Jar Jar Bricks

That would take me out of both of those respective scenes. I think it’s gotta be a voice for 2 reasons:

1. Dispell the notion that Palps is literally every voice in his head. It’s just him manipulating Kylo.
2. If he ever took a corporeal form then Kylo would certainly try to attack him, or at the very least try to shoo him away, even if that wouldn’t do anything. With just the voice, he’s more powerless.

I think the concept I’ve got in my thread works because it’s just after a devastating moment: Chewie’s “death”. We’ve just seen Rey’s reaction to that. It makes sense, structurally, to then watch Kylo battling with his conscience after such a thing (at least, that’s what the audience is meant to believe in that moment). I can think of no better candidate for him to have such a conversation with in that time than Luke.

Ultimately, this idea isn’t going to be in this edit. That’s fine. We can drop it. I’m gonna make sure it’s given proper attention in my thread.

I’ve decided to overhaul this thread into being only a Special Edition of Ascendant. I know there will inevitably be some questions.

The reason I’m doing this is because the original premise behind this edit already bordered between breaking canon and not, so I think I’d be more comfortable remaining within more solid territory. Furthermore, no matter which way I tried to execute this idea, there was always this feeling of things bordering on incest and every single character being related to each other in this entire saga. For example, Leia would have like 4 different possible last names - Organa, Solo, Skywalker, Palpatine.

I’m trying to avoid some of this goofiness.

Instead, this edit will simply be taking the approach of making Rey Palpatine a little less stupid, as well as introducing the Kylo versus Vader fight and the Luke reaching out to Kylo scene. The main way this will be accomplished is by removing Palpatine even knowing about Rey as a child. Instead, he will simply be going after Rey’s father, his “son”. This clears up a lot of Ochi’s questionable antics, like being unable to find Rey and killing the only people who might know where she is. Here is the dialogue I’m currently considering:

Kylo: “It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. Your father had escaped him. But he soon learned your father was a powerless failure. So he gave the order.”

Kylo: “You know why you were kept a secret.”

Rey (unaltered): “No.”

Kylo (unaltered): “I’ll come tell you.”

And later…

Kylo: “I know how Palpatine discovered you…”

Rey: “Tell me.”

Kylo (unaltered): “Because he saw what you would become. You don’t just have power. You have his power…”

Here is the sequence of events:
Palpatine’s son escapes Exegol -> Palpatine sends Ochi to find him -> His son finds a partner and has Rey -> Rey’s parents pay for her to be watched by Unkar Plutt because Ochi has just found out where they live -> Ochi captures them and flies off, leaving Rey behind -> Palpatine finds out her father doesn’t have the Force -> Ochi kills Rey’s parents since they’re useless to him -> Palpatine has a vision of Rey at some point, discovering her existence

The only problem with this idea is a later exchange between Finn and Poe. I’ll need some help brainstorming around this. Most of the lines are spoken on-screen, so AI lines are somewhat out as a solution.

Finn: “He was going to Exegol with Ochi of Bestoon.”

Poe: “Why was Ochi going there?”

Finn: “To bring the little girl he was supposed to take from Jakku to the Emperor. He wanted her alive.”

Sorry for the double post, but I thought it was worth sharing this exchange from AOTC here:

Padme: “Are you allowed to love? I thought that was forbidden for a Jedi.”

Anakin: “Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi’s life. So you might say, that we are encouraged to love.”

I think compassion is the best trait to emphasize because Rey ultimately chooses to become a Jedi. And it also demonstrates that, despite leaving the Jedi path, the lessons Leia learned from her training benefitted her for the rest of her life and impacted her journey significantly.

There’s also the mythological archetype of the nurturing mother whose love and guidance are crucial to the hero’s journey. Which is what I’m trying to shoot for here.

In my own thread, I’ve attached the concept of love to Vader saving Luke, and Ben saving the life of Rey. So more of a sacrificial thing going on there.

That’s why I ended up dropping it. I understand these films are supposed to be for 12 year olds but I thought that was a bit heavy-handed even for them.

