(No Episode IX spoilers, at least not for the real film. ...not that you should care.)
I didn't like The Rise of Skywalker, it's taken me a long time to realise that, but I really, really didn't. It didn't feel like a huge betrayal, just a dispiriting disappointment. Maybe I'm too old to be angry at it, maybe it got the texture sufficiently correct that I couldn't truly despise every part of it.
The plan, many (many) months ago, was to write a huge article about where I felt the film went wrong, yet also praising all the many little things it did so very right. But in planning the article I felt it just made me sad. I didn't want to write about something that makes me sad and I wouldn't see the point of having written it if I don't get any enjoyment out of the writing or felt that it having been written would do anybody any good. The film's out there, and there's no taking that back.
There was one corner of the article where I did jot down a lot of notes though, and where I was actually having fun. What I would have done differently, if I had written the film. These were originally ways to adapt the Rise of Skywalker script, but I realised that what I liked most were the segments that basically didn't have any basis in the real film.
Long story short, I scrapped that whole article and wrote my own Episode IX.
It's flawed, it's probably very dumb, it wouldn't be for everybody, but I had a blast writing it.
You might enjoy reading it, so here it is:
Meanwhile, the Resistance is scrambling to get off whatever planet they were on. Allowing a grieving son a chance to say goodbye to his mother is one thing, sitting around waiting for him to come back with friends and a different attitude is something else entirely.
Their goal remains the same, rebuild the Resistance and take down the First Order. They pack up the Falcon and a solitary Corellian Corvette (the same type as Leia's ship from the opening of New Hope, they were used by both the Rebellion and the Resistance quite a bit).
Inside the Falcon we see the gang divide up recruitment / outreach missions to small teams, that will each contact a different faction or planetary government in an attempt to change their mind on ignoring the growing threat of the First Order.
(There is obviously a lot of dialogue here as well, but this isn't actually going to be a full script. More of a premise / point / thought experiment, and even this already took me a looong time. Screenwriting is hard work, who knew?!)
Screenswipe!
Back at the main First Order fleet Hux is in a heated exchange with Kylo Ren. Heated on Hux' side, at least. Ren seems distracted, dismissive.
Hux: "I didn't realise a Supreme Leader's duties included going after low level criminal gangs. Without backup. With his locator beacon turned off."
Kylo: "It was personal."
Hux: "Personal? Personal?! We don't have time for personal! More and more systems are starting to question our control. We are losing too many skirmishes, and the eyes of the galaxy are on us."
Kylo: "We outnumber the Resistance a thousand to one and their Princess is dead."
Hux: "Nobody cares how small they are! They're a symbol! They were never a direct threat to our power, they are a threat to how we are perceived. If we don't wipe them out we risk losing everything that we have worked towards."
Kylo: "And if we did?"
Hux was angry before, but this is a new level of rage. He breathes in, veins popping up unflatteringly in his neck and face as he is about to scream in Kylo's face, but we...
Screenswipe!
Poe's X-Wing and Rey's B-Wing drop out of hyperspace over the green-blue surface of Naboo. We join them in an ongoing discussion over comms.
Poe: "I'm telling you, you're going to love these guys. Half the people are called Gungans and they live in these underwater cities and they talk in this hilarious accent."
Rey: "Entire cities under water? I hope we get to see them."
Poe: "I hope so too, but we might not have time, the Palace just sent through the landing clearance."
Screenswipe to them approaching the throne room doors.
Poe: "Last I heard they elected their first Gungan queen. You should let me do the talking, I did a few favours for old Boss Lyonie. We go back a long way, him and me."
As the doors open we see the queen on her throne, meticulously painted but clearly a gungan. A fusion of the two cultures. She is flanked by the Naboo Royal Guard, which is almost half gungan these days as well.
Poe addresses the Queen in a surprisingly convincing Gungan-ese dialect, which is then immediately subverted by the Gungan Queen answering in the poshest of posh perfect English.
The Naboo agree to support the Resistance against the First Order on the condition that they can also convince the Gungan High Council in Otoh Gunga.
Rey quietly asks if that's the underwater city, Poe answers that it's the largest of many. Rey smiles at the prospect, but unfortunately we don't get to accompany her just yet because we...
Screenswipe!
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9428047/Screen_Shot_2017_10_09_at_10.29.50_PM.png "\"Promised scenic view is of a grimy hangar, 2/5\"")
Hux is looking down into a hangar where Kylo's fighter is taking off again. He turns away from the window and is joined by an aide as he walks down a hallway. She informs him of the progression of their new super weapon, Project Nova. We get the impression that this is something Hux is keeping from Kylo Ren. Project Nova is a set of three large (but not Death Star large) space stations that can encircle a sun and force it to go supernova, causing it to engulf a system before shrinking back down, leaving the system scorched and barren. The stations themselves are strongly shielded and armoured and endure this blast. (Which doesn't make any sense, but it's still better than Starkiller Base's dreadful nonsense).
The rough workings of these weapons is briefly explained to the audience in this exposition-dump of a status update, maybe helped by one of those fancy hand-projectors we saw in the prequels.
Hux stops walking and dismisses the aide, saying he has to check on a different project. As the aide leaves he enters a(n almost comically) long combination into the code pad next to a thickly sealed blast door which slides open to reveal a black sarcophagus. The fist-sized glowing red pyramid of a sith holocron embedded in the top pulses slowly, as if it were a beating heart. One of the guards, dressed all in red, mirroring both Emperor Palpatine's Royal Guards as well as Snoke's throne room guards, salutes and speaks up.
Guard: "General! The resurrection project is progressing well."
Hux: "When will we be able to awaken him?"
Guard: "A matter of hours, sir. The holocron's instructions were very clear."
Hux: "Good, I've had about enough of dealing with children."
Guard: "Sir?"
Hux: "Not your concern, trooper. Keep me posted on any developments, no matter how trivial."
Guard: "Sir."
Screenswi- except not quite. As the swipe reaches the corner of the screen, where a red guard is hastily turning out of the room. The camera pans to follow them and to highlight on their wrist that they are wearing a transmitter bracelet very reminiscent of the cloaked binary beacon Rey and Finn had in The Last Jedi. Then we finish the -swipe.
Poe is standing in front of the Falcon, Lando next to him.
Poe's strikeforce is engaging the second Nova ship and doing about as well as could be expected. The toydarian we saw earlier has a weird scrap pile of a ship that is charging up some sort of an attack which is the crux of their plan to take down the second ship. Tension mounts as the charge bar slowly fills, and the Resistance takes losses (nobody we really know, obviously).
![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1*bc7N3QksPpdqEq_hhVIlnw.png "She's so cool! /O_O\")
Anakin smiles and the pair of them join Rey, raising their arms towards the Sun, hands reaching as if the grasp it out of the sky. We cut to the expanding wave of flame rushing towards the planet and see it bend inward as the music swells. Their efforts are having an effect... but as the camera zooms out again we gain the perspective that this is a tiny buckling of the impossibly large wave, insignificant in the face of the onslaught.
Ahsoka and Anakin smile gratefully at their old master and nod at him. As they do, another Force Ghost materialises beside him.
I didn't like The Rise of Skywalker, it's taken me a long time to realise that, but I really, really didn't. It didn't feel like a huge betrayal, just a dispiriting disappointment. Maybe I'm too old to be angry at it, maybe it got the texture sufficiently correct that I couldn't truly despise every part of it.
The plan, many (many) months ago, was to write a huge article about where I felt the film went wrong, yet also praising all the many little things it did so very right. But in planning the article I felt it just made me sad. I didn't want to write about something that makes me sad and I wouldn't see the point of having written it if I don't get any enjoyment out of the writing or felt that it having been written would do anybody any good. The film's out there, and there's no taking that back.
There was one corner of the article where I did jot down a lot of notes though, and where I was actually having fun. What I would have done differently, if I had written the film. These were originally ways to adapt the Rise of Skywalker script, but I realised that what I liked most were the segments that basically didn't have any basis in the real film.
Long story short, I scrapped that whole article and wrote my own Episode IX.
It's flawed, it's probably very dumb, it wouldn't be for everybody, but I had a blast writing it.
You might enjoy reading it, so here it is:
The Script / A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
EPISODE IX
RISE OF THE ORDER
Hope is fading from the galaxy. The First Order has dealt a crippling blow to the Resistance and is expanding its reach with impunity.
As system after system falls to their overwhelming power, rumour has it that they are working on something that would effectively turn them into a NEW EMPIRE.
While doing their best to regain their footing the Resistance's plans are tragically interrupted as a recruitment mission goes wrong and Princess Leia is killed.
This small band of rebels now pauses to grieve their loss....
