Just finished your TFA edit… and your TLJ one seems really incredibile, due to the work you are doing with Luke. Can I have a link? Thanks!
As a longtime EU fan I’m really interested in this edit! Can I have a link? Thanks!
Then this is the edit for you! Sent, but mind the bug list stated in OP. After a few more reviews I’ll release the final cut.
I finally seen your edit. Great job! You managed to make to movie less an ANH remake and I especially like to work you have done with Rey, making her not the unrealistically overpowered character of the original cut.
I still have problem with the film per se; I can’t stand the idea of the First Order being an Empire ripoff and the laking of a brand new worldbuilding. But this is one of the core problems of the sequel trilogy and you have done a good job, given the poor source material. Bravo!
As a longtime EU fan I’m really interested in this edit! Can I have a link? Thanks!
Then this is the edit for you! Sent, but mind the bug list stated in OP. After a few more reviews I’ll release the final cut.
Thank you! 😃
As a longtime EU fan I’m really interested in this edit! Can I have a link? Thanks!
Hi. Can I have a link? Thank you! 😃
Hi, your edit seems really interesting! Can I have a link? Thank you!
Hi, may I have the link? Thanks!
Hi. Can I have a link to your edit? It sounds really interesting.
Thanks!
Your probably right. As much as the sequels arn’t for me, I actually like Finn but that might be just due to John’s likeability. He’s a cool guy lol. I actually felt bad when he was going to sacrifice himself. So, yeah it would be good to keep them together as to establish character etc. Hopefully find some lines from Poe that can be mashed together to give some sort of explanation to Finn when they meet up again so that he didn’t leave for no reason.
I think the character of Finn, Rey and Poe, especially as they are portrayed in TFA, are the best thing of this trilogy.
Not a bad crawl, I might actually use this as a template and tweak it a bit for my own edit, If you don’t mind lol.
Of course, feel free to use it! Exchange ideas is the main reason of this topic!
I think the biggest problem would be with a continuity issue due to Kylo Ren with his helmet off/on and scarred face/no scar. Mainly since the whole trilogy would be completely rearranged.
Yes. But if the story is improved, I think this would be a minor issue (and maybe the scar can be added or removed by someone with a good knowledge of After Effects or similar programs?)
Also, as you said previously, I would also prefer Luke to go in person. Would be easy enough to do.
I’m thinking about it and I still don’t know how easy would it be. Why does it appear so young? How does he survive? Or is he killed in the duel? One option would be moving the duel at the end of TFA, explaining why he is younger. Or could he be digitally aged to make him duel at the end of TLJ? (maybe the best option)
Need to keep in mind that his lightsaber would have to be recolored and handle replaced with his green one.
Yes! That’s mandatory!
Would love an actual clash of blades too but no idea how to properly pull that off. Maybe I’m just dreaming but I’m gonna try anyway.
… speaking of dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmOPXhFensg 😄
Yeah, I totally get that and I did think of that while thinking of this. The idea was to reduce the number of coincidences and the fact that Poe is so eager to take Finn back to Jakku but then just goes back to base after crashing.
Coincidences in original cut - Map and Rey are on the same planet, BB8 runs into Rey, Rey and BB8 run into Finn, the 3 run into Han, Rey Finds the lightsaber at Mazs castle where Han takes them (maybe more?).
In this version - Map and Rey are on the same planet, BB8 runs into Rey.
Far less in this version. I guess running into Finn would just be one more but then Poe just leaves without BB8. I dunno.
I see your point. As Pixar’s Emma Coats says “Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.” But, given the material we have, we’d end up with Rey and Finn as strangers… I don’t know about that…
Not sure how you would turn the Resistence into the New Republic aside from the crawl. There must be a lot of important dialogue with “The Resistance” in it and almost no one says New Republic so there isn’t any chance of dubbing over.
I’d try (but I don’t know if it’s possible) to trim the dialogue to avoid any mention of the Resistance, while establishing the New Republic in the crawl. This is a possible TFA crawl that:
Anyway, here’s the crawl:
Luke Skywalker has vanished! The Jedi Master left in order to find the SACRED JEDI TEXTS, the ancient books containing the knowledge and the wisdom needed to rebuild the Order.
Luke doesn’t know that, in his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER is born from the ashes of the Empire, menacing the fragile NEW REPUBLIC, for which Princess Leia Organa is tirelessly traveling as ambassador from system to system, hoping to annex as many planets as possible.
Desperate to find her brother Luke, Leia has sent the most daring pilot of the Republic on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a map to the possible Luke’s whereabouts…
I have more or less the same feelings as the OP and yeah, there is bearly any explination on whats going on politics wise etc. I had no idea where the First Order came from or why the New Republic and the Resistance weren’t part of the same team. It wasn’t until much later that I found it all out by reading. The New Republic didn’t see the First Order as a threat so started laying down weapons, Leia thought otherwise and created the Resistance etc. It’s a lot for a faneditor to cram into an opening crawl, especially when also having to explain about the map and Luke.
