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DarthYcey

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Join date
15-May-2020
Last activity
30-Sep-2024
Posts
57
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3REt2vgkV38ORDDpb5dRoA

Post History

Post
#1512910
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

arabian said:

This really did all sound really good, but I’m sorry, you lost me by cutting Arya and Gendry’s love scene. I just don’t know why you did that. I don’t know why. I literally am not interested in this now. And that bums me out because this really did sound awesome. Oh well.

I think that’s a very petty reason not to watch the series, but hey, if that’s a deal breaker for ya, it’s your loss. The reason I cut it was simple – it was a forced, unearned fling…and a little creepy since Arya knew Gendry as a young kid and he’s a good bit older than her, in the show and in real life. They had one short trip together on the king’s road when they were young, but the writers are like, “sure, they know each other well enough…let’s have them hook up because they’re of age now and attractive”. They did try to create a little flirty tension when they reunited after so long, but it just felt like a forced story choice to me, even with humanity potentially on the line from the approaching dead army. Anyway, I hope you reconsider but if not, you can always watch Arya and Gendry go at it as much as you want in D&D’s original crap finale to the series. Cheers!

Post
#1493959
Topic
KENOBI: A STAR WARS STORY [The Radical "Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi" Cut]
Time

Docking Bay 54 said:

vranir said:

I see some guy getting publicity for his Kenobi edit, which he posted about on TikTok. I know that fan editors are wise to generally keep their work less public, but it made me feel a bit indignant for you and the other two or three people in this forum who have done the same project, likely as well or better than the one getting credit for it.

I have it and watched it. He did an exceptional, even, marvelous job, imho. The “obi wan movie” that was tucked inside of the series, he managed to very deftly stitch together - considering what appears to have been the intentions of the original creators. He was masterful with Reva’s portrayal. Soundtrack edit choices were highly respectable. He adhered to the “3-act formatting” of contemporary film making. Very theatrical cut of the source material. For the time being, this version is my go-to canon visual of the story, bar none.

4.5 out of 5 stars / 9.7 out of 10

Once I saw Anjohan had been working on a V.2, I decided to hold off on watching his first cut, so I sat through the edit of this tiktok’r. I agree with several others I’ve talked to (on this site and IRL) that this edit was just not very good. It pains me actually to see how much recognition he’s getting for it when there are far better edits out there. Reading your assessment feels like we were watching an entirely different movie. The music choices were awkward at times (using Cloud City for Alderaan and the Coruscant speeder chase for the Daiyu rooftop chase, to name a few), the music fades were very rough much of the time, and overall the film just zipped along way too quickly. Lost were several interesting convos and establishing scenes that gave context to what came next. It reminded me of Rise of Skywalker where things just jumped from one thing to the next without a chance to catch your breath. When you cut too much stuff while also trying to cram in the story from 6 episodes (yes, Nur is jammed in there too in 17 minutes), you get a rushed and disjointed product that has things ‘just happening’. I can easily see new viewers who hadn’t watch the series’ original episodes get lost at times because of how this thing was edited together.

Aside from the music choices and poor audio fades, other things just didn’t fit well. Recycling Qui-Gon lines from TPM to use under the rock pile didn’t hit for me, and then it’s even more awkward at the end when Obi-Wan still acts surprised at Qui-Gon like it’s the first time he’s heard from him in decades. Then you have lots of ‘cutty’ stuff like going from inquisitors talking to Obi-Wan just running up to Freck’s transport. Or no intro to Roken, just him planning a rescue already on Jabiim. One of the worst sequences was Tala tending to a burned Obi-Wan, to Reva finding Leia, to Obi-Wan descending into the bacta tank, to then Reva already on Nur interrogating Leia. These are all back-to-back and super awkward with everyone just teleporting around between scenes. Also, we see Vader on his ship, then Obi-Wan talking to Leia, to suddenly Obi-Wan sitting by himself, to Leia yelling at him for leaving. The organization of these scenes are edited very poorly.

So yeah, you can fit all 6 episodes into a movie and make cuts along the way to do so, but this fan editor’s product is the result of those choices, and it’s not good. It was so rough that it made me go ahead and watch Anjohan’s V.1 because I needed a palette cleanser – I was pleased then to see how much better his version was. I feel like a successful edit needed to blend OG music with the music from the series. Anjohan did that, but what I heard from the tiktok’r just made me think of the original movies. Seriously, the Coruscant speeder chase music was a really bad choice for the rooftop chase, it just doesn’t work. Same for using Bespin as Alderaan. I also didn’t care for all the ESB music at the very beginning.

Anyway…I’ve said enough about the subpar version, let’s talk more about the better version. I really liked Anjohan’s re-scoring for much of the film. I missed getting more Imperial March for Vader’s entrances, and then the sadder piano version in the final convo after their duel didn’t really work for me, although it wasn’t bad (just not my cup of tea, but it’s his version). Otherwise, the music choices were very inspired. I particularly liked the changes during the Jabiim action scenes inside the base and then with Vader pulling a Starkiller and later with Vader vs Reva. The Mapuzo changes with Vader/Obi-Wan were also good.

Leia’s toned down intro and faster capture are a must for an edit, IMO, so I’m glad to see that you did that (and well). I also liked the idea of speeding things up on Daiyu with the bounty hunters but I felt it could have used a better establishing event than just Leia running and climbing the ladder to the roof. Maybe have the bounty hunter come around the corner, Obi-Wan punches him, then Leia takes off running from that because she’s scared. It gives a beginning then to her running and Obi-Wan chasing after her and calling out to her. Then, you can show her running in the market area where Obi-Wan shoots one of the bounty hunters and clotheslines another. This would better establish why they are fleeing since the bounty hunters are on their scent now.

