logo Sign In

A Palpatine-less Edit of The Rise of Skywalker (Released)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Being of the opinion that having Palpatine survive Return of the Jedi is one of the worst things that could be done in Star Wars, I set out to make a Palpatine-less version of the The Rise of Skywalker. This version has Kylo Ren finding a lost Imperial/Sith fleet from the Empire to cement First Order rule and Rey dealing with her fear and inner Dark Side.

Change list
• New title and crawl (courtesy of Adobewan) explaining that Luke’s actions in The Last Jedi have led to resistance to First Order rule to set up 8 bajillion ships showing up when zero showed up a year before and explaining that in order to control the uprising, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is searching for a rumored lost fleet built in secret just before the fall of the Empire.

Episode IX
DUEL OF THE FATES

The spark of hope has
been restored to the
galaxy. Inspired by the
heroic sacrifice of Jedi
Master Luke Skywalker,
the galaxy is resisting the
diabolical FIRST ORDER.

REY, the last hope of the
Jedi, continues her
training under GENERAL
LEIA ORGANA, leader of
the Resistance, in hopes
of contacting Luke’s spirit
to quiet her growing fear.

Meanwhile, Supreme
Leader KYLO REN,
desperate to crush the
insurgency, searches for a
lost Imperial fleet,
rumored to have been
constructed in secret
before the fall of the
Empire…

Throughout
• Removed all appearances and references to Palpatine including any connection to Rey.
• Color corrected to remove green tint.
• Removed mentions of the Final Order

Mustafar/Exegol opening
• Removed Mustafar opening to try to reduce the hectic pacing at the beginning of the film. One less planet being visited in the first ten minutes.
• Reused (recolored) Mustafar shots of Kylo opening Wayfinder box and picking up the Wayfinder as Kylo finding the “key” to the Sith fleet during the Exegol opening.
• Added Kylo vs Vader duel from Force of Darkness fan-film to Exegol opening.

Spaceberg
• Repurposed most of chess scene for Tattooine ending.
• Removed Klaud. (Klaud digitally removed from some shots courtesy of pappsketti.)
• Removed lightspeed skipping.

Ajan Kloss
• Trimmed and slightly rearranged Rey/Leia training scene to make Rey less patronizing. Heavily indebted to MoviesRemastered for this edit.
• In Rey’s vision, replaced Rey’s parents with shots of Kylo’s rampage on Mustafar.
• Eliminated lightsaber continuity error.
• Removed Falcon’s arrival to get rid of lightspeed skipping references and annoying Rey/Poe dialogue.
• Trimmed Resistance briefing to remove mention of Palpatine.
• Cut Leia telling Rey “No” and Rey saying she’s going anyway.
• Repurposed group cockpit shot for Tattooine ending.

First Order Briefing
• Removed Stormtroopers name-dropping the Knights of Ren.
• Trimmed First Order briefing to remove mention of Palpatine and Kylo Ren’s helmet.

Passana
• Trimmed Rey/Kylo Force Skype to remove mention of Palpatine.
• Removed “They fly now” as there have been flying troopers since the Clone Wars.
• Removed Rey recognizing Ochi’s ship.
• Trimmed balloon stormtrooper shot.
• Removed Finn’s “Rey, I never told you…” This never goes anywhere.
• Removed Snap’s silly “optimistic” dialogue with Leia and Rose.
• Removed Rey asking what Finn wanted to say earlier.
• Cut Kylo Ren’s TIE exploding in a giant fireball.
• Removed Chewie’s reveal on Ren’s destroyer.
• Trimmed the end of Poe’s “If this fails, it’s all been for nothing…” speech so C-3PO’s speech is expanding on it later rather than parroting it back word for word to give C-3PO a little more self autonomy.

