No, there isn’t. However, if that’s the only change desired from mine, it’d be a relatively easy thing to do as a learning experience.
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I haven’t fully decided for certain, but this recent slew of ideas feels like it ideally would belong to a Starlight-type project based on Ascendant. We’ll see, but most likely it won’t be included in Ascendant itself.
My introduction to Star Wars came around the time of TPM, and before I had my own copy of the OT we would rent them from Blockbuster. On the shelf there was the ‘Faces’ trilogy as well as one labeled ‘Special Edition.’ So I’d rented both versions a time or two before ultimately (my parents) buying a copy of the SE on VHS (the box set with Vader on the box which farts if you close it just right). A while later, I got into this forum and appreciated the preservation of the original versions which turned out to be discarded by the LFL.
So when I play the movies in my head I get a mix of the OOT and SE.
By the time I get to this project a few years ago there are many sources for both versions as well as other fan projects that do all sorts of things visually to the movies. For example, Adywan’s Revisited project which radically overhauls the visuals are very impressive and enjoyable. However, the feel of watching the movie is rather different as well. My personal preference is to retain the overall character of the original filmmaking even if select things the SE updated remain. (If the SE never existed I don’t think I’d feel a need to do this at all, but since I grew up on it, it seems natural to want to make a hybrid personal version.)
So, I wanted to mostly stick with just hybridizing the OOT and SE versions, and that was my guideline. Filmmaking things like small continuity errors or misaligned effects don’t usually bother me. So I tried to thread the needle between the various official versions, guided by my sense of taste. For ANH, I wanted to retain the SE’s improved visuals of certain locations and ships but avoid ugly CGI creatures in the foreground. However, the latter can’t be done fully without sacrificing a sense of cohesion (wondering why so many establishing shots were redone but not the speeder approaching Mos Eisley, for instance). So I tried to strike a balance in that regard. For ESB, I don’t mind most of the SE changes but I removed those that threw off the pacing. I don’t have a lot of love for the SE of ROTJ, so this one leans toward the original version while keeping some of the SE touches. And of course I present both endings because people tend to have strong preferences for them.
I did decide to include a few changes made by fans as well, but only when I felt they were ‘demanded’ by the movies themselves in a way. The hyperspace tunnel in ANH after they escape the Death Star solves a problem since dialogue and the sound design places the scene in hyperspace despite no visual evidence of this.
Then there are fan changes to SE changes. To me if the SE tried something but fell short of what it seems to be trying to do, it makes sense to use fan changes that help it. For instance, Adywan fixing a continuity error about Cloud City’s interior windows which was caused by the SE forgetting to add a window later in a scene where it should still be visible. Or the SE Emperor in ESB being made to look a lot better. (Or me trying to make the Temeura Morrison redub of Boba Fett sound a little more menacing than his '04 DVD recording that sounded literally phoned in with one take.)
Ultimately I’d like the original trilogy to thread the needle between the original filmmaking, noble aspects of the SE, sensible tweaks for continuity with the ever-spreading body of other SW works, and feel ‘right’ to my younger self who was equally familiar with both official versions. Inevitably this cannot be perfect, but that’s why it’s simply my ‘custom special edition’ take which I’d want to have on a shelf alongside the best available presentation of the original versions.
But that’s neither here nor there. At least we have SOMETHING in Ascendant that’s better than the original quick transition to Mustafar’s surface.
Right on, to both of these quoted statements. IDGAF about the drummed up drama. About fan edits, of all things.
About Kylo’s dialogue. It’s not that it’s a bad rewrite, but I’d like to avoid more AI dialogue than is necessary. I’ll have to let it sit and think on it, but it isn’t strictly necessary.
ESB has now been updated in the usual places to address the audio error of Kenobi’s line change being accidentally omitted. While I was at it, I used DrDre’s Color Matching Tool to further tweak the colors for several scenes. Nothing lifechanging, but a bit better since I had to reupload it anyway.
FWIW, skimming back through this thread, this is the most recent writeup of the dialogue that I personally think I’d have found more or less clear.
“Rey….wherever you are…You are hard to find.
“You are hard to get rid of.”
“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. You are destined for darkness. Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“You were right…your parents were no one. They had no power in the Force.”
“Don’t!”
“But you did. Like my grandfather, you were different, powerful…”
“I don’t want this!”
