I was thinking about getting rid of the Knights of Ren for my epilogue idea, but I think it would be easier to cut those shots of them rather than digitally erasing them. Feels like that would be a major waste of time.
The new targeting shot looks really good! I feel like you could use it as is, but I could see how a little additional touching up could make it feel just perfect. Excellent work Poppa!
Removing the ring from the broom boy scene works really well! I was literally thinking about this for the epilogue idea I had, and how one could create an additional shot of his face could be used to replace that shot. So weird to see that you’ve done that exact thing!
Originally my idea for the Sequel Trilogy standalone, what I was thinking of calling Once Upon a Time in the Galaxy, was sort of meant to be a spiritual sequel to Pulp Empire. At the time snooker was working on her own Tarantino-inspired prequel standalone, Destroy All Jedi, which inspired me to think about it. I had the idea that all three could’ve been a loose trilogy of 3-in-1’s for the Saga.
For this idea of Prologue/Epilogue, I really wanted to make edits that supplement the original trilogy, which is Luke’s story, so really these bookends are meant to depict the birth and death of Luke, while the OT depicts his life. Also, I think this format would harken back to the serials that originally inspired George. The Prologue would actually begin in medias res, starting right in the middle of the war. And the Epilogue would end as a new war is beginning. There’s no real beginning or end to the serial, but instead it is a series of endless adventures on countless Saturday mornings.
I think it would be challenging to jump between the prequels and the sequels as one movie in a cohesive way. The only think I could think of would be to have the movie use Luke & Rey’s segment of The Last Jedi as the frame story, and when Luke tells Rey about Darth Sidious and creation of Darth Vader, you could fade into an extended flashback sequence where we see what happened. You could just make a 30-minute version of Revenge of the Sith and we could see how it all went down.
But your idea for a 6-in-1 and idea Eddie Dean had earlier has gotten me thinking. You could even expand on that idea a little and have flashbacks throughout the film where relevant. It could open with a flashback, like Eddie Dean suggested, but then when Rey hands him the lightsaber, we could flashback to when Obi-Wan gave Luke that lightsaber so many years ago. There would be quite a few good opportunities to insert flashbacks from the entire saga. Like when Luke sneaks aboard the Falcon, Luke could remember some of their adventures aboard the ship. Like I said earlier, when Luke tells the the story of the Republic falling, we could flash back to the prequels. You could essentially make an 9-in-1, with the Luke/Rey segment of TLJ as the frame story.
Thanks! I’ll try share more about the Epilogue when I have time to work on it some!
That reminds me of a post I read about a father who introducing his two young sons to Star Wars by showing them Clone Wars first, and building up that depiction of Anakin and Obi-Wan, then going straight into ANH. So their kids ended up HATING Darth Vader for killing Anakin. I didn’t read about their reactions to ESB, but you can imagine how dramatic that reveal would be.
And if you are introducing younger kids to Star Wars, I would imagine a cartoon like The Clone Wars could be more engaging for them than the prequels in some ways. And like I’ve said before, I think ROTS could work well as a ‘flashback’ film in between ESB and ROTJ, so you can see how it all happened.
But, if I do the Prologue, I’ll try to depict Anakin as a good man who was manipulated by Palpatine. So basically a cautionary tale. I think NFBisms has done a good job trying to depict Anakin more like his Clone Wars counterpart.
Cool link! I feel like barely heard any of this in the movie.
This is a random idea that probably would look weird. But what if we recolored the Starkiller Base laser from red to blue or white? It might seem weird, since blue or white aren’t “bad” or intimidating colors, but I was thinking that the weapon could be portrayed as a literal “hyperspace canon”. So instead of it being another Kyber crystal-powered super laser, they have basically weaponized hyperspace. So maybe a hyperspace light effect could be applied to the laser, as well as distorted hyperspace sound effects. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but I think it could make Starkiller Base more interesting at least.
EDIT: It would also parallel Holdo’s hyperspace kamikaze in a fun way. Both sides weaponized hyperspace in different ways, and destroyed each other’s capitals (since the Supremacy was described as a moving capital for the First Order).
I loved the “netherworld” scene with Luke, Han and Leia. This, or a flashback, would’ve been a great way to have all three actors on screen together one last time, even if they needed to do a little digital trickery for Leia.
