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The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 466

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For the sequel trilogy I didn’t modify the credits, and I wouldn’t want to unless it could be all 3. And I don’t want to reissue TFA and TLJ further. So, if the situation arises in which I plan to do a future version of all three, I’d think about it.
Part of it had to do with the prequels already having a long line of fan edits by the time I did the ones I added credits to, whereas the sequels felt like new things.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Peonthegrate said:

I was thinking about this earlier. Shouldn’t the cloned palpatine faces in the liquid vats shown early in the film be younger versions of him and not disfigured?

Because Rey’s father was a clone of palpatine and was obviously show to be young. Unless I’m not remembering something correctly.

His ugly face is his real form. It’s why he doesn’t turn young when he sucks up Rey and Ben’s life force, and why he turns into that abomination in RotS.

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TestingOutTheTest said:

Peonthegrate said:

I was thinking about this earlier. Shouldn’t the cloned palpatine faces in the liquid vats shown early in the film be younger versions of him and not disfigured?

Because Rey’s father was a clone of palpatine and was obviously show to be young. Unless I’m not remembering something correctly.

His ugly face is his real form. It’s why he doesn’t turn young when he sucks up Rey and Ben’s life force, and why he turns into that abomination in RotS.

Have we ever gotten a concrete answer on this in canon? I feel like it’s always been up to interpretation whether the deformity was from having his lightning reflected back, or if he was physically transforming now that he was finally shedding his innocent chancellor disguise. Same way I think it’s up to interpretation whether Windu actually defeated Palpatine in a duel or if Palpatine threw it for the sake of manipulating Anakin

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Testing is right. That is actually his true form. The ROTS novelization describes it as the “face of Darth Sidious” or something. He decides at that moment that it could be advantageous to keep it that way since it would appear that he was injured by the Jedi.

As for the clones, it’s correct that Rey’s dad is a completely different thing than those clones in the vat in canon (strandcast). However, even without the whole strandcast thingy (which I don’t care for myself) one could rationalize him as an unmodified clone, similar to Boba Fett.

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Brewzter said:

TestingOutTheTest said:

Peonthegrate said:

I was thinking about this earlier. Shouldn’t the cloned palpatine faces in the liquid vats shown early in the film be younger versions of him and not disfigured?

Because Rey’s father was a clone of palpatine and was obviously show to be young. Unless I’m not remembering something correctly.

His ugly face is his real form. It’s why he doesn’t turn young when he sucks up Rey and Ben’s life force, and why he turns into that abomination in RotS.

Have we ever gotten a concrete answer on this in canon? I feel like it’s always been up to interpretation whether the deformity was from having his lightning reflected back, or if he was physically transforming now that he was finally shedding his innocent chancellor disguise. Same way I think it’s up to interpretation whether Windu actually defeated Palpatine in a duel or if Palpatine threw it for the sake of manipulating Anakin

I’ve always interpreted it that he wanted the Jedi to come and duel him, so he could make his play against the Jedi and manipulate Anakin further in one fell stroke, but not that he deliberately was throwing the duel. He kills the other three Jedi so easily, and only has trouble with Mace; he also had no way of knowing Anakin would show up at his office during the arrest, so when that happened, it was like a freebie for him.

As for the wrinkled face, he’s just a regular human of about forty when we first meet him in TPM; I don’t think there’s any indication he’s meant to be secretly monstrous looking, and the lightning just drains and whithers him. He’s normal looking as a teenager in the Darth Plagueis novel, though that was published later so it’s not exactly evidence of anything in ROTS.

Edit: Just read Jar Jar’s comment. Huh! The more you know.

“It’s like rhymetry. They poem.” - Leorge Gucas

TROS Novelisation: The Faraday Edit, TLJ: Stoic Edition, ROTS: The Faraday Nudge, ROTS Ultracut: Order 66, Kenobi: Faraday Cut, Godzilla Vs Megalon, Godzilla Vs Gigan, Godzilla: Final Wars, The Light Rises, Faraday Jr.'s Star Wars

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Eh, I just looked it over again. It’s definitely an inference even from there. Either way works with what we have in canon, but imo the idea that he always looked like that makes the most sense because the dark side is supposed to corrupt you physically.