Although losing the Nur episode was probably the best choice to get this to a respectable runtime, I did appreciate the creativity in using Nur for the first rescue. The series writing is really repetitive with two captures/rescues, so it made sense to lose one. But Anjohan was able to use them both in a way that worked well enough. Showing events in a creative way that doesn’t hurt the story is always going to be preferred over zipping along and jamming all of the existing story elements together with poor editing. I’ll take this 10/10 over the rushed tiktok’r version.

I don’t want to repeat anymore of what others have said, so I’ll end things here. Overall, great job, Anjohan! Looking forward to checking out your V.2 after it’s done processing.

Post
#1418503
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

EddieDean said:

I enjoyed almightycutie’s but this sounds more refined and a bit more satisfying at the end, so I’d be very interested to have a link please.

A couple of thoughts:

  • In almightycutie’s, there was a scene which really stood out to me as an issue, where two scenes of Jamie and Cersei talking together (one from season six and one from season seven) were merged into one single scene, which ultimately led to them ‘breaking up’. The dialogue and the narrative was fine, but I think they both completely changed outfits in the middle of the scene. Just wondering if you preserved that collision of scenes? Or if you feel you’ve been forced to do anything like that where you’ve had to accept a continuity error for the sake of broader clarity?
  • Regarding Varys, I’m glad you left him alive, because he didn’t deserve to die the way he did in the original. He doesn’t have a conclusion, but at least he doesn’t have a bad conclusion. However, you mentioned that you leave the matter of who rules the South fairly ambiguous, and maybe you can kill two birds with one stone, by including a couple of shots of Varys overlooking the (burned) throne then smiling slyly - perhaps during the ending montage - just to imply this situation has somehow played into his hands and that he sees an opportunity to continue his agenda. I’m not suggesting sitting him on the throne or anything, so much as being involved in what comes next.

Yeah, I did things differently there with Jaime/Cersei. Narratively, I thought what almightycutie did worked, but I wanted to expand things a bit more in my version. Maintaining clothing continuity was just a bonus from the expanded episode (which I believe occurs in Episode 5 for this particular story arc).

As for Varys, there was a deleted scene with him talking to one of his little birds (presumably from when they returned to King’s Landing for the dragon pit meeting). I toyed around with adding Varys in a post-credits scene in the final episode to give the illusion that he was up to something, but I just couldn’t make the dialogue work. I wasn’t satisfied with him just being around KL without a good way to sell that he was gonna be scheming for control, so I ultimately just left him at Winterfell. I did leave open the possibility of doing something more in the future with his ending if I could come up with something satisfying, but I’m not there yet.

Working on finishing my season edit really burned me out with GoT so I haven’t taken a look at revising it anymore. However, I have been reading the feedback from you and others as it’s come in and have been making notes for the eventuality of me returning to the season to polish it some more.

-P.S.- I’ve also been sending the link for those PM requests in the thread as they’ve been coming in, but just making a point now to say so. I’ll be sending you the link as soon as I finish typing this. 😃

Post
#1409522
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

Thanks for watching. As you alluded to, the intent was not to capture a wight, but just to kill the Night King before his army reaches the wall. That’s why there’s no mention of the plot. I wasn’t able to remove the Hound carrying it in every shot, so maybe one could just pretend it’s Thoros 😃 I also didn’t want to capture the wight with no payoff since Cersei dies the episode prior (and there being no dragonpit meeting to convince her). Admittedly though, I wish I had more to work with to set up the plan, but I tried to do it without adding any new voice overs or major plot changes. That’s probably the weakest part of my whole 10-episode edit, but I’m always open to improving it if I can come up with something better (or someone presents me with something different that would work). Also, I’m not entirely opposed to Benjen, I’m just not a fan of ex machina solutions in cinema so it felt right to cut that part out. That’s why I didn’t show the closeup of Jon on a horse or leave the line about a rider approaching – you only see a figure moving from a distance, so the assumption is that it’s Jon walking. Anyway, just thought I’d answer your comments since you took the time to give some feedback. Glad to hear you enjoyed the edit though overall!

-P.S.- I’m not sure why you’re getting that weird video screenshot. I just pulled up the source video and don’t see it. I even popped the rendered clip back in my editor and looked frame by frame and can’t duplicate it. Are you sure this is occurring around the 13:58 time code in E9 - The Night Is Dark? Wonder if it could just be a weird glitch from the download or something.

Post
#1405944
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

Cool, glad you liked it. As you realize, it’s very hard to fix everything through editing only. The show did the stupid ‘capture the wight’ plot, almightycutie added some new voice overs for Bran to “guide” Jon, I tried to do something in the middle with just editing, but obviously it’s not perfect. And I actually went back and forth about whether to keep Gendry killing those gold cloaks but that episode was already running longer than I wanted it to be, so I decided to cut it. I may add it back in for a future version, but we’ll see. Anyway, thanks for watching and for the feedback.

Valar Dohaeris.

Post
#1405344
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

Hey CMMAP, thanks for watching…appreciate the feedback and I’m not taking anything you said personal. We all realize we’re limited in being able to fix the sh!t show that was the final two seasons. Not to address each of your points, but you may feel differently with some more context. With Jaime particularly, we don’t see him make that promise but it’s easy to assume he did since he’s standing with Cersei as she’s telling Dany and Tyrion her army will help. Then he’s planning with his men before Cersei reveals she was lying. Jaime believes his brother and just wants to fulfill what Cersei promised to Dany. Having the full pit convo was no longer possible since Jon, Jorah, the Hound, and Davos were all up north still. And I had no plans of showing a wight to Cersei anyway since I thought that plot line was stupid.

