Thing of it is, opening on Canto might not even require rearranging the Resistance plot if nothing before that is essential information.
I don’t know about that, there was no explanation for him waking up in this movie that I can remember.
What if the beginning of this movie was excised entirely?
Begin the film with an opening crawl informing us that the First Order has found the Resistance and chased them across the galaxy, Ren has completed his training with Snoke, and Snoke wants Leia alive in order to find the Last Jedi. Then go to the scene of Rey on the island and imply through those scenes that it is some time before we meet the rest of our heroes again.
You could cut out the Resistance escape and Poe’s hothead moves, Rose’s sister’s sacrifice, Snoke’s first scene with Ren, Finn waking up, Rose meeting Finn, all that. The first scene of the Resistance could be on Canto Bight. It would be assumed that Finn is on some secret mission with another member of the Resistance, and I think they even explain their mission while there (which was unnecessary in the film originally, but would make more sense here). We can assume that Finn and Rose have had a longer-term relationship than what we’ve seen, which might help with the awkward kiss at the end. And we already know that Poe is a hothead, so his first scene is somewhat superfluous anyway.
Is there anything that we simply can’t lose from the beginning of the Resistance plot? I have still only seen this once, so my memory is fuzzy.
I’m not saying that the Jedi are evil. Their teachings, however, seem to create as many problems as they solve which is why I’m hopeful that in Episode 9 Rey grows beyond their rules and begins a far better practice.
I agree, and I think the film suggests that will be the case.
It certainly does from a certain point of view. She’s learned next to nothing from the last jedi, and has to figure everything out for herself. That pretty much guarantees a different practise.
Sorry, I will shut up now… 😉
I’m glad that what she did seem to learn was about the balance of the Force.
I’m not saying that the Jedi are evil. Their teachings, however, seem to create as many problems as they solve which is why I’m hopeful that in Episode 9 Rey grows beyond their rules and begins a far better practice.
Great job with that time code removal! However, you can still see a faint outline of her braid so perhaps you need to adjust the mask a bit.
That’s what I get for putting the video at 50% opacity. 😛
https://mega.nz/#!bdlQ1L4D!y-lHaQIpMNSPOusEacAigT4to_Mkjq5_mg6IS4ULrJg
The more I think about it, the more I appreciate what RJ did with this.
By amplifying the idea of the Jedi as a fatally flawed dogma, it turns the triumphant finale of the Original Trilogy into a threat. With The Return of the Jedi, the galaxy is forced to endure yet another war caused by this religion.
And so The Return of the Jedi becomes the giant looming question, the impossible task, the paradox that the final trilogy must solve.
Is this why so many people disliked TLJ, because it confirms what George was trying to say throughout the prequels?
Sorry to have to tell you this, but that stuff’s technically canon.
Luke’s entire reason for being a Jedi was because his father did it and it seemed like a good career path after his future in moisture farming went up in flames. It seems harsh, but there it is. In Empire, he realizes that his father actually wasn’t this great hero but a massive jerk who ruined Star Wars for everyone thirty years ago. By the end of the trilogy, Luke finally makes some peace with that. He boldly proclaims that he is not just a Jedi, but specifically ‘a Jedi like my father’. Basically, he sees in himself the same potential for failure and may even realize how the Jedi religion sets people up to fail, and he is okay with that. The trilogy ends with him being torn between two worlds - the world of his friends, and the world of his Jedi teachers who want him to spread their failed teachings throughout the universe. He tries to be the Jedi sage, and it predictably fails, to the ruin of both his friends and the Jedi. Now he’s master of exactly zero worlds, so I can totally see why he’d try to hunt down the Jedi texts and burn them. After all, in some ways this is ultimately the fault of the religion.
None of this is true at all, especially the part where you say he realizes the Jedi religion sets people up to fail. Luke was proud of becoming a Jedi by the end of the original trilogy. It was his character arc that he had been striving for over the course of three movies. Even by Return of the Jedi, when he had become exceedingly powerful, Yoda told him he was not a Jedi yet. He had one more task to finish. He confronted his father, and did not turn.
Luke was proud to become a Jedi. Good defeated evil.
All of this nonsense about the Jedi being bad is nonsense being created by people who don’t understand Star Wars and are just trying to do a money grab. It is heretical.
I’m not saying that he wasn’t proud to become a Jedi, but I’d say he was more defiant in the face of evil than proud of his accomplishment. Good does defeat evil, but it’s not the good of the Jedi religion, rather it’s the human decency in Luke and Vader that makes both of them realize that there are more powerful things in the universe besides the Jedi and the Sith. Because make no mistake; according to Yoda, Luke should have turned to the Dark Side when he attacked Vader in a rage. It wasn’t the Jedi teachings that saved Luke in that moment.
