With Episode 5, I’m happy that the Inquisitors have some sort of interest now.
But I’m sad that this conflicts with the fanedit idea that Anakin wasn’t part of the Temple Massacre. I guess if somebody does this in a ROTS edit they will have to accept the conflict with Kenobi.
Yes, it’s almost entirely dependent on finding the right actor. I’m debating about making them a known but previously unseen character from Star Wars lore, like Plagueis. This would give him an immediate alien appearance which would visually confirm the lie of Rey being his offspring as well as continuing the ST trend of including some aliens in with the otherwise human villains.
JEDIT: Since Palpatine in this film is hanging from a gantry and has withered useless hands, it would make sense for the alien mastermind to be the reanimated corpse of Snoke. He’s a Force-sensitive alien, after all, so who knows if he would have actually died to bisection anyway. Maul apparently didn’t. Since he also lost his hands in the bisection, his gaining his hands back would be a real plot point, as well as his hatred for Rey and Ben. If his face is in shadow for most of the scene, emerging only at the end to morph into that of Palpatine, it would be fairly simple to use doctored footage of Snoke from TLJ and merely have an actor who could do a passable Snoke impression.
On to the scripting. We begin with Han and Ben’s reunion:
Ben: “I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”
Han: “You do.”
Ben: “Dad.”
Han: “I know.”
Establishing shot of Sith Temple on Exegol, cutting to a conference table within the Evil Lab. A hooded figure with a shadowy, alien visage sits at the table, surrounded by the holographic images of the Knights of Ren.
Knight: “We’ve lost contact with Leader Ren. We think he’s gone rogue.”
Figure: (With a voice which is labored, twisted, alien) “This is the princess’s doing. But it is to our advantage; the First Order is mine once more. And when the girl arrives, we shall use her power to destroy the Resistance.”
Knight: “But if they take out the holographic emitter, most of our fleet will vanish into thin air.”
(The figure generates a schematic on the conference table indicating the emitter which is generating the images of thousands of Star Destroyers among a scattered few real ones)
Figure: “General Pryde’s destroyer is capable of sustaining the illusion. Rest assured, the Resistance will believe that it faces ten thousand devastating warships. Without hope, and with the return of their ‘Emperor’, the galaxy will fall to the Final Order.”
Knights: “Long live the Final Order and the Sith Eternal.”
Knight: “And what of the girl? If she doesn’t take the bait…”
Figure: “She will. I am her grandfather, after all.” (He emerges into the light. An inhuman, grinning face, the face of Snoke reanimated.)
Knights: (sinister amusement)
Figure: “Return home, my brethren. All will go as planned. And if the last of the hated Skywalkers dares to interfere with that plan…(his voice changes)…do what must be done. Do not hesitate, show no mercy.”
The face of Snoke morphs into that of Palpatine beneath the hood.
Esablishing shot of a First Order destroyer.
Palpatine: “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan. But her foolish act will be in vain. Come to me on Exegol, General Pryde.”
Pryde: “As I served you in the old wars, I serve you now.”
Palpatine: “Send a ship to a world they know. Let it burn. The Final Order begins. She will come. Her friends will follow.”
Pryde: “Yes my lord.”
A Sith Eternal destroyer fires weapons reminiscent of those used on D’qar at Kijimi. The city centers are ravaged, but the planet is not destroyed.
“Kijimi? How?”
“A blast from a Star Destroyer. A ship from the new Sith fleet. Out of the unknowns.”
“The Emperor sent a ship from Exegol.”
“This is how he finishes it.”
“Listen, it’s on every frequency.”
“The Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die. The Final Order begins.”
I can see how the updates tend to talk past the others, but I think the overall effect still works.
First update establishes the importance of the hangar to catching Rey, and Kylo essentially warns against just waiting for her like the layout would imply. I could change the order of dialogue to make this more clear.
“Sir, the only way out is through hangar 718. She’ll find her way there eventually.”
“The longer it takes to find her, the more dangerous she becomes.”
