Acbagel

CamSMurph said:

Is a version of this currently available?

Yes, I can send you the workprint. Still need to do some audio adjustments before it’s final release quality but its definitely watchable without many distractions. I’ll dm you

EditModd said:

I’ve started watching your edit and like it so far. Moving the Star Destroyer planet destruction scene to the beginning helped establish the stakes early on. The only tradeoff is the main heroes don’t form an attachment to it, but by making it Corellia that’s destroyed you’ve definitely upped the stakes for Legends fans, which I assume is your main goal with this edit.

Great, it makes a lot more sense if you have seen my Episode 8 beforehand as well, as I introduce Palpatine’s return there. So it doesn’t seem as random and sudden of an appearance in 9.

And yes, I tried to introduce some sensible Legends easter eggs here and there. Did you get the sense that the whole planet of Corellia was destroyed there or that it was just an orbital bombardment that destroyed a city/continent? (was going for more of a Jedha in Rogue One partial destruction feel instead of an all out Alderdaan destruction)

EditModd said:

This sounds super interesting, do you mind sending a link?

Sent! Would love feedback on Episode 9 specifically if you get a chance to watch all of them soon.

Also, one thing I’ve noticed about TRoS is its small scale, smaller than even TFA and TLJ. The only moment that feels of appropriate scale for the finale of the saga is the Galaxy Fleet arriving, but that only lasts for about a minute. The Battle of Exegol feels extremely rushed compared to the Battles of Endor or Scarif which were much more fleshed out. This movie feels the least like a war than all the other Star Wars movies, it mostly feels like a treasure hunt spinoff save for the actions on Exegol. These are problems are pretty ingrained in the film’s story and structure, but I was wondering if you had any ideas how to remedy the scale issue?

Yes, I definitely agree with you on the problem of scale in the movie. The final battle is simply not written well, and the lead up didn’t do much to build up any tension for it either. I would say the main ways I corrected this were by unifying Palpatine’s plan throughout the entire trilogy into something cohesive and sensible, greatly adjusting the narrative of Episode 8 to give a deeper commentary of the themes of the force, and building the villainous presence of Kylo.

There’s no getting around the fact that there simply isn’t much content at all in the space battle, and the land battle has nothing to do with it (aside from Palpatine’s force lightning attack). So I tried to focus more on the drama of the characters themselves rather than an epic battle. Star Wars doesn’t really have any deep, thought out battles like Helm’s Deep, so I tried to keep the priority on the characters throughout the trilogy so that some of the bland battle scenes are at least amplified by more intriguing character development.

I feel I did a better job of highlighting the drama of the balance of the force itself than theatrical, so the main tension comes from what will happen to that state of the galaxy as a result of the force instead of the machines and creations of man in space. As we know, those things are “insignificant compared to the power of the force”.

I know I’ll be releasing a v3.1 for this edit, as on my rewatch I noticed how poorly the theatrical cut introduces Kylo back into Exegol. I need to reorganize those scenes to keep the tension brewing longer, in JJ’s film it is so hopeful for such a long period and makes Palpatine constantly look like an unprepared idiot. I fixed Palpatine’s plan, but I need to reorder some of the exegol scenes to help with the tension building still.

I need a couple more people to do a test watch of this and let me know if you see any bugs, and how you feel the ending works. Let me know if you’re able to do a review, thanks! Hopefully will be sending out links to everyone else within a week or so

T-202 said:

I’m just gonna come out and say, I think this is my definitive version of TFA. First off, I really digged how you opened with new Jakku establishing shots then Rey. Your new scene order on Jakku made a lot more sense to me. Your dialoge cuts were seamless in most cases such as the Kylo Poe interactions, and the “Stay Calm” moment. I was happy to see you use so many of NeverarGreat’s brilliant edits such as the Island Sketch, and the Rey dreaming of Ahch-To was awesome! It was a really neat idea to add Vader at the end of Rey’s vision from the Vader V Kylo Fan Film. I really appreciated the edit’s to Han’s comments on the bowcaster to better line up with Legends. Rey’s use of the force to break free was much better in my opinion. The sith eyes on Rey were perfect for that scene and really sold how she could best Kylo. The dream ending was neat, and overall like I said this is my favorite version of TFA now.

Wow, thanks so much T-202! I’m really happy you enjoyed the film, and that’s quite the compliment. Would love to hear your opinion on my Episode 8 when you get a chance too

26 movies. At the time of writing this, the MCU is the largest movie saga ever created. This isn’t even counting the dozens of seasons of TV shows that accompany this story. In this 26 movie monstrosity, we are gifted some of the most incredible moments to ever grace theaters, and on the flip side there have been some absolute stinkers. As a more casual Marvel fan who has drudged through almost every piece of content released, I would say AS A WHOLE I actually wouldn’t remember the MCU as fondly as I’d like due to the sheer amount of nonsense you have to experience along the way. My feelings towards Marvel are diluted by the many distractions from the main story. There is a ridiculous amount of content akin to the “monster of the week” TV trope of shows dragging on seasons and seasons past where the story should’ve ended. However, at the heart of this Infinity Saga, there is a truly one of a kind story about the Avengers vs Thanos. To me, most of the other side movies with random one off villains are largely a waste. I’m not saying they are bad movies, but many of them are looked at as cash grabs with no impact on the overall themes of the Infinity War aside from an easter egg or two. And some (Hulk, Iron Man Sequels etc.) have virtually no noticeable difference on the main story if you choose to not watch them. I’m here to refocus and streamline what makes the MCU special.

The Avengers was the 6th movie in the MCU, but the first to unite things into a cohesive narrative and so my story begins there. Personally, I am only interested in telling the best Marvel story possible rather than going into every origin story of characters we are all by now familiar with.

I fully credit FireMerkStudios for his Dawn of Thanos idea, and I openly cite some of his content as my source. He has attempted to do exactly what I am working on here, though he cut out MUCH more than I did. Whereas he aimed to do a series of short chapters, mine will be 6 full length movies in a Star Wars saga-esque presentation. In my Dawn of Thanos re-edit, I will be combining ALL Marvel content into one, refocused narrative about the Avengers vs Thanos.

Changelog:

My story begins largely with The Avengers film, but with an extended/alternate opening, and some major narrative changes throughout.

• Hawkeye’s origin story is completely reimagined. No longer is he an ex-SHIELD agent mind controlled by Loki, he is merely a mercenary for hire to begin. After losing to the Avengers at the midway point of the film, he will voluntarily choose to betray and fight against Loki. His entire backstory with Natasha is removed.
• Bolstered by scenes of Nick Fury founding the Avengers in Captain Marvel, and Iron Man 1, the opening of the film is completely reworked to not include anything with the Tesseract… speaking of…
• The Tesseract is no longer in the film. (aside from an easter egg reference that has 0 impact on the main story) This movie does not change one bit if you cut out every single reference to “the cube”. I kid you not, having the entire narrative focused solely on Loki and not this device greatly reduces the distractions and we can nail the plot points so much more clearly without it.
• As there is no Tesseract, Hawkeye mind control, there is also no mind controlled scientist needing Iridium to open the portal etc. The portal has nothing at all to do with the Tesseract anymore.
• Back to the opening of the movie, we see Fury’s initial idea for the “Protectors”, him recruit Stark, roll Marvel intro, then we cut to Firemerk’s scene of Thanos capturing Gamora as a child to present our main villain and threat of the MCU.
• After Thanos, we cut to Captain America waking up from the end of First Avenger. After Fury tells him what’s up (we now have seen Fury recruit Stark and Rogers), we transition to Fury talking to the council about the looming Loki threat and Fury’s Avenger idea. Fury says “We need soldiers” and we cut to the Iron Man 1 scene of him fighting the terrorists. This is to continue showing that Tony has been the under the employ of Fury before anyone else, and while there isn’t currently an Avenger program, he still is fighting around the world to keep the peace by himself.
• As Iron Man flies out of the middle east we cut to the deleted scene of Steve adjusting to the new era. After he talks to the waitress, he takes a motorcycle out to a museum (from Winter Soldier) to catch up on history and continue processing what has happened to Peggy. To deal with the pain, he goes to the VA meeting and meets Falcon for the first time. The scenes are reorganized so that after Falcon asks him, “What makes you happy?” we cut to the scene of Steve running laps around him.
• After this, we now cut back to the Avengers scene of Iron Man flying to Stark tower, but instead of it being from him fixing some clean energy underwater he is now flying back from the middle east as I showed earlier. This scene continues to play out, but I have cut out mentions of Tony previously not being allowed in the Avengers and mentions of the Tesseract. This is now just Coulson getting Tony back on track with the main mission.
• We now cut to a trimmed intro of Black Widow and then her subsequent recruitment of Bruce editing anything for consistency with my main idea.
• After Bruce is confronted, we cut to Steve boxing and continuing to process his trauma before Fury comes in and officially recruits him as well. Again, no Tesseract. This is all general recruitment to be an Avenger.
• Cut to a trimmed version of Loki talking to The Other about the incoming invasion. This is now the first we have seen of Loki in the film as we only saw Thanos earlier. So now when The Other is making the easter egg references to Thanos it is much more relatable.
• After the conversation, we cut to Steve landing on the Avenger base and meeting Bruce.
• On the Avenger base, there’s no Tesseract talk, no doctor/Hawkeye controlled. All about Loki.
• There’s another 50 or so edits in here, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been said already. I am greatly focusing the narrative by adjusting every scene to no longer be about the Tesseract/mind controlled people and 100% about Loki alone. The rest of the Avengers film plays out with this major change in place, so rather than repeating myself 50 more times I’ll just say you should watch it!
• I have also removed a few of the more obvious humor attempts that I felt were way over the top, and also note that as it is a Dawn of Thanos re-edit this movie would be rated R. There is increased profanity through subtitles of foreign languages and such.
• The film still clocks in at 2 hours 8 minutes without credits, so this remains a full movie.

