Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise Of Skywalker: Ascendant

Cuts and Additions (changes for Version 4 indicated with asterisks):

Overall color correction using LUTs provided by skenera

Added a new opening crawl, thanks to Sir Ridley:

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Flames of rebellion burn across the galaxy. The tyrannical First Order has retaliated by attacking any planetary system that supports their enemy.

As Rey, sole heir to the Jedi, continues her training, General Leia Organa sends her brave agents across the stars to unite the disparate worlds in the name of Resistance.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has traveled to Mustafar, chasing whispers of a hidden power that would allow him to destroy any threat to his rule…

Added a Wilhelm scream, somewhere in the film…

Added two new establishing shots to the opening Mustafar sequence to slow the pacing slightly, building on what was done for V1 (visual FX from poppasketti, Movies Remastered, NeverarGreat, and 21C Peasant as well as audio assistance from LILLIAN02230)

Added a subtle call from Palpatine, saying “Find me,” as Kylo Ren picks up the Wayfinder

Replaced the vat of cloned Snokes with cloned Palpatine’s (FX by poppasketti)

Added a line for Kylo Ren calling Palpatine “a ghost in a rotting clone” (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)*

Removed the slight electrical crackle as Palpatine reveals his hands (FX by skenera)

Moved Palpatine describing spirit transfer into his first scene, turning it into a warning to Kylo Ren and setting up stakes for later (RogueLeader idea)

Reordered opening scenes for a more logical progression and better pacing (Kylo Ren meets Palpatine > Rey trains > Falcon mission > Returning to base)

Moved the scene with Chewie, Poe, and Finn playing holochess to the end of the movie, with a shot having been modified here to depict dropping out of hyperspace (FX by poppasketti)

Replaced Finn’s now first line “Artoo” with “Look sharp” (dgraham414 idea)

Removed lightspeed skipping sequence. It made no sense given how hyperspace has always been depicted, as quick travel, not teleportation. 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)

Only because he has no proper introduction and would appear suddenly due to other changes made, removed Klaud from a few shots (FX by poppasketti)

Moved Rey’s repeat of “nothing’s impossible” to after Leia hands her the saber to make it feel more endearing (Movies Remastered change)

The blue Skywalker lightsaber is now portrayed throughout the film with a somewhat ‘cracked’ appearance similar to Kylo Ren’s in order to build on the conclusion to TLJ and reflect Rey’s inner conflict (visual FX by kewlfish, Luke Frik, and Movies Remastered)

The vision Rey experiences while training with the remote has been heavily modified to better establish her apprehension about the Sith throne, and separated from Kylo’s vision. For V4, this is extended further. (by DominicCobb)*

Added ‘Sith Eyes’ to ‘Evil Rey’, including replacing her milky eyes for one shot (FX by Burbin)

Changed Rey’s line to Leia as she turns over the lightsaber from “your brother’s saber” to “your family’s saber” to begin to plant a seed about eventually identifying herself with the Skywalker family (AI voice provided by RogueLeader)*

Added a new illustration to the ancient Jedi texts to foreshadow the healing technique seen in this film (illustration by NeverarGreat, composited by RogueLeader)*

Reinstated previously cut dialogue as the heroes reunite at the Resistance base, replacing the term ‘lightspeed skipping’ with ‘lightspeed ramming’ (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks and RogueLeader)*

Replaced Poe’s lines, including “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” with part of the Emperor’s speech being played, implied to be part of the gathered intel

New dialogue for Poe during the briefing scene establishes clearly that the Final Order fleet consists of modified ships from the Empire, rather than implying they were built from the ground up later on (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks and RogueLeader)*

Removed a line of dialogue establishing an unnecessary 16-hour ‘ticking clock’ to the plot

In a callback to a line modified earlier, when Leia hands Leia the saber before she departs the base, she tells Rey, “You are family” (AI line provided by RogueLeader)*

Kylo now has a vision separate from Rey’s, before reforging his mask, better establishing his motivation for doing so (by DominicCobb)

Added the planet Coruscant to two shots during the scene with Kylo Ren in a boardroom on his Star Destroyer (visual FX by poppasketti)

Redubbed the two stormtroopers who introduce the Knights of Ren (sherlockpotter and axlanian)

Removed Poe’s use of the word ‘random.’

