RogueLeader

I think a better direction for this series would have been to have shown different “chapters” of Boba’s life. Could’ve given more explanation for the title, which still doesn’t make much sense now that the finale is over.

Maybe you could’ve still jumped back and forth to present and past, or you could’ve gone chronologically.

You could’ve had one or two episodes showing younger Boba’s early bounty hunting days, maybe being mentored by Cad Bane. Maybe young Boba’s look and setting could’ve been inspired by the cancelled 1313 game. Use the budget for the ringworld from episode 5 to instead depict the Coruscant underworld. This young Boba story arc could’ve ended with Boba dueling Bane, beating him, and his notoriety beginning to spread.

Next, you could’ve had an episode or two showing Boba Fett at the height of his infamy. With his classic look. These episodes should really justify why Boba is considered one of the coolest Star Wats characters. Let’s see him hunt some bounties, show us if he is ruthless or honorable. Show us why he is the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, and what that reputation costs him.

THEN, we can see Boba survive the Sarlacc, and how he comes to live with the Tuskens. Now, when Boba changes from this experience, we have actually seen what Boba was like before this event.

Finally, we can have the present day plot, and we now should have a full picture of who Boba Fett is, and why he wants to take over Tatooine. You could be cutting to this present day plot throughout the whole series, but regardless of that, hopefully we can tie in themes and ideas that are set up in the past and paid off in future/present.

But, with the way the finale ended, it seems like Boba Fett might not even stay on Tatooine for long… bringing into question the point of it all. But we’ll see I guess.

Absolutely. So now people who just watch Mando are going to be totally confused when Grogu is with Mando again at the beginning of Season 3, and if they want to understand it they’re forced to watch this messy and awkward series.

Not only that, but having Grogu be back with Din so quickly totally deflates the emotional ending of Season 2. I expected Mando to have at least half a season, or even a whole season, without Grogu.

I did enjoy most of Mando Season 2, but knowing Season 3 is just gonna start this way, like the Season 2 finale didn’t even happen, honestly takes away a bit of my excitement. Yeah, Robert Rodriquez is responsible for the awkward direction, but Jon Favreau wrote this too. Were they really afraid to go more than a few episodes with Din and Grogu apart?

Regarding Cad Bane, I think they should’ve had Boba kill him back in the Clone Wars like the plan was. Boba killing Cad Bane to cement his place as the next great bounty hunter makes so much sense. Too much sense, apparently, for Lucasfilm. Instead, Cad Bane lives to show up briefly in the Bad Batch, and briefly in the Book of Boba Fett. At least Boba Fett killed him, but they’re both old men at this point, so, why now? What was the point of keeping him around all of these years? He was cool to see in live action, but even the relationship they reference in the finale makes no sense because most audiences never even saw it.

Anyway, there were some nice little moments throughout the series, but I honestly feel like they really messed up with the series. Boba Fett has arguably been one of the top 5 coolest Star Wars characters for the past four decades (overrated or not), and he’s literally a blank slate almost. Yet, they still somehow managed to make THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT, severally underwhelming.

This is definitely doom and gloom, but I think I need to to accept that Star Wars is generally mediocre, and it seems greater because of the few exceptions to that rule. It’s like a franchise that eats its own tail, and it’s doomed to be self-sabotaged by the pedestal people have put it on.

9/10

Just kidding. It was fine, just a lot worse than I expected it to be. Hopefully Kenobi proves my rant wrong.

Right, and I agree with you that it was too little to late. I meant to say that such a scene should’ve really been in TFA.

I like Peter Pan’s idea about replacing Kylo’s clone line with something more relevant maybe, but I don’t know what you could replace it with.

I definitely agree with that assessment. It’s like they have a very small fleet, but they invested a lot into it. Arguably it could be seen as a quality over quantity mentality, which the Empire arguably did the opposite with their disposable TIE fighters and such.

If only there was a line where their limitations were brought up. Too bad there weren’t any scenes reminiscent to the Imperial meeting in ANH.

