Alright, I’m back on the job! As per my previous post, I want to get some brand new episodes complete before I return to polish.
First up is the Kadavo slavery arc, which fits into a gap I had in season three. If you ignore the first episode of the arc altogether, it’s basically a good two-parter that’s not top tier but is a perfectly good all-rounder, with our core four characters all getting good development, bonus Plo Koon, a good enough slavery plot, good use of Dooku, and decent action.
You could easily start with the second episode, which I will do.
The first episode is quite worthless- too much time wasted fighting droids, defusing bombs, and fighting creatures, and Obi-Wan’s near-subjugation isn’t as good as the real emotional battering he takes in the third episode, so isn’t necessary.
There are three scenes that I could have included from episode one: Dooku capturing the togruta, Anakin’s posse finding them missing, and the Jedi Council giving Anakin’s posse the mission to rescue the togruta from slavers. But I think they’d only slow us down when the crawl can get us there quicker, and this way our energy stays higher for what’ll be a fairly long episode anyway.
As for the two remaining episodes, they barely need any work. A little merge between them, and the removal of a couple of shots (not even scenes) should do for us.
In the crawl, I might choose to reflect on the fact that the clones could be interpreted as Republic slaves, but only in a light way, since it’s not a heavy plot thread in the show.
This episode could have been bumped into season four, if I was going to include Citadel, but I really don’t think that arc is valuable even in spite of Tarkin’s presence and Echo’s (super throwaway) death.
That said, this episode does have similarities to my following two-part finale, the Onderon arc. The aesthetics, themes of rising up against oppression, and prime ministers betraying their monarchs all appear in both. So I might move this just a tad earlier if there’s room.
Anyway, it’s going to be an easy edit this one. Then it’s on to the first of season four and the return of Maul.