The puppet show now depicts Luke’s feats at the Battle of Crait in TLJ, strengthening the idea that Luke’s ‘legend’ has taken root in the galaxy and better setting up in conjunction with the following story beat Rey’s identity formation at the end of the film (RogueLeader handmade and filmed puppet elements influenced by designs from CaptainFaraday and Cinefy, poppasketti and Movies Remastered provided a tedious clean backplate, and ThisIsCreation provided a new vocal dub for the alien narrator)

Cut Rey saying “that’s an excellent name.” This statement felt overly modern.

After Kylo Ren says “I will find you,” cut him saying “…and turn you to the dark side.” It’s implied that he will try to do that once he finds her, but why say it aloud? He should be trying to seduce her to the dark side and masking his intentions.

Moved the scene forward in which Rey’s necklace is reported to be traced to Pasaana aboard the Star Destroyer, for better pacing. Trooper line modified not to show him reporting Rey and company’s identities. (Ziggyonice idea)

Used a foreign language dub for a milder delivery of Lando’s chauffeur’s one line

Removed the “they fly now” gag

Removed Finn telling Rey he “never told you—“ while the heroes sink in the quicksand, as well as two subsequent references to it

Removed Rey commenting that “horrible things” have happened with the dagger, to uncouple it from her parents’ murders and allow her to sense the blade’s pull to the darkness in keeping with a later change.

After Rey heals the sandworm, she mentions to BB8 that she learned how “from the ancient texts,” involving them to a greater extent in the movie to increase a sense of connection to TLJ (AI voice provided Jar Jar Bricks)*

Added a few lines of dialogue throughout the film to the Knights of Ren (sourced from project by axlanian and krausfadr, with voice recordings submitted by axlanian, krausfadr, Ben, axlanian’s wife, poppasketti, DG) (Included an alternate audio track that omits these added lines.)

Extended the confrontation between Rey and Kylo’s TIE in the desert using footage from the trailer (by DominicCobb)

Removed the explosion of Kylo Ren’s TIE, though it still rolls after being sliced by Rey

After Kylo Ren’s TIE is destroyed, for the remainder of the film his TIE is depicted with a differently color stripe (visual FX by poppasketti)

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)

When Rey mentions her vision of seeing the Sith throne, she comments she saw herself on it, making no reference to Kylo Ren, for greater consistency with her vision as seen by the audience and connection to her inner conflict of identity (RogueLeader idea)

Removed part of Poe’s line about their efforts being for nothing, allowing 3PO’s statement later to feel original to him

Reordered shots to show Rey contemplating before asking 3PO to consider going through with the memory wipe

Chewie is not revealed to be alive until Rey senses him from Kijimi, and not seen until he is rescued by Poe and Finn. The reveal with Hux and Pryde has been replaced with the telepathic Palpatine-Kylo conversation from later. (Help and brief color correction from ziggyonice)

Zorri gives Poe a cold stare, muting her line about seeing his brains in the snow

Removed dialogue referencing R2 backing up 3PO’s memory, which immediately destroyed any weight his sacrifice had before it had even happened, practically stating to the audience what will later happen.

Removed “from the Southern shore” from 3PO’s recital of the Sith dagger inscription to better fit in with its altered characteristics.

Extended the “squeaky wheel” sequence in order to slow the pace using footage from the bonus disc (audio help from LILLIAN2330, visual FX by poppasketti)

Replaced 3PO line starting with “Whoever this Chewie person is…” due to being one of a few clunky reminders that he had his memory erased (alternate line provided by Chase Adams)

Removed Finn yelling “POE!”

Removed another instance of the Sith dagger triggering a memory of her parents.

Replaced Kylo Ren’s line “I never lied to you” with “You were right” for more intuitive and precise continuity with TLJ even as the scene retcons it. In that film, it is Rey herself who supplies the information that her parents “were nobody.” (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks; voiceover provided for prior versions by poppasketti)

Added new dialogue for Kylo Ren during his ‘ForceTime’ duel with Rey to provide a more focused retcon of TLJ and make it explicit that Rey’s parents paid Unklar Plutt rather than selling her (AI provided by Jar Jar Bricks)*

Removed the single time either of Rey’s parents called her by name, to allow for headcanon that Rey named herself

Removed line from Rey’s mother, “She’s not on Jakku, she’s gone.” This paints Ochi as a moron not to have found Rey, and appears to have been included to explicitly harmonize with TLJ describing Rey’s parents as being buried on Jakku. This is clunky and unnecessary, all the moreso because that line was omitted from this editor’s TLJ project.

