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StarkillerAG

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20-Jun-2018
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16-Mar-2024
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Post
#1577995
Topic
'Rey Skywalker' (Upcoming live action motion picture) - general discussion thread
Time

Fan_edit_fan said:

If you weren’t referring to any members on this board who don’t have gushing thoughts about any upcoming SW projects…then why did you mention it in the first place? Did you think anyone here wanted to hear your rant on “hating the haters”? Still is not the place for your personal vitriol against a 0000.01% minority.

Dude, he wasn’t saying “Rey is 100% gonna be good and anyone who says otherwise is a hater”, he was saying “Rey has potential, and even if it sucks it won’t be because of its ‘SJW woke agenda’ or whatever.” Try getting some basic reading comprehension before you shit on someone for no reason.

Post
#1576919
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Chosen One Edition (WIP)
Time

Jar Jar Bricks said:

I want to bring up one last potential idea for this edit that is supplementary in nature to the main course, which is the dyad duel and hangar scene changes.

This edit is intended to be paired with TLJ: Rekindled, which includes Kylo’s line that her parents are dead and buried on Jakku. In original TROS, there are several problems with this idea:

  1. Rey’s parents’ ship is seen leaving Jakku.
  2. That ship just so happens to be (almost) identical to Ochi’s ship, so how did that end up with her parents to begin with?
  3. If Rey’s parents were buried on Jakku by Ochi, then he likely would have encountered the only little girl in Niima Outpost.

I think the only way all of these pieces fit together is if Ochi was the one purposely taking her parents away from her. Now, obviously, this would also mean that Ochi intended to leave Rey behind as well, and not deliver her to Palpatine as he was originally instructed to.

I think a second reveal about Rey’s origin could easily slot itself into Poe and Finn’s discussion about D-O. We’d simply repurpose the footage of the ship taking off from TFA and her parent’s subsequent deaths after Finn’s line: “To bring a little girl he was supposed to take from Jakku, to the Emperor.” Over the flashback, we’d have a Finn voiceover, just like Luke does in the next scene.

“But Palpatine wanted her parents to sell her, instead. He ensured she was left alone and afraid on a harsh world, to push her to the dark side. And eventually to himself.”

Obviously both references to Rey recognizing Ochi’s ship would be reinstated. Now, the biggest problem with this idea is that we’re entering the territory of more hard retcons, which I’d say we’ve thus far avoided with only soft retcons. Specifically, the fact that she was sold for “drinking money”. Maybe the drinks were for Ochi? lol And there is also an argument to be made that Palpatine himself could do a more effective job of turning Rey to the dark side than trauma and Jakku ever could.

I’d still like to hear some other thoughts on this, though. I’m like 90% sure I’m including the Vader duel and Luke and Kylo conversation at this point, and this idea I’m a little under 50% in support of.

Is that idea really necessary for this edit, though? I thought the whole point of rewriting the hangar reveal was to avoid any mention of Ochi being involved with Rey’s backstory, and thus bypass that can of worms completely. It would probably be useful for Ascendant or a similar edit, but I think this edit should continue to keep Rey’s parents almost unmentioned.

Post
#1576468
Topic
Community Focus Thread 1: The Phantom Menace
Time

Darth Raditz said:

I spent the weekend studying the opening crawls of the movies (both from the theatrical cuts and fanedits), and was hoping to get some feedback on my take for Episode I:

The Jedi Knights, once the guardians
of peace and justice in the galaxy,
have become mere couriers to
a complacent, stagnant Galactic
Republic within the last
millennia.

The TRADE FEDERATION, with
aide from a specter of the Jedi’s
past, has exploited this galactic
malaise with an occupation of
the peaceful Planet Naboo.

