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- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
Taking you up on that idea, Buzz.
So here's my take on what Episode 8 should have been. I'm going to keep the start and end as I assume they're important for future stories. Everything I come up with will be something they could have done based on what they did in the movie or has been done previously. No "Luke uses the force to become a 50 foot giant and kicks an AT-AT". The idea is to show how it could have been a better story with the same character arcs and locations they had on screen. I know it's fan fiction, but I consider it more of a critique as a dedicated Star Wars fan.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The first thing I'd have done is expand on Snoke. Keep your opening sequence and have Kylo be conflicted on killing Leia. Let him return to Snoke and be chastised. But I'd build on his animosity towards Snoke. Kylo has that moment of aggression before Snoke hits him with force lightning. In the official guide, they explain how Snoke is very fragile and injured. They point out his golden slippers as a much needed comfort due to his frail state. Build on that. Have Snoke go a step further and really demonstrate his supreme mastery of the Force, but show how such a simple act as attacking Kylo weakens him. Have Kylo simmer with anger. Give him Sith eyes. They want us to know Kylo is conflicted, but show us how far he's fallen to the Dark Side. Parallel Anakin.
Now to Rey and Luke. Fine, Luke is a broken man. He feels as if he's failed everyone and is a giant fraud. He feels betrayed by the force and by the Jedi and people who stoked his arrogance. But here's the big twist the movie needed (and can still totally be true and many think it is) comes: Luke reveals that Snoke was the first Jedi. Those books (The Journal of the Whills [the first Jedi canonically]) is the basis for the Jedi order. Wouldn't Luke be completely broken and explain why he ran the fuck away from it all is because the founder of the Jedi religion is the same man who turned his nephew to the darkside. The the Jedi order was all built on a lie. That Yoda had known this and participated in the teachings from the most evil entity in the galaxy. And here's the original Jedi symbol that was on the books and on the floor with a puddle Luke kept looking at:
Luke reluctantly trains Rey after much contemplation. There's a deleted scene that has hit the media, where Rey sees smugglers landing on Ahch-to. She asks Luke what's happening, and he explains they come often and take from the caretakers what they want, but never really harm anyone. Rey asks why he never fights them off, and he explains that according to the Jedi, attack would only force the smugglers to return in greater numbers and heavily armed. Many caretakers would be killed, and the balance of life and death would be broken. By not intervening, the Jedi maintain a greater balance. Rey, rejects this, and after a cool demonstration of her force powers, shows up to find it was nothing and the caretakers were having a party with fake lightsabers. But Luke wanted Rey to learn what the Jedi preached. I would have kept all of that in. But like Luke under Yoda's teachings, Rey believes there is still good in Kylo and wants to leave to save him, just as Luke left early in Empire. Luke still feels broken and stays behind like he did in the movie. But we see Rey develop some as a character and her powers, and not only do we understand why Luke ran away, but we're also heartbroken that the mythos of the Jedi order we all believed for 7 movies was based on a lie. Rey still has her visions with Kylo and is still drawn to the dark side at times. Again, character development. Luke should talk to her about why the darkside is wrong, especially since he knows the Jedi are frauds. Chewie didn't need to stay once Luke agreed to train Rey. Have him leave to go help the fucking resistance, taking the Casino duty job over (more on this later). Make the conflict for Rey to leave early and save Kylo a central part of their relationship. Without Chewie and the Falcon, Rey can't leave. After having convinced Luke of her right to try to save Kylo, just as Luke left to save Han and Leia, Luke tells her she can prove she's ready by succeeding where he failed. She must raise his sunken X-Wing we saw, in order to leave the planet. Rey does, and shows how powerful she is with the force, instead of this random badass when needed nonsense. Please your audience.
