Real lightsaber bluprints

I have a question, what are all the scps. Also is there one that can can bring fictional items (like a lightsaber, for example) into the real world, with all of it's properties?

So I’m not gonna dwell too much about the fanbases fighting since I think most people here are fully aware of the slap fights. But to give some context:
The new Star Wars show “Acolyte” has two episodes released, and one of the episodes contains a scene where there is a fire that bursts on their ship while in space. This scene has caused a bit of chaos with fans of both the Disney Star Wars and with the “Disney has ruined Star Wars” fans. The latter claiming that fire in space is the dumbest thing because there’s no oxygen supplying the fire, where as the former argues that fires in space have been a thing in Star Wars since even the original trilogy (this video is from a dude acting sarcastic but it has footage of fires that exists in space in Star Wars).
Anyways this whole situation has made me realize something about the franchise: absolutely nothing makes sense.
Like I’m aware you have to have some amount of suspension of disbelief when you’re watching entertainment, especially if it’s as ridiculous as space wars. But this whole situation regarding the Acolyte show is that Star Wars has relied on people’s suspension of disbelief this entire time. There are many things about the franchise that you can’t reasonably chalk up to “suspension of disbelief”, it’s the literal definition of “turn your brain off”.
And yet, we are seeing in real time some cognitive dissonance involving the die hard fans that are somehow unaware how illogical Star Wars in its entire existence. These fans didn’t question the logistics of things like:

• Nearly every planet having the same gravity and breathable atmosphere
  
• The millennium falcon entering the belly of a worm in an asteroid that somehow has earth gravity and you can step out without a spacesuit as long as you have a gas mask on
  
• How the empire is able to take over the galaxy when we rarely see stormtroopers shoot their targets.
  
• How R2D2 can ride on top of a spaceship in Phantom Menace as if there was gravity, and not at all appearing to use magnets to stay onto the ship.
  
• and the biggest elephant in the room I can think of, how can sound be heard in space?
  

Probably many other things I could bring up but you get the point.
So regarding YMS’s opinion on the franchise, what this situation confirms about his opinions is that there ARE so many people who not only don’t think critically about the original films retrospectively, but put it on this pedestal because of their cultural impact. And these same people only started thinking critically if it’s the Disney star wars but will make excuses if it also appears in the original films.
For me personally I can’t watch Star Wars like I can other films. I can’t appreciate the effects for their time because you can’t watch the original 1977 version, they don’t exist in a consistent time period due to the changes. I wouldn’t watch it for the story since story wise it’s pretty average, not particularly bad but also nothing special either. And now I realize you can’t appreciate it for being somewhat grounded in reality, because it gets so nonsensical that you are pretty much forced to turn your brain off just to be entertained by “pew pew” lasers and “CHHHHHHHH, wom wom crkshh” lightsaber fights.
Edit: I should clarify that this isn’t a criticism of everyone who like and connect with Star Wars, it’s a criticism of the people who are so up their own ass about their hate for Disney Star Wars that they can’t recognize when their criticism can also apply to the very films they claim to love.

My newest colony is in a star wars themed world where the starting scenario revolves around a Hutt who wants to start his own criminal empire to rival Jabba. My two starting colonist are a yellow, Peter Griffin chinned hutt named Butaxi "Butt the Hutt" and his loyal but dumb gamorrean guard Poiger Green.
Things were going smooth for the first few days I settled on a kashykk modded biome and instantly regretted it because the trees make it impossible to see anything. I made Butt's palace on a patch of beach avoiding the trees, Poiger sleeps in a tent outside. For food I do a lot of trading with nearby settlements using the Buttmobile a yellow hovercar that runs on chemfuel. While trying to buy meals from what I thought was a normal faction colony on the map it ended up being this very well made and elaborate city that was infested with a rival gamorrean tribe (I know now this is from a mod called rimcities that was apart of the steam workshop collection I downloaded) it was only Butt in the Buttmobile and he is incapable of violence so I was kinda worried of the gamorreans but the loot was too good to pass up so I drove around picked up some gold, a stove and various meals but did not want to push my luck so I reformed the caravan and as he was leaving for the edge of the map he ran over and instantly killed one of the gamorreans. I did not think running them over would kill them that quickly and then formed a new plan. I stopped the caravan and preceded to hunt down countless gamorreans in the buttmobile running them down and at this point not realizing it was damaging the car. By the last gamorrean the car was too slow to do proper damage I had to send in the one and only Poiger Green to help and figured he could also repair the car. When poiger arrives he dispatches the other gamorrean with ease with his axe.
I let Butt the Hutt and Poiger sleep in a house in the city and when they wake sent Butt back to the palace with the food, gold and stove and kept Poiger in the city to further loot and repair the Buttmobile. While poiger is doing the car repairs a slaver goes through the city. Poiger does not have a lot of silver on him but has enough to buy a 7 year old wookie slave. I use the wookie slave as a scout to loot other houses while Poiger repairs the car.
A couple days pass I feel comfortable with the city being fully looted and the car repaired. So I pack the loot and Poiger and the wookie slave child hit the road back to the palace. But along the way there is a bandit outpost with only 1 enemy inside. I figured this duo could handle it. Now with the kashykk trees its nearly impossible to see if there is sentry guns at the base so I use the wookie slave child as bait while poiger flanks the side and gets a jump on the bandit. While Poiger is fighting the bandit the wookie slave rebels, I didn't think much of it and thought they would just flee into the trees. The bandit gets striked down and I begin to claim the doors to enter the base. There is a lightsaber on the ground. Sweet! As I go for the lightsaber lo and behold the wookie child slave runs to it, they grab the saber and turn to Poiger. I literally in real life scoff like a evil villain while I prep poiger to strike down the wookie child. He swings his axe but he is too slow. CARAVAN LOST. poiger is gone, all the loot is gone just to become the sweet ass origin story for this random wookie child. Never has a game made me feel so insignificant to a storyline in such a good way before. Great game.

Vernestra Rwoh aka Vern is certainly an interesting character in the High Republic. Padawan to Stellan Gios (RIP to a real G), she became a Jedi Knight at only 15, the youngest in a long time. She has a really cool lightsaber that I won't get into so it doesn't spoil the surprise. By the time we see her in The Acolyte, she's 116 years old and one of the most respected Masters in the Order.
So, with that in mind, I personally was not at all impressed by the acting in the few scenes we got in the first two episodes which feature her. Which led me down the rabbit hole of discovering that the actress Rebecca Henderson is married to Leslye Headland, the showrunner. Now, I am a senior manager in tech and hiring people to high level positions because they're your relatives is generally seen as bad, even if they are perfectly qualified for it.
Are people ok with this blatant nepotism? I don't work in the film and television industry but I do know that it happens quite a lot. Still, I would assume that is something they try to hide by creating degrees of separation. Stuff like "I hire your family member for my show, you hire mine for yours." The sheer gall of flaunting the conflict of interest of directly casting your own wife is mind-blowing.
Again, I'm not entire sure how it all happens, and I know there are (usually) auditions and casting calls but seeing that Nina Gold, the casting director for the show, cast her own son as a Resistance Officer in The Rise of Skywalker doesn't inspire much confidence in the process.