Only a chance meeting of two
radical idealists, Jedi
Master QUI-GON JINN of
Coruscant and QUEEN AMIDALA
of Naboo, can hope to settle
this conflict…

Admittedly, there’s a lot I’m trying to cover here: Making the crawl a fitting introduction to the SW universe, stating that the Jedi golden age has waned, the failing state of the government, something from the Jedi’s past opts to threaten the peace, & placing Qui-Gon and Amidala as the most important characters in this episode (drawing on the “Padme as Death Star plans” idea) as well as two of the only people in the galaxy striving for positive social change. I also replaced “blockade” with “occupation” to go with the idea of only one ship being in Naboo space, so a blockade doesn’t conveniently disappear in Act Three.

There’s some interesting ideas here, but I don’t know if it’s sufficiently engaging to be a proper Star Wars crawl: it feels more like dry exposition than the sort of heightened melodrama that made the OT crawls work so well. In particular, the third paragraph of the crawl should provide a natural bridge to the opening scene, like “pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents” in ANH or “dispatched thousands of remote probes” in ESB.

Here’s my own take on the crawl from a few pages earlier, so we can compare and contrast with your version:

The galaxy is in chaos. Driven
by greed and lust for power,
the ruthless Trade Federation
has blockaded the peaceful
planet of Naboo.

As the Federation prepares
to send their fearsome droid
armies to seize the planet’s
valuable resources, the last
hope of Naboo’s queen lies in
the Jedi Knights, guardians of
peace and wielders of the
mystic Force.

Hearing her desperate pleas,
the Chancellor of the Galactic
Republic has sent Jedi master
Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice
to bargain for the queen’s
freedom, unaware that a
sinister force is behind these
shocking events…

Post
#1575413
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Chosen One Edition (WIP)
Time

krlozdac said:

The thing about the insecurity of Rey being a worthier Sith heir wouldn’t land with either Kylo Ren or the audience given that as far as he and we are concerned, at this point of the story the Emperor just wants to have her killed. The drama is that instead of doing that he’s planning on having her side with him. It is not revealed till later that Palpatine wants her as the heir. Therefore I think leaning into that at this point of the story is a bit premature.

Sorry, but I’m not sure you fully understand what JJB’s goals are here. The whole “Palpatine pretends to want Rey dead but secretly wants her to join him” thing is completely gone, or at least heavily altered. Palpatine’s end goal here, seemingly stated offscreen in the part of his conversation with Kylo that we didn’t see, is for Rey and Kylo to fight each other to the death, so the one who survives can take his throne. Vader saying “you are unworthy” is intended to prey on Kylo’s insecurity over his defeat at Rey’s hands in TFA, implying that Kylo won’t be strong enough to kill Rey and become Palpatine’s true heir.

Post
#1574892
Topic
What is your personal canon?
Time

Spartacus01 said:

StarkillerAG said:

The Sequels (my hypothetical fanedit where Palpatine never comes back)

Ah, that sounds interesting. Can you elaborate, please? What are your ideas to fix the Sequel Trilogy?

I was hoping to do this in a separate thread in the fanedit section, but whatever. Basically, I’m cycling through a few hypothetical concepts for a radical sequel edit, all focused on removing Palpatine entirely (and thus returning the sequel trilogy to how it felt in the TFA/TLJ era):

  1. TFA and TLJ are mostly the same, but TROS has been edited to have the Sith fleet be created by Kylo, and the duel on the Death Star is the final duel of the film. This is by far the simplest option (and it’s even been done by a couple other editors), but I’m worried it would leave the trilogy without a proper climax.

  2. TFA is mostly the same, but Rey meeting Snoke has been cut out of TLJ entirely (meaning Snoke’s still alive by the end of the movie), and TROS has been edited to replace Palpatine with Snoke (using both AI voices and clips from 21CPeasant’s Legend of the Solo Twins edit). This is also pretty simple (especially since most of the work has been done already), but I’m worried Snoke isn’t an interesting enough villain to carry the main conflict of an entire trilogy.

  3. TFA is mostly the same, but TLJ and TROS have been cut into one movie featuring the best elements of both (again, heavily inspired by 21CPeasant’s edit), with the upcoming Rey movie being the final installment of the trilogy. This is the one I’m the most passionate about (especially since it sort of mirrors Episode I being a prologue by having Episode IX be an epilogue), but it depends almost entirely on the Rey movie being good enough to fanedit in the first place (unless I’m fine with the sequels being a duology).

