RogueLeader

I like this meme format. 👍🏻

This does remind me of the often brought-up complaints regarding the First Order’s scale and resources. I’ve heard this constantly since TFA came out, but I also wish the First Order was more ragtag, like the Rebels used to be.

Since we can’t really do that in a fan edit, I do think a TFA edit could say that a part of the New Republic split off and reunited with the Imperial Remnant, giving them the resources they needed to challenge the Republic. But I think this would contradict Leia saying that the other senators don’t take the First Order threat seriously (as well as Poe’s surprise at how advanced the Finalizer was).

An idea many brought up over the years was the idea of Starkiller base being like the Star Forge. It would explain how the First Order were able to build a fleet ready for a full-scale war, without the New Republic realizing the scale of the threat. It would also solve the narrative problem of Death Star 3.0…

But… when you get to TLJ, you run into the problem of how Finn’s story arc implies the wealthy arms dealers of the galaxy had been profiting off both sides of the war. It doesn’t necessarily contradict it, but it would be confusing to show the First Order having the capability of building their own fleet in TFA, but then imply that they are buying their ships from arms dealers in TLJ. I guess you could argue that the First Order would have to start buying from arms dealers after the destruction of Starkiller Base…

Since his robes are already dark, it would be hard to recolor them to something brighter. At the same time, it would be a pain in the ass to recolor the golden robes and the masking not be noticeable. I do like the golden robes because it separates Snoke from other baddies, but giving the hologram of Snoke different colored robes would be hard, IMO.

I thought you were trying to make Snoke’s appearance between films more consistent? I was just suggesting that it would be easier, fx-wise, to just obscure the inconsistencies. I guess you mean his personality. Tbh, I feel like he barely has much of one in TFA.

I’m going to just choose to ignore that. I love the idea that Jabba actually carried and gave birth to his son. It’s an idea that adds some interesting nuance to such a despicable villain.

You could just add some effects to make Snoke’s hologram harder to see. Make it blue instead of photorealistic. It could be faint, and the hologram itself could be very glitchy. Just obscure his appearance more in TFA, so TLJ can be our first good look at him. This would just require some masking around foreground subjects (like Kylo and Hux), and apply multiple effects over the Snoke hologram. Perhaps even distort his voice more.

To me, The Mandalorian feels like a great Dungeons & Dragons campaign. You have this epic main quest, but during the journey, you have random encounters that lead into session-long tangents.

With Chapter 10, Mando is our player character who has an encounter with a New Republic patrol while on his main quest journey. His charisma check failed, leading to a session-long fiasco.

I’m surprised by some people’s urgency to move the main plot forward. Part of the problem with the films was that they had no time to breathe and just spend time in this sprawling universe. With The Mandalorian, the galaxy feels alive, and BIG. Getting from point A to point B doesn’t take 5 seconds, like it does in the movies. Space travel takes time, and you can run into problems. If I wast running a Star Wars tabletop game, I would have my players constantly deal with their ships mechanical problems. As soon as they earn a few credits, they have to spend that on their piece of junk that keeps falling apart. These kind of situations add immersion and depth to the story.

I saw someone say that they felt it was a wasted episode, that didn’t expand the world or develop the characters. I feel like this person didn’t actually pay attention to this episode, since we got a new planet, new aliens, more world building for the New Republic, as well as developing Mando more by exploring his sense of honor and keeping his word (with the alien that took the Child hostage, as well as Frog Lady).

I also liked how we saw our beloved Baby Yoda do something as bad as eating Frog Lady’s last batch of eggs. I jokingly said to my dad that Baby Yoda probably wants to eat those eggs, and when he actually did our jaws dropped! I’m sure he doesn’t understand the implication of what he’s doing, but I think Mando is starting to realize that he is not only responsible for protecting the Child, but the longer he has him in his custody, he is a role model for him. His behavior will rub off on the Child, whether it be for good or ill. He will have to start actively teaching him good lessons, otherwise the Child’s constant exposure to violence will be reflected in his own behavior.

