Thanks for sharing, Val. I saw this earlier, but I would take this with a big grain of salt until there’s more proof to back any of their claims up.
Sometimes I like to imagine Dre and Dom trapped in a bunker together after some kind of nuclear apocalypse, but despite the end of the world they’ll still be debating this movie.
Interesting thoughts. Here is one interpretation to chew on: When Palpatine “died”, the persona of Sheev Palpatine sort of died on the Death Star, but the spirit survived. It is almost like the shell of Palpatine was shed, and what we had left was this Sith incarnate. Technically it is the same entity we knew from the PT and OT, but it no longer tries to hide its true persona. It definitely would make his return creepier than this one dude just still being alive somehow.
I’m kind of curious if this Sith incarnate is the spirit of Darth Bane passed down from vessel to vessel, or with each new host the Sith spirit becomes a collective consciousness.
These are really interesting article, thanks for sharing!
How does Rey being a Palpatine explain how she could speak Wookiee? It’s a lot more believable she picked up languages here and there from travelers passing through Niima Outpost over the years.
Any ideas for how to make Palpatine’s motivations not flip flop two or three times?
Could you potentially turn them into two separate scenes? One scene could be where Kylo is on his Star Destroyer, and he touches Vader’s helmet to confirm Palpatine’s claims and gain insight on how he survived, a look into the past.
Then Rey’s training montage would be separate, and Rey could have her own brief vision, maybe a brief glimpse into the future.
Maybe that could be another way to help slow the film down. Either way, I think there might be some flexibility as far as how this scene could be edited.
Wonderful trailer, Snooker! I love your grounded approach and attention to detail, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of this!
Also I didn’t realize you could hyperlink images so A+ for presentation.
I mean JJ was originally going to start TFA with a severed hand floating through space so anything’s possible. I guess they thought it would get people attention. [EDIT: Wrote this before I saw Ash’s comment!]
Speaking of the flashback, apparently they were training on the same planet the Resistance Base is at, Ajan Kloss. But I’m like, why couldn’t it have been Yavin IV? At least Luke and Leia have a connection to Yavin, plus it would be a nice homage to Luke’s academy in the EU being on Yavin IV. You could start the flashback with an establishing shot of Yavin IV, and then add a bit of red hue to the scene perhaps to suggest the “planet-light” of the red gas giant. I guess it doesn’t add anything besides slowing the film down a little by adding an extra shot. Honestly I wouldn’t mind if the whole flashback was just cut, or at the very least, the lines about Leia’s vision were cut or trimmed.
Back to the helmet stuff. What if you modified that scene to change Kylo’s motivation to touch the helmet? Maybe Kylo is wanting to see if what Palpatine told him was true, and we can get a different kind of “force-back”. Maybe instead of random events, we could get glimpses that hint at how Palpatine survived and how it connects to the helmet (through object possession perhaps). Maybe Kylo could get glimpses of the Dark Side’s past (Palpatine) and the Dark Side’s future (Rey), and the intensity of this vision recombined their force bond.
Maybe it is really visceral for Kylo not only because it is providing backstory, but because he’s reliving how Palpatine manipulated him from a young age through Vader and Snoke. And maybe these strong feelings of isolation and loneliness Ben felt at that somehow reforges that bond with Rey, since those shared feelings are what made Rey and Ben relate to each other. So as Ben experiences these past memories, Rey experiences her own.
So to summarize, maybe Ben isn’t trying to use Vader’s helmet to somehow reconnect with Rey, but instead, he is trying to confirm what Palpatine told him, and the flood of painful memories and revelations inadvertently reconnects him with Rey, since those feelings are something they both shared. So not only could it be a more sympathetic angle for Ben to see how he was manipulated, but it could also give more clues as to how Palpatine survived.
According to the JP leaks, didn’t the film originally start with the Luke and Leia flashback, and then transition to present day Leia training Rey? If Kylo Ren re-forged their Force bond during her training montage, then it presumably would have taken place before Kylo met Palpatine.
