This might be a cheat answer, but I absolutely loved this new theme by John Williams that shows up in a few different tracks. I like to call it the “Family Theme” since it usually plays when Rey is on screen with her found family.
I’m not going back to TLJ, and am not interested in substantial alterations to suit this movie.
I’m feeling cynical about this movie right now, and I’ll be trying to brew tea using cow urine. This movie might just be best enjoyed with a few drinks and laughter.
“They got Chewie! They got him!”
bahahahaha
Indeed. I had perhaps an optimal first viewing, going on 2 hours of sleep, and in that way it was hilarious. But even at its best it essentially ridicules the viewer for attempting to find greater meaning in the rest of the ST.
I haven’t touched any of my fanedit projects since it was released and that disinterest isn’t abating. Maybe something will change if they release a director’s cut of TROS, and I’ll probably finish Starlight and remain a part of this community, but even so this movie feels like the end of an era, and not in a good way. It makes me feel silly for caring about Star Wars. I could feel gutted and bitter, but it’s more fun to laugh.
Honestly I have felt this way a little, too. I had some initial ambitious ideas for for the film, but my desire to pursue those has subsided the past few weeks. Maybe seeing what deleted scenes we get might help me regain some interest. At the very least, I think it would be great to focus on making an alternate ending to the film. From Ben’s death to the end, at least.
But honestly Restructured and Starlight have shown me how much can be changed to a film when people with creativity tackle it. Once the home release comes out, and people spend some time thinking about the film, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes up with a way to totally reinvent the film in a way that gets people excited. I think some of my interest has gone dormant, but I still think about ideas with the hopes of some kind of eureka moment happening among us that will reawaken that desire. I’ve loved Star Wars as long as I can remember, and I would still love to see a cohesive Saga Edit. Just think we need time to reflect and reevaluate.
Sorry for jumping in and if I missed something. I can’t remember all the jump locations, but I feel like it would make more sense if each jump was clearly in deep space. The nebula with the space worm makes sense, but the “mirror” world felt weird. Like they jumped right in the middle of city it looked like. Maybe they could’ve just “flown right by a star or bounce too close to a supernova”. Does that make sense?
I’m the opposite, ironically! I don’t care for Han tossing the guy and the rathtar burping out a shoe, but I like Han’s no-look shot.
Was thinking about the show again and wanted to bump this thread back up.
I was trying to think of ways to edit the show in order to make the Season 4 finale feel like it could’ve been the end of the series. Obviously it would be a rather open-ended conclusion, but I think seeing Tyrion escape King’s Landing, ominous bells for the Lannister’s future, Bran finally reaching the Three-Eyed Raven, and Arya sailing away from Westeros is a somewhat optimistic ending that leaves a lot to the imagination.
I would rather find a way to change as few episodes as possible, rather than edit the whole series. Basically, I want to end the finale in a somewhat satisfying place for all the characters.
For Jon, I would like to bring some things from Season 5, like Stannis offering to make Jon a Stark, Jon refusing and him being named Lord Commander. I feel like this would be a nice place to conclude his story.
I think Dany’s could end where it does, with her deciding not to go to Westeros and instead try to rule Essos. I’m not sure her chaining up her dragons is the happiest way to end her story, but it does mirror Jon’s story in a way, where they reject parts of their identity in order to do what they think is right for their people.
Unfortunately we wouldn’t get much of a conclusion to the White Walker story, beyond Bran learning to become the Three-Eyed Raven. But I think it would be a nice touch to somehow implement the snow falling on King’s Landing from the finale of Season 7. The tag line of the show is Winter is Coming, and showing that winter is finally here by the end of it could give the show a nice bookend. Although it is open-ended, like all of this is, it leaves some room for interpretation. Does this mean all of these characters are doomed to fail, having been too distracted playing the game of thrones?
I think it would be nice to just edit “The Children” into a longer finale that could work as an alternate ending for the show. So the objective would be to just add or delete scenes to help tie up some loose ends. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate hearing them!
