arabian

Yeah, Poe is great in TFA, has a great character arc in TLJ and then just WHAAAA in TROS, so fixing that mess in this would be VERY welcome.

I also really like the idea of this: Restructure Jannah’s scene with Finn slightly to imply that Finn’s story is what inspired her and her friends to leave the First Order. (Not only does this add some sense of payoff to Finn’s origins, but it also ties back in with the lessons about “inspirational heroes” that Finn and Rose shared in TLJ.)

Because I ADORED Finn’s arc in TLJ and this gives resonance to his overall story in the trilogy in a way that TROS doesn’t like AT ALL.

The death star scene looks great, a little more Ben(Kylo) for the Leia death scene is needed, but overall, great there too.

Really like this idea. A LOT.

sherlockpotter said:

arabian said:

sherlockpotter said:

Maybe I’ll be like Rey - suffering an abusive relationship with this story for so long that I eventually embrace it romantically. 😉 […] it just feels like a very…I dunno, unhealthy foundation for a romance. But I’m open to having my mind changed - goodness knows there’s still plenty of time for that to happen!

Rey/Ben is actually the OPPOSITE of unhealthy and toxic. It’s just been very misrepresented. Rey fell for BEN, not Kylo. She saw through Kylo, wanted to save Ben from the darkness he was lost in. But she realized at the end of TLJ that she couldn’t save him. He could only save himself. We saw awesome, healthy, NON-TOXIC-NESS on display because Rey walked away from Kylo when he wouldn’t stop being, well, Kylo, and continued to embrace the Dark Side.

She continued to want nothing to do with Kylo throughout TRoS. And when she saved his life, she let him know that she wanted to take BEN’S hand, not Kylo’s. And that was like a LIGHTBULB going off in Ben’s head. He could be loved as Ben Solo, something that he hadn’t realized. He didn’t have to be this dark, brooding bad boy, essentially. He could try and be a good guy. That is who Rey wanted, that is who she cared for… the guy who had good in him. Remember she had seen inside his head in TFA, she knew what his childhood and teenage years – where he had been manipulated and abused emotionally, mentally, and physically by Snoke. That was who she was reaching out to. The guy who, like her was looking for a place to belong.

And in the end, BEN made the choice to reject Kylo Ren and save himself, and then go and try to help save the galaxy. He made the healthy choice and it was only at that point that Rey accepted him because he had rejected Kylo Ren.

TLJ, again, set this up beautifully – which had actually started in TFA – but sigh the ball was dropped in quite a few ways in TRoS. double sigh

Ahhh, okay, that’s a really good explanation, thank you! Probably the first time that relationship has made sense to me, at least on paper.

I think the problem though (in my own interpretation of the films) is twofold:

1. Yes, Rey saw the good (i.e. the “Ben”) in Kylo in TLJ, but I didn’t interpret that as “I’d bone ya if only you’d stop slicing people and objects in half with your lightsaber in violent fits of rage.” I took that to mean that she might forgive him someday; perhaps even be friends. But again, that’s such a huge leap from “You’re not completely evil,” to “I’m totally in love with you, let’s make out.” I think TROS could have developed that into romantic feelings, but I don’t think it did.

2. I don’t see “Ben” and “Kylo” as distinct characters, except in the abstract. Actually, that’s one of the things I most enjoy about Kylo, and that I wanted to emphasize in my edit - that under the suit he’s still a relatively normal guy who misses his family. The flipside of that coin is that he’s a relatively normal guy who’s done some absolutely monstrous things, both to the galaxy at large, and to Rey personally. This is the guy who knocked Rey unconscious, kidnapped her, tortured her, and then blew up an entire system of planets in a diabolical power grab. The guy is a fascist, a terrorist, and a murderer, regardless of whatever goodness he may also have; and I don’t buy that Rey would start snogging him immediately after witnessing all of that.

