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Unusual Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 98

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Nindroid243 said:

Is there a way to recolor Snoke into more Gray? I think he looks a lot better in TFA and the way he did in TLJ.

Only manually, I’m afraid. He’s the same color as the humans and the background (red). You could use EbSynth to facilitate the process, put it’d still be largely manual labor.

EddieDean said:

I would really, really like to see an attempt at a communitywide saga edit, where we consider the franchise holistically.

Bad idea. No one would agree on anything so we’d end up with a middle of the road answer for everything and no one would be happy. Your community focus threads are the closest we’ll come and they’re honestly fantastic.

NeverarGreat said:

I imagine that it would be an entire saga edit using an expanded form of the process of Restructured or Ascendant, where people would submit ideas but one person (or in this case some evil council) decided what ultimately made the cut.

Yeah probably.

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Would removing starkiller base and having the dreadnaught destroy the republic capital be possible for TFA? I remember seeing Snooker’s mockups of that and they looked pretty good. Would go a long way to differentiating it from the OT, and you could keep starkiller base as simply a base. Poe being adamant on destroying the dreadnaught in TLJ might work better, too. I’m not sure how that would work with Poes starkiller assault though.

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My radical ideas to edit (and improve) the Sequel Trilogy:

  1. The Resistance Isn’t a separate group from the New Republic, but is simply what remains of the New Republic fleet. The New Republic has already been destroyed and overwhelmed by the First Order before TFA, and the Resistance is only what remains of the New Republic fleet.
  2. Snoke doesn’t exist. The resurrect Palpatine is the direct leader of the First Order and Kylo Ren is his apprentice. The Knights of Ren are basically the equivalent of the old Imperial Guards, but they’re Force-sensitive. Also, the reasons of Palpatine’s resurrection are already explained in TFA. At the time of his first death on the Second Death Star he managed to transfer his spirit to his cloned body on Exegol and so he managed to survive. Just like in Dark Empire.
  3. Luke and Rey meet in TFA and Luke explains the reasons of his exile to Rey in TFA. At the end of the film we see Rey starting her training with Luke. Between TFA and TLJ a year has passed.
  4. Luke didn’t exile to escape his responsibilities, but simply because he realized that he failed with Kylo. So he felt the need to exile and meditate to understand what he did wrong, so that he could return to action at a later date, with a clearer mind and clearer ideas. He hadn’t explained to anyone why he exiled, so everyone’s looking for him, but no one knows why he disappeared until he explains his reasons to Rey. Luke made the same mistakes of the old Jedi Order, and after his long exile and his long meditation he understood that the Jedi Order Need to be transformed, he understood that attachments must be allowed and the Jedi must not be too dogmatic and rigid. In other words, he understood that the Jedi Order Need to be transformed into what Luke’s Legends counterpart has managed to do. So, “it’s time for the Jedi to end” turns into “it’s time for the Jedi to change”.
  5. Rey is nobody. She’s neither a Skywalker nor a Palpatine. Rey is basically the Nomi Sunrider of the Disney Canon.
  6. Yes, Luke tried to kill Ben Solo in his sleep. Yes, Ben Solo was already corrupted by the Dark Side. But Luke immediately regretted what he did and tried in every way to redeem Ben and bring him back to the Light, but without succeeding. In this way, the fact that he tried to kill him in his sleep is balanced by the fact that he then tried to redeem him in every way and he regretted what he did. So in this way it doesn’t feel out of character. Luke dies against Kylo in the same way we see in the original version of TLJ.
  7. There are no sacred Jedi texts. Rey is trained by Luke, but she can only draw on his teachings, and there’s no sacred Jedi text that contains forgotten teachings by which Rey can learn how to resurrect people through the Force. So, Rey never learns the power of resurrection through the Force, and so this power doesn’t appear in TROS.
  8. Leia dies to help Kylo to redeem himself like in the original version of TROS, but Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost appears and guides Kylo to redemption instead of Han Solo.
  9. Rey doesn’t kill Palpatine. In the final battle on Exegol Anakin Skywalker’s ghost (played by Hayden Christensen) appears while Rey is unconscious, after which the ghosts of Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Qui-Gon also appear to help Anakin. There’s a clash of Force powers between Palpatine and Anakin’s ghost, and in the end Palpatine dies at the hands of Anakin AGAIN, confirming that he’s the Chosen One.
  10. Kylo Ren redeems himself and returns to be Ben Solo in the final battle on Exegol. He survives, takes Skywalker as his second surname (becoming Ben Solo Skywalker) and begins training a new generation of Jedi with Rey, putting into practice Luke’s ideas for the change and innovation of the Jedi Order.

