Acbagel

I’d love to see as well, thanks!

I’d like to see as well, thanks!

Oasissky said:

I personally agree with the Kylo choices and how this edit ends. These are my favorite fan-edits of the Sequel Trilogy so far. People should check these out.

Thank you for the kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed the new experience.

That looks so good! I can’t see anything at all to change anymore. Looks theatrical quality and is a fantastic change.

I watched this last week but did want to give a quick review on it!

Overall the edit works very well to combine the tones of the 2 source materials. I think the highlight of the film was the eeriness right before the Jedi confront Palpatine. There’s like a solid 3 minutes of pure dread as we see how many characters are sensing something imminent. Incredible!

It all does a great job to wrap up Clone Wars and this was my wife’s first time ever seeing RotS after we watched all of TCW the last few months. She was in tears by the end!

As for things to fix, there’d only be a few, and most of them are directed to the NCC which I know isn’t a completed project so I won’t bother getting into that. For FotR, the only corrections I can think of were I believe there’s a slight audio desync that occurs in TCW scene on Mandalore with Bo-Katan and Ahsoka after capturing Maul. Either that or something about the animation there is throwing me off, maybe just double check. The one main criticism I’d give is I think there’s too many cut to black transitions between the sources. Maybe look into some wipes instead of hard cuts to black.

Thanks for your work on this, it’s a great idea and I think the best way to experience a more consistent story for TCW characters into the movie.

Sent to all 4! Would appreciate reviews if you have the time.

I really found my passion for this film and hit a stride at the midway point of working. I went back and rewrote this thread’s OP and changelist so you will now have a detailed explanation of every decision I made. And with that… The workprint is complete! I will be uploading tonight so please post here or DM me if you’d like to see.

Love a lot of these ideas, and especially agree with the title 😉 . Wondering how you’re going to pull off the Anakin content? Where are you getting that footage from that makes it look like an actual part of the movie?

I made a lot of progress the last couple days and have a working cut for Act 1 and began on Act 2. I’m hoping the new way I introduced Palpatine is going to a be a better way of tying his story to Legends!

gladion said:

gladion said:

Acbagel said:

Can you go into more detail about that? Not exactly sure what you’re looking for.
gladion said:

It’s a compilation that removes unnecessary elements like Rose, and only sees Ray and Kylo Ren’s confrontation. Edith featuring Kylo Ren is also fine.

That’s still not a lot to go on. You’re looking for a The Last Jedi edit then? Your best bet is to browse https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/an-index-of-projects-help-thread-for-star-wars-fan-edits-and-other-projects/id/59793 for ST edits. Read what each one does and find something that appeals to you.

TestingOutTheTest said:

Can I have a link to your edits?

Sent!

Quick update on the cut. I have all my project files organized and began on Act 1. I am reorganizing so many scenes here that progress is a bit slow. This is most definitely the most difficult edit so far, but I’m happy to end on the biggest challenge! The changelist will start to be updated soon.

Can you go into more detail about that? Not exactly sure what you’re looking for.

Delpheas said:

My issue with your interpretation of Rey in this film is at least partly connected to what you had Luke trying to teach her in FotJ. My idea would be to try and get it across that by the end she’s learned that lesson of internal balance.

The film already contains external manifestation that she’s trying to achieve it, she heals the serpent, followed by using Force Lightning. She wants to take Ren’s hand, but goes to her friends instead. She mortally stabs Ben, then heals him. Her issue is that she’s struggling and I would rather see her work through that struggle and come out ready to build a new order of Force users that isn’t Jedi or Sith, than die because she’s a failure.

Ah, but this is where I would disagree. Rey didn’t fail in her death, she succeeded. She fulfilled her destiny, just as Anakin did. Her choices brought balance to the force. This Legends theme of balance is that you cannot change fate for long, as there cannot be free will in a galaxy where this force guides things. Think to what Kreia said, “I hate the Force, I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance when countless lives are lost”. - (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II) I wouldn’t say Anakin failed to bring balance to the force as he died. Neither would I say that Rey and Palpatine failed to do the same. Fixing this cycle of destruction isn’t about learning to wield a “gray” force as there is only light and dark, it’s about learning symbiosis with the living and cosmic force as you fall neither too heavily into the light’s passivity or the dark’s aggression. It can easily be argued that, as Kreia believed, the only way to truly make peace is to somehow destroy the force itself. But at least at the end of my saga, the galaxy can rest without one side in charge. There is no chance that Rey possesses the wisdom to effectively create a new order of force users along these lines. It would continue to feed the cycle, so in my edit the force is doing exactly what Kreia hated: Using its will to control people to achieve a measure of balance as lives are lost.

It could be accomplished with two pretty simple changes to the Exogol confrontation and two during the finale.

1. When Rey says she’s here to end the Sith and Palpatine asks “As a Jedi?” change her “Yes” to a “No.” and edit Palps next line accordingly.

2. Then cut the Jedi from the sequence completely.

3. Show Rey’s friends on the Falcon with her as it goes to Tatooine.

4. When Rey is burying the past on Tatooine, cut the Force Ghosts and have her say “Just Rey” instead of “Rey Skywalker.”

With the changes you made for FotJ, plus the theatrical’s concept of Rey confronting her fear, this gives the very clear impression that she’s trying to move beyond the failures of the Jedi, and by the end has succeeded. She’s supposed to be the one who has resolved the Grey through refined Jedi sight, as referenced in the TFA novelisation’s Book of the Whills quote.

However it’s your edit, and those are just my thoughts on resolving Rey’s story.

Another problem with Rey living is that in that case, then Kylo’s arc has no resolution. In my cut it makes sense for him to be downtrodden as a living reminder, a Cain-like figure in the Bible, but if Rey is still alive then Kylo’s dark pursuit of her would doubtlessly spiral the galaxy into more conflict. There’s no way he would be satisfied to leave things alone as his primary motivation has always been her. And as I explained in OP, his healing power to revive Rey and then him dying is utterly ridiculous within the bounds of Legends.

As for Ben, I’d leave him on Tatooine at the end.

This is what I’m leaning towards. Him seeing the force ghosts, then ending on him looking at the suns. Not sure if this would provide enough resolution though. As Rogue said, I am a little concerned on this ending being considered unsatisfying, but I’ll see when it’s put together.

