Synopsis:

TheChosenOneEdits - Star Wars: Episode VIII - "The Trials Of Deception" takes the best parts of "The Last Jedi" and replaces some of the weaker parts with different motivations, new sequences and some deleted scenes. Bigger changes are that Canto Bight is changed into the name of a district/casino on Coruscant, Rey's lineage is changed, Luke Skywalker is no longer a failure, and more surprises....

Intentions:

This film was an entirely missed opportunity, in my opinion, especially as a fan of the first six films, as well as The Force Awakens. Time has past since then, and while I still have my gripes, I feel as though I have finally re-edited this film into a story that I can get onboard with. By taking out some of the unnecessary jokes and unwanted character changes, this edit becomes a quicker paced experience that does NOT follow into The Rise Of Skywalker. It's more of a What If? scenario. Hope you enjoy!

Change List:

-New Disney Hologram logo, as well as 20th Century Fox Fanfare with Lucasfilm -New Opening Crawl and Title -Re-colored scene of Krennic from Rogue One arriving on Mustafar -New 3D scene of “dark apprentice” picking up Kylo Ren from Vader’s Castle with AI voice of Grey DeLisle “Asajj Ventress” as the base voice. “Kylo Ren. My master wishes for me to deliver you to the Supreme Leader. We must make haste.” -Kylo then arrives onboard the Supremacy: “Tied on a string indeed, General Hux. Well done.” -Supreme Leader Snoke is recolored to have gray robes and Sith yellow and red eyes -Minor change of Kylo Ren not saying “Prepare my ship!” when he smashes his mask -Fade to opening of the movie with the Resistance escaping with small deleted scene of Poe talking to Connix over video -The dogfight with the bombers over the Dreadnaught is much shorter -Snoke hologram disappointed in Hux’s “performance” is removed -When Finn awakens, he is scared by Kylo Ren’s crossguard lightsaber igniting before saying “REY!” and doesn’t fall off the bed -Scene then goes to Ahch-To. Luke throwing the lightsaber off of the cliff is removed and goes into Luke’s “daily routine”. -Minor changes follow. Including a behind the scenes shot that is zoomed in and re-colored -Rey goes to the Force tree and finds the books, minor changes to dialogue. -Luke’s dialogue is changed to remove his wishes to die on the island. Instead, he doesn’t want to train Rey because of his fear of loss. AI voice, “I’ve already lost so much. I cannot afford to lose it…. Again.” -Deleted scene of Luke mourning the loss of Han, with the sounds of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber igniting, Chewbacca’s scream, and Rey’s scream, “No!!!” subtly in the background. -Scene then goes to Leia mourning. -Leia’s scene of slapping Poe on the face is removed and goes right to Finn’s dialogue, “We’re really nowhere. How’s Rey gonna find us now?” -The Supremacy arriving is the same scene with a small reorganization of Kylo attacking the cruiser and Poe telling BB-8 to “Jump in and fire up!” -Minor change of First Order character’s response - Hux: What is the point of all THIS if we can’t blow up three tiny cruisers? AI First Order response: The tracker draws too much of our power, sir. They can’t lose us, but they can keep it…. Etc. -Context change: When Leia is out in space, she hears the subtle voice of AI Anakin Skywalker, “Leia… Come back to the light. Don’t give up. Daughter.” His blue, ghost hand reaches out and guides her back to the cruiser -Scene then cuts to Rey training with her staff against the rock. The scene is the same, except for the jumpscare of a flashback between her and Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base for a second. The rock she cuts falls, but no villagers were nearly harmed -Scene then goes to Luke explaining Ben’s upbringing. Scene is the same minus Luke’s talk of the Jedi being a legacy of failure -When Luke explains the first version of what happened the night the Jedi Temple is burned, Luke is on the offensive when clashing sabers with Ben. Flashes of Anakin, Leia and Yoda are seen, similar to Anakin and Asajj Ventress’ duel in Star Wars: Clone Wars 2003. AI Luke’s voice says, “He vanished with a handful of my students… and slaughtered the rest. I was too blind to see it, but… I couldn’t. Snoke had won.” Scene cuts back out of the vision with another dub. “And then I vanished… I can’t teach you.” -Scene then fades to Rey sleeping as Chewbacca eats a Porg. The scene is the same minus the second Porg interaction. -Luke boards the Millennium Falcon. Scene is the same. -After Luke sees the hologram of Princess Leia from A New Hope, another voice dub is heard. “Tomorrow at dawn. I will teach you the ways of the Jedi. You will be my Padawan.” -Scene fades to the briefing of Vice Admiral Holdo, Poe is intrigued with minor changes. The talk of his bombing fleet being his fault is