Burbin

Restructured is Hal’s edit of TFA, with a few trims and a reordering of the story it offers a nice improvement over the theatrical cut while keeping the overall look and feel from the original. I recommend it if you like TFA and would just like to see a version that improves upon it.

Starlight is a TFA edit by user NeverarGreat, it has a few similarities with Restructured as Neverar helped Hal with some of the edits, but overall it’s a more radical version that has a lot more changes and additions. I recommend it if you’d like to see an alternate take on episode VII, though a few of the changes don’t align perfectly with Hal’s Ascendant.

Rekindled is a TLJ edit by user Poppasketti, it is very similar to Hal’s Legendary edit as it originated from it, Poppasketti did a lot of work that’s included in both edits as they were developed side by side. I think Legendary aligns slightly better with Hal’s Restructured and Ascendant, though from what I gather Rekindled seems to be a favourite among many users.

But it’s up to you which version of TFA & TLJ you prefer, there’s no “definitive” answer. I personally prefer Hal’s edits as a more cohesive experience, but Starlight & Rekindled are really good alternatives.

Docking Bay 54 said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for any fan edit of TFA and TLJ that compliment this edit visually, canonically and pacing wise??

I recommend Hal’s own TFA:Restructured & TLJ:Legendary for the most coherent/consistent ST experience.

I’d like to be wrong but it seems rather obvious Grogu will choose the vest-kar and be reunited with Din. It’s pretty clear that’s what they’re setting up, otherwise this would all be redundant of the Season 2 ending where Grogu already chose to go with Luke and Din already accepted to let him go.

The only other option would be for Grogu to somehow not make the choice at all and instead become both foundling and padawan, which might have been set up by the Armorer telling the story of Tarre Vizsla, who was both Mandalorian and Jedi Knight. I don’t know how they could make that work in a show format, but it’d certainly be more interesting, and it’d avoid undoing Season 2 entirely. Though either way I think by next week Grogu will reunite with Din.

I really hate how they’re immediately undoing the ending of Mando Season 2. I was hoping we would get one season or at least part of a season where Din is on his own, dealing with all he’s learned and how he’s changed, as well as focusing on Mandalorian culture. Instead we only got one episode of that and in a series that isn’t even his.

I guess Grogu’s just too popular for it’s own good, though they easly could’ve had him pop up on his own in Ahsoka or whichever other series. The Din and Grogu reunion could’ve been really memorable if they gave it some time, but it seems they’re desperate to get back to the winning formula to the point they ripped two pages off of Boba’s Book just so we start Mando Season 3 with the duo back together.

Yeah a few people have already implemented it, personally I don’t mind the original Luke as much as the ugly CGI on Rogue One, and Shamook’s deepfake was limited as it was just overlaying on another deepfake. Thankfully now we get to see what it looks like on full quality in TBoBF Chapter 6.

Having implemented Shamook’s work into Rogue One it’s really awesome to see it done officially in a real Star Wars production. Plus the fact he came by and shared his work on this thread is even cooler now.

You could say the same of Bespin, seems like just the one city surrounded by endless clouds. Same for Hoth & Endor, they’re all very basic. Yeah Tatooine is a bit more fleshed out, but likewise Jakku seems pretty alive, the masive wreckages tell the story of a battle long past, we get a day in the life of a scavenger that shows the regular routine on Niima Outpost (which looks pretty alive and busy), and there’s also talk of Sinking Fields, Kelvin Ridge & the Goazon Badlands.

The one thing Jakku doesn’t have much is wildlife, which I feel is intentional in making the planet feel desolate, but still we see that red-eyed “Kojima” alien, that pecking vulture creature (a literal “scavenger”), and the giant pig drinking the water, though that one seems more domestic.

Saying Jakku is only a junkyard and a village is like saying Tatooine in ANH is only a Moisture Farm and a Spaceport. And as you said Ahch-to is like the inverse of Jakku, teeming with all sorts of wildlife, including those cool skeletons that made Tatooine feel so alive.

The Sequel Trilogy is full of these same type of random nods to events and places though, off the top of my head I can think of the Trillia Massacre, the Battle of Chyron Belt, the Pits of Griq, etc. As well as all of the techno jargon such as ingnition line compressor, thermal oscillator, dedicated power breaker, complete redactive memory bypass, etc. On this aspect I think the ST is on point with the living universe vibe of the OT & PT.

To be clear I’m not saying that this change would make no sense, just that it would be worse than what’s there originally. That whole situation with Luke and Ben is meant to be complex and morally gray, immediately making Ben a mass murderer kinda undermines that. Again, I feel this is why Rian went out of his way to say he didn’t kill everyone, despite being on the scene where Luke tells the story of how one boy, an apprentice, turned against him and destroyed it all.