Here’s what Google AI said:

Compassion is a feeling of empathy and understanding. It’s a selfless action that involves forgiving others and feeling their pain. Compassion is also the motivation to reduce suffering, not because it’s aversive, but because it has a loving motivation to end it.
Love is about treating others with kindness and care. It’s wanting others to have happiness. Love is often selfless, but it can also be selfish

I guess you’re right that love in a generic sense can be applied to Rey and co., visualized by the group hug at the end and Reylo kiss. But my thinking was that compassion is what is always shown by Leia to both Kylo and Rey. Kylo definitely doesn’t deserve it, but she realizes he’s in pain over everything he’s done. Leia could also have every right to hate Rey because her grandfather caused so much suffering in her life. Ya know, destroying her homeworld. She could refuse to train her. Instead, she noticed how pure of heart she is and how devastated she was by that vision. She wants both of them to be free of their suffering, in a motherly sort of way.

I think it all goes back to the sand serpent scene. Rey certainly doesn’t have love for it, per se, but she is showing compassion because she understands it’s been hurt and just wants it to feel better. Which ultimately leads to the serpent being her friend and showing them the way out.

Yes, that would have to be done the same way I’m currently pursuing it on my thread.

I’m considering changing my thread to simply be a Special Edition of Ascendant that has the Kylo v Vader duel, Luke and Kylo convo, and other little things I recommended here which might not have made it into the final product. But it would still be Rey Palpatine.

I’m really loving the idea of Leia knowing about Rey’s heritage, and I don’t think any other Rey heritage/background idea really touches those same heartstrings. So I’ve kinda come around to it, tbh.

Turns out I don’t have a lot to do this week so I decided to put together a test of the big paragraph. I had to cut it off abruptly before the part about Leia’s legacy guiding her on Exegol because Ascendant v4 isn’t edited to accommodate for that yet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s4sKRL0aG50yIHTo4XKWHo77rYjpw9gv/view?usp=sharing

I’m not sure there would be enough room for the original line of “Leia knew it, too” without it all feeling too congested. Also, the training we witness Rey doing (for obvious reasons) is without Leia present, so I think “Leia sensed it as she trained you” works well to clarify that isn’t normally the case. After all, Leia would need to be observing her very closely to sense such a thing.

It would definitely be cool if “We’ll always be with you” could fit over the X-wing lift scene. I don’t see any particular reason why the original line couldn’t suffice here, but worst case scenario another AI line could say the same thing.

As for the main paragraph, I’ll get to it at some point this week. Honestly, it just boggles my mind that the original film, instead of talking about Leia’s character and legacy, decides to introduce not 1 but 2 prophecies given by her that spoil the end of the movie (Ben dies and Rey finishes Leia’s Jedi path by killing Palpatine). What we’ve got here not only honors the character’s legacy but also ties her in with the themes of the movie and Rey’s own journey.

I’d say that passion has too much of a positive connotation. I think we should remain within the thematic language already present in this film (and the saga in general). Compassion literally translates as “to suffer with” and I think that’s the perfect way to describe Leia’s approach in life. Even way back in the original Star Wars she was the first one to offer Luke some consolation after Ben’s death. “Empathy” sounds a bit too modern and psychological to me. It’s probably best to remain with this more grounded language.

I really like DZ’s shorter/edited one. I’d just add on the “over hatred” part so it’s a little more clear that their mother’s path is to compassion as their father’s path was to hatred. I think it clears up the sentence structure and just lets things flow a bit better.

Here are a couple of tests to illustrate what I was talking about in my last post:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dLI9swXfR-v8wreY-X7tlOnO1n3imMgS?usp=sharing

I’m still working out the exact wording of the Luke flashback dialogue, but I’m imagining something like this in its entirety:

“She was quick to learn in our training. But Leia feared giving in to hatred like our father, choosing instead to follow our mother’s path. Leia lost everything in her life, and everyone, yet she still chose compassion over hatred. A thousand generations live in you now. But this is your fight. Let Leia’s legacy guide you on Exegol.”

My intention here is to indicate that confronting her fear is what Leia should have done all along (remaining a Jedi), because she was an expert at resisting the allure of hatred due to her nature of showing compassion for others. Rey has that same capability within her. So Rey has to face her fear of giving in to hatred like her grandfather. This is what she says to his face later on: “All you want is for me to hate, but I won’t. Not even you.” She then proceeds to choose compassion (aka Ben, Leia’s legacy) over hatred (killing Palps and becoming Empress).