removed. -Deleted scene of Finn holding the beacon and visited by BB-8 is seen. No change to the deleted scene -Finn attempting to get on an escape pod is the same scene. Minor change is that his dialogue of mopping the floors of the Supremacy is removed. -Finn and Rose explaining the plan to Poe is the same. -When Finn, Rose and Poe contact Maz Kanata, a minor dialogue change is that C-3P0 doesn’t say, “Oh, my! It sounds like this code breaker can do anything.” To which she replies, suggestively, “Oh, yes. He can.” -Maz’s dialogue is reorganized so that when she mentions Canto Bight, she is referencing a place called the “Canto Bight Casino”, that way, Coruscant can still exist without directly being mentioned. -The scene of Luke being given back his saber from Rey is recontextualized as a dream sequence. As he holds it, he hears the history from various points such as Padme’s “No!”, Sidious’ “Powerful Sith, you will become.” And finishes with Luke’s famous “Nooo!!!” from Empire Strikes Back. When Rey awakens from the dream, Vader’s breathing is heard -Rey shooting Kylo when they sense each other is the same -A small deleted scene of the villagers is seen with one of the villager’s (with a knife skinning a fish) frustrated Rey shot a hole in the temple. To which Luke’s new response with subtitles is, “She’s new.” But the villager doesn’t buy it. -Rey and Luke begin her training with minor dialogue changes. Instead he begins by asking, “What do you know about the Force?” The rest of the scene is the same until she says, “Inside me, that same Force.” Luke replies, “And this is the lesson.” -Dialogue is removed and goes right into Rey sensing the darkness. -Scene ends with Luke saying, “It offered something you needed…. And you didn’t even try to stop yourself.” Further dialogue is removed explaining Luke’s disconnect from the Force and his fear of Ben Solo -Scene cuts to Finn and Rose departing from the fleet with a 3D ship change to help the flow of the new Coruscant scenes. -The scene is the same with that change. -Rey and Kylo connect again, this is the same, minus the ending fade to Finn and Rose’s arrival on Coruscant. Re-used footage of Coruscant is from Mandalorian Season 3 and 3d scenes are new. -Scene then cuts to a re-edit of the Canto Bight introduction, with three clothes color-changed to add variety. Other minor parts are removed. -When Finn and Rose arrive at the bar, instead of the prancing of the Fathiers, it is the sound of Podracers rumbling the place. -A new scene with footage from Alita: Battle Angel is used as the crowd cheers. An AI voice dub changes the context. “What are those things?” Finn asks. “Podracers. I’ve never seen a real one.” Rose says. Further dialogue about her past is removed and goes to finding the code breaker -The code breaker is color-changed to be blue, same scene. -When BB-8 is thrown out as Finn and Rose are arrested, the scene cuts to footage of Ahch-To provided from YouTube (link above in Various Elements). Rey is admiring the saber and sees Luke’s X-Wing in the water. A scene that was at the beginning of the film, to this point. -A deleted scene of Rey being told that the villagers are being raided, which is a lie, plays out the same. When she confronts Luke about it, she says “I thought they were in danger, I was trying to do something!” To which AI Luke responds, “And that’s what the Resistance needs, but there is much fear that clouds your judgment.” -Scene fades to Holdo saying to stay on course, same scene unchanged -When Poe says, “Finn, Rose, where are you guys?” The scene fades to Coruscant with a re-colored clip from Andor Season 1 -Finn, Rose, BB-8 and DJ escape down the manhole, minor changes. No Fathier escape scene -Scene fades to Rey communing with Kylo again, the scene is the same but without her asking if he has a cowl he can put on -Rey then goes to the dark cave to which she seeks answers. Luke’s scene communicating through the Force with Leia is repurposed so that Rey’s vision happens at the same time as Luke touches the rock. A new scene briefly happens of Luke having a vision of Rey’s origin. His severed hand in a jar, microscopic midichlorians/cells coming together, cloning doctors awakening her from her bacta-tank growing chamber. The scene flashes to white as Rey sees reflections of herself, implying the cloning from Luke’s vision. -When Rey asks to see her parents, the scene cuts back and forth from Luke as he overhears the cloning doctors speak. Female doctor: She’s just a child! Male doctor: You’re not her mother!! -When Rey sees only her reflection, the color changes alluding to her darkness. As this happens, Luke’s eyes open knowing the truth. She is technically his daughter, but she doesn’t know. -When Rey and Kylo connect touching hands, Luke arrives and destroys the hut. Same small fight is seen. -The third and final version of what happened