I’ll contribute a few oldies.

TFA - Flamethrower

TLJ - Poe Hug

TROS - StormPilot
Tbh I could see myself using this in actual edit.

This is something I constantly go back and forth on. Does the set up in the ST actually work? Or did they fail to execute it properly?

I think the big problem is the imagery. Yes, technology does improve with time, but since the Empire was defeated in ROTJ, it feels strange that one of their remnants has bigger ships than the empire ever created at the height of their power. And the films never explain if the First Order is an official government with multiple systems under their control, or if they randomly raid planets for resources and their bases of operations are capital ships and military outposts. Do they have a capital? A currency?

I think if they were meant to be more like raiders, biding their time and building their army, their resources should’ve been scavenged and upgraded Imperial-era equipment. Something more guerrilla. With the way the First Order actually appears, I think it makes more sense if they were a highly centralized totalitarian state. Like North Korea, where its citizens are poor and mistreated (like the Tico sisters’ home-world) and it devotes most of its resources to the military.

[Even then, though, North Korea’s military technology is not state-of-the art, but the comparison doesn’t have to be 1:1]

But we honestly get no sense that the First Order actually rules anything in TFA, besides Starkiller Base. I think that is the general problem with the First Order. They feel both big and small, and I think they made it that way because they honestly didn’t know what it should be. It feels like they kept it ambiguous in hopes that it could be filled out more in later stories, but that to me is another example of the trilogy’s lack of clear vision.

With the way the First Order is presented, I would say a good route would be to use the opening crawl to establish that the First Order is a small, isolated Imperial remnant. Maybe the last one left. But the remnant and the New Republic are in a frozen conflict. The First Order rules within its own borders, and the New Republic doesn’t want to risk another war so they leave them alone.

But Leia has been motivated to organize a Resistance movement within First Order space. Unaffiliated with the New Republic, but aligned politically. This is basically what we get in the movies, but it isn’t explained that way. We never really get a sense that we’re in First Order territory, or if the First Order actually has any territory. And they probably wanted to keep that ambiguous, because if the FO was a bigger threat, it would make the NR seem foolish for allowing themselves to be so vulnerable. If they are secret, it makes the lack of concern more understandable, but it still makes them seem somewhat foolish since Leia recognized the threat and they didn’t. Also, having them rebuild in secret raises questions about how they were able to upgrade their military force without the NR catching wind of such a thing.

If the First Order have their own functioning nation, then them building new stuff isn’t that hard to explain. But maybe you could somehow imply that they do recycle Imperial tech. Maybe you could have Poe call Snoke’s ship “Palpatine’s Ship” or “the Emperor’s ship” in TLJ. The implication being that maybe his ship is actually the Eclipse, Palpatine’s old flagship. Now we’re not left thinking that the First Order built a larger Star Destroyer than the Galactic Empire ever did. There’s really no way to imply this in the films, but perhaps one could somehow imply that the new Star Destroyers are just stripped down/upgraded Imperial Star Destroyers, rather than brand new ones.

This is definitely a more radical idea, but…

I think it would be interesting to see a version of TFA where the New Republic is never destroyed. Instead, Starkiller Base is just a base (not a bigger, badder, Death Star) and the climax is focused on getting the other half of the map to Luke, and rescuing Rey.

You could take this idea further and have the New Republic never be destroyed in the trilogy. In TLJ, the New Republic can’t intervene because the resistance launched an unprovoked attack on the First Order in their own territory, so they have no jurisdiction. You could even have the New Republic send a transmission to the Resistance on Crait saying they can’t help.

Then, in TROS, you could have the fleet that shows up at the end be the New Republic, who finally can take action now that the First Order is on the verge of launching an attack to take over the galaxy. Obviously there are some cool things with the fleet being just “people”, and I’m not saying one is better than the other. I can just understand what people mean when it feels like they tore down the legacy of Luke, Han and Leia in order to just tell the same story over again. This way, Leia in TFA isn’t starting back where she was in ANH. The fruits of their labor, the New Republic, still exist. But she is just trying to finish what she started by liberating the last corner of the galaxy still ruled by the Empire.

