The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session) — Page 3

Thing is though, there’s a Rey movie coming soon, and other future content, so I don’t think we can avoid it forever. While I’m frustrated with the Palpatine angle, the reveal in TLJ was that her parents were nobodies, with her by association, but this deals with the biggest issue, that of Palpatine directly siring a nobody. Having Rey be a Palpatine clone should future proof us against references to her being of his blood or his “granddaughter”.

Rey’s name in the flashback could be good.

As far as changing Finn’s line in the D-O scene, I think there’s a reaction from D-O that could be used to cover a line change if it was brief.

I’m feeling optimistic about this approach. The Clone Rey angle goes some way to explaining how Palpatine was resurrected, even if Rey’s connection to this is unconfirmed. I think a lot of people may be hung up on thinking that Palpatine is trying to engender some familial emotions with this story, but his bigger plan may simply be to set himself up as an obvious villain for Rey to hate, and in so doing allow him to transfer his spirit into her. It is only too convenient that he offers her a story about her parents that turns them from worthless nobodies into loving parents who only wanted to protect her, who died defending her from the evil undead Emperor. He knows he’s the villain, and all he wants is for her to be conflicted, to act out of confusion and fear rather than peace and purpose. Palpatine recognizes that Rey has always been in a hall of mirrors, trying to find her true family. The biggest change that we could make in this direction would be to show that Rey’s visions of her parents are newly uncovered, arising from her vision during her training. In fact, we could initially put the visions there, perhaps in truncated form, then let them play out in full during Kylo’s quarters scene.

I don’t know if we need specific proof that Palpatine is lying about this story, since one of its benefits is that it is plausible but unfalsifiable. I think someone like Finn should push back against this idea, saying that he doesn’t believe the Emperor’s story, and Rey shouldn’t either.

I’m not too worried about changing the occasional word spoken on-screen, but it does help if the mouth movements are similar.

Speaking of that, I’ve been thinking a bit more about the small scene of Finn, Poe, and D-O. For an edit where Rey Palpatine is a lie, this dialogue needs to be cut or changed in some way. The first inclination I had was to change the dialogue to establish that Lando’s daughter was the target of Ochi, to somehow lure Luke to the Emperor, but this is sort of unconnected from the rest of the plot and doesn’t make much sense at this point in the story.

So then I thought that there is one other reason why Lando would be involved with Luke chasing Ochi across the galaxy, and that was if it had something to do with Luke’s saber. This would complete the whole ‘story for another time’ moment in TFA while also being relevant to Finn because he was there when that story was originally teased.

“This droid has a ton of information about Exegol”
“Wait, coneface?”
“D-O”
“Sorry, D-O”
“He was going to Bespin with Ochi of Bestoon.”
“Why was Ochi going there?”
“To bring a lightsaber he was supposed to take from Cloud City, to the Emperor.”

Changing ‘Exegol’ to ‘Bespin’ would be fairly simple because his line would only need to be shifted slightly forward to be masked by the previous shot, and ‘lightsaber’ is very similar to ‘little girl’ in terms of syllables and mouth movements. From ‘Cloud City’ onward, this change could be covered by cutting to Poe’s reaction shot.

This change also fixes something weird about the original scene, which was that Poe’s confused reaction of ‘Why was Ochi going there?’ doesn’t make sense because everything they know about Ochi points to him frequenting Exegol. That Ochi was going to Bespin allows Poe’s confused reaction to make sense.

Finally, making this scene about Anakin’s lightsaber ties into the following scene, where Rey attempts to destroy the saber in anger and fear. This connection between scenes could be made even stronger if we extended Luke’s dialogue with a reaction shot of Rey, and perhaps shifting her line up to make all of this work. There is a good candidate of her looking at the burning ship from earlier in the scene, and over this reaction we can have Luke continue his admonition:

(Luke catches the saber)
“Master Skywalker!”
“A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect. The Emperor sought to destroy it…so what are you doing here?”

Now Luke’s statement doesn’t come out of nowhere, since it bridges the previous scene and explains why the Emperor was after Luke’s saber - he clearly feared it for some reason. Perhaps he foresaw that it would be used in his annihilation, or simply that it featured in his future somehow. But the irony of this is that Luke is tying Rey’s action with that of Palpatine in wanting to destroy the saber, further linking the two. Also interesting is that Palpatine seeking the saber led to intelligence about Exegol falling into the hands of his enemies, resulting in his ruin.

One final bonus of this change is that if we set up that the Emperor now fears Luke’s saber, it becomes less random that this is a weapon used in his destruction.

