Always love reading your ideas, RL!
If Hal thinks a fully separate version is going to be necessary for Ascendant Rey Nobody, I’d also be more inclined to remove mention of her parents being nice and helping to protect her. So stuff like:
So in this version of the film, Palpatine basically saw a vision of Rey usurping him in the future, and sent Ochi to find/kill her. Rey’s parents turn out to still have some love for their daughter and they don’t tell them where she is. It’d be nice to not contradict the “filthy junk traders” characterization from TLJ, but I think Hal has already done some work to keep it from being overly contradictory.
I’d rather just remove her parents entirely. Come to think of it, if we remove her parents sparing her from Ochi, would it be better to just outright remove the implication that Ochi was hunting Rey at all? I think the only other time it would be mentioned would be the scene with Finn and Poe - “He was sent to find a little girl on Jakku” or whatever. Could that scene be reframed to just be D-O has the data on Exegol because Ochi was involved with the Sith?
Palpatine calling her weak like her parents, and then her saying her parents were strong and saved her from him wouldn’t have to be cut, since it doesn’t necessarily imply she’s a Palpatine. I hate this line, but it can be kept depending on how her parents are handled. It’d be nice if she could just say, “They saved me from you” if you had to keep anything.
I did a test at one point of Palpatine mocking her, calling her “Weak, like your parents,” and not having Rey respond to that. I thought it worked well - it suddenly hearkened back to her parents being filthy, drunken junk-traders, as if he was stripping Rey of her newfound confidence and abilities. It’s really just that awkward shot of Rey bleating about “My parents were strong…” that doesn’t fit at all.
I actually think Hal said he changed this scene so you probably don’t have this line anymore. But I’m not sure if he cut him saying, “Some things are stronger than blood.” I feel like this line would need to be cut too. Maybe you have Luke say that line as he is sitting down if you felt like he needed to say it.
I wonder if Old Man Luke has any dialogue to say basically, “I know your folks were losers, but we’re not defined by our parents. Some things are stronger than blood.” Probably easier just to cut it entirely though.