RogueLeader said:

Okay, yeah, I see what you’re getting at. I suppose it would be interesting to see any alternative than the story ending at practically the same place it started, in terms of Rey in TROS ending in basically the same place Luke ended in ROTJ. Rey doesn’t end the film with any newfound knowledge that sets her apart from the past Jedi, like Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates script at least attempted to do. Since the film’s climax has Palpatine and Rey both reiterate their identities as Sith and Jedi, there is some interesting finality in the fact that they both destroy each other, essentially ending a feud the lasted millennium.

Boom! That’s exactly it. If we look at the trilogies and how they conclude:

PT: Ends with the Dark winning
OT: Ends with the Light winning
ST: Ends with… the Light winning again

Like if you were going for any sort of balance or pattern, at minimum you should have the Dark winning again. That’s why the trilogy felt so empty to me, there’s no greater meaning. It’s just a rehash of the exact same conclusion of the last trilogy, even against the same villain! So with my edit having the ST end with both sides losing… or do both sides win? Depending on your point of view, we’ve now seen some new way of balance being achieved. The force achieving balance in unexpected ways is CRUCIAL to Star Wars. The Jedi thought Anakin would end the Sith according to their proud understanding, but it blew up in their face as the the force achieved balance in a much different way later in time. Palpatine made the same mistake and was caught off guard by destiny as well. The ST should end with another way of balance appearing in an unexpected form, not something utterly predictable and obvious. This is the end of a SAGA. If we end it all in the exact same way it ended in the middle then nothing was accomplished. In my edit, the tired cycle is finally broken. Normal people can stop getting dragged into these Jedi vs Sith wars as we enter an actual new era for the galaxy. One where there is real, tangible hope that things might truly be different this time instead of a ticking time bomb waiting for the next Jedi vs Sith galactic war.

When I look at Rey and the idea that she’d create this new type of Jedi Order, I just don’t see it. She never ever reaches any sort of conclusion about why the Jedi were wrong, doesn’t have a single opinion or thought about the philosophy of the force, or the slightest idea of the doctrine of the Sith or Jedi. Her caveman-like view is “Jedi good. Galaxy need good.” She never evolves beyond this understanding and her Jedi Order would inevitably create another Sith and the cycle would begin again. Her death, along with Luke and Leia puts an end to this.

With Ben/Kylo, you have a character who renounced both the Jedi and the Sith, and although he is no longer Supreme Leader, he didn’t totally flip 180 and become good again either. Maybe more along the lines of a Byronic hero or anti-hero at this point, because at the very least, he may ensure that future generations don’t make the same mistakes that the Jedi, the Sith, and himself made.

Exactly! While Kylo doesn’t physically die like Rey will, spiritually and symbolically the person we saw for 3 movies is gone. It can be argued that he wasn’t really a true Sith to begin with, but as Rey died, so did his desire to pursue power and the Dark. He is effectively a dead man walking, hollow, a shell. He won’t be the Dark side user we saw, but he also hasn’t turned into a Light side user. Right, his role is now one of a keeper of memories, of mistakes, the embodiment of galactic conflict and a reminder to the galaxy of why you can’t bottle up the force into a silly religion or Order.

If an edit cut Palpatine from the film, I think keeping Rey and Kylo alive would make sense. But since yours keeps Palpatine for reasons I agree with (primarily because it is difficult to keep a 2-hour runtime, which I also agree is essential to a Star Wars film), I think having Rey die could allow the film to end in a less predictable way.

While I don’t love how Palpatine is included, his representation of the Sith is needed for the theme I’m trying to present. And yes, hopefully a Rey sacrifice will give the confrontation more weight and affect viewers in a more emotional way.

Do you have any ideas for how you’ll have Kylo be on Tatooine at the end of the film?

I do! there’s a handful of fan edited clips of Kylo on Tatooine that I’ll pull from, and I’m going to insinuate that his only interaction was with the Resistance was getting the Falcon back from them. So he will arrive on Tatooine on that ship, and my only debate left is whether I want to end with him flying away from Tatooine, or remaining there…

Delpheas said:

For one, it’s a major way the film apes ANH, but on a more ridiculous scale.
Second, it has no emotional impact. Just adding in the deleted scene of Leia’s messenger being sent there doesn’t do enough to give the audience an emotional anchor. And again, it has no bearing on the later films. The only reference to the NR destruction in TLJ is the crawl and a Hux line toward the beginning. With the NR still intact throughout 8 & 9, the lack of response from allies can be recontexualised by either editing or the viewer as the NR continuing to not help. And the arrival of the fleet over Exogol in RoS could be contextualized as the NR finally sending aid.

And finally, I think the destruction of the NR was a very shallow way that the writers were signaling that they weren’t going to be beholden to Legends material, since the NR plays a not insignificant role in Legends. They then of course still borrowed the concepts of Jacen Solo, a hidden fleet, force clones, and Palpatine’s return… I just really feel like it’s useless and goes nowhere.

Personally I think removing the Super Weapon concept at all, if possible, is ideal. Starkiller would just be a FO base that they assault to rescue Rey and because they might have a chance at killing Ren and Hux. Idk…

Alright, I’ve been going over this the last couple days and looking at not only this film, but the trilogy as a whole with and without this scene. I think I’m going to keep it in, and here’s why.

Based on my plan for Episode 9, I want the galaxy to end in a state of total reset. No Jedi, no Sith, a gap and void for something new to rise. With the destruction of the NR, I think that sets up a more broken galaxy that is ready to rest and recover. It adds more desperation to the Jedi v Sith conflict and when it ends, there’s hope for something new, something to break the cycle of these force wars.

To address your concerns:

1. Maybe if you only look at the movies Starkiller firing seems to try and unnecessarily one-up ANH, but in the context of Legends stories as a whole it doesn’t even need to be compared. It makes sense as a natural evolution of the Sith to move up to something of a grander scale.

2. True, they emotional impact of a whole system being destroyed isn’t very present, but I wouldn’t say the movie needed that to be felt by our protagonists either. The main conflict is with Rey, Kylo, and Han reflecting the light v dark conflict, and this destruction paralleled with the death of Han goes along the thematic lines of the dark securing a victory.

