I'm planning/hoping on finishing up my "The Thrawn Trilogy vs. The Disney Sequel Trilogy" Comparison this year but before I do there are a few things I need to get done first, chief among them is finishing up my Catra and Adora Character Study as She-Ra's final season will be referenced a couple of times in the final comparison AND a look at the never made Duel of the Fates.
Not a full fledged review as it's a rough draft of a film that was never made but just a look at the story ideas it had and to see what I think of them and how it might have worked if given the chance to be finished. Much like with Snyder's Justice League Cut I wonder what the reception to this film would have been if it was given a chance to be made. I will say from what I have read and seen in fan recreations of said script I'm sadly underwhelmed. Yes, it's likely a rough draft but given how rushed the development for TDST was throughout its run this is likely the version Disney would have produced in order to get the film out.
I do think there is some good ideas here but like Trilogy Proper, and Rise of Skywalker in-particular, has the problem of A) Rendering the first two Trilogies pointless and B) raises a bunch of questions that clearly have no answers.
Why is Palpatine's old master still alive when Palpatine killed or betrayed every apprentice he ever had espcially since the rule of two is canon in this continuity? Why Did Snoke want Rey's parents dead if he didn't even know about her until The Force Awakens? Who are the Knights of Ren, are they Sith or just dark Force users or just glorified goons with a weird name? How did the First Order get ANOTHER Planet Buster (the Eclipse-class dreadnought) when it was stated in The Last Jedi that they're buying most of their tech from black-market dealers? And the biggest of these, what makes Rey so special that Snoke would order her parents be killed before he even knew she exited?
There's also the issue of the film still refusing to let Rey really lose a fight. Sure, she's blinded and loses to Kylo in the climax... for about 2 minutes and then she gets back up and basically wins the second time around and then her injuries are still undone so what was the point? And there's also the fact that Rey is able to Jedi Mind Trick Poe into leaving... Please note that it was established WAAAY back in A New Hope that the Mind Trick can ONLY influence the weak minded so either the film is implying that Poe is weak minded or that Rey is just so powerful that she can mind trick ANYONE she wants. Pick your poison.
There's also the fact that Rey and Kylo are kinda minor players in the final part of the war and that Kylo STILL redeems himself and does one good deed which costs him his life which is what was done in Return of the Jedi. And during all that we have the downfall of an evil empire in a final battle with the Resistance/Rebellion which includes a massive space battle. So, much like ROS while most of the film is the furthest away from being a retread of its Original Trilogy counterpart it has just enough in common with Jedi that it makes the whole Trilogy just a retread of TOT. Rey and Kylo's arcs are just a retread of Luke and Vader's and if I want to see Luke and Vader's story I can just go and watch Luke and Vader's story in TOT.
What's most notable is that in TTT The Last Command which is the finale chapter of TTT it's the only part of the Trilogy that has a few notable plot points that feel lifted straight out of TOT but because Mara's arc is still different from Luke's and C'baoth and Thrawn are VERY different from Vader and Palpatine it still feels uniquely its own thing instead of just being a retread of Jedi. Mara's arc is not about bringing back the Jedi and redeeming someone from the Dark Side her arc is about overcoming a hatred that was forced upon her by her abusive adoptive father. C'baoth was never going to be redeemed because he was just insane and refused to seek redemption no matter how much it was offered to him.
I think DOTF would have had a mixed reception and likely would have still been seen as an ending aversion given how it and the Trilogy as a whole undid everything the Original Trilogy set out and just feels like set up for another Trilogy when this was constantly advertised as the True Grand Finale of Star Wars.
Thoughts?
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