Honestly there are so many ways to start this film its crazy, If you were to go this route I think it would be nice to do it akin to the original script.
I did a quick mockup of what it could look like: https://vimeo.com/401751674
Sorry that was badly worded, I didn’t make the vid I just found it on Youtube. I’ll try find where he got the footage for Ben though.
You could have Anakin (the father) standing tall at the back behind Luke and Leia with Ben in the foreground. 3 generations passing on the skywalker name.
This youtube edit I found is a concept for what an Anakin and Ben force ghost on Tatooine could look like.
https://youtu.be/BlnRy7g--tU
Samuel Kim made a version of that with a choir, could make it feel more triumphent.
https://youtu.be/nXtbaS6w1m4
Just to clarify, that’s just a video I found on YouTube, as for the aspect of triumph I think that could definitely be played around with.
“battle over Coruscant” is just so grandiose that I think it fits perfectly with the Peoples Fleet reveal.
I think it should be a mix of both, with the original track starting when the battle shifts to the Resistances favour.
I thought the score for the fleet’s arrival was a little too triumphant, as if they already won before the battle had even started, I think something like this would have worked better.
https://youtu.be/KYDeNziSwFc
Making her backstory super dark along with her dark actions in the film paves an inevitable path to taking up the throne, which of course raises the tension and makes her reunion with Ben as a Lightside Dyad instead of a darkside one all the more triumphant.
You’re right, the Palpatine and Ochi angle is a hard nut to crack, here’s what I propose:
Cut any connection between ochi and her parents, imply that his ship triggers her memories because its a similar model to the ship that Rey’s parents were on (the TFA vision looks slightly different anyway to the TROS model) From the start of the film she is tormented by visions of the Sith throne, flashbacks on Passana could be used in a way that only hints at Rey killing her parents, leaving the full reveal till Kijimmi, later in Kylo’s quarters you can change the dialogue to him saying"I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it, I needed you to see it, What you did… Rey’s reactions to Kylo’s dialogue works perfectly as a reaction to the reveal, cut all the stuff about ochi killing her parents. As if that wasn’t enough, Kylo tells Rey that Palpatine has been waiting for them all this time, that he sensed their darkness since they were children, and declares that she is indeed a palpatine, that Kylo and Rey are a Dyad and that they will inherit the dark throne. (for this to work, Palpatine’s plan from the start should be to bring Rey, not kill her, so instead of “kill the girl” his dialogue to Kylo would change to “find the girl” “you will rule the Galaxy as Emperor and empress”)
Both killed their parents > Dyad > both choose the light in the end.
The “Rey killing her parents” will never be perfect, unless someone makes totally new shots.
Here’s my test. I’m not satisfied, but I hope it can be useful as a concept for others.I’ll keep working on this.
The problem is: is it that clear the Occhi’s ship is the same one Rey blew up? How can this inconsistency be fixed?https://vimeo.com/400251919
pw: faneditThe white vignette around the flashbacks are a little distracting. If you still wanted to use this idea maybe make it more similar to the flashes she has after stabbing the training ball, where it’s mostly unaltered shots with more audio-heavy editing. Perhaps even reuse the reverb effect of Luke saying “you killed them” from ESB, that way it’s used over the flashes of Kylo killing his father in addition to Rey killing her parents for more parallels.
That’s a neat idea. To address the issue of Rey having little reaction to this reveal throughout the film, I think there are sufficient hints sprinkled throughout the film that she knows more about herself than she reveals, for example " there’s so much I want to tell you " - to Leia, “that power came from me…Finn there are things you don’t know” later on after the she escapes Kijimmi she says " he killed my mother…and my father" This could easily be changed to “I killed my mother and father”, bare in mind that I think this plot point would be more effective if we scrap the whole “your parents sold you to protect you”, they should remain scumbags to at least give her a reason for her action, it’s also a nice parallel with Kylo’s childhood where his parents kinda abandoned him as well.
Stai attento !
Did’t catch that final flash till after a few watches, I think if the other flashes where as subliminal it could be good to go.
TROS Leaked original ending:
https://youtu.be/71BpAsZ6UTY
So much more impactful.
Found these edits on YouTube that extend scenes using dialogue from the audio-book, could be useful concepts.
https://youtu.be/1r3XcGRejpE
Leia remembers her training
https://youtu.be/6eB_RfZJG78
Luke skywalker speaks to Rey(extended)
In the early leaks she said that she sensed the birth of her son and so she wanted to give up the jedi path because of that (which follows logically) and goes hand in hand with the EU. In this version its pretty contrived and convoluted since Ben does die and even worse he was a student of the darkside, so her leaving the jedi path because of sensing his death is self defeating and just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
"Leia told me that she sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path, she surrendered her saber to me and said that one day, it will be picked up again by someone who will finish her journey "
JJ
This. Makes. No. Sense.