You could potentially do something similar with Han. Again, obviously there are thematic reasons for why Han is back to smuggling in TFA, but I also can understand people who feel like this direction for the character was forced just to have Han be a smuggler again. It might be a stretch, but you could potentially have Han still serving as a general in the New Republic. Perhaps his hauler ship in TFA could be changed to be a New Republic ship. You could also change 3PO’s lines when they reunite, and he can call him “General Solo” and make some reference to the New Republic.
Making new lines for 3PO in general could be pretty useful for this idea.

As far as Luke and his legacy goes, that’s a good story for another time.

Anyway, a bunch of random ideas. Regardless of how radical you went, I think that layout for the crawl I mentioned earlier would make the most sense. Sure, you still end up with the same Rebels vs Empire scenario, but now it isn’t at the cost of resetting the galaxy back to ANH.

Yes, you do have to cut a few things to remove the connections between Rey and Ochi’s ship and dagger, but I think Rey can be equally motivated to kill Palpatine if he is just a threat to her friends.

Some thoughts on the opening and the climax.

Honestly, I think a good exercise would be to see how much you could cut from the opening without losing any necessary information. How much fat could you trip in order to get to the good stuff?

The few times I’ve popped TPM up on Disney+ to skim through it while thinking about this thread, I can’t help but remember how boring this film is. There’s good stuff in there but it’s just meandering. Even John Williams score is meandering at times, especially at the beginning. This might be controversial, but it would be interesting if we could find a different track to rescore the opening with. Something with a little more tension or energy.

This might be cutting a lot, but I think it would be fun to cut the opening so we don’t see the Jedi uncloaked until they start fighting the droids. So something like this:

• Republic cruiser lands, maybe no convo with Nute Gunray.
• Cruiser lands, droid escorts hooded figures to meeting room.
• Alter droid dialogue and cut away before droid leaves room. Stays and asks if they’d like a drink or something.
• Cuts to first convo with Sidious. Take dialogue from first Gunray scene where the other Nemoidian says “The Jedi are here to force a settlement”.
• Palpatine responds with the “Begin landing your troops” line
• Cut Gunray asking if it is legal. Instead he immediately asks, “And the Jedi?”
• Cut the wide shot immediately after Sidious says, “Kill them immediately”
• Cut to insert of poisonous gas, but don’t show the Jedi.
• Then show them blowing up the Republic cruiser.
• Have the droids approach the meeting room door. Then it plays out similarly with the Jedi kicking ass. This would be the new introduction to Obi and Qui-Gon.

Yeah, you lose some dialogue between the two that is nice, but the latter half of the dialogue is meandering, and the droid leaving just to come right back is dull, and it is funny to think they could’ve just poisoned the Jedi’s drinks rather than poisoning them with a very visible gas (especially after they alerted them by blowing up their ship first).

Even if you didn’t cut complete scenes from the beginning, just a lot of trimming in general could help pick the pace up. For example, you could keep the scene between Gunray and Amidala, but it actually isn’t necessary, since most of that same info is reiterated in the next scene with the Queen and her counsel. There’s just a lot of over explaining in the beginning of this movie, and I think it might be more exciting if you try to show and not tell as much as you can.

I think I would also show the droid army capturing Theed before the Jedi decide to go to the Gungan city. I feel like capturing Theed is a natural place to end the opening sequence (sort of like the droids escaping the clutches of the Empire in an escape pod in ANH.) So the Jedi’s journey to the Gungan City and to Theed would be like the droids journey through the desert and to the Lars Homestead. The Nemoidians could later land in Theed around the same time the Jedi arrive there.