3. To be honest, I doubt the writers even thought of it that deeply. I don’t think they were smart enough try and intentionally make a statement about the NR of Legends through Starkiller base. Abrams didn’t even know who Darth Plageuis was after TFA so I doubt he knew much about post-RotJ novels. I don’t see it as necessarily disrespectful to Legends, more of just an alternate reality.

Delpheas said:

My internet is fixed and upgraded to ultra highspeed and everything seems to be in order.

My wife and I will be ordering in and watching tonight!

RogueLeader said:

I was looking forward to seeing your post about your ideas regarding TROS!

To be honest, I’m really surprised that you’re killing Rey. With how much you have been pushing this idea of portraying balance in a different way, I felt the obvious way to do that would be to have both Rey and Ben live, so they can work together to forge a new path. I personally feel like the way the story ends would be really ambiguous for most audiences to actually be satisfied with, especially if you paint Kylo as not really being redeemed.

But as far as I’m aware there isn’t a version where Rey dies, so it might be interesting to see how that version would turn out.

As I watched theatrical trilogy, I never ever wanted Kylo to be redeemed. I thought it was a terrible decision to go down that path after seeing what he did to Han. There’s no way I could ever forgive him, but I loved him as a villain. I don’t think he deserves a redemption arc, as I find his pursuit of Rey to be predatory and not a selfless act befitting of the Light. I don’t see how any of his actions paint him in a good view, so he will remain as a burdened and disgraced individual, suffering the consequences of his corruption. He has no one. Maybe it ends ambiguosly, but at least something different happens this time. The cycle of dark beating the light and then light beating the dark appears to end, and at last people can rest as both sides have fallen.

My idea of balance for this film is not having Rey and Kylo live to lead a new order of light and dark, but to have them essentially both die in a way, physically or spiritually, and signify that the age of both the Jedi and the Sith has ended. In a way, they each contributed to the destruction of both the Jedi and Sith orders. I wouldn’t say either order is good for the galaxy, and for there to truly be peace a new order would need to rise in the void. It is almost as Kreia originally wanted it… No Jedi and no Sith. People are free, for now.

A future story I’d tell would be Kylo becoming a sort of oracle, teaching others about the failures of both sides as a warning of flippantly creating dogmatic orders. The key to peace with the force is symbiosis with life, not adhering to a man-made code.

Delpheas said:

Not sure. My internet is acting up and I’m supposed to get it fixed tomorrow and then I should be able to finish uploading.

Awesome, hope that fixes things. Thanks for the update! Very excited to watch. I actually considered making this same exact edit but I saw you had already done the work, so I’m excited to check it out.

“The overriding philosophy in all the Star Wars movies is the balance between good and evil. In each of us we to have balance these emotions, and in the Star Wars saga the most important point is balance, balance between everything.” - The Maker

Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/_MIbDfI1wvo

I am working on editing each movie in the Sequel Trilogy according to my understanding of what it would look like if it shared the themes from Star Wars Legends. As I have completed TFA and TLJ, I have continued into TRoS.

I’d love to have your feedback and suggestions as I create this, so please be open and offer criticism where you feel it is useful.

Goals of my ST edits:

1. To more closely align to the themes of Star Wars Legends material. (https://boards.theforce.net/threads/the-crucible-canon-merging-eu-and-new-canon-as-smoothly-as-possible.50053287/)

2. To demonstrate the mistakes of a narrow minded view that Jedi/light side = good and Sith/dark side = bad.

3. To tell stories of Luke, Leia, and Han that are respectful to their OT character arcs and to better align their storylines to that of Legends.

4. To give the new characters more realistic character arcs that stay within the bounds and limitations of Star Wars Legends and paths that logically flow between the films.

5. To tell a good, cohesive, authentic Star Wars story that generally stays within the limits of Legends.

Inspiration behind ST edits: Like many of you, I am a huge Star Wars Legends fan. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on, comics, novels, short stories, playing the games etc. For me, transitioning into the Disney Era was tough at times. Most notably in the ST handling of the characters I loved. My favorite theme in Star Wars has always been the balance of the force and the failures and evolution of the Jedi. Initially, I had high hopes that Luke would surpass the failures of the Jedi doctrine and lead a new generation of balanced force users as the original Je’daii did. But alas, that was not the case… However, I think there is opportunity to tell the ST trilogy in a way that aligns better with the themes that Legends created. From Dawn of the Jedi to Tales of the Jedi through the KOTOR era, the PT and OT, there was a very clear theme of balance and what happens when either the Dark or Light tries to bend the force to their own narrow interpretation. I found the ST lacking in a clear reason for why it even existed in the Star Wars saga. I want viewers to leave my edit trilogy feeling like they now know something new about Star Wars, the force, and the OT trio.

What I want to fix in TRoS: After watching and disliking theatrical TLJ due to how intensely it deviated characters from Legends (see my TLJ thread), I had very low expectations for TRoS. I couldn’t fathom a way to correct certain character arcs or redeem some of the most important Star Wars themes, but I at least still wanted to enjoy something from it. Even with these doubts, after seeing TRoS, I was even more disappointed with it than I was with TLJ. While TLJ made some bold decisions regarding characters that altered their legacy, TRoS goes even further with the Legends damaging lore changes. When I begin to think of how to edit this film to stay within Legends, there are a ton of factors to consider. Obviously, I will not be able to fundamentally change the core acts of the film (the McGuffin plot and the lightspeed pacing of events), but what I can do is adjust certain aspects to at least make it more in line with my other edits when it comes to the legacies of Luke, Leia, Rey, and Kylo. Most importantly, I need to fix certain things that break Star Wars saga lore… Here we go.

These are the main areas I will be changing in my edit.

