You know, as far as the number of cuts, I’d say yea, it does work better imho! I think I get the idea behind the backing out shot, but yea rapid cuts in talky scenes just doesn’t seem to be the MO of this movie 🤔
Really it’s the rapid intercutting plus the shots of the Knight from a different scene. You are right that the hallway scene would be a strange placement, considering the scenes before and after, where it would have made more logical sense to relay that information.
It’s a conundrum. Your original take on this, without new shots, really flows the smoothest but there was the problem of the off-screen voice which sounds too much like a Kylo impression. If JJ had shot your version, it would probably have been done either in one shot or, at most, with one insert of the knight at some point during his line.
I’ve looked back at your goal with this scene which is to characterize the knights as impulsive thugs, dangerous if imprudent. So, probably best to keep it within the conference room, but ideally I think you’d want just one shot of the knight? The problem is how to get an appropriate shot… Also, and again I don’t have a good suggestion, but “knights” implies some sort of more medieval designation than “captain” if only to distinguish from the military/navy captains seated at the table, but that’s an almost insignificant thing.
Do you think that the knight’s line could instead be integrated into the hallway walking sequence? I understand that without alteration of the line it might be confusing to hear that specific line before the severed head reveal, but the way it cuts back and forth, it is confusing the way it is imo
I’d love to reply to every single bit of that, I’ll just say different strokes 😄
An interesting tidbit from recent interviews with Leslye and Manny is that there was an idea to have them kiss at the end (and they shot it, even!), but it didn’t feel earned and the actors suggested the hand hold we see in the final version. Genuinely perfect wrap-up of their arcs for this season
Yeah, why was the gopher man sabotaging the ship? They didn’t make any sense to me at all.
I don’t know, but I read it as Basil being symbolically the good little angel of the show, the only person thinking straight. He knew Mae was up to no good and was the only one able to detect her, but also we saw both in episode 6 him being like uh oh what is Sol doing when he turned off the transceiver, and in the finale as well when he appeared to be targeting Mae’s escape ship. Sol’s acting irrationally as we see from all his other actions, whatever he was doing wasn’t going to work out well and Basil could smell it…
Easily the most intuitive explanation. Interesting what the creator will say if she’s asked about it though. Her interviews she’s been doing every week have been incredibly interesting reads every time. Leslye Headland is a true sw geek and she shares quite liberally about the artistic decisions behind the show, I highly recommend reading some of those for anybody curious about any decision in the show.
KumoNin said:
red sabers are red because the crystal has been ‘bled’
damn, speaking of, am I right? 😉
Creme de la creme of live action and animation, respectively, for me:
and as for the rest,
I laughed when I heard it because there’s no way it would happen 10 or 15 years ago, but it does fit imo and I welcome it.
^ I did not know this, but obviously I said that because it’s not random that they gave Vader and other villains onwards red, and heroes by-and-large blue and green, even before the new canon crystal bleeding thing. It’s symbolism, it doesn’t have to be that way, of course
After a brief search, I found at least 15 instances of a yellow lightsaber in legends, from various eras, old republic new jedi order, prequel era, etc. That’s only counting yellow and not green-yellow, like Ahsoka’s in TCW, or orange or any other variant found elsewhere in legends. They didn’t appear in the OT or the prequel films, but they have appeared from time to time in canon comics, high republic stuff and in rebels.
In legends, there were some different meanings, as the post above said, that were assigned to different colors, but in canon, the most robust meaning to the colors from what I remember, is that red sabers are red because the crystal has been ‘bled’, and (correct me if I’m wrong) white sabers are made with red crystals which have been ‘purified’ or healed. As for the other colors, in canon it seems that they are specific to how the crystal responds to the person who uses it to make their saber, but as for specific meanings to blue, green and other colors, I think maybe we just have to use our imagination. I don’t think it’s of particular significance, but colors do tend to shape our perception, hence why the bad guys have red in the first place, so maybe yellow is significant in some other way idk. I think it suits Yord.
Holy moly guacamole.
I will say, the way the creators of this show managed to build up this many characters in a few episodes that the audience is inexplicably invested in and subsequently devastated about… really effective stuff.
In all honesty, I think this is some of the best Star Wars made (I don’t care about ranking stuff anymore, I’m just saying this is everything I was hoping for and more). Leslye Headland understands myth and archetypes and that’s why the storytelling choices are so intentional and methodical, but thankfully there’s more to this than good writing - they’ve found actors who embody their roles, imaginative fight choreographers, and, importantly, people who can film fight choreography well, all these little things add up.
Mae lighting the fire is a misdirect (duh).
This show is great, I have the feeling we’ll get another extended flashback down the line showing the events of ep.3 from somebody else’s perspective (the Jedi? or several perspectives). But anyway, I saw on a previous page that someone was recommending some youtubers who discuss this show, I’d like to chime in and give a shoutout to the What The Force podcast, I like their discussions because they analyze star wars from a mythological/storytelling perspective and this show has a lot to unpack in terms of symbolism and archetypes and such. They delve deep, just a little tease: they unpack how the poison tree is supposed to be a representation of the force.
