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A Palpatine-less Edit of The Rise of Skywalker (Released) — Page 4

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This sounds really interesting, I would love a link!

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I sent a PM for link if you dont mind

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The runtime is 1 hour and 46 minutes. Link sent.

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Sounds right up my Death Star trench…hook me up with a link please.

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This sounds fantastic! I’ve imagined before how the film might be recut Palpatine-free, but I see someone talented’s already done so! Would love a link.

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Josh, I would be interested in checking your project out.

Although I haven’t watched it yet, I appreciate all the effort you put into this. I don’t know if a Palpatine-less edit will ever be totally convincing, but I think you have implemented a lot of clever ideas that carry the idea pretty far.

Looking at your clip of Kylo arriving at Exegol, it definitely feels like the scene could use a little more context. Kylo basically walks around, interacts with nothing, and then the fleet suddenly rises. I’m usually against using fan films in fan-edits, but for some reason I could see an editor using parts of Seize the Frame’s Kylo vs Vader fan film to create a dark side vision that tests if Kylo is worthy of the fleet.

Kylo would descend into the temple, and it somehow transition to this point in the fan film. Maybe by cutting on a lightning flash, having Kylo walk around a corner, smoke rolls in, something like that. You could totally redo the dialogue, music and sound effects to make it fit better with the rest of the film, and you could create dialogue between Vader and Kylo to fit this new context. You could play it as Kylo being back on Starkiller Base, but instead of fighting Rey again, he fights Vader. Maybe Vader could even taunt Kylo for his failure there. After Kylo kills Vader, he snaps back to Exegol and he sees the Sith throne before him. We then hear the temple “activate”, and the Star Destroyers rise from their cold graves. It might not be right for your edit unless you possibly do a version 3, but this is something that I think it would be interesting to experiment with in a future Palpatine-less edit. Your idea has definitely gotten the gears turning in my head, for sure.

Ironically, Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates also had Kylo and Vader have a vision duel.

Not only could this be a good way to provide some context, but it could help add a little back to the runtime.

I know you were trying to piece together some Leia dialogue for when she wants to recall Poe back to the base. I wonder if you could something usable from this TFA deleted scene? She could say something like, “Find Poe.”

I did have some thoughts about the climax and ending as well. It would be a nice touch if you could somehow imply that Rey keeping Kylo from the battle is somehow beneficial to the Resistance. Maybe Kylo could tell Pryde not to leave Exegol until he returns. This could help show how one battle has an effect on the other, instead of them feeling totally irrelevant to each other.

I also think Rey talking with Luke and Ben talking to Han after the battles are over work as a good denouement. Rey has to accept that her anger and darkness don’t define her, and Ben has to forgive himself for his mistakes, and strive to right his wrongs. Then we get the celebration scene on Ajan Kloss (even though there is a continuity error with Rey being bloody, we’ll just have to live with it). Finally, I feel like it would be appropriate to end the film with Ben arriving on Tatooine with Rey, if it’s possible. I think it would just feel weird not to see Ben again after his conversation with Han. We could see Rey on Tatooine, burying the Skywalker sabers and activating hers, which could be have the same color and ignition sound as Leia’s, implying that Rey used her crystal to finish her own lightsaber. This would add some relevance to why Leia’s saber was introduced in one of the last scenes in this film. And after, we see see Ben walk up and the film ends with them, leaving us with the sense that Ben is going to try to atone for his sins, and help Rey restore peace and justice to the galaxy.

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RogueLeader said:

Josh, I would be interested in checking your project out.

Although I haven’t watched it yet, I appreciate all the effort you put into this. I don’t know if a Palpatine-less edit will ever be totally convincing, but I think you have implemented a lot of clever ideas that carry the idea pretty far.

Looking at your clip of Kylo arriving at Exegol, it definitely feels like the scene could use a little more context. Kylo basically walks around, interacts with nothing, and then the fleet suddenly rises. I’m usually against using fan films in fan-edits, but for some reason I could see an editor using parts of Seize the Frame’s Kylo vs Vader fan film to create a dark side vision that tests if Kylo is worthy of the fleet.