EDIT: One other thing worth noting is that Rey’s own parents would take the place of Padme in the mirroring between Rey and Leia’s character journeys. They both look to other relatives they have that weren’t massive d-bags and were loving for inspiration. In Leia’s case, she pursues politics because she wants to ensure she upholds Padme’s values. In Rey’s case, she talks about how her parents were strong because they sacrificed themselves to save her from Palpy. So Rey is likewise willing to sacrifice her own life to save her friends from Palps. Which gets cancelled out in the end by Ben’s own sacrifice, but that’s besides the point. The point is that Rey’s parents being good would no longer diminish Rey’s own struggle with the dark side, but enhance it because she’s directly following Leia’s example.

Remind me, did we already decide on if Leia’s “Come home” line was going to be incorporated? And also this test right here could bring more life to her character

Luke’s dialogue over the Leia flashback may also need some minor adjustments if we are able to nail down your first bullet point. At the very least, I’d recommend making the following change - adjust the order of the lines Luke gives Rey immediately after the flashback.

This is the way we currently have it - “A thousand generations live in you, now. We’ll always be with you. But this is your fight.”

This is the way it should be to avoid the clunky feeling it currently has - "A thousand generations live in you now. (Staying onscreen with Luke) But this is your fight. Some sort of line here that replaces “You’ll take both sabers to Exegol” This way we avoid a slow-mo effect on the shot of Rey.

EDIT: Lines I’d recommend for that spot - “Leia’s legacy will guide you on Exegol” or something generic like “Leia believed in your strength” / “A fight you can still win.”

Nah, I do think Finn being Force-sensitive in canon is inevitably going to pop up in the Rey movie. Laying the seeds for it in TROS is necessary for that reason. But they missed the mark with what they ended up doing.

In my head canon, Pryde has a ship identical to the rest, however it has that signal carrier tech built in and other special functionality since he’s general of the fleet. My head canon is also that the civilian fleet destroyed the cell tower from the air. What we really need is a VFX shot depicting that for immediately after Pryde blows up. I’d have also depicted Finn starting to tap into the Force as he fights the Sith troopers with Jannah. And then later on, the Falcon wouldnt be able to get close enough to the falling Destroyer, but Finn uses the Force to jump extra far and launch Jannah to safety. Stuff like that would have been epic.

For the purposes of your edit, however, you could definitely remove Finn’s Force-sensitivity. That’s why I made my last comment. I was merely pointing out that, due to their stupid decisions, it’s feasible. It’s up to you if you want to pursue that.

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

This might be a Mandela effect thing going on but doesn’t he already have teary eyes/is crying during this scene?

Nope, that’s on Mustafar as he’s staring out at the magma fields.

Yeah I’ve been trying to weave around that line but you’ve finally given me the motivation to just consider it deleted. The thing is that it still works on the context of Palpatine goading her: “It is your birthright to rule. Here. It is in your blood.”

“Our blood” would be removed. Then again, this specific line is said from a great distance, so I could always replace it with something else such as “I designed you to rule. Here. It is your only purpose.”

sherlockpotter said:

Effectively, it’s referenced two times in the movie: once, when they can’t find the beacon thingy on Exegol (“How do you know it’s on that ship?” “A feeling.”); and once more, when Rey dies, so that Finn can “sense” it and react to it (“Rey…”).

Funny thing about this… apparently he just recognized the fact that it was the only non-Imperial Star Destroyer. He recognized it was made by the First Order. Apparently Pryde is on board Kylo’s Star Destroyer (the same one the gang raids earlier) that he brought to Exegol. This is the canon answer, in the novelization. I believe you can even tell the visual differences in the film. So Finn definitely didn’t need the Force to identify it, for what it’s worth.

EDIT: The reason why I think they needed to do this, plot-wise, was to both explain why Pryde was able to guide the ships out and also explain why they couldn’t just switch the signal to another Final Order Star Destroyer once his ship exploded. Apparently Palpatine instructed Pryde to modify Kylo’s destroyer with this special capability behind Kylo’s back. The other Final Order Star Destroyers don’t have this special signal carrier tech. Then again, this still doesn’t explain why the Final Order couldn’t just switch back to the radio tower when Pryde’s ship blew up. I think the Resistance probably should have blown it up as well to clear up that plot hole.