Anyway, I suppose the nature of modern television turns some people off to the episodic nature of The Mandalorian, but I really enjoy it.

I think making Bran a hidden antagonist is an interesting idea, because you can use some clever editing to imply that he manipulated events to put himself in power.

Instead of making Bran the Night King, though, I think it would be interesting to give more characterization to who, or what, the “Three-Eyed Raven” actually is, and make his motivation clearer.

As we learn in the show, the Children of the Forest created the Night King and the White Walkers in order to stop humanity, who were encroaching on their lands and killing them. But, the Children lost control of their creation, and made a pact with the First Men in order to stop them together. But stopping the White Walkers did not their problems with humanity, since the Children basically went extinct in the end.

But how does the Three-Eyed Raven fit into the picture? What is it, exactly? What if the weirwood trees actually had as some sort of consciousness (the old gods), and the Three-Eyed Raven was merely a vessel for this entity?

In the Night King creation flashback, there is a quick shot of the face of the weirwood tree there. Maybe it could be edited in a way to imply that the weirwood is speaking to his Children (giving the name “Children of the Forest” have extra meaning). The weirwood could be the one to tell them to create the Night King. You could even edit the weirwood face to have three eyes, to help hammer the connection to the weirwood and the Three-Eyed Raven.

It also would be a good explanation for why the Night King personally wants to kill Bran and why he doesn’t go over the wall until after Bran has already gone South. The Night King wants to kill its creator.

You could even imply through montage visions that the Three-Eyed Raven was behind many of the “miracles” credited to the other gods. Basically, it would make nature itself a player of the game of thrones, playing the long game to fulfill its own mysterious goals. We could see how it moved the pieces throughout the show to take over Westeros, like it once did before men ever set foot there.

Lines like “She is not who you think she is” can be removed or given a new context to not feel weird. Also, lightning doesn’t inherently connect Rey with Palpatine. In fact, Rey used lightning in Trevorrow’s draft of IX, and she wasn’t a Palpatine in his version of the script. Again, it might seem like a Palpatine connection since we know the story leads there, but if you go into a Rey Nobody edit without those preconceptions, then it just would appear as an example of Rey tapping into her inner dark side.

A voice actor definitely won’t be essential, in my opinion. I think deleting and swapping out Kylo lines will be enough to make the Rey Nobody change work. Unless we want to make minor changes, like poppa and Hal having Kylo say “You were right.”

I hate to hear this for you man. I hope you can spend as much time with your family and your mother as you can.

The Ben and Rey kiss still does happen.

I’ll try and write something up unless someone beats me to it.

I did what to mention that I am still planning on completing some of the other necessary scenes for a Rey Nobody edit. I have been busy all summer, and my contract got extended for another month, so I haven’t been able to return to this yet. I should be able to get to it by the end of November or December, though.

Not that I am the only one who can work on this, but I felt like letting y’all know I haven’t abandoned this idea or anything. Just busy with work right now.

Game of Thrones came back to my mind recently, and I began thinking again about how one could potentially edit the final season to make the conclusion more satisfying. I know there have been many interesting rewrites across the internet, but I think a general consensus would agree that it is likely impossible to make a wholly satisfying conclusion given what we have to work with. After seeing so many people wrack their brains (including myself) trying to think of a better ending, it isn’t uncommon to see frustrated fans half-joke that having the Night King win would still have been a better ending than what we got. After reading several of these types of comments, I began to ask myself, “What if it actually ended this way?”

Back in October of 2018, George R.R. Martin was interviewed by The New York Times and was asked this question:

Manjoo: Many observers have pointed out that “Game of Thrones” offers a perfect metaphor for understanding climate change. What do you think of this interpretation?

Martin: It’s kind of ironic because I started writing “Game of Thrones” all the way back in 1991, long before anybody was talking about climate change. But there is — in a very broad sense — there’s a certain parallel there. And the people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world. And there is a great parallel there to, I think, what I see this planet doing here, where we’re fighting our own battles. We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice. All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world. And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean. So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those. We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not N.F.L. players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world.