I’ve been thinking a bit about why I think Luke’s character is wrong to me, and why RJ’s explanation is insufficient.
The way I view Luke in this film is:
Luke has done something against his values driven by fear, and his actions have made things worse. He feels ashamed about what he has done. His reaction to this is, that he gives up on all of his values, and everyone who shares most of those same values.
I have problem with the first part, because one of the main values of Jediism is to control your fears. To be a Jedi is to be level headed, to not be impulsive. This also goes back to what Mark Hamill has said: “A Jedi wouldn’t do that”. Luke is a Jedi, that was one of the outcomes of his arc in the OT, and TLJ now wants us to accept, that Luke acted against those values impulsively. Of course we’ve seen Jedi act against their values before, most famously Anakin. However, with Anakin it was a process that was developed over the process over three films, and I think it can actually be argued, that Anakin never really accepted many of the values of the Jedi in the first place. Then there’s Mace Windu, who at the end of ROTS wanted to execute a seemingly defeated Darth Sidious. Here again we’ve seen the buildup of the conflict, and the effect that has had on the Jedi. They’re starting to come apart. What’s happening in ROTS is not a vision of evil, it’s real evil. RJ spents next to no time building up Luke’s sudden impulsive act, an act we may understand from a human perspective, but not from a Jedi’s perspective, and that’s where this movie really drops the ball in my view.
I have an even bigger problem with the second part, namely that Luke’s mistake causes him to give up on all his values instantly. After spending an entire trilogy returning the Jedi values back to the galaxy, he gives up on them completely, and in this film is actively campaigning against them. The Jedi are somehow wrong for attempting to channel the Force in a way, that for a thousand generations has prevented evil from spreading throughout the galaxy. The Jedi made mistakes in the final days of the Galactic Republic, but surely that can’t be atributed to their core values. Those core values are likely reflected in those old books Luke found in the Jedi tree, the books that Yoda jokingly says, aren’t page turners. In my view there’s something really wrong with a film, that argues these books with these core values should go up in flames. It’s reasonable to argue, that they should evolve, but kill the past? I feel this movie and it’s creator really don’t understand the themes and values represented by George Lucas’ original six film saga.
Luke’s entire reason for being a Jedi was because his father did it and it seemed like a good career path after his future in moisture farming went up in flames. It seems harsh, but there it is. In Empire, he realizes that his father actually wasn’t this great hero but a massive jerk who ruined Star Wars for everyone thirty years ago. By the end of the trilogy, Luke finally makes some peace with that. He boldly proclaims that he is not just a Jedi, but specifically ‘a Jedi like my father’. Basically, he sees in himself the same potential for failure and may even realize how the Jedi religion sets people up to fail, and he is okay with that. The trilogy ends with him being torn between two worlds - the world of his friends, and the world of his Jedi teachers who want him to spread their failed teachings throughout the universe. He tries to be the Jedi sage, and it predictably fails, to the ruin of both his friends and the Jedi. Now he’s master of exactly zero worlds, so I can totally see why he’d try to hunt down the Jedi texts and burn them. After all, in some ways this is ultimately the fault of the religion.
😃
Oh carp, there’s supposed to be a LUT applied to this.
I’ll have the fixed scene uploaded momentarily, and with some slightly better grain on that one shot as well.
I hope you haven’t started the video rendering yet!
JEDIT: This is the file you’re looking for -
https://mega.nz/#!zd1GQYZQ!wLeOb7EQQDFAIiwTdKr8iiQnY4C1EJ-z1qoxvD-23pQ
Here’s the CC’d Leia scene:
https://mega.nz/#!iANlxBYS!5Usv4CQedVkYYG8N6KmBdAR-7Xcq2nZWKx8u5Ap2TFs
I took the liberty of removing the final timecode and uncropping the shot, so here’s a version with more consistent grain:
https://mega.nz/#!OUMUHSwZ!BpWP8KdmsZIAZZuwuzEdoKygynGgT7yDJW7rEKVhpTg
i had some thoughts this morning about how the ST seems to be inverting the traditional structure for Star Wars trilogies. Rather than rewriting them here, here’s a link to my tweet storm on the subject.
Good thoughts, I’m also intrigued by the possibilities here.
I always liked this artwork, I don’t know if it’s been used for a release before.
