Acbagel

Update on this edit and trilogy as a whole can be found here.

T-202 said:

I finally got around to watching this, and just like the last edit, I absolutely loved it! The things that really stuck out as great were the Training montages, music edits, slight tweaks, and giving original scenes entirely new contexts. For example I loved the Order 66 soundtrack you played at the end of the Kylo and Luke Duel, it really fit imo. Giving the guards lightsabers will always be cool, and it fits more in line with Legends materials like The Force Unleashed. The Mandalorian Season 2 soundtrack in the Luke and Leia scene fit perfectly, and I really love how you end Luke’s journey.

That’s wonderful, I appreciate the positive feedback. As I’m reviewing my film from top to bottom again, can you think of any other story adjustments that would help with the plot?

There is one complaint I have though, I feel that Rey went from “YOU’RE A MONSTER!” to “There’s good in you” To quickly, I think that would’ve been fixed by adding back the last two Flashback sequences. I can also I understand why you didn’t add them, I personally feel like they show a very Human side to Luke, but I know in this edit you were trying to place the blame more on Kylo and less on Luke.

That may be a good point. I can’t include anything that destroys Luke’s character as Grand Master, but I will see if there’s anything else from those flashbacks that I can use to help smooth out Rey’s transition of opinion of Kylo, or perhaps even cut out one of those lines to keep her consistent.

Other than that I feel like this edit is perfect for my tastes, Green Saber Luke, World between Worlds, and the tease for the next edit at the end are all awesome. I hope to see TROS edit soon!

Well I am excited to improve upon my first release here and get out the final version to make it even better.

Mario said:

I saw the edit and it’s like the edit to episode 7. It’s really amazing and the best version of TLJ is see so far. The new beginning on the island and all the changes with Luke and Rey are amazing. The trainingscenes over the voiceovers works so great. The best thing - Luke isn’t grumpy, will not die and is a good master. I love it. The idea that Kylo shoots the ship with his mother and Luke help her to survive is the best solution. And I can’t believe how you turn Holdos sacrifice in a amazing Luke moment. I don’t hate Holdo, but that over the top moment fits awesome for Luke Skywalker. I love it so much. The final fight between Kylo and Luke is much more emotionally with the short flashbacks. Especially the short scene between Leia and Luke with Leias purple lightsaber. That was the best moment. All the other scenes are really good edited. The most unnecessary funny moments or other bad scenes are gone. The complete new scene at the end is really a surprise. The new music parts at the end there a little bit too loud for me. A really great edit. Can’t wait to see episode 9. Love it.

Thanks a bunch for the review, Mario! I am happy that you enjoyed it. I will be taking another pass at the audio transitions/levels and adding even more content and scene changes in my final release later this year.

Sirius said:

Hi, I watched your edit. I’ll be honest, I saw the original movie in the theater and find it pretty bad, and I haven’t seen it since. That said, I have to say that while I liked some of the changes you made, I still didn’t like the movie. Nothing wrong with the changes you made, though. At the end of the day, I think the original movie has so many problems that not even editing can save it for me, unfortunately.

Haha, I can understand that. I am at least honored to have received your first re-watch!

What I liked in your edit:

Luke saving Leia was great;
I liked that you took out unnecessary parts of Rose and Finn’s storyline;
Luke got to be a lot more likeable in your edit;
I liked the addition of Palpatine’s voice at the end, but I think it could have been edited better.

Glad to see that the major story changes worked out for you at least, fixing Luke was my #1 priority. I will be taking another crack at that Palpatine ending as it was just an idea in the beta release, but I think there’s potential to invest more in it to help the payoff.

What I didn’t like:

In your edit, Luke uses the force from distance three times (once to save Leia, once to break the Imperial ships, and once to fight Kylo Ren). For me this plot device was kind of repetitive in the movie, and took the impact of Luke’s “force projection” sequence at the end. I found the second sequence where Luke uses force from distance in your edit to be a bit unnecessary, and since you used scenes of Luke’s sacrifice to assemble this sequence, his sacrifice became a lot less emotional for me towards the end of the movie;

Would you suggest cutting out Luke intervening in one of these moments to instead have the original plot device occur? I remember when I went to see TLJ the first time, I was fully expecting to see an incredibly powerful Luke, putting his full knowledge of the force on display for us to see for the first time. I tried to recreate that expectation in my film, really giving the audience a chance to sit in awe at his power. I thought my edit accomplished that pretty well, but maybe you didn’t like that version of Luke. Did you not think a powerful Luke is a good idea?