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But Palpatine wasn’t born looking like that. His wrinkly face is a byproduct of him basically being a powerful conduit of the dark side for decades. So he became that way because of his long term use of the dark side.

So if these clones are just clones of the man Sheev Palpatine, then technically they should look more like regular Ian McDiarmid, and not the deformed Darth Sidious. But, like Faraday said, it is easier to quickly understand that it is Sidious because the clones look like how we recognize him the most. Also, you could kind of explain it away that perhaps these clones are a byproduct of both science and Sith alchemy. Perhaps they have to infuse these clones with the dark side in order for them to be even viable for his spirit. Could be the same reason Snoke is so fucked up. Creating dark side strandcasts leads to physical deformity, since it is perverse and unnatural.

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RogueLeader said:

Also, you could kind of explain it away that perhaps these clones are a byproduct of both science and Sith alchemy. Perhaps they have to infuse these clones with the dark side in order for them to be even viable for his spirit.

That is actually how I explained it in my novelization. Great minds think alike!

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Jar Jar Bricks said:

RogueLeader said:

Also, you could kind of explain it away that perhaps these clones are a byproduct of both science and Sith alchemy. Perhaps they have to infuse these clones with the dark side in order for them to be even viable for his spirit.

That is actually how I explained it in my novelization. Great minds think alike!

Oh really? Thanks for the compliment! At first I actually agreed with the idea of making the clones look more normal, but that explanation works for me. I guess you have to question why Palpatine’s current vessel doesn’t look as wrinkly, and more like a pale McDiarmid, but it’s all a little convoluted anyway, so you can hand-wave it somehow.

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My explanation on why the actual clone with his spirit inside looked more “normal” is that his spirit was eating away on the dark side essence within the clone, thus losing its wrinkled dark side skin and becoming more like a normal person.

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Jar Jar Bricks said:

Testing is right. That is actually his true form. The ROTS novelization describes it as the “face of Darth Sidious” or something. He decides at that moment that it could be advantageous to keep it that way since it would appear that he was injured by the Jedi.

ROTS novelization isn’t canon though lol. But like you said, I think it’s more likely that he’s just physically revealing his true form finally (especially with the bonus of looking like Windu messed him up) since we see him use lightning or plunge into the dark side in The Clone Wars multiple times and it never deforms him or Dooku.

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Jar Jar Bricks said:

Testing is right. That is actually his true form. The ROTS novelization describes it as the “face of Darth Sidious” or something. He decides at that moment that it could be advantageous to keep it that way since it would appear that he was injured by the Jedi.

As for the clones, it’s correct that Rey’s dad is a completely different thing than those clones in the vat in canon (strandcast). However, even without the whole strandcast thingy (which I don’t care for myself) one could rationalize him as an unmodified clone, similar to Boba Fett.

Just two points. The RotS novel is non-canon, and I think the only reason Palpatine has that ugly face is because of the dark side.

EDIT: Just read RogueLeader and Brewster’s respective comments after publishing this.

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I’m another one of the people who’ve now been introduced to this via the Royal Ocean Film Society. I’m definitely intrigued to see the full thing. Where can I go to find it for myself?

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Yeah I can see everyone’s points. I guess ideally for me personally I’d rather him look similar to a non deformed version of Palpatine from TPM or something.

I also can’t remember if the novelization stated that the cloned bodies were force sensitive or not. I know reys father wasn’t if I remember correctly.

“You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view” — Obi-Wan Kenobi

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I always took the jar of Snokes/Palp clones as ‘used’ or failed experiments, not new growing organisms. The Jar of Snokes seemed like leftovers from the experiments that resulted in THE Snoke, and likewise the old Palpatine bodies seem like either failed attempts or bodies that were used and ‘exhausted’ by Palpatine’s spirit.

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Personally, I don’t think the lore specifics matter for crap. I’m sure there are dozens of ways you can rationalize any interpretation, regardless of what Palpy’s “true” appearance is.

