Hey DigMod, it’s great to learn of the progress made on RotR v2/ Survivor Cut. Really looking forward to it.
I just recently saw v1 again and wondered how do you feel about some points, specifically:
- Isn’t Jyn saving the little girl in Jedha a little too cheesy? I mean, the place looks like another wretched hive of scum and villainy and when negotiations go aggressive, there’s a crying little girl in the midst of crossfire… Not just conveniently a little girl, but of all of the alien populace, a human at that. R1 makes its point in having sympathetic anti-heroes in a journey for redemption and this by-the-book selfless feat just makes Jyn a tad more predictable way too soon in the movie. Surely her own childhood traumas of abandonment are pretty obvious by then for the audience to need this kind of unsubtlety. Also, it makes for a strange cut that Jyn’s hair is all messed up after the blast but is back to pristine in the next shot.
- Right after that Jyn guns down a trooper without as much looking his way…
- In the alley fight, Jyn goes berserk and batons up about five armored troopers. The movie sticks again with the conventional hero archetype - has to be kind, has to be physical. Even though its guerilla warfare going down.
- K2 slides in and out too conveniently during Jedha. It’s okay we get to learn how much of a rebel he is the first time, disobeying Cassian and shadowing the team all along. But then he turns off the defiant/protective attitude when Cassian orders him back to the ship a second time, and right when they are about to be captured once again… he turns his back and consents, to be seen again only when apocalypse hits (and it wasn’t a plan to get to Saw because he was just “standing by as you requested” while folks would hopelessly be Bor Gullet’d).
These bothered me to some degree and I thought of sharing. Would like to know what you think of it.
Thanks for these ideas. For me, Jyn saving the girl is an essential scene. It’s a physical representation of her story and helps us understand her motives. With the new adopted edits from the OT community the main focus is on trust, trust to do what is right. This scene shows her moral compass and unwavering drive to do what is necessary and right.
I’ll agree that Jyn going berserk is a little over the top. I kind of like it though, if nothing more than Cassian’s “oh wow, she’s something else” moment when he sees how independently capable she is at taking care of herself. It shows the start of his connection to her. I also like the K2 scene for a similar reason. It’s the right amount of brevity in a tense situation and shows how Cassian is reliant on these two characters. I fear that the necessity and import of Jyn and K2 would be diminished with the removal of those two scenes.