(If you didn't see a fancy Star Wars crawl right above this line, please refresh the page and scroll down faster. I put quite a lot of work into getting it right.)
The opening crawl informs us that Leia Organa is dead and the opening scene is that of her funeral. That crawl pans down to reveal that the traditional starscape this time was the starlit night over the ceremony in a small forest clearing. The camera starts in the back of the clearing and moves forward through the ranks of Resistance fighters. We see the heroes with their backs turned to the camera, Rey near the back, the camera focuses on the funeral pyre and moves forward until it reaches it (we've only ever really seen cremations in Star Wars, haven't we?). Poe, who was sitting in the front between Finn and Chewbacca, stands up to deliver the eulogy.
"People expect very specific things from a Princess, General Leia Organa proved those people wrong. From the very beginning she..."
As his speech starts the camera turns to face the assembled group, smaller than it looked from behind. Vulnerable, grieving. The camera moves away from Poe, and through the crowd and we see the grief etched onto the faces of the characters we have have come to know and love. The camera lingers on Rey's face, as the sound of Poe's speech becomes muffled. The audio cue that Rey is connecting to Kylo Ren through the Force that was established in the previous film. Frustration at its timing is visible on her face, but she attempts to keep her decorum and preserve the moment. She slowly looks around and behind her to see a figure wearing a hood, walking towards her.
The music tenses as he approaches, head bent forward, almost stumbling. Audience attention is on him so much that they aren't supposed to notice that Poe has stopped talking in response to the approaching figure. Ren is actually there. He moves forward through the ranks as they instinctively pull back, acknowledging none of them, lifting his cowl to reveal his face as he reaches the fire. He is in anguish, tears rolling down his face.
He reaches out his hand towards the pyre, as if to grasp something, and we see a vision of how Leia died. A chance encounter with Kanjiklub that the Resistance had attempted to turn into a recruitment opportunity had gone horribly wrong. Leia had jumped in at the last second to save Poe from being shot. The camera in the vision pans out as Leia gets shot, through the viewport of the Kanjiklub ship.
Focus returns to Kylo Ren, his glove smouldering from the prolonged proximity to the fire, as he pulls it back and turns around. Only to stare into over a dozen blasters pointed at his direction. He grimaces, "So, who talks first?"
Poe can't help but smirk, Finn is less amused. "You have a lot of nerve coming here."
Kylo: "I had to see it, and I did. Kanjiclub. Where did this happen?"
Poe's face softens in understanding.
"People expect very specific things from a Princess, General Leia Organa proved those people wrong. From the very beginning she..."
As his speech starts the camera turns to face the assembled group, smaller than it looked from behind. Vulnerable, grieving. The camera moves away from Poe, and through the crowd and we see the grief etched onto the faces of the characters we have have come to know and love. The camera lingers on Rey's face, as the sound of Poe's speech becomes muffled. The audio cue that Rey is connecting to Kylo Ren through the Force that was established in the previous film. Frustration at its timing is visible on her face, but she attempts to keep her decorum and preserve the moment. She slowly looks around and behind her to see a figure wearing a hood, walking towards her.
The music tenses as he approaches, head bent forward, almost stumbling. Audience attention is on him so much that they aren't supposed to notice that Poe has stopped talking in response to the approaching figure. Ren is actually there. He moves forward through the ranks as they instinctively pull back, acknowledging none of them, lifting his cowl to reveal his face as he reaches the fire. He is in anguish, tears rolling down his face.
He reaches out his hand towards the pyre, as if to grasp something, and we see a vision of how Leia died. A chance encounter with Kanjiklub that the Resistance had attempted to turn into a recruitment opportunity had gone horribly wrong. Leia had jumped in at the last second to save Poe from being shot. The camera in the vision pans out as Leia gets shot, through the viewport of the Kanjiklub ship.
Focus returns to Kylo Ren, his glove smouldering from the prolonged proximity to the fire, as he pulls it back and turns around. Only to stare into over a dozen blasters pointed at his direction. He grimaces, "So, who talks first?"
Poe can't help but smirk, Finn is less amused. "You have a lot of nerve coming here."
Kylo: "I had to see it, and I did. Kanjiclub. Where did this happen?"
Poe's face softens in understanding.
Poe: "Over Dandoran. She- she saved me."
Ren acknowledges this information with a quiet, grateful nod and starts to walk back the way he came, ignoring the assembled Resistance fighters. Chewie growls a question, not unkindly.
Kylo: "I'm going to destroy them all. For her."
Chewie growls a quiet response that makes Kylo turn around.
Kylo: "For me, then."
Kylo: "I'm going to destroy them all. For her."
Chewie growls a quiet response that makes Kylo turn around.
Kylo: "For me, then."
Kylo raises his cowl back up and turns to leave. The resistance fighters slowly lower their weapons as he walks out of the clearing.
Screenswipe!
Screenswipe!
We see the Kanjiclub ship from the vision engaged in a skirmish against a handful of fighters escorting some freighters in high orbit over green-blue Dandoran. Ren's fighter jumps in from lightspeed, and immediately opens fire. Disabling the Kanjclub ship and indiscriminately taking down most of the fighters on both sides. His flying is reckless, aggressive, enraged. He docks with the Kanjiclub ship, the crew members scramble to cover the airlock. (Obviously mirroring the opening of New Hope, yes this is a blatant nostalgia nod and it won't be the last one either. Deal with it!)
A crackling red lightsaber is stabbed through the door multiple times before it is blown out of its frame with a force blast, Kylo rages through the ship, killing everybody he can find until, at last, on the bridge, he is done and alone. With his back to the camera he falls to his knees, and the camera pans out in the same way as in his vision, except we now see two Star Destroyers have jumped into orbit as well and are deploying Tie Fighters.
Screenswipe!
A crackling red lightsaber is stabbed through the door multiple times before it is blown out of its frame with a force blast, Kylo rages through the ship, killing everybody he can find until, at last, on the bridge, he is done and alone. With his back to the camera he falls to his knees, and the camera pans out in the same way as in his vision, except we now see two Star Destroyers have jumped into orbit as well and are deploying Tie Fighters.
Screenswipe!
Meanwhile, the Resistance is scrambling to get off whatever planet they were on. Allowing a grieving son a chance to say goodbye to his mother is one thing, sitting around waiting for him to come back with friends and a different attitude is something else entirely.
Their goal remains the same, rebuild the Resistance and take down the First Order. They pack up the Falcon and a solitary Corellian Corvette (the same type as Leia's ship from the opening of New Hope, they were used by both the Rebellion and the Resistance quite a bit).
Inside the Falcon we see the gang divide up recruitment / outreach missions to small teams, that will each contact a different faction or planetary government in an attempt to change their mind on ignoring the growing threat of the First Order.
(There is obviously a lot of dialogue here as well, but this isn't actually going to be a full script. More of a premise / point / thought experiment, and even this already took me a looong time. Screenwriting is hard work, who knew?!)
Screenswipe!
Back at the main First Order fleet Hux is in a heated exchange with Kylo Ren. Heated on Hux' side, at least. Ren seems distracted, dismissive.
Hux: "I didn't realise a Supreme Leader's duties included going after low level criminal gangs. Without backup. With his locator beacon turned off."
Kylo: "It was personal."
Hux: "Personal? Personal?! We don't have time for personal! More and more systems are starting to question our control. We are losing too many skirmishes, and the eyes of the galaxy are on us."
Kylo: "We outnumber the Resistance a thousand to one and their Princess is dead."
Hux: "Nobody cares how small they are! They're a symbol! They were never a direct threat to our power, they are a threat to how we are perceived. If we don't wipe them out we risk losing everything that we have worked towards."
Kylo: "And if we did?"
Hux was angry before, but this is a new level of rage. He breathes in, veins popping up unflatteringly in his neck and face as he is about to scream in Kylo's face, but we...
Screenswipe!
Poe's X-Wing and Rey's B-Wing drop out of hyperspace over the green-blue surface of Naboo. We join them in an ongoing discussion over comms.
Poe: "I'm telling you, you're going to love these guys. Half the people are called Gungans and they live in these underwater cities and they talk in this hilarious accent."
Rey: "Entire cities under water? I hope we get to see them."
Poe: "I hope so too, but we might not have time, the Palace just sent through the landing clearance."
Screenswipe to them approaching the throne room doors.
Poe: "Last I heard they elected their first Gungan queen. You should let me do the talking, I did a few favours for old Boss Lyonie. We go back a long way, him and me."
As the doors open we see the queen on her throne, meticulously painted but clearly a gungan. A fusion of the two cultures. She is flanked by the Naboo Royal Guard, which is almost half gungan these days as well.
