I’m going to double-post. Sorry, not sorry lol.

Two more things that I’ve been running through my head over the past week or so.

Palpatine says: “Long have I waited…” and can’t clarify what he has waited so long for because in this version he hasn’t known about Rey until relatively recently. I may try and create a Palpatine AI voice model to say something like “For a worthy heir to the Sith” or “I knew you could defeat Kylo Ren”. Recall that his following line will now be reinstated - “I never wanted you dead, I wanted you here, with me, Empress Palpatine”.
Half of the scene immediately after the destruction of Kijimi is technically usable even with Kijimi’s exclusion. All that happens is Palps blasts a message to the whole galaxy to surrender or die, and Poe is notified that Leia made him General. Do we think that Palps doing this is a stupid move, or does it make the civilian fleet showing up make more sense? I’m just curious on people’s thoughts regarding this small scene. It would lead right into Poe going to Leia’s body.

On a thematic level, it may feel better if people don’t rise up simply because Palpatine is threatening them, but rather because Luke’s legend has inspired them to stand up against any possible threat. Logistically though, it’s impossible that Lando personally reached out to so many people regarding the situation lol.