If you could somehow use the Ren vs Vader stuff that would actually be pretty cool.
Either way, looking forward to v3. The idea of recoloring some of Mustafar as Exegol should help with the opening feeling so rushed…
And I personally love Rey using Leia’s crystal. 😃 and your recolor looks great.
I don’t know what Acbagel’s plans for tRoS are, but this edit feels like a strong companion to their TFA & TLJ edits.
Also I haven’t watched Ascendant yet, but in that edit’s changelog it mentions doing something to intimate that Leia helped Rey rebuild Anakin’s lightsaber, and I was wondering if that could be applied here at all?
At the very least, once Ascendant v2 is out, I think you should source the crackly saber effects for Anakin/Rey’s lightsaber.
And finally, I think Rey’s line to Leia about “earning” Luke’s saber is just so clunky. And there’s nothing in the previous films that setup her having that fear of being un-worthy. Though I do appreciate your attempts to show that her issue in this film is finally overcoming her self-doubt and her personal fear of failure/what it meant that she wanted to take Ren’s hand.
Edit: Looking at RougueLeader’s suggestion again for using the Ren vs Vader fight, I thought that the initiating factor could be Ren grabbing hold of the Wayfinder/Key. The Wayfinder tests him and his victory over “Vader” is accepted as proof that he won’t fail the way Vader did, and he is granted access to the Remnant Fleet.
To feel properly in place it would need new dialogue, but you could put it in there as is and would work well, again building up the runtime and continuing to add context (plus as RL said the concept is another way your edit brings the film back to the original concept)
((and thinking about the original DotF concept has me wondering if the stuff people were working on in the Ascendant thread for having Ren start on Coruscant could be used here…))