Poe addresses the Queen in a surprisingly convincing Gungan-ese dialect, which is then immediately subverted by the Gungan Queen answering in the poshest of posh perfect English.
The Naboo agree to support the Resistance against the First Order on the condition that they can also convince the Gungan High Council in Otoh Gunga.
Rey quietly asks if that's the underwater city, Poe answers that it's the largest of many. Rey smiles at the prospect, but unfortunately we don't get to accompany her just yet because we...
Screenswipe!
Hux is looking down into a hangar where Kylo's fighter is taking off again. He turns away from the window and is joined by an aide as he walks down a hallway. She informs him of the progression of their new super weapon, Project Nova. We get the impression that this is something Hux is keeping from Kylo Ren. Project Nova is a set of three large (but not Death Star large) space stations that can encircle a sun and force it to go supernova, causing it to engulf a system before shrinking back down, leaving the system scorched and barren. The stations themselves are strongly shielded and armoured and endure this blast. (Which doesn't make any sense, but it's still better than Starkiller Base's dreadful nonsense).
The rough workings of these weapons is briefly explained to the audience in this exposition-dump of a status update, maybe helped by one of those fancy hand-projectors we saw in the prequels.
Hux stops walking and dismisses the aide, saying he has to check on a different project. As the aide leaves he enters a(n almost comically) long combination into the code pad next to a thickly sealed blast door which slides open to reveal a black sarcophagus. The fist-sized glowing red pyramid of a sith holocron embedded in the top pulses slowly, as if it were a beating heart. One of the guards, dressed all in red, mirroring both Emperor Palpatine's Royal Guards as well as Snoke's throne room guards, salutes and speaks up.
Guard: "General! The resurrection project is progressing well."
Hux: "When will we be able to awaken him?"
Guard: "A matter of hours, sir. The holocron's instructions were very clear."
Hux: "Good, I've had about enough of dealing with children."
Guard: "Sir?"
Hux: "Not your concern, trooper. Keep me posted on any developments, no matter how trivial."
Guard: "Sir."
Screenswi- except not quite. As the swipe reaches the corner of the screen, where a red guard is hastily turning out of the room. The camera pans to follow them and to highlight on their wrist that they are wearing a transmitter bracelet very reminiscent of the cloaked binary beacon Rey and Finn had in The Last Jedi. Then we finish the -swipe.
We see a lone First Order troop transport coming in to land through a thick layer of clouds. (If the transports we know, these, don't have hyperdrives, introduce a distinct variant. Even if you don't care, I do.) The sight is familiar, Cloud City.
Its landing platform is already occupied by an even more familiar shape, the Falcon. As the transport lands beside it, armed Bespin guards approach the ship's landing ramp weapons drawn. Chewie and Finn are among them, alert as well. Eagle-eyed viewers might spot a similar binary beacon on Finn's wrist, but the camera doesn't bother to linger on it.
The boarding ramp lowers, and the lone red guard from the previous scene exits slowly, hands raised, helmet removed. It's Rose! Chewie and Finn run up and greet her warmly. Chewie with a hug, Finn with an embrace and a kiss. The guards look unsurely at a caped figure behind their line. We see a hand gesture for them to lower their rifles.
Screenswipe!
The camera pans through the water towards the Otoh Gunga council room where a flickery holographic image of Rose is explaining what she has learned on her infiltration. She has done her job well and knows of both of Hux' secret projects.
Poe: "You're telling me they have a new superweapon and they're reviving somebody using Sith magic?"
Rose: "That about covers it, yeah."
Poe: "We just can't catch a break... what do we do now?"
Rey: "We need more information, I might know a way..."
Screenswipe!
Rey sits down to meditate in the chambers that were laid out for her in Otoh Gunga. She calms, her breathing steadies as she reaches out through the Force and connects to Kylo Ren. The first time she has consciously instigated their link.
Kylo: "This is a bad time."
Rey: "It is. Ben, I'm so sorry about-"
Kylo: "Don't say it. That is not what I meant."
As the shot of Kylo Ren zooms out we see him locked in another heated space battle. The opposing ships are unfamiliar to us, but at least he has backup this time. Three Star Destroyers and several squadrons of Tie Fighters are part of the fray as well, but they appear to be losing. Two of the Star Destroyers are already burning, one of them on the verge of breaking apart.
Rey: "Ben, you're clinging to your past. These latest plans. You're just repeating the cycle."
Kylo: "What plans? What are you talking about?"
Rey: "You don't know?"
Kylo: "If you're trying to distract me I'll just ignore you."
Rey: "You actually don't know. Ben, please. Leave the First Order, come to us. There is a place for you here."
In Kylo Ren's background we continued to see the space battle, and the growing First Order losses. The two damaged Star Destroyers have already gone down and are now slowly drifting husks. The third of the Star Destroyers explodes with a muffled but large explosion.
Kylo: "Will you tell me what I don't know already?!"
Rey: "Hux is hiding things from you. His new Nova weapon and-"
Furious Screenswipe!
Kylo Ren's ship is coming in to land in the First Order fleet's primary dreadnought again, it is damaged and sparks are flying off of it. Hux is awaiting his arrival, with perhaps slightly more stormtroopers scattered around the hangar than would be expected. Kylo Ren climbs out of his fighter.
Hux: "Lord Ren, it looks like the Trandoshan slaver fleet gave you more trouble than expected."
Kylo: "That would be because they numbered ten times what you claimed."
Hux: "I assure you, Lord R-" *force-choked*
The troopers tentatively raise their blasters in the directions of the conversation. Kylo is unphased, eyes on Hux.
Kylo: "Spare me your excuses. I know you want to get rid of me. I know about your project."
Hux coughs as he is released, dropping to his knees as he catches his breath.
Hux: "My Lord, I planned to reveal Project Nova to you as soon as the final testing had completed."
Kylo: "Not that one."
Hux: "Ah. Y-" *force-choked*
Kylo: "Take me there. Right now."
Hux gestures frantically for the troopers around them to lower their blasters, as they had closed in on Kylo Ren and were now circling him.
Kylo uses the Force to drag Hux down the corridors, the troopers following at a cautious distance, unsure of how to handle this situation. Hux unlocks the door to the revival chamber and they enter. The camera pans, resting briefly on the sarcophagus lid on the floor and the cracked, burned out holocron still embedded in it.
The sarcophagus itself comes into view, we see a cloaked figure standing inside it. His back to the camera but facing Kylo and Hux, as we can hear a menacing, slow, machine-aided breathing sound that we all know. Vader.
Screenswipe!
Maz Kanata looks up in shock, reacting to Vader's revival as she senses it through the force.
Maz: It can't be...
???: I feel it too. It's definitely him.
The camera zooms out and pans from Maz' close-up. Maz is on Felucia (the colourful giant alien forest planet, we saw it a tiny bit in the prequel trilogy), behind her stands a tame rancor. A hooded figure sits atop it.
Maz: We should get moving, this complicates things.
Screenswipe!
We follow a smug-looking Hux as he strides into a throne room, clearly Darth Vader has been immediately installed as a high ranking member within the First Order. On his way in he passes Kylo Ren, who is barely able to contain his frustration. After checking that Ren is well outside of earshot Hux can't help but gloat to Vader.
Hux: Lord Ren appears distraught.
Vader: The boy will do as he has been told.
Hux can barely suppress a grin, though he might not have been trying that hard.
Hux: You requested to see me, Lord Vader?
Vader: Yes, Supreme Commander Hux. I am most impressed with this Nova weapon, you have done well.
Hux: Thank you, my L-
Vader: However, I fear it isn't adequately defended.
Hux: My Lord? The Nova ships are better shielded and armoured than any dreadnought, no firepower exists that could take them down.
Vader: Thinking like that lost the Emperor two Death Stars, we will not repeat his mistakes.
Assuming that the Emperor is a sore spot for Vader, Hux chooses his next words carefully.
Hux: ...what are you thinking my Lord?
Vader: That you are right. This Resistance lacks the firepower to face even a single nova ship, so they will launch a fighter assault in an attempt to breach it and blow it up from within. You can try to assure me that this is impossible, but as I hear it you lost Starkiller Base to exactly the same tactic.
Hux swallows, silently cursing whoever told Vader about Starkiller Base. Kylo Ren, maybe?
Hux: Yes, my Lord.
Vader: What we need is a way to stop the Resistance dead in their tracks, we will develop a tractor beam array that can selectively hold their assault squadrons in place while our ships pick them off.
Hux: My Lord, I don't know if such a technology exists. I can have our engineers look into it, bu-
Vader: No. I will build the array. A list of part has been prepared, send them here as soon as possible.
Hux picks up the datapad Vader gestured at, the list is long and detailed, but manageable. He smirks, blessing his fortunes that the monster he revived appears altogether a lot more sane and helpful than he could have imagined.