Luke’s Theme From The Mandalorian Series didn’t work for me in your edit;

Would you be able to offer any more details about why? What did it make you feel that distracted you?

I found the sequence in which Rey tries to lift the rocks in training with Luke a little confusing. At first I thought that sequence of everyday images was really her training with Luke over time, but at the end of the scene it is shown that time has not passed, as she is still there, with her hand in the floor. I simply don’t get it;

This is a common time lapse technique used in film making. You are seeing future events occur as the present tense scene plays out. It is to be understood that the events in the training montage actually occur chronologically in the future (after the present tense scene ends), but as the audience we are seeing these events out of order with the present tense voiceover overlayed on top of the present tense scene. Perhaps watch it again with that understanding and see if you make more sense of it this time around.

In my opinion, I think it would be good to cut the scenes involving Finn and Rose’s storyline a little more. I thought the movie was starting to drag about half the screentime, and I think a lot of that is due to the lack of action mainly because of Finn’s storyline (and a little bit on Poe’s storyline as well).

Do you have specific scene cutting suggestions that you think would help? I’m not aware of anything else that can be cut without losing important dialogue and development.

What I didn’t like about the theatrical version that you kept in your edit:

For me Admiral Holdo is the worst character in the original film, and in your edit she is still very annoying. The truth is, I just can’t see her usefulness in the movie, and to me it would make a lot more sense if Poe simply took over the leadership of the resistance after Leia was knocked unconscious, and Holdo was cut out of the movie completely;

I think a major purpose of her character is to be annoying. Annoying characters are realistic, as I know many annoying people in my life haha. We would lose a huge amount of context about what is happening on the ship if I cut her out of the movie completely. I don’t think a purposely “annoying character” being annoying is justification to remove them from the film entirely.

To me it’s stupid for Kylo Ren to “know” who Rey’s parents were, and for her to simply believe him without questioning how he knows this information in the first place. In my opinion, this line could simply be cut from the movie, because it doesn’t make any sense in the overall context of the plot.

It would be helpful to understand why you think some of these things. You saying it’s “stupid” for Kylo to know that isn’t really an explanation of why you don’t think it works in the story. What exactly is stupid about that? I think it is a perfectly reasonable thing for Kylo to say in the moment and in line with his personality. Just having some trouble understanding the why behind some of your comments so that I could better address them.

And that’s it. In spite of the criticism, I really think you did a great job in your edit, cutting the worst and highlighting the best of TLJ. Thank you so much for sharing your edit with me.

Thanks! I would love to be able to dive deeper into some of your concerns to see if there is a way that I could improve the edit even more. Post here if you have any suggestions that you think would make it better.

I will send out links to the most recent requests, but I have officially abandoned this project as my interest in Marvel as a whole has waned. It is very difficult to continue working on a project like this when the passion for the IP has gone away.

RogueLeader said:

Cool to see you back, Acbagel! Glad you took some time away from it all too. I think most editors here can totally understand that.

Thanks, I am just starting to get reoriented with my files and workspaces in my projects. It’s amazing how much your brain dumps all of your familiarity with your edit after only a few months off! Taking some time to review my film as a whole first before updating this thread on the upcoming finishing touches.

Have you made a thread on the non-Star Wars edit forums about your game of thrones edits? Would be curious to hear about that too!

I have not yet written anything down regarding my GoT edit. The project is completely finished in a final release state, I just never bothered to write it out along the way so I’d need to go back and figure out everything I changed before being able to advertise my changes in order to generate interest to send out links. It was a pretty extensive restructuring that I felt really, really helped my enjoyment of the story. It is pretty unrecognizable from the original releases! I’ll get around to sharing it sometime.

Just dropping in to voice my continued support for your project! My wife watched your V2 as her first experience of Revenge of the Sith after we watched all of TCW together and she still talks about it to this day! One day we’ll have to do a rewatch with TCW: Refocused and this v3!

Mario said:

I’m not sure if I watch the newest Version, but this edit is really amazing. I like the theatrical Version really much, but this is much better. I think I missed a lot of the changes. All runs really smooth. And I love the a lot of the changes that are obvious. Poes interrogation is much cooler with the voices. Rey see the island in the sunrise is really cool. I love how you change Reys Escape. The death of Han is so much more emotionally and it gives more interpretation for Kylos motive. And I love the fight against Fin and Rey. Kylo is now more powerful and Reys not overpowered. And i prefer that the Star Killer Base fires at the end of the movie. But i like the version of Hal9000 a little bit more. I think it’s more dramatic if the republic will be destroyed seconds before the rebellion wins. And I love your new ending on the island. The original end is too long and that dream is amazing. And the deleted scenes are great. Awesome edit. Love him so much. Perfect if he would be in my language 🙂 Now I saw Reys Sith Eyes at the end of the fight with Kylo. That’s a amazing detail.