By the way, do we think the sith apprentice teeth mask person was also present the night of the fire and thus integral to the whole plot from the start? Or nah
Extended edition by ebumms
Once again, very exciting project, nice work! I take it you’re leaning towards it being Luke’s notes, then? That’s the impression I got from the clip
Heyo, same here, I’d love to see it!
Uuuh Holdo’s plan is not to make a last stand on Crait, they were supposed to hide there unnoticed because of the cloaked (I believe) transports, while Hux is busy destroying their capital ships. This is foiled because of Poe’s plan going wrong (DJ overhearing about the cloaked ships). Also, in the nicest way possible, I don’t get the obsession with human sacrifices, especially those of younger characters. In the movie, Holdo realises that their best sure shot for survival, considering they can’t just jump to lightspeed, is to let the FO destroy the ships while saving almost all the people. Poe and gang come up with an all or nothing plan with too many points where everything can go terribly wrong, which we see unfold and ultimately screw up the Resistance command plan
edit: I’m all for thought experiments though!
I think you are absolutely spot on. Just imagine if LF 1) hadn’t knee jerked at the reaction to TLJ and instead doubled down on worldbuilding and expanding that era, building also on the success of their new characters, 2) hadn’t taken the wrong lesson from the success of Mando s1 and instead done more carefully low-key character projects similar to what made it so popular, 3) expanded the NR era with books and comics, as originally planned, allowing for OT characters to play a more natural role, even if the conclusion of their stories is predetermined.
Ghosts is absolutely how it feels, the least they could do if this is how they’re doing it, is recast Luke and Leia, it wouldn’t be perfect, but they wouldn’t be in limbo
Agreed with your reasoning once again. Luke’s delivery on this does sound a little flat though, or maybe it’s the timing - it’s difficult to quickly digest the connection between Leia’s choice as he tells it, and the next part about how she lost everything
I like “what’s troubling you”, because, and it does not become less true as the years go by, in tros, Leia is little more than a prop spliced in from another movie, sadly, and it always felt to me in scenes that Rey shares with her that Daisy is not playing off of anybody. A little additional line from Leia oddly enough gives her a bit more character imo, and less “here’s Carrie saying out of context lines and other characters filling in the context”. Even if it’s a basic universal line like that
JEDIT: I’ve read JJs reply after writing that, and yes, that’s precisely what I think as well 😄
I agree with this notion, JJ. And excellent idea to refocus the flashback to that also. I’m one of those people who are generally not convinced at all by AI lines, but at this point I don’t think standard tricks can fix this movie. I’d rather watch the original than a slightly mended TROS with a couple extra lines and some scenes shifted around.
However if it is possible to strengthen and underline the themes they tried to convey to this extent… why not go for it, I think it’s a worthy project. (When some wizards can pull off a Ben lives edit, oh boy.) One note… the DOTF line feels like a little bit of a non-sequitor in the third clip to me
I personally do like that AI produced conversation between Luke and Kylo. It definetly helps tie TLJ together with this film as that thread of “see you around kid” is never followed up on. It would be some nice connective tissue and is pretty quick and seem to be possibly seamless with some minor touch up. Just my two cents; the AI voice stuff has really come along way in just a year or so…it is impressive in my opinion.
Isn’t it voice-acted? The lines are verbatim from Duel of the Fates and I seem to recall someone adapting that scene
Nev you really outcooked yourself with that one, I think I’m in love with this idea
I suppose when I wrote that, my thought was, the context already makes it clear she’s saying it to Ben, original line usage notwithstanding, and people in this film constantly say each other’s name (and nothing else), and you have her address him by name here quite clearly before that, and so it just seemed redundant! I’ll even say this - in your version, without the final ‘Ben’, it almost makes it seem that maybe she is saying that final line to both of them in a way (because she finishes saying it on a shot of Rey’s face, mostly).
I should add, I wasn’t sure whether you were keeping the line as she says it to Rey earlier, I assumed you were deleting it. Anyway, the ben is not a deal breaker 😄
And yes, the shot always felt too dramatic to me. This is more directed at TROS itself, on the one hand they tried to be very sensitive about Leia’s death, and yet that shot with its movement and movie-esque arm going limp plays sort of like drumroll… ta-daa! if you know what I mean. Anyway, lots of love!
Wow! The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was Leia’s final “Ben” along with the dramatic shot of her dying. Also, god, the little Reylo part in me sure does want someone with greater skills and commitment than myself to commit to a “Ben lives”, but hey, best of luck to you regardless of where this ends up! Definitely one of the edits to keep an eye on
I believe octoroxx’s edit has what you’re looking for (but it does include the Qui-gon dialogue). I don’t remember how good the image quality was or where to find it, but that’s the one I thought was quite nicely done some time ago!