1. The Legacy of General and Jedi Master Leia Organa. If you recall back to my TLJ edit, you will remember that I hinted that Leia was “The Last Jedi”, not Rey. This is because Luke trained Leia TO be a Jedi before Kylo’s fall, and then trained Rey NOT to be a Jedi after Kylo’s fall. At most, Rey could be considered a Gray Jedi, but it defeats my entire purpose of Luke’s arc if he just trains another Jedi after learning his lessons on the island. My surprise edit in TLJ revealed that Leia was also a Jedi, sort of undercover and not really acting as one, but someone who Luke trained for a time and I hinted that we would see her as a Jedi in TRoS. So in 9 that’s a role we will see her embrace, the last Jedi. Now, Leia stopped her training prematurely so she doesn’t know nearly as much as Luke, but enough to get Rey somewhat on the right path as a force user. We see her in more of a passive teacher role, but she still has some powers to display. The main change in her character arc from theatrical is that in my edit, Leia will be the one who saves Kylo from Rey’s stab as she heals him giving her life for his. Leia will channel a force illusion of Han to distract Kylo from killing Rey, but she doesn’t anticipate Rey lashing out in anger against Kylo. As he is dying, Rey leaves and Kylo will be healed by his mother, who gives all of her life force to save him. Sort of how we saw Luke intervene across the galaxy to save Leia in my TLJ, we now see Leia perform a similar action to save her son, but it is one that costs her life. As Leia fades away, the Jedi fade away with her. A true Skywalker was the last living Jedi.

2. Rey’s Identity and Conclusion. The “Rey Nobody” route works much better in my trilogy. Funny enough, I thought it would’ve been a great idea for her to be a Palpatine after TFA released and I actually wrote a number of threads on it. However, after TLJ I didn’t see any way for that decision to have any sort of satisfying conclusion anymore so I abandoned the idea. Well, turns out I was right, but I didn’t want to be anymore! There’s been a lot of talk on this subject already so I think the arguments are pretty clear for why her being introduced as a Palpatine doesn’t work in this film or the trilogy as a whole now that we see everything. In this film she will be extremely tempted to wield the Dark Side, and rightfully so as she was far too old to begin the necessary training to resist it. This temptation is interesting enough without her being a Palpatine. The “Rey killed her parents” storyline really makes it all so much more believable. So that’s her identity, an offspring of worthless drunks that she killed in a fit of rage as a child. Now with Rey having a consistent identity through the first 2 films, I need to explain my controversial decision with how I am ending TRoS. Rey dies. And she doesn’t come back. Here’s why… She was a nobody who embodied extreme courage and a headstrong will to fight evil, no matter the cost. She barely trained in the force and was far too old to learn to be a Jedi. There are consequences for facing down and Emperor like that. On Exegol, after being injured in the initial confrontation, the Jedi speak to her as she gets up to absorb the power of the Chosen One, as he takes over he body he uses her to deflect the lightning back at Palpatine and kill him. The power flowing through her saps all of her strength and she staggers to the ground and passes away. In fact, Kylo says in TLJ that she can’t be the one who bridged their minds because the effort alone would kill her, so of course what happens in her battle with Palpatine would do so as well, especially when you see how I’ve cut it. Kylo, a dark side user, should have no clue how to perform that sort of god-tier force healing. This is a light side power and there’s simply no way for him to have that sort of incredible light side mastery to bring Rey back to life. Since I have Leia performing that act on him earlier, it also cheapens her powers if he can just whip out his own life transfer out of nowhere too. So, in a heartwrenching scene, Kylo realizes what his evil has wrough as Rey just… stays dead. I’m not only doing this for practical reasons, but also thematic ones. Kylo now remains as the last Skywalker and we wonder what he will do with this burden. Look at it this way, Rey has been a very childlike presence throughout the trilogy. The way she puts on her helmet in TFA and acts like a pilot, her childlike view of the Jedi in TLJ, her childlike emotional swings in TRoS… She really isn’t ever a mature, philosophical force user. She constantly rushes head first into conflict and has little to no understanding of anything at all about the living or cosmic force. This isn’t really a criticism of her character. I think that’s a rather interesting character trait, but if you bravely, and somewhat foolishly, rush to face down the Emperor with barely any training… Yeah, you should die. The only reason she was bailed out was because of the training of the force ghosts. Rey’s character represents innocence, a belief that the Jedi should be good, even though they really weren’t. As she dies, that belief dies with her. There are no more Jedi. Only Kylo remains to pick up the pieces of a broken galaxy.

3. Kylo’s Identity and Conclusion. I have exasperated myself trying to build Kylo up as a more threatening villain and believe I succeeded in the first two films. In this film, he is even more established as a villain, but one with a glaring weakness… Caring for Rey. There’s been a ton of analysis about Kylo as a Dark Skywalker compared to Anakin and then Rey as a light Palpatine and the theme of reversals and family yada-yada-ya… To me, the main point here is that we saw what being controlled by attachment did to a Light Anakin, it turned him. Now we see the flipside of someone Dark being controlled by attachment, and it will break him and cause him to leave his Empire behind. His relentless pursuit of Rey will be his undoing. However, these actions show someone who is controlled by passion, by an infatuation, and his pursuit doesn’t make him a good person. I felt like it was so jarring when he become “good” because he didn’t do anything to deserve that title. He stalked Rey, killed billions of innocents, and then Leia says “Ben”, he sees his father and suddenly he’s a good little boy? No way, and especially not after how I’ve re-written him. There is no turning to the Light redemption arc for Kylo as I have made it clear through the earlier movies that he is not a good person. Once you start down the Dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. This doesn’t mean he must continue to be a ruler of evil, but there is no way he is suddenly good after all he has done. It’s now more along the lines of how he is tired of people controlling him, and he feels like he can forge his own path with Rey. Kylo will be deeply disturbed as he realizes his mother died to save him, but we won’t see him turn to the light here. His motivations will remain much darker, more conflicted conflicted and somewhat mysterious. We will see him contemplate his future on the Capital of the First Order before showing up on Exegol solely to continue his pursuit of Rey. He doesn’t fight Palpatine because he wants to be redeemed. He goes there for selfish reasons. After Rey dies in his arms, his pain is deeply apparent and he will go to Tatooine to bury Rey and Leia’s lightsabers himself. We leave his character in a saddened grey state. We know he left the First Order as it fails, but there really isn’t a place for Kylo in the New Republic after his crimes, so he becomes a wanderer, more of a recluse or Gray Jedi to carry on the memories of Luke, Leia, Han, Rey, and the Jedi.