Thanks for all the great feedback! Glad you enjoyed many of the changes, and I think it’s a good thing if you don’t notice everything on a first watch, that means it is integrated smoothly. The reason I didn’t have Starkiller destruction setup like HAL’s wonderful edit is that personally I think it is a very tired trope for the “bad guys” to lose mere seconds before they were about to win. This was an awesome, tense storyline decision in 1977 with A New Hope, but we’ve seen that already in Star Wars! With a major complaint of The Force Awakens being how much it resembles A New Hope, I didn’t want that same exact plotline being in here too. I tried to create a more unique version of Starkiller’s destruction so it doesn’t just feel like Death Star 3. I think the way I framed it kept the drama more focused on Rey and Kylo here which is a much more interesting dynamic than another superweapon in my opinion.

Anyways, very happy you enjoyed it as a whole and I look forward to sharing the final release with you sometime soon.

incrediblyhugeoverpoweredman said:

Wait so what legends content do you read/play before this? Or this strictly trying to fit the tone and not trying to fit the story of legends?

Well, personally I’ve read/played like… All of the legends content haha. But as there is no way to directly reproduce that storyline unless I wake up with hundreds of millions of dollars in my bank account, I’ve instead opted to try to recreate the themes and general big picture storylines of Legends. The inspiration for how I tried to adapt the Sequel Trilogy was a merging of two fan ideas The One Canon and The Crucible Canon. This presents a possibility of the previous Legends storylines happening along with this Sequel Trilogy version.

Puterboy1 said:

Change Kylo REN’s name to Jacen Solo. It makes more sense for Luke to name his own son after Ben.

I agree that would’ve been a better version of the Sequel Trilogy, but see the links above for how it works to also have a Ben Solo included in the story.

Hello, OT’ers! I’m back, sort of…

As all fan editors will know, sometimes you have step away from your projects and focus on your mental health for a time. Not that there was anything in particular that I was struggling with, but these sort of projects can become extremely taxing and mentally consuming. Spending hundreds of hours analyzing line by line, scene by scene, looking for all sort of threads in the plot and theme connections etc… I stepped away from my Legends ST Trilogy to work on some other projects. As you can see in my profile, I began working on a Bad Batch re-edit (I do plan on finishing this at some point!), started messing around in the Marvel films to make a saga (I released the first 2 films, but then grew weary of this project and have officially abandoned it), and actually spent a ton of time on a currently completed but unreleased edit of Game of Thrones (edited all episodes into film length, removed gratuitous nudity, minor dialogue and story beat changes, and hugely reworked the final season/ending!). All of that to say I simply needed to take an extended break from OT and my Star Wars trilogy… But after 3 months away I am ready to begin working my way back in.

I should have posted a message about my sabbatical, so I apologize to anyone who has been looking for the workprints and I am appreciative to those of you who shared the links with one another in the meantime. I will be going through all of my unread messages and sharing the edits with everyone who has asked. If you do not receive the links by the end of the day and still wish to watch, just send me a new DM because I probably just missed you in the huge list I have in my inboxes.

So why do I say I’m only “sort of” back? Well, it’s because I don’t have any immediate plans on preparing the edits for their final releases. They are still only in the Beta stage (Episode 9 in Alpha) and I need to slowly start getting back into the editing room, taking a fresh look at my trilogy to see where improvements need to be made. So let’s examine the status of each film:

1. Episode 7: Heirs of the Force - This edit is close to completion, but it’s not 100% there yet. I’d say it’s around the 85% mark. I have gotten a ton of phenomenal feedback on this film’s workprint and there’s not a ton more that needs to be completed. However, I have been very intrigued by some other ideas for this film that I’ve been reading about on other forums and do have plans to integrate some of that into here. I also need to take another crack at color correction on some scenes, another pass on audio transitions etc. So while the main story beats are here, and I love the structure and setup for my trilogy, there’s still a decent amount of new things that I want to add in before final release.