that fateful night is told by Luke as he looks into Ben’s mind. Flashes of Han’s death, Leia’s death, and Snoke manipulating him are seen. The truth is revealed to Luke that Ben Solo has been Kylo Ren for some time and that he is fighting someone. A woman wielding Luke’s first, blue lightsaber. It’s Mara-Jade, with footage re-used from Kill Bill of Uma Thurman, aged. Her AI voice is heard: “At last I see… you are truly dead.” Kylo’s response, using my voice, “Now you will die… Mara.” Flashes of their fight happen. An AI voice of Anakin is heard trying to speak to him saying “Stop! No!” but Snoke interferes by manipulating him with the AI voice of Darth Vader, “Do what must be done.” Kylo strikes her down. Her eyes stare at Luke, he stops looking. -A small dialogue change and rearrange of Luke implies that this “had happened” instead of “what Ben would do”. AI, “He had brought destruction and pain and death and the end of everything I love. And for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it!” Luke ignites his saber, which is red but fades back to green. “And the last thing I saw…. Were the eyes of my nephew.” Luke and Ben’s sabers clash, with the scene removed of Luke saying “BEN, NO!!!” -Rey leaves the island with the Millennium Falcon. Same scene but when Luke puts on the Jedi robes, the dialogue and scene is different. Yoda burning the tree is cut. AI Yoda is heard speaking to Luke. Yoda says that they will guide him, to which he responds, AI, “How?” Re-used Ahsoka footage of Anakin’s force ghost appears and then behind him is young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Scene ends. -Scene cuts to Finn Rose and DJ onboard a stolen ship. This scene is unchanged. -Scene cuts to Poe confronting Holdo and then telling Finn about her plan, this is the same -Scene cuts to Rey going to the Supremacy, this is the same -Finn, Rose and DJ board the Supremacy. The deleted scene where they are going through all the officers is seen. When they get on the elevator, the Stormtrooper that confronts Finn doesn’t refer to him by his code name: FN-2187. This is removed to make it seem as though the Stormtrooper is mixed up with the wrong person -Scene goes to Rey and Kylo on the elevator, slight dialogue cut and meeting Snoke is unchanged -The rest of the scene with Finn, Rose and DJ is the same minus Finn’s talk of knowing where the escape pods are -The rest of the scene remains the same with Finn Rose and DJ’s capture, but the change is that Poe is not stunned by Leia, instead Connix and C-3P0 raise their hands in surrender. When the scene cuts to the transport hangar bay, Poe is seen talking to someone offscreen, which is a repurposed scene from the behind-the-scenes of the film -Holdo and Leia’s slip up of saying May the Force be with you at the same time is cut -As the transports depart from the cruiser, the scene cuts to a voice over, followed by the same scene. “The mineral planet Crait, an uncharted hideout…. etc.” A minor AI Leia voice change states that “Holdo knew the First Order was tracking our big ship, they’re not monitoring for little transports. The tracker uses too much of their power.” After this Poe says, “That could work.” To which another AI Leia dubbed says, “Our plan is too dangerous to let it slip out, which is why she knew the risks. Even if it meant keeping it from you.” -Rey and Kylo’s interaction with Snoke is the same minus one change. When Snoke says, “It was I who bridged your minds.” -The word “minds” is subtly overdubbed with the voice of Darth Vader. The edit is the same as the theatrical version, but this small change makes Kylo look at him and realize from earlier, that Snoke has been manipulating him with the voice of Darth Vader and the helmet -As Rey is being held with the Force in the air by Snoke, the scene cuts to Finn and Rose marching with Stormtroopers when they are caught. This scene is the same -After this, Rey and Kylo’s meeting with Snoke is the same until Snoke is stabbed. The music has been changed to be Anakin’s rage music from Attack Of The Clones, followed by the intense violins of Mace Windu’s interaction with Count Dooku and Jango Fett. The long shot of Rey and Kylo’s fight has been removed -After Finn talks to DJ for the last time, the scene cuts to Kylo and Rey fighting the Praetorian guards with the Duel of the Fates music in the background -From there the rest of the film is the same until Holdo targets the Supremacy. We can see that for one shot, she is using the schematics of the Supremacy to target the tracker as an end point in hyperspace -Small change, the blue lightsaber is not broken -Sound effects for the Supremacy and Star Destroyers being destroyed is heard courtesy of John Camara’s video from YouTube -Finn and Rose escaping is the same minus some pacing changes and he does not scream “Come on!” at Captain Phasma in their fight. -Captain