I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who are at different fan levels of Marvel content. As I mentioned, I am not personally married to Marvel in any way and am solely interested in telling a great story, so I apologize if any of these changes are offensive to more of the deeper Marvel connections that maybe I don’t understand. But this is a retelling of the story and I ask that you give it a chance.

This workprint is released, but I have abandoned this project as a whole and will not be updating this film any further or creating any other projects relating to Marvel.

Hello, would love to view Episode 1 and 2 of your latest versions. Thanks!

arabian said:

I agree that TCW’s intro are bland compared to TBB’s first episode, but have you considered utilizing some of TCW’s stuff as flashback’s maybe? That could work well.

This sounds like a great idea.

I would like to explore the possibility of flashbacks, but aside from stuff with Echo there’s truly nothing worthy of even flashing back to in TCW episodes. And sadly, I think Echo was sorely underused in TBB in the first place so I don’t think there’s any natural place to place flashback scenes.

I took a little break from my edits during the holiday, but at this point I have moved to editing the Episode 0 TCW before continuing the rewatch/trims on episodes after Aftermath. I feel like it’ll give me a slightly better feel for the characters to review TCW episodes first, and also getting that Episode 0 done is a goal anyways so you all don’t feel as much of a disconnect between TCW and TBB.

Would love to watch this!

CMMAP said:

So have watched your recent 3.1 version of this and overall i liked it. Of course your excerpt in the first post is going much deeper, that couldn´t be established in the movie. But as far as working with the source material, it´s a welcome edition to poppa´s edit. I liked it.

Thanks for taking the time to review! Glad you enjoyed it too

Although i have some minor points mosty audio transitions):

• lea in space: the safe by luke is something that makes sense and i liked it, but it still feels akward seeing her in a space vakuum, reached hand and get drawing back

Hmm, so you’re saying you just don’t like the original shots/vfx work from Disney and want the whole scene not to be included? I also think the original production looks pretty bad, but as a storytelling device for the plot there’s really no way out of it. How else would you explain why Leia is in a coma the majority of the movie?

• rey pushes luke with her stick after force connection with kylo in her tent: luke is falling (face-forwards) and we hear an sound that he falls on the ground, despite rey igniting her lightsaber and he saving his fall backwards afterwards

Ah, thanks! I hadn’t even noticed that. I went back in and removed that slight thud sound, pretty easy fix.

• luke lea conversation on crait: “i can´t save him”, lea “…i know my son is gone”, luke “no one is ever…”, despite knowing he´s refering to han (dices) it still won´t fit for me, because ea is talking about ben. So i would either cut luke´s or lea´s line, but tnd to luke´s since you´ll make lea save her son in your TROS edit

Not entirely sure what you’re saying here. You’re saying you don’t like the original dialogue in the film? I’m not understanding what you think doesn’t make sense.

Luke: “I can’t save him.” (Ben)
Leia: “I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone.” (Ben)
Luke: “No one is ever really gone.” (Mainly a callback line to how Luke saved Vader and even though Luke couldn’t ultimately save him, there’s still hope for change at the end, so he’s referencing Ben’s fate as well. And then he gives Leia Han’s dice as memento of hope to hammer home the point)

I think that’s one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue in the whole film and I didn’t edit anything here. What is confusing to you in this?

• luke leaving to go outside: music transition could be smoother

I didn’t change any of the music as he is walking outside. It’s all the normal theatrical version. In fact there isn’t a single cut from the time Luke kisses Leia until after the AT-AT’s stop shooting so it’s not from me. What are you saying isn’t smooth?

• kylo firing on luke: new music added? doesn´t feel right for me; dialogue of kylo, hux is drowned in this scene

Nope, as above there isn’t a single change to theatrical here. It’s just a copy-paste over from the real movie. I’m happy to try to attempt to correct a mistake the actual movie made, but I didn’t notice any. Where exactly are you saying something is different?

• world betweens: nice idea, music could come in sooner (but the first image of luke - still - after fighting kylo is unnecessary)

Sorry, it’s kind of hard to understand what you’re saying here too. What do you mean “music could come in sooner”? There’s regular music playing underneath the scene the entire time. And which image of Luke are you saying is unnecessary? Timestamps would be helpful so I can review

• rey hearing/seeing palps: i think it doesn´t fit because she isn´t confused and concerned (not telling anyone) afterwards when everyone is hugging. Or did i misinterepret this scene?

The camera shot is on Kylo, and Palpatine says, “My boy…” What made you think that was in Rey’s head?

• music transition from rebellion to palps message at the end: isn´t smooth enough

I’ll take another look at it, thanks for the feedback

• what´s with the planet shot at the end? do you inteded to show exogol?

You mean the shot of the Sith fleet moving towards the planet? It’s there as Palpatine’s message plays to show that his fleets have arrived and are looming over the galaxy. I feel like most of the shots of Exegol here would be more confusing than anything. It’s too specific of a reference to make any sense as a final scene in the last 10 seconds. Is there a certain scene from Exegol you think would get the point across better than the Star Destroyers over the generic world?

EddieDean said:

I felt like the Bad Batch episodes of TCW could behave as a fairly decent episode zero of that show, since they slow down TCW’s important escalating rush towards its tragic conclusion. But they do feature some valuable Anakin/Padmé content that helps in its current placement. That said, I don’t think they’re as good a first episode as Bad Batch’s episode one, in terms of setting up the stakes and themes of that show, nor the state of the galaxy which it delves more deeply into.

Definitely have a point there about the intros. After reviewing TCW episodes of them it’s just… rather boring as a movie opener. Very generic battle scenarios, no drama, no tension, whereas TBB pilot episode is intense. I will probably reformat TCW episodes into an abridged Bad Batch focused prequel episode 0 as optional viewing like you suggested, but I don’t think it will work as part of a full Bad Batch film.

To give an idea of how I’m going through and cleaning up the content in terms of basic storytelling elements, here’s the changelist for the Aftermath episode.