Post
#1574865
Topic
What is your personal canon?
Time

It’s only been a year since I did this last, but a lot can change in a year. So, I decided to take the plunge again and come up with yet another personal canon (or at least, what my personal canon would be if I gave a shit about canon):

Tales of the Jedi (the comic book)
The Phantom Menace (ideally a fanedit, but it doesn’t really matter)
Tales of the Jedi (the series, Dooku episodes only)
Attack of the Clones (ideally a fanedit, but it doesn’t really matter)
The Clone Wars (EddieDean’s Refocused edit)
Revenge of the Sith (ideally a fanedit, but it doesn’t really matter)
Solo (ideally a fanedit, but it doesn’t really matter)
Andor (either the original or EddieDean’s movie edit)
Rogue One (ideally a fanedit, but it doesn’t really matter)
A New Hope (either the original cut or Adywan’s Revisited edit)
The Empire Strikes Back (either the original cut or Adywan’s Revisited edit)
Return of the Jedi (the original cut, Revisited hasn’t come out yet)
The Aftermath trilogy
Bloodline
The Sequels (my hypothetical fanedit where Palpatine never comes back)
The Rey movie (hopefully)

I first truly got into Star Wars during the TFA/TLJ era, so that’s what my canon is naturally biased towards. I used to like the Filoniverse stuff, but the increasingly diminishing returns there have turned me sour towards the whole thing (except The Clone Wars, that’s still good).

Post
#1574622
Topic
Unusual <strong>Sequel Trilogy</strong> Radical Redux Ideas Thread
Time

RogueLeader said:

The dark side will always exist. Evil will always exist. And in times of peace dark forces will eventually rise again. But that doesn’t mean there is no point in fighting against that evil. So in my mind, that is why Rey proclaims herself a Jedi at the end of the film. Calling herself a Jedi is an act of rebellion against this absurd cycle. It’s saying, “I don’t care if I can’t stop the cycle, I’m going to resist it regardless”. She’ll fight for good because it’s worth fighting for, no matter how impermanent peace is. And that not only speaks to the issue of the Sith and the Jedi, but also with the New Republic/First Order.

But regardless, the movie is open ended enough to make the audience wonder if the cycle is broken, or has changed the state of the galaxy for good. Maybe it has, but whether or not evil will rise again doesn’t matter, because Rey and our heroes have accepted the fact that they will face whatever threats may rise, because it’s the right thing to do.

Does any of that make sense?

I think that’s good, as long as we make it absolutely, 100%, unambiguously clear that Palpatine will NOT be coming back. Evil in general always returning to threaten the galaxy is a nice bit of realism, but the EXACT SAME GUY coming back every 30 years to ensure endless OT repeats ad infinitum is downright cynical. It’s possible for Rey to get rid of Palpatine for good without all evil in the galaxy necessarily being destroyed (although I’m not quite sure how you’d convey that with the footage we have).

Post
#1574334
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

Jar Jar Bricks said:

Because we currently have the scene before Endor, the only purpose it serves is reminding us that Palps wants Rey dead and that Kylo knows where she’s going. Arguably, having no such indication that he knows where she’s going would make his sudden appearance on the Death Star better. I like how the novelization describes how Rey is convinced at first that he’s a part of the vision she was just experiencing because it makes no sense for him to be there.

I thought Ascendant moved the scene to before Kijimi, to replace the scene where Chewie is revealed to be alive? It doesn’t really serve much of a purpose there either, but still.

Post
#1573946
Topic
<em>REY NOBODY</em> - A Collaborative Thread
Time

How about something like this:

“Because you’re a Palpatine? Honestly, I’m not even sure if that’s true.”
(Sits down next to Rey)
“But even if it is… some things are stronger than blood.”

