The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 456

I like the idea that the translation sounds kind of cryptic and mysterious, so I personally wouldn’t want to make the instructions too explicit. (“Yo! If you’re evil enough, we’ll give you the location!”) I think my two favorites of Hal’s are:

The Sith fortress on Exegol is hidden from the light. Surrender to the darkness within to find the way. To the wielder’s dark nature, only this blade tells.

and

The Sith fortress on Exegol is hidden from the light. The Wayfinders reveal the path to acolytes of the dark. To those it chooses, only this blade tells.

Tweaked a little further, it could possibly be:

The Sith fortress is hidden from the Light.
Surrender to Darkness to find the way.
To those who embrace it, this blade shall tell.

I don’t think it’s “technically” iambic pentameter, but all of the lines would at least have ten syllables. (Maybe that’s a failure of the translation lol.)

It’s really weird though, to think of a dagger pointing like a compass towards only one of two wayfinders, and the furthest one away at that. I assume there are two wayfinders as a callback to the rule of two, as if both master and apprentice would have one of them in days of old? I don’t know. So what if Kylo gained the Apprentice’s wayfinder at the beginning of the film, but the Master’s wayfinder was still to be found? That way the dagger’s purpose would make sense as a way for Sith cultists to travel back to their master wherever he would be at the time:

“Only two grant the way to Exegol; Novitiate and Master. Attune with the spirit of the Sith and passage to the Master only this blade tells. Only this blade tells.”

Or better yet:

“Only two grant the way to Exegol; Novitiate and Master. Anoint thy spirit in darkness and passage to the Master of the Sith this blade tells. This blade tells.”

I like the idea that there may have been many blades at one point used by many cultists, so removing the ‘only’ from ‘only this blade tells’ will allow for this interpretation.

Also, just a random thought, but have people considered how it would play for Rey’s pals to know that she basically has to become evil to find Exegol?

I think if we’re not going to go with a poem, we should make it as easy to follow as possible. The audience is only going to hear this once, and there’s a rule of thumb in film that you need to repeat something three times for the audience to retain it automatically.

I agree that keeping iambic pentameter would be good even if it doesn’t rhyme; again, that was a technique Shakespeare used for his characters from the nobility. I’ve got some ideas of my own, I’ll mess around with something tonight and see how it goes.

Trying out a few different things here. Thoughts?

I think what would really sell it is if we could find some instance of Naomi Ackie saying “Fine.” I also reversed the clip of Horse Man, so that he looks over towards Jannah before she makes her verdict. I think it would be perfect if he looks over when she says “Fine. I can take you there by water.”

https://streamable.com/lyj4eg

Here’s what I’ve got, running with Hal’s ideas.

Since the audience only gets to hear this once, I’ve tried to keep it as simple and easy to follow as possible, and focus solely on hammering home the absolute core message that needs to be taken away: the Dagger leads you to the Wayfinder, but only if you let the Dark Side in.

This dagger whispers to a darkened heart,
Towards the Wayfinder you will be led.
Surrender to Darkness to find the way,
When you embrace it, only this blade tells.

All four lines say the same information, but it goes by so quickly and we absolutely need the audience to remember the key message, so I don’t think it’s a worry.

Also, I’m never going to stop being tickled by how “only this blade tells” fits perfectly into iambic pentameter, what were the odds.

sherlockpotter said:

Trying out a few different things here. Thoughts?

I think what would really sell it is if we could find some instance of Naomi Ackie saying “Fine.” I also reversed the clip of Horse Man, so that he looks over towards Jannah before she makes her verdict. I think it would be perfect if he looks over when she says “Fine. I can take you there by water.”

https://streamable.com/lyj4eg

This is really good so far! I agree it would be great if she said “Fine.” at the start of her line; surely Naomi Ackie has said that somewhere in her filmography.

I do feel like it needs a C-3PO “ice breaker” though. But I’m not sure what. His movements in that shot look like he’s meant to be talking, too (that’s not your fault though, obviously).

That’s not bad, Cap’n. It seems maybe a little redundant to have Wayfinder and “find… way.” Also, just to be clear, I worded a few things to try to set up Kylo’s ‘gotcha’ when he grabs the Wayfinder on the DSII.

And that clip works well, Sherlock! Because it’s so tight, a hilarious 3PO line might actually drown out the rest of the scene. “Is everyday like this for you people” might work best.