• Cut some of Captain Grey and Kanan’s back and forth where they are either overly depressed or showing baffling confusion
• Cut the rolling snowball from Bad Batch’s debut scene, now they appear as though they ARE the wrecking ball mopping up the droid forces down the side of the mountain
• Cut battle droid tank commander’s “Huh? Hey, stop that!”
• Cut Tech throwing grenade to tank commander, doesn’t accomplish anything since the tanks are already falling off the cliff and I want to reduce as much battle droid nonsense as possible
• Cut battle droid, “Hey, what’s that?” to Tech’s sticky grenade on its chest
• Cut a Wrecker, “yeAaAhHHH!”
• Cut Tech’s overly nerdy time explanation and Wrecker being a doofus not knowing how many days are in a galactic standard year. Now transitions with, “Kamino… How long’s it been?”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Awwww man, what did we miss noooowww?”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Ooooohhh, it iiiisssss just like you said!”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “We sure don’t!”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “You can say that again!” Filled the gap in the speech with a shot of Omega not on the balcony, so it’s more of a genuine reaction when Hunter notices her the first time, and then sees she’s soon gone.
• Cut Tech’s nerdy analysis of Omega’s age and species
• Cut Wrecker and Tech’s back and forth about him loving to blow things up
• Cut Wrecker forgetting who Omega was 5 minutes later
• Cut some of Tech and Wrecker’s confusion about Omega sitting with them. Replaced it with a shot of Tarkin watching the squad
• Cut some of Omega’s tossing her food up and down
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Oh, I like this kid!” It is an extremely unnatural pause in the conversation, and it makes his standing up to support Omega much more surprising and impactful
• Cut Clone Trooper’s, “That’s it!” and Wrecker’s, “Ohhhh yeaaahhhhh!” Keeping Wrecker as much of a strong, competent warrior as possible is really benefiting his character. He is actually intimidating instead of a total moron.
• Cut Wrecker’s WWE table jump
• Cut Wrecker’s, “You owe me two credits!”
• Cut Wrecker’s utter shock and awe at the medical droid saying he is genetically defective. They are all already well aware of that fact.
• Cut some of the Squad’s goofy comments about Echo’s condition
• Cut Wrecker talking about how much he enjoys food fights
• Cut Wrecker getting childishly excited about getting to be combat tested
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Come oooonnnnn, give us a real challenge.”
• Cut Wrecker’s whining about hating hand signals
• Cut Wrecker’s “Incoming!” and overly drawn out WWE tackle
• Cut Tech’s, “… not going anywhere.” So now it actually appears for a bit that he was legitimately injured in the battle instead of being a joke.
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Whoooaaaaa…!”
• Cut Tech and Wrecker’s back and forth about not liking being used as dummy droids. Now it appears as though Tarkin barges in, agreeing with Crosshair’s statement that they get shot all of the time and it’s no big deal.
• Cut Crosshair talking about how Wrecker cried when he saw the new Imperial armory
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Oh, I’ll make room for it!” Now it appears as though he just ignores Tech and loads up the equipment anyways.
• Cut the whole bit of everyone trying to calm Wrecker down because he is whining about how he hasn’t blown something up in days
• Cut Wrecker almost in tears about not getting to blow up droids
• Cut Wrecker not believing Tech about Omega
• Cut Echo and Wrecker not understanding Tech
• Cut AZ loooooving research assignments
• Trimmed AZ’s exaggerated scream
• Cut Wrecker sniffing the brig cell
• Cut Wrecker acting clueless about how they can get out
• Cut Tech, “Oh, why didn’t I think of it before?!”
• Cut the whole loud explanation of the cell escape. Now it seems like Tech begins to suggest an idea and Hunter picks up on it without having the redundant explanation to the audience.
• Cut Tech’s “ackshually” answer to Wrecker being too big
• Cut Wrecker spilling the beans on the entire plan to the prison guards
• Cut Wrecker, “Hey, friend!” before the punch.
• Cut Wrecker whining about not being able to find his stuffed animal
• Cut everything to do with Wrecker’s wound treatment on the ship. He truly acts like he is 6 years old and snuggles a stuffed animal. It’s horrible.
• Cut Wrecker talking about how tough he is.
• Cut Wrecker’s,”OhhHHhhh yeaAAhhh!” It’s pretty crazy how many times they make him say that…

Still working on integrating everything into a larger plot, but it at least gives me a much more usable short story to work with.

I was able to go through the extended pilot episode and start editing. It’s a very cohesive narrative in and of itself since it’s an hour+ long intro, but I was able to streamline it and trim the fat off the edges. However, it did get me thinking… Is there a benefit to starting this project from the Clone Wars episodes themselves? With the way I’m presenting some of the characters, it will definitely feel like there’s a disconnect between their appearance in TCW and TBB. Wondering if there’s a way to use those episodes as part of the first film somehow.

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

I’d love to get a link to all three of these!

Check DMs

NotFreeman’D said:

Really good writing on the edits i would like a link at your best convinience
also do you still need help with color correction, i have some experience with it

Thanks. I am currently testing the v3.0 release to a small demo audience to bug check. I am assuming I’ll upload a v3.1 with fixes/changes very soon and then I’ll be sending that link out to everyone else who has asked. In the meantime, let me know if you’d like to watch my Episode 7 & 8. It’s meant to be watched as a cohesive trilogy so you’ll get the best experience in 9 if you have an understanding of the story I told in 8.

T-202 said:

This sounds really interesting? What are your plans for the Hera stuff?

I’ll have an update on that as I do a story analysis of each episode. Do you have any recommendations in the meantime?

EddieDean said:

Really interested in this. I’ve only watched the show the once, and don’t have the capacity to load it in and thoroughly analyse it right now, but I think you have exactly the right approach.

That said, if you do a watch-along analysis, I’d love to jump in and join you on that.

Certainly, I would definitely love to pick your mind on a re-watch if you have time. I could benefit from your experience from your project.

How certain are you that you want to run with the movie length idea? I found “as long as necessary” serves my Clone Wars edits well, without binding me to a rough runtime, and that coupled with using text crawls up front allows me to pull weaker content out of the episodes themselves (where necessary) and to pace and bridge the content more freely.

I love what you’ve done with TCW arcs to simply tell the best story possible, no matter the length. Honestly, that’s how Disney should have released them in the first place, especially once it went to Netflix exclusive. There’s no reason to fill timeslots with poor writing just to meet a pre-designated number.

For this project, I want to find a balance between what you have done with your TCW:R project and what Smudger is doing with his Mandalorian movies. Reorganizing scenes between episodes, cutting out the fluff, but ultimately creating a storyline that can be digested in a single sitting in a complete way. I’m not going to get hard locked into pre-determining a time length or movie count beforehand though. An initial estimation is aiming for 1.5-3 hour films, either 2 or 3 of them total depending on pacing.

Peonthegrate said:

One thing to take into account is that what may seem like filler now, may end up being more important in future seasons / Star wars shows.

True, always something to consider. If in the future something from Season 1 turns out to be content that feels left out after Season 2 releases then I can always just update to another version. At this time though I will only be focused on turning Season 1 into the best self-contained story it can be.

The Bad Batch is currently sitting at a very respectable 8.0 user rating on IMDB which is no small feat. However, I have made multiple attempts to get into it and I am always put off by some of the more “cartoon-ish” or kid oriented aspects of the show. In addition to this, a general consensus is that the episode count is too high and there’s some pretty forgettable filler content that really bogs down the core story. There are some really great moments in this show, but like The Clone Wars dealt with at times, it seems to be a show where certain parts are specifically made for an older audience and certain parts are specifically made for a younger audience. Personally, I am only interested in telling the best story possible rather than forcing elements into an episode in order to appeal to certain demographics.

As I wrap up my workprint production of my Star Wars Legends Sequel Trilogy, I have the plan to go through the Bad Batch and make an edit of this show into movie arcs that are focused on telling a good Star Wars story without as many of the shenanigans that comes along with it also being marketed to children.

I plan to watch the entire show again to make sure I understand each plot point and how I can improve the pacing, character interactions, and ultimately tell a darker, more mature story that fits into the timeline we see this show take place in.