Also, a thought regarding the ending. I know the four different plot lines in the climax was a problem discussed even during the editing of the actual film. To help solve this, I wonder if you could “resolve” the Gungan battle before our heroes split up in the hangar. It could play out like this:

• When the Gungan battle starts, maybe have it play out up until the droids breach their shields. This would play out as sort of extended opening for the “climax” of the movie.
• Then we cut to our heroes sneaking into the city. This way our heroes are making their move when the droid army is already stuck in battle.
• Have the Gungans begin their retreat before our heroes split up in the hangar. This would be enough to consider this plot line “concluded” in the audiences’ minds I think.
• Cut Jar Jar’s extended antics while he is trying to escape the army.
• We could briefly cut back to the aftermath of the battle and show Jar Jar surrounded when we need to show our heroes at their lowest point.

This solution would allow the narrative to go from 2 plot lines to 3 plot lines, but never 4 at once.

I’m sure past editor’s have done some of these things to different degrees, but maybe these ideas could be useful to this discussion. You would have to keep an eye on runtime depending how much you cut, but honestly going back through this movie and remembering how dull it can be makes me a little more open to less than 2-hour version of this film.

Good shout out! I was going to actually comment on your work, bbghost! It definitely gives the scene a different feeling without the voices, doesn’t it? Like Sasquatch said, seeing the ghosts in Ascendant is a really cool payoff that helps imply that their intervention might ensure Palpatine DEFINITELY won’t come back again, but I do think this also fits well with the whole premise of a Rey Nobody edit. Whether Rey sees/heard her new family instead of the Jedi, she hears new Jedi voices that encourage her differently, or maybe she hears nothing, something like that could play really well I think.

I was also going to mention that I think I’ve thought of a way to handle the Force bond duel scene in a way that Rey’s parents aren’t brought up at all. I was stuck for so long because I was attached to keep the pacing as close to the theatrical as possible, but looking back at how Dom did it in his work print, I think you could do the same thing, but replace the one or two lines (and one quick vision) of Rey’s parents with the ominous future Exegol battle.

Yeah, maybe a fan editor could work with an amnesia angle. I’d have to watch it again to see how it might could work.

I think Boba’s relationship with the Tuskens at least gives us a character reason for having yet another story on Tatooine. I feel like if the Tuskens don’t play a role in the finale, that angle might not work as well though. At first I thought he was wanted to control Tatooine because the Tuskens were outcasts on their own planet, and he wanted to change things.

But I do agree with the spice thing. If Boba isn’t going to continue the spice trade on Tatooine, I feel like he shouldn’t be saying, “I’m the crime lord now”. Sure, you have characters like Vito Corleone who didn’t want to run drugs, but like Cthulhunicron said, it’s weird that they want to make Boba a “crime lord” and a good guy.

I would say a potential edit could cut lines that imply that, and instead emphasize him wanting to simply rule Tatooine. Boba was reborn amongst the sand people. They are his people, they saved him and gave him purpose, and now he wants to make a better life for them.

But like I said, if the Tuskens don’t play a role in the finale that theme might be a little muddy. It does seem like he simply doesn’t want to be the one taking orders anymore. This angle seems to be more in line with him wanting to be crime lord. Obviously both things can be true, but I think this muddiness is what contributing to what people see as somewhat unclear motivations.

And the dual motivations might be intentional. For example, he sort of abandoned his old persona when he went on his Tusken walkabout. But then after his tribe were killed, he reclaimed his old identity (his old armor and ship). I just can’t tell how much of this ambiguity is intentional storytelling, or simply just weak screenwriting. And I think this goes back to what I said awhile back, that the show feels like good Star Wars television, but arguably not great television in general.

A lot of my opinions have already been reflected in previous posts, but I’ll share a critique and a compliment.

I know it is a cliché, but I think Boba’s character change could’ve been better explained, and been interesting, if he got amnesia while he was in the Sarlacc. I know Legends had this idea that sarlaccs could assimilate the thoughts and memories of their victims, so there could’ve been a lore explanation to it. So when he wakes up in the desert, without his armor, he has no idea who he is or how he really got there. Then he begins living with the Tuskens and the story could play out similarly.

