Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens

Updated
skywalkerawakens_front
Faneditor Name:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2015 / 2017 / 2019
Original Running Time:
430
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
335
Time Cut:
95
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister
FIRST ORDER has risen from
the ashes of the Empire and
will stop at nothing until
Skywalker, the last Jedi, has
been destroyed.

As the peaceful New
Republic struggles to fight
this resurgent menace,
General Leia Organa gathers
her allies and leads a brave
RESISTANCE. She is
desperate to find her brother
Luke and restore hope to the
galaxy.

Searching for clues to Luke’s
whereabouts, Leia’s most
daring pilot has been
intercepted by the First Order
on the desert planet of
Jakku…





Intention:
'Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens' is a goodbye-love letter to Star Wars. It is meant to serve as an epilogue to Lucas’ Star Wars saga (episodes I-VI).

Our story remains much the same: a metatextual space opera of lineage, legacy, belonging, betrayal, war, family, and lucrative merchandising potential, centered on Rey and Kylo Ren's conflicting views on over the Skywalker legacy.

It was also just a fun and instructive thing to make while learning my way around editing, and wouldn’t exist without a passionate and collaborative fan editing community, so thanks to you all.



Other Sources:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
freesound.org
Special Thanks:
Huge thanks to @ArtIsDead for their helping in bringing together @spence, @Wraith, @DigModiFicaTion and
@INIGHTMARES and all their help in getting this edit finished.

Thanks to @Wraith for the bespoke credits sequence.

An enormous shout out to the people at OriginalTrilogy.com and their good humor, generosity and passion for Star Wars, in particular Hal9000, whose edits partly inspired this project. Thanks also to poppasketti, NeverarGreat, SherlockPotter, skenera, Sir Ridley, snooker, Luka Frik, and burbin.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
You can read more on what Star Wars and the sequel trilogy mean to me on a thematic and emotional level and how this informed my editing approach here: https://tinyurl.com/5n8wn2rz




Cuts and Additions:
PART I

New opening crawl

Overall and selective color grading (thanks to skenera and Hal 9000 for the use of their custom LUTs in places)

Trimmed the attack on the Jakku village, focussing on the First Order assault and Kylo Ren’s arrival

Added couple quick shots to the First Order’s opening assault from the first TFA trailer

Added “force sounds” as Kylo reads Poe’s mind at the village

Cut Unkar Plutt’s first bits of dialogue

From TFA The Starlight Project: added etching depicting the island on Ach-To in Rey’s home (VFX by NeverarGreat)

Cut Kylo telling Hux/the audience where the map is

Cut Finn razing a platoon of stormtroopers

Cut Kylo Ren saying Finn’s stormtrooper number

Moved Kylo reprimanding Hux about his troops to replace the Phasma/Hux exchange about Finn

Finn awakes in the desert alone, clutching Poe’s jacket, and begins to wander desperately

Cut Finn’s second “I am with the resistance” and his pleading with BB-8 for the Resistance base’s location (BB-8 trusts these two by now)

Removed overt musical cue and extended crane shot of the Millennium Falcon’s reveal

Replaced the Falcon’s escape from Jakku with the restored 16:9 IMAX version (thanks to adywan and DylanValenti)

Cut Finn’s final exclamation as the Falcon leaves Jakku

Bespoke transition from 16:9 back to 2.39:1 as the Falcon leaves the Jakku system

Trimmed Kylo’s tantrum slightly

Trimmed Finn and Rey’s exchange as they fix the Falcon

From TFA The Starlight Project: added sequence of Han placing his his dice back on the Falcon’s dash (extensive VFX by NeverarGreat)

Cut Han’s “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”

Trimmed “wrong fuses” slightly

Trimmed the rathtar sequence significantly

Cut Snoke’s line “... in the hands of your father, Han Solo”

Cut a couple of extraneous shots of aliens inside Maz’s cantina

Added Kylo experiencing a vision of the Sith temple on Exogol as he prays to Vader’s helmet