If you want something hand-painted, I’ve been working on a poster for my Tech Recreation project but would be happy to let you use it for 4K77 as well.
Here’s the Leia scene without regrading. One shot is still graded (the one where Korr Sella looks up and Leia enters the frame). I did the braid removal on that shot on top of the color grade so it can’t be removed, so keep that in mind.
https://mega.nz/#!zElyiSYY!EnuPRDufn5ys1vWMnyFNWL5Y51CNH2QQEgkGte7uOgsAnd here’s the leg shot, I went for a new crop instead.
https://mega.nz/#!mM0hyK7L!2Z9Wo7GC5DWRa35mNFmlBhr6beVfFPnYuwqdQE91OaY😃
I’ve got it, thank you!
The Phantom Menace
This John Berkeley poster:
The original Flash Gordon serials (Obi-wan is Hans Zarkov, Anakin’s wife is Dale Arden).
The hyper-detailed machinery of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Magnetic Rose (This is what I imagine the wreckage of the Empire would look like)
True.
For the scene where the Raddus and the remainder of the resistance are being chased by the 1st order (when they are ultimately headed to Crait,) we as an audience need a reason why the 1st order doesn’t just send out ties to kill everyone, or jump to light speed themselves to get ahead of the resistance and kill them off. We also need more of a reason for Poe to be pissed at Holdo
I was thinking that the flight path of the ships needs to be encumbered by something truly dangerous. It cant be asteroids, (to similar Empire Strikes Back,) but perhaps black holes? If the region is kind of a dangerous black hole ridden briar patch with Crait hidden within, this would genuinely make their plan to “just” stay ahead of the 1st order make sense.
It might also make Leia receiving Han’s dice more poignant, because he won the Falcon, and also the Kessel Run.
My current solution would be to change the crawl so that Snoke wants Leia alive. That way the safest route to capturing her would be to run the ship out of fuel.
Quality of Life (The Next Generation):
Excellent episode, and surprisingly moving.
Just one change to the Luke projection sequence make Luke’s lightsaber green instead of blue throw the audience off
You’d need to change the hilt to the ROTJ one too, then. I’m actually not against the idea if it can be done, but the hilt definitely needs to change if the blade color is changed.
The legend of Luke Skywalker, as he wanted to appear, used the blue lightsaber. The green one was only known by his Jedi apprentices, Kylo, Vader, Ben, Yoda and the Emperor.
At least that’s how I interpreted it. To that specific moment, the blue lightsaber had more weight.
That doesn’t make much sense, since the green one is presumably the one he used throughout the years after ROTJ, when his legend grew.
I could see him using the blue one because it is a reminder to Ren that he’s unworthy of his grandfather’s blade, but that’s about it.
I’m pretty sure TFA and TLJ (very select parts of it) can be edited into one movie…
Frink would be remiss if he didn’t edit the lightsaber toss as the last shot of The Force Awakens.
Beru.
The Last Jedi was the worst Star Wars movie ever.
The only good part was when Yoda burned all the Jedi books. It brings back good memories and sets a proper example for the new generation of fans.
I see the trolls remain in force.
This stuff about Yoda and the founding documents of the Jedi religion puts me in mind of something from the Prequels, namely, the dreaded Chosen One nonsense.
I wouldn’t consider this at all except that Rian somewhat of a prequel apologist from what I’ve heard. But when seen with that lens, the Last Jedi actually puts forward a good argument for why Rey might just be this Chosen One.
(And lest we forget, the first line of the ST is about how there’s no balance in the Force.)
Rey’s parents are ‘nobody’, in that she was intentionally conceived as a Force sensitive individual by the Force itself and not by any special lineage. In essence, everyone who is Force sensitive has been ‘chosen’ by the Force. Furthermore, she is the first person in this universe emphasizing the balance of the Force as opposed to adhering to one aspect over another. She takes death and violence as a fact of life just as much as peace and benevolence.
The biggest piece of evidence for me, however, is that Yoda implies that he has read the first Jedi books, and this may be where the prophecy originated.
“A prophecy…that misread, could have been.”
Since these are the only Jedi texts that we know of, this is the only writing established in this universe to be misread. And what better medium for a long-forgotten bit of lore than the original Jedi books.
One could make the argument that Kylo Ren is the subject of the prophecy, but he is in no way balanced, having learned all the wrong lessons from Luke’s school. In fact, he’s probably more Sith-like than many Sith with his obsession with power and murdering his master. So if Rey ends up destroying him in Episode 9, we may have the answer to the most perplexing question in the prequels.
Just like poetry. 😉