Maybe I’m missing something, but why is Palpatine lying about being Rey’s grandfather necessary in the first place? It’s not like a massive amount of runtime gets cut if you remove all lines where Palpatine mentions this: depending on how you rewrite the hangar reveal, you can even keep some lines that were originally meant to allude to it. Personally, I think it would be much more effective if whatever reveal Rey gets about her past is actually true, rather than just a blatant lie that Rey can overcome by simply finding out it was a lie in the first place.

Jar Jar Bricks’s idea of Rey being a clone is one of the most promising alternate reveals I’ve seen proposed so far (especially given you need to cut practically nothing), but I think one of your earlier ideas, where Rey was trained by Palpatine as a child, still has a lot of potential. It makes both Rey and her parents unambiguous “nobodies” (by blood, at least), while still giving Rey a strong connection to Palpatine. If anything, I actually think Rey having spent a significant portion of her early life with Palpatine is a much stronger reason for her to feel drawn to the throne than “evil genetics” or whatever.

Yeah, I’m also not sure we need the lie angle - again mainly because it feels like something future content will likely contradict.

StarkillerAG said:

Maybe I’m missing something, but why is Palpatine lying about being Rey’s grandfather necessary in the first place? It’s not like a massive amount of runtime gets cut if you remove all lines where Palpatine mentions this: depending on how you rewrite the hangar reveal, you can even keep some lines that were originally meant to allude to it. Personally, I think it would be much more effective if whatever reveal Rey gets about her past is actually true, rather than just a blatant lie that Rey can overcome by simply finding out it was a lie in the first place.

It’s not necessary to have the ‘Rey clone’ concept be a lie, but I feel like it would be nice if it remained unconfirmed, especially since there are discrepancies between that story and the ones from prior films. In particular, I think the depiction of the ship Rey sees from her past being different between visions is a hint that her Palpatine lineage is an invention of the Emperor. It just feels like that’s something he would do as a way of controlling someone. It also isn’t really necessary that Rey learns that this story was a lie, just that she comes to realize that the family she may have had in the past isn’t important, it’s the metaphorical family that she has now that really matters.

Jar Jar Bricks’s idea of Rey being a clone is one of the most promising alternate reveals I’ve seen proposed so far (especially given you need to cut practically nothing), but I think one of your earlier ideas, where Rey was trained by Palpatine as a child, still has a lot of potential. It makes both Rey and her parents unambiguous “nobodies” (by blood, at least), while still giving Rey a strong connection to Palpatine. If anything, I actually think Rey having spent a significant portion of her early life with Palpatine is a much stronger reason for her to feel drawn to the throne than “evil genetics” or whatever.

Actually, I proposed both of those ideas. I agree that the first one, where Rey spent time with Palpatine, is compelling in a personal way, and it isn’t even incompatible with the Clone Rey concept. Perhaps this could be the default story, that Rey was a female clone of the Emperor who was being groomed by him as his heir before being kidnapped by Sith cultists and taken to Jakku and Luke’s disciples. This presents the strongest version of the ‘destined for evil’ trope that the saga has ever had, far more than Luke’s evil daddy.

However, this story obliterates the point of Rey nobody; many people thought that Rey coming from nothing was a refreshing concept because they could see Rey’s story in themselves; no virgin birth, no famous or powerful lineage. That was the one redeeming characteristic of the character to many people, my girlfriend included. So when TROS revealed that she was just one more nepo baby in this ever more tiny and incestuous universe, it killed any remaining interest for a lot of people. That, above all else, is why I think it’s important that we not kill the idea that Rey could genuinely come from nowhere, and that’s why I’m fighting so hard for a way to keep the Rey clone story as just a story, however cool it is. The point of the film, after all, is that Rey is able to choose the version of her past that she wants, or reject them all…and she does, choosing an ennobling fiction over the prospect of a humble past or an evil one.

Concerning the D-O scene, I was almost certainly overthinking it. If the only important thing to establish is that Rey Palpatine is unconfirmed, there isn’t much that needs changing.

The scene could go from this:

“This droid has…thank you, I appreciate that. General?”
“General.”
"This droid has a ton of information about Exegol”
“Wait, coneface?”
“D-O”
“Sorry, D-O”
“He was going to Exegol with Ochi of Bestoon.”
“Why was Ochi going there?”
“To bring a little girl he was supposed to take from Jakku, to the Emperor.”

to this:

“This droid has…thank you, I appreciate that. General?”
“General.”
"This droid has scanned every planet he ever visited.”
“Wait, coneface?”
“D-O”
“Sorry, D-O”
“Rey believes he went to Jakku with Ochi of Bestoon.”
“Why was Ochi going there?”
“To bring a little girl he was supposed to take from Jakku, to the Emperor.”

All of the dialogue changes would happen to words spoken off-screen, or partially off-screen.