Kylo would descend into the temple, and it somehow transition to this point in the fan film. Maybe by cutting on a lightning flash, having Kylo walk around a corner, smoke rolls in, something like that. You could totally redo the dialogue, music and sound effects to make it fit better with the rest of the film, and you could create dialogue between Vader and Kylo to fit this new context. You could play it as Kylo being back on Starkiller Base, but instead of fighting Rey again, he fights Vader. Maybe Vader could even taunt Kylo for his failure there. After Kylo kills Vader, he snaps back to Exegol and he sees the Sith throne before him. We then hear the temple “activate”, and the Star Destroyers rise from their cold graves. It might not be right for your edit unless you possibly do a version 3, but this is something that I think it would be interesting to experiment with in a future Palpatine-less edit. Your idea has definitely gotten the gears turning in my head, for sure.

Ironically, Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates also had Kylo and Vader have a vision duel.

Not only could this be a good way to provide some context, but it could help add a little back to the runtime.

I know you were trying to piece together some Leia dialogue for when she wants to recall Poe back to the base. I wonder if you could something usable from this TFA deleted scene? She could say something like, “Find Poe.”

I did have some thoughts about the climax and ending as well. It would be a nice touch if you could somehow imply that Rey keeping Kylo from the battle is somehow beneficial to the Resistance. Maybe Kylo could tell Pryde not to leave Exegol until he returns. This could help show how one battle has an effect on the other, instead of them feeling totally irrelevant to each other.

I also think Rey talking with Luke and Ben talking to Han after the battles are over work as a good denouement. Rey has to accept that her anger and darkness don’t define her, and Ben has to forgive himself for his mistakes, and strive to right his wrongs. Then we get the celebration scene on Ajan Kloss (even though there is a continuity error with Rey being bloody, we’ll just have to live with it). Finally, I feel like it would be appropriate to end the film with Ben arriving on Tatooine with Rey, if it’s possible. I think it would just feel weird not to see Ben again after his conversation with Han. We could see Rey on Tatooine, burying the Skywalker sabers and activating hers, which could be have the same color and ignition sound as Leia’s, implying that Rey used her crystal to finish her own lightsaber. This would add some relevance to why Leia’s saber was introduced in one of the last scenes in this film. And after, we see see Ben walk up and the film ends with them, leaving us with the sense that Ben is going to try to atone for his sins, and help Rey restore peace and justice to the galaxy.

Wow, you always have great ideas!!!

Since Kylo fights Rey while the battle of Exegol takes place, what could we possibly do with the Knights of Ren?

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RogueLeader said:

Josh, I would be interested in checking your project out.

Although I haven’t watched it yet, I appreciate all the effort you put into this. I don’t know if a Palpatine-less edit will ever be totally convincing, but I think you have implemented a lot of clever ideas that carry the idea pretty far.

Looking at your clip of Kylo arriving at Exegol, it definitely feels like the scene could use a little more context. Kylo basically walks around, interacts with nothing, and then the fleet suddenly rises. I’m usually against using fan films in fan-edits, but for some reason I could see an editor using parts of Seize the Frame’s Kylo vs Vader fan film to create a dark side vision that tests if Kylo is worthy of the fleet.

Kylo would descend into the temple, and it somehow transition to this point in the fan film. Maybe by cutting on a lightning flash, having Kylo walk around a corner, smoke rolls in, something like that. You could totally redo the dialogue, music and sound effects to make it fit better with the rest of the film, and you could create dialogue between Vader and Kylo to fit this new context. You could play it as Kylo being back on Starkiller Base, but instead of fighting Rey again, he fights Vader. Maybe Vader could even taunt Kylo for his failure there. After Kylo kills Vader, he snaps back to Exegol and he sees the Sith throne before him. We then hear the temple “activate”, and the Star Destroyers rise from their cold graves. It might not be right for your edit unless you possibly do a version 3, but this is something that I think it would be interesting to experiment with in a future Palpatine-less edit. Your idea has definitely gotten the gears turning in my head, for sure.

