Oh, that’s great that you thought the Yavin clone removal was clean, that was definitely the most technically difficult fix I’ve ever had to make. He’s responding to different stimulus originally, there’re some minor clothing changes I needed to mask, I had to zoom a shot to hide the absence of an object in it, the audio needed to slide all over the place, and then after working that out I needed to grab the audio I’d created, export it, add new sound effects which I had to time right, and reinsert it. A proper surgical operation!

I’ve started editing with the audio coming out of my TV (with soundbar) at max volume, rather than my PC speakers, so that I can pick up on the audio a lot more clearly, and ensure it’s high quality even when someone views the episode with high volume.

It is a rather flat opening, you’re right, and I do see the value in maintaining the Yoda intro, both for its charm and as a bookend. I’m interested to see what people think here, but to me, the overriding value in cutting it was that this episode really is now a part of TCW:R, not a standalone thing. It’s here to be tonally consistent with TCW:R and to focus on TCW:R’s characters - not Mon Cala, Dantooine, etc. Those cut shots exist to say “There’s a war on many fronts”, but now that this is episode one of a longer show, we actually see many fronts in the war in our first season.

Perhaps it does feel a little jarring though because we start right in the office - maybe at least a Coruscant establishing shot might ease us into it a little more smoothly.