I think mainly for ideas I have. There really isn’t much. I usually have never been one for rewrites and such but considering I am prepping for a huge Star Wars deep dive on my DeviantArt page, I’ve thought of some ideas every so often so…
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
This film to me is perfect. Not in the sense that it’s the best film mind you but it was perfect as a reintroduction to Star Wars, a nice way of easing people into this universe before doing a bunch of crazy new stuff and it showed us a ton of new elements. That being said? It does have some clunkiness no doubt brought on by them initially planning these films for May and then delaying them to December afterwards which leads to some reshoots that may not be the most seamlessly integrated. That being said there isn’t much to really do with The Force Awakens. I personally would keep everything the same but I’d tweak the TIE Fighter crash so that it’s more clear that Poe could’ve survived like say actually show him being thrown from the crash and him fainting. That way there is a genuine mystery on whether or not he actually died or could come back instead of how it is in the actual movie where due to trailers and how it is normally? Him being written to die initially is too obvious. I also would’ve kept some of the scenes with Korr Sella since they do better establish the state of the galaxy which I do feel was the ST’s biggest failing. Understandable given the dislike for the prequels but it overcorrected on this aspect. Speaking of the prequels though, another change would be that Hosnian Prime is Coruscant. I get why it wasn’t Coruscant and I also get that it would read to some prequel fans as them further crapping on them but to me? This just makes more sense for a huge emotional impact. We don’t spend much time with Korr Sella anyway and in the movie normally, the destruction scene is great though it’s the music and the fact we’re seeing what this looks like from the perspective of the planet’s inhabitants that’s doing the heavy-lifting. Making it Coruscant would be a great way to demonstrate that this is a new era of Star Wars and that the First Order ain’t screwing around by taking down a long-standing symbol of the Republic and Jedi. I would keep it to this though. Starkiller Base can be given the implication that it can destroy multiple planets but the more I think about it the more I think it skews towards over-the-top ridiculous territory when it does that so keep it to the idea that firing lasers across hyperspace is a taste of what it can do which makes it properly terrifying.
Next, just a simple one, Leia’s line of “When did that ever help and don’t say the Death Star.” would be altered to a sarcastic “Psh, because the Resistance really needs your form of help.” in response to what Han said. This line is the only one that reads as particularly awkward to me on multiple rewatches because it just comes across as a forced reference to the Death Star and it doesn’t sound like anything people would reasonably say.
Next, Captain Phasma would do more or at least would be in the story more. Have her show up for more scenes and establish that she doesn’t care really about FN-2187, believing he would just die due to the weakness she perceives in betraying the First Order which would help to also incorporate the idea that she really is more out for herself. Though to better establish that she is a part of the movie, maybe she can appear on Takodana as one of the troopers that takes Finn, Han and Chewie into custody and she and Finn share a small dialogue where she calls him rebel scum. Then Poe’s attack starts to happen and we hear Phasma give an order but noticeably the order also is for a squad to cover her as she makes a tactical retreat which again would imply self-preservation over everything else. This way when we get to when she’s made to shut down the shields? Aside from having a more obvious struggle where the likes of Han, Chewie and Finn together need to get her restrained, it makes her presence in the movie feel more like set-up to being Finn’s arch-nemesis, a representation of his former life and the horrors he wishes to escape. Other than that? Not many other changes really need to be made aside from Leia hugging Chewie or at least some acknowledgment of his pain over Han’s death.
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
The Last Jedi really is a great movie to me. It’s my second favorite Star Wars movie ever but it does have issues. Mostly small ones I feel could’ve been corrected with ease and to start off, Luke tossing the lightsaber would be changed. I think the problem with this scene and why it comes off as disrespectful in particular is the way it’s framed. The silence before the casual tossing makes it seem like a comedic beat more than it does a proper serious moment and I think in a way it helps contribute to why the movie seems a little too jokey. Certain scenes just aren’t framed the way they probably should be so the way to alter it would be this for me. Rey hands Luke the saber and his hands slightly tremble as he reaches for it and maybe he touches it with the music going in what seems like it’s going to be this triumphant Force theme but it goes down into something more solemn as Luke shoves the lightsaber into her hands and walks off. To be fair, there’s no way you can do this scene without upsetting someone and I get what Rian was going for, the uncaring grumpy toss over the shoulder says a lot about Luke’s emotional state in one move but it is framed in an odd way. I personally would not reinstate the scene of Luke mourning Han though since to me the editing works more to keep the film moving and also it’s not like we need to see Luke’s reaction when we know what it’s gonna be.
