Synopsis:

ACT I: Title and Opening Crawl: Renamed to "Legacy of the Force," emphasizing the thematic exploration of legacy, identity, and balance. Opening Focus on Rey: Film opens with Rey’s Jedi training under Leia, establishing Leia clearly as the last Jedi, aligned with previous edits. Characterization Adjustments: Removed exaggerated frustration from Rey during training, focusing instead on genuine struggles to master the Force. Kylo as Supreme Leader: Strengthened Kylo Ren’s menace early on, delayed Wayfinder and Sith fleet reveal until after establishing his dominance. Leia as the Last Jedi: Leia's Jedi Master status reinforced, shaping Rey’s development and highlighting the true cost of her later sacrifice. ACT II: Palpatine's Legends-Aligned Return: Clarified Palpatine as a dying clone, desperate for a suitable host in Rey, aligning with Legends storylines. Palpatine consistently seeks Rey alive for possession rather than oscillating between kill/capture. Rey’s Internal Struggle: Deepened Rey’s inner conflict, rooted in guilt over accidentally killing her own parents, fueling her struggle with darkness. Removed Lore-breaking Powers: Rey’s god-tier healing replaced by believable Force skills like Beast Control, aligning her power level to training received. Kylo Ren’s Dark Attachment: Kylo is firmly entrenched in the dark side, pursuing Rey obsessively out of passion rather than moral redemption. His arc explores consequences of dark-side attachments rather than redemption. ACT III: Reframed Leia’s Sacrifice: Leia sacrifices herself to save Kylo from Rey’s fatal blow, a critical moment that respects her power as a Jedi and her deep connection to her son. Palpatine’s Clear Intentions: Palpatine’s manipulation is consistent; he seeks Rey as a vessel, making strategic and cunning decisions without contradiction. Preserving the Prophecy: The climax involves Anakin’s Force ghost possessing Rey’s body to fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen One, definitively defeating Palpatine and maintaining saga integrity. Kylo’s Complex Fate: Kylo doesn't turn purely good; his redemption is ambiguous, driven by emotional torment, attachment, and personal loss, becoming a wanderer rather than redeemed hero. ACT III: Emotional Impact and Legacy: Rey dies heroically, paying the ultimate price for confronting evil without sufficient preparation, reinforcing realistic consequences in Legends. Enduring Skywalker Legacy: Ends with Kylo alone and uncertain, left to contemplate the galaxy’s future while "Broom Boy" symbolizes the eternal inspiration of Luke Skywalker’s legend, preserving the sense of ongoing storytelling central to Legends.

Intentions:

Align the film closely to Star Wars Legends themes, emphasizing balance in the Force, nuanced morality, and deeper lore consistency. Respectfully portray Luke, Leia, and Han’s original trilogy arcs, making their stories meaningful within Legends context. Provide realistic and logical character arcs for Rey, Kylo Ren, and supporting characters that fit naturally with established Legends lore. Maintain a cohesive narrative that enhances the Star Wars saga’s thematic unity, focusing on the balance between the dark and the light rather than oversimplifying Jedi as good and Sith as evil.

