Just listened to Hal and Speakhard’s conversation today during a long drive and it was great! Having spent some time not messing around with fan edits too much, it was great to revisit the history and also listen to sort of a retrospective on what was accomplished with Hal’s Sequel Trilogy edits.
Speakhard, I think you had a great thought on how this need people have to add their voice to the Star Wars story reflects the franchise becoming sort of a modern mythology, which was Lucas’ goal. It is kind of ironic, because I do wonder if Lucas’ choice to make the Special Editions and not make the original unaltered trilogy available kind of sparked the idea that these films aren’t really set in stone, but can be altered.
Kind of a fun but unimportant thought, but I like to think that in-universe all of these stories exist and have been documented at some unknown time in the far future, where no one really knows how these events actually went down, and people have these contradicting myths to choose from. For example, one version of the “New Hope” text has Han shooting Greedo first (and only), while another has Han shooting second. Or in terms of EU vs Disney Canon, both versions contain a story of the son of Han and Leia falling to the dark side, so perhaps future scholars believe that fact is likely true, but the details are up for debate. Anyway, a very nerdy thought, but I think the idea would help appease fans who get their pants in a knot about what is and isn’t canon. Or maybe people believe it is all made up, just like how King Arthur likely never existed.
Also, speakhard, I think you were right on the money about how TFA Restructured turns the original movies weaknesses into strengths. Like Hal said, TFA is basically a soft reboot of ANH in many ways, but that copying or parallelism works to the edit’s advantage when it sets up saving Hosnian Prime at the climax of the film, when you expect our heroes to save the day in the nick of time just like they did in ANH. I also think NeverarGreat’s Starlight Edition of TFA builds off this idea by having Rey tap into the dark side in order to defeat Kylo Ren. It is unexpected, it provides a more complex rationale for how the untrained Rey is able to defeat Kylo Ren, and it sets up the need for Luke Skywalker to return even more, not only to save the galaxy but to save Rey from that darkness within her.
Listening to this conversation was kind of cathartic in coming to terms a little bit more with my gripes with ST. Honestly I’m kind of back and forth when it comes to my feelings on the films, so that’s not set in stone, but lately I’ve been more okay with them bringing back Palpatine (still choosing to ignore Rey Palpatine though). I think future ST edits could do more to help set his return up. I think there is still more that could done with a future TROS edit, but I’m really happy with the reception Ascendant has gotten since its release.
I’m sure I have more thoughts that I’m forgetting but I really loved the insight you guys shared! Definitely would recommend others to check it out.
Also, Hal, I think Hal 9000 is a fitting name to go by, since the act of fan editing is, in essence, rebelling against the creator.