A Star Wars fan meetup right outside Liverpool was hit with a massive case of collective trauma right after the Vanishing.
Thousands of superfans (not counting the people who didn’t fall into the hysteria) believed that the Vanishing occurred due to ‘Order 66’ happening in real life. (In the Star Wars universe, Order 66, was an event where the Jedi were massacred). The convention’s leader, Peter Krevis, used careful words to convince the Star Wars fans to head to the origin of it all: the film site for the original Star Wars films in Nefta, Tunisia.
“The Jedi Order will not die on this gruesome day! We must work together and learn the true ways of the Jedi, lest we fall into the Dark Side.”
Again, we must ask, why did these ordinary fans become crazed Jedi followers? As with the Sylvanians, the answer is quite complex. Science and ordinary religion could not explain what had happened. They were convinced that the Force had caused this, somehow, and the only way to survive was to learn more about it.
An empty Disney Cruise ship had just docked near Liverpool; Peter Krevis realized that it was his perfect opportunity. In the dark of night, the 7500 fans boarded the ship and hijacked it, ‘convincing’ the captain and crew to head to Tunisia.
Reluctantly, the captain agreed. He realized the sheer delusion with dropping off thousands of people in a harsh desert. Onboard the cruise ship, they drafted a massive legal document that formed the Galactic Republic, in which all citizens would elect senators, who would then elect a Supreme Chancellor who would manage things. The first elections were Washingtonian in nature, with the senators unanimously voting in Peter Krevis as Chancellor. There was also a Jedi Order, which is the security force of the Republic and sometimes acts in executive/cabinet roles. Over different periods of the Republic’s life, the Jedi Order has waxed and waned in power. Disputes were usually settled by Duel of the Fates, which was a largely ceremonial and harmless fake lightsaber duel.
The cruise gave the Republic a large amount of supplies, mostly out of sheer confusion. Krevis and the Republic would then march for 6 days to a natural, untouched Nefta. They formed the community of Tatooine. It would slowly grow due to its oases, although it was extremely hot and agriculture was not the easiest. A group of fishermen who had been out in boats during the Vanishing made their way inland and followed the trail to find Tatooine. They only spoke French and Arabic, but a professor named Ren Morell had taught French and welcomed them in as an “honorary Senator”. Ren and the fishers began to teach French to the largely English-speaking Tatooine, and although it’s not used officially, it’s still used as a second language. Morell also learned about religious history, and correctly pointed out that Nefta was a holy place for Sufi Islam. Over time, Sufis migrated to the former Nefta. Many of them would go on a pilgrimage to honor the fallen city, only to find a completely new town in its place. The English-speaking Star Wars fans were mostly tolerant, thanks to anti-discrimination laws passed by the Senate, although they would go to great lengths to explain their Jedi beliefs to them. Tatooine would become a diverse mix as English, French, Tatooine Creole, and Arabic all became commonly spoken.
Over time, Tatooine (also known as the Tatooine Republic) became a complex city-state with thousands of residents, and many political freedoms. Sufis and Tunisians entered the political system and a few worked their way to be a part of the Jedi Order. By Year 60 of the Vanishing, this syncretic society combined traditional Islam with modern Jedi views. There was also a new power north of them- Ifriqiyah, a state formed by remnants of Tunisian islands. They were strong allies, with Ifriqyiah being a coastal powerhouse and Tatooine being a center of religion and culture. Tatooine also had a unique advantage- the Chott el Djerid, which is a massive salt flat right next to it. With salt mines disappearing, many have used these flats to harvest salt for seasoning, preservation, or other purposes. In fact, Tatooine’s largest export is salt to Ifriqiyah, and salt-carriers frequently move to and from Ifriqiyah.
By the early 2200s, Tatooine had been fully integrated into Ifriqiyah. Most of the ‘Jedi Ways’ got little more than strange looks by now. However, nobody knew exactly what Jedi philosophy meant, and divisions were bound to come.
Also, the early 2200s marked the completion of the great Palace of the Jedi. It’s an ornate temple complex located in the original land of Nefta. It houses a bazaar (known for its exotic salts), training courtyards, and the offices of the Jedi Council. It was the home of the Galactic Republic before the Jedi stopped a mastermind from usurping it. The Palace of the Jedi was a collaboration effort between many different groups. However, it was spearheaded by Amira Ali, a notable architect who used traditional Sufi architecture as an inspiration for the palace. Over the course of decades, cut sandstone and marble were ornately fashioned with calligraphy and traditional patterns. However, the most famous component is the Archives, a massive library. An ornate dome lies in the middle, with books and recordings of various pre- and post-Vanishing texts.

I generally have had little to no complaints from Acolyte as of yet. But there is a general concern I have in that the lightsabers are off. They’ve been made super bulky (likely for battery packs but that’s not needed really) and they’re nowhere near the elegant designs offered by the comics.
A real shame. That and no leather field gear

Since about the start of this week, I've been experiencing the strangest experience while sleeping. I'll go to bed tired, quickly go into what I'd consider a deep sleep with a dream, then wake up about 30-45 minutes later. Then, I'd go back to sleep soon after, get a dream, then wake up about a half hour later again. This will happen until my alarm goes off for work.
There's several weird things about this
1) No matter how large my block for sleeping is, I always wake up tired. Not debilitatingly tired like when I get 2-4 hours of sleep, but I certainly don't feel like I'm refreshed. Yesterday I went to bed around 10:45pm and woke up at 8:50am with this same pattern of sleep. As I type this, I still feel tired, like I could go for a few more hours of sleep.
2) I can clearly remember the last dream or the last two dreams I have. For example, one of the last dreams I had was some weird dream with a bunch of students going to Hogwarts but they had lightsabers. Then the dream before that was about Tom Cruise getting into some legal trouble.
3) The dreams I have all get "conclusive" endings, or at the very least don't end abruptly like they often did in the past. The "storyline" would play out and then I'd wake up half an hour later.
It's all very strange, and no matter how early or how late I go to bed it keeps happening. I can still do things like work, exercise, play, etc. fine enough, but I've been getting real scared lately after some guy on the insomnia subreddit said that there was a possiblity this could be a sign of a brain tumor. I haven't gotten any headaches or any pains in my body, so hopefully that's not it, but something definitely isn't right.
If anyone knows what's up or has had a similar experience I'd be incredibly grateful for some advice. Thanks in advance.

This is post is half offering knowledge, half soliciting advice. I posted this to DMAcademy last night but thought it would be of interest here, both for the topic and the inclusion of MCDM monsters.
Common ttrpg wisdom advises against splitting the party, and for a few good reasons. However, splitting the party can be awesome. Halfway through my current campaign, I asked my players, "What do you want more of from here on out." A recurring answer was "more splitting the party."
Why? Party splitting:

• Puts more of a spotlight on each character. The fewer PCs there are in a situation, the more impact one character's abilities or decisions have on the outcome of that situation. (but don't confuse spotlight with screen time -- more on that below).
• Creates a more cinematic tone. Cutting between conflicts is classic in cinema. Go no further than the 3rd act of Return of the Jedi to see a lightsaber duel intercut with a ground battle intercut with a space battle. Basically every mainline Star Wars movie since then has sought to recreate that.
• Creates drama! Fewer PCs means fewer resources. We all know the best stuff happens when the chips are down. To steal a screenwriting adage: run your PCs up a tree then set the tree on fire! Players get very creative when their resources are low.
• Encourages new character interactions. You know how your party works together, but have we seen how the paladin and the warlock act when they're on their own and need to shoot their way out of a tight spot?

But as I said earlier, there are challenges (what follows is a non-exhaustive list):

• Screentime: If only some players wind up in a combat, the others not in the combat have to sit around, or when they do play, they're just investigating the vizier's study or whatever.
• Metagaming: The players in the study will want to join the combat, and they will try to despite there being no justification within the fiction.
• Difficulty: This, I believe, is what people are talking about when they say "Don't split the party!" Some fraction of the party will encounter encounters designed for the whole party and will be turned into hamburger.

