DrVibble

Jar Jar Bricks said:

Honestly, the only alternative Rey background story that I think could work decently is that there is a prophesied Sith chosen one created by the dark side itself as Anakin was by the light. But the final movie in a saga is a weird place to introduce such an idea.

This reminds me of an idea I had back when the film first came about, something I thought was a missed opportunity with the idea of the dyad (beyond that it should have been introduced earlier):

Would the Force, inherently dual in nature, with the whole central conflict between Light and Dark being about bringing balance and discovering what both truly mean, really create a Chosen ONE, rather than a Chosen TWO?

The hubris of the Jedi Order (that Luke himself decries in TLJ) was to completely stamp out and ignore the Dark, the equivalent of sweeping it under the rug, leaving people like Anakin in a terrible place. The constant folly of the Dark Side is absolute greed, which can never be sustainable (capitalism anyone?).

While Anakin went to both Light and Dark extremes, and people like Revan have been able to walk the line (though it did cause him and the galaxy a looot of problems), when the idea of the dyad was introduced I felt something really special could have been done with the idea of the Chosen One, which also would have ameliorated this film lessening the impact of Anakin’s sacrifice. To create true balance, the Force would make a Chosen Two, someone in the Light who struggles with the Dark, and someone in the Dark who struggles with the Light.

This is helped by Kylo already being a really unique Dark Side character, in that he doesn’t seek power as much as he seeks identity, leading to his constant conflict: the Dark Side can’t give him belonging and love. The theatrical films never delved enough into Rey struggling with the Dark Side but the Hal and adjacent edits (e.g. Starlight and Rekindled) bring it out brilliantly: she shows how tempting and easy the Dark Side is for a new, powerful, driven Force user, especially someone who has to learn so much so quickly like Rey and is desperate to defend her new family, the only one she’s ever had.

This doesn’t really have any bearing on the edit but I just wanted to share some thoughts!

EDIT: I also just remembered something else that I thought could augment this idea: Yoda in ROTS says to Windu and Obi-Wan, as they discuss if Anakin is up to spying on Palpatine and Obi-Wan affirms he’s the Chosen One, “A prophecy that misread could have been.”

EDIT 2: I just remembered ANOTHER part of this idea, related to the dyad: it’s not even a Chosen Two, but a Chosen Two that are One, perhaps why the prophecy was misread.

There’s no real way to make the idea work in TROS even with clever AI voices, as Rey and Ben don’t defeat the Emperor together and Ben dies. It’s more of a rewrite thing. Always intrigued me though!

These edits sounds really cool, I’d love a link to the trilogy!

(double post)

This sounds awesome! Those example clips were fantastic. I’d love to check these episodes out.

This sounds really cool, I’d love to check it out when fully released!

Damn, been away from this thread for a while and the changes are looking awesome!!

This edit looks really interesting! Would love a link

Would love to check this out!

Would love to give this a watch!

This edit sounds really ambitious, love the look of the changes! Would love a link

I agree with that take too Burbin, making it more personal is worth a shot

That looks pretty great! Leia’s new line works nicely, the dash of humour doesn’t break the tension or drama, if anything it kind of adds to it? Sort of a “Yeah we REALLY don’t need this right now 3PO” vibe. Never knew there were so many deleted scenes for TFA till now!

Also, I recently showed Starlight to my brothers, and they loved it! In their words, it was like watching the film for the first time again. We’ve collectively grown more and more jaded to the ST over the years, but this edit made us all enjoy Star Wars together for the first time in a long time, so thank you for that! (Tbf we were still constantly roasting TFA/the ST itself but the accomplishments of the edit were met with great praise)

I have a couple quibbles with the current version but they’ve mostly already been mentioned or you’ve already begun work on: Han’s leftover line when he orders them out of the Falcon compartment, Rey’s Sith eyes could pop more, some still-gold sand on Jakku (though having a bit of experience with colour grading I get that it may just not be possible to change the sand in those scenes without affecting skin tones).

One thing I did note (not sure if this has been mentioned) is that the sound when TR-8R slams Finn back with the riot baton is pretty muted under his “Pathetic!”, which dampens the moment. Could the sound be raised again without messing with the intelligibility of the line? That said, my brothers really enjoyed his new dialogue, and though I was sceptical the first time I saw it I liked it quite a bit more on this second viewing!

DominicCobb said:

Yeah I think a vision that implements bits from the past two films could work (her looking angry during the duel in TFA, her going to the cave in TLJ).

I did want to suggest her with the Sith eyes from TFA but then I remembered that’s from Starlight, that’s how much these edits have replaced the trilogy for me!

Had a look through the Rey Nobody changelist:

Having not seen Spence’s scenes before, in terms of the effects on the story I thought it was great! Kylo’s dialogue in the duel and hangar work well for changing the stakes of the story, ups Rey’s inner conflict and defines her journey really nicely. The reduced scenes like Luke & Rey’s convo and the trimmed exchanges with Palpatine maybe don’t help the film’s already blistering pace but they do flow nicely overall. The yellow lightning is also a great addition; I read the difference between the blue vision lightning and the yellow real lightning as the vision showing her fears of becoming a Sith, but the yellow being more of a part-Light Side lightning, she’s not gone to the Dark yet.