Here’s the current status of the Ahch-To dialogue:

R: “I saw myself on the dark throne. I won’t let it happen. I’m doing what you did.”

L: “I was wrong. Pushing Ben toward that throne was my greatest fear. What are you most afraid of?”

R: “Myself.”

L: “Because you’re a Palpatine? Nobody can claim those the Force made. Only you can choose your belonging. Some things are stronger than blood. Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi. Your destiny. If you don’t face Palpatine, it will mean the end of the Jedi. And the war will be lost… There’s something my sister would want you to have.”

R: “Leia’s saber.”

L: “She was quick to learn in our training. But Leia feared the darkness in our father, choosing instead to follow our mother’s path. She surrendered her saber to me, and said it would be picked up again, by somebody with the spirit to face that darkness. A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight. You will restore balance.”

R: “I can’t get there. I don’t have the Wayfinder. I destroyed Ren’s ship.”

L: “You have everything you need.”

EDIT: An alternative to make things less ambiguous would be:
“Because you’re a Palpatine? The Force chose you, Rey, just as it chose my father. To bring balance to the Force. Some things are stronger than blood…”
But then there’s less character agency and it’s not clear if the Force alone made them (although maybe the second part is a good thing, I’m not sure).

Yes, and that is still the concept of this edit if you want to see it that way. Palpatine is manipulating Kylo and Rey to believe that they belong to him. Ultimately, it’s my intention that Anakin and Rey were simply made by the Force to bring balance, which justifies Rey exponentially in taking the Skywalker name. That’s why this is called the “Chosen One” edit and not the “All Skywalkers are Palpatine’s” edit. Now, if some people still want to argue that Palpatine may have had a hand in both, that’s completely fine. But that’s not the conclusion Rey comes to in the end of the movie. In fact, Palpatine admits she’s “nothing” and “a scavenger girl” once she turns on him.

Ultimately, what will make or break this edit is my dialogue for Luke. It needs to effectively convey that being afraid that they all belong to Palpatine is a fruitless endeavor. It’s like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, the answer to that question doesn’t matter, because the Force still made their bloodlines, and they belong to the Force. It doesn’t matter even if Palpatine jumpstarted them. They are people with their own free will. They just have to choose to uphold the prophecy that was made so long ago about them.

I think movies that have such grey territory like this are the best ones. It’s not interesting anymore for a plot twist / revelation to simply be that you are the descendant of somebody. We need to start asking more philosophical questions, like whether the actions and claims of others define us or if we make that decision ourselves.

Since it’s been roughly a month since I last posted here, I thought I’d just clarify that I’m still fully intent on finishing this edit. However, I think I may end up taking things further “in a few places”, if you get what I’m saying 😉

With The Bad Batch show directly referring to things such as “M-Counts” it’s only a matter of time before they finally say the darn word out loud again. It’s really interesting how they want to use the concept of them in that show but refuse to name them out loud because of the stigma behind it. I think I’m gonna say “screw it” and make the connection to ROTS as clear as possible through Kylo’s revelation speech to limit people being confused:

“Rey… I know the rest of our story”

“Tell me.”

“Palpatine influenced the midichlorians to create… life. First my grandfather, and then you. Both were his chosen heir. You… are a rightful Palpatine. Now, the Emperor wants us to fight each other, so the strongest can inherit the throne. But he doesn’t realize we are one in spirit, by the power of the Force. We can end him, and the Sith. And create a new order, together.”

In my opinion, the problem with midichlorians is that they served no narrative purpose in the grand scheme of things. Sure, they tell the characters who has strong potential, but they could have done that with a more abstract concept. I feel as if mentioning the midichlorians would make the concept of somebody being born without relations more understandable, and retroactively justify their entire existence. Luke’s dialogue about nobody being able to claim what the Force made would remain unchanged, but that’s only because the “how” and “why” the Force is able to conceive life has been explained. The biggest problem with the way I had originally worded things here was that more casual fans would be completely confused how a mystical Force could influence such a purely biological process.

Besides, the ultimate message of this edit would be that, ironically, the midichlorians don’t define you. Sure, Palpatine might have used them to create Rey, but Luke would be telling her that she is the only one with the right to define herself.

I agree. There’s a similar problem in TROS with Dom Gleeson’s character. There’s a line he says in the background as Rey is grabbing the Jedi texts: “There were always whispers, of his hunger to cheat death.”