So how do we meet these challenges to get the amazing benefits:
Tackling the screen-time challenge is simple, but takes some thinking on your feet. You just need to cut from one sub-party to the other regularly, and ideally at dramatically appropriate moments. Keep an eye on the clock or a timer running so you can get back to the other group at regular and fairly short intervals.
The other two take some forethought, and I only recommend doing this with a party you have been playing with for a while and know well.
The trick is to know, ideally before the session, when your players are going to want to split up, or to somehow narratively guide them into splitting up if you want (more on that second point later). Then, to mitigate the metagaming issue, place your dramatic moments or combats where you feel the sub-parties will run into them at the same time. AND/OR adjust when or where the subparties encounter certain things on the fly to match the tension with the other sub parties.
Once you've thought about where your party might split up, the difficulty issue becomes very simple, just plan encounters balanced for a fraction of the party instead of the whole party. You may have different versions of the encounters planned depending on if they split up or not, or you can adjust on the fly. Some DMs might balk at this as me not creating a real and persistent world, to which I would say: we have different styles.
Before anyone argues against anything here, I'd like to say that I respect your thoughts and different things work for different groups, but I do this and it works and my players like it.
Now here's where I ask for advice from those of you who do this:
Next session, I will be employing all of my powers as a DM to run three mini sessions at once. I am extremely grateful to have a group of players who are close friends and who trust my occasional hare-brained ideas for unconventional sessions.
My campaign is coming to an end, and the final battle with the BBEG is on the horizon. He has amassed an enormous army, and the PCs can't stop him on their own. So last session, I asked them all: What character, group of characters, or inanimate advantage from the course of our 7-year campaign do you each want to call upon to back you up in the final battle (these NPCs wont be in initiative, but will be providing benefits elsewhere). For reasons, they know some magical plane-hopping wolves in Ysgard who will instantly take the PCS directly to whomever they name.
My game has 6 players at level 19. My original plan was to have 6 very short scenes, in sequence, where the characters are taken to the ally they named and then have to overcome some challenge in order to either assist or save the ally (our campaign is in the context of a major multiversal war) or convince them to join. However, pairs of my players happened to all choose characters that are either already in the same place in our campaign, or it would make sense for them to be in the same place now.
So instead of 6 little scenes, I'll be doing 3 scenes with 2 characters at a time. To make things simple, there will be some combat waiting for each group of two. They don't need to engage, but hopefully they do so that we will have 3 very different battles going on at once. (one against an ancient white dragon (Durixavinox with no villain actions) one against a squad of giants, and one against a horde of minions).
My plan, after introducing each little scene, is to basically make one initiative with the combatants in each scene clustered together. So if two players meet one big bad guy, they will each have a turn, and then we will move to a round in another scene, and so forth. If a round in one scene is especially quick, I might do another before moving to the next scene. I plan on being pretty flexible with that depending on how its feeling
These combats have been meticulously balanced as challenging but not impossible encounters for 2 characters of level 19 (accounting for the particular makeup of each pair). And keeping things in initiative means that everyone will be playing almost exactly as often as they would be in a normal combat with all of them.
So, I'm eager to hear your thoughts and/or advice either on my advice on splitting the party above or on my scheme for my next session. Thanks!

I just beat Jedi Survivor on Grand Master difficulty. It was my first time on the hardest difficulty in a game and it really made me work for it, but I'm glad I did. The game was super rewarding and enjoyable and compelled me to write my first video game review ever, so here it is. I'm sure I missed some areas so if you are thinking of anything I didn't touch on, please mention in the comments! I'm looking to improve. Thank you!
Controls/movement: This was absolutely perfect for me. Dashing on the ground or the air, parrying, sprinting were all so satisfying. I love the animations, such as Cal rolling if he falls from a high height or touching the ground with his hand if he falls from a medium height. They really add a sense of realism and immersive to this otherworldly scifi game. And the platforming was amazing: Running on walls, jumping and dashing, grappling and ziplining were all so intuitive. I felt like these controls would be an excellent standard/baseline for action games going forward. 10/10
Combat: Another strong feature. The combat is challenging and skill based, with various difficulty options. The combat from Fallen Order was already great, and then they added different stances (my favorites were Blaster stance and Crossguard) which vary gameplay and widen the skill trees, offering tons of new lightsaber and force tricks. And none of these broke the game, they added tools but they didn't overpower you. The combat is fast paced, much more so than something like Dark Souls or Lies of P and it was a welcome change after playing Lies of P where I had to be more deliberate and patient. Here I was able to play more offensively, though I also had to have a strong defense and good parries are essential on Grand Master difficulty. I found the combat to be very polished, though a tad bit less precise than some other Soulslikes. 9/10
Enemies and Bosses: I love the enemy types in this game. There are so many and with such different attack patterns! From super battle droids blasting and shooting rockets, hitting when you come close to the tough bedlam raiders that you have to wear down to get a hit. There were so many different types of droids, imperials, and Bedlam Raiders that made the world feel bigger and more varied. Some of the enemies were really tough and putting them together made for a real challenge. Different combinations of enemies drastically changed my approaches and offered great variety to the game. There were a few story bosses, some of them against the same person but all the different bosses had varying movesets that you really had to pay attention to in order to get passed them. And beyond the story bosses, there are mini bosses like monsters to fight and bounty hunters. Tons of variety and fun, and very challenging and rewarding. Most of the bosses took me more tries than I care to admit, but they were worth it. I did feel like the bosses could use a bit more spectacle, like larger giant bosses, but this is a small preference I have. Still a 10/10
Level Design: Exceptional. Perfectly paced, Every map seemed huge and then seeing it connect together as I unlocked shortcuts was so satisfying. I felt like I got to know the maps well as I played, and the variations between combat, platforming, and puzzles was perfect to me. There were less puzzles and simpler than Fallen Order, but they still offered a nice change in gameplay and I am not much of a puzzle person - though I am learning - so it was nice to have an easier go with them. But the levels/maps were the real star here; I felt like each one was masterfully crafted and elevated the game. And fast travel was a nice addition 10/10.
Characters and Story: Great for a video game. I haven't played games like The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption 2, so I'm not sure just what makes for a 10/10 video game story. The story itself was very good, but all the characters were likeable, well acted, and complex and completely enhanced the story experience. The game most definitely had soul, and really, what more can you ask for? At least on the level and possibly better than the best Star Wars movies/TV of the last 30 years. Told well with well placed cutscenes to break up the gameplay while not overstaying their welcome. 9/10
Graphics and performance: This is an area I felt like the game could do better. Don't get me wrong - the graphics are great - but you're exploring all kinds of alien worlds. I think they could've done better than desserts/forests/fortresses/etc. For me, they just don't compare to games like Ghosts of Tsushima or God of War, which more effectively colored. Their maps to make each image a work of art. Still , occasionally stunning set pieces that really make you feel like you’re on a grand and adventure and add a lot to the experience. I played on PC with max settings and after some tinkering I had exceptional framerates and no stutters, though I know this is not the case for everyone. Graphics here are still strong, but definitely this is an area that could be improved. 8.5/10
Overall, I found this to be a masterpiece of a game that was more than the sum of its already exceptional parts. This was the perfect game for me and I am giving it a 10/10 overall. I recommend this game to any action/adventure game fan, Star Wars enthusiast, or Soulslike aficionado out there. Definitely play if you have the means. And, it's free on Game Pass! What a treat!
Edit: I'm realizing that the post is marked as spoilers because I grayed out the spoilers I had of the stances. These are the only spoilers, and there are no spoilers if you don't click that little grey box with my favorite stances.

This is post is half offering knowledge, half soliciting advice.
Common ttrpg wisdom advises against splitting the party, and for a few good reasons. However, splitting the party can be awesome. Halfway through my current campaign, I asked my players, "What do you want more of from here on out." A recurring answer was "more splitting the party."
Why? Party splitting:

• Puts more of a spotlight on each character. The fewer PCs there are in a situation, the more impact one character's abilities or decisions have on the outcome of that situation. (but don't confuse spotlight with screen time -- more on that below).
• Creates a more cinematic tone. Cutting between conflicts is classic in cinema. Go no further than the 3rd act of Return of the Jedi to see a lightsaber duel intercut with a ground battle intercut with a space battle. Basically every mainline Star Wars movie since then has sought to recreate that.
• Creates drama! Fewer PCs means fewer resources. We all know the best stuff happens when the chips are down. To steal a screenwriting adage: run your PCs up a tree then set the tree on fire! Players get very creative when their resources are low.
• Encourages new character interactions. You know how your party works together, but have we seen how the paladin and the warlock act when they're on their own and need to shoot their way out of a tight spot?