Kijimi
• Cut references to Poe having Han Solo’s exact backstory.
• Removed reference to R2 backing up 3PO’s memory.
• Removed the end of Poe/Zorii conversation that implies the galaxy has given up.
• Added squeaky wheel footage from behind-the-scenes documentary.
• Removed further references to Rey recognizing Ochi’s ship.
• Removed “Can I kiss you?”
• Slightly trimmed Rey using Force Persuasion on the stormtroopers.
• Trimmed Rey/Kylo Force Skype to remove mention of Palpatine and Rey’s parents.
• Added Kylo saying he senses Rey’s dark side.
• Removed Poe asking what Finn wanted to say to Rey.
• Trimmed hangar conversation to remove mention of Palpatine and Rey’s parents. Added more dialogue about the darkness in Rey.
• Added hangar reveal that Rey killed her parents (thanks to krausfadr’s edit).
• Removed Poe saying he doesn’t know why they’re not tracking them.
• Removed Rey telling Finn Palpatine had her parents killed.

Kef Bir
• Added Kylo saying “Mother” in the hallway with a wipe transition to Leia dropping the headphones.
• Moved scenes of Leia going off to lie down to before Kef Bir.
• Added Leia saying “Find Poe” as Connix leads her to lie down.
• Removed Maz Kanata’s overly expository dialogue.
• Removed Goonies dagger bit.
• Cut directly from Poe’s “What do you mean you haven’t seen her?” to Rey on the water.
• Cut end of Finn and Poe’s argument after Rey leaves. Poe says, “And you do?” and Finn just looks at him.
• Added Poe saying “We have to go. It’s Leia.” off-screen while Finn looks at Rey through the binoculars.
• Removed Finn and Jannah following Rey to the Death Star wreckage.
• Moved everyone looking at Leia to after the Falcon returns.
• Removed 3PO’s memory restoration.
• Removed Finn saying he doesn’t know where Rey is.
• Removed Poe’s response of “Yeah, except how to get there” when Finn tells him D-O has everything they need for an air strike on Exegol. D-O now provides the Resistance with the map to Exegol.
• Removed references to Rey showing the way.
• Removed Beaumont Kin’s reference to Holdo maneuvers.
• Removed Kijimi’s destruction. No Death Star Mark IVs here.
• Moved Rey’s exploration of the Death Star II wreckage to before and after the final Resistance briefing.
• Cut the door closing behind Rey since it is open moments later when she stumbles backwards through it.
• Added a Dark Side vision during Rey and Dark Rey duel showing Rey on the throne shooting Force lightning destroying the Sith fleet.
• Moved Rey’s encounter with Kylo Ren on the DSII wreckage to after the Resistance has engaged the Sith fleet. Added “Duel of the Fates” to the lightsaber duel.
• Altered Kylo and Rey’s DSII confrontation to have Kylo say “You wanted to prove to my mother that you were a Jedi but she’s gone.”
• Removed Rey’s second “Give it to me.”
• Removed shot of Leia’s hand falling.
• Reused reversed shot of Leia (zooms in instead of pulls back) from just before Poe/Lando for Rey’s acknowledgement of Leia’s state.
• Rey confesses she wanted to take Ben’s hand before healing him.
• Moved Kylo redemption scene after the celebration.
• Removed Kylo saying “I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” When I watched this movie in the theater, this scene felt like it aped The Force Awakens’ catwalk scene too much. I hate J.J. Abrams’ tendency to duplicate other scenes. I was incensed when I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness redo The Wrath of Khan’s death scene word for word. This line in particular I think was responsible for that for me here.
• Leia fades away after Kylo throws his lightsaber.

Exegol
• Removed all scenes of Rey on Exegol.
• Moved the despairing battle footage from Palpatine’s monologue to after Snap’s death, trimming shots that contradicted this point in the battle.
• Removed Zorii and Babu Frik from Exegol battle. She gave up her only means off the planet like two hours before. In actuality she gave up her passage through restricted hyperspace lanes to get to the colonies, not her means off planet, but the film muddles it by treating it as if it were her only means off that god-forsaken planet, so I cut it to maintain clarity.
• Removed Wedge Antilles from Exegol battle. If he had more than a single shot and wasn’t painfully obvious fan service for the sake of fan service, I’d have probably kept it.
• Removed Poe’s line of every cannon is a world saved.

