The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant Special Edition (WIP) — Page 8

I get what you’re saying. It all comes down to the fact that I skipped the parts where Kylo was doing high intensity attacks against him because they opted to do shakey cam during that part. As a result, we go from high intensity to when Kylo is supposed to be nearing exhaustion. I might just have to bite the bullet and go for the shakey cam parts leading into Kylo attacking from above.

The CGI is awesome in particular for a fan project. But Ghobot21 is right. The beginning of the scene is cool. We see Vader, we see Kylo. These shots are almost perfect to me.

But when they start fighting, that’s way too slow. When I see them fight, I have a feeling they just training or something. That’s why I said you should try some speed-up for the scene when the camera looking at them from far.

The other thing, when Kylo stops, you should add an extra breathing effect (which makes him stop). Softer then the one when the camera show us Vader from close.

Speeding the current cut up would probably overcomplicate matters due to the sound effects. I was given a single audio file, not all of the sound effects they used in the fan film.

The way I see it, there are two options here:

1. I can re-edit the fight to only include the most rapid, high-intensity parts. The downside of this is that there will be shakey cam, which might stand out just as much as the slower choreography later on.
2. I can re-edit the “fight” so that Vader is aggressively marching toward Kylo who launches helpless attacks at him that are effortlessly blocked. It would be apparent this way that Kylo is terrified of him. The only reason I didn’t do it this way originally is because it makes Kylo seem particularly weak and also it isn’t much of a fight at all this way.

I looked the original video on YouTube, and tried to play it with 1.1 and 1.25 speed settings. 1.25 looks good for far shots and 1.1 looks good for close shots. But I admit I didn’t listen the audio parts.

Your 2nd idea is not a good option I think, cuz as you say Kylo seems to be weak.

I’ve actually figured out a way to make the fight a tad shorter and a little more intense while still skipping the shakey cam part:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17aMRXYO3t0NRyBF8I6rLv1Uly6OaSCRK/view?usp=sharing

Ultimately, we have to keep in mind that Vader is actually Palpatine in this scene, and he DOES want to train/groom Kylo potentially. So I think it’s fine if the beginning of the fight appears as if “Vader” is only parrying and not really trying his best. It’s only when Kylo tries cheating by turning off his lightsaber that he’s like “screw it” and just launches him into the air.

EDIT: I’m pretty sure the audio is a tiny bit out of sync toward the end of that video but it gets the point across. I’ll have to re-make it anyways if this is the way we end up going.

Much better I think.

Yup.much better pace

The biggest roadblock to this edit is ironically enough a random scene between Finn and Poe. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s possible to change the beginning of parts of Finn’s lines in the scene like I had originally intended due to troubles merging an AI sentence with a regular one. I’m wondering if it all makes enough sense just by reinserting a final line for Finn?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LSooyqxhfp01IBupdWM04zdWoY0Ab5J1/view?usp=sharing

The original final line there was “He wanted her alive”, which Ascendant removes. I’m wondering if replacing it with “The dagger discovered Rey” is enough to clarify that neither Ochi nor Palpatine knew about her existence until he murdered her parents? The problem is that technically the word “discover” could be used in the context of merely learning somebody’s location.

The original Finn dialog is phrased in such a way to give the impression that Ochi’s mission was to find the “little girl” all along. In this edit, his mission is only to find the Emperor’s son for testing, which then escalates to Rey upon her discovery. Or maybe my impression is just because I’m familiar with the original film? I wouldn’t mind some feedback here.

EDIT: Granted, this scene already makes zero sense in the Ascendant cut since Palpatine would just want Rey dead, he shouldn’t care if it’s done in front of him on Exegol or not. So this edit would already be an improvement over Ascendant for this scene, I’m just not sure if it’s 100% there.

The one that I can think are
1-“they(emperor & ochi)/he(ochi) discovered Rey’s existence”.
2-“The dagger reveal Rey’s existence”.
3-“He(ochi) received visions of Rey”.
4-“he(ochi)received visions from the dagger”
5-“someone tell them(emperor & ochi)/him(ochi) about Rey”.
6-"a hired spy tell them(emperor & ochi)/him(ochi) about Rey.

Maybe you can get a better ideas from the one I suggested above.its hard because I don’t know if the dialogues can fit the duration of the scene.

I think “his visions discovered Rey” is probably vague enough to work (while still being short enough), since it could apply to both Ochi or the Emperor based on Finn’s previous sentence. Perhaps bringing the dagger into the discussion just makes things too convoluted - if it were Ochi that had the visions, it would be the dagger that gave them to him anyways.

For some reason, simply changing it to “visions” also makes the sentence feel a little less location-oriented to me, at least. Probably because the dagger serves as a whisper compass earlier in the film.

We have to remember that the purpose of this scene in the original film was to transition to the “twist” that despite all of Palpatine’s previous actions in the film, he apparently wanted Rey alive. In Ascendant, the scene serves no purpose except to muddy the idea that Ochi needed to kill Rey on sight. In this edit, it’s meant to explain the last bit of Rey’s backstory, which is how the Emperor even knows about Rey in the first place seeing as how her parents died in part to keep her a secret. I think this new line ties in better with Kylo’s line of “He saw what you would become” better.

Yeah. I like that one. The words make me think that The emperor have all this master plan to make a new host for his Spirit and this plan make him realized the existence of Rey, the most suitable person.
The word sound vague but can still be a bit thought provoking.👍

A lot of things have to be vague because this edit isn’t even an edit where Palpatine necessarily wants Rey alive OR dead, it’s an edit where he wants the strongest vessel to take the throne, regardless of who that is. It just so happens that Kylo Ren is the most likely candidate in both TLJ and the beginning of TROS since Rey has her heart set on becoming a Jedi. I think once Kylo sets his own plans in motion after his fight with “Vader” in this edit that Palps no longer has a preference for who comes to him on Exegol.

