This is an ongoing fanedit of The Rise of Skywalker based on Hal 9000’s TROS Ascendant. Furthermore, it is intended to be paired with NeverarGreat’s The Force Awakens: Starlight. Most changes will be accomplished using AI voice work, although I can guarantee all of them will be as seamless as possible.

This project aims to reframe Episode IX as a cohesive, character-driven conclusion to the Skywalker saga by centering the story on Sith succession, fear, and legacy. In this version, Palpatine engineers a true win-win trap in which Rey and Kylo are manipulated as rival heirs to a throne neither of them wants, restoring his cunning and eliminating contradictions in the original plot. Kylo is given greater agency consistent with The Last Jedi, rejecting Sith identity rather than serving it. Meanwhile, Rey’s lineage is integrated thematically to explore inherited darkness versus chosen family. Her backstory is streamlined to both feel like a conclusion to dangling threads The Force Awakens left unresolved and also prevent Ochi/Palpatine from being foolish. Luke’s role in the story is strengthened to reinforce the trilogy’s core message - that legends inspire hope, fear isolates, and love freely given, not power seized, is what ultimately breaks the cycle of the Sith and fulfills the Skywalker legacy.

Below are the changes you should expect to see in this edit:

“Vader” calls out to his grandson on Mustafar (matching Adam acting like he heard something startling), leading Kylo to his Wayfinder
Use AI video software to modify the footage of one of the Exegol Sith cultists to be operating a machine with a severed hand in it (Luke’s hand) to match current canon. A new Palpatine line accompanies this to make it clear what it is since a twist later on relies on this: “I have learned to make a great many things… thanks to Skywalker.”
Palpatine mentions a clone army that is operating the Final Order, thus explaining who is operating the thousands of ships in the final battle.
Instead of Palpatine simply instructing Kylo Ren again to kill Rey when he goes to Vader’s mask, Palpatine will take the form of his grandfather and they will duel on the site of Kylo’s greatest insecurity - Starkiller Base. This scene will make it clear that Kylo is not interested in the Sith at all and wants to make something new. The implication by the end of the scene is that Kylo has shut Palpatine’s voice(s) out of his head, perhaps even by the re-construction of his mask. Audio has been converted to 5.1 courtesy of Reddit user DyslexicFcuker. Original footage is by Seize the Frame on YouTube.
Replace Kylo Ren’s line: “Palpatine wants you dead” with “Palpatine wants us to fight.” Off-screen from the first scene of the film, Palpatine has told Kylo that he wants either him OR Rey to take the throne (but not both), depending on who is the strongest.
Rey hears her child-self screaming as her parents were flying away while the shuttle carrying Chewbacca is flying away, which is what causes her to unleash the lightning. The moment lands better when its rooted in insecurity versus frustration about losing a Force tug-of-war match. Plus, it hints at two things: the ship next to them being the same one her parents left in, and also that Kylo can send memories to Rey through the Force (dyad).
Luke will reach out to Kylo Ren, trying to convince him to come back to the light. This replaces another instance of Palpatine simply telling Kylo to kill Rey. This is meant to fulfill his line from TLJ: “See ya around, kid.” It also is meant to chip away at the idea that Palpatine is the only voice trying to speak into his head. And finally, it makes their appearance together at the end of the film less awkward since they didn’t leave on the best of terms in TLJ.
Instead of explicitly going after Rey, Palpatine will simply be going after his escaped son in the backstory, unaware that Rey exists. This explains why Palpatine never simply sent more agents to where Ochi collected her parents. Her father stole Ochi’s ship in order to escape Exegol, and Ochi hunted him down to get it back. Therefore, his ship taking off on Jakku doesn’t need to have Ochi piloting it, making the fact that there is a screaming child in the rear-view mirror less dumb.
The dialogue leading to the second flashback of Rey’s parents dying will be modified to suggest that her father escaped Exegol with the Skywalker blade in addition to Ochi’s ship (see the Luke hand on Exegol change above). This is why her parents leaving her is a memory given by the lightsaber when Rey touches it; it was physically present for that event on the ship. Her father sells it because he is a nobody that can’t use the Force despite being Palpatine’s son (this is necessary to make Rey’s struggle unique to her), and from there it ends up in Maz’s basement. The lightsaber calls to Rey now because her father rescued it from the Sith. Palpatine lets Ochi kill his son and his wife out of revenge. Nobody ever had any reason to believe they had a child, which is why they are never interrogated.
Kylo will make it clear at the end of their dyad fight that Palpatine wants only the strongest to take his throne, instead of talking about Palpatine wanting to kill a child. This makes Rey’s terrified reaction more justified (“No…!”), since she’s had a vision of herself upon it, and also provides further context as to why he had her father killed.
New Kylo lines in the silence leading up to the main hangar reveal clarifying that Palpatine wants them to fight so the strongest takes the throne. Kylo is now offering Rey a way out of Palpatine’s machinations by joining forces.
Reinstate Kylo’s line to “we’re a dyad in the Force”. I personally prefer that this was something always shared between them, given their interrogation scene in TFA.
Finish Kylo’s proposal to Rey with “And end the Sith” to line up with his character portrayal in TLJ.
Shift a conversation between Finn and Poe about D-0’s knowledge of Exegol to later in the movie so that we can avoid any reference to Ochi knowing about Rey. She stays a secret as a child thanks to her parents’ sacrifice.
Rewrite some of the dialogue at the beginning of Luke and Rey’s scene on Ahch-To to reframe Rey’s struggle as her believing that she can’t control her power. She isolates herself because she fears causing more harm than good - more exactly like Luke. Luke refers to Yoda’s lesson on growing from failure and brings up Leia because she’s the one who first saw Rey’s potential dark future but chose to respond with nurturing instead of hatred and control. This rectifies the original Skywalker sin. Also, being able to perceive somebody’s family history just by being in proximity to them is really weird. Especially since Leia has no relation to that family.
Replace one of the voices of the Knights of Ren to remove the impression that Kylo joining forces with Rey to defeat Palpatine wasn’t their original plan.
Luke reaches out to Ben a final time as he clutches a dead Rey, completing his lessons to both Rey and Kylo from earlier in the movie with one thematic statement. This matches perfectly with some unexplained acting Adam Driver does where it appears he hears somebody and starts looking around in the distance.

Some other changes that I will be borrowing from SherlockPotter’s definitive Rey Nobody cut “Untold”:

When Finn approaches Rey while she’s dueling Kylo, she now blindly hits him with a bolt of Force Lightning, to show how badly she’s losing control of herself. Credit to joeydiesel and SherlockPotter.
At one point during the duel, Rey’s lightsaber begins to sputter and spark, signaling that it’s close to dying completely. Further fuels Rey’s feelings of insecurity in inheriting the Skywalker legacy. Credit to Johnny FanVFX and SherlockPotter.
Rey’s sabers now spark out, finally spent, when she dies. Her burying them is no longer a waste. Credit to Szilárd Egyed and SherlockPotter.