Yeah, Luke sensed darkness beyond what he had ever imagined, doesn’t mean “he was already Kylo Ren inside”. He would bring destruction, and pain, and death, and the end of everything I love because of what he would become, not what he already was.

That’s okay, it was just a thought since there’s been some talk about the opening text being too long, a single-text opening could’ve been useful to those episodes that don’t really need much setup. I’ve refrained on offering specific critiques on the texts because I don’t fancy myself a good writer, so I can’t be as “constructive” as I wish by perhaps offering possible alternatives.

What are your thoughts on introducing the “scum and villany” on the opening text for A Strike at the Heart? To me that feels like a more natural place to do it, it introduces scummy bounty hunters wrecking havoc on the Republic capital, messing with both the senate and the Jedi. While the episode that follows this duology, Seven Warriors, subverts our expectations by showing honorable bounty hunters while introducing the scummy pirates.

As for some other thoughts on the text in ASatH, I don’t feel like you need to say Bane’s been hired by a Sith Lord, since that’s immediately revealed by Bane in a way that has more intrigue, likewise I find the text about Ahsoka being assigned to the library by Yoda odd, as we don’t really need an explanation as to why she’s hanging out in the library, you could simply state that Ahsoka continues her guard duties at the Jedi Temple or something simple like that just to remind the audience.

EddieDean said:

I will check over it. But if the characters are dependent on knowing Bane escaped and I can’t find an alternative, it’ll have to stay.

I don’t think there needs to be anything to add to it, Anakin says “I can’t let Bane get away!”, that’s enough to tell the audience “okay, if he doesn’t chase him down, he’ll get away!”

Hal 9000 said:

Which is worse, slaughtering eight people and leading three to join Hitler’s SS or slaughtering eleven people?

I think slaughtering everyone is markedly worse - rather that a fight breaking out in the midst of the confusion, right after Luke’s percieved betrayal of Ben, and him and the surviving students seeking the refuge of Snoke after the chaos, Luke’s percieved “betrayal” would be followed by Ben viciously taking revenge by single-handedly murdering everyone, that takes out any potential “gray” on Ben’s actions and the situation as a whole. In the other option Ben would not have killed everyone himself in a fit of rage, but rather taken a stance along those that sided in his favour after Luke “betrayed” him.

–

As for Rey & Poe meeting, I can see the thought behind it. And yeah, they could’ve met at the end of TFA… but they didn’t. What I mean is there was no scene in which they met in TFA, apart for standing next to each other for a second. That seems like something that should’ve been shown, if it happened, but by the end they come apart without such a scene. So the conclusion is that they didn’t meet, not formally. They might’ve catched a glimpse of each other (which is why Poe answers he knows who Rey is) but that was it. And of course they’re apart throughout all of TLJ, so it feels fitting to remind the audience that despite having followed these two characters for two whole movies, they havent really had a chance to hang out with each other until now.

Also this might be reading too much into it, but to me this scene sort of feels like a bookend to Rey’s adventure and struggle in the film - she believes she’s no one, Kylo tells her she has no place, but then when she’s finally reunited with the Resistance the first thing she hears is “I know [who you are]”. And it pairs up so well with the reinstated deleted Poe/Finn scenes: “It’s fine, you’re alright, you’re here, with us, where you belong”.

EddieDean said:

That’s an interesting idea about trimming Bane’s short-lived infiltration. On the one hand it’s quite ballsy, which could add to Bane’s competence. But on the other, as you say, it’s a little absurd and redundant. Removing it would make the tradeoff that Anakin makes more impactful, which is the key emotional point of the episode.

I think rather than making Bane seem competent, it makes everyone else seem incompetent. Bane just kicks Ahsoka in the gut and makes a B line for the nearest cockpit and somehow he’s able to escape.

On a separate note, I feel like this duology would be the perfect place to introduce the concept of the scum and villany rising in the galaxy. I mean, we get a bunch of scummy bounty hunters taking hostages and kidnaping kids. It works as a precursor of things to come in Season 2.

This is a bit of a general thought but, have you considered doing an “alternate” version of the opening that only has one wall of text instead of two? There’s some episodes where having two feels justified to lay the groundwork, but for others it feels more like you’re using the text to fill the space, rather than using the space to fit the text. Sometimes they include bits that are already stated clearly in the episode itself, or they explain things that don’t feel like they need such thorough explaining. It can end up feeling more like you’re explaining the thought process behind the edits you made to the episode, rather that a natural introduction to what we’re about to see.

Yeah I don’t like the idea that a “frightened boy” proceeded to slaughter all of the other, innocent, students. Specially if he believed he attacked Luke in self defense. I’m sure that’s why Rian implied there was more to that story, even though we only hear Luke’s side of it. Hal trimmed the scenes of Anakin killing younglings precisely to avoid such a drastic turn and here he’d be doing the opposite. I always pictured something like the Craster’s Keep mutiny from GoT, where right after Jeor Mormont dies everyone has to pick a side and those who refuse to mutiny are killed by the mutineers.

