Hal 9000

Maybe I’m old school, but I find it impossible to get too excited about much beyond the Skywalker Saga.

I still frame it the old way: things that have “Episode __” in the title are ‘Star Wars’ proper, and everything else is Expanded Universe and may or may not be steamrolled at any time. That’s remained true in recent years despite official denial. Fight me.

So now that the grande finale of Episode IX has graced us, all there is to do with the rest of time is generate endless amounts of EU material, the equivalent of a mountain of paperback novels despite the form factor or cost to produce.

Worlds serve stories, and once the story is told the world goes away. To set something else in the same world is merely to craft a similar world for a new story.

I feel like TFA and especially TLJ have enough merit to include, and I’ve invested a great deal into each. It ends with the death and figurative rebirth of the main hero, ending on a meta-reflection about people being impacted by the stories.

But, doesn’t it leave the plot unresolved? Not really, since the ST sets up the idea that empires and rebellions will continue to cycle around one another endlessly, anyway. No matter where you end the plot, the themes of TLJ are where they end with meaning.

I wouldn’t loathe this movie so much if it weren’t ostensibly the conclusion of the saga. In that respect, it fails utterly.

I can’t imagine ending a saga viewing with this. Broom boy is where it’ll have to be.

See the FAQ there. Those messages are always temporary, so try again a little later. Or see the workaround described in the FAQ.

Jannah was a love interest for Lando.

Also, we need to give Rey’s father a third eye.

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I’ve always thought that was dumb. Of all the EU to cull from…

orchidal said:

It’s unfortunate that Disney won’t learn the correct lessons from this fallout.

A-goddamn-fuckin’-men.

I think JJ (not necessarily just the man but the collective of all the “filmmakers” and suits involved) felt inadequate and so self-sabotaged the story.

Sometimes you don’t have it in you to do something good, so you opt to do something intentionally dumb, hoping charm will pull it off.

I offer the following Christmas cookie as evidence:

Good.

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Good.

It helps to have such a supportive community. I mean, it’s great that my and poppasketti’s TLJ edits both exist, right? Even though they share a lot of their DNA, each was worth producing.

TFA has that elegant idea emerge from across the Internet: move Hosnian destruction to third act. TLJ was mostly addressing unrelated things a given editor saw fit to change.

TROS seems so very cramped, but I shouldn’t underestimate the creativity and genius that will likely be applied to this in time. And with any luck, the act of doing fan editing work on this one will represent making the best of it and help accept it for future enjoyment.

Still that fiery spit of hope. You have the spirit of a true SW fan editor!

And for that… you must suffer.

But, I can think of few more qualified than you to take something like this on.

And because I’m an exceedingly weird guy, here’s this thought: TROS used the same font in the crawl for the title as TFA, which was distinct from the one used for TLJ and most of the others. If, and I’d say only if, ‘Rey Palpatine’ is undone, change it to that other font.

I’m fairly confident that ‘Rey Palpatine’ can safely be excised from TROS.

However, if it is to be left, I wonder if TLJ should be adjusted. TROS really weaves around TLJ to make it all work: Kylo pulls out a ‘certain point of view’ about Rey’s parents being nobodies, and Luke clarifies that somehow Leia knew Rey was a Palpatine while he did not.

I wonder if merely removing the second-or-two of TLJ in which she admits to Kylo, “They were nobody,” would be enough. TLJ makes an ironclad case for ‘Rey Nobody’ because she searches her feelings and reluctantly admits it, even stating it on her own before Kylo does. Then TROS does almost the same thing, except this time Rey was suppressing the truth that she is a Palpatine.

This way, Kylo still goads her to admit something, but provides the answer himself, making him even more deceptive.

The other issue that jumps out at me is the dark side… hole. But, I suppose it might just never reveal anything of substance to anyone who would venture within. Maybe it doesn’t really give new information. However, thematically it reinforces Rey Nobody.

God damn, Rey Palpatine seems stupid, and just very thematically astray. It’s like they thought, “Well, let’s just make the last movie complete trash and be done with it.”

I feel obligated to do some sort of project for IX, if for no other reason than to complete the set. But I am uniquely stifled for time, energy, etc. compared even to when I was working on TLJ. Everything I’ve done since having kids has been somewhat modular, making it doable.

I need to let this movie exist for a while and maybe do some desensitization therapy. But who knows? Maybe it’d be better to sort of ‘endorse’ or adopt the work of another editor, depending on what ends up being produced.

Eh, I’m sure I’ll do something. But it sure isn’t going to be my brainchild from start to finish. I know full well it’ll be a compendium of good ideas from the collective.

rtrindade31 said:

-Lando saying to the horse girl “LETS FIND OUT TOGETHER” or something like that. He sounded like an old pervert.

RIGHT?

Well, maybe an early comic. Or those ‘Glove of Darth Vader’ kid books.

JEDIT: (Regarding NeverArGreat)

Spot on. Thanks for writing it.

The only hope for this film would be for that older cut to be finished and presented as an extended cut, but there’s no chance of that.

As the Jedi speak to Rey, add a new Sam Jackson line: “Waste the motherfucker.”

I’m sure I’ll find my footing and gain a sense of fan-editor-optimism with time, but my first reaction to the movie (with regards to this sort of thing) is, to quote Luke, “If you’re not going to take this seriously, I’m out.”

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Yes, indeed.

What rumors?