Agreed with you both.
Ultimately we have the Maul episodes we have, so either it’s chunked together (in which case we don’t get it very often) or it’s spread thin (in which case we only get smaller doses). On my recent rewatch I did feel like each later Maul episode, while short, packed a lot into those 22 minutes, so I think it’ll still feel ‘meaty’ enough. Of course, when it’s watched through, if we feel like we lose something it can always be shifted around. Bear in mind Sade that it’s not a ‘super dose’ of Maul near the end - there will be other episodes in between those, just not those which are Mauldalore or Ahsoka, so the frequency of Maul episodes should be equal throughout. (I might release a different order for the Mando cut but right now my main focus is Quality)
Similarly, with Ventress, we lose that impression that she’s a present threat for longer. Unfortunately, due to the way the story plays out, you either have Maul for longer or Ventress, and ultimately Maul is the larger part of this series and the wider franchise, so I think she’s a necessary sacrifice. It does make me feel like it’s probably worth keeping her Bounty Hunter episode though, just so she’s not forgotten. One advantage of this though, is that it makes Sidious’ ‘correction’ of her presence come a lot sooner, which works nicely with the theme of him being pretty proactive against wildcards, third parties, and known threats in this show.
Sade, I’m glad you think moving Mandalore Plot up front is a good idea. It was floating around that area for a while until I realised that it was an option to just have it right after Ahsoka’s intro. It might suprise the familiar viewer but it doesn’t seem unwise. It doesn’t actually feature Ahsoka so it could almost be our episode one. One other option I’ve considered is even merging it with her Christophsis intro. Episode one would be Ahsoka meeting Anakin whilst Obi-Wan investigates Deathwatch, then episode two could be Obi-Wan and Anakin bringing Satine to Coruscant while Ahsoka spends some time with Luminara on her own escort duty. This is probably a far later (second pass) option for if I do start merging episodes to make whole seasons flow like more of a typical drama than an anthology show, which I’ll only do if the whole show can work this way, which is unlikely. It would also let you do things like wrap Lightsaber Lost into an Anakin/Obi episode, to give each a bit more character balance and allow everyone’s presence to average out a lot more. Like I say though, that’s for a ‘phase two’ I’d only consider after the current project is complete.