I also like the idea of Kylo/Ben losing his connection to the Force. His might be permanent here, but it would be a great way to bring down Kylo a few notches in order to grow a little more and maybe become more empathetic. It also can keep the good guys from being too over-powered in a way. Rey and Ben are obviously the most powerful force users, but having Ben have to help in ways that don’t involve the Force makes things a bit more interesting.
Right now I’m picturing your story so far a lot more like a novel than a screenplay, which isn’t a bad thing.
Thanks, and that is a good comparison! Palpatine is Sidious might be obvious to us, but I have heard kids who have said that they never made the connection. It might be obvious to us, but it could be less obvious for younger viewers. I also heard that there were people who argued on forums that Palpatine wasn’t Sidious, so I guess it was a surprise to some adults too!
Thanks for the thoughts everyone! I’ll try to reply to everyone’s thoughts. cracks knuckles
Regarding the Epilogue
Do you plan on using Poppasketti’s version of the saber toss?
If I keep that scene I definitely will. But I’ve also been toying with the idea of skipping Rey trying to hand Luke the saber initially. Instead, I’d use the beginning of Rey’s “Jedi Steps”, but when she gets to the Jedi huts, she hears Luke’s door slam. This helps to avoid having to deal with the difference in sunlight in TFA and TLJ. Rey still offers Luke the lightsaber later during their fight in the rain, and he rejects it again, so we wouldn’t lose the idea of Luke rejecting the saber and then finally reclaiming it in the climax. It also might help keep the runtime down to skip that altogether.
RL, I think you’ve absolutely picked the best themes that you could craft into an epilogue. Good luck with that. I wonder, if you’re going to go that route then, that you could explicitly make ‘Luke handing the mantle to Rey’ your anchor more explicitly by even opening with the scene from the end of TFA with Rey approaching Luke, then an ‘X weeks earlier’ cut back to TFA, as unconventional as that is for Star Wars.
I presume we end on Luke’s death and Broom Boi - but what single act are we treating as Rey’s signature victory, that’ll demonstrate that the torch is well and truly passed?
I like your flashing back idea! I had originally pictured this as a Tarantino-inspired spiritual sequel to Pulp Empire that would’ve opened with the ending of ROTJ and then flashed forward to the sequels, sort of like you described. I even played around with rescoring the film with Morricone and the like.
https://vimeo.com/298095219
https://vimeo.com/298094852
Nothing is set in stone, but I wanted the opening to feel reminiscent to The Wizard of Oz, just like how we’re introduced to Dorothy’s ordinary world before being swept up into realm of adventure. I think I would also use Nev’s bleached Jakku look to emphasize this comparison even more.
As far as the ending goes, I think where Rey’s journey ends in TLJ is a good conclusion for her. She rejects Kylo’s offer, she lifts the rocks to save the Resistance, and she takes Luke’s broken lightsaber with the expectation that she’ll build something new from the pieces. And mostly importantly, she is with her newfound family, all together in the Falcon. A much better ending than her being alone on Tatooine. And although I probably won’t include the Canto Bight scenes, I think the ending with Broom Boy works well on its own. He is just another abandoned child like Rey, who is inspired by the story of Luke to be something more. So we start the film with one abandoned child and end with another.
Regarding the Prologue
This is all very cool. I’ll probably have more thoughts later but for now I’ll just chime in in regards to the “save the reveal” potential by saying that, if you’re hiding the fact that Anakin becomes Vader, but you still show him turning to the dark side, you’re not really “saving the reveal.” That’s at least half the twist.
Both you and Starkiller bring up excellent points regarding the purpose of the prequels and the issues of trying to save the reveal. I can’t go back and find it, but awhile back I made a long post about saving the reveal, and the pros and cons of the different directions you could go with it. Basically you have three options:
Don’t show Anakin fall to the dark side.
Obviously this approach is best to make Obi-Wan not seem like a liar, and to keep as much of the reveal as possible. Because like Dom said, the reveal for Luke (and the audience) is really three fold. First, Vader is his father, second, his father fell to the dark side, and three, Obi-Wan lied to him. The downside is that you have to bend over backwards to try and make this work. FanEditore and NFBisms have already brought up good ideas that might help this approach, but you still have to deal with the fact that you’ll lose the entirety of the Mustafar climax, dramatically lowering your runtime. And at best, this leaves you only with Yoda vs Sidious as a climatic final battle. While it could work, it certainly doesn’t carry the same weight as Anakin vs Obi-Wan. You would likely have to do something major, such as what Nev suggested, and make it a 3-in-1 with the focus on Obi-Wan instead.
