EddieDean

I think these are really good points and ideas. RotJ really works at the end because Luke faces so much temptation. Rey has a tending towards the dark but that temptation could really be emphasised.

Speaking of the dagger, now that it operates by whisper rather than the absolutely contrived pointing, it’s remaining flaw as a plot device is that the good guys stumble upon it in an absolute quirk of chance. Perhaps it could be implied that it’s somehow drawn Rey to it- either through Palpatine’s machinations or its own.

Wonderful feedback, Daiyus, thanks.

Good spot on the Mon meeting reference. Realistically there’s very little chance I can reorder the scenes there (the ordering does a lot of heavy lifting for the transitions and flow), but I’ll see how explicit that reference is and might make a light trim if I need to.

Speaking of the pacing of Andor getting off Ferrix and to Niamos, you’re right in that those events happen fairly quickly onscreen and do cover a lot of time. That’s how it was in the original (episode 7 covered a lot of in-world time), and I think I’ve improved it further since we have more of Syril moping at his window (among other things!) in this section to imply days passing, but do you reckon it lands OK this way?

I’m really glad you’re enjoying it, and look forward to releasing the final versions!

That’s awesome, thanks RL. Spence has offered too. I’ll see how NFB gets on, but it’s ace to have a little bank of potential collaborators.

Great to hear! I feel similar when watching these- when the A plot is the main focus, and you know it’s going to get wrapped up in this unit of entertainment, the B plot is a welcome pacing break and more interesting.

NFBisms and I are now directly collaborating on this and he has the latest raw file. I can’t promise timings but it’s looking positive. I’m so excited to have NFB onboard, he’s been an absolute gent, and has exactly the skills I was missing.

One question for you all: As I’ve said just earlier, I’m now really happy with the flow of scenes through this version. It feels very balanced to me. (And it took absolutely AGES to get this way - this episode has 50 scene transitions and only about two of them are the original ones!) The one thing I can see people taking slight issue to is the question of who learns about the Aldhani heist in what order. As I currently have it, the ISB find out first, Mon Mothma becomes aware (without the rest of Coruscant knowing), then it hits the news on Ferrix, then a few days later it comes out on the Coruscant news.

I don’t personally have a problem with that - I figure it can be reasonably explained as (1) obviously the ISB would know nearly immediately, (2) Coruscant politicians would likely know before the rest of the planet, (3) Ferrix has a far less tight grip on its media than Coruscant (and an imperial presence potentially talking about the new laws), then (4) Coruscant news could well have been deliberately delayed until the Empire got on top of the messaging. I can see it as a potential point of concern for you guys, but it underpins a lot of my current ordering enough that I think the above justification should be enough to allow story flow to be the priority.

Anyone got a major issue with that?

Yeah, those are all good points. I don’t imagine this as a Rey Nobody edit, so much as a ‘Rey Somebody but it makes a bit more sense and we don’t have to think about Palpatine having sex’ edit.

I’d love a link please!

I know it’s not super popular, but it is canon, so how about something to do with Palpatine creating life? If he was involved in Rey’s origins in a similar way to how he was for Anakin, that would both make her his inheritor (‘granddaughter’ due to the age difference) and make her claim to be a Skywalker more logically valid. It would also explain why her parents want to get her away from him (they don’t want that life for their daughter), and why Ochi hunted her, and explains why he either wants to kill her (a threat) or capture her (an inheritor or even vessel). It’s also an option that will most likely be futureproof in the case of future content referring to her being his ‘granddaughter’, having his blood in her veins, or similar. Arguably, it keeps her as a nobody too, in a similar way to young Anakin born to Shmi.

It’d also now add a nice bit of irony in that, while it is a bit of a rehash, he’s now two for two in force-children turning against him and towards the light.

Edit: Sorry, this belongs in the radical discussion thread.

NFBisms said:

I could probably help out!

You absolute beauty! I’ll be in touch shortly. ❤️

The good, the bad, and the request for help:

The Good:

• I’ve completed the reordering for Movie 3. It’s far, far better paced now, and time passes consistently in all three plotlines, including around the time jumps, multiple scenes in a single day, and references to the timeline. I’m happy to call this scene ordering ‘final’, as it tells this story nicely - as nicely as the other three movies, at least. Everything gets its due the three plotlines are well balanced throughout.
• The majority of transitions are very smooth and flow nicely.

The Bad:

• There’re a few areas where the transitions don’t work - and I just don’t have the skill to fix them. I could pick up this skill, but as you may have noticed from my slowing down recently, I just don’t have the time to learn something all-new right now - specifically that of recreating foley whilst replacing music tracks. I’ve never done this before and wouldn’t know where to start.
• Much more minor, but I’ve cut two very short scenes to make this all work. One is just yet another scene of the prisoners doing their prison work (originally used to end the first prison episode), and one is a scene of the older prisoner (the one who dies) struggling to come back from dropping off another completed piece - though there’s still plenty of other scenes of him struggling. These removals aren’t ideal, but they are very minor in the scheme of things - I’m barely changing the show’s actual content.