And speaking of Cersei and the dead, I think the point here is that she wants to take advantage of the situation, harking back to her earlier words to Jaime about being clever and fighting Dany like her father would have. Whether or not she actually believes in the dead army depends on how you interpret Tyrion’s words and whether that’s enough to persuade her to fight for her unborn child. It could be a consideration in the moment, but I thought it was pretty clear that Cersei had no plans to send her army north, so she was just misdirecting Dany and her forces. Her real plan was to catch Dany off-guard and attack them returning to Dragonstone. Dany only brought Drogon with her to King’s Landing, so Euron’s sneak attack is meant to not just take out the ships but the dragons too. This also helps explain more why she didn’t just attack them at the gate meeting with arrows. All of this could have been set up better with additional dialogue if doing these scenes from scratch, but I thought it still worked, given what little I had to work with.

And yes, there’s not much that can be done with the dragons unless I was a CGI expert and had the resources to add more GoT-like dragons to scenes. This just requires a little suspension of disbelief/imagination here. 😃 Although, not seeing the other dragons in Ep 6 was intentional on my part. Yes, only Drogon was still alive in the show version of The Bells, but I think it was smart that Dany only brought Drogon to King’s Landing for the big battle. If her goal was to destroy the city, having all three dragons would have been perfect for turning it to ash. But Dany just wanted to free its people from a tyrant, so going herself with Drogon to pinpoint attack the ballistas and the gate would be more effective and less risk to the other dragons who would be haphazardly burning stuff. I would have preferred to show all three dragons during Euron’s sneak attack, but it is what it is. The dragons that were present from Ep 7 and forward though were accurate in my version, and aside from one being missing during Euron’s attack in Ep 5, having only Drogon in Ep 6 was intended (as Varys even mentions in the pre-battle talk at Dragonstone).

I can see what you mean about Dany at the beginning of Ep 6, but I needed a way to show her in a defeated state. Obviously, Missandei and Rhaegal are still around now so there’s less reason for her to be disheveled. But she DID just lose yet again in another attack (including several ships), plus was betrayed by Cersei who just went back on her word. I used that scene more to convey her state of mind and that she was done playing nice (instead of her mourning). She wasn’t planning on taking King’s Landing by force with dragon fire, but that’s off the table now because of Cersei’s actions. To me, this scene helped to show Tyrion’s failure to predict his sister and the realization setting in for him that he wouldn’t be able to stop Dany from using Drogon now that every other idea he’s had has failed.

Oh, and totally disagree about Dany in the final shots, but you’re entitled to your opinion. 😃

Again, I appreciate the feedback. I honestly believe part of these issues would be solved by “deprogramming” our brains to knowing what happens in the show. Because we have the source material as reference, we’re always going to expect certain things at certain times, and our brains are reacting to something it normally wouldn’t if seeing it for the first time. That’s why I said it helps to suspend disbelief in certain areas and use imagination instead, knowing it’s an imperfect situation we as editors have to work in to make a passable story. Thanks again for watching!

Post
#1403228
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

Yeah, unless you go with Bran is King and the rest of that insufferable ending, there’s not much that can be done from an editing perspective to wrap things up in the south. Plus, I killed off 2-3 of the ppl present, so it wouldn’t have worked in my edit anyway. To me, leaving it open-ended is an improvement over being force-fed nonsense. There are all sorts of possibilities for what happens in King’s Landing next, one just needs to use their imagination instead of being shown it in this edit. My main goal was to wrap up the arcs of our main characters so that we had satisfying and realistic endings for them. Cersei and the Iron Throne are gone so I think it’s less important what’s happening now in the south. Maybe the power now shifts to Sansa in the north, since she’s “queen”.

And yes, since Jaime doesn’t flee Winterfell, I had to cut that convo, along with the one where Bronn intimidates them with a crossbow. The only spot it could have maybe been salvaged would have been him getting captured on his way to Winterfell, but that ruins the reveal of his arrival there and getting immediately questioned by Dany. Parts of the dialogue are also about Cersei and how to escape King’s Landing, so it really doesn’t fit in this edit since the King’s Landing plotline had already been concluded and Jaime doesn’t leave Winterfell anyway to trash his redemption arc. That scene was one that just had to be cut. But otherwise, Jaime and Tyrion do have other chats, so I don’t think I short-changed their interactions by losing that one scene. I’ll PM you a link so you can judge for yourself.

Post
#1402615
Topic
Game of Thrones: Restored, Restructured, Rewatchable (Released)
Time

Welcome to my Game of Thrones thread for Seasons 7 and 8. I normally just edit Star Wars, but GoT was my favorite TV show, and like many others, I hated how the final seasons ruined an otherwise great show. To try to fix things, I started this fan edit back in 2019 shortly after the show ended, but it’s seen several stops and starts over the past year and a half as I had trouble figuring out how to solve some of the main character arcs because of travel distances and characters being in places at the proper times.