Replace 3PO/trooper dialogue to depict 3PO somewhat out of his element (by axlanian, replacing work from RogueLeader for V1)

Removed single line “You are a Palpatine.” The rest of the scene works well enough without this heavy-handed line.

Altered Kylo Ren’s line to, “We’ve become a dyad in the Force,” which feels like it builds on TLJ’s ending (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks; audio used in prior versions from sherlockpotter)

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)

Replaced the obtuse reminder that 3PO had his memory erased in the form of a line “Is everyday like this for you people?” (alternate line provided by Chase Adams)

Added two brief lines for Jannah to establish that her stormtrooper mutiny was inspired by Finn (AI lines provided by RogueLeader)*

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.

Replaced the obtuse reminder while working on the Falcon that 3PO had his memory erased in the form of a line wishing they had an R2 unit to help (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks; audio provided for prior versions by Chase Adams)*

Added a brief musical allusion to ‘Duel of the Fates’ during the duel on the Death Star using music from Maul’s scene in Solo (idea and help from Cinefy)

Added a subtle vocalization as Leia drops her headphones (idea and clip from JarJar Bricks)

Trimmed Finn’s final whimper of “Rey!” during the duel

Worked in the shot of Leia holding Han’s medal from the trailer, which makes it clearer that she promoted Kylo’s memory and sets up Chewie receiving it later which felt like it came out of nowhere (help from sade1212, idir_hh, and sherlockpotter)

Reordered the sequence of dialogue and action as Rey heals Ben’s wound

Extended the establishing shot of Kylo during the Han scene by a few seconds to slow the pace (thanks to Luka Frik and Octorox)

Completely removed the destruction of Kijimi and the Resistance’s reaction. This helps us imagine the Final Order as an Imperial stockpile since it was the only glimpse into them before the First Order arrives to help. It avoids yet another planet destruction, and generally smooths things over.

Softened the stark sound effect slightly as Luke catches the lightsaber, since he is immaterial

Regraded Ach-To sequence to take place at night, concluding at dawn (grading and rotoscoping by NeverarGreat)

Added an additional establishing shot breaking up the Rey on Ahch-to scenes so it doesn’t seem like she only spends a couple minutes on the island (modeled after DominicCobb’s clip)

A porg sound continues to trail off after their single shot, to help them feel like they were really there

Reduced blue coloration to Luke’s ghostly visage, slimmed him down somewhat, and shortened Mark Hammil’s wig to better fit his prior appearances (NeverarGreat and jonh, respectively)

Removed talk about Leia (and possibly Luke, depending on one’s interpretation of the scene) having known about Rey being a Palpatine. In this version, Luke essentially tells Rey, “So what if you’re a Palpatine?” It also seems to make a great deal more sense to assume they did not know this during the events of TFA and TLJ, with Luke learning this postmortem.

Leia’s lightsaber blade has been recolored to purple throughout. Carrie Fisher expressed a preference for this color of saber in a TFA-era interview, and it is more visually striking in the Exegol setting which helps the audience track which saber is which, particularly following a restored Leia line before Rey prominently uses her saber. (FX by amobex for this scene, originally by skenera)

During the flashback to Luke and Leia training together, replaced mention that Leia sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path with mention that she felt called to serve via diplomacy as their mother did (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)*

Replaced Luke’s line, “you’ll take both sabers to Exegol,” with, “We’ll always be with you” (Movies Remastered, NeverarGreat, and ThisIsCreation)

Added R2 and 3PO’s prequel theme briefly during the memory restoration scene (Cinefy idea)

As 3PO has his memory restored, he no longer implies this was Rey’s very first mission, as it either has or will surely be retconned by ancillary material (AI voice provided by Jar Jar Bricks)

Removed Finn’s line, “He wanted her alive,” as part of an effort to smooth over Palpatine’s motivations as initially grooming Kylo Ren and switching to Rey once Ben Solo had been redeemed.

Removed the line about the Holdo maneuver. If it is something legitimate then someone who lives in that universe shouldn’t have the same misconception as we may.

Removed the subtitle for Nien Nunb’s one line. He was never subtitled in the past and it’s not needed.