Screenswipe!
The Resistance fleet has grown, the recruiting efforts have been paying off, and their numbers increase with each passing day. The ships are a wild hodgepodge of familiar and new designs, we zoom in on the central ship, a Mon Calamari cruiser.
We see Lando enter its meeting room, similar to the one we've seen in Return of the Jedi.
Lando: This makes me back, though it feels weird without Han.
Chewie growls sympathetically.
Lando: I know you do.
Lando looks around the room, a wild number of aliens sits around the chamber. Twi'lek, Wookie, Mon Calamari, Rodian, Sullustan even a lone Toydarian and a Chadra-Fan near the center. Chewie walks over to greet one of the Wookies.
Lando: More than I feared.
Rose: It's less than it might seem, a lot of them represent refugee groups that we have taken in. We have maybe 200 starfighters in total, assuming we all make it to the rendezvous point.
Lando looks behind him at Rose, now dressed in regular Resistance garb. Unsure what to make of the comment. Rose looks focused, worried.
Lando: Do we have a plan?
Rose: We'd better. We can't hide numbers like this for long.
Finn walks to the center of the room and brings up the holographic projections of Poe, Rey and the Gungan Queen. The room quiets down. Poe explains that the situation is dire. The Resistance is grateful so many have heeded their call, but the First Order still vastly outnumbers and outguns them.
What little plan they have consists of all troops gathering over Naboo, with the majority of the fleet landing on Naboo's moons to hide their presence. Their hope is to ambush an unsuspecting Vader and the Nova ships. Meanwhile the refugees will be sheltered on the planet, both in Theed and Otoh Gunga.
All the plan needs is for the First Order to find out they are gathering on Naboo, which again is up to Rey.
Screenswipe!
Rey is piloting a Gungan submarine by herself back to Theed, as she does she reaches out to Kylo Ren. He is sitting in his chambers, calm, calculating, no longer showing any of the rage Hux observed in him earlier.
Kylo: I was waiting for you. One of these days I'll figure out how to connect with you as well.
Rey just smiles, causing Kylo to fluster, if only for a second.
Kylo: You know what I meant. Either way, I should thank you. You were right. Hux was hiding many things. You asked me to join you once, I think I'm ready now. If you'll still have me.
Kylo Ren looks sincere, Rey is surprised and sceptical at this development, but figures she could kill two (Star Wars equivalent to) birds with one (space) stone.
Rey: Ben. I'm- Of course you can still join me. I'm on Naboo, with the last remnants of the Resistance.
Kylo: Naboo? You think he'll hesitate to come there... good thinking.
Rey: Vader would? ..why?
Kylo: I guess the Legends don't go back quite as far when it comes to him... I'll tell you later.
Screenswipe!
Vader watches Ben's fighter shake off Tie Fighter pursuit and jump to lightspeed.
Hux: Are you sure about this, my Lord? He has disabled the locator beacon in the past.
Vader: He won't find all the tracking devices I had installed on his ship, he will lead us straight to the Resistance and we will obliterate them.
Hux: Excellent, my Lord.
Screenswipe!
Rey sits on the Naboo shoreline, her submarine dragged onto the coast a short way using the Force. She is tinkering with her staff, attaching what looks very much like a hand-crafted lightsaber to the end. Clearly she is unsure what to make of Ben's sudden change of heart, still fearing it might lead to a fight.
She looks up as Kylo's fighter starts to come in to land. He steps out gingerly, unsure of how she will react.
Rey: You came alone?
Ben: For now, Vader is bound to be tracking my ship. But you knew that would be a risk by telling me where you were, didn't you?
Rey shrugs.
Rey: If it means a chance to get you on our side...
Ben smiles a small smile.
Ben: You care, but you don't care enough to risk the Resistance for me. You wanted me to guide them here, one way or the other.
Rey raises her staff.
Rey: If you knew this was a trap, then why come?
Ben: Because I'm serious. I'm done with the First Order, together we can end it.
Screenswipe!
The First Order fleet is on the move, forming into rough wings around the massive Nova weapon ships. We cut to the bridge of a massive Dreadnought.
Vader: Triple the escort on the Nova ship with the tractor beam array, we'll use that one to pass close to Naboo, drawing out any strike force they might have lying in wait for us.
Nameless Bridge Officer: Yes, my Lord.
Meanwhile Hux is looking over a landing force. Heavy stormtroopers, multiple types of assault walker, even a number of submersibles have been prepared. Hux smiles to himself, it's not a very stable smile, but he appears to be enjoying himself regardless. He turns and inspects a smaller squad, about three dozen of the same type of red soldiers that Ben and Rey killed in Snoke's throne room in The Last Jedi.
His thoughts couldn't be clearer. He will destroy Kylo Ren.
Screenswipe!
Poe is standing in front of the Falcon, Lando next to him.
Poe: Are you sure about this? I trust Rey, but I don't think I can trust Kylo Ren this easily.
Lando: That's not who he is anymore, or so he claims. It's Ben. Ben Solo.
Poe: And you buy all that?
Lando: Honestly? I don't know. He was always a quiet kid, intense you know? I don't think he'd harm me though.
Poe: I hope you're right.
Lando: And if he does, Chewie will pull his arms off.
Poe smirks, and turns as Ben descends from the Falcon adjusting his shirt. He is wearing something other than black, vaguely reminiscent of Han Solo's outfit, but with perhaps a hint of a jedi tunic. He looks uncertain but determined.
Ben: How do I look?
Lando: Like you're about to steal this ship from under me.
Seeing Ben's uncertainty how to take that comment, he quickly adds:
Lando: That's a good thing, you remind me of Han.
Poe: Ben... don't let us down up there.
Ben: As long as this pile of rust doesn't fall apart around us you can count on us.
They both know that wasn't what Poe meant, but it'd have to do for now. With one last nod Poe turns and climbs into his X-Wing, BB-8 is already in position. Poe puts on his helmet and starts to take off.
As the camera pans up we see a small fleet of fighters do the same, with the Falcon bringing up the rear. They join a Frigate in orbit, forming the decoy force.
Screenswipe!
Theed is preparing to fight off invaders, a gungan bubble shield is activated from a number of towers around the city. As it slowly descends over the entire city Resistance hover tanks start rolling up to cover it further. Unlike the situation 67 years earlier, the city is defended mostly by its populace and the Resistance fighters. The gungan army has drawn back to its underwater cities to cut off any potential attack on that front. Rey stands just outside the shield, marvelling at the technology as she runs a hand over its weirdly gooey surface. Her thoughts are interrupted, she looks up sharply. The First Order has arrived.
The camera pans up and then starts rising at an alarming rate, through the cloud cover and into space, where more and more Star Destroyers are jumping in. After several dozen of them have arrived the three Nova ships jump in, weirdly bulky compared to the sleek triangles of the other cruisers. Their formation quickly huddles around one of the three as it plots a course close to the planet.
Ben sits in one of the two turret positions on the Falcon and observes the fleet movements.
Ben: That's the one we want to take out first. The more heavily guarded one.
Lando: Are you sure? ...Alright. All wings this is Gold Leader, focus your assault on the closest Nova ship.
The ships start their assault, clashing with a massive batallion of Tie Fighters as they start to get swarmed by the enemy. Before things start to look desperate, however, the reinforcement fleet takes off from the lunar surface and joins the fray. Ship designs from all over the film series (and beyond) join the fight, from Wookie ships to refitted Trade Federation fighter droids, it is as if the entire galaxy has risen up against the First Order. They are still sorely outnumbered though, and this is just the fleet guarding the one Nova ship, the other two put together is almost the same strength again.
We cut to Hux, standing triumphant on the bridge of a Star Destroyer that is flying escort to one of the other Nova Ships.
Hux: We almost needn't have bothered with the array, we could have taken this pitiful band as it is.
Vader: And now we will do it even more effectively. At your command, Supreme Commander.
Hux' chest puffs up, he is enjoying this level of recognition, unused as he is to praise and respect. Yes, reviving Vader was the right choice. Even if the holocron's instructions had called for the revival of the Emperor instead.
Hux: Fire the tractor beam array, wipe them out.
Vader nods his head in acknowledgement and flips a switch on a dashboard that has clearly been constructed from scratch recently. We cut to what was originally intended as a throne room on board the Nova Ship that is in the middle of the fighting, now repurposed to house the tractor beam array, a complex mass of cables, and a large number of tractor beam cores. (Vaguely reminiscent of what Obi-Wan disabled in the Death Star back in New Hope)
The array sparks and shudders as it is activated, but it holds. We zoom out of the ship as it activates, grabbing hold of fighters and cruisers mid-flight, carefully selecting only those of one side. The First Order's side.