That might be a bit on-the-nose, but I like how it shows that Force ghosts don’t have omniscient knowledge (otherwise Luke could just show up to call BS on the granddaughter story when they were heading to Endor), and conveys a message of “so what if you’re a Palpatine?”: the connections Rey has formed during her time in the Resistance are more powerful than any hypothetical blood relation.

Post
#1573827
Topic
<em>REY NOBODY</em> - A Collaborative Thread
Time

I agree with what everyone else is saying about your latest idea, Nev. The whole “dark side or death” conflict is a stroke of genius, but the rewritten Ochi exposition is more confusing than anything (mainly because it feels like a complete non-sequitur to D-O having “a ton of information about Exegol”). Maybe we could just cut out the “D-O has the information they need” plot point entirely, and imply that the info about the nav tower came from Hux’s message at the beginning of the movie? It would remove one additional twist from this needlessly convoluted plot, at least.

Either way, I think if we’re gonna go with the whole “Rey Palpatine is a lie” idea, the revelation that it’s a lie should be delivered by Palpatine himself, in a classically villainous “I lied!” fashion. The final anime beam clash does seem like a pretty nice place to put it: it’s the resolution of the plot stakes, so it should ideally be the resolution of the emotional stakes as well.

Post
#1573229
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

NeverarGreat said:

Jar Jar Bricks said:

But if he was still clinging onto life through the offspring of the Skywalker’s, why would he even bother doing this with a random little girl, as well? She also cannot be called “a Palpatine” in this sequence of events.

Well we don’t know if he was just ‘clinging to life’ before TROS, just that he had returned at some point and was inhabiting a clone body.

My thought process on this is that Palpatine always wanted someone ‘far younger’ to inhabit, such as Anakin. He could have used the Force to create Anakin or not, but regardless, during ROTS he was probably looking to transfer his consciousness to him. Now, if life force transfer comes with visual changes in a person’s appearance, then we could easily see the moment when Palpatine went all-in with this plan - he used Windu’s attack as cover in order to mask the true cause of his transformation, while he transferred some of his power to Anakin. At this point, Anakin does almost a complete 180 and starts acting irredeemably evil. It was only Anakin’s fall on Mustafar that prevented Palpatine from going through with the full essence transfer, and it was probably Palpatine’s life force in Anakin that kept him alive.

Jumping forward to post-ROTJ, Palpatine probably reincarnated in a pristine clone body. Something after this transfer clearly happened to make this clone body deteriorate, and it may have been that he was transferring most of his life force into Rey in order that she could overcome her crises and be quickly drawn into the Dark Side. He probably planned to get her from Snoke during TFA or TLJ, but when Snoke failed he was forced to wait in a deteriorating clone body until Rey could find her way to him on her own.

The question still remains: Did Palpatine create Rey like he may have created Anakin? It could be that both Anakin and Rey had the Force from birth without Palpatine’s direct involvement, and he would only need to transfer some life force into them at the critical moments in order to corrupt them and their descendants. This seems to require the least effort on Palpatine’s part, and if Palpatine was able to survive his death due to his life force being bound within the Skywalkers, he would have been placed into a new clone body and so would have had the life force to begin this process again with Rey.

But why choose Rey? Perhaps among the Force sensitive candidates his cult could find at the time, she was the most powerful. Ben was doubtless heavily protected at this time, so Rey was the next best choice, a girl from nowhere whose parents wouldn’t be missed. He could have transferred his essence to her remotely, in which case her parents kept her from him, or in person, in which case he then sent her to Jakku to await her destiny.

In either case, the deterioration of Palpatine’s body seems to indicate that most of his power has been transferred to Rey by the time of TROS, and so she is essentially being devoured by Palpatine’s spirit. I’d argue that calling Rey a Palpatine here makes sense, and we could even keep it vague enough that she could have been created by Palpatine, it’s just another unknowable possibility.

And herein lies the main problem with the horcrux idea. It’s such a complex, hard-to-explain concept that it would take several minutes to properly explain it in a film format: minutes that we just don’t have. The hangar scene was only intended to convey a reveal as simple as “Palpatine is your granddad”, not lay out some deep saga lore.