Call the movie which kills all the Skywalkers ‘The Rise of Skywalker’.
Felt like a punch to the gut.
Have Rey be Palpatine’s granddaughter, and he tries to possess her.
Have Palpatine be back with absolutely no explanation.
Give Palpatine a fleet of planet destroying Star Destroyers with absolutely no explanation.
Give Palpatine a bucket of Snoke clones as a reason for Snoke’s existence.
Have Palpatine reveal that killing him will make him win right as Rey is about to kill him.
Have Palpatine change his plan no less than three times.
Have Palpatine’s minion kill Rey’s parents instead of taking them to Sheev for interrogation.
Have Rey’s parents say ‘She’s not on Jakku’ and have this actually work.
Have a scene set on a visually dramatic lava planet but constrain the action to a flat section of burned forest.
Introduce a map mcguffin but have it be found and used immediately by the villain, requiring the introduction of an identical copy of this mcguffin for the heroes to pursue, then a contrived reason for the villain to pursue the heroes instead of just waiting for them to find the second mcguffin and arrive at his location, which is what he wants to do anyway.
Give Chewie a fakeout death but almost immediately reveal that he is still alive.
Give enemy ships a new ability, then concoct a novel way of countering this ability, then cut the scene where all of this is paid off.
Retcon Leia as being basically a Jedi who does practically nothing with these skills for the rest of her life.
Have Leia communicate with Kylo through the Force and help redeem him at the cost of her life, then cut the communication bit so it looks like she dies for no reason.
Have Kylo hallucinate an image of his father, and have this appear to be what redeems him.
Cut Finn’s presence in the film down to ‘Fails to deliver a line’.
Make a point to give the Latino character a background in drug smuggling.
Give Poe a character arc in which he is burdened with the responsibility of leadership then cut any scene where it is displayed.
Give Threepio a complete memory wipe so that he can translate some data which was in his memory.
Trap characters on a doomed planet, but then have those same characters show up later with no explanation for their escape.
Introduce the concept of a ‘Force Dyad’, which means that when Kylo and Rey are together they have the amazing ability to be so strong that their power can be instantly drained from them by Palpatine. Since Kylo is required to be present for this to work, make him arrive on the planet via a standard TIE fighter, one specifically without a hyperdrive.
Cut almost all scenes of the Knights of Ren doing things.
Cut Rose.
Make a point of placing the ruins of the second Death Star on a planet which isn’t Endor, just to confuse people.
Make the most fanatical devotee of the First Order betray this organization because he doesn’t like the way its leader chews his food, or something.
As a symbolic illustration of Luke’s freedom from his exile on a remote island, cut his part to 1(one) scene which is constrained to only this island.
Make the villain’s planet both notoriously hard to get to but also extremely easy to get to by thousands of ships from across the galaxy.
Give the dangerous planet-destroying fleet the small weakness that without constant external guidance they will just crash. Also make their primary weapon unshielded and so poorly made that destroying it will blow up the ship.
Rule the villain’s defeat a suicide due to being very bad at his signature attack.
Set the final scene of the movie on a planet nobody in this universe cares about and has little meaning even to the main character. In fact, cut mention of any well-populated planet and make Bespin and Endor representative of the entire galaxy.
Call the movie which kills all the Skywalkers ‘The Rise of Skywalker’.
“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in”
Speaking of force ghosts here’s my attempt at using some of that documentary footage with Luke on Ach-to (sans VFX).
https://vimeo.com/400341044
JEDIT: While I was at it I cut down a bit of Luke’s awkward walk as well as the not-so subtle “wink” to the fans.
Fair fair.
Really like the use of flashbacks but it would be better to use them sparingly in the scene.
I think instead of blowing up Ochi’s ship she would have electrocuted it, causing it to crash.
This could be illustrated with bolts of lightning circulating the ship ala Palpatine and the fleet - to imply the ship falling down, you could cut to black and use crash land SFX.
Interesting idea with the editing choices, the cuts and whatnot feel pretty smooth and the music will be the thing to polish, as you have already noted.
However, I kind of have a logical issue with Han calling out … so smugglers can also do the whole force ghost/speaking thing like Jedi? I know Anakin got a “Chosen One Pass” to do it, but Han as well?
I wanted it to feel like Leia was manifesting Han through her memories (hence his medal), implying that she initiated his appearance later on.