Hux' face goes through a range of emotions in quick succession, starting out triumphant he goes to amazement as the ships are targeted so precisely, confusion as he realises which ships are being targeted and disbelief as the entire First Order fleet slowly starts to get pulled towards the Nova ship. Disbelief on his face he turns to Vader slowly.
Hux: You- you betrayed us. We brought you back, you were the Emperor's right hand, feared throughout the galaxy. Why? Why not help us conquer the galaxy?
Vader: Because it's never too late to make amends. Because I too, am a person. Or once was. And because your army is made up of children you enslaved.
The Tie fighters closest to the Nova ship start slamming into its hull, exploding in a shower of sparks. As the Star Destroyers start closing in as well, Hux whimpers and flees the bridge, away from Vader. Vader stands alone, watching his handiwork impassively.
Cut back to our Heroes
Poe stares in disbelief at the display in front of him, Star Destroyers breaking up against each other as they are pulled into the Nova ship. Despite the claims of its impenetrable shields and armour the repeating battering with command ships is starting to show its marks, it is buckling and leaking oxygen in several places.
Poe: Ben, did you know this was going to happen?
Ben: He told me that this was the plan, I didn't really believe it until now though.
Poe: He? Who are we talking about here? Vader?! You're telling me Vader betrayed them immediately after they brought him back?
Ben: I kind of wish I'd have been able to see Hux' face when he found out.
Poe smiles at their shared animosity for Hux. Chewie growls from the other gunnery turret, the other two Nova ships are still on course for Naboo's sun. One of the two's escort fleet has split in two, with half heading down to the surface of Naboo. Hux is going through with the invasion of Naboo, either because he no longer expects the Nova ships to do their job or because he personally wants to finish off Kylo Ren.
Poe: Rey, Rose, the first Nova ship is down, but it looks like we've got an invasion force deploying to the planet. Are the defences prepared? This is all for nothing if we can't keep everybody safe.
Cut to Rose, who is setting up barricades in the hallways of Otoh Gunga along with gungan soldiers, Resistance fighters and a number of refugees.
Rose: As ready as we're going to be. We'll just have to hope that they won't be able to get anything too big down here. Rey?
Cut to Rey, who is standing on top of a hovertank just outside of the shield, looking through a pair of (space) binoculars. The landing craft that had looked comparatively small in orbit just a second ago now loom over the city, hatches at the bottom are sliding open to reveal dangling walkers. Both the AT-ATs from the battle of Hoth as well as the larger AT-M6s that we saw briefly at the end of The Last Jedi.
Rey: We just have to make sure the shield holds, if it breaks we should have enough subs to get everybody down into the water cities, but I'd rather it wouldn't come to that.
The first walkers are being dropped onto the battlefield from a higher altitude than Rey or the viewer would expect, they are fitted with single-use landing jets that slow their fall that are then discarded from the sides of the walkers. This way the landing craft don't need to be in range of the city's defensive guns but the walkers are still deployed relatively close to the city.
After a moment of surprise the defenders realise that the battle has started and fire starts streaking from the city towards the walkers. It's doing something, but especially the AT-M6s appear to shrug off most hits.
Rey: Finn, they're here, try to get us closer.
Finn: I hope you know what you're doing.
Rey: Yeah, me too.
As the hovertank starts moving up, we see Finn is driving it. Rey continues to stand on top of it, drawing her staff from behind her back and igniting the lightsaber she fixed to its end in a spear-like manner (so the blade is an extension of the staff). Its colour is... uh, green I guess? I honestly don't care that much about lightsaber colours as some people do. Green clearly signals to the viewer that it's a different saber though, and has traditionally been used for more experienced jedi.
Igniting a lightsaber also tends to signal that you're somebody to pay attention to on a battlefield, and we cut to Hux who is in one of the ships disgorging walkers. He gestures at her.
Hux: Targer that hovertank heading for us. Wait, is that the girl?!
Hux pauses. He was there when Luke Skywalker lived through a full barrage of very similar weaponry, and obviously still has no idea that that was a trick.
Hux: Have our flanks circle around them and engage the city while the central column tries to take them down.
Unnamed battle coordinator: Yes, Supreme Leader.
We see one of the front AT-M6s ready its cannons and fire a high power blast at Finn's tank, who manages to swerve out of the way. We cut to the... (pilot? driver? machinist? let's go with) pilot of the walker, flipping several more toggles and the secondary weapons start firing on the hovertank as well.
It continues swerving, but with that many shots it's no surprise that there is no clear path for them to take. Finn is doing very well though, and the few bolts that are in its path are easily deflected by Rey on top of the tank. The distance between them and the first line of walkers is shrinking rapidly, despite their evasive swerving.
As they close in more and more walkers start to focus on them, though the flanks are following orders and continue to move towards and fire upon the city. Fortunately the shields appear to be holding, though its surface is rippling under the strain of the barrage.
The hovertank slides between the feet of the first walker, shielding it from further fire for a moment. Rey jumps off the hovertank, landing lightly on the ground, saberstaff still ignited.
Rey: Be safe.
Finn: That's what we brought the shield for. You should worry more about yourself.
Rey smiles as she gazes up, unworried. The hovertank turns around and heads back to the city at speed, engaging a portable bubble shield to catch any stray bolts that it can't dodge. Finn almost needn't have bothered though, the enemy barely has eyes for him anymore.
Rey has jumped.
She jumps straight up, reaching almost to the knee of the walker, driving her staff into the steel of the leg, which yields like (space) butter to the lightsaber blade, but sticks enough to give enough of a foothold. Using this she pushes back off for another jump. Repeating this another two times she quickly makes her way to the top of the walker.
The camera pans around her, standing on top of the front walker that has come to invade this place and kill her friends. She runs to the front of the walker and drives her bladestaff down through its equivalent of a neck, dragging it over the surface until it slopes down too much for her to reach. We cut to the walker's cockpit, where the pilot looks up in shock at the huge tear spanning the entirety of the corridor leading up to the cockpit.
Rey casually deflects a few laser bolts as she wields her staff with one hand, the other is stretched out towards the cockpit. The metal screeches as it is torn apart by the Force, and the entire cockpit tumbles down to the ground. Without its cockpit the walker buckles on its legs, the leg Rey damaged in her climb going first. There is no time to celebrate her victory though, as the surrounding walkers have already opened fire.
The camera follows one of the large cannon shots as it flies straight at Rey, perspective is slowed and we see her slowly see it coming, raising her staff to deflect it. This would be the largest shot we've ever seen a lightsaber attempt to deflect, and it teaches us something important. Momentum.
As she strikes the giant laserbolt back where it came from (roughly anyway, it misses anything important) she is thrown back herself by the impact and is thrown to the air in the other direction, straight at the legs of another walker. As she soars towards it she readies her staff, and cleanly slices through most of both of the walker's left legs, causing it to fall over.
Rey lands, hard but gracefully, and looks up with a smile of excitement.
Screenswipe!
Poe's strikeforce is engaging the second Nova ship and doing about as well as could be expected. The toydarian we saw earlier has a weird scrap pile of a ship that is charging up some sort of an attack which is the crux of their plan to take down the second ship. Tension mounts as the charge bar slowly fills, and the Resistance takes losses (nobody we really know, obviously).
There is some banter, Ben scores some more sympathy points from the justifiably hesitant Resistance (and a ludicrous amount of Tie takedowns. Force users in space battles is something we haven't seen much outside the prequels but they're an insane threat) and finally the Toydarian's ship is fully charged. It blasts out what looks like debris all around it, which aligns itself in a perfect circle around the central ship, which is starting to glow green... blasts shoot out from the core ship, bouncing off the debris-like reflector fragments, combining into what is clearly recognisable as a (small) death star blast.
The blast tears into the Nova ship, it doesn't immediately explode, but strains and buckles under the blast. As the laser stops, it is bent and broken, its armour is fractured in several places. Poe orders the fighters to get inside it, but we...
Screenswipe!
Hux has landed. Wisely staying away from Rey's general vicinity, he has circled around her and is with one of the two arms of Walkers that has advanced on the city.
He looks over his shoulder with a look of disgust at a smoking pile of walkers in the distance that is clearly implied to be Rey's handiwork. Around him his elite guards are unloading what appear to be backpacks with screws on the end for underwater movement and an assortment of heavy weapons.
Meanwhile the nearby walkers under his command have reached the shield and are about to step through it when a scorched, unknown ship comes flying into view. It clearly busted its way through the battle above and is heavily damaged. It's basically falling apart around what appears to be a large container.
Before Hux has a chance to give any orders the container slams directly into the first of the AT-M6s, toppling it and destroying the last of the ship remnants that were barely holding together around the container.
