I’m still not sure TROS even means to state that Luke knew Rey was a Palpatine during the events of TLJ. But it might be easy to remove the idea that “Leia knew.” Is it just that one line that sets that up?
Adding Luke to the Palpatine deathsplosion 2.0 doesn’t seem fruitful to me, though.
A part of me feels like there should be more with that ending, but I honestly don’t know what. It just feels rather straightforward and not surprising at all.
Maybe if we could insert Palpatine gloating about how he can’t be killed. Use Snoke’s voice from TLJ interspersed throughout to imply Palpy likes speaking in his voice sporadically, then use his “I cannot be betrayed” monologue from TLJ.
I really want to insert in the “I’ve been killed before” line from the beginning of the movie, but you need Rey to have a comeback line like “and you be killed again,” which is less easily accomplishable.
I had a thought today about a potential edit.
When Ray is about to axe palps, what if we could rotoscope in Mark Hamill from the last Jedi scene (when he says see you around kid just before disappearing) color him to look like a force ghost and place him in between Ray and the Emperor within the energy feedback loop?
It would be a good visual of Ray being assisted by the last person to actually bear the name skywalker, and would be a satisfying payback is a bitch moment for Luke. He helps barbecue the guy who tried to do the same to him.
In an early ROTJ draft, images of the ghosts of Ben and Yoda flashed while blocking lightning from Luke. It’s an idea I’ve considered for this, and you could expand it to include quite a few different Jedi. But I don’t know if that might feel like beating a dead horse after the voices. And I think it’s important for Rey to have the final word.
Seeing force ghosts of the past Jedi was something I was greatly hoping for going into this movie,
and their absence is probably my biggest issue with it. (Palpatine doesn’t bother me) So, I would love to see the past Jedi added in to the final battle. I’d also love to see Anakin and Ben ghosts added to the last scene.
Change.org: Make Disney Release JJ Abrams’s 3+ hour Cut of Rise of Skywalker: http://chng.it/9H6YSwSKnF
Maybe if we could insert Palpatine gloating about how he can’t be killed. Use Snoke’s voice from TLJ interspersed throughout to imply Palpy likes speaking in his voice sporadically, then use his “I cannot be betrayed” monologue from TLJ.
I got it! In your LOE edit, we can reinstate the “I am the Senate!” quote you removed. Of course this is a great idea.
…
Yeah I got nothing.
“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”
How about moving the opening of TROS to the opening of TLJ?
This changes Kylo Ren’s motivation throughout the movie and, adding the failed Snoke clones, would serve as an enhancer to why he wipes out Snoke when he has a chance with Rey and moves to consolidate his power base.
I had the exact same idea. Remove the first throne scene with Snoke and Kylo (we can have the “assault on Mustafar to get the wayfinder” scene as part of Kylo’s training mentioned in The Force Awakens), remove the shot of the Star Destroyers rising from the ground, remove Sidious telling Kylo to kill Rey, remove the awkward “camera zooming into D’Qar” shot (since it will be jarring if we cut from the scene with Sidious and Kylo to said zoom-in shot), and cut immediately from Sidious telling Kylo that “Rey is not who he expects” to the opening “Oh no” scene on D’Qar.
The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.
I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.
The main problem with that idea is that Kylo isn’t wearing his mask, and he doesn’t have his facial bandages either. It would be too much of an obvious continuity error, and it would be weird for Kylo to never mention the resurrected Palpatine for the rest of the movie.
My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
The main problem with that idea is that Kylo isn’t wearing his mask, and he doesn’t have his facial bandages either. It would be too much of an obvious continuity error, and it would be weird for Kylo to never mention the resurrected Palpatine for the rest of the movie.
Can’t we just edit Kylo’s face to have the facial bandages?
The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.
I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.
He moves too much, it would be impossible. If you absolutely need Palpatine in TLJ, you can put him at the end, although I personally don’t want an MCU style cliffhanger in a Star Wars movie.