4. Palpatine’s Return. I fully understand the return of Palpatine comes out of nowhere when you look at the trilogy as a whole, and the pacing of the reveal isn’t executed well, but the edits without him simply don’t have enough content to sustain a full movie. To me, a Star Wars movie can’t be 95 minutes, it doesn’t feel like a part of the saga at that point. Since this is a Legends cut, obviously Palpatine returns there so it isn’t really a problem that he returns, but how it’s pulled off. I have made a number of significant changes to adjust how the Emperor is presented in this story. First, Palpatine is a clone that wants to be restored to full strength, much more along the lines of Legends. Second, Palpatine didn’t “make” Snoke, he WAS Snoke. His spirit embodied one of the clone failures and he hid his identity as he constructed his fleet. Third, in theatrical his motivations for wanting Rey were all over the place and his plans became incoherent. Now, he has wanted Rey alive the entire time so she could kill him and he could possess her. Ever since she was a child he has been looking for a body to be his host. Fourth, with my Rey nobody storyline he
   isn’t a creepy grandpa, just the same Palpatine we know and love. Fifth, and most importantly, the legacy of the Chosen One is preserved through his death. Using incredible work from Youtubers and fan editors, Anakin will transfer his ghost into Rey’s body as he says “This is the end for you, my master,” and kill Palpatine himself. I hope you are as blown away with the results as I am with how differently this battle will play out! Everything has changed.

5. Lore breaking moments. This was my #1 worst part about TRoS. Rey’s god-tier force healing, Kylo’s god-tier force healing, Leia dying out of nowhere from sending a force-mail, “Rey Skywalker”, Finn suddenly having the force, Finn sensing a radio transmission through the force, “they fly now?”, Rey killing the Emperor and ruining the legacy of the Chosen One, “No, that Holdo maneuver is one in a million!” etc. There are FAR too many to list right now. I need to tackle them as they come up in my edit. These moments will be detailed in my changelist.

I will be inspired by and using content from FGR’s Rise of the Emperor, krausfadr’s TRoS:RESURGENCE, and HAL’s TRoS:Ascendant, along with my own personal contributions from editing theatrical release. At some point I may look to include a few ideas or clips from the Movies Remastered cut, but as that is still without a release date I will begin work without it. I also firmly believe that a Star Wars film must be at least 2 hours and anything less harms the movie. There must be a way to pace out the story to that length, even with the edits, or I will have failed.

Changelist:

ACT I

• Replaced title to “Legacy of the Force” (Inspired by https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Legacy_of_the_Force)
• New crawl:

Episode VIX

LEGACY OF THE FORCE

All who dared to speak the name
Luke Skywalker are silent, slaughtered
by the merciless KNIGHTS OF REN. The
tyrannical FIRST ORDER crushes any system that rebels.

Leia, sensing a looming dark presence,
sends her brave agents across the stars
to unite the disparate worlds in the
name of Resistance.

Rey, heir of the teachings of Luke Skywalker,
continues training with her new master, Leia.
Together, they stand as the last hope
for balance in the galaxy…