These are my radical ideas to change the main plots of the Trilogy. Of course, I also have in mind many radical ideas to change the subplots, but for now I prefer to limit myself to the radical changes for the main plots.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

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I like a lot of your ideas! I also like the idea of Ben Solo surviving in the end. It’s personally an edit I would like to see made after Rey Nobody is accomplished.

This all came back to my mind recently because the Templin Institute on YouTube posted a new video reimagining the First Order-New Republic War. They kept things closer to the films than I thought they would. Definitely some deviations, but the big story beats are still there. The major difference is the details they chose to add. Some interesting takeaways:

• The Resistance is one of many “volunteer forces” that work for the New Republic.
• Starkiller Base is still a new Death Star, but with the caveat that it can only fire once. I’m not sure how you could get this idea across in the film. Maybe new dialogue from a Resistance officer or pilot during the briefing or the attack.
• A huge chunk of the New Republic fleet was at Hosnian Prime to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Endor (not sure if this could get across in an edit at all).
• The entirety of the New Republic military wasn’t destroyed in the attack. But the days/weeks following, the remnants were scattered and struggling to fight off the FO’s coordinated offensive.
• Leia becomes the de facto leader of an emergency New Republic government.
• The battle of Crait and the duel between Luke and Kylo Ren is broadcast to the galaxy as a propaganda tactic that blows up in the First Order’s face.
• During the TLJ-TROS interim (which is 5 years), the New Republic/Resistance makes efforts to gain allies and rebuild/reorganize a new New Republic fleet. So the final battle isn’t “just people” per se, but a makeshift armada under the leadership of the New Republic.

I feel like if one were to try to work with this approach, the crawls would do a lot of the legwork, but perhaps off screen radio communication with the Resistance “allies” or the TROS civilian fleet could be replaced with dialogue that more clearly depicts those entities as New Republic.

So the scattered New Republic fleet is simply too busy to help the Resistance in TLJ rather than being too afraid to help. And then in TROS, cut dialogue that implies the Resistance is still all alone, and use the crawl to help explain that efforts to rebuild the New Republic have been underway.

EDIT: Here’s a link to the video https://youtu.be/0Ai--LPeKQQ

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Darth Malgus said:

My radical ideas to edit (and improve) the Sequel Trilogy:

  1. The Resistance Isn’t a separate group from the New Republic, but is simply what remains of the New Republic fleet. The New Republic has already been destroyed and overwhelmed by the First Order before TFA, and the Resistance is only what remains of the New Republic fleet.
  2. Snoke doesn’t exist. The resurrect Palpatine is the direct leader of the First Order and Kylo Ren is his apprentice. The Knights of Ren are basically the equivalent of the old Imperial Guards, but they’re Force-sensitive. Also, the reasons of Palpatine’s resurrection are already explained in TFA. At the time of his first death on the Second Death Star he managed to transfer his spirit to his cloned body on Exegol and so he managed to survive. Just like in Dark Empire.
  3. Luke and Rey meet in TFA and Luke explains the reasons of his exile to Rey in TFA. At the end of the film we see Rey starting her training with Luke. Between TFA and TLJ a year has passed.
  4. Luke didn’t exile to escape his responsibilities, but simply because he realized that he failed with Kylo. So he felt the need to exile and meditate to understand what he did wrong, so that he could return to action at a later date, with a clearer mind and clearer ideas. He hadn’t explained to anyone why he exiled, so everyone’s looking for him, but no one knows why he disappeared until he explains his reasons to Rey. Luke made the same mistakes of the old Jedi Order, and after his long exile and his long meditation he understood that the Jedi Order Need to be transformed, he understood that attachments must be allowed and the Jedi must not be too dogmatic and rigid. In other words, he understood that the Jedi Order Need to be transformed into what Luke’s Legends counterpart has managed to do. So, “it’s time for the Jedi to end” turns into “it’s time for the Jedi to change”.
  5. Rey is nobody. She’s neither a Skywalker nor a Palpatine. Rey is basically the Nomi Sunrider of the Disney Canon.
  6. Yes, Luke tried to kill Ben Solo in his sleep. Yes, Ben Solo was already corrupted by the Dark Side. But Luke immediately regretted what he did and tried in every way to redeem Ben and bring him back to the Light, but without succeeding. In this way, the fact that he tried to kill him in his sleep is balanced by the fact that he then tried to redeem him in every way and he regretted what he did. So in this way it doesn’t feel out of character. Luke dies against Kylo in the same way we see in the original version of TLJ.
  7. There are no sacred Jedi texts. Rey is trained by Luke, but she can only draw on his teachings, and there’s no sacred Jedi text that contains forgotten teachings by which Rey can learn how to resurrect people through the Force. So, Rey never learns the power of resurrection through the Force, and so this power doesn’t appear in TROS.
  8. Leia dies to help Kylo to redeem himself like in the original version of TROS, but Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost appears and guides Kylo to redemption instead of Han Solo.
  9. Rey doesn’t kill Palpatine. In the final battle on Exegol Anakin Skywalker’s ghost (played by Hayden Christensen) appears while Rey is unconscious, after which the ghosts of Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Qui-Gon also appear to help Anakin. There’s a clash of Force powers between Palpatine and Anakin’s ghost, and in the end Palpatine dies at the hands of Anakin AGAIN, confirming that he’s the Chosen One.
  10. Kylo Ren redeems himself and returns to be Ben Solo in the final battle on Exegol. He survives, takes Skywalker as his second surname (becoming Ben Solo Skywalker) and begins training a new generation of Jedi with Rey, putting into practice Luke’s ideas for the change and innovation of the Jedi Order.

These are my radical ideas to change the main plots of the Trilogy. Of course, I also have in mind many radical ideas to change the subplots, but for now I prefer to limit myself to the radical changes for the main plots.

Bro I would love to help with this edit when you want to.

#TROSFAN

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Tying into the idea of clarifying the actual war that is going on in the ST, I thought of an idea that would require some effects but could clarify the First Order’s scale and strategy.

During the Starkiller Base establishing shot before Hux’s speech, it would be interesting to add in the First Order’s invasion fleet to its orbit (I’m picturing just a distant armada of Star Destroyers above the planet). After Hux completes his speech, we cut back to that establishing shot and see this fleet jump to hyperspace.

Later in the film after Hosnian Prime is destroyed, we could have a montage of establishing shots of notable planets where we see one or multiple Destroyers arriving at each world. You wouldn’t have to necessarily depict any battles, but this could visualize the idea that the First Order basically blitzkriegs major systems as it simultaneously destroys the Senate. If it disrupted the flow of TFA’s climax, this montage could potentially be included at the beginning of TLJ instead.

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RogueLeader said:

Tying into the idea of clarifying the actual war that is going on in the ST, I thought of an idea that would require some effects but could clarify the First Order’s scale and strategy.

During the Starkiller Base establishing shot before Hux’s speech, it would be interesting to add in the First Order’s invasion fleet to its orbit (I’m picturing just a distant armada of Star Destroyers above the planet). After Hux completes his speech, we cut back to that establishing shot and see this fleet jump to hyperspace.

Later in the film after Hosnian Prime is destroyed, we could have a montage of establishing shots of notable planets where we see one or multiple Destroyers arriving at each world. You wouldn’t have to necessarily depict any battles, but this could visualize the idea that the First Order basically blitzkriegs major systems as it simultaneously destroys the Senate. If it disrupted the flow of TFA’s climax, this montage could potentially be included at the beginning of TLJ instead.

I love the idea. It would honestly fix the TLJ Crawl with, “The First Order reigns!”

