RogueLeader, you’re a prodigy. Looking forward to what you’ll do! Be sure to document it with some pictures maybe. How cool; this project will generate bonafide hardware props.
Thought I’d go see what CaptainFaraday was planning for this same sequence for his novelization rewrite. Might be good for inspiration:
“Let’s split up, see what the locals know,” Poe said.
He and Finn headed off, but Rey’s legs were suddenly rooted in place. A pair of Acky Acky were performing a puppet show, and one of them had just used a word she recognised.
“Di sana berdiri Skywalker!”
All of the children gasped. Some of them cheered. Rey looked more closely at the puppets.
A little human figure made of twisted-up wire and tiny cloth robes stood in front of a blast door made of paper, the puppeteer pulling a string to make his arm brandish a little green wire sword at a puppet of an AT-AT walker. The walker had just fired some little pieces of red paper at him, to absolutely no effect. Then the children whooped and cheered again as the little wire man leapt at the walker, and the puppeteer flipped it over backwards with a cowardly little wail.
Luke’s saber on Crait that day had been blue, and Rey noticed immediately, as someone who lived in the burned-out shell of one for the better part of her life, that the walker had been designed after the old Imperial kind. She smiled. Even if some of the details weren’t perfect, she thought, the important part of the story was still there.
The children stared wide-eyed, sometimes gasping, sometimes laughing, as other exploits of puppet Luke were depicted. A mother dressed in bright pink sat amongst them, bouncing a pudgy infant in her arms. Instead of the long trunks of the adults, the children had rather stubby little noses and plump cheeks. Rey’s smile doubled as the baby chuckled at Luke knocking down a round dish that was clearly supposed to be the second Death Star.
Something tugged on her tunic, and she looked down to find a young Acky Acky girl in a green robe trying to get her attention. Rey knelt before her.
LABYRINTH OF EVIL was the name. I’ll send you a PM.
Yeah, he should look like he’s 30 and healthy.
We couldn’t possibly… deepfake that… right?
JEDIT: I recall thinking, though, that having him rejuvinated into… this ugly SOB actually validates a change I made to Episode III (and that L8wrtr and Kerr made before me) to depict his face transformation as a revelation rather than an injury.
The sweet spot to hit is something that would be “haha” for the kids but also “Mmmm, there’s that” to Rey.
The friendship theme from TROS is pretty damn good.
Me after saying V7 would be the absolute final version of my prequel projects…
lol, but really this might be a good idea. It seems like it helps to have a definite project to contribute to but open sourced clips and ideas could be useful as well and generate discussion.
Yeah, I’d be open to a “here you go” whole solution about the spice runner thing, but I won’t lean that way.
Let me try to say that a different way. I’m not gonna push for it but if anyone does want to pursue this I could add it to Ascendant if it feels fluid and legit. To me, though, there’s not really an issue with the original. And I’m sure there’ll be EU stuff to fill in his story.
Yeah, for thematic reasons it would be better to have the narrator say “Skywalker” rather than “Luke Skywalker.”
And Dominic, I just meant that one could walk away from seeing the Luke puppet disappear (quickly be pulled below the stage) thinking they were laughing at his apparent demise. If the TLJ scene were set right before this, I don’t think it’d be a problem at all but it could be misread.
Perhaps if the walker sends a fireball toward Luke but he disappears and the ball continues on its path without hitting him.
Yes, we could make the puppet show a few seconds longer if needed for the idea being pursued.
Also, if we slip “Skywalker” into the alien dialogue or replace the dialogue altogether, the name ‘Skywalker’ should be said before cutting to the stage so that the audience has a better chance at registering what it is meant to convey. We already get the hint that it’s about Luke’s exploits in TLJ ala Broom Boy.
Hopefully we can still allow that shot to make sense as it is, in context.
yeah, there’s no downside. Replace a background figure that doesn’t mean anything with something that either does or at least doesn’t any more than the original.
Ideally we could communicate something worthy of the laughter of the child crowd, but if not we could resort to cutting the shot.
As usual it’s hard to imagine what to do here because I don’t know what will end up being possible for you guys. Luke hitting a home run and taking down a walker? Having a walker collapse in sync with lowering his hand? Kylo Ren’s pants falling down?
Wow, MR, I’m beginning to worry about you. That looks insane. I’m sure the rest can be covered by foreground puppets or objects.
And lol @ just having them watch TLJ on a CRT.
I like this idea. I’d love to see the Luke puppet brush the dust off his shoulder, eliciting a laugh from the children.
I had the same thought, but I can’t imagine how you’d convey this so quickly.
What’s so funny about the original puppet thing anyway? Seemed like they were chucking a kid into the fire.
So you guys are apparently discussing an idea of Rey turning to see the children watching a puppet show of Luke’s actions in TLJ; I disagree with this. Why, you may ask?
The point of the scene with the Aki Aki children is to establish the stakes for the movie, to drive home our connection with the galaxy (especially in the context of this film alone) and show what the heroes are really fighting for; reducing it to a payoff of the events of TLJ undermines that.
I don’t see how that would be the case at all. I read the scene as hammering home how Rey grew up orphaned and without a sense of community. She sees a communal experience with children laughing together and is then asked her family name, to which she has to admit she has none.
Star Wars hasn’t really ever cared about tying stakes to anything solid; it’s always been abstract or related to the main characters’ own connections, from Alderaan to Naboo and ever on.
Tying this moment to the Battle of Crait isn’t a payoff, it’s carrying that idea forward. We see how the legend leads to a revival and rise of Skywalker that coincides with Rey taking the name. It is thematically important for this film, building on the previous one, which makes it even more valuable IMHO.
At the end of the day I’d say go for whatever is doable, as having something will be better than having nothing but a good idea.
I imagine the Luke figure batting fire toward the walker would be the best bet for about a second of footage followed by laughter. If Luke vanished without reappearing it may seem like the children are laughing at the defeat of this traitorous Jedi figure.
Even so, there’s probably a better idea in one of our heads.
Thanks for the kind words, and it’s always the best feedback to hear about someone seeing one of these and not noticing anything.
The Force speed was never removed from prior versions, and has been there all along. It’s a fair issue with the original film, but I never tackled it as such.
The second thing is indeed something altered. The snippet where Anakin pulls alongside Sebulba only to get flamed was added after being upscaled from the DVD deleted scenes reel. In that reel, a snippet of Tusken Raiders shooting at Jawas was set between those two shots.
To me the prequels are very much finished products at this point, so I don’t foresee going back yet again. Seven versions is enough for me, I’m pretty sure.
Right. This project isn’t an indictment, it’s making kick-ass spiked lemonade.
Damn, you guys are on it! Nothing should surprise me anymore.
Rey looks thoughtfully at the children watching after this shot, so it would really feel like it belonged there to begin with.
Man, I’m looking forward to what you madlads can do with real props and filming. Holy shit.
JEDIT: Aaaaaand, what does a cute little alien ask Rey right after this?
I would be more than happy to include such a thing if it can be done and feel relatively seamless. Crazy to me that there’s anyone out there who thinks, “Yeah, that sounds like something possible for me to do.”
That was a weird episode. What were those random zombies? lol
Yeah, it’d be nice for something more substantial to Luke’s effect beyond a new opening crawl and “For Skywalker” during the attack.
And MR, that saber clip is gorgeous. Beautiful introduction to it!
Hey, that’s a cool idea! I think it would be just a little muddy to have the First Order seeming to invade the galaxy all at once while Palpatine’s announcement goes out. Seems like they’d already have done that well before this point.
I don’t think I’ll go for it for this project, but it’s certainly cool!