Yes. This is why I’d like to make the Resistance just the New Republic. Simple and logic, after the ending of ROTJ.
This will be a long post but my thoughts on how to do this was:
TFA - Somehow fit into the crawl who the First Order are and that Luke has gone to the island for the Jedi Temple. Luke is now needed but they don’t know where the temple is. The guy with the map at the start of TFA knows where and gives them the map (full map).
Events carry on as normal but Finn and Poe escape in the Tie, no crash. First Order go for the droid on the planet below as they got it out of him earlier. Next time we see Finn and Poe is when they enter the Resistance base together. Troopers catch Rey with the droid, the run to escape and board the falcon, Falcon vs Ties then Rey asks bb8 where the base is. Finn would have to be masked out of shots and any fire coming from the falcon will have to be removed as, obviously, Finn isn’t there to shoot. Will take a lot of work but Ive quickly looked over it and I think its possible.
Scenes from TLJ tell us that they are tracking the Falcon using the new tech. Rey lands at the Resistance base (can use shots from the planet where Maz’s castle is as the scenery is quite similar as far as I can remember). When the Falcon lands BB8 reunites with Poe and Han and Chewie enter (still a general and part of the Resistence) and discuss the map with Rey on board (whered you get this from? Jakku. I told you we should of searched there Chewie etc) BB8 shows the full map to Leia. Rey goes down the stairs to find Lukes lightsaber and leaves for training. First order appear above (as they were tracking the falcon) and they have to evacuate the base.
TLJ evacuation and escape is intercut with Rey meeting luke and training begins, Resistance lands on Crait. Film ends on Rey swinging her staff at the rocks and cuts on Lukes face.
TLJ - Crawl says that its been a few days since TFA, First Order know that the Resistance are trapped so have spent the time rearming and have brought in the walkers. Rey has been training for the same length of time. When we first see Rey she is now using her lightsaber on the rock to mirror her at the end of the last film.
Ive got tons more ideas and a good bit of TLJ worked out but I’ll leave it at that for now. I’ll be working on my own version at some point in the future (probably after EP9) but your welcome to take any ideas of mine.
Edit: Since reading your post again, the part about snoke - if it isn’t answered in EP9, I may shange the reflection Rey sees of herself to Snoke. In the waterfall shot after, instead of a voiceover from Rey, we hear Palpatine say something like “Darth Plegasis was so powerful, he was able to create life” or whatever he said. This would answer who he is and tie the sequels into the prequels a bit better. Currently, the sequel trilogy feels more like its been forced onto the end of episodes 1-6 and doesn’t quite connect as episode 6 seemed so final.
WOOOOO! So many great ideas! Apart from not having Rey and Finn together in TFA (I really like how they interact), this is working very well! And the “Snoke is Plagueis” thing could be good if IX fails to give us some explanation about him.
Of course we can remove the egrigious third Death Star
Yes. That’s mandatory!
reducing Starkiller Base to just that: a base.
Yes. Or maybe, just maybe, the FO capital planet?
I would like to add cacti to Jakku and maybe water to make it more distinct from Tatooine.
That would be great! Or, maybe, just changing the sand and/or sky colour could be enough to make Jakku different.
Han’s character can be fixed extremely easily by making him a Resistance general who does smuggling on the side, and was sent to find out what happened to Poe. If you remove the Rathtar scene like so many seem to, you could even make him a fulltime general with no smuggling.
How do you make him search for Poe? I don’t recall him even speak about or interact with him.
I don’t see any problem with what happened to Luke’s character, and while I do agree it sucks to be back to the “last Jedi” status quo, there’s not much we can do about it.
Well… I’m wondering if it’s possible to move the Luke Vs. Kylo duel at the end of VII, making Luke to be actually there. And then having the Rey training in VIII, as it is but before she make any use of the Force. Of course this isn’t easy…
Luke had no problem lifting his lightsaber from the snow in ESB. I agree that performing a mind trick is on a whole other level, and thus should be cut, but that’s about it.
Luke already had some sort of training with Ben a the beginning of TESB. Before meeting Ben he wasn’t able to do any of the Force related stuff. So should be Rey before meeting Luke.
For the record, I got no problem with the grammar of that statement, but with the meaning.
it really should be “somewhat tied together.”
It should be “weakly tied and mostly disconnected.”