My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
The leaks for TROS said the original plan was for Luke and Leia to appear as force ghosts on Exegol. I’ve heard some people say they would appear alongside Ben and Rey (as Ben wields Luke’s saber and Rey wields Leia’s saber) but I think the leaks specifically outlined that they wouldn’t appear until Palpatine started lighting blasting Rey. They would stand by her and help shield her and take down Palpatine. Eventually this was scrapped for the Jedi voices scene. I doubt we’ll get this as a deleted scene but it would be nice.
Huh, interesting.
All in all I am hoping for some good deleted scenes to be worked with. One can hope!
“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”
actually liked the Rise of skywalker, the main problem with this film is pacing.
Opposite reaction. After thinking about it, I didn’t like the movie, but I thought the breakneck pace felt really appropriate, as it contributed to the feeling that made me initially like the film: it feels like an ending. More specifically, it feels like the endgame where everyone’s knowledge and abilities have been maxed out so they’re above silly slow plots and single lightspeed jumps at a time. And Rey and Palpatine’s confrontation (somehow) being all the Jedi versus all the Sith, and leading to Palpatine straight up disintegrating…it all feels so final. I love that about the film.
Hal, has this topic been discussed yet?:
One issue people have is the “suddenness” that Kylo switches sides. Granted, we know he’s always been torn between both sides of the conflict, but I do understand that feeling of the reversal of him “going all in.” I think part of that stems with the “Skype” convo when she is in the Star Destroyer. His motivation was for her to turn to the dark side and whatnot. However, since he is wearing the helmet it allows for easier wiggle room to change some aspects of the conversation.
He’s been obsessed with her and wants Rey on his side. In Last Jedi, he wanted her to join him … Forget about everything and everyone, Jedi, Resistance, etc. etc. So what if the dialogue changes to remove the “join the dark side” to just “Join me.” This adjusts his motivation in that scene to focus on the two of them, and not what side to be on. That way, when he later turns, it helps it feel a little more “natural” since it’s not about being in the light or the dark, but now HIM joining with Rey.
“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”
That is a change I could get behind.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
@Hal 9000 Do you plan on removing the “I am all the Sith/Jedi!” exchange between Darth Sidious and Rey? The exchange sounds really awkward and clunky.
The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.
I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.
Hal, has this topic been discussed yet?:
One issue people have is the “suddenness” that Kylo switches sides. Granted, we know he’s always been torn between both sides of the conflict, but I do understand that feeling of the reversal of him “going all in.” I think part of that stems with the “Skype” convo when she is in the Star Destroyer. His motivation was for her to turn to the dark side and whatnot. However, since he is wearing the helmet it allows for easier wiggle room to change some aspects of the conversation.
He’s been obsessed with her and wants Rey on his side. In Last Jedi, he wanted her to join him … Forget about everything and everyone, Jedi, Resistance, etc. etc. So what if the dialogue changes to remove the “join the dark side” to just “Join me.” This adjusts his motivation in that scene to focus on the two of them, and not what side to be on. That way, when he later turns, it helps it feel a little more “natural” since it’s not about being in the light or the dark, but now HIM joining with Rey.
I like that idea also!
@Hal 9000 Do you plan on removing the “I am all the Sith/Jedi!” exchange between Darth Sidious and Rey? The exchange sounds really awkward and clunky.
Anything is possible, but I’m not actively planning to.
Ok,so I have been dealing a lot with this movie lately.
First of all, we of course don’t have all the deleted scenes available yet. But I have a feeling that Disney is not gonna release a ton (contrary to TLJ) because I feel like JJ’s heart is not so much into the idea of deleted scenes and “what if’s”, such as Rian.
Also, at this point after all the #JJCut controversy and the leaks concerning #DuelOfTheFates I think that Disney is going to do a bit of damage control by trying to change the narrative to “This was the movie we planned all along. Therefore, we don’t have deleted scenes, etc.” That’s very unfortunate because this movie’s biggest flaws (aside from the #ReyPalpatine and #PalpatneIsBack stuff is the pacing and the entire structure.
