Okay, so I went ahead and created a throwaway account for this so I can protect my main account. Fingers crossed that the mouse doesn’t hit this with the ban-hammer but I took a stab at re-editing the TROS ending. So, here are a few notes on my process:
1. I tried to not go crazy with the edit. Every choice I made was meant to be as logical as possible with what I had to work with. Keep in mind, sources say that editors were still making changes as late as Nov. 25th. By that point, little to nothing could be reshot and the score was most certainly set.
2. Most of my editing cues came from the placement of Rey and Ben’s hands as well as trying to spot which scenes had been reversed in post -- like Ben’s “fall.”
3. The rest of my cues came from “Farewell,” which is the track that plays during these scenes. Some of the musical themes only make sense to me in certain contexts (I’m looking at you magical chimes and playful Force theme). Also, that swell to fanfare towards the end is the stereotypical music that plays during Big Kiss™ scene. Don’t believe me? Go watch this scene from Beauty and the Beast for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP3x8rGdbsE. Or this scene from Tangled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dXm3lXFTi4. And who could forget this Big Kiss™ scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooWJpI3Chck
4. Regardless, this exercise has me convinced that there was a lot left behind the cutting room floor. Editing the scene this way not only hits traditional fairytale beats such as the big fanfare swell to the Big Kiss™ scene, but it also plays out as reverse Anidala. I honestly believe that this cut is not too far-fetched based on what is already in the scene and in the story.
With a certain aspect of The Rise of Skywalker, don’t keep reading if you don’t want spoilers.
“What? Oh, come on, with Kylo Ren dying they mean that he will get to turn into Ben Solo, right? Right? They can’t kill him, that would be like shooting themselves on the foot.”
“WHAT THE- SON OF A BITCH!!! HOW COULD YOU?! YOU BETRAYED ME, ALL OF US!!!!! MOTHERFUCKER!!”
“We can maybe get him back somehow in a following movie, there are posibilities for that! Yeah! Let’s everybody sign a peticion to see what happens!”
“You know what? It makes some sense. Ben got to be somehow with his loved ones at least, and he willingly gave his life for Rey, so it’s a little what he wanted. Also, it would have been hard for him coming back with all the public opinion of him and we don’t know if he was prepared for hiding and all that.”
THEN I FOUND OUT SOME RUMOURS WHICH TELL AN ALTERNATIVE ENDING WITH HIM ALIVE and BEING WITH REY AND APOLOGISING to Lando AND CHEWIE AND HIM FINALLY GETTING BACK HOME AND PILOTING THE FALCON AS HE FUCKING WANTED AS A CHILD.
AN ENDING THAT THEY HAVE STOLEN FROM US.
Now I’m stuck in the anger phase.
P.S: I don’t even know if they are actually called phases of grief, all I know they are the stages of some bad phase. I found it on a video of a giraffe who falls on quicksands.
That’s my biggest beef. I understand why they decided to kill Ben. I get it. They couldn’t let Vader live, they weren’t going to let Ben live. But I can’t fucking stand the fact that we watched three movies, followed through his massive character ark, and watched him change completely as a character, just to watch him pass out and die. We were given all of two seconds to accept the fact that Ben Solo was dead and I don’t think that that is fair.