RogueLeader

Another idea of TROS I had would be to remove the Death Star lasers from all the Star Destroyers in the Sith fleet, as well as them destroying Kijimi.

Though I have to admit, the planet blowing up is a really good looking effect. I think it would be cool to replace the destruction of Hosnian Prime with that shot of Kijimi blowing up, if a trilogy edit cut the Star Destroyer lasers but kept Starkiller Base.

This is really cool! This feel so different! The music is a little intense, but I really like the direction you’re going in.

Also, I know people who didn’t like Rose will probably disagree, but I think Rose was totally mishandled in this film. I was at least expecting for the gang to communicate with Rose more like she’s mission control or something. Rose really should have been with Finn and Jannah (or just cut Jannah) at the end of the film when they get rescued by the Falcon. Rose risked her life trying to save Finn at the end of TLJ, and now Poe is like, “Where’s Finn?” and Rose says, “Oh, he didn’t make it off the ship.” TLJ Rose would have ran out there and said, “I’m not leaving here without you.”
Finn and Rose didn’t even hug at the end either! Fine, you don’t like this kiss in TLJ, but we can’t even get an embrace at the end?

AbramPT said:

RogueLeader said:

Very well articulated thoughts, like always! I hate petitions over trivial things like movies, but this is the one time I wouldn’t mind if fans made a petition to release an extended cut of this film.

I’m so glad you brought this up! I don’t necessarily need an extended cut, but TLJ-quality deleted scenes at the VERY LEAST. Based on the leaks, they probably have a ton of unused footage - I’m curious to know how much of it has finished fx.

Unfortunately I doubt we’ll find out until April, or whenever the home release is. That is what worries me though, because TFA didn’t have much deleted material to work. Since IX was the last film, maybe they’ll be more willing to show more unreleased material.

LILIAN02230 said:

I agree 100% with RogueLeader, for the blood tie we should create a dialogue where Palpatine reveals to Rey that she is Han’s daughter and that Han was Palpatine’s hidden son on Correlia, since in Solo we learn that this is not the original surname of Han, we can imagine the dyad Palpatine + Skywalker more intense for Kylo since it would be a mix of the two families, which in the end are as powerful as each other in the force, what do you think? (Sorry for my english)

Don’t apologize for your English, I understand you well!
Personally I don’t think Rey should be a biological Palpatine at all. She shouldn’t have any important blood ties in my opinion.

Again, it makes me wish that Trevorrow’s version had been made because at least it did not have Palpatine. Something like Kylo being betrayed by the First Order and having to work with the heroes, and maybe a Stormtrooper Rebellion for Finn’s plot, could’ve set up an ending where the war ends in peace and unification rather than destroying the enemy, which would have set it apart from the way ROTJ ends.

Jannah tells this story about how her entire regiment of stormtroopers laid down their weapons when they refused to kill their enemy. Imagine instead of being told this, we actually saw it.

After Hux and the First Order council depose Kylo Ren, they could begin kidnapping children tenfold as a reaction to the growing Resistance. The final mission could have been to go to the planet where they take these children and free them. Maybe they fail and are at the execution block, but the stormtroopers, witnessing their attempt to save the children, finally turn on their masters. I also think an ending reminiscent to Temple of Doom, with children reuniting with their parents, would have been rather powerful.

And hell, you could keep Palpatine to some extent and I still think it could work.

After Hux happily deposes Kylo, he realizes the old Imperial guard, like Pryde, are nuts and have a plan to resurrect Palpatine. Hux thinks this is crazy and this is what makes him help the Resistance.

Maybe the storyline with Rey and Ben could revolve around the Knights of Ren trying to resurrect Palpatine, but in this version he has no physical form. Snoke could’ve just been a Sith acolyte wanting to resurrect Palpatine as well. You could still have some kind of battle (or exorcism) between the Force ghosts and Palpatine’s Sith spirit that add importance to the Force ghosts and not undermine Anakin’s destiny. I think this could’ve carried this message of trying to resurrect the past in a more nuanced way than what we got.

Have Ben LIVE, and when he retakes control of the remaining First Order forces he could disband the regime and reunify the Republic his mother fought so hard to restore. Then he could go off and help Rey start a new Jedi Order, but with a strong feeling that it will be different this time. More balanced than before.

I know this kind of “what if” is pointless, but I think we can agree Abrams once again retread old ground with this film. I was a little forgiving with TFA, but he had no excuse with TROS.

krlozdac said:

There was build up, set ups, character introductions, thematic through-lines that got smothered out of the film just so they could cram it into the shortest runtime possible. This way they get more showtimes and keep it at a family-friendly length.