But as I said earlier, there are challenges (what follows is a non-exhaustive list):

• Screentime: If only some players wind up in a combat, the others not in the combat have to sit around, or when the do play, they're just investigating the vizier's study or whatever.
• Metagaming: The players in the study will want to join the combat, and they will try to despite there being no justification within the fiction.
• Difficulty: This, I believe, is what people are talking about when they say "Don't split the party!" Some fraction of the party will encounter encounters designed for the whole party and will be turned into hamburger.

So how do we meet these challenges to get the amazing benefits:
Tackling the screen-time challenge is simple, but takes some thinking on your feet. You just need to cut from one sub-party to the other regularly, and ideally at dramatically appropriate moments. Keep an eye on the clock or a timer running so you can get back to the other group at regular and fairly short intervals.
The other two take some forethought, and I only recommend doing this with a party you have been playing with for a while and know well.
The trick is to know, ideally before the session, when your players are going to want to split up, or to somehow narratively guide them into splitting up if you want (more on that second point later). Then, to mitigate the metagaming issue, place your dramatic moments or combats where you feel the sub-parties will run into them at the same time. AND/OR adjust when or where the subparties encounter certain things on the fly to match the tension with the other sub parties.
Once you've thought about where your party might split up, the difficulty issue becomes very simple, just plan encounters balanced for a fraction of the party instead of the whole party. You may have different versions of the encounters planned depending on if they split up or not, or you can adjust on the fly. Some DMs might balk at this as me not creating a real and persistent world, to which I would say: we have different styles.
Before anyone argues against anything here, I'd like to say that I respect your thoughts and different things work for different groups, but I do this and it works and my players like it.
Now here's where I ask for advice from those of you who do this:
Next session, I will be employing all of my powers as a DM to run three mini sessions at once. I am extremely grateful to have a group of players who are close friends and who trust my occasional hare-brained ideas for unconventional sessions.
My campaign is coming to an end, and the final battle with the BBEG is on the horizon. He has amassed an enormous army, and the PCs can't stop him on their own. So last session, I asked them all: What character, group of characters, or inanimate advantage from the course of our 7-year campaign do you each want to call upon to back you up in the final battle (these NPCs wont be in initiative, but will be providing benefits elsewhere). For reasons, they know some magical plane-hopping wolves in Ysgard who will instantly take the PCS directly to whomever they name.
My game has 6 players at level 19. My original plan was to have 6 very short scenes, in sequence, where the characters are taken to the ally they named and then have to overcome some challenge in order to either assist or save the ally (our campaign is in the context of a major multiversal war) or convince them to join. However, pairs of my players happened to all choose characters that are either already in the same place in our campaign, or it would make sense for them to be in the same place now.
So instead of 6 little scenes, I'll be doing 3 scenes with 2 characters at a time. To make things simple, there will be some combat waiting for each group of two. They don't need to engage, but hopefully they do so that we will have 3 very different battles going on at once. (one against an ancient white dragon (with no legendary actions) one against a squad of giants, and one against a horde of MCDM minions).
My plan, after introducing each little scene, is to basically make one initiative with the combatants in each scene clustered together. So if two players meet one big bad guy, they will each have a turn, and then we will move to a round in another scene, and so forth. If a round in one scene is especially quick, I might do another before moving to the next scene. I plan on being pretty flexible with that depending on how its feeling
These combats have been meticulously balanced as challenging but not impossible encounters for 2 characters of level 19 (accounting for the particular makeup of each pair). And keeping things in initiative means that everyone will be playing almost exactly as often as they would be in a normal combat with all of them.
So, I'm eager to hear your thoughts and/or advice either on my advice on splitting the party above or on my scheme for my next session. Thanks!

I’ve always been a fan of Star Wars and ninjas, and, since I played as a kid, I kinda learn how to do some trick and spins with (fake) lightsabers and sticks. However, when I recently bought a katana I felt it heavier than expected (I mean… I know it’s made out of steel, but still…), especially considered the center of mass is no longer on the handle. My (kinda stupid, I admit…) question is: is it normal that is completely different and harder to spin and, in general, maneuver? Is it because I have no practice with a real sword or maybe because I bought one “not for spins”? Could it be the fact that it has no bo-hi (hope is the right name…)

(Most Star Wars character will be replaced by Ben 10 character but Star Wars species still exist in this new crossover timeline)
-Dagon was the Embodiment of the Dark Side came from Mortis, he planned to rule the universe with the assistance of his apprentice Darth Vilgax and would immediately dispose Vilgax once Dagon achieved his goal but Vilgax is well aware of this and decided to have his own plan. Vilgax travels around the Galaxy to collect ancient Sith Artifacts to empower himself such as the Darkstaff, Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger,...One day, he and his student Psyphon found the perfect weapon they were looking for and overthrew Dagon by using an ancient Sith machine known as Vox Peniculus, which has the ability to absorbs someone's power. They managed to successfully outhrow Dagon and Vilgax absorbed Dagon's power, becoming the most powerful Sith in the history. Order 66 still happened but due to the power and abilities of many species (such as Methanosian's regeneration and immunity to blaster bolts, Tetramand's immense physical strength and durability, Kineceleran, Polymorph's invulnerable body and Kineceleran, Citrakayah's incredible speed). This allow a lot more Jedi to survive compare to the Star Wars version but Vilgax is well aware of this and this is where Dagon's power came into the play. Vilgax successfully turned many Jedi survivors into the Dark Side thanks to Dagon's power and his own power, achieving his goal of having an army of Dark Side Force Users(similar to how Vilgax wants an army of aliens in OS). - Max is a Jedi Master who secretly fell in love and had children with a Force God, known as Verdona. She later gone back to Mortis, leaving Max with their 2 sons. Even though their sons didn't inherit the Force, Ben and Gwen did. Gwen is immensely powerful in the Force, rivalling her grandmother and hypothetically slightly below Anakin. Ben isn't as powerful as Gwen in Force Potential but he is still very strong in the Force and is also considered gifted. Max would take on both of them as his Padawan and trained them in the ways of the Force. Unfortunely, Max would perish in Order 66 but heroically saved his grandchild, allowing both of them to survive and creating The Rebellions alongside many others. - Max occasionally shows up as a Force Ghost to give Ben and Gwen advice. - Ben and Gwen are the one of the co-founders of the Rebellion. Gwen becomes the Rebel Commander while Kevin is an expert pilot. Kevin still has his Osmosian power but using it too much could cause him to fall to the dark side even though Kevin has gained a bit more control over it, thanks to him being trained by a former Bounty Hunter known as Kwarrel (Osmosian are highly sensitive to the Force, similar to Yoda's Species but absorbing too much power would cause them to be vulnerable to the Dark Side). - Jedi Knight Rook is another survivor of Order 66 and would eventually join the Rebellion. He later becomes Ben's partner. - Kai is a member of the Rebels and she would later discover that she is Force-Sensitive. - Julie is only a normal person without any powers but she has a pet Galvanic Mechamorph named Ship that has the ability to merge with her, giving her a powerful suit similar to the Prime Timeline as well as the addition abilities of using basic Force abilities. She would later meet and become Ben's girlfriend. - Verdona would later visited Ben and Gwen after hearing about Order 66 and decided to train Ben and Gwen. Sunny still is Ben and Gwen's cousin, she is purely Celestial.