Ironically, Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates also had Kylo and Vader have a vision duel.

Not only could this be a good way to provide some context, but it could help add a little back to the runtime.

I know you were trying to piece together some Leia dialogue for when she wants to recall Poe back to the base. I wonder if you could something usable from this TFA deleted scene? She could say something like, “Find Poe.”

I did have some thoughts about the climax and ending as well. It would be a nice touch if you could somehow imply that Rey keeping Kylo from the battle is somehow beneficial to the Resistance. Maybe Kylo could tell Pryde not to leave Exegol until he returns. This could help show how one battle has an effect on the other, instead of them feeling totally irrelevant to each other.

I also think Rey talking with Luke and Ben talking to Han after the battles are over work as a good denouement. Rey has to accept that her anger and darkness don’t define her, and Ben has to forgive himself for his mistakes, and strive to right his wrongs. Then we get the celebration scene on Ajan Kloss (even though there is a continuity error with Rey being bloody, we’ll just have to live with it). Finally, I feel like it would be appropriate to end the film with Ben arriving on Tatooine with Rey, if it’s possible. I think it would just feel weird not to see Ben again after his conversation with Han. We could see Rey on Tatooine, burying the Skywalker sabers and activating hers, which could be have the same color and ignition sound as Leia’s, implying that Rey used her crystal to finish her own lightsaber. This would add some relevance to why Leia’s saber was introduced in one of the last scenes in this film. And after, we see see Ben walk up and the film ends with them, leaving us with the sense that Ben is going to try to atone for his sins, and help Rey restore peace and justice to the galaxy.

Thank you for the input.

I don’t think there is any question that an edit this radical will never be a perfectly formed film. It becomes a question of whether or not the small story/editing/plot inconsistencies being introduced are greater or less than the ones being removed.

That is an interesting idea for Kylo’s opening. I admit I am not the most advanced editor out here and would have a lot of trouble pulling that off. One other relatively simple idea I came across in someone else’s 3-in-1 edit (unfortunately I can’t remember whose off the top of my head to give them credit right now) was to recolor the Mustafar shots of Kylo opening the wayfinder box and picking up the wayfinder right before the shots of the fleet rising, kind of like Kylo finding the “key” to the fleet. This would introduce the issue of his “key” looking exactly like the wayfinder that Rey and co. spend the movie searching for. The Vader fight would certainly add more substance to the scene though.

That Leia deleted scene could provide the dialogue I needed. I wanted to have Leia address Poe by name to help sell the Falcon being called back and to help support the line about Poe being left in charge. The problem was Leia only said “Poe” twice the entire trilogy and I couldn’t get either instance to sound remotely natural with the appropriate dialogue.

I like your thoughts on Kylo/Pryde for the two climactic battles. Though whether I could find the appropriate shots/dialogue to make that happen is another question entirely.

I really like your idea about making Rey’s lightsaber the same color as Leia’s to make Leia’s saber more relevant. One thing I didn’t like about this edit was Leia’s saber showing up just to get buried in the sand. This would go a long way toward fixing that. Adding Kylo to the Tatooine shots is not something I am capable of, but if anyone else has done this, I would be willing to ask their permission to use their work. Not that I mind the ending as is. I feel it has the implication that Kylo has to work on his redemption rather than instantly becoming a Rey-like beacon of good. Instead of having a Scrooge level 180 degree redemption, it’s going to be a continual work-in-progress for him.

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 (Edited)

Would love to check this one out, can I get a link, please?

Edit: woah! Didn’t realise you had already sent this to me.

Thanks dude, I’ll be sure to check it out in the next few days.

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Could I get a link too, please?

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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 (Edited)

ELAYEM said:

Wow, you always have great ideas!!!