So, for me, I think Cap has a point in that the wrinkly clones are more intelligible to the audience. I think it might be interesting to see a more gradual progression; like, they start young in the vat, and then by the time we get to the sentient one, he’s all pruney. But that just raises the question of why he wouldn’t use one of the fresh, young clones instead of the blind, monster-face one.

I guess I lean toward keeping it as-is with the shriveled vat Clones.

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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Burbin said:

I always took the jar of Snokes/Palp clones as ‘used’ or failed experiments, not new growing organisms. The Jar of Snokes seemed like leftovers from the experiments that resulted in THE Snoke, and likewise the old Palpatine bodies seem like either failed attempts or bodies that were used and ‘exhausted’ by Palpatine’s spirit.

I interpreted it this way too. I like this explanation. It’s why Palpatine is so desperate for at least the energy of a new host all together; the cloning stuff ain’t working.

Save the Sebastian Shaw Ghost! Save the dream…!

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Hand waving a vat of Palpatines seems more easily done than Snokes. So at least from a practical decision making perspective it’s a net gain.

But yeah… saying TROS makes little sense is beating a dead bantha.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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You know, one of the worst examples of this film’s rushed pacing is, I think, right before they get swallowed up in the cave on Pasaana. Their ships explode, they crash-land, they immediately start firing 10 million blaster shots at the last stormtrooper, which then starts zipping around. It smashes head-first into a cliff, it explodes, and they immediately start sinking into the ground. So you have a cacophony of noise, and two tangentially related problems that are immediately stacked on one another without any breathing room whatsoever.

In my mind, what the sequence desperately needs is a brief moment after the last stormtrooper is defeated. A slight pause to catch our breath, and then…there’s a light trickling rock sound; it builds, and the ground begins to swallow them up.

Does anyone have any ideas of a shot that could potentially be used to pad it out? A character close-up, or a landscape shot? Heck, maybe we could even find some cutaway to Kylo beginning to fly down to the planet’s surface? Then cut back when Poe stumbles.

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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Maybe the extended trailer shot of Kylo’s ship flying toward Rey? I’m not sure if that was used in this edit or not. But it could show that he’s arrived and will be there soon

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Brewzter said:

Maybe the extended trailer shot of Kylo’s ship flying toward Rey? I’m not sure if that was used in this edit or not. But it could show that he’s arrived and will be there soon

I believe that was already included during the actual Kylo sequence? But Star Wars has no shortage of desert planets. Maybe we could take an establishing shot from one of those other movies, and just hear the exploding stormtrooper echoing in the distance?

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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sherlockpotter said:

You know, one of the worst examples of this film’s rushed pacing is, I think, right before they get swallowed up in the cave on Pasaana. Their ships explode, they crash-land, they immediately start firing 10 million blaster shots at the last stormtrooper, which then starts zipping around. It smashes head-first into a cliff, it explodes, and they immediately start sinking into the ground. So you have a cacophony of noise, and two tangentially related problems that are immediately stacked on one another without any breathing room whatsoever.

What’s funny is that I thought this scene needed the exact opposite approach. I can’t remember who drew it up but somebody made it so that only Rey fires, her first shot lands, and the stormtrooper explodes. I like this because they landed in quicksand, so I would imagine it would start sinking them much quicker than what is shown on screen. They shouldn’t even have the opportunity to open fire as a group. Personally, I think allowing them to linger on the sand longer would only make that issue worse.

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You’re absolutely right about that, Sherlock.

I don’t think wedging a shot of a distant TIE coming in would make it feel less busy, plus it’s quite a bit of screen time before he arrives.

We’d really need a few seconds of the characters breathing and catching their breath.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Ah, yes, here is what I was talking about:

bbghost said:

Just quietly, I think this is one of my favorite small bits of editing I’ve done so far to this film:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fe-6n7XalPBHtDnJD7nDz9sG57ayMQYw/view?usp=sharing

I feel it would solve the issue you have with it as well Sherlock because this way there isn’t as much emphasis placed on the fight between them and the rocket trooper. But that’s just my opinion.