I guess you could say Vader’s helmet and other Force-related objects can concentrate power to achieve more difficult tasks? Or Palpatine helped Kylo re-establish that connection through Vader’s helmet? I’m not really sure, that is a good question.
Before the movie came out I assumed the Sith fleet was just stockpiled ships from the old Empire. Someone pointed out the bridges match the ISD-1s, which we never saw after A New Hope. Basically it seemed they were phased out for the ISD-2s that we see in ESB and ROTJ. So my thought was Palpatine sent them all there before the Empire fell as a contingency, and the Sith cult modified them with the laser canon.
Apparently the Visual Dictionary says they’re a brand new class, but I feel like it makes so much more sense if they were just modified ISDs.
And if you stuck with that idea, then basically all the First Order needed to do was boost their numbers to man this new/old fleet.
I guess we’ll have a better idea once we can clearly see what we have to work with. Also, you’re kind of stuck with the ship connection unless you change TFA, or imply her seeing that ship was a vision of the future or something.
Gotcha. I think that would work, but I also hope we can figure out a way to remove her parents being killed. If her parents sold her for drinking money, you know they probably would’ve sold her out to save their own skins.
When you say Rey’s past, are you referring to the idea that he finds out Palpatine has her parents (who aren’t related to Palpatine) killed?
I feel like Cosmonaut Variety Hour’s perspective is a pretty fair assessment. He likes all the Luke/Rey/Kylo stuff, but he feels the Finn/Poe/Rose stuff is pretty weak in comparison.
RJ said he created Rose because he felt Finn and Poe had the same voice, but imagine the Rose and Finn conversation about war, but Poe took Finn’s place and Finn took Rose’s place. Poe likes being the hero and does whatever he can to win, but considering Finn is a literal child soldier, he knows all about the costs of war.
I don’t hate the Canto Bight stuff but I do think it could’ve been better. I do understand the point of separating the big three, but less characters = more time to spend with Finn and Poe and develop their relationship.
While talking about 3PO’s role in the film over on Hal’s Ascendent thread, it made me think that it would be great if we could create some kind of 3PO dialogue database. Having a large array of dialogue could be so beneficial for future edits that need 3PO to help deliver certain lines of exposition.
For example, I know Hal is looking for a line where 3PO mentions how he can help negotiate, or something along those lines.
I would like to find a line where 3PO talks about a place looking familiar, and a line where he asks R2 to tell a story.
Something like a database could help make this search so much easier.
I just saw this film again and one thing stood out to me this time - at least three times in the first half of the film a character says something along the lines of ‘if we fail, it was all for nothing’. It gets rather tiresome, and the final time this happens is with C-3PO before he is mind wiped. I think a far stronger version of the scene would be to simply mute his dialogue, so he would walk away from the group in silence. Poe would ask what he was doing, and only then would he reveal his decision.
Yes, I really love this idea. Having a quiet moment with the “talkative droid” would be pretty effective I think. It makes the moment more serious if 3PO is silently thinking it over.
NFB! I always love to see your posts because I think you have a really fresh and unique perspective! This is a great example, because you actually try to make the movies more campy rather than less, which is the route most edits take. Would love to check this out!
I think for what you’re trying to achieve, what you already have is good. Either in this or a future AOTC edit, I think it would be interesting if we could make it to where Anakin has to choose between going to help Obi-Wan or go find his mother. Duty vs love. Anakin chooses the Jedi over his mother, and he fails to save his mother. So in ROTS, when he must once again choose between duty or love, his decision to, in his mind, not make the same mistake twice, is a lot clearer.
It also hits harder because you know he could have prevented it. In this film as-is, he basically goes looking for his mother as soon as he tracks down her whereabouts. I guess you could say he blames Obi-Wan and the Jedi for telling him to just ignore his dreams. But I think him making a more distinct choice like this would be really effective.
Because in this version, it seems like he accepts his mother’s death, but then decides he can go back and find her. But like I said, I think this totally works for what your goal is with this edit.