If we want a reveal that we can seamlessly slot into a fanedit with almost no issues, then we need to keep it simple: most of the previous ideas in this thread did a pretty good job of this. But as it stands, I think the horcrux thing will be a dead end if we actually try to work it into the movie.

Post
#1573188
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

Jar Jar Bricks said:

Starkiller, I don’t think that’s the difference at this point. The difference is between Rey being conceived as somebody important all along and her being born as nothing but later ascending to greater heights. I personally believe the latter is incongruous with canon due to the nature of Force-sensitivity at birth and how powerful Rey needs to be in the end.

Wait, that’s the argument? Then in that case, I agree with Nev almost completely. The only two things I didn’t like from his idea were Rey not having Force sensitivity until TFA and Rey’s parents being good people, both of which I fixed in my draft.

But I don’t know if this debate’s even relevant anyways, because we’ve already moved on to a new idea. 😉 Geez, it’s like the TFA crawl all over again.

Post
#1573125
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

It feels like the main impasse we’ve reached here is a debate over what the “most important part” of the TLJ reveal is: Rey being a nobody, or her parents being horrible people. I personally think the “bad parents” angle is the most important one to push, but I can see the argument for Rey having no blood connection to Palpatine as well.

So here’s an idea: what if we don’t have to choose? I think it’s perfectly possible to use most of Nev’s “Palpatine orchestrated Rey’s abandonment” angle, while still having Rey’s parents abandon her for entirely selfish reasons. Here’s a mockup of what I’m thinking:


“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it. I needed you to see it. Who you are. The dark side is your destiny. Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“I’ve never lied to you. Your parents were no one. Mere fools, easily influenced by Palpatine.”
“Don’t!”
“He promised them wealth beyond imagining, if they just abandoned you…”
“I don’t want this!”
“And they readily accepted.”
“No!”
“You remember, don’t you? How he took them.”
(Rey sees the vision of Ochi’s ship leaving)
“Come back! Nooo!”
“Your abandonment… it was all part of his plan.”
“Stop talking.”
“Rey… don’t you want to know why?”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“Palpatine saw your future, Rey. So did I. A girl from nowhere, awakening to power. But your parents would get in the way. So he ensured you’d never see them again.”
(Rey sees her parents die)
“No!”
“So that’s where you are.”
“You know why the Emperor always wanted you. I’ll come tell you.”

“Why did the Emperor come for me?”

“Because he saw what you would become. He saw the power latent within you. So he chose you… to be his rightful heir.”

“You’re a Palpatine. Like my family, you are bound to him by a power greater than blood, a power like life itself. You can feel it… for it connects us as well. But we can destroy him, and bring a new order to the galaxy… together.”

“You know what you need to do. You know.”

“I do.”

Post
#1573030
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

NeverarGreat said:

I agree that Palpatine ‘pouring his power into Rey’ isn’t in Palpatine’s character, and is weird for the reasons you’ve enumerated here. So I’ve given it some more thought, and maybe we can use the whole ‘awakening’ angle from TFA to explain Rey’s power.

There is no hint of Rey’s power in the Force from an early age, so it could be assumed that she was chosen by the Force only when she truly needed it. Before this, she was just like any other person. Except that someone like Palpatine may have known that the Force was going to choose her and bestow in her great power, so if he knew this he would want to get to her first, and plant the seed of darkness in her. For this concept, she would need to stay on Jakku because that’s the only way she would be involved in the story and that’s how the Force eventually chooses her, so that means that Palpatine would want to keep her there on the planet until her awakening.

“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. The dark side is your destiny. Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“I’ve never lied to you. Your parents were no one. Junk traders from the outer rim.”
“Don’t!”
“They abandoned you for a reason. Don’t you know why?”
“I don’t want this!”
“It was Palpatine’s doing.”
“No!”
“He kept you on that planet.”
(Rey sees the vision of her parents and her abandonment.)
“My Love…be brave.”
“You’ll be safe here…I promise.”
“Come back! Nooo!”
“They were under duress. Forced to do the Emperor’s will.”
“Stop talking.”
“Rey…I know what happened to them.”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“Palpatine saw your future, Rey. So did I. A girl from nowhere, awakening to power. But you were there on Jakku because Palpatine wanted you there. And your parents played their part.”
(Rey sees her parents die.)
“She’s on Jakku; she’s gone.”
“No!”
“So that’s where you are.”
“You know why the Emperor always wanted you. I’ll come tell you.”