Pacing:
Without deleted scenes you can only do so much like cut stuff out to fix the pacing. But I don’t think that’s what we really want because it would shrink the movie down even more so. It just wouldn’t feel “right” to have a big finale closing off the entire saga running at 2h or less. Btw. I’m still baffled why they announced weeks prior that TROS was suppose to be the longest Star Wars movie yet (running at approx 155 min https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2019/10/approximate-runtime-revealed-the-rise-of-skywalker.html) and what we got was actually shorter than TLJ by over 10 min.
Structure:
Here we can do something for sure.
What always bothered me about the movie was that we know within the first 5 minutes of the film not only that Palpatine is back, but where exactly he is. So where is the point of us going on a fetch quest with our heroes, when we already know what they gonna find and where they gonna find it? That’s why the movie lacks suspense. So we need to shift the Kylo Ren scenes on Exogol around a little bit. I don’t know how yet, but that’s kind of a biggie for me at least.
Same with the Chewie “death”. So he dies apparently and 2 minutes later we know he is alive. Ok cool. But why then do we need to spend another 20 minutes with our heroes dealing with his death, when we ALREADY know that he is alive? I think that can be fixed rather easily by shifting some of the First Order scenes around.
This goes along with (1). Maybe we can shift the Palpatine reveal with Kylo towards to middle somewhere, so to create a build up towards Palpatine. The crawls needs to be changed (goes without saying) and RIGHT AFTER the crawl we could start with the #FortniteMessage by Palpatine. Or Maybe start with Rey’s training sequence and shortly after incorporate the #FortniteMessage into another scene or create a montage of a few planets while the message is being voiced over. So like the entire Galaxy was listening?
Other changes:
I think we should keep C3PO’s mind-bank whiped. Cut out the scene with R2D2 restoring his mind.
Cut out the entire Chewie Medal scene and Leia handing it to Maz.
Cut out the Lando-Janah bit.
Cut all the scenes with Finn trying to tell Rey the “thing”.
Cut or change the scene where Palpatine shoots the force lightning into the sky. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels strangely silly and OP.
Cut/change the dagger scene in front of the Death Star. Very very silly
Cut the laser shot by the Star Destroyer destroying the planet. I mean, enough with super-duper-weapons!
Not sure how to fix this, but the #HuxSpy subplot is just ugh! I don’t want Hux to be cut out, but man!
Rey Palpatine: This is by far the worst part of the movie for me. I think we all agree it undermines everything set up in TLJ. Therefore, maybe we can find a way to change the dialogue by assembling snippets from other media recorded by the actors like #LegoTheForceAwakens maybe? The scenes that would require changes would be the Kylo-Rey scene on the Star destroyer and 1 or 2 lines during the Palpatine-Rey finale on Exogol.
btw. I’m ok with all the #Reylo stuff and how Kylo Ren dies. Never understood why people hate it so much. Ben sacrifices himself for Rey. A Skywalker sacrificing his bloodline to save the life of a “nobody” (well, in a universe where #ReyPalpatine doesn’t exist). Sacrificing himself for someone who has proven himself righteous and saved the galaxy from doom. There’s nothing more honorable than that! Am I wrong??
Puh! Ok that’s it for now.
This movie has PROBLEMS! I think this project may be the biggest one yet because it has the biggest plot problems of all the Star Wars movies in my opinion. It also seems “rushed” like no other SW film, obviously, since JJ only had about 2 years to do it -__-
Sorry for the double post!
But I also want to give small critique for Hal 9000’s suggestions he started this thread with 😃
It’s also complimentary with my previous post (s. above)
Opening crawl to remove Leia recon mission and direct mentions of Palpatine. Rather, Kylo Ren is tracking the source of Snoke’s power or something. We still find Palpatine right away, but in the body of the movie rather than in the crawl. It’d also be nice to mention Luke’s inspirational sacrifice to attempt to tie the massive civilian fleet into the theme of TLJ.
Right on, sir! (also see what I wrote about the structure of the movie in my previous post)
Here is a potential crawl, based on one drafted by DZ-330:
“Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKERLuke Skywalker has ignited a resurgence of hope in the galaxy. The populace of countless disparate worlds have risen in defiance of the diabolical First Order.