As the AT-M6 feebly struggles to regain its footing, the container slides to a halt close to Hux, a small door opens and we see a figure emerge.
Maz Kanata blinks the confusion from the crash away and looks calmly at Hux' squad, which raises a number of weapons in her direction.
Maz: Not my worst landing, we're right on top of the fool.
Hux, not realising that she is clearly talking to somebody else: Yes, quite impressive. But it will be the last thing you do. Maz Kanata, you have been a thorn in our side for far too long.
Maz: A long time?! Hah! What do you know about long times? Wish I could stay and chat, but it looks like you had the sense to split your assault force.
She looks behind her and the camera focuses shifts to the container wall, which had slowly been vibrating and shifting in the background.
Maz: All yours, dear. I'll catch up later.
With that she activates her jetpack and darts up into the sky, taking aim at the other line of walkers approaching the city.
Before the stunned Hux and his guards can do more than fire a few poorly aimed shots in Maz' general direction the wall of the container explodes outwards with a force blast.
The rancor we briefly saw with Maz on Felucia earlier now charges out of the container, filled with rage. Its rider, still hooded, jumps a seemingly impossible height into the air and lands lithely in front of Hux.
His guards dividing their focus between trying to blast the Rancor that is tearing into their ranks and circling its rider. Hux sneers.
Hux: And who are you supposed to be?
Hooded Figure: My name, is Ahsoka Tano. And your invasion ends here.
With that, she throws off her hood, ignites her two pure-white lightsabers and cuts down the closest three of the surrounding guards. (A tiny aside for the people that don't know Ahsoka at all, or only partially. This is Anakin's padawan from the Clone Wars tv show. Her white lightsabers, overwhelming power and aliveness are canon, and not just me adding an overpowered female alien jedi from nowhere... Though I might have, had she not existed.)
Hux panics, scrambling to get away from this new threat. He grabs one of the propulsion packs we established earlier and runs through the shield, into the city of Theed.
Screenswipe!
We return to Rey, as she fells another AT-M6. The camera pans around her, showing a site of mechanical carnage. Destroyed giant walkers are strewn around her. Nothing that could hope to challenge her is still standing. She sets her eyes on the city, her worried expression softens as she sees both columns of walkers appear to have come to a halt outside of the shield and are facing stiff resistance. She'd have to thank whoever was responsible.
She starts running towards the city. First at an impressive speed, then speeding up further as the Force propels her forward, lengthening her strides to be superhuman. The few First Order crew members clambering from the wreckage wouldn't have had a chance to get a shot in, even if they had had any fight left in them. Despite Rey's insane speed, the camera is even faster, leaving her behind as we soar towards the city and the two arms of walkers.
We soar past Maz' as she rains down thermal detonators on the invaders, past Ahsoka cleaving vertically through an ATST as her rancor roars atop the wreckage of an ATM6, and through the bubble shield still surrounding the city. Further we fly, towards the city center, where evacuation submarines are being loaded and launched. Into the water, and the winding caves below the city, until at last we see: Otoh Gungah, and Hux has beaten us to it and joined up with the underwater arm of his invasion.
Some manner of large First Order submersible is in a skirmish with more numerous but clearly outgunned Gungan craft, parts of the glorious city are heavily damaged. A docking bay has been boarded and conquered and Hux is moving up (significantly behind) his shock troopers consisting of the new scubatroopers as well as the red-garbed soldiers we know from Snoke's Throne Room. The gungans are putting up an impressive fight, this is no comedy bit of hurled balls, we are supposed to be impressed at what they are accomplishing. (...maybe ruminate a bit about how we've been needlessly mean to them for so many years?).
But against Hux' elite troops they can't help but slowly give ground and retreat deeper into the city. Hux is clearly taking joy from this sight, slowly walking behind his advancing forces, hands behind his back, a proud grin on his face. He will find Kylo Ren and destroy him. There isn't much deeper these primitives can flee into their little city, look at them now making their last stand before what seems to be a throne room of sorts.
Hux, while clearly wrong in his worldviews, is correct in assessing the situation. The gungans have their backs against the wall. This fortified position is all that stands between the refugees behind them in the throne room and the invaders. The Naboo queen stands among them, fighting like the rest of them, and we're slowly beginning to fear that we're watching a losing fight here... that they will all be wiped out. But as we get a clearer overview of the fight we start to see quite a few non-Gungans mixed in the fray as well. Resistance faces we know, we have spent several movies with, before the camera finally lands on Rose. Her expression is one of grim focus as they do their best to hold the line. It's clear that something needs to change for them to have any chance at all.
She looks around, the ceilings of the anteroom they are defending are the same thick translucent exterior walls that encase the entire city. Maybe she could breach them somehow? The gungans would be fine, and the throne room doors should be able to hold out the water. So the only casualties would be herself and the other Resistance fighters... Not a great plan, but they were running out of options fast.
A voice unknown to Rose, that the audience hasn't heard in a LONG time...: Rose Tico, the Force is with you. The living Force flows through you all.
She turns around in shock as a shimmering figure strides through the closed throne room doors and into the antechamber. He is dressed in an old-fashioned robe and wears his hair long. A green lightsaber ignites as Qui-Gon Jinn walks through the barricade and into the fray.
Laser bolts fly right through him, as the invaders are shaken by this new apparition. The red soldiers focus in on him with oft-practiced coordination, circling him from all sides after a first strike from one of them was actually blocked by Qui-Gon's lightsaber.
Qui-Gon: Rose Tico, I need you to circle around to the other side of this corridor and close the emergency bulkhead. We don't have much time.
Rose shakes her head, that voice had been inside her head, speaking directly to her. Was she really going to trust this... ghost? This complete unknown. Life was rarely this tidy, she had been betrayed before. But... there was something about him. Other than the definite plus that he was drawing away all the First Order's attention for now. The gungan queen scrambles up to her, taking care to stay in cover.
Gungan Queen: You heard him too, didn't you? In your head? Qui-Gon Jinn.
Rose nods.
Rose: Who is he?
The queen shrugs.
Gungan Queen: Ancient history, a jedi knight that died on Naboo to save us. A hero for both our people. Now get out there, we'll cover you and I'll close the bulkhead from this side as soon as you hit yours.
Rose: But how will that help us?!
Gungan Queen: I don't know, but we're out of ideas!
Looking up at the fight, Qui-Gon is still drawing all the attention. Rose sighs and makes a ducked run for one of the side passages to loop around the invaders. She scolds herself, if they had had more foresight she should have tried leading a flanking force through here to begin with.
As she peaked around the corner she could see the entrance to the main corridor that led back to the action. Hux was basically standing in it, screaming at his troops to take out the jedi already and urging them into the corridor. She loathed the man. Her stint undercover had only reinforced her view of him as a petty, spiteful little man... and of somebody with poor peripheral vision...
Rose slowly started edging towards the bulkhead control panel. If Hux had bothered to look to his left for even a second he would have seen her easily. She hesitated for a second as one of Hux' enraged motions caused him to turn slightly.
Qui-Gon: Now or never, here it comes!
Rose had no idea what 'it' was but sprung into action, closing the remaining distance and hitting the large emergency override button, slamming down the bulkhead door right in front of Hux' face. Time slows, the camera swerves around the closed bulkhead to show us that mere moments later the gungan queen hit the button on her side.
Qui-Gon smiles and disables his lightsaber, the camera pulls overhead and back, showing a bird's eye view of the corridor as a dark shadow comes into focus from deep below the city. Eagle-eyed viewers see Qui-Gon mouthing something to himself as the music swells... "There's always a bigger fish"
Time rushes back to its regular pace, the slowly growing shadow surges up in gruesome focus. A Sando Aqua Monster slices straight through the city, exactly taking out the sealed off corridor and nothing else. The bulkheads groan horribly as the segment is torn from right behind them but hold and the lights dim. Intricate security measures to keep the water out trigger, automatically lowering the bulkheads in a radius around the breach.
Hux' mouth falls open in shock. One second he is leading his men to glory, the next he stands alone in a hostile environment. What the hell just happened? He barely registers that the bulkheads around him close, only looking up as the last one clunks shut. He wipes his profusely sweating brow with his gloved hand, thinking this will at least buy him some time, before reaching for his communicator to call in reinforcements.
Hux: Hux here-
A blaster is shoved into his back. He flinches and whimpers.
Rose: You're going to call off the attack. Right this second.
Hux, panicked: You're- you're overestimating your odds! As long as we have the Grand Marauder down here, we can destroy this whole city at any time!
Rose: And that should stop me from shooting you?