The request for help:

• Is anyone with foley/music replacement skills able to help just get this last film over the line? I can provide a very high-res file, and full detail on the issue areas and their source content, I just need an experienced SFX partner. Worst case I will eventually be able to learn the skill, but I’d really appreciate the help because I’d like to get this one out to everyone sooner rather than later.

That’s really elegant, Nev. What would happen though if the upcoming Rey movie makes it clear that she’s Palpatine’s blood?

Sounds great. Is the plan now to add a little iteration to a couple of your earlier movies for story consistency, such as the beskar spear?

That’s a really neat idea, Nev. It bends the canon a little more than I’d tend towards, but it’s certainly elegant, and kind of retroactively wraps around the earlier films nicely. And it straddles Rey Nobody/Rey Palpatine nicely too- in this, she’s his ‘granddaughter’ in the sense that she’s his inheritor, a trainee or asset he’s known (of) since she was a child.

Yeah that’s the kind of thing!

That’s a really slick idea, JarJar. And Nev, for the ‘force SFX’, I was actually thinking dialogue of some kind, either Leia speaking when we see Kylo’s wound heal, or Kylo speaking to Leia over Leia shots, or both. Almost as if they’re connecting through the force, like Obi-Wan does to Luke a couple of times*, Luke and Leia do in Empire, or early Rey/Kylo interactions. Doesn’t have to be that they’re actually consciously conversing, so much as reaching out/connecting.

*Sure Obi-Wan’s dead in those instances, but you get my point!

RogueLeader said:

I don’t think there needs to be a ton of new lines setting up characters/plot points in TLJ. This might be a better convo for the General edit ideas thread instead of here, but I personally think the Max union dispute business, for example, should be cut from TLJ, and make it so she is just fighting the First Order on a different front. She goes on and on about how they needed to fight the First Order in TFA, but then she just settling a union dispute in the next movie? I think it makes a lot more sense if she is just busy fighting the First Order somewhere else. It seems like a part of the reason no one is helping the Resistance is because their allies have either surrendered or are already busy repelling the First Order blitzkrieg on other fronts. So I think the less we set up certain things the more modular this edit can be with other edits. It just depends.

I really like the idea of changing Maz’ dialogue to imply it relates to another front. I’m not thinking this through fully here (it’s early), but are there any other moments in the trilogy that this could be used to enhance? I’m thinking things like Jannah’s appearance in movie 3, the uprisings encouraged by Finn/Luke/Lando, or similar?

Lovely cuts and choices, I think the whole really works - but I don’t feel that the healing VFX is necessary beyond what was already there. I don’t think it necessarily adds the ‘Leia is involved’ angle you’re trying to emphasise (though I do think it’s clear enough). A Leia hand, or other ‘forcey’ SFX might be best.

That’s not a bad idea at all, especially since her force bond with the creature in TotJ barely has any analogue to her present day story - EXCEPT that there could be an implicit link to Morai. I’m not sure if it might pull focus from the core plot of the main episode though, and dilute both. What does everyone think?

Yeah, the siblings shot was a good looking one, but just far too explicit for me, even as a metaphor. And to address the prior comment about moving some of the Mortis content to other places - it’s a nice idea, and throughout the show I did look for places where I could shift good content from avoidable episodes to necessary ones, but ultimately there weren’t many opportunities where totally-removed episodes produced content that actively added value to a kept episode. I think the best example of that actually working was where I took the shots of baby Ahsoka meeting Plo Koon and put them in the Malevolence episode at the point where they’re reaching out to each other using the force. I think that ended up really beautiful.

Anyway, I suppose I should give a little update! I’d promised activity here and haven’t really delivered recently, though in principle this is still very much active. I’m struggling to find time to finish off that last bit of Andor, but once that’s done, I’m back to a bit more targeted polish here and there on this project, and especially the extended episodes.

These last couple of comments about the Mortis episode illustrate the problem with that episode nicely- it’s very divisive. Some people love the force deep dive, and some find it kills the mystery. I’m still broadly satisfied with the solution being to keep the magic whilst making it more inexplicit, as it treads the middle path. And the episode is necessary, due to Morai and further revelations in the Ahsoka show. I will though, as promised, release an extended version sometime!

That’s still in the potentially pile, but I’ve got a feeling there wouldn’t be sufficient value.

Any news on when we’ll see the next version? I’m excited now that TROS:A v4 is out!

NFB, any chance of a full movie version with your new audio, for those coming at this from the opposite direction? 😉

Heck yeah! Bagel’s back, baby! Love those final tweaks to movie 1. Lock 'em in! As someone commented on your AI voice line, I agree that it could be a touch rougher, but it does work.

Looking forward to the rest.

Did you settle on a direction for present-day Boba, Luke’s academy, and season three?