Since Kylo fights Rey while the battle of Exegol takes place, what could we possibly do with the Knights of Ren?

Thanks for the kind words, man! I have a lot of ideas, but not a lot to show for them!

Regarding the Knights of Ren, I think we are better off leaving their fate ambiguous. I actually thought it might be better to cut anytime they appear after Pasaana, and imply that Rey actually blew up the transport the Knights of Ren were on (Rey actually killed one of the Knights with lightning in the Trevorrow script). Unfortunately we never see them fight, but to be fair we barely see them fight anyway. We could just leave their fate ambiguous to help imply that there are still bad guys Rey and the Resistance will have to deal with after the movie ends.

Josh,

I hope you don’t mind me rambling here! I know this may be beyond what you can do, or want to do with your edit. But your project has definitely sparked some inspiration for me. If you feel I should move this convo to another thread just let me know!

That 3-in-1 idea sounds interesting! Although if I did standalone Sequel Trilogy film, I don’t think I would include anything from TROS! Haha.

But yes, restructuring the film this way definitely raises up some issues, but honestly they aren’t as terribly bad as I thought they would be in my head. Sure, the fact that D-O knew how to get to Exegol the whole time sort of makes Rey looking for the other Wayfinder pointless, but that happens in the theatrical film anyway. This edit isn’t guilty of any crimes that TROS isn’t already guilty of. But, it is guilty of one less big crime that TROS is guilty of, which is bringing back Palpatine the way it did.

Regarding the Kylo/Pryde idea, maybe we could reuse the scene where Pryde speaks with Palpatine’s hologram. We could replace Palpatine’s face with helmeted Kylo. It could even be a static image of his helmet, with some added added hologram effects. “General Pryde, wait there on Exegol. I must deal with the scavenger first.” But something like this may not be necessary. I just felt it might be good to show that Rey’s quest did add some sort of benefit to the battle, as it kept Kylo away and at least temporarily halted the fleet from leaving.

I guess one of the other weirder things is the fact Finn and Poe kind of abandon Rey on Kef Bir. But, I think it would be helpful to lean into Rey’s emotional isolation. For example, after she goes on her own to the Death Star, Poe accepts that they can’t help Rey right now. It would be nice to alter Poe and Finn’s interaction to something like:

Finn: You have no idea what she is going through right now.

Poe: And you do?

Finn: …

Instead of another hint at Finn’s force sensitivity, we could see Finn sort of accept that he can’t keep chasing Rey, and she has to continue this journey on her own. Speaking of which, I noticed you recut the celebration to suggest a little bromance between Finn and Poe. Snooker and I discussed this quite a bit (and she even made some great tests), and you could actually change Finn’s force sensitivity subplot to Finn wanting to tell Poe something before they died. Then, right before they’re about to be executed, Poe could ask, “What were you gonna tell me?” At the very least, this could be a good way to keep a little more of the film’s runtime.

Okay, moving on. Perhaps a little earlier in the film, while Poe, 3PO and Chewie are trying to fix the Falcon, we could hear some kind of beeping sound coming from the Falcon’s console, Chewie growls, and 3PO is redubbed to tell Poe that they have received a message from Leia, or the Resistance. Then we cut away before Poe says, “Did we ever find his volume control?”

Then later, when they’re walking back to the Falcon after looking at Rey sailing to the Death Star, there is a good wide shot of Poe and Finn where Poe’s line could be changed. Instead of saying, “We’ll get the Falcon fixed and go after her as fast as we can”, we could get a line similar to what josh have Poe, “We have to go. It’s Leia.”

Even if you can’t get Leia to say something like, “Find Poe”, we could just add the voice of an off-screen Resistance officer say, “We need to contact Poe immediately.”

[A note specifically about your edit. These scene where we have Poe, Finn and Rose reacting to the Exegol data uncovered in D-O, I wonder if you could reuse the insert shot of BB-8 looking up at the crew in order to make that transition a little smoother.]