If we end up with a clean(ed) line about being a “highly trained resistance spy,” maybe it could replace the lines when he’s chatting with a stormtrooper on the star destroyer.

Hal 9000 said:

That’s not bad, Cap’n. It seems maybe a little redundant to have Wayfinder and “find… way.” Also, just to be clear, I worded a few things to try to set up Kylo’s ‘gotcha’ when he grabs the Wayfinder on the DSII.

I don’t mind the redundancy personally; again, the audience only hears this once, so repetition is good in that sense. But if that line is even a tiny bit distracting, then it should definitely change for the same reason.

Can you elaborate on setting up the gotcha moment?

And that clip works well, Sherlock! Because it’s so tight, a hilarious 3PO line might actually drown out the rest of the scene. “Is everyday like this for you people” might work best.

If we end up with a clean(ed) line about being a “highly trained resistance spy,” maybe it could replace the lines when he’s chatting with a stormtrooper on the star destroyer.

I agree strongly with both of these ideas.

I mean when Kylo tells her, “The Dark Side is in our nature. Surrender to it.” And, “…but you’ve proven you’re something else.”

“We are highly trained Resistance spies, so I’m told” would sound better if even possible. Lego SW TFA has tons of C3PO audio too

Jar Jar Bricks said:

You know me and the LEGO lines haha. I may take a look at those sometime today (unless somebody beats me to it).

I have a bunch 3PO’s TFA lines but they’re all in .OGG audio format, which my Mac doesn’t run.

We can’t have the blade say there are 2 Wayfinders. Because Rey doesn’t realize there are two until she is with Luke.

"The Emperor’s Wayfinder is hidden from the light.

Heir of the Sith, embrace the darkness within and this blade shall tell."

I like the idea that Palpatine planted clues for his “Heir” to find Exegol and continue what he started.

Hal 9000 said:

And that clip works well, Sherlock! Because it’s so tight, a hilarious 3PO line might actually drown out the rest of the scene. “Is everyday like this for you people” might work best.

If we end up with a clean(ed) line about being a “highly trained resistance spy,” maybe it could replace the lines when he’s chatting with a stormtrooper on the star destroyer.

Oh man, if he said that on the star destroyer, and the Stormtrooper was just like, “Wait…what?” before immediately being shot, that would be hilarious! (Although…would his knowledge of the Resistance have been erased in the memory wipe? Hmm…)

It’s definitely tight; but I tried to cheat and slow/interpolate that shot of Jannah looking directly towards the camera. (That was originally at the end of “He said you were the last hope,” but there were only a few frames to work with after she stops talking.) I wasn’t sure how noticeable it was? I’d be scared to speed it up any more though; I think it would go by so quickly that it would be jarring. I also comped in Rey’s “Please” from earlier in the film, so that it sounds less like a demand, and more like a request. I can try out the “Everyday like this for you people” later tonight.

Oh, and jarbear mentioned using the line “May I say, this is not the way to treat friendly visitors on your planet.” It’s a great line, and I tried to incorporate it; but I don’t think the delivery will work. He says that line while struggling, completely in distress. It didn’t sound right in this scene to me.

Also: CaptainFaraday makes a very good point about “reinforcing” the message for the audience. I was thinking, is there some way to have Rey say something to herself as she’s walking up to the dagger in Kylo’s quarters? Something like “Embrace the Dark Side.” It would remind the audience, and it would help to reinforce what she’s about to do.

And in that case, I almost feel like we should build the 3PO translation backwards from that, so that she’ll end up quoting it. Kind of like how they wrote the other character’s lines around what Carrie Fisher footage they had to work with.

So like, 3PO says something like, “The Wayfinder will only be revealed to those who embrace the Dark Side.” And then later, Rey remembers, “Embrace the Dark Side…” (I suppose we could also have her just remember 3PO’s translation itself, but I feel like that wouldn’t sound right in context.)

^ She should know there are two. Lando told her, “Only two were made.”

Hmmm, I am wondering if it is “more possible” to use “is everyday like this for you people” (I’d add him first saying “oh!” or “Oh My!” before he turns)

The hanger scene’s line can be changed since there’s more flexibility in regards to the context of what C3po says to the trooper. If it is possible about his spy line, that would be funny (if doable). Or he could use that Clone Wars clip I used about treating guest since he would be in more distress at that moment. (I am not tied to that line, just a quick thought if swapping lines at the time being.)

