I watched the whole opening section that way to try it out and it felt rushed to me.

I don’t understand how it could feel rushed when there’s no actual RUSHING happening, as opposed to the Mustafar Minute, which is nothing but 15 bad cuts and a bunch of audio/visual mess shoved inbetween them. The pacing from Kylo jumping into Exegol’s orbit up until the end of that scene with Palpatine is fairly slow and measured. Things are happening, but they’re happening in an orderly, interesting fashion, as opposed to the jumble of disconnected and inarguably confusing images that is the whole of Mustafar - a whole that is ultimately meaningless in the larger storytelling context.

Leaving Mustafar in doesn’t offset TROS’ “breakneck” pace, it contributes to it (it sets the film’s tone, honestly), because it’s a bunch of visual junk “storytelling” with all of the point and purpose cut out of it, happening right up front, for little-to-no narrative return. It’s part of why the movie FEELS breakneck and exhausting overall - because the first thing you’re exposed to is sloppy editing of disjointed imagery going for a couple minutes straight before it actually settles down and STARTS THE STORY on Exegol.

Oh, and one last (Columbo-esque) thing - if we’re still poking around for music changes, I think sticking with Burning Homestead for Rey and the Force Ghosts is a mistake. It doesn’t fit either tonally OR musically (it’s in the wrong key and transitions poorly, just on a technical level) and of all the music choices made, it’s the one that seems the most stereotypically “Fan-edit”-esque. It’s going to the easy fanservice well nakedly, and one time too many. Better NO music for that moment than the second tracked re-usage of Burning Homestead.