• As my two previous cuts did, we open up with Rey as the focus. Palpatine won’t be revealed until much later as suspense about this mysterious Sith fleet is built. Panning from a planet shot down to her training, the whole ST now opens about the growth of Rey with each opening scene showing her development as a character.
• I removed Rey’s overly annoyed grunt as she is meditating. She gets her frustration across to the audience in a much more adult-like manner in her following discussion with Leia.
• Kylo co-induces a vision with Rey during her training. This vision uses scenes from my past edits and other edits listed in my source material. These changes to the vision better display that the two are still linked and that Kylo is using their connection to pull Rey to the Dark. This is the first scene that we see of Kylo.
• After Rey tells Leia she needs a break from training, we now cut to Kylo’s mask re-forging scene with the added Knights of Ren Dialogue. Removed the Stormtrooper’s awkward commentary in the hallway. Moving this scene here keeps the focus of the film on the Rey and Kylo conflict which is the most interesting dynamic of the trilogy.
• Trimmed the jest about Kylo’s appearance in the board meeting. Looks like this movie picks right up with the denigrating our main villain trend… Now, after Hux says, “No sir,” another Officer interrupts as if he is tired of the silliness. Same. I have trimmed the choke of this Officer to not slam him into the ceiling. No need to try and one-up the OT at every chance. Removed all mentions of Palpatine to preserve the reveal. At this point we have 0 tangible clues of Palpatine, and everything has been about rumors of a mysterious Sith fleet and cultists.
• Right after the last Kylo line in the board meeting, “Crush any worlds that defy us,” I cut straight into the extended Mustafar battle scene from [21C Peasant]. We end with Kylo discovering the Wayfinder as we hear a ghastly voice saying, “Gooooood…” It now seems like Kylo finds this Wayfinder as more of a destiny rather than seeing all this stuff right after the crawl. We now have Kylo as a Supreme Leader already in the minds of the viewers, so his battle scenes are more badass.
• Instead of the Wayfinder zoom-in shot transitioning to Kylo flying to Exegol, it now fades into Hyperspace for the opening scenes of Poe and Finn. I’m trying to slow the lightspeed pacing of the Palpatine reveal and build the mystery of the Sith fleet rather than info dumping in the first 3 minutes.
• The chess scene takes place while the crew is in hyperspace, minus Klaud (his appearances are nothing more than a joke about a goofy looking alien). They drop out of hyperspace after the game with a shot having been modified here [FX by poppasketti].
• Replaced Finn’s first line “Artoo” with “Look sharp” [dgraham414 idea]. Small change, but this line feels far less contrived when you compare the deliveries.
• Removed lightspeed skipping sequence. It is an absurd concept never before seen in Star Wars. Now, the Falcon bursts through the ice wall while jumping to hyperspace, and the pursuing TIEs peel off, ending the scene [visual FX by poppasketti]
• Moved the scene of Rey reading Luke’s notes and the Falcon arriving to just after Poe’s hyperspace jump. Now it seems as if more time has passed since Rey and Leia last spoke which, again, helps slow the pacing of the first Act.
• Took some focus off the “lightspeed skipping” in the landing conversation. I did leave one mention about how it damaged the falcon, but I’m going to go with the idea that “lightspeed skipping” was how they blasted through the ice wall, “skipping” some of the “lightspeed” safety protocols. Rey and Poe talk so fast in this scene that it’s easy to miss details and I do think it’s important to get the point across that the Falcon was damaged on the mission while Rey trained in the force.
• Trimmed and completely rearranged the Resistance briefing scene to remove Poe and others’ references to Palpatine. Exegol is still described by C3PO as a Sith world and this is what scares/surprises everyone. Moved the line “secrets only the Sith knew” to be spoken as Rey is picking up the book. [krausfadr] As my Palpatine reveal is being delayed, we now see that both the Resistance and First Order are aware of Sith cultists raising a fleet on Exegol, so we start to understand that the race is on for who will reach it first.
• Cut Rey’s line to Leia “find the Emperor.” Now Leia is just saying no to a Rey to Exegol mission because she doesn’t think she has trained her well enough.
• The Falcon’s flight from the jungle moon to Pasaana is now one continuous sequence. With the way I’ve restructured Act 1, it’s best to keep the focus on our protagonists for now.
• During the first Rey-Ren force conversation, cut references to Palpatine, and cut Ren’s line about turning Rey to the dark side. He just says he’ll find her and she’ll take his hand. [krausfadr]
• Trimmed the length of the joke around C3PO turning around and looking like a doofus. I actually do think 3PO shines with some humor throughout this movie with a little help in the editing department which is about the only time I’d say it works in the ST.
• Cut Finn’s line, “I’ve never seen so few Wayfinders” since that was delivered in a way for him to be the butt of a joke again. In my trilogy his character is taken much more seriously.
• After Kylo Ren says “I will find you,” cut him saying “…and turn you to the dark side.” What a ridiculous way to try and seduce someone away from their friends. You’re not supposed to blatantly announce your plans like that. Kylo’s whole shtick has been trying to get Rey to trust him and take his hand, and this makes it too in your face how that is something she wouldn’t want to do. It’s much more menacing when he is trying to befriend her.
• Moved the scene back in which Rey’s necklace is reported to be traced to Pasaana aboard the Star Destroyer for better pacing. Now we see Rey’s panic as she runs to her friends to warn them that they’re about to be in trouble.
• Used a foreign language dub for a milder delivery of Lando’s chauffeur’s one line. [HAL] Theatrical was another extremely weird alien joke.
• Removed the “tHeY fLy nOw?!” gag. In Legends, we know that jetpacks have been commonplace technology for… Nevermind, no explanation needed.
• Rey does not recognize Ochi’s ship. This is to preserve the lore of the new story with Rey and her parents. Ochi’s ship is not intended to be the same one that left her on Jakuu.
• As they all sink in the sand, I removed Finn telling Rey, “I never told you—“ as well as all following references to it. Finn is not force-sensitive in my edit because as Han said best, “That’s not how the force works.” You don’t just realize you have the force at 24 years old. Even Rey, who wasn’t trained for decades, wasn’t surprised when she had the force because she has known there was something different about her tknowledge of her powers due to the trauma of how she killed her parents with it as a child.
• Cut the middle school YouTube comedy sketch where Leia tells the Resistance guy to be more optimistic. It now ends with him saying “The Falcon’s not responding," preserving the tone of the scene and the movie as a whole.
• Cut the flashlight v lightsaber gag. By now, you know that I think that this type of attempted humor is inconsistent with previous Star Wars content. Poe hasn’t been a jokester in my trilogy so there’s no need to start now.
• Poe now doesn’t hate bones. He’s a veteran of many battles, I’m sure he’s seen worse than a skeleton…
• Rey does not have god-tier force healing in my cut since that sort of power would take a lifetime to learn as a Jedi. Instead, as she hears instructions from Luke’s voice, she now wields a simple form of Beast Control on the serpent, similar to what Anakin did to the Reek. She pacifies the beast as it senses a symbiotic relationship with her through the force and it leaves them all alone.
• Rey doesn’t perfectly slice Kylo’s wing off because that move is something that would be difficult for even a Jedi Master. Instead, she only backflips over his ship which is a much more believable feat given her training thus far. Intercut her landing with Finn yelling her name to pace out the move.
• In addition to Rey’s overly powerful attack, there’s no possible way Kylo survives the type of crash he has there. At best he would be mortally wounded, not unscratched and able to rip a frigate out of the sky with the force. I was in pure shock in theater when I saw how insane this was. Using [visual FX by DonKamillo], Kylo’s intact fighter is now rotoscoped into the scenes where the wreckage used to be.
• Added new shot of Ochi’s ship taking off with the heroes as Kylo Ren watches in order to slightly slow the pace [visual FX by poppasketti]. Thought it was a nice touch to end Act 1 with another pacing adjustment.