Hux, even more panicked now: I- I-
A bright flash through the translucent walls distracts Rose, the large First Order ship that had spearheaded the attack on the city was torn in half by the sea monster, and it was dragging the larger half down into the depths with it. Hux had turned at the flash as well and was now facing her.
Rose: That wouldn't happen to have been your "Grand Marauder" now, would it?
Hux wastes no time replying, but yes it totally was, and bats the blaster that was still pointed at him away. He darts away into the corridor but with all the bulkheads closed there aren't many places for him to go. He draws his own blaster, or at least the blaster that he had been carrying, it was a spare from one of the scubatroopers. His own custom blaster hadn't survived the watery descent to the city. It would have to do, he was the Supreme Commander, he could deal with one rebel girl... recalling Rey he mentally amended that, at least THIS one rebel girl.
Rose is underestimated easily, always has been, but there is a strength in her. It had been there when she and Paige had joined the Resistance, it had been there when she was grieving her loss, it had been there when she had rescued Finn... and it had been there as she ran combat drills for weeks, steadily rising through the ranks of Resistance operatives. To be able to save what she loves.
The first shot disarms Hux, sending his blaster flying from his hand.
The second strikes him straight in the chest.
As his vision fades and the life fades from him the lights in the city come back on and the bulkheads rise. He has lost.
Screenswipe!
Poe is rushing out of the cramped reactor room of the second Nova ship, whatever he did to it was clearly critical as flames belch out behind him. A few swift and very tight turns and he's out. His friends and allies have been busy here as well, the last two star destroyers of this escort fleet that had been holding out are crippled husks. As his escape is registered the Resistance ships pull back sharply from the Nova craft, and a few seconds later it explodes in a gigantic ball of flame (that quickly disperses).
Lando: Okay. 2 down, 1 to go. Great work, Gold Leader!
Poe: Thanks! You did great as w- Wait, what's the last Nova ship doing?
It's hard to tell from this distance, but it looks like there is frantic activity around the final Nova ship. Small transports rushing out of it towards the escorting Star Destroyers.
Poe: Are they evacuating? Did we win? Ben?
Ben: Don't look at me, Hux kept this whole thing secret from me and I haven't had a chance to look at the plans yet.
A crackly connection joins the conversation, as if it's being broadcast from a sunken city on a battered hand-communicator.
Rose: Not yet, Poe. They're evacuating the Nova ship instead of preparing to jump it out of the system? That sounds like their contingency play.
Poe: Contingency play? I don't like the sound of that...
Rose: If there aren't enough Nova ships left for a regular firing sequence a nearly as strong burst can be generated by overloading and detonating the final ship as it flies into the sun. They're probably evacuating any non-critical crew and getting ready to engage as we speak.
We see the entire Star Destroyer escort fleet of the final Nova ship jump to lightspeed and the Nova ship slowly beginning to turn directly at the sun.
Poe: Oh no. Rose, you were right! Start evacuating Theed to the underwater city, we'll do our best up here but this isn't going to be easy.
Rose: I'll get it done. May the Force be with you.
As the remaining Resistance forces start hauling ass towards the final Nova ship the camera pans left to one of the star destroyer wrecks that had been part of the second Nova ship's escort fleet and we see a shuttle exit from it and head towards the surface of Naboo...
Screenswipe!
The Theed shield has sputtered out ages ago, but the fight isn't done yet. It had mostly been in place to discourage artillery barrages (both orbital and from the AT-M6s) and both of those problems have been taken care of.
The fighting is in the streets now, as the Naboo and Resistance forces try to safeguard the final evacuating citizens while the First Order attacks them relentlessly.
Finn is with the final group of refugees (make them fun aliens, how about weequay? Don't see them enough) and Maz Kanata is backing him up from the sky using her jetpack.
The camera tracks through the street in the direction they are moving in, towards the central square in front of the palace. Throughout the square are strewn bodies, from each side. Refugee, Naboo citizen, military, Resistance fighters, First Order troopers, even a surprising amount of the red-armoured soldiers.
It clearly becomes apparent how that last thing could have happened, in the very center of the square stand Rey and Ahsoka. Back to back, fending off a total of seven red guards that have circled them. The pair is worn down but focused. The battle has been long, but the end appears to be in sight.
A swift spin from Rey that ends in a low sweep, six left.
A fast riposte from Ahsoka with her off-hand, five.
The opposition is thinning out fast. A ship's shadow passes over the square as the fight continues, four left. It's the shuttle we saw in the previous scene. Relief and regained confidence is visible in the body language of the remaining foes. Rey finds another opening, three left.
The camera is on the ship now, as it comes in to land. Ahsoka takes out two more as it sets down, and Rey spears the final one in exact unison with the landing ramp touching the plaza. As one, the two jedi raise their sabers up to the figure that is slowly descending the ramp.
Vader. Uncertainty crosses Rey's face, not just at their odds but also if this should lead to a fight at all.
Anakin Skywalker: It's good to see you, Snips.
For once we don't screenswipe away. Ahsoka's face softens in emotional disbelief as she lowers and deactivates her weapons. Her steps are hesitant as she approaches her old master.
Ahsoka: Anakin. I never believed you'd come back...
Anakin: Wasn't really my idea, but I'm glad I got to see you. Even if just like this.
He gestures at the war-torn plaza, and then his own restored cybernetic body.
Ahsoka: It's still you though. The real you.
If a small smile would have been at all possible for Vader, he would have smiled it. Even now, many decades later, she understood.
Now the camera pans up, towards the sun, and we:
Screenswipe!
The Resistance fighters are hitting the Nova ship with everything they've got, but it's hardly putting a dent into it. They had two ways to bypass its extreme defensive capabilities, but they were both one-shot solutions. Nothing they are doing is getting anywhere and the increasing proximity to the sun is becoming more and more of a burden.
Older and more improvised ships in their fleet are slowly forced to fall back as the heat buildup is starting to melt their hulls. The falcon has seen many an upgrade over the years but it's clearly struggling too. Poe's X-Wing and the other Resistance fighters are holding out but it's a matter of minutes before they too are overwhelmed.
Poe: We'r- we're not going to make it.
Ben: We can still do this! Don't give up!
Poe smiles wrily, recognising himself not so long ago.
Poe: No, we can't. We're slowly melting to slag and making no progress. All wings, this is a Gold Leader. Full retreat, I repeat: Full retreat. Jump out of the system while you still can.
Objections come in over the radio but the fleet follows orders, breaking off the attack and disparately jumping away from the battle. Poe looks one last time at the nova ship, as it slowly starts to unfold and begins its priming sequence. There had been a time when he would have rushed in right now, gambled on that one in a million chance of making it before his shields gave out and he would turn to ash.
Poe: Rose? Do you copy? We- we can't take it out. Please tell me you got everybody down under the water and that that will be enough to save them from the blast.
Rose: We're making good time, everybody should be down in the gungan capital in time.
Poe: And they'll be safe?
Silence.
Poe: Rose?
Rose: It's the best shot we have. This is why we picked Naboo to begin with.
She sounds resigned, and scared.
Rose: Get out of there Poe, you did all you could.
Poe slams his console in frustration, tears in his eyes. He knows she's right, but he hates how powerless he feels. BB8 beeps a quiet encouragement which seems to recompose Poe, if only a little. He looks up to find the last remnants of the Resistance fleet jumping out of the system, it's just him and the Falcon left. Both it and his own X-Wing are shining brightly in the proximity to the star.
Poe: She's right. There's nothing we can do for them now. Let's get out of here. You ready, Lando?
Lando: Right behind you, Gold Leader.
Poe looks one last time at the fragile-looking blue ball that is Naboo before punching the hyperdrive and jumping out of the system.
Lando: Ben, you'll want to get up here, this is going to be a bumpy ride.
Ben: On my way, how long until lightspeed?
Chewie growls an explanation. Realisation dawns in Ben's face. They're not going anywhere, it was a miracle that the Falcon had held together as well as it did but it was practically falling apart. Lando had turned the ship around and was giving his all to get back to the planet as fast as he could.
Ben: Are we going to make it in time?
Lando: Honestly? I have no idea, but I'm not going to give up now. We just have to hope the nova ship will need another few minutes to charge.
As Lando is saying this we pan outward through the cockpit of the Falcon, beyond the sun taking up all of the screen and the Falcon's outer plating slowly coalescing into slag there isn't much to see until we zoom towards the nova ship. It is in the process of flowering open and a low hum is steadily rising in pitch. There's a beauty to it, but a dreadful one.
As the last parts lock into place the outer petal-like wings of the structure start to explode, with a cascade of escalating explosions working their way down to the core of the ship. As all these chains meet up the entire ship explodes in a massive blast. For a second it seems like it might have been a misfire, but no, coming from deep within the star, like a bright red tidal wave of light, the sun is expanding at an alarming rate, only getting faster.