Leave ROTS as it is.
This was Starkiller’s point of view, and even mine to a large degree. The dramatic irony of knowing that Anakin will turn to the dark side and is sort of the point of the prequels. Lucas made them assuming the audience will have already seen the original trilogy, despite saying that he feels these films are meant to be watched in chronological order… (obviously release is the way to go).
Show Anakin still fall to the dark side, but we don’t show him become Darth Vader.
So basically you would keep the film generally the same (I think NFB’s dialogue changes could still work for this idea as well), except you cut Anakin ever being called Vader, and the last time we see Anakin is when Obi-Wan leaves him to die. While I feel this is a compromise, like Dom suggested, it feels like it compromises too much and sort of defeats the purpose of saving the reveal.
When it comes towards “Save the Reveal”, I try to picture myself showing it to a young relative who has never seen any of the Star Wars movies. While a 12-year-old could probably easily put two and two together, a 7-year-old might need something blatant to make the connection between Anakin and Vader obvious. With the 3rd option, your first time viewer might think they know the reveal, but then Vader reveals that he is Anakin, that audience might actually be surprised to learn that Anakin actually survived and became even more of a monster than when we last saw him on Mustafar. For this version, if I were to go this route, I would probably do what NFB did and have Anakin and Obi-Wan never reference their mentor/student relationship.
While the reveal isn’t wholly saved, a reveal does still exist. Your viewer might think Obi-Wan is hiding what happened to Anakin in order to protect him, and that Vader is just another minion of the Emperor, like Dooku or Grievous. So they would expect for Vader to say, “Obi-Wan killed your father” rather than what we actually get. Sure, it might seem obvious to us, but it is never confirmed until Vader says it, and like I said, a younger viewer might need that blatant connection.
And as far as what we have to sacrifice in ROTS for this to work, if you think about it, it is basically just fan service. The only things that have to be cut is Anakin ever being called “Darth Vader” and him being put in the suit. Making Anakin’s fate ambiguous in the end doesn’t really ruin the narrative structure of ROTS, unlike what a major reveal save might inevitably do. I would argue that we really don’t need to see Darth Vader in ROTS at all. So to me, you’re paying a low cost for the opportunity for a potential viewer to be surprised that Darth Vader is Anakin, even if they already knew Anakin fell to the dark side. I know that it isn’t a 100% reveal save, since a big part of the twist is is discovering that Luke’s father didn’t die a hero, but it still could work as a different kind of revelation. The audience would think they know the truth, that they’re in on the dramatic irony, only to then be taken by surprise.
Just considering how little has to be changed, I think this option would still be worth considering.
@Lifeincontext, that’s funny that we both had similar ideas! Great minds think alike! 😅
Do you plan to add some color correction? And maybe some OT soundtrack?
Yeah, this is something I’m considering! I really like the way DominicCobb’s integrated some OT tracks into his edit of Revenge of the Sith. If I went with the Save the Reveal idea, though, then I probably would try avoid connecting Anakin with any variations of the Imperial March. I also think it would be nice to grade it in a way that fits more closely with the OT’s look, but there might already be some decent grades out there.
I think your most important task here is to identify the core theme of your epilogue. Is it that Rey is the legacy to the Jedi? Rey is the legacy to the lessons Luke learned/the force? Are we seeing what happens next to the OT main characters? How the Galaxy changed as a result of the victory in ROTJ? That a permanent victory was achieved after ROTJ? That there will always be a struggle and always be someone new to pick up the challenge? Is it all Palpatine’s story (probably not)?
What are the themes from the OT that most resonate with you? - projecting that forward into the ST, which plotlines best support and continue and conclude those themes?
Really good point, Eddie! You’re definitely right, that honing on the theme of the epilogue is crucial.
While Rey is the central POV, it will stray from Rey briefly when necessary, and I’ll try to keep most scenes where the OT characters interact. While the focus is on Rey, the story is also about the conclusion of Luke’s story. This film will retain all of his scenes from The Last Jedi. The story is basically depicting Luke’s torch being passed onto Rey, after she finally decides to take up the mantle of hero.
