Unusual Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 31

Yeah, very cool idea!

I was thinking about getting rid of the Knights of Ren for my epilogue idea, but I think it would be easier to cut those shots of them rather than digitally erasing them. Feels like that would be a major waste of time.

I’m definitely giving them lightsabers. I feel it’s dumb for them not to have any and it only happen to ape the OT.

If I recall the Knights beat the shit out of Kylo with their blunt weapons before he gets the saber, and two of them just use blasters, so I don’t think you could give them all lightsabers, if any.

Sure you can, you just cut around it.

Just had a look at the scene again and for some unexplained reason, the lightsaber does seem to make contact with one or two of the weapons. Maybe it’ll cleared once we have access to the scene in HD.

You’re right, they do. I think they’re meant to be vibroblade weapons, which can make contact with lightsabers. I’m not opposed to the idea of the KoR using lightsabers, but I think the exotic shapes of the weapons would make the masking and rotoscoping process a bit of a pain. And like I said, I’m pretty sure they beat the crap out of Ben with their weapons, so you would have to cut that out or something if you were to go that route.

Lucas always hated the idea of vibroblades clashing with lightsabers and the idea seems to have been carried pretty wholeheartedly into modern canon, so it seems very strange they’d do it here.

Yeah I agree but to be fair, I don’t think they’ve totally stayed faithful to Lucas’ wishes. I personally don’t mind the idea that a vibroblade could at least take a few lightsaber hits before breaking or melting all the way through.

If someone were to go through the effort of giving a few of them lightsabers, I think it would be cool if they all had some variation rather than them all being red. Red, purple, orange, maybe one has a/the dark saber too. If they’re Luke’s students, maybe some are using their old sabers, or they’re using lightsaber they have collected over the years.

I had a few thoughts about reframing the political situation in the Sequel Trilogy.

In TFA, the opening crawl could say that the galaxy is pretty much divided between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant/First Order, and there is a fragile peace between them. The Resistance is an independent movement, led by Leia, that operates within First Order space (the Resistance name makes more sense in this context as well).

Starkiller Base will not be a super weapon. Instead, Act 3 will be focused on rescuing Rey, and also getting the other half of the map to Skywalker (the oscillator will instead be a planetary tractor beam that must be destroyed for them to escape.) The New Republic will not be attacked or destroyed by the First Order at all. Their goal right now is 1) maintain control over their territory, and 2) destroy Luke Skywalker.

TLJ would continue the story by showing the First Order trying to destroy the Resistance before they can get Skywalker. The New Republic cannot intervene because it would break their treaty, and this could possibly be mentioned in the crawl. Rey mentioning the First Order taking control of all major systems within weeks would be removed, as well as other lines that contradict this new idea.

In TROS, the return of Palpatine and the massive Sith Fleet is what prompts the New Republic to finally join the fight in the climax of the film. Other small adjustments would be made throughout to work along with this idea.

The major con of this idea is that the New Republic still existing offscreen throughout the films might lower the stakes of the trilogy. The First Order taking over the galaxy is a big deal and the last good guys being a small group of people makes their struggle more of a challenge. On the other hand, having the New Republic exist offscreen would allow the Sequel Trilogy to not undo the victory of the Original Trilogy heroes, as some feel it has. Basically, the threat of the New Republic being destroyed would be moved to the last film by introducing the Sith Fleet. Kylo Ren and the First Order want this fleet in order to take over the rest of the galaxy.

I also think the idea of the Galactic Civil War ending in a truce or stalemate makes a lot of sense. The idea of the Rebellion, which still seemed small in ROTJ, was able to defeat the entire Empire in one year feels somewhat convenient, even if the Emperor did die. They would still have so many more resources at their disposal, but I could see the power vacuum and subsequent infighting would’ve allowed the Rebellion to liberate hundreds or thousands of systems and then to negotiate with the Remnant once they finally coalesced. The First Order is the remaining territory of that Remnant, so the story becomes more about finishing what the Rebels started in the Original Trilogy, rather than moving everything back to square one.

Thanks! And yeah, getting down to the nitty gritty of the dialogue will be the most challenging part, since there isn’t a line from Poe that goes like, “Lando, go rendezvous with the Republic!” I think you could simply omit lines that contradict the main idea, then insert offscreen dialogue that supports it. So when we see the massive fleet, we could get a line from a off-screen character that says something like, “It’s the Republic!”

Also, since we have never seen the Republic fleet, we really don’t know what it might look like. Instead of having a Grand Army like the Galactic Republic, the defense fleets of dozens of member worlds might join together when facing a larger threat, so a “New Republic Fleet” might look a bit more scrappy than the very uniform Empire.

I really dislike the idea of the New Republic just chilling in the background for three films before coming to the rescue. It lowers the stakes and feels cheap. I still strongly believe a proxy war between two halves of the Republic is the way to go.

Yeah, like I said, that would be a major downside of it, just lower the stakes a bit.

Could you elaborate on what you said?

I think TFA should open with the Republic dominant, but divided. There are two major groups within it: those who support the First Order, and those who support the Resistance. That’s why they don’t just send the New Republic fleet to fight the First Order: it’s officially neutral. Think of it like Vietnam. It’s a proxy war, with two great powers fighting through smaller militia. Of course, TFA ends with the Senate destroyed (obviously I’d swap out the superlaser for a dreadnought, but the result is the same), so now it’s open war.

I was thinking that it would be an interesting idea to splice the Canto Bight footage/plot into a larger Star killer base narrative. Maybe the exterior shots of the base could be re colored on 1/2 of the matte to make a new matte where we have 1 planet with a diverse biome snow/tropical.

Rather than Star killer merely being just another super weapon, it would act as a hub of the Imperial Remnant’s power and population. Willing participants and loyalists participate in a Fascist regime because it benefits them, or maybe certain galactic inhabitants feel safer. The reason the Republic does not act is because of a potential M.A.D. situation.

Imagine setting this up in the crawl. A stalemate between the Republic and the remnant where the imperials argue “super weapons were bad in the hands of Palpatine, not reasonable people who just want safety that the Republic has not been able to provide with years of galactic rule.”

You could also cut in some of the kajimi footage from episode 9 (of troopers walking in the Snow,) into the Canto Bight footage to make an Imperial presence there clear. Even some of Snoke in his gold bathrobe would make more sense if you could imply that he is ruling a willing bunch of people.

If there was anything that was lacking explanation in these new movies it was an explanation of how the 1st order went from being portrayed as a small radical faction (like Nazis in Argentina) in VII to being the new empire. How did they pay for new ships? How did nobody notice a planet sized super weapon where Illum was? These new films require way too much supplemental material.

If you could frame Canto Bight as being just part of the Starkiller installation, now we have a super weapon that plays host to the supporters of imperial rule. The population knows its a super weapon, but since they are given bread and circuses they don’t care.