I see you point. What I meant was that ROTS ends with the Empire established, Vader “born”, Obi-Wan in hiding, and so on. And we find the same situation at the opening of ANH: Luke and Leia are grown ups, Obi-Wan is older, but the setting is the same, that’s the natural evolution of the situation we saw at the end of ROTS.
And we should have seen something similar between the OT and the ST. Instead we discover that too much has happened between the movies and the situation at the beginning of TFA is the opposite of the one at the end of ROTJ.
If you’re going to nitpick grammar, you shouldn’t say “somehow tied.” I suspect you mean “somewhat tied.” And if we’re going to go that far it really should be “somewhat tied together.”
Yes, sorry, I’m not a native speaker.
And yes, the trilogies could have been tied better but after TFA and TLJ came out, the prequels’ problems appear to me as insignificant, compared to the ones of the sequels.
Anyway, this list of things are just my two cents. I know that some ideas are very difficult to realise but still some of them could be of interest to some fan editor. Just not stop reading at my made-up-in-two-seconds nickname. 😛
Hello there!
I’m a long time lurker, in love with the fan edits world. I could have continued to silently enjoy the great edits but I had to come out and speak, because “something terrible has happened”: the Sequel Trilogy!
Jokes aside: I see that there are TFA edits already and that the TLJ edit ideas are been discussed. But, IMHO, those two films need so much restructuring, not just some trims. I see great problems at the foundation of the story and I’m not even sure something can be done to save the wrecking ship that this trilogy is.
Anyway, for the sake of discussion, this are the major points a hypothetical edit should take into account:
Any trilogy is its own thing
The Original Trilogy and the Prequels are really different, both visually and storywise (and yet, at the end of ROTS the two trilogies appears to be wonderfully tied). The sequels are just a copy-paste of the OT: their design are too similar the OT ones and, so much worse, the story it’s almost a rip off of the episodes IV to VI.
What should be done: totally rethink and rework the movies, even mixing them, to make the best out of the shot and try to tell a new story.
The rebels won the war
They won. Period. We can’t accept to see that nothing changed. That the OT characters and their efforts lead to NOTHING at all. We can’t be satisfied with just a line in the TFA’s crawl saying that “the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire” to make us watch the same Empire Vs Rebellion story we already saw. I, personally, find depressing seeing the New Republic been destroyed in ten seconds, compared with the great ad “historically accurate” Palpatine’s rise to power we see in the prequels.
What should be done: contextualize the First Order as the reorganised Imperial remnant, a second grade power in a galaxy changed since the OT.
A historical setting
The Galactic Empire is a sort of mashup between the Third Reich and the Roman Empire. Historically both of them (like almost every great political power) saw their old territories fractured after the fall: the end of a strong central power lead to a divided political setting. We should think at the after-ROTJ galaxy as the Europe of the VI century AD, with many little states in place of the Empire. The New Republic could be the biggest power, controlling the core system. The First Order could control a relatively big “piece of the cake” in the outer rim. And then we could have single indipendent planets, systems or sector (Mandalorian Space? Hutt Space? and so on…). The Jedi could have been evolved in a “super partes” organisation, not just tied the Republic but the entire galaxy.
What should be done: Make Hosnian into Coruscant. Make it been bombed (but not destroyed) by Snoke’s ship as the first act of war. Make Leia be a representative for the Republic in a mission to seek help to other nation against the FO treat. Make Luke the Master of a new generation by imply that there are other Jedi out there or by shooting new scene with new Jedi.
Legacy characters need to be respected
Han and Leia are back to their OT selves. Luke is a depressed asshole. No way.
What should be done: make Leia a Republic representative. Give Han some purpose, some background, whatever. Make Luke a believable evolution of his young self: he can be depressed for what happened with Kylo but he can’t be beat. And make is new generation of Jedi a reality. We already seen “the last Jedi in exile” (Ben and Yoda), let’s see something new.
Inconsistencies with the depicting of the Force
No one can use the Force without training. Nor even Anakin could.
What should be done: trim, cut, mix the movies so that Rey can’t use the Force until she’s been trained by Luke. And, oh, make Luke actually be on Crait. The whole Jedi projection thing is a never-seen-before-bulls**t.
Snoke
Really? The character who brought back chaos in the galaxy is just a no one?
What should be done: give him a background! Is he a former inquisitor? A secret apprentice? Palpatine’s pizza boy? Whatever. He could even be edited out and / or replaced with a new (old) character in order to explain why and how the “Empire” is back.
Now back to reality: I think is pointless to do any of this until Episode IX is out. And we even don’t know if the story of the ST’s character will be finished by there or there will be new movies (so other fan edit material) with them. But I see so many problems with these two movies that I had to speak out.
And I also know that some proposal are near to impossibile (shot new scenes? WTF!) But Adywan is doing it so, maybe, just maybe, are not so impossible.