Celebration
• Replaced Endor with Coruscant for one planet from each trilogy (courtesy of pappasketti).
• Removed Zorii from celebration scene.
• Recut celebration scene to suggest bromance between Poe and Finn.
• Cut the Chewie medal scene. It wasn’t clear to me this was Han’s medal. It felt like they were saying “here’s the medal we forgot to give you 40 years ago.”
• Cut Lando and Jannah.

Ahch-To
• Trimmed references to Palpatine from Ahch-To scenes.
• Purple lightsaber for Leia in respect to Carrie Fisher’s wishes (courtesy of skenera).

Tattooine
• Added chess scene from beginning so show that Rey isn’t alone.
• Recolored Rey’s lightsaber purple to match Leia’s signifying that Rey used Leia’s crystal in her own saber.
• Cut the old woman. After admiring her lightsaber, Rey sees Luke’s and Leia’s Force ghosts, then leaves on the Falcon.
• Replaced final shot with Falcon taking off and “family” shot in the Falcon’s cockpit to end on a family shot like the George Lucas films.

Running time: 1 hr 52 min
Sourced from The Skywalker Saga box set 1080p Blu-Ray disc.

Author
Time

This is my first fan-edit and I’ve taken it about as far as my meager abilities can. I’m pretty much limited to cutting, transitions, and removing some vocals. If anyone would like to help polish it up, it would be greatly appreciated. A new crawl is needed. I was thinking something like:

Inspired by the heroic sacrifice of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker at the Battle of Crait, the galaxy is resisting the rule of the diabolical First Order.

Rey, the last hope of the Jedi, continues her training under Luke’s sister, General Leia Organa, leader of the Resistance.

Meanwhile Supreme Leader Kylo Ren searches for a rumored lost Imperial fleet created in secret just before the fall of the Empire…

I would also like some kind of Poe dialogue to use off screen when Finn is looking through the binoculars at Rey on the skimmer. Something like, “We have to get back to base. It’s Leia.”

I would like to improve some of the transitions. I do not know how to replace the background music and keep the sound effects and dialogue, so some scenes noticeably jump between music tracks.

Anyway, the file is uploading to Google Drive. Feel free to PM me for a link.

Author
Time

I would like to watch this, but I’m a bit confused. Are the Wayfinders still in the edit? If not, than What is Reys motivation in going to DSII if the fleet is discovered before than?

Author
Time

The Wayfinders are still there, but their importance is reduced. Rey goes to the DSII wreckage looking for the second one. As soon as she’s gone, the Falcon is recalled back to the Resistance base due to Leia’s failing health where they discover D-O can lead them to Exegol.

It’s not perfect as Rey is still looking for the Wayfinder after the Resistance has mounted it’s attack on Exegol, although the Wayfinder is forgotten about once Kylo Ren shows up and crushes it.

I also need to find some additional dialogue to make it clear that the Falcon was recalled to base and didn’t just abandon Rey.

Author
Time

screams in the void said:

I like the idea of Rey and Kylo Ren battling on the Death Star wreckage being intercut with the resistance engaging the Sith fleet ! Sounds like a cool edit !

Thanks! While I’m not certain about one or two cuts being in the ideal place, there were definitely a couple of cuts that excited me when I saw them, where the two scenes really linked together visually. When Dark Rey shows up and ignites her red lightsaber, cutting from her red lightsaber to the Resistance fleet passing through the red nebula was a great visual. Cutting from an aerial shot of the lightsaber duel to an aerial shot of the “ground” invasion on the Star Destroyer was another.

Author
Time

^ I did catch the cut from the red saber to the fleet in the red nebula , that was a nice touch ! as an aside , issue 50 of the original Marvel Star Wars comic had a chapter called Rage In The Red Nebula with a shot of the Falcon going into a red nebula ! Anyway, I sent you a PM with further feedback .

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

Author
Time

A couple of things if anyone out there is willing to help with.

First off, any suggestions for a title change? I’ve been trying to think of something that encapsulates what makes this edit unique, but haven’t come up with anything as its uniqueness comes from a lack of something.

