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The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 4

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Hal 9000 said:

From the TFA:R thread -

Hal 9000 said:

Is anyone aware of a suitable bit of music which combines the Emperor’s theme and the Imperial March? I wonder if replacing the musical cue which accompanies Vader’s helmet would be helpful to connect to TROS.

I don’t feel it should replace the Imperial March, but evoking both themes would be appropriate. Does anyone know of such a piece, or could perhaps blend them like that?

I’d check out Samuel Kim on YouTube. He’s got mixes of a bunch of Star Wars themes.

Also a suggestion: Maybe add Palpatine’s laugh somewhere in Rey’s force vision in Episode VII. It might be too on the nose but it could be cool if you heard it when we see Rey’s parents leaving her on Jakku.

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Hal 9000 said:

That’s an awesome channel. Something like this would be perfect, just needs to be a little softer:

https://youtu.be/HLsSgS-v14Y

Maybe contact the artist and ask him to compose a custom track? He seems like a big SW fan he’d probably be interested to help this project.

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Hal 9000 said:

That’s an awesome channel. Something like this would be perfect, just needs to be a little softer:

https://youtu.be/HLsSgS-v14Y

I can send my version tomorrow. It’s the Vader theme on top meshed with the first notes of the Emperor’s theme with a dark male choir sound. So the Vader theme is what stands out, but you can sense the Emperor as well. Do you think there should be a bit of Emperor for the whole scene or just the helmet shot?

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You could also use audio from the battlefront 2 cut scene of the palps droid. “Operation Cinder must begin at once, heed my messenger he will relay you to your target.” That could be worked into a modified version of the Jakku Message deleted scene in TFA.

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 (Edited)

Hal 9000 said:

That’s an awesome channel. Something like this would be perfect, just needs to be a little softer:

https://youtu.be/HLsSgS-v14Y

“Oh it’s beautiful”

I love how Rey’s theme is seamlessly integrated with Palpatine’s, I can definitely see that being used when Rey approaches the Sith throne.

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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 (Edited)

Hal 9000 said:

  • Maybe remove light speed skipping by ending as they jump the first time, removing TIEs jumping. Or let them jump and we just cut to the next scene. If the former, remove reference to light speed skipping later.

Yes PLEASE. Lightspeed skipping is literally universe breaking. It’s not how hyperspace works, it’s not how any of this works!

  • Possibly remove the destruction of the planet, and the idea that the fleet each has a ‘gun that shoots Death Stars.’

Double yes! The threat of a massive invasion fleet is enough, we don’t need super planet killer re-re-re-re-redux.

  • Work in the shot from the trailer of Leia holding Han’s medal. She holds it as she lays down, tying this into Ben remembering Han, and with the medal being given to Chewie later on.

Yes! I didn’t register that Leia had been holding Han’s medal and so it really came out of left field for Maz to just have Chewie’s medal that got lost in the mail for 40 years.

  • 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 say leave this plot point as is. Evidence suggests this is what Abrams had in mind all along. There’s evidence in TFA that supports this and it’s a theory I’ve heard going as far back as 2016.

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 (Edited)

What I would really love to see with this is some more prominent music placements that the trailer promised. Dual of Fates when Rey and Kylo fight on the Death Star, and maybe Across the Stars at the kiss? Just some extra nods to really make this feel like a 9 film conclusion

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I HATE, (HATE!) rey being a palpatine, but is an important part of the canon now ( the same as lightspeed skipping) and it will be referenced from here on out in other star wars media, so i will prefer for them to stay.

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 (Edited)

As a big fan of your edits I like where this is going. Here are my thoughts on your suggestions, followed by my own edit wish-list from my 2nd viewing of the film:

Hal 9000 said:

  • Potentially remove the visual of Snokes in a liquid chamber, maybe replacing them with something else, maybe even other Palpatine bodies. 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.

Personally I enjoyed the mystery of seeing Snoke.

  • 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.

That could be cool.

  • Maybe remove light speed skipping by ending as they jump the first time, removing TIEs jumping.

I could go either way. Lightspeed skipping opened up the argument between Rey and Poe and I wouldn’t want to sacrifice the relationship building we get in this movie. One thing I think this film did well was convince us that Rey, Finn, Poe are a team.

  • When Kylo and then Rey get flashes of scenes from TFA when they touch the Vader mask, Kylo should get flashes of Luke from Crait rather than Ach-To.

That sounds cool.

  • 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.

I’m ambivalent about this.