One of the central themes as I imagine it would basically be one of the things you said: That there will always be a struggle and always be someone new to pick up the challenge.
The prologue would show that there was war before the war of the original trilogy, and the epilogue shows that there will be war after it too. This is Star Wars, after all, but the message is that even though there may never be a war to end all wars, that doesn’t mean those fights aren’t worth fighting.
I think this idea of history repeating itself is hard to avoid when looking at the Sequel Trilogy, and honestly the way I think The Last Jedi addressed it is the only interesting answer we got from any of the sequels.
No worries, you don’t sound arrogant FanEditore! When I said flashbacks, I was thinking more along the lines of abstract, dreamlike flashbacks of brief snippets from the previous films, rather than flashing back to entire scenes. More along the lines of Rey’s forceback from TFA. But the more I think about it, the less interested I am in including anything from TPM or AOTC. But like I said, if I did, they would be brief shots or lines, fragmented pieces just within the one or two nightmares Anakin has. I guess I was trying to emphasize that when I said it wouldn’t really be a 3-in-1. But I’ll make sure to differentiate it from yours if I decided to include anything from II or III!
I know Padmé survives in yours like in Hal’s. Is Anakin never dubbed Vader or don the suit in your version, like I’m also considering?
Update: 10/12/22
Hey guys, not announcing an edit or anything. Real life for me right now has been really busy, but my brain couldn’t help itself and wanted to return to this old idea I had with some new revisions.
Basically, the gist of this idea was to boil down the PT and the ST into one film each that gives us a glimpse into the events preceding and following the original trilogy. These aren’t 3-in-1’s, though. Really, I am just picking one film from each trilogy, one I would personally consider the most important, and editing them to suit this concept.
My original idea for the Prologue film was to try and tell George’s vision of the OT backstory, but limiting as many contradictions with OT as possible. Basically, trying to find a compromise with what the OT tells us about the backstory before the prequels came out with what we ended up getting. So the Prologue film would basically just be an edit of Revenge of the Sith that removes unnecessary references to Episodes I and II, and be more in-line with the OT, in order to act as a standalone film. As you may see this discussed in many of the initial comments in this thread, I’ve also considered not having Anakin named “Darth Vader” in the film, or see him after Mustafar. It would be obvious to most of us of course, but this would allow for some narrative ambiguity whether or not Obi-Wan killed Anakin or if Darth Vader actually is Anakin.
For the Epilogue, my idea has changed a little. I’ve saved my original post at the end of this update so people can see my initial idea, which was to follow Rey’s story through TFA and TLJ, basically being a 2-in-1. Now, I’m leaning toward doing something similar to the Prologue, and make one film, The Last Jedi in this case, as a standalone movie. And the guiding principle for this edit would be sort of an inverse to the prologue’s. With this film, we are trying to find a compromise between what we ended up getting, and what we know about George’s vision of the ST. To be fair, all we have are disparate quotes from interviews of George or other secondary sources, but we could use these “bullet points” as guiding principles for what we should keep and what we should get rid of. Obviously it still would be a far cry from his actual treatments, but we’re just trying to get as close as possible with what we have.
It might be hard to use only TLJ as a source, I could potentially see needing to use bits from TFA. It would be nice if we could avoid that, because I think it would also be fun if these films could still be watched alongside the other two films in their trilogies. At the end of the day these may not be radical edits, but it is really the details that matter with this idea.
I would like to make a Venn diagram for each edit, where one circle is the theatrical film (ROTS and TLJ), and the other circle is the opposing source (pre-PT backstory and George’s ST ideas). Then we would find the common ground, and see what needs to be removed or altered to find some kind of oxymoronic synthesis between two conflicting ideas! And by not using the entire trilogies, it allows the viewers to fill in what happens before and after the bookends, whether it be the movies’ version of events, or their own head canon.
Anyway, I’ll have to collect some of these PT contradictions and Lucas ST ideas later, but just wanted to throw this idea out there as a fun thought experiment. I have no plans on making this anytime soon since I’m a bit busy currently, but I thought it could be fun to map out how they might look, or make those “Venn diagrams” for myself or future editors.
Original Post: I wanted to make a new thread for a very specific idea I had, since I felt it didn’t fit in any existing thread. Whether or not I go through with it or not I’m still not sure, but honestly this wouldn’t necessarily be an ambitious endeavor. I wanted to get some thoughts from others regarding it.
