Neerb

My big problem with this whole idea is that it absolutely kills the fight scene. The big battle just screeches to a halt for a lengthy hallucination dream dialog where Kylo mid-combat is suddenly talked out of being evil with the same converaation that failed to work on him last time, and then just as suddenly unpauses again for more violence. It doesn’t flow well at all as a scene (scenes?), and imo make Kylo’s turn less believable because of how sudden it is in the middle of an unrelated event (in the original he has a near-death experience, and his mother’s death, and a last pleading by Rey, before then having some time to think about his life and make the decision). And all we gain from this change is to turn his memory of Han and inner-turmoil into a mind trick by Leia.

The idea is certainly intriguing, but I just don’t buy it when watching it, where as the original theatrical was a more powerful moment for me (as least, given the circumstances with zombie Carrie Fisher).

Solo fan edit, retitled “Han.”

Officer: “What’s your name, son?”
Han: “Han.”
Officer: “Han what? Who are your people?”
Han: “I don’t have people. I’m alone.”
Officer: “Han…”
End scene.

All future uses of the name “Han Solo” have “Solo” cut, and all future uses of the name “Solo” are redubbed with “Han.” For internal consistency, similar edits of the OT and ST will follow.

kewlfish said:

DorkSyde said:

This is a cool concept, but Vader’s Castle is in ruins by this time. According to canon, by 35 ABY, many cultists had come to the ruins of Vader’s castle seeking to tap into his power. The most tenacious, the Alazmec, had colonized the Corvax Fen, a rich soil ground and planted several irontrees. However, because the Sith wayfinder was located on an area of the planet forested with irontrees, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and his stormtroopers attacked the cult of Alazmec colonists, who were sworn to protect the fen surrounding the ruins of Vader’s castle.

In turn, perhaps a forrest (color corrected to match the iron tree forrest in the movie) would be a better establishing shot.

Hmm, I was working with some of these just for fun-sies… Do these fit in a little bit better? I’m not the best color corrector. I was just glad I didn’t have to follow a spaceship frame-by-frame for these lol

Mustafar Iron Tree Establishing Shot 1 and 2:

Shot 1 - https://vimeo.com/419180121
password - Ascendant

Shot 2 - https://vimeo.com/419180312
password - Ascendant

I really like #2, if Hal ends up going with one of those. #1’s camera movement doesn’t feel quite right for this purpose, although the visual is still cool.

Here’s an idea: what if Kylo builds his helmet on Mustafar?

Opening: exterior of a First Order Ship
Cut to: Vader’s mask container opening and Kylo touching it to receive a vision. At some point during the vision, Palpatine’s “Mustafar” from ep III can be heard. End with Dominic Cobb’s idea of “you’re a creature in a mask” “yes I am.”
Transition to: Mustafar from space, the original TROS opening.
Cut to: edited shot of Vader’s castle from Rogue One.
Cut to: the pieces of Kylo’s helmet being dumped onto a table.

From here, the helmet reassembly and Mustafar massacre scenes cut back and forth to each other as a montage. This leaves us with two potential ways to end the scene:

1. Helmet is fixed, Kylo picks up the Wayfinder, and the original TROS transition of the wayfinder to Kylo flying to Exegol.
   or
2. Kylo picks up the Wayfinder, Helmet is fixed, and the scene ends on the shot of the Helmet. This allows you to move to a different scene if you want and push the Kylo’s trip to Exogol (and thus the Emperor reveal) a bit later into the movie.

I feel this plan uses the fast-paced nature of the Mustafar sequence to our advantage, instead of trying to just drag it out into a full scene in of itself, while also adding even more weight to Kylo’s rebuilding of the helmet, since it’s now a ritual [implicitly] taking place within Vader’s own castle.

The only issue I can see, assuming the Rogue One shot can be properly edited, is that Kylo’s trip to Exogol still occurs without the helmet. But maybe people could forgive that since it’s such an important meeting?

jordan_winter said:

I honestly got the impression that the tear was genuine. Watching the BTS footage, Daisy really put her soul into this movie.

Definitely this. That emotion works well as Rey’s for our purposes, but irl it was Daisy’s bittersweet goodbye.

Sorry, I was trying to be thorough in explaining my thoughts, but that came across pretty aggressively.