And well, a lot of people assumed they were the KoR based on Luke’s words alone, simply because they follow Ren as their Leader, yeah they don’t use lightsabers and don’t show mastery of the Force, but they were just students and we don’t know for how long they trained. Ben had the “raw strenght” and the drive to be like his grandfather, which would be why he’d be picked as the Leader, while the rest aren’t really trying to be Sith. All headcannon, of course, and you can still take the “canon” answer if you prefer. Either way I think that line has a lot of value.

Well it’s not like TRoS bothered to contradict that. Didn’t build up on it either, but it’s easy to headcannon that as the backstory for the KoR if somebody wants to. Better than nothing, I guess (which is what we got in TRoS).

Personally I haven’t checked the ancillary material, but I like the idea this line conveyed - that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows with Luke’s would-be Jedi students besides Ben, to the point that some would take Ben’s side in the ensuing mess and confusion. Whether they became the KoR or not, it makes sense that Ben might have convinced some students of his side of the story, or maybe there was already some division before that fateful night and that was just the turning point. Either way I think it’s great and gives it a lot of nuance in very few words, the alternative of “Everything was perfect 'til Ben single-handedly destroyed it” is a lot less interesting.

I also watched the Cad Bane duology, and had a few thoughts on it. For the first episode, I agree with vranir that it’d be better to cut Bane recognizing Anakin, it comes out of nowhere and feels out of place for what it’s meant to be a new antagonist, and nothing he does or says after for the rest of the episodes indicates that there’s any history between them.

Another small odd bit is Obi-wan’s line at the end “If this Cad Bane is still here on Coruscant, I’ll find him”, since that doesn’t go anywhere. I get that you can’t just cut the line since it’s a continuous shot, but maybe you could alter it so he says “we’ll find him”, as that makes it more of a general statement.

For the second episode, I wonder if you could just cut out the bit where Bane boards the shuttle dressed like a trooper entirely, that whole scenario feels very absurd to me, and it also feels totally redundant. Anakin already lets Bane escape with the holocron after some persuation from Ahsoka, while they supposedly have to chose between chasing Bane or getting to the hangar, but then the very next scene Bane’s randomly shot and killed by a trooper at the hangar. Who’s even gonna believe for a second Bane would get unceremoniously killed off by a random trooper after outsmarting Anakin and Ahsoka? Then you have that whole deal where Bane apparently had time to switch clothes and stage his own death all while the ship’s moments away from blowing up, and at the end the result of that whole switcheroo is that Bane escapes with the holocron anyway. In the originals it was used as a way to separate the two episodes, but here it’s just unnecessary. There’s also the fact the next time we see Bane he’s back to his old clothes, how many pairs of the same hat and clothes does he have? I always thought that was silly.

I think you could simply have have Anakin and Ahsoka make the choice to let Bane go, then they get to the hangar and escape, the separatist ship blows up, cut to the Jedi Temple where they discuss how it’s unfortunate Bane escaped.

I’m glad you liked my suggestion! I played around with it for a bit to find the best placement for the lines, it was really cool when I saw Savage’s movement and line worked so naturally as a reaction to hearing Talzin’s voice, that’s when I felt it “clicked”. I like how the scene is basically framed as Talzin leaving Ventress to go help Savage, it feels like a clean continuation instead of randomly cutting to something unrelated.

All that stuff about Talzin is really interesting, I haven’t seen (or heard?) Son of Dathomir, so I didn’t know about it, it’s a neat parallel to Palpatine’s final fate, tough even the way Talzin retreats and vanishes in this episode feels similar to the way Palpatine’s survival in RotJ is described.

EddieDean said:

One thing I’m still curious about is the addition of the coda with Savage searching the galaxy. Does it work? Does it feel out of place? I wouldn’t add it back to the start of the Monsters episode (where Maul is rediscovered), so I think it belongs here if at all.

Serialized shows tend to end their episodes in a “hook” that makes you want to watch the next episode, I think this works really well in that regard as a stinger/tease of where this story will go next, Ventress mentions Savage at the begining so it fits to show him by the end. Children of Night ended with a Maul tease so it’s nice to aknowledge that thread and tease what’s to come.

The only thing that doesn’t feel right to me is that by the end of the Massacre™ Ventress sees Mother Talzin dissapear into an ethereal green cloud. That feels like a nice conclusion that leaves her fate ambiguous… but then the bit with Savage at the end ruins it by showing her again, hanging out somewhere. I think it’d be better to remove that and mantain Talzin’s fate ambiguous until she properly returns and heals Maul. Just cutting her out of that scene would be pretty straightforward, but you might want to mantain her dialogue to catch the audience up to speed on what Savage is up to, so I had an idea:

https://vimeo.com/668106691

Now instead of seeing her again, we only hear her voice guide Savage. So it’s still ambiguous to what capacity she’s still around. Then perhaps it can be infered that she was left weakened after the battle, which is why she vanished, and it’s not until the return of Maul that we see her retake her corporeal form.