2. Episode 8: Fate of the Jedi - While I am very happy with the primary storyline and how I have transformed Luke into the Grand Master of Legends, I think this film still needs the most technical work and as many of the ideas in here were very experimental (teasing Palpatine at the end, World Between Worlds, etc), it certainly needs another full pass on a lot of the scenes. So let’s say this film is 70% where I want it to be. I’ve gotten a ton of great feedback on this one too, primarily when it comes to Luke and Kylo, but as a whole in this trilogy I need to take another look at what to do with Rey, especially considering how I ended her arc in Episode 9. There is still a lot of potential with this film, and while this is by far the most transformative film of my trilogy, I am not opposed to going even further with how I changed the plot. At the end of the day, it still has a lot of that TLJ feel that people disliked. I want to change that feeling so much that you barely recognize the TLJ from theatrical version.

3. Episode 9: Legacy of the Force - This film has always been a doozy… I could not even whip this film into a Beta version in my original attempt. I got it into an Alpha cut where I considered it watchable and a definite improvement over theatrical, but there were some ideas that didn’t look visually convincing enough, abrupt endings to certain plotlines, a remainder of some of the major flaws in theatrical etc. As I have set out to make this Legends trilogy a completely transformative work, this movie is not yet near where I want it to be. I’ll put this at the 40% mark right now, so while I am very happy with how I altered certain aspects, there are other parts where I know things are missing, or that I altered and have found to not work. I have a LOT to do on this before releasing a final cut.

What’s the timeline, you ask? 2022. That’s about the best I can give right now. I will be going in chronological order with editing here again, but will also be doing touch ups on each film concurrently as needed. I’d say a realistic goal is for me to release the final cut of Episode 7 in late Q3-Q4 2022, with the other films releasing after that. As you know from my changelists, I take a great deal of inspiration from other Fan Editors in addition to my own original ideas, and I watch nearly every ST edit that comes out. Every time I watch someone else’s vision of these films I gain new perspective, new ideas, eureka moments! There are some other upcoming fan edits that I am very excited about as well, people who’ve had ideas that haven’t come to me yet so I am excited to watch their creations before finishing mine. I greatly appreciate the community think tank, and your feedback and reviews have been absolutely essential in me creating the best Legends-esque storyline possible. Thank you for all the support and contributions you’ve provided me, it has been a great joy to share my films with all of you and I look forward to continuing this project in the near future.

(As this was a general update of my trilogy as a whole, I will be double posting in this thread so that my following post is responding directly to the missed comments that have been left in my absence. This one is long enough and not directly related to the comments other users have left.)

Can anyone DM me a link to this? Thanks!

Atom-88 said:

Hi mate, hope you and your family are all having a lovely Christmas.
Ok so as promised I finally gave V2 a second viewing, I found it a big improvement over V1 bit there were things I still didn’t quite like.

(If you haven’t seen this edit yet but plan on watching please beware of spoilers for this edit)

The things I loved:

*Kylo’s presence when Rey’s training.

• The scene of the Troopers landing in Mustafar. I thought it made the battle a bit more impactful by showing this.

• The cut humour about the raid on Pasana.

• The Force Healing of the Giant Worm. For me this one is like a catch 22, If we got to see force healing in the other movies then maybe it wouldn’t feel so forced. But then do we see Obiwan force heal Luke in A new hope🤷.

• Rey not destroying Kylo’s ship on Pasana. Yep very good continuity catch, never really noticed this before lol.

• Hux’s “I’m the Spy” line. This never really bothered me until a recent viewing.

• The extended shots of Rey on the skimmer. Can’t remember seeing this in other versions.

• Kylo on Corasant.
  No reason why but just liked seeing this.

• C3PO not getting his memory back. Hated the scene of him getting his memory restored, it made his sacrifice pointless.

• Lando on the Falcon with Chewie before leaving for Exegol. Just like the extended shots of Rey on the Skimmer I don’t recall seeing this before.

• Lando and Janna scene. Another scene I don’t recall seeing.

• C3PO ending scene. Won’t go into details as I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else but holy s@#t did you bring A tear to my eye.

Ok so now for the things I wasn’t such a huge fan of.

• Leia heals Kylo.
  I like the idea I really do think it’s an amazing idea but for me it doesn’t work VFX wise, reason being as with you other ST edits you have put it so much work and some really amazing ideas for me it feels because the VFX are not there it lets it down.

• Kylo lives. as mentioned above, if the VFX were there maybe it just doesn’t fit for me personally and like before with all the work you have put in with these amazing edits it just let’s this down.

• I feel the some of the scene’s at the beginning may need some rearranging. We see A star destroyer blow a planet up but don’t see Palpatine til later, similar with Kylo telling the first order commanders about Palpatine. Just feel these could use a little rearranging.

