RogueLeader

Oh yeah, that is a good point Jar Jar. It does really make the whole spirit transfer thing kinda complicated.

I honestly believe the early leaks said that the Palpatine we see in the film was originally just meant to be his original body, somehow recovered from the Death Star. It’s dumb, but at least the spirit transfer thing doesn’t have two rules all of the sudden. I also don’t know if spirit transfer was a thing at all in the first version. And as far as I’m aware, it was always his plan to drink their Dyad milkshake before the reshoots. It wasn’t a surprise to Palpatine.

The early version also has Palpatine tell Kylo that he’s dying and has been grooming Kylo as his successor. And he wants Kylo to bring Rey so they can turn her and have them begin a new Sith dynasty. Palpatine is also the one who tells Kylo about the Dyad. Which makes sense, since the theatrical version never explains how Kylo knows about the Dyad. Of course all of it is a ruse to get them to come there together to allow him to drain their life Force.

Anyway, I don’t think any of these dialogue changes would drastically improve the film. At the very least they could nudge the film in a more logical direction. It’s just a matter or figuring it out what’s the most effective change with simple, unobtrusive edits. You can argue the theatrical film potentially makes sense as-is and none of these changes make a difference. I just wish it was less convoluted, which is what I’m trying to figure out.

Yeah, I like the “All the Sith” idea a lot, but I felt like it was tacked on and not really explored. It just seems simpler/cleaner if it is clearly just Palpatine. Especially since that’s all they call him the entire film. Just thinking out loud though.

That interpretation is interesting Jar Jar. I don’t think we could get a lot of that across just in the film, though. That there are two different types of spirit transfer or whatever.

I also wish that the whole Dyad term was used or explained earlier in the film, or a previous film.

I think this is something I’ve talked about way back in this thread.

It would take a bit of FX work, but if you wanted to have Hux live until the end, these are a few changes I think you could make:

1. Cut his death scene.

2. Replace Pryde with Hux when he speaks to Palpatine’s hologram.

3. Use footage from TLJ to have Hux be on the bridge of the Star Destroyer during the final battle, and have Hux be the one that dies looking out the bridge while it blows up.

Don’t won’t to derail any other discussion people want to have, but I wanted to try and logic through the possession stuff. Ironically it is the logic of my own earlier suggestions, but I want to make sure it all makes sense. Which, even if it doesn’t 100% make sense, I guess it still would be on par with the theatrical film.

In regards to this edit, since Palpatine tells Kylo at the beginning that if he kills him that his spirit will pass into Kylo, why wouldn’t Kylo tell Rey that if she tries to kill Palpatine, that he would possess her? Since Palpatine told him that at the beginning, and Kylo knows Rey wants to kill Palpatine, he could use that info to make her believe that only through the power of their Dyad can they truly defeat him. I don’t think this is necessarily a plot hole, but I think it would help strengthen this idea if there is a strong reason why Kylo wouldn’t try this.

I guess it wouldn’t necessarily make a difference though. Even if he told her, she goes to Exegol thinking she will be able to defeat him another way without Kylo. She only acts like she might go through with it once she realizes “killing” him might be the only way to save her friends. Which I guess brings us back to a similar place as the theatrical film, sort of defeating the purpose of moving the “spirit” line to the beginning in the first place.

Originally, the earlier placement of the spirit line was meant to accomplish 3 things:

1. It gave the audience a better idea of how Palpatine survived when he is first introduced. (Clones + spirit transfer)
2. It gave Kylo a reason why he simply couldn’t kill Palpatine and take the fleet then and there.
3. It made it so Palpatine didn’t villain-splain his plan to Rey later in the film. Plus, it creates dramatic irony for the audience, since we would know what would really happen if Rey kills him.

Perhaps that line could be moved back to the end, but the line could be changed to just, “Kill me, and my power will pass into you… You will be Empress, we will be one.”

This would give the line some ambiguity still, something of Palpatine will pass into Rey. Palpatine wants Rey to believe that she will get his power. But the “We will be one” line provides some ambiguity, and makes us (and Rey) wonder how much of Palpatine will still persist if she commits to the act. Also, it removes the “as all the Sith live in me” aspect, which makes things unnecessarily complicated. Let it just be Palpatine.

And for earlier in the film with Kylo, the original lines went like this-

Kylo: You’ll die first.

Palpatine: I have died before. The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

It currently is this-

Palpatine: I have died before. Kill me and my spirit will pass into you, as all the Sith live in me.