As for the Poe stuff? I’d make it just that slight bit more clear that what Poe’s doing is wrong by having him bounce off more people and also including more scenes of Holdo seemingly planning something. The deal with these scenes to me is they’re great and they have a lot of subtleties to them like Poe’s various body movements and his intonation when he’s speaking to Holdo… but the more I think about it? They’re a tad too subtle. You have to actively tell someone to look for them when they’re rewatching it for someone to see and if they’ve already decided they hate the movie and won’t watch it again? Well that’s gonna be a problem and it’s gonna be an even bigger problem if they come out of it saying that should’ve been a bit more at the forefront. For instance, when Poe is talking with say another pilot, he brings up how they took out a Dreadnought and that it could’ve killed their whole fleet and maybe the other says something like “You ever consider that with all the surface cannons you took out and our shields that we’d be able to weather the Dreadnought’s strikes or that maybe destroying the whole thing was not necessary but perhaps the cannon was?” and maybe Poe brushes it aside because he’s the kind of guy who prefers to see the mission through to the end. It gives people more to look for and also makes his failure more apparent.
Leia flying through space with the Force should be reframed. I think the big problem with this scene comes down to showing her fly back towards the ship. I think if they had tweaked it somewhat to where we don’t see the sweeping camera movement and have instead the scenes of her finger twitching and eyes opening inserted during scenes of Poe and Finn panicking about the potential loss of Leia and we only see a little bit of her moving with the biggest scene we get being when she’s moving through the destroyed bridge? That would work out the best to me. I think it’s important to keep this for without Carrie this is the only time that we’re really ever gonna see Leia use the Force in a big way and I think the idea is sound, it just wasn’t done the best. It was one of those risks that did not succeed.
Finn’s stuff is great. I think Canto Bight works really well for his arc and I think it really needs a few line alterations here and there and a shortening of the Fathier chase to make it work and if you don’t mind me jumping ahead? I think it would’ve been better if instead of ramming into Finn to stop him from pointlessly killing himself if we either have Rose using her techniques as an engineer to hack her way into Finn’s comms to stop him or maybe when he shuts his eyes, the sound goes out and he remembers Rey saying “We’ll see each other again.” which would hint towards the Force being present in him and then his eyes could shoot open, he looks around and sees that the speeder is burning up and then he quickly forces it to either move out of the way or he opens the hatch and quickly jumps out of it sustaining some minor burns. Would that be ridiculous? Yes but it would also be more in line with the kind of space fantasy stuff you’d see from Star Wars and just the crazy stunts of action movies in general. Then you could have Rose pull up beside Finn and pick him up as she demands to know what he was thinking and he then says something about how he thought this was his way of making a difference, that this was him fighting for a cause he believed in until he realized he had more to live for or at least that’s his way of explaining it since he has no clue that what he just tapped into was the Force.
Moving back to Luke and Rey’s talks, the two would have more moments of butting heads and clashing ideas as Luke is challenged more frequently on this position he has taken and maybe we get a few glimpses of his journey to Ahch-To. Like maybe we get him telling a story about how much like Rey, he sought answers and decided to look at the history of the Jedi and what he found was a history of failure and corruption and that it was this that led to his father becoming Vader in the first place and it was at that point he felt his whole world shatter which resulted in him coming to the conclusion that if he were to pursue this path further? He’d just be playing into a loop of failure and trauma and that he wanted no part in that, maybe he even says something like “Call me a coward if you want. Say I’m a broken pathetic hermit who’s defying all that they’ve stood for, it doesn’t matter to me because I know the true history of the Jedi while you? You only know that story from a certain point of view.” to acknowledge what people said about The Force Awakens.