After recently watching the excellent fan edit by almightycutie, this issue can be solved by simply restructuring the episodes so that all of King’s Landing happens early on, then the Battle for Winterfell to close out the show. almightycutie and I both had a similar approach in fixing the series, with mine personally addressing most of the negative critiques on YouTube and Reddit that fans (including myself) overwhelmingly agreed on. Enough preamble though – I just wanted to start by saying that almightycutie’s edit reinvigorated me to finish my own edit of the series’ final episodes, so a special thanks goes out there. Now that the edit is finished, I figured it was time to create a thread for it to give this community a chance to also view my work. As for the details…

I’ve taken the final (13) episodes of the series and have condensed them into one final 10-episode season. Although I set out to improve character arcs, I also tried my best not to lose too many scenes and unnecessarily shorten the show. Stupid plot points and scenes are now gone, but others I’ve restructured/repurposed to make for a better telling of the story. Each of the (10) episodes falls between 48 min and 73 min, which holds true to what a standard GoT season and episode length would look like. I didn’t want to unnecessarily change anything that didn’t need changed, so some of the earlier episodes are pretty similar to what we got on the first viewing, with some minor changes.

Many SPOILERS to follow for episode details, so if you don’t want to know what happens in my series, just PM me for the link now! Please post any reviews in this thread. Ok, on to the spoilers…

S7E101 – A King’s Justice – 52 min, 26 sec
The former ‘Dragonstone’ episode is mostly intact, but like almightycutie, I also had flipped the Dragonstone arrival and Frey’s death to introduce some of the Dragonstone scenes into the first episode and move some of Arya’s screen time into episode 2. The swap just made the most sense for an opening and ender, as one is an arrival and the other is a bad ass exit. My edit does keep Varys questioning whether Dany is right as ruler, so he does his monologue still at Dany, but she doesn’t threaten to burn him. The deleted scene of Dany/Tyrion’s hallway chat en route to Melisandre was restored, as well as the deleted scene of Gilly giving more backstory about the White Walkers.

S7E102 – The Scorpion and the Kraken – 1 hr, 2 min, 47 sec
The former ‘Stormborn’ episode also didn’t have a lot of changes. In addition to Arya’s scenes, Cersei’s and Euron’s introduction in the season was moved to this episode so there was immediate payoff at the end when Euron attacks Yara and the Sands. There were also a few minor cuts from Cersei’s dialogue since Tyrion and Dany had already arrived at Dragonstone in the prior episode.

S7E103 – Queen of Thorns – 1 hr, 1 min, 54 sec
Another episode with minimal changes, just some minor scene reordering with Sansa/Bran and breaking up some of the Cersei scenes. The new ‘The Queen’s Justice’ still ends with Olanna taking the poison.

S7E104 – Bend the Knee – 59 min, 44 sec
The new ‘The Spoils of War’ is where things start to change a little bit more. The first half of the episode is mostly the same, but I’ve begun the Littlefinger plot earlier than in the show. Now, after Arya duels Brienne and looks up to see Littlefinger watching her, the next scene is her following him and finding the scroll Sansa wrote (with Littlefinger spying on her). The rest of the episode plays out similar to the show, but instead of ending with Jaime and Bronn sinking, it cuts to Tyrion surveying the battlefield aftermath, then cuts back to Jaime and Bronn emerging from the blackwater. The episode ends with the Tarly’s getting roasted. Ending the episode like this gives the illusion of more time passing so Jaime doesn’t show back up to Cersei as quickly. It hangs on what Dany just did, making you question what path she’s heading down.

S7E105 – The Lion’s Den – 1 hr, 3 min, 2 sec
Although having many elements of ‘Eastwatch’, this is where my edit really starts to deviate from the show. It opens now with an establishing shot of King’s Landing and Jaime updating Cersei on the battle. Jon arrives at Dragonstone, Bran sees the Night King coming, etc. And Varys still has the chat with Tyrion about burning the Tarly’s. Except now when Jon is telling Dany about the Night King coming, Jorah volunteers to go with Jon to stop him, and Dany says that she’s come to save the north not conquer it, and speaking in Dothraki, she says to kill the Night King. Tyrion also agrees to go talk to Jaime about the dead army threat since he may listen to him but Cersei definitely would not. There is no mention of the stupid wight plot though – Jon and company want to take out the Night King before his army gets to the wall, but in case they can’t, Tyrion wants Cersei’s forces on their side to help.

The rest of the episode plays out with Tyrion talking to Jaime, Cersei telling Jaime not to betray her again, then the ‘Beyond the Wall’ chat of Dany and Tyrion is moved up here to talk about meeting soon with Cersei. After Jon leaves for Eastwatch, Tyrion and Dany meet Cersei at the gates (from ‘The Last of the Starks’). All shots of Missandei have been cut here. Tyrion pleads with Cersei, but she’s not having it, raising her hand, threatening to kill Tyrion and everyone else with arrows. But she relents and we cut to Tyrion walking with the Mountain. The next two scenes I was able to salvage from ‘The Dragon and the Wolf’ without using the stupid dragonpit convo and wight reveal. Tyrion and Cersei chat and, presumably in thinking of her unborn child, she eventually agrees to send her forces to help with the fight against the dead. Except…betrayal! Cersei tells Jaime she has no intention of helping and he leaves King’s Landing for Winterfell in defiance, vowing to honor his word. Then, on their way back to Dragonstone, Dany and the Unsullied are attacked by Euron’s fleet. A scorpion narrowly misses Dany and her dragons, and out of anger she flies at Euron but peels off before taking a fatal swarm of arrows. Euron destroys several Unsullied ships and we cut to black with a beam falling on Tyrion. D&D’s explanation that Dany simply forgot about Euron’s fleet is so asinine. In my version, Dany’s guard is appropriately down a little since Tyrion just brokered an apparent truce with Cersei, making it more believable for Dany to be caught off guard on her way back to Dragonstone instead of simply forgetting.

