So, I’ve rewatched the Malevolence arc.

-That’s right bitches, Eddie’s rewatching the Clone Wars yet again and making YOU read about it for a second time!-

This time I’m doing a deep dive into the episodes composing Ahsoka’s arc, since that’s the emotional core of the shwo. So I’m just looking at where the value is and what makes the best complete story. Interestingly, she’s only a main character in 18 arcs of ~60.

While the Malevolence arc ends really poorly, the first episode is really good, especially for Ahsoka. It has light Snips/Sky Guy, which is far less obnoxious, but a good plot about Anakin teaching Ahsoka how do disobey orders the right way, and both of them demonstrate good instincts and a care for those around them.

The second episode retreads a lot of the same ground in terms of Anakin/Ahsoka and Ahsoka/Plo, and frankly very little of importance happens in it - except for some good shots of the ship starting to explode, which could get you a lot of the way towards just cutting right after the first part.

The third, where the ship’s infiltrated, contains a lot of the worst bits of Clone Wars. Cheapened Padmé, cheapened big bads, and goofy C-3PO moments. The infiltration and exfiltration scenes are serviceable, and there’s some good cheering and 'job well done’s at the end to cobble together an ending.

I think the whole arc would be stronger, though, if we don’t see the weapon fire (it’s goofy and not used again), instead allowing it to be a far more ominous mystery, with the escalation/threat really being that they’re targeting escape pods and the emotional impact on the clones and Ahsoka. I’d also take Grievous and Dooku out entirely (since it’s yet another easy win), instead using the opening text to make it either simply a “Separatist Weapon” or maybe something to do with Geonosians.

Ultimately, it’s a pretty damn good Ahsoka episode if the focus is taken off the Malevolence itself. I think there’s a very serviceable 30 minute episode in here, and switching Trench in for the other villains and making his whole thing that he’s pod-killing survivors makes him more malicious too when we see him later in the Order 66 and Bad Batch episodes. Our options for an ending are as follows:

Something fancy using the stealth ship, where Obi-Wan gives it to Anakin (as in Cat and Mouse) though I think on reflection it’s best not to use it because “no ship that small has a cloaking device” (I know this episode tries to retcon that), and stealth really isn’t much of a thing in Star Wars. There’s a line in the second episode about Anakin “taking a small ship” which would work nicely too.
Something where Anakin takes the stealth ship and we maintain more of the Malevolence elements where Obi-Wan thinks Anakin is crazy, though it makes us question where Anakin got a stealth ship. Unless it’s not stealth, and maybe there’s an angle where he made it himself? He is an engineer/pilot… I wonder.
Something to do with the infiltration and re-plotting the hyperdrive to make it crash (a bit boring) though this is probably relatively hard to make work because more characters appear in those scenes, and the infiltration adds little
Something to do with infiltration and self-destruct or similar (there is an “the engines are overloading” line which is originally used to refer to Padmé’s ship)
Just have the goodies catch up with it and kill it with regular laser fire. I think this is cleanest since we shouldn’t be wasting time trying to drag this out, and we’ve had our main course with the Anakin/Ahsoka/Plo stuff. Ahsoka helps rescue Plo, scene of them saying “let’s go get them”, shot of them coming out of hyperspace and a brief scuffle, cut to explosions, cut to cheering. Straight to the point.