This movie, unlike any other Star Wars movie, is aching for an extended/director’s cut, because the one in theaters clearly ain’t it.

Very well articulated thoughts, like always! I hate petitions over trivial things like movies, but this is the one time I wouldn’t mind if fans made a petition to release an extended cut of this film.

Well if it does get fairly close to Dre’s predictions I think that it will bring up some interesting discussion about Dre’s original post about Google search rates being somewhat predictive!

I know it was just a simple comparison but the ST does actually have some commonalities with LOTR. An old evil trying to come back from the dead, and our heroes trying to stop it. Hell, I thought Vader’s helmet was going to be the “One Ring” that was holding Palpatine’s spirit. I do agree with Dre, that it would’ve been nice if the Sith’s return and Exogol had been set up more clearly from the beginning.

For all we know Snoke was actually leftover clone bodies of Plagueis. And according to the movie, Plagueis is Palpatine. And all the Sith stretching back to Darth Bane. So really, the Rule of Two was a ploy that allowed Darth Bane to jump from body to body for a thousand years.

Did anyone else pick that up? Basically Sidious’ spirit was just possessing his own, mangled corpse. He wanted Rey to turn and kill him because that would allow him to possess Rey. It’s the same reason the Emperor was unafraid when he negged on Luke to kill him in ROTJ.

But when Rey refused, he used her and Ben’s Force bond to siphon their life force into himself and heal his own body.

Did I understand all of that correctly?

DominicCobb said:

RogueLeader said:

I think cutting Rey Palpatine is doable. At the very least, I think you could imply that he “influenced the midichlorians” to create her. Almost like a reverse Anakin. An anti-chosen one. If this was the case, the audience of Sith loyalists would add a lot of weight to that. In my opinion it is better than her being his literal grandchild, and it would mirror Episode I, where Anakin was introduced as the chosen one who was born from the Force.

I still would prefer Rey Nobody, but I think the former idea is doable at least. Just changing/cutting some lines.

It’s preferable, sure, but I think only marginally. I’m really more interested in Rey Nobody but I’m not sure how that’d be accomplished.

Unfortunately it’d require even more trimming to scenes that already feel too fast. I think at the very least this would be worth attempting once the film comes out.

krlozdac said:

My feeling coming out of the film isn’t that the film should be shortened via fan edit but rather extended through deleted scenes.

I hope to god they have them on the bluray and that they don’t have the timecodes like TFA.

I get that, but I feel some things could be cut. I feel like the opening battle with Kylo is totally worthless.

That’s what I said over on the fan edit threads. Rey being created by Palpatine would’ve been at least more nuanced than her being his literal granddaughter. Plus, it would reflect Episode I and how Anakin was said be born from the Force.

I think cutting Rey Palpatine is doable. At the very least, I think you could imply that he “influenced the midichlorians” to create her. Almost like a reverse Anakin. An anti-chosen one. If this was the case, the audience of Sith loyalists would add a lot of weight to that. In my opinion it is better than her being his literal grandchild, and it would mirror Episode I, where Anakin was introduced as the chosen one who was born from the Force.

I still would prefer Rey Nobody, but I think the former idea is doable at least. Just changing/cutting some lines.

Your comment isn’t a rare one. I’ve seen a lot of people mention how Adam Driver is strangely silent after he gets to Exogol. I would be surprised if there was dialogue from Ben in that final act, but maybe in order to maintain the pace of runtime, they removed it.

Regarding Ben’s redemption and Reylo, I think the films go a long way trying to portray Kylo as a victim manipulated from birth, which I think tries to make his character more sympathetic.

I’m glad you enjoyed the film Lesser!

I feel like we have similar opinions. It’ll be interesting to see what ideas people will have in the coming weeks.

I’ll be surprised if we get any hefty or useable deleted scenes, and it’s likely they’ll have time stamps just like TFA. I mean this site has proven we can work around that but still.

Nothing against the actress playing Jannah but I don’t see why they didn’t just let Rose be the one to be with Finn at the end. I know people didn’t like Rose, but I think it would’ve been better to have just used her differently than just sideline her, especially since they dropped the Lando/Jannah connection (if that leak was true).

I think Finn was going to tell Rey he was Force sensitive? I feel like all of that came out of left field. I honestly feel like JJ just tried to resurrect ideas he had after TFA regardless if it fit with TLJ or not. Honestly I kind of wish they had just let Colin Trevorrow finish it instead. There were a lot of rumors his version of the script had something to do with a Stormtrooper Rebellion, which I think would concluded Finn’s arc really well.

