I’ve got a bunch of free time right now so I’ve decided to keep my momentum up in order to tackle some of the more challenging upcoming episodes. First up now is the Rako Hardeen arc, which I’ve just reviewed and taken notes on.
What a fun arc! It’s one of the purest fun Star Wars arcs in the series, I think. Just a complete romp from beginning to end.
This arc has four episodes:
- Obi-Wan’s death and the Coruscant prison break
- Obi-Wan, Moralo Eval and Cad Bane being pursued on Nal Hutta
- The Box on Serenno
- Moralo’s plan being enacted on Naboo
I have one big choice to make, and that’s whether to release it as 2x2 episodes or 1x3 episodes, based on whether or not I include The Box episode. Points in favour of the Box are that it’s very fun and with good action. Points against are that the arc is already fun and action-packed, and that nothing that happens in the Box is vital, it simply shows some of the decision making behind the crew makeup for the job. It also has little jeopardy, since the characters are either known to survive beyond this point or new. Further, taking out The Box makes this less of an Obi-Wan solo story and more of an Anakin/Obi-Wan Ahsoka story, which I think is a slightly more valuable focus in the long run. The Box also muddies the water a little by making the plan seem less well coordinated and more ad-hoc:
- is it Eval’s plan or Dooku’s?
- Doesn’t Dooku putting Eval in danger risk destroying his own plan?
- Eval betrays Obi-Wan, which seems an unprofessional act for someone so committed to getting this mission right.
- Dooku puts Cad Bane in charge. Why overrule the existing plan? There’s even dialogue in the final episode where Cad Bane and Moralo argue about the fact that it was Moralo’s plan which Cad Bane executed for him.
So my default here will be to remove that episode, fun as it is.
The other cuts I intend to make are as follows:
- Silence a line when Rako first enters the bar about “midichlorians”.
- Otherwise play the entirety of the first episode, with Obi-Wan’s death and the Coruscant prison break
- Swipe transition from the escape from Coruscant’s airspace into Nal Hutta’s arrival, and play the vast majority of the second episode with their pursuit on Nal Hutta by various people including Anakin
- Remove from the second episode the scenes of the first ship purchased by Obi-Wan, his getting kicked out of the group, the tracker, Obi-Wan’s capture by the authorities, the destruction of the first ship, reconciliation, and the purchase of the second ship. We’ll just have Obi-Wan buy the second ship offscreen. We don’t need all that tension between Obi-Wan and Cad Bane since there’s already plenty more elsewhere, and it’s verging on TOO suspicious here.
- Assuming the above, remove The Box (except the scenes where Anakin is pissed off at the Jedi), instead transitioning from the escape from Nal Hutta into the direct planning on Naboo.
- Play most of the final episode, skipping an initial raid on a warehouse (which adds little), and ending after the assassination attempt is resolved and Anakin and Obi-Wan talk about their issues with these events, rather than playing out the full epilogue.
I think I’ll be calling this episode THE DEATH OF OBI-WAN KENOBI, which all viewers will know is untrue, so I figure its boldness will produce some good curiosity here.
I’mma go do all that!