Did you prefer how the original cut of ROTS was less focused on Padmé and her dying? If I recall it correctly.
Going on a tangent, it seems like there has been more speculation recently what we might find out about Rey’s origins in IX, because apparently there is more to that story in the film.
It seems the theories have been ranging from Kerri Russell’s character being her mom, stuff related to Palpatine, a lot of “Rey is a clone” theories for some odd reason, and I have a friend that is still adamant that Rey is a Skywalker.
I think we tend to blow the little hints we get about the movie out of proportion, so I have what I think is a modest theory:
Rey meets someone (maybe Kerri Russell’s character) who might know where her parents are. Maybe they’re not dead like Kylo thought. Maybe Zorri is the one who gave them a ride off Jakku, since people keep comparing her ship in the trailer to the one we see leave Jakku in Rey’s forceback vision. So, Rey ends up having a choice to either continue her mission with the Resistance, or find the parents she has wanted back all these years. But in the end, she lets that desire go and chooses to her new found family, Poe, Finn, Rose, etc.
Knowing my luck it will probably be some big reveal, but I honestly would be happy with something rather modest.
Haha, I think you’re looking for the Worst Ideas Thread!
If I recall correctly, ROTS and ROTJ both performed better than AOTC and ESB respectively, so I like to think TROS will at least continue this trend. But if doesn’t perform as well, I like to think it will be closer to TLJ on that chart than to Solo. It might be worth revisiting after the trailer drops and the marketing kicks in.
Thanks for sharing, Dre!
So I am reading it right that Rogue One had more search hits than even TFA?
People have definitely blown it way out of proportion. I think a many fans that grew up on the EU took the official act of “decanonization” personally to some degree. It was like all that time of consuming EU material did not matter anymore.
I can’t recall if Lucasfilm made an official declaration when they relabeled the EU as Legends, but maybe that information should have been brought up in a more casual way. Some fans clearly took that as an attack or something. Lucas only briefly talked about the EU in some interviews, and it came to producing the films and Clone Wars, he just did what he wanted regardless if it contradicted the EU. Maybe Lucasfilm should’ve taken the same approach, and let the fans figure it out on their own!
I think in the end, some fans just take this stuff too seriously.
I knew AOTC had reshoots but I don’t think I knew that it was very extensive. Are there specific reasons why it was?
Possibly! Maybe that is the side-effect of what the audience gets out of it, especially with a more clickbaity title. I do think general opinions of fans have already become a lot less anti-George than it was 10 years ago.
Not really the topic of this thread, but the rearranging in post for ROTS is super interesting! The Secret History of Star Wars go into that to an extent. Would love to talk about that.
That gold-armored stormtrooper is sick. It would make such a great cosplay.
But I feel like this idea is totally counterintuitive. You basically would be putting in all of this work to replace Phasma with ANOTHER badass Stormtrooper, and then you never get it see it fight either! You’d just be doing the same thing TFA did in the first place.
As of writing this we don’t yet know how the wrecked Death Star is going to factor into Episode IX, but I had some thoughts related to the Death Star that could help tie the trilogies together.
In a few of the scenes in the Emperor’s throne room in ROTJ, we see a big screen to the right of the Emperor’s throne. In some scenes, though, there isn’t even anything displaying on the screen, it’s just blank. Maybe something could be added to the screen that could tie into Palpatine’s Contingency, the First Order, Snoke, or something else that is relevant in Episode IX.
Also, there is one scene where Vader goes to see Palpatine, and he is initially turned around in his throne looking out the window. Something else could be added to this scene, like a hologram that Palpatine could be looking at instead, which Palpatine dismisses when Vader approaches him.
These things don’t have to be anything major, just subtle clues, but these little details could be used to chronologically foreshadow elements in the ST for a nice marathon viewing of the saga.
I think it is a matter of balancing perspectives. Every writer or journalist is going to have their own bias. Obviously George deserves a lot of credit and responsibility for what he created (good or bad, however you feel about it), as well as surrounding himself with other talented filmmakers who also contributed heavily to these films. Filmmaking is inherently a collaborative process, so videos like “How Star Wars was saved in the edit” aren’t trying to say the editors saved a sinking ship that George was sailing, it is just trying to highlight the contributions of other artists who helped make the movie what it was too.
Cool idea! Looks pretty good I think. I think we take for granted how a well-placed establishing shot can help buffer a scene. It’s a thought I’ve had recently while I’ve been thinking about Prequel edit ideas.
When you originally talked about it, I liked the idea of the transition from Kylo looking outside, to the dogfight, then down to Han and co. also watching the dogfight. But you should trust your judgement. I would like to see some mockups up the scene orders you’re thinking about.
And you know it was?
Great news! I think that looks like a story George would totally get behind in adapting. I do think a doctrine Lucasfilm should maintain is to always experiment and try new things, so seeing that they want to foster brand new projects and franchises is a good sign to me!
And speaking of of Lucas’ original vision for Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch, I don’t know if it will ever truly live up to his original vision, since he sold it to Disney, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Hollywood studio. Despite that, I like to think George achieved that dream in a different way.
Even though he is not the sole person responsible for the natural progression of filmmaking, I do think certain choices he made in his career, like pushing digital filmmaking and VFX technology during the Prequel era, encouraged the democratization of filmmaking in the 21st century. So although a physical filmmaker’s paradise outside of Hollywood doesn’t really exist, there are thousands of independent filmmakers around the world that can use consumer digital cameras and post-production software to make their own movies. The technology Lucasfilm and ILM pioneered during Lucas’ time helped push forward the filmmaking tools any of us could use today.
Damn, that was a great article, man. It’s your best one yet, I think. I absolutely love your the positivity and passion you have for Rebels.