But the problem with that is, once again, it ruins the point of the TLJ reveal by making her parents noble martyrs, rather than “filthy junk traders who sold you for drinking money”. Sure, Rey is more of a literal “nobody” now, but at what cost?

Personally, I still think the Plagueis life-creation route is the best one to go down. It connects Rey to Palpatine in a way that doesn’t feel contrived, while at the same time completely preserving everything said in the TLJ reveal. If you don’t like the idea of Palpatine creating Anakin, you can even have Rey be a sort of “dark Chosen One”: a Sith counterpart to Anakin, created by Palpatine as his personal revenge for Vader’s betrayal.

Post
#1572914
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

I agree that this new version is the absolute best so far: it gives Rey an inextricable connection to Palpatine while also completely avoiding any contradictions with TLJ (something I didn’t even think was possible). There are a few minor issues I have with it, though, so here’s a revised take:


“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it… I needed you to see it… who you are. The dark side is your birthright, Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“I’d never lie to you. Your parents were no one. Junk traders expecting a child they never wanted.”
“Don’t!”
“You were such a miracle, Rey… born of a virgin…”
“I don’t want this!”
“…just like Vader.”
“No!”
“You’ve seen it, haven’t you? Your destiny.”
(Rey sees the vision of herself on the Sith throne)
“Luke saw the same fate in me. But you and I don’t want it.”
“Stop talking.”
“Why? I know you better than anyone else.”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“Palpatine knew your true potential… your power. The first time we fought, in the forest, the darkness inside of you awakened. You revealed yourself to the Emperor that day… just as he intended.”
(Visions of Rey beating Kylo on Starkiller, falling into the dark cave, etc.)
“No!”
(The mask of Vader falls to the ground)
“So that’s where you are.”
“Before you joined the Jedi, Palpatine wanted you alive. I’ll come tell you why.”
“Rey… I know the rest of our story.”
“Tell me.”
"The Emperor manipulated the Force itself into creating life. First my grandfather, and then you. You’re his chosen heir… a rightful Palpatine.”
"The Emperor wants us to fight each other, so his strongest heir can rule. But he doesn’t realize the strength of our connection, Rey… a bond more powerful than life itself. We’ll end him and the Sith, and create a new order, together…”

Post
#1571355
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

EddieDean said:

In fact, I think this can be simplified further, with her parents not needing to be Sith cultists.

Well, I think the whole reason why they would get parents to raise Palpatine’s clones in the first place is to train them in the ways of the Sith. Because of that, the parents would need to be Sith cultists. Kidnapping random junk traders to raise the greatest hope of the Sith empire would be a disaster waiting to happen. 😉

Post
#1571350
Topic
The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released)
Time

RogueLeader said:

I think if we are trying to find the most agreeable version of Rey Nobody for Ascendant, making Rey a clone of Palpatine doesn’t make sense. To me, Clone Rey should replace the standard Rey Palpatine, not be the version of Rey Nobody. Because Clone Rey still defeats the idea and theme of Rey Nobody. Imo, in a Rey Nobody edit, Rey should have zero previous connection to Palpatine or anyone else.

But I think something like Rey Clone or Rey Anti-Chosen One (Sith’ari) could replace a straight up “You’re Palpatine biological granddaughter”. Because you end up with the same point (the Skywalkers vs Palpatines if you’re into that) but avoid the whole idea of “Palpatine Fucks”.

I’m pretty sure that’s the idea: the Rey Nobody version will stay the same, and this idea will just be “Rey Palpatine, but better”.

