Hehe, fair enough! What matters most is what works best but I promise I will lean that way!!!
Betrayal most foul.
What if the forest shot that followed was cut a bit shorter? It seems to linger a bit on the TIEs as they disappear into the distance, so if that was cut out there would be more room for showing the forest in the previous shot.
As for the specks, Maybe there’s an automated tool to clean up film grain that would pick these up? Otherwise I would happily go in and clean them if it meant salvaging the end of the shot.