If you want to have Rey take the name in an edit, by all means go ahead. I just personally don’t think it fits as well as what we have.

StarkillerAG said:

Definitely nay. Given how the Senate reacted when they found out Leia was the daughter of Darth Vader, if Rey started calling herself a Palpatine she would be executed on the spot.

Also this. Leia’s public association with Vader ruined her career and public influence. Taking on the Palpatine name would be… unwise of Rey.

If bloodlines don’t matter, why would she keep a name that she has never gone by in the past and carries exclusively negative connotations for her? Why would Rey care if the “Palpatine name” is redeemed into something hopeful? What about that particular word is worth saving?

I think Rey keeping the Palpatine name is the worst possible outcome, and needlessly confusing to the audience from a thematic point of view. A good chunk of the audience has equated “Palpatine” to “evil” for longer than Rey has even been alive, and for her to suddenly accept the name after the whole climax revolved around her rejecting Sheev makes it appear as if she suddenly has some sort of reverence for him, which she absolutely does not.

Rey’s rejection of the Palpatine name is “because bloodlines don’t matter,” a symbolic rejection of the destiny of her blood and her personal choice to embrace another path. If she’s “Just Rey” (as some fans are trying to edit), then she’s forging her own destiny, and if she’s “Rey Skywalker,” then she’s taking up a name that does deserve to be kept in the light (and with Luke/Leia’s postmortem approval, no less). Either option makes more sense both thematically and in-character than “Rey Palpatine.”

And before anyone points out that Luke kept the Skywalker name: “Skywalker” was originally the name of a Jedi whose goodness Luke still sensed buried within Vader and which Luke managed to bring out before Vader’s death, not to mention Luke had already been named “Skywalker” his entire life. Rey taking the name “Palpatine” would be equivalent to Luke changing his last name to “Vader,” because evil is all that name has ever meant to them.

kingofmonsters said:

I have no issue with bickering friends, but the way the movie showed that was a bit too hostile. Why rag on Poe for being a spice runner when Finn was a clone trooper? It just all seemed out of leftfield. They even had a fallout midway through the movie. It just didn’t feel deserved.

Didn’t seem hostile at all to me. The reveal that Poe used to smuggle slave-mined drugs is perfectly deserving of the brief shock that Finn and Rey have, but Poe quickly dissolves the tension by pointing out exactly what you yourself just pointed out, and it really isn’t much of a problem after. Friends don’t get along all the time, especially in tense situations or when secrets are involved, and there’s still enough camaraderie and weak jabs between the two to sell their relationship as a real friendship. They do have a confrontation near the Death Star II about Poe’s leadership, but it’s resolved the next time they’re together and is an incredibly basic trope of storytelling.

In contrast, to use another Star Wars as an example, Anakin’s constant heated arguments with Obi-Wan and Padme in the prequels are incredibly uncomfortable to watch and make their “friendships/love” completely unbelievable.

Ed Slushie said:

I just had an idea for a somewhat-major change that could be made to the ending.

One thing that bugs me about this movie’s finale is that the two battles happening (the one in the sky, and the one with Palpatine) don’t really line up in terms of tension. When Palpatine drains Ben and Rey, it seems like our heroes are at their lowest point, and this is reinforced by the cut back to Poe seeing his friend Wexley die. Then Lando & co. arrive, and the music switches to the main Star Wars theme, to indicate that we’re back on the light side of things, but then we cut back to Palpatine, who “kills” Ben and electrocutes the entire fleet, leaving Rey, seemingly alone, to hear the voices of Jedi past and gain the strength to face Palpatine.

Basically, the movie tries to give us two cathartic, portals-esque moments, the first of which is kind of invalidated by the second. The way I see it, the night should be darkest just before the dawn.
So what if the not-navy arrived AFTER Palpatine started zapping?

Picture this: Palpatine drains Rey and Ben. Above, Wexley dies. How can this get any worse? Palpatine “kills” Ben and starts electrocuting the rest of the rebels. Rey sees this from below and sheds a single tear. Poe delivers his line about how he “thought we had a shot,” just as the Tantive IV, the very ship that appeared in the opening shot of SW77 as a symbol of the underdog rebellion, is destroyed. So is it the end? **** no, because that’s when Rey starts hearing the voices of all the Jedi that came before her. When she stands up and ignites her lightsaber, prompting Palpatine to stop zapping, a random voice over Poe’s radio says something along the lines of “The sky is clear, now is the time!” That’s when Poe looks up to see Lando, along with thousands of resistance sympathizers, having come to the help. Things proceed as normal from there, possibly with the addition of Jonh’s ghosts.

