What I would have done differently in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

What I would have done differently in The Last Jedi (WARNING: some shameless fan theory insertion can be found within, I admit):

1.      Opening Dreadnought battle – mostly the same. Would have removed the cringe “yo momma” joke with Poe and General Hux. Also would have made the Resistance bombers have bombs reminiscent of Y-Wing bombers rather than the bombs we saw in this film. Would have avoided the “where is the gravity?” criticism in this case.

2.      Ahch-to – rather than Luke’s slaptick “throw the lightsaber over the shoulder” bit, I would have had his hand shake and he simply drops the lightsaber at his feet. Would have given the same impact of showing us Luke’s shame as a failed Jedi mentor without the annoying slapstick way of going about it that we got.

3.      Kylo Ren and Snoke Throne Room scene – First thing’s first, I’m going to come right out and say that I think Snoke should have been Darth Plagueis. There, I said it. I think it would be a good way of tying together all three trilogies without meddling with the new characters and concepts of this trilogy.

a.      In this scene, we get some hints that Snoke is Plagueis without him overtly saying it. He says something like “after decades of biding my time, I’ve finally taken my rightful place” or something along those lines. Also, after he angers Kylo Ren and Kylo nearly attacks him and is repelled by Snoke, Snoke says something like “I’ve been killed by an apprentice once before, it won’t happen again!” as a nod to Palpatine/Sidious “killing” him the first time. None of this dialogue has to be him flat out saying that he is Plagueis, but this dialogue hints it enough to us while also giving general audiences insight into Snoke’s backstory.

4.      Kylo Ren Bombing Bridge scene – I would remove the Leia floating through space bit entirely. It was silly and unnecessary, in my opinion. Instead, Leia using her brief force connection with her son to warn Admiral Ackbar to put power to forward shields. When Kylo’s wingmen fire on the bridge, the torpedoes are repelled thanks to Kylo hesitating to kill his mother, and Leia using that to her advantage. This scene also still serves to show us that Kylo is still conflicted since he could not kill his mother.

5.      Admiral Holdo/Leia – Would have removed Admiral Holdo entirely, or given her a much smaller role in the movie as just an officer of Leia’s. I found her emphasized role in the movie to be obnoxious and her character serves no purpose other than to push a misplaced and misguided “men vs women” narrative that just didn’t belong here. Sorry, that’s just the way I felt. Instead, Poe begins to quarrel with Leia herself throughout the movie and Leia is not unconscious for half the movie. She tells Poe her plan to keep retreating while broadcasting for help, and he disagrees with her, wanting to stop the First Order fleet somehow.

6.      Canto Bight – would have removed this entire storyline. It sucked and no one liked it. I’m just saying what everyone pretty much felt. Instead, Finn, Rose and BB-8 sneak aboard Snoke’s flagship much sooner in the film (using Rose’s hacking expertise rather than DJ’s). If the director wanted Benicio del Toro in the film that badly, they can just make him a Resistance or First Order officer or something. Otherwise, DJ doesn’t need to be in this. I personally didn’t care for the character that much, as with the entire Canto Bight thing.

7.      Finn/Rose – rather than Canto Bight, Finn and Rose’s storyline in this film takes place primarily on Snoke’s flagship. This makes for something of a covert, Death Star-style mission/adventure where they are in disguise, sneaking past guards, encountering various obstacles etc. I would also use this storyline as an opportunity to give us more of Captain Phasma.

8.      Captain Phasma – she encounters Finn and Rose during their hacking mission much earlier in the film. This leads to a sort of cat & mouse chase and confrontation throughout the ship, as Phasma ruthlessly stalks for Finn and Rose. We also get some more insight into her past interactions with Phasma and Finn while he was a Stormtrooper under her, through Phasma’s dialogue here. This dialogue could suggest that her harsh methods as an overseer were meant to make Stormtroopers like Finn strong and unyielding, but they just ended up pushing Finn too far. Phasma’s death can then be the same on that we got, but it would actually mean something and feel impactful this time around since we would actually get more than 30 seconds of her in the movie this time.