 EDIT: 

• The Plumber Helpers still exist in this timeline as the Rebel, having their own crew similar to the Ghost Crew. However, none of them are Force-Sensitive but Cooper is Force-Attuned but still not strong enough in the Force to be Force-Sensitive
  
• Azmuth is the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, who is considered as both the wisest in the Order and the smartest in 3 arguably 5 galaxy. Azmuth would eventually exiled himself to Xenon due to his failed attempt to stop the Order 66.
  
• One day while Ben was secretly roaming in the Restriction Section of Jedi Archive, he encountered Myaxx, one of Grandmaster Azmuth's many apprentices, and was given the Omnitrix created by Azmuth himself. Ben would eventually meet Azmuth and trained by Azmuth in both the Force and the Omnitrix.
  
• The Omnitrix also has transformations of all sapient species in Star Wars Galaxy.
  
• Tetrax is a former Bounty Hunter and later becomes a Commander of the Rebellion.
  
• Sixsix, Kraab and Khyber are all bounty hunters who were hired by the Galactic Empire to hunt down Ben Tennyson and bring Vilgax the Omnitrix.
  
• Galvanic Mechamorph were still created by Grandmaster Azmuth similar to the Prime Timeline but all of them are Force-Sensitive and were created witj the Light Side. The only exception is Malware who in the process of being created caused A Great Fisturbance In The Force, unnaturally being made from the Dark Side.
  
• Albedo is Azmuth's former apprentice, he wished to have his own Omnitrix but Azmuth refuses leading to Albedo leaving the Jedi Order. After years of researching, Albedo finally created his own copy but got turned into Ben due to Ben already weilding the Omnitrix at that point. Albedo later falls to the Dark Side and got his human body corrupted, he would eventually join forces with Emperor Vilgax and created the Ultimatrix, having the feature to evolve species into a state of Oneness, becoming one with the Dark Side.
  
• Charmcaster is a Nightsister while Hex replaces the role of Mother Talzin.
  
• Kundo is Rook's former Jedi Master who became more machine than man, twisted by the Dark Side.
  
• Aggregor is a Sith Lord, being a hybrid between Osmosian and Zabrak Dathomarian. He wishes to travel to Mortis and absorb the power of the Celestials.
  
• Psyphon is the Grand Inquisitor and Vilgax's right hand man. He is in charge of training and leading the Dark Side army.
  
• Ben would eventually defeat Vilgax alongside the Empire as well as turning the Dark Side army back to the light side with Alien X (Celestialsapien and Celestials are somewhat related because Celestials were created by Celestialsapiens to help expand The Force throughout the whole universe).
  
• Ben and Gwen would eventually revive the Jedi Order after the defeat of the Empire, earning the title of Grandmaster thanks to Max's advice as a Force Ghost while Rook and Kevin becomes the Master of the Order and Battlemaster of the New Jedi Order.
  
• Years after the Empire's defeat, the New Republic would be invaded by the xenophobic species known as the Highbreed(fulfilling the same role of the Yuuzhan Vong. However, they still exist in this timeline). Ben would eventually scan the Highbreed's DNA while battling against the Highbreed Invasion, gaining a Highbreed transformation.
  
• Once the New Republic won the battle against the Highbreed, Ben and his team(Gwen, Kevin, Rook, Julie) decided to go on a road trip to the many other galaxies to explore and would discover a lot more unknown species(allowing Ben to add a lot more aliens into his arsenal, this also includes the Yuuzhan Vong).
  
• Ben' team would meet one of the most powerful villains they ever meet. Unlike many other members of his species, Maltruant is an evil Aing-Ti and leans more towards the Dark Side. Maltruant plans to reshape the universe to his ideal, Ben and his team would later train under the Aing-Ti to learn Flow Walking, allowing them to stop Maltruant and thwart his plan. (Maybe Maltruant could still be a Chronosapien and Ben's team learn Flow Walking or having them discover The Worlds Between Worlds in order to make up for their lack of time travel ability. Or just have Ben unlock Clockwork).
  
• At some point during the Time War, Ben would get to meet his future counterpart, Grandmaster Ben 10K. Grandmaster Ben 10K still has the same personality of present Ben but more mature, his abilities mirrors that of Ultimate Ben but his appearance changes resembles that of Experiment 10 more than UA Ben 10K. Whenever he uses an alien, he would be coated with an avatar made out of Light Side Force Energy.
  
• It's unknown if Professor Paradox exist in this timeline.
  
• It's also unknown what role he would play if he even exist.
  
• It's possible that he is still a time walker via Flow-Walking or Worlds Between Worlds but he might not be a Jedi, Sith or even a Force User despite having access to Force abilities and dimension that allow him to time travel. It's still a mystery to this day.
  
• There are timelines where Ben is The Chosen One, a Sith, a Mandalorian/Bounty Hunter, timelines where Max survived and even one where Ben got the Omnitrix early.
  
• There are also timelines where Kaminoan use alien DNA from Ben 10 Universe to create the army, instead of human DNA.
  
• A Reboot equivalent of Jedi Ben's character doesn't currently exist.
  
• Star Wars version of alternate Bens and Gwen 10 from Gweniverse in And Then There Were None exist, except Ben 23 because Jedi Ben also lost his Max.
  
• Addwaitya plays the role of Abeloth in this timeline, he got this power thanks to him secretly drinking from the Font of Power and bathing in the Pool of Knowledge, gaining an immense power.
  
• Species that are Force-Sensitive: Osmosian, Anodites(yes they do exist), Galvanic Mechamorph, Galilean, Thep Khufan, Geochelone Aerios, etc
  
• It's very rare seeing an alien come from the Anur System to become a Jedi. Jedi Knight Scout is a Force-Sensitive Loboan, one of Rook's accomplice and friends. Scout doesn't use a Khyber Crystal, he instead uses Corrodium as his lightsaber's power source, emitting a purple blade color. Thankfully, the lightsaber doesn't corrupt nor mutate anyone who are near the lightsaber even if someone comes from a non-Anur System weilds it. But Anur Aliens are the only ones that benefit from the power of Corrodium, becoming more powerful in the Force than any other crystal they would use.
  
• Ectonurite are the only species in the galaxy that do not have any connection to the Force, not because they got cut from it or their connection is too weak or something. The real reason for that is because they are not alive in same way as many species, their "lives" are just very different from most sentient life forms. Thus they can't become Force-Sensitive or have any Midichlorian, making them completely immune to Force Sense or Force Drain similar to the Yuuzhan Vong.
  
• Plumbers characters are all Jedi, replacing the roles of Star Wars characters, such as Magistrata playing the role of Master of the Order, Max, Patelliday and Devin playing the role of Battlemaster.
  
• Meanwhile the Rooters are a small group of Dark Jedi who left Jedi Order, Servantis, Swift and Leander are all pure aliens in this timeline. Phil is the only exception to this, he is still a human but his skin got corrupted by the Dark Side.
  
• Lightsaber Form: Ben: Form V, Djem So Gwen: Form VI, Niman Kevin: Form VII, Vapaad Rook: Form III, Soresu Everyone else: Unknown
  Edit:
  
• The Alpha Squad plays the same role as the Bad Batch, none of them are Force-Sensitive.
  
• The events of Generator Rex are canon in this timeline but that doesn't affect much because it happened on Earth in a galaxy far, far away compare to Ben. Maybe they will meet in the future someday during Ben's roadtrip. But hey, that's just a theory !
  

Scrapped ideas: - Mortis God Hellbinder sends away his daughter and brother to save them from Addwaitya. (Scrapped because it doesn't line up with Charmcaster being a Nightsister and Hex being the leader of the Nightsister Clan) -Anur Aliens are consider species affliated with the Dark Side except Ectonurite, Corrodium are crystals imbued with Dark Side energy that can cause anyone to turn to the Dark Side. Anur Aliens can perfectly use them due to them already have the power of the Dark Side. Scout using a purple lightsaber showing his closer connection to the Dark Side similar to Mace Windu.

