Pretender

I think that this movie has a good moral, which is, “self-sacrifice is setting the wrong example for those around you”. The following changes;

1. Luke is only acting like a mean old man, but he’s not doing it very well. He’s emulating Han Solo’s skepticism, but it’s not working out. He’s trying to frustrate Rey to get her to leave, but he can’t help but be good-natured. He’s trying to embody a lesson that he doesn’t himself believe, but he wants to believe. He wants to put the past behind him and believe the truth that jedi have always been set up to fail and that the jedi need to die. While this is still the truth, it’s more metaphorical and cerebral than he’s acting it to be. The jedi need to die because they emphasize self-sacrifice in such a way that the next generation only emulates the self-sacrifice. This will tie to edits of Holdo and Rose.

2. Cut out the majority of Canto Bight. Only give quick callbacks to the fact that Fin and Rose are having their own adventure, but don’t show all of the sequences. Only show the scene of them being arrested. Then the scene of Fin telling Rose not to enjoy this so much. Then the scene of them being in prison and finding a different codebreaker. Then the scene where Fin asks DJ why he’s ransacking his own ship. Then the scene where DJ asks for payment; have the conversation be interrupted by Poe contacting Fin and Rose. Linger a shot on DJ’s face. Then finish the conversation with him asking only for Rose’s pendant. Later, also linger on DJ stalling at the door to the tracker. Don’t make it clear what he is thinking, just that he is thinking. By having had the interruption before where Poe informs Fin and Rose about the evacuation, you can project DJ’s stalling as thinking about changing his mind when you view it a second time.

3. Cut the scene between Fin and Rose and instead, use Rose’s explanation of “that’s how we’ll win. By saving those we love rather than destroying those we hate”. By keeping Rose’s story short, it’s easier to connect it to Rose’s sister dying at the start of the film. This keeps the moral of the movie much more focused. This voice-over line will coincide with Kylo piercing Luke with his saber or the evacuation to clarify how this syncs up with Luke’s line about “kill me now and I will stay with you forever”. Luke doesn’t want to be killed by Kylo now, because if Luke is killed now, Kylo will always be haunted by Luke’s flaws. By having Luke not be killed by Kylo and by keeping Rey from having to kill Kylo, Luke saves both Kylo and Rey from being corrupted by the mistake of the fathers further.

4. Add some scenes where Holdo’s sacrifice is revealed to be reviled by the rest of the galaxy rather than admired. Insert a scene where aliens discuss how “not even the empire did something so dishonorable”. And that is why the galaxy loses hope, because they now believe that the resistance is just a group of terrorists and the rest of the galaxy believes it when the First Order calls them ‘rebel scum’.

5. Finally, Leia’s only injured half-way through the movie, after Kylo and Rey have already been connected. The scenes between Holdo and Poe are instead about how Poe deals with his demotion. Holdo doesn’t explain anything to Poe, because Poe no longer has any say. He’s instead given some wisdom about how he needs to hold on to hope. Instead, he plots with Fin and Rose to get a codebreaker. When Holdo is promoted in Leia’s absence, Holdo immediately orders the evacuation. This provokes Poe to commit mutiny, because he thinks that Holdo is being hypocritical, giving up hope the second that she’s given command and thinking that he can do it better. He doesn’t give her time to explain. This cuts out all the frustration that fans feel with Holdo witholding information from the crew.