Instead, it could go something like this-

Palpatine: Kill me. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

Palpatine sort of did this already, but Palpatine straight up telling Kylo to kill him is more explicitly reverse psychology. Kylo probably wasn’t expecting that response, and those two lines paired together implies that if he kills him, that some unnatural things might happen. This comes off as more of a threat than him simply saying “I have died before”. Although he is still referring to spirit transfer, like my original suggestion, it isn’t explicitly said. This allows Kylo to believe killing him directly would be a bad idea, but still leave him in the dark as to exactly why.

I also think between Palpatine telling him to become what Vader couldn’t, and that he will rule all the galaxy as the new Emperor, it would be interesting if he were to tell Kylo “My spirit is weak”. Although he is lying to Kylo (or maybe he isn’t?), this gives Kylo a reason why Palpatine is just offering his Empire to Kylo (which he should be extremely suspicious about). He’s basically saying he’s dying, and he wants Kylo to be his successor. I also think it would be helpful to mention the word spirit somewhere, so we know his spirit does play a role in this, and this isn’t just a Palpatine clone or a reanimated corpse. Palpatine’s spirit is in that body.
Later in the film he also says “They don’t have long”, so you could even throw in “I don’t have long” somewhere potentially. Perhaps after, “The Final Order will soon be ready.” These two lines might help give the audience the idea that Palpatine is dying in a way that clone bodies can no longer help him.

While Kylo should still know something is up, I think it helps if Palpatine at least gives Kylo some semblance of a motivation to make him doubt what exactly Palpatine’s plan is. And since the word “spirit” was mentioned earlier in Kylo’s scene, when Palpatine later says “We will be one” we still may achieve that dramatic irony in knowing that it likely means Palpatine’s spirit will pass into Rey, not just his “powers”.

I think this might be a way to give the audience enough information to understand that Palpatine’s spirit will transfer into the one that kills him, but without neither Kylo nor Rey ever being explicitly told that. So, Kylo can’t warn Rey, because he doesn’t know, and Rey is left to believe she will merely inherit Palpatine’s power.

But if someone can think of a good reason Kylo wouldn’t tell Rey, then I guess we could leave everything as-is.

Would love to get some thoughts.

Lol, I’ve thought about that a lot Burbin!

I find the idea of the Sith consciousness really interesting. The implication is that “Palpatine” as we know him is really one of dozens of Sith identities that exist in him, starting with Darth Bane. It is really weird to introduce it, though, when they’re trying to emphasize the power of the Palpatine bloodline. The “All the Sith” thing really deemphasizes the importance of Sheev Palpatine, the man. So why is Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter that big of a deal? It would almost be better to cut all of that out, and imply it really is just Palpatine, and he somehow found a way to really cheat death. You can’t really change the fact they just call him Palpatine the whole movie.

That is true. Though it is slightly different, since in TFA he says, “I will let nothing stand in our way.”

I think the inflection of “You don’t have to say anything” doesn’t fit as smoothly with the rest of the dialogue as “Nothing will stand in our way” does. Like, it carries this attitude that the rest of his monologue doesn’t have, if that makes sense. Though just looking at the dialogue I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

To help with help clear up Kylo’s affiliation and the “killing” question, we could potentially go with something similar to this line change I suggested over on the Rey Nobody thread. (Ignore everything before it since it is Rey Nobody-related)

https://vimeo.com/447063673

Kylo: What Palpatine doesn’t know is that we’re a Dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one. Together, nothing will stand in our way.

OR

Kylo: Together, we’ll take the throne.

Though the first option might be better if you don’t want to associate Kylo with the Sith throne. Plus, these lines also might work well for the eventual Rey Nobody version of Ascendant.

I imagine one of those Neutrogena commercials where models splash water on their face, but instead it is Palpatine moisturizing his skin with the tears of the innocent.

Exactly. So, in the film, you have the line, “Weak. Like your parents.” If you could find a good instance of Palpatine saying “to”, you could make the line, “You’re too weak”, or just “You’re weak”.

It would be simple enough to change the line, “Only you have the power to save them” to “Only I have the power to save them”. You have lines like, “Long have I waited”, “I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here…”, and “That is what I want”.

For, “She will take my power”, you have the original line, “She will take her revenge”. There are several instance of him saying “my”, like when he says “my spirit will pass into you”. You also have the line “She will take my life”.
For the word power, you have “Only you have the power to save them”, “A power like life itself”, “The power of two restores the one true Emperor”, and “A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me!” The emphasis on that last line might fit the best, if you can isolate it cleanly enough.