Off the top of my head, the 3 main issues I need to fix are:

1. A lot of the episodes follow a formulaic structure of “We have to save them, Hunta!” “No, it’s too dangerous” “Please, Hunta.” “Fine.” Or another example being “Okay, Omega, wait at the ship.” “But I’m part of the squad!” “If you are part of the squad then follow orders.” Then one of the two parties inevitably needs saving by the other. This is fine if it happens like once to get the point across to the audience, but when nearly every filler episode follows a structure like this it just gets really old throughout 16 episodes.
2. Obviously the squad is built as cliche, steroetypical character archetypes which is fine in theory. Most “squad shows” are. Even think back to the Republic Commando video game which gives us the best comparison, but all 4 of those characters were written very well within their own lanes. In The Bad Batch, I felt like sometimes the archetypes go way over the top to the point of being overly cartoonish characterizations of their archetypes which becomes distracting, and I would even say at times makes it hard to watch (looking at you, Wrecker). I want to maintain their individuality while cutting down on some of the over-exaggerated traits and repeated stereotypical moments.
3. Streamline the plot to remove the unnecessary filler. I haven’t seen a single review where the filler content isn’t criticized. The problem is that it’s not even filler that gives you insight into something new about a character… It’s filler that copy-paste rehashes the exact same insight we learned about a character in one of the “main” episodes. Filler is fine if you’re still learning new things about the characters and bonding with them, but time spent with characters does not automatically translate into liking them more or knowing them better. If the filler stories aren’t teaching you anything new, it just feels like you’re taking AWAY from the characters rather than adding to them.

I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who have watched the show, haven’t watched the show, or started and didn’t make it through. What would make it more interesting to you? How could I cut it into a version that would make you want to watch? Which plot points need to be highlighted or altered? Would love to hear your thoughts all around.

It will likely take a while for me to complete the project, as I still need to go through watching everything, but overall it shouldn’t be that hard of an edit as I imagine most of what I will be doing is reorganizing and cutting.

I’d love to see v3, sir! Thanks

Version 3.0 changes:

To preface the major changes from the last release… Initially, I had thought the solution to fixing the narrative of Episode 9 was delaying all of the Palpatine reveal and diminishing his presence as much as possible until the middle of the film. Alas, I have found that to be the exact opposite of what I needed to do. Palpatine needs to be a focus. If you’ve seen the end of my Episode 8, you will know that I openly announced his return and have been hinting at his existence much more throughout the whole trilogy. As Fate of the Jedi ended with his return and my Episode 9 trailer gave him the spotlight, I have attempted to recreate the narrative of Episode 9 to build him up as this obvious galactic threat as much as possible. In Legends, we know that Palpatine’s spirit survived RotJ and his cloning techniques and Sith sorcery preserved his life, and it is assumed he did the same techniques in my Sequel Trilogy, just using Snoke’s body as a puppet for his spirit. Many lines in the movie are changed to reflect this.

Since this changelog is going to be huge, here’s a TLDR of Palpatine’s full plan throughout the trilogy:

1. After Palpatine’s RotJ body dies, his spirit survives just like Legends. A disembodied presence that is looking to regain physical life through his cloning and sith rituals.
2. Like in the comics, Palpatine genetically created Snoke to be nothing more than a vessel for his spirit. Palpatine then embodies the flawed Snoke body and manipulates Kylo into falling to the Dark Side and destroying Luke’s academy. A very natural plan as he already considers himself a master at manipulating Skywalkers from Anakin. Palpatine’s goal is still purely the destruction of the Jedi, hence the attack on Luke. He succeeds in destroying most of the new Jedi but Luke alone survives, leading into the hunt for him in 7.
3. As we see Snoke learn about Rey in 7 for the first time from Kylo, this is TRULY the first time Palpatine learns of her. He only knows what Kylo has told him, that Rey is a force user looking for Luke, and so Palpatine simply wants to get to her before Luke does, hence his line “Bring her to me.”
4. In 8, Palpatine is growing frustrated at Kylo’s inability to find and kill Luke after failing to do so the first time around at the Jedi temple. Rey is only another tool to finding and killing Luke. When he bridges her mind with Kylo, it is simply another manipulation to get her to come before him, and as he succeeds and tortures her he says, “You will give me Skywalker and then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke.” It’s consistent, as every move he makes is 100% about destroying the last of the Jedi.
5. After Palpatine rips Luke’s location from her mind, he tells Rey “You have the spirit of a true Jedi, and because of that you must die.” The theatrical trilogy is insanely inconsistent when it comes to what Snoke/Palpatine wanted from Rey. Now I’ve made it a master plan across all 3 movies.
6. As Kylo betrays Palpatine in 8, the Dark Lord realizes he must take a different strategy. A classic, masterful Sidious manipulation. As his spirit passes onto his next clone (the Palpatine-like body we see in 9), he now speaks to Kylo at the end of 8 as the voice of Palpatine instead of Snoke, letting Kylo believe that he killed Snoke for good. As he tells Kylo at the end of 8, “My boy, it will be yours if you do as I ask,” as Kylo looks at Rey. Palpatine’s mistake as Snoke was not realizing how much Kylo cared for Rey, but now he is taking the opposite approach, promising to Kylo Rey herself as a reward.
7. Early in 9, our first view of Palpatine is his hologram commanding General Pryde to burn a world and that the Final Order begins.
8. As Palpatine invades the galaxy with his Sith cultists, Kylo quickly realizes that Palpatine is no better than Snoke was, as his true goal is still nothing more than wanting Rey and the Jedi dead. This is why we see Kylo betray Palpatine and go to kill him midway through 9. However, upon learning of Palpatine’s true power, and that he WAS Snoke, Kylo understands that he is no match for this power by himself.
9. As Leia gives her life to heal Kylo of his wound from Rey, Palpatine senses that Kylo does not die. When he talks to General Pryde he says that “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plans.” This demonstrates how Palpatine never planned for Kylo to survive anyways and was anticipating his death, a tool as Vader was a tool.
10. As Rey lands on Exegol and faces the Emperor, he immediately offers her the throne if she kills him. This is exactly as he did with Luke in RotJ, he tried to kill Luke throughout the trilogy, but Vader refused. Then at the final showdown he asked Luke to lash out in anger. In my Sequels, he tries to kill Rey throughout the trilogy, but Kylo refuses. And at the final showdown he asks Rey to lash out in anger. That’s poetry.
11. When Kylo shows up and stops Rey from falling, the Emperor no longer surprisingly learns about the Force Dyad. There’s no mention of it at all, he simply submits Kylo and Rey and says, “And now the power of two restores the one true Emperor.” None of his ridiculous shock and awe, it’s just him knowingly adjusting to a better plan now that he can siphon both of their powers at once and restore his own body instead of giving the throne away.
12. As all of the Jedi force ghosts show up to take him on, he knows he is in trouble. In one last desperate attempt he tries to kill Rey but the combined power of all the sith = all the Jedi and they even out, killing everyone involved. Balance at last.

• Re-wrote the crawl:
  Episode IX

LEGACY OF THE FORCE

All who dare to speak against
the Sith are silent, terrorized by
merciless fleets. The Final
Order, resurrected by the spirit
of EMPEROR PALPATINE,
crushes any planet that rebels.

General Leia Organa holds the
galaxy together by a thread,
sending her brave agents across
the stars to unite the disparate
worlds in the name of
RESISTANCE.

Rey, the final heir of the
teachings of LUKE SKYWALKER,
is relentlessly pursued by Kylo
Ren as their conflict threatens
all life in the galaxy…

This is rewritten to address the fact that we now enter Episode 9 in the midst of Palpatine’s invasion on the galaxy, no longer right before he is being revealed. He has been providing ships to the First Order and announcing his presence through terror attacks akin to his Operation: Cinder post RotJ. At the end of my TLJ edit we saw him enter the picture so this new invasion is consistent with the state of the galaxy. It’s early enough that the Resistance is still trying to figure out what is going on and if this truly is Palpatine or some imposter. Theatrical TRoS doesn’t attempt to hide Sidious’ sudden appearance at all, and I’m running with the idea that we are entering the timeline early in the invasion. Disney has been saying that they planned for Palpatine all along (press X) so I am actually enacting that plan into the vision of my trilogy. Very slight hints and easter eggs in TFA, more direct hints throughout TLJ, then straight into the reveal at the conclusion. Now we have arrived in 9, anticipation for Palpatine is in the air (see Episode 9 trailer) and the full vision of his return has come to realization.