Change List:

Too long, can't fit it all! Changelist: ACT I Replaced title to “Legacy of the Force” (Inspired by https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Legacy_of_the_Force) New crawl: Episode VIX LEGACY OF THE FORCE All who dared to speak the name Luke Skywalker are silent, slaughtered by the merciless KNIGHTS OF REN. The tyrannical FIRST ORDER crushes any system that rebels. Leia, sensing a looming dark presence, sends her brave agents across the stars to unite the disparate worlds in the name of Resistance. Rey, heir of the teachings of Luke Skywalker, continues training with her new master, Leia. Together, they stand as the last hope for balance in the galaxy… As my two previous cuts did, we open up with Rey as the focus. Palpatine won’t be revealed until much later as suspense about this mysterious Sith fleet is built. Panning from a planet shot down to her training, the whole ST now opens about the growth of Rey with each opening scene showing her development as a character. I removed Rey’s overly annoyed grunt as she is meditating. She gets her frustration across to the audience in a much more adult-like manner in her following discussion with Leia. Kylo co-induces a vision with Rey during her training. This vision uses scenes from my past edits and other edits listed in my source material. These changes to the vision better display that the two are still linked and that Kylo is using their connection to pull Rey to the Dark. This is the first scene that we see of Kylo. After Rey tells Leia she needs a break from training, we now cut to Kylo’s mask re-forging scene with the added Knights of Ren Dialogue. Removed the Stormtrooper’s awkward commentary in the hallway. Moving this scene here keeps the focus of the film on the Rey and Kylo conflict which is the most interesting dynamic of the trilogy. Trimmed the jest about Kylo’s appearance in the board meeting. Looks like this movie picks right up with the denigrating our main villain trend… Now, after Hux says, “No sir,” another Officer interrupts as if he is tired of the silliness. Same. I have trimmed the choke of this Officer to not slam him into the ceiling. No need to try and one-up the OT at every chance. Removed all mentions of Palpatine to preserve the reveal. At this point we have 0 tangible clues of Palpatine, and everything has been about rumors of a mysterious Sith fleet and cultists. Right after the last Kylo line in the board meeting, “Crush any worlds that defy us,” I cut straight into the extended Mustafar battle scene from [21C Peasant]. We end with Kylo discovering the Wayfinder as we hear a ghastly voice saying, “Gooooood…” It now seems like Kylo finds this Wayfinder as more of a destiny rather than seeing all this stuff right after the crawl. We now have Kylo as a Supreme Leader already in the minds of the viewers, so his battle scenes are more badass. Instead of the Wayfinder zoom-in shot transitioning to Kylo flying to Exegol, it now fades into Hyperspace for the opening scenes of Poe and Finn. I’m trying to slow the lightspeed pacing of the Palpatine reveal and build the mystery of the Sith fleet rather than info dumping in the first 3 minutes. The chess scene takes place while the crew is in hyperspace, minus Klaud (his appearances are nothing more than a joke about a goofy looking alien). They drop out of hyperspace after the game with a shot having been modified here [FX by poppasketti]. Replaced Finn’s first line “Artoo” with “Look sharp” [dgraham414 idea]. Small change, but this line feels far less contrived when you compare the deliveries. Removed lightspeed skipping sequence. It is an absurd concept never before seen in Star Wars. Now, the Falcon bursts through the ice wall while jumping to hyperspace, and the pursuing TIEs peel off, ending the scene [visual FX by poppasketti] Moved the scene of Rey reading Luke’s notes and the Falcon arriving to just after Poe’s hyperspace jump. Now it seems as if more time has passed since Rey and Leia last spoke which, again, helps slow the pacing of the first Act. Took some focus off the “lightspeed skipping” in the landing conversation. I did leave one mention about how it damaged the falcon, but I’m going to go with the idea that “lightspeed skipping” was how they blasted through the ice wall, “skipping” some of the “lightspeed” safety protocols. Rey and Poe talk so fast in this scene that it’s easy to miss details and I do think it’s important to get the point across that the Falcon was damaged on the mission while Rey trained in the force. Trimmed and completely rearranged the Resistance briefing scene to remove Poe and others’ references to Palpatine. Exegol is still described by C3PO as a Sith world and this is what scares/surprises everyone. Moved the line “secrets only the Sith knew” to be spoken as Rey is picking up the