(RE)RELEASED - S01E10 - The Future of the Force (V2.1)

RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
Our tenth and final episode of the first season, and the second part of the two-part finale.
(The previous v1.0 version of this edit was called ‘A Strike at the Heart (part 2)’, but it’s been renamed for v2.0.)
Comprising the original episodes Cargo of Doom and Children of the Force.
Running 38 minutes.
DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This is the second part and conclusion of the Cad Bane / Holocron Heist storyline, and this season’s finale. The split between this episode and the previous one was mainly because the original version of Cargo of Doom (which begins this episode) had a lot of plot happen in its narration, which I needed to preserve via a new opening crawl. There’s nothing too new in this version of the edited episode, mainly some light restructuring and improved audio and transitions throughout.

These are a great set of episodes, and a fitting season finale - Cad Bane is an excellent new villain, we get a great high-stakes romp through space, there are some nice callbacks to earlier events in the season, and we get some great hints at Palpatine’s larger plans. We also get to see more of Ahsoka’s growth (through combat competency, patience, and wisdom), and her relationship with Anakin develops (with him compromising the mission to save her, and trusting her judgment). I also added a scene originally from Lightsaber Lost which, in context, implies that these events have given her an interest in training the future generations (as continued in Rebels and Mandalorian), and reflects back on Anakin losing his own lightsaber in part one.

Noteworthy changes:

The episode is titled ‘The Future of the Force’ to highlight a few things which’ll grow later. The Jedi children are the subject of the plot and thus the obvious ‘future of the force’, but Sidious’ plans with them are his intention for that future, and Ahsoka’s development as a protector and teacher of new generations is also a direction the force will take her in future.
Used the opening text mainly as a refresher for the past episode, and to bridge the two stories better than the original’s narration did.
The two episodes are pretty much back to back with most scenes intact. I trimmed and reordered a few minor scenes for pacing. The bridging scene between the two episodes I’ve combined here is the opening from the second episode, rather than the ending from the first. (Interestingly, these two were originally mutually exclusive!)
I removed all references to the ‘Kyber Crystal’, which in this episode was needed to unlock the holocron (in contrast with newer (and EU) context that Kyber Crystals are for lightsabers and Death Stars). This also serves to simplify Bane’s need for a Jedi to open the holocron.
I also removed all references to Master Ropal, since he’s not needed, but also because originally Bane went to all that effort to capture him but then accidentally killed him, which takes away some competency. Now, he always planned to coerce or capture a pursuing Jedi, which seems fine, because we know he can go toe-to-toe with some.
I removed Obi-Wan’s trip to Rodia, because it’s redundant, is too much jumping around, and because I don’t like the Rodian city’s design (it doesn’t feel very aesthetically Star Wars to me).
I reworked Sidious’ dialogue on Mustafar to better emphasise his plans with the Jedi younglings - he mentions now a force sensitive army (rather than spies), which aligns better with his more recent reveals (such as his Inquisition and perhaps even Final Order cultists).
I cut one joke where Rex bumps his head, and all droid banter. The droids still have a functional military purpose and for that they need to speak, but they’re far less goofy.
Our penultimate scene is of Anakin and Palpatine mulling over the mystery, and our final scene is one from Lightsaber Lost where Ahsoka passes on some recent lessons to the current batch of Jedi Younglings, to wrap up the season and hint at what’s to come.

I’m not quite ready to announce that this episode concludes my season one, because I’d like to make a simple trim to s01e05 (cutting Obi-Wan’s underwater scenes entirely rather than just leaving a bit of them). That’s uploading right now too, so just give me couple of hours and I’ll update the thread title once it’s all good to go!