“Yes sir, I’ll order a full search at once.”
I think the second update works as Kylo displaying an abundance of caution and a lack of faith in his troops to contain her to just one area of the base.
Also recall that the final reference to the hangar in this version is the trooper communicating directly with Phasma, who urges caution and is making her way to the hangar personally.
^ Just make sure that she doesn’t share any screentime with Klaud and imply through an added line that she’s a changeling.
…
I’ve had a bit of a brainstorm about TROS, so big idea incoming:
As I’ve said elsewhere, the only way to save TROS would be to undo Palpatine’s return, the massive Sith Fleet, and Rey Palpatine. I’ve also given some idea as to how that could work by turning Palpatine into an illusion by Sith cultists to lure Rey into their clutches, including the idea that Rey is a Palpatine.
To refine the idea further, I think the entire theme of the film should be deception. The Sith cultists have deceived the First Order into believing that Palpatine has returned and that he has a massive fleet at his command. They have done this to gain power over Kylo Ren and to control the First Order through him. They also seek to destroy the Resistance by luring them to a briar patch of a planet from which there is no escape, then unleashing a force weapon on their fleet to crash their ships into Exegol. Almost the entire fleet is illusory, as well as the rumored planet-destroying weapons on their ships. Really the cultists only have a few old style Star Destroyers, with the rest being holographic images. This would require quite a bit of work in the final act, but it’s not impossible.
The real trick would be to construct a scene explaining how the illusion works. This should be partway through the film, and ideally between acts 2 and 3 where the planet is destroyed in the theatrical version. Instead of that scene, we get a scene where the Knights of Ren are revealed to be Sith Cultists who are in on the scheme and have been playing Kylo Ren and the First Order all along. Perhaps the Knights are appearing via hologram to a scarred and twisted cultist who is describing the plan to them from Exegol. He shows how the holographic emitter which is broadcasting the illusion of the fleet is disguised as a beacon ostensibly leading the Sith fleet off Exegol. He explains that the Resistance will target the beacon/holographic emitter, but he has arranged it so that Pryde will divert their attention with a signal of his own. The cultist then explains that once Rey and the Resistance have arrived, the plan will be set in motion.
He says that the Sith Cultists have given almost all of their power in the Force to create a being as strong as Snoke, and after Snoke’s death the power that he has been able to draw from the cultists is only enough to fuel an illusion. He believes that his web of lies about Rey’s parentage shall draw her to him, then claims that with Rey before him he will take her power to destroy the Resistance, and their deaths shall be at her hands. A knight asks about Kylo Ren, saying that he has feelings for the girl. The cultist tells the Knights that if Kylo interferes, to kill him. He pulls a hood over his head and his visage changes into that of Palpatine.
This would require someone filming a scene of themselves as this cultist, but as it’s practically a monologue it would be fairly straightforward. There would only need to be some short questions from the Knights, perhaps subtitled or voiced by others since the knights don’t speak in the film. Since they have masks, there would be no issues with lipsync and since they appear via hologram the images of the Knights wouldn’t need to be too detailed.
During the final confrontation of Rey and this false Palpatine, there could be a moment when she calls upon the Jedi and they allow her to see through the illusion and show her the true face of her enemy, who is astonished at her powers of knowledge and defense. Luke’s statement about facing fear is recontextualized into being about a more purely Jedi test than an existential threat.
Since the fleet beacon/emitter is not destroyed until the very end of the battle, the illusory ships wouldn’t need to disappear. The fleets could still do battle with each other just as they do, but after the massive Republic fleet arrives there could be chatter that many of the destroyers are not actually there, and in fact whole parts of the illusion are beginning to flicker and turn into blue light. The core of the battle stays the same, just with a lot less meaningless ships on the periphery.
A benefit of this idea is that it could lean into Rey Palpatine since it is revealed to be a lie later anyway.
So that’s the idea. What do you think?
Thanks RL! It is good to take breaks.
