Well, that was faster than I thought. Turns out all I had to do was remove Snoke’s long speech about how Kylo won’t change and how he can sense Kylo turning the lightsaber and blah blah blah blah blah. It’s nowhere near as polished as HAL9000’s edit, especially without the musical cue, but I’m not HAL, and I don’t consider myself an expert at those kinds of musical tricks. As long as it works, and it gets the same point across, it’s good.

Another thing I’m reflecting over after watching HAL’s edit of VIII is where to place Luke’s meeting with Yoda. If you watch the workprint, it’s the theatrical placement, right after Rey leaves the planet. HAL9000 took a different approach by moving that scene to just before the Crait showdown. It works for HAL, because his approach was geared more towards Luke Skywalker. However, it may not work so well for my edit due to the more ambiguous tone I plan to set for the ending. My ending isn’t quite as centered on Luke, and gives things more of a “cliffhanger” feel due to leaving the plot of Rey and Kylo up in the air by the time the credits roll.

I also wanted to move the scene where Luke uses the force on a hospitalized Leia to just after Luke’s meeting with Yoda, showing the beginning of his change (Something that another fan editor did, but I can’t remember who, unfortunately). Moving the Yoda scene near the Crait battle scraps that idea, because Leia is no longer unconscious by that point in the film.

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, I can see how moving that scene would be nice for structural reasons, but I’m not sure it works for the direction I have in mind for my edit. I’m curious about what others think. Should I rip off HAL again, or stick with the theatrical direction?