So you did show this version to your cousin, right? What did they think about the movie?
Yes, those were my thoughts as well. If we were able to create a new scene with a young Ben Solo, what content do you think would be the most effective for the story?
Here’s another ‘Inspired by’ change: https://youtu.be/BD5mLw0A8vI?t=876
He says that Rose should have been in charge of gathering reinforcements for the final battle. So would this be possible? As far as I can remember she is just hanging out at the Resistance base the entire movie, but could it be possible to insert some dialogue to indicate that she is busy calling up leaders of the core worlds and have them Rendzevous in some place? Then Lando could lead these gathered forces to the final fight.
Just watched this video! I had two ideas for this.
Geez, the stuff he mentions about Kylo’s arc bothers me. I don’t think TLJ ended necessarily with the implication he was beyond redemption, though. I think RJ left enough room so that the next director could go either way. But if you were going with redemption, I really do feel it would have worked better if his turn came earlier in the film, like the end of Act 1 or beginning of Act 2. Maybe the First Order leaders try to depose him but he survives (thanks to Leia somehow) and he has a come to Jesus moment and meets up with the heroes. Then we could see Ben Solo, not Kylo Ren, interact with Rey, Finn and Poe and have more dialogue beyond “Ow”. But, that’s another story.
I do wonder if dialogue for Kylo could be altered to make it appear his heart is not completely in it even before his redemption moment. I really feel like a flashback scene with young Ben Solo could’ve helped create even more sympathy for his character. Either a scene of him leaving to go to Luke’s temple, or of him being manipulated by Snoke/Palpatine through dreams from a young age. The latter would be great as a reminder to the audience that he has been groomed since childhood to turn to the dark side. It would’ve had a bigger impact on the story than a brief flashback of Luke and Leia training…
I think his FinnPoe thoughts are pretty fair, and it makes me want to remove any blatant indication of other romances for Finn or Poe (with Zorri, Jannah, or even Rose), so it would be still open for interpretation.
Hope you all have a happy New Year!
Hey Nev, had your girlfriend seen the Star Wars films before you jumped into Mandalorian with her? I’m glad you two are enjoying it together!
Happy New Year to you all! I really do think you are all fun and friendly people, and I think about you all a lot. Hope you’re all doing well and wish you a good 2020.
I’m guessing the Star Wars subreddit is predominantly male teenagers, but it sort of boggles my mind how people are just boxing in anyone who likes Reylo as the creepy fans who want Adam Driver to cheat on his wife with Daisy, or want Kylo to just be abusive to Rey. Most people who like that aren’t crazy people.
I just don’t think people get why it appeals to people, or how it is a common fantasy trope. But people look at Star Wars through a modern real-world lens and they can’t help it, I guess.
EDIT: I do think it sucks in a way that John can’t really make comments like a regular fan without being a spokesperson for the whole community. If a regular fan had said that most would just ignore it. I can understand why John responded to some angry fans, but now everyone sees it as John vs all the Reylos. Just because people like the Ben and Rey dynamic doesn’t mean they all hate John or some shit. Jesus Christ, enough internet for today.
Honestly I think the editor is bullshitting around the answer. The way she answered it just seemed rather weird. Sure, that could’ve been intended to be the last shot when they filmed it, but was who was in the shot always the same?
I don’t think John Boyega and Mark Hamill have ever realized how their negative comments can be lightning rods for online bullying. They can say tons of complimentary things and people will ignore them, but as soon as they say anything negative it becomes fuel for online attacks.
The map to Luke is discovered on Jakku by an old friend of Luke’s, and the first person BB-8 carrying the map runs into is the granddaughter of Palpatine, who is in speeder distance of the Millennium Falcon and happens to use this to escape the planet and they happen to be picked up within five minutes by Han Solo and brought to a place that has Luke’s old lightsaber in the basement. All of these things, save the connection between Han and the Falcon, are complete coincidences.
Another reason why Rey Nobody would’ve made a lot more sense!
Why today? Did I miss something in the news?