(Most Star Wars character will be replaced by Ben 10 character but Star Wars species still exist in this new crossover timeline)
-Dagon was the Embodiment of the Dark Side came from Mortis, he planned to rule the universe with the assistance of his apprentice Darth Vilgax and would immediately dispose Vilgax once Dagon achieved his goal but Vilgax is well aware of this and decided to have his own plan. Vilgax travels around the Galaxy to collect ancient Sith Artifacts to empower himself such as the Darkstaff, Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger,...One day, he and his student Psyphon found the perfect weapon they were looking for and overthrew Dagon by using an ancient Sith machine known as Vox Peniculus, which has the ability to absorbs someone's power. They managed to successfully outhrow Dagon and Vilgax absorbed Dagon's power, becoming the most powerful Sith in the history. Order 66 still happened but due to the power and abilities of many species (such as Methanosian's regeneration and immunity to blaster bolts, Tetramand's immense physical strength and durability, Kineceleran, Polymorph's invulnerable body and Kineceleran, Citrakayah's incredible speed). This allow a lot more Jedi to survive compare to the Star Wars version but Vilgax is well aware of this and this is where Dagon's power came into the play. Vilgax successfully turned many Jedi survivors into the Dark Side thanks to Dagon's power and his own power, achieving his goal of having an army of Dark Side Force Users(similar to how Vilgax wants an army of aliens in OS). - Max is a Jedi Master who secretly fell in love and had children with a Force God, known as Verdona. She later gone back to Mortis, leaving Max with their 2 sons. Even though their sons didn't inherit the Force, Ben and Gwen did. Gwen is immensely powerful in the Force, rivalling her grandmother and hypothetically slightly below Anakin. Ben isn't as powerful as Gwen in Force Potential but he is still very strong in the Force and is also considered gifted. Max would take on both of them as his Padawan and trained them in the ways of the Force. Unfortunely, Max would perish in Order 66 but heroically saved his grandchild, allowing both of them to survive and creating The Rebellions alongside many others. - Max occasionally shows up as a Force Ghost to give Ben and Gwen advice. - Ben and Gwen are the one of the co-founders of the Rebellion. Gwen becomes the Rebel Commander while Kevin is an expert pilot. Kevin still has his Osmosian power but using it too much could cause him to fall to the dark side even though Kevin has gained a bit more control over it, thanks to him being trained by a former Bounty Hunter known as Kwarrel (Osmosian are highly sensitive to the Force, similar to Yoda's Species but absorbing too much power would cause them to be vulnerable to the Dark Side). - Jedi Knight Rook is another survivor of Order 66 and would eventually join the Rebellion. He later becomes Ben's partner. - Kai is a member of the Rebels and she would later discover that she is Force-Sensitive. - Julie is only a normal person without any powers but she has a pet Galvanic Mechamorph named Ship that has the ability to merge with her, giving her a powerful suit similar to the Prime Timeline but she doesn't have any Force power due to Ship being non-sapient. She would later meet and become Ben's girlfriend. - Verdona would later visited Ben and Gwen after hearing about Order 66 and decided to train Ben and Gwen. Sunny still is Ben and Gwen's cousin, she is purely Celestial. - The Plumber Helpers still exist in this timeline as the Rebel, having their own crew similar to the Ghost Crew. However, none of them are Force-Sensitive but Cooper is considered Force-Attuned but not enough to have the Force. - Azmuth is the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, who is considered as both the wisest in the Order and the smartest in 3 arguably 5 galaxy. Azmuth would eventually exiled himself to Xenon due to his failed attempt to stop the Order 66. - One day while Ben was secretly roaming in the Restriction Section of Jedi Archive, he encountered Myaxx, one of Grandmaster Azmuth's many apprentices, and was given the Omnitrix created by Azmuth himself. Ben would eventually meet Azmuth and trained by Azmuth in both the Force and the Omnitrix. - The Omnitrix also has transformations of all sapient species in Star Wars Galaxy. - Tetrax is a former Bounty Hunter and later becomes a Commander of the Rebellion. - Sixsix, Kraab and Khyber are all bounty hunters who were hired by the Galactic Empire to hunt down Ben Tennyson and bring Vilgax the Omnitrix. - Galvanic Mechamorph were still created by Grandmaster Azmuth similar to the Prime Timeline but all of them are Force-Sensitive and were created witj the Light Side. The only exception is Malware who in the process of being created caused A Great Fisturbance In The Force, unnaturally being made from the Dark Side. - Albedo is Azmuth's former apprentice, he wished to have his own Omnitrix but Azmuth refuses leading to Albedo leaving the Jedi Order. After years of researching, Albedo finally created his own copy but got turned into Ben due to Ben already weilding the Omnitrix at that point. Albedo later falls to the Dark Side and got his human body corrupted, he would eventually join forces with Emperor Vilgax and created the Ultimatrix, having the feature to evolve species into a state of Oneness, becoming one with the Dark Side. - Charmcaster is a Nightsister while Hex replaces the role of Mother Talzin. - Kundo is Rook's former Jedi Master who became more machine than man, twisted by the Dark Side. - Aggregor is a Sith Lord, being a hybrid between Osmosian and Zabrak Dathomarian. He wishes to travel to Mortis and absorb the power of the Celestials. - Psyphon is the Grand Inquisitor and Vilgax's right hand man. He is in charge of training and leading the Dark Side army. - Ben would eventually defeat Vilgax alongside the Empire as well as turning the Dark Side army back to the light side with Alien X (Celestialsapien and Celestials are somewhat related because Celestials were created by Celestialsapiens to help expand The Force throughout the whole universe). - Ben and Gwen would eventually revive the Jedi Order after the defeat of the Empire, earning the title of Grandmaster thanks to Max's advice as a Force Ghost while Rook and Kevin becomes the Master of the Order and Battlemaster of the New Jedi Order. - Years after the Empire's defeat, the New Republic would be invaded by the xenophobic species known as the Highbreed(fulfilling the same role of the Yuuzhan Vong. However, they still exist in this timeline). Ben would eventually scan the Highbreed's DNA while battling against the Highbreed Invasion, gaining a Highbreed transformation. - Once the New Republic won the battle against the Highbreed, Ben and his team(Gwen, Kevin, Rook, Julie) decided to go on a road trip to the many other galaxies to explore and would discover a lot more unknown species(allowing Ben to add a lot more aliens into his arsenal, this also includes the Yuuzhan Vong). - Ben' team would meet one of the most powerful villains they ever meet. Unlike many other members of his species, Maltruant is an evil Aing-Ti and leans more towards the Dark Side. Maltruant plans to reshape the universe to his ideal, Ben and his team would later train under the Aing-Ti to learn Flow Walking, allowing them to stop Maltruant and thwart his plan. (Maybe Maltruant could still be a Chronosapien and Ben's team learn Flow Walking or having them discover The Worlds Between Worlds in order to make up for their lack of time travel ability. Or just have Ben unlock Clockwork). - At some point during the Time War, Ben would get to meet his future counterpart, Grandmaster Ben 10K. Grandmaster Ben 10K still has the same personality of present Ben but more mature, his abilities mirrors that of Ultimate Ben but his appearance changes resembles that of Experiment 10 more than UA Ben 10K. Whenever he uses an alien, he would be coated with an avatar made out of Light Side Force Energy. - It's unknown if Professor Paradox exist in this timeline. - It's also unknown what role he would play if he even exist. - It's possible that he is still a time walker via Flow-Walking or Worlds Between Worlds but he might not be a Jedi, Sith or even a Force User despite having access to Force abilities and dimension that allow him to time travel. It's still a mystery to this day. - There are timelines where Ben is The Chosen One, a Sith, a Mandalorian/Bounty Hunter, timelines where Max survived and even one where Ben got the Omnitrix early. - There are also timelines where Kaminoan use alien DNA from Ben 10 Universe to create the army, instead of human DNA. - A Reboot equivalent of Jedi Ben's character doesn't currently exist. - Star Wars version of alternate Bens and Gwen 10 from Gweniverse in And Then There Were None exist, except Ben 23 because Jedi Ben also lost his Max. - Addwaitya plays the role of Abeloth in this timeline, he got this power thanks to him secretly drinking from the Font of Power and bathing in the Pool of Knowledge, gaining an immense power. - Species that are Force-Sensitive: Osmosian, Anodites(yes they do exist), Galvanic Mechamorph, Galilean, Thep Khufan, Geochelone Aerios, etc - It's very rare seeing an alien come from the Anur System to become a Jedi. Jedi Knight Scout is a Force-Sensitive Loboan, one of Rook's accomplice and friends. Scout doesn't use a Khyber Crystal, he instead uses Corrodium as his lightsaber's power source, emitting a purple blade color. Thankfully, the lightsaber doesn't corrupt nor mutate anyone who are near the lightsaber even if someone comes from a non-Anur System weilds it. But Anur Aliens are the only ones that benefit from the power of Corrodium, becoming more powerful in the Force than any other crystal they would use. - Ectonurite are the only species in the galaxy that do not have any connection to the Force, not because they got cut from it or their connection is too weak or something. The real reason for that is because they are not alive in same way as many species, their "lives" are just very different from most sentient life forms. Thus they can't become Force-Sensitive or have any Midichlorian, making them completely immune to Force Sense or Force Drain similar to the Yuuzhan Vong. - Plumbers characters are all Jedi, replacing the roles of Star Wars characters, such as Magistrata playing the role of Master of the Order, Max, Patelliday and Devin playing the role of Battlemaster. - Meanwhile the Rooters are a small group of Dark Jedi who left Jedi Order, Servantis, Swift and Leander are all pure aliens in this timeline. Phil is the only exception to this, he is still a human but his skin got corrupted by the Dark Side. - The Alpha Squad plays the same role as the Bad Batch, none of them are Force-Sensitive. - The events of Generator Rex are canon in this timeline but that doesn't affect the story because it happened on Earth in a galaxy far, far away compare to Ben. Maybe they will meet in the future someday during Ben's roadtrip. But hey, that's just a theory ! - Lightsaber Form: Ben: Form V, Djem So Gwen: Form VI, Niman Kevin: Form VII, Vapaad Rook: Form III, Soresu Everyone else: Unknown Scrapped ideas: - Mortis God Hellbinder sends away his daughter and brother to save them from Addwaitya. (Scrapped because it doesn't line up with Charmcaster being a Nightsister and Hex being the leader of the Nightsister Clan) -Anur Aliens are consider species affliated with the Dark Side except Ectonurite, Corrodium are crystals imbued with Dark Side energy that can cause anyone to turn to the Dark Side. Anur Aliens can perfectly use them due to them already have the power of the Dark Side. Scout using a purple lightsaber showing his closer connection to the Dark Side similar to Mace Windu. (Scrapped because there too many Force-Sensitive species)

