Grand Admiral Thrawn

Apologies for the incoming long post, but I was brainstorming and here are some ideas to help better sell Palpatine’s new plan in Ascendant. I think a lot of the original Palpatine lines can be restored and some others can be adjusted very slightly (if the AI voice is possible for Palps). I know this may be a little radical for V4 of this edit, but I think it could warrant a discussion given the new AI breakthroughs and the initial struggle of clearing up Palps plan for this edit:

RESTORE:

• Palpatine: “I have died before. The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be, unnatural.”

CHANGE:

• Palpatine: “The might of the Final Order will soon be ready. It will be yours if you do as I ask. Bring me the girl, end the Jedi and become what your grandfather Vader could not. Together, you will rule all the galaxy as the new emperors. But beware. She is not who you think she is.”

CHANGE:

• Kylo Ren: “Palpatine wants you dead.”
• Rey: “Serving another master?”

CHANGE (or potentially REMOVE SCENE):

• Palpatine: “Where is the girl? Perhaps you have betrayed me. Do not make me turn my fleet against you.”
• Kylo Ren: I know where she’s going. She’ll never be a Jedi.
• Palpatine: “Make sure of it. Bring her to me.”

CHANGE:

• Kylo Ren: “You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead.”
• Rey: “No.”
• Kylo Ren: “I’ll come tell you.”

CHANGE:

• "Rey: “Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill(take)a child? Tell me.”

RESTORE:

• Palpatine: “Long have I waited, for my grandchild to come home! I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine.”

RESTORE:

• Palpatine: "Your hatred, your anger. You want to kill me. That is what I want. Kill me… and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me… you will be Empress… we will be one.

Vader’s plan in the OT was never to kill Luke, but to turn him to the dark side for Palpatine, another TROS logic fail. But, I think if these few changes are able to be implemented it would definitely help clear up Palpatine’s plan and allow for some content to be restored.

Palp’s plan:

• Have Kylo bring Rey to him and turn her, so the Sith will be reborn with his bloodline. If Rey and Kylo don’t turn and try to kill him (which he assumes will be the end result), he will pass his spirit into one of them, preferably Kylo as he is already on the dark side. After Leia botches that option, he takes over turning Rey himself. Once Palps discovers the dyad and realizes he can use the two of them to restore himself, that is the final plan.

Kylo:

• Has more of a reason to side and work with Palpatine early on, he wants Rey to turn and join him to rule together (TLJ carry over), but he plans to defeat Palpatine with Rey together to remove him from the picture entirely (now that he is not aware of the spirit transfer). Palpatine is annoyed when Leia turns him back to the light. But is confident Rey will come to him anyways on her own so she can kill him and do the spirit transfer.

Rey’s struggle:

• Struggle with being a Jedi or join Ben in the dark side to rule… aka, a continuation from her arc from TLJ of “taking his hand and being together”. Rey decides to be a Jedi and makes the decision to kill the Emperor, but is shocked to find out that is what he wants, as Rey would never have the assumption that he wanted her dead, just that he was trying to get her for “reasons”.

I like the line, but the reading seems a little too high-pitched and doesn’t really match his cadence in the rest of the film.

Hal 9000 said:

Also, here’s the ancient text line in context. Sounds pretty good! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1au_fzjCMYIkOholtONUhSEokGnu2hqJX/view?usp=share_link

Jar Jar Bricks said:

I would nix “She still trained me.”

I’d agree, doesn’t really make sense in that context, does it? At that rate, the beginning of Luke’s next sentence needs to go too. I think it is a good concept, but we should just leave as is.

JEDIT: As much as the final lesson would be nice to include, I think the scene is more personal without it. And Luke’s 3 lessons were why the Jedi needed to end. He went back on that, no need for a lesson three or final lesson. And who knows, Luke may show up in the Rey movie as a force ghost to depart more wisdom, so it likely won’t be the final lesson in canon.

Luke: “What are you most afraid of?”

Rey: “Myself.”

Luke: “Because you’re a Palpatine? Leia struggled with her bloodline too.”

Rey: “She didn’t tell me.”

Luke: “Rey, final lesson, some things are stronger than blood…”

What if it isn’t the “dark” that Leia struggled with, but her bloodline and relation to Vader (which is canon I may add)? I think it makes Luke’s final lesson hit a LOT harder too.

Well, if we are revisiting it yet again, does this read better?

Luke:
“She was quick to learn in our training, but Leia was wary of the shadow that had turned our father. She felt she could better serve the galaxy through diplomacy, as our mother once did. She surrendered her saber to me and said that one day, it would be picked up again, by someone who would finish her journey.”