From TFA Restructured: added two lines from Palpatine during Rey’s force vision

From TFA Restructured: replaced the Hosnian system being destroyed with the First Order arriving on Takodana (VFX by Sir Ridley
and NeverarGreat)

From TFA: The Starlight Project: Added a shot of Rey heading toward the pirate ship that Finn was about to board, intending to leave with him (VFX by NeverarGreat)

The battle on Takodana is trimmed down to focus on Rey and Kylo’s first encounter

Cut C-3PO interrupting Han and Leia’s reunion on Takodana

Han, Finn and the Resistance’s arrival on Ilum is rearranged significantly. No more planet-killer weapons. “Starkiller Base” is a forebodingly-named First Order staging ground on which the Resistance leads a daring attack in an attempt to strike a blow against their enemy, rescue the force-sensitive Rey, stop Supreme Leader Snoke from finding Luke, and give Han a chance to save his son

From TFA Restructured: R2D2 now has a blinking light to indicate that he has begun searching for the map, booting up later as the
Resistance arrives back at base (VFX by NeverarGreat)

Added some insert shots during the interrogation scene as Kylo reads Rey’s mind: Rey etching days into the wall of her home (“desperate to sleep”), and two of Ach-To (“I see the island...”): the old Jedi tree and an unused shot of Rey standing above the dark side cave from a TLJ trailer

Replaced a shot of Finn and Rey reacting to the sun “setting” on Ilum before Kylo’s betrayal with a shot of Leia sensing her son on the precipice of darkness

Trimmed the shot of Rey raising her blaster at Kylo Ren by a few frames

Added some very faint Sith whispers in the forest on Ilum

From TFA The Starlight Project: the Cloaked Binary Beacon can be seen briefly next to an unconscious Finn as Rey says goodbye (VFX by NeverarGreat)

Trimmed sequence where Rey leaves the Resistance base and travels to Ach-To

Edited Rey meeting Luke into a continuous sequence, borrowing the adjusted timing of Luke’s saber toss from TLJ Legendary.

The First Order slowly chasing the Resistance fleet has been pared back significantly. After Poe buys time for the Resistance to escape, we see Kylo’s attack on the flagship, and as Rey struggles to convince Luke, the fleet is slowly whittled away. This involved numerous cuts and changes throughout TLJ

Cut Snoke’s line “As long as it does, hope lives in the galaxy.”

Re-added deleted scenes “Luke Has a Moment” and “Poe: Not Much of a Sewer” and embellished the unfinished audio

From TLJ Legendary: removed both appearances of the ‘Caretakers’ on Ach-to (VFX by snooker)

Cut Luke’s line to R2D2 “Nothing can make me change my mind”

Cut Luke’s practical joke during his first lesson

From TLJ Rekindled: added hints and whispers of Palptine’s presence throughout TLJ

Trimmed the gag with Chewie eating roasted porgs slightly

Edited a sequence wherein Leia awakens from her coma as Luke reaches out to her in the force


PART II

Cut Kylo’s line “buried in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert”

Leia stares out of the old Rebel base as the sound of approaching First Order walkers thunders across the tundra (masked out the ship that Finn and Rose arrive on Crait in)

Edited the Battle of Crait, intercutting the TIEs chasing the Falcon with Poe’s decision to pull back and Finn’s refusal, borrowing Finn’s kamikaze run from TLJ Rekindled

Cut Connix and D’Acy’s lines about their signal not being received

Luke has a brief vision of the future before dying with “peace and purpose”

The Falcon going to hyperspace at the end of TLJ cuts to Kylo Ren being summoned to Exegol by Palpatine. Between this and when we see Rey training on Ajan Kloss, a year or so has passed

From TRoS Ascendant: added a new establishing shot to the opening Mustafar sequence (VFX by poppasketti, SFX by LILLIAN02230)

Fortress Vader has been added to the background of one shot on Mustafar (VFX by Movies Remastered)