• Re-added Rey’s lines “Be with me” during her meditation, but instead cut the end of her line “…to hear the voices of those who came before.” The first part communicates that idea so much more naturally than the forced exposition line that follows.
• Added [skenera] establishing shot of Ajan Kloss rebel corvette to help slow the pacing of the intro.
• New scene placement! This is a major change, but right after Rey hands the saber back to Leia and says, “Yes, master,” we now cut to Palpatine commanding General Pryde to burn “a world they know” and that the Final Order is imminent. A Star Destroyer jumps into orbit of a planet. Using audio from [krausfadr], the Sith officers now command an attack on Corellia. The Star Destroyer fires its laser into a city (this is the Kijimi shots) but it isn’t a planet killing weapon, it’s simply a regular orbital bombardment tool. I only show the shots of the one city being destroyed on the planet. This is important to set up the presence Palpatine’s fleet already has upon the galaxy, and further expounds upon my opening crawl that these fleets terrorize any planet that rebels. Corellia is a nice piece of lore as the homeworld of Han so it makes sense to be “a world they know” as Han Solo was just killed. It also is a massive taunting slap to Kylo which is the most Sidious thing ever.
• As the city is destroyed, we hear Poe say “How?” and then the rebels explain it to him. We can see right from the start he is exhausted, looking overwhelmed at the new enemy. I removed the lines about the “planet killing weapons” so now the entire conversation appears to be about how it is possible to stop the Emperor. Also, when Rose says to Poe, “Leia made you acting General, what now?” we now take this line in an entirely new meaning. In theatrical it was because she died… In mine she has given Poe this title presumably because she is busy training Rey. We saw Leia defer to Poe at the end of episode 8 on Crait and this development to his promotion is a great story continuation. Also, it helps explain why Poe is so antagonistic to Rey with all of the new responsibility.
• As Rose says, “What now?” to Poe, we cut into the scene of the Falcon jumping to meet the First Order spy who passes them info on the Emperor. Yes, you read that right. This alien IS the only spy in the movie now. It’s laughable how easy this is to make work.
• I have moved the scene of Poe and Finn playing chess with Chewie. It no longer fits the tone of what Poe experienced earlier with the Star Destroyer bombing. We last saw Poe stressed out trying to brainstorm a plan and now we cut to him doing something reckless. It’s still a great scene so don’t worry, it’s going to come up later!
• Removed the Mark Hamill alien’s lines about a spy in the First Order, because in my edit this alien IS the First Order spy. Now the whole mission appears solely as some dangerous plan into enemy territory to gain new information on the Emperor. Finn just says, “You got something for us?” and it’s “Transfer the message!”
• When Finn, Rey, and Poe talk about the spy, we now pick up that the alien was the spy. Finn says “There’s a mole in the first order who sent us the message.” That’s it, that’s the end. We just saw that alien send the message and I cut the alien’s line of ANOTHER spy, so now he’s the only spy.
• In the briefing when Poe mentions the spy the viewer should still make the connection that the alien they just visited IS the spy.
• Re-added all of the lines about the Emperor into the briefing again. In this version, the more talk about the Emperor, the better as I’m trying to beef up his threat. Also re-added Rey’s line about finding the Emperor when she talks to Leia. Not only does this give him another name drop, it also indicates that Luke sensed that Palpatine was not truly gone and perhaps that’s more of the reason we saw him so intensely meditating on Ach-To in my Episode 8.
• Cut Rey’s line to Leia, “It’s what you would have done,” and Leia’s understanding facial reaction. In this movie we see Rey really struggle with her temptations to the Dark Side, and it’s a better clue that she is not balanced when we see her openly defy Leia as she previously defied Luke in 8. Rey is headstrong, never really evolving past where we saw Luke in Episode 5. This is fine, she doesn’t have to be another Luke, she can just be Rey. Her story is so much more interesting when it’s not a copy paste of Luke’s OT journey on steroids.
• Moved the Kylo mask rebuilding scene back to where it was in theatrical. It works better to tie up the spy storyline which I completely end in the board meeting.
• Cut Kylo’s lines about trying to learn who the spy is in the board meeting. Now he tosses the alien’s head and says, “We have a spy in our ranks who just sent a message to the Resistance.” That’s it, the end. That is the last we ever hear about a spy. It was the alien.
• Cut Kylo singling out Hux, now it ends on “I sense unease about my appearance,” and the doubting Officer says, “Forgive me sir, but…” It’s such a smooth transition and takes out the awkward joke about Kylo’s mask. By “unease about his appearance”, Kylo is now talking about his sudden appearance arriving on the ship, not his mask.
• Re-added the line from the doubting officer, “What is he asking for in return?” since I am no longer attempting to hide Palpatine’s presence.
• After Kylo completes his rampage on Mustafar, and we hear Palpatine’s “Gooood” in his head, we see him hesitantly turn around, but I have removed the scene of him finding the wayfinder. In my version, he doesn’t have to find Palpatine on his own as Palpatine has purposely revealed himself to Kylo already.
• We cut from Kylo on Mustafar to the protagonists arriving on Pasaana.
• Re-added Finn’s line about “so few Wayfinders”, upon further review it was an unnecessary cut.
• Added the incredible Luke Skywalker puppet creation. Wow… Truly amazing work by the OT community!
• Re-added the entirety of the first Rey-Kylo call. With my new structure around Palpatine’s return, we immediately see that Kylo has other plans for his relationship with him which is very important to a future story note. It’s our first hint that Kylo does not intend to serve Palpatine loyally and is only attempting to use him for his power. Kylo tells Rey that Palpatine wants him to kill her and we learn that Kylo doesn’t really plan on this. We know from the other movies that he is completely infatuated with her and is dead set on ruling with her. This defiance of Palpatine is important and we see a lot of Kylo’s confidence here as he is really opening up himself and his plans to Rey. He killed his first master, and he thinks he is strong enough to do it to Palpatine too… for now.
• Cut Rey looking at the dagger and hearing the memories of the “horrible things”. She has no relation to the blade in my edit so it’s unnecessary.
• Removed Rey’s explanation about healing the serpent to BB-8, just another unnecessary artifact since that doesn’t happen in my edit.
• Added a brief establishing shot of Kylo in his TIE.
• Added Rey’s yellow lightning effect from [skenera]. In Star Wars Legends you cannot simply shoot sith lightning because you are frustrated. As I’ve had to say in every changelog, “That’s not how the force works.” I get JJ tried to use lightning to tie her to Palpatine but WOW does that demonstrate a lack of understanding on his part… Writing that specific force powers are passed down genetically and can be naturally wielded without even knowing what they are is painful. The yellow lightning is a variation of an energy blast we have seen wielded in legends by other figures such as Plo Koon and Momin. I would have preferred Rey to have just crushed the starship with telekinetics, but yellow makes more sense according to Star Wars lore than blue lightning at least
• Added some visual representations to the vision Rey talks about with Finn.
• Cut Rey’s line “and” when she talks about who was on the throne. This now indicates it was solely Rey taking the throne in her vision.
• Another big scene reorder! I have completely moved the scene of Palpatine speaking back and forth with Kylo, and his subsequent first trip to Exegol to even later in the film now. I need to build up the storyline of Kylo planning on betraying the Emperor more before this scene will really hit home. So instead after Rey’s vision explanation, we cut to a scene of the empty Falcon being towed into the Star Destroyer to give our protagonists space until the next scene.
• We now cut from the Knights of Ren following the Ochi ship to BB-8 finding cone droid.
• Cut cone droid “Sad,” joke as 3P0’s memory is wiped.Yes, it IS sad, and it’s not the time to make a joke to the audience.
• More of an indirect change, but now on the Star Destroyer above Kijimi when Hux suggests to “destroy the city” in a mocking way you will immediately think back to the beginning of the film when the sith Star Destroyer blew up the Correllian city which is perfect!