As for the Supremacy? Nothing really needs to be done here I’d say except the deleted scene of Phasma’s demise should’ve been kept or at least revised. We should have more of Phasma anyway like maybe references and small appearances and I don’t mind if she dies in TLJ but we should get more of her again to make her Finn’s nemesis and because of the alteration? While the rebel scum line in the movie worked as is? Here it’s more significant because it’s Finn taking ownership of being a rebel and showing he now accepts that he has something to fight for. The one change I’d make though is it happens during a clash before Finn strikes her and makes the killing blow. To me the burning pit was a little too convenient and it takes away a little from Finn’s moment. Other than that, I love what was done with Snoke and Kylo and I think we reach a satisfying climax here. From this point forward there really doesn’t need to be any change except one scene that may come across as indulgent but I feel like it’s one of those teases that would be neat to see. Have a small scene where Kylo is on the Finalizer or maybe in Snoke’s throne room and he’s mourning over Rey not taking his hand and the fact that he has failed to take down Luke Skywalker and when he’s asked on what they are to do now? He asks for someone to contact his knights. Again maybe it’s indulgent but an acknowledgment of the Knights of Ren would be nice at least.
Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
This movie is a giant mess but very much a salvageable one. It’s enjoyable on its own for entertainment, has some really cool ideas and plenty of ideas I like… but this thing was also rushed to meet a December deadline which shows in its breakneck pacing, it plays things way too safe and it’s the only film of the ST that feels like fanfiction though one of the elements that hurts this film the most is the incorporation of Leia which is very sloppy. This is a perfect example of a situation where the filmmakers knew that they could not continue with their original idea and should’ve accepted that but rather than doing that? They instead crippled the story they were writing to try and find a way to put Leia in and for the record? I don’t think Duel of the Fates is much better in that regard. Duel of the Fates has issues that I can forgive on the basis of it being a first draft and it has some ideas that are way better but it suffers from issues such as characters feeling like they haven’t learned a damn thing (Some of Luke’s dialogue about attachment and Yoda saying that Rey taught them something comes to mind.) to Colin Trevorrow’s issues from Jurassic World where some scenes just come across as overly grim and edgelordy like with R2’s almost death and Threepio ripping a droid’s internals out. And then there’s the fanservice. Just all the unnecessary fanservice and Kylo Ren is, even if it is for a little bit, relegated to being another person’s pawn. So how would I rewrite Episode IX?
First thing’s first, Palpatine stays dead, there is no Palpatine throughout this movie, he has no reason to be here. Also, no Leia though I wouldn’t have her die. That isn’t to say she couldn’t die in this story but I do agree with what one commenter stated about Leia’s death in TLJ where Carrie’s actual passing being followed up by Luke becoming one with the Force gave off, however unintentionally this vibe that all the OT heroes are just gonna drop like flies so instead, here’s the compromise. Put down in the crawl that Poe is a general and either through the crawl or dialogue in the movie it’s made clear that he is succeeding Leia who decided to retire for she genuinely has lost so much and can’t keep up the fight but she now doesn’t have to because she can tell with what he has learned and the people he has around him that Poe is good company to leave the Resistance in. Another detail that should be noted, Rey is still a nobody and also there is nothing more to do with her parentage or history. To me, it should end with TLJ and while there are great ways to have another reveal as the likes of krausfadr’s Resurgence fan-edit shows? I think it’s more important for this story that we stop trying to add to this history and instead build upon Rey’s character with the idea she feels down about the idea that she is no one, that she is just some scavenger from Jakku who isn’t equipped for this whatsoever. I loved DOTF’s message of “No one is really no one.” so I think it’d be better for a personal arc to have Rey go through this and eventually have her accept that as it would serve as a nice contrast to Kylo who rejects who he is.
