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The Force Awakens - Ridley's Edit (WIP) — Page 6

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I really like a lot of the edits you’re making. One thing that I was going to suggest, that I’m doing for my own re-edit of The Force Awakens, on the topic of the ending is to cut everything after the Falcon leaves D’Qar into hyperspace. Instead of showing Rey and Chewie in the Falcon and arriving at Ahch-To (I add some of this footage to when the sequence is repeated in The Last Jedi), I cut to Kylo in his TIE travelling to Exegol and meeting Palpatine at the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker (cutting out the line where Kylo mentions killing Snoke). This helps better set-up the overall arc of the trilogy, but doesn’t really change Kylo’s arc looking for autonomy (from Han in Force Awakens, from Leia, Luke and Snoke in The Last Jedi, and from Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker), but unifies Snoke and Palpatine from the beginning. To help set this up, I also changed Snoke’s line to Hux as Starkiller base is collapsing to “Have Kylo Ren come to me…”

I also add Palpatine’s Fortnite message to The Last Jedi between the Resistance not receiving any messages from allies and Luke’s arrival and a couple of lines from Palpatine as voiceover/telepathy during the final moments between Kylo and Rey on Crait.

These are my biggest adjustments to help make the trilogy as a whole more cohesive. I made a lot of other changes throughout, but I thought I’d recommend this after I read you guys talking about the ending.

Here is a link to some of those adjustments if you’re curious. I also have a #StormPilot ending to Rise of Skywalker, haha.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PC9SLgB6oweXn9o_Nm3N_e3rLbJMaKht?usp=sharing

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Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve considered ending with the Falcon going into hyperspace. But that depends on if and how I fit that sequence into TLJ. I feel like if the arrival on Ahch-To is moved to TLJ I would like that to be the opening sequence, but perhaps it also works if it’s just inserted before the first Ahch-To scenes in TLJ. I haven’t made a final decision on that yet.

Your other idea is interesting as well, but I don’t have any detailed ideas for editing TROS yet so I can’t say what I’ll do in that case.

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Sir Ridley said:

Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve considered ending with the Falcon going into hyperspace. But that depends on if and how I fit that sequence into TLJ. I feel like if the arrival on Ahch-To is moved to TLJ I would like that to be the opening sequence, but perhaps it also works if it’s just inserted before the first Ahch-To scenes in TLJ. I haven’t made a final decision on that yet.

I thought about that as well, when I was trying to restructure the opening battle to be the 3rd act in The Force Awakens instead. That battle is really tricky, it both solidifies Poe as being a protagonist in The Force Awakens but it also is the inciting incident for almost all of the characters in The Last Jedi. I eventually landed with leaving it as is, and cutting down some of the jokes in the conversation between Poe and Hux. I also really love that opening shot to The Last Jedi from the stars, past the ships, down to D’Qar, which I don’t really think fits if it’s not the opening. By having Rey’s arrival cut down (I swap from Force Awakens to Last Jedi shots when Rey has her last look at Chewie) it makes the lightsaber moment less of a bait and switch after all of the buildup.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rARUzDyLV0hM6eQX4m5U7MkG7AEWxRmU/view?usp=sharing

Sir Ridley said:

Your other idea is interesting as well, but I don’t have any detailed ideas for editing TROS yet so I can’t say what I’ll do in that case.

Most of my ideas in Rise of Skywalker are cutting things down and re-arranging sequences to make more sense. Chewie being alive is revealed later, Rey arrives at Exegol while the Resistance is still planning on following her, etc. I cut down the romance with Zorri since she was basically only in the film so Disney could tell Asian markets “No homo!” and made the ending suggest romance between Poe and Finn.

I also put the First Order’s defeat across the galaxy after the heroes’ reunion, leading into a slightly altered version of The Last Jedi’s broom boy ending (so the other boy says “Jedi Skywalker” in his story to refer to Rey who chooses her new name while confronting Palpatine).

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I’m also enhancing a lot of The Last Jedi with scenes from Rise of Skywalker, such as having Kylo go to Palapatine shortly after he kills Snoke and learns the truth about Rey…just as Rey is helping to evacuate Crait and has her final link-up to Kylo in the movie, he reveals her lineage to him, but she just shuts him out. Besides that, I’m not out to radically change that film, just spicing it up.

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That makes sense. Honestly, since release, Last Jedi has been my favourite of this trilogy. The alterations I’m making are minimal, and more about adding the deleted scenes than cutting things out. I posted a detailed list of what I did here:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Sequel-Trilogy-Special-Edition/id/75425#1347868

I Liked having Kylo know about Palpatine going into The Last Jedi, because it adds more weight to him asking her to take his hand. He knows there’s more out there, and he wants to stay in control of the First Order to “kill the past”.

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I saw your clips and I absolutely admire the direction you take with them, Palpatine emerging at the end of Force Awakens feels very natural and, as you say, helps further Kylo’s modus operandi in the movie, and I like the twist of the “kill the past” narrative, that way it’s not just something he can flip flop over, there’s a clear intention that can be accomplished whether he stays good or evil.