I definitely agree that this symbolism is pretty apparent in the series, and because of that I had hoped the series would have given a more nuanced resolution to the White Walker plot line beyond our heroes simply burning or killing their problems. Even with the power of modern editing software, you can’t change the story we were given enough to change the fact that the story really did go with such a simple solution.

I remember the week before The Long Night episode premiered, everyone was speculating on who was going to die. Jorah? Brienne? Jaime? Now, imagine how shocked audiences would have been if the Night King actually won, and all of our heroes died. Really, nothing like that has ever really happened in the history of television, at least for one of the most popular shows in the world. I know I mentioned earlier that I was trying to figure out a more satisfying ending to the show, and this probably would have been the least satisfying ending possible, but maybe it would have been the ending we needed.

As the show went on, we slowly learned that all of the politics and fighting did not matter in the face of what was to come. Winter is Coming. It was the show’s tag line from the beginning. If the show had ended by killing all of beloved characters, many people would have hated it, but in a way, it could have been a huge wake up call for people our own existential threat we all face, and what the consequences would be if we don’t do something about it. Your character arcs, your fan theories, your lore, your entertainment, your game of thrones, none of it matters in the end if this problem isn’t solved.

You could argue that this ending would be really nihilistic or pessimistic, but to me it would function like any cautionary tale. As per Wikipedia:

A cautionary tale is a tale told in folklore, to warn its listener of a danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous. Then, the narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in expansive and grisly detail.

In this story, clearly the threat of the White Walkers is the warning that was disregarded until it was too late.

I am not trying to say that this would have been objectively the best possible ending for the show, but I think this type of fan edit could at the very least work as an alternate ending to the series that tries to make a thought-provoking conclusion, and arguably be more true to the themes of the series, rather than succumbing to Hollywoodization.

I also think, from a practical standpoint, it would require less bending over backwards to try and piece together an improved ending. Obviously it would shorten the already short season, but I imagine it playing out something like this:

While we can’t add new death scenes for these characters, the last time we would see most of them would be when they are overwhelmed by wights, fighting for their lives. We never see Arya leave the room with Melisandre and the Hound. The Night King walks up to Bran, raises hand to unsheathe his blade, and we cut to black. Or, we end on a wide shot of Winterfell on fire, and fade to black.

It could end there, but I think it would be interesting to take it further. We could then fade back in to a sequence of scenes where we see King’s Landing being burned by a dragon, but instead of orange flames, they would be blue. Confirming the Night Kong’s victory at Winterfell and subsequent destruction of civilization. We could even see Euron’s fleet be destroyed by the wight dragon (but make them be at Pyke), as well as reusing recolored shots of the Battle of Slaver’s Bay to show that the White Walkers eventually reach Essos, and spread across the world. I imagine the last shot could be of the Iron Throne covered in snow and the hall in ruins (editing the shots to mask out anyone who might be in them), showing that in the end, none of it really mattered because Westeros failed to come together in time.

Perhaps you could add some kind of epilogue to show spring eventually return, and show the some people did manage to survive (except now civilization will basically have to start over). This footage could be pulled from other material. Or, maybe The Long Night could be cut in a way to show that some people managed to escape Winterfell, namely, Jon, Tormund, Ghost, and some other random people. Then, the epilogue of Jon going beyond the Wall with Free Folk could be reinterpreted as Jon and the small group of survivors going to hide beyond the wall until their distant dream of spring finally becomes reality. But personally, I think I would prefer a more somber ending, where no character survives the Long Night, and we are left to contemplate the meaning of it all.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts regarding a potential fan edit. It is an appealing idea to me, not only for thematic reasons, but also because it would be less time consuming to make than to edit the entirety of Season 8 (and potentially Season 7 as well). Just edit one episode, The Long Night, and include a brief epilogue to leave the audience to thinking.

Cinefy said:

Skywalker Arts tried playing with some ideas implenting coruscant, heres what he came up with just as a concept, we’re not sure on scale but in these positions line up for both shots.