S7E106 – Blinded By Fire – 58 min, 25 sec
Largely taken from ‘The Bells’, this episode now opens with the Unsullied washing up on Dragonstone. A defeated Tyrion tries to talk to Dany, but he knows he messed up – the dragon queen is coming for Cersei. What I like about this version is that Dany doesn’t go “mad” or burn King’s Landing out of anger since she hasn’t lost Missandei and Rhaegal. But she HAS been outsmarted a few times in the Dorne Sea and at Casterly Rock, and since Cersei just betrayed her and tried to kill her and destroy her fleet, she now has proper motivation for attacking the capital.

Bits of the ‘Winterfell’ episode have been moved up here to show Euron arriving with the Golden Company and chatting with Cersei, and Theon rescuing Yara. The Littlefinger plot also continues and concludes in this episode with Arya confronting Sansa, except Littlefinger is shown once again spying on them. This provides more setup for the sisters knowing that Littlefinger is watching, making it more about them playing Littlefinger and not being duped. This means Sansa does not find Arya’s bag of faces, eliminating that whole silly scene. Sansa later confides in Littlefinger, before finally calling Arya before her and turning the tables on Littlefinger and executing him. This arc still works when it looks like Arya and Sansa are working together, unlike how the show put them at odds.

The episode ramps up now with various Dragonstone talks about attacking King’s Landing, who in turn are prepping for battle. Much of the attack is similar to the show, except Euron dies immediately via dragon fire instead of conveniently washing up next to an escaping Jaime (who had already left for Winterfell in the prior episode). All shots of Jon and Davos have been cut from the episode since they are en route to Eastwatch.

Much like with almightycutie, the battle finally ends with the soldiers surrendering and the bells ringing. Except unlike with the show, Dany doesn’t do a complete 180 flip and burn the types of people she’s been freeing in her rise to power. Instead, she heads right for the Red Keep and starts attacking it, with music added. Qyburn convinces Cersei to leave but on their way down the stairs, Drogon blows up portions of the keep, causing rock to fall and crush Cersei, Mountain, and Qyburn. In the aftermath, Tyrion makes his way to the Red Keep and finds Cersei under a pile of rubble. Despite wanting to kill him, Cersei does elicit some emotion from Tyrion, who still just lost his sister after all.

The episode ends with Dany addressing her soldiers. Instead of a menacing speech where she wants to dominate the world, it’s now accompanied by some uplifting music and new subtitles to indicate one tyrant has been defeated, but they will not stop until the threat in the north has been eliminated too. The final shot is from the first episode of the season where the dead army is advancing.

S7E107 – Into the North – 58 min, 57 sec
The original ‘Beyond the Wall’ episode is largely unchanged aside from the wight hunt being scrapped and tacking a few additional scenes to the end of it. The party is more or less trying to find the Night King and kill him before he reaches the wall. All scenes of other areas of Westeros are cut as we stay the entire time on our heroes in the north. We open with Jon and company arriving at Eastwatch to allude to more time passing from his departure from Dragonstone. All the convos and snow bear stuff happen as normal, but all shots of the wight being captured are removed. When the dead arrive, Gendry still runs back to Eastwatch but he isn’t The Flash and able to make it back in time to have a raven sent to Dany. Instead, Bran senses what’s happening in his warg state and, in turn, wargs into Dany to warn her that Jon is in trouble. Dany later shows up to save our heroes – no message from Gendry and no Tyrion at Dragonstone trying to stop her.

The rest of the episode plays out as normal except “Benjen ex Machina” was removed, and it also keeps going after Viserion is reanimated. We cut right to Bran after Sam arrives at Winterfell. They talk and we see the Rhaegar/Lyanna flashback to show Jon’s heritage. Jon is recovering on an Unsullied ship so there’s no need to return to Dragonstone. Dany has already ordered her forces north in the previous episode so she simply hooks up with Jon and they sail right to White Harbor to meet them. The Ned/Lyanna stuff has been extended here from ‘The Winds of Winter’ to replace the shots of Tyrion creeping on Jon/Dany. With the boat shots from ‘Beyond the Wall’ and ‘The Dragon and the Wolf’ being combined in my edit into one scene, Tyrion is out of place here and would instead be traveling with the rest of Dany’s army up to Winterfell. We end with ravens flying to Eastwatch and the Night King taking down the wall with Viserion.

S7E108 – Eye of the Storm – 1 hr, 13 min, 16 sec
Referencing the calm between two sides of chaos, this episode title preps our heroes for the final battle. There’s a LOT of talking over the course of ‘Winterfell and ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’, so like almightycutie, I also had plans to combine these into a single episode. Without going scene by scene, much of the convos remain, but I did eliminate unnecessary stuff. Arya reuniting with Gendry and even him making her a weapon is fine, but they do not hook up before the battle. All the Bronn and his whores stuff is gone (including the subplot to kill Jaime and Tyrion since Cersei is already dead), as is Dany telling Jon that Sansa doesn’t like her and also her berating Tyrion. Jorah counseling Dany is also gone. Otherwise, there’s some other minor restructuring but this combined episode should feel very familiar.

One other thing I did like about this episode is that some of the foreshadowing about character deaths from various conversations does pay off now by the final episode (specifically comments by Bran and Edd).