I think another weird issue you run into with this edit is that Kylo and Rey don’t react to Leia’s death until way after she actually dies. I have one or two ideas for this though. At some point after her death, you could reutilize the brief scene of Kylo in the hallway speaking to Palpatine through the force, but instead, have Leia’s theme play over it, and have Kylo say to himself, “Mother…”, after he senses her death. This could be placed right after she dies.
Perhaps you could even intercut her death with that scene, implying that Kylo is sensing it. That way you could still have her death be a more personal moment between her and her son. Maybe you could even use a little bit of Adam Driver’s crying from Marriage Story. 😂

Later, when Kylo confronts Rey on the Death Star. You could have this interaction:

Kylo: You wanted to prove to my mother you were a Jedi, but you proved something else. You can’t go back to her now. Like I can’t.

Cuts to Rey.

Kylo: She’s gone- (taken from scene with Han)

Rey: -Give it to me.

Kylo is visibly shocked by her response.

With this additional line, we might start painting a picture that Rey is so consumed by getting the wayfinder, that maybe her mind is being clouded by the dark side. It may have prevented her from sensing Leia’s death, and she may even believe Kylo is lying. Even Kylo sensed and reacted to his mother’s death, but here we have Rey, totally consumed by her desire. I think if we build off of this, we could have a more believable descent for Rey.

I really like the idea of building off of Rey’s visions in this story. Yes, the wayfinder can show the Resistance how to get to Exegol, but maybe it can also show Rey something she wants to see. Could we possibly extend her visions to show her potential power? This way, we start questioning Rey’s motivation for finding the wayfinder. It almost becomes a One Ring-like object, something with the power to corrupt.

Perhaps Rey’s descent into the Sith Temple could be reused as a part of her dark side vision. Rey never goes to Exegol, but she goes in her vision. Rey could be in the temple alone, or we could actually have Palpatine appear as just a part of her vision that could taunt her. Either way, Rey could see the temple open up and see the Resistance being destroyed. Then she could look back down, and see Dark Rey on the throne. Dark Rey then shoots lightning into the air, and destroys the Sith Fleet.

I think Rey needs to have a good motivation for seeking power. If Rey sees herself on the throne, with the power to summon lightning, destroy her enemies and save her friends, we might actually believe she could turn to the dark side. I feel like the theatrical film doesn’t give her a good reason to turn, besides being tricked by Palpatine and be possessed. This extended vision could also help provide more content to cut back and forth between the B Plot with Poe and Finn.

I also think this edit could use some sort of reveal or twist. Since Palpatine really isn’t in it, you can’t have the reveal be “You kill Palpatine, and take the throne.”
I do like the idea that Kylo reveals that Rey killed her parents. It could tie in with the moment she almost killed Chewie, and that she has this power she doesn’t have control of. Maybe later when she has her dark side vision, vision-Palpatine, or something else, could show her what she could be capable of if she learned how to control her dark side. Again, something like that could help paint a clearer motivation for Rey. This would also allow you to do something similar to what krausfadr did with his edit, where he changed Rey’s line after escaping the Star Destroyer to say, “I killed my mother, and my father.” It would let you be able to keep Finn’s line, “That doesn’t sound like you. Rey, I know you-“ in a natural way. And again, Finn not truly understanding a part of Rey is sort of important for why Finn might accept leaving her on her own later in the film.

Regarding Kylo and Rey’s final duel, since Leia dies before their duel takes place, I know that leads to some issues with how exactly she interrupts Kylo and Rey’s fight. We could go with the angle of Leia reaching out to Ben from the netherworld of the Force, or as a Force ghost. On the other hand, I wonder if this would be a cool opportunity to try something else. Instead of Leia stopping Ben, what if Ben stopped himself from killing Rey on his own?
It is certainly non-traditional for Star Wars, but after he raises his saber then hesitates, we could show brief glimpses of moments between Rey and Ben in TLJ. Ben reminds himself of his bond with Rey. He drops his saber, but Rey picks it up and stabs him. Then Rey comes to her senses and realizes what she has done.

