A "Fixed" Sequel Trilogy Story idea...
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 1:36 am
EPISODE VII
THE LOST JEDI
In Summary: Parts of TFA and TLJ. It's not a rehash of ANH. No Starkiller Base.
It's been a handful of decades since the destruction of the second death star over the moon of endor... lets say 25 years. In those years, the Empire rapidly became fractured between those who wished the return of democracy and those who sought power in the vacuum created by the death of the Emporer. And in those 25 years, the Jedi have been rising as a force for good in the galaxy once more. Whilst the Empire is no longer a galaxy-spanning, empire, there are pockets of the tyrannical regime remaining both in the core and outer rim sectors, combated by the rebel alliance-turned-New Republic navy.
Fifteen years before the events of this EpVII, Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, Disappeared, as did several apprentices, including his nephew, Ben Solo. Not long after, one of the Imperial Remnant gained a dark-side force user, who like some of the more infamous of the Sith in the past, wore a mask concealing his or her identity, and soon the galaxy learned his name - Kylo Ren.
By the events of this film, he has become one of the highest ranking officers in the 'First Order', and has been unifying the Imperial Remnant under a single banner, his banner, and spreading terror in his wake, and even has his own cadre of followers, the Knights of Ren. And in the last ten years, has been pushing the New Jedi Order to the brink of destruction... All while in search of something, or rather, someone. Luke Skywalker.
It is his search for the former Grand Master that brings him to Jakku, alerted to the presence of an original Jedi Order survivor, an old man who was but a boy when the Empire first rose from the ashes of the old republic, and whilst the man was never a Jedi Knight, no more than a mildly talented initiate, he had acted as advisor regarding the old order and as friend to Luke after the fall of the empire. A man who retired to Jakku... not long after Luke disappeared.
Kylo Ren's move toward Jakku - deep within Republic space - does not go unnoticed, and Republic Navy pilot Poe Dameron is despatched ahead to investigate... there he is given by the old man a clue on what Luke was doing fifteen years ago, a secret contained in a datachit, but cannot look at the information then as the First Order attacks.
As in TFA, during that attack, FN-2187's programming breaks down and after, aboard the First Order Star Destroyer in orbit, helps Poe to escape.
On Jakku, FN, now calling himself Finn thanks to Poe, encounters a scavenger, a mysterious girl named Rey who is inordinately skilled with a staff. Together, Rey, Finn and their droid companion BB-8 manage to escape the First Order stormtroopers sent to recapture Poe and eliminate Finn... aboard a massively-stripped yet still functional Lambda Class Shuttle - the stripping being of the 'wings'. They quickly realise however, that its not exactly an inconspicuous craft and so Finn gives Rey the co-ordinates of a planet where they might get rid, and the two could go on their own separate ways - Rey back to Jakku if she wishes.
There, Rey and Finn encounter an odd know-everything bartender, who greets both with an odd smile. Not long after that... their host introduces the pair to two 'Old Friends'... Han Solo and Chewbacca, who have just arrived in the Millenium Falcon, despatched by Leia Organa, General of the Republic Navy. Han finds it funny that Finn is a former stormtrooper, given what some of us in the audience know of his 'work experience' when he was younger... and Rey as oddly familiar, and puts it down to a passing resemblance to his 'ex'. (in the we-understand-one-side conversation from that comment with Chewie, we learn that he and Leia got married... divorced... got married... divorced... got married... and are officially 'separated' but the government refused to acknowledge their latest divorce on account of how they'll be back together again soon. Except that that separation began around fourteen years ago.)
Han was surprised Poe wasn't with them - which gets Finn's attention - because Han recognises Finn's jacket as Poe's, and that they had followed an encrypted signal from BB-8, who had intentionally triggered a tracker. Not long after, however, the First Order attack, and Finn fights off some stormtroopers with a lightsaber he can barely wield... um... that part of TFA I'm keeping? Rey had felt the pull to it, only to go 'WTF?' and 'FTS, IGH', and finn took the blade because he felt that she'll use it some day.
Rey is captured by Kylo Ren, and unlike what we got, her interrogation is rather... amicable. And she clearly senses something is off with him when he starts to act the bad guy only to do a 180, and again, almost like he's either got split personality or the other personality isn't him... but both are kinda creepy, ones just, somehow, a bit more charming than the other, so she has the odd sense that's Kylo...