“…and the Sith took notice.”
“No!”
“Your parents couldn’t escape them.”
(Rey sees the vision of her parents and her abandonment.)
“My Love…be brave.”
“You’ll be safe here…I promise.”
“Come back! Nooo!”“They paid for your protection…in more than one way.”
“Stop talking.”
“Rey…I know what happened to them.”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“Your parents heard rumors of a hidden settlement, a sanctuary of the Force. They took you to Jakku, hoping you’d be safe. But then their luck ran out. They were captured…by an agent of the Emperor.”
(Rey sees her parents get killed.)
“So that’s where you are.”
“You know why Palpatine’s assassin was searching for you. I’ll come tell you.”
…
“Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”
“He didn’t want to kill you, Rey. He created you…through the power of the Dark Side. Just like he created my grandfather.”
“You and I are vessels for the Emperor’s spirit, heirs to the dark throne. That is why we are connected…to each other…and to him. But we can kill him, and bring a new order to the galaxy…together.”
“You know what you need to do. You know.”
“I do.”
I took the new dialogue and edited it into the hangar scene and I’m confident that I can work whatever dialogue gets produced into these scenes without issue. (I didn’t literally just slot together components for Ascendant; there was a great deal of audio work involved.)
I have not fully read the past several pages of discussion, but are these changes something Nev plans to implement in a TROS edit?
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I have fixed the audio oversight about Kenobi saying “A Jedi master who instructed me” in ESB, and refined the color correction a bit as well purely because I had to rerelease it for that reason. It’ll be updated soon.
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About the 4K question: There won’t be 4K versions. I don’t own anything capable of 4K playback, and there are plenty of 1080p and lower resolution source material used across the saga of fan edits.
I made it subtler, yes.
Actually is worded “Final lesson,” but yes.
FWIW, I feel that having Kylo Ren shoot down her on-screen memories of her parents acting nobly doesn’t work. In movie parlance, I gotta take those as real. I’d suggest allowing the retcon to be that in TLJ Kylo Ren was basically correct in reporting that he say her parents as “filthy junk traders,” though was speculating when he said that they “sold you off for drinking money.”
And yeah, I’m pro-kiss as well. It was the least dry thing in the whole movie, and gave Ben his only smile in the films.
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It would if you just had Kylo remembering Han’s words in TFA. You could potentially have Kylo hear both of their voices, like stream of consciousness.
That would serve TLJ the best anyway, Luke occupying his mind “just like [his] father.”
But, the scene serves a purpose already and we have his vision flashback at the start of the film to illustrate this. If we had it be a ghost conversation rather than a set of memories, that’d be different, but the problem there is that it’s undercut Luke’s existing introduction in the movie later (aside from flashbacks).
If it can be audio-only, I’d be okay with trying to make it a separate track. But unless Rey’s mother is biologically hers, I’d think some visual alterations would be necessary.
I feel like this concept of them being surrogate parents deviate too much from canon.
I agree. I hope that there does end up being a Starlight version of TROS from Nev, and I will be very happy to help with it any way that I can. But I don’t think for Ascendant it makes sense to deviate very far from the original story (or, more to the point, plot).
As an audience member I’d have a lot of questions about why they’d be assigned to raise and kill a child, as that phrasing makes it sounds like a single overall assignment.
And I still have a hard time getting over that Rey’s mother looks just like her.
Too bad to make Rey’s mother barren because she looks a great deal like her.
Also, I don’t get the thing about the New Republic busting a trade. Seems superfluous and needlessly confusing.
Nev, that’s a real nice mock-up for using a bit more of the buffalo with the chess game. I’m not entirely sure I’ll want to use it, as I’ve gotten used to the more striking introduction to these characters with, “T minus five!” But your approach adds a nice little callback aspect to the ending.
And JJB, you raise a titillating point about potentially using two audio tracks, with wildly different plotting for the Rey Palpatine stuff. That’s such a bonkers idea, but I’d be open to it. Moreso than using it straight out. It’ll depend on all the necessary audio being realized but if there’s enthusiasm for it, that seems like a safe way to play it. 😃
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This concept seems to make Rey’s father superfluous.
I do like DZ’s wording best so far, for what it’s worth. Again, I’m not sold on this being all-around advisable for this particular project but would still like to see it realized fully if possible.