I like it a lot - like RL said, the dialogue sounds natural; and I enjoy the subtle reference to the Falcon from the stormtroopers - but (nitpicking) it feels a little awkward to base it all around the one hangar. “Sir, she’s 100% heading for this hangar, no doubt about it!” “Sir, she, uh…she wasn’t there. So most of us left.” “OH WAIT CRAP SHE’S THERE NOW MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!”
Maybe make it more vague - “Sir, the prison level is on lockdown. All troops are on alert; she won’t escape.” “Sir, Captain Phasma has ordered a full sweep of the base. She can’t hide forever.” “Sensors triggered in Hangar 718. We’re searching the area.”
The reason I removed the official line (the last suggestion) was because Rey had just escaped the cell and presumably wouldn’t have managed to get to the hangar at that point. I do think it’s important to reference a hangar since the Kylo update 2 implies prior discussion, the question is how best to do that.
“Sir, the only way out of the cell block is through hangar 718. We’re searching the area.”
“The longer it takes to find her, the more dangerous she becomes.”
For the falcon jumping around at the end idea is there any footage from the Galaxy’s Edge promos that could work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyMC9A4-ZXI
This was the only promo I could find with Falcon footage, but I don’t know why the Falcon would fly into a canyon like that in this sequence.
I lack the power to create new Kylo lines, which is the problem.
I’ve taken a week off and come back to the problem fresh, and have quite a few ideas on how to play these scenes. However, the biggest issue is that I’ve been trying to force some exposition about the Falcon into scenes where it doesn’t belong. A lighter touch may be all that’s needed here.
So this is what I’m thinking for the progression of scenes:
-Kylo returns to the empty cell
-Kylo is updated part 1
“Sir, the prison level is on lockdown, and the only exit is through hangar 718. She can’t hide forever.”
“The longer it takes to find her, the more dangerous she becomes.”
-Rey moves through the halls
-Falcon crash
-Senate update
-Kylo update part 2 (unchanged from theatrical)
“Sir, she was not found in hangar 718, but all troops are on alert.”
“Put every hangar on lockdown, she’s going to try and steal a ship to escape…
…Han Solo.”
-Base infiltration
-Hux update
-Finn’s idea
-Rey enters hangar 718
(Trooper chatter) “Did you hear the report from Precinct 94…that they found a damaged freighter?”
“Yeah, I heard it crashed. Real piece of junk.”
…
“Sensors triggered in hangar 718. We’re searching the area.”
This progression allows for the two line replacements to be solely Stormtrooper lines, meaning no issues with lipsync. The first line replacement establishes the geography of the coming scenes and retains the tension that even though Rey has escaped her cell she is still trapped in the prison level. It generates the expectation that Rey will inevitably come across a hangar, and since this layout is probably known to Finn it is reasonable to expect that he will make his way toward that same hangar, both to find Phasma and to get Rey. Finally, by putting the Falcon exposition so late in the progression, it more naturally leads our expectation to a scene of the First Order investigating the Falcon.
I could imagine that the shot would work to replace the shot of Kylo looking at the Starkiller charging. The officer would appear and say ‘Sir, we’re ready for prisoner transport.’ Then cut to Rey trying to escape. That would probably give the scene more tension, though I would lose the shot from the film.
I love that you’re bringing the long Falcon journey idea back!
I think it would be cool to have some different shots of the Falcon flying through space with just some cross fades, helping to imply the passage of time. I always pictured a shot of the Falcon passing by or above an exotic-colored gas giant, and passing through a nebula (sort of like one of your test shots). Maybe the nebula could be moving slightly in the background, with some nebula haze moving across camera in the foreground.
I do feel one problem is trying to have the Falcon maintain the right-to-left movement across the frame. I feel like it would be simpler if you could find a decent Falcon model that could be used to make a few new cool shots of it in space. Poppa and snooker both seem to have access to a decent Falcon model, and if we kept it small in the shot, you could potentially get away with the dish being incorrect, if it isn’t the proper one.