Most of this would just require color correction, as well as one or two additional lines of dialogue. The only trouble I’m running into is that a lot of the shots of ships falling include ships that came with Lando, so I would have to either remove those shots or find a way to remove those ships in particular from them.

Whaddya think?

I think this is a good idea if it can be done seamlessly. It’s unfortunate that we have so little footage to work with for the ship/horse battles, though.

krausfadr said:

ClownBaby said:

Reading through this thread and looking over the results of the TROS poll got me thinking about the idea of having Rey be responsible for her parents death. I know that keeping Rey as Palps granddaughter is a less popular option than Rey Nobody, but if an editor were to have Rey kill her parents I think the Rey Palpatine angle works.

This way we keep Rey’s parents as good people who were doing all they could to protect their daughter, and in a fit of uncontrolled childhood rage, she causes their death. When she accepts the truth of this it would serve to compound the feelings of inner conflict and fear she has regarding her own power

They sold you to him: https://streamable.com/6042d7
You wanted your parents dead: https://streamable.com/lmidv9
I killed my mother: https://streamable.com/ot407g

That’s well edited! But in terms of plot consistency, if the parents sold Rey to Palpatine, why/how did she remain on Jakku?

I like B or D.

I think it should be kept. It’s a nice scene that helps lead into the ghosts appearing after.

Irrelevant thoughts about Kylo’s fate, though I know people have been discussed it before.

The kiss-to-death scene is practically comical and needs to be edited, I think, but I think there are two ways it could be done.

1. Cut away before death. The kiss is the closure to their relationship, but Ben can’t just come back and be accepted after all he’s done, so Rey leaves alone and Ben’s fate is left completely ambiguous (and canonically he still just dies off-screen).
2. Cut the kiss out, so Ben dies after reviving Rey, making it clearer to the audience that he’s sacrificed himself to heal her and tragically ripping away their chance at closure. Of course, we do still need closure for them, so in this scenario, Ben’s force ghost needs to be standing with Leia and Luke so that he and Rey get that last knowing glance at each other. This also goes that tiny extra distance to better sell “Rey Skywalker” (especially with her more emotional take), to the point that I honestly don’t think “Just Rey” should even be considered with this specific version. And this of course to go along with the other ending changes, like the Falcon take-off, Rey’s Theme, and removing “Rey. Rey who?” if it doesn’t hurt the pace too much.

I like #2 more personally, but I know some people didn’t want Ben to die on screen.

kewlfish said:

So for that scene do you think a force ghost outline would be more subtle/better? Or what is idea for showing the influence of the Force Ghost?

If you’re interested in Force Ghost influence, jonh just blew everyone’s mind with an edit in another thread:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-The-Rise-Of-Skywalker-Redux-Ideas-thread/id/71460/page/84#1343405

Honestly, it didn’t take much to make it sound the way it does, which was good for me because I still managed to do it messily.

My steps:

1. Cut the audio from the commentary (there’s almost no extra sound in the background of her line there)
2. Cut the audio from the line in the movie (I ripped my blu-ray) and put the audio from the commentary in.
3. Add some music back in using the rip of my CD soundtrack and have it blend into the music before and after the line (you might notice the discrepancy if you listen, especially at the end of the line).
4. Adjust the volume for the new audio sources.

I didn’t even use a dedicated audio mixer, just Vegas Pro 14…

IDK how useful my own work will be, but I can send you what I have if you’d like. It would probably be even easier for your version since you’re just totally replacing the music in that scene.

poppasketti said:

Wow, neerb! That’s great! It’s a more humble delivery, and her voice quiver adds emotion to the line.

Edit: on the other hand, maybe she sounds a little less confident, which maybe undercuts the pride of the moment that she had in the original take? Just a thought!