Speaking of Kylo, he is our sole villain along with the Knights of Ren. He is an unstable powder keg in such a high position of power that requires a deft hand to rule that he simply doesn’t have and the worst part is? No one can argue with him on this because he now has his Knights of Ren who are basically a cult of Dark Side obsessives who enable him and will go with his plan because he’s their master and they have no reason to doubt him. Meanwhile General Hux is hard at work at both trying to maintain the First Order and also is gradually trying to work out means to try and salvage it and snatch it away from Kylo with the idea being this eventually leads to Kylo being ousted from the First Order with there being no one to side with him but the Knights of Ren. The idea behind Kylo’s character here is it keeps up with the theme of him trying to kill the past but as he slips more and more into darkness, he wants more and more power and he starts getting to the point where he really doesn’t want galactic control, he wants everything to burn and he would die a villain. He’d get attempts at redemption like having Anakin speak with him and we’d see Luke continuously come to him but he’d reject them with the message here being about how while no one is beyond saving truthfully and there’s always a chance for redemption? Sometimes tragically people make horrible choices that they stick with until the bitter end. This is so that when we get the tease of the Jedi Order being reformed (Or in this case, more a collection of monks called the Skywalkers.), the idea is that the new order will work very differently and learn from the mistakes of the past so that there aren’t any Darth Vaders or Kylo Rens in the future. As for the First Order? Well they are really just the Empire but personally and this may seem controversial, I don’t view their end as being necessary for this trilogy. There are always going to be evil groups that rise up and try to start stuff in the galaxy and the war has already been something that we’ve gone through with the previous trilogy and one thing I really liked about Star Wars was that the war was important sure but it was always the character stuff that shined through more and we know that there will be more Star Wars films after this one so I think it’s important to make the end of the Skywalker Saga not a grand finale that ties up all nine movies into one nice bow but rather a more intimate affair that sets up a future for the galaxy that’s hopeful and leaves the door for more movies but is the ultimate climax to the arc of the Skywalkers. I can even see the possibility of having an ending like when Rey defeated Palpatine by having their final duel culminate with Kylo telling her she is nothing without him and that her choice to refuse his hand will be the last thing she regrets but then when he’s finished off, she says that she does have people, no one is no one and that she is a Skywalker (Okay maybe nothing on that end but you get the sentiment.).
As for those other people, Poe’s arc is him adapting to being general and at first maybe trying to copy Leia but finding he isn’t really the best at it. I liked those moments of doubt from him in TROS such as when he talks with Leia after her passing and I think that’s a natural build from his arc in the previous movie. It also has a role open for Finn who can learn more maybe about his Force-sensitivity but also maybe he tries his best to advise Poe but mostly because he kind of puts him in that position as he keeps looking for people to help him as he feels a little lost without Leia’s leadership, reflecting maybe the feelings of the filmmakers as they tried to continue knowing they can’t close out her story the way they wanted to. This could culminate in something like the “I’m not Leia.” scene from TROS but in a more emotional manner where he just admits he’s not Leia and that he doesn’t know what he can do and that he feels so alone and it’s Finn that picks him up with maybe some backup from Lando (Who we’d establish earlier has been working with the Resistance as a favor to Leia and because he felt he had a responsibility as he moved away from the Rebellion at a certain point and in that time… well he lost Han. Also like Finn, Poe would be looking for guidance from Lando.) if we want to go there but mostly it’s Finn and then Poe looks him in the eye and the two embrace lovingly as he thanks him and is fully rejuvenated. Because there’s no kiss with Rose? One could see this as being Finn and Poe being implied strongly to be more than friends though if this was continuing off of TLJ as-is? A couple scenes showing them working together as friends that just have additional dialogue where he kind of confides in her a little about his worry for Poe that implies the two split amicably would work well. Otherwise it’d be scenes between two friends and speaking of Rose? I really like that DOTF played off her role as an engineer by having her as a hacker to a degree and I want that to be the same here. I think it’s a good idea to have a character who is really good in an area that’s not combat and I think her just being mission control for her brief scenes in TROS was not a good use of her.