Thanks Jar Jar! I think it parallels well with Anakin wanting more power to save the one he cares about. I think this “rhyming” will help the audience understand what’s going on, since we’ve seen something similar before. I would like it if it could be clarified that Rey wants Palpatine’s “power” in order to control and harness her, well, power. So she is weak in the sense of lacking any control of her own raw abilities, making her dangerous to those around her. But, I think this keeps things simple. Plus, it’s probably the best we can get with what we have to work with.

Nice thought on it being a half truth! Very good way to put it. I think Palpatine works best when he is being deceitful and speaking in half truths.

My head canon for the inconsistency is that the pain and suffering of the Clone Wars is energizing Palpatine, allowing him to appear more youthful. Palpatine trying to maintain his facade as the benevolent leader of the Republic during the 10 years of peace preceding the outbreak of the Clone Wars was beginning to wear him down.

Some great discussion going on here.

I think another problem the film runs into is not showing Rey how the dark side is the “quick and easy path”. She should’ve been given more reasons why the dark side would give her the power to save her friends. For example, imagine her regular Jedi skills were failing to help protect her friends on Pasaana. Instead of thinking she killed Chewie with the dark side, imagine she used the dark side to kill some of the Knights of Ren and save her friends. I think it makes more sense if she thinks that she isn’t strong enough to protect her friends, unless she gives into that dark power. But I think the film constantly reminds Rey that the dark side will actually hurt her friends, so you end up with the situation that was described in the end, where Palpatine is just forcing her to join the dark side, and we personally haven’t seen why she would want to. At the very least it would be nice if Rey actually said she fears the dark side because of how powerful it makes her feel.

Or, maybe she has this power, the dark side is “in her nature”, but it is a risk to her friends. And the only way she can learn to control and harness that power is if she joined the Sith. I think the film already leans in this direction, but I don’t think it is ever really stated this way. It would be nice if Palpatine had actually made this a case for her joining the Sith, rather than Palpatine being like, “Bwahaha! Now you have no choice but to let me possess you!”

And that lines up well with Kylo and Palpatine both trying to use her insecurities to have her “join” them. They’re both offering her what she wants, some semblance of control. It would be nice if Rey’s conversations with these two characters could be altered to emphasize this idea. They’re both like, “join me”, but they don’t give her good reasons why, imo.

It would be interesting if you could change some of Palpatine’s lines to make it sound like if Rey kills Palpatine, she will simply take his power. Power she needs to save her friends. (But in reality, Palpatine will just use her as his new host). So, for example, you could give Palpatine new lines like this.

Palpatine: You’re too weak. Only I have the power to save them.

Then later after she agrees, instead of saying “She will take her revenge”, Palpatine could say, “She will take my power”.

I don’t think either of these things are drastic changes. And it lines up well with what Hal said earlier. With Ascendant, Rey sort of knows that some kind of transfer is happening, but she doesn’t know to what extent. These changes might actually help, because it might make it clearer that Palpatine is misleading her to believe that all that is being transferred is his powers to her. But in reality, it’s his entire spirit, which will take away Rey’s free will. Plus, I don’t think this idea invalidates either interpretations presented from Jar Jar and Sherlock.

Cool cool cool. This project has come a long way, Nev.

I have to agree with Nev and say the first two ideas are the most interesting to me. I’m curious on your take on TLJ and what all you would cut to make the message less muddled.

Your idea of a retro Star Wars II edit is pretty interesting as well. The idea of edits that try to maintain the non-digital feel of that era is really interesting to me, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to try with a potential Return of the Jedi edit.

I mean, just because his outfit is grey doesn’t mean he’s a grey Jedi. I think that would just be the simplest way to make his outfit look different.

Are you speeding up the slo-mo shot? I’m not sure how a slo-mo shot would look among regular speed shots.

And yeah, I have to say I do love the Falcon ending as well. I think it depends on how you interpret the ending. Perhaps it ends on the twin sunset shot, or it is kind of like what I said earlier. Maybe Ben has been living in exile, but on Tatooine, and Rey is coming to take him with her.

This video has a cool tutorial for head swapping that could be useful for a potential costume change.

Here are the concept images. I actually made these back in March 2020, but creating the actual shots were a bit beyond my abilities. The idea would be that Rey stands up and reacts to Ben approaching her, rather than the old lady.

I wonder if you could get away with Ben still wearing his “Kylo Ren” robes, but you make them gray instead of black. I feel like you could accomplish that with some color grading and masking.

