Burbin said:
sherlockpotter said:
Fair point, Burbin; I think I may be conflating the theatrical crawl and the Ascendant crawl in my head. I’ve been pondering over this film so long, everything is becoming a blur haha.
I guess as-is is fine, then. Personally, I think I’d still rather have the change though. If he’s going after the hidden power because it would “allow him to destroy any threats,” that implies to me that he’s choosing a certain side; and I’d rather keep his motivations more ambiguous. But like I said, I guess it’s fine to leave it.
I think telling the audience Kylo is in need of more power to shut down the threat of rebellion is great to telegraph his shifted motivation being solely focused on the Sith fleet. His rule is under threat and he needs more resources, it makes Palpatine’s offer more enticing without telling us what side Kylo’s really on. And the fact he’s willing to gamble with the devil for it makes the growing uprising seem like a real threat.
Again, I like what you’re going for; I just don’t think the film shows it in any meaningful capacity. Especially “He’s willing to gamble with the devil” - that would have been so cool! But as the film never really does much with the idea of Kylo double crossing Palpatine aside from one or two throwaway lines. There’s no scene where Rey wonders about Kylo’s loyalties, or where Kylo openly goes against orders…It’s all played very straight. He says he’ll help Palpatine, and then he tells Rey he won’t. How compelling. But the key is, none of it changes how Rey sees Kylo at all, or how the audience sees Kylo at all. So any potential nuance or intrigue is nullified.
For me, if we don’t say what he wants to do with this new power, I think it would be more compelling. The whole time, we’re wondering whether or not he’s working with Palpatine or against him. Is he planning on using Palpatine to control the galaxy? Is he going to stab Palps in the back? He says as much to Rey; but Palps told him to find Rey, so maybe he’s just saying that to lure her out! When he put away his lightsaber, was that him biding his time; or was he actually allying himself with Palps???
Or we could say “Kylo wants to destroy any threats to his power” in the crawl, and make it clear from Minute 1 that he’s going to try and overthrow Palpatine.
Ehhhh…
DZ-330 said:
To suffocate this growing uprising,
the tyrannical First Order has silenced
all communication between neighboring
systems. Fear is everywhere.
I would say no to this too, unfortunately. I get it; but it makes it sound like this communication blackout is going to be a huge plot point in the film (much like in Trevorrow’s script); but…it just isn’t. I feel like it’s a case of being stuck in the weeds. There was concern that Poe should still feel like no one is joining the Resistance cause; so there has to be a reason why he hasn’t heard from anyone; so we need to claim that there’s a communications block…but then we’ll have to resolve that - like before - just by having Lando ring everyone in person.
I almost feel like introducing communications problems to the story is opening a whole new can of worms that we’ll have to then resolve somehow. I vote we just cut Poe’s one contradictory line and be done with it.