Just saw the movie, I’m planning on seeing it tomorrow. So please take my comments with a grain of salt, because I don’t think my initial takes will reflect my thoughts about these films long-term.

When the early reviews described the film as “a lot”, I think that is absolutely accurate. You can tell they shot a lot more material than we saw, but Abrams felt this film needed to move as quickly as possible. The movie just moves WAY too fast, in my opinion.

I think the crawl does not need to mention Palpatine by name at all. Because it makes the reveal not surprising whatsoever. I think it could go something like this:

After Luke’s heroic stand against the First Order, hope began returning to the galaxy and the First Order has expended a lot of resources trying to maintain fear and quell the growing resistance.

Something something about the Resistance.

As the First Order becomes desperate to find a solution to their growing problem, Kylo Ren uses one of Snoke’s old artifacts to find the source of his mysterious power.

I think a crawl in the vein of this could help justify where all of those ships came from at the end.

The movie should then cut the scene of Kylo killing the natives (unless they include the Oracle deleted scene on the dvd) and start with the red nebula and Kylo jumping out of hyperspace. This opening should be quieter and mysterious. I think this scene should feel more reminiscent to the teaser clip of this scene.

Another idea for Palpatine, I think it would be interesting if the scenes where we see his body, we could add the blue smoke/energy we saw when he died, emanating from his nose and mouth. The idea being that this is Palpatine’s spirit, and it is just attached to his corpse that the acolytes retrieved from the Death Star wreckage.

I may have mentioned this somewhere else, but even though I would have rather had no Palpatine in this film, I think more hints to the Sith and Palpatine should be added into TFA, TLJ, and even other films if possible at all.

Someone suggested cutting the light skipping thing and I don’t think this would be a bad idea.

To help slow the film down a little, I think it would be interesting to add establishing shots of the helmet construction scene to show that they’re on Mustafar.

The scene of Rey and Kylo fighting over the transport on Pasana, I think the wide shot needs to be altered to make them feel farther apart. The way this scene is paced makes it feel weird as to why Kylo doesn’t pursue them, or why Finn doesn’t try to shoot Kylo.

Speaking of Pasana, a few other ideas:
Does Lando really need to be here? I felt the scene of Kylo commanding local troops to get there, and then a Stormtrooper being right there in the next shot felt so weird! I really think you could cut straight to Rey telling them Kylo knows they’re there, and then stealing the speeders.

This might seem unnecessary, but I think it would be interesting to regrade Pasana to make it Jedha. I know it may seem unnecessary, but both planets were filmed at Wadi Rum, Jordan, and if Ochi hunted Jedi relics, it makes sense for him to go to a Jedi planet like Jedha. You could create a new shot of the planet with a big chunk blown out of it, maybe with a ring around it. Having a ring or debri field would make sense since the crew hides in an asteroid field immediately after leaving the planet. Maybe they hid in the asteroid field hoping the First Order would leave. It would help explain how the Knights of Ren knew where they were as well. Again, it may feel unnecessary but I think it would make the planet more interesting and give the location more history.

After they wipe 3PO’s memory and they’re about to board the Star Destroyer, 3PO says something like, “Whoever this Chewie is were saving, this is madness!” This line feels lazy to me. I think it would be funnier if 3PO could have a line that played well off of the gang just rushing off the ship and blasting everyone in their path. Something that makes you think they’re gonna be sneaky or something, and then BLAST BLAST! I also think 3PO should not have his memory restored.

I have no idea how to alter it at this point, but I think the whole Goonies-style “lining the dagger up with the Death Star ruins” feels so strange! Why would Sith loyalists make a brand new dagger with the coordinates of the wayfinder’s location in wreckage that could easily collapse an no longer match the outline of the dagger?

Maybe 3PO’s deep voice could be redubbed to say something more general. Something about the way finder being at the site of Sidious’ death, or something like that.

When Han and Ben have their conversation, I think it would be interesting to overlap Han saying “Ben” with Leia saying “Ben”, to imply Leia is speaking to her son through Han.

For the climax of the film, I was hoping that we would end up actually seeing some Force ghosts, rather than just heading them (at least we heard them I guess). When Rey says, “And I am all the Jedi”, I think it would be interesting if we created some kind of effect that made it appear as if the Force ghosts were literally using her as a vessel. We could see her glow like a Force ghost, and when we see the close up of her face in between the sabers, we could superimpose faces of Luke, Leia, and finally Anakin.

I may change my mind on this, but just for curiosity’s sake, I think I will make an edit (or would like to see an edit) where Rey is NOT a Palpatine, and where Ben Solo lives.