Coruscant Concept: https://imgur.com/a/DzfEfeB

This is the favorite version of this concept I’ve seen so far, mostly because it would require minimal masking. Like Octorox said, the biggest thing is getting to look right with the camera movement. But I have a feeling that challenge can be overcome with some tweaking.

Did he ever mention if he was using After Effects or something for the effect? Or if he was using some kind of plug-in?

I mean, it was George’s idea to bring back the Emperor in Dark Empire. Maybe he didn’t care as much since it was just expanded material, but having the Emperor cheat death apparently bothered him less than having someone impersonate Darth Vader.

NFBisms said:

brown lightning

This is the only option that makes sense from a visual, practical, and canonical standpoint.

NFBisms said:

Neerb said:
The reason the novel clarifies he’s a clone is because if he were Palps’ biological son, Palpatine would have had to have banged Rey’s grandma sometime during the late Empire, which is a gross thought we don’t need some EU writer detailing for us down the line.

speak for yourself damn

#PalpatineFucks

I just can’t forget the stupid look on his face when he says, “You’ll be safe. I promise.”

Yes, safe on a barren planet as a indentured servant, always desperate for food and fighting for survival.
It just makes zero sense, man. Of course the only explanation, that doesn’t require you to bend over backwards to explain it, is that her parents were selfish people who did not care about her safety.

EDIT: Sorry, not trying to start a debate. Just a thought.

Hmm, I don’t think there are enough shots to really make this work. Plus, the additional Rey dialogue doesn’t really sound like it fits into the ambiance of the environment. I understand what is going on based off of your explanation, but I think it wouldn’t be totally clear without that context.

I wonder if you could do a similar thing as you’ve done in a past attempt, where you went from:
Rey’s Intro
Poe Interrogation
Rey Meets BB-8
Finn Rescues Poe

You could try that order again, but have Rey meeting BB-8 occur the next morning, which could be established with some kind of dawn establishing shots and a different color grade.

I know I’ve probably suggested this before and you probably had a good reason for this not working. But I wonder if you could just combine Poe’s Interrogation and Finn’s Rescue, and since we’ve removed Kylo’s line, “I leave that to you”, we could now have Ren say, “We have what we need” or “We have what we need from him”. And maybe add some sinister music over that line and Hux’s expression. That way, when it cuts to the stormtrooper entering and say Ren wants the prisoner, it leads the audience to believe Poe is about to be executed.

I just had the random urge to check the threads tonight, and seeing a new clip from you was a very pleasant surprise!

I think taking a break from working on this has helped a lot. This is by far the best iteration you’ve done so far. Each scene flows nicely into the other, and I can’t even notice the seams of the cuts. And the way you connect each consecutive scene makes it arguably an improvement over the theatrical. As far as the scene order goes I have nothing to add.

Also, you might’ve done this in a previous version, but did you have the lights turning on in the hangar, prompting Rey to hide? That addition just makes the logic of everything make so much damn sense, that it’s kind of unbelievable it’s missing from the original. Really like the new stormtrooper chatter too.

Good idea. I’m using the same “You” word from the original, but just out the “ull” sound to the end of it. I’ll try to use the sound from “pull” next time.

Gotcha. I’ll try to find a more appropriate sound to better get the “you’ll” across.

He actually is saying, “You won’t just have power, you’ll have his power.” I’ll try to make it sound clearer in a future version, but I also think our ears are sort of biased because we know what the line is already, and it is already a small line adjustment.

Yes! Our conversations inspired me to try to approach it with more simplicity than I was before.

I’m glad to hear that! I love a lot of the choices you’ve made so far with yours, so I’d be excited to see you play around with it more. I’m planning to work on the Force bond duel next week, so maybe that’ll inspire more conversation. I think the main difference of my approach is that I’m removing any reference to Rey’s parents or Palpatine wanting to find/kill her as a child. I’m going to try and keep the scene length/pacing the same, but I want to shift Rey’s emotional tether from what happened to her parents in the past, to what will happen to her friends in the future. We’ll see how that turns out.