I am, like others, still grappling with how I feel about The Rise of Skywalker, and if it is actually salvageable from a fan-editing perspective. I think I will always have that desire for a cohesive nine-film saga, and I would love to help make some changes to TROS (I personally would love to help make an alternate ending for the film). BUT, it honestly could be years until we get edits (specifically for the prequels and sequels) that make for a consistent and satisfying version of the saga as a whole, and currently I am going back and forth if any TROS edit would ever be totally satisfying for me.
With that in mind, I’ve had this idea for two stand-alone films that would act as thematic bookends to the Original Trilogy. The Prequel Trilogy would be replaced with a single Prologue film, and the Sequel Trilogy would be replaced with a single Epilogue film. Neither film would be a 3-in-1 edit, instead it will simply take from each trilogy what it needs to tell one story.
Let’s start with the Prologue.
Rather than taking the typical 3-in-1 approach for prequel edits, this film will mainly consist of Revenge of the Sith, potentially with brief flashbacks within dream sequences. One of the main functions of this edit would be to make a single prequel film that keeps contradictions to the original trilogy to a bare minimum. For example, Qui-Gon will never be referred to (or seen) as Obi-Wan’s master. We won’t be given any scenes or context that contradicts the way Old Ben describes the relationship between Owen and Luke’s father. Padme will survive, like in Hal’s LOE. No mention of the prophecy or the Chosen One. I might not have Anakin’s mother even be mentioned or seen. Basically, I want the audience to be able to watch this film and try to forget the prequels as we know it, and then fill in the gaps between this and the OT with their own imagination. Sure, we won’t see Obi-Wan recruit Anakin and take him away from Tatooine to become a Jedi, but we don’t really see that in the prequels anyway, do we? By not showing what Lucas gave us in TPM and AOTC, the viewers can imagine how Anakin and Obi-Wan met based off the relationship we see and what we are told in the films themselves.
Now some might ask, “RogueLeader, if this is meant to be a prologue to the OT, should it really show Anakin become Darth Vader, since that is the main twist of The Empire Strikes Back?”
Honestly, I do think this is a fair point. Personally, I felt the whole point of the prequels was to show how Anakin fell to the dark side and became Darth Vader, and removing that wouldn’t leave much left of interest. I don’t think I would do anything radical, but at the very least I would be willing to toy with the idea of having Anakin still fall to the dark side, but never be referred to as Darth Vader, and the last time we see Anakin is Obi-Wan leaving him for dead on Mustafar. While it may be obvious to us that Vader is Anakin, the removal of those connections might be enough to throw off a younger viewer to not anticipate the reveal in V. Sure, we would know Obi-Wan is lying to Luke when he tells him “[Darth Vader] betrayed and murdered your father”, but your hypothetical first-time viewer might think the truth is that Obi-Wan killed his father, but is hiding that horrible truth from him, and Darth Vader is actually another one of Obi-Wan’s students that sided with the Empire after the fall of the Jedi Order. Plus, it would remove the question of how Palpatine built Vader’s suit so quickly, and we also could remove “NOOOOoooOOOOoooo!” But I don’t know though, because you would also run into the issue of Luke and Leia and their birth in ROTS. I would definitely like to hear thoughts for and against this idea. I think editors have always expressed interest in a version of the prequels that “Saved the Reveal”, and this could be a good opportunity to do that.George Lucas himself has basically said 80% of the Prequel Trilogy’s story is really in Revenge of the Sith, and to be honest I don’t think that other 20% is really necessary. Sure, it adds some interesting ideas and context, but maybe Revenge of the Sith actually would work better without it.
I will definitely take ideas from editors like Hal 9000, NFBisms, Octorox and DominicCobb to better match tone, aesthetic and characterization with the Original Trilogy.
Now to the Epilogue.
This one might be a little more radical and a little less straightforward than my idea for the Prologue. First of all, this film will not include anything from The Rise of Skywalker. Instead, this film will be almost completely focused on Rey’s journey in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, fit into one movie. And one of the ways it will make that focus immediately apparent is to use one of Nev’s abandoned ideas for Starlight and open like this (password: fanedit). The film’s opening scene will be the wonderful montage of Rey’s life on Jakku, and we will follow her as she meets BB-8, the mysterious Resistance soldier Finn (who she later learns is a rogue stormtrooper), the monstrous Kylo Ren, and the legendary Luke Skywalker. Since there is very little time gap between TFA and TLJ, I’m hoping that fusing them together will feel rather natural. In order to fit both films into the runtime of a single movie, this edit will also remove several subplots many fans feel to be the weaker aspects of the Sequel Trilogy, such as the majority of Finn and Poe’s subplots in The Last Jedi, and, potentially, the super-weapon aspect of Starkiller Base.