book. [krausfadr] As my Palpatine reveal is being delayed, we now see that both the Resistance and First Order are aware of Sith cultists raising a fleet on Exegol, so we start to understand that the race is on for who will reach it first. Cut Rey’s line to Leia “find the Emperor.” Now Leia is just saying no to a Rey to Exegol mission because she doesn’t think she has trained her well enough. The Falcon’s flight from the jungle moon to Pasaana is now one continuous sequence. With the way I’ve restructured Act 1, it’s best to keep the focus on our protagonists for now. During the first Rey-Ren force conversation, cut references to Palpatine, and cut Ren’s line about turning Rey to the dark side. He just says he’ll find her and she’ll take his hand. [krausfadr] Trimmed the length of the joke around C3PO turning around and looking like a doofus. I actually do think 3PO shines with some humor throughout this movie with a little help in the editing department which is about the only time I’d say it works in the ST. Cut Finn’s line, “I’ve never seen so few Wayfinders” since that was delivered in a way for him to be the butt of a joke again. In my trilogy his character is taken much more seriously. After Kylo Ren says “I will find you,” cut him saying “…and turn you to the dark side.” What a ridiculous way to try and seduce someone away from their friends. You’re not supposed to blatantly announce your plans like that. Kylo’s whole shtick has been trying to get Rey to trust him and take his hand, and this makes it too in your face how that is something she wouldn’t want to do. It’s much more menacing when he is trying to befriend her. Moved the scene back in which Rey’s necklace is reported to be traced to Pasaana aboard the Star Destroyer for better pacing. Now we see Rey’s panic as she runs to her friends to warn them that they’re about to be in trouble. Used a foreign language dub for a milder delivery of Lando’s chauffeur’s one line. [HAL] Theatrical was another extremely weird alien joke. Removed the “tHeY fLy nOw?!” gag. In Legends, we know that jetpacks have been commonplace technology for… Nevermind, no explanation needed. Rey does not recognize Ochi’s ship. This is to preserve the lore of the new story with Rey and her parents. Ochi’s ship is not intended to be the same one that left her on Jakuu. As they all sink in the sand, I removed Finn telling Rey, “I never told you—“ as well as all following references to it. Finn is not force-sensitive in my edit because as Han said best, “That’s not how the force works.” You don’t just realize you have the force at 24 years old. Even Rey, who wasn’t trained for decades, wasn’t surprised when she had the force because she has known there was something different about her tknowledge of her powers due to the trauma of how she killed her parents with it as a child. Cut the middle school YouTube comedy sketch where Leia tells the Resistance guy to be more optimistic. It now ends with him saying “The Falcon’s not responding," preserving the tone of the scene and the movie as a whole. Cut the flashlight v lightsaber gag. By now, you know that I think that this type of attempted humor is inconsistent with previous Star Wars content. Poe hasn’t been a jokester in my trilogy so there’s no need to start now. Poe now doesn’t hate bones. He’s a veteran of many battles, I’m sure he’s seen worse than a skeleton… Rey does not have god-tier force healing in my cut since that sort of power would take a lifetime to learn as a Jedi. Instead, as she hears instructions from Luke’s voice, she now wields a simple form of Beast Control on the serpent, similar to what Anakin did to the Reek. She pacifies the beast as it senses a symbiotic relationship with her through the force and it leaves them all alone. Rey doesn’t perfectly slice Kylo’s wing off because that move is something that would be difficult for even a Jedi Master. Instead, she only backflips over his ship which is a much more believable feat given her training thus far. Intercut her landing with Finn yelling her name to pace out the move. In addition to Rey’s overly powerful attack, there’s no possible way Kylo survives the type of crash he has there. At best he would be mortally wounded, not unscratched and able to rip a frigate out of the sky with the force. I was in pure shock in theater when I saw how insane this was. Using [visual FX by DonKamillo], Kylo’s intact fighter is now rotoscoped into the scenes where the wreckage used to be. Added new shot of Ochi’s ship taking off with the heroes as Kylo Ren watches in order to slightly slow the pace [visual FX by poppasketti]. Thought it was a nice touch to end Act 1 with another pacing adjustment. ACT 2 As we enter the middle stage of the story, all we know so far is that there is a Sith fleet and cultists on Exegol. We also heard Palpatine