The great thing overall about a Palpatine-less edit is that it gives us so many opportunities to give Rey and Kylo Ren their own agency with their actions. Kylo earns the lost Fleet on his own, he searches for Rey because he wants to, and he could potentially spare Rey through his own self-reflection. Rey could search for the wayfinder not only to find the fleet and stop it, but to potentially understand her relationship with power and her identity.

I do have an idea for how an ending with Ben on Tatooine could be done. I just need time to try and do it. Though my vfx skills my not be good enough to achieve it. I’m definitely on the same page with you though, about implying that Ben is about to go on a long journey of atonement, rather than redeeming himself simply through sacrificing himself. I do think overall, this ending could leave us with a message of “Our mistakes don’t define us. Doing bad things doesn’t make us bad people, and it is never too late to change.” You get this theme in two different ways with Rey and Ben. Rey has to overcome her fear of potentially making mistakes, and Ben has to accept the mistakes he’s made and learn from them.

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Wow, RogueLeader. Those are a lot of great ideas. I don’t think I read a single thing in there that I disapproved of. A couple of ideas already occurred to me but didn’t get implemented for one reason or another.

I did insert that shot of BB-8 in the “D-O” has the map shot when I made the original proof-of-concept edit. But I thought it would play better if I could get it to be a continuous shot with a smooth transition around the roughly one second where Poe’s line was cut. I know it didn’t come out 100% smooth, but I didn’t think it was readily noticeable unless your attention was right on one or two spots on the screen. If it’s more noticeable than I thought, it can easily be changed.

I also like the idea that Rey killed her parents. I never found a way to implement it into the movie that didn’t feel forced. As an inexperienced editor, this being my first real project, I was also generally keeping things as simple as needed to get my goal accomplished.

With these ideas it might be time to start a Version 3. Although whether I put my current MCU project on hold, wait until I finish that, or work on both simultaneously is a decision I haven’t made yet.

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Really liked your ideas! Palpatine’s return is the thing that most bugs me in. So that fan-edit is perfect. Liking TLJ or not, I really just want to see a finale of the trilogy that follows the plots stablished and not completely retcons all of that. Could you send me a link?

“The greatest teacher failure is”
-Yoda

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joshuabri said:

I also like the idea that Rey killed her parents. I never found a way to implement it into the movie that didn’t feel forced. As an inexperienced editor, this being my first real project, I was also generally keeping things as simple as needed to get my goal accomplished.

Check out krausfadr’s fanedit (Resurgance), it could be very useful for you 😉

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szopman said:

joshuabri said:

I also like the idea that Rey killed her parents. I never found a way to implement it into the movie that didn’t feel forced. As an inexperienced editor, this being my first real project, I was also generally keeping things as simple as needed to get my goal accomplished.

Check out krausfadr’s fanedit (Resurgance), it could be very useful for you 😉

trying to get a link to it put i think krausfadr really isn’t still online these days, i am crazy to see, just like that joshuabri edit either

“The greatest teacher failure is”
-Yoda

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Link sent. I haven’t seen krausfadr’s fanedit, but I have seen IlFanEditore’s fanedit which also implemented the Rey killed her parents backstory. The main problem I ran into was that I was trying to put the reveal in the hangar scene to replace the Palpatine-granddaughter reveal and keep that as a pivotal dramatic scene. Doing it the way IlFanEditore did it, where the reveal comes when she blows up not-Chewie’s ship, is certainly doable.

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This sounds much better than the original cut. Could you please share the link to me to see it?

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I saw this edit some time ago amd I think it s really a good edit with a lot of clever ideas 😉

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Im curious for a link too. I know this kind of edit won’t be perfectly seem-less, but a fun one regardless and reading some comments, I can try some ideas too … with the limited skill I have! haha!

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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I really enjoyed this edit. I found it less forced than the original version.
Thanks for sharing!