From TRoS Ascendant: replaced the vat of cloned Snokes with cloned Palpatines (VFX by poppasketti)

From TRoS Ascendant: removed the slight electrical crackle as Palpatine reveals his hands (VFX by skenera)

Rey trains alone on Ajan Kloss, becoming distracted by her visions, but has no explicit force connection to Kylo Ren until she is on Pasaana

Added a line to Leia and Rey’s exchange after the training course (REY: “Didn’t finish the training course, got distracted...” LEIA: “There’s been a lot of that lately.”) (thanks to Jar Jar Bricks and poppasketti)

From TRoS Ascendant: Moved the Falcon getting a message from Boolio until after Rey’s training course, and cut “lightspeed skipping” thanks to a VFX shot by poppasketti, as well as subsequent dialogue references

While dispatching TIE fighters, Finn hears Chewie and Poe arguing about Rey over comms

From TRoS Ascendant: Replaced Poe’s lines, including “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” with part of the Emperor’s speech being played

Cut Leia refusing to let Rey follow Luke’s path

Cut Leia’s line “never be afraid of who you are”

From TRoS Ascendant: Coruscant has been added to the background of the scene on the First Order command ship (VFX by poppasketti)

Cut Nambi Ghima asking Rey her family name

Edited Rey and Kylo’s force bond conversation

Cut Lando’s “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”

Cut Finn and Poe repeating “they fly now”

Trimmed the Pasaana speeder chase (quicksand pacing broken up by reused aerial shot, thanks to SherlockPotter for the idea)

Cut Snap reporting to Leia

Cut Rey’s line “terrible things were done with this” and the sound of her mother screaming when she first picks up the Sith dagger

Cut C-3PO’s line “I know exactly where the wayfinder is”

Added ambient lightsaber sounds in the cave scenes on Pasaana

From TRoS Ascendant: added a few lines of dialogue throughout the film to the Knights of Ren (thanks to axlanian and krausfadr)

From TRoS Ascendant: extended the confrontation between Rey and Kylo’s TIE in the desert using footage from the trailer (thanks to DominicCobb)

Scored the confrontation between Rey and Kylo’s TIE in the Pasaana desert using cues from ‘The Ways of the Force’ and ‘The Cave’

Cut Kylo’s TIE exploding after it rolls away

Edited the sequence of shots around Rey’s fit of force lightning

Cut the exchange with Zorii about Poe being a former spice runner

Cut the Knights of Ren appearing on Kijimi

Cut C-3PO’s speech before being rebooted

Trimmed Zorii’s “there are more of us” line

Added insert shots of Rey’s memories as she remembers Ochii’s ship

Removed “from the southern shore” from the dagger inscription

From TRoS Ascendant: extended the “squeaky wheel” sequence using footage from the bonus disc (SFX by LILLIAN2330, VFX by poppasketti)

After Rey says “Chewie… he’s on Ren’s ship” we cut to Chewie being taken to interrogation by Pryde and Hux

Cut C-3PO’s line “whoever this Chewie person is…”

Added more sounds indicating Rey’s psychometry when she touches the dagger again, this time more overtly linked to the Emperor and the Death Star

Re-edited the force bond duel between Rey and Kylo Ren on Kijimi significantly

From TRoS Ascendant: replaced Kylo Ren’s line “I never lied to you” with “You were right” (SFX by poppasketti)

Shifted Finn, Poe and Chewie’s escape and Hux’s turncoat moment until after Rey and Kylo’s force bond duel

Cut Kylo’s lines “You’re a Palpatine.” and “... and take the throne.”