This scale of threat feels impossible to combat, absolutely unstoppable. We cut back to the wreckage of the skirmish that had taken place closest to the sun as it gets swallowed up unceremoniously. Naboo looks tiny and fragile by comparison. The Falcon is a speck doing its best to outrun the wave.
Screenswipe!
The underwater capital, the last submersible of resistance fighters, refugees and citizens arrive. Finn gets off and is reunited with Rose, they embrace each other emotionally. Rose wipes the tears from her eyes but doesn't break the embrace. She isn't letting go of him.
Rose: They couldn't stop the third ship and the sun is going to engulf the planet.
Finn tightens the embrace.
Finn: So we're all going to die here? After all we came through?! We're so far down under water!
Rose: The oceans will boil up and explode as soon as the expanding surface passes the planet. Even with the limited detonation from the single ship. There's nothing left we can do.
We see Finn cry as the camera pans back up to the surface of the planet one last time. Back to the plaza. Our trio of jedi stands with their backs turned to the camera. Anakin has taken off his Vader helmet and tossed it aside. They all stare at the sky, the sun visibly growing with every passing second. They all look unsure, desperate, determined.
Rey: Can we stop it? Can we save everybody?
Anakin: I... don't know. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant... next to the power of the Force... Theoretically.
Ahsoka: Theoretically?
Rey: Good enough for me.
Rey stretches out her right arm at the sun. Her eagerness and raw power stepping up to face her relative inexperience and the sheer impossibility of the task. Small stones tremble around her feet as she strains.
Ahsoka: One last stand, master?
Anakin smiles and the pair of them join Rey, raising their arms towards the Sun, hands reaching as if the grasp it out of the sky. We cut to the expanding wave of flame rushing towards the planet and see it bend inward as the music swells. Their efforts are having an effect... but as the camera zooms out again we gain the perspective that this is a tiny buckling of the impossibly large wave, insignificant in the face of the onslaught.
We pan to the Falcon, who has managed to stay ahead of the wave as it breaches the atmosphere of Naboo. This doesn't have much to do with a landing anymore though, as the engine sputters out and its wake is trailed with brittle carbonised parts shearing off it from the air pressure.
Through a cracked cockpit window we see Lando, Ben and Chewie doing their best to slow down their descent. Ben deep in the Force as he attempts to reduce their momentum. It wasn't going to be pretty, but they were slowing down. Theed comes into clearer and clearer view as they rush towards the surface.
The hit the ground, hard, skipping for a few more times before finally coming to a stop at the edge of the plaza. A giant Wookie paw smashes through the cockpit window from the inside, allowing the three of them to get out. They're fine! Lando is limping, but it doesn't look lethal. Ben urges the two of them to make their way to the port to see if any transports are left to take them deep underwater.
Lando: You're not coming with us, are you?
Ben nods his head at the plaza.
Ben: If there's any way I can help, it will be there.
Chewie and Lando embrace what is in all but name their godson and turn towards the port. Lando considers telling Ben that his father would be proud, but there's no need. Ben straightens his tunic as he walks up to the plaza. Intricate spirals have been traced in the debris surrounding the trio of jedi, in fact they are still actively being traced as they are focusing on pushing back the wave.
Ben stands next to Rey and raises his hands at the sun as well, joining his power to theirs. Rey looks up at the added wave of power.
Rey: Ben! You came.
Ben smirks, slightly hurt by how much surprise there was in Rey's face.
Ben: With how hopeless this looked, how could I not?
Rey: We have to try!
A chuckle rings in their ears, deeply familiar to us and the two other jedi present, but not to them. It comes from all around them and deep inside them at the same time. Slowly, as if from very far away a Force Ghost appears. The figure is short, resting on a small cane, with large and pronounced green ears.
Yoda: There is no try.
Ahsoka and Anakin smile gratefully at their old master and nod at him. As they do, another Force Ghost materialises beside him.
Luke: I never understood that one.
Yoda laughs at that again, a long, jovial laugh, though his eyes are serious.
Yoda: The end, this is.
Rey is confused, is this weird little creature giving up? How did it know Luke Skywalker? She is barely able to follow what is going on as the strain from pushing back against the wave takes everything she has. More figures are appearing but she barely registers them.
The plaza is filling up with Force Ghosts, faces we haven't seen in a long time. All the Jedi killed during the Clone Wars, the Jedi Council, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Leia. All appear, one last time to give what they can. To stand against the tide of destruction. To protect life, for the Force is life.
As they raise their hands towards the star the camera pulls back and the music swells. The impact is now clearly visible, almost like a tunnel or rather a cone that has been cut into the oncoming tide. The rest of the wave has already expanded beyond the orbit of the planet, but the planet itself is spared, for now.
On the horizon we see one of Naboo's moons burst as the wave hits it. The cone of redirection is covering the planet, but only just.
Rey is panting with the exertion, staring right at the focal point of their combined efforts, the tip of the cone, far out in space. This is taking more out of her than she ever thought possible. Around her many of the Force Ghosts waver in intensity, as if their very essence is being consumed and they're fading from existence.
The temperature on the surface keeps rushing up further and further, with trees lining the plaza spontaneously bursting into flame. They are holding though, only a little more... She can sense it, the wave has almost reached as far as it will go, it's about to recede again. She doesn't question how she knows this. The Force flows through her in a way it never has before.
The seconds stretch into an eternity, around her faces familiar to us fade from existence. Looks of dedication on their faces, of serenity, acceptance. From the corner of her eyes Rey can see Vader, no, Anakin struggling to stay upright. The wave finally breaks and begins to recede, the effort required to protect the planet changes from unbearable to staggering and Rey exhales, slowly coming to her senses. Her outstretched hand in front of her is shimmering with the heat in the air.
...no, it's not. It's shimmering alright, but not from the heat. As she slowly manages to focus on it she notices that she can see through her own hand... and arm. At the same time as she realises the wave of fire retreats from around the planet, shrinking steadily back to the normal dimensions of the star at the center of the Naboo system, or what's left of it.
Anakin has toppled over, and Ahsoka is holding back her tears at the sight, consoled by a Force Ghost of a young jedi with a stripe of diamond-shaped tattoos across her nose and cheeks. Over the still corpse of Ahsoka's master and friend rose his Force Ghost, smiling kindly at her. Rey was too far away to make out what was being said.
Tearing her eyes away from the sight she turns to Ben who had sat down on the cracked tiles of the plaza. He looked exhausted, exhausted and shimmering. She could clearly see the pattern of the tiles he was sitting on through his torso.
Rey: We did it, Ben.
Ben: I wish it hadn't come to this. I wish I'd-
Rey: You did your best, Ben. We all did.
Ben looks up at her, a sad smile on his face. Acceptance of what she is saying growing inside her. He knows that their time is ending, and that they did their best with the hand they were dealt.
The Force Ghost of Luke walks up to them, a sad smile on his face.
Luke: Are you two ready to go?
Rey nods, putting on a brave smile, and both Luke and her reach down towards to Ben to pull him to his feet as they fade away and the camera pulls back to an aerial view of the plaza.
Breaking with tradition the credits are overlaid onto the sight, with a softer more melancholic piece of music behind it. As time passes and subtly but visibly skips ahead we soundlessly see the people that took refuge in the underwater capital return to the city. Milling around in the ruins of their capital. Finn, Rose and Maz come into focus. Maz approaches Ahsoka, the only remaining survivor of what happened on the surface. We still only hear music (and this continues to be a thing for the rest of the film / credits). Ahsoka's pet rancor shuffles in from out of frame, we are unsure if it managed to survive on the surface on its own or if it also got taken under the water, either way Ahsoka pets its leg gratefully.
As the credits roll we are shown small vignettes from across the universe. Rose and Finn opening a school together, Poe getting into politics, Ahsoka exploring an alien planet, C3PO living with the ewoks, small stuff.
We cut back to the Rose and Finn, and their schoolhouse on Naboo, as Rey's force ghost slowly materialises in front of it.
Fade to black...
Closing Thoughts / That sure was... a thing?
Originally I had plans to break down my own entire script and try to pick apart the character motivations and character arcs for each and every one of them, but I decided against it for several reasons.
This whole exercise already having taken years, many of the core characters not really having an arc within my script, doing that being quite self-centred, me being ready to move on from this project.
I know that my script is a mess and a lot of is direct pandering to me and what I'd have liked to see in a sequel to The Last Jedi, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Thank you for having come this far down the page, even if you only skim-read or looked at the pictures.
I'm going to continue to love Star Wars, and am confident that there will be Star Wars again that I loved. The Last Jedi is a great example of it still being able to astound and delight me. And that is worth digging through some garbage for.
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