A couple of alterations I would like to make but are beyond my ability:

A line from Poe along the lines of “We have to go back. It’s Leia.” This is to indicate why they had back to Ajon Kloss before Rey finds the Wayfinder. My though is that as Leia is going off to lie down, she calls Poe back to be put in charge.
Add a Force glow around Leia during the shot where she says “Ben.”
An audio effect to add during the transitions to and from the Luke vision.
Remove Leia’s lightsaber from the Tatooine sequence as I haven’t found a way to introduce it in the movie itself.

Any help with these things would be appreciated.

Author
Time

About the Way-finders: How about swaping 8 and 9, removing R2’s map to Ach-To and making Ach-To and Exegol the same planet.
Could this work?

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

Author
Time

There was an idea on the Sequel Trilogy Radical Redux thread a while ago about swapping 8 and 9 that I was intrigued by. This would have had Palpatine as a clone made by Snoke to test Kylo. Attempting that was my backup plan if removing Palps from 9 proved infeasible.

So if I understand this, 7 ends right after the destruction of SKB with Rey still on D’Qar and Luke’s location still not found. Then we pick up with 9 (Ajon Kloss and D’Qar are identical, so it’s easy for them to be the same planet) and everyone is looking for the Wayfinder. To find Luke or to find the Sith fleet? Are you suggesting removing the Sith fleet entirely, or is Luke hiding out on the planet with the largest fleet of warships the galaxy has ever seen? If the fleet is still involved, I’m not sure how you would portray that it’s the same planet Luke is on. If the fleet is nixed and the Wayfinder is just to find Luke, that’s really going to cut the runtime down and it’s going to be a really short movie. Not to mention, Rey takes it from Kylo’s ship, so why didn’t Kylo use it to find Luke.

Swapping 8 and 9 also presents a problem with General Hux. You would pretty much have to remove him almost completely from one film or the other as he can’t be a spy before his actions in 8. His death would be easy enough to cut if he’s needed for a scene or two in 8.

Author
Time

Well, I haven’t really thought it out by now and it might well be a bad idea.
Anyways I would still keep Exegol around as the planet with the Sith fleet. But the Way-finder would lead Rey to Ach-To. Maybe Kylo didn’t visit Ach-To, because the Holocron needed to be opened and he couldn’t or was lead to an other place (Sith-fleet Exegol, maybe?) or maybe he just did not bother with the Sith (let the past die, etc.). My favorite idea to answer why he does not use the Way-finder is that he is afraid of what he might find. The oracle-scene (if it exists?) would really help to sell this point.

But anyways you are most certainly right that the movie would be rather short.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

Author
Time

joshuabri said:

A couple of things if anyone out there is willing to help with.

First off, any suggestions for a title change? I’ve been trying to think of something that encapsulates what makes this edit unique, but haven’t come up with anything as its uniqueness comes from a lack of something.

A couple of alterations I would like to make but are beyond my ability:

A line from Poe along the lines of “We have to go back. It’s Leia.” This is to indicate why they had back to Ajon Kloss before Rey finds the Wayfinder. My though is that as Leia is going off to lie down, she calls Poe back to be put in charge.
Add a Force glow around Leia during the shot where she says “Ben.”
An audio effect to add during the transitions to and from the Luke vision.
Remove Leia’s lightsaber from the Tatooine sequence as I haven’t found a way to introduce it in the movie itself.

Any help with these things would be appreciated.

Something like “Rise of the Galaxy” or maybe “Fate of the Galaxy” would probably be a good title for your case, since you seem to be focusing in on the idea of everyone in the galaxy rising up for one last stand.

http://henrynsilva.blogspot.com/2023/10/full-circle-order-new-way-to-watch-star.html?m=1

Author
Time

rocknroll41 said:

Something like “Rise of the Galaxy” or maybe “Fate of the Galaxy” would probably be a good title for your case, since you seem to be focusing in on the idea of everyone in the galaxy rising up for one last stand.

Those are pretty good. This morning I thought of “Heirs of the Force,” with the last of the old generation of Force sensitives passing on and leaving only the new generation to carry on. The thing I don’t like about it is, while heir technically has nothing to do with bloodlines, it still carries that connotation when bloodlines is something I’ve removed.

Author
Time

Ooh, Legacy of the Force sounds classy. I don’t think this edit has earned such a cool name.