But when he saves Fennec, she recognizes him and reveals him who he is. This would give us an opportunity to have flashbacks of Boba Fett in his prime hunting days, which we’ve actually never seen in live action if you think about it. Boba really doesn’t do much in the OT, so it could’ve been a good opportunity to see where Boba got his reputation as a “cold-blooded killer”, and the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy.

And more importantly to the narrative, we can see how Boba reacts to the contrast of who he used to be and who he is now, and see how he integrates his new life with his old one.

But I do think the story works well as-is, but I think it would’ve helped if we got a better understanding of who he was before he fell into the pit to understand how the desert really changed him.

On a positive note, I’ve liked some of the direction in the past two episodes. Bryce Dallas Howard did a great job with the last episode, and the long take in the lounge on ringworld made me raise up in my seat. Seeing more creative direction in Star Wars is exactly what I want to see. Because right now, I feel like we’re getting some good Star Wars television, but does it really stand on its own as good television?

I also enjoyed the Cobb Vanth and Cad Bane duel. I appreciate how Filoni stretched it out, allowing their to be these awkward pauses between their replies to build up tension. As well as the direction with the eyes, showing the Deputy’s nervousness and Cobb’s concern for his Deputy, which made him vulnerable to Cad’s quick draw. It reminded me a lot of how Filoni did Maul and Obi-Wan’s duel in Rebels. It’s clear character through action.

Star Wars television so far has felt pretty experimental in a few different ways (like some of the big narrative choices this season), but I hope they keep pushing projects to take more risks and not be afraid to stray off the path of the formula.

Kylo Ren dialogue for TROS, or any of the ST movies, would be a big help. I think ST Luke would be another contender, especially for TROS, since the majority of his lines with Rey you can’t even see his face.

Can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I’m sure Anakin or Obi for the PT would be too contenders for new dialogue.

Yeah, that is really nice! Are you also making Anakin’s first saber green?

EddieDean said:

Could do. And wasted is a much better solution there. But I’m no great audio editor, I mainly just wanted to make the tool for the community. I’m committed to finishing Clone Wars before picking up anything new!

Totally! Definitely the priority is CW: Refocused. This is something I plan on playing around with myself sometime soon. (Though now I also want to work on the Boba Fett idea I mentioned in the other thread… and work on the Rey Nobody edit…)
I think your test is a very good sign though that we can make Jar Jar easier to understand at the very least.

Joshuabri’s no Palpatine edit has the climax intercut between the Death Star duel and the battle of Exegol.

This is really promising! The first ‘Mesa’ comes off a little strong, but rewatching it it isn’t that bad. I do think that last line replacement is a little dirty, since you can hear a little music/sound effects in the audio still. I almost wonder if that line would be served better with some silence. Jar Jar lingers on that fact, and maybe it’ll seem like the gears are turning in Padmé’s head.

In that very first line, I assumed Jar Jar is saying ‘pasted’. I wonder if you could change it to “Gungans get wasted too, eh?”
Maybe the meaning of the word ‘pasted’ is clear to others, but maybe ‘wasted’ would be a little clearer to understand. Maybe you could make this change if you got the write W sound.

An idea I would like to eventually play around with is to reuse the footage of Luke getting his hand shot, but have Boba be the one to shoot his hand instead of some random guard on the sail barge.