whispering to Kylo on Mustafar. After Rey tells Finn that she had a vision of her on the Sith throne, Kylo now clearly hears Palpatine’s voice in his head telling him that the Final Order is almost ready and that he will be the new Emperor. The Emperor instructs him to come to Exegol and this is when we see Kylo fly there. This is the perfect place to place the reveal because we still don’t know what form the Emperor will be in or what his goals are, preserving the mystery that I’ve been building up for the last 35 minutes. Palpatine tells Kylo “I am Snoke” instead of “I made Snoke” [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] & Replaced the vat of cloned Snokes with cloned Palpatine’s [FX by poppasketti]. Palpatine says that his current body is a dying “clone abomination” to tie in better to the Legends story of him instead of the repeated RotS fan-service line. [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] These changes clearing up Palpatine’s cloning completely change the perception of who/what he is and make his intentions for Kylo and Rey actual, devious, and smart plans instead of his theatrical nonsensical motivations. Removed the slight electrical crackle as Palpatine reveals his hands [FX by skenera]. Too fan-servicey and doesn’t make sense for his failing clone body to show off powers like that. Palpatine says to “Find the girl” instead of “Kill the girl” [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel]. Again, this is to keep him with a consistent and cunning plan throughout the film. He’s been pursuing a new body for decades as he led the Resistance to believe lies about Snoke and underestimate his true plans. He’s had his eyes on Rey since she was a girl after learning of her past. Cut Palpatine and Ren’s dialogue about Rey not being what she seems. This is to preserve the “Rey nobody” storyline. Transition from the Exegol scene to the scene where Poe and crew brainstorm a new plan. Cut the hand holding gag as it’s another drawn out, painfully forced humor attempt. After we see the Knights of Ren ship in pursuit, we transition to the Falcon being pulled into the Star Destroyer, but Chewie is not revealed to be alive until Rey senses him from Kijimi. The reveal with Hux and Pryde has been replaced with the BB-8 scene on the Ochi ship. Such a cheap reveal for the fake-out death, it’s much more powerful when we realize Chewie is alive later on. Cut Rey talking about knowing Ochi’s ship. She doesn’t know, as her parent’s ship is a totally different ship in my edit [recolor FX by krausfadr]. Move the Chewie as prisoner scene right after Rey senses him in orbit. Now it’s an actual shock that he’s alive, and much better revealed by Rey rather than Hux. Trimmed the mind trick gag. It’s one of the cringiest in the whole film and so inappropriately timed for a life and death rescue of Chewie. Trimmed Poe’s one-liner upon being captured. He is not a goofball and it is uncalled for to make so many jokes when the fate of the galaxy is at stake. Cut the sound flashbacks when Rey picks up the dagger in Ren’s chambers. During Rey’s force conversation with Ren while she is on the Star Destroyer, removed references to her parents being good and Palpatine killing them. During their force conversation lightsaber battle, Ren taunts Rey, telling her, “It was Palpatine. He was looking for you. You remember what you did. You wanted your parents dead." We then see Rey as a child destroy her parent’s ship after they sold her. [Krausfadr] This change is crucial to why Rey has struggled with the Dark side this trilogy. She doesn’t have “dark side blood” because that’s not how the force works. Instead, she’s been harboring and suppressing a dark secret that has been eating her up inside. Kylo uses this to manipulate her anger so he can have her join him to defeat Palpatine and rule together. Trimmed yet another gag about Hux being the spy. I think Disney heard the comments about how people wanted more Poe and Finn chemistry and shoved in silliness at every turn instead of thinking through what actually made their TFA relationship enjoyable. Sad that I can’t add anything, but at least I can remove some. Cut Finn asking Hux why he’s the traitor. Worst. Motivation. Ever. Turns Hux’s entire arc in the trilogy to that of nothing more than a petulant child. Redubbed the entire conversation on Kylo’s ship between him and Rey. He talks about her killing her parents, how Palpatine has been watching both of them since they were children, and begs her to join him to kill Palpatine together. [audio by Fixing Disney Star Wars YT channel] And with this change, our narrative has come full circle! We now have consistent motives for Kylo, Rey, and Palpatine in an intersecting thread that ties them all together. No more “Kill Rey- no wait bring her to me- no wait actually kill