So I’ve just been looking a little forward to ensure I’m structuring the future phases correctly.
Since I’m wanting to bring Revival forward, the major impact as highlited by Knight of Kalee is on the Younglings arc, so I’ve just checked over both.
Revival only needs one trim - the removal of smirking Palpatine at the end. Sidious gets to be ominous, but Palpatine shouldn’t.
For Younglings, the arc is shot beautifully, with gorgeous animation and lighting, and really good direction. The Obi-Wan/Grievous encounter, especially the space battle, is very Original Trilogy in the best way. It’s not super relevant to the plot but it’s lovely. Grievous is great in this arc too. If I can’t find somewhere better for the space battle / ship fight part I’ll keep it where it is.
The actual storyline is great too - except for the focus on the Younglings. That’s not to say that they’re bad, per se, it’s just that time spent on them is kind of time wasted, when they’re the sole focus. There’s added value with all the lightsaber stuff, and especially if we play this up as Ahsoka’s teaching, but I think it needs some trimming. But the rest of the storyline is great fun. A little goofy, but in quite a charming OT way.
I’ve always intended to cut the first episode - where the kids find their crystals (and keep it just as a Continuity Cut episode, so it’ll still be there if you want it) - and to start on the Jedi lightsaber ship with the crawl explaining that Ahsoka’s taken an active role in training the kids (since the Holocron arc) and is escorting these ones back from having earned their crystals on Ilum. I’ll trim and tighten what I can, but it’s basically fine. If I do preserve the Obi-Wan space battle in this episode, I’ll draw it out through this arc’s episodes two and three rather than just three, to allow Obi-Wan’s presence to take some attention off the kids and keep the whole feeling a bit more balanced.
Anyway, the main reason I’m reviewing these is to see about the ordering. I had thought about pulling the Younglings arc up really early, but I think I’d rather do Ahsoka alone on the Trandoshan hunt before this one, and then I’d want to leave some breathing space due to the relative similarity between these. So that’s the main motivator for keeping Younglings a little later. That said, I think I can keep their ordering flipped. All that needs removed is Revival’s references to Grievous ransacking it (which we don’t even see in the Younglings episode, it happens offscreen), so I’m happy to write the destruction off as rival pirates or some lesser threat, and then have Hondo have repaired the base (expensively, hence his relative desperation) in time for Younglings.
I think Hondo’s character arc works either way. It’s definitely fine Revival > Younglings, because that way round he’s light with Kenobi, then after the destruction of his base and the Maul bros attack he’s understandably desperate, in time to soften when faced with the reality of the Younglings situation. (For comparison, originally it’s that he’s initially more piratical, then the Younglings soften him up a bit and he gets his ass kicked by Grievous, which makes him light with Kenobi, before losing his base.) It reads fine either way.
That said, I still need to compare Revival to Citadel too.