S7E109 – The Night Is Dark – 48 min, 17 sec
almightycutie and I both had the thought to split ‘The Long Night’ into two episodes, except I’ll be keeping the reanimated corpses in the crypt to give some of our main non-fighting characters something to do (even though I think it was stupid to put them down there in the first place). Otherwise, a lot of our sequencing is similar since we both agree that having important main characters like Jaime and Brienne on the front line isn’t strategically smart, as is a non-fighter like Sam. All shots of the three for the first part of the battle have been removed, and Edd’s death involving Sam has been moved inside the walls with some minor color correction.

Mirroring almightycutie, I found the whole angle of failing to light the trench very silly, so I’ve also eliminated this and made it seem like they had planned for Melisandre to do this all along. Much of the battle inside remains the same as we cut back and forth to the crypt. The dragon battle in the sky was moved near the end with the Night King getting knocked off Viserion, then Dany trying to burn him. Instead of Jorah ex machina arriving out of nowhere to save Dany in the next episode, the shot of him looking up at Dany approaching the Night King was moved to E110 to show that he saw Drogon flying without Dany, which prompts him to come to the rescue. Also, I borrowed almightycutie’s idea here of Bran warging into a dragon instead of ravens so it made him actually useful in the final dragon battle.

The episode ends with the Night King reanimating the newly fallen soldiers and the White Walkers walking towards the camera. Again, lots of credit to almightycutie for a good chunk of the sequencing in this episode – there are some minor differences, but this really was the best way to structure things.

S7E110 – And Full of Terrors – 1 hr, 7 min, 49 sec
Part two of the battle picks up with a more quiet tone. As the title implies, we’ve moved on to the ‘terror’ portion of the battle. We open with Arya’s horror sequence indoors, then cut to the wight corpses emerging in the crypt, then cut to before the outdoor Godswood sequence of the wights surrounding Theon and Bran. The deleted scene of Alys Karstark’s death was also restored here to set a creepier tone.

Once Arya is “safe”, she chats with Melisandre, but we cut away after her ‘Not today’ line. I added more sfx of wights trying to bang down the door and don’t show Arya leaving so it’s less obvious that she’s going after the Night King and instead could be trying to close more “blue eyes” that are trying to break down the door. In the crypt, the deleted scene of Sansa and Tyrion stabbing wights with dragonglass to protect Missandei, Gilly, and her child was restored.

Once we get through the ‘terror’ bits, we’re back outside headed to the endgame with Jon hacking away at wights. Much of the episode from here proceeds as normal with Dany saving Jon, Jorah saving Dany, and Jon getting pinned down by Viserion as the Night King finally makes it to the Godswood. We see shots of Jaime and Brienne being overrun, then Sam. Theon’s futile charge results in his death and then we see the final Night King walk to Bran. I changed the music a bit at the end and eliminated the wisp of wind moving the White Walker’s hair to make Arya’s approach less predictable. She’s an assassin and also shouldn’t be screaming mid-air so you only hear her now when the Night King catches her by the throat. This makes it seem more like he could sense her. To make Bran even more useful, I borrowed from almightycutie again by having Bran warg into Arya – she delivers the killing blow and he gets the big assist. Everything else remains the same from this point up to Melisandre’s walk of death.

On my first viewing, it bugged me that someone with no previous story with the Night King ended up being the one who killed him. I would have preferred it gone to someone else, but there wasn’t much that could be done with this from editing standpoint, aside from giving the assist to a warging Bran (who does have lots of history with the Night King). Moving on…

Instead of ending the episode though, we fade in from black to Sansa mourning over Theon’s body. Since there were some additional deaths in this episode, I took advantage of Dany’s long mourning over Jorah to cover up bits where some newly deceased characters were shown observing the funeral. This allowed me to keep Jon’s speech and the original music. There was some minor restructuring here, but it should look/sound mostly familiar. At the end, we see that Jaime, Brienne, and Sam also died in the battle (full credit to almightycutie for reuse of the smoking corpse shots).

The rest of the episode combines scenes from ‘The Last of the Starks’ and ‘The Iron Throne’ to wind down Dany’s pursuit of the Iron Throne arc and also provide some closure for our other main characters. A deleted scene for Grey Worm and Missandei leaving for some quality time was restored for the post-battle meal. Also during the meal, Dany sees how the people love Jon. She has flashbacks of her attacking King’s Landing, the people fleeing, and her burning the Red Keep. She’s unsettled by this and leaves, with Varys in tow. A few other convos were kept here, but all shots/scenes with Jaime and Brienne were removed since they died in the battle.

After the meal, we see a condensed scene of Dany telling Jon how she noticed the people looking at him. She is realizing at this point that Jon’s heritage will not allow her to claim the Iron Throne, despite Jon not wanting it. After Arya and the Hound depart Winterfell, we have the library conversation with Dany and Sansa where they talk about each being a leader. Sansa questions what will happen with the north now that Dany is in line for the throne. Outside, Davos is telling Tyrion and Varys that the north don’t like outsiders and Dany would need to earn their trust. Dany gets on Drogon and leaves Winterfell as Sansa and Tyrion look on. Tyrion believes in Dany and that she’ll do the right thing.