Fin and Rose's whole arc should have been to enter the imperial ship and turn off the tracker. You could have had Fin in a storm troopers outfit again as a spoof. And even have Phasma make a "aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper" comment to Rose. Make your audience happy. This actually allows us to learn more about the first order. Have some dialogue with Phasma and the First Order. You can have their mission have some comical mishaps with BB-8, but build up that final moment when the First Order almost has the rebel ship. Then have a big battle sequence with Phasma. She's supposed to be this big character, but we get nothing from her but 20 seconds. Could have really shown how cruel the first order was, stealing kids like Fin was stolen, to turn them into Storm Troopers. Have Rose and Fin save these kids, and have one show some kind of Jedi potential in the end rather than some stable kid. That way Rose and Fin actually save someone, when they ultimately fail to deactivate the tracker. The whole casino plot was stupid, but if you must include it, use Chewie and R2-D2. Have Chewie rip some gamblers arms off (a scene cut out of Episode VII) as a call back to Episode IV and have some first order stooge make a move. Then have Chewie blow him away like Han did Greedo. Please your audience. Then have Chewie get the fuck out of there, having failed.
This whole movie was about failure. The only character who didn't fail in this movie was Luke. Rey didn't save Kylo. Snoke died. The resistance failed. Kylo failed to kill Luke and capture the resistance. So let's drive that point home.
Rey shows up at Snoke's ship. Fuck, maybe have her jump out of the X-Wing and float towards the ship like Leia did, but with complete control. We saw Anakin jump from a moving speeder 100 stories up in Episode II. Rey ejecting from her ship so it kamakazes a shield generator so she can jump through isn't that far off and it would kind of take the sting out of Leia doing that. "Luke must have taught her that" we'd all think. Boom, Snoke reveals his grand plan. Kylo meets Rey as she lands on the platform. Same events occur, but we build on Snoke's frailty after using his powers to extract Rey's thoughts. Snoke mocks Kylo again, but the camera pans to Kylo giving the ultimate poker face as Snoke rambles on about knowing his every thought. Add in a cough to reinforce one last time how frail Snoke is. Then have Kylo cut that lightsaber through Snoke, demonstrating he's no longer out of balance. He has complete mastery of the force. I'd have had the guards go down so much easier to show how powerful both Rey and Kylo are. After a few die, the rest kneel in subservience to their new masters. The guards follow power. Then just as in the movie, when we think Kylo has turned to the light and is balanced like Luke taught throughout the movie, he reveals his Sith eyes. Kylo CHOOSES to embrace the Dark Side. He can't be saved. It's so much worse because Kylo had been brought back to the light and achieved the balance Luke wanted, but chooses to fully embrace the darkside. Kylo extends his offer, but Rey rejects him and realizes how lost he is. Kylo orders his Storm troopers and guards to attack Rey. Rey can take them on, but Kylo knows with each person she's forced to kill in defense, he weakens her resolve. He then grows sick of her fortitude and goes in to fight, but Laura Dern sacrifices herself just like in the movie, ending Rey's onslaught for a moment. BB-8 communicates with R2-D2 because radios are a thing, as Chewie and R2 return from the Casino world. All defenses are down from the huge whole in Snoke's ship, so Chewie takes the Falcon down to get Fin, Rose and BB-8.
Rather than just skip how Rey left Kylo and managed up with Chewie on the Falcon like the movie did, I'[m going to answer that. Rey is hurt because a giant fucking ship just went light speed past her, but she's tough and she's a Jedi. Kylo is furious that his plans were thwarted, if even for a moment. Rey is suspended over some collapsing equipment just like in Empire when Luke lost his hand. Kylo is out of range, but is using force lightning and everything he has to fight Rey. Every passing moment, she is less able to defend herself as Kylo's rage intensifies and the area around her breaks down. Luke reaches out like Obi-Wan in Empire and tells her to reach out. She senses Fin, and tells him where to come to save her. Kylo is confident the kill is close, when Rey just lets go and falls, to land in the Falcon below. Fin didn't do dick on the planet, so having him use his connection to Rey from Episode VII like Luke did with Leia in Episode V makes your audience happy.
Planet battle goes just as it does in the movie, except there's no suicide rush from Fin that accomplishes nothing. Luke shows up just as happened in the movie. Have Luke explain to Leia that failure is the greatest lesson, and as long as Rey lives, the Resistance has hope. He goes out and does his battle thing. But I would make this epic. I'd have Kylo not only try to duel Luke with a saber, but throw force lightning and every trick he has. Let's show off how powerful Kylo is and what the darkside can do. Then have Luke absorb every act like Yoda fighting Dooku, but dish it back 10x more so without breaking a sweat. Same ending, but we see how powerful both Kylo and Luke are, with Luke being just a force projection as icing on the cake. Rey saves up and rescues the resistance with Kylo full on darkside.