Ah, see so this is where we differ:

You see “Kylo knocked Rey unconscious,” I see Kylo and Rey fought, he won, and instead of having his guards drag her to the ship – someone who had valuable information in this war, he gently picked her up and carried her onto his ship. Also, I feel that JJ made a VERY distinct choice to show the difference in how Kylo interrogated Poe as opposed to Rey. He didn’t torture her. He went into her mind, yes, but then she went into his mind and took info from him as well. Yes, you could say she didn’t know what she was doing, but even after she realized, she KEPT doing it. Overall, though, Kylo was gentle with Rey trying not to hurt her to get the info (as opposed to Poe – again, at war, opposite sides. Not to say that what Kylo did to Poe was right, it was wrong.)

Also, no, he didn’t blow up an entire system of planets. That was Snoke/Hux. In fact, when Hux suggested it, Kylo even made a comment about wanting to try and get the info from Rey again, but Snoke shut him down. Kylo also wasn’t there when Hux gave his whole big Nazi speech. Once Snoke gave the go-ahead, Kylo had no say. The supplemental material said that his cape had static dampening qualities due to Snoke’s attacks against him. So, if he fought against Snoke, we know what would happen.

Look, I’m not saying that Kylo wasn’t majorly problematic, but he was also someone who felt abandoned, was mentally, physically, and emotionally abused by Snoke his literal entire life (the mental and emotional abuse). And he was drawn to the Light. He did try to avoid hurting Rey more than he could. When they fought at the end of TFA, he held back. Rey was more the aggressor, Kylo fought more defensively. And we’re dealing with the Dark Side. The Dark Side severely messes with a person’s soul and had been messing with Ben Solo his entire life. Rey saw the good in him; she knew he could be turned. And she was right. Ben felt like his family, his parents, his uncle gave up on him when he was in his teens. He felt abandoned; Rey did too. Add to that, they were a literal Dyad in the force, connected in a way that was extremely rare. They could feel each other across literal space.

So, yeah.

OK, I’m done.

And I DO really want to see what you do with this because your ideas are really exciting.

sherlockpotter said:

Maybe I’ll be like Rey - suffering an abusive relationship with this story for so long that I eventually embrace it romantically. 😉 […] it just feels like a very…I dunno, unhealthy foundation for a romance. But I’m open to having my mind changed - goodness knows there’s still plenty of time for that to happen!

Rey/Ben is actually the OPPOSITE of unhealthy and toxic. It’s just been very misrepresented. Rey fell for BEN, not Kylo. She saw through Kylo, wanted to save Ben from the darkness he was lost in. But she realized at the end of TLJ that she couldn’t save him. He could only save himself. We saw awesome, healthy, NON-TOXIC-NESS on display because Rey walked away from Kylo when he wouldn’t stop being, well, Kylo, and continued to embrace the Dark Side.

She continued to want nothing to do with Kylo throughout TRoS. And when she saved his life, she let him know that she wanted to take BEN’S hand, not Kylo’s. And that was like a LIGHTBULB going off in Ben’s head. He could be loved as Ben Solo, something that he hadn’t realized. He didn’t have to be this dark, brooding bad boy, essentially. He could try and be a good guy. That is who Rey wanted, that is who she cared for… the guy who had good in him. Remember she had seen inside his head in TFA, she knew what his childhood and teenage years – where he had been manipulated and abused emotionally, mentally, and physically by Snoke. That was who she was reaching out to. The guy who, like her was looking for a place to belong.

And in the end, BEN made the choice to reject Kylo Ren and save himself, and then go and try to help save the galaxy. He made the healthy choice and it was only at that point that Rey accepted him because he had rejected Kylo Ren.

TLJ, again, set this up beautifully – which had actually started in TFA – but sigh the ball was dropped in quite a few ways in TRoS. double sigh

This sounds mostly really awesome. A few things:

I want the Rey/Ben kiss. So yeah, that doesn’t work for me. Also don’t like that Ben clearly still dies, but so much of this does sound great.

Seocond, erm: --> Four words haven’t made so little sense in a Star Wars movie since “I don’t like sand.”

WHAAAAAT?!

That was a brilliant line (badly delivered). It was about Tatooine and all that it represented, and like he said the opposite of what Padme was. It just meant so much and was (a) a callback to his childhood as a slave, being owned by someone, and the freedom that his mother never got, and (b) foreshadowing for what was to come with Shmi’s death because “sand” was representative of Tatooine.

Ahem, sorry. Just had to get that out.