From here, we cut to a winterized King’s Landing and Dany approaching the throne. As Dany goes to touch the throne, she has a memory from earlier of her telling Jon that she doesn’t have love here, only fear, despite Jon telling her that he loves her. Jon then arrives and tells her that the north is free because of her. After she recalls a story about the Iron Throne, Jon repeats that she is his queen and pleads ‘Please, Dany’. Dany simply replies with ‘I can’t’ as we cut to Drogon approaching and landing beside Jon. A tense moment builds before Dany utters ‘Dracarys’. Drogon melts down the Iron Throne and Dany and Jon embrace. Jon reassures her that she’ll still always be his queen and they kiss. The music leads us to Jon and Dany, midflight on Rhaegal and Drogon. Their playful chase ends near the icy waterfall where they chat and embrace once more. We begin to end things with the Stark montage where we see Missandei and Grey Worm holding hands, the sequencing implying they are on Arya’s ship, destination unknown. Sansa is queen of the north. Jon walks through Castle Black, greets Ghost, then is approached by Tormund. Tormund asks whether he is going to ride the dragon, then teases him about his size. He embraces Jon and tells him he has the true north in him. They leave beyond the wall on horses. Jon hears a dragon behind him, then looks back to see Dany riding Drogon, and also Rhaegal fly past. Jon smiles and the wildlings head into the woods towards their new future. THE END. No silly counsel to decide who is king, and no Jon returning to the Night’s Watch.

Conclusion
If you’re still with me, that’s the new story of Seasons 7 & 8. It’s a satisfying ending for pretty much all characters I think. Dany doesn’t go “mad” and kill innocent people – instead, she removes a tyrant from power and has proper motivation to do so since she was outsmarted a few times during battle, then betrayed and was almost killed after seemingly reaching a truce. In the end, Jon doesn’t want the throne but Dany knows that she can’t have it either – and even if she did, the people would never love or respect her like they would Jon since she’s an outsider, they only fear her. Since the throne is a symbol of tyranny, she burns it down and chooses to live a life up north with the person she loves.

Jon feels the pull of the true north and turns down the crown, without disclosing to anyone that he’s the rightful heir. Sam is dead and Bran just stares all day, so the truth is pretty much safe unless Jon wants to reveal it. Instead, Sansa is the “queen of the north” and has the presumption of power in Westeros while Jon and Dany live happily ever after up north leading wildlings.

Brienne and Jaime both die honorable deaths, and Sam’s luck with the White Walkers finally runs out. None of them could overcome the plot armor they were wearing in the final battle. Jaime’s redemption arc also isn’t trashed and he doesn’t hook up with Brienne either.

Restructuring the episode order also allowed some previously deceased characters to survive, like Missandei, Varys, and the Hound – the latter doesn’t get his revenge against the Mountain but he does save Arya and gets to ride off with her. And satisfyingly, Cersei and Littlefinger got what they deserved.

Fates are unknown for some people like Arya, Tyrion, Varys, Bronn, and who’s actually in control now in the south, but I thought it was better to leave that open-ended than use a silly ending like the show gave us. Varys doesn’t die unjustly and his future is open-ended. Arya is also someone I debated killing off because the completion of her arc is kind of lame – if she wants to see what’s west of Westeros, why not have Bran send ravens? But I did love the final Stark montage, so I felt it was better to keep her alive and leave her future destination ambiguous, same with Missandei and Grey Worm since Naath – according to the books – is supposed to have a deadly butterfly sickness that affects all non-natives. It was easier just to cut their pre-battle talk about heading to Naath and just let them sail away somewhere with Arya – maybe she’s still taking them to Naath, who knows.

As for the final leadership team in King’s Landing, what the show gave us was a joke so I scrapped all that. In my version, Bran is the Three-Eyed Raven and remains a weirdo. Bran is not the Night King…he’s not even King. He’s just Bran. Bronn is literally the worst person that could have been made master of coin. Brienne’s role would have been fine if she survived, but Sam had hardly any experience as a maester, let alone being the top one. And Tyrion is terrible at his job, so it makes sense to stay north with Sansa, who he has feelings for and who he is still likely technically married to.

So that’s it! If you’ve made it to the end and this sounds interesting to you, send me a PM. Again, please post any reviews here in this thread. It was really rewarding to finally be able to finish this edit and I hope all of you that watch it enjoy it! Again, a special shout out to almightycutie for the inspiration to finish the series and for the reuse of some sequencing and a few VFX shots.

-YCE

Post
#1353071
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

Ed Slushie said:

Hal 9000 said:

And I hadn’t really considered removing Lando but doing so makes sense and would make that middle chunk a little less cluttered. Any against?

Also, Lando’s scene is the source of the film’s only “I have bad feeling about this” so you would have to add one of those somewhere else too.

Could change Nien Nunb’s subtitled line, or pretend that’s what he said there with no subtitle. Or add Lando’s line to later during Exogol battle.

Post
#1353026
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

JakeRyan17 said:

jarbear said:

Being worked on, the music cue is the issue. I can’t wait for that to be audibly polished.

I did a version of this with cleaner audio. I know some people didn’t like my transition, but it should be clean enough to re-work.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-5kuYFOjTgF5FavIgoqgVN0jbtX0zLJZ/view?usp=sharing

Your version sounds fine, but I think the issue is that Hal wanted to use the extended jump without TIEs that skenera and poppasketti worked on. I think ya’ll are probably looking for something more like this with the audio:

https://vimeo.com/427153302
fanedit

Post
#1352067
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

I’d like it too if he said ‘Jedi’. But you could also argue by keeping the line in as is that it’s just Palpatine being arrogant. It’s more fitting of his character to be this way than react in fear. This is the same guy who leaped at Mace and 3 other Jedi with lightsabers drawn even though he was cornered in his office and outnumbered. Granted, these are some Jedi Master Force ghosts, but I still don’t buy Palpatine going into a panic here. The dude was just regenerated from dyad Force energy, so if anything, it probably makes him feel even more unstoppable. Either way, my point of posting the clip was to show that keeping that line in with the burning homestead cue is possible – the line can go or stay, I’m good either way.