Many have commented on how they felt The Last Jedi could’ve been an ending to the saga on its own, and I agree. While the ending is rather open-ended, I think it works well as a thematic conclusion to the Skywalker story, and just like the Prologue will leave what happened before the Prologue up to the imagination, this Epilogue allows for the audience to envision whatever happens after the Epilogue as they see fit. Star Wars can live on in each of our imaginations, but the important lessons of the original trilogy are reiterated in this final film.
I suppose you could say the goal of this idea is to boil down the strongest aspects of the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies into their own standalone films that can function as bookends to the Original Trilogy, rather than complimentary trilogies on their own. In a way, this helps keep the Original Trilogy as the focus of the saga, and the “bookends” as extra films that aren’t necessary, but add to the overall story. Another added benefit is that people can choose if they want to include both films into their viewing, or just one. Maybe they like the Sequels, but hate the Prequels, or vice versa. The Prologue could even be watched between V and VI as an alternate Machete Order viewing. But at the same time, both the Prologue and Epilogue could work well together by balancing each other out. An important element to me is that it keeps the saga balanced, rather than having something like one 3-in-1 prequel, but then a Sequel Duology or whole trilogy with the OT mashed in between. That just feels unbalanced to me. With this idea, it is simply five films. The three original films, plus two bookend films.
And another thing you may ask is, “But RogueLeader, the Original Trilogy opening crawls say 4, 5, and 6. Won’t people wonder about 1, 2 and 3?” If I decide to do these edits, I think I would eventually make versions of the OT that have no “Episode” subtitle, and just the film title. But we can cross that bridge when we get to it.
Anyway, I would love to hear if anyone has any thoughts on these ideas. Honestly this idea was inspired somewhat by my own laziness, and the idea of editing just two films is much more appealing at this point than editing at least six, if not more. I really think we could condense the best aspects of each trilogy into one movie each with a little bit of brainstorming.
I went in saying I would give prizes to the three people who got closest to opening weekend, domestic and worldwide, and it does seem the three closest people are rocknroll (who I have already spoken to), Starkiller and Dre. Right? I have three prizes, so we can award three people!
Also Dre, I would love for you to do a write up about your conclusions about your research now that we know that the numbers are pretty close to settled.
I’m digging your cut list. I think the biggest thing to help make Rey Nobody work is figure out how to rework Kylo Ren’s dialogue. We could reuse dialogue from TFA/TLJ, but we might need to look through Adam’s filmography, or even interviews, where we could find new lines that could work in this context. Or someone that could do a decent impression, since the mask voice effect could help hide the difference between Adam and the voice actor.
I do agree with that to an extent. I think the choirs from either track would be a bit too much, but I think hearing the strings from Duel of the Fates, or the horns from Battle of the Heroes, could be a nice nod.
We are all broom boy, sweeping up the mess that is TROS.
Cool, I like what you’ve written so far! Looking forward to where it goes next!
Was the track “The Last Saber Duel” used at all during that battle? I assume it was meant for that scene? I think it would be interesting to take snippets from Duel of the Fates, Battle of the Heroes, and The Last Saber Duel. I think a combination of those tracks would be fun to hear.
Haha, I love the imagery of Rey falling asleep while listening to 3PO read the Jedi texts. Also like Kylo holding steady while the other officers slide across the bridge. This scene makes me think of Anakin trying to pilot the Invisible Hand to the surface of Coruscant.
I will say the image of Kylo missing both his left arm and left leg feels pretty dark! I guess Anakin losing three limbs at once was pretty dark too, but those wounds were cauterized at least.
Wanted to challenge myself slightly and “write” additional scenes for The Rise of Skywalker as we got it, and also make a few slight changes to the overall plot. I’ll probably do a major rewrite eventually, but I just wanted to spit out a few small ideas that I think could have improved the film.
I want to start by addressing the general story arcs for some of the main characters, excluding Rey and Ben, who’ll I’ll touch on later.