This version implies that D-O had a conversation with Rey, probably on their journey to Endor, and she learned that D-O had scans of every planet that he had gone to with Ochi. She probably found out that D-O had been to Jakku at some point, though he may have had scans of thousands of worlds depending on how old he is. Rey took this as confirmation that Palpatine’s story was true, though this scene is mum on whether D-O himself confirmed it.

Because D-O only has scans of the planets and not navigational charts, it actually solves the plot convenience of why he would have detailed readings of Exegol but wouldn’t know how to actually get there.

Finally, this allows Poe’s confusion to make sense, because he, like most people, would have no idea how Jakku might fit into all of this.

To hint at D-O’s role in the story, he could have one or two more lines before this in the film. When he’s scooting around on Kijimi, he could say something like ‘Kimiji scan complete.’ before Rey fixes his wheel. Then when he is on Endor hanging out with the horses, he could say ‘Life forms detected…updating Endor…no thank you!’

This gives the droid an ongoing purpose in the story, rather than just being used for a onetime plot dump, and sets up an offscreen interaction between the droid and Rey where she asks it about Jakku.

I think for D-O, I could probably record new lines and distort them enough to fit in.

I don’t think that Kylo should tell Rey that Palpatine is lying to her, or giving her visions. I think that can be implied, however, if the visions first appear in some fragmented form when Kylo interacts with the Vader helmet and they share a vision, basically like the theatrical version of that scene.

In the Kylo quarters fight, it could be that Kylo is surprised at the new version of Rey’s past that he has seen, since he didn’t see that in her memories before, but I don’t think he should outright suggest that this is a device of Palpatine. Again, if Rey knows for sure that Palpatine is lying about her past, then she can easily discard it. So that interpretation should remain plausible but unconfirmed for the entire runtime, and the story should be about Rey choosing which story to believe.

For this to be communicated, we would need to alter the D-O scene and maybe give D-O some new lines if we want to be fancy, in order to prevent confirmation of Rey Palpatine. Luke’s line of ‘Because you’re a Palpatine’ doesn’t actually need to change, since it could merely be that he is giving voice to her greatest fear, not confirming it. His next line could be ‘Leia sensed your fear.’

The only other thing that is needed to pull this off is to give Finn a line where he pushes back against Palpatine’s story and tells Rey that she ultimately must choose her destiny, not the Emperor. For this, I think it would be interesting if we used this opportunity to give Finn some closure to his character arc as well. From a practical perspective, Finn would want to get to Rey in order to convey his doubt to her, which means that his mission at the end of the film would be similar to the one in TFA: he is involved in a Resistance attack but has the ulterior motive of wanting only to find Rey. However, he ultimately chooses not to find Rey and instead chooses to sacrifice himself for the Resistance, knowing that this time his sacrifice will not be in vain.

So how do we accomplish all of this? There are a few opportunities for dialogue adjustments that can make this clear:

“It’s Rey. She’s going to Exegol. She’s showing us the way to get there. But she’s alone.”
“Then we go together.”

…

“So how do the ships take off?”
“They use a signal from a navigation tower…like this one.”
“Except they won’t. Air team’s gonna blast the tower, ground team’s gonna find Rey and rescue her.”
“Ground team?”
“I have an idea for that.”
“Once the tower’s down, the fleet will be stuck in atmo. With no shields, and no way out.”

…

“There it is. Poe…I see it. Got a visual on the tower. But it must be jamming Rey’s signal. We need to eliminate that tower before we can find her.”
“Incoming TIES.”
“I see ‘em. I’ve got you, Finn.”
“You ready back there?”
“Never been readier.”

…

“This should do it!”
(Tower goes down)
“There it goes. Now we can find Rey!”
“Nice one, Finn! Nav signal’s down, but not for long.”

…

The final act would be restructured to allow for Pryde’s death and Finn’s rescue before Palpatine is restored to full power:

-Rey arrives on Exegol, meets Palpatine.
-Poe arrives on Exegol, the battle begins.
-Finn lands on the Command Ship.
-Palpatine makes an ultimatum, Rey prepares to strike him down.
-Finn destroys the first beacon.
-Ben arrives on Exegol, battle with the Knights of Ren/Praetorian Guards.
-Civilian Fleet arrives.
-Finn destroys the Command Ship, is rescued by the Falcon.
-Rey and Ben defeat their enemies, confront Palpatine, are drained of Force. Finn reacts from within the Falcon. Palpatine rises and attacks the fleet, Rey calls out to the Jedi.
-Finn responds through the Force, reminds her of her true family.
-Rey’s friends join Finn in helping Rey, who confronts Palpatine for the last time.
-The fleet gains a reprieve, attacks one last time.
-Palpatine is destroyed, Rey dies, Ben returns and restores her.

“Be with me…be with me…be with me.”