In my opinion, there is just not enough context to explain how or why Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter. Palpatine had a son? It just feels super convoluted to me. If removing this idea altogether would be infeasible, I think Rey being created by Palpatine would make much more sense. Anakin was implied to have made by the Force as a reaction to Plagueis and Sidious’ growing power. Sidious said Plagueis had the power to create life. If this was true, and if all the Rule of Two Sith have been in fact one Sith, then Sidious would know this too. Maybe Rey was made by Palpatine to be the perfect vessel. She was supposed to be what Anakin failed to be.

But I still think keeping Rey as a nobody and leaning onto that dyad idea will help make the trilogy more cohesive. If you cut Rey Palpatine, you could also cut the shot of Ochi’s ship from TFA.

Again, I would prefer sticking with Rey being nobody, but I do understand that you might have to cut a lot to achieve that. At the very least, I would like to make Rey not Palpatine’s biological granddaughter, but instead Palpatine’s anti-Chosen One.

Here is my idea for “saving” Ben.
I would like to like to add some Force ghost voice over from one of the other Skywalker that implies they are helping Ben bring Rey back to life.
After Ben resurrects Rey, you simply cut away after Rey and Ben’s kiss and they’re smiling. Rey meets back up with the Resistance and we wonder what happened with Ben.

When Rey goes to the Lars Homestead, instead of her burying Luke and Leia’s sabers, we could create a new insert shot that would replace the shots of the sabers in the cloth. Instead of all of that, she unfolds the cloth and we see a whole bunch of lightsaber parts. We don’t even need to see the construction really. The next shot we see is her lifting up the new saber she just built.

I have two different ideas for the last few shots.

First idea: You could keep the whole Rey Skywalker thing, but in the end, when she is looking at the twin suns, we see a silhouette walking toward her in the distance. The last shot is of Rey and BB-8 watching as Ben walks toward them.

Second idea: You could remove the old lady coming up to talk to Rey. Instead, when Rey looks up, you could add a new shot of a TIE fighter landing. Maybe a close up shot of Ben’s feet touching the ground. Rey looks over at Leia and Luke smiling. The last shot is of Rey, BB-8 and Ben looking at the sunset together. (I also think it would be interesting to imply that this could be a sunrise instead).

If you think about it, her going to Lars’ homestead makes so much more sense if she is meeting someone there. In my opinion there is really no point in burying Luke and Leia’s lightsabers there, or even going there if all of her friends are back on Generic Jungle Planet? Obviously Ben might not be ready to show his face to the galaxy, but in time he might be ready to help right the wrongs he created in the galaxy.

I have a lot more thoughts but I’ll stop here for now. I’m sure there will be a lot of people saying “this movie is a mess”, “it can’t be saved!”

But despite my problems with the film, I think there is hope in the fact that now we have the whole picture, all nine films. Pessimism isn’t in the spirit of fan editing, because we find ways to turn problems into solutions. If the long-term consensus of this film turns out to be rather poor, I do believe we can turn this film, and the whole saga, into a really spectacular series of fan edits. I’m really hopeful about the future of these films!

This will probably be controversial but I kind of wish they had let Rian finish the series off!

My family really liked it though. Though I will say my mom wanted “you-know-who” to live! 😂 (Not Palpatine!)

I have only gotten to the Falcon escape, but I do have some thoughts.

I think Jakku regrade was a massive success. I genuinely love this look for Jakku. Some might find it too bland, but that feeling will make seeing the green of Takodana much more cathartic, imo.

I do think the BB-8 night shots are rather quick as well, but I get why it cuts to him at that point. I did have another thought though. Since we moved Ren’s line “I’ll leave that to you” Maybe in its place you could put something like, “Kill the pilot.” Poe gave them the information they need, he is no longer useful. Maybe when Finn walks in, he could say, “The Captain wants the prisoner.” So the audience might think he is about to be executed, maybe by Captain Phasma on Hux’s orders, then it turns out to be Finn trying to escape. Maybe that could help the transition between those two scenes?

I’ll have to comment on your other questions as I get farther into the edit.

Yeah, I can easily accept that some TIE fighters have that feature and some don’t. I always assume they just had a ladder that popped out for them to climb down.

There was TFA concept art with that design.

Yeah, and I actually think they already look similar enough.

My dad and I watched ESB last night, and we had a similar conversation about the new Wampa shots. He actually had this thought that in the new wide shot of the Wampa eating the tauntaun, it would’ve been interesting if there was an ice stalagmite between it and the camera, and we only saw a distorted or silhouetted view of the beast through the ice.

Yeah, the subtlety is better in my opinion. I actually missed it at first, which to me makes it feel like it could’ve actually been a movie, rather than it feeling like a fan edit (which many edits fall victim to).