Seriously though, based on some feedback and my own assessment that the use of the Luke scene as a Force vision is easily the biggest weak point from a technical execution perspective, I think for version 2 I am going to try letting it play out as normal with Rey physically traveling to Ahch-To after the fight, talking to Luke, and returning to the celebration in Luke’s X-Wing. I don’t like the idea of adding Luke’s X-Wing back in as I don’t think there’s any way it should be space-worthy at this point, but I might have to live with it for the bigger picture. This would also allow the introduction of Leia’s lightsaber prior to its burial, so it wouldn’t need to be removed from the Tatooine sequence.

Author
Time

Yeah, I think that idea will probably work better than the vision idea.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

joshuabri said:

Ooh, Legacy of the Force sounds classy. I don’t think this edit has earned such a cool name.

Seriously though, based on some feedback and my own assessment that the use of the Luke scene as a Force vision is easily the biggest weak point from a technical execution perspective, I think for version 2 I am going to try letting it play out as normal with Rey physically traveling to Ahch-To after the fight, talking to Luke, and returning to the celebration in Luke’s X-Wing. I don’t like the idea of adding Luke’s X-Wing back in as I don’t think there’s any way it should be space-worthy at this point, but I might have to live with it for the bigger picture. This would also allow the introduction of Leia’s lightsaber prior to its burial, so it wouldn’t need to be removed from the Tatooine sequence.

I think this is a much better sequence of events, it parallels RotJ as well, which is nice.

I would also consider:

An anakin Skywalker ghost at the end on tatooine.
Purple Lightsaber for Leia, per Fisher’s wishes.
“Duel of the Fates” as the title.

As for Mustufar, I really like some of the extended mustufar scenes folks have put together in the RoS: Ascendant thread. Fixes the pacing issue while also properly setting up the wayfinder stuff.

Another thing from that thread I think is necessary is Rey having an unstable lightsaber. Since she’s using a repaired version of the saber that was shattered in TLJ, but they never say or show that she repaired it, having an instability like a pulsing blade with lighting running up and down it, would be a strong visual key to that.

Anyway, if you pull this off well, this might be my go to version of the film.

My Edits:
Revenge of the Sith: Refocused Available

The Clone Wars Refocused: The Chosen One (Mortis Episode)

Author
Time

Delpheas said:

I would also consider:

An anakin Skywalker ghost at the end on tatooine.
Purple Lightsaber for Leia, per Fisher’s wishes.
“Duel of the Fates” as the title.

As for Mustufar, I really like some of the extended mustufar scenes folks have put together in the RoS: Ascendant thread. Fixes the pacing issue while also properly setting up the wayfinder stuff.

Another thing from that thread I think is necessary is Rey having an unstable lightsaber. Since she’s using a repaired version of the saber that was shattered in TLJ, but they never say or show that she repaired it, having an instability like a pulsing blade with lighting running up and down it, would be a strong visual key to that.

Thanks, Delpheas. That is a lot of VFX work that I am not capable of, but if others have done them and are sharing them, I’d love to put them in.

Author
Time

That’s more what I meant. You could probably reach out to the folks who’ve done some of that work in the Ascendant thread and see if they’re willing to help

My Edits:
Revenge of the Sith: Refocused Available

The Clone Wars Refocused: The Chosen One (Mortis Episode)

Author
Time

Yeah, I’ve been trying to keep up with the Ascendant thread, but I just haven’t had the time. I’m considered an essential employee, so I am still working full-time despite the current pandemic restrictions. I’m about 20 pages behind wherever the current conversation is.

Jonh is doing such incredible work on the Force ghosts over there, though, I did reach out to him about adding a slight Force glow around Leia when she calls out to Ben and he said he would do that for me when he finishes with the Force ghosts.

I’ll reach out to Chase to see if he’s willing to provide the Mustafar scene. I’ll have to pay attention to see who’s doing any of the others.

Author
Time

In this version, D-O provides the map the Resistance with the map to Exegol. I cut Poe’s retort of “Yeah, except how to get there” from the scene where they download D-O’s Exegol information.

https://vimeo.com/416636202
Password: exegol