The idea that the galaxy “always” knew Palpatine was a Sith Lord is outright lunacy. Palpatine purposely did not want anybody to know that. I suppose it isn’t really a problem that the galaxy came to learn his true nature after ROTJ, thus why nobody questions his allegiance with the Sith fleet and Exegol in TROS, but the aforementioned line is problematic because it’s something nobody in the galaxy would have even considered while the Emperor was ruling.

I made two takes of your line, although I made another wording that’s personally my favorite (labeled as PREFERED):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ytA9EU11nYZANGJYGB38D7wE5xNtRpsA?usp=drive_link

I think, to blend seamlessly with his other line, it needs to evoke that same sense of awe and wonder in his tone, which I think is effectively captured in the one I prefer. I think the concept that he is having his own “delusions of grandeur” is hilariously ironic.

Gotta agree with DZ on this one. Now, that being said, I think edits like these do have a certain reason to exist, that being to draw more casual people into the fan editing community. Yes, it all sticks out terribly, but it’s flashy enough to draw people in and have them rally around the message behind it. Once the excitement fades, though, people will realize that it doesn’t particularly fit in, and will probably go looking for alternative works that are more tame but fit in nicely.

Think of it like a gateway drug, lol. This is basically how I found this site. I saw a bunch of fan edit materials on YouTube and then went looking for where a lot of them originated from.

I can’t bash this guy all too much because at least he’s going about this in the right way, from what I can tell. No pay walls to see content they don’t own the IP for. But yeah, Ascendant is in a whole different league compared to that video.

Thanks! 11labs actually just released another model that can create sound effects. It’s basically like having a Foley artist in your back pocket at all times. Should be fun to see its various applications on this forum when it fully releases. I can’t think of anything that would make it immediately helpful on v5 of this edit but it’s worth considering.

To clarify my intent with that statement, I was merely pointing out that many have a problem with how the prequel choreography looks like a dance. This is particularly relevant in Duel of the Fates. If you were to slow down what they’re doing in TPM then you’d end up with the same problem that many of the sequel fight scenes have. Granted, there’s really no reason why they couldn’t have also sped things up in the sequel fights, particularly when it’s lightsaber v. lightsaber, except for the fact that Daisy and/or Adam clearly weren’t as invested as Hayden and Ewan in perfecting that stuff.

That being said, it makes sense that the Knights are attacking so slowly and deliberately because they have massive metal weapons. If you’ve ever held a heavy weapon before, you’ll know that once you go in for a swing it’s not like you can stop it super easily. Combine these two points I made and I really don’t see what the issue is.

Lmao one of them rests a lightsaber on his shoulder like it’s no big deal.

Sorry, I think this is a genuinely strange concept. If anything, it just gives the audience more questions in a movie that is already perplexing in a number of ways.

Plus, it’s not even complete, as many shots were cut away due to the creator not liking much of the choreography. I’ve never had an issue with the choreography, it’s literally no different than the largely telegraphed moves from the prequels. The only difference is that they are being rather slow and deliberate in their actions here so it stands out more, while in the prequels they were moving so fast that it wasn’t as obvious.

I agree with DZ that what I’ve already got there has the makings of a pretty classic line. In a hypothetical world in which this was how the film was released, it’s a pretty meme-able thing to say whenever somebody asks who you are and/or what you’re doing there.

The only other alternatives I can think of atm are the following:

Trooper: “Who are you?”

“I had hoped you might be able to tell me?”

OR

“That’s precisely what I’m trying to figure out!”

Trooper: “Then why are you… what?”

Both of the alternatives are funny in their own right, but I think the idea of Threepio coming to the sudden realization that he’s “some sort of spy” and saying it in front of a stormtrooper like he’s proud of it has a slight edge. Plus, it lines up the best with his subsequent line about “his first laser battle” so we wouldn’t necessarily have to change that one, too.

The 3PO TROS voice is up and operational. What lines did we want? I can also redo some of the lines I’ve previously submitted. Here are some example lines to demonstrate the new voice:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ytA9EU11nYZANGJYGB38D7wE5xNtRpsA?usp=drive_link

If some of these don’t sound fully robotic (11labs tends to remove that voice filter slightly), I know the technique used to apply it back. I just figured I should get some feedback first.