I’m going to re-watch this in 5 episode chunks alongside your 2.0 rollout since I haven’t had a chance to check this properly yet (I watched the first 4 episodes in January then got busy).
They work great from a storytelling point of view. I haven’t watched Clone Wars much and I wasn’t confused by anything. I didn’t notice any plot holes and each episode zipped along at a nice pace. You’re doing a great job reshaping the narrative! Episodes 2, 4 and 5 are flawless as is IMO (3 is 99% perfect) but I noticed some edits:
Episode 0 v2.2
- Jarringly sudden beginning when Yoda is seen. I think showing the full-length, unedited Clone Wars: Volume 1 intro with the wide landscape shots before it zooms in on Yoda will fix this. I think letting there be a few seconds of a black screen then smash cutting to the wide shot of Yoda galloping across the landscape will have a cooler feel than having it fade in.
- 7m20s: Fade out feels abrupt, maybe try a wipe instead? I’ll refer to abrupt fades as AF from now.
- 10m30s: AF
- 19m25s: music stopping when Obi-Wan appears is noticeable
- 20m10s: Anakin dialogue feels off/edited but might be caused by the source audio
- 38m32s: AF
Episode 1 v2.4
- 1m52s: Music crossfade is felt rather than transparent
- 11m30s: Music after wipe kicks in suddenly; maybe wipe at an earlier point/shot so the music comes in gentler
- 19m: AF
Episode 3 v2.1
- 1m35s - ship engine roar makes you jump a bit as the shot fades in
I’ll post more thoughts as this rollout continues.