For environments, I imagine that using shots from other shows would probably be the best bet since I’d only have to replace the Razor Crest with the Falcon, for example. Of course I could use NASA photography like my test shot, but it may not fit with the moving camera shots and style of TFA.
I’d love to have some different shots of the Falcon flying through space. I actually reached out to someone on Youtube who had done some similar shots, but they haven’t responded. If Poppa or Snooker wanted to help, that would be fantastic.
One thing that made the duel look cheap to me was the lightsabers, especially Obi-wan’s saber. The look of the lightsaber has changed over the years, with every show and movie having their own slightly different effect, but this is the first time that it looked like a glowing prop. In a few shots at the beginning of the fight, Obi-wan’s saber has practically no flicker and very little glow other than from the glow stick itself, so to me it just looked like he was holding a plastic tube. It’s very strange, since a proper saber glow is something that even the most humble faneditor makes sure to get right.
Thanks! It’s not the highest priority for the edit, but if we can find the footage to complete it I think it would be a great inclusion.
For the Senate and Kylo update scenes, the new plan is to have the 1st Kylo update directly after Rey escapes, then have Rey roaming the halls and cut to the Falcon landing and Senate update, followed by Kylo being told about the Falcon. I’ve ironed out the music so that it is fairly close to final in my estimation, and I have a potential voice for the 1st Kylo update that I hope to record in the next few days. At that point we will have a much better picture of how the scenes will work, especially if we have Eddie’s final recording of the Senate line 😉
Revan spinning and twirling her way through it
You know what the disappointing thing about this part of the episode was? She could have just taken out the ol reliable helicopter lightsaber and avoided all the rooftop parkour by just sailing off into the sky. The opportunity was right there and they didn’t take it.
This isn’t actually a plot hole because the helicopter ability requires one season of TV to charge.
I would take the shots into After Effects and try a chroma key combined with a more detailed masking.
The effects are just rough placeholder garbage mattes for now, but thank you for the offer.
Work continues on the Senate and Kylo update scenes. I’ve found some non-movie Kylo dialogue which works fairly well in the second Kylo update, so here’s how it looks now:
“Sir, a YT model freighter has just landed in sector 12. Shall we launch fighters?”
“There’s no need. I will deal with them…personally.”
…
In other news, if you’ve been following this project from the beginning you may recall that in 2017 (almost five years ago!) I had an idea for extending the Hyperspace journey to Luke at the end of the film using altered shots of the Falcon going in and out of Hyperspace to show that the trip had many twists and turns. I eventually abandoned it due to a lack of footage as well as the extended musical track being repeated in the credits.
Since V1 of Starlight cuts this extended rendition of Rey’s theme, I thought it would be appropriate to place it back in the film. Here’s the rough mockup, just showing how the music could work with a collection of Hyperspace shots from TFA and TLJ. This uses all of the shots I have found containing the Falcon with its TFA radar dish (and even then one shot has it missing the dish).
I imagine that this scene would use footage from other Star Wars sources showing planets and stars to give us a glimpse at the wider galaxy at this point in time. So what sort of shots would work? Ideally it would be locations which exist and make sense in the Star Wars galaxy, so perhaps shots from Mando or BOBF. I am thinking along the lines of the big ring construction from Mando season 2 which the Falcon could fly through, maybe an asteroid field with a space station, then a nebula, then the shattered remains of a planet. Essentially it would be going from more to less populated worlds until we are flying through empty space.
I don’t know exactly how this scene will play out, but if we put our heads together I bet we could figure something out.
That whether the technological singularity creates a utopia or a dystopia has already been decided based on our failure to overcome the political and societal coordination problems endemic to our species.
Ditto, Anchorhead. You’re an interesting case.
I enjoyed the first two episodes, though without feeling “excited” per se at any point. If the series is going to excel it’s gotta earn it.
