Indeed! The powerful artifact that corrupts the bearer is also very LOTR, and very fantasy in general.
I think that if we clearly make the dagger bait planted by Palpatine, this would allow us to have the dagger show Rey visions of her past as well as her future that aren’t necessarily true. Thus, we could reincorporate the flashbacks to Rey’s parents:
“Rey….wherever you are…You are hard to find.
“You are hard to get rid of.”
“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. The Dark Side is your destiny. Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“The dagger offered you visions…visions of your past…and your future.”
“Don’t!”
“You said your parents were nobody. But you lied to me.”
“I don’t want this!”
“The dagger showed me the truth.”
“No!”
“Now see the rest of your story!”
(Rey sees her parents protecting her, and their death)
“They paid for your protection…in more than one way.”
“Stop talking.”
“Rey…they were protecting you from Him.”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“The spirit of Vader spoke to me as well…when I was training under Luke. It’s the same future…the same choice…that has now been revealed to you. Ascend the Throne of the Sith…or die.”
(Rey sees the two visions together, Rey on the throne and then dead on Exegol)
“No!”
(Vader’s mask falls to the ground)
“So that’s where you are.”
“You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead. I’ll come tell you.”
…
“Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”
“Because he saw what you would become. You don’t just have power. You have his power. You’re his granddaughter.”
“My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was the son of the Emperor. What the Emperor doesn’t know, is that we are connected by the Force, Rey. Two…that are one.”
“We’ll kill him…together.”
“You know what you need to do. You know.”
“I do.”
…
With this, we can basically keep the hangar exposition the same.
So the concept for the visions in this edit would be:
- Rey has a vision of her death when she is training with Leia.
- The vision of Rey on the Sith Throne, as well as flashes of her past, happens in her struggle with the transport.
- The flashbacks to Rey’s past are put together as one in Kylo’s Quarters.
- The true vision of Rey’s death and the false vision of her on the throne are combined as Rey smashes the pedestal of Vader’s mask.
If we have Finn’s dialogue confirming that Ochi never owned a dagger, it would probably be enough of a negation of the flashbacks that they would be clearly seen as fabrications by Palpatine imparted into the dagger. This is strengthened by Kylo’s connecting Rey’s visions with those given to him by the ‘spirit of Vader’, which has already been revealed to be Palpatine in disguise.
JEDIT: I’m not sure which sequence of events would be more natural in Kylo’s quarters. If we put the flashbacks together early in the sequence like I have it here, that means that Kylo’s discussion about his own visions is pushed back and then he’s talking about Rey’s past and why the Emperor wanted her dead, and this creates a weird segue.
On the other hand, we could have a sequence similar to the one a few posts back where the ‘Dark Side or death’ visions happen first, and then the flashbacks to Rey’s parents happen later, making a natural segue into why the Emperor wanted Rey dead. But then the Vader mask isn’t brought in at the precise time of Kylo’s revelation.
I guess it depends on which bit of exposition is more important, Rey’s past and parentage, or the Dark Side or Death visions. Thoughts?