Now turning to planning the second part of this episode, Cargo of Doom / Children of the force.
On review, I don’t think master RuPaul is necessary at all, so I’ll remove him from this and remove his references from Part One. This way the plot’s more streamlined, there’s no Kyber, there’s no intention to kidnap RuPaul, it’s just Bane and the Holocron being chased, then opportunism when he gets presented with two Jedi.
I’ll also trim Obi-Wan’s trip to Rodia, since it’s redundant, and also because I really don’t like the Rodian city’s design. And Battle Droid goofiness, naturally. I’ll do some reordering to make this less of an absolute whip round the galaxy too.
There’s an odd moment where Ahsoka cautions Anakin to be patient, and he acknowledges that she’s right. It’s a good moment, but takes away a little from the future Lightsaber Lost episode, where ‘patience’ is basically the entire lesson. As much as I like it in this episode, I might take it out here, to allow her to learn it in chronological order.
I’ve been trying to emphasise as I’ve gone through this that my episode numbers are just my production order, but I appreciate that there’s still been some confusion there. I figured I’d ‘feel out’ the final release ordering as I went through and in response to your feedback. For someone looking for an actual season finale, this episode would serve really nicely as the end of season one, since it achieves a lot. It’s got all our main characters (Ahsoka, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, Rex), a compelling villain, Sidious development (which ties in to broader media), a high-stakes plot for both the Republic and Jedi, both Coruscant and Mustafar, and most importantly, it puts a gun to Ahsoka’s head and lets Anakin show what she’s come to mean to him.
I could therefore present the first season as follows:
- s01e01 - The New Padawan (Christophsis)
- s01e02 - The Death Watch
- s01e03 - Malevolence
- s01e04 - The 501st Legion (Domino Squad)
- s01e05 - Cloak of Darkness
- s01e06 - Children of Night (Nightsisters)
- s01e07 - The Blockade of Ryloth
- s01e08 - Duchess of Mandalore
- s01e09/10 - A Strike at the Heart (Holocron Crisis)
Season two might take a bit of reordering then, possibly starting with the Return of Maul arc and ending with the Maul Piracy episode (where he links in with the Mandalorians), which would really cement his presence in the show and that plotline as the central thread. I’d have to shuffle around a couple of those episodes I’ve already produced if I do that though - Massacre, Seven Warriors, Lightsaber Lost, etc.
I really like my show’s cold open as something that presents the hesitant viewer with something that immediately suprises them and tells them they’re going to see interesting things they won’t have expected, but it won’t get paid off till 20 episodes in (of 50) so I can understand if people think it doesn’t work.