Personally, I really like this idea, but there’s one problem I have with it: why did Rey’s parents have to adopt the cloned daughter of Palpatine, of all people? Couldn’t they just go to the Coruscant Adoption Center and find a child that the Sith wouldn’t literally execute them for taking? But, as already mentioned, Rey being in-vitro fertilized within her mother’s womb is just weird.

So, my solution is for Rey’s parents to be essentially glorified babysitters: assigned by the Sith cult to raise Rey in the ways of darkness, they ended up rebelling, and liberated Rey from Palpatine’s control.

Here’s a mock-up of how that idea would work within the context of the scene, along with a few minor changes to other aspects intended to make the scene sound more natural:


“Rey… wherever you are… you are hard to find.”

“You are hard to get rid of.”

“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it… I needed you to see it… who you are. I know the darkness that lives in you, Rey…”

“You’re lying.”

“You were right… your parents were no one. They searched for purpose, and it led them to the Sith.”

“Don’t!”

“They were forced to raise you, by the cultists on Exegol…”

“I don’t want this!”

“But they grew to love you.”

“No!”

“Remember them! Remember how they saved you!”

(Rey sees the vision of her parents and her abandonment.)
“Rey, my love… be brave.”
“You’ll be safe here… I promise.”
“Come back! Nooo!”

“They paid for your protection… in more than one way.”

“Stop talking.”

“Rey… I learned what happened to them.”

(Cutaway to heroes capture)

“Your parents pursued Luke’s protection, searching the Jakku desert for his allies… but Palpatine’s assassins tracked them down. Whether brave or foolish, they made a final stand.”

(Rey sees her parents get killed.)

“So that’s where you are.”

“You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead. I’ll come tell you.”

“Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”

“Because you were just a prototype… one that became unnecessary after his true return. Rey, you’re a clone of the Emperor. You… are a Palpatine.”

“The only reason for your creation was to be one of his vessels. But what Palpatine doesn’t know is that we’ve become a Dyad in the Force, Rey… two that are one. Together we can end him and the Sith, and take his power to forge something new…”

(Removes his helmet)

“You know what you need to do. You know?”

“I do.”

Post
#1571194
Topic
The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
Time

Maybe I’m missing something, but why is Palpatine lying about being Rey’s grandfather necessary in the first place? It’s not like a massive amount of runtime gets cut if you remove all lines where Palpatine mentions this: depending on how you rewrite the hangar reveal, you can even keep some lines that were originally meant to allude to it. Personally, I think it would be much more effective if whatever reveal Rey gets about her past is actually true, rather than just a blatant lie that Rey can overcome by simply finding out it was a lie in the first place.

Jar Jar Bricks’s idea of Rey being a clone is one of the most promising alternate reveals I’ve seen proposed so far (especially given you need to cut practically nothing), but I think one of your earlier ideas, where Rey was trained by Palpatine as a child, still has a lot of potential. It makes both Rey and her parents unambiguous “nobodies” (by blood, at least), while still giving Rey a strong connection to Palpatine. If anything, I actually think Rey having spent a significant portion of her early life with Palpatine is a much stronger reason for her to feel drawn to the throne than “evil genetics” or whatever.

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#1570949
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The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
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Jar Jar Bricks said:

  • Nothing Luke says disservices what he was like in TLJ. “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect” - yes, he’s poking fun at his old ways. He changed by the end of The Last Jedi. It’s a meta joke at the same time, but that’s besides the point. Plus, it was fear that kept him there. Fear that he’d fail the galaxy again, fear how Leia and Han would react to his actions, etc.

I’ll accept the saber point (even if I still think this whole religious reverence for lightsabers was mainly started by the angry fan reaction to TLJ), but didn’t Rian literally say that the reason he came up with the “Luke almost killed Ben” backstory was because Luke wouldn’t just hide away out of fear? It wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to his mistake that caused Luke to exile himself: he genuinely thought the galaxy would be better with the Jedi gone.

