Sounds good about the Zorri lines, JJ. I’m glad someone else feels like there’s value to be had there 😃
Back to the restructured version of the Leia death scene… I have three different Maz lines to choose from so far. If you don’t particularly like any of them, I can always generate more, it’s not big deal:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12XeFsicStMhkSPQO2x1haMWOkhJaPZRy?usp=sharing
I think Alt 2 is the best one, though it is still a bit too…confident. Maz in this scene is noticeably more subdued, speaking slowly and quietly for R2 alone.
I really like that “Palpatine trained Rey” idea, Nev. It feels like the best of both worlds: the “anyone can save the galaxy” message of Rey Nobody, and the intense internal conflict of Rey Palpatine. If you have Starlight as your default version of TFA, it even explains all the moments of Rey tapping into the dark side throughout that edit: she was subconsciously remembering what Palpatine taught her.
If I had one complaint, though, it’s that an edit that uses that idea would probably have to scrap the whole “Palpatine wants Rey dead” thing entirely. Instead, Palpatine’s plan throughout would be for Kylo to find Rey and return her to him, so she can resume her training. But obviously, Kylo isn’t very fond of not even being Palpatine’s second-in-command, let alone ruling the galaxy. So, he plans to find Rey, pretend that he’s following Palpatine’s instructions by taking her to Exegol, and have her team up with him to kill Palpatine once they arrive.
I think the ‘kill Rey’ angle would work, since now Rey is presumably damaged goods for him and also knows his weakness. When she manages to find her way back to Exegol despite the hit he put out on her, he may reconsider and decide he does want her back, or he is just planning on having her kill his body so that his spirit can possess her like the theatrical film implies.
The biggest issue with this idea for me is that Rey isn’t a nobody, since she was chosen specifically by Palpatine to be his heir. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a version of this story where Rey’s involvement in the plot isn’t highly coincidental. At least here her parents were actually nobodies and she isn’t related to Palpatine by blood. It gives us a neat dynamic where she is attempting to avoid completing the dark path she started down as a child and the light path she has chosen as an adult, but to do this she must actually travel back to the place where she was raised and confront her evil foster parent.