  • 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.

  • Possibly remove the destruction of the planet, and the idea that the fleet each has a ‘gun that shoots Death Stars.’

I think that could work. Just having a full fleet of star destroyers with the implication of planet destruction may be enough.

  • 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.

I agree.

  • 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’d leave it. There is some real depth to the implicit exploration of bloodlines and how Rey rejected that and chose to use her inherited abilities for good. It also makes the “Rey Skywalker” line more understandable.

Here are some ideas I had for edits. My intention would be simply to streamline the flow of the film without destroying meaning, since this film’s most glaring fault is how much it tries to pack in. Unfortunately I don’t have clear scene descriptions and some of these may be out of order:

  • After Ren says “I will find you” cut him saying “…and turn you to the dark side.” It’s implied that he will try to do that once he finds her, but why say it aloud? He should be trying to seduce her to the dark side and masking his intentions.

  • On Ajan Kloss, cut the Leia / Rose / Wexeley exchange where Rose chastises Wexeley for giving bad news in a certain way. Pointless, and it made me dislike Rose even more.

  • On Kef Bir, cut the Poe / Finn argument. This seems extraneous and noisy.

  • On Kef Bir, cut Rey fitting the dagger’s shape onto the Death Star II. This is both non-sensical and unnecessary. Rey doesn’t need to know exactly where to go to find the Wayfinder; in fact, if Rey just taking off in the skiff not knowing where she will end up creates more tension about her liklihood of succeeding. When she arrives on the Death Star II there is enough shown in her movements to suggest she is using the Force, or is called to the Wayfinder. You could add in a low, bass-y sound at certain points to suggest it is calling to her.

  • If you cut the Rey dagger-fitting scene, I suppose you have to deal with the fact that Rey leaves the party on the Star Destroyer to find the dagger. You wouldn’t want to cut that scene entirely, because I think it’s very cool that Rey infiltrates Ren’s sanctum. But justifying that excursion would take some creative thought since Rey says they need the dagger. I’d need to watch the film again to consider how to do this.

  • On Kef Bir, cut Finn and Jannah entirely from the Rey / Ren duel. There is no need for them to be there interrupting the fight. I don’t think their presence adds any tension or proves that Finn cares about Rey; it only distracts from the duel itself. The only time Rey / Ren seem to actually interact with Finn / Jannah is when Rey Force-pushes Finn back, which could be easily cut.

  • During the Kef Bir duel, cut Maz Kanata on Ajan Kloss explaining what Leia is about to do to reach Ben. This is self-explanatory.

  • I have a note that Maz Kanata does this kind of unnecessary exposition later in the film, too, but I didn’t write down the line.

  • Cut the Holdo Maneuver line. Distracting.

  • Eliminate Rey Force-pushing Palpatine’s lightning. One of the issues some fans have with the Rey / Palpatine fight is that Palpatine challenges Rey to kill him so he can enter her body. She declines to at first, but then kills him anyway with the Force-push of lighting. Eliminating the Force-push better mirrors the Mace / Palpatine fight from RotS, and allows the audience to think that Palpatine causes his own death; Rey is just defending herself.

  • Cut Bespin and Endor from the final celebration. This felt like pandering and was a little distracting.

While I believe all of the above cuts would help the flow of the film without taking away from meaning, I had some other ideas that I’m on the fence about. FWIW…

  • Cut Rey saying she will earn Leia’s brother’s lightsaber. I just don’t see how this contributes to the story, and is somewhat confusing when you see Luke using his actual lightsaber in the training flashback with Leia. I suppose it does reiterate that Rey has “Luke’s lightsaber”, adding meaning when Rey buries it alongside Leia’s.

  • Eliminate the Ren / Hux “mask” exchange. This was kindof funny (and I do like funny) but felt extraneous.

  • Find a way to emphasize that the Sith fleet is only operational if all of the First Order staffs the Star Destroyers. This would explain why after the Sith Fleet is destroyed the First Order is no longer a threat, and wouldn’t cause people to wonder how one, assumedly obscure world (Exogal) can not only produce a fleet of Star Destroyers but staff them, too. This also would allow the cut of Endor / Bespin without losing any meaning. I don’t know how to do this, unfortunately.

  • Eliminate the Reylo kiss, but otherwise preserve that scene. Even though Ben has redeemed himself, he hasn’t, in my mind, earned a kiss from Rey. And as another poster said, there were loud guffaws throughout the theater I was in when they kissed. Ben’s sacrifice for Rey is enough of a gesture, and letting him die without the kiss keeps the audience more open to the final “Rey Skywalker” scene, as Rey will still be longing for the familial connection.