After escaping Kijimi on the Falcon, added insert shots of Rey’s parents as her memories continue to unlock - “he killed my mother…”

From TRoS Ascendant: 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 (VFX by poppasketti and snooker)

Slightly embellished the audio of Hal 9000’s editing around the Sith dagger on Endor

Trimmed repairing the Falcon

Cut Dark Rey dialogue as well as trimmed the teeth-baring jump scare to be a bit more of a scare

The Skywalker saber is further damaged during Rey’s encounter with her shadow self, crackling and spitting like Kylo’s until it is “healed” via their force bond on Exogol (VFX thanks to Luka Frik, SFX by me)

Scored part of Rey and Kylo’s saber duel on the Death Star II wreckage using the cue ‘A Jedi’s Fury’ from Return of the Jedi

Added sound effect from Kylo and Leia’s force-connection in TLJ when she reaches out to him on Endor

From TRoS Ascendant: worked in the shot of Leia holding Han’s medal from the trailer (help from sade1212 and idir_hh)

From TRoS Ascendant: extended the establishing shot of Kylo during the Han scene by a few seconds (thanks to Luka Frik and Octorox)

Replaced Luke’s line “I was wrong” with a knowing look

Cut Luke and Rey’s lines about Leia being aware of her familial lineage

From TRoS Ascendant: Rey arrives on Ach-To at night and leaves at dawn (VFX by NeverarGreat)

From TRoS Ascendant: Leia’s saber has been recolored purple throughout (VFX by Skenera, with some bespoke masking on Exegol by me)

Cut the Resistance’s big conference meeting to plan the attack on Exegol, while still retaining Finn and Poe’s inspirational speech

The final battle at Exegol has been edited to focus on the encounter between Rey/Ben/Palpatine, and Finn and Jannah’s “ground” assault

From TRoS Ascendant: replaced the TIE that Ben arrives back on Exegol in with Vader’s TIE Advanced (VFX by Poppasketti)

Added a brief montage of insert shots showing Rey’s journey through the force, as well as removed the chorus of random “voices of the Jedi who came before”, her final bit of strength coming from Luke and Leia themselves before rising to confront Palpatine

Added a small cue from ‘Anthem of Evil’ before Palpatine begins shooting lightning at Rey

Rey’s hero line before defeating Palpatine has been changed from “I’m all the Jedi” to “I… am a Jedi”

Cut Poe’s line “I see her” and Finn’s line “People are rising up all over the galaxy”

From TRoS Ascendant: because the first Ewok shot was used earlier, Coruscant and Naboo have been added in its place in the
planetary celebration montage (Coruscant VFX by poppasketti, Naboo VFX by snooker and skenera)

Trimmed celebration montage to focus on Rey reuniting with her friends

Retained Hal 9000’s shifting of the dejarik table scene to Tatooine, adding a quick reaction shot of Finn and Poe and some Chewie noises

Colors in the startup sequence of Rey’s saber have been changed from green and blue to purple and blue, having used the crystals from Leia and Luke’s sabers to power her own before laying them to rest (VFX by Burbin)

Cut the old woman on Tatooine asking “Rey who?”

The force ghosts on Tatooine have been cut. Rey looks to the sunrise while ruminating on her new family, deciding to take up the Skywalker name (shout out to Lev Kuleshov)

From TRoS Ascendant: 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 (VFX by poppasketti)

The final music cue has been changed from the same cue used at the end of TFA to one from the TFA credits suite that melds Rey’s theme with the Force theme

From TRoS Ascendant: The final shot has been replaced with the Falcon taking off, flying toward the suns, and jumping to hyperspace (thanks to snooker and poppasketti)

New closing credits combining crawls and titles from all three films (thanks to Wraith)

Replaced the final part of the TRoS credits suite with Rey’s theme from the final part of the TLJ credits suite
Teaser


Trailer

User reviews

9 reviews
 
78%
 
22%
5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.5(9)
Audio Editing
 
9.9(9)
Visual Editing
 
9.7(9)
Narrative
 
8.5(9)
Enjoyment
 
8.8(9)
View all user reviews View most helpful
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
First of all, this edit is awesome in so many ways. Not only it has very good Audio/Video quality but it also includes subtitles. Subtitles are always welcome. Color grading is also very good in this one and actually noticeable. This edit also provides a seamless experience and cuts a lot of the bad stuff.