That is true, but I think what supports the puppet Snoke idea is that Papa Palpy says he’s been every voice inside his head, including Snoke’s.
I absolutely see your point, but for me the spectacular (and as you say iconic) aspects of DS II were drowned out by the silliness of it. When I saw ROTJ in '83 I was disappointed by the story but absolutely wowed by the SPFX.
I may have missed earlier hints but for some reason I imagined that you were in your 20s this whole time, Maul!
So between Ren looking up and then final shot before transition, it cuts back and forth between a CU of Ren and the radio twice, right? It feels like it drags the moment out for too long. I know you want it to line up with the music appropriately though, but I feel like you shouldn’t let the music restrict your cuts.
I feel like you could keep the Ren flinching at Rey shutting the door on him, but still use the shot that slowly dollies in on Ren’s face for the radio reaction. So you have the wide of Ren, the radio flickering to life, Ren looking up, back to radio, dolly CU on Ren, and maybe one more shot of the radio. Ending on the eyes is cool too. I just feel like it cuts back and forth too much, and I think it even would work really well to slow down that dolly CU a bit and end on that shot of him.
To me, that flinching shot emphasizes that Rey has rejected him, and now he feels completely alone, but then a mysterious voice calls to him, and in that dolly shot I feel like I can see a glimmer of newfound ambition in Ren’s eyes. So leaving Ren at the moment would really foreshadow his drive that we see in the next film.
EDIT: Or maybe do, radio flicker, Ren looks up, radio, eye CU, radio, dolly on Ren then transition.
I also feel like the Sith chants might be a little too much. I like how there is some room for speculation with just the vague “Find me”.
Sorry, I don’t mean to confuse you. You’ve worked so hard on this and have made so many versions. It seems like you’re either there or really close though since everyone really loves your D. 😉
I think something darker or more dreary would be an interesting look as well.
That’s what I was thinking. You could cut the light skipping scene, but keep the reference to it and we could assume it is a new risky method to avoid hyperspace tracking.
Am I the only one being uncomfortable with Poe and the team stealing desert skiffs from good people having a party? Couldn’t they have asked for help? Couldn’t Lando, being already there incognito with a vehicle, have given them a ride? What’s the point of Lando, after a call from Leia, checking on the team? Isn’t it somewhat paternalistic?
I guess they did it so we could get hints at the weird spice-runner Poe subplot. “How do you, an expert pilot, know how to hotwire a vehicle?”
And I would bet money they’ll have timecodes on the just like TFA.
Yeah, I think people would just be disappointed because they’re not the same story.
That is true! I think the sentence with “disparate” works well, either way I think it still makes sense.
You could just say “countless disparate worlds-“
Honestly all three titles of the Thrawn trilogy would totally work for the Sequel Trilogy. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.
I really like Balance of the Force as an alternate title. Legacy of the Force works too.
I see what you mean how if you remove her name change, it might warrant a title change. I think if you emphasized the “rise” of the Skywalker legend throughout the galaxy. Or if Ben Solo lived, though I guess his redemption counts as a “rise” as well maybe.
I think an opening phrase like, “Hope is alive!” would be a nice way to keep the vibe of “The dead speak!” but focus more on the ripple effect of Luke’s actions in the last film rather than revealing the Emperor has survived in the opening crawl.
With the Sith Wayfinder in TROS it would be really cool to see an illustration of it in the Jedi Texts in TLJ. It wouldn’t be too terribly convenient either since Luke was supposedly looking for Exegol before going after the First Jedi Temple, so he would have reason to turn to that page.
I think the only time we see one of the texts open is when Luke runs his hand across a page, so you either have to alter that shot or create a new one maybe?
I don’t have a quote, but I recall early on that John Williams personally speculated that Rey was a Skywalker when he scored TFA, so I don’t think Williams seeded any hints to her origin within her theme.