A local symphony orchestra occasionally does this thing where they set up a big screen in their concert hall and play the score live while a classic movie plays. It’s a really cool thing. And just now they did Return of the Jedi, so of course I had to see it. And of course I suspected (accurately) that the version they would be showing at the concert would be the godawful ‘Special Edition’ bastardization, and I don’t want my kids thinking that that’s what Star Wars really is, so we all watched the movie on VHS before the concert.
VHS is of course still the best way to see it. I appreciate what seeing it in widescreen brings to the experience (such as the initial star destroyer suddenly not being weirdly off-center, and everything just looking grander, and getting to see what was in the ~40% of the frame that the VHS edition amputates), but the Special Edition bullshit more than cancels it out. We just didn’t need Max Rebo’s band to be replaced by laughably poor CGI cartoons, or their song to be replaced by a markedly inferior one; we don’t need to see where Oola goes when she falls into the Rancor pit, because the point of that scene is simply to establish that there’s something very scary under that floor, and the original cut does that just fine; we just don’t need to hear Vader scream “NooOoOOoOo!” again (we really didn’t need to hear it the first time, in Episode 3, either); we really don’t need the Death Star’s explosion to have that stupid-ass ring coming out of it; and we don’t need poorly-animated cartoons of a galaxy-wide celebration while another markedly inferior song plays us out. I guess it’s kind of cool to replace Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen, but that is also hardly necessary.
I am rather surprised by how little is changed; two (plot-irrelevant) scenes are altered beyond recognition, and the Oola scene adds maybe a half-second of footage, but that’s really it. I haven’t seen either of the other ‘Special Editions’ since the 90s, but I seem to remember the changes to them were rather more extensive (more shots, and at least two whole scenes, added; and backgrounds and special effects being altered in a whole lot more shots). This supports my old, since-discarded belief that ROTJ is the best of the trilogy, since it apparently needed the least alteration. Or maybe it’s just that by the time he got to the third entry Lucas had just run out of time or energy and so did less fuckery than he really wanted to.
I suppose that this bastardized version is the only one anyone’s really been able to see since 1997 (with Christensen and “NooOoOOoOo” being added sometime in 2005 or later) and for the foreseeable future, because Disney refuses to allow any other version. There just can’t be very many people like me who are insane enough to insist on owning VCRs for the sole purpose of watching the Star Wars VHS tapes from 1995, and so most people nowadays must not know that Yub Yub exists, and think that Greedo actually did shoot first, and that big explosions in space are supposed to have that stupid-ass ring coming out of them, etc, and that makes me very sad.
The play-along was otherwise a really good time, but so well done it kinda canceled itself out; the orchestra played so well that for a big chunk of the middle of the movie I forgot the music was being played live rather than just being part of the movie (a lighter version of the ‘out of body experience’ that the great Roger Ebert described upon first seeing Episode 4), and failed to appreciate them, which is an odd paradox of performance: had it been a little worse, I would have noticed and enjoyed their performance considerably more.

Somewhat to my surprise, I have some new thoughts on this movie that has been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember and which I have watched more times than any other movie and which I probably still have mostly memorized:
The first is that Han Solo is really just a clown in this movie. The whole first act is all about other people rescuing his helpless ass; when he joins the action, all he does is blunder around ineffectually, and his first real contribution (taking Boba Fett out of the fight) is entirely accidental.*1
He’s unprepared for his big Endor mission, and humiliates himself and wastes the time of all the top-ranking Rebel leaders slapping his command crew together at the last moment in front of everyone.
His time on Endor is largely a comedy of errors: his failure of stealth nearly blows the whole mission, and then his party gets captured, and then his unforced error nearly gets everyone cooked and eaten, and then he dreadfully mishandles a very sensitive moment with Leia, and then he fails at hot-wiring the door, and then it takes him a hilariously long time to figure out that the love triangle has been resolved (no thanks to anything he’s actually done) in his favor.