Finn: “Rey, your family isn’t in the past…it’s here, now, with us…and within you. Remember us, Rey.”
Poe: “We go together.”
BB-8: (Beeps Amiably)
D-O: “Thank you…very kind.”
Leia: “Never be afraid of who you are.”
Maz: “The light…it’s always been there…”
Chewbacca: (Supportive Chewbacca noises)
Maz: “…it will guide you.”
Ben: “Take my power, Rey. Use it.”
Luke: “Rey, the Force will be with you…”
Leia: “…always.”

Removing the voices of the Jedi that Rey didn’t know in life will emphasize that she has rejected her desire to find belonging in the past, and will choose instead to take Finn’s advice and rely on the strength of her friends for her future. Burying the old lightsabers in the homestead is final confirmation of her new resolve.

I’m hoping that the restructure of the ending will help with the lack of reaction shots, since from Rey destroying Palpatine and the Sith temple to her resurrection would be unbroken by a shift to the Resistance’s perspective. I’m thinking that we go from the temple destruction to a fade to black, which gradually fades back in to Rey as she falls to the ground. Essentially we are viewing the destruction from Rey’s perspective, and don’t cut back to the Resistance until Rey is in the air again.

For this part I would use the words spoken to Rey by her friends as if she is remembering them. They would replace the voices of the long-dead Jedi, indicating that she is not relying on the strength of the Jedi spirits but on her own memories to guide her. Though the images of her friends wouldn’t actually appear, this is intended as a mirror of Ben’s redemption where the memory of his father allows him to turn back to the light.

When Palpatine tells Rey that he is ‘all the Sith’, Rey simply responds that she is a Jedi. She isn’t all of the Jedi; Luke wasn’t being literal when he said that a thousand generations lived in Rey. Rather, it is a metaphorical statement intended to instill in Rey the feeling that she carries on the traditions of those thousand generations of Jedi, and that is enough. She doesn’t need the ghosts of Luke, Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-wan to lend her Force power to overcome the Sith. In fact, their presence would defeat the purpose of her quest. In this conception, she must decide for herself who she is, whether it be a nobody, a Palpatine…or a Jedi with the spirit of a Skywalker. If she were truly able to hear and see the spirits of the Jedi, there would be no need for her to have faith in herself. But because they are absent, she is able to take her final steps as a Jedi and declare herself one once and for all.

Thanks for the encouragement! I can’t promise that these ideas will work in an edit, but I’ll do my best.

…

On that note, I think I’ve come up with a simple explanation for why the Emperor wants Rey dead. Here’s the Hangar rewrite:

“Rey….wherever you are…You are hard to find.

“You are hard to get rid of.”

“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. Darkness is in your blood. Rey…”

“You’re lying.”

“You were right…your parents were no one. Junk traders desperate for money.”

“Don’t!”

“The Sith paid your mother to be a host to their dark experiment…”

“I don’t want this!”

“…it produced…you.”

“No!”

“But they wouldn’t give you up.”

(Rey sees the vision of her parents and her abandonment.)
“My Love…be brave.”
“You’ll be safe here…I promise.”
“Come back! Nooo!”

“They paid for your protection…in more than one way.”

“Stop talking.”

“Rey…I know what happened to them.”

(Cutaway to heroes capture)

“Surely you can guess the rest of your story by now. Your parents went to Jakku, seeking Luke’s disciples. They were desperate for his protection. But Palpatine’s assassin found them first.”

(Rey sees her parents get killed.)

“So that’s where you are.”

“You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead. I’ll come tell you.”

…

“Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”

“Because you were created from the blood of the Emperor…to sit upon the throne of the Sith. Rey…you’re a Palpatine.”

“The Emperor wants you dead because he knows that only his power…your power…can truly kill him. Together we can finish what my grandfather started. We can destroy the Sith…and bring a new order to the galaxy.”

“You know what you need to do. You know.”

“I know.”

…

I don’t think that we need to even bring up whether or not Rey is technically a clone or just some weird experiment; the point is that she was created from Palpatine’s DNA to be a host for his spirit, but Rey’s parents didn’t want that for their child. Palpatine wants to kill Rey because only his power can kill him, and he thinks that Rey has his power. This makes Rey reflecting lighting back into his face a little bit clever instead of random, since she is actually acting on ‘knowledge and defense’ to defeat Palpatine, knowing that his weakness is just a faceful o’ lightning. It’s kind of amusing to think that this is the third time such a thing has happened in this saga, but it could be argued that in ROTS and ROTJ the process was interrupted by Anakin, first by unhanding Windu and then by throwing 'ole Palpy down the elevator shaft…which may have saved his life.

If we keep the clone angle vague, we can also get away with the physical similarity between Rey’s mother and Rey, since her mother may have been chosen based on her similarity to the Emperor, and/or there could have been some DNA from Rey’s mother in Rey.