Cut to Luke joining the force.
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
Snoke has to come back, they've already proven that Rey can defeat Kylo at will. Perhaps Kylo shows her a future where they have a daughter, and she comes to bond with her, so killing Kylo would in turn kill her daughter... Later the vision shows that the child is the most powerful Jedi ever from her and Kylo's abilities merging... And the child eventually turns to the darkside and becomes the Empress, creating a big dilemma for her.
Could be cool, but they need to do something to elevate Kylo or bring back Snoke.
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
I agree with Flaggs points on Snoke. Personally, I wasn't expecting much, but he would've had a good sidestory without focusing on Rey & Kylo all the time.
I'd have liked to have seen Rey goto Luke, train, learn, like Obi Won to Luke, but more in depth & maybe footage of the battle that occured. Then maybe Kylo being trained by Snoke, with Snoke showing epic forces. I'd have liked to have seen Finn go off on his own, I was expecting him to try to find his home planet due to not much being known about him. Would be cool if he ran into a Boba Fett type character, to break him up from Chewy ( I'd prefer he have a lessened role). Then have Poe be part of some stupid plan to battle the Dark Side, but lose, kinda like they did in the film. Benecio Del Torros character was a waste. Should've been President or King of some Planet instead. I'd rather it took place on a planet, not so much the spaceship, and have Kylo Ren & Snoke wreak havoc, myb even have Snoke kill Leia when Ren can't.
Then I'd prefer Luke come & kick major ass in installment 3. I would've been ok if 2 was more of a story arc film, building up to 3, albeit having less action. We kinda got the opposite.
I will admit bringing back the female silver stormtrooper woman, Finns old boss, was pretty cool.
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
I don't think I have the time to do the full write up, but here's what I will say: Luke had to die at some point. I think everyone knew that. I wouldn't have done it here though, and certainly not in the way they did it. I originally thought it should have happened early in the next movie.
In fact, taking it a step further (after seeing it the third time), I might have ended this movie with them unloading shots on him. The possibilities of where to go with that would have been endless. They should have rewrote the ending when Carrie died. Even if this was the plan, it should have changed. You need someone bridging the gap still, and Chewy or the now useless droids aren't the answer. Neither is force ghost Luke.
It feels like they are trying so hard to move on, but at the expense of the fans of the original movies. That almost feels calculated. Let go of the past, kill it if you have to. That's what it feels like they are trying to do while hopefully attracting new millennial fans. It's a risky way to go. All of the things we complain about I don't really hear from the younger generation or those that weren't attached to the old movies. Disney sees this as an investment only and knows if they are relying on us, it's going to die. They have to get new blood interested, and that's what they seem to be doing.
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
You need someone bridging the gap still, and Chewy or the now useless droids aren't the answer.
I really wasn't expecting Chewy or the droids to remain in this (aside from BB8). I thought they'd moved on. Chewy I get, but I'd prefer Finn find a badass Boba Fett type character to pair up with. I didn't think R2 & C3PO would be in this again, it's getting a bit stale.
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
I wouldn't have killed luke in the way they did...maybe have him decide to come train Rey in movie 3 after seeing Kylo in charge of the first order...save his death for 3rd movie
I would've killed off leia floating in space
I would not have the finn/rose storyline as presented in the movie...seems very contrived/implausible/dumb
I would've kept Tallie alive...maybe have Tallie take Rose's place
Make Poe seem less douchey, stupid & hotheaded somehow
Get rid of that other general chick...she sucked
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
Wagszilla wrote:I would’ve not made Episode 7-9.
Perfection. ??
That's one solution.
Nahhhh. TFA was ok, TLJ isn't bad, top 5 films in the franchise unless you feel Revenge of the Sith was 4 or 5. I put it at ANH, Empire, TFA, Rogue One, and TLJ top 5.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: How I Would Have Done Star Wars Episode VIII (Spoilers)
buzzsaw wrote:Wagszilla wrote:I would’ve not made Episode 7-9.
Perfection. ??
That's one solution.
Nahhhh. TFA was ok, TLJ isn't bad, top 5 films in the franchise unless you feel Revenge of the Sith was 4 or 5. I put it at ANH, Empire, TFA, Rogue One, and TLJ top 5.
ROTS is my #2 or 3
