Unusual Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 116

One I was keen on the moment I walked out of the cinema after watching The Force Awakens, Snoke: The Corbomite Maneuver. I wanted it to be revealed the Snoke was literally a puppet covering for the grim reality that Leia had turned to the Darkside and like Palpatine was working both sides of the conflict. First of all it’s flagged up in the original trilogy when Leia chokes Jabba and allows Lando to be choked by Chewie. Even Vader recognises the possibility, something that nearly break Luke. One can imagine a post Imperial world where the New Republic, no longer united by a common for begins to fracture as it did before the rise of the Empire. Leia starts the First Order initially to be a rallying point but then is lured by the darkness which corrupts her in secret but openly corrupts her son. This would be a much better explanation for why Luke hides. He feels guilty for trying to train his sister and her corruption of his nephew. He didn’t want to fight his father but he has a closer relationship to his sister.
How this would be fully revealed I don’t know but I would start by revealing Snoke not to be a genetic creation but a machine. Adding wires and sparks into his bisected body. When Renn attacks his mother’s ship rather than surviving as a gliding superhero we see Sith eyes. Darksiders seem to go through near death experiences before becoming fully powered. Palpatine could then be replaced by Leia who has been horribly scarred by exposure to the vacuum of space and hidden by a suit or mask until very briefly revealed.

DoTF could have worked well, but it definitely needed a few more iterations of the script. Leia’s role was going to need to be completely overhauled, for obvious reasons. But specifically, the Rey/Poe romance, the anti-Lucas retcon of balance being that you use the dark side, Hux’s random obsession with lightsabers, Kylo being involved in the murder of Rey’s parents for some reason, the Tor Vallum retcon, and many other things were really really bad. Like, why would Palpatine genuinely be chill with Luke killing him and surpassing him by learning teachings from his master’s master? Very out of character. I like that TROS makes it clear that Palpatine only cared about himself, not the rule of two.

But hey, at least Luke was utilized more with Rey, and he actually haunted Kylo. Kylo dueling Vader is nice. Finn’s arc was fantastic, too. If these good elements were incorporated into TROS more I would have seen it as a best of both worlds situation. That’s why I will be incorporating at least two of these things into my TROS edit 😉

Two ideas:

1. For The Last Jedi, I’ve seen a lot of edits try to give more reasoning to Holdo. But how about this? Poe sees Holdo make her speech, decides he isn’t impressed, and doesn’t talk to her afterward. He’s made up his mind about her. Next they meet is when Poe’s trying to stall Holdo so Finn and Rose get to the Star Destroyer. I think this would improve the dynamic between them, as Poe is making a snap judgement that has bad consequences, so he learns not to jump ahead later, while Leia’s comment about Holdo being more interested in serving the light instead of being a hero has more resonance by having Holdo be more mysterious up until we truly see her loyalties. It’s a technique better used in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films.

2. A bit more radical, for The Rise of Skywalker. I had this thought. Kylo Ren is obsessed with Vader’s legacy, wanting to be like him but failing to measure up. TLJ has him end up looking like a clown in front of his own troops. The next movie opens in Mustafar. How about, instead of Palpatine back, we have a clone of Anakin? Ben knows his troops don’t respect him, but he uses this Anakin clone to gain legitimacy again. However, this is a clone of the Chosen One, so eventually he’s tearing up the ships and becomes a threat to the galaxy. I’ve seen edits that place Snoke on the throne instead, and I don’t think you’d need to give this Anakin clone any dialogue for it to work.

What do you think?

idir_hh said:

Star Wars: Duel of the Fates AI Recreation by SkywalkerStories
https://youtu.be/x-OiA2TsDuo

Duel of the fates AI https://youtu.be/5ycBMFqOlgk?si=1Z3TeMXIuw-gtSnu

I’m not sure if this has been suggested before, but Luke’s voiceover in the third version of the TLJ flashback with Ben Solo seems like it would be relatively easy to redub with AI, in the same general way Ascendant handled Leia’s training flashback.

What if the center paragraph were changed to something like this?

“I saw darkness. I’d sensed it building in him. I’d seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined… (audio plays)

I’d seen every path before him. Each one led to the same pain and destruction. Han and Leia would die because of what he would become. I saw no future in which I could save him. But for a moment, I thought I could stop it all from ever happening.

It passed like a fleeting shadow, and I was left with shame, and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose Master had failed him…”

For me, this makes Luke’s flaw less about “he suddenly forgot everything he learned in ROTJ” and more a specific kind of hubris: he believes he has truly seen every possible future for Ben. He sees no future in which he can save him, and in that desperate moment he treats the future as fixed, despite Yoda’s warning that “always in motion is the future.”

That also gives more meaning to Luke’s later line to Leia:

“I’ve come to confront him, but I can’t save him.”

Luke is not necessarily saying Ben is beyond redemption. He is saying that he no longer believes he can be the person to bring Ben back after failing him so completely. He could not imagine the path created by Leia’s love, Han’s forgiveness, Rey’s mercy, and Ben’s own eventual choice in TROS.

It also gives his self-exile a more coherent internal logic. Luke may believe that every intervention he makes either fails to avert the future or risks accelerating it, just as his lightsaber moment ultimately does.

You could still retain the Palpatine laugh from Hal/Poppa’s edit as subtext. It would not need to mean Palpatine fabricated a blatantly false vision; it could suggest that he distorted or reinforced Luke’s fear until Luke mistook what he saw for the only possible outcome.

Yeah, and ideally we’d also remove his line about balance from earlier in the movie, too.

I have two problems with the original dialogue in the flashback scene that I replaced:

1. “Snoke had already turned his heart.” This places too much emphasis on Snoke, who we now know isn’t the real man behind the voices in his head. But more importantly, this ignores the fact that Vader’s heart had already been claimed by the Emperor and that didn’t stop Luke from reaching out in ROTJ. It isn’t justifiable for a character like Luke to put any stock in this.
2. “For the briefest moment, of pure instinct” sounds like Luke creating desperate excuses for himself. The script is trying to minimize this moment of failure, but it doesn’t match what we see on screen - Luke slowly reaching for his lightsaber, contemplating, and then amping himself up to ignite it.

I genuinely feel that the only way to explain Luke’s actions in this moment while preserving what we know about his character is to place him in an unwinnable moral quandary such as what I described. I.e. it’s either Han and Leia, or their son. The classic trolly problem. Only it’s his own arrogance that leads him to believe the trolly is inevitably coming.

EDIT: I think evoking Abraham and Isaac would be the best way for the audience to understand this concept intuitively

Jar Jar Bricks said:

I’d seen every path before him. Each one led to the same pain and destruction. Han and Leia would die because of what he would become. I saw no future in which I could save him. But for a moment, I thought his sacrifice would stop it all from happening.

Rey’s response to him also makes more sense in this context, with her saying that “You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn’t!”

Yeah, the wording was slightly off. It would be:

I saw darkness. I’d sensed it building in him. I’d seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined… (audio plays immediately after this so no room)

I’d seen every path before him. Each one led to the same pain and destruction. Han, Leia, and countless others would die because of what he would become. I saw no future in which I could save him. But for a moment, I thought sacrificing him would stop it all.

It passed like a fleeting shadow, and I was left with shame, and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose Master had failed him…