What do you think?

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Hal 9000 said:

The one that originally featured the line “never underestimate a droid”?

Yes, if you mix the tale end of that scene with “Leia and The Resistance,” you could essentially make a scene where in TFA they intercept a transmission or something, and then Leia sends Kor Sella off to speak to the Republic, to get help.

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Stein, thanks for the list of ideas.

Some I like and agree with, some I’d have to see the movie again to assess, and others might still be worth experimenting with.

The dagger aligning with the wreckage goes along with Rey veering off to go get it and with 3PO specifying a precise approach vector. So it might have to stay as part of the Gordian knot.

I’d have to look again, but I’m not sure how one would remove Rey deflecting the emperor’s lightning at the end and have it make any sense.

I think implying or stating that the Sith fleet needs the Human Resources of the First Order would be awesome. Can it be done, I wonder?

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Gimpy said:

Hal 9000 said:

The one that originally featured the line “never underestimate a droid”?

Yes, if you mix the tale end of that scene with “Leia and The Resistance,” you could essentially make a scene where in TFA they intercept a transmission or something, and then Leia sends Kor Sella off to speak to the Republic, to get help.

That’s pretty direct pretty early on in TFA to bring this up so explicitly. Unless you mean to add it to TROS, sort of plugging in the new version of that line into the original scene.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I just saw this film again and one thing stood out to me this time - at least three times in the first half of the film a character says something along the lines of ‘if we fail, it was all for nothing’. It gets rather tiresome, and the final time this happens is with C-3PO before he is mind wiped. I think a far stronger version of the scene would be to simply mute his dialogue, so he would walk away from the group in silence. Poe would ask what he was doing, and only then would he reveal his decision.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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darkshadowspike said:

I HATE, (HATE!) rey being a palpatine, but is an important part of the canon now ( the same as lightspeed skipping) and it will be referenced from here on out in other star wars media, so i will prefer for them to stay.

To be fair Hal 9000 has Padmé survive in his edit for Revenge of the Sith and yet it contradicts canon

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”.

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NeverarGreat said:

I just saw this film again and one thing stood out to me this time - at least three times in the first half of the film a character says something along the lines of ‘if we fail, it was all for nothing’. It gets rather tiresome, and the final time this happens is with C-3PO before he is mind wiped. I think a far stronger version of the scene would be to simply mute his dialogue, so he would walk away from the group in silence. Poe would ask what he was doing, and only then would he reveal his decision.

I really like this idea.

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What do you think about cutting the star destroyers breaking through the ice? It’s as if the Emperor told everybody to hide until he gives the cue (like a surprise party).

•Kylo “What could you give me?”
•Emperor “Everything”
•Remove Emperor raising his hands and saying “a new empire”
•As the lightning is flashing, it cuts to the fleet of star destroyers already in the air.
•Emperor “The might of the Final Order will soon be ready…”

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I think the imagery is too good to lose, personally. Plus it’s the perfect place for the Fortnite Emperor audio.

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NeverarGreat said:

I just saw this film again and one thing stood out to me this time - at least three times in the first half of the film a character says something along the lines of ‘if we fail, it was all for nothing’. It gets rather tiresome, and the final time this happens is with C-3PO before he is mind wiped. I think a far stronger version of the scene would be to simply mute his dialogue, so he would walk away from the group in silence. Poe would ask what he was doing, and only then would he reveal his decision.

Yes, I really love this idea. Having a quiet moment with the “talkative droid” would be pretty effective I think. It makes the moment more serious if 3PO is silently thinking it over.

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RogueLeader said:

NeverarGreat said:

I just saw this film again and one thing stood out to me this time - at least three times in the first half of the film a character says something along the lines of ‘if we fail, it was all for nothing’. It gets rather tiresome, and the final time this happens is with C-3PO before he is mind wiped. I think a far stronger version of the scene would be to simply mute his dialogue, so he would walk away from the group in silence. Poe would ask what he was doing, and only then would he reveal his decision.

Yes, I really love this idea. Having a quiet moment with the “talkative droid” would be pretty effective I think. It makes the moment more serious if 3PO is silently thinking it over.

Yeah I like that too. It’s a nice moment but is poorly edited, feeling rushed. Might be worth trying to extend it as well, but this could do the trick by itself.