EddieDean said:
Cad Babe
Damn right. I hope he shows up in Bad Batch.
That series of episodes looks good to me, but obviously it’s hard to get a feel for any of it (especially as I haven’t seen the show in a while) until the weekly episode watchings actually begin, at which point it will become very apparent when something kills the pacing.
Moving the Mandalore Plot up front is definitely a good idea. Having Nightsisters so early might make it seem like Ventress barely spent any time as Dooku’s assassin, but I understand that’s a necessary move to get Maul rolling sooner. There’s a few episodes in there which seem like they’d be noticeable dips in pace (e.g. Lightsaber Lost) compared to what comes next (Boba Fett, Maul) but it is good for us to spend as much - actually valuable - time with Ahsoka as possible, to solidify her as that primary PoV character and to give her development the space and focus it needs. Having the Second Battle of Geonosis arc spread over three episodes while other arcs like Slaves of Kadavo get compressed down to one seems a little odd (unless that’s just an inconsistency in how you’ve listed them) but I trust that you’ll find the right length for things when you come to edit.
It’s unfortunate that Maul literally only appears in 6 episodes (of the original show) prior to Season 7, because just looking at the episode list it concerns me that he may wind up spread a little thin. Obviously it’ll be easier to judge that when we view the series. This is especially apparent since you have just one episode separating each of The Lawless, Son of Dathomir, and the Siege of Mandalore - seems a little bit like getting a super-strength dose of Maul right at the end there, but I suppose that’s the point. It’s definitely preferable to the original show where he has zero presence from S05E17-S07E07. I imagine you’ll be bulking that bit more in the ‘Quality’ cut, with the Biochip Conspiracy, Yoda’s Journey etc. right?
Edit: Oh, and one other thought. Have you considered a Mando Season 2 style tick-tock of filler/not filler? Obvious what is “filler” is up for a lot of debate, so perhaps a better way to put it would be alternating between slower, character focused episodes (like Chapter 15 of Mando and Lightsaber Lost) and episodes where the main plot - or in this case, one of the various main plots - gets meaningfully advanced (like, presumably, Chapter 16 of Mando, and something like The Lawless). Nevermind, I just realised this actually breaks around halfway through Mando Season 2. Still, I felt Chapters 9, 11, and 13 of Mando were less fillery than Chapters 10 and 12.