9.      Luke’s Jedi Temple Backstory – maybe rather than Luke contemplating killing Ben Solo when he feared that he was turning to the dark side, he confronts him. Ben Solo was growing attached to one of Luke’s other Jedi students, and Luke feared that this would be an almost identical turn to the dark side like his father’s (loving and then losing Padme etc). Luke perhaps reprimands him for this, leading to Ben beginning to mistrust him as a teacher. Meanwhile, Snoke had already reached out to Ben through the force and began to pour poison into his ear, twisting Ben’s mind and convincing him that Luke would try to destroy him. When Luke goes to try to make amends, Ben reacts defensively and collapses the hut on top of him. The female Jedi student who Ben is in love with witnesses this and tries to calm Ben down and he accidentally kills her in his rage, leaving him distraught. Blaming Luke for this, he destroys the Jedi school.

a.      Luke blames himself for this because, despite him growing wiser over the years, he comes to the realization that he made the same mistake that the original Jedi did with his father regarding his relationship with Padme. On Ahch-to, he found records of the original Jedi not detaching themselves from emotions such as love and passion etc. He concludes that rejecting these notions made things worse, making it easier for Palpatine to turn his father to the dark side and take control, just as he accidentally allowed Snoke to do with Ben Solo.

10.   Rey’s Mirror Vision – rather than the annoying fake-out that we got in this film, Rey instead does see her parents. As Kylo said in the film, they are nobodies, and we as the audience do not recognize them, but this will become more clear later. However, Rey does realize as she always secretly suspected, that her parents were nobodies and is distraught by this.

11.   Snoke Throne Room Scene – it is revealed here that Snoke/Plagueis “created” Rey by influencing the Force to produce the ultimate Force prodigy, just as he did with Anakin Skywalker decades earlier. So even though Rey was born to irrelevant junk trader parents on Jakku, she was created by the Force through Plagueis’ meddling. Plagueis also reveals to her that Luke initially wished to take her from Jakku years earlier, when he was looking for Force-sensitive children for his Jedi school but ended up rejecting her when he realized just how powerful she truly was. This is why Rey saw the vision of that ship flying away from her as a little girl on Jakku, during the flashback montage in TFA.

a.      Plagueis/Snoke expects Rey to join with him since he considers her his Force progeny, but he is rejected by her. She tries to turn Kylo Ren to the light side as she did in the film.

b.      Plagueis/Snoke gives Rey her lightsaber back, and forces either Rey or Kylo to kill the other, or he will kill both of them.

c.      Kylo is about to ignite his lightsaber, but he does the same trick he does in the film, with Snoke/Plagueis’ red lightsaber on the throne next to him (the same lightsaber Palpatine/Sidious used in Revenge of the Sith, as a nod to Palpatine taking it from him after he “killed” Plagueis).

d.      Plagueis/Snoke is cut in half and then Kylo Ren and Rey fight the Praetorian guards the exact same way they did in the film.

12.   Admiral Ackbar – Admiral Ackbar was initially convinced by Poe that Leia is not making the right decision. But Leia convinces them about Crait and regains their trust in her leadership. Ackbar is the one who elects to stay behind to make amends. When the shuttles are targeted by the First Order like in the film, it is Ackbar rather than Holdo who crashes his ship into the First Order flagship. This, I feel, is a fitting end to the character, with Ackbar saving lives and going down with his ship.

13.   Throne Room Aftermath – rather than Kylo becoming the new Supreme Leader, he and Rey briefly fight for control of Anakin’s lightsaber and it is cut in half. Afterward, with the flagship falling apart, Rey has escaped to the Falcon using an escape pod and Kylo regains consciousness and escapes aboard his Tie Silencer.