• Removed 3P0’s comment about there being another way to save his memory… Another way the sacrifice is ruined…
• Cut the remainder of Rey’s mind trick. It serves no purpose for the plot and really slows down the pace. In theatrical the entire thing as written as a joke scene, so every facial expression is so weird it’s just out of place.
• Cut the Doom-esque run and gun hallway scene of Chewie/Poe/Finn annihilating dozens of stormtroopers like it’s nothing. It’s much more intense when this escape is shortened and Poe gets shot quicker.
• Removed Kylo’s line, “It was Palpatine who was looking for you.” Just a disjointed line that has no purpose or explanation in my edit. Palpatine has no knowledge of Rey aside from what Kylo has told Snoke in the past couple movies.
• Now with the whole spy plot completely wrapped up, Hux’s betrayal is a total unrelated surprise with completely new motivation. It’s clear that he has had disagreements with Kylo the entire trilogy, and there’s especially been tension with Palpatine. So now it’s not as though Hux suddenly grew a conscience, but that he just is making a power play to overthrow Kylo. I also re-added his one line about his motivation for Kylo to lose.
• Removed Pryde’s line about finding the spy. At last, the most pointless plotline of all time has been covered up and it did not change the outcome of a single event… Amazing. From beginning to end I altered every mention of it and nothing changed except I kept the focus on the actual story.
• As promised, the Chewie and crew chess game is placed right after Pryde kills Hux and we see the Falcon in hyperspace. I don’t know why, but it seems like the most Chewbacca thing ever to want to play that game right after the stress of being captured and it shows the others really being appreciative of his return in a fun way. Now when we hear the alarm go off in the chess scene we cut right to Rey and Finn starting to fix something while Chewie tells Poe that the landing gear is busted. It also makes sense that Rey was not playing earlier because of the intense experience with Kylo as she learned she killed her own parents. So Finn goes to her and learns why she wasn’t in the mood.
• Now is when I have placed the scene of Kylo going to find Palpatine, and here’s why… At this point in the film we have seen Kylo hesitantly accept Palpatine’s gifts. We have also heard him mention to Rey on multiple occasions that he has no intention of actually serving Palpatine, and plans to betray him and rule with her instead. There is now a much more established reason for Palpatine to suspect Kylo’s betrayal when we hear him talk to Kylo’s mind again and threaten to turn his fleets against him. Palpatine is sick of Kylo’s lack of conviction to kill Rey. In a classic Sidious move, he taunts Kylo past his limits as Kylo decides to face the Emperor himself to rid himself of this annoyance once and for all. So Kylo knowingly heads to Exegol where Palpatine has baited him, wanting to show Kylo the full extent of his power and how foolish it would be to stand up to him. Since Snoke and Palpatine ARE the same person in my trilogy (my dialogue even says so), we know that Sidious has never considered Kylo as anything more than a tool. All he wants is for the Jedi to end one way or the other, whether through killing Rey or turning her.
• Removed Palpatine’s scenes of offering Kylo “a new empire”. The footage will be utilized in the later space battle, but it doesn’t make sense for the Emperor to offer this to Kylo here. At this point in my edit it’s clear that Palpatine is controlling Kylo against his will as he realizes he isn’t strong enough to kill Sidious like he did Snoke. Kylo begrudgingly lowers his saber knowing that he needs Rey at his side to stand against him.
• Re-added the line of Palpatine commanding Kylo to kill Rey as I have now unified Palpatine’s plan throughout all 3 movies (see the TLDR above)
• Cut the ridiculous jump cut to black that theatrical had after Palpatine’s scene. Do you EVER remember seeing a transition like that in any of the other 8 movies? Come on, JJ, do better. We now cut from here to the protagonists flying to Endor.
• Trimmed some of Jannah’s lines about how she was taken to help the First Order feel more villainous.
• Cut everything to do with Finn going to watch Rey fight Kylo… He literally does nothing except scream her name. And it should not have been possible for Jannah and him to get there in the first place. The last we see is him looking through the binos out to Rey, still concerned for her.
• Took the amazing idea from [Fixing Disney Star Wars] to remove a frame from every lightsaber clash in the Rey v Kylo Death Star duel. Wow! It’s crazy how much it makes the battle feel more intense. It was excruciatingly slow in theatrical.
• Adjusted the duel soundtrack timing
• Cut Rey saying, “…Ben’s hand.” Man, this scene hits so much harder when it’s just left at, “I did want to take your hand.” The viewer is left racking their brains about the implications, and it shows that Rey was this close to falling to the Dark Side at any moment in the trilogy. Her implication of saying she only wanted Ben’s hand was that she never struggled with the Dark, only with liking the good part of Ben which is a far less interesting dynamic.
• Moved around some scenes/audio on Kylo’s wound.
• Moved the first scene of Finn talking to coneface to right after Poe and Lando talk. I cut his ending line of “So what’s your name?” and now it ends on, “I miss her too,” and we transition into Rey on the island. Much improved thematically.
• Adjusted some cuts/audio in Rey and Luke’s island talk
• Cut out Leia sensing Kylo’s death if she continued training. Nonsensical detail that made zero sense in the original plot, and it’s pointless here too. Now Luke just says that Leia sensed the end of her own Jedi training.
• After Rey finds the wayfinder, we cut to R2 and 3P0 shenanigans about his missing memory. Then we cut to Finn telling Poe about coneface and Ochi, except I have edited the lines to remove the mention of Ochi trying to bring baby Rey to Palpatine. The line now goes, “He was going with Ochi of Bastoon,” ”Why was Ochi going there?” and we cut straight to them plugging in coneface and starting to look at readings on Exegol. Then we cut back to Rey waking up the next morning on the island to leave on Luke’s X-wing. Then back to R2 getting a signal from Luke’s X-wing, THEN back to C3P0 interrupting Poe and Finn with news.
• Moved footage from when Palpatine shows Kylo the fleet to right as the rebels arrive. Works really well to preface Poe’s, “Look at that fleet…”
• Cut Jannah’s line, “Never been readier.” Bad, awful line.
• Moved Palpatine’s initial line to Kylo “You will rule the galaxy as the new Emperor,” to when Rey meets him for consistency of his plan. Now it’s very similar to what he did to Luke, tried to kill him until he arrives before him and then tempts him to lash out in anger so his fall would be complete.
• Removed Palpatine’s lines about his spirit passing into Rey if she kills him… That just… Why? Why would you say that? That makes it a thousand times less tempting for Rey if she knows she gets possessed if she kills him. Now it’s simply the same deal he offered Luke, strike me down in aner and the galaxy is yours. Maybe he does legitimately have the power to possess her, but why would you ever tell her that?
• Removed Kylo’s Marvel reaction shot exhale after he does a cool lightsaber move fighting the Knights of Ren
• Removed all of Palpatine’s surprise about learning of the force dyad. It’s not mentioned at all anymore. He pulls Kylo and Rey to him and says, “And now the power of two restores the one true Emperor.” No foolishness from him looking like an imbecile not realizing what’s going on, just purely him adjusting to a BETTER plan now that Kylo is also broken before him.
• RED LIGHTNING. I have painstakingly applied [skenera’s] LUT to the entirety of Palpatine’s lightning attacks in a way that is also integrated with the force ghosts. Not only does this change drastically improve the visual representation of the final confrontation, it is also heavily supported by Star Wars lore. Red lightning is the purest representation of pure dark side energy which makes sense when Palpatine says “I am all the Sith.” (where I have used additional audio to beef up that line too!) It looks really great for breaking up the monotony of Exegol’s dull blue, and it’s cool to see the planet go from blue to red to blue depending on where the battle is at.
• Readjusted some shots around Rey’s death
• Completely re-worked the whole ending sequence. No more broom boy ending anymore. I like it in theory, but it’s too subtle. I didn’t even notice the boy used the force on the broom in theaters, and it’s overall disconnected from the saga. I’ve done FAR too much to write it all out so I’ll summarize in a sequence of events:

1. Palpatine dies
2. Rebel reinforcements show up and win the space battle
3. Rey dies, Kylo mourns, Leia’s body fades away
4. Remaining rebel ships fly off Exegol & straight back to base
5. Celebration begins, hugs, Chewie’s medal etc.
6. After Poe and Finn hug, cut to Star Destroyers falling throughout the galaxy
7. Falcon arriving on Tatooine with Kylo (reorganized some scenes here)
8. Kylo flies away
9. C3P0 memory restoration with saga recap
10. Luke force ghost watches over everything in the World between Worlds… Credits.

I need a couple people to help demo this before I start sending out the links to everyone, so shoot me a DM if you want a first look to help find any bugs.

I am still working on completing this and will have a changelog completed very soon, but in the meantime I have finished the trailer for Legacy of the Force. https://youtu.be/_MIbDfI1wvo

I’m really trying to take a step back and look at this film again on a conceptual level to see how much I can change, there’s so much to deal with here…

I also am going through and updating the OP in each thread to look a bit nicer since we’re getting all professional here.

Version 3.1 changelog (released):

• Re-added a quick shot of Rey placing the lightsaber back in the bag because I noticed in the next scene you can see her hand without a lightsaber and I don’t want the inconsistency
• Cut Rey interpreting Chewie to Luke “He says you need to come with us”. The lines are delivered sarcastically and it’s done in a way that makes Rey lack respect for Luke which is 100% opposite of how we saw her admiration for him in Episode 7.
• Cut Rey’s line of “Master Skywalker, we need you to bring the Jedi back, Kylo Ren is strong in the dark side of the force” during her first lesson at the rock because it is delivered in a way that makes her treat him like a doofus. Again, it’s tone that does not at all match the respect that she has for Luke in other scenes. Luke knows already knows that Kylo is strong with the dark side and she knows he knows that.
• Replaced the ending soundtrack of the final scene

I sat down last night and watched the entire film from start to finish, and have read a good amount of reviews from viewers (thanks so much to everyone who has given their opinion) and alas, it led me to update the release to Version 3.2

Changes to follow:

• Once more touched up a couple transitions, slowing down some wipes, audio smoothing etc.
• Did some further color correction of night time Jakku shots
• On the Falcon when Han is telling Finn/Rey about Luke, I have cut his negative line about “Luke just walking away from it all”. It doesn’t necessarily fit in with the sequence of events I have built into my Episode 8. Now Luke’s journey remains more mysterious instead of angering to Han which fits much better into my TLJ plot.
• Re-added the “line” from Chewie about Han not talking his way out of things and Han’s response “Yes, I do!” Initially, I had been so concerned about maintaining Han’s legendary reputation that I cut anything that disparaged him or joked about his career, but I did so well in correcting other areas that I think there is room for this friendly jab, especially from Chewie as playful banter. It is also consistent with his Episode 4 situation of being unable to verbally talk his way out, and resorting to the ol’ blaster at his side.
• Removed Han’s line “Leia doesn’t want to see me” in Maz’ cantina. I am attempting to show their relationship as less disastrous, and simply strained due to Ben’s fall. Theatrical presents them as entirely separated, but mine will retain their bond from RotJ but reflect the trauma they have experienced over the years.
• Removed Maz’ line about Anakin’s lightsaber “calling” Rey. It’s not a concept that is ever explored again (aside implied from the later fight with Kylo, but her pulling the lightsaber from the snow is easily explained by Kylo just not even paying attention to or respecting her ability to wield the force)
• When Rey is first ambushed by Stormtroopers on Takodana, I removed one of her killshots that was over the top. The transition works better when Kylo turns to her running rather than turning to her shooting canon fodder
• Cut down on C3P0’s antics about his red arm. I left the initial comment in as it is in character, but as TFA did SO much in theatrical they try and milk every piece of humor with as much screentime as possible, so I trimmed down the other 9 times he looks back and forth. Now he quickly realizes his foolishness and moves on
• Removed Leia’s bitterness towards Han after arriving to the Resistance base, again to further my above reasoning. Now the scene just ends with her saying “Don’t do that” which is much more in line with their usual banter instead of this new storyline of her resenting him.
• When Leia approaches Han as he is leaving for Starkiller, I have cut out their mentions of their relationship being in tatters for years. Now it should appear somber but friendly and endearing.
• Removed the Stormtrooper’s footsteps audio from Rey’s escape from her cell since in my edit there isn’t a stormtrooper present inside.
• Re-added some minor sound effects to Rey’s dream (was lost in the project file on the original release)

I’ll resend out links to anyone who asked in the last couple days, but if I didn’t get to you just send me a message if you like these changes and want the newest version.

JediMasterAdam said:

I need a link to all 3 of these. This sounds like the trilogy I’ve been looking for!!! It sounds incredible

Sent the TFA, but TLJ is still under review (hoping to release in a couple days, will definitely get a trailer out at least) and I haven’t even opened the project file for an updated TRoS yet so it may be another week+ on that one.

The Curse of the Editor Strikes Again! As always, as soon as you render and upload there’s something that you have to change… Version 3.1 changes

I think the Rey sith eyes work really well as a shock factor to Kylo in the battle, and the scene plays out a lot smoother when I include the bit of Kylo getting injured by Rey (and I need a better way to explain his scarring in TLJ). In theatrical, I hated how Rey just says “the force…” and then suddenly beats Kylo in an extended 1v1 combat scenario. But in the edit with her channeling the dark side there’s actually a chance she could surprise Kylo in one single hateful strike. In fact, read how the TFA novel describes this moment.

"Rey closed her eyes. Ren hesitated, confused by her actions. A long moment passed, in which Ren sensed a change in the air, a change in her. Then she opened her eyes and attacked, viciously, in a way she didn’t know she was capable of…

Finally her fury penetrated his remaining defenses. Taking a glancing blow to the head and chest, he went down, a prominent burn slashed across his face. One downward cut, she saw. One quick, final strike, and she could kill him. The landing lights of a shuttle appeared in the distance, coming over the trees in her direction. She had to make a decision, now.

‘Kill him’, a voice inside her head said. It was amorphous, unidentifiable, raw. Pure vengeful emotion. ‘So easy,’ she told herself. ‘So quick.’"

That’s dark! in the movie you can see Kylo’s confusion at her sudden change of demeanor (perhaps fascination?), and that dark power is what gives her an opening. I have recut their saber lock where she channels the dark side to catch Kylo off guard and that’s how she separates from him. It makes more sense with the sith eyes and also makes Leia’s following scene of her in mourning feel like she can sense something dark in the force. Take a look:

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/645456126

I will have it uploaded and ready to send tomorrow. Just post here or DM me if you want to watch!

To officially release my workprint I have created a trailer to reveal the completion of Heirs of the Force!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdNi1BGj-6Q

Version 3.0 changes:

I did A LOT of reorganizing scenes in the first Act, even moving things from Act 2 into here. Extensive changelist follows, I will export tonight and upload tomorrow.

• Edited a few of the Falcon flying to Ach-To scenes to better reflect Luke’s perspective from the new end of my TFA edit.

• With the changes to my latest TFA ending, I adjusted this version to be fully compatible. This means that upon finding Luke, Rey only briefly locks eyes and then immediately offers him the lightsaber (this also helps the pacing a few of you mentioned about how ridiculously long they used to stare at each other, now that already took place in a dream in my TFA edit where it is honestly much better suited). The pacing and musical swings work so much better here, and that lightsaber fully bears that heavy burden now. I also removed Rey putting the lightsaber back into her back just to tighten up the interaction, it was awkward that Luke stood there waiting for her to do that before storming off.

• Removed the line from Rey “Do you hear anything I just said?” and Luke’s initial antagonism “You think what?!” She looks up to the legend of Luke and her berating him minutes after telling him his best friend Han is dead is stone cold from her and not in character. Luke also now appears more mysterious/somber instead of frustrated.

• Big scene rearrangement here, so after Luke mourns Han, we no longer go into Rey following Luke around. Now we switch to the opening space evacuation battle. So instead of the first 15 minutes being about Luke and Rey it’s now only the first 7 which works much better for storytelling the overall picture. So we carry through the space battle until Finn wakes up and asks, “Where’s Rey?” which then cuts into her following Luke around the island learning his routine.

• Re-added Leia’s line about 3P0 wiping the nervous expression off his face. It actually is a decent bit of characterization and humor that is in character for once. Trimmed the end off though since it went a bit overboard.