Rey, sole heir to the Jedi, continues her training under General Leia Organa, hoping to commune with Jedi of the past.
Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren seeks the source of his former master’s power, determined to end the war threatening his rule…”
Amazing !
- Potentially remove the visual of Snokes in a liquid chamber, maybe replacing them with something else, or empty bacta we can assume Palpatine dips into. Since the movie isn’t going to give a solid account of what happened in any event, the mere line “I made Snoke” could be interpreted figuratively.
Yes please !
- If deleted scene is available and suitable, add evil Palpatine broadcast as he lifts the fleet. Hopefully it makes it clear that it’s a broadcast, so later scenes still feel right as they allude to characters already having some idea of what’s up.
Any deleted scene/dialogue bites should be considered to bring back into the film, just so to help the pacing, which was just crazy!
- As Snap reports to Leia, see if Rose can be trimmed or if she even needs to be
Not sure, if I understand correctly. Are you trying to cut Rose out of the film? I mean, naturally I would say, NOOOOO. If there are deleted scenes with Rose, I would highly appreciate to put them back in. Otherwise (maybe that’s what you are trying to do after all) is to imply in the movie that Rose died after TLJ, which I gueeeeesss would be at least somewhat more sensical than to pretend she was alive, but didn’t do anything.
- Possibly replace Kylo’s line “I never lied to you” with something like “You were right.”
I don’t see the point in that ?!
- Remove line about how R2 backs up 3PO’s memory. It felt like this movie reacted to TLJ’s style by trying very hard to hardly ever let the audience be surprised.
Yes please! Keep the concequences! Also, check my post before what I said about Chewies death.
- I don’t like “whoever this Chewie person is, this is madness.” Maybe replace with offer to help negotiate or something as if 3PO were fresh out of the box and ready to do protocol stuff.
hmm, really? I think the line is funny.
- maybe remove Rey’s mom saying “she’s not on Jakku, she’s gone.” Like whaaaaaaat??
Yeah. That line is so dumb! Why would you hint at where she is hiding, duh!
- Possibly remove the destruction of the planet, and the idea that the fleet each has a ‘gun that shoots Death Stars.’
PLEEEEAAAAASSEEEEEEEE!!! Also cut all the dialogue references!
- Play with removing Finn and Jannah from the Death Star duel altogether
I guess. Also cut out a few of the “RRRRREEEEEEYYY” screams 😉 Oh, and cut all the references Finn makes towards the “thing” he wants to tell Rey. Unless there is a deleted scene showing him using the force, there is no point to this entire “sub-plot” ?!
- Remove the line about the Holdo maneuver. If it is something legitimate then someone who lives in that universe shouldn’t have the same misconception as we might.
Maybe there is a dialogue bit with a better explenation somewhere? Like “We don’t sacrifice our own” or “We have sacrificed enough people”. Or “The fleet is too close to the planet to consider such a manouver”
- If there’s any other good way to link the massive civilian fleet with Luke’s ‘spark of hope,’ I’d do it. Maybe add comm chatter suggesting Skywalker is on their minds.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for trying to make Luke’s sacrifice a point in this movie!
- see if it could somehow be communicated that the Sith fleet needs the First Order to man the ships
Would be very welcome!
- I think one could successfully remove ‘Rey Palpatine,’ but it would be unusual for me to deviate from the lore to that degree. I don’t like it, but I think I’d be better off accepting it and maybe tweaking TFA and TLJ to fit in better. I expect I’ll play around with executing this idea, at least.
I would her rather to be a nobody. Or at least anything else BUT a Palpatine. Before I ever watched TROS i was rolling my eyes at these theorists suggesting that she might be his granddaughter. It was literally the WORST thing that could happen in the movie. Well, during the half-way point of my first viewing when the twist happened I sank into my seat like Rey sank into the sinking fields. I was frozen for the next 10 minutes and everything just went by. I never recovered from that fully, at least in my first viewing. I still cringe every time that’s mentioned, ugh!