All in all very good work mate👍.

Thank you so much for this feedback, this, combined with your even more detailed notes in the DM is exactly what I needed. I will definitely be going through the two lists point by point to get this film to where I want it. At first glance, I agree with a lot of what you’ve written, and while this v2 was a huge improvement over v1, I still have some work to do to bring it to a v3 that I am fully happy with. We’ve made a lot of progress and the skeleton is there to be a great edit, but it’s only about 75% of what I want it to be right now.

CMMAP said:

Acbagel said:
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?

Yeah, i didn´t liked it at all. I know it´s necessary for your edit. Perhps it would be possible to cut the shot at 32:53-33:06

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?

Sorry i was in a rush, so my explanation isn´t really sufficient. Yes, i think the original dialogue is at least flawed. Luke says he can´t safe ben, but also tells lea no one is ever really gone? Feels like a paradox to me if he´s also referring to ben.

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?

The music transition from lukes mandalorian theme to the original music at 1:55:49/50. I like that you integrated the force theme from mandalorian. they are both so different, that it´s kind of bumby.

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?

1:57:19, that´s music from the original movie? There is also the first dialogue from kylo which feels drowned in the upmix. As 1:57:42 Huxes line “that´s enough”,

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

Still of Luke 2:04:42/43; music transition from 2:05:42/43, feels a bit abrupt. But maybe i´m to sensitive.
Also 2:06:11/12, maybe let the music when kylo enters the mine come in a little bit earlier but quieter

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

I didn´t got the impression that palps is in kylo´s head, because he´s looking in specific direction and i know rey feels kylo in the original, here it feels she can witness what kylo is experiencing (palps talking). Therefore it wouldn´t fit for me afterwards when she´s not thinking of it any further.

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?

Yes that shot. At least it feels like that this generic planet is something important as three tie-fighter and the star destroyer are flying to it and we´ll see it again. That´s why i thought you want to show exogol. Which wouldn´t make any sense because kylo doesn´t know yet where palps is? Perhaps it could end with kylo staring out f the window? But the ending with palps meassage is great, carries far more weight.
2:08:33 feels also abrupt music-wise.

Thank you for the detailed feedback, I will be going through and implementing the needed audio fixes this week. Aside from these last few technical corrections, the reviews on this film have been really great so I think it’s very close to being where I want in terms of story. I have a few more storyline ideas I am hoping to implement before the final version release later this year, but aside from color correction and a few more editing things I’m getting close to where I want to be with this film.

Knight of Kalee said:

I’d like to check out this as well, sounds promising 😄

Sent!

Also quick update on my project. I am going through each film now with fixes, but with the feedback I’ve gotten on this edit I don’t think there is a need for another version until I move ahead with releasing the final cuts of everything later this year. Any suggestions to this film have been very minor, so at this point I’d say Episode 7 is nearly perfect and the reviews I have received have been incredible. I am very happy with where this film is at and any updates in the future will be mainly in the color correction department.

calisto said:

Would like a Pm for a link for your edit please?

Sent!

Quick update on the project too. I am very happy with where Chapter 1 is at in terms of story. It’s still not perfect on the audio balancing but it’s definitely watchable and enjoyable. Links are ready for anyone who wants it.

I did a full sit through of Chapter 2 last night and while it’s close, it’s not quite ready in terms of the storyline yet. Some of my initial ideas don’t pan out into a cohesive enough way and I find the film drags on a little too long with the side plots, so I’ll be going through some trims and then writing up the thread with the details for that. Should be ready later this week.

I am already well under way for Chapter 3 as well and have the entire structure organized, just need to spend a couple more hours with it going through each scene again and then do a watch through to catch any bugs.

Would love to view this, thanks!

JackNapier said:

This sounds amazing and fun!

Interested in seeing the first film? That one is released for a v1.0 and the second film should be released v1.0 this week too.

stretch009 said:

DM sent. Thanks!

Replied, sorry for the delay over the holidays! Unfortunately, my family was burdened by sickness throughout the last week so it’s been extra hectic with little to no time for my edits, but I should be back in business this week getting everything up to speed.

nmxuci5970 said:

can you also dm me a link to mcu refocused as this is far more.

Sent!

“This is far more”…? What? It looks like you didn’t complete your sentence there, sir

nmxuci5970 said:

Is there a work print available for the mature edit of the bad batch

Hello, not yet, my friend. I have this project on pause as I work on my Marvel project and finish up my Episode 9 edit, but I definitely plan to come back to this and complete it in the new year.

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!