Now that AI voices are a thing, is there anything we want to change for this version? Ascendant’s Rey nobody is already great, but I think it can hit a lot harder with some new lines. I think some kylo lines in the hangar/force fight would be the easiest place to start.
I also agree. Personally I loved The Last Jedi, but it’s a fact that this movie resolved the internal struggle in Rey when one movie still had to be made. She accepted her lack of famous ancestors and she refused to join Kylo.
Palpatine has been a tool to add another (weak) struggle. The only other would be to have Rey kill her parents (that’s why she fears herself), but some of us already tried that and the result was never really great.
That’s actually a good idea. What if she used the Force instinctively to try and stop her parents from leaving and destroyed their ship. A memory reactivated when she thinks she’s killed Chewbecca.
That way you wouldn’t have to change much. Extend the flashback from the Force Awakens and add the ship held in midair before exploding. Use this as memory flashes after the Force lightning scene. So when Kylo Ren taunts her she understands he isn’t lying.
With the “Rey killed your parents” idea, if you could change Luke’s line, “Because you’re a Palpatine” with “Because of your parents.” or something like that, with maybe slight alterations to his mouth movements, you wouldn’t have to change anything else about that scene.
Also, if you could give Luke a new offscreen lines before “Some things are stronger than blood” you could recontextualize that line to be about Rey’s bond with Leia being very close, rather than it being about her blood relation to Palpatine.
Also, this might be a bad idea, but I wondered if a Rey Nobody edit could still work with the Emperor still referring to Rey as Empress Palpatine. Like, Palpatine would know Rey’s quest for belonging and family, so it could be his way of saying, “the belonging you seek is with me”. But, it could also be a way for Rey Palpatine to still be hinted at for those who like that. Kind of how Deckard being a human or replicant is left ambiguous. Anyway, just a thought.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a Rey Nobody edit and especially one where the big reveal is that she killed her parents. But I was wondering if instead of her accidentally destroying their ship with lightning (which is a tad too dramatic for my tastes) what if she just instinctually kills them by snapping their necks ala Force Choke?
It’s been a while since I’ve seen TROS but I was thinking that during the flashback, you could still have her parents get kidnapped by Ochi, you get the shot of her crying and reaching out to them as they leave, and then we cut to inside the ship where they’re killed by Ochi. I feel like there could be a way to cut it so that it just looks like they keel over rather than being stabbed by Ochi and then you could add in a bone snapping sort of sound effect to sell the effect as well.
IDK, just something to think about.
In the world of semi-actualized ideas, is there anything concrete as an update in the ‘Rey Nobody’ department compared to what made it into the alternate version of Ascendant V2? I’m about ready to update the main version to V3, and I could certainly plug in the ‘Rey Nobody’ bits and pieces from V2 just fine. But if there’s been development since, I’d obviously want to be current.
Was there any scenes in particular that we initially felt could be improved upon for a later edit? I know the duel in Kylo’s chambers was discussed for a potential update, but I can’t really recall what was said about it.
I’ve been really off of editing for awhile now, very busy. But I did some pretty significant AI dialogue work in force bond duel scene, changing maybe 80% of the dialogue. My adobe subscription isn’t active at the moment to share a clip, but I’ve been thinking about returning to the edit soon.
That certainly sounds worth waiting for. Just know Ascendant is ready when you are.
Alright! We’re getting somewhere!
“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Dom, were you working on a “Rey killed her parents” version or just focusing on the dark visions? In the past I’ve always leaned more toward the latter, but I’ve started to feel lately that the former might be more effective.
I’m a fan of the “Rey killed her parents” idea for sure, but I figured to start off at least I would continue down the dark vision route. It still seems the path of least resistance. But I’d be very interested to see what someone might come up with, and if not I might eventually take a crack at it if no one else does.
I agree. I look forward to receiving whatever updated bits and pieces you have, and using V2’s for the rest, to update the dark visions take on ‘Rey Nobody’ for Ascendant V3.
I also look forward to DominicCobb’s TROS edit which brilliantly realizes the ‘Rey killed her parents’ angle. That idea deserves to be fulfilled and brought into existence properly!
I, too, am looking forward to Dom’s TROS edit as his proposed list of changes looks all too beautiful. 🥹
“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Any new Rey Nobody ideas now that AI is a bit better? I’d love to see someone have another go at the Rey killed her parents idea.
I haven’t been on the forums much lately due to work/life, but Dom and I had a lot of discussions about potential dialogue restructuring. I think we both agreed that we wanted to come up with a version that didn’t necessarily add anything extra, just focusing more on the dark visions, but we also talked about how a Rey killed her parents version would be interesting to see and I did some rewrites that included that premise.
A big reason it never went anywhere, at least in my case, is the weight of endless possibility. The dialogue could be anything now, and I feel like it is challenging to get new dialogue written that feels appropriate to the movie. I haven’t landed on anything that I just loved.
Maybe I could go back and find the scenes I’ve made rewrites for and post it here. I feel like it could help to have an open discussion to try to figure something out. I end up just writing a little bit, not being happy with it, losing interest and then revisiting months later. If there was a discussion here sort of like the discussion over Nev’s TFA Starlight crawl maybe we could finally figure something out, or just end up with an endless adjustments. 😂
Just popping in to say that V4 of Ascendant will be here very soon. And to check in on the state of this effort, for the eventual ‘Rey Nobody’ companion version.
I’m ready for the pieces whenever they are.
