I wanted to suggest three different options for how the dagger could present the knowledge of the Wayfinder’s location to Rey in Kylo’s Chambers, as well as miscellaneous thoughts on how this idea can be clarified even more.
Option A:
A) The initial suggestion: Rey picks up the dagger, hears whispers, and then gets a quick glimpse of the Death Star ruins.
Pro: Quick and simple, without changing the scene drastically.
Con: Might not be clear as to why she is given this vision now, and not back on Pasaana. Held it longer? Now she is really “listening” to it? (Misc. section below could potentially address this)
Option B:
B) Create a brief flashback/vision sequence that mirror’s Kylo flashback/vision Dom made for when he touches Vader’s helmet earlier in the film. Since Rey must invoke her hate to get what she wants from the blade, we could get brief glimpses of who Rey has directed her hatred at the most: Kylo. We see Kylo kill Han, her calling him a monster, a murderous snake, Rey giving Kylo that hateful look after she knocked him down on Starkiller Base, etc. Then, at the end, she gets a glimpse of the Death Star ruins.
Pros: It clarifies what Rey did this time to earn this glimpse of the Wayfinder’s location by using editing language that already exists in Ascendant. Also, being reminded of Rey’s hate might help give more impact to Rey’s overall conflict with the dark side in this film. This hate later drives Rey to almost kill Kylo, fueling her shame. This whole “striking people down with hate” issue gets brought back up later with her killing Palpatine, so this might be a good set up for that, too. Plus, the vision allows us intercut from that one shot of Rey staring at the blade with brief flashes, giving us more time to clarify what is going on.
Cons: Gives Rey another vision sequence, which might come off as a storytelling crutch. Also, we don’t know explicitly if Rey invoked these memories of hate, or if the dagger pulled it out of her, but it may not matter. The extra length to this sequence could be seen as a detriment, and it might not fit the moment anyway.
Option C:
C) Same idea as B, but keep it all strictly through whispers. She picks up the blade, hears whispers, but she also hears her own voice saying, “Monster!”, “Murderous snake!” Then, we hear the whispers say, “Endor… Death Star…”
Pros: Simpler to execute than Option B. Sticks to the established rules of this blade, which is that it whispers to the wielder.
Cons: Might not be clear enough to express that there is a transaction happening between Rey and the dagger. It might be better if the dagger doesn’t really start whispering a lot until after she “activates” it. Also, that single shot might not be long enough to fit the whispers, Rey’s lines, and the blade’s answer, into it. You could possibly have Rey hear her own hateful words/thoughts, then she gets the brief glimpse of the Death Star ruins. This could be the moment the blade “wakes up” and starts whispering to her after that.
Regardless of which option we go with, I think these small changes could also potentially be applied to any of them to help provide a little more clarity to the scene, so I think they are worth thinking about:
Misc:
• In the theatrical, when Rey picks up the dagger, she is looking at Chewie’s bandolier, and then sort of stops and notices that she is hearing voices from the dagger. Instead, we should cut it so Rey picks up the dagger, and she is already looking at the dagger when we cut back to her face. This makes it seem like Rey picked it up because she wanted to hear the whispers, now that she knows she must listen to them to find the Wayfinder.
• Try to extend that shot of Rey staring at the dagger just to give us an extra beat or two to help clarify the scene. This is something Dom has done throughout a few sequences in his edit.
• To help clarify a connection is being made between Rey and the dagger, we could use the sound effect we hear when Kylo touches Vader’s helmet and “connects” with it. This probably would be most useful to Option B, but I think they could be applied to all three versions if we think it could differentiate this moment from the moment she first picked it up on Pasaana.
• To further differentiate this moment from the first time she touches it on Pasaana, maybe she barely gets a hint of whispers on Pasaana, but hears them more clearly on the Destroyer.
And my two cents for those who are interested:
I think a vision sequence in the same style as Dom’s Vader helmet vision could be potentially great, and add to Rey’s conflict throughout the film, so I think Option B is my first choice. I went back and watched Rey and Kylo’s interactions on the Death Star, imagining that we had gotten such a sequence earlier, and I think it would add a lot to the feeling that Rey could potentially fall to the dark side. I think it’s worth playing around with at least.
BUT, at the very least this is how I think the dagger stuff could play out. On Pasaana, Rey hears no (or faint) whispers when she picks up the dagger. When she picks up the dagger in Kylo’s chambers, we hear the Vader helmet connection sound effect (to imply a connection has been made between the dagger and Rey), we hear some of Rey’s hateful thoughts toward Kylo, and then she gets a brief glimpse of the Death Star ruins and hears whispers briefly. Then later on Endor, she remembers the line “only this blade tells”, pulls out the dagger and begins really hearing the whispers.
I know this might be a lot to think about, but I do think it is worth considering, because it would allow us to blend the McGuffin chase with actual character conflict.