Like in TFA, after being left alone, she breaks out. Unlike TFA, she's not on Starkiller Base (That's not featured in this version of Episode VII!), and manages to hijack a fighter... but not a Tie Fighter, but a fighter that the First Order had captured during the battle over Maz's place. The pilot was interrogated not-so-kindly and died resisting it. But.. there's not many places that Rey knows the hyperspace co-ordinates of... and Jakku is a no-no on account of Kylo would expect her to go there.
So she skips off to the other location, the location whose co-ordinates where in the info BB-8 carried since the First Order attack on Jakku.
The place were Luke is staying, secluded.
Oh. Yes. Episode VII doesn't end on this shot - we have Luke giving Rey some training, and not answering why he disappeared. Finn getting recruited by the Republic and realizing how much he was missing out on. He even meets this cute mechanic who kept staring and blushing when he'd look back and what's this thing called Flirting? And what we finish on... Rey in a spot with Luke no where to be seen, looking at Luke's old Lightsaber that she had managed to rescue (Finn lost it at some point during the fight at Maz' place and was recovered by the FO) then at his new one ... his, newer one. which looks kind of like Kylo Ren's. Crossguard emitters... black casing... like a very close match to Kylo's Lightsaber (though not the same! just a case of how Anakin/Luke/Rey's lightsaber hilt looks almost identical to Vader-as-Vader's in ANH - Vaders was black) She activates it... and it's a red blade...
CUT TO THE CREDITS!
Someone want to come up with a version of Episode VIII that's basically a mix of elements of TFA, TLJ and TROS?
I'll admit, I like the idea that Luke had fallen to the dark side and that it began between TESB and ROTJ, and Yoda was too old to sense it properly during Luke's return after freeing Han, and being on Dagobah REALLY didn't help anyway, and what little he did, he had probably sensed in Anakin at Age 9 anyway - the potential for, rather than actual dark side. Luke was falling without even knowing it, basically, and whilst he realized it in the 'throne room scene' of ROTJ, he didn't actually PULL BACK from it, but just stopped attacking, thinking that was enough.
So here, the story is he was falling badly, and STILL didn't realize it until Ben had turned as a result of his own teachings... teaching that, because of his own unknowing fall, had been heavily tainted. HE is why Kylo/Ben is so screwed up...
And for a time, Luke HAD turned his back on the Jedi as well, but didn't run to the First Order. By the time Rey shows up, he'd flipped back, and realized that he needed balance within himself... and to do that, had to know himself, had to find a way to truly balance the light and dark sides within him... just as there have been many force users so goddamns powerful with the force that its influence amplifies everything and so they were either their greatest ally of the jedi or greatest enemy of various periods - Revan being one who was BOTH, as was Anakin/Vader. He had to find a way to exist peacefully, with both sides forming the whole that is Luke Skywalker.
Keeping a red-bladed lightsaber that, obviously, became the design basis for Kylo's is one such sign.
It's also why he thinks that the Jedi, as an Order, must die along with the Sith - By their very natures, they put the force 'out of balance'. People are emotional beings, and the stronger someone is with the force, the greater the amplified influence the force imparts through those emotions - small irritations become major annoyances... but then the littlest of jokes become the funniest things ever. The Force was out of balance because of the Jedi, because they actively sought to extract their emotions, to push them into the force so they wouldn't feel it... both figuratively and literally Angering and Upsetting the force but because they were not so quick to release the more positive feelings, the force couldn't be soothed by those near as much. This is why the force amplified emotions - because like is drawn to like, and so when there's an angry force user, the force feeds the excess anger from other people in... to quantify it, the more powerful and the more angry they are (so 1+1, or 2+2, or 3+3 etc ) the greater the flow of the same emotion from the force ... so ne=p+e, effect is (p+e)*ne. For, say, three times the power and three times the upset:
(3+3)*6 = 6 * 6 = 36.
Not that strong in the force but just as upset?
(1+3)*4 = 4 * 4 = 16.
Anakin strong?
(10+3)*13 = 13 * 13 = 169
The problems there being that Luke realized that to defeat it, he had to let himself feel it, but doing so opens you to... outside emotion through the force, because the Force is AWASH in the emotions of Jedi who Denied them...
And the Sith, who DONT expell their excess emotion, need culling for OTHER reasons, of course.