On the plus side, there is a big gap between sentences in the film. If you think of the scene without the flashback Luke and Rey are just awkwardly staring at Leia’s saber without speaking for a good 30 seconds. Maybe this fixes that LOL 😄

But overall, I love how we have it now and don’t think this is necessary dialogue to include.

I feel adding more to the line is overkill and not needed. Don’t need to turn Luke into Basil Exposition after all!

I think the whole Leia sending Ben away to train with Luke was explained enough as is in TFA and TLJ. Leia wasn’t a Jedi, Luke was. Leia sends Ben to get force help from a Jedi.

JEDIT: Plus, it makes Leia look like an even shittier mom knowing the darkness her son is struggling with and pawning him off on someone else.

RogueLeader said:

I honestly shut Star Wars edits mostly out of my mind when this stuff first started popping up because the possibilities were just too overwhelming.

For the sake of sanity… I think it would be wise for faneditors with pre-existing edits to ONLY revisit ideas that were like 98% completed towards what they wanted it to be, to help give it that extra 2% to complete their vision. And for any new edits, to only rely on AI voices to help implement a greater change elsewhere.

Otherwise, it’ll just be a crapshow where half a movie will be AI dialogue and it will lose the DNA that made it unique.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.

Ahh gotcha. Sorry bout that!

Wasn’t the line: “But Leia felt…” ?

NeverarGreat said:

Done!

Wizard

RogueLeader said:

First:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qNb_f7AwetG9cXlU6aFv3A3gIrOu6TbK/view?usp=drivesdk

Second:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iprhwpzpLeXs0St1Duk91IN9v4cWOm3a/view?usp=drivesdk

Option 2 sounds a little bit fuller/better to me on my headphones. Option 1 seems to have a slight AM radio-like effect to it.

NeverarGreat said:

A mockup of the Force Healing illustration:

That looks incredible! I do wonder if there can be some “>” arrows added on the line to better illustrate the person with his hand on the other is actually sending energy over, not draining it.

I think the family line works for Leia.

• Leia tells her she is family.

• Palpatine tells her she is family.

Rey has to decide if she chooses light or dark.

Palpatine’s line in the movie:
“They don’t have long. No one is coming to help them. And you are the one who led them here. Strike me down. Take the throne. Reign over the new Empire, and the fleet will be yours. Only you have the power to save them. Refuse, and your new family… dies.”

Hal 9000 said:

The longer line about diplomacy is not 100% seamless when baked in and having another real Hamill line right afterward, but sounds very good.

@JarJar, could a few different takes of the longer line help to alleviate this?

Worth cleaning up Rey’s new line when she fights Palpatine at the end?

Palpatine: “A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me!”
Rey: “I… I’m a Jedi.”

Hal:
“V3 is done. I only have a few small updates to my other edits and I am retiring from fanedits for now.”

@RogueLeader:
Innovates the AI line readings using a new method

Hal:

Interesting! That’s awesome.

Also, not sure if I missed the explanation, but how were y’all able to substantially improve the quailty of the AI voices pretty much overnight from V3 being released?

I think there is enough room to include

“I learned from the ancient texts. Force energy from me to him.”

Burbin said:

I personally think mentioning both the texts AND Leia in such a tight space feels too forced, and like, wouldn’t the texts themselves show her how? It’s a neat idea to have Leia be involved, but she’s already very involved in Ben’s redemption as it is, she sacrifices herself to reach out to him, and with the added shot of the medal it’s also implied she had a hand in Ben’s “memory” of Han. I think is fine if the Force Heal is left as a personal moment between Rey and Kylo/Ben, and it gives the ancient knowledge Rey decided to preserve a moment to shine in this film.

+1

And with the new flashback dialogue that leaves the amount of time Leia trained with Luke up in the air, I think it is better for this just to be a character moment for Rey showing that she is taking the initiative to learn as a Jedi on her own as well.

Rey: “Wait. Don’t shoot it. I’m going to try something from the Jedi texts.”

Not sure if this would read better or not… but as opposed to Rey already knowing it, she is trying it for the first time here.

Emperor Palpatine: At last. Snoke trained you well.

Kylo Ren: I killed Snoke. I’ll kill you.

Emperor Palpatine: My boy. I made trained Snoke.

Since Ascendant removes the notion of Snoke literally being created by Palpatine, maybe we give Snoke back some agency as a character in the ST?

If that does work out well too, we could better clean up his motivations about wanting to take over Rey since Kylo turned back to the light. I am thinking during the “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan” scene.

Time to revive the “more than a clone, less than a man” line?