I also have some thoughts about the Emperor. During my early devotion to this movie ((which lasted until after the prequels, that is well into my 20s), I took him at face value as the greatest villain in cinema history. Later on (and I’m surprised I didn’t really get into this here), I rethought things and found him lacking: he was too one-dimensional, a kind of strawman of merciless and mindless tyranny, and extremely overacted to boot.
Nowadays I’m back to the first thing, for (I hope) rather more sophisticated reasons: now that I’ve seen real-life examples of people very much like him, I have to admit that he’s hauntingly true to life. He seems to spend all his time looking at the stars and jacking himself off to the thought that they all belong to him. He sets a pretty simple trap and expects it to work perfectly, because he’s been in such unchallenged power for so long that he can’t even really imagine anything not going his way; he expects to easily overpower Luke and the Rebel fleet because he’s been easily overpowering everyone for decades now. And when the plan doesn’t work, he falls back on the crudest imaginable cruelty and brutality, because that’s all he’s got, and that also has always worked for him.
You could see all this as a failure of characterization, making the character dumber than he has to be. But I’m more inclined to see it as true to life: people who experience unchallenged power and privilege really do neglect anything and everything that doesn’t directly stroke their own egos, and experience measurable declines in critical-thinking and risk-management skills, and really do kind of freak out and collapse whenever anyone dares to seriously challenge them.

I’ve gone through a similar progression about Luke’s behavior in this movie, which is very reckless and one-note: he sends the droids, Leia, and Chewie into Jabba’s palace with not much of a plan, and when that goes wrong he rolls in himself, still with not much of a plan, apparently counting on his Jedi skills to get him through. It worked, but it didn’t have to; it was all a very bad plan. He clearly didn’t expect to have to deal with the Rancor, and he really could have used his lightsaber at that time so it was too bad that R2D2 wasn’t around to give it to him, and it was pretty much dumb luck that R2 was around to give it to him a little later, and it was really pretty much dumb luck that no one on Jabba’s team thought to search R2 and 3PO or keep them away from any potentially sensitive situation.
On a film-criticism level, I’m willing to forgive all of this (except perhaps Jabba’s baffling lack of paranoia; he’s not the emperor of the entire galaxy, so surely he should expect serious challenges), because Luke is an inexperienced and multiply-traumatized 23-year-old in the throes of discovering his own supernatural powers, so it’s very much in character for him to plan badly and be reckless, and then immediately make the exact same mistake again when he charges into the Emperor’s throne room, again with no plan and very little idea of what he’s actually getting himself into.

At some point I’m going to give my full thoughts on how the prequels and sequels should have gone. (I teased this more than 3 years ago, and I’m sorry. I’ll get around to it sometime.) For now, suffice it to say that the sequels should dwell quite heavily on calling out and correcting Luke.
In addition to the poor planning, his operation against Jabba is a pretty clear abuse of power: he’s there to help his personal friends, which (from a certain point of view) one could see as rather more corrupt and self-serving than heroic. Was the Han situation really worth risking the galaxy’s only Jedi Knight over? Was it really more deserving of said Jedi’s attention than all the other atrocities that were still ongoing all over the galaxy at the time? Even if we assume the answer to both questions is Yes, Luke’s methods are highly questionable: he puts everyone involved at much greater risk than he had to (there must have been a way to rescue Han without allowing Jabba to publicly rape Leia), and he does the whole thing very much more violently than was necessary; quite a lot of the people he kills were killed in legitimate self-defense, but there were probably dozens of totally innocent (or at least entirely non-threatening) people present, and he simply didn’t have to blow up every last one of them the way he did. They weren’t even collateral damage, because Jabba was already dead!

*1 Another detail I don’t think I noticed before: Luke tells Han “Stay close to Chewie and Lando,” which makes fine sense to us in the audience, because we’ve been told that Lando is around and undercover. But Han maybe hasn’t. He can’t see, and it would have been risky for Lando to say anything to him, and of course Lando’s presence was not planned early enough for Han to hear about it before being frozen, so we have to ask when and how he found out. I suppose Chewie told him when they were locked up together, but it’s somewhat odd that we don’t see that, and really very strange that I only noticed this very minor plot hole now, on my 8346582037^th viewing of this movie.

So this is a theory I have had for a while. In season 4, Dooku had planned to kidnap Palpatine. He very nearly succeeded but Anakin and Obi-Wan stopped him. But what would've happened had Dooku succeeded? I don't think Dooku's real plan was to ransom Palpatine back to the Republic. I think once the doors to his ship had closed, keeping Anakin and Obi-Wan from reaching them, Dooku going to immediately run his lightsaber through Palpatine's heart. He'd been training Ventress and later Savage to help him take out Sidious so he intended to betray his master eventually. I think Dooku was using this as an opportunity to make his move. Palpatine might've sensed something but by then it would be too late. But you might ask why he didn't do this in RotS. In RotS Palpatine set the kidnapping up so he was in the loop on how the whole thing was supposed to play out. If Dooku tried anything funny Palpatine would be on him like flies on shit. The clone wars attempt was the brain child of Moralo Eval. Dooku likely cleared it with Palapatine before agreeing to let Eval pull this stunt. Palpatine not being in the loop of the details of the plan keeps things from seeming staged and it gives Dooku more room to maneuver. These are just my thoughts and I'm sure I'm not the first to think this. I think it's cool to imagine that this arc from Dooku's perspective was him making a play to take out his master

Unpopular theory: The Force Awakens should be the end episode of the Star Wars saga.
That way, there's no Luke drinking green milk, he doesn't (spoiler) die, neither does Leia, Captain Phasma, Snoke, General Hux, Kylo Ren or Admiral Ackbar. Plus, there's no Kylo Ren pec scenes, no Force virtual meetings, Luke doesn't try to kill Kylo Ren, Rey and Kylo Ren are not Force yin-yang or kiss each other, Palpatine doesn't return somehow, no Rose Tico, no Sith knife plot armor or flying stormtroopers, no Force healing or ruined Knights of Ren, no Leia flying through space, no demotion for Poe, no hyperspace kamikaze, no Rey being all the Jedi or a Skywalker, or even a Palpatine. And, no Han Solo Force ghost scene.
Plus, while Han Solo does die in Episode VII, Harrison Ford technically wanted him to die off in Episode VI in 1983, so that's reasonable(ish). Rey is kinda powerful, but she's not a Mary Sue; Kylo Ren isn't an emo guy with modesty issues, Luke isn't pessimistic about the Jedi Order, the Resistance doesn't run away after literally totalling the Starkiller base, the Knights of Ren get real lore, Snoke isn't a plot device, there's actual mystery surrounding Rey's background and room for speculation, there's intrigue about her lineage and parents, there's her relationship with Finn, no focus on merch with Porgs or D-O, Yoda doesn't butter Rey up, Darth Vader's helmet signifies his influence in the galaxy and not just a plot device that's ignored, Poe is actually a respectable pilot and not an idiot with temper issues, there's no pink-haired general (forgot her name), no Jannah, no Rey trying to burn a lightsaber or give up, no stupid Exegol propaganda with the Sith cultists, no Snoke heads or clones, and no Benedict Arnold rapping guy (forgot his name too).
Yeah, Chewie wouldn't get his medal, lightsabers still would be weird(ish), planets would still be mass-destroyed by Starkiller, Jakku would still exist, Rian Johnson wouldn't get his movie, there'd be no mysterious enslaved Force younglings, cool Force mirror cave scenes, explanation as to why Kylo Ren is Kylo Ren, no Rey meeting Poe, no more Maz Kanata, no Lando getting the Falcon at last, no foreseeable restoration of the Jedi, no sequel memes, no BB-9E (he at least looks cool), no Knights of Ren scenes, no Death Star II callback and no Kylo Ren redemption arc. But hey, those could probably be incorporated elsewhere, no?
Besides, it doesn't take away from modern Star Wars. Rogue One still releases, Solo kinda doesn't stink, the Disney+ masterpieces are still an option, Kathleen Kennedy still might make Obi-Wan Kenobi, and so on. That wouldn't solve the problem with the new animated Disney+ shows on Star Wars (Resistance, Young Jedi Adventures), but that speaks for itself. And we might still get Visions, prequel shows and Season 7 of Clone Wars.
But, I guess, who is to say I cannot reminisce on what could once have been?

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