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Post #1570690

Author
Jar Jar Bricks
Parent topic
Unusual Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1570690/action/topic#1570690
Date created
23-Dec-2023, 9:57 PM

I disagree strongly. Here are some of the numerous benefits to this change:

  1. It’s not a copy-paste of “I am your father”. Instead of the reveal simply being a relative is evil, the reveal is that you, as a person, are extremely evil in what is basically another life. This gets into the whole nature vs. nuture debate. Rey’s challenges can’t be dismissed as easily by Luke anymore because nobody has ever gone through what she is experiencing.
  2. It makes it abundantly clear how Palpatine was resurrected. Ya know, the thing that people most take issue with in the film. As a bonus, it’s more heavily implied what Snoke is exactly compared to Ascendant v4.
  3. TLJ only places a hard emphasis on Rey’s parents. Notice how Kylo only says he was shown who her parents are - not who she is. Beyond that, everything he says must be taken as assumptions he is making. Let’s take a look at Kylo’s following line: “You come from nothing. [Therefore] you’re nothing.” He’s only saying that because any normal person would think that since the people who raised her and gave birth to her are nobodies, she must be one, as well. Regular TROS straight up retcons this because the son of the Emperor is not nobody - end of story. This change is a clever way of bypassing a complete retcon for the sake of a Rey Palpatine reveal. Rey’s mother gave birth to a clone of Palpatine, but both parents are genetically unrelated to her.
  4. TLJ’s mirror cave sequence is a stupid scene originally. This change elevates it into an actual hint to her entire backstory and the trajectory of the trilogy. We see that Rey is one among an endless line of clones. Rey asks to see her parents. She doesn’t have actual parents, so she sees herself.
  5. There is a reason why Rey’s parents die on Jakku (or are there to begin with). They were looking for Lor San Tekka and his village so that their child could be saved by Luke. This ties back to the very first scene of the entire trilogy.
  6. Leia accepting Rey into her family is more profound. Of course the daughter of Darth Vader would be willing to accept the granddaughter of Sidious. But a clone of Sidious? That’s something else.
  7. It doesn’t require any further changes beyond this scene and what’s already present in Ascendant v4.

To be clear, I don’t believe Rey being a chosen one is a bad idea. I was a big supporter of it just a few weeks ago. But when I think about what kind of edit to this movie I want to keep for the rest of my life, it would be one that respects canon to a reasonable degree for the sake of compatibility, and also doesn’t remove chunks of the film throughout. The movie desperately needs more padding throughout (please release the deleted scenes Disney) so removing stuff is only going to make that feel even worse.