I was finally able to catch up on some more episodes. The new version of Ryloth with Liberty works a lot better in a way that really elevates the episode. The Death Watch and Children of Night were solid aswell.

I skipped a few episodes to check out the new version of Massacre that includes Lair of Grevious, overall I think it’s an ingenious idea and it fits really well, LoG is a pretty fun little episode and it’s cool you were able to find a pairing that can elevate both episodes, similarly to your Ryloth cut.

However, the one thing that didn’t really work for me was the way you sprinkled some dialogue from Massacre into LoG, namely both of Grevious’ calls with Dooku. Firstly, I get the idea of trying to more explicitly tie Ventress to the attack on Grevious’ Lair, but it really doesn’t come off that way. The lines from Massacre don’t really gel with the originals, so it ends up feeling like two different conversations happening at the same time. Secondly, I feel that interjecting talk about Ventress and the witches takes away all importance from the immediate plot about Grevious having to fend off against Fisto & company, it makes that confrontation drag as it feels like something we just have to get over with so the real plot of the episode can begin.

In my opinion it would work a lot better if first we focused on Grevious fighting off the intruders on his lair, juxtaposed with Ventress recieving a warm welcome home and celebrating with the night sisters. And then after Grevious has successfully defeated his assailants, he’s contacted by Dooku and comanded to take vengeance against Ventress (now Grevious becomes the assailant!). I would say to remove the first conversation with Dooku entirely, cutting instead from Ventress’ baptism to Grevious fully repaired ready to fight the Jedi again. This makes Grevious feel more isolated as he deals with the surprise intruders on his own, instead of getting a random call from Dooku that aknowledges the intruders but doesn’t make any further remarks or offer any help. Then once he kills Nahdar and the clones and forces Fisto to flee, he is contacted by Dooku simply to command him to attack the witches on Dathomir.

Here’s a rough mockup I did of how it could play out:
https://vimeo.com/667454669

I think Dooku’s expressions and mouth movements sinc up well enough to pass off. I also like that it would remove the bit where Grevious has to coyly tell Dooku that Fisto escaped, framing it as a failure. I’d say he did pretty good for a surprise attack, specially now that it was not a “test” set up by Dooku, I think it’s better to just remove all of that dialogue. This also falls in line of your goal of making Grievous appear more menacing in TCW:R, this is one of the few episodes where we actually see him hunting down Jedi and that bit of dialogue kinda undermines it.

So now on the official ‘canon’ version of ANH, the tuskens are startled and run away believing a giant hovering train is about to barge out of the canyons.

I love Palpy’s “oh sh*t” reaction when the four ghosts show up, it actually feels justified that he would stop blasting the fleet to confront Rey. It harkens back to Ben Kenobi’s line about becoming “more powerful than you could possibly imagine”, which we never really get to see in the OT.

It’s clear that the force ghosts have a higher power than what the Sith could ever hope to achieve through the dark side, and it’s so cool to finally see them step in to put a decisive end to the conflict. And even though we don’t see Qui-gon, he basically opened the path that lead to this decisive end, bringing everything full circle. It’s crazy that none of this is in the original movie and only through fanediting magic did we get a proper end to the Saga.

I don’t think you can cut back to Kylo & co, because that shot of him is from after he gets blasted by Chewbacca (and it would get reused later when he looks up at Finn). Also cutting back to them in the middle of the firing sequence might make it feel like Chewie takes too long to shoot at Kylo.

In Starlight Chewie immediatley shoots Kylo and blows everything up before the Starkiller fires, removing all the following action where everyone starts blasting, and where Kylo looks up at Finn. I prefer it the way it is in Restructured, but I think it only works if we don’t cut back to them until after the whole shebang. Then it can be implied by the audience that everything happens soon after Han’s death despite taking a break from that scene.

Only that ridiculous part where a Rathtar swings Finn around trying to get through his plot armor after engulfing several gang members whole in seconds.

Personally I think the dice scene feels a bit too edited, like, it’s so different from the rest of the movie. It’s amazing what Nev was able to cobble together, and it fits great in Starlight where there are other major changes, but I wonder if it would feel too out of place here.

Also, I don’t mind the dice only being a thing in TLJ. They’re replaced by Han’s medal by episode IX anyway so there’s no real throughline to keep there. If anything having them in both VII and VIII would just make them feel absent from IX.

Well, technically it’s already altered since on the theatrical they had that ADR line about getting a “clean ship” as the reason for visiting Maz. So what I’m saying is there’s no need to alter it any further.