  • We are already planning on fixing the Leia knowledge in Ascendant. Especially if Rey is turned into a clone, Leia will begin to recognize the similarities as she trains her. She spent time with Palpatine in the Senate, so she is used to his aura in the Force, even if she wasn’t aware of such a thing at the time. Luke knows because he’s a ghost. They’ve sorta just gained omniscience.

Yeah, I know about the plans there. But it’s still a major problem with the original scene, and one that can just as easily be solved by scrapping the thing entirely.

  • Luke raising the X-Wing is such poetic language for how much his character has grown across the saga it would just be a shame to see it gone. Yes, it doesn’t make the most sense that it’s functional, but he did make the right choice by not using it in TLJ. If he had shown up to those gorilla walkers in-person he would have been dead in 10 seconds flat, Skywalker blood or not. His use of the Force at the end of TLJ really can’t be diminished to just a “that was the only way to intervene” moment. It was the most Jedi-like way to intervene. He never attacked, only using the Force for defense.

How is Luke raising the X-Wing poetic in any way, other than the most surface level? All it seemed like to me was yet another one of JJ’s beloved “ZOMG I RECOGNIZE THAT THING, I LOVE STAR WAAAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSS!!!” moments, blandly recycling iconic imagery from the OT with no regard for context, emotion, or logic. And Luke probably would have died if he showed up to Crait in person, but he had no way of knowing that. If he had a choice between going to Crait in person and possibly dying, or going to Crait with a life-draining astral projection technique and definitely dying, then he looks like an idiot for choosing the latter.

EDIT: Oh yeah, also Leia knowing that Rey has such a dark history yet still hedging all of her bets into her regardless is the emotional undercurrent of the whole film. She made the mistake of sending Ben away for her brother to deal with, but this time she takes up the reigns herself and her faith and devotion to Rey is what pays off and saves the galaxy. Otherwise Leia does basically nothing for the plot in what is supposed to be her movie of the triology (TFA was Han, TLJ was Luke, TROS was hers).

This is a good point, but I feel like there could be a way to convey this even in a cut that removes Ach-To. Maybe during the “Be with me” scene, instead of hearing the voices of Jedi she doesn’t even know, Rey could hear Luke and Leia’s voices instead? They could say that despite Rey’s [INSERT SECRET DARK BACKSTORY HERE] (which they would logically know about due to being ghosts), they still have faith in her, and encourage her to rise and face her fears. That way, you could deliver the same emotional payoff originally contained in the Ach-To scene, only in a much more logical place given the main tension of the climax.

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#1570943
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The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
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Jar Jar Bricks said:

And that is an unforgiveable thing to do imo.

Why, though? What’s so good about the Ach-To scene that it needs to be in the movie? All it does is use Luke as a mouthpiece to diss Rian Johnson, introduce a mindblowingly stupid retcon where Luke and Leia somehow knew Rey’s heritage the entire time, and make Luke look like an idiot for not using his inexplicably functional X-Wing to leave the island in the previous movie. Cutting all that bullshit, plus drastically improving Rey’s character arc as I outlined earlier, is more than enough of a reason to throw the Ach-To scene in the trash.

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#1570933
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The Starlight Project Addendum: The Rise of Skywalker (Freeform Brainstorming Session)
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Jar Jar Bricks said:

The film is giving Rey as a character literally everything she could ever want on a silver platter leading up to her confrontation with Palpatine. Leia is revealed to support Rey beyond all measure, Luke is telling her that a thousand generations of Jedi live in her now, etc. Legitimately the only thing that could even persuade her to ever consider Palpatine’s request is if she believed it were her fate, or her very nature, to give in to his demands.

And this is exactly why I want to find a way to cut the Ach-To scene completely. Besides that scene just kind of sucking in general, it almost completely resolves Rey’s internal conflict before the final battle has even begun. It would be much more effective if, right after giving into her darkness and almost killing Kylo, Rey headed straight to Exegol, the temptation of the Sith throne still driving her to Palpatine.

Of course, there are a few problems with this idea (namely what to do with Leia’s saber), but I do think a “No Ach-To” edit could be entirely feasible if someone like Nev is willing to accept the challenge.