14.   Snoke/Plagueis is “Reborn” – General Hux and several of his officers enter the throne room and fight it empty. Snoke’s lightsaber is beside his throne, his black crystal ring and his robes are piled on the ground, as Snoke’s body has disintegrated. General Hux, distraught at the supreme leader’s death, picks up the black crystal ring. Snoke/Plagueis then speaks through Hux’s mind and possesses General Hux’s body. This hints that Plagueis is now an ethereal being who cannot become one with the Force when he dies, because the Force itself rejects him due to his evil and his frequent attempts to defile the Force. With his previous body destroyed, he inhabits Hux’s body. And when Hux speaks, Snoke/Plagueis’ voice is spoken from his mouth. The other First Order officers bear witness to this, and recognize Snoke, using Hux’s body, as their supreme leader. This also provides a bit of irony; Hux has always been a bit of a brown-noser and ass-kisser when it comes to wanting to please Snoke. It would be ironic how Snoke/Plagueis "rewards" Hux's loyalty by taking possession of his body and completely stripping him of his free will.

15.   Battle of Crait – mostly the same, but rather than getting the cringe line from Rose about “fighting for love” and having her simply push Finn’s speeder out of the way, she is the one who sacrifices herself in order to prevent Finn from doing the same. This would have given enough to shock the audience without taking away from Finn’s attempted heroism, and allows him to stay alive to do more in episode 9. This, in my view, is better than the terrible scene we got and would have made Rose’s story arc feel more satisfying and less of a joke, frankly.

16.   Luke on Crait – Luke faces off IN PERSON rather than as a Force projection against Plagueis/Snoke (using Hux’s body), and rather than against Kylo Ren. Luke is also using his green lightsaber rather than blue. Kylo is not present during this battle at all. Plagueis/Snoke gloats that he has won, and that the galaxy already belongs to him and the First Order, but Luke insists that there is still hope for the galaxy to fight back. Leia and the Resistance escapes using Rey’s help as with in the film. An epic fight reminiscent of Voldemort vs Dumbledore in the 5^th Harry Potter film ensues, with Luke and Plagueis both throwing lightsaber blows and epic force abilities at each other. Plagueis, however, is victorious and stabs Luke. But Plagueis realizes too late that Luke was just buying time for Leia and the others to escape with help from Rey. Luke ominously tells Plagueis that the Jedi will not die with him. He looks off in the distance and sees the ghosts of Anakin, Yoda and Obi-wan. Luke smiles at them and then dies.

17.   End scene – Kylo Ren (who hasn’t been seen since the Throne room scene) is on Ahch-to. He is seen using the force to put his lightsaber back to together after having taken it apart. When he ignites the lightsaber, is glows white colored (similar to Ahsoka Tano’s white lightsabers from Star Wars rebels, indicating that she is neither Jedi nor Sith, but in the middle). The last shot of the film, is Kylo sitting atop the boulder that Rey was sitting on while training under Luke earlier in the film, looking at the twin suns off in the sunset.

How I think this would have been better than the version of TLJ that we got:

1.      Going into episode 9, it makes Kylo Ren a wild card, with all of us wondering what he is going to do? Will he oppose the Resistance still? Can he bring himself to join the Resistance considering how much harm he’s done to it, or will he choose to go against Snoke/Plagueis’ armies alone? Will HE come up with the secret to destroying Plagueis once and for all?

2.      It gave the original trilogy leads (Luke, Han, Leia) the sendoffs that they deserve. Han dies tragically in a pivotal character moment for Kylo Ren. Luke dies heroically, buying time for the Resistance and redeeming himself for his past failings in a way that isn’t just him doing a fancy projection trick from Ahch-to. Leia dies peacefully, surrounded by those in the Resistance who care for her (maybe have her funeral at the beginning of Ep 9, after a time jump).

3.      It gave more satisfying character background and moments to characters like Phasma, Snoke, Finn, Rose and Ackbar.

4.      It makes Rey come across as less of a Mary Sue, since there is a partial explanation as to why the Force chose her to be so powerful. It doesn’t fix all the issues that I frankly have with her character, but it fixes a few of them.