Acbagel,

I hope the children are well as well as the rest of your family.

After a lengthy period of time, I finally was able to watch the work print. This was quite impressive in really altering the first of the sequel trilogy for the better.

I do have one strong opinion with regard to making this more in line with legends material and the Luke Skywalker of the OT. The Luke we originally were introduced to was very active in taking the initiative. He was not passively waiting around to make things happen.

In the dream sequence in the end, I would strongly recommend adding a line or two from Luke advising Rey to come to him. The audience could interpret this as his actual communication or just a force illusion, but we really should have Luke taking charge. This enhances his character in a very simple and subtle way. This demonstrates that he was not simply waiting around hoping for the best. It also shows he was not a whiny quitter as portrayed in the next movie.

I think this could function as a parallel to Obi Wan telling Luke to go to Yoda in ESB with Luke advising Rey to go to him.

I scoured through many of the comments here, and I share many of the complimentary sentiments along with your goals for this edit that I believe really worked well. There are many to list, but I will briefly go over a few.

Thank you for giving back some dignity to Han Solo’s character. I mean, did we really need to have him as a criminal smuggler again? This was a lazy plot point. Not to mention his relationship with Leia completely falling apart was rather extreme.
The rearranged opening worked a lot better versus the theatrical order of things.
While still over the top for me, it was good to have Rey’s force use diminished and more gradual. I understand you cannot remove all of it without the story becoming overly incoherent. The one that still is highly problematic was Rey force grabbing Luke’s lightsaber while overpowering Kylo Ren for it in the process. There is no way she should be able to have superior force use in that scenario. Is there a way to cleanly remove Kylo trying to take the lightsaber and only show Rey reaching out for it?
I also liked removal of the eradication of another planet. As you stated, this was just another plot point that made this movie resemble ANH. This gave the movie a more unique feel to it.
In this edit, Finn is a likable character and not a pathetic joke. This might be the most impressive feat.

I caught 3 audio transition issues:

Around the 22:40 mark we hear the offer for junk while still in the prior scene.
At around the 25:25 mark going into a conversation between Kylo and Hux, they start talking while we see Finn in the prior scene.
Unfortunately, there was a third audio transition towards the end of the movie that I neglected to note down and cannot remember where it was. I think it happened around the First Order abandoning the base, but not certain. If I have a chance, I will look for it again.

==> Overall, I like that you incorporate good ideas from various different editors. If you ever do get back to this, I am confident you can incorporate what other editors have incorporated since your last revision in the last few years to make this movie the best quality possible.

Thank you for your hard work.