Now coming to the stuff I did not like. The narrative and pacing on the Episode IX part is not my cup of tea. The VII and VIII parts are super fun to watch but IX part seemed a bit boring to me as was the original The Rise of Skywalker movie. But since you've done such a good job for the first two movies I definitely think ROS part can be improved further.

I also did not like Leia having a purple light saber. Doesn't make sense for so many reasons.
I also did not like the empty screen when Rey has visions while she was training. Other editors have done a better job on that part.

Given the source material I still enjoyed it a lot especially VII and VII parts. So I recommend this to everyone. That being said I still feel IX part can be improved to a lot by pacing it faster.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Great Edit!
The sequels are a mess if you really think about them and are not made to watch all three in one or two sittings right after each other. But this edit made it possible and the story more cohesive. The main characters Rey, Poe, Finn and Kylo get their best sides shown. I even Like Finn now after seeing this edit! The bond between them all got me more invested in their journey together. And I was even smiling during some jokes that are left in there.

The hints of Palpatine in this edit is a little too subtle I think. You get it in visions before TROS which is nice, but I expected a little more to really bind all the movies together. Of course still better than the original which had no hints of palpatine!

The edit is divided in two parts, That made the TLJ part feel really slow because after the end of VII there is 1h of runtime. Sorry but I had to take a break when it felt right. The breaks might have happened when the originals ended. Still worked though!

This edit is FAST, EMOTIONAL and EPIC. My go to edit for sure!
flawless editing and cohesive story!
The quality is great! But I only give 9s or 10s to 4k and/or surround sound these days.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 2 0
(Updated: July 06, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I applaud the hard work. It truly is great what you've managed to make out of 3 movies that Disney-- Many of the edits, I quite enjoyed. Especially, cutting out some of the annoying BS.

I would recommend this cut to anyone.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0
(Updated: May 15, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Bbghost takes on the monumental task of melding three very distinct, very flawed films. The result is something surprisingly special. By stripping down the ST to just a story about two individuals and their ying-yang relationship, bbghost is able to present a character driven epilogue to the OT.

I'm someone who emotionally connected with some of the more mythic character arcs of the ST, conceptually. Ben is someone who feels shackled by his identity. Rey is someone who is in search of identity. Unfortunately, this dual narrative was complicated by haphazard plotting and fan service (especially in the third film). The biggest problem in this edit is still that third film. That strong character focus is still jarringly swept aside in favor of a out there plot. Bbghost does do a great job in making that transition feel less jarring here though. The focus is on the characters. Overall, probably my favorite way to view three movies that I'm very conflicted about.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 2 0
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
About three-fourths of the way through my watch, I realized what I really wanted to see was 'The Last Jedi Awakens', as the first two films worked a heck of a lot better together than Rise of Skywalker did. I *loved* the edits done to The First Awakens and The Last Jedi segments, but nothing changed my mind: there's no getting around the avalanche of head-scratcher 'story-telling' decisions made in ROS, no matter the thoughtfulness of the excisions made by the platoon of fan-editors behind it. Nevertheless, this two-parter works pretty well considering the limitations of what it had to do.

Consider my 'Enjoyment' score a 8/10 for the TFA and TLJ combination, but a -1 for ROS.

But regarding what I loved, just to mention a few: the removal of the superweapon subplot, the addition of the Han Solo dice scene, the Luke Skywalker Han Solo grief scene, the removal of the useless Canto Bight sequence, and the removal of the wheel-spinning Poe Dameron/Admiral Holdo subplot. Distractions/redundancies removed, it was easier to see more of the vibe the original filmmakers were going for.

The video and audio editing really helps bring out the beauty of the films. Whatever flaws the ST has, at least the films always look good and sound good. Not much that can be done to smooth the transition between TLJ and ROS, but the attempt here is inspired.

If you enjoyed Rise of Skywalker and the first two films as well, you'll really like this edit.

User Review

Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 2 0
View all user reviews