And Rey? THIS is what she learned...
THE LOST JEDI
In Summary: Parts of TFA and TLJ. It's not a rehash of ANH. No Starkiller Base.
It's been a handful of decades since the destruction of the second death star over the moon of endor... lets say 25 years. In those years, the Empire rapidly became fractured between those who wished the return of democracy and those who sought power in the vacuum created by the death of the Emporer. And in those 25 years, the Jedi have been rising as a force for good in the galaxy once more. Whilst the Empire is no longer a galaxy-spanning, empire, there are pockets of the tyrannical regime remaining both in the core and outer rim sectors, combated by the rebel alliance-turned-New Republic navy.
Fifteen years before the events of this EpVII, Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, Disappeared, as did several apprentices, including his nephew, Ben Solo. Not long after, one of the Imperial Remnant gained a dark-side force user, who like some of the more infamous of the Sith in the past, wore a mask concealing his or her identity, and soon the galaxy learned his name - Kylo Ren.
By the events of this film, he has become one of the highest ranking officers in the 'First Order', and has been unifying the Imperial Remnant under a single banner, his banner, and spreading terror in his wake, and even has his own cadre of followers, the Knights of Ren. And in the last ten years, has been pushing the New Jedi Order to the brink of destruction... All while in search of something, or rather, someone. Luke Skywalker.
It is his search for the former Grand Master that brings him to Jakku, alerted to the presence of an original Jedi Order survivor, an old man who was but a boy when the Empire first rose from the ashes of the old republic, and whilst the man was never a Jedi Knight, no more than a mildly talented initiate, he had acted as advisor regarding the old order and as friend to Luke after the fall of the empire. A man who retired to Jakku... not long after Luke disappeared.
Kylo Ren's move toward Jakku - deep within Republic space - does not go unnoticed, and Republic Navy pilot Poe Dameron is despatched ahead to investigate... there he is given by the old man a clue on what Luke was doing fifteen years ago, a secret contained in a datachit, but cannot look at the information then as the First Order attacks.
As in TFA, during that attack, FN-2187's programming breaks down and after, aboard the First Order Star Destroyer in orbit, helps Poe to escape.
On Jakku, FN, now calling himself Finn thanks to Poe, encounters a scavenger, a mysterious girl named Rey who is inordinately skilled with a staff. Together, Rey, Finn and their droid companion BB-8 manage to escape the First Order stormtroopers sent to recapture Poe and eliminate Finn... aboard a massively-stripped yet still functional Lambda Class Shuttle - the stripping being of the 'wings'. They quickly realise however, that its not exactly an inconspicuous craft and so Finn gives Rey the co-ordinates of a planet where they might get rid, and the two could go on their own separate ways - Rey back to Jakku if she wishes.
There, Rey and Finn encounter an odd know-everything bartender, who greets both with an odd smile. Not long after that... their host introduces the pair to two 'Old Friends'... Han Solo and Chewbacca, who have just arrived in the Millenium Falcon, despatched by Leia Organa, General of the Republic Navy. Han finds it funny that Finn is a former stormtrooper, given what some of us in the audience know of his 'work experience' when he was younger... and Rey as oddly familiar, and puts it down to a passing resemblance to his 'ex'. (in the we-understand-one-side conversation from that comment with Chewie, we learn that he and Leia got married... divorced... got married... divorced... got married... and are officially 'separated' but the government refused to acknowledge their latest divorce on account of how they'll be back together again soon. Except that that separation began around fourteen years ago.)
Han was surprised Poe wasn't with them - which gets Finn's attention - because Han recognises Finn's jacket as Poe's, and that they had followed an encrypted signal from BB-8, who had intentionally triggered a tracker. Not long after, however, the First Order attack, and Finn fights off some stormtroopers with a lightsaber he can barely wield... um... that part of TFA I'm keeping? Rey had felt the pull to it, only to go 'WTF?' and 'FTS, IGH', and finn took the blade because he felt that she'll use it some day.
Rey is captured by Kylo Ren, and unlike what we got, her interrogation is rather... amicable. And she clearly senses something is off with him when he starts to act the bad guy only to do a 180, and again, almost like he's either got split personality or the other personality isn't him... but both are kinda creepy, ones just, somehow, a bit more charming than the other, so she has the odd sense that's Kylo...