As it has been, Ascendant’s Rey Nobody alternate version doesn’t seek anything radical beyond facilitating the removal of her being made into Palpatine’s granddaughter, and I’ll leave more ambitious ideas such as her killing her own parents to other projects.
Thanks, Dom and RL. You’re the best.
Finally! The journey reaches its end - again. XD
“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
My headcanon for the Nobody cut is that Rey was the Force’s answer to Palpatine/the Sith cheating death. This goes in line with the idea from TLJ that the Force seeks to balance itself, and it explains her latent powers that “awaken” in TFA. It’s a decent explanation to how overly gifted she seems to be with the Force, while mantaining the core of TLJ’s big reveal, she still comes from nothing, from nowhere, much like Anakin. This also adds an extra layer to her relationship with Kylo, he’s Anakin’s heir through blood, while Rey is Anakin’s heir through the Force, it makes sense that a powerful Force bond would form between the two, and them coming together to fulfill the prophecy once again and end the Sith for good feels like an aproppiate ending to a trilogy that was all about history repeating itself. Her carrying on the Skywalker name at the end also has a new meaning since she’s actually heir to that lineage, from a certain point of view.
Dayum I could actually get behind that Burbin and I’m partial to Rey Palpatine.
What you described would be perfect for Kylo to say to her in their “reveal” scene in the hangar bay.
“Why did he want to kill a child?”
“Because he saw what you could become. You don’t just have power. You will decide the fate of the galaxy… My grandfather was the chosen one. You were chosen by the Force, too. What Palpatine doesn’t know is we’ve become a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one. We’ll kill him. Together. And take his fleet.”
EDIT: This way you could also keep his line “the dark side is in our nature” later on since they’re both linked to the same man technically.
That’s really cool, it feels much more like an expansion on what Kylo says in TLJ than the theatrical version. Like Shmi, Rey’s parents aren’t important, but she doesn’t need them to be important to this story. I also love the idea of there being multiple chosen ones throughout history, and Rey is just another in a long line of them.
If it’s stated that Rey was chosen by the force to bring balance, I feel like there’s less risk of her turning to the dark, so maybe drawing some connections with Anakin being the “chosen one” and still turning would be interesting. Also, does Rey have a dad if she’s chosen by the force? Do all chosen ones have no father like Anakin? Rey seems to insinuate that she had a father, but she could just be assuming that. Probably not super important but worth thinking about.
If it’s stated that Rey was chosen by the force to bring balance, I feel like there’s less risk of her turning to the dark, so maybe drawing some connections with Anakin being the “chosen one” and still turning would be interesting.
Exactly, this is what I was trying to nail down with the dialog. The moment still needs to be a big scary reveal for Rey. With everything that she goes through in the film (being drawn to the dark side), her being told that her upcoming decision will essentially decide if the galaxy would be plunged into darkness or back to the light is a HUGE amount of pressure. It gives her a reason to go to Ahch-To. Her thinking could be that if she never has to make that decision the galaxy would be better off without her.
And yeah, we don’t want it to be that she is THE chosen one, because then she’d know she will make the right choice in the end. Rather, she is chosen by the Force to determine the future. And she should be well aware of how much death and destruction Vader caused.
Also, does Rey have a dad if she’s chosen by the force? Do all chosen ones have no father like Anakin? Rey seems to insinuate that she had a father, but she could just be assuming that. Probably not super important but worth thinking about.
Somebody can head canon it that Rey was an immaculate conception if they want, it could be that Rey’s “dad” just started dating/married her mom after she was already pregnant or after she’d been born. So he’d be her step-father.
EDIT: I think I’ve got his line squared away - “Because he saw what you could become. You don’t just have power. You will decide the fate of the galaxy… The Force chose my grandfather. You’re chosen for his legacy, light… or dark. What Palpatine doesn’t know is we’ve become a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one. We’ll kill him. Together. And take his fleet.”
In this scenario I would imagine Rey was an immaculate conception like Anakin, only she happened to be born to a couple of scavengers who didn’t realize it, and not knowing what to do with a child they just sold her off. It’s an interesting contrast to Shmi, who chose to lovingly raise Anakin. The vision Rey has in the cave in TLJ could also be seen as the Force telling Rey she has no real parents, she sees only herself.
I also think we could give Luke some dialogue about bringing balance later on Ahch-To, with Kylo instead focusing on the fact Rey has the same power as Vader had, this would stoke Rey’s fear of falling to the dark side, becoming the “new Vader” Snoke believed Kylo would become.
The vision Rey has in the cave in TLJ could also be seen as the Force telling Rey she has no real parents, she sees only herself.
This stuff writes itself lol.
But yeah Kylo would definitely want to emphasize the potential dark side of her destiny, the trouble would be doing that without having him lie in such a critical moment. Even Vader doesn’t lie to Luke. I tried a new line in my previous comment, but anybody else can take a crack at it, too.
“Because he’s afraid of your power. The force chose you, Rey, the same way it chose my grandfather. Now only you can decide the fate of the Galaxy.”
“What Palpatine doesn’t know is that we’re a dyad in the force. Two that are one. We’ll kill him, and take the fleet. Together.”
This explains that Palpatine wants her dead because he doesn’t want to mess with another chosen one since he got killed by one before.
This also makes Anakin’s line at the end about bringing back balance much cooler.
Hi guys, is there any news on the creation of the “Rey killed her parents” version?