First things first, the film is re-titled to Throne of the Darkness, referring to Rey’s vision, as well as the stuff with Palpatine and Exegol and all that.
Below is a revamped version of the opening crawl. It starts off reminding us that this is the sequel to The Last Jedi, but it is put into a halt by the middle…
The flame of hope burns! Following the heroic sacrifice of Luke Skywalker on Crait, the daring RESISTANCE has been reborn. The diabolical FIRST ORDER, facing insurrection on a thousand worlds, is teetering on the edge.
But the dead speak! The galaxy has heard a mysterious broadcast, a threat of REVENGE in the voice of the late PALPATINE.
In response, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren rages in search of the phantom menace, determined to destroy this threat to his declining power…
Obviously, in the crawl, I have removed any references to Palpatine as an Emperor, because he is no longer Emperor. This is applied to other lines in the film.
The scene with Kylo Ren and Palpatine plays out as usual, except here Palpatine is speaking in Sith (which Kylo Ren immediately recognizes and points out; “So… a Sith…”) until he repeats his quote from Revenge of the Sith in Basic and is shown to us for the first time, so we would be asking, “Is this really Palpatine, or no?”, up until that point, so it’d have more “oomph”. It also reinforces Palpatine’s knowledge of the Sith.
Rey’s hair style throughout the film is the same as during her post-Ahch-To experiences in The Last Jedi, as a visual reminder that she no longer cares about her parents and has moved past them, having come to terms with the truth that they did throw her away like garbage.
The Resistance is located at Naboo, not Ajan Kloss. I feel it’d be more meaningful if the last hope of the galaxy is now located at where the saga chronologically started. They are not in Theed, however, although it can be seen in the background in some shots.
Poe isn’t reckless, as in the film it seems like he hasn’t learned his lesson from The Last Jedi. Furthermore, the lightspeed skipping sequence itself is removed as it reinforces his recklessness in the actual film. There’ll be ways to add in some conflict between him and Rey during that scene, but I have no idea as to what.
The Steadfast is Kylo Ren’s command ship and the new capital of the First Order after the Supremacy was crippled in The Last Jedi. It looks like this instead of a regular Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, and it even has its own throne room, complete with a throne for Kylo Ren to sit on.
Pryde is replaced with General Veers from the original trilogy.
I agree with Hal 9000 that Kylo Ren should not be flat-out saying to Rey that he is going to turn her to the dark side.
Hopefully, I can remove Finn being Force-sensitive. Hopefully…
I don’t really like the retcon that Rey’s parents were good people who abandoned her to protect her from Palpatine and loved her, I feel it undermines her arc in The Last Jedi. Instead, they abandoned her because they “saw what she would become,” due to her Palpatine heritage and Force-sensitivity (it’s implied or stated they hated Palpatine himself, seeing him as the bad guy, and ran away from him). Scenes are modified to match this (Ochi is probably reduced to just a Sith assassin).
REY: You said you knew the rest of my story. You knew why my parents threw me away. Why? Tell me.
KYLO REN: Because they knew what you would become. You don’t just have power, you have his power. You’re his granddaughter. You are a Palpatine.
The dyad was formed in the period of time between The Last Jedi and Throne of the Darkness as a(n indirect) result of Snoke bridging Rey and Kylo Ren’s minds; Kylo Ren and Palpatine acknowledge this in their respective scenes. Honestly, it is more meaningful if Snoke truly did bridge their minds, because it shows that Rey had fallen into a trap, that she is naïve.
KYLO REN: What Palpatine doesn’t know is that when Snoke bridged our minds, it did more than just let us communicate. We’ve become a dyad in the Force. Two that are one.
If I re-write Return of the Jedi to replace the second Death Star with the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, the wreckage of the second Death Star on Kef Bir is replaced with that. If otherwise, Kijimi is replaced with Coruscant, so there’d be additional weight to when the Xyston-class Star Destroyer eradicates its entire population, because Coruscant has been with us from the beginning to the end.
Speaking of which… irrelevant, but for a fix for the overall Skywalker saga, the Death Star and anything associated with that do not blow up entire planets, they just eradicate all life on their respective surfaces.
R2-D2 does not restore C-3PO’s memory at all, as it ruins the weight of his “sacrifice” on Kijimi/Coruscant.
When Palpatine drains Rey and Ben of their life force and rejuvenates himself, he retains his Herobrine eyes, as a visual reminder that his spirit is not in his original body, but a different one.
The Tantive IV is replaced with the space cruiser we see in the beginning of The Phantom Menace during Palpatine’s Force lightning attack on the galaxy fleet. It makes more sense from a chronological, saga perspective — whereas the Tantive IV being the focal ship hit was done from a meta, release order perspective.
The exchange between Rey and Palpatine is less… prequel-esque and cheesy (coming from a defender of both the prequels and sequels; yes, we exist!)…
PALPATINE: Let your death be the final word in the story of Rebellion. You are nothing. You are all alone. Your allies have forsaken you! A scavenger like you cannot stand against the true, unlimited power of the Sith!
REY: Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. I am more than that, I was never alone… and I… am all the Jedi!
When we see Rey on Tatooine at the end, she is wearing regular Jedi robes, reminiscent of those from the prequels, instead of her scavenger-esque ones; the fact she is no longer wearing her scavenger-esque robes symbolizes how she has overcome her core belief of self-worthlessness.
The Force ghost of Ben Solo appears with the Skywalker twins in the final scene on Tatooine; in other words, it means all three of the Skywalkers whom Rey personally knew are granting her permission to name herself, “Rey Skywalker.”
Since this is the final chronological Star Wars movie, the credits should start out with, “THE END”, before we get into the real stuff. The traditional Star Wars end credits music is replaced with something that would reinforce Throne of the Darkness as the series finale to Star Wars.
Some of the ideas you guys read aren’t mine, some of them belong to /u/b_khan0131 (now this guy), /u/persistentInquiry, both of whom are Redditors and also like The Last Jedi AND The Rise of Skywalker; some ideas were scrapped concepts and also originated from Colin Trevorrow’s scrapped Duel of the Fates screenplay.