Here’s where I’d place Rey finding out about her grandfather towards the end of Last Jedi

https://vimeo.com/421463204

password: fanedit

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It seems like a good idea to add parts of TROS to the earlier films, to make Palpatine fit more naturally into the trilogy. But I don’t know if I would personally move big reveals like that. It could work, but I think if they are taken out of context the impact might be lessened. The reactions of the characters don’t quite match and the information we learn isn’t made relevant until a later film. Like if we would see Palpatine in TFA but he is mostly irrelevant in TLJ, then I’m not sure if that works for me. But I guess that depends on how you structure the trilogy as a whole, with enough changes throughout perhaps you can move plot points without making them feel out of context.

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I can see your point a bit just thinking about it, it does somewhat undercut Snoke in TLJ a bit, but at least with Palps showing up at the end of ‘Force’, you don’t necessarily have to worry about feeling like there was no story left to tell with Snoke’s defeat (yeah, there’s Kylo, but given how easy it was to redeem him in the next film, staying corrupt here just looks kind of dumb in hindsight)

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Cameron Samurai said:

I saw your clips and I absolutely admire the direction you take with them, Palpatine emerging at the end of Force Awakens feels very natural and, as you say, helps further Kylo’s modus operandi in the movie, and I like the twist of the “kill the past” narrative, that way it’s not just something he can flip flop over, there’s a clear intention that can be accomplished whether he stays good or evil.

Here’s where I’d place Rey finding out about her grandfather towards the end of Last Jedi

https://vimeo.com/421463204

password: fanedit

Thanks, glad you liked the clips. I like that idea conceptually, of having Kylo talk to Rey in that scene, but Kylo’s voiceover being the mask before it’s repaired (which was very ritualistic and significant for his character) seems odd to me. I had frankenbit some of Palpatine’s lines and placed there to urge Kylo to attack her, that way their last look at each other can keep that feeling of uneasiness, rather than putting a major reveal there.

I guess after the reveal of Snoke and Palpatine, I just treat them as one character. So, Palpatine is effectively throughout The Last Jedi, disguised as Snoke. In the order of events, Palpatine reveals himself to Kylo only in Force Awakens, then after Kylo kills Snoke to save Rey Palpatine reveals himself to the entire galaxy, taking away the autonomy and power Kylo was fighting to gain throughout The Last Jedi. This way the character arcs in all three films stay largely in tact.

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I think the best idea to retroactively tie the sequel trilogy films together is by doing it the subtle way. For example, the brief Palpatine hints that are scattered across the Rekindled edit of TLJ (like his silhouette at the cave scene, his laugh during Luke’s flashback, or Snoke’s eyes turning yellow after he’s mortally wounded), that culminate in Palps’ “find me” at the end.

For example, the vision in TFA would be a great part to put a hint of Palpatine’s involvement, like the shot where young Rey watches Ochi’s ship depart Jakku.

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Knight of Kalee said:

I think the best idea to retroactively tie the sequel trilogy films together is by doing it the subtle way. For example, the brief Palpatine hints that are scattered across the Rekindled edit of TLJ (like his silhouette at the cave scene, his laugh during Luke’s flashback, or Snoke’s eyes turning yellow after he’s mortally wounded), that culminate in Palps’ “find me” at the end.

For example, the vision in TFA would be a great part to put a hint of Palpatine’s involvement, like the shot where young Rey watches Ochi’s ship depart Jakku.

In my cut of TFA I add the chanting of the Sith cultists and Palpatine’s laugh to Rey’s vision. I also adjust her conversation with Maz to take out the “There’s still someone that could” and Rey’s assumption that Luke is her father.

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Does Ridley or anyone else have the “[Rey,] these are your first steps” Alec Guinness voiceover by DJ Mitz? I don’t recall if it was edited using Guinness’ voice, or an impersonation, but I remember it being quite good. Haven’t been able to find it since it was removed from YouTube a while back.
Sorry to bump the thread with an odd question, this is the only thread that mentions it.

“Always in motion is the future” 🌌

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I havent looked through the comments, but Ill assume it hasnt been mentioned. Would you consider getting rid of Rey’s reaction to Han dying? It’s jarring because 1) She hasnt really known Han for that long, its really strange 2)The next shot of Finn and Rey doesnt show her reaction(or the indication that it happened) anyway

Plus the hug with Leia is cringe

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It’s to show she’s a true Skywalker. True Skywalkers react the most emotionally over the deaths of people they’ve literally just met. Aunt and Uncle foster parents that you’ve known your whole life charred to bits? No reaction. Old hermit you’ve just met chooses to die fighting a cyborg? Big sad.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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It’s also happening right in front of them, there’s a level of shock in witnessing a murder than grieving over family’s remains doesn’t quite elicit.

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EddieDean said:

It’s to show she’s a true Skywalker. True Skywalkers react the most emotionally over the deaths of people they’ve literally just met. Aunt and Uncle foster parents that you’ve known your whole life charred to bits? No reaction. Old hermit you’ve just met chooses to die fighting a cyborg? Big sad.

Lol, but also Luke hadn’t only just met Obi Wan he had met him in passing a few times, though yes he didn’t get to know him until a few hour (days?) earlier. However, I’d say that was the most important part of their relationship. Its when Ben openned up about being a Jedi and brought Luke closer than ever to his father than ever before in his whole life. And that is what Luke lost on the Death Star, The only link he had had and might ever have, to his father, plus the last remaining link to his home.
Luke showed his love for Owen and Beru when he rushed off to save them and when he found himself to late he was devesated to the point of generating the most touching peice of music in history out of the force. That says A LOT!

Also is this thread dead???