Acbagel

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.

Atom-88 said:

😳😮🤯these changes sound awesome, would absaloutley love a link when it’s available please😁.

Uploading today, I will DM you when it’s available.

Atom-88 said:

Will the audio be updated to 5.1 or will that be in the final release?

I will look into that for the final release.

Latest version changes:

• I have to start here since this is my biggest update… After the extended time off, much consideration, and then getting back into the editing room on this film and the trilogy as a whole… I have decided that after all, I do in fact agree with those of you who thought this edit would be better without the Hosnian system destruction. You were right. I have completely re-cut how Starkiller base is destroyed in its firing sequence, but does not actually get the laser off. The battle between Kylo and Rey is happening around these events, while Starkiller crumbles as it attempts to fire. It works better, it really does. Would love for you all to give it another go with this scene sequencing and see what you think.

Updated the [NeverarGreat] Starlight edit scenes I used to his latest release:

• Added [NeverarGreat] island sketch to Rey’s hut
• Feathered a few of the linear wipes to have that Star Wars transition feel
• Added the [SirRidley] concept of Rey seeing the Island as she looks out into the Jakku sand
• Replaced old [NeverarGreat] Poe interrogation scene with latest version
• Added [NeverarGreat] audio about the senate into the Resistance briefing scene
• Added the extended version of Kylo visiting the falcon [NeverarGreat]
• Added the [NeverarGreat] Sith eyes to Rey.
• Added [NeverarGreat] TR-8R audio to Lightsaber Finn v stormtrooper (this is incredible work!)

• Swapped the opening scene order to show Jakku environment before Rey scavenging + a slight color correction to these scenes but nowhere near final. Really want to make Jakku feel less like Tatooine but I’m not there yet. I somewhat like the white-sand effect from other editors, but it doesn’t work with the day/night cycle effects I’ve put into place in other scenes. (I have seen concept effects with Jakku sand being a dark grey with a yellow sky and it looks incredible, maybe one day…)
• Reworked a lot of shots in the final saber lock sequence to better demonstrate in my cut how Rey doesn’t necessarily beat Kylo, just pushes him away long enough for the planet to separate them.
• Added the [SirRidley] restored scene of Han putting his dice back on the Falcon.
• Reorganized some of the scenes in Rey’s escape from her Starkiller cell
• Further edited new voicelines of Palpatine and Luke into Rey’s numerous dreams
• Removed the Maz line about Chewie being her boyfriend
• Reworked the walkway scene with Kylo and Han to better nail some musical notes as well integrate the [NeverarGreat] Han/Leia voicelines. When I now play Kylo’s theme right at a key point he really appears like a beast out of hell as Starkiller burns around him. Kylo is a scary dude in this edit. Transitions right into Leia mourning for a heart-wrenching contrast.

And the final major change:

• I added some new visual effects and additional scenes to Rey’s final dream sequence, further indicating the it is in fact a dream. I have also cut out the portion of the dream with her handing the lightsaber to Luke (this will be remedied in my TLJ version). Now Luke locks eyes with her, and suddenly she jolts awake in real life, presumably with knowledge that will help R2 + BB find Luke. I think I nailed this dream sequence and it will bring a ton of unity and cohesion into the beginning of Episode 8.

(I am looking at new file hosting options)

Just a little update, been about 9 months since I last updated my Legends trilogy, but I am currently planning to release an updated version of all 3 workprints with a few changes/additions to each film. To reiterate, this is not the final cuts (still probably a year away from that day) but it will be a newer version of each of the edits. I will update each individual forum thread detailing the changes as I complete them. Overall it will mainly be touching up a few scenes in each film and making some other scene/placement/effects changes.

I didn’t think I’d be releasing another version of each workprint before the final cut, but people have continued to DM me to see them so I’d like to deliver the best possible experience in the meantime. The workprints are fully watchable, and I am mainly working on further additions for the final edits but this trilogy is 90% complete as-is. I am excited to release the final cuts one day with everything incorporated but even now I am very happy with how everything has turned out. Thanks for following and supporting my work over the last year!

Could I get a link to see this too? Thanks!

Atom-88 said:

Hi again Acbagel, and once again thank you for sharing your ST edits with me. Like I previously mentioned I haven’t seen or read any of the legends material, so what you may be trying to achieve with your edit I might not see or realise why you made that change.

OK out of the 3 ST this one is the hardest mainly for me personally because I have only seen the theatrical version once (I do own the Blu-ray, but have only seen this movie in the cinema) the other times I have viewed TROS have all been fan edits so some of your changes I may have missed (which should be a good thing as this means everything has blended and flowed smoothly).

So I’ll start with the good.
😬

Ummmm…

Haha yikes! Would you say the theatrical release is better than this cut then, or just that you don’t like the original or this attempt to fix it?

