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 5th 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.