Honestly, my main issues with TPM are:

1.) The Neimodians voices – which you are taking care of.
2.) The fact that GL chose to introduce Anakin as a child - which you can’t fix, but you are working on the character of Anakin.
3.) GL creating the age difference between him and Padme which you can’t really fix.
4.) Too much Jar-Jar, which you are fixing.
5.) The pacing issues, which I assume you’re fixing.
6.) The non-canon compliant aspect of the fact that Obi-Wan said that Yoda was his master, and then this Qui-Gonn Jinn comes out of nowhere in this film as his master.

I like that you’re introducing Dooku* earlier and making more of Darth Maul. That sounds cool.

• I just wish you could change the name Dooku because that remains the stupidest, worse SW name ever in my opinion.

This sounds very interesting. I, for one, would be very interested in a canon-compliant version. Can’t wait until you do that! But I look forward to May the 4th!

I was thinking of just going with Mando part 3: “This is the Way” for the title, I think that works for Boba (seeing as how he has Mando armor), and Cobb Vance as well (since he HAD Mando armor).

I do think the rancor rampage needs to be kept, but can TOTALLY be trimmed, as well as pretty much EVERYTHING with the mods and Free Town’s people because, uhm, they wind up doing absolutely nothing since the Rancor comes up. (Although, you may have already cut that.) Also, some of the training stuff can be trimmed, and Ahsoka basically repeats herself in conversations with Din, plus, Din just hanging around can be trimmed as well, right?

(I do like the idea of having the final scene being Mando and Grogu in the ship, though.)

Excited to see how you do this.

Thank you!!!

Whistles patiently… sighs. Whenever you get a chance. I’d love to see the new version.

Would love a link (so excited!!!)!

I agree that TCW’s intro are bland compared to TBB’s first episode, but have you considered utilizing some of TCW’s stuff as flashback’s maybe? That could work well.

This sounds like a great idea.

Been reading this thread, sounds very interesting. I have two questions.

1.) You mentioned that Luke lives after TLJ. So did you do a TLJ edit? (I really loved TLJ, although I would do a few edits to that myself.) If you did, how much editing did you do?

2.) Does Ben live in this edit? It sorta sounds like he does, but I can’t really tell for sure.

Ooh, I would very much like a link to all movies and the one without the epilogue. You are awesome!! I’ve actually been looking for this for a while now. 😄

I watched this last night and I have to say that overall, once again, smudger, you did an amazing job. I’m really just in awe of how brilliantly and seamlessly you worked 8 episodes into one movie. So, so well done. OK, I wrote my thoughts down while writing it.