It’s always great to see Ewan. As with most of SW TV, it often feels like a theme park attraction. The inquisitors were kinda real dumb, and it seems like it would’ve been more effective so far to just have one of them involved. Just a flu kid trying to curry favor with Vader. It was great seeing Owen, and I sure hope they give Beru some dialogue at some point.
Seems like Ben juuuust comes in on this side of owning a droid.
“I’ve never owned an entire droid before, Luke. Only parts of astromech heads.”
I’m pretty sure that when Obi-wan said he never owned a droid, he was referring to the fact that he views them as persons and thus ‘owning’ them is tantamount to slavery.
He pays that astromech antenna.
Just finished watching the first two episodes. My take: It’s fun. Leia is wonderful, and Obi-wan is great as always. Sure, I could complain about a few aspects of the Inquisitors such as their accessories, makeup, costuming, design, direction, choreography, backstory, acting, purpose, and existence, but they are meaningless noise obscuring the strong signal which is measured, thoughtful character interactions, and I’m here for it.
Looks very good!
All that I’ve been able to do with Starlight is give some more agency to the New Republic, not actually explain their relationship to the galaxy or distinguishing between the Hosnian system as the seat of government and the New Republic systems. Well, Leia has dialogue saying that the Senate is being targeted instead of the New Republic, but I don’t consider that enough. There would need to be dialogue from somewhere else to describe it fully.
That is true, the Republic was demilitarized along with (supposedly) the defeated Empire. That would have also been a great line to throw in there, about how the Republic can’t be seen mobilizing a fleet if they don’t have direct evidence of the First Order doing the same.
I think the biggest issue with taking out The Republic is that in TFA the Hosnian System is treated as The Entire Republic And Their Fleet. When it’s destroyed the audience is just left saying ‘Okay, I guess the First Order rules the galaxy now because the entire New Republic was just that one system’, even though in any galaxy that doesn’t really make sense.
Take Earth for example. We don’t have a one world government, but imagine if the United Nations was a bit more powerful, with a rotating seat of government which is currently in Switzerland. If a country like North Korea took out the UN headquarters and even all of Switzerland, this would be a devastating attack and throw the world into chaos, but I also wouldn’t expect the nations of the world to suddenly give in to North Korea.
This is essentially what has happened in TFA in the lore. The Hosnian system was just one of many potential seats of New Republic power, and the one currently guarded by their largest standing fleet. With this destroyed the New Republic is in chaos, but is not yet conquered. TLJ is actually as much to blame as TFA in regards to unexplained worldbuilding since it establishes that the First Order now de-facto reigns over the galaxy and they will take over all systems within weeks.
It would be like North Korea suddenly unleashing a hidden fleet of aircraft carriers across the Pacific to try and subdue the nations of the world.
Then TROS comes in with the Sith fleet idea and strains this analogy further.
Russia could have been building a fleet of 10,000 Soviet submarines in secret, each with a nuclear payload, and if North Korea allies with them after the loss of their aircraft carriers they can still rule the world.
But none of this really matters because each nation still has their own military, and once the world got its act together they would combine forces to take out this Russian/North Korean alliance which is only really a threat due to these outdated nuclear submarines that need external radar to help them navigate out of Russia’s only warm water port.
Of course, if you give the ST this sort of context it seems rather like the New Republic was always going to come back and win, which is why the biggest problem for me is not what happens but how it is portrayed. If in TFA they described the Hosnian attack as decapitating the New Republic government instead of destroying the New Republic itself, it would go a long way. In TLJ if they’d had just changed the exposition at the end from ‘allies in the outer rim’ to ‘central worlds of the New Repubic’, it would have shown how these otherwise powerful worlds were frightened into inaction by the First Order. Finally, if TROS would have dropped the planet-destroying capabilities of the ships while keeping the civilian fleet arriving it would have actually made sense.
I didn’t know that scene could get more creepy, but here we are.
It definitely looks more expansive, in both location and scope of the class divisions.
This definitely looks like the most interesting of the recent shows.
Then it might be an issue with adblock or another service blocking images on the site.