The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 666

You’re exactly right about that cruft. The voices sound a lot closer to the real deal now, but those artifacts keep it from being 100% seamless. Some lines don’t have that, which may come down to the sample, the settings, and just luck. I have another idea of how to potentially address that, but getting better readings may come down to those three factors and a little persistence.

And thanks for taking some time to mess around with all of this!

I can make a new second line for Luke.

As for the Jedi texts line, I’m not sure what went wrong between what I posted and what you tried. It fits if the line finishes when the camera changes to Rey, who just so happens to be finishing up “I just transferred a bit of life” which has mouth movement that seems to match.

EDIT: Maybe I should have made it clear that’s the line you’re deleting to make space.

I’m impressed by the technical aspects of all those clips. I do think though that from a story POV, having Leia tell Rey she is family at the beginning of the movie kind of lets Rey off the hook too early.

Everything she’s been looking for throughout the trilogy is for that sense of belonging. Having a character explicitly give her that satisfaction at the beginning of the story kind of takes away from that discovery she has throughout the film of who her family is. Her being part of the Skywalker family shouldn’t be locked into place until the very last scene as that is the culmination of her journey throughout the trilogy imo.

That is a fair argument, krlozdac. She tells the Aki-Aki girl that she doesn’t have a family mere scenes later. “I don’t have one”.

But on the other hand, we receive no other instance of the Skywalkers readily seeking to adopt her. That’s why the ending is so frustrating for a lot of people, because she is seemingly interjecting herself into a lineage with no permission whatsoever.

That’s a fair point, krlozdac. I’ve considered it as well and think it’s worth discussing.

One argument I can see being made for it is that the Resistance and Leia is already established as her newfound family from the get go. So the movie starts out like, “Okay, this my found family, but am I worthy of them?” And that question is what the movies explores.

Also, having Leia explicitly address Rey as family more strongly justifies her taking the name Skywalker, which didn’t really seem to land with everyone in theaters.

You might be right but it might be worth thinking about.

Also, can someone with headphones and a good ear compare these two voice files and see if the audio quality sounds any different?

First:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qNb_f7AwetG9cXlU6aFv3A3gIrOu6TbK/view?usp=drivesdk

Second:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iprhwpzpLeXs0St1Duk91IN9v4cWOm3a/view?usp=drivesdk

Jar Jar Bricks said:

That is a fair argument, krlozdac. She tells the Aki-Aki girl that she doesn’t have a family mere scenes later. “I don’t have one”.

Does she say she doesn’t have a family, or that she just doesn’t have a family name? I mean, it’s not like Leia legally adopted Rey. She’s just saying that she is where she belongs.

Ah, you’re so right RL. She just says she doesn’t have a family name. And this movie can still totally be about her feeling worthy to take on that name or not.

BTW, the second clip sounds significantly better than the first.

I love it! And I have after effects.

That image looks great, Nev!

I agree that the “you are family” doesn’t gel with Rey’s loneliness throughout the rest of the movie, especially the festival scene.

As for Poe’s briefing, have we considered the possibility of a cutaway during that scene? After he says “His followers have been building something for years,” insert a brief shot of the Fleet itself, taken from some other part of the movie (maybe a wide shot sans-Xwing when Rey arrives at Exogol later in the movie, so that the audience has plenty of time to forget the reused visual). It could buy a little more time for the speech and make the scene more visual for the audience instead of just exposition.

You could also (or alternatively) insert a cutaway shot to showcase the dreadnought cannon when he talks about how the ships have been modified. In fact, we’ve already got an unused shot for that: the planet destruction sequence that was cut from Ascendant begins with a ~6 second uninterrupted slow zoom that shows a full shot of a ship, steadily zooms in on the cannon, and has the cannon begin to glow a menacing red as it prepares to fire.

But, as RL pointed out, the struggle for Rey isn’t necessarily concerning a family itself, but what name she should go by. Toward the end of the film, Palpatine even refers to the Resistance fleet as her “new family”.

I think the line would actually make Rey’s arc of self-confidence issues and worthiness much more apparent than the original.