As for why I’d be reinstating Palpatine’s line of “I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here, with me…” to Rey, it works because it’s coming from a notorious liar and manipulator. Whereas when somebody like Finn says “He wanted her alive” you have to take that at face value and assume it applies to all of Palpatine’s previous actions, which we know isn’t the truth. The truth is that he indeed was interested in her as a child but he couldn’t track her down, so he changes his priorities to Ben Solo who proved too unruly. So then he’s just like “screw it, whoever shows up here is who was the strongest all along” lol.

It does Sound logical and well thought out. Can’t wait for the edit 👍

This sounds really awesome, I’m looking forward to watching it.

Since this edit is, at this point, mostly enhancing Kylo Ren’s character arc, I’m also wondering if I might be able to include a snippet of the deleted Kylo/Chewie interrogation scene that never released. There is a perfect opportunity where Rey is staring up at the Star Destroyer on Kijimi and is clearly hearing/seeing something to let her know Chewie is on that ship, but we as the audience are never given any indication as to what that could be. Here is what I’m thinking in terms of dialogue:

Kylo Ren (AI): Kill me! Kill the man who killed Han Solo!

Chewie roars in indignation.

And that would be it. Short, sweet, and simple. I could even get a maskless version of Kylo to say the line to make it a little more intimate between them.

Since we later see both Chewie and Kylo in pristine condition, we can logically assume that Chewie didn’t start a fight at all, which is yet another step toward Kylo’s redemption.

Any thoughts before I add this to the change-list?

Same here actually haha. The biggest hurdle here is definitely the Vader duel, otherwise I could have had this done a long time ago.

Which dialogue reads better to you guys?

A: (Kylo) It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. He was looking for your father. But he learned he was a powerless failure. So he gave the order… Palpatine wants one of us to take the dark throne. I’ll come tell you why.

B: It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. He was looking for your father. But your father was a powerless failure. So he gave the order… He sees us both as heirs to the dark throne. I’ll come tell you why.

A was what I had originally had in mind, and B is what I’m considering due to space limitations and general flow.

We all know the original release was poorly executed but I can’t believe there is not a consensus that Palpatine’s return was epically bad writing and a desperate attempt to make episode 9 relevant. Why are you not investing the time and expertise to cutting out Palpatine altogether. There is only one fan edit which has done this and whilst flawed, it still made a very good attempt.

You are all supporting the Star Wars 9 episodes essentially being the ‘Story of Sheev’.

What a joke.

amobex said:

s88 said:

We all know the original release was poorly executed but I can’t believe there is not a consensus that Palpatine’s return was epically bad writing and a desperate attempt to make episode 9 relevant. Why are you not investing the time and expertise to cutting out Palpatine altogether. There is only one fan edit which has done this and whilst flawed, it still made a very good attempt.

You are all supporting the Star Wars 9 episodes essentially being the ‘Story of Sheev’.

What a joke.

Cool. Where can we watch your edit that gives us a movie that was never made?

I can only recommend this one.
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/A-Palpatine-less-Edit-of-The-Rise-of-Skywalker-Released/id/74454
There are far too many of you wasting your time and expertise on resurrecting a dead Sith because you lack the will to simply omit him from episode 9. The judgement on this is as poor as the original tRoS movie was.

It’s an interesting situation because we actually know what the alternative to TROS was with Duel of the Fates. And, yikes, that would have been super duper bad imo. Besides the arc for Finn and a couple cool moments like the Vader duel, I prefer what we got 100%.

The fact of the matter is that TLJ didn’t leave us with a lot of places to go. Kylo Ren is not intimidating as a lead villain, but is an awesome character study nonetheless. The only alternative I can think of is that Snoke resurrects himself and reveals himself as Darth Plagueis, claiming responsibility for the creation of the Skywalker family and Rey herself. But as amobex pointed out, there is not enough material for such a thing to be created in a mere fan edit.

Plus, at the end of the day, I’m starting to care more about larger continuity and adhering to canon regarding fan editing. I think it’s more fun to take an existing storyline and trying to improve it in more subtle/clever ways than just scrapping it all and starting from scratch.

I appreciate the insights offered (even you Grand Admiral). I do acknowledge there is no ‘one way’ and the points made regarding the original material making it difficult to find an alternative storyline is completely justified.

My repetitive take is there is no balance to the fan edit offerings for tRoS. The majority have felt the need to include the third act arc (knowing the transparent desperation of Disney exec’s) so in essence the talented community has decided to keep resurrecting the wrongs already committed. I hope for more diversity to the tROS fan edits to bring balance to the…

I understand that perspective much more, s88. I think I know the answer why. Most people at this stage of the fan editing community prefer to see something that could have theoretically released in theaters without anybody being the wiser. In other words, the changes made shouldn’t distract or stick out. Hal9000 has spoiled us like this lol.

When you remove Palpatine, you lose your third act. Then the movie is no longer functioning as a movie. You also lose out on a huge chunk of the main character’s arc.

In order to replace these things in a smooth way, we’d need a whole team of professional VFX artists, editors, a Hollywood budget, and access to all of the actors. The only way any of this is feasible for a (relatively) small community like ours is with extremely advanced AI. So I’d come back here in like 20-30 years. If you still don’t see something like you’re wanting at that point, then I’d understand your frustrations, but I think your expectations of us are set a little too high haha.