In terms of their implemenation I had two main thoughts:

I do feel Rey’s vision is a bit brief. Maybe some similar elements to Kylo’s vision could be included, like Kylo reaching out to her (either in TLJ or the later scene in the hangar), to juxtapose how they both feel about that moment, and especially given her later line about wanting to take Ben’s hand? I also thought it would be interesting to see if Luke’s TLJ line “You went straight to the Dark” could be included, kicking off her struggle with the Dark Side throughout the film (Kylo also hears a line from Luke so it might be fun if they both do). Though since it’s meant to be more of a premonition than Kylo’s which seems more of a meditation I’m not sure if those work for what you intend.

Though Kylo’s new lines fit, they don’t sound entirely natural, though that’s totally understandable. I’m impressed by how good they do sound! Are these final, or can more work be done on them?

Excited to see the completed version! Though I think there could have been a way to make Rey Palpatine work if it was the plan from the beginning, this just makes the story and themes cleaner

I’d be very interested in seeing this!

This sounds like a really interesting edit! I’d love a link.

Hey again! Been a while; I’ve returned to my own fan edit projects for the first time in a while, and if it’s all right, I’m back with a couple more fan editing questions (just two this time hehe)

1. How can I export without or with minimum compression/pixelation in dark areas of the image? My current efforts have seen heavy pixellation. My process is encoding the Blu-Ray Rip in Handbrake at max quality, then exporting as .mp4 or .mov. I’d love to have maximum visual quality, is it an mkv thing? I’m on the free version of DaVinci Resolve so I may be limited there

2. How can I export DTS audio? Currently I’m just exporting AAC, which has so far been fine, but again, max quality would be really nice

I know I’ve had a lot of questions, but exporting’s turned out more complicated than I thought!

These exports are just some quite basic LOTR edits (added musical overtures, musical intermissions, chapter titles for the now six parts, and some minor cuts/trims), and I’d love to be able to have them in as high quality as possible. I may bring them to this site.

This edit sounds v impressive; I’d love a link!

This sounds great! Plagueis was always one of my favourite EU books, I’d love to give this a read!

maizerblazer said:

Thank you for sharing the link, and for all the hard work you put into this. I think it is a fantastic edit on the whole, surpassing Restructured for best TFA edit out there. A few thoughts on the edit, for what they’re worth:

THINGS I LOVED:

• The overall look of the film, and the re-grading of Jakku.
• The shifts in the Snoke/Kylo/Hux scenes, especially delaying the reveal. The theatrical always felt to me like it broke the fourth wall, whereas learning it from Han and Leia feels more natural and emotionally grounded. Really good.
• Moving “there’s been an awakening” to the end.
• The sequence of shots after Starkiller Base fires is perfect.
• Integrating the Kylo on the Falcon deleted scene into the attack on Starkiller Base.

THINGS I’D CONSIDER CHANGING/ADDING:

• I like adding the voices to the first interrogation scene but then felt like I was expecting them for the Rey/Kylo scene as well. It feels like this is a spot where those might fit well. You could incorporate some lines from this movie (“they’ll come back, one day,” “he means nothing to me”), but this would also be a spot where a bunch of lines from the rest of the trilogy could come in as a sort of foreshadowing since this is the moment where the “dyad” comes together for the first time.
• On the other hand, the voices when Han and Kylo confront each other felt superfluous given how well acted the scene is to start with.
• I agree with what I think someone said above that Rey’s Sith eyes don’t quite “pop” and it might not be exactly clear what they are supposed to be to someone not expecting them. But the reveal is shocking and really hits the way I assume you intended.
• Could Palpatine’s voice be louder in Rey’s vision?

THINGS THAT DIDN’T REALLY WORK FOR ME:

• TR-8R’s new dialogue: felt like a little too much to me.

I second all of this!

Your Legend edits sound like a really interesting project! Would love a link to the workprints

Been following Ascendant’s V2 progress, so incredibly excited to see it completed!!! Truly an achievement to be proud of, congratulations to everyone who contributed! Can’t wait to watch!

How have I not come across this before??? This looks awesome! I’d love a link for both Ep1 and Ep2 of the ‘Mandoverse’.

This edit sounds great! Been delving into edits for the trilogies, haven’t tried some for the anthology films. I’d love a PM, or another mode of access!

As an amateur fan editor who’s been trying my own hand at re-grading TLOTR manually (currently only a bit over halfway through TFOTR), I would love a copy of this!

Another question: I’ve been working on a small edit of the EE, adding musical intermissions and custom chapter titles, as well as re-grading them. Though I do intend to finish my own colour grade, I’m finding myself increasingly pressed for time recently; would it be permissible to make a version using your re-graded films? My edits are mainly for personal viewing; if I end up wanting to release them on here, I’ll use your version solely as reference.