Ok things I wasn’t a fan of or didn’t like (this is just me personally and only giving my personal thoughts and opinions)

• We see Kylo drop the decapitated head of the alien spy on the table during their briefing with commanders, Later we see the same Alien giving Poe and Finn info about the first order. I think I know what you are trying to achieve with that cut but for maybe a first time viewer it may be a bit confusing.

If you re-watch and actually compare the two scenes you will see that the two aliens you are talking about actually have different color skin tones. However, I don’t think that even matters too much because in Star Wars many species appear nearly identical to a human eye. Imagine looking at two of these Bith and trying to tell them apart https://www.starwars.com/databank/bith . Either way, I do understand from a storyteller perspective that when a new alien species is introduced in these scenes that it could potentially be confusing to people who aren’t used to processing this type of thing, but from a large plot picture point of view it isn’t really a plot hole at all and I’m okay with people having to stop and think after the movie to put two and two together here.

• The end Kylo lives, I appreciate the work you did to achieve this but for me personally it just didn’t work, especially when we see him boarding the falcon, I was like WTF 🤷 lol.

By “just didn’t work” what do you mean exactly? Didn’t work from a story-telling standpoint, from a graphic effects standpoint? Some more info would help here, just not sure what you mean to say.

I’m sorry I haven’t left anything positive for this edit, I know it is a mess of a movie to begin with but the major changes that were made just didn’t work for me personally.

No worries, I understand it’s nothing personal! Do you have any suggestions on how a fan editor would possibly fix the movie? Have you seen any episode 9 edits that you think improved upon the original and what did they do better than this cut? When I get around to releasing final versions of my trilogy next year I want to make sure I release the best product possible so any ideas from viewers are helpful. How can we take what Disney released and transform it into something that works with my Legends cuts?

I honestly and truthfully enjoyed and love your TFA and TLJ edits and am looking forward to seeing the full finished edit but for me this one is a big miss.

Thank you once Acbagel and please take care.

Thank you for your time with my trilogy and writing all of your reviews. I look forward to completing this project in the future and your feedback has been helpful. Glad you really enjoyed the first 2 at least!

I’d love to see this final cut, thanks!

Atom-88 said:
As previously stated I have not read or seen anything Legends related (Other than your TFA edit of course) and OMFG🤯, No… No… No… This is not TLJ it can’t be, why could we not have got if not this but something similar officially released, you somehow managed to make this edit not just enjoyable but holy s@#ts it felt like I was watching something completely new.

Great, one of the main goals was definitely to give that “new” feeling to the story Rian tried to tell. It just wasn’t something I enjoyed and I wanted to create something much closer to home.

Things I loved:
(Warning as there Spoilers)

• Everything, you managed to keep in the things that almost everyone complained about and made them enjoyable.
  Luke training Rey 😳😮 wtf, canto blight (ok it’s still canto but less of), Phasma which I was glad you kept in as I never really had a problem with the character and actually like the idea of the character so having her and Fin face off and Fin finally getting his resolve which I think needs to be kept in the movie.

• Luke saving Laia (I first saw this in FGR’s edit), don’t ask me why I just much prefer this and I totally hate Laia Poppins scene.

• Luke saves the rebellion by sending their cruiser via lightspeed crashing through the First Order, this scene was awesome as we see General Hux telling his officers that the ship is empty and I wasn’t expecting to see that happen next.

• Luke force ghost in-between world’s.

Glad those things helped improve your experience!

Things I didn’t Like:

• The Milking scene😞 lol.

Haha while I do understand that scene left a bad taste in a lot of mouths, I trimmed out the more obnoxious parts of it but thought just having Luke drink the milk shows that he is in tune with nature and therefore the living force. It doesn’t bother me at all when the bad half is cut out, especially with the new version of Luke I have created.

Things I won’t say I didn’t like but maybe worth rearranging (keep in mind that I have not seen anything to do with Star Wars Legends so what you are achieving won’t probably work out l but just my ideas anyway).

• Luke saving Laia, I love the scene but I think bit could work a lot better if you move the scene to an earlier point, so it would work as Rey has found Luke on this Island and he is annoyed because he didn’t want to be found but realises that the resistance must be some form of serious danger for his sister to seek him out, so at the scene where we see him sneak aboard the falcon and R2 plays the help me obi hologram and Luke at this point realises how desperate the resistance is, Luke now saves Laia afterwards he see’s Rey sleeping outside his hut and then tells her “I will train you in the ways of the force”.

That’s a really cool idea actually. I’ll have to take a big picture look at the scene order again but I will definitely consider it because I think that has potential.

• Luke saves the resistance by crashing their cruiser ship. I know I said I loved this scene and I really do just with this plus him saving Laia and then force projecting to face off against Kylo, don’t get me wrong yeah I love all of these additions and the official release should have had way more Luke but with all 3 plus him training Rey it just seems the resistance is relying on him just a bit too much. I know the resistance is meant to be on its knees and that’s why he does these things but just seems like they are relying on him a bit too much.