#TROSFAN

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RogueLeader said:

Later in the film after Hosnian Prime is destroyed, we could have a montage of establishing shots of notable planets where we see one or multiple Destroyers arriving at each world. You wouldn’t have to necessarily depict any battles, but this could visualize the idea that the First Order basically blitzkriegs major systems as it simultaneously destroys the Senate. If it disrupted the flow of TFA’s climax, this montage could potentially be included at the beginning of TLJ instead.

I dig this idea. Also, knowing how a lot of TROS fan edits have cut out the Kijimi destruction footage, editors could now use some of that footage to show how FO Star Destroyers are blitzkrieging worlds.

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BrotherOfSasquatch said:

I dig this idea. Also, knowing how a lot of TROS fan edits have cut out the Kijimi destruction footage, editors could now use some of that footage to show how FO Star Destroyers are blitzkrieging worlds.

I know there’s multiple edits that try to remove the idea of Starkiller base being a superweapon. Theoretically, you could still do the destruction of Hosnian Prime but use footage of Kijimi’s destruction instead.

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You say that like destroying it with a star destroyer is better than doing it with Starkiller Base.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

You say that like destroying it with a star destroyer is better than doing it with Starkiller Base.

Depending on one’s goals with the edit, it could be. You could also use the footage to show them destroying just the particular city part of Hosnian Prime without blowing up the whole planet.

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That’s actually what I did for my edit using the dreadnought from TLJ.

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This is something that I would like to see in a TLJ fan edit

https://youtu.be/Jkr9iGBdyQo

This scene of having the Praetorian Guard holding lightsabers makes it look like they were trained in the Sith arts which makes it more interesting compared to what they were originally holding.

Something that I’ve always wondered about is if the Emperor’s Royal Guards from ROTJ were aware that he was a Sith while the Empire wasn’t.

Analog Releases of Films That Contain Deleted, Extended, & Alternate Footage That’ve Never Been Released on DVD/BluRay

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Tantive3+1 said:

This is something that I would like to see in a TLJ fan edit

https://youtu.be/Jkr9iGBdyQo

That’s actually really cool. I wonder if the creator of that would share a full quality file for faneditors to use? I love it, and if I ever tackled TLJ I’d definitely want to use it.

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Lol, that clip is so old I’d already commented on it. As one of said comments suggests, I’d rather give lightsabers to the Knights Ren.

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Watched the Andor trailer today and it got me pretty excited for the show. Seems like it has a solid team behind it that has a story in mind from beginning to end.

It did get me thinking a little more about the ST. With the amount of stories we have gotten and are continuing to get on the struggle and sacrifice countless people in the galaxy went through to fight against the Empire, it definitely makes me wish to eventually see an edit of the ST where the New Republic isn’t destroyed unceremoniously. As a hypothetical viewer, it just doesn’t feel right to make an audience invest all of this time watching the struggle to restore the Republic only to quickly brush it away in the movie right after the Empire is beaten.

The New Republic should basically exist for most of the ST off-screen. The First Order is the last known Imperial holdout, and the Resistance is operating within their territory. The New Republic has no jurisdiction there because of a truce, so they can’t intervene. The First Order’s main goal in TFA is to destroy Luke Skywalker.

Palpatine could still be pulling the strings, manipulating Ben Solo to become his new apprentice/vessel, but Rey comes into the equation as a random variable he didn’t foresee. A nobody. And when he tries to launch his hidden Imperial fleet to take over the galaxy, the New Republic finally intervenes before it is too late.

Don’t get me wrong, I love how Restructured and Starlight make the destruction of the Republic so much better than the theatrical film. But in the context of the saga, it still doesn’t feel earned really. I know further series will probably flesh it out, but for now it doesn’t feel like there is enough there to justify taking it out the way they chose to.

I go back and forth on it, but I also lean toward wanting to see an ending where both Rey and Ben live and establish a reformed Jedi Order. TROS basically ends on the same thematic notes as ROTJ, but something has got to be different for the end of the saga. We have to end on a different conclusion or message than the end of the previous trilogy. It feels like the ST never grew beyond the lessons of the PT or OT. I also feel like Ben living would be an easier pill for the audience to swallow if he and the First Order never destroy an entire star system and then subjugate the galaxy.