Yeah, I thought about that as well. I think the emotion at finding a family and reverence for the name/legacy in this take might make it better, but I think the reason the theatrical one was ultimately chosen was to end on a more confident and “happy” note. Daisy’s face in the theatrical is even smiling more than the outtake version, although perhaps combining the two rectifies the issue a bit?

Been a long time since I did anything with video/audio (not that I was ever good, ha), so this is probably more useful as concept than contribution, but here’s a dub of the final line using the Behind the Scenes take. Password is fanedit.

https://vimeo.com/416723717

IlFanEditore said:

Just a couple of things. Don’t hint at some disprespect towards a character. I called Rey by her name (YOUNG REY) in the crawl, and LATER I called her “the girl”. How should I name her? I don’t get what problem there is with this. I don’t get how that is not serious.

I don’t mean to sound harsh, I’m just offering my perspective as an audience member.

Just consider this: if you were tasked with rewriting the opening crawls of Revenge of the Sith or Return of the Jedi (those movies specifically), would you refer to the main characters as “Young Anakin,” Young Luke," or “the boy?”

Hal 9000 said:

Heroes leave Pasaana

Falcon is towed to the Destroyer. Leads into Palpatine and Kylo’s conversation about what kind of game he’s playing and he better watch out, buster.

Heroes regroup on the ship and decide fuck Threepio. They land on Kijimi and meet Frick and decide to do the surgery.

Hux sarcastically asks if Kylo wants them to destroy the city and gets a stern pointing to.

3PO and heroes continue on, Rey senses Chewie is alive, and 3PO wakes back up.

Blast doors open to reveal Chewie. Hux comments, Pryde sends Chewie off.

Kylo heads down to the planet. Things play out from there.

Except that after the heroes leave the Destroyer and Rey has a conversation with Finn about wanting to destroy Palpatine, we go directly to their arrival on Endor/Craft Beer.

Oooh, I like that.

By moving that Palpatine-Kylo leash-tug scene to before Kijimi, this means that when Kylo takes his helmet off for Rey in the hanger, he never wears it again. Gives a bit more visual continuity, and I think maybe a bit more agency for Kylo as a character by more quickly abandoning Palpatine, instead of being jerked back right after (but maybe I’m reading into this).

drakesepi0l said:

Has anyone thought about changing the Rey Skywalker line for the one in the behind the scenes documentary? I feel it sounds better, Daisy delivered the line in a much more solemn way, even shed a tear.

Got a link? Or was this on the blu-ray?

poppasketti said:

Here’s an update to the final shot:
https://vimeo.com/414985184
pw: fanedit

Beautiful stuff!

I don’t think it would be too hard, so long as the audience doesn’t ask how they were able to casually fly into a Star Destroyer hanger.

It’s already bad enough that they do so using the same ship Kylo saw them escape Pasaana in; either Kylo didn’t tell the FO to look for it, which is weird, or they were allowed in as the world’s worst trap and didn’t tell Kylo about it. I guess Hux could have kept that news from getting to Kylo? But now I’m like three layers deep into it.

Idir_hh might have the right idea. The existence of the medallion solves the above issue by saying “it doesn’t matter what model the ship is, there’s a captain aboard.”

Some thoughts after viewing the Alpha (posting here instead of PM so others who watch it can comment):