Finn:
I think the simplest change would be to add more to Finn and Jannah’s interactions. First of all, if you look at Jannah and her followers, you wouldn’t even know they were former Stormtroopers. I think their costumes could consist of bits and pieces of stormtrooper armor to make that clearer. In Finn and Jannah’s conversation, Jannah could say that her and the other stormtroopers just want to stay and hide, not get involved. But Finn inspires them to join the fight, because it is the right thing to do. Also, when Finn and Poe are on the Star Destroyer, you could give Finn some kind of interaction with one or multiple stormtroopers that sets up something later on in the film.The film itself brings up a few times that the First Order would begin harvesting more children to man the Sith Fleet, but we never see that have much of an effect on the story, so I would add a subplot of Stormtroopers raiding a village and kidnapping all the children from there as the parents beg for them to not to. Later, we see that the First Order has put Lobot-like implants on them in order to make them totally obedient. The final mission would change from destroying the transmission tower that will allow the Sith Fleet to leave Exegol, to Finn destroying the control tower that controls the children’s implants. So the goal of the final battle goes from “fighting the enemy” to “saving the innocent”. We see various ships rescue the children after the main ship is destroyed. During the final epilogue, we would see Finn and Rose bring all of the children back to their village, and perhaps even stormtroopers. Maybe we could see Jannah and her group interact with a separate group of stormtroopers as they all remove their helmets, realizing that they are finally free.
You could even get that brief sequence with Finn instead, and not have the children subplot, but the harvesting children subplot is mentioned in the film a few times, so I figured I would incorporate it. But since Finn’s journey started with destroying a village, I think it would be nice for his journey to end by helping a village.
Poe:
I definitely felt like Poe’s journey didn’t grow much from the last film, so I wanted to highlight some ideas that I think could help demonstrate Poe becoming a leader. First of all, I would remove the crap about Poe being a former spice-runner. Instead, I think it would be more fitting if Zorri was a former New Republic pilot that Poe flew with that became a criminal after the First Order took over. She could be mad at Poe for leaving the New Republic to join the Resistance, or failing to stop Starkiller from destroying Hosnian Prime. She has lost hope of the Republic ever returning, and has given up basically. But Poe tells her why he still thinks there is hope (maybe even repeats Holdo’s “hope is like the sun” line), and Zorri comments on how Poe has changed from that hothead pilot she knew so long ago. Making Zorri a former Republic pilot also better sets up why we see her flying an Y-Wing at the climax of the film.After Leia dies and Poe becomes the de-facto general, the Resistance comes to the conclusion that they have to send a message to their allies to join them at Exegol. They comment that without Leia to send that message, it’s unlikely that anyone will have any hope of victory, but Poe says that Leia’s legacy still lives on through them. And with that, we get a new sequence where Poe dons a white cape and records a rallying speech that gets sent out to their allies across the galaxy. Lando says he’ll wait at the rendezvous for anyone who shows up to escort them to Exegol, and then Poe stands on the bridge of the Tantive IV and leads the Resistance to the last battle. So when the big fleet shows up at the last minute, it is because of POE.
In the epilogue, we’d see Poe on Coruscant, meeting with representatives from various worlds and shaking hands with them, signifying the return of democracy in the galaxy.
Chewbacca:
I think Chewie’s character needed a bit more resolution than what we got in the film, so I wanted to add three brief scenes to sort of round out his story in this last chapter of the saga. First, I think it would be nice to get a brief conversation between Maz and Chewie in the first act of the film, where Maz asks Chewie about being relieved of his life debt to Han and how his family must miss him. Chewie growls and Maz replies in a way that implies that he’s staying to help Leia complete her mission, because that is what Han would have wanted.Later, while Chewie is a prisoner aboard the Star Destroyer, him and Kylo/Ben (along with some of the Knights of Ren) have a brief interaction. Kylo orders him to give up the location of the Resistance, but Chewie remains silent. Kylo tries to search Chewie’s mind, but when he does, Chewie only forces him to relive happy memories from his childhood with him, Han and Leia. This overwhelms Kylo, and when one of the Knights asks if they can kill Chewie, he snaps and says no, then quickly adds that he could still be useful.
After the final battle has been won, we get a brief epilogue sequence of Chewie finally returning home to his family on Kashyyyk.