Post
#1352055
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

Hal 9000 said:

It doesn’t fit with the music to keep it in, this or any other musical piece that was considered.

Actually, if you’re keeping jonh’s burning homestead, it can work like this:

https://vimeo.com/426004407
fanedit

I still think this cue works the best for this scene with the better sfx, and that includes the unused TFA cue, which is fine but not my favorite of the two.

Post
#1352023
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

idir_hh said:

If we’re to have Ben Solo die, I think the best way to go about it would be to have him heal Rey and die while Palpatine is busy turning the fleet into a BBQ. We have the force ghosts appear like normal but when Rey is about to ignite the second lightsaber, Ben Solo’s force ghost appears with his hand reached out just like the rest, ending Sidious with a final blow.

Later he would appear with Luke, Leia ( and maybe Han’s) ghosts on Tatooine.

A more meaningful death and redemption!

Except the area is rubble at this point and there’s no ships above getting zapped, so the background looks pretty different if you move this scene up. I don’t disagree this is a cool idea though. May just look out of place without some additional vfx.

Post
#1351985
Topic
Star Wars: <strong>The Rise Of Skywalker</strong> Redux Ideas thread
Time

Jackpumpkinhead said:

jonh said:

(I have put this in another thread)
Shit! I have noticed that in part 2, an unwanted frame. i just fixed the vesion, shit shit shit, f_king ghosts. sorry friends I’m a disaster (artist) hahah
I don’t know what done! I upload them again
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ev1ODAXgouAIuTH5c2neUsGzxdDsJRG5
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OT3RpMKUx2RXdGWDK6Kwz5HFvKQDxbLF
on the other hand, I have made a different version of the most closed close-ups of the jedi, in part 1, obi wan is new … I upload it so that people choose the version that they like the most.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QMCqY5AoESOLGeIAZXWdmSWi7q_ZQ8L_

Sorry!!!

Jonh, I know you’ve spent a lot of time to get this right, and I really think you have done a great job. But I do have a suggestion, what if after Rey says, “and I am all the Jedi” we see the same shot of the ghosts as before, but then they start to enter Rey, as though they are inhabiting her. You could use a similar effect as when Palps is sucking the life force from Kylo and Rey. But it would work in reverse until the ghosts completely disappear.

I also think this “force sucking” effect would be good to see when Rey heals the cave worm. It would set a precedent for that force ability early on.

Eh, some guy already tried the Jedi entering her, and it just seems silly to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q_32BFqGac

I think what jon has now is already perfect. The ghosts are actively using the Force to help Rey repel Palpatine, and it’s not just ‘oh, I have a second saber now, so take that!’

Post
#1351688
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

jarbear said:

Vision or not, Ben cannot survive.

Like Darth Vader, these two were only “redeemed” by one person. The whole galaxy would not forgive these Space Hitlers. It is a simpler ending to have them die, then to have them live. Ben would have to stay in hiding for the rest of his life from THE ENTIRE GALEXY and Rey would have to hook up with him in secret since she would be aiding and abetting A MASS MURDERER.

The more I think of the “Reylo” thing it makes me roll my eyes harder and harder.

Anyway, that’s my two cents on that topic.

Yeah, Ben has to go. I get the point of using a fan edit to make some big creative changes, but I just don’t see how anyone believes he should survive. The movie did such a poor job of executing the redemption of his character as it was (which is definitely an aspect that can be improved through an edit), but outright letting him live sends a dangerous message. This would be no different than Vader surviving. Sacrifice is really the best redemptive arc a character like Vader or Ben can have, considering all the atrocities they’ve performed. You are going to have a galaxy worth of skeptical citizens…now, imagine that person not only surviving but living among you. “But he’s changed…!” A life of isolation is the only realistic path here, but then that just makes for a sadder story than what we got. Ben becoming one with the Force and potentially showing up at the end as a Force ghost is consistent with mythology and is really the best case you can realistically hope for.

More power to anyone wanting to keep Ben alive in their edit, it’s just not a believable story decision for me personally. My 13-year old loves Disney stuff and she’s seen the sequel films and actually cringed at the Reylo moment. “Why would she kiss that maniac? He was such a bad person!” Couldn’t fool this teenager, but nice try Disney! 😃

Post
#1351139
Topic
Star Wars: <strong>The Rise Of Skywalker</strong> Redux Ideas thread
Time

I personally didn’t mind the “balloon trooper”. That’s how I imagine someone would zip around if their jetpack was damaged. That’s what Ahsoka did a few different times to Mandalorians during her descent into Mandalore in TCW S7E9. Personally, what bothered me more than that trooper was the crew landing in the sinking fields (exactly where they needed to be), miles from a random chase after fleeing the First Order. Having a chunk of the movie be a fetch quest was annoying enough, but then having something as ridiculous as quicksand ex machina right where they needed it was too much for me. I’ve been experimenting with that chase and some of the dialogue from Pasaana and was able to eliminate that whole bit by implying they knew the whole time they needed to go to the caves because that’s where Luke told them to go (per 3PO’s dialogue). The chase audio isn’t quite there yet, but you’ll get the idea of how this could work with a little more refinement. Check it out…

https://vimeo.com/424644451
fanedit

JEDIT: Also, here’s another minor annoyance I don’t think has been mentioned on here yet (I don’t think).

https://vimeo.com/424641561
fanedit

A simple fix, but that door never should have been closed if the movie wasn’t going to show it open up again before Rey flies through it. Maybe Evil Rey’s magical hiss powers opened it just beforehand and we didn’t hear it. 😃