Basically, a summary of changes I’ve thought of making:

1. Make the jet pack sound effect sound a little beefier (sort of how they made it sound in Mando 201)
2. Have Boba immediately fire when he lands on the skiff, and the shot whizzes past Luke’s head. (You could potentially have him take a shot or two off while he is flying, but you might not want him to miss too much)
3. Rotoscope a yellow electric energy onto the cable wire Boba shoots around Luke. Although we see this cable wire without this effect in Mando, other media have depicted the wire with the energy, like here in Rebels (at the 1:25 mark), and it could add some nice visual flare to the scene that could make Boba cooler.
4. When the sail barge turret shot that knocks Boba down fires, we don’t really see it, just where it impacts. So maybe we could add a blaster deflection sound effect to imply that Luke managed to deflect it while he was tied up. You could also add a blaster shot that passes by camera when Luke flicks his lightsaber. I think this scene may have been trying to imply this, but it could be made clearer.
5. When Boba lands on the floor of the skiff, add some spark sound/visual effects coming from out of frame, emanating from his now-damaged jet pack.
6. As Boba is starting to aim his shot at Luke, you could add a some more brief sparks to help set up his new vulnerability more.
7. When Han says, “Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where?” have him say this quicker, then add a Chewbacca growl, as if he is telling Han where he is, then Han swings based off where Chewbacca said he was. Han isn’t saying “Where?” as he is swinging.
8. Boba shot does not miss Luke, but makes contact.
9. Rotoscope Luke’s hand getting shot and his quick reaction shot and put them at this moment. (If there is trouble with making his reaction shot fit, maybe we could just put Luke shouting in pain over the hand insert)
10. Remove Boba’s scream (which many people have already done)
11. After Boba falls in, replace the Sarlaac burping with the sound of muffled blaster shots. It could imply he survives, or he still dies, but it depicts Boba as tough despite the circumstances.

And of course, you would remove his hand getting shot later on since we have placed it sooner.

You could make an argument that you might need to add Luke’s hand injury to any shots where we might see it, but we actually don’t see his injury on his hand after it gets shot even in the theatrical, so I wouldn’t say it is priority.
I would try and make any new blaster shots or any other new effects fit with the 1983 look. Nothing super modern looking.

It is still goofy that he goes in close range when he could’ve taken him out from a distance, but that’s Star Wars for you. If you wanted to rationalize it, you could perhaps give Boba a line or two during this scene. Maybe he could say something like, “He’s worth a lot” (that way you could use both the original and new dubs), implying that Boba might use the chaos to claim the bounty, that certainly must exist on Luke, for himself. This also makes Boba appear more self-serving rather just a Jabba lackey.
If that didn’t work, you could maybe reuse “He’s no good to me dead” or make it “He’s good to me dead” or just “He’s dead”. Boba works better when he says little, but these are just some ideas.

Building off of Boba ideas, I also had the idea of Boba being the one to catch Han and Leia trying to escape, rather than Jabba and literally everyone else in the entire palace hiding behind currents. When Han and Leia turn around to leave, you could reuse a shot of Boba standing in the palace, and point his gun at them, then cut back and show him raising his gun back up, knowing that he has them where he wants them. You would lose a minute of footage from this change though, and any runtime worth keeping may be crucial to keep one’s edit from being too short.

I may try to make Boba’s “death scene” my next project, whenever I have the time. Even though ROTJ is sort of the black sheep of the Original Trilogy, I still feel like there isn’t a definitive edit for this film that does a better job at putting it as close as possible to Star Wars and Empire in terms of quality.

jadenkorr41 said:

At this point, its a matter of taste on how different it is to ROTJ and if there are any creative/meaningful ways to make the rey, ben, palpatine interaction more “original/novel” but thats a different discussion.

Actually, this is exactly the discussion I’m wanting to have!

I feel like you could make Rey and Kylo’s duel on the Death Star relevant to the battle of Exegol if you can establish one. For example, if Kylo has ordered for the fleet to wait for his return, then Rey keeping him distracted can connect the two plots. Or, if the Wayfinder’s function could be changed, maybe the Wayfinder can be used to control the entire fleet (like a remote control), then Rey getting would play a role that could have an effect on the battle, even though she is light years away.

Again, not saying I hate the movie as it is. Just spitballing.

https://gfycat.com/uncomfortablesecondbassethound

Here is the shot I was thinking about.