her” nonsense. It’s clear what each of them wants and they stick with it. Rey doesn’t tell Finn that Palpatine had her parents killed. She says “I killed my mother. And my father” and that she’s going to kill Palpatine. [krausfadr] Rey wants someone to channel her anger at, and she is putting the blame of her killing her parents onto Palpatine. It’s a poor coping mechanism as it leads her further into darkness. The moon containing the wreckage of the second Death Star has been recontextualized as Endor, replacing what was Endor with an ice moon during the space establishing shot and moving the Ewok snippet up from the film’s climax. [Visual FX by poppasketti and snooker] Basic Star Wars lore consistency for the win! Removed Rey using the dagger as an impossible compass while surveying the wreckage of the second Death Star. “Sith whispers” have been added strategically to imply the dagger mystically guiding her to the Wayfinder. [HAL] The logic of theatrical made my stomach churn. Removed the hissing teeth Rey. I can’t believe how that made it through a storyboard. In fact, I removed the entire battle between Rey and Dark Rey. Now, Dark Rey only says “Don’t be afraid of who you are,” and then lunges at Rey once and that’s what knocks her over. When I watched theatrical, I thought Kylo was a vision too for the longest time, there’s no way to tell what’s real at this point and then when I realized he wasn’t a vision I felt like I missed so much. I’d rather keep the focus on a real Kylo instead of a random, tensionless battle against this weird vision. Cut Maz’s prediction commentary about Leia’s upcoming actions. These scenes are much more powerful with the focus only being on Leia, Kylo, and Rey. Rescored “Gra’tua Cuun” soundtrack into the Death Star fight. This battle feels so empty… It really needed some “Oomph!” and this track nails it. The way the Kylo v Rey duel ends is one of the biggest changes of the film. As Kylo is about to strike Rey, he hears Han yell “Ben!” and turns around to look. Upon seeing a specter of his dead father, he drops his lightsaber which Rey uses to stab Kylo. Rey immediately realizes she did this act in pure anger and the regret is immediately apparent on her face. That’s what her sadness and tears are about, not sensing Leia’s death. After Rey leaves, Leia gives her life to heal Kylo through the force. Similar to what we see the Daughter of Mortis do to save Ahsoka in the Clone Wars, we now see Leia do this to Kylo. This power is an intense Light side ability and it costs the user their life. He gets up and throws his lightsaber without any more visions of Han. We see Kylo broken up inside, but there is no indication that he is suddenly a good guy. This major change gives a more fitting way for Leia to pass, makes Rey continue down her path to the Dark side, and reframes the reason Kylo chases after Rey. We then go back and forth between the Resistance learning of Leia’s death and Kylo contemplating what just happened. ACT 3 I have to point out that now when Palpatine says, “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan,” to Pryde, it has a 100% different meaning. In theatrical, it was about Kylo turning to the Light Side, now in my cut we realize that Palpatine’s plan was for Kylo to die all along and Leia saving him threw everything off. Palpatine was using Kylo as nothing more than a tool to bring Rey to him in a vulnerable state as she was the host he truly desired, not another failed Skywalker. You can see the disdain Palpatine/Snoke has had against Vader, Luke, and Skywalkers in general throughout this trilogy so it makes a ton of sense that Palpatine only manipulated Kylo with the intention of throwing him away for Rey in the end. Now THAT’S a Darth Sidious plan, baby! Cut the Kijimi planet destruction… Too… many… And every single Star Destroyer having a Death Star laser is absurdity to the highest degree. After Palpatine talks to Pryde, we go to a brief scene of Poe learning that the Final Order is imminent, and then he goes to Leia’s body for advice. Then we go to Ach-To, then back to Poe and Finn. Much better flow of events for character building and passage of time this way. Added scene of Kylo glaring out at the First Order Capital as he contemplates what his next actions should be. He doesn’t look like a good guy. [FX by Hyperspace-Cuts, soundtrack by SoundtrackMix] Added extra night establishing shot after Rey’s return to Ach-to to show more time passing. Regraded the scenes on Ach-to so they begin at dusk and continue into the night.[krausfadr] Luke doesn’t ask Rey, “wHaT aRe yOu dOiNg?" as his tone is way out of character for how I’ve built him. In Rey’s conversation with Luke, cut Luke’s mention of Rey being a Palpatine. Also cut Luke talking about how he was wrong to be on Ach-To for consistency with my previous edits.