That’s a valid criticism. Maybe all of my edited scenes showing Luke constantly saving the day do weaken the appearance of the Resistance as a whole, but I think for the narrative of the ST as a whole that’s not a bad thing. To be frank, as a fighting force the Resistance sucks. It’s a very, very small band of soldiers who have left the New Republic to take matters into their own hands and their whole purpose is to take small rebellious actions that ultimately encourage others to take a stand as well. They aren’t meant to be a challenging military force, and them fully needing the myth of the Jedi and providence of the force works out for the old theme of destiny.

Sorry this is very long winded, I absaloutley loved this edit and it honestly felt like I was watching something new to what I had previously seen and this felt like what it was meant to be a Star Wars movie.

Thank you once again Acbagel for sharing this absaloutley amazing edit with me.

Not at all, I love reading feedback and am very happy that you enjoyed.

Now onto TROS edit😭.

😭 is right, haha. I tried my best, but with Disney refusing to release any deleted scenes/extra footage it is a very difficult task. I don’t think there’s any way to redeem it as much as I did here with TLJ but I at least tried to make it a tolerable entry in my ST remake.

Atom-88 said:

Well I have watched this twice and have to say I absaloutley loved it and it is definitely one of my favourite edits of TFA, you have done an incredible job Acbagel.

I will say that I haven’t read any of the Star Wars Legends and the only thing I have watched other than the PT, OT and ST is The Mandalorian.

Thank you for the kinds words. That is very interesting considering you are coming from a perspective of not knowing many of the old Star Wars Legends stories. Either way, I am happy you enjoyed it.

Things I loved:

• The scene layout
  The way you have moved the scenes around makes the pacing and flow of the movie now a lot better.

• The Humour
  The cuts you made regarding some of the humour makes it feel more like a Star wars movie and less like a comedy.

• Flashback scenes
  I loved the inclusion of flashbacks you put in (e.g Kylo interrogating Poe). There was another scene but it’s escaped my memory right now😬.

• Rey’s Powers
  I love the way you have toned down Rey’s Powers, I don’t have any issues with the character but could never understand why they made her so powerful to begin with. So was glad to see the removal of the mind trick (which was done very well) and the fight with Kylo was also done really good and liked the fact that neither Fin or Rey really show Kylo any sort of offence.

• Rey’s Dream
  I liked this a lot and thought you did a very good job, the way you faded it in with the reveal just brilliant.

• Hyperspace Ending
  I really do prefer them not finding Luke and it ending with Chewie, Rey and R2 in the falcon going into hyperspace. (This is one of the major things I also enjoyed with DigModifications and FGR’s Edits of TFA). I rather have a bit of anticipation going into the next movie, will they find Luke, will he help them🤷 instead of seeing him looking annoyed for 60 seconds lol.

Thanks for the positive feedback. Just want to chime in and give credit to where it’s due because not all of that was my original work. I did credit all of the original editors in my OP. I did a lot of my own changes, but also chose a lot of my favorite effects and scenes from some of those other great editors you mentioned.

Ok so not everything can be perfect for every individual but I will say for me personally this is pretty much there.

Things I didn’t like:
(These are not massive things and things that are just me being maybe a little bit nitpicky).

• Maz’s love for Chewie
  I just hate the line when they meet Maz and she asks Han “Where’s my boyfriend, I love that Wookie”. Don’t get me wrong I know it’s just a bit of harmless humor but for some reason it just annoys me.

True, I agree with you here actually. I’m not at all a fan of that line but it’s really hard to cut out because it’s right in the middle of a scene where a jump cut would look rawkward. I’ll play around with potential solutions in the future because it is something I would like to get rid of.

• Luke’s reveal in Rey’s Dream
  I know I said I loved Rey’s Dream scene and I really do but for me personally I think it may have been better to have it fade in and as we start to see the shape of a hooded figure standing there have it fade back out. This is just me personally I really do love what you have done, I just think it may be better that way because then the viewer could be thinking “Hey wonder what or who Rey is having a vision of” I know we already know the answer but it just gives it that bit of mystery especially with the ending of them going into hyperspace.
  (Also feels like it needs something as we go into the next scene of the map reveal, don’t know what tho just feels like it may need something).

I like that suggestion too. I will look into cutting a bit earlier to preserve more of that Luke reveal for TLJ.

Thank you once again Acbagel for sharing this amazing edit with me, this is definitely up there with Hal’s, Digmod’s and Neverar’s edits and the fact that it is just your workprint🤯. Can’t wait to see your final release.

Now onto The Last Jedi😁.

Looking forward to reading your thougts!

JumpyLion said:

Can I have a link, this sounds really good

Sent, enjoy!

I’ll take V3 when you get a chance, thank you very much for your work

Hello! Could I get a link to the edits? Thanks

Reno Skywarp said:

Can I get a link when you have a minute?

Sent! Hope you enjoy

Khernel said:

Hi! Can you send me the link please? Thanks!

Sent!