As for the central plot? It could be a combination of TROS and DOTF. Kylo Ren is silencing communication of various systems to try and quell any unrest but it’s noted that First Order attacks are starting to become not only way more erratic but also grisly as unlike the Empire which valued control? Kylo is on a clear warpath. If planets bow to him out of fear? He accepts their surrender but anyone dares to stand up to him? He decimates the planet’s leaders and leaves the civilization he attacks in a state that is close to unlivable and this is something we’d see throughout the course of the film and where we’d especially see it is in how he interacts with First Order leadership. Disagreements end initially with him doing things like holding up a finger like Han Solo and they maybe get to voice raising or a Force Choke but then noticeably it gets worse and worse as he starts killing people and because he’s Supreme Leader? No one can really do anything, no one except for General Hux. We see that Kylo is a paranoid, angry wreck of a man and that his instability makes him a threat in a way we haven’t seen in the movies before. Vader and Palpatine were tactically minded while Kylo is more unhinged but he has still his moments of vulnerability but we see him going down the wrong path. Meanwhile Rey is of course training more in the ways of the Jedi and has made a double-bladed lightsaber but she finds herself frustrated and kind of torn. Being told she’s no one really hurts and much like Poe, she feels she is lacking in guidance. Granted we see Luke pop up from time-to-time to help her but we see that she struggles even with him, maybe have her mention her concerns like how she doesn’t how a scavenger from Jakku can carry on the legacy of the Skywalkers who at the moment have Kylo as their sole living heir and we see how the discussions transpire from there. Planets for the most part would be a combination of old and new worlds, I think because Kylo is more out to kill the past, it makes sense to revisit some past planets though with it being a sequel there should be new worlds also with maybe some themes borrowed from past worlds to still tie the trilogies together with the only planet we don’t have truthfully being a new desert planet, that should just be Tatooine or even Jakku since Pasaana as a planet is just a reskin of those. We see elements from all three trilogies sprinkled throughout the story but it’s not thrown in haphazardly. In other words, we don’t just get prequel references and such because we can but rather it makes sense for the story. As for the quest, it’s not for the location of a fleet or whatever but rather it’s them trying to gather people to fight for their cause and help when they can and because Kylo has this unhealthy obsession with Rey, he’s almost always hot on their tail. During this time, another plot can happen where Finn maybe encounters Stormtroopers and kind of like a deleted scene in TLJ, they recognize him fondly but in this case, they want to know how he broke free. This is where we can say have Jannah from TROS but portrayed differently, instead we see that she’s a trooper under the employ of the First Order and that she is tired of the killing but she doesn’t know really a way to break free especially with how bad things have gotten and Finn tells her the start to it is getting a name. Then it’s a proper set-up for our Stormtrooper revolt and in a way ties into how the First Order will oust Kylo and how that will fracture them. Other ideas I’ve covered earlier but the biggest one is the ending.
I think there can be a combination of the ending of TROS and DOTF. To me the ending on Tatooine is thematically appropriate but it’s too fanservicey. Rey Skywalker I’m fine with since to me I like the implication that Skywalker effectively becomes a name that can be passed down to people than just a family name but I think it’s the combination of the ghosts of Luke and Leia, it being the Lars homestead and Rey being a Palpatine beforehand that leads to this weird feeling that she’s more snatching the name than inheriting it. So instead, we should end where this trilogy began on Jakku as we have Finn with the next generation of Jedi trying to move something with the Force. It can be a brief comedic beat where he doesn’t do it and the children giggle a bit but overall, it sets up that Finn is Force-sensitive and that maybe he’s not training to be a Jedi but rather just someone who can use the Force to show that Rey has taken Luke’s message of the Force not belonging to the Jedi to heart. Rey watches on and smiles but it’s either break time or the end of the training day and we see the kids and Finn go off with her maybe sharing a small conversation with the ghosts that ends with her looking off towards the sunset as she feels at peace. Like what Yoda said to Luke, this is the next generation that will grow beyond their masters, they are the people who learned from the mistakes of old and will forge a path towards something new. If Jakku is considered to be a bit much considering it is a desert planet then maybe have it be Ahch-To. Either way, I like the idea of an ending that closes the book on Skywalker while leaving it open for the future. Then you got three parts, the first is the PT which is about the prime of the Jedi and the start of the family, the second is the OT which is about Luke and how his father overcame evil and the third is now about their legacy and how it’s gonna play a part in shaping the future. It’s also intimate, emotional and more based on the core themes of the trilogy and Star Wars without being overblown. TROS suffered because it decided the best route to take for the story was to go bigger, even larger than what we’ve ever seen in the previous trilogies all to cap off this saga when it didn’t need that. It’s what I liked about ROTJ’s ending, it’s an intimate emotional ending to that story that retroactively thanks to the prequels feels grander with added importance and that’s how I feel the ending to the ninth film should be.
Those are of course just my ideas though.