• I didn’t entirely remove, but I did further tone down the milking scene to remove some of Rey’s overly gratuitous facial expressions…

• After the tree hut scene I now brought in the R2-D2 scene from Act 2 with Luke boarding the Falcon. (Thanks Atom-88 for the idea, this works REALLY well) This does a number of great things for the story. First, it helps set a better day/night cycle to represent the amount of time Rey is spending on the island and how the First Order is chasing the Resistance. Second, it gives Luke motivation to save Leia in a whole new way. This is such a beautiful place for this scene to occur and I am super excited someone thought to suggest it.

• Removed Luke’s line about “I’m NEVER coming back”, because with the new scene placement it’s all about him realizing he can’t stay away from the fight, as much as it pains him. I also removed his quip to R2 “That was a cheap move” because the tone of his voice and his facial expressions no longer fit the context of the scene. The Luke we have seen is greatly burdened by something, but he has not been presented as a failure or coward at all. Seeing the scars in his soul through his expressions in silence is more convincing.

• At the conclusion of the R2 + Luke scene we now instead cut to the Throne Room scene with Kylo. It works really well because R2 had just played the recording and you just know Luke is thinking of her, Han, and Kylo here. Now BOOM, Kylo is instantly on screen for the first time.

• Overlaid Palpatine’s voiceline saying “Vader” underneath when Snoke says it.I will do this a few times throughout the film where you almost feel as though there are two voices speaking some of his lines, but it’s vague enough to not be a direct giveaway.

• The throne room scene plays out through the end of space battle Part 2, and now it works so much better to see Luke reach out to save Leia at night time because we just saw him with R2 at night. I also added another voiceline of Leia saying “Luke” during the tension with Kylo and you can really feel the connection the three of them share. Especially when Luke responds with “Leia” after the missiles are launched. It’s really poetic, and you almost feel like Kylo pulls the trigger knowing it’s not going to work anyways.

• Removed the brief scene of Kylo’s destroyed mask in the elevator after he departs for his ship. I do love the visual but it hinders the pacing and is an artifact that gets in the way of my new scene orders.

• With this new scene placement, it’s so sequential how now immediately after saving Leia, Luke walks straight to wake up Rey to tell her he will teach her the lessons. And this scene is still at night, so everything happens in a much more logical way. Moving that R2 scene up really changes the entire first Act.

• We immediately cut from Luke waking Rey to the next morning where she begins her training. These scenes work so much better when referring to Kylo because Luke just witnessed him attempt to murder Leia mere hours ago instead of in the future. It’s a great contrast for the viewer, as we see how Luke’s powers just saved the day, but he STILL wants the Jedi to end which would point to there being a much bigger meaning than he is just being a coward. He actually has some untold reason for this, and it’s not fear. I hope you love how this Act flows as much as I do now!

• Removed the remainder of the grass smacking hand gag. Luke is serious here, and he is presented as a caring mentor with no antagonism. The tone of this scene is so different without it!

• Removed the clips of Kylo’s mask from Rey’s training, I used to have it as a flashing transition to the Throne Room scene, but the new Act order drastically prevents that.

• Another new scene order, we now jump straight from Luke talking about Rey going to the dark, only “seen this power… in Ben Solo”, and then straight cut into the scene of Kylo getting his stitches removed where Rey has her first connection with him. It makes so much sense that right after Rey touched the dark that their connection would bridge (especially what we know from Episode 9 that Palpatine is actually the one bringing them together).

• Fixed a few bad transitions to be smoother in the visuals and audio, removed a couple dead frames, and also changed a few soundtracks for the same purpose.

• Cut BB-8’s dance in the deleted scene when he tries to cheer up Finn. I didn’t even notice it before, but it drags the scene on so long and it’s just weird… Imagine R2 dancing for Han.

• When Luke tells Rey about Kylo’s betrayal, I have further cut lines that make Luke appear resentful rather than wise. I cut “that MiGhTy Skywalker blood” because his tone is mocking and cut “In my hubris”. Now Luke appears to have genuinely tried to train Kylo without fear, and the blame lies more squarely on Kylo. It’s the same dynamic of Obi-wan and Anakin where sometimes the training is good, but the apprentice still falls. But the master always bears the weight that they could have done something more.

• Since the Luke + R2 scene is moved out of Act 2, we now go right from Finn + Rose escaping the Canto Bight cell straight into another force connection with Rey and Kylo. Again, this works so well because the last we saw of Luke and Rey was them arguing in the deleted scene of the caretaker village. Now each time Rey has lashed out she is making some connection with Kylo instead of it being totally random like theatrical.The next we see Luke is him busting down the hut after sensing Kylo’s presence. The Rey/Luke relationship now has the tension it deserves to reach the breaking point.

• Added a couple sound effects from Anakin’s lightsaber for when Rey wields it.

• Trimmed a bit off the Finn brushing Rose’s hair down gag in the deleted scene.

• Overlaid a line from Palpatine underneath Snoke’s command to kill Rey in the Throne Room battle. “Fulfill your destiny”. It actually sounds really cool and the very subtle hints throughout my edits point to his spirit still being present.

• Cut the initial overly shocked face that Snoke makes when Kylo kills him. Now we only hear a lightsaber ignite, see Rey fall down, for her to then look back at Snoke to see what just happened. It preserves the surprise for another few seconds and cuts that weird facial expression.

• Cut Poe’s line “… all of ‘em!” during the battle of Crait. It’s good enough when he just says “She drew them off!” His delivery is weird after that and it doesn’t make sense that every single TIE fighter would go after the Falcon.

• When Luke meets Leia in person, I cut part of her phrase “at the end” because with how much Luke has been involved in saving her in this edit and them sensing one another, it makes it more touching for her to simply say “I’m just glad you’re here”. The “at the end” implies that Luke has been more absent than I portrayed him so it’s gone now.

• I also cut the icebreaker about Leia’s hairstyle. It doesn’t really work in my version of Luke because there is no awkward tension to break. They are endeared to one another, truly loving siblings as we have always known them to be. This scene is now purely somber, as they both know what must be done.

• Did you happen to tear up at the end of the Mandalorian Season 2…? Well boy do I have a surprise for you in the soundtrack department. The Luke + Leia scene will tug your heartstrings like never before 😉

• Continued the above soundtrack as Kylo lands to meet Luke.

• As Kylo stabs the illusion of Luke, I replaced part of the force ghost scenes with ones of his body fading away from Ach-To. Force Projection is a cool ability and his voluntary death here also pays homage to Ben Kenobi’s. We still immediately see Luke take the form of a force ghost though, indicating his Grand Master status.

• Added lines of Palpatine talking in Kylo’s head as Rey escapes in their final force connection. We see Palpatine speak in Kylo’s head much more drastically in my TRoS cut so I want to foreshadow that even more here.

• I didn’t like how uplifting things end when it’s just the Falcon jumping off into hyperspace again just like my TFA ending. It doesn’t have any weight, and this film should have weight like ESB. The broom boy scene also does not give the vibe I am looking for, so I have added a scene of Palpatine’s “The Dead Speak” speech as more of a cliffhanger ending with alternate credit music [lantern51]. This is atypical of a Star Wars film, but I think it’s worth trying out in this workprint. I gave the opening crawl an atypical intro (fading the stars into a hyperspace jump) so I feel like this alt-ending could also work. TLJ is supposed to be the odd egg of the bunch in the saga anyways with the red lettering and such so maybe this works. Let me know what ending you think works better.

Preview of Luke’s new theme: https://vimeo.com/644952805

CamSMurph said:

Are you planning on doing something with Chewie’s death fake-out, Acbagel?

Not sure what you mean by “doing something” with it, but in my edit I have rearranged the scene order to make the reveal more impactful. Also, the main reason this plot line irks people is because there were so many fake outs in the film (C3P0, Chewie, Rey) that it was just annoying. In my edit, the C3P0 and Rey fake outs are removed so now it is only Chewie’s as a surprise.

CamSMurph said:

I imagine this will require a metric fuckton of new VFX and/or newly shot footage to make this reconstructed narrative work entirely in its favour. 😃

Well, it was a ton of work, but I do have a released workprint available to view. I’ll be releasing a new latest version very soon though, and while some VFX aren’t 100% finished and will be improved in the future, all of what you read in the changelist is implemented in a watchable form.