben’ somewhere (for Obi Wan, JAT almost definitely says it in TCW if all else fails). My main concern with this is that it’s a rehash of the scene we just saw with Rey being spoken to by force ghosts, but I suppose it makes sense they’d still be paying attention haha.

Any other ideas for making TROS slightly more sympathetic to Ben? Or am I off my rocker for wanting a more hopeful and emotionally satisfying ending for the guy who killed Han Solo and Lor San Tekka and a bunch of members of the Resistance? I suppose I find it difficult to really judge Ben as much more evil than our heroes - TROS shows us that Finn isn’t the only reluctant stormtrooper, and that actually there are lots because they’re all taken in as children and brainwashed, and yet Rey, Poe and Finn continue to shoot them in vast numbers without any sign of empathy, so I don’t judge Star Wars characters by real life morality.

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The only think I really want to do in an edit (and I guess I’ll find out if it’s even possible) is have Ben survive (cut the kiss shot before he collapses). And have him be with Rey on Tatooine at the end (comp him in somehow, provided there’s suitable footage). Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

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Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

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Octorox said:

Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

But it’s the very last installment in this franchise, and the last time we got to actually see Anakin and/or Obi-Wan was in Return of the Jedi. Are you sure we should not get to see Anakin, Obi-Wan or Yoda in the very last scene of this entire franchise?

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.

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I don’t know, I understand your point, but to me that’s the kind of thinking that led to this movie being overstuffed with fanservice and callbacks in the first place. I LOVE Obi-Wan, he might be my favorite Star Wars character, but I recognize that his part in the story is done. I would have been more okay with some kind of Anakin presence, only because it might created an interesting dynamic with Kylo’s Vader obsession. Even then, I don’t think sticking him in a shot at the end of the movie does much good.

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Octorox said:

Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

Obi Wan has significance to Rey. Anakin has significance to Ben Solo, who would be there in this version. The thought of ending the “Skywalker Saga” without at least Anakin having some importance seems off to me.

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Here’s another ‘Inspired by’ change: https://youtu.be/BD5mLw0A8vI?t=876

He says that Rose should have been in charge of gathering reinforcements for the final battle. So would this be possible? As far as I can remember she is just hanging out at the Resistance base the entire movie, but could it be possible to insert some dialogue to indicate that she is busy calling up leaders of the core worlds and have them Rendzevous in some place? Then Lando could lead these gathered forces to the final fight.

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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Octorox said:

I don’t know, I understand your point, but to me that’s the kind of thinking that led to this movie being overstuffed with fanservice and callbacks in the first place. I LOVE Obi-Wan, he might be my favorite Star Wars character, but I recognize that his part in the story is done.

Completely agree. We hear them while Rey’s getting up, I think that’s enough. Seeing them at the end would just be silly.

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I completely agree with Octorox. Just because we don’t see everyone at the end doesn’t mean we forgot them, or what they fought and died for. The peaceful final moments on Tatooine evoke all of those people without being explicit, which is my personal preference.

For example, I love Sam Gamgee’s “Well, I’m back” at the end of Lord of the Rings. And for Avengers Endgame, I was so happy it ended on the dancing instead of the long shot at Tony Stark’s funeral (which, for me, was a little cheesy).

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NeverarGreat said:

Here’s another ‘Inspired by’ change: https://youtu.be/BD5mLw0A8vI?t=876

He says that Rose should have been in charge of gathering reinforcements for the final battle. So would this be possible? As far as I can remember she is just hanging out at the Resistance base the entire movie, but could it be possible to insert some dialogue to indicate that she is busy calling up leaders of the core worlds and have them Rendzevous in some place? Then Lando could lead these gathered forces to the final fight.

Man that was a really good video essay. It crystallized a lot of my frustrations with this movie.

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I posted this on Hal’s thread, should have put it here:

A big picture fix that is improbable but not impossible would be tweaking a few lines about Palp’s resurrection to reframe him as Sith Incarnate, rather than Palp Alive again. In other words, the reason he was brought back was not his own power (he still dies in ROTJ), but the power of the Sith/Dark Side and he operates now as little more than a puppet of the Sith spirits. It is implied enough in the movie (that he was a corpse not a person); I wish he spoke more in terms of “we” like Gollum to hit that home.

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EddyMerkxs said:

I posted this on Hal’s thread, should have put it here:

A big picture fix that is improbable but not impossible would be tweaking a few lines about Palp’s resurrection to reframe him as Sith Incarnate, rather than Palp Alive again. In other words, the reason he was brought back was not his own power (he still dies in ROTJ), but the power of the Sith/Dark Side and he operates now as little more than a puppet of the Sith spirits. It is implied enough in the movie (that he was a corpse not a person); I wish he spoke more in terms of “we” like Gollum to hit that home.

The weird thing is, isn’t this the implication from the film? That there is one Sith spirit that possesses one host after the other? I think it is kind of muddied by making Rey a Palpatine and focusing on his bloodline, and trying to say the saga is about the Skywalkers vs the Palpatines. Sheev Palpatine is merely one stepping stone for the past millennia of Sith Lords.

I actually think the idea of replacing instances of “I” with “we” is a simple idea that would help remind the audience of that concept. You just would have to find a good sample of him saying we. I think Palpatine calls Rey “weak” at one point. Maybe that could fit, not sure.

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Darth Lucas said:

Octorox said:

Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

Obi Wan has significance to Rey. Anakin has significance to Ben Solo, who would be there in this version. The thought of ending the “Skywalker Saga” without at least Anakin having some importance seems off to me.

Exactly. Everything, and I mean everything, hinges around this character and how he affected the entire galaxy.

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.

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FreezingTNT2 said:

Darth Lucas said:

Octorox said:

Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

Obi Wan has significance to Rey. Anakin has significance to Ben Solo, who would be there in this version. The thought of ending the “Skywalker Saga” without at least Anakin having some importance seems off to me.

Exactly. Everything, and I mean everything, hinges around this character and how he affected the entire galaxy.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” It wasn’t the story of Anakin until the prequels reframed the saga. The ST has simply reframed the saga again.

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DominicCobb said:

FreezingTNT2 said:

Darth Lucas said:

Octorox said:

Darth Lucas said:

Add other force ghosts to the Luke/Leia shot like Anakin and Obi Wan.

With the exception of Ben, I don’t really get this suggestion. Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan have no meaning or significance to Rey. They did to Luke, but we already got that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi.

What I think a lot of fans don’t want to accept (and to be honest, I don’t think Abrams and Terrio wanted to accept this either) is that the OT characters are not the main characters of these new movies. The protagonists are the new characters: Rey, Ben, Finn, Poe, and Rose. Any OT or PT characters should be there to support their character development, not to steal the spotlight.

Obi Wan has significance to Rey. Anakin has significance to Ben Solo, who would be there in this version. The thought of ending the “Skywalker Saga” without at least Anakin having some importance seems off to me.

Exactly. Everything, and I mean everything, hinges around this character and how he affected the entire galaxy.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” It wasn’t the story of Anakin until the prequels reframed the saga. The ST has simply reframed the saga again.

I’m referring to the events within this saga, not the franchise itself.

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.