Even though I kept up with Rebels as new episodes premiered, I believe a part of me felt that it was just a way to get my Star Wars fix until the next film came out, but you reminded me how much there is to love about that show.
Interesting thought process. It isn’t something I would initially think about, but I see where you’re coming from now that you illustrate it. You’re basically trying to find a good way to reorganize it where character motivations flow well.
So in this format, Kylo goes to the Falcon after the battle has already started rather than right before the Resistance arrives. I do think it would create tension like you said, since we would think Han and Co are on their way back there. Also, Kylo going back outside to look at the battle, and maybe see that the Resistance is failing to do any damage, he might predict that his father would try to do something to help, which he does in the very next scene.
I know he originally knows they’re there because they make some racket trying to get into the Oscillator, but this restructure could imply more that Kylo knows his father, and uses that knowledge to predict what he’s going to do. That, plus your other changes, would make Kylo seem much more active than before.
Rename Sebulba to ‘Doug.’
“He picked a fight with a Doug. An especially dangerous Doug called Doug.”
Man, that old article is WILD. He put a lot more importance into the Clone Wars and cloning than it turned out to have. Man, that version of Star Wars would’ve been a lot crazier.
I think we have to accept super lasers as the Star Wars equivalent of nuclear weapons. Now that they’ve been invented, governments are inevitably going to build them. Star Destroyers with smaller super lasers are less effective but practical than massive, expensive, space stations that have gaping weaknesses. Money down the drain. Makes me think of the Eclipse in Legends, actually. It’s what they should’ve turned to after the first Death Star blew up! But I think the bad guys have an inferiority complex. And to be honest, I don’t think the fact they have super lasers will be a major factor in the plot. I don’t think it will be the focus, but it will just be a useful way to quickly illustrate this new fleet as dangerous.
Also, red Star Destroyers and TIE fighters? Uhh, yes please! Where’s your sense of childhood abandon? That’s something I totally would’ve eaten up as a kid. I would’ve loved drawing them.
The question of hyperspace continuity is something that has interested me as well. But as it is often said among fans… in Star Wars, starships travel at the speed of plot.
I believe it is more appropriate to assume hyperspace allows for near instantaneous travel, rather than how early West End Games and further EU material came to the conclusion that it could take days to travel across the galaxy.
I take the scene in the original Star Wars where Luke is training with the remote in the Millennium Falcon as the best example of this. They just have jumped to hyperspace not long before, having left Tatooine on route to Alderaan. Han enters the room, having just left the cockpit, and says:
Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I’d outrun 'em… Don’t everyone thank me at once… Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours.
The way Han says this makes it sound like this is the first time they’ve spoke since they escaped Tatooine, so it can’t be that long after they jumped to hyperspace. Also, when Han says “oh-two-hundred hours”, he doesn’t literally mean 200 hours, he’s referring to military time, which would be about 2:00 AM (Galactic Standard Time in their case? Lol). That would appear to mean that it will take them, at the very most, less than 24 hours to arrive at Alderaan. This contradicts the EU explanation that it took them days to get to Alderaan.
But here is the kicker, at the end of the scene, Han reacts to an alarm and looks at some flashing lights on the nearby console. His last line of the scene is:
Looks like we’re coming up on Alderaan.
This is a three-minute scene. If you go off this scene alone, it definitely seems like the travel time between Tatooine to Alderaan took at most hours, and the very least, minutes! The idea that space travel takes days, at least on established hyperlanes, is a complete EU invention. You could try to explain it another way, but it would be a pretty hand-wavy explanation.
And I say this as someone who likes the idea that space travel takes some time! I think it is a nice rule to have in a sci fi universe, but Star Wars isn’t that kind of sci fi universe. Lucas was never concerned about hyperspace continuity.
So I believe trying to limit the ability for certain ships to use hyperspace is just going to create more narrative problems, especially since it is already implied Rebel fighters can travel at light speed (Rebel transport escorts escaping Hoth, Luke traveling to Dagobah and then Bespin, and the fighter escorts around the fleet in the final scene), and we actually see them jump to lightspeed in ROTJ. Long range fighters, like Tobar said.
Also, I’m pretty sure Ady showed those X-Wings escorting the transports jumping to hyperspace in ESB: Revisited, so not showing fighters in hyperspace in ROTJ would contradict that.
Hope you guys don’t mind the longer post! It is an interesting topic.
Now that is a fun idea, Maul! Maybe Mothma became compromised some point after ROTJ. If Palpatine has really been influencing things beyond the grave, possessing or corrupting the leader of the New Republic seems like a logical path for a Sith Lord to take.
That also makes think of how I remember reading in the Art of TFA book that the Snoke-character at one point was considered to be female. Although I don’t know if the artist was referencing the Talon character, who apparently appeared in George’s original treatment, or just a female version of Snoke. A crone-like villain would’ve been a fun idea, since we have yet to have a female villain in the films outside of Zam Wessell, who has only a few minutes of screen time.
Regardless, I hope we get a female villain in one of the new film series. Would love to see a female Sith, maybe a Kreia/Darth Traya inspired character.
Looks real good, Nev! Glad the move-in has gone well.
What are some ways you think that could be properly illustrated in the film?
The next few years, maybe it’ll die down. But I think expecting anything less than a barrage of ranting videos in December after TROS comes out is wishful thinking.
Like I’ve said before, it just feels like you are primed for a debate, rather than a conversation. Which I kind of think makes it hard to remain open-minded about anything. I totally get you have strong feelings about the new films because you genuinely like Star Wars, but I also feel like there is nothing I could say at this point in time that will make you change your mind, either.
Then again, I am not really a confrontational person, so maybe it is just because I don’t really want to get into a heated argument with you guys!
It’s a hair away from plain old factual though.
Do you not feel like it is a little arrogant to think your opinion is objectively fact?