Wait a sec. Is the leaked script not publicly available? Is everyone purely going on the take of a guy who clearly states he's a Trevorrow fanboy who doesn't like JJ Abrams as a director? (I listened to the video)

Because that's a huge red flag. Especially when he spends significant parts of his recap saying things like "and then there's this hilarious dialog" or "and then this scene is so awesome," or "and Rose has a great role in this movie."

If TLJ were described to me this way, with someone saying things like, "And then there's an awesome fight in the throne room!" and, "Then there's this super cool showdown between Luke and the entire First Order army!" and they describe Rose has having a really great role and say things like, "and then Ray offers Luke a lightsaber and there's this really funny moment when she offers it to him," I'd think that sounded cool, too.

Let's see the actual script before we make any calls on if Trevorrow's draft was better than Abrams'.

There are those us capable of separating objective plot points/story from this guy's subjective enthusiasm.

I'm not sure I liked that. I'm pretty happy with how things turned out.

Here's what I like about Trevorrow's take, outside of this Burnett guy's opinion of it...

- First and foremost, Rey isn't a Palpatine in this version, which automatically puts it ahead, IMO. The more I've sat with the decision to make her Palpatine's granddaughter, the more I hate it (and I thought it was terrible the moment I saw it realized). It was just a colossally dumb move, and this, at the very least, would have erased it completely.

- For the first time in the sequel trilogy, it sounds like we finally would have been treated to some kind of greater political context/dynamic than the off-handed bits of exposition provided in the opening crawls. I never had a true feel for the status quo of the galaxy during any of the sequel movies, which was so bizarre. The First Order/Resistance dynamic was always incredibly muddled, and what we did know of it just never quite worked for me in terms of drama. But at the outset of Trevorrow's version, to finally see The First Order essentially ruling the galaxy, the political/dramatic stakes suddenly become crystal clear, in a way reminiscent of the OT.

- Speaking of... I still can't believe we never returned to Coruscant in any of these movies, and this obviously would have remedied that as well. Again, to see The First Order "occupying" Coruscant would have gone such a long way to underline a clear galactic dynamic. To then have a huge chunk of the climax of the movie take place there would have been so appropriate and would have offered more of a nice, full-circle narrative.

- Mustafar/Vader's castle plays a fairly crucial role. We all wanted to see a return to that location, it makes so much sense that Kylo would make a pilgrimage there, and we actually would have known we were there, unlike in TROS.

- I like the idea of the big bad not being human (in Tor Valum), and I like the idea of the big bad having trained Palpatine. Granted, I agree that it would have been cleaner to just make the big bad Darth Plagueis, in both this version and Abrams', but I'm not at all opposed to a Starship Trooper-like big bad "bug" of a Sith residing in some lair at the edge of the galaxy, and then training Kylo in some way.

- And during that training, a Kylo/Vader fight could have been so awesome, even if only in Kylo's head. Just the visuals of that alone would have been worth the price of admission.

- I actually love the idea of the "Force Beacon" under the Jedi Temple. But even if it wasn't a "Force Beacon," and even if it wasn't under the Jedi Temple, specifically, getting-the-message-out/alerting-the-galaxy as an actual plot point is such a no-brainer. Considering the state of the Resistance at the end of TLJ, it's only natural that a major plot point of Episode IX should have hinged more on a gathering/inspiring-the-troops angle. Yes, there was the mention in TROS that no one was responding to the Resistance's beacon, but they could have just as easily said The First Order found a way to block their cries for help. So, right there, you have a major plot point for Episode IX. How does the Resistance get the word out otherwise? They discover an old, galaxy-wide communication system, and it becomes a bit of a Mission: Impossible scenario to activate it. I think that's great.

- There's no series of never-ending McGuffins.

- The dialogue sounds genuinely good, even in these brief excerpts.

- "No one is no one" is such a great theme/mantra. Burnett implies that the line was repeated more than once, and I just really like the idea of building on one of the primary themes in TLJ in such a simple but catchy way.

All that said, again, I still have a few issues with Trevorrow's version, and Abrams *did* improve on it in a couple of minor ways. Trevorrow's version isn't perfect, and sounds like it could have certainly used another few passes, which I'm sure they attempted in the months after this draft (especially in light of Fisher's death, which is what sounds like ultimately did this draft in, apparently).

TCTTS said:

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Seeing as Palpatine still being alive completely undoes the end of ROTJ, this seems like the lesser of two evils to me.

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Considering Anakin directly refutes this and says he set balance to the force kinda refutes you.

This is honestly a case of the grass is greener on the other side. If this was chosen as the REAL TROS, some of the ones praising this would be ****ting all over it.

Having read the outline (planning to watch the video breakdown later), I can't say I love this version that much more than what we already got.

That said, there are a few things that were SORELY missed in TROS --

Coruscant - This was the capital planet for an entire trilogy and then is never seen or mentioned again? I would've loved for the final battle to take place on Coruscant.

Mustafar - I know the opening scene was supposedly Mustafar, but nope, I don't buy that. It looks NOTHING like the Mustafar we know, and is never clear or even hinted at in the movie. I'm about as hardcore a prequel lover as they come, and even I couldn't tell. More scenes on Mustafar (and more clarity about where we are) would've been nice. Not to mention actually acknowledging it as Vader's home.

Force ghosts - I still can't get over the fact that we didn't see a single one until Luke/Leia at the end. Absolute travesty and one of my biggest problems with the whole movie. (My main one, really. The whole final battle with Palps was one huge letdown. Anakin needed to be a part of bringing down Palpatine.)

Until we can actually see the script ourselves this bickering is pointless. If you pulled out the coolest 5 scenes or ideas from any of the other movies and make it sound amazing. If it was 2001 and someone reviewed the aotc script and posted that yoda has a lightsaber fight. Anakin slaughters the tusken raiders who killed his mom, obiwan fights a bounty hunter in Mandalorian combat armor, mace windu fights with a purple lightsaber and there is combo land / air war bigger anything we've ever seen, we would all be singing and dancing too.

I'm not crazy about it but also not crazy about what we got either. Oh well. Fire Kennedy.

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Until we can actually see the script ourselves this bickering is pointless.

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Easy there, Tarkin.

So should we shut down all discussion for all unreleased movies too? End all speculation?

It's a message board. And we're also Star Wars fans. This is what we do, and what this board (and thread) are for.

We can give our opinions and disagree without 1 - being disrespectful, 2 - trying to shut others down.

I always took it as Anakin was the chosen one who brought balance to the force, but the Jedi misinterpreted the prophesy and never realized that when there are thousands of Jedi and two sith out there, you really don't want to balance that equation out.

Reading this thread has me thinking.

I think the Hollywood big shots (whether actors, writers, directors, producers) are really no different than corporate execs in Fortune 500 world.

Some are very, very, good, at what they do. Innovators. Higher thinkers. Leaders. Amazingly creative.

And about just as many were standing at the intersection of preparedness and opportunity. Aka "luck".

I think I could rattle off the handles of 10 Texags regular posters on the SW threads that could have penned better scripts than what was ultimately signed off on for Eps 7-9.

I think the Trevorrow script is more what I was expecting, but not sure it would ultimately have been any better. It also seems to make the final movie more complicated than is necessary.

The more I think about it, the more I get why Abrams wanted it to be Palpatine, but it still annoys the **** out of me that they didn't even take a stab at explaining it.