Since we’ve just been talking about how Leia was such a good potential Jedi and how she wanted to use nonviolence, would it make sense that Leia had discovered this Force Healing power and taught it to Rey?
Rey: It’s in pain. I can sense it.
(Rey hands her saber to Finn)
Rey: It doesn’t want to hurt us.
(Rey heals the snake)
BB-8: Questioning beep?
Rey: I just transferred a bit of life. Force energy from me to him.
BB-8: Beep?
Rey: Leia taught me that.
This makes her healing Ben with this power a lot more meaningful since it comes right from his mother, and may imply that Leia is giving the last of her life energy to aid Rey in healing Ben.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
Hmmm… I guess those lines would work if we wanted it to be a more commonly known power (which kinda flies in the face of RoTS).
What I liked about it being from the texts is that it’s ancient knowledge at that point which may have been lost. Also, we wouldn’t have to VFX any mouth movements for the line.
I don’t think that Leia knowing this necessarily means that it’s ‘commonly known’, since she could have discovered it on her own over her lifetime.
Alternately, Rey could say “Leia would have done the same”, which leaves vague where Rey got that power but makes clear that Leia’s guidance has given Rey the mindset that she should seek self-sacrifical avenues before killing her opponents outright.
Also, we’d only have to change the mouth movements for one word rather than an entire line.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
You could reuse the insert shot of BB-8, but maybe in reverse, at the end of the convo, and put “Leia taught me that” over that shot. Or even just the shot of Chewie putting the dagger in the bag, he’s in the same room as them.
Or, at the beginning, replace “I just transferred a bit of life”, with “Leia taught me. To transfer life.” Then onscreen, she continues, “Force energy from me to him.” I do like the thematic idea of Rey learning it from Leia specifically.
Although I also think it could be nice to set up earlier than that. Like, replace the illustration of the wayfinder that Rey sees while flipping through the book with an illustration of Force healing. Arguably that is a set up for the Rey knowing the wayfinder is mentioned in the texts too, but would the audience really question it being mentioned in the texts if we hadn’t seen that page before? Also, it is a little convenient she flipped on that page 10 minutes before it became relevant. Idk though.
I do like the idea of merging the two ideas by having an illustration in the texts of Force healing and having Leia be the one that helped her learn it.
It goes back to her scene with Leia at the beginning. “It’s what you would do”. And then later to BB-8 “Leia would do the same”
Good ideas!
I do think that her learning the ability from the Jedi Texts makes sense, and gives the texts more relevance to the story. However, I think it’s more powerful if an ability comes from a character rather than an object, since it is able to say so much more about that character, and Leia needs all of the help she can get here.
But yes, a merging of the ideas gives us the best of both worlds.
If someone provides a high-quality image of the page in the texts, I can try my hand at drawing a replacement.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
Could we just have it so she only explains to BB-8? Something like “I learned that from the ancient texts. Transfered life force from me to him. You would’ve done the same.” I mentioned earlier how it doesn’t make much sense Rey would feel the need to explain to Poe and Finn, who don’t show much interest in her training, specially since they’re supposed to be in a tense situation (and also I don’t like adding lines the second the mouth leaves the frame, it’s the same reason the Leia lines don’t work for me).
But BB-8 does show interest in her training, he follows Rey around while she trains, and he beeps something about trying to help when she says she’ll earn Luke’s saber one day. We already have him asking Rey what she did so here’s where it makes the most sense to add that exposition. I prefer this power coming from the ancient texts because they were a big deal in TLJ but here they’re never mentioned, other than the scribbles about Exegol Luke apparently put on top of them.
As for Ben being able to do it, I always imagined it’s a result from being a dyad with Rey, “two that are one”, as well as already seeing her execute that power on him. Palpatine also executes an “evil” version of this power by absorbing life force instead of giving it, which makes sense since the Sith spirits would date back to “ancient” times as well.
As long as somebody can do the VFX mouth work I’m game for that, Burbin.
Well the first line already comes from off-screen, we’d just need “Transfered life force from me to him” to match “Force energy from me to him”.
You could have a little both and have it be something like,
Offscreen: From the texts. Leia showed me how.
On screen: Force energy from me to him.
I don’t think you have to spell it out more than that. But I do agree if you had to pick one, it is better to go with Leia, but I think you could do both.
I agree with Burbin regarding Ben. Force dyad stuff.
So “life force from me to him” is meant to match Palpy’s: “The life force of your bond. A dyad in the force. Unseen for generations”?
I love the idea of mentioning the jedi texts AND Leia mentoring her, if possible. Gives much more meaning to both she taking the books from Luke and her healing Ben some time later.
