I think I see Hal’s intent with the new shot and I think it works. On the opening shot we see the TIEs are a ways off from the planet, so having an ‘establishing shot’, as I refered to it, of the surface allows some inferred time for the TIEs to actually reach the planet, then we can cut back to them. It’s a nice transition from ‘TIEs on space’ to ‘TIEs on the surface’, plus it’s a really pretty and striking shot that would be obscured with TIEs flying around.
Oh okay, yeah, I can see what you’re going for now. Although I’d personally still like some ship noises to fade in near the end of the shot to help bridge the shots together. (As if the ships are getting closer to the planet now.)
And Hal, like I said, my main intent wasn’t for tying up lose ends (although that’s an added benefit); I was going for a better sense of dramatic flow - save the reveal that he can be trusted until the reveal of who the character actually is. If you show him to be trustworthy, and then show that he’s Lando, I think that both reveals undercut one another, rather than compliment each other.
On the topic of dramatic flow, did anyone have any thoughts regarding my Rey Death Sequence restructure - having her die immediately after defeating Palpatine, and then saving her resurrection until after Finn and Jannah are rescued?