I would check out her thread, because she had quite a few ideas related to Phantom Menace. As far as getting the best quality versions of these shots, we might just have to message her. She’s not on here a lot but she pops around sometimes still.
Even if she doesn’t have all of these shots on her computer, it gives us an idea for potentially remaking them too.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Snookers-Assorted-Star-Wars-edit-ideas/id/73571

Also, send me a link to that video once you get it exported!

Do you just mean Exegol in general? Because I think an edit that made the Kylo and Rey duel the climax would be intercut with the battle of Exegol, but it would just be focused on the Resistance stopping the fleet rather than anything to do with Palpatine. At least that’s how I see it playing out. Joshuabri’s edit goes for this idea.
Again, not arguing that it’s a radical change, this is the radical redux thread after all.

Hahaha, I can’t believe you did this, and so quickly…

I can’t give timecodes, but I think Jar Jar only has 3 scenes in AOTC.

1. When Obi and Anakin reunite with Jar Jar and Padmé.
2. Chancellor and Senators are debating what to do about the crisis near midpoint or end of act 2. I don’t think Jar Jar actually says anything here.
3. Jar Jar gives emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor.

In ROTS, all he says is “Excuse me” when all of the politicians came out to welcome the Chancellor back from being rescued.

EddieDean said:

Actually, screw it. I can see this task very clearly, I’ll pick it up. Editing Clone Wars needs a different type of free time, I can work on this Jar Jar voice idea without it distracting from it.

If you think it wouldn’t be too bad, that would be cool! Maybe you could play around with one or two lines just see if the idea will actually work.

Yeah, I see what you mean. It feels like a common trope where the hero kills faceless goons without remorse, but when it’s time to kill the big bad, who is arguably the most responsible for the Bad Stuff, the hero spares them.

Again, I know the idea is that Rey is defending herself by blocking the lightning, but it feels like she aggressively shoves it back in his face. Maybe the message you could get from that is that Rey’s anger, or desire to protect others using self defense, doesn’t define her or make her fall to the dark side. Maybe the idea being she is in control of her emotions, rather than just ignoring/purging them like the old Jedi ways.

I think something nice would be for Rey to end the story with some kind of boon. New knowledge or wisdom that will keep the new Jedi for repeating the same mistakes. But nothing is ever really brought up clearly regarding that, at least in TROS.

Stumbled across this old article yesterday and it reminded me that my initial opinions were very similar to this writer.

You can argue that Rey deflecting lightning back in Sidious’ face was her acting in self defense, but I still don’t think the execution is nowhere near as interesting or emotionally powerful as Luke’s act of non-violence at the end of Return of the Jedi.

This isn’t to downplay the amazing work done with adding the Force ghosts to the end of the film in Ascendant. It is a major improvement on the story the filmmakers decided to tell.

With Obi-Wan leaving Anakin for dead at the end of ROTS, and Luke sparing his father and throwing his weapon down, I can’t help but think that the natural climax of TROS would’ve been the Kylo Ren and Rey duel, where Rey almost kills, then chooses to heal, her mortal enemy. It would just be hard to accomplish that and still have a decent runtime.

Idk, I’m just curious if there is another way you could really spin the theatrical ending. Rey gets strength in hearing the voices of her new family/attachments, rather than the Jedi? Or the Jedi voices encourage her with different kind of advice?

Either way, you kind of just end the series with an old man’s face getting melted.

Regarding the other idea, about the Naboo invasion being enhanced, or showing the suffering of the Naboo people, the easiest way I can think of getting this idea across would be to add audio of off-screen skirmishes, or the sounds of people crying/wailing/etc.

I know snooker had added plumes of smoke in a night establishing shot of Theed, implying that the Trade Federation was quelling some resistance or rioting that was going on in the city.

You could have Naboo trying to fight back at the beginning of the invasion, but I feel like there really isn’t any footage that’s usable. I feel like video game footage would stick out. And I’ve seen people add explosions to the Theed occupation sequence, but I’ve never seen a version where the new effects didn’t look obvious.