Star Wars : An Old Fear - Just Another Rey Nobody Sequel Trilogy Edit

Bad Movies made Less Bad Presents:
The Sequel Trilogy if the directors had a plan. Hindsight is 20/20.

May 2021 Update:
Four ways to watch:

Full Epic Edit 4h37m
- Two Part Alternate Cut (if you don’t like 4h movies) 2h24m/2h20m
Alternate Anti-TLJ Cut (Removes Canto Bight and the Space Chase) 4h01m
- Alternate Anti-TLJ Cut Split into Two Parts (if you don’t like 4h movies) 2h12m/1h52m

Video specs: H.264, 1920x1080, 23.976 fps.
Audio specs: 5.1

Overall Synopsis: Episodes 7-9, restructured to unify the trilogy plotlines and streamline the storylines of the main characters through all three movies, as if the end was planned from the beginning.

In my opinion, the end matters most - the “controlling idea” that makes a whole movie experience worth it. The end has to pay off. I started there. Kylo has redemption in death, Rey kills resurrected Palpatine, and the Galaxy shows up FINALLY to help out and defeat an oppressive force. Anything else was expendable.

Kylo’s arc is pretty well fleshed out already, the most cohesive character arc of the ST, imo. As much as possible stays for Kylo.
Rey needs to stay a nobody. And she slowly discovers her powers. She does not hit a stormtrooper with her first shot, and she less powered along the way as much as possible. She is just a special “nobody.”
Poe’s character arc is nowhere near as complex as Kylo, but pretty much laid out for us.
Finn is not force sensitive. This means he does not ever make and successful attacks with the lightsaber as well. Only once does he ask Rey about a boyfriend, from then on he keeps friendship motivations. Admittedly, Finn kinda disappears in the final fight, but there are just too many absurd parts to leave him in (no horses on spaceships in this cut!)
Characters like Hux and Rose have been severely sidelined as they just do not have satisfying character arcs. Both simply fade out of importance in the final movie, but I hope I have not made it too obvious. Hux is no spy, simply muscled out by other power hungry commanders. I loved Rose in TLJ, but without adequate character development in TROS, it was best to minimize her to simply a person helping Finn on HIS character arc. Consequently, the scenes at Canto Bight are greatly reduced, and Rose and Finn simply do not pilot speeders at the battle of Crait.
Then I also audited the whole edit, based on a great youtube video essay about “showing, not telling.”

My editing source for these movies are the original theatrical releases and the AMAZING Hal9000 Edits. Respect.

PM me for a link!

May the force be with you all, always!

Cover Art - https://i.imgur.com/o5GBr7d.jpg

THE ADDITIONAL EDITS: (In addition to Hal’s edits. PM me for a link to the comprehensive list)

Episode VII:

Removed Poe’s map discussion with old man cut (to remove needless exposition.)
Shortened Kylo’s discussion with old man about where he comes. (all mentions of Kylo’s parentage removed until Han reveal to Leia to add mystery)
Reduced Captain Phaser where possible (not a real character arc). Stormtroopers fire on villagers sooner. She doesn’t question Finn about helmet removal. Removed her discussion with Hux.
Removed Rey’s first trip to the junk outpost, removed for pacing.
Moved any visual reveal of Starkiller base to right before the Resistance is looking at diagrams, replacing them with other First Order fleet shots.
Removed mention of the Knights of Ren.
Removed Snoke’s mention that Han was Kylo’s Dad.
Removed Han’s mention that BB8’s map is not complete.
Re-editted Finn’s confession to Rey to reduce romantic affection.
Removed Han’s line about liking Chewie’s gun (they’ve known each other for decades, only now he tries the bowcaster?)
Depowered Finn for lightsaber fight with stormtrooper. He does not land any attacks.
Re-editted to Han now reveals Kylo’s parentage for the first time when he first speaks with Leia.
Reduced Han and Leia’s discussion about Kylo to make Leia seem more focused, and somewhat implies Han was more of an absent dad. (Not great for Han, but needed for Kylo’s character arc)
Re-edited “Oh Really, you’re cold?” by Han to leave “the force doesn’t work like that! Oh really?”
Depowered Finn for the lightsaber fight with Kylo. He is seen only defending, he does not land a strike on Kylo.
Removed Hux’s plea to Snoke to leave Starkiller base as well as Snoke’s mention of completing Kylo’s training.
BB-8 immediately fills R2-D2s map with the missing piece, not needing Poe to give it the chip.
The end of Episode VII cuts into Episode VIII, so the transitions in meeting Luke are different.