Like in TFA, after being left alone, she breaks out. Unlike TFA, she's not on Starkiller Base (That's not featured in this version of Episode VII!), and manages to hijack a fighter... but not a Tie Fighter, but a fighter that the First Order had captured during the battle over Maz's place. The pilot was interrogated not-so-kindly and died resisting it. But.. there's not many places that Rey knows the hyperspace co-ordinates of... and Jakku is a no-no on account of Kylo would expect her to go there.
So she skips off to the other location, the location whose co-ordinates where in the info BB-8 carried since the First Order attack on Jakku.
The place were Luke is staying, secluded.
Oh. Yes. Episode VII doesn't end on this shot - we have Luke giving Rey some training, and not answering why he disappeared. Finn getting recruited by the Republic and realizing how much he was missing out on. He even meets this cute mechanic who kept staring and blushing when he'd look back and what's this thing called Flirting? And what we finish on... Rey in a spot with Luke no where to be seen, looking at Luke's old Lightsaber that she had managed to rescue (Finn lost it at some point during the fight at Maz' place and was recovered by the FO) then at his new one ... his, newer one. which looks kind of like Kylo Ren's. Crossguard emitters... black casing... like a very close match to Kylo's Lightsaber (though not the same! just a case of how Anakin/Luke/Rey's lightsaber hilt looks almost identical to Vader-as-Vader's in ANH - Vaders was black) She activates it... and it's a red blade...
CUT TO THE CREDITS!
Someone want to come up with a version of Episode VIII that's basically a mix of elements of TFA, TLJ and TROS?
I'll admit, I like the idea that Luke had fallen to the dark side and that it began between TESB and ROTJ, and Yoda was too old to sense it properly during Luke's return after freeing Han, and being on Dagobah REALLY didn't help anyway, and what little he did, he had probably sensed in Anakin at Age 9 anyway - the potential for, rather than actual dark side. Luke was falling without even knowing it, basically, and whilst he realized it in the 'throne room scene' of ROTJ, he didn't actually PULL BACK from it, but just stopped attacking, thinking that was enough.
So here, the story is he was falling badly, and STILL didn't realize it until Ben had turned as a result of his own teachings... teaching that, because of his own unknowing fall, had been heavily tainted. HE is why Kylo/Ben is so screwed up...
And for a time, Luke HAD turned his back on the Jedi as well, but didn't run to the First Order. By the time Rey shows up, he'd flipped back, and realized that he needed balance within himself... and to do that, had to know himself, had to find a way to truly balance the light and dark sides within him... just as there have been many force users so goddamns powerful with the force that its influence amplifies everything and so they were either their greatest ally of the jedi or greatest enemy of various periods - Revan being one who was BOTH, as was Anakin/Vader. He had to find a way to exist peacefully, with both sides forming the whole that is Luke Skywalker.
Keeping a red-bladed lightsaber that, obviously, became the design basis for Kylo's is one such sign.
It's also why he thinks that the Jedi, as an Order, must die along with the Sith - By their very natures, they put the force 'out of balance'. People are emotional beings, and the stronger someone is with the force, the greater the amplified influence the force imparts through those emotions - small irritations become major annoyances... but then the littlest of jokes become the funniest things ever. The Force was out of balance because of the Jedi, because they actively sought to extract their emotions, to push them into the force so they wouldn't feel it... both figuratively and literally Angering and Upsetting the force but because they were not so quick to release the more positive feelings, the force couldn't be soothed by those near as much. This is why the force amplified emotions - because like is drawn to like, and so when there's an angry force user, the force feeds the excess anger from other people in... to quantify it, the more powerful and the more angry they are (so 1+1, or 2+2, or 3+3 etc ) the greater the flow of the same emotion from the force ... so ne=p+e, effect is (p+e)*ne. For, say, three times the power and three times the upset:
(3+3)*6 = 6 * 6 = 36.
Not that strong in the force but just as upset?
(1+3)*4 = 4 * 4 = 16.
Anakin strong?
(10+3)*13 = 13 * 13 = 169
The problems there being that Luke realized that to defeat it, he had to let himself feel it, but doing so opens you to... outside emotion through the force, because the Force is AWASH in the emotions of Jedi who Denied them...
And the Sith, who DONT expell their excess emotion, need culling for OTHER reasons, of course.
And Rey? THIS is what she learned...