ACT 2

• As we enter the middle stage of the story, all we know so far is that there is a Sith fleet and cultists on Exegol. We also heard Palpatine whispering to Kylo on Mustafar. After Rey tells Finn that she had a vision of her on the Sith throne, Kylo now clearly hears Palpatine’s voice in his head telling him that the Final Order is almost ready and that he will be the new Emperor. The Emperor instructs him to come to Exegol and this is when we see Kylo fly there. This is the perfect place to place the reveal because we still don’t know what form the Emperor will be in or what his goals are, preserving the mystery that I’ve been building up for the last 35 minutes.
• Palpatine tells Kylo “I am Snoke” instead of “I made Snoke” [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] & Replaced the vat of cloned Snokes with cloned Palpatine’s [FX by poppasketti]. Palpatine says that his current body is a dying “clone abomination” to tie in better to the Legends story of him instead of the repeated RotS fan-service line. [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] These changes clearing up Palpatine’s cloning completely change the perception of who/what he is and make his intentions for Kylo and Rey actual, devious, and smart plans instead of his theatrical nonsensical motivations.
• Removed the slight electrical crackle as Palpatine reveals his hands [FX by skenera]. Too fan-servicey and doesn’t make sense for his failing clone body to show off powers like that.
• Palpatine says to “Find the girl” instead of “Kill the girl” [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel]. Again, this is to keep him with a consistent and cunning plan throughout the film. He’s been pursuing a new body for decades as he led the Resistance to believe lies about Snoke and underestimate his true plans. He’s had his eyes on Rey since she was a girl after learning of her past.
• Cut Palpatine and Ren’s dialogue about Rey not being what she seems. This is to preserve the “Rey nobody” storyline.
• Transition from the Exegol scene to the scene where Poe and crew brainstorm a new plan. Cut the hand holding gag as it’s another drawn out, painfully forced humor attempt.
• After we see the Knights of Ren ship in pursuit, we transition to the Falcon being pulled into the Star Destroyer, but Chewie is not revealed to be alive until Rey senses him from Kijimi. The reveal with Hux and Pryde has been replaced with the BB-8 scene on the Ochi ship. Such a cheap reveal for the fake-out death, it’s much more powerful when we realize Chewie is alive later on.
• Cut Rey talking about knowing Ochi’s ship. She doesn’t know, as her parent’s ship is a totally different ship in my edit [recolor FX by krausfadr].
• Move the Chewie as prisoner scene right after Rey senses him in orbit. Now it’s an actual shock that he’s alive, and much better revealed by Rey rather than Hux.
• Trimmed the mind trick gag. It’s one of the cringiest in the whole film and so inappropriately timed for a life and death rescue of Chewie.
• Trimmed Poe’s one-liner upon being captured. He is not a goofball and it is uncalled for to make so many jokes when the fate of the galaxy is at stake.
• Cut the sound flashbacks when Rey picks up the dagger in Ren’s chambers. During Rey’s force conversation with Ren while she is on the Star Destroyer, removed references to her parents being good and Palpatine killing them. During their force conversation lightsaber battle, Ren taunts Rey, telling her, “It was Palpatine. He was looking for you. You remember what you did. You wanted your parents dead." We then see Rey as a child destroy her parent’s ship after they sold her. [Krausfadr] This change is crucial to why Rey has struggled with the Dark side this trilogy. She doesn’t have “dark side blood” because that’s not how the force works. Instead, she’s been harboring and suppressing a dark secret that has been eating her up inside. Kylo uses this to manipulate her anger so he can have her join him to defeat Palpatine and rule together.
• Trimmed yet another gag about Hux being the spy. I think Disney heard the comments about how people wanted more Poe and Finn chemistry and shoved in silliness at every turn instead of thinking through what actually made their TFA relationship enjoyable. Sad that I can’t add anything, but at least I can remove some.
• Cut Finn asking Hux why he’s the traitor. Worst. Motivation. Ever. Turns Hux’s entire arc in the trilogy to that of nothing more than a petulant child.
• Redubbed the entire conversation on Kylo’s ship between him and Rey. He talks about her killing her parents, how Palpatine has been watching both of them since they were children, and begs her to join him to kill Palpatine together. [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] And with this change, our narrative has come full circle! We now have consistent motives for Kylo, Rey, and Palpatine in an intersecting thread that ties them all together. No more “Kill Rey- no wait bring her to me- no wait actually kill her” nonsense. It’s clear what each of them wants and they stick with it.
• Rey doesn’t tell Finn that Palpatine had her parents killed. She says “I killed my mother. And my father” and that she’s going to kill Palpatine. [krausfadr] Rey wants someone to channel her anger at, and she is putting the blame of her killing her parents onto Palpatine. It’s a poor coping mechanism as it leads her further into darkness.
  The moon containing the wreckage of the second Death Star has been recontextualized as Endor, replacing what was Endor with an ice moon during the space establishing shot and moving the Ewok snippet up from the film’s climax. [Visual FX by poppasketti and snooker] Basic Star Wars lore consistency for the win!
• Removed Rey using the dagger as an impossible compass while surveying the wreckage of the second Death Star. “Sith whispers” have been added strategically to imply the dagger mystically guiding her to the Wayfinder. [HAL] The logic of theatrical made my stomach churn.
• Removed the hissing teeth Rey. I can’t believe how that made it through a storyboard. In fact, I removed the entire battle between Rey and Dark Rey. Now, Dark Rey only says “Don’t be afraid of who you are,” and then lunges at Rey once and that’s what knocks her over. When I watched theatrical, I thought Kylo was a vision too for the longest time, there’s no way to tell what’s real at this point and then when I realized he wasn’t a vision I felt like I missed so much. I’d rather keep the focus on a real Kylo instead of a random, tensionless battle against this weird vision.
• Cut Maz’s prediction commentary about Leia’s upcoming actions. These scenes are much more powerful with the focus only being on Leia, Kylo, and Rey.
• Rescored “Gra’tua Cuun” soundtrack into the Death Star fight. This battle feels so empty… It really needed some “Oomph!” and this track nails it.
• The way the Kylo v Rey duel ends is one of the biggest changes of the film. As Kylo is about to strike Rey, he hears Han yell “Ben!” and turns around to look. Upon seeing a specter of his dead father, he drops his lightsaber which Rey uses to stab Kylo. Rey immediately realizes she did this act in pure anger and the regret is immediately apparent on her face. That’s what her sadness and tears are about, not sensing Leia’s death. After Rey leaves, Leia gives her life to heal Kylo through the force. Similar to what we see the Daughter of Mortis do to save Ahsoka in the Clone Wars, we now see Leia do this to Kylo. This power is an intense Light side ability and it costs the user their life. He gets up and throws his lightsaber without any more visions of Han. We see Kylo broken up inside, but there is no indication that he is suddenly a good guy. This major change gives a more fitting way for Leia to pass, makes Rey continue down her path to the Dark side, and reframes the reason Kylo chases after Rey. We then go back and forth between the Resistance learning of Leia’s death and Kylo contemplating what just happened.