Or, maybe you could use CGI, or film a body double wearing a big poncho, sort of like what Luke briefly wears in ANH, essentially covering Ben’s entire body. You could just put his head on top, if you could replicate his movements well enough. Even better if he’s just standing in the shot, and not walking.

The way I envision it, I think you would only need to use VFX in one shot to show that he’s wearing a new outfit. The rest of his shots would just be him in silhouette. I’ll share those images.

Finally watched through the brief Biomes when I had a break today and I was thinking of how some other shots could be potentially used for fan edits. One shot in particular I was thinking about was the Falcon lifting off from Ahch-To and flying towards the sunrise/sunset.

Since it is daytime in that shot, I don’t think you could really use it for TLJ. But, I did have another idea for it.

Imagine an alternate ending where Ben lives, but has been living in exile on Ahch-To. Perhaps the final scene could take place some time in the future, and Rey has come to finally take him off-world. Like he’s served his sentence.

Not exactly sure what footage could be used/reused to make it work, but I think the last shot being the Falcon taking off and flying towards the sunset would be another cool way to end the Saga. But if you wanted to do a Ben Lives ending, it would definitely be easier to just have him meet Rey on Tatooine in the current ending. Still would require a bit of FX work, but not as much, I would imagine. I’ve actually made proof-of-concept images for such an ending. I know making the actual shots would be obviously more difficult, but they feel don’t feel very artificial IMO.

I like the delivery on “Here?!” It sounds fearful, like their infamous reputation precedes them. Sort of maintains the purpose of the original line calling them ghouls, but now it is more subtextual, and clearer to understand what’s actually being said.

Considering those facts, and the fact that the entire Sequel Trilogy takes place over the course of only a year, makes me feel like if you made a trilogy edit where most of the action takes place beyond New Republic territory, and the Republic is never destroyed, it wouldn’t really impact the films that much.

Yes, we see the Republic planets blow up, but we don’t ever see how that effects Republic worlds. The whole trilogy could take place within the First Order’s small territory, with the Resistance being a covert operation within its borders. No Starkiller, no Snoke even. Just a radical Imperial remnant who use the heir of Vader as a figurehead. The hidden Imperial fleet could be their key to conquering the Republic, but then it’s the Republic fleet that kicks their butts at the end of the movie. Sure, we would never really get to visit the New Republic, but at least it wouldn’t be conquered and then apparently restored off-screen.

It’s just kinda nuts that they made a Sequel Trilogy and never really gave us a good look at the actual New Republic. But then again, if you keep in mind the trilogy only consists of a single year of galactic history, then it might make more sense if the First Order’s scale and off-screen blitzkrieg of the galaxy is downplayed, or entirely removed. Maybe less dramatic, but it might make the ST feel less like a reset.

Hal 9000 said:

In particular, follow up questions from the user to his friends revealed an intuitive read on the dagger whispers and underbelly Star Destroyer cannons without any confusion.

Hal, could you elaborate on this a bit more? You mean they understood what was happening with the dagger whispers, and they also just assumed the underbelly cannons were just cannons, and not like Death Star lasers or something?

There’a nothing wrong with sharing your opinion, it’s just a little annoying when people act like their opinion is objective fact. Plus, people might be more receptive to feedback if it didn’t come off as condescending.

TestingOutTheTest said:

Oh, God… hope I can go through this and explain why I feel you, alongside everyone else, even the most loyal defenders of TLJ (also coming from a TLJ defender, unironically), miss the point of TRoS and why your guys’ arguments are invalid.

Dude, art is subjective. Stop trying to invalidate everyone’s opinions on this movie.

I also like Politics of War. You know exactly what you’re getting into with that title.

It blows my mind how you’re able to go through and look at these episodes with such a fresh perspective.

So, Padmé and the other senators winning or losing this the political battle doesn’t get brought again in the series? Any references could easily be cut, but was just curious about that. I think it is great that Padmé gets a big victory on the political stage. Her slowly watching democracy die throughout the prequels is a bit depressing, so it is nice to show her succeeding for a change. I also like the implication you mentioned that Padmé in a way is making Anakin’s job more difficult by voting against the creation of more troops. This episode will definitely be some nice food for thought.

sade1212 said:

I like the “Here?” idea because it conveys that the Knights don’t often make appearances amongst the First Order, giving a small nod to their physical absence from the first two movies.

Haha, that’s idea a great idea! +1 for this.

Or,
“Knights of Ren?”
“Who?”

Because the audience totally forgot about them at this point.