Slightly restructured the Exegol space battle’s beginning to consolidate story threads (DominicCobb)

Removed Finn telling BB8 “great job, buddy” during the mounted attack in order to preserve a sense of tension or seriousness

Removed Palpatine’s lines, “I never wanted you dead, I wanted you here,” and, “…for my grandchild to come home,” to assist in smoothing Palpatine’s motives to switching from grooming Kylo Ren to Rey once Ben Solo was redeemed.

Replaced the Imperial TIE Kylo took to Exegol with Vader’s TIE, because ANH had made a point to establish that TIEs don’t have hyperdrives. (Was originally an Imperial shuttle in V1; FX by poppasketti)

Trimmed a moment when Ben seems to wait for the Knight to hit his saber (David_B idea)

Added a small bit of score from ROTS as Palpatine absorbs the power of Rey and Ben’s friendship (Cinefy idea)

Added a cacophony of voices to the appearance of the civilian fleet to the battle. Several craft can be heard signing in via comm, and a few cheer “For Skywalker!” during the charge in order to tie into Luke’s Inspiring act at the Battle of Crait (thanks to axlanian for help mixing, and to the few dozen contributors who sent in recordings: poppasketti, AbramPT, Wesyeed, mrbenjamino, KieranKhalid, alastair, Anakin Skywalker, JKMaxx, Cinefy, Knight of Kalee, Chase, jonh, tobar, Doubleofive, Dana Domenick, Master Lawdog, Harmy, brewzter, Blake, Justin W, Reylochriso, Elia97963000, EllaLisa15, JediTwilight, deefayy, joelkarnold, AnEnemyAnemone, sixtailedcat, 5footwonderful, ThisIsCreation, CaptainFaraday, CaptainFaraday’s mother, sherlockpotter, Richard D, DZ-330, Ed Slushie, EddieDean, Jar Jar Bricks, JXEditor, and snooker)

Extended a space exterior shot using an ILM demo clip in order to remove Poe’s line, “Every [underbelly cannon] we knock out is a world saved.” (Visual FX to remove watermark by Sir Ridley, audio FX assisted by mrbenjamino)

Since Kijimi isn’t destroyed, there’s no need for Babu Frik to pop up only to show he’s alive

The FX for Leia’s now purple lightsaber has been color corrected to look less pink during sequences on Exegol than in prior versions (color correction by Burbin, FX by Skenera)*

Added a line during the spirits of the Jedi communing with Rey from the actor who portrayed the youngling in the Jedi Council chambers in Revenge of the Sith (enlisted by CaptainFaraday, voice by Ross Beadman)

Added Leia concluding the Jedi voices with “always,” taken from the trailer.

The ghostly visages of Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Luke appear behind Rey and assist with overpowering the Emperor (incredible visual FX work from jonh)

V2 adjusts one particular shot of the four spirits (still jonh)

Altered Rey’s climactic line from, “I am all the Jedi,” to simply, “I am a Jedi.” (sade1212, CaptainFaraday, sherlockpotter)

Added a subtle Sith scream effect as Palpatine explodes (Cinefy idea)

Because the first Ewok shot was used earlier, Coruscant and Naboo have been added in its place in the planetary celebration montage (Coruscant FX by poppasketti, and Naboo FX by snooker and skenera)

The holochess scene between Chewie, Finn, and Poe has been moved to Tatooine

Added a subtle double rainbow to the first shot of the Lars homestead, originally inspired by a similar phenomena at that filming location as seen on the bonus material, rationalized into a deep cut reference to Leia’s infantile destination of Alderaan, which sports a double rainbow in ROTS. (FX by poppasketti)

The quick light sequence when Rey ignites her yellow saber has been changed from blue and green to blue and purple to reflect Leia’s new saber color, as the original was an homage to the two Skywalker sabers (visual FX by Burbin)

The ghostly visage of a redeemed Ben Solo now accompanies the Skywalker twins during the final scene (visual FX by jonh)

Rey’s delivery of her final line has been swapped with one from the behind the scenes bonus material that appeared more emotionally resonant, with the background modified to match the finished film (visual FX by poppasketti)

The final shot has been replaced with the Falcon taking off, flying toward the suns, and jumping to hyperspace. (FX by snooker and poppasketti)

The musical cue leading into the credits has been replaced with something more fitting that does not reuse the cue from the end of TFA (audio help from bbghost and sherlockpotter)