Phasma does not die in this edit -Small change, the close up of Snoke’s dead body is not seen, but the scene plays out the same between Hux and Kylo -After this, the Resistance on Crait is the same, the changes are that Poe does not say “Let’s just pray that big ass door holds long enough for us to get help.” And Finn does not say that the cannon is “Miniaturized Death Star tech.” -The scene with Gareth Edwards and the soldier saying “It’s salt.” is not seen -Poe does not say “What the hell?” when his foot falls through the skim speeder -Minor changes throughout the dogfight occur, such as Rey shouting “Woo!!!” and Finn shouting “Yeah!!!” -Rey and Chewbacca draws the Tie Fighter’s away without Poe saying, “She drew them off, all of them!” and Finn saying “Oh, they hate that ship!“ This was removed because I felt it reiterated what were about to see with the Millennium Falcon flying through the crystal caves -After this, minor changes are that Rose does not say “That is a big gun.” in reference to the cannon -Hux does not comedically repeat Kylo when he says, “All firepower on those speeders.” -Small change is that the speeders fire back with blue lasers, Finn also does this, but when he approaches the cannon, he fires off a laser before the gun gets destroyed -When Finn is about to crash himself into the cannon, Rose stops him, but the close up of her is removed. The dialogue of her saying “I saved you, dummy. That’s how we’re going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” is removed to allow some questions to be asked by the audience. My explanation is that the reason why she stops him is because Finn isn’t thinking straight. Even if he was to crash into the cannon, it would've destroyed him. As well as blown him apart. -After this, the scene from Leia talking to Luke, to Luke facing off the First Order walkers is seen, however, he has his green lightsaber on his belt. The first shot is done by myself, but the rest is done by ImmersionVFX on YouTube -When Luke emerges from the chaos, Kylo orders to face Luke personally, the only change is that he does not throw Hux around -From here the film is the same until Rey says, “Keep scanning for lifeforms.” The scene cuts to Kylo and Luke’s duel. The fight is the same, but their sabers clash at least once. The slow motion of Luke is removed -The scene cuts to the cave which is the same, but when Rey says, “*sigh* Lifting rocks.” the scene cuts to Kylo and Luke, “The Resistance is dead, the war is over…. etc.” -The rest of this is the same until Kylo realizes that Luke tricked him and Luke collapses on the rock back at Ahch-To. Padme’s Rumination’s music is heard as Rey and Leia sense that Luke was a Force projection. -As Luke struggles to climb back onto the rock, he hears a subtle AI female voice, “Luke.” A white light of the sun fades to seeing a vision of Ahsoka Tano, voice of AI Rosario Dawson. “Don’t give up.” -As Ahsoka’s voice goes on, “The Jedi….” the “dark apprentice” seen at the beginning of the film is approaching a dark figure looking at a hologram in an unknown temple -The scene cuts to Kylo Ren having a Force vision connecting to…. Connix. “They’re out there.” -The scene cuts back to the dark figure the dark apprentice is approaching. Ahsoka’s voice continues, “You have to find us.” -The dark figure turns around to see the dark apprentice kneeling before him. The scene cuts to his face cloaking in the dark of the bright light… It is Darth Maul. Alive -His reveal fades to an unknown figure, cloaked, but not completely disguised. He has long dreadlocks, and is clearly older. -The music sweeps to cut to this figure's face…. It is Mace Windu, older, powered by AI -The scene then cuts to Kylo Ren and the army going into the mine. Hux stares at him -The “It’s Over Now” music plays from Star Wars: Rebels -Kylo Ren communicates with Rey one more time before she closes the door of the Millennium Falcon, severing their connection -The Resistance is not celebrating or is cheerful in this version. Finn comforts Rose sleeping from the battle. As Rey stares at him doing this, Leia sits with her in silence. -The scene hard cuts to the powerful music of Luke back on the island looking toward the twin suns, Luke lives -Fade to credits

Special Thanks:

3D models and various elements (not all) can be found here: ElevenLabs Voice AI: https://elevenlabs.io/ EBSynth: https://ebsynth.com/ Leonardo.ai: https://leonardo.ai/ Runway AI: https://runwayml.com/ SketchFab: https://sketchfab.com/ Pack 3D models: https://p3dm.ru/ Cgtrader: https://www.cgtrader.com/ Mixamo: https://www.mixamo.com/#/ Poly Haven: https://polyhaven.com/ ImmersionVFX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwWrmSP65lM John Camara: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVSGMPNo9E devinsupertramp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_0lk8BY0Vk&t=144s