P.s.: Do you need any help? I can’t do much technically (besides Design work). But I am good with research (dialogue lines of other movies by the actors maybe? I watch tons of movies 😉 )
*Remove the line about the Holdo maneuver. If it is something legitimate then someone who lives in that universe shouldn’t have the same misconception as we might.
That certainly needs to be removed. Just take it all out! Especially since it was done at the end of the movie over Endor. Another contradiction. Simply removing that exchange is an easy fix.
*see if it could somehow be communicated that the Sith fleet needs the First Order to man the ships
I would absolutely love something like that. Had a friend over the other night and were talking about Star Wars stuff. (BTW, loved the movie and trilogy as a whole now with it all complete, good for him.) And I was discussing ways to improve on the movie. He did agree that something like that would be great to really connect the two sides. It is a too unbelievable that Palp found 100,000++++ followers to man those ships. Even if they were “Skeleton crews,” the sheer number was crazy. So having some kind of line to connect the dots for the two “sides” like that, First Order’s manpower and Final Order’s ships, that would be neat. It has to be done some how during the table discussion with the Generals, but need to have the movie and any deleted scenes to see if some dialogue or extended time can be used, even if it can be a “random” general in the background saying that, so anyone can be a voice actor for it.
“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”
To anyone interested.
I’ve also taken a preliminary shot at an opening crawl:-
‘The Rise of Skywalker
The resistence rises! Luke Skywalkers sacrifice at the battle of Crait has reignited a spark of hope across the galaxy and more freedom fighters have joined the fight against the tyranical First Order.
Rey, the last great hope for a resurgent Jedi order, continues her training under the guidance of General Leia Organa but strives to commune with Jedi from the past who’s wisdom may help her in the final confrontation against the First Order.
Meanwhile, Supreme Leader KYLO REN moves to mercilessly crush any threat to his rule and uses his unlimited resources to dispatch agents across the galaxy in search of an ancient artifact that could lead him to a mysterious force that may help him solidify his power once and for all…’
It’s only a first pass and might still be a bit wordy…but I think it sets up the playing field a little more clearly than the original?
Took another stab at it to lower the word count and get it more concise?
‘The Resistance rises! Luke Skywalker’s sacrifice at the battle of Crait has reignited the spark of hope across the galaxy and hundreds more freedom fighters have joined in the fight against the tyranical First Order.
Rey, the last great hope for a Jedi resurgence, continues her training under the guidance of Leia Organa, but strives to commune with Jedi from the past who’s wisdom may help her in the final fight against the First Order.
Meanwhile, Supreme Leader KYLO REN tirelessly searches the galaxy for an ancient artefact that could lead him to a mysterious new presence that promises to help him destroy his enemies once and for all…’
Or:
Sensing the increasing threat, Supreme Leader KYLO REN leads a mission to MUSTAFAR in search of an ancient artefact that can guide him to a phantom presence in the force that promises to help him crush his enemies once and for all…’
Or:
Meanwhile, Supreme Leader KYLO REN leads an assault on MUSTAFAR in search of an artefact that will guide him to the source of sinister presence that offers a dark alliance, one that will help him crush his enemies once and for all…’
Anything that removes Palp’s being alive and a radio broadcast makes the crawl 100x better.
“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”
I don’t have a lot of time and have to type with one hand right now, but I appreciate the continued discussion.
I would love to draw an explicit connection between the First Order and Final Order, however tenuous. I’m not sure if the crew have insignias that aren’t FO, so maybe that could be some work to do to make it feel valid.
The only reason that thing about trimming Rose was on the list to remind me to check it out because someone suggested it, but I don’t know the scene well enough from memory to know what they meant. It probably won’t happen anyway, so don’t worry.
The reason I want to replace Kylo’s line “I never lied to you” is because that revelation in TLJ was not something he told Rey at all, he just goaded her into saying (admitting) it herself. Having him now say “you were right” is more congruent with what came before.
Do you still plan on retiring from fan editing once you’ve done your edit of The Rise of Skywalker?
The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.