As for the translation of the dagger, keep up the ideas. A lot of them are “working” for it.

I don’t know if this would be needed, but we can kind of have a call back to TFA when Rey was at Maz’s castle hearing her young voice “leading” her to lightsaber.

What if having either all or some of the lines from the translated dagger be used while she is in Kylo’s room (or whatever you call it that has the Vader helmet and the dagger.) It can play in a similar audio affect (obviously something either distorted or has some kind of “forcy” effect) in that room. (not all the lines, but maybe some “key ones”?) and right before she picks up the dagger, it has the “only this blade tells” before cutting to the visions as she touches it.

That way the audience gets reminded of the words from the inscription (doesn’t need to be all of them) and it reinforces for the audience the blade is/will guide her. It wouldn’t feel too out of the place having those lines being said (distorted/with an effect/whatever) during Rey’s time in Maz’s castle with the lightsaber.

Holy cow, we ask and it happens! hahahahah!

This does open up stuff and I don’t disagree with your assessment that although it would be funny, c3po did have his mind erased and wouldn’t really know anything about the resistance or his role. Of course, you can assume he gets PARTIALLY informed at some point, but not the whole picture.

On the other hand, if we are focusing on the Jannah scene, he has gone through flying to a destroyer, Poe and crew shoots down storm troopers and they’ve flown to the DSII wreckage finding the wayfinder. So he would at least get the idea, or some explanation on who they are and what they are doing.

Hmmm it does make you think regardless.

I think “You needn’t worry, I am a highly trained resistance spy” works really well for the hangar scene, but if we wanted to use it here (which also works), it would be even better if we could get the word “apparently” in there, like

“You needn’t worry, I am a highly trained resistance spy, apparently.”
Or
“You needn’t worry, I am apparently a highly trained resistance spy.”

It would depend on the intonations etc if we could even find it somewhere (it feels like the kind of word he’d use somewhere, maybe in TCW).

Also: if we can agree on at least a preliminary “translation” speech, I can have another crack at recording it. But also, when we’ve finally settled on something for good, I’m friends with a voice actor who does a lot of villain roles, and I reckon he’d think it was fun to have an anonymous go at it too if I asked.

That’s AWESOME. I love that line. Especially with 3PO being literally out of his mind.

After the interrupted execution scene…

Troop: “What’s your operating number?” (Or new line)

3PO: “I am a highly trained resistance spy.”

Troop: “I doubt it.” (Or) “And I’m the King of Spain.” (Or something else)

Hahahahaha ok that would be funny.

EDIT: Yeah, sure, and I am a Spice Runner.

YES. Never been a fan of the current dialogue. That would have made me laugh out loud in the theater. A welcome change!

Troop: “Wait. Who are you?”

3PO: “I am a highly trained resistance spy.”

Troop: “This job is a joke."

The Wayfinders reveal the path to Exegol, shrouded from (the) light. Only this blade tells of their location. To the wielder’s inner darkness it whispers direction/guidance. Only this blade tells.

(I think the idea is that Rey knows that two were supposedly made, but doesn’t know Kylo had one. Or at least not on his secondary backup TIE.)

^^ I like it.

EDIT: Agree Hal, Rey knows there are two, since that was revealed to her, she just didn’t know Kylo had the other till she realizes: Oh yeah, Kylo told her that he was the only way (now) to Exegol. Rey pretty much had Tunnel vision for some time until the dust settled.

Hal 9000 said:

After the interrupted execution scene…

Stormtrooper: “What are you doing down here?”

C-3PO: “I am a highly-trained Resistance spy.”

Stormtrooper: “Right. And I’m Jabba the Hutt."

[PEW!]

Or simply:

Stormtrooper: “Then why ar- wait, what?”

[PEW!]

Honestly, while it is a little naff that 3PO references the Resistance post-mind wipe, it’s hilarious enough that I might be willing to overlook that. And I suppose you could hand-wave it with “Poe told him about the Resistance and the First Order on the way to Kylo’s ship so that he’d be on his guard…but then he mixed up which side he was supposed to be on.”

EDIT: Or just use the clip where he says “It appears I am a highly trained Resistance spy.”

And dzabdehat, fantastic job extracting those clips!

EDIT 2: Oooh, man, there are some audio clips in that folder that could work really, really well with Jannah. I’m going to have a lot of fun playing with the scene tonight.