Rose:
I don’t necessarily think Rose needs some kind of major character arc. I think simply seeing her go from a lowly mechanic in TLJ to an important member of the Resistance in IX would be plenty for her character. But I think there were plenty of ways Rose could’ve gotten plenty of more screen time. First of all, Rose EASILY could have been on the first mission with Finn, Poe and Chewie on the Falcon. Instead of Klaud, who literally has NO HANDS, be the mechanic on the Falcon, this easily could have been Rose.Another easy fix would have been to get rid of Dominic Monaghan’s character and give some of that extra dialogue to either Rose and/or Billie Lourd’s character. I think there could have been a nice scene between Rose and Rey as they repair the Falcon together. Rose could have had a brief conversation with Finn regarding his desire to save the kidnapped children and/or the other stormtroopers. If Rose stayed back at the base, I think it would be nice for her to communicate back and forth with the gang a bit more often. Or maybe we could cut back to Rose once or twice to see her working on the device Poe will use to broadcast his message to the galaxy.
Honestly, though I think Rose could have easily gone with the gang on their mission. Rose could’ve stayed with the Falcon on Pasana and gotten captured, then later she could be rescued alongside Chewie. On Kef Bir, she could have helped try to repair the Falcon while Rey went ahead to the Death Star ruins. Having Rose tag along wouldn’t have really overcrowded the main plot, or taken away from the “trio” that Abrams and Terrio were desperately trying to focus on.
Hux:
I wasn’t sure what to do about Hux when I started writing this, but the ideas started formulating as I went along. I think the first scene we could get of Hux is him ordering the execution of a would-be Stormtrooper deserter in one of the Star Destroyer hangars. Or perhaps this trooper was the spy that helped the Resistance. Without Phasma to control the troops, Hux’s methods of control have become more desperate. Despite the Stormtroopers all wearing masks, we get the feeling the soldiers seem uncomfortable during this execution. The spy/deserter’s last words could be something like, “FN-218–”Regarding Hux’s relationship to Pryde, I actually think the roles should be reversed. Pryde should be rather skeptical of trusting this Sith cult, whereas Hux would gladly accept a new armada, and he also revels in the fact the Kylo Ren might have to answer to a new master.
When Finn and Poe are about to be killed aboard the Star Destroyer, instead of Hux being the one to save them, Finn starts trying to talk to the stormtroopers, and it is one of the stormtroopers that has a change of heart then saves them/lets them go. Maybe Finn and this trooper could share a few words before they part ways. After Kylo turns, instead of seeing Pryde kill Hux, Hux kills Pryde and begins taking control of the First Order. We see Hux contact the Emperor and pledges allegiance to him in return to become the new Supreme Leader of his forces.
Hux is on the bridge of the main Star Destroyer during the final battle, and during this battle we see the stormtrooper that Finn spoke to watch from view screens as Finn, Jannah, and the other rogue stormtroopers fight and die to stop the First Order. Seeing that they are losing, the stormtrooper decides to rally the other stormtroopers and storm the bridge of the Star Destroyer. Just as Finn and Jannah as are about to die, the rebelling stormtroopers finally board the bridge and kill Hux, then deactivate the transmitter. Since the stormtroopers are Hux’s army, I think it is appropriate that it is his army that is his downfall. And this might be another nice way to tie up Finn’s arc as well.
Okay, that’s all I got for now. I’ll touch on Rey, Kylo/Ben, Luke, Leia and the Emperor in another post.
This was my initial thought as well right after I saw the movie. The Mustafar thing feels so fast, that it might be better to just say Kylo found one Wayfinder before the movie started, and we start by panning down to that red nebula.
The way it is now, the Mustafar scene just feels incomplete. We transition to the next planet before we even know where we are, and it breaks the rule of following the ship to the first scene. We just get the planet establishing shot and then hard cut to the planet surface.
I don’t think it would be worth the effort.
Thrawn! Wasn’t expecting him. Honestly when they introduced Allegiant General Pryde I felt Thrawn would’ve fit his role well. It is a really nice touch to have Thrawn go through Kylo’s collection and psychoanalyze him.
Same. I obviously think extra scenes would’ve been a great addition, but I think the things that I personally feel need to be addressed weren’t things that deleted scenes would have solved.
There seems to be quite a few people who have an urge to rewrite this film, so this might be the place to find that catharsis you’re so desperately looking for!