• I don’t like Rey being called “the girl” in the opening crawl. Leia is not called “the woman,” Poe, Finn, and Kylo are not called “the boy,” and three movies into her own series Rey should be taken more seriously than that (though I’m sure you didn’t intentionally mean anything by it).
• I like the reframing of the opening to be around the Sith Fleet prior to Palpatine’s reveal. I wasn’t sure it would work, but that’s not bad. One thing that needs changing during the Resistance discussion, which shouldn’t be too difficult I think, is Maz’s line. As Rey grabs the books to look up Exogol, Maz says “if we want to stop him, we must find Exogol.” That needs to be changed to “if we want to stop them,” since they’re now talking about a fleet, and not Palpatine or even Kylo.
• Kylo having the helmet in the meeting doesn’t really work here. For one, having this be Kylo’s first appearance in the movie is odd in general, as the scene’s not really built like a character introduction. Second, he already has the helmet which he dramatically destroyed early in the last movie, and while Hux questions it, this being our first sight of it makes the helmet’s return feel like a weird gag. And third, the very next scene, in your version, has him fighting on a battlefield with no helmet, which makes no sense because the movie just brought attention to the fact that he has one again.
• The galactic broadcast needs some restructuring, I think. From Palpatine’s smirk, we should cut (not wipe, since this is not really a new scene narratively-speaking) to an establishing shot of the planet Ajan Kloss as the message begins, which then cuts to the characters we know receiving the broadcast. Rose: “Listen… it’s on every frequency.” Then, now clear that this is an in-universe broadcast, we cut (not wipe) to other parts of the galaxy, during which we need to see civilians appearing to listen to the message, and not just zoomed out shots of planets and cities. Then end back on Kloss with our characters again. Also, it’s odd that the characters don’t really react to hearing Palpatine’s voice specifically, but you’ve already repurposed their discussion of Palpatine to be about the fleet, so I’m not quite sure what to do here.
• The scene where Rey “kills” Chewie is too heavy-handed. We don’t need to see literally baby Rey do the deed and hear “You killed your parents,” which leaves nothing for the audience to think about and distracts from the fact that Chewbacca (who we care about way more than Rey’s parents) may have just been killed. Simply having some small quick cuts to child Rey and the old ship, maybe with some small dark side element (not lightning, we’re about to see that anyway), should be enough to get the audience thinking of the implications, but don’t take focus away from the dramatic scene that’s actually happening in the present.
• Threepio speaking in a foreign language when Babu is hacking doesn’t really make sense. The whole reason they brought him to Kijimi is because they don’t know the language and need him to translate for them. In this version, the characters never actually hear the information they need, but head off to the correct location anyway.
• I know the recoloring is a work in progress, but Palpatine’s life force drain is too green, especially if everything else is going to be gray. I get that you want it to be like the magicks from extended universe material, but the fact that Palpatine doesn’t use green in any other scene (in this or any previous movie) just makes it more confusing.
• Both of Anakin’s ghost appearances seem out of place. I know people really wanted his ghost in this movie and don’t like Palpatine returning after the Chosen One prophecy is completed, but without having spoken with Rey earlier in the movie/series (directly, not just through the voices at the end), his appearance here is not justified by the story. His voiceline of “restore the balance, as I did” is all that’s needed to address the prophecy. If you were going to put multiple Jedi ghosts during the Father-Son Kamehameha, not just Anakin by himself, that would work with what’s happening in the scene, but his ghost shouldn’t appear at all on Tatooine because Rey does not know this person (which is also why I dislike Hayden in RotJ, since he looks nothing at all like the man Luke met).

I don’t think the Resistance should be referred to as “fledgling” when they’ve been fighting in cold war skirmishes for years, fighting a war proper for a year, and are now about to end said war.

I also still wish Luke’s actions specifically could get a reference at the beginning, again, assuming that can be rectified with later dialog. It’s just baffling to me that TLJ ends with Luke’s heroism becoming inspirational legend that spreads to oppressed worlds, TROS ends with the people of those worlds uniting to save the day, and yet TROS makes no direct connection between the two events, as if the same allies who wouldn’t answer the call at Crait were just waiting specifically for Lando smooth-talk them over.

Hey Dom, really great stuff so far. I’m definitely keeping an eye on this edit.

Regarding the opening crawl: I totally agree with the need for some sort of hope as reference to Luke at the end of TLJ, and in fact I would prefer a more direct reference (“Inspired by the sacrifice/final act of Luke Skywalker, …”). Either way, however, do you think a new title crawl that references the hope of the galaxy would fit with the rooftop Zorri/Poe scene where Poe claims that the galaxy is still too scared to fight after the battle of Crait?

Also, a potentially odd suggestion after watching the movie again last night… I think D-0 might be improved if he didn’t speak in complete first-person sentences. Examples:

Poe: What, coneface?
D-0: I am D-0.
Poe: Sorry, “D-0.”

becomes

Poe: What, coneface?
D-0: D-0
Poe: Sorry, D-0

or

D-0: I miss her.
Finn: I miss her too.

becomes

D-0: Miss her.
Finn: I miss her too.

I think this would fit better with his general character; he’s timid, stuttering, old and unmaintained, and the least anthropomorphic droid in the cast, so it’s odd to me that he speaks like a person while R2 and BB-8 cannot.