ACT 3

• I have to point out that now when Palpatine says, “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan,” to Pryde, it has a 100% different meaning. In theatrical, it was about Kylo turning to the Light Side, now in my cut we realize that Palpatine’s plan was for Kylo to die all along and Leia saving him threw everything off. Palpatine was using Kylo as nothing more than a tool to bring Rey to him in a vulnerable state as she was the host he truly desired, not another failed Skywalker. You can see the disdain Palpatine/Snoke has had against Vader, Luke, and Skywalkers in general throughout this trilogy so it makes a ton of sense that Palpatine only manipulated Kylo with the intention of throwing him away for Rey in the end. Now THAT’S a Darth Sidious plan, baby!
• Cut the Kijimi planet destruction… Too… many… And every single Star Destroyer having a Death Star laser is absurdity to the highest degree.
• After Palpatine talks to Pryde, we go to a brief scene of Poe learning that the Final Order is imminent, and then he goes to Leia’s body for advice. Then we go to Ach-To, then back to Poe and Finn. Much better flow of events for character building and passage of time this way.
• Added scene of Kylo glaring out at the First Order Capital as he contemplates what his next actions should be. He doesn’t look like a good guy. [FX by Hyperspace-Cuts, soundtrack by SoundtrackMix]
• Added extra night establishing shot after Rey’s return to Ach-to to show more time passing. Regraded the scenes on Ach-to so they begin at dusk and continue into the night.[krausfadr]
• Luke doesn’t ask Rey, “wHaT aRe yOu dOiNg?" as his tone is way out of character for how I’ve built him.
• In Rey’s conversation with Luke, cut Luke’s mention of Rey being a Palpatine. Also cut Luke talking about how he was wrong to be on Ach-To for consistency with my previous edits.
• Removed Luke teaching Rey about the “destiny of a Jedi”, now the focus is all on her as an individual and “Your destiny”. Edited some more lines to make the focus of her going to Palpatine to be singularly about ending the war, not anything about the role of a True Jedi as my previous cuts have already established that the Jedi are all but finished.
• Leia’s lightsaber blade has been recolored to purple throughout. Carrie Fisher expressed a preference for this color of saber in a TFA-era interview, and it is more visually striking in the Exegol setting which helps the audience track which saber is which, particularly following a restored Leia line before Rey prominently uses her saber. [FX by skenera]
• I also need to mention that in my cut, Luke’s explanation of why Leia stopped training actually makes sense this time around. In theatrical it was because she had a vision that Kylo would die if she doesn’t stop training. So at the end of that movie… Kylo dies anyway? So why did she stop training? Her vision was wack? What? Well, now in my cut Kylo doesn’t die so this plot hole is erased, and enhances her character!
• Before Rey is finished on Ach-to, cut to the scene of Finn with the little cone face droid to show more time passing on Ach-to and to also show Rey sensing Finn.
• Added a sunrise establishing shot of Ach-to with Rey sleeping. Rey now is on Ach-to in the morning as Luke raises the X-Wing out of the water. Regraded the sky so it is blue instead of overcast as Luke raises the X-Wing. [krausfadr] Adding time passage in this movie does wonders to slow down how fast it felt in theatrical.
• Removed C-3PO getting his memory back. Too many fake-out deaths and it’s not unbearably sad for him to start over with his friends.
• Removed the line about the Holdo maneuver. It didn’t happen in my trilogy.
• Cut Finn getting “a feeling” about the transmission changing locations. That’s impossible, even with the force. He still figures it out, but we can assume it was a technical readout or a good strategic analysis rather than sensing radio waves.
• Removed some cringe from the Horse charge. Forced dialogue was forced.
• Removed all Palpatine talk about him being related to Rey. Now his focus is just on getting him to kill her so he can possess her. Consistency edits for my changes above.
• Replaced the Imperial TIE Kylo took to Exegol with an Imperial shuttle, because ANH had made a point to establish that TIEs don’t have hyperdrives, whereas shuttles have been depicted onscreen as using them. [FX by poppasketti]
• Added a Psalm of the Sith audio edit from [Hyperspace-Cuts] when Palpatine introduces his cultists. More epic.
• Cut Kylo saying “Ow,” when he jumps on the chain. Why make a joke here? Everything is sad, dark, and intense, so we make an “Owie that hurt” chuckle moment? No. No we do not.
• Just highlighting an earlier edit, now when Rey is preparing to hand Kylo the lightsaber we realize that she is overwhelmed that Kylo survived her mistake, and her face says it all. The moment is so much better.
• Moved the scene where the Rebel reinforcements arrive to after the Palpatine death. In theatrical, it is placed right after Kylo and Rey lose to Palpatine, so the joyous and hopeful tone comes out of nowhere and is so tonally inconsistent with the main drama going on. Moving it back to after the Rey v Palpatine conflict makes it seem like what is happening in the main conflict of the entire film reflects upon the battle, just like in RotJ!
• Alright, the main event… The Rey V Palpatine battle. This is the biggest change of the entire movie. Using incredible [FX/audio work from Force Ghost Live & jonh], the way all of this ends is almost completely unrecognizable compared to theatrical. With new voice lines, soundtracks, and new force ghosts, Rey is now truly the embodiment of the former Jedi so that the Jedi and Sith can destroy each other once and for all. And there’s only one person who was destined to deliver the killing blow… The Chosen One. The prophecy is preserved as Anakin’s force ghost possesses Rey’s body to kill Palpatine once and for all, and as both Jedi and Sith fade away… at least, there is balance.
• Added a cacophony of voices to the appearance of the civilian fleet to the battle. Several craft can be heard signing in via comm, and a few cheer “For Skywalker!” during the charge in order to tie into Luke’s Inspiring act at the Battle of Crait [credit to everyone HAL credits in his cut] This moment now occurs right after Palpatine dies. Poe turns the corner and surprise! A huge fleet of reinforcements! The new placement of this scene is amazing for the impact!
• Cut Poe saying “They’re toast!” That… is not a Star Wars phrase.
• When Rey dies, she doesn’t come back and Kylo lives. See OP for explanation.
• Adjusted all following scenes and lines about Rey being alive.
• After a trimmed Resistance celebration sequence, Kylo flies the Falcon to Tatooine [vfx by JXEdtior] and buries the sabers himself as Luke and Leia look on. He then leaves Tatooine and flies away as we transition into the “Broom Boy” sequence from TLJ, showing that the legend of Luke Skywalker will be told for eternity.

Thanks for your support and interest in the Star Wars Legends Sequel Trilogy! I will continue updating the films, but I am waiting on some other edits/VFX to be released to integrate in.

tomdocking01 said:

Could I please have a link, sounds really interesting

Sent. If you like it, make sure to check out my TLJ edit too!

Delpheas said:

I will, once I have v2 uploaded. Should be in the next day or so.

Awesome! Think it will be ready by tomorrow? My wife is watching Star Wars for the first time and we’re just finishing up TCW up to SoM, and all signs point to me using your edit as our next film!

Red lightning is certainly appropriate here. The hinted lore is that it’s the most version of lightning, and aside from looking much better visually for the shot, it would signify a Palpatine at his peak, especially considering how he used the lightning to such powerful effects.

I believe I’m going to begin work on my Episode 9 cut tomorrow so be on the lookout for a new thread. I would say the next film is still weeks-months away from having a released version, but I’m ready to begin the process.

After I release that workprint and see my whole trilogy I will go back through and release the final cuts.

I’d love to see the latest version when it’s done soon, thanks!

Could you send me a link to this? Jus about to finish my Clone Wars rewatch and would love to wrap it up with this!