Hal 9000

No, I don’t want to bring up a lot of unnecessary baggage by alluding to that classic line.

If we put back Palpatine’s line, “I never wanted you dead, I wanted you here,” it would not be clear that he changed his plans. Originally he really did want her alive all along, even when she was a child. The narrative for Ascendant is that he really was trying to have her killed, since he had already invested years and years into Kylo Ren with that mighty Skywalker blood. But when he was redeemed into Ben again, Palpatine made Rey the next target to corrupt and become able to possess. So if that line were reinstated, the audience would take it as the truth and be confused. And since we can’t have that line, the way to clarify he’s changed his plans is to interject something into the hologram scene. Unless we want “the Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan but her foolish act will be in vain” to do the heavy lifting. But it still wouldn’t help the audience see through Palpatine stating he always wanted Rey there.

The Rey Nobody edit, like all of these fan edits, exists in a parallel universe in which it is the final film that was presented and marketed to the world. (Nevermind that this parallel universe would probably also have its own Hal9000 project.)

In other words, the reader must be assumed to be someone for whom this version simply is the movie, with no other context assumed.

Good point about the Final Order line. If needed I bet the wide shot of the hologram could be looped.

Or just: “The final order begins. Vader’s grandson has proved unworthy of the throne, but the girl must now be tested. Let her approach.”

Also, I added to my list the possibility of replacing “lightspeed skip/ram” with something else. If slip/skip/nip/snip ends up sounding good in two matching generated lines I’m all for it.

Impressive! The first line sounds good but the second doesn’t quite yet.

I like that.

Hell, maybe use his hologram scenes from episode three as well.

Yes, that’s right. Poe and Palpatine are the two outstanding things. Palpatine is not strictly necessary, but if we wanted to potentially add some thing to the hologram scene, it might be doable.

I’ll play with those Poe lines next chance I get. RL, got the raw Jannah lines?

RogueLeader said:

I had a go at the Finn and Jannah scene.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JVfNWEHbAeUcyaNeV9w66N-iYoT2XSiJ

Already have! But thanks for the reminder.

Here is the current roster of changes for V4, written as though already complete.

The vision Rey experiences while training with the remote has been heavily modified to better establish her apprehension about the Sith throne and her sense of unworthiness, and has been separated from Kylo’s vision (help from DominicCobb)

Added a new illustration to the ancient Jedi texts to foreshadow the healing technique seen in this film (illustration by NeverarGreat, composited by RogueLeader)

After Rey heals the sandworm, she mentions to BB8 that she learned how “from the ancient texts,” involving them to a greater extent in the movie to increase a sense of connection to TLJ (AI voice provided Jar Jar Bricks)

Changed Rey’s line to Leia as she turns over the lightsaber from “your brother’s saber” to “your family’s saber” to begin to plant a seed about eventually identifying herself with the Skywalker family (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

In a callback to a line modified earlier, when Leia hands Leia the saber before she departs the base, she tells Rey, “You are family” (AI line provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

During the flashback to Luke and Leia training together, replaced mention that Leia sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path with mention that she felt called to serve via diplomacy as their mother did (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

New dialogue for Poe during the briefing scene establishes clearly that the Final Order fleet consists of modified ships from the Empire, rather than implying they were built from the ground up later on (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks and RogueLeader)

Added a line for Kylo Ren calling Palpatine “a ghost in a rotting clone” (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

Added two brief lines for Jannah to establish that her stormtrooper mutiny was inspired by Finn (AI lines provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

There’s certainly promise there, but as they are they do stick out. It’ll really throw Finn a bone as a character.

The more things we try to use AI to address, the flimsier the whole becomes. I’m leaning against it unless it addresses things that were already shortcomings in prior versions of reaching for the project’s goals.

That said, there ought to be more radical edits in time based on some of these ideas.

IMHO the one in ANH feels conspicuous to me not to be there, but ROTJ’s feels tacked on. I’m not a fan of the added shockwave rings in general, and I’d like to avoid having all the large explosions in the OT but only those in the OT having them. I’m hoping in a future revision to be able to ditch the one added to Alderaan, leaving just the first Death Star’s.

Use AI voice to give Sidious a new instruction to Nute Gunray in TPM.

“Make them all die.”

PM sent

Boy, oh boy, that’s interesting. The delivery isn’t quite there, but going through several permutations may yield something perfect. It’d probably need some reverb added, and it may be tricky to get to feel right in 5.1. I still don’t feel it’s necessary, as it seems weird (albeit, strangely fitting for Palpatine’s style) for him to advertise to her that she is his Plan B.

You’re right! I don’t have the scene memorized, but yes that’s right. No issue then. 😃

I really don’t see a need to assign Palpatine any AI lines, at least for the Rey Palpatine version. I find myself as the naysayer at the moment about that aspect.

I agree that Rey’s parents still do need to be set up, but that dialogue for him sounds perfect for the Rey Nobody version of this.

I like the idea of Jannah attributing her company’s own awakening to Finn’s, like a ripple effect. Might just be a touch weird she does not react to him identifying himself or that she doesn’t recognize him on sight.

I do like that improvement on the line, but it’s implied she doesn’t trust him. It’s a fair idea, but I don’t want to crack open TLJ:L again for it. I gotta avoid constantly updating for stuff, lol.

Nah, but I’m all right with that. The point the line would highlight is already implied by the story as we have it, and somehow I feel more okay with use of AI for 9 than for 8. I’m gonna leave TLJ as final for me.

I doubt that it would fit in snuggly, and I don’t want to replace Luke’s line. I can give it a try though.

I don’t remember which clip, but one of those “he’s too dangerous” takes worked well!

I tried adding “you come from nothing” but it felt jammed in. I’ll play with it further.

And I inserted the saber breaking since it is a nice reminder to the audience about it given what we’ve done to it for Ascendant. Both the crackly effect and her expressing she doesn’t deserve the Skywalker family saber.

Here’s an updated vision sequence.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JYKveluSYkKQ--zSWQjxNZ-xgPyhI1pa/view?usp=share_link