• Fantastic crawl. It was concise, clear, had enough punch and set everything up beautifully.
• I adored how it went from the Star Wars theme to the end of that familiar SW end note after the crawl to The Mandalorian music. BRILLIANT!
• One of the things I like about making a film from a show is that shows have longer scenes that allow characters and beats to breathe and play out (well, good shows do) and you kept that in certain spots. Like in the intro of Cobb Vance. You wisely kept that whole scene as is.
• On the other hand, I would have cut all but the first scene with the Sand People though. The scenes with the bantha sacrifice not happening and the “negotiations” I didn’t feel were needed because we got all the information that basically happened in those scenes in the town meeting scene–and much more emotionally told. (That the Sand People had studied them for generations, and that the town people would be fighting along side them.)
• I understand why you cut the entire Frog Lady adventure, but the random landing thrust not working really did come out of nowhere, and it really does feel like we missed something with nothing happening other than the New Republic pilots coming upon them. I don’t know… that might just be because I know what’s there. Still, the meeting with her and her husband, and then Mando dropping Grogu off to them later held so little resonance as well. So, yeah, I dunno. That’s a tricky one. I had no problem with the dripping Razorcrest in the background, it looked like it could be another ship. I just think maybe adding a few more scenes during the flight of interaction could have helped to give more resonance, I guess. I dunno.
• The tracking device being implanted also comes out of nowhere. I mean, Mando wouldn’t just let anyone touch his ship for no reason. So I kinda wish you’d kept that part in. Or taking out that scene with the tech telling Gideon. Did we really need it? Obviously Gideon has spies everywhere. Then later when Boba mentioned that he tracked Mando that basically made it clear he could be tracked, so Gideon doing so makes perfect sense.
• By the way…how did Mando find out that Gideon was alive?
• As much as I loved all the stuff with Ahsoka, I agree with your cuts. They weren’t necessary for Mando/Grogu’s story. I would have just added one more tiny cut. Since you went straight from the explaining why she can’t train him scene to their last scene, I would have cut her line “I can not train him” after “you’re like a father to him” and before telling him to go to the mountain. I think based on the shots it would have worked seamlessly and not been repetitious since we just had the last scene of her explaining all of why she couldn’t train him.
• Well, re: the above, the explanation of Mando getting the beskar staff is important, though. Hmm… I didn’t remember him getting the spear from the magistrate until he picked it up in the wreckage. I was like what? where? When he picked it up and had to rack my brains trying to figure out where that came from since it was so noticeable and remarked upon. Then I remembered, and of course, it played such a big part later in the fight.
• I have to admit the whole section with Mayfield and that episode doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything at all. So, I got to hand it to you, it’s completely seamless which means, yup, the Mayfield stuff is completely unnecessary in the first film too. Great, great job. (ETA: Erm… more on that later.)
• That repeat of that speech to Gideon that Mando makes verbatim is gone? That part was awesome! I’m really surprised you cut that. (And bummed.)
• So, obviously this was IN the show but the fact that this is all in one “movie” and it’s called Search for the Jedi, it’s SO INCREDIBLY powerful when THE Jedi shows up. I got full body chills, I was grinning from ear to ear, I was more overwhelmed and excited and utterly beside myself watching every single moment with Luke taking out the Dark Troopers than when I first watched it. I was imagining that if this was in a movie how incredible powerful this would be in a theater. People would be hooting and hollaring and going wild.
• In my opinion, I don’t think that Mando not taking his mask off beforehand works. When you told me earlier that by taking it out we get the full impact of him taking it off with Grogu I thought, ‘oh yeah, that’s true.’ The problem is that it’s not played that way on screen at all… as if Din is dealing with this huge thing of taking off his mask for the first time in front of a lot of people, breaking the code, in fact, taking his mask off doesn’t effect him at all, which makes absolutely zero sense for a guy who has made such a huge deal about it for two straight “movies.” And, of course, anyone who watched the show knows why… he already DID do that when he took his mask off the actual first time. It was hugely difficult for him, he did deal with it, and he realized what mattered was Grogu. So him taking off the mask again so Grogu could see his face was why it was emotionally resonating. That was the beat that hit this time. The first time was about Din and his issues. The second time was all about Grogu and their bond. But if you don’t see Din dealing with all of his mask/face revealing issues it leaves this gaping character hole. Which is why the Mayfield stuff kinda has to be included a bit. I wonder how much of that could be included, but trimming a bunch of the ooh! shocks, near-misses, fake-outs, etc. fat to get to the meat. Hmm…

Anyhoo, even with all the few changes I would have made, still, again, OVERALL… just wow, wow, wow. Once again you have done an outstanding job. Kudos, kudos out the ying yang!

Oooh!! I’m so excited. Could I get a link! I adored your first season cut!

This sounds interesting. Can I get a link, please for v3?

I’d be very interested to see this. One question? Does Ben still die? (Sniff, sniff.) Even if he does, I still want to see it.

A year or so later… are you still working on this? I ADORE most of the ideas of this. (Although I’m not a fan of Zorri at all, I LOVE Babu Frik and would hate to lose him.)

YES! I love the addition of the Darksaber scene. It works exactly as I thought it would included that way. WOOHOO!!! Can’t wait to see the other changes. 😄

I’d love to see what you have of this so far. It sounds great!

So I’m excited because I can begin working on Rebels, The Mandalorian, TFA and TLJ now. It’s going to take time, but I can actually start doing some editing on this.

Again, any thoughts or suggestions would be lovely.

I’m curious to see this. Please send me a link. Thanks. 😃

NeverarGreat said:

PM Sent!

Thank you. 😃

NeverarGreat said:

I’ve only done the Kylo scene, FYI, that list is just scenes that could be completed and used.

OK, well, I’d still love that, please! 😄