Alas, at this point, this healing power is not even that special. I mean, Grogu can do it as well, so it’s kinda of a random force ability that some force users are going to get and develop, and some will just not.
So “life force from me to him” is meant to match Palpy’s: “The life force of your bond. A dyad in the force. Unseen for generations”?
Yeah, I think it’d be neat to tie those two toghether, one gives life, the other takes it. And it condences the original two lines “I just transfered a bit of life. Force energy from me to him.” leaving room to mention the ancient texts. I do feel it’s important that she mentions transfering life, so it’s clear why Ben would die from doing it at the end.
You could trim it a little so it plays out like.
Offscreen: From the texts. Leia showed me how. Life-
Onscreen: -force energy from me to him. You would’ve done the same.
I personally think mentioning both the texts AND Leia in such a tight space feels too forced, and like, wouldn’t the texts themselves show her how? It’s a neat idea to have Leia be involved, but she’s already very involved in Ben’s redemption as it is, she sacrifices herself to reach out to him, and with the added shot of the medal it’s also implied she had a hand in Ben’s “memory” of Han. I think is fine if the Force Heal is left as a personal moment between Rey and Kylo/Ben, and it gives the ancient knowledge Rey decided to preserve a moment to shine in this film.
I personally think mentioning both the texts AND Leia in such a tight space feels too forced, and like, wouldn’t the texts themselves show her how? It’s a neat idea to have Leia be involved, but she’s already very involved in Ben’s redemption as it is, she sacrifices herself to reach out to him, and with the added shot of the medal it’s also implied she had a hand in Ben’s “memory” of Han. I think is fine if the Force Heal is left as a personal moment between Rey and Kylo/Ben, and it gives the ancient knowledge Rey decided to preserve a moment to shine in this film.
+1
And with the new flashback dialogue that leaves the amount of time Leia trained with Luke up in the air, I think it is better for this just to be a character moment for Rey showing that she is taking the initiative to learn as a Jedi on her own as well.
The Skywalker Saga:
I · II · III · IV · V · VI · VII · VIII · IX
This is the way.
I personally agree with Burbin. The only mention of Leia there that I’d be comfortable with is: “Leia would’ve done the same” instead of “You would’ve done the same”.
Granted, the old line does slightly foreshadow BB-8 giving some of his energy to revive D-0. But that’s not really a big deal to lose.
I agree too. Leia seems tacked on to mention to BB8 in that moment. Just a quick reference to the texts is fine, but isn’t needed either.
That is true. Makes it feel a little stuffed.
If you moved BB-8’s beeps to previous shot, when he is rolling up, that would give you the entire BB-8 insert shot to include an extra Rey line. Maybe you could keep the line as-is, and just add, “From the texts” or “The Jedi texts”.
I’m sending Nev a still of the page from the Jedi texts. I’m having trouble exporting a high quality clip of the shot though.
As far as the picture, I just imagined a hand-drawn illustration of basically someone “laying hands” on someone else. It could be in black ink, but maybe the “energy” could be in blue ink or something. And if you wanted to have our cake and eat it too, we could even keep the image of the wayfinder, but put it on the page Rey flips away from, so we only get a quick glimpse of it.
That is true. Makes it feel a little stuffed.
If you moved BB-8’s beeps to previous shot, when he is rolling up, that would give you the entire BB-8 insert shot to include an extra Rey line. Maybe you could keep the line as-is, and just add, “From the texts” or “The Jedi texts”.
This is currently what I’m working on. Will upload soon. There isn’t enough space for her to say anything else besides these three brief words. It works well, don’t get me wrong, but unless we shift BB-8’s beeps this is all we can do.
That is true. Makes it feel a little stuffed.
If you moved BB-8’s beeps to previous shot, when he is rolling up, that would give you the entire BB-8 insert shot to include an extra Rey line. Maybe you could keep the line as-is, and just add, “From the texts” or “The Jedi texts”.This is currently what I’m working on. Will upload soon. There isn’t enough space for her to say anything else besides these three brief words. It works well, don’t get me wrong, but unless we shift BB-8’s beeps this is all we can do.
Cool. But honestly, this plus the Jedi text image, if we can make that work, would be enough imo.
Honestly, I completely agree. This would be like the next huge VFX work since the puppet show.
If Nev can get the drawing, and someone could send me a high quality MOV file, I can try to do the VFX.
Yeah, so my very crude method of making these tests (just ripping out the relevant portion of the center channel) really shows it’s flaws here. You can hear an audible cutout because her crackling saber in the background goes away. But I’m assuming this wouldn’t be too hard to fix while editing. Here’s a rough test of how this might sound:
Amazing how you guys are tying this to TLJ more. By all rights, this should be the official cut! 😄
“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)