I know I’ve repeated these ideas many times before. I would love to try these myself if I had the time and drive. Looking back (and ahead), what we were given just doesn’t feel earned. Maybe it is better to stick closer to canon though.

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This’d be a VFX solution, but what if Starkiller just obliterated most of what looked like almost the entire Republic fleet, rather than anything to do with a planet? That way you preserve all the political infrastructure, but leave the Resistance as the only real military throughout the films, before the Republic military recovers in time for the sequels.

This would also explain why it’s a civilian fleet that’s needed at the climax of TROS.

As I think we all know, JJ originally wanted to destroy Coruscant, but was told not to, presumably for exactly this reason, so that everything that preceded his movie wasn’t just casually undone.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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The way I’ve had it is that:

A) The New Republic is divided between Resistance supporters and First Order supporters.

B) The First Order destroys the senate so the whole thing is moot anyway.

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I think the biggest issue with taking out The Republic is that in TFA the Hosnian System is treated as The Entire Republic And Their Fleet. When it’s destroyed the audience is just left saying ‘Okay, I guess the First Order rules the galaxy now because the entire New Republic was just that one system’, even though in any galaxy that doesn’t really make sense.

Take Earth for example. We don’t have a one world government, but imagine if the United Nations was a bit more powerful, with a rotating seat of government which is currently in Switzerland. If a country like North Korea took out the UN headquarters and even all of Switzerland, this would be a devastating attack and throw the world into chaos, but I also wouldn’t expect the nations of the world to suddenly give in to North Korea.

This is essentially what has happened in TFA in the lore. The Hosnian system was just one of many potential seats of New Republic power, and the one currently guarded by their largest standing fleet. With this destroyed the New Republic is in chaos, but is not yet conquered. TLJ is actually as much to blame as TFA in regards to unexplained worldbuilding since it establishes that the First Order now de-facto reigns over the galaxy and they will take over all systems within weeks.

It would be like North Korea suddenly unleashing a hidden fleet of aircraft carriers across the Pacific to try and subdue the nations of the world.

Then TROS comes in with the Sith fleet idea and strains this analogy further.

Russia could have been building a fleet of 10,000 Soviet submarines in secret, each with a nuclear payload, and if North Korea allies with them after the loss of their aircraft carriers they can still rule the world.

But none of this really matters because each nation still has their own military, and once the world got its act together they would combine forces to take out this Russian/North Korean alliance which is only really a threat due to these outdated nuclear submarines that need external radar to help them navigate out of Russia’s only warm water port.

Of course, if you give the ST this sort of context it seems rather like the New Republic was always going to come back and win, which is why the biggest problem for me is not what happens but how it is portrayed. If in TFA they described the Hosnian attack as decapitating the New Republic government instead of destroying the New Republic itself, it would go a long way. In TLJ if they’d had just changed the exposition at the end from ‘allies in the outer rim’ to ‘central worlds of the New Repubic’, it would have shown how these otherwise powerful worlds were frightened into inaction by the First Order. Finally, if TROS would have dropped the planet-destroying capabilities of the ships while keeping the civilian fleet arriving it would have actually made sense.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I like your analogy alot. Reflects all the news/foreign policy stuff I read/pay attention to frequently.

Tho I believe in canon through books or comics or whatever lore (i could be dead wrong), the new republic technically “demilitarized” (for reasons because they didn’t want to create another palpatine like scenario doing an emergency army act etc.) thus paving the way for when the TFO takes out the hosnian system, it became a free open playing ground for the first order to militarily occupy the galaxy.

That being said, the movies never made any of the political background and context clear at all.

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Everything NeverarGreat just said is why I absolutely hate the opening line of TLJ “The First Order reigns.” Also hate when Rey says “The First Order will control all major systems within weeks.” That shit is insulting to the viewer’s intelligence.

I think what works best is a situation where the Republic was too divided to be effective (like the UN, actually, connecting to your analogy) and the Resistance and First Order are already fighting anyway. Destroying the Senate won’t annihilate the entire Republic, it just renders an already inneffective government even more helpless. The Republic’s destruction here would be treated as more of a formality. What were they gonna do, sanction the First Order? It’s really just like the UN in my scenario.