I thought it would’ve been interesting if it took 4-8 Star Destroyers firing at the core together in order to destroy a planet. Each Destroyer isn’t equally as powerful as one Death Star, instead it sacrifices firepower for mobility.
Another random idea!
While the movie in general felt rather rushed, I feel like the opening scene was even more rushed than the rest of the film. We got one planet shot, then it jumps IMMEDIATELY to the ground, which has never happened in a saga film, since a ship usually transitions the audience naturally from space to land. We get a few shots of Kylo Ren fighting random people, then he opens the chest and immediately transitions to him flying to Exogol. Before we even have time to know where we’re at we’re already gone. I didn’t even know that planet was Mustafar until I read about it later. I originally wanted to cut this opening and start straight with him flying to Exogol, but I had another idea.
What if we created an opening scene that mirrors the opening of The Phantom Menace? Instead of the Trade Federation invading Naboo, the First Order invades Mustafar.
No new footage would have to be shot, but some visual effects could be used to create some new shots.
Opening crawl, tilt down to Kylo Ren’s TIE Fighter flying toward camera, then pan left following as it passes camera (like Republic ship in TPM). Mustafar enters frame, where a dozen Star Destroyers orbit the planet. TIE fighters and troop transports invade planet surface. Montage of Kylo killing Vader cultists. Kylo then arrives at Vader’s castle. Paralleling Queen Amidala watching the invasion of Naboo from the palace window, Kylo stares out the castle window as TIE Fighters fly by and Star Destroyers float above. He then enters another room and finds a stone chest, pushing the lid off to reveal Vader’s Sith Wayfinder.
Reusing some footage from Rogue One (and hopefully some deleted scenes and additional visual effects), you probably could make something like this work and allow the opening of the film to have time to breathe.
I was thinking Rey would be most appropriate.
That’s what I was thinking too!
Wow, putting a lot of work into it! Care to elaborate on the purpose of altering this shot?
Two quick ideas. I’ve thought a lot about ways to alter Finn’s character arc, and while I do have some more ambitious ideas, I may have thought of two ways to change his arc with only some additional dialogue, at the least.
For Rise of Skywalker, what if we could create the implication that Jannah and the other rogue Stormtroopers were inspired by the story of FN-2187 to defect? In retrospect it feels like a missed opportunity for them not to do this. Maybe we could redub Jannah’s character, or find a voice actor that sounds similar to her, to say even one extra line of dialogue that goes along with this idea.
An additional idea for TLJ, what if we took the deleted scene of the Stormtroopers on the elevator, and redub the one that recognizes Finn to create an entirely new context. What if the stormtrooper(s) recognized Finn, but they let him go?
So in the second film you would have troopers who have heard of Finn’s defiance (maybe they especially like the fact he left Phasma in a trash compactor), and they defy the First Order indirectly.
And then in the third film, we actually see that Finn’s story inspired other stormtroopers to actually defect.
So although we don’t get to see Finn incite a Stormtrooper rebellion like we might’ve been hoping, we see how Finn’s actions have inspired others to defy authoritarianism. Which already plays well with Rose hearing his story in TLJ, and it parallels the themes with Luke and how his status as a legend inspires hope in others.
I wish there was a way to make Finn and Poe smooch in the finale aaagh
Still need some time to think about it but I may have an idea for how we can imply something between them.
All good points, but the fact Kylo and Rey is showing a force connection after Snoke is dead (as we are lead to believe Snoke was manipulating this bond) is important to the audience going into TROS. The force connection between Kylo and Rey is still occurring in TROS and really the only major thing JJ did not retcon from TLJ in TROS.
I just think it could be confusing in TROS as to why they still have this Force connection if the scene of Kylo and Rey still showing they have force connection at the end of TLJ is removed.
Fair point. Well, if a briefer Palpatine tease was made, then maybe you could keep the Rey/Kylo moment and have that tease without reusing little to no footage. Hmm.
EDIT: Palpatease?