Episode VIII:

Moved as many scenes as possible with Luke and Rey on Ach-To to BEFORE the Rebel base evac.
Moved ‘Luke Has a Moment’ deleted scene to right after he is told about Han’s death (sorry Hal)
Removed all mention of Leia and Rey’s beacons. (seems silly that they would assume the “impossible light speed tracking” and not suspect someone cracked the silly beacons, which seems simpler)
Re-edited Ma’z codebreaker info to make more sense, removed the line about the high roller tables.
Removed even more from Canto Bright casino room shots
Removed the side plot of Rose’s necklace needed by the codebreaker (felt hollow, this is more about Finn learning)
Added Leia’s jedi training sequence as a memory as she is drifting in space.
Removed Poe’s “A what now?”
Removed Finn and Rose from Speeders (extensive cuts) and streamlined story here.
Removed any shots of Physical Luke after he disappears from Crait – he simply disappears from Ach-To too, just leaving the robe shots.
Removed Hux’s extended glare at Kylo in the evacuated rebel base on Crait, as he is now being sidelined.
Removed Broom kid scene unfortunately, as we cut directly to Episode IX.

Episode IX:

Many ideas here came from all over the Internet after we all saw the film. Numerous people at OriginalTrilogy.com suggested ideas immediately after release. Big thanks to user “jonH” who submitted amazing edited clips, two of which were used in my edit.

Recut Kylo on Mustafar to seem like the wayfinder was ahead of him, inciting the battle with the defenders of the wayfinder (not simply murdering for murdering sake, with the wayfinder behind him when he was done and everyone was dead)
Replaced footage of Snoke in the cloning tanks with Palpatine in the cloning tanks (thanks poppasketti)
Removed Palpatine’s line about creating snoke and being all the voices in his head.
Removed his promise of a fleet. The motivation for Kylo to align is simply vanity, about truly becoming the next Vader.
Removed plotline about Rey connecting with all the past Jedi.
Edited down Rey’s training, removing Leia training her all altogether.
Added future Palpatine shots to Rey’s vision during training
Removed the notorious ‘lightskipping” scenes all together
Edited Rebels discussion to remove mention of a Sith fleet and to lean into the cloning angle.
Removed Rey and Leia’s discussion about leaving. (too forced, sorry Leia. You do best when you just die in this one, you kinda gave Poe command at the Battle of Crait)
Removed lines with Hux and Kylo about the Mask.
Removed General Pryde’s defense of the sith cult.
Removed all scenes and storylines on Pasana, including chewie fakeout death.
Removed all of Kimiji storyliines, including C3PO’s memory, Zorii storyline, Hux spy plotline.
Re-edited Rey to say she only sees herself on the Sith Throne
Reduced almost all of Jannah
Removed Finn and Jannah chasing Rey onto the Death Star
Re-edited Leia to simply be dying, and to calling out to Kylo as her last effort – not the intent to stop Kylo in order to let Rey kill him, Leia never gave up hope.
Re-edited Kylo and Rey Death star fight to remove Rey stopping Kylo’s lightsaber with the force
Re-edited Kylo hearing Leia, dropping his saber and Rey stabbing him to be quicker and to feel like Rey quickly took advantage of the situation before realizing how dark that was.
Removed Kijimi PLANET exploding, implied that only the city was destroyed.
Re-edit Rebel discussion to remove “planet-killing star destroyers”
Removed force ghost Luke catching lightsaber.
Moved Leia Jedi training montage to previous movie.
Removed force ghost Luke straining to raise his X-Wing.
Added subtitle to cult chants “Assembled flesh, rise again!” (my most questionable of all edit choices, imo)
Removed all mention of Rey being a Palpatine again
Removed Ben being tossed down the hole.
Reordered to have Ben save Rey after they are both struck down by Palpatine. Used 4k footage to crop out the lightsabers in the shot that would affect continuity. Added lightning flashes and sith cult chants in the background.
All Finn and Jannah storylines in the final fight have been removed (no horses on spaceships)
Removed “I am all the sith” and “I am all the jedi” chat, its really as simple as a revived Rey kicks a weak Palpatine’s ass, with a few force ghosts helping her.
Added Ben to final force ghost vision (thanks jonH)
Removed Rey’s new lightsaber reveal, and the interaction with